Chapter 8 - Searching

"I honestly cannot believe I was paired up with you..."

"You say that like it's a bad thing, Kira.."

"Considering that you're the one who keeps running off and pouting in his spare time, it is."

The 9 of them had all officially decided to start their search or 'scouting' not to much longer after they had received the message from Tsubasa, and had all walked on further towards the city itself and had devised small groups on the way.
They were all groups of 2, except for Ren, Shinobu, and Benkei, who had had to make a group of 3 considering they had an uneven number of people.
Those 3 had gone together, Madoka and Maru had formed 2, and Kite and Eight - being brothers - had decided to go with each other as well.
Which meant there had been only 2 left: Zyro and Kira.
Zyro was absolutely fine with pairing up with Kira, but said Bahamoote Blader had been the exact polar opposite and had protested slightly - Shinobu had also protested, which came from his friendly affection towards Zyro and his rather strong dislike of Kira of which the other gladly returned.
It was reasonable, considering what had happened back in Neo Battle Bladers earlier that summer in June - reluctantly, the two managed to work with each other, seeing as how they were all on the same side now.
'The enemy of my enemy is my friend', so the saying went.
Having been much more closer to the city, they all split up in different directions, most agreeing with Zyro that plans would not always work out that well and simply deciding to take their chances and hope that they would all be able to regroup eventually; hopefully - and most preferably - before dark.

"I do not keep pouting." Zyro protested as they both walked along one of the sidewalks, not truly knowing what they were supposed to do to try and find out anything.
"Well, considering that you ran off on most of us and apparently went to sulk, I think that you do." Kira responded, walking beside the Ifraid Blader and glancing over at him with his only eye, "Honestly... Weeping about what happened is not going to get you anywhere, Zyro. This is obviously why you all need me here..."
Zyro raised an eyebrow, looking over towards the pastel-haired blader that he had been paired up with for their search.
"Is that why you came along?.." The ginger-ravenette questioned, "Because you didn't want me to keep crying?"
Kira didn't respond right away to that, falling silent while he knew Zyro upon him for an answer as they walked almost aimlessly around the city - granted, they weren't even fully in the city yet, but still right on the borders of it.

Was Zyro actually asking if he... Cared?

No.

He didn't care - he didn't give a damn about a single one of them. He just hated their pathetic whining that otherwise wouldn't stop if he wasn't around.

"If you absolutely have to know, yes.." Kira answered begrudgingly, "Having all of you weeping over Hagane actually being dead is not something I want to put up with.. Besides, I still that favor to return.."

"I never said that you still had to return it.." Zyro said, remembering the end of the conversation they had had roughly 3 days ago when he had found out that they had played right into Alcorin's hands and unwittingly let him win.
"Of course you didn't.." Kira said, closing his one eye for a moment before opening it again to assure that he could watch where he was going, "I said that would help you take the guy down as to repay you for.. Saving me... Obviously we didn't prove successful in that, so I still have a favor to return.."
Zyro hummed softly, thinking about this response for a moment before looking back towards the pastel-haired boy with a small smile on his face.
"So, an eye for an eye, huh?" He questioned, only somewhat remembering how the saying went. They once taught them about it in class back in his hometown, though there had only been a brief mention of the term.
Kira turned his head towards the Fire Blader with an almost bitter look, his only eyebrow raised in questioning.
"Is that some sort of weird joke?" He asked, almost seeming offended by the term even being brought up.
Zyro's smile faded, a confused look crossing his face as he failed to understand Kira's reasoning for being slightly offended.
Sighing irritably, Kira placed a hand on his hip and tapped one of his fingers against the side of the eye patch that completely covered half of the right side of his face.

"Oh!" Zyro exclaimed in realization, "Uh, no. It's... Just a saying, kind of.." Kira rolled his one eye as they carried on.
"I know what it is, Zyro..." The Bahamoote Blader said irritably, "It's just more ironic with me."

"Uh-huh..." Zyro responded awkwardly, looking away as they both continued down the sidewalk almost aimlessly. He would be honest with himself about not really knowing anything about Kira, seeing as how the two of them were never really that close, considering their allegiances back in Neo Battle Bladers.
He had actually thought that Kira's eye-patch was just some sort tracking device in a sense, seeing as how he had used it in his battle with Shinobu to figure out his way past the Salamander Blader's special move; he wouldn't have ever thought that Kira had lost that eye at all.

He wanted to ask about it.

Ask how he had lost his one eye, why he had an eye patch in place of it if he was half-blind anyway, which even made him want to ask about Kira's life altogether.
Ask where he came from, what his childhood was like, and what happened that made him decide to join something like the DNA in the first place; something made him want to ask Kira all of these questions, something that was fueled by the new-found knowledge that he, indeed, only one eye.

Curiosity.

A very troublesome and mischievous little thing, since it apparently killed a cat in that one little saying that it originated from.
Zyro knew better than to ask about something that had nothing to do with him - especially since he knew that this was Kira he was talking to.

"So..." Zyro began, trying to diminish the wall of awkwardness that had set itself in-between them, "What are we even gonna do to try and find out anything?.. I mean, asking around would probably take a long time, and we don't know anything about this place, either way..." Kira, raising his one eyebrow, glanced over at the Fire Blader with a solemn look.
"Well, if there's one thing I do know.." Kira began, "It's that every place has its' secrets.. Where there are secrets, there are rumors.. And when there are rumors, people are going to be talking... So I think you know what I'm implying here."
Zyro stared at the ex-DNA blader for a moment before raising an eyebrow - honestly, he kind of did expect it from someone like Kira; not to say that he was a bad person, though. Yes, he was a little messed up in the head, as evidently shown with how he got his pleasure from the pain of others, but there had to be a reason for that, right?
"Eavesdropping?" The Fire Blader questioned, though it wasn't with a tone that sounded like he was surprised - with how he knew Kira could be, and how he was back in Neo Battle Bladers, he wasn't that surprised that the pastel-haired boy would do that sort of thing. Either way, everyone did at some time or another, whether they wanted to or not.
"Not exactly, but something of the sort." Kira responded with a small smirk making its' way onto his purple-coated lips, "It may be a big city.. But people are bound to talk either way. I'll have you know I am quite persuasive.."

Zyro said nothing in response, looking down towards the ground for a moment before silently agreeing to the idea.
It wasn't the most ideal thing that they could do, but at least it was something, considering that they were all pretty much clueless of how they were going to get anything that could help them.
They did have Tsubasa back at the WBBA, but it wasn't guaranteed that he was going to find anything either, even with how many people he had sent out to other WBBA corporations in Japan.
They may as well do with what they could manage at this point - and eavesdropping - or whatever it was that Kira had in mind - was apparently one of the only options they had, thanks to Kira.
Either way, he was one of the smartest of all the ex-DNA bladers - Zyro would've thought that he would've stayed with people are more friends to him them people like them with issues of their own. Maybe not...

Madoka and Maru had teamed up with each other as teacher and student when they had all decided to split into groups to cover more ground; once they had set off, they were also confused about what exactly they were going to do to try and find anything that could help them in their search for Alcorin, granted that they had the help of Maru's bracelet that could do a number of things to possibly aid them in finding anything.
It had taken a few minutes of walking and scouting the map before Maru came up with a place that would almost always have something that they could work with - the library.
Thanks to the map in Maru's bracelet, they were able to find it easily; it wasn't surprising that it was definitely big, almost with enough isles of books to get lost in if they weren't careful.
There were several people there, as was expected, which including the Librarian - a man with glasses and short steel grey hair that complimented blue eyes.
He glanced up at the two of them only once with a small wave of greeting before heading back to the computer in front of him, busy with his work of keeping track of who had brought back their books, who hadn't and were overdue, who had signed them out, and helping people who came up to the front desk to sign them out.
Several other people, who appeared to be simply browsing or had come to look for a good book to read were standing and gazing upon the shelves, some taking out a few books from their spots and reading the backside to see if it was interesting.

Several large windows all around let enough light in, as well as some lights that were around for when it got dark and the natural light could no longer be depended on.
The only thing that the silence of the library was broken by was the typing of the keyboard from the Librarian and the quiet chat of a few people who were looking for books and sitting at round tables in the corner before the wall ended and turned further into the library - supposedly, the people at the tables were college students or something of the sort.
One of them had a computer and was typing away almost endlessly, stopping every once and awhile to look at the open book and papers beside her; two others seemed to be working on some sort of project together, both having pencils, erasers, sharpeners, papers, and a couple books around them, quietly chatting with each other over an incomprehensible subject.
Madoka wondered if those students - she guessed that was what they were - ever stayed in the library late into the night to study for their Coarse's, or gathering information on any projects that they had to work on. She didn't know about this city, so it wasn't like it really mattered.

"Where should we start looking first, Chief?" Maru asked, looking up towards her teacher as they both still stood in front of the doorway that had lead them inside the library.
"Hmmm..." Madoka hummed, bringing a finger up to her chin and tapping her lips in thought, "Well, there has to be something around here... I say we look around for anything before asking." Maru could simply nod in agreement, keeping up a cheerful attitude as she took Madoka's hand as to not get lost or separated from each other - the library was quite big, though it would be easy to find each other from how little people there were and how quiet it was - and started down one the many isles of books that the library contained.
Both of them took their time scanning the shelves, reading what categories the books were under and looking at their titles. Madoka wondered how on earth they were going to cover anything with how big the place was - there were a lot of categories and a lot of sections, most not containing what they needed.
Of course, they hardly knew what exactly they did need.
At this point they were all just looking for a needle in a haystack; Alcorin being the needle, and all of Japan being the haystack that they had to go burrowing through to find him.

"Hmmm..." Madoka pondered silently as they headed into another section, which just happened to be Sci-Fi - nothing that would likely help them, "Maybe we should look for the Religion section.. There were some people who might've worshiped Nemesis at one time, so it might be able to help if we find anything."

"People must've." Maru agreed, "I mean, he was a God and stuff... Somebody must've worshiped him, besides Alcorin, since a lot of people look up to a lot of different things." Madoka smiled down at her young student, her turquoise eyes soft yet with a pride of them that went only towards Maru.
"Yeah, I guess so." The brunette replied, "Now we just need to find out what section Religion is in.. Which could take a bit."
Maru giggled slightly as they kept looking through the isles, coming towards the more northern side of the library, which appeared to be more of a study area.
Along with the large windows that let a lot of natural light in with hardly any use for the ceiling lights were fair-sized desks with computers on them that people could use to see if any books were in by themselves, or for research while they were there.

There was actually a few people using them, and there were even more tables than what they had seen to the southern end of the building, with many more people at them; some were reading books, some were writing down notes as they looked from their open books to their papers, some had laptops open while conversing quietly with each other.
A quiet setting like this was quite relaxing, as libraries were usually meant to be. Madoka and Maru both scanned the shelves and looked at what sections and categories they were all under.
The two of them walked along the side of the library, their eyes keeping watch for anything that was Religion related, or the section itself.
"Biographies, Crime, Suspense..." Madoka muttered to herself as they walked past the shelves and several isles of books, "Poetry... No Religion."

"We'll find it, Chief." Maru said optimistically, taking her hand out of Madoka's for a moment to fix her high ponytail, which Madoka knelt down to help her with.
"Yeah..." Madoka agreed wearily, making sure to gather Maru's hair with her hair around just around her knuckles, "It should have a Religion section, anyway..."

"Psst!" Madoka, slightly startled by the sudden, yet rather quiet noise to get her attention, looked over to a computer desk near them, where a woman with black hair and amber eyes was looking towards them - likely the one that had tried and succeeded to get Madoka's attention. With a somewhat wide finger, the woman pointed over towards the farther end of the library. "Religion's over there." The woman said helpfully, Madoka's eyes following where she was pointing before looking at her again with a grateful smile.
"Thank you." The brunette responded, which the other woman just nodded to and went back to what was likely her studying on the computer.
Finishing fixing Maru's ponytail, the two of them headed over towards the farther end of the library, thanks to the help of the kind colleague student - that was what Madoka presumed her to be, anyway.

"Well, that was convenient." The brunette commented, looking down towards her student her smiled back slightly with a glance towards her.
"Yeah." Maru agreed, "Kind-of-good-luck for once, huh?" Madoka smiled warmly at the pinkette in response.
"Small, but it's something." Madoka replied. "Maybe we can actually find something, Chief." Maru said hopefully, "Like me and Dynamis sort of did at the Mist Mountain Shri-..." Maru's voice suddenly trailed off, and Madoka looked down towards her with slightly wide eyes and a concerned look on her face as Maru's hopefulness was suddenly subdued all in a matter of a moment.
Madoka could tell, because she could always feel the radiance around Maru with her upbeat personality, with her hope for the best, with her positive and optimistic attitude that things would usually and hopefully turn out alright; just like how Zyro was - no, is... Was.

Maru's smile had faded from her face, her hand slipping out her teachers and falling limply to the side as the memories of what happened at the Mist Mountain Shrine no more than 2 weeks came flooding back to her, almost fresh in her mind as it felt like only yesterday when she had been at the Mist Mountain Shrine with Dynamis, when they had actually found something that would have been able to help them in saving Gingka, when Alcorin had appeared very uninvited, and when she had been knocked to the side while Alcorin killed Dynamis in cold blood.
Back then, it had seemed all to surreal for it to even happen, but Maru realized that it had - she dearly wished she had never gone to the Mist Mountain Shrine; it may have never have happened, otherwise.
Their going there had been pointless either way, since she had come back empty handed all because of Alcorin - it could've been avoided... Dynamis could be alive if not for her agreeing to go there with him.

"Maru?" Madoka called out gently, kneeling down to her student with a look of concern on her face, "Are you okay?"
Maru didn't answer right away. She didn't even look at Madoka, staring down at her feet and catching sight of the small red patches on her knees from when she had scraped them at the Mist Mountain Shrine - they were better now, of course, but they still got irritated at times from the now light abrasions.
"Why did it have to be Dynamis, Chief?..." Maru's voice was tear-stricken, almost strained in a way that broke Madoka's heart, "He didn't do anything!..."
Tears of salty water came to Maru's eyes at the memories that came flooding back to her all at once, unable to stop a few droplets from leaking down her cheeks at remembering things that she had hoped that she could leave in the past - she had honestly thought that Dynamis' death hadn't been in vain, until they found out that Alcorin was still alive and they had unwittingly killed Gingka instead.
Madoka reached out and gently placed a hand on her student's shoulder, not knowing what she could say now that would comfort the girl, comfort her tired and broken soul that had all been the cause of Alcorin.

"It wasn't his fault, Maru.." Madoka said weakly, her voice quiet - not because they were in a library, but because she knew that that had been one of the most delicate of times for Maru.
They had all wanted to believe that Dynamis wasn't dead, that he was okay and he was still breathing - but they knew that Maru wouldn't lie.
She did lie about not talking to Dynamis for 3 weeks, but they had agreed that it may have been for the best as they had not been sure about too much either, and that knowing about Gingka's condition before he had fallen into his coma would've probably made matters worse.
"I know..." Maru said, sniffling softly and wiping her eyes, "I just don't get why Alcorin had to hurt him..."
Lavender eyes, filled with fresh tears, turned towards the teacher that she had known almost all of her life.
"Was it something I did?.." Maru questioned, "If I didn't agree to go there, would he be okay?... Did Alcorin hurt him because of me?!..."
Madoka's eyes widened at these questions, even more taken aback with each word that came out of Maru's mouth, and even more unsure of what she was supposed to say to tell her that it wasn't her fault.
None of this could ever be Maru's fault, no matter what Alcorin tried to make them think - he was just trying to get into their heads.

Maybe he actually had with Maru.

Feeling her eyes dampening, Madoka reached out and gently pulled Maru into her arms, letting the girl grasp onto her jacket and bury her face into her shoulder as she wrapped her own arms around her and gently petted her hair.
"Maru, it could never be your fault.." Madoka whispered comfortingly into Maru's ear, "You didn't do anything wrong.. Shh, it's okay.."
Soft, muffled sobs escaped Maru's throat, the image of Dynamis's dead corpse flashing before her eyes every time she closed them - but by now, she couldn't bring herself to really care.

"It's not your fault, Maru..."...

In the darkness, he watched them all.

The cameras that monitored his room shut off, the tiny microphones planted behind his bed-frame, on the roof by the blackened lights, and on the side of the chair that he sat in all measured to a high enough frequency so that no one would hear anything.
Soft breaths escaped his mouth as if from exhaustion, the sickly state of his body taking a tole on his health and causing him to breathe more than one naturally had too through their mouth.
It didn't bother him, nor did it frighten him - not anymore, at least.
He had become accustomed to his condition, as he knew there was no way it was going to get any better from this point; the years of what went on with him had made sure of that.
It didn't matter to him anymore, either way - he would be glad to be free of this life that he had been born into with no escape, no other choice to obey all that they were told because they were meant for nothing more than this.

He had taken a lot of things upon himself, all in a very short span of time that had been faster than the life he had lived going by.
He had worked even before this to assure that they never got to him, that they never discovered his existence and recognized him, pulling him back into the place that he himself would dare call a home - the only home he had ever known, though it wasn't much of one, considering what it was.
The darkness settled him, far more than the white, teal, and dull green walls that surrounded him daily, eternally, with no hope of ever truly seeing real light.
Of course, the light from the holographic screen created in front of him was all that he needed, always watching from some corner of the building - they knew he would do this, presumably because they thought that he was simply bored, sitting almost limply in a room that he had seen too many times.
But it was far beyond that - and this time, it was more worth it than he took credit for.

They were here.

But he shouldn't be.

Having left years ago, he knew that there was no way that one should even have thought of coming back let alone be there, with wherever he went - but he was.
He could only ask himself why that was so.
He let out another tired breath from between his lips, his hair streaming over him from its' length, unusually long locks falling over the chair that he sat in while he lay and watch as it all played out.
After all, there was nothing more that he could do than that...

"Big bro, what are we gonna do?" Eight asked, looking up towards his brunette of a brother as they both walked along side each other down the street.
They, being brothers, had decided to team up together to search for anything that could help them all in their search for Alcorin, all of them having split up into separate pods as to cover more ground than they would as a whole and single unit of 9 people.
They had all split up in separate directions heading into the city, and had decided to take their chances with hoping that they would all be able to meet up before the sun set over the mountains in the distance.
Luckily, they did have a lot of time on their hands as it was only mid-day; Mito was big though, so it could be awhile before any of them met up again.

"We're going to be looking for anything that could probably lead us to Alcorin." Kite explained, "Considering the size of the city, and how many people make up its' population and are likely to hear of or see things, the chances of us finding anything would likely be 45% chance out of 100. Which - in this situation - is more than enough." Eight stared at his older brother for a moment before sighing dramatically and looking forward.
"But this place is huge~!" The bluenette said, "We're never gonna find anything in this place, it'll take to long."

"'Where there's a will, there's a way', Eight." Kite said, "45% may not be totally in our favor, but in the situation that we're all in, it's definitely something that we can rely on." Eight huffed through his nose.
"If you say so, big brother." The Orochi Blader replied as they both walked down the street, many people and cars passing them with mid-day activity that they were used to - after all, they had spent most of the summer so far in an equally as big of city that was Metal Bey.
Either way, they were from a city themselves, so the busy lifestyles of those who surrounded them was something that both of them had grown used to throughout their childhoods.
Kite always made sure that Eight stuck close to him while they were in the streets, as he didn't want to lose his little brother or have him get lost - it was a simple brotherly type of instincts to want to keep him safe with the love for him that coupled it.
They both knew what they had to do, and what they had all set out here to do in the first place - try and gather any information they could that would possible be able to help them find where Alcorin was.
Of course, that was definitely easier said than done.

The two brothers made their way through the streets, unknown of where they were going or what exactly they were going to do to try and find anything that would help them.
Wandering around wouldn't do much, Kite knew, but at this point it was their only option if they were going to figure out anything. And with their constant travel down and through the streets, they came upon Mito's own Bey Park that they never knew it had. Of course, the entire era that they lived in was the Beyblade Generation, started a long time ago with a history that was hard for a lot of people to make out.
One thing was for sure, was that Gingka was one of the many people who had fought for it, as well as the other Legendary Bladers that were who-knows-where in the world.
"Look, big bro!" Eight exclaimed, pointing inward towards the Bey Park to get his big brother's attention, "There's people battling each other!" Kite's gaze followed Eight's own, and there were - indeed - many kids battling each other fiercely in the standard Bey Stadiums that had come before the Cyclone Bey Stadiums ever had.
Of course, there was a small near the end of the large Bey Park, from what the Unabara brothers could both see, kind of life back at Metal Bey where they held a Cyclone Bey Stadium that many people battled in quite often - after all, certain Beys could only battle in one or the other, and sometimes they could even battle in both, like Kira had been when he and Zyro had first fought each other.

Kite pushed his glasses up on his nose and watched intently from a distance at the much more incompetent bladers battled each other with their own Beys that were much weaker than his own - Leviathan and Orochi combined would crush them in an instant, and really wouldn't make it worth it as it might not be too much of a fight.
Either way, Kite knew that they weren't here to Beybattle other people, not by a long shot. Their main priority was trying to find anything that could help lead them to Alcorin.
But of course... What other way to get any information but from bladers such as themselves - after all, bladers just somehow understood each other, so Gingka had once said.

"Good job, Eight." Kite complimented, giving his brother a smile and a slightly raised eyebrow while the younger Unabara brother looked up towards the elder with a questioning look on his face.
"What did I do?" The bluenette asked out of confusion, while Kite simply returned with a small smile and a flash of his glasses in the reflection of the light.
"You just gave me idea of how we're going to find something." Kite explained vaguely. With those words said, both Unabara's made their way down the sidewalk and towards the entrance to the park - Kite, with his intelligence and his knack of predicting if he would successful or not, simply hoped that what he had planned would work...

"Hyoma, I'm sorry.."

"'Sorry', isn't going to fix anything, mom." Hyoma retorted to his mother, though tried not to sound as frustrated and confused as he actually was.
He could hide it, sure, but there was no denying how exactly he was feeling right now - honestly, there was no way to identify what was going on inside of his head right now now that he had the information that he had wanted from his mother.
He wasn't sure if he regretted it or not, but he knew one thing - he was both frustrated with her, and slightly disappointed. Even so, he didn't want to show disrespect to the woman that had birthed and raised him all of his life, had loved him unconditionally with no doubts about her love towards him. He loved her too, he really did, but it didn't stop him from not being a little angry with her.
"I know, but you have to understand.." Isha begged, standing up from her place in the living room as her stood opposite her towards the hallway, "I didn't want that, I-I barely knew what was happening myself-"

"Maybe, but you could've done something." Hyoma said before she could finish her sentence, her light blue eyes narrowed slightly while staring in crystalline ones that nearly mirrored his own, the beautiful color that they usually were now strangely dimmed from the tears that rimmed his mother eyes unwittingly, "You could've spoken up and said something instead of just letting it happen."
Isha, tears filling her eyes and some usually rolling down her red cheeks, breathed in a light sob as she tried to speak without breaking down - but seeing her own son that she loved so dearly be this angry with her made that unbearably hard.
He didn't need to speak to show his disappointment and frustration with her; his eyes said it all.
She had looked into those young eyes for years, able to read them like a book and almost always able to see what emotions lay behind them - and right now was definitely no different.

"I know I could've, but..." The woman began, wiping at her eyes as she tried to gather herself enough to say the words.
Hyoma had been taught to be patient, by the very woman that had honestly disappointed him with previous acts that he had not known about until this day.
He waited for her to gather herself, just like he had through most of his life when she was working on something or needed to take care of somebody within their village and didn't have much time for him while her priorities were on other things; being a doctor wasn't an easy thing, and his mother was the only one in Koma village.
He could be patient, but now that he knew what he did, he wasn't sure how long his patience could last.
Isha, brushing part of her hair out of face, finally gathered herself up and tried to speak once more, "I could've said something, and I would've, but... It was their word against mine, and I... I-I can't just go against them.."
Hyoma sighed, sucking on his bottom lip for a moment as he put one hand on the back of his neck to try and keep himself occupied.
Tears threatened to come to his eyes as well, but he tried to keep them down for as long as he could - he was upset, he wouldn't deny that; he had to keep things steady with his mother first, and then he could cry when he wanted or needed to.

"I know..." He sighed irritably, his teeth grazing his bottom lip while another sigh escaped them, "None of us ever doubt the priests.. Nobody ever doubted Ryo, either..."
Hyoma ran a black-gloved hand through his light violet hair, shaking his head as he was left with nothing to think, confused on what exactly he was supposed to believe, what he was supposed to think.
Everything had just decided to come crashing down on him all at once when it could've been an easy, relaxing day just like it usually was in the Bey Village; he had just been looking to relive some old memories of his years with Gingka, not have to unwittingly guilt trip his mother by bringing back events from her past that he could tell she had wanted to forget.

"Hyoma, please..." Isha begged, a choked sob escaping her though as the tears rolled down her cheeks, her eyes red and puffy with sniffles and sobs that followed with no attempt to stop them, "I w-wanted to say something, I-I did, and I would've, but... I regretted never s-saying anything, and I know I should have, and I'm sorry..."
Her last words came out as nothing but a strangled whisper, swallowing by the anguish and regret that came flooding into her with no mercy in its' rampage.
Muffled her silent whimpers, Isha sat down on the couch and covered her eyes with one hand, breathing shakily while her other hand rested clenched in her lap.
Hyoma's breathing was slightly uneven as the sound of his mother's heart breaking reached his ears and bore into his skull with the words: 'She's you're mother'.

It was right; Isha was his mother.

She always had been, and no matter what she had done or failed to do in her past he would always love her - he could be mad, frustrated, and disappointed in this woman, but it never be forever.
Looking over his shoulder and past his bangs, his light blue eyes landed on the weeping woman who's hair fell over her shoulders and her eyes helplessly, watching mournfully as she covered her eyes with her one hand and bit her bottom lip to try and keep her sobs from escaping, even though it didn't work.
He couldn't take it anymore.
Hyoma hurried over to his mother, sitting down beside her on the couch and wrapping his arms around her, gently pulling her into a hug as to let her head rest on his shoulder.

"It's alright, mom.." Hyoma said quietly, rubbing his mother's back as he let her cry against him, "I'm not mad at you.."
Even if that was a lie, Isha couldn't bring herself to care anymore. She wrapped her arms around her son's shoulder, buried her face into his chest, and cried.
She cried for all the years her mistakes had taken away the time of another, cried for how many years she spent regretting never saying a word on that fateful day so many years ago - but there was no way that she could back and fix everything she had done.
Hyoma had been mad that she had kept all of that a secret for so many years, that many people in the village had, but right at this moment was the time that he didn't have the strength to care.
His mother was a good woman, and he let her know by the soft nothings that he whispered to her in a delicate moment only between mother and son.

Between them, there was never anything to forgive.