Chapter 9 - The Raven

Both Takanosuke's and Sakyo's game of I-Spy did not go on for long, as Sakyo was blatantly not as enthusiastic about it was Takanosuke was; even when he was kid, he hadn't been much of a 'people person'.
He always kept to himself, mainly, save for the small group of friends that he had had once and had occasionally hung out with - needless to say, his friendships didn't last forever.
Both of them had set out earlier that day and had made some good progress with getting closer to their destination of Ibaraki.
Metal Bey City had gone from their sight, and much of the day had already passed as they came across Lake Hinuma, which Takanosuke had said he used to go to with his dad when his mom was still around - he hadn't said anything more than that though. Both of them had their eyes set on the darkening sky, the sound of the ocean long gone from their line of earshot while gold, pink, and orange streaked the progressively darkening sky as night began to set in to the warming summer day.
Even at night it was warm, so neither of them were too concerned about having to keep warm at night.
Though once they found a place to rest for the night, they would make a fire as to banish the darkness till morning where the light would shine earlier than it did in the winter.
Takanosuke suggested that they stray off the roadside a bit on the outside of Agake and head down towards Lake Hinuma so that could camp by the water, which he apparently hadn't done in a long time for a reason that he didn't explain - ruefully, Sakyo said nothing about it, which was a silent agreement that they would do so, much to Takanosuke's delight. Both of them had decided to settle by the Western most point of the lake where they were closest to Ibaraki.

The tall trees that surrounded them by the water made it seem darker than it was as they cast their shadows upon them, the last rays of sunlight streaking across the midnight blue sky while the stars delicately dotted the sheet of night blue like carefully placed glitter.
Both of them had gathered a fair amount of kindling before lighting their source of light and warmth with two stones - Takanosuke had said that his dad had taught him that a long time ago when they used to go camping.
The slight chill night air was not a worry to either of them as it nipped at the few bits of exposed skin they both had on their hands, necks, and faces, the shadows of the treetops trying to hide the crescent moon from view as they both sat in the comfort on the small grove-like clearing that they had found for themselves.
There was silence between both of them, Takanosuke flashing his eyes towards the Dragoon Blader every now and then with the desire to start some sort of conversation that would break the initial awkwardness between them, but hesitating every time and backing down before he felt the need to try again; Sakyo didn't seem to notice this, and even if he did, he didn't show it as he stared into the flames that burned brightly in front of them both, his expression blank as if deep in thought.
Cerulean eyes followed his gaze into the flames every once in awhile, their beauty of light fascinating but with nothing seemingly special about them; Takanosuke was honestly unsure if he should break Sakyo's train of thought or not, then questioning himself on what exactly the older could be thinking - of course, he wasn't a mind reader.

He had weird dreams and saw weird images in his head sometimes, but he wasn't exactly what he was supposed to get out of those.
His grandma had been a Seer before she passed away, yes, but he hadn't exactly thought it likely that he would inherit such a gift; she had said that, maybe if he was lucky, he would find that he had the gift of Foresight too, but he hadn't been able to really bring to himself to believe that.
Of course, it was different now, with the things that he kept constantly seeing when he was asleep and when he sometimes closed his eyes in an absent consciousness.
He would've been scared, if he hadn't remembered that his grandmother had indeed had the gift of being a Seer - but whether the things he saw and heard were true or yet to yet to come to pass was still a wary subject with him; they had not only been confusing, but frightening as well.
The silence between the two of them was now almost unbearable to Takanosuke, even though he knew that Sakyo wasn't really the most friendly of people - it wasn't long before he finally decided to break the silence with whatever he could come up with first.

"Whatcha thinkin' about?" The blonde asked, as it was the first thing that he could think of to say - either way, he was curious about what Sakyo seemed so deep in thought about.
Sakyo blinked once, his expression unchanging as he slowly looked over towards the Griffin Blader that had spoken, almost as if he had forgotten that he was there entirely.
"It's nothing important.." The Dragoon Blader said simply, his crimson eyes glancing up towards the center of the trees at the cooing sound of an owl before looking away and back towards the flames in front of them.
"Okay.." The other Blader responded awkwardly, sitting with his legs spread out in front of him and leaning back on his hands.
His gaze followed that of Sakyo's once more back into the flames that burned brightly in front of them, providing them as their only light source other than the natural glow of the moon that the treetops were evidently trying to block.
By the water, though, it was brighter as the light of the crescent moon dimly reflected off of the mirror-like surface.
Letting out a breath through his nose, Takanosuke willed himself to try and start up a conversation again.
"When I was a kid, my grandma used to say that looking into a fire was a way of Fortunetelling." The blond commented, the other blader's red eyes glancing over towards him at his words - he remembered what Takanosuke had told him a couple of weeks ago before they faced against that psychopath that they were now chasing after.
He had claimed that his grandmother was a Seer, which he explained a bit and related it why he had fallen off the railing of the arena when Sakyo had been training with his Ronin Dragoon - the kid had sworn on his grandmother's grave that it wasn't because he was clumsy or because he had simply lost balance and slipped.
Without a response, Takanosuke simply decided to continue.

"She said something about... Uh.. Representing something or another.." The blonde said, trying to recall the words he was looking for as he continued, "But anyway.. She did say that that the sparks that fly off into the air are actually souls.. In Aboriginal culture, when a member of the tribe died, they would take the body or whatever was left it or what symbolized the person and burn it, so that their soul could be free. I think she said that fire is somehow related to the Spirit World, or something.."
Sakyo, though still slightly a small distance away from their plane of reality in which was the level of thought, listened intently to what Takanosuke was saying.
He didn't say anything if response as the Griffin Blader evidently tried to keep some sort of conversation going as long as he could, but he did listen to what the other had to say - to Sakyo, it was almost awkward, as he would silently admit that he was never one of the most social of people; he wasn't socially awkward, but he was a little inexperienced when it came to 'mingling' with people outside of Beybattling.
Also with the fact that it was somebody who's grandmother was a seer, and who may have inherited the ability, despite that they were 'friends'.

"I can't remember how she said that fire was a way for seeing the future or fortunetelling..." Takanosuke went on, "Maybe it works the same way as those weird crystal balls do!.. I don't know, I can't remember.." The only response Sakyo gave was a soft hum that was barely audible, yet drew Takanosuke's attention towards him at the small sound of what sounded like a response.
"Did you say something?" The blonde asked with a wondering look on his face, cerulean eyes wide in an almost child-like way that didn't contradict his appearance.
"No." Sakyo said in response, closing his eyes for a moment as he turned his head back towards the direction of the small fire that they had created, "You should get some sleep.. We have more walking to do in the morning.." Takanosuke sighed softly, before simply agreeing to Sakyo's suggestion - after all, he was older and likely wiser than him.
But it wasn't like he wasn't responsible himself!
"Okay.." The blonde said wearily, a yawn escaping him on cue as he worked to shift his position and lay down on the ground - which definitely wasn't very comfortable.
Sakyo said nothing as his red eyes stared broodingly into the flames, listening to the sound of Takanosuke absently shifting on the ground near him as he tried to get comfortable.
Red eyes widened once he felt a weight against his side, glancing down in solemn confusion to see a head of fluffy blond hair leaning against his side, its' owner's legs brought up and bent with the boy's arms tucked in between the space between his legs and his torso; Sakyo, though slightly confused at first, said nothing to object to this.

The ground probably wasn't that comfortable anyway.

The redhead sighed softly as he simply let the Griffin Blader sleep against him, feeling him relax upon being able to lean against him as a brother would.
Sakyo's eyes went back towards the flames, eyes of ruby red deep in a brooding atmosphere that he let off as he nearly lost himself in his train of thought that would lead them to nowhere but a dead end at the borders of the mind.
He had agreed to go after that psychopath - Alcorin, was his name? - only because Takanosuke had really wanted to; it was apart of the boy's personality, to care for his friends and be thoughtful of others and not just himself.
It would definitely be interesting to see how all of this played out, considering how Zyro and his friends had gone after him as well on a manhunt that they were all separately taking part in.

Absently, the Dragoon Blader reached into one the pockets of his jacket that lay sprawled out on the ground him from its' length, taking hold of something small enough to fit into the palm of his hand and taking it out.
He brought it out in front of him, opening his hand where a small, gold link chain dangled off the edge of it.
A gold necklace of a cross, with a tiny man crucified to it that symbolized 2 different religions that we're namely the same thing.
He always kept it with him, even through the rough battles and hard days that came and went with life, as a blessing of some sort to ease the mind; but even with his short beliefs, there was nothing that God would be able to protect any of them from this time...

The black wings of the raven glided their way through the air, its' beady black eyes looking forward at nothing yet knowing exactly where it needed to go.
The sky was not dark, yet the usual light that was brought by the warmth of the summer sun did not shine as brightly as it used to in a world where nothing truly held color upon lifeless grey; the trees it flew high over were covered with leaves that were of a dull green color, the Evergreens forever holding their shade of a darker color from their everlasting beauty and lifespan.
The rivers ran freely while the drops of water never stayed in one place, moving with each other as a unit like all the feathers that covered glossy black wings in their glory, animals eyeing the bird that flew alone with no flock, the bird that symbolized death and Ill Omen as it flew likely towards whatever mountains awaited it.
A hollow croak escaped it's blackened beak, separating it from that of the crow that it could be mistaken for in the eyes of an amateur that knew nothing about birds - its' feathers blew by and fought against the wind that would often carry it, flapping them almost frantically to shoot itself more upwards than anything.
It cared not where it went, but it went to where it was drawn to, where it knew it had to go, where it knew it had no choice but to go and deliver whatever it would bring with it.
It slowed in its' descent, flapping its' wings and maneuvering its' small body to slow down in away that had been known throughout millennial upon birds of every kind that fly, its' black talons looping around the first thing that it could get a grip of.
The black of its' talons and feathers stood out and yet blended perfectly with skin of pure white, free of pigmentation just like its' master's hair, white and black clothes that were not as pure as he was, with piercing red eyes that stood as the only color that he had to bare.
Those eyes looked over at the raven that had landed on his outstretched and waiting finger, splayed delicately while lifting the sleeves of his robes only a couple inches off the ground from their length; a calm smile spread across his white lips, that when open would show to equally as white insides that was not natural for a human being - but of course, he was not human.

"Welcome back, my little birdie.." Alcorin cooed maliciously, bringing his outstretched hand that withheld the bird closer to him and gently rubbing it under its' beak with his opposite index finger, "I suggest you have something for me?.."
The raven let out a hollowed croak, filled with nothing but emptiness but being the only way that it was able to speak, the natural way of being a bird.
Its' beady black eyes stared blindly, blank of a liveliness that inhabited that of most living beings on this earth; of course, this bird was nothing but a puppet, quite literally.
He could sneak into the mind and take control of practically anything that had a consciousness and used it to his advantage; the raven was no different than that of when he had taken full control of Hikaru.
Several croaks were elicited from the throat of the raven that sat perched on Alcorin's snow white hand, the albino seeming to listen intently as he communicated with the raven through its' mind that he alone had control of - after all, he was pretty sure that he couldn't speak 'bird'.

"They come hunting for me..." Alcorin repeated out loud, his voice almost soft with the ghost of the small boy that had once existed as himself, his smile fading and his eyes lazily moving off towards the direction of the rest of the world and wilderness that he could see below and beyond, "I see... I would've expected as such, from the likes of them.. If I had known better, I wouldn't have even said a word to the little brat about his dear friend being 'dead', but... His pain was too delicious to pass up."
A soft giggle escaped his whiter lips, lithe digits gently, slowly, petting the feathers of the back of the mindless bird that he had taken for himself, white standing out upon black like the moon in a midnight black sky.
"What do you think I should do with them, hm?.." Alcorin questioned, which was not retaliated with a response from the raven that had no mind of its' own, "You have no need to think about answering that.. I know exactly how I'll handle them.."
A small smirk made its' way upon Alcorin's lips, an almost thoughtful look on his pure white features highlighted by crimson red eyes that reflected no light.
Once more, his expression faded into a solemn one as he stared out into the world beyond where he was, gazing far into the distance with eyes that almost appeared to see everything and yet nothing at all.
"They will not have him.." He hissed in a rather possessive way, "It amazes me they still have the strength to stand against me.. Or at least, they're trying to convince themselves that they do... But I've watched them, and I know exactly how to crush them into nothing but dust.."
A small giggle made its' way from his throat, his gaze turning back to the raven that sat perched on his index finger while silently and mindlessly waiting for any further instructions that it would be forced to carry out against the will it no longer had.

"I'll especially have fun with little Zyro.." Alcorin said dreamily, "Poor baby is already on the brink, with only that small little bit of willpower to keep him even relatively sane, as well as that Kira. How about... We toy with them?.. What better way than to drive them insane and make them believe that there really is no hope."
A small escaped his lips, which the raven made no response to as it sat on his finger as still as a painted statue, the slightly cock of its' head every now and then being the only thing that proved it was still responsive - unlike his beloved brother.
"Go." The albino commanded and threw the bird up in the air, the raven automatically flapping its' wings in response to remain in the air and blindly following orders to leave.
Its' croak echoed through the air like a voice would in a canyon, a small giggle following the cry of the bird that he had taken life from.
Everything had gone his way, just like he had planned it too - there had been flaws and several faults, yes, but he had still come out as the victor while he left others to suffer in his shadow.
Now those 'others' were back on their feet with weary spirits, hunting him down to make him pay for everything that he did to them. Not if he had anything to say about it.

"I warned you all, you know.." Alcorin said to nobody, his voice under-toned by another that sounded more demonic, something that made his voice sound like it was 2 people talking in perfect sync, "I gave you a chance to back off and leave yourselves to wallow in pity, and whatever I do to you now, you've brought upon yourselves.." Crimson eyes illuminated themselves, a darkness within them that came from the time he was born, as he was a being that came before his pathetic 'other half' did, "You can't have him..."
With the whip of his robes in the soft breeze, Alcorin turned and left where he stood to the silence of the darkening days...

All of them had taken it upon themselves to use their separate methods to find something - anything - that could remotely help them in their search for Alcorin which almost seemed ongoing, despite it only being a couple of days.
Much to their disappointment, Mito seemed to hold nothing useful for them as all attempts seemed to come down with nothing.
Zyro and Kira, after their failed attempts at coming up with anything in the next few hours after their method of finding out anything, had found Kite and Eight at Mito's Bey Park, conversing with a few young bladers around their age who really didn't seem to be helping much.
The Unabara brothers had quickly departed from the unknown bladers before they had gone up to Kira and Zyro, one of which they were actually happy to see.
A bit of the day had passed now, heading onto about 3:00, as Kite had estimated through his previous study of sun positions when he was a little bit younger.
The 4 of them were now walking together, conversing in mainly small talk with each other about their situation.

"How do you think the others are doing right now?" Zyro asked, looking over towards Kite who walked beside him with Eight, "Like, with finding anything, I mean."

"Probably better than us." Kira said, twisting his wrist off to the side, "That, or worse. This place his huge, I doubt any of us will find much." Kite glanced over at Kira with his blue eyes, a solemn look on his face towards the ex-DNA blader.
"Well, if my estimations are correct, which they usually are.." Kite began, Kira rolling his eye at hearing this, "Then we have roughly a 45% chance of finding anything.. Which, with how things stand, is actually pretty good."
Eight smiled rather proudly in response to this, being sure to keep close to his older brother as they headed down the sidewalk, getting several glances from passersby since they had been in the Neo Battle Bladers Tournament and weren't exactly indistinguishable faces.
"Big bro is always right!" The small bluenette exclaimed while pumping a fist in the air - Zyro simply sweat-dropped at that while Kira said nothing in response.
"Uh, yeah, sure.." The ginger-ravenette awkwardly agreed, looking forward once more to watch where he was going.
"Be optimistic if you like.." Kira sighed, closing his one eye for a moment as it didn't make a difference with his sight, "You might as well be realistic and face the fact that he's probably on the other side of the world as we speak, since apparently teleportation is a thing of his." Zyro glanced over at him with sky blue eyes, the original fire in them still burning but the constant moisture around it that kept it small.

"Yeah, but we can hope.." The Fire Blader said in a way that almost sounded ironically hopeless.
Kira opened his eye again and placed his gaze on the visibly withering flame - a metaphor, to be honest -, the boy seeming to just be able to stand with how much emotional damage he had taken within the time span of only a week back when they had first fought against Alcorin.
Scoffing silently, the pastel-haired blader looked away as the rest of them casually conversed with each other; he had never been able to truly be 'casual' with anyone, considering how he had grown up and how he had turned out to be.
He wasn't exactly the person that everybody liked, save for the other ex-DNA bladers who evidently looked up to him; however that had turned out once they had learned of his 'allegiance' with Zyro and his friends, he had no idea.
"Hey, look!" Eight suddenly exclaimed, pointing somewhere down the street and gaining their attention, "It's Maru and Madoka! At one of those tables!"
The 3 older bladers followed where the younger Unabara was pointing, which happened to be a cafe at the end of the street.
At one of the tables were seated a familiar woman and child, one with pink hair and the other with brown hair sitting beside each other while they both appeared to be looking something over - it was evidently Madoka and Maru.
"You think they found something?" Zyro asked, looking over towards Kite who returned his gaze.
"Only one way to find out." A small smile was put onto Zyro's face, one that most of them would recognize as the old him that always had a certain spark.

"Madoka! Maru!" Zyro called out, their original walking pace turning that of a run as they all hurried towards the two girls in hopes that they had been able to find something.
Madoka gasped softly at the sudden call of her and Maru's name from a familiar voice, turning her head to look in the direction from which it had come from - Maru, having heard as well, leaned over the table a bit by picking herself up with her arms and peered around Madoka a bit, seeing none other than Zyro, Kira, Kite, and Eight coming towards them from down the street.
"Oh, hey!" Madoka greeted as the 4 came up to the 2 Mechanics, 3 of 4 actually coming in through the fence that cut off the outside of the cafe from the rest of the city - Kira, for some reason, stayed on the other side of the white fence while still being in earshot of the rest of them.
"Me and Maru we just looking over something we found." Madoka continued, and Maru brought something up on her bracelet once more that came up as none other than a holographic screen.
"What did you find?" Kite asked, pushing his glasses up on his nose as they tried to slide down.
"It's from a book that we found in one of the libraries around here." Madoka explained, "It's probably not the most helpful thing we could find, but it's the best thing to a lead that we have.."

"And do you happen to have the book with you?" Kira asked, having one hand out in front of him as if he were looking over his nails - which he did sometimes do.
"Uhh... No." Madoka answered lamely, which Kira raised his one eyebrow to before she spoke again, "Since we aren't going to be here for long, it probably wasn't exactly the smartest thing to get a book and not return it, since we won't be coming back... So we took a few pictures of the pages instead."
Maru gave off a smile, lifting her wrist a bit as to show their point.
"This thing also has a camera built into it." The pinkette said with a smile, "And it takes pretty clear ones, too." Madoka smiled at her student, a small giggle on her tongue with a small bit of joy that Maru was still able to smile - the tear tracks on her cheeks had faded, but were still just barely apparent.
Kite, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow at the pastel-haired blader, eyeing the weird distance between him and then as he still stood on the sidewalk.
"Why are you on the other side of the fence?" The brunette asked, raising his eyebrows a bit.

"I don't like cafes." Kira stated bluntly in a way that said 'I rest my case'.

Kite simply shook his head a bit and turned back to looking at Madoka as Zyro spoke, "What did it say?"

"Well, I say we find Benkei, Ren, and Shinobu first.." Madoka said as she stood up from where she was sitting, the legs of the chair screeching against the stone floor and causing several of them to flinch while people farther away turned their heads at the noise before going back to their regular business.
"That way..." Madoka continued, tucking a piece of hair behind her non-visible ears that were hidden behind her hair and recovering from the screeching noise ringing in her ears, "We won't have to explain anything twice. Sound good?"

"Yeah." Zyro agreed, which Kite simply nodded to along with Eight. Maru hopped out of her chair and put the holographic screen protruding from her bracelet back into its' rightful place.
"Goodie.." Kira said sardonically, "We get to go on a search for our little 'friends'." The way he said 'friends' was bitter, but they all knew that pretty well of Kira. He made it blatant that he didn't like most of them, which was confusing to a few as why he would come along with them considering that he didn't like them.
Of course, only Zyro really knew why - Kira had claimed that he still had a favor to return to him, after all.
"I say we're making pretty good time." Madoka said, glancing up towards the sun as she gently placed a tip onto the table for one of the waitresses to pick up, "It's only about 3:00, so we're not doing to bad.. They're around here somewhere."
Pulling her shirt down, Madoka nodded to them which signaled their leave.
Kite, Eight, and Zyro followed both Madoka and Maru out of the cafe, with Kira joining up with them from being on the other side of the fence.
"Did any of you get anything?" Maru asked, looking back towards the 4 others that had found them. "Not a thing." Kite answered, once more pushing his glasses up on his nose which made the lens' reflect the light of the sun off of them.
Zyro, who was in between Kite, Eight, and Kira, smiled slightly as the initial awkwardness between most of them seemed to be clearing - they were all friends, of course, but after what happened when they hadn't believed him right away had left a small rift; thankfully, it seemed to be healing.

Forgive and forget, as the saying went.

A strangled croak reached his ears, startling him away from his thoughts and stopping him in his tracks - he knew that sound.
His breath seemed frozen even in the warm summer air, his heart suddenly beating madly against his chest so hard that it heart before it cooled down.
He wasn't scared, he wasn't nervous, he wasn't anxious... Or maybe that was what he was trying to convince himself.
Slowly, Zyro looked up towards from where he had heard the familiar noise, his eyes landing upon the fence that separated them from the outside area of the cafe.

A raven.

Perched on the top of the wood, black standing out upon white, feathers the same color as most of his hair.
A raven in all its' glory, its' beady black eyes staring at him as it cocked its' head in the strangest way.
Zyro's heart beat against his chest like it wanted to escape, his rib cage being all that kept it inside his best like a wild beast kept captive in a circus.
Raven's symbolized death - he knew this, as he had done a Powerpoint on them once for a school project. They were sharper than the crow, more cold and stronger with its' deep croaks that came from within its' throat and down from centuries of bird-kind.
There was only one time when he would ever see ravens. In those dreams that he had stopped having when he was 8 years old, before the Nemesis Crisis.
In the one that he had had just before Gingka had fallen into his coma - just before he spoke his last words to them.
They had always been there in his dreams when he was young, croaking and crying out as if in mourning over something unidentified.
All the warnings of something bad to come, all the signs and symbolism that something bad was about to happen or would happen in the near or somewhat far future.
They were always there with that boy that he never saw the face of, the very same that had been like an imaginary friend through his childhood only to vanish and emerge once again in his youth.
And from those dreams, Zyro knew that ravens never brought anything good - especially not ones with as dead of eyes as this one bore.

They were birds of Ill Omen; and for Zyro they never brought any good tidings.