Chapter 13 - Nothing But Shadows

"You have no idea when to quit, do you?"

Alcorin's voice was nothing short of a hiss, a guttural lacing of amusement and anger all mixed into one while disgust and malice decorated it like the icing atop a cake.
His footsteps were slow, yet all the more intimidating as he stalked his way forward, thigh-high boots tapping ever so lightly on the floor that was the same color as everything else that surrounded him - pale blue, highlighted by white like his pigmentionless skin, though focusing only on the one thing that he had come here for.
Crimson red eyes, devoid of light like the abyss, narrowed dangerously with their deathly glow that ran daggers through another of who was already fading.
But whatever state he would ever be in, Alcorin couldn't give a damn.

He glowered down towards the ethereal being that had once been able to just barely stand upright, now sprawled out on the floor while the surreal form it took was evidently beginning to fade, the fact that it had once been able to take a human form nearly incomprehensible but for Alcorin's eyes.
He constantly found himself pleased from the state that he had left him to rot in, though he was simultaneously agitated by the fact that he still hung on with what little strength he had left.
But despite his irritation of this pathetic little being, Alcorin couldn't help the chuckle that came from deep in his throat, born of pure amusement and malice as he crouched down the ethereal being that could even take the form of light as it did now.
Irises of crimson red narrowed, a smile of the sweetest kind laced with mercilessness and wrath making their way upon white lips as he watched the other's eyes - they could barely be called eyes anymore - widen in fear at the sight of him, its body quaking in the horrific emotion that flooded through its veins at the other's presence.
It was the one thing that amused him to no end, filled him to the brim with a sadistic joy that made up part of his entire being, created a lust for its suffering that could never be tamed.

Utterly pathetic and so dearly vain.

"Just look at you..." Alcorin mocked in a high whisper, his voice decorated with venom and flowering with a sadistic amusement, "Reduced down to nothing more than a pile of fading lights... And yet somehow, you still always manage to be a burden that I end up having to worry about."
Crimson eyes watched in amusement as the smaller being tried to move away from him with the little strength that it had left - but even it were to get anywhere, there was no escape from him anyway.
It couldn't escape from a place like this, that it had been condemned to as just a former self, the last thing that existed in the physical world of something - or someone - else.
A laugh shook Alcorin's shoulders, watching with predatory eyes as all of its attempts remained futile, the chains that had been wrapped eternally around it never letting it go anywhere, which was the only reason as to why it remained. By now, it was as good as dead - technically, it had never even truly been alive, in a sense.

"You honestly think you could ever get away from me?..." Alcorin questioned with a malicious smirk, relishing in the fear that cascaded from the other being and feeding on it like lust, "I was here first, remember?.."
In one swift motion, the albino had taken hold of the other being by what was physically left of a neck, pressing it up against the large column that stood halfway into the center of the large room, the remnants of a startled and fearful yelp escaping from an almost non-existent mouth, fading away like an echo with the beads of like that descended from its body.

"You are nothing but a pathetic little shadow..." Alcorin went on, his voice a hiss rattling with hate and disgust, "You always were, because I was the one that came before you... And you were the most disgusting thing that I had ever laid eyes on... And now look at where you are. Exactly where you should've been the entire time..."
His grip on the smaller's throat did not loosen, a low groaning sound emanating from the being that he had problem in hurting, the guttural bubbling of strangulation existing as nothing but an echo for something that could barely even speak as it was.

"You cried for him..." Alcorin specified, bringing his face close to the other's which could barely be made out, "You cried for him, and I am the one who cried in your place out there... It never mattered what you do to try and get through again, and it never mattered how much you ever felt for dear Gingka!..."
The albino's voice was dripping with venom, his words quite literally poisonous to those he chose to hear it.
The weakest sound of pained whimpering just barely reached his ears, a sound that pleasured him in the sadism that he craved to feel; he knew he may as well enjoy it, as this was one of the last times that he would ever make any remote contact with this pathetic little being that would never see the light of day ever again.

"You..." Alcorin began, his voice slow and dangerous, overflowing with hatred and unfathomable malice that cascaded from him in his aura topped with control and insanity, "Are never coming back..."
There was no gentleness to be found as Alcorin squeezed the ethereal being's neck harder, the faintest of cries escaping its form but not entirely audible, its body glowing bright and yet weakly with the mere form of energy that it took as life threatened to be taken from it all in one moment.
Then, all at once, Alcorin's grip loosened and he let the entity drop to the floor with barely a sound, the softest sound of laughter escaping his lips as he witnessed the pathetic weakness of the other.

"Either way, you don't even really matter..." The albino continued, mocking the ethereal being into the near insanity that it had been drowned in for years, the mental and emotional torture that was ceaseless upon its being, "The only one who does matter, is who you would've been..." Alcorin crouched down once more, looking at the little being on the floor who's incoherent eyes stared at him with fear and forgotten pleas.
"He's no less pathetic than you, and soon enough you and him won't be able to even see the outside..." A light giggle escaped his lips as he spoke, taking great pleasure in the mental tole that his words beat into the much weaker entity, "You were nothing but a shadow from the very start, always destined to be thrown to the side by me."

A laugh emitted from his pigmentionless self, even the insides of his mouth the same as most of his exterior - entirely free of pigment.
Narrowed eyes of crimson red were alit with their deathly glow, the mere sight of his lightless irises enough to strike fear into the hearts of anybody as he turned and stalked his way out just like he had coming in.
Upon the silence broken by his footsteps as he readied himself to leave the world devoid of both reality and fantasy, the only other thing that he could be heard was the barely audible whimpering of a small, and deemed worthless, being.

"..Gingka..."...

After following Dynamis for quite some time, Tithi had been able to find the Mist Mountain Shrine with little difficulty.
As time went on, he even managed to make his way through the maze that lead into temple, made so that any trespassers or those unwanted or not deemed worthy would get lost and eventually leave - that, or they would be stuck for the rest of their days until they eventually died of starvation or dehydration.
Dynamis had said that only when people were deemed worthy to him, would he guide them through the maze and allow them entry into the Mist Mountain Shrine of which he had guarded through his life, as well as all of his predecessors that had come before him - he had once described it as some sort of an heirloom, for a temporary lack of better words.
Tithi, now aged at seventeen, had learned how to navigate his way through the maze with very little of Dynamis's help, something that he had learned from the Guardian himself after he had gone back with him to the Mist Mountain Shrine after the defeat of Nemesis 7 years ago. The 2 of them were well acquainted with each other - friends, even - and though Tithi would leave and venture out from time to time, he would always find his way back to the Shrine that his dear friend still guarded even to this day.
The Legendary Blader had departed from the temple once more about 7 months ago - much longer than his usual trips through the country, and after long journeys through deserts, tundras, forests, and mountains, he once more made his way back to a place that he would even call some sort of home.
Tithi made his way to the entrance for the Mist Mountain Shrine, heading inside with no care in the world as he delighted in the thought of seeing the Guardian again after being gone for over half a year, finding himself coming immediately into the maze that had trapped so many people and even lead them into their untimely demises, their bones and skeletons probably having already crumbled away into dust, or they were just in places that nobody looked and had no idea that they were still there.

Probably not, though...

Hoisting his bag up on one of his broad shoulders, Tithi recalled his knowledge that he had built up through the years that he had spent with Dynamis in the temple, knowing the maze well enough so that he could get through alright; even so, he did occasionally need help from the Guardian that had protected this Shrine for very well his whole life.
Closing his eyes, Tithi concentrated and focused on the silence around him, mentally calling out to Dynamis to give him a bit of aid in making his way through, because every time he had come here, it always seemed like it had changed, shifted, like the tectonic plates beneath the crust of the earth they all lived on.

But there was nothing.

Eyes of light blue opened themselves once more, and Tithi found himself thoroughly confused.

There was nothing here.

Dynamis's voice was nowhere to be heard, and even when the Guardian didn't speak to lead him along, there was always that faint presence that seemed to pull him, manually guiding his way through the simple energy that radiated off of his fellow Legendary Blader.

"Dynamis?" Tithi called out, his voice and his face showing his confusion - the Guardian had always known when somebody entered the temple, and when it was him, he was always there to guide him through the maze when need be.
Tithi would be able to find his way through it eventually, of course, with the things that Dynamis had told him and taught him while he had spent his time in the Shrine. The purplette furrowed his brows together, his lips pressed together in a thin line as a wave of concern came over him - Dynamis was not one to ignore his call, or that of those that he trusted to be in the Mist Mountain Shrine.

Could it be that he wasn't here?... No.

Dynamis was always here.

Save for his time travelling with Gingka and them on their quest to defeat the resurrected God of Destruction, the Guardian never left the Shrine that was his birthright to protect.
Tithi sucked in a deep breath before letting it out, the simple act of living seeming to echo throughout the abnormally silent temple; even so, the Legendary Blader made his way through the maze that acted as a defense system, somehow constantly changing despite it all being simple stone that was predicted never to move.
With the mysteries that cascaded around Mist Mountain itself, Tithi wouldn't be surprised if the maze did shift on its own.
He had once asked Dynamis, but he had never given him a direct answer.
Recalling some of what Dynamis had taught him earlier in life within the Mist Mountain Shrine, Tithi soon found himself in a place that - though had been gone from his sight for a long time - was very familiar to him.
The Mist Mountain Shrine itself, the very place that Dynamis guarded with his life no matter the cost - but even now that he was inside, thankfully not getting lost in the maze that had trapped so many souls and left so many hopeless despite his knowledge of it given by Dynamis, the Guardian was nowhere to be seen.
Tithi usually always saw him by the throne that stood at the end of the room, perched much like a bird of prey, icy eyes staring down at those who dared enter his temple even though he would deem them worthy.

"Dynamis?" Tithi called out again, hoping that his friend would hear him now that he was properly inside of the Shrine, "Can you hear me?... Dynamis?"

No answer.

"What the hell is going on?..." Tithi wondered to himself, a seed of dread now planting itself in the bottom of his stomach, feeling like a heavy rock was placed there as he found that the Guardian wasn't anyway in this area.
Tithi would've thought that Dynamis hadn't heard him, but that was entirely illogical.
Dynamis practically was Mist Mountain.
He knew when someone came near the Shrine, when someone set foot into the sacred place that he and his ancestors had guarded for eternity, saw all of those with cold eyes upon even colder yet beautifully sculpted features, saw them, tested them, decided whether or not they were worthy of setting foot into his birthright.
And most of all, Dynamis heard them, spoke in a voice that echoed through heads like a specter, eternally watching, always everywhere while he stayed in one place. Tithi didn't know that much about the many Guardians of the Mist Mountain Shrine, but he knew that there was no way Dynamis hadn't heard him, if he was here. But he always here.

"Dynamis, this isn't funny.." The purplette said, furrowing his eyebrows together against his dark skin, walking further inside of the temple as he looked around, light blue eyes trying to find something - anything - of the Jupiter Blader, "Dynamis, are you here?"
Tithi set his bag down by the stairs that lead up to the small platform that the throne stood on, practically engraved into the wall itself but for a different mixture of colors than just the graying blackness of stone.
The Legendary Blader breathed out through his nose, his footsteps echoing in his ears as he made his way through the Shrine, heading into another area through an archway into a much bigger room that of the 'entrance hall', if one wanted to call it that.

"Dynamis!" Tithi called again, confusion being replaced by worry at the lack of answer that he received, only the silence responding to him with a ringing in his ears that he honestly didn't like. The air around him seemed colder as he walked along the wall, stopping right at the beginning of a few stairs that lead up to another small platform - much like the one in the great hall that Dynamis always resided in, though not nearly the same.
"Dynamis?..." Tithi called out once more, his voice shaking slightly as goosebumps made their way onto the skin of his arms, finding himself suddenly uneasy as he stood there with no response to his call.

Something wasn't right...

Something definitely wasn't right...

What was that sound?

A fly?

There were no flies that ever came into the Mist Mountain Shrine - at least none that Tithi had ever seen. There weren't even many insects at all, save for the few ants that lay crawling around and the spiders that likely lurked in the corners of the high ceilings.
Breathing in softly, the purplette coughed slightly as he gagged, putting a hand over his nose as he just realized the smell that lingered in this spot.
The air had been fairly clean and fresh everywhere else, with the smallest hint of dust from the stone that made up the shrine - what on earth was that smell?

Making sure only to breath through his mouth as he covered his nose with his hand, Tithi turned as he tried to find the source of wherever that horrid stench was coming from - he found it.

Tithi's heart nearly stopped beating all at once, his eyes widening as he breath got caught in his throat at the sight before him.
Tithi's stomach lurched forward almost violently at the sight that lay before his eyes, his blood seeming to freeze and his throat feeling as though it enclosed around himself and prevented him from breathing.

He had found Dynamis.

Sprawled out beneath a pillar, body stiff with rigor-mortis and likely hard and cold to the touch from the lack of blood flowing.
Someone appeared to have tried to place his body in a more ceremonial manner, though it didn't last long as his muscles had tightened over the time-span of however long he had been dead for. His neck had visibly been twisted or broken in some way, flies and even a few visible maggots feeding away at his rotting flesh that gave off the acrid smell of disgust.
Tithi's hand fell away from his nose, not caring how much of the rotting stench that he inhaled as he stared at Dynamis's body in horror and disbelief.

When he had left, 7 months ago, everything had been fine.

The Guardian had met looked at Tithi, standing in the entrance of the Temple where the younger blader was to say his temporary goodbyes - Dynamis said, as he always did, that he would be there as he always was, waiting for him to return from whatever adventure he would have.
Now, Tithi's stomach contorted, twisting and writhing as he took in the sight before him and stumbled backwards, falling back onto his hands with his mouth hanging open in a horrid way.

Rotting flesh, twisted neck, flies, maggots...

With something in his throat pushing upwards, the pit of his stomach lurching uncomfortably and even painfully, his gag reflex kicking in and causing him to cough, Tithi half-flipped himself onto his hands and knees and vomited onto the ground.
Turning up everything that he had eaten that day, and perhaps yesterday as well, Tithi vomited it all onto the ground as the image of Dynamis's rotting dead body - that lay over several meters away - stayed glued into his mind and taped behind his eyelids.
The warm smell of vomit in his nose made his stomach lurch forward once more and caused him to vomit again, practically covering the ground below him in the former contents of his stomach. Coughing up the last of everything that was in him, Tithi stared down at the floor that was covered in his stomach acids and still-digesting food that made him kneel in his own filth.
A ragged sob escaped him once he was done gagging and coughing up the bile that made it's way into his throat.
All that was to be heard now was the choked sobs and strangled cries that Tithi screamed out with nothing left to lose...

It wasn't long before mid-day when Zyro and the others had arrived at Kasama - or one part of it at least. Kira had said that the other half of Kasama was more along the road to the northwest, more surrounded by mountains than this half of the city was, and Maru had specified that by looking at her bracelet-map that she still held up in front of her.
Now, all of them were at the edge of the small city that descended away from Mito, trying to plan out what their next move was going to be, seeing as how they had gotten the information that Alcorin could possibly be somewhere near or on the many mountains that surrounded the valley. Of course, the pages of the book that Maru had photographed never said specifically about which mountains any of those temples or shrines had been located on or near.
For all they knew, the book was probably decades old and the information in it may have been worthless.
Currently, all of them were near the main road in a small field where they could discuss their plans for their next actions in peace before they headed off to do whatever their decision was to be.

"So, which mountain are we checkin' first?" Benkei questioned, putting his hands on his hips while looking down towards Madoka and Maru, who were both sitting down on the yellowing grass that still managed to keep most of its green color.
Madoka glanced up towards her friend.
"Well, there's obviously too many mountains for us to look over." The brunette said simply, "And most of Kasama is in a valley made up by mountains." Turquoise orbs looked back towards the map that Maru presented.
The small mechanic was holding up her bracelet-arm with her opposite one, since her one arm was getting sore from her having to hold it up constantly.

"The best option we really have is to try and find out if there's anything around here."

"What if there's nothing that can tell us for sure?" Eight questioned once Madoka finished talking. The woman looked over towards the bluenette before looking away and sighing through her nose.
"I don't know.." She said almost hopelessly - none of them were entirely ashamed to admit that they had no idea if they were going to find anything or not, but not knowing what exactly was going on entirely wasn't a comfortable feeling for most of them, "It's the only thing that we actually have to go on, though..." Madoka looked up and past Ren and Kite towards the one person in their party that didn't entirely seem to care about their situation all to much before speaking again, ".. How much is there to know about this place, Kira?"
A single eye, the color of fool's gold, widened in the slightest bit as the name of its owner was called, all other eyes turning towards the teen in question.
The pastel-haired blader turned his head towards the brunette woman for a moment, looking at her as if he had not heard the question and had simply paid attention to his name - Madoka seemed about to repeat what she asked before Kira looked away in the slightest bit and spoke.

"There's not much to say about it, really..." He said with apparent boredom, "The part of it that's in the valley is more quiet than it is up here.. Not by much though... There are a couple shrines around town, but other than that it's mainly just a bunch of neighborhoods.." Kite raised an eyebrow at the shorter male.
"And what about the mountains around here?" The male brunette questioned, glasses catching the reflection of the light ever so slightly.
"Not much to say about those either." The Bahamoote blader said plainly, taking one hand and flicking his wrist in the side while his opposite arm remained crossed over his chest, "Honestly, it's a pretty boring place. I never looked to much into it myself."

"Then how do you know so much?" Ren asked, a confused tone in her voice.

Kira simply responded with a bland, "I just do." As he had said previously before when Shinobu had asked him. Madoka lifted one finger to her chin and held it there for a moment in thought, considering the vague answer that the Bahamoote blader had given them.
"I guess that means we should more or less check out the other part of Kasama..." She speculated, "It might be able to tell us more since it's probably the closest to all the mountains around here." Madoka placed both hands at her sides, using them to help lift herself off the ground and onto her feet; Maru followed suite, stretching out her legs a bit once she was standing.

"How much farther do we have to go?" Ren asked, hoisting her light backpack up on her shoulders.
"Just down the main road, really..." Kira answered simply, not paying it any mind as Shinobu's eyes flickered over towards him before looking away.
Maru, who had been lifting her wrist up to check on the map in her bracelet, lowered her arm back down to her side.
"Well, let's get going!" The manager said readily, "Better sooner rather than later." Madoka gave a small smile towards her large friend, before adjusting the strap of her backpack over her shoulder.
"It shouldn't take us long to get there, either way." She said, and made her way off of the uncomfortable field of grass that was dry from the heat plaguing them. Maru followed quickly behind her, and all of them following on the sides and behind, legs aching from the amount of walking that they had continuously been doing for at least 4 days now.
Even so, none of them really complained - save for Eight, but that was now only at certain times. They were all well aware of what they were out here for in the first place; complaining could wait for later.
Zyro, who was still unnaturally silent for himself, glanced over his shoulder towards Kira, who remained at the back of the group. The pastel-haired blader didn't spare him a glance in return, though he may have known that the ginger-ravenette was looking at him - it was hard to tell with Kira.
He definitely seemed to know quite a bit about Kasama, even if he claimed that he had never looked into the small city itself that much.

Zyro almost wanted to ask why that was, but he knew that Kira wouldn't give him a very direct answer - it was better not to anyway... He turned his eyes away, looking forward yet looking at the ground all the same.
"Honestly..." Ren said with a sigh - Zyro turned his head, seeing as how it sounded like she was talking to him. The blonde hadn't been looking at him, but it definitely sounded like she was trying to reserve her voice mainly to talk only to Zyro. "If we chase Alcorin all the way around Japan only to find out he's not even here, I am going to flip something!" The Phoenix blader said heatedly, before looking over at Zyro with a slightly agitated look in her eyes, "Ya feel, Zyro?" Zyro just stared at her for a moment, slightly confused on what to say right then.
It took a few moments before he was actually able to get something out from his mouth.
"Uuhh, yeah..." The Fire Blader said with a tone of awkwardness that was not like him, and forced a small smile onto his face with the corners of his mouth, "I feel.."

"I'm sure he'll be somewhere around here." Kite said, pushing his glasses up on his nose with his middle finger, "He could be anywhere, yeah, but I think we have more of a chance in Japan than anywhere else from we got with that book." Ren sighed through her nose.
All of them stopped at a crosswalk, letting a few cars pass before walking to the other side of the street.
"Well, he's obviously good at hiding, I guess.." The blonde said, thinking back to how they had all once been clueless about the fact that Alcorin had been right underneath them, "But if it actually finding him, I'd look everywhere humanly possible for the guy..." Ren's chocolate brown eyes shifted their way over to the boy that walked beside her, his own sky blue irises the same as they always were, beautiful.
But they lacked what she loved about them.
She would've asked if he was alright, with the solemn expression on his face that barely left, with how tightly his lips seemed pressed together in a silence that made everything feel empty and meaningless, but Zyro have very well been tired of hearing the same question over and over again out of pity and concern.

No - just concern.

Without anything to say to him that would make him feel better - nothing likely would -, Ren looked away from her friend and instead turned her gaze towards Kite with their small conversation. Zyro was as silent as Kira, perhaps even more so with how little he kept saying nowadays seeing as how things had turned out 4 days ago.
He wanted to find Alcorin just as much as any of them did, but not exactly for the same reasons. It had been undeniably hard, and the guilt and anxiety still gnawed away at him bit by bit with the constant force of tears every now and then, but Zyro had already come to terms with the fact that Gingka was dead.
A few days back, when he had actually told all of them the newly found truth, he had also - for a moment - thought that he wanted to get back at Alcorin for what he had done to the redhead; all the suffering that he had put him through, making him live his final moments in a coma... But what had come out of his mouth was different.
It wasn't just about them now, and it certainly wasn't about Gingka anymore... Now it was about what Alcorin was going to do to the rest of the world, what was going to happen now that everything had fallen into place on his terms.
All of it had been for nothing, and they all knew it, though they wouldn't say it. And that sociopath had left enough scars to last them the rest of their lives.

Shaking his head slightly with a small breath, Zyro raised his eyes from the ground and simply followed blindly in the middle of the group as they decided on their plans and made their way back towards the main highway to head towards the main part of Kasama.
All the while he lived on with the voice in the back of his head that he had grown used to, that had grown weaker and weaker with every passing moment, which somehow only fed to the dull ache in his chest...

It had not been a long while before both Sakyo and Takanosuke came upon the small town of Ibaraki.
Very few cars passed on the road; the few that did were driving away from Ibaraki, while only 2 had headed towards it - but maybe they were just passing through. The two bladers walked briskly up the small hill that would lead them into the small town, still keeping to the side of the road in case of any oncoming cars.
The heat of the sun of summer beat down on them relentlessly, though Sakyo seemed not to be bothered much by it while Takanosuke repeatedly whipped the sweat away from his forehead, a few of his blonde curls sticking to his face which rather annoyed him.
The trees were the only things that offered shade to the two of them, and Takanosuke was the only one that really bothered to bask in it while Sakyo just moved along with the Griffin Blader following along behind him.
There wasn't much shade to be found now that they came over the hill, the warm sun seeming to make the paved road shine as he shone down on the small town of Ibaraki, which - as Takanosuke had described - didn't seem to be very big.
It was decently sized, at least, but it was definitely quite small.
Standing atop the small hill that lead into it, both bladers were able to get a fairly good look at the majority of it, but it really wasn't too much.

"Seems a bit smaller than I remember it..." Takanosuke speculated with the tilt of his head, "Maybe it actually got smaller.." Crimson red orbs glanced over towards the boy beside him, before looking back to the small town that stood before them.
If Takanosuke wanted to try and look for Alcorin so badly, then this may as well be the best starting point - but the Dragoon Blader doubted that they would find much.
"Let's go." The redhead said solemnly before walking forward once more, the curly-haired blonde quickly following along behind him even though his much smaller legs ached and his head felt too hot from the beating of the sun.
"So, what are we looking for first?" The blonde asked, sounding a bit out of breath from his light panting. Sakyo didn't answer right away - still not an uncommon thing. The redhead simply sighed internally.
Takanosuke was the one who wanted to look for the sociopath in the first place, so shouldn't he have the slightest of idea of what they were going to look for?

Perhaps not.

"Where do you think he could actually be, Sakyo?" The blonde questioned curiously, "He probably wouldn't be anywhere around here... Unless he actually is. But probably not."

"We'll look." Sakyo said roughly, "But there is no guaranteeing we'll find anything."

"Okay.." Takanosuke replied sheepishly, rubbing his head slightly from the dull ache that protruded from the side.

"Probably the heat..." He thought to himself with slight exhaustion, ".. I hatesummer~..."
Well, he didn't entirely hate summer.
He liked the fact that they all got out of school and were able to Beybattle with each other until the cows came home, but the heat was the one thing that made him relent it so much.
Sighing softly, Takanosuke shook off the feeling of the small ache in his head even if it did bother him a little, and continued to follow Sakyo down the side of the street.

"I guess this place is small, huh?" Takanosuke questioned in a 'now-that-I-think-about-it' way. Once more, Sakyo didn't answer, but the Griffin Blader had grown quite used to that and knew not to suspect that the redhead wasn't listening - more than likely, he was.
"I do remember this place being a bit bigger though.." The Griffin Blader continued on, "But I guess I haven't been here in a few years. I actually used to have a lot of fun when I came here with my dad... Ow.."
Sakyo's eyebrows lifted no more than a quarter of an inch at the softly spoken word of probable pain, stopping in his tracks as he glanced back over his shoulder to look at the boy that had stopped walking only a foot or two before he did. The blonde-haired boy had a hand placed on the side of his head, his eyes narrowed slightly in way that showed that there was something to his discomfort.

"What is it?" Sakyo questioned, turning his body more towards the Griffin Blader who seemed to have a headache of some sort from the way he held his head - probably from the heat.
He himself wasn't as bothered by it as Takanosuke probably was, so he hadn't really noticed or suspected all that much that the boy could succumb to heat stroke if they weren't careful.

"My head hurts..." Takanosuke replied with a whine, the ache in his head now having evolved from minor to more annoying and a bit painful.

Why did it hurt so much?...

Surely, nothing was wrong, right?

It was just the heat, that was all...

But the pain in his skull only worsened. A small moan of pain made its way from Takanosuke's lips, drawing Sakyo's attention and growing concern for the one person he would even remotely consider a friend.
"Ow..." The blonde complained, his voice an octave higher than it usually was. Eyelids closed tightly over cerulean orbs, the ache growing beyond annoyance and discomfort and instead pulsating in pain..

What was going on?...

The boy whimpered softly, before all sound was drowned out from around him except for one, singular noise that seemed to pull everything apart.
The deep, throaty croak of a raven.
The pain was still there, but there was dizziness, the inability to focus and a small numbness that left the blonde boy scared at what was happening.
Cerulean orbs opened only halfway, the irises visibly shaking from confusion, from pain, from fear, and all he could think to do was look at Sakyo - to know he was there, for some sort of comfort so that he wouldn't just be left like this all on his lonesome.

But that was a mistake.

Takanosuke's eyes locked onto Sakyo's own, which held the slightest bit of concern now for the boy that was clearly suffering from something - from what, he appeared not to know. But the croak of the raven resounded in his ears, and all Takanosuke was - not Sakyo, for he seemed to be the background - but other things that flashed before him, other things that he didn't understand, that made his head ache and throb in pain.

The wings of a bird, flashes of white, red, and black... Something tapping on glass, something sharp, splatters of...

What?...

An owl, something slender and black slinking past... The cracking of glass - no, a mirror?..

A screech, screaming, sounds he couldn't describe or make out...

Then, there was nothing but Sakyo.

Takanosuke found himself breathing heavily, shaking his head weakly, his head feeling fuzzy while there was a small, lingering pain that wouldn't go away.
Something warm dripped down from his nose, onto his upper lip, but he couldn't find himself to focus on what it was.

"Takanosuke?.." Sakyo called out, his voice edged with concern as he took a step closer to the Griffin Blader who was now bleeding from his nose.
"I..." The blonde said weakly, staggering slightly as he moved one of his feet to turn slightly. Sakyo didn't know too much about it, but he was fairly sure this was not what happened to people with heat stroke.
"I'm..." No other words came from Takanosuke's lips, one hand a few inches away from his face as if to put in it on his head again.
The boy staggered backwards in his dizziness, before he collapsed completely into unconsciousness, the blood coming from his nose sliding slightly down his face at the change of angle.

"Takanosuke!"

Sakyo caught him before he hit the ground.