Chapter 17 - Missing Leads

It wasn't exactly a secret among the public that the Tokyo WBBA wasn't as connected with the other WBBA Organization Headquarters' as the others were with each other.
Yes, they kept in contact with the other Directors, and did organize and discuss meetings and business situations between each other, but that was about it. The Tokyo WBBA, compared to all the others, was more isolated.
While many people did find that strange, considering that the Tokyo WBBA and Director Hideyoshi himself ran the remaining government of Japan, nobody ever really questioned it.
After all, it was each to their own, and whatever the WBBA Directors did the others usually respected.
All they knew was that Director Hideyoshi was true to his work, and that he made sure to do his part upon the building of the Beyblade Generation with the city's share of small tournaments and Bey parks for the young bladers.

It was the knowledge of these looks on the organization that Hideyoshi pondered at that moment, sitting in his office while drinking his lukewarm coffee brought to him by one of his assistants.
It was almost laughable to him, how well the public and young Bladers thought of the WBBA, especially that ran by Director Tsubasa Otori up in Metal Bey City. Director Otori, and the several other Directors before him such as Ryo Hagane, had clearly been honest and to their work upon building the Beyblade Generation, but when it came to himself, he couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. Yes, he was definitely true to his work, and devoted to it as many of the personnel in the building was; just not in the way that everybody else thought.
Lifting the mug to his cold lips, the Director of the Tokyo WBBA sipped at the strong, dark liquid in satisfaction.
Either way, it was best to let everyone see it as they did and let it pass on by - after all, he wouldn't want to ruin his reputation so drastically.
Which also came with the vague complication of...

"Director." The firm voice of Naomi rang in his ears, grabbing the man's attention and making him look up towards the automatic sliding doors of his office.
There, indeed, stood Naomi, as strict and well put as ever.
"Ah, Naomi." Hideyoshi greeted, setting down his mug of coffee onto the hard wood of his desk, "I suggest you have news for me?"

"I do, Director." Naomi responded, her face tight and very well expressionless, "And it's not good." Hideyoshi raised a graying eyebrow at this.
"And why would that be?" The Director questioned, folding his hands together in front of him. Naomi, now carrying an Ipad with her, flicked her finger across the screen several times before she came to what she was looking for.
"We discovered this morning that one of our files in the system his missing." The dark brunette said firmly, turning her Ipad upside down and handing it right-side up to the Director, "We have reason to believe its been deleted, since we can't find any trace of it."

Blankly, Hideyoshi gazed at the screen with narrowed blue eyes, observing the contents of if and the confirmation that they were unable to find it at all.
"Hmmm..." The Director hummed softly, skimming over it a couple times with his eyes, "Interesting that that one would be missing, don't you think?"
Naomi didn't answer, and accepted her Ipad from the man as he handed it back. "What will you have us do, Director?" The brunette questioned, holding her Ipad to her chest once more.
"Nothing too drastic." The Director answered simply, "See if you can trace the deletion back to the device it was last brought up too... Once you've done that, report back to me on the results."

"Of course." Naomi said in response.
"You may go." Hideyoshi said with a wave of the hand, dismissing her from his office. Naomi left without another word, carrying her Ipad close to her and ready to give orders to some of the personnel that often specialized in this type of thing.
Hideyoshi folded his hands together in front of him once more after pushing his glasses up upon his nose, the lens catching the glare and partially hiding his deep blue eyes behind the reflection.
Just this morning they had discovered it to be missing, and with who had been there just the day before...
"Well..." The Director said to no one, "Maybe I did underestimate what you would get up to, now didn't I?.." His question was left unanswered but for the one who was now miles away in a different city, but no one to hear him ask it.
Except, of course, the one that always listening.
Taking a sip of a his cooling coffee, Hideyoshi paid it no mind as the lights above him flickered once...

The many soles of boots and shoes trampled their way across the sun-baked sidewalk of town, and among them was both Maru and Madoka, who's all attempts for finding out anything had so far proved fruitless.
They had both started off by asking a couple of the locals in a Bakery near where they were staying, which had been the first failed attempt to finding anything. Maru had then suggested going to the library again, insisting that Kasama had one from a brief look-over of the city from the map that she had in her bracelet.
The pink-haired mechanic had been right about there being a library - it was small, but it was big enough that they would hopefully be able to find something of use.
However, that attempt went unsuccessful as well, since there was more of a limited variety of books in Kasama's library due to its smaller sized compared to the one in Mito.
Now, the two of them had gone to walking along the sidewalk that was more than cooking underneath their feet, trying to devise their next course of action for this increasingly difficult mission. Neither of them knew where exactly the others of their party were, the decision to split up and search around the city to cover more ground being the one that was able to stick; perhaps they may be having better luck than the two of them were.
Both had been lucky back in Mito when they had decided to investigate the library for anything that might be of use, but here was an entirely different scenario that could have something hiding in dark shadows or simply nothing at all, which was what Madoka had reasoned.
She knew nothing about Kasama, and neither did anyone else in their group but for Kira as it seemed; she had hardly known anything about Mito either, but it didn't stop any of them from finding what they were looking for, even if it was just another bread crumb. Lithe fingers combed through her own hair a couple times, getting out a small tangle in the brown locks that would only form into a knot if she left it for too long.

At her side, Maru brushed aside a stray hair of her bangs before she looked up towards her blue-eyed teacher. "What should we do now, Chief?" The young mechanic asked, doing the only thing she knew how to do in her time of need and turning to her teacher for advice.
"I'm not sure..." Madoka answered almost hopelessly, "We could try asking people but I'm sure how much good that would do." The shop owner crossed her right arm across her chest, just below her breasts, and used the hand of that arm to support her opposite elbow, cupping her own chin with her thumb and index finger in thought. "I suppose we hardly know anything about Kasama, either way.." The blue-eyed woman speculated, "The only one who really knows anything at all is Kira, apparently..."

"He's with Zyro, though." Maru reminded her teacher, a small edge to her voice at her own words.
With his helpfulness in keeping them all grounded enough to work, and his distinct dislike of having to put up with anyone's whining, Kira was definitely a valuable helping hand in their search for the raging sociopath they were tailing; his history with both Zyro and the DNA did leave them wary of leaving him with the dual-haired blader, but Zyro's own trust in the pastel-haired sadist was enough to give them at least a bit of comfort.
Madoka didn't say anything about Maru's words, even if she had acknowledged them with the fact that she was correct.
Unfortunately, they didn't know where either of those two currently were in the city, so going to them on advice for where to look would be entirely futile.
"Yeah, he is..." The former bey-mechanic said absently, eyes of turquoise focused on the smoothed out pavement before her as roughly half a dozen possible ideas came to mind.
The lavender-eyed child next to her kept her eyes on her for a few more moments before she threw her gaze a bit more towards the ground, lifting her bracelet-adorned wrist up with the gleam of bright red that caught her eye.
As she suspected, a small light on one part of the multi-purpose device was blinking a bright red, which was a sign of only one thing for certain so far.

A smile, which Madoka had always believed to rival the wide-eyed face of a kitten, made its way to Maru's lips as she announced happily, "Hey Madoka! The Director's calling!"

"Huh?" Madoka was brought out of her river of thoughts and plans at her young student's announcement, her arms falling back down to her sides and eyes making their way up to the pink head next to her.
Unwilling to disrupt the flow of the sidewalk traffic, both teacher and apprentice stepped out of the way to the side, standing against the front outer wall of some small and almost rundown looking restaurant.
Nobody spared them a second glance as the locals continued on their ways with shopping bags and loud children.
Maru brought up the transparent screen that was projected from the bracelet on her wrist, the page before her seeming to be some sort of 'desktop' for her to access anything else she may need; but her small fingers tapped just over the blinking red dot in the corner of the screen that immediately opened a video-cam.
Madoka bent her knees, her warm palms placed on them to balance her upper body as she looked into the newly brought up face of Tsubasa. There was a small smile on the man's lips, but the brunette woman noticed, however, that the Director did look disoriented and weary, likely a result from the many hours he had spent reviewing so many profiles from many different cities across the country.
Madoka furrowed her brows together a bit at this, but decided against saying anything about how he looked.
"Hey Tsubasa." Madoka greeted, placing a small smile of her own on her face.
"Hey, you two." The golden-eyed man greeted in return, forcing a weary smile onto his caramel-colored lips, "I called to see how all of you are doing since yesterday. Did you have any luck?"

"A bit.." Madoka replied halfheartedly, "We're down in Kasama right now, but we haven't been able to find anything around here."
A surprised flash passed through the weary Director's eyes. "What happened back in Mito?" The WBBA President asked in question, "I remember you being there only yesterday."
A raised finger in a matter-of-fact way came from Maru, the information in her head ready at the mark should explanation ever be needed; and for this case, it most certainly was.
"Me and Chief managed to find something back in Mito about temples all around Japan being dedicated to Nemesis." The young apprentice explained expertly, "We're trying to see if we can find anything around here that's kind of like that.. But we haven't found anything."
One silver eyebrow of the caramel-skinned Director rose a centimeter above its original placement, golden eyes casting themselves downward as though in some train of immediate thought.
"Temples, huh?..." Tsubasa asked absently, though there was no more on that subject to be said from him.
"Something like that, yeah." Madoka answered, brushing a few strands of her brown hair out of the way of her eyes, "How's it going over there with you?" The silver-haired man's eyes, instead of meeting theirs, drifted over to one side of the screen, where his arm shifted from toying with something that was beyond their line of sight.
"I haven't found anything yet, but I'm still working on it..." He responded wearily, "A few people are still sending me a few more files to look over, but so far I haven't been able to find anything... I'll see if I can find anything on those temples you were talking about too."

"Sounds good." Madoka agreed, her brows furrowing once more as she noticed the slight disoriented look in Tsubasa's golden eyes, something that she hadn't seen in his expression and behavior from the previous day. Had something happened there without their knowledge?...
"Tsubasa, are you okay?" The shop owner asked, concern evident in her voice and drawing the weary Director's gaze back to the two of them, "You don't look so good.."
Beside her, Maru cast her teacher a questioning glance, one eyebrow raised out of place before she looked back towards the golden-eyed man.
"Oh, it's nothing." Tsubasa said dismissively, shaking his head softly and brushing an invisible piece of hair out of his eyes, "I'm just a bit tired, that's all. I'll be fine, though." The brunette woman said nothing in response, but let her troubled expression clear from her features and nodded.
"Alright." She agreed, "If you say so." In vague reassurance, Tsubasa simply nodded with a weary smile on his lips.
"Okay. I'll be sure to contact you later if I find anything." The WBBA President said in a way that Madoka felt were parting words, "Good luck, you two."
With a simple goodbye, the face-cam that Tsubasa had previously been shown on closed itself out, leaving Maru with nothing the 'desktop' that remained as a default for her to access more of her bracelet.
With no further use for the device, the pink-haired mechanic put the projected screen back into the advanced mechanical device on her wrist and lowered it to her side once again. Madoka took her warm palms off of her knees as she stood up straight, brushing a lock of her hair back over her shoulder as the tension in her legs eased.

"He didn't seem too happy, did he?" Maru questioned, lavender casting themselves up to meet turquoise as Madoka's body responded to the sound of someone speaking to her by looking at them. The blue-eyed teacher sighed through her nasal cavity and shifted her eyes towards the smoothed cement before her feet.
"No, not really." The older female pondered, "But I guess we can't blame him, with how well he's been handling things lately.." Maru's shoulders sagged a bit, but she spoke nothing on the subject on how the gold-eyed Director was doing.
They knew Tsubasa was handling all of it about as well as the rest of them were (all of them except for Kira, of course), so if his thoughts on everything that had happened in the last few weeks were what had caused him to seem so... Off... Than it was definitely reasonable.
However, Madoka also knew that the silver-haired man wouldn't let his emotions and troubles get in the way of his endless work as the President of the WBBA, which would sometimes lead to sleep deprivation for him.
Wordlessly, she hoped that he would get some sleep as the night came on instead of pulling an all-nighter like she had seen him do several times before.
"Well, I'm sure he'll be okay.." The former bey-mechanic said with a defeated sigh, passing on her worry for the silverette into a different section of her brain and casting her lovely blue eyes back towards her young student, "How about we go get something to eat? I'm a little hungry right now."
The young data-collector felt her stomach applaud at the idea of food, which had not crossed the pink-haired girl's mind for quite awhile that day. Her soft pink lips pulled up at the edges into that smile that she had once given so often, nodding her head eagerly and making her pony-tail bounce in response.

"Sounds good to me, Chief!" Maru exclaimed as positively as she could manage, and it was enough for Madoka to give a smile of her own. With simple small conversation passing between the two of them, both student and teacher merged with the flow of people walking down the sidewalk again, deciding to make their way around the block and head back down to that bakery they had previously been at to ask around.
Passing by buildings and alleyways and pedestrians, the idea of some form of food being pleasing to both of the two, they never noticed the pair of eyes that watched them from the passing alleyway, illuminated in the darkness with their crimson red glow that was almost always there when shrouded by shadows.

For the very brief seconds that the two females had crossed paths with the darkened hallway between buildings, those eyes followed them until they were very soon out of his sight.
Yet he remained there a few moments longer, a simple figure draped in the shadows cast by the angle of the sun at this hour of the day that nobody were to notice with their busy rushing and occupied selves, even with the very prominent feature of his eyes; blending in with the darkness and being so very incomplete.
Then all at once, he was nothing, as though he had never been there to begin with...

While things had turned out useless for both Zyro and Kira on their first try at one of the many shrines that inhabited Kasama, they had much better luck on the second try.
Of course, the two boys spoke no more of Kira's past time in Kasama for the rest of the way to the other shrine as the sadistic blader had demanded, but Zyro let his thoughts wander back to it only a few times; though the dual-haired boy was still quite curious, he knew better than to go prodding any further into Kira's personal stuff - and from the way he had reacted earlier when he seemed about to explain something, it really wasn't a subject the one-eyed boy liked talking about. The shrine that Kira had spoken of - known as the Sansho Shrine - had indeed been only a few streets away from where they had originally been with their rather dense conversation, and from the few people that seemed to come and go from it definitely wasn't as well visited as the Kasama Inari; knowing exactly what they were going do, having gone over the routine once with the original shrine they had been at.
Going inside - which probably couldn't technically be considered 'outside' given the design of the main part of the building -, both Zyro and Kira had sought out the priest of the shrine, who wasn't very hard to find considering its small size and the few places that he had to been during the day.
They had found the man kneeling in front of the alter on his knees, his head tilted down into his hands that were pressed together in prayer and worship to whatever god they believed in.
To Zyro, who came from a very small town with a shrine that quite a few people paid their respects too, deemed it a bit rude at first glance to disturb the holy man in his prayers; even so, the desperate need for information that was their task won over upon all else.

"Uh.. Excuse me?" Zyro began politely yet reluctantly as the Bahamoote and Ifraid bladers came up beside the entranced priest, who slowly lifted his head in a calm reaction before unclasping his hands and standing upright.
His pale eyes lay their gaze upon the two boys, absently adjusting his robes a bit from kneeling in front of the alter from some period of time.
"Why, hello, children." The holy man greeted politely, granted that he cast a quick second glance towards Kira at the mere sight of his outfit (something that the priest of the Kasama Inari shrine had done as well), "Have you come to pray in the bliss of the Sansho shrine? Or have you come for some other reason." Kira's one eye met briefly with the fiery-spirited boy beside him, silently telling him to ask without words.
Breathing steadily through his nose, Zyro went ahead and asked the question that he was sure no one would have expected a mere teenager to be wondering about.
"Um... We were wondering if you knew anything about temples and shrines that were dedicated to Nemesis a long time ago." The emotionally-damaged blader explained, "Like, if any of them are still around..."
Needless to say, the priest definitely seemed surprised. His expression definitely showed it, his previously calm features flashing into surprise at the question that he had definitely not expected to hear from these two boys - maybe the questionably clothed one, but certainly not the other.

"Well, um..." The black-clothed began, his words hanging off of his lips almost as if he had a loss for them, "...I don't understand why you would want to know such a thing.. The God of Destruction has long since been rid from this world, surely... Why would you want to know anything about those?"
At this question, Zyro averted his eyes for a moment, trying to desperately to think of an excuse as quickly as possible before the priest would start to question his silence.
However, Kira seemed to know exactly what to do as he spoke up almost immediately after Zyro fell at a loss for words.
"Summer school project." The multicolor-haired blader said simply, placing on his hands squarely on his hips as he did so. Zyro cast Kira a glance, one that seemed to be gratitude - Kira didn't return it, but that was to be expected. The priest eyed him skeptically (he couldn't remember if there was indeed summer school this year for the children of Kasama), but seeing Zyro nod in agreement made him sigh softly.
There was a few moments of remaining silence from the man before his lips finally parted to speak.

"Well, if it is for your education, I suppose it can't hurt..." The pale-eyed priest said with thought, before looking at the two younger males with a straight stance, "I can't say I know that much on the history of the worshipers of Nemesis, for my faith is with the temple and our god, but I have heard the stories from my mentors. There were a lot of temples dedicated to the God of Destruction centuries ago, but most of them have long since disappeared along with his worshipers... As for there being any left, I do remember tell of their being only a few of them left across Japan as a whole, but I'm almost certain there's barely anyone alive that knows where those would be.. I think I remember someone telling me about one being in the Ibaraki or Tochigi regions of Japan, but that's about it.. My knowledge is limited, but if you wanted to know anything more on the subject, I suggest that you ask those at the Sainen-ji Temple. I know for certain they know far more about it than I do."
Both of the boys had been listening intently to what the priest had to say, and, though he wasn't able to supply them with much than what they had already known from both Maru and Madoka, he had proven to be a bit more help than the priest at the Kasama Inari Shrine, who had claimed not to know anything on the subject.
"Um, okay..." Zyro said with a small smile, "Thanks." The man of holy power only gave a simple nod to the two boys.
"Well, if there is nothing else you need..." The shrine-worshiper began, "Then I will ask that you please leave me be for now."

"Uh, yeah, thanks.." Zyro said awkwardly, simply nodding his head before turning away and heading in the direction that both he and the pastel-haired blader accompanying him had come from.
Kira, with nothing to say to the man, just turned and followed after Zyro at a brisk pace; as he did so, he couldn't ignore the feeling of the holy man casting him another disapproving glance at him before he turned back towards the alter and resumed his original stance.
"Well, that was professional." The multicolored-haired sadist said sarcastically as he came up beside Zyro once more, his single eye glancing towards the blue-eyed blader. Both of them made their way across the smoothed out area of cement, heading back towards the sidewalk and planning to make their way back to the hotel to meet up with the others - suggesting that their other companions were there already.
"Hey, I tried!" The dual-haired teenager protested, "Besides, he did give us something, didn't he?"

"Yes..." Kira responded with a sigh tracing his words, "But you were pretty blunt with it if you ask me, Zyro... Either way, he was apparently easy to get things out of, so I suppose you didn't do half bad."
The Fire Blader furrowed his eyebrows together for a moment before letting them go back to their original position. "Yeah, I guess..." The emotionally-damaged boy said in response, his blue irises looking back in front of them as the two of them came to the entrance of the sacred ground, "We should probably go back and tell everyone else about what we found out, if they're there."

"If they're not, they will be." Kira said as he reached up one of his hands and brushed a few stray strands of his multi-colored hair out of his face, "And before you ask it, yes, I know where the Sainen-ji Temple is." Blue orbs quickly cast themselves upon the fool's gold-eyed sadist in surprise, a look that was not returned from the other male as he had no reason to do so.
Kira's footsteps were a bit lighter than his going down the small flight of stairs leading up to the higher, more sacred ground, a type of distant tension seeming to be between them - very likely caused from their earlier conversation that didn't appear to have sat well with Kira.
Breathing outwards through his nose, Zyro simply nodded his head to acknowledge Kira's words.
"Okay." He said solemnly, turning and walking back down the sidewalk just beside the slightly older male.
There wasn't a lot that any of them really knew about Kira, Zyro included, and it certainly wouldn't have been expected that he would have lived here - the Ifraid Blader had never even really given Kira's place of origin that much thought before then.
Despite that, with new knowledge that he had gained from not even a half hour prior, Zyro didn't fail to notice the way Kira's shoulders seemed more tense than usual as they walked down the streets; he couldn't exactly imagine what that could be about, but Kira himself knew all too well.

The memories were starting to come back - and he didn't like it at all...

Night took longer to arrive in the summer than it did in the winter months, still shedding light upon one half of the world even into the early hours of the evening before darkness was finally able to consume the land in its dark comfort.
The amount of traffic would lessen from the darkening day, and wildlife but for that of the nocturnal trait would retreat into their homes and dens and burrows until came the morning. Most people would likely be getting ready for bed, heading home from work after a long day and wishing to sink into their comforters and sleep the night away.
All except for Takanosuke and Sakyo, who had reasoned with each other that traveling by night this time may indeed be the better option after what had happened earlier that day.
Sakyo had made Takanosuke rest for a few hours longer, being sure to keep an eye on the fever that had been grazing his skin previously - but remarkably, it had dissipated rather quickly.
The Dragoon Blader knew very well that, with heat stroke, a fever didn't just fade away within 12 hours - the cerulean-eyed boy should've been bed-ridden for a couple days a least, but he had said that he was fine.
Indeed, he did seem okay.
The blonde-haired blader had rested a couple more hours before he had woken up again at around 8:00-8:30, where Sakyo had once more checked on how his fever was doing; it may have been that it wasn't even there at all, which was something that they were both grateful for.

The Griffin Blader had had a bit of trouble walking for a moment when he had gotten up, the dizziness briefly returning and his legs almost giving out from the amount of immobility that had been requested of him for most of the day, but it quickly passed and he was left to walk on his own.
The two boys had gathered what little they had brought with them, Takanosuke retrieving his hoodie from the chair across the room, Sakyo cleaning everything up with silent accuracy and leaving the room practically identical to the way it had been when they had arrived.
The receptionist was still at the front desk of the hotel, and allowed the two of them to check out without a second thought about how late it was - after all, they did have people checking out in the dead of night on certain occasions.
The two bladers had left the hotel and made their way out onto the sidewalk, Takanosuke following closely to Sakyo since the redhead seemed to have a better sense of direction than he himself did - that, and he had no idea where they were to be going next.
As was already blatant, Ibaraki had nothing that would be able to help the two of them oyt in the slightest, so it practically useless to stay there other than if Takanosuke decided to suddenly faint again.
The young blonde seemed to be fine, however, so Sakyo didn't feel the need to worry too much on the subject.

The last rays of the sun were just peaking over the top of the mountains, giving anyone that needed the light a few sparing moments before it would go out and head off to the other side of the world where it would be waking others, the golden, orange, and pink streaks rippling cross the sky in a gorgeous symphony that wouldn't last much longer.
With cerulean orbs, Takanosuke took a few seconds to admire it as he walked alongside the blader that he followed around out of idolization and admiration.
"So, where are we going now, Sakyo?" The curly-haired boy asked, his eyes turning to cast their gaze upon the slightly older blader.
It the dual-haired blader a moment to answer, but he did after a few moments with, "Omitama. If we can, we'll try and head towards Ishioka and see if there's anything there."

"Okay." Takanosuke said enthusiastically, practically the exact opposite of how Sakyo sounded - of course, he himself was the one who had gotten the trench coat-wearing boy to come along with him. But despite practically pulling him along, the red-and-white-haired blader hadn't spoken any word of complaint on the situation; not that he was really the type to even talk that much anyway.
So in constant silence, the blonde-haired boy followed just behind the Dragoon Blader, allowing him to lead the way since he seemed to know his way around quite a bit better than he himself did. It didn't take long to leave Ibaraki, the very small outskirts of the small town passing them by as they walked through the night, the slightly cooler air caressing skin that had previously been slicked with sweat and overheated in earlier hours.
As much as it would completely mess up his sleeping schedule, Takanosuke deemed that this was definitely a better idea than travelling in the daytime, when he had been ignorant to the fact that he could indeed die from heat stroke while they were out.
"It's a lot cooler out now." The cerulean-eyed boy commented, his blonde curls bouncing softly with his walking movements, "Again... Thanks for taking care of me, Sakyo."

"Don't worry about it." The stoic blader said solemnly, that gruff and cold tone in his voice as always.
"Well, thanks, anyways." Takanosuke said for what may have been the umpteenth time, scratching the back of his neck for a moment.
It was then that he noticed how dark it had become, the lack of clouds letting the moon shine brightly down onto the earth along with its twinkling companions, the last rays of sunlight having disappeared over the mountain-tops with nothing but a thin line of greenish-yellow to remain in place before it too would soon disappear.
Both boys stuck to the side of the road, no cars able to be seen coming within their line of sight.
There was the faint sound of chirping, the hooting of an owl that made Takanosuke flinch ever so slightly, and their footsteps that sounded from behind them with the soles of their shoes making contact with the pavement - those were the only sounds that surrounded them, but for the harmonic chirping of cicadas.
Wherever the owl was, it definitely wasn't anywhere near them, as far as the Griffin Blader was able to tell - if anything, it may have been some distance away from them. If so, than it was definitely a loud bird.
But every time he heard it, he couldn't help the small flinch that he reacted with. He had seen an owl somewhere before... In whatever he had seen earlier that day, when he had looked at Sakyo and seen (experienced, felt) all those things that he was now having a hard time making out; but he remembered the owl.
The blonde boy tried not to think too much on the subject. However, no matter how hard he tried, the thought would come back to him; it made him uneasy. For a moment, he lifted his hand up to his nose before pulling it away and looking at it - there was nothing, unlike what he had felt earlier that day from the small metallic taste that had wandered into his mouth. Shaking his head, deciding that there was nothing to relatively worry about, the boy simply followed his closest friend.

Away from their line of sight, a raven with dead and blank eyes observed them, flapping its wings to keep itself airborne as it registered all that it needed to.
As dark as the night itself, blocking out the stars for no more than a second in small sections with its dark presence, the raven let out a throaty squawk before disappearing elsewhere into the night.