Me: Okay, time for a big apology. I'm really really really really really sorry this took so long! I had the chapter drafted out but then I realised it didn't work and changed it, but it took forever to do so!
Hikaru: Excuses excuses.
Me: Whatever Hikaru.
Tsubasa: The name Hanako comes up later. For those who don't know it means Flower Child.
Me: Stop giving away spoilers! Let's hurry and start this story, so someone do the disclaimer!
Hyoma: Sharkey52 doesn't own Metal Fight Beyblade, but does own her OCs Shouta and Pavo.
Me: Alright, let's get this long-awaited chapter underway!
The Light and Darkness Chronicles
Chapter Fourteen - Visitors
Hyoma closed the door and looked at his two uninvited guests. Hikaru had knelt down to stroke Hokuto whilst Tsubasa was looking around the cabin.
"This place is really nice Hyoma" Hikaru smiled, giving a pleased Hokuto a belly-scratch "I can see why you like it here so much."
"Yeah" Tsubasa gave Aries a long glance before looking at the ram's owner "It's better than my place in the city. Of course, maybe that has something to do with the two other people I mistakenly let stay there." He grimaced at the thought and Hyoma made a mental reminder to ask Tsubasa about it later.
"Sorry for arriving so late" Hikaru apologised "We didn't wake you up or anything." Hyoma shook his head.
"No, I was still awake" he replied "Do you want anything? There'll probably be something in the fridge."
"Never mind that now" Tsubasa turned to face Hyoma "Hyoma, what has been going on? 'Cause you may act cheerful, but you look exhausted."
"He's been worse" Hokuto put in "You should've seen him a few days ago." Hyoma silence the dog with a glare and Hokuto went back to enjoying all the attention Hikaru was giving him.
"I gathered as much" Tsubasa nodded. Hyoma sighed, be wasn't going to get them off his back now.
"Sit down" he sighed. He took one end of the sofa, Tsubasa took the other. Hikaru remained on the rug with Hokuto.
"How much has Ginga told you?" Hyoma asked.
"Nothing to me" Hikaru answered "He spoke to Tsubasa." All eyes focused on the silver-haired blader. Eagle flew over to the armrest next to his friend and Tsubasa mindlessly stroked his brown and white feathers.
"Ginga said you were having nightmares" Tsubasa answered "Four I think?"
"Five" Hyoma explained "But the fifth one wasn't really a nightmare."
"Five then" Tsubasa nodded "And he said something to do with the dark power." Hikaru shuddered.
"Maybe" Hyoma sighed "In two of those dreams…" He trailed off. It seemed ridiculous that Tsubasa, Hikaru and Aries would attack him now.
"We were in it" Tsubasa finished, startling Hyoma "I can tell by the look on your face. Let me guess, you hated us right?"
"No, not exactly" Hyoma shook his head "I was being attacked by three beys: Earth Aquila, Storm Aquario and Rock Aries." Silence.
"Okay…" Tsubasa said finally, quite slowly "So, what else?" Hyoma yawned.
"Sorry. You guys don't mind if we talk about this in the morning do you?" he asked "I haven't been getting much sleep lately." Tsubasa rubbed his left eye; he appeared to be quite tired as well.
"Well, we did have to get up early in the morning to catch a train that just crashed and had to walk the remaining distance" Hikaru pointed out.
"I don't suppose you guys have a place to stay, do you?" Hyoma asked, then saw the look on their faces and didn't need to know any more "Never mind that. You can stay here. Tsubasa, you can take the sofa. Hikaru, I think there's mattress under the bed." The boys pulled the mattress out from under the bed whilst Hikaru found some blankets and pillows in the store cupboard. Hikaru went to bed straight away, but the boys were kept up for a little while as Tsubasa went into an angry rant about Yu being the one to pack his bag and forgetting to put in any pyjamas. So Hyoma lent him some.
"What so funny?" Tsubasa demanded, folding his arms. Hyoma was finding it hard to keep a straight face seeing Tsubasa in red pyjamas that were slightly too short for him.
"Sorry, it's just red's not exactly your colour" Hyoma told him, staring at a spot on the wall behind Tsubasa to try and stop him laughing "But I don't really have much else. Well…unless you like pink sheep."
"Pink sheep?" Tsubasa's eyes widened "Now I've got to hear the story behind that one."
"Ah, well, not so much as a story" Hyoma shrugged "Just a joke Ginga and some old friends pulled. I'd gotten Aries for my previous birthday and they thought it would be funny to get me pyjamas with pink sheep on them."
"I think I'll stick to red!" Tsubasa laughed "Although I wouldn't mind seeing you wear them!"
"Not a chance!" Hyoma laughed, then shutting the bathroom door after him as he went inside. Tsubasa lay down on the sofa that was just big enough for him to do so, resting his head on a pillow and draping the blanket over him.
"We're really glad you came Tsubasa." Tsubasa sat up and saw Hokuto and Aries had jumped up onto the armrest at the other end of the sofa.
"There was no way I wouldn't have come. I don't want Hyoma to be in trouble" he told them
"We're counting on you, all right?" Hokuto said "You're the only one we know who can help him, we don't know what to do anymore."
"Is it really that bad?" Tsubasa asked worriedly "I mean, Ginga told me that it was bad, but the way you say it..."
"He hasn't slept for nearly two weeks. Only today did he finally sleep peacefully again. You came here on a good day."
"What?" Tsubasa's jaw dropped "Why didn't someone tell me this sooner?" Hokuto bowed his head.
"Hyoma may not be a ram, but he has the stubbornness of one" he said. Tsubasa sighed and lay back.
"We'll discuss this in the morning, okay" he said "Goodnight." Aries bleated and faded to go back to his bey. Hokuto leapt off the armrest and trotted over to his blanket in the kitchenette. There came a fluttering of wings and Tsubasa knew Eagle had settled on the armrest beside his head. He gave those brown and white feathers one last stroke before rolling onto his side and letting sleep take him.
A few hours later, Tsubasa woke up again. He spent half an hour tossing and turning on the sofa, but after failing to fall asleep again, he threw off the covers and went to find something to eat; food always helped Yu sleep anyway. He startled slightly as he realised Hikaru had beaten him to it. She had just pulled an apple out of the fruit bowl and sat down at the small table, flicking a lamp on for some light.
"You can't sleep either huh?" Tsubasa asked. Hikaru shook her head.
"I've been up for over an hour thinking" she said; she stared at the apple, not taking a bite "You don't think it's impolite, do you?" She held up the apple.
"You can pay him back" Tsubasa said, taking an apple for himself out of the fruit bowl "Besides, he offered us something earlier, didn't he?" Hikaru nodded and took a bite. Tsubasa did as well but it did little to settle his nerves.
"You think it was a good idea to turn up here out of the blue?" Hikaru asked.
"I don't know what's troubling Hyoma, but I already know it can't be good" Tsubasa answered "Hyoma's spent too much time on his own to ask for help. But he needs our help and we're going to give him it." Hikaru nodded, putting on a small smile.
"You're Tsubasa and Hikaru, right?" Both turned and saw a yellow peacock, probably a bey spirit, walk up to the table followed by Hokuto and Aries.
"That's us" Tsubasa nodded "Who are you?"
"My name is Light Pavo" the peacock informed him "I'm Shouta's bey spirit and a friend of Hyoma's." She gave what was probably a happy sigh "We're really glad you're here. We were getting desperate." Aries bleated.
"He wants to know if you will help Hyoma" Hokuto translated.
"Of course we will" Hikaru nodded "Even if we can't help when can at least try."
"Thank you so much!" Pavo squeaked with joy, followed by nodding from Hokuto and Aries.
"It's no problem. Not at all" Tsubasa smiled "Will you tell me what happened?"
"All this started nearly a month ago" Hokuto explained "Hyoma just started having these two nightmares, very similar to each other. I mean, he gets nightmares more than most people, but after a week we knew something wasn't right. Then he started having two others that were distinctly different, and now a fifth one that doesn't even appear to be a nightmare."
"That's all we know" Pavo finished. Aries bleated.
"Hyoma told us not to worry" Hokuto translated "But everyone, even Shouta, has enough sense to realise something is wrong." He sighed "Now he's been having weird realisations that just don't add up."
"He even wanted to try and contact someone called Ryuga about it" Pavo said. Tsubasa and Hikaru looked alarmed.
"What kind of realisation…" Tsubasa began. But he broke off as screaming filled the cabin.
"Hyoma!"
"Maaa!"
The bey spirits and Hokuto charged out of the kitchenette around the corner. Hikaru threw her chair back with such force it clattered against the floor and dashed off after them followed by Tsubasa. Both almost tripped over Hikaru's mattress on the floor in the dark as they stumbled over to the side of the bed. Hyoma was thrashing around, trying to curl up as much as possible and clutching his stomach.
"Hyoma!" Tsubasa tried to shake the slightly younger boy awake, but almost earned a black eye for it. Tsubasa seized Hyoma's shoulders in an attempt to keep him still. But Hyoma was stronger physically and Tsubasa had trouble holding him still.
"Hyoma! Come on! Wake up!" Tsubasa cried, kneeling on the edge of the bed to get higher ground. Hikaru also helped out and, although the only female of the three had very little strength compared to either of the boys, the two of them successfully managed to pin Hyoma down.
"Wake up Hyoma!" Hikaru cried. Finally some of it seemed to get through to the struggling boy, for his movements stilled and he hazily opened his eyes, focusing on Tsubasa
"Griffin?"
Tsubasa released him and took a step back in surprised.
"Hyoma…What?" he asked in surprise. He looked at Hikaru but she looked as confused as he did. Tsubasa then looked over at Hokuto and the bey spirits who had leapt onto the edge of the bed, but they looked stumped too.
"It happened again, didn't it...?" Hyoma asked weakly. He sat up, still clenching his middle like he had a bad stomach ache or something.
"Hyoma, which one was it?" Hokuto asked.
"Second one…I think" Hyoma answered.
"You think?" Hokuto asked some-what impatiently at the same time Tsubasa asked incredulously:
"You numbered them?"
"The first one and second one are so similar" Hyoma explained "That voice was speaking again, but…" He looked at Hikaru and Tsubasa "You were both there, or someone controlling your beys." He then looked at Aries "You too." The ram spirit bleated and hung his head, as if ashamed Hyoma's nightmare would include him in it.
"You said 'Griffin' when you woke up" Tsubasa said.
"I did?" Hyoma asked.
"You don't remember?" Hikaru asked.
"No" Hyoma shook his head. The two visitors sat on the bed along with him.
"Okay, Hyoma, tell us everything you know" Tsubasa half-commanded.
"Tsubasa, it's four o'clock in the morning" Hyoma protested.
"And we're all awake anyway" Tsubasa persisted "So you might as well tell us now." Hyoma sighed, slowly removing his hands from his stomach.
"I barely know anything" he confessed "At first I didn't know what to believe. Then I thought it was L-Drago, because you had nightmares whilst under its influence. So I asked Ginga to ask you whether they were anything like mine."
"A good idea" Tsubasa nodded "But I said no."
"After that we had no idea what to do about it" Hyoma went on "I thought they would pass over but…apparently not."
"Pavo said you wanted to contact Ryuga about it" Hikaru said.
"That was when we thought it was the dark power" Hyoma explained "But since we didn't know how to contact Ryuga we asked you instead, Tsubasa. You were the only other person we could think of. So we asked Ginga to ask you and then you know the rest." Aries trotted over to Hyoma and nudged his palm with his head. The ram spirit then sat down next to Hyoma and allow him to pet him in a dog-like manner.
"The dreams?" Hikaru asked after about a minute's silence.
"The first two are almost the same, but in the second one there's a voice telling me to fight. I'm attacked by Aries, Aquario and Aquila and then sealed in ice…" He trailed off and then looked at everyone as if to check everyone was listening. Tsubasa nodded for him to go on.
"The third one there's still pain but I can't see anything, and there's someone I want to protect, but I don't know why. In the fourth one there's still pain, but instead I only feel hate."
"Hate towards who?" Hikaru asked.
"I don't know" Hyoma shook his head "And then there's a fifth one, but it's isn't really a nightmare. I'm looking at a village which isn't Koma. No pain, but that desire to protect it there again." He looked almost expectantly at Tsubasa and Hikaru, but the two just stared at each other in confusion.
"Hyoma, what's this village like?" Tsubasa asked.
"Well, it's surrounded by hills. There's white houses, lots of them" Hyoma squeezed his eyes shut with concentration "On the west side is a deep forest, on the north side a lake, on the east side a flower garden and on the south side there's…"
"A mountain?" Tsubasa asked "And has a river running through it that some of the houses back onto. And a square with a fountain and many flowerboxes?" Hyoma blinked.
"You know it?" he asked.
"I'd better" Tsubasa said "I grew up there."
"What?" Hyoma didn't know if he or Hikaru said that first.
"I grew up there" Tsubasa repeated "It's called Hanako Village. It's quite a way north of here, close to the west coast. I spent most of my childhood there." He cocked his head "But how did you see it?" There came a long silence.
"Why did this have to happen to me?" Hyoma groaned "If this was happening to Ginga, he would know what to do right away. Why me, his little tag-along?" Hikaru looped an arm around his shoulders.
"Hyoma, we may not know what's happening, or why, but Great Pegasus we're going to try" she said "You can tell us anything, you know."
'I wish I could Hikaru' he thought 'But for the sake of both of you, sometimes secrets must be kept for the better good.'