Well, it didn't take me long to finish this chapter, so have a double update!
About an hour later, the two reached Koma Village. Gingka shifted back to human as soon as Madoka had climbed off, the brunette greeting Ryo and explaining things. She jumped in surprise as a blue-scaled tail wrapped around her waist, then glared at Gingka, who only laughed before swatting at his mom again for pecking his ear.
Madoka watched, fascinated every time one of the two shifted, which they both did quite frequently, Gingka using his powers to light several small fires for Hyoma while his mother Setsuna fanned them with her large wings while in human form. Madoka found the purebred to be quite friendly, completely different from the darklings she had met so far or Gingka himself.
Setsuna however, had the mind of a shifter, and was constantly getting distracted, making it very difficult to have a conversation with her. Several different animals that Madoka would otherwise never have noticed nearby were pointed out to the brunette by the feather-winged woman, as her senses were much sharper than a human's.
"Where did Gingka go anyway?" Ryo asked a few minutes later when dinner was done. The redhead sat on a rock across from the two chattering women, although Setsuna seemed to be having a more interesting conversation with a bird than with Madoka.
"You just sat on him, Ryo." Setsuna laughed as the rock under Ryo turned into a thorn bush.
"Dad! You interrupted my nap!" Gingka laughed, appearing on the ground.
"I thought you could only use a different shift a week after the last one went away!" Ryo exclaimed, pulling thorns out of his legs.
"Only a different animal shift, inanimate objects can be done anytime." Gingka replied, standing up. "You said dinner was ready?"
"Yeah, over there. Get it yourself." Ryo grumbled, handing Setsuna and Madoka a plate before going off to get his own.
Gingka chuckled and walked off after his father.
"Oh dear, he seems to have gotten his father's mischievous streak." Setsuna said.
"Yeah, looks like it." Madoka replied.
"Would you two quit arguing? Can't a shifter eat in peace?" Setsuna yelled suddenly at a pair of birds that were chattering away behind them. Both birds gave one final chirp and flew off.
"Is it annoying to be able to understand what they're saying?" Madoka asked.
"Sometimes, ooh look, a fox!"
"Where?" Madoka looked around.
"Right there! About a half-mile off through the trees!"
"I… can't see that far…"
"Right, sorry, I forgot."
Gingka came and sat down next to Setsuna, letting out a low growl. His mother replied with a few chirps, and the two began what seemed to be a conversation, judging by the fact that they were alternating their noises. Madoka looked at Ryo and saw that he seemed rather annoyed by this.
"Would you two please speak something we can understand?" he asked.
Gingka and Setsuna looked at him, confused, then burst out laughing. "Sorry dad, it's getting natural now." Gingka chuckled.
Later that evening, Gingka and Madoka were lying on the side of a hill, stargazing. Gingka shot out a puff of flame into the air every once in a while, enjoying making Madoka jump.
"Okay Gingka, I understand once, but would you please stop that?" Madoka asked.
Gingka made no reply.
"Gingka?" Madoka glanced over, and only saw a rock where Gingka had been. The brunette sighed and knocked on it, but got no response. "Goodnight Gingka." she chuckled.
Early the next morning, Madoka woke up to a low growl. She sat up quickly, looking around, and sighed when she saw Gingka chasing a few rabbits in his dragon form, although he was quite a bit smaller than before.
"Morning Gingka!" Madoka called.
The blue dragon slithered over though the air and wrapped himself around Madoka's waist, the brunette quickly noting that he was now only about three feet long rather than the ten-foot length she had ridden the day before.
"Sleep well?" Madoka asked as Gingka landed and shifted back to human.
"I slept like a rock!" Gingka exclaimed, grinning.
Madoka rolled her eyes. "Well, you were a rock."
"Exactly." Gingka chuckled.
"Morning!" Setsuna suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"Morning, mom the former blade of grass that I almost stepped on." Gingka said sarcastically.
"Well, thanks for avoiding me." Setsuna replied.
"Did you guys all sleep outside?" Ryo asked, coming out of the house into the backyard where they had all been.
"Yup, and Gingka slept like a rock, I slept like a blade of grass and almost got trampled." Setsuna replied cheerfully.
"Good for you two." Ryo yawned. "What about you Madoka?"
"I slept like a normal human…" Madoka replied, laughing.
Madoka and Gingka stayed in Koma Village for nearly a week, until the last traces of Gingka's dragon form had faded completely away.
"Want to go back to Metal Bey City?" Gingka asked suddenly one morning.
"Sure, I guess. I need to get back to the B-Pit for one thing." Madoka replied. "What are you going to do?"
Gingka shrugged. "Well, it seems that I only really have two options: one, stay here and be lonely for the rest of my life, or two, go back with you and tell everyone the truth."
"You make it sound like being safe and not letting anyone know about your powers is a bad thing." Madoka laughed.
Gingka grinned. "Well, I think I'm going for option two, people might as well know."
Madoka sighed. "Then there's no stopping you I guess. But, you are kinda scary as a half-dragon you know."
"Yeah, that's why I won't show up as a dragon at first. Plus, dragons are probably harder to ride anyway."
"What will you do then?" Madoka asked.
Gingka grinned as he began glowing white, which, as Madoka now knew, was the alert that he was about to shift forms again. "What do you think? You asked me if I could do it the first day you found out, remember?"
Madoka smiled as Gingka shifted into a Pegasus. "You look great." she complimented the blue winged horse with a spiked, flaming red mane and tail that had taken the place of her friend for the moment.
Gingka let out a quiet whinny at this and tossed his head, unfolding his blue-feathered wings and stretching them before nuzzling Madoka to get on his back.
"I'm going, I'm going!" Madoka laughed, carefully mounting him.
Gingka let out a shrill whinny and reared before taking a few galloping steps forward and leaping into the air. He whinnied at Setsuna, who waved. Madoka intertwined the flowing red mane with her fingers to get a good grip as they set off for Metal Bey City, arriving there early the next morning.
As soon as they landed, Gingka shifted back to human, but the usual traces were still there, large blue feathered wings folding neatly behind his back as he pulled a cloak out of his backpack and put it on to hide them.
"Does this look suspicious?" He asked.
"Well, a little, but it just looks like a backpack underneath if you don't know what it actually is." Madoka replied.
"Good." Gingka said, tucking the horse ears on top of his head underneath his headband. "Then we're off!"
"To where?" Madoka asked.
"Well, we could go to the B-Pit, or we could go to Bey Park."
"Bey Park would cause quite a stir." Madoka commented.
"Well, around this time of year there aren't many bladers in Metal Bey City because it's later in the year and most of them are in schools around the country."
"True, it really has been mostly just Zero and his friends there lately, if I'm not fixing their beys then they are there, otherwise they are off training with Benkei or eating at Bull Burger."
"Well then, Bey Park is perfect."
"And where are you going, Hagane?" A familiar voice asked.
Gingka smirked. "Just to see how the younger bladers are doing. Long time no see, Kyoya." He turned and looked up at the building behind him, where his rival was standing just on top of a sign.
"Where did you suddenly run off to? I was about to come challenge you when I heard on the news that you had disappeared without a trace."
"Long story, I'll explain later when we have time." Gingka turned and continued down the street.
A large explosion at Bey Park soon caught his attention, and the redhead ran into an alleyway, out of sight of Kyoya and Madoka, who were following close behind.
As the two rounded the corner however, they found only Gingka's cloak, which he had apparently left behind.
"Great, he just flew off." Madoka muttered, picking up the brown fabric.
"How did he disappear so fast?" Kyoya asked, looking around.
"Have you ever heard of a shape shifter?" Madoka asked, leading the way towards Bey Park.
"What do shape shifters have to do with anything? They're mythological creatures, right?"
Madoka shook her head. "Wrong, they're real enough, and Gingka is a half-breed shifter, apparently. He was wearing that cloak to hide the feathered wings that he happens to have left over from his most recent shift."
"You're kidding!" Kyoya exclaimed.
"No, i am actually completely serious." Madoka replied. "It's actually, as i only found out a week ago, the reason he left in the first place."
"Well, i'll have to see it to believe it." Kyoya muttered.
-Meanwhile, at Bey Park-
"Come on, Ifraid! You can do it!"
"Smash it apart, Wolf!"
"Saramanda!"
Zero and his friends were frantically trying to stop a maniacal cloaked blader who had been beating up the weaker bladers when they arrived. However, despite their most valiant efforts, they were losing, and badly. When Gingka finally arrived, landing quietly at the top of the stands and folding his wings, Ren, Kaito, and Eito had already been knocked out, and Zero and Shinobu were just trying to keep their beys from being shattered.
"Keep going Wolf! Darkness Howling Blazer!"
"Ahh!" Zero and Shinobu yelled as they were nearly blown back.
"Pegasus!" Gingka stood from his hiding place and launched. "Doji! This is unacceptable! I won't tolerate it!" He yelled, blocking Wolf's attack.
"So it's you, you are just as annoying as last time!" Doji replied, removing his hood. "Wolf, get him!"
"Kyahh!" A blast of dark energy flew at the redhead.
"Gingka-san!" Zero and the others were worried, especially when the dark energy cleared to reveal a hole blasted through the wall of Bey Park.
"Ha! He sure was a fool to take me on!" Doji began laughing evilly, but was interrupted.
"You really think i can be defeated that easily?"
Doji looked up and was stunned. "Wha- how?"
Zero and the others turned in surprise. Gingka was hovering in midair, his wings spread fully behind him.
"Yeah, i'm half shape shifter, so what?" Gingka said as he landed on the platform above the Zero-G stadium. "Now, shall we finish this?"
"Told you." Madoka whispered to a stunned Kyoya as the two entered Bey Park.
Gingka finished the battle in the next few minutes, then leapt down from the platform to land in front of the stunned group behind him.
"Gingka-san?" Zero was almost afraid of the older blader.
Gingka smiled. "Well, i'm still the same guy, just with wings. Although i don't always have wings."
"Apparently he was the dragon we met." Madoka spoke up.
"Yeah, sorry for scaring you guys." Gingka paused for a second, then whirled, throwing a small bolt of energy at something that had suddenly emerged from behind him. The creature disappeared into a puff of black smoke.
"What was that?" Ren asked.
"Another annoying darkling, hopefully the last we will see." Gingka replied. "So Kyoya, what do you think-is that Kenta?" Gingka pointed.
"Where?" Everyone turned to look, but saw nothing.
"Gingka, you know we- where did he go?" Madoka exclaimed, turning back around to find that the shifter had disappeared.
"He left us here again?" Kyoya grumbled.
"No, he didn't." Madoka laughed.
"Then where is he?"
Madoka pointed to where the redhead had been standing. "I don't think medium-sized lumps of granite tend to appear out of nowhere in the middle of Bey Park." She laughed.
"Madoka! You were supposed to let them figure it out!" Gingka exclaimed, appearing again.
"How do you do that?" Kyoya asked.
Gingka shrugged. "I just can. If i have touched an object, i can turn into it."
"And the wings?"
"Leftover traces of the Pegasus i shifted into to get here."
"You can do a Pegasus? Cool!" Zero seemed fascinated.
Gingka laughed. "Any animal i have touched, or any bey i have battled, i can do. So, i could do Ifraid, but not right now, since i have to not shift for a week before i can do a different one."
"Cool!" Zero said.
Gingka grinned. "Step back and i'll show you how it's done." He began to glow white.
"Give him space guys." Madoka said, pulling everyone back.
A few moments later, Gingka soared into the sky and spread his wings, letting out a loud whinny.
"Awesome!" All of the younger bladers shouted.
Gingka landed and shifted back to human form, grinning.
"So, what's with the darklings? And why didn't you tell us about this before?" Kyoya asked.
"That's a long story." Gingka replied.
"Well, we have time." Madoka said, sitting down on one of the rows of benches around the stadium. Kyoya and the other bladers soon joined the brunette.
Gingka sighed and folded his wings, sitting down on the rail around the stadium.
"Alright then, this is the story as far as I know." he said.
Yes, I did just end it on a cliffhanger. I will be working on finishing this story now though, so hopefully there will be an update within the next couple of weeks. In the next chapter, Gingka will explain pretty much everything, although it will be mainly flashback.