Truth's Disgrace - Chapter 26

Chapter 26 - All This Time


By the time noon had arrived, the group had already asked around the majority of the downtown area of Iwase, having split up into their small groups to cover more ground, but not separating too far from each other, considering how small the town actually was.
Almost needless to say, none of them were finding too much, and nobody that they had asked so far about anything concerning what they were looking for (which they narrowed down to rumors and history for the benefit of seeming less suspicious) seemed to know anything. All they had gotten was shrugs and shaken heads, along with a few stories that weren't related to anything they were looking for, but were interesting nonetheless.
Kite, Madoka, and Ren had even gone to the small library that was in town to see if they could find anything, but it proved to be just as unhelpful as anything else was. They had used Maru's map a few times to be sure of their options and planned out where each group of two or three would go accordingly to make sure that they all covered as much ground as they could, but that still didn't seem to make too much of a difference. Nobody seemed to know anything, which was leaving the trail that they had originally had cold.
By the time noon had arrived, they had all decided to take a break for awhile before they went and asked around some more through the rest of the town and downtown area.
Despite nothing that could help them turning up so far, they knew that there had to be something to give them a clue on where to go next.
Of course, Kira had almost suggested that perhaps there wasn't something, given the fact that you couldn't just find everything you needed just because you wanted to. Madoka had slightly agreed in a solemn tone, and stated that they would probably head either more to the west or down to Sakuragawa depending whether or not they were able to find anything.

"Well, one thing's for sure..." Ren sighed lightly as she leaned back a little in the bench she was sitting in that was pressed up against the outside of a building, letting the flat of her head fall lightly against the hard stone, "...Everyone around here sure knows each other.."

"People usually do in a place like this." Zyro said almost absently with a small shrug. Kira, who was leaning against the building beside the bench with his arms crossed, looked over slightly with his one eye.

"If so, than that probably means nobody knows anything." The Bahamoote Blader stated with a roll of the wrist, "Because if everyone knows everyone, then chances are, what one person knows, almost everyone knows. It could be pointless for all you know."
Maru raised an eyebrow and gave a slightly pleading look to Kira with her eyes, a slanted smile on her face. "Kira, don't be glass half empty." She said, continuing to look at him for a moment before going back to looking through a few notes she had written down while they had been asking around.
The multicolored-haired blader raised his only eyebrow at her for a moment before looking away and not saying another word. Madoka looked at the two of them for a moment before sighing through her nose slightly.
"Even if no one knows anything, we might as well try.." She said with a slightly weary tone, "There could be something in places around here too, so we shouldn't leave that out."

"Kira's kind of right though..." Zyro said almost reluctantly, "Where I come from is maybe about the same size as this place, and when something happened, almost everyone knew about it by the end of the day. So, I guess, if were assuming it's the same way here..."

"Well, then we'll just have to look somewhere else." Kite said reasonably as he handed a small water bottle to Eight from his backpack, "The Ibaraki region is a big place, its practically undoubtable that people would know something having to do with Nemesis and the history that revolves around him."
Kira glanced at him almost lazily with his one eye. "He could also not be in the Ibaraki region." The multicolored-haired blader suggested, "He's practically got all of Japan at his disposal. He might not even be in Japan for all you know."

"Kira, can you please stop with the negativity?" Ren asked flatly, which simply earned a shrug of the shoulders from the other boy - he did however, remain silent. "Besides..." Ren continued, moving to sit up with a more straight posture, "There's nothing saying that he isn't in Japan. Really, everything we found suggests that he could be, so what says that he isn't?"
At this statement, Zyro and Shinobu glanced at each other slightly, before Zyro's blue eyes looked up around the tops of the buildings around them, and even looked up to the power lines - however, from what he could see, there wasn't any sort of animal watching them, bird or no.
Maru shrugged her shoulders in response to Ren's statement, a small smile on her face with slightly raised eyebrows. "That's true, but that still leaves the question of where he is." The small girl stated, "Japan, maybe, but it doesn't really help in pointing where he could be specifically, so we still have to figure that out, and..." Maru quickly trailed off from her sentence once she noticed the small blinking red light in the corner of her eye, which made her almost immediately turn her lavender-eyed gaze back to the bracelet on her wrist, which she had settled in her lap after going through the notes that she had written on it.
"Hey, I think Tsubasa's calling." The pinkette announced as she brought her slightly sore arm back up in front of her and pressed the button that brought the screen up.

She got everyone's attention at that statement, and most of them almost immediately looked up or stood straight, while Madoka made her way over beside her apprentice to see what it was about. Once more did the holographic screen protruding from her bracelet pop up on the 'desktop', showing a red, blinking circle in the corner of the screen.
Maru tapped her finger just above it, and opened a screen that she and Madoka has seen several times since they had started out on this whole ordeal, and were greeted with a familiar face.
"Hey guys." Tsubasa greeted with a smile, and Madoka was more than glad to see that he no longer looked as fatigued and weary as he originally had - hopefully that was good sign.
"Hi, Tsubasa." The brunette greeted in return, seeing several of the others moving in to try and hear the conversation better out of the corner of her eye, "Good to see you again. I hope your calling to tell us some good news."
Tsubasa smiled at her, his gold eyes shining brightly in representation of his mood. "Actually, I've got some pretty good news." He said almost half-cheerfully, "I managed to get something that could hopefully lead you guys to where Alcorin is, as probable as it might be."
At this statement, almost everyone's eyes widened, and Eight almost seemed to drop the bottle of water he was holding.
"Wait, what?" Ren said in an almost dumbfounded tone, eyebrows raised above their original standpoints.
"Wait, so you actually found his location?" Madoka asked incredulously, "How?"

"Well, its definitely not a 100% for sure, but judging from other things, it's the best shot we have." Tsubasa explained, shrugging his shoulders lightly, "Luckily, I managed to get some help from Kyoya over in Africa."

"Kyoya?!" Benkei exclaimed at the sound of his old friend's name, his eyes lighting up immediately, "You talked to Kyoya?!"

"Manager, calm down..." Shinobu, Zyro, Maru, and Kite said in unison with sweat-drops on their foreheads. Madoka smiled slightly at Benkei's sudden enthusiasm before turning her turquoise eyes back to Tsubasa.
"How did you get Kyoya to help you in the first place?" The brunette asked curiously, "We haven't talked to him in years, I thought we weren't in association with him anymore."

"Well, let's just say he called me about his own suspicions about what's been going on." Tsubasa answered with a small sigh, "We managed to sort things out though, and he said that was willing up us with this. And fortunately, he had a lot more luck than we did over here."
Madoka furrowed her eyebrows slightly at a small tone in Tsubasa's voice at the mentioning of Kyoya sending some them something, noting that it was partially like the last time he had called them - he had seemed shaky, almost absent, and almost the same could be said about now.
Deciding that it probably wasn't the best time to bring it up, Madoka pushed it to the back of her mind to save for a later conversation, when they would hopefully be back in Metal Bey City.
"What did he find?" The shop owner asked, and Tsubasa's eyes trailed off the screen to something beside him.
"He actually got to digging up some more things about those temples, I guess." The silverette began, "Turns out there's one pretty near you in the Ibaraki region; he sent the coordinates for it to me earlier today. I'm sending them to you now."
After a few moments of the Director seeming to type on something off screen, a small icon of an envelope appeared in the bottom left had corner of the screen that read New Message in bold, white letters, Tsubasa's name written directly under it.

"Okay, I think I got it." Maru said, tapping just above the icon that had appeared and allowing a message window to show up with just a simple dash in the section where you were supposed to write something, a link that was connected to it automatically opening up along with it and showing a realistic map that you would likely find on one of the settings of Google Earth.
Maru raised her eyebrows at it upon further inspection, seeing what the blinking arrow on the map was pointing to. "Mount Tsukuba?" The pinkette questioned in almost astonishment, "That's basically just south of where we are." Tsubasa smiled at the small girl at that statement.
"Well, then I guess it's a good thing that I caught you all when I did." He said thoughtfully. "Thanks Tsubasa." Madoka said gratefully to the silverette, "You've been a big help."

"No problem." The Director replied, "Be careful when you go after him, alright? I'll be seeing you soon, hopefully."

"Same here." The brunette replied warmly, before the screen that Tsubasa was on closed as he ended their connection to one another.
Even though he was gone, Maru kept the screen of her bracelet up, all of them still looking towards the small piece of map that Tsubasa had sent to them.
"Wait, are you telling me he's in a mountain?" Ren asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow as she stared at the screen.
"You're surprised, after what we've heard about those temples that guy's father had?" Kite asked, the sun reflecting off of his glasses by the angle he was standing at.
"I'm more concerned over the fact that we actually have something pointing to us to almost exactly where he is..." Shinobu said quite solemnly, "And the fact that the Director actually managed to find something that specific."

"With Kyoya's help!" Benkei added in, his behavior more than excited at hearing that Kyoya Tategami, one of the Legendary Bladers and the Manager's best friend, had taken part in helping them find Alcorin.
Now that Madoka thought about it, that was just like Kyoya to go searching for answers on his own and being stubborn enough not to stay out of it when he was told too. They hadn't talked to him in years, and now knowing that Tsubasa had finally gotten back in contact with him - granted being with a situation that no one in their right mind would think to find themselves in - made her feel just a little better, even if not by too much. Perhaps she herself would have to speak with him too once they all ended this and got back to Metal Bey City - back to their normal lives (you can't be normal, what are you talking about?).
And speaking of ending all of it, now seemed about time too.
"Well, it's good enough to go on." The brunette said as she sat up straight from leaning over slightly to see the screen, "I think we should probably make course for there as soon as possible."

"How far away is it?" Eight asked, passing the bottle of water he had back to his older brother and looking towards Maru.
"Not that far, really." The pinkette responded, "Sakuragawa isn't even half a day's walk from here, and then Mount Tsukuba is almost like a suburb to it. We could get there in maybe a day or two."

"Well isn't that convenient..." Kira stated dully, rolling his eye slightly.
"What's your deal?" Ren questioned with a raised eyebrow. Expecting one of his usual sass-filled comebacks, the blonde was slightly surprised when the Bahamoote Blader simply shrugged and waved it off with a roll of his wrist.
Despite the unusual context of Kira not giving them his direct thoughts, nobody said anything about it, and simply let him be.
Zyro, however, bit the inside of his lip before looking away from the multicolored-haired blader, perhaps having the same sense that something was indeed a bit off.
While it was good news that another one of the Legendary Blader bladers - Kyoya Tategami, no less - was willing to help them out, it was a bit strange that Tsubasa and him had indeed been able to get something as direct as that without the psychopath intervening.
After what had apparently happened with Dynamis at the Mist Mountain Shrine, and after what he had done to Gingka, it was clear that Alcorin didn't fear the Legendary Bladers, and that he was more than okay with taking their lives to get them out of the way of the things he wanted.
So it was either that he maybe had gone after Kyoya Tategami, or he hadn't - either way didn't bring any peace to his mind... If he didn't, than that had to mean something right? He didn't just do something for no reason, as far as any of them had seen, so if he didn't go after Kyoya as he had gone after and killed Dynamis and Gingka, than that meant he wanted something, didn't it?

"Zyro? Hey, Zyro!" A voice right next to him snapped the ginger-ravenette out of his thoughts and back to reality, where he saw everyone else looking at him with concern while Ren stood almost face to face with him.
"Uuhhh.." The Ifraid Blader uttered, dumbfound for moment before Madoka spoke up beside him.
"You okay, Zyro?" The shop owner asked, "You started spacing out for a minute."

"Oh, uh, yeah.." The blue-eyed boy said dismissively, "I'm okay." Most of them continued to look at him with concerned faces before supposedly choosing to believe that he was telling truth and looked away from him, all of them going back to the conversation originally at hand.
"Alright then, let's go." Madoka said, adjusting one of the straps of the backpack on her shoulders before standing, followed suite by Maru - who had already put the holographic screen back into her bracelet -, and Zyro; Kira also somewhat followed in that action, though he simply uncrossed his arms and legs and pushed himself away from leaning against the wall.
Figuring out which they were supposed to go, which was, of course, South, and being sure to take the streets that would lead them in that direction, the group set off once again in their journey, but this time with a little more vigor than they had originally had.
Now that they finally had something as solid as this to go on, a little optimism was definitely showing through.
Even so, Zyro couldn't help but have a small feeling of dread in the back of his skull, which didn't unnoticed by Shinobu as he walked beside him.

"You sure you're okay, Zyro?" The light-haired blader asked, his light green eyes looking over at his best friend in concern. In response, Zyro simply smiled with an almost apologetic look.
"Yeah, I'm okay..." He said, trailing off for a moment before continuing, "...I just can't help but feel that something's a little off about this..."

"There's always been something 'a little off' about everything that's been happening..." The Salamander Blader replied, "Is this really any different?" Zyro didn't answer for a moment, appearing to suck on his bottom lip for a moment before looking back down towards the ground.
"I don't know." He said with a small sigh, "Maybe."
Shinobu continued to look at Zyro for a moment, concern pulling at his heart for the sake of the Ifraid Blader. However, he chose not to say anything, and just kept on walking, though he kept an eye on the boy walking beside him just in case.
If Zyro was getting nervous, than he really couldn't blame him.
A few of them had almost died the last time they had come so close to Alcorin, and the black-haired boy himself had just barely cheated death at his hands... How different would this time be?
That was the question that Shinobu asked himself as they all made their way out of Iwase, and what refused to leave him alone as they kept going......


Both Takanosuke and Sakyo had opted it best to leave Ishioka for Mount Tsukuba soon after they gotten the information from Ruri, knowing that, hopefully, the sooner they were able to get there, the better. Takanosuke still kept the box with their purchased teacup with him, since he knew that it wouldn't be right to just leave it somewhere after Sakyo had paid for it.
The Dragoon Blader hadn't said anything about it and just let him, taking in consideration that the curly-haired blonde did have a pretty fair point - he had mainly done it to have an excuse to talk to the shop owner back in the small town behind them, since it was evident that there was probably no other way.
Or at least not one that he had been able to think of at that moment.
Besides, teacups were kind of nice anyway, and Takanosuke definitely seemed to like it, so might as well keep it with them.
It was perhaps just after mid-day down, and after several hours of walking at a fair pace that he hoped wouldn't exhaust Takanosuke too much they had actually made some pretty good distance.
Mount Tsukuba was far closer than it originally had been, and Sakyo could see that were just a little more than half-way there by now - it wouldn't be long before they finally arrived to mountain, but the thing that concerned him the most was how long it would take to find the entrance to the supposed temple built into the mountain.
If it was just a rumor over in Ishioka, and nobody had actually found it yet to prove the rumor true, than it had to be well hidden, right?
That or there was something keeping people from finding it, which it wouldn't put past Alcorin being able to handle, but, the again, he hadn't been there for very long, and the entrance to the 'temple' had been a rumor long before that as well.
The red-and-white-haired blader narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking over it for a moment before mentally shaking his head and looking forward once more.
They would have to figure it out once they got there.

Settling on that for the time being, Sakyo switched his mind over to the boy walking just beside him, looking down towards the head of light blonde curls.
"How are you holding up?" The Dragoon Blader asked in his firm tone, Takanosuke's cerulean eyes looking up towards him in response.
"I'm okay, Sakyo." The Griffin Blader replied, knowing why the redhead was concerned about him after what had been happening in the last few days, "I'm just glad we finally have something that could hopefully lead us to Alcorin."
Sakyo hummed at that, looking away from him and forward again, though he kept speaking. "That's good." He said briefly, and Takanosuke simply smiled beside him, "If you're sure you're alright, than we can keep going until we get there and hopefully find this 'temple'..."

"Yeah, I can do that." The shorter one said, "I'm fine, really." By the tone in his voice from his next words, Sakyo somehow knew that his expression had turned into a quizzical one, "I just don't know where I'm going to put this teacup box once we get there."

"We'll find a place." Sakyo responded gruffly, "We'll come back and pick it up once we're done in there."
Takanosuke was silent for another moment before saying, "Okay..." and falling silent once more. 'Once they were done in there', of course... But what exactly would they be doing in there?
Looking for Alcorin, sure, but the psychopath would surely know the place better than they did.
And who knew what would happen in there once they got to it... Takanosuke knew he shouldn't be thinking about it, knew that he should at least try and stay optimistic in the hopes that would find Alcorin, and maybe - through some miraculous event - meet up with Zyro and the others, who they knew were searching for Alcorin's location as well.
Maybe it would've been better to go with them, but it was far too late for that now... They didn't even know where they were, or how they were doing in their search.
They were probably either having worst luck, or better luck, if anything.
They themselves seemed to be fortunate, what with Ruri taking them for people visiting and explaining to them the rumors of Mount Tsukuba, and with his own visions that constantly seemed to be right about a few things so far, but... Something felt off, and he wasn't sure what it was.
There was heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach, something itching at the back of his skull, and he couldn't figure out what the problem was. Everything would surely be fine, wouldn't it? They would get there, hopefully find Alcorin, hopefully get rid of him once and for all, and then leave and go back home, right?

That was how most people would envision it to go, even if some things were bound to get in the way. But Takanosuke was unable to help the feeling of dread and impending doom that plagued him as they drew closer to their aimed destination, and which only grew stronger with every step he took.
And, of course, whenever he looked towards Sakyo, which only made him worry even more......


He needed it to stop.

He needed all of it to stop, but Gingka knew by now that wishing for that was futile, and that it never would.

He needed the constant silent ringing in his ears to stop, he needed the darkness that surrounded him to stop, he needed it to stop, but that was impossible.
He had tried telling it time and time again to leave him alone, tried to pull on his invisible restraints until he was sure that his wrists would bleed, tried screaming and screaming until his voice went hoarse and his throat was sore and raw, but none of it ever stopped.
All that surrounded him was silence and darkness, all that accompanied him was the thing that took some form of sick joy in tormenting him, all that he ever saw was the shadows within the shadows, that he was sure weren't even really there, but how the hell was he supposed to know anymore?
There was nothing here... Nothing but the two of them, and Gingka would have rather chosen eternal loneliness in a heartbeat rather than spending eternity trapped here with that thing, whatever it was supposed to be
. He didn't care about what it was anymore, he didn't give a damn about what it wanted, he just wanted it to leave him alone, but he knew that it never would as long as it was only the two of them.
Every time it came he endured the endless torture through tears and raw screams, any ounce of pride completely forgotten, and every time it left he prayed to whatever god there might be that it would stay away and leave him in his dark and quiet hell... But it always came back.

It always came back to torment him more, always to touch him and whisper to him to the point where he wasn't sure when it might be touching and when it might not be, wasn't sure if it was still there or not even after it had gone, because that damned voice kept echoing in his head along with the ringing in his ears, and he couldn't take it.
He had stopped hoping that something would get him out of here, stopped waiting for someone to come and get him away from this place, because, as well as he knew, there was no way out of here.
It made very sure to make that clear with him.
And so far, it had definitely been right; no matter how loud he screamed or how hard he prayed, nothing would come to save him from the abyss that he had fallen into, trapping him in his own hell that was more agonizing and maddening than being tortured on a steel slab surrounded by flames - because it was simply nothing.

So all he did was sit there on his knees on the space (what space, it's all space..) that may or may not been the floor (it could be the ceiling if it wanted to be..), his arms - still slightly red from the abrasions that he himself had inflicted - wrapped loosely around his waist and torso as he rocked back and forth in a slow motion, and he didn't even know why he was doing it anymore...
Maybe it was to try and see the shadows (But it's all shadows..) move within the darkness, to see something other than nothing but black, or maybe it was just to occupy himself rather than sit still as a statue as he had originally had, willing to try anything to stop himself from going insane - he was probably way too late for that, but whatever, he didn't care...
Gingka just sat there, rocking back and forth in an almost hypnotizing motion, staring forward into nothingness with eyes that seldom blinked in his almost trance-like state, chanting something to himself over and over again inside his head.
Then again, he wasn't really listening to it, so he wasn't sure what it was, or even if he was actually chanting anything to himself at all, but whatever... It wasn't important either way.
Doing nothing but rock back and forth in his evenly timed motion, Gingka simply sat there, staring from the darkness to the floor (Is it the wall, what the hell is it?..) to his lap again and again, but he wasn't really focusing on the things that he could see anymore, because there wasn't anything to see but himself and whatever the hell was in there with him, whatever the hell it was...

Instead he kept listening, which he didn't want to do because of the constant ringing that just wouldn't stop, and all those whispers that he just kept hearing even though there was nothing there, he was sure there was nothing there because he it wasn't touching him, but he kept doing it anyway, trying to hear through the deaf silence and the words that kept ringing in his ears to the other things that surrounded him, even there was nothing, but there was always something around, and it would always come to him.
It would always come back to play, even though he hated the game that it forced him into, and he was almost never ready for when it did, but he could at least try to be, right? Then maybe it would stop? Maybe it would grow bored and finally leave him alone and go back to whatever hole it had crawled out of in that existed in his own head...

But that was a pathetic and useless thing to wish for.

Gingka knew that all too well, and it had made sure that he did.

But he kept listening for it anyway.
Kept listening for the inevitable shuffle of clothing (Please, let it actually be clothing, it had to be clothing) that would come up from behind him and the sound of a soft giggle before he felt those hands on him again, those damned hands that he couldn't stand the feeling of, even with the skin as smooth as glass, they emitted something ungodly that made him barely able to feel anything at all except for that.
Originally, it had been far more easier to hear it coming when it was just him and the silence, when he wasn't darting his eyes this way and that in hopes and gaining some sort of more real reality from it, but now he had to focus for it, he had to listen and try and push past the constant voices and ringing that wouldn't leave him alone and aimed to drive him into insanity. Maybe they had already done that, maybe he already was crazy long before he had thought to acknowledge it, but that didn't matter, because he could swear he could hear it coming.
But at the same time, he almost wasn't sure.

Gingka was sure that it was it, because it was the only other thing in there besides himself, and he was sure that there was nothing else in there but the two of them, but the way that it was seemingly approaching him made him think otherwise.
It had always crawled to him, showing up out of no where in this place that it almost seemed to control even though it was just nothing, and he had grown to recognize the sound, and he almost didn't recognize this one because since when did it bother to actually walk?...

Because he heard footsteps.

Footsteps, supposedly from boots, because he believed he remembered what boots sounded like even though it had been years (Years, right? It had to have been years..), somehow echoing in the entirely empty space that surrounded them both, coming closer and closer to him until he knew that it was only a few steps away.
Gingka's rocking had long since ceased, leaving him an almost half doubled over position and making him stare towards the ground (Ground, is it actually ground?) with his eyes, and they both stood and sat there in silence for what could have been eternity as well as only a few seconds.
It was almost unbearable to the redhead, until the other spoke, the tone of clear amusement in it's voice that he still thought he recognized but could never place.

"Well now, just look at you." It began in a mocking tone, and Gingka could practically feel it staring down at him, "You remind me of myself, once upon a time... If you can turn out like this in just 3 weeks, just imagine what 20 years would do to you.. Poor, sweet little Gingka."
Gingka's body tensed, his arms wrapped around himself a little tighter as his fingers twitched, the voice of that accursed creature ringing around in his head as it spoke, and he was left all but defenseless.

Wait, 3 weeks?...

Was that how long it had been?

But it couldn't be, it had been so much more longer than that, it couldn't have just been 3 weeks, he should remember 3 weeks ago... Disregarding his current state, it kept talking.

"That would be such a treat to watch... But, it really wouldn't matter, now would it? Because there's only going to be one of us to ever see the dear light of day again... But you don't remember what that is, now do you?"
Hearing the chains that restrained him rattling clearly beside, Gingka brought his hands up to the sides of his head, just barely around his ears as he silently begged it to stop, which he knew it wouldn't because it never did so why on earth would it do so now?..
"You'd stay here, and I would never let you out. And then you'd know what it feels like to be me for all those years, and you would be just like me."

"I'm not like you..." Gingka heard himself muttering pathetically, some ounce of defiance still left in him somehow even though he had thought it had gone by now. But apparently it was still there, and it wasn't like he had planned to say it, he had just said it, because that's what had come naturally to him...
But another part of him knew that maybe it was telling the truth, but it couldn't be telling the truth, and yet it could be at the same time, and he didn't know which it was doing when.
But he heard it laugh behind, a sound that haunted him and made his body tense even further, his fingers gripping at his red locks ever so slightly.
It was then that he heard the rustling of clothing again, and he instantly knew that it had knelt down behind him again as it so often did once it's hands came to either of his shoulders and stayed there.
"Not like me? Is that so? Is that honestly what you believe Gingka? Is that ignorance still there, after all this time?..." Another quiet laugh from behind him, and he subconsciously shivered. "Of course some part of you would still think that, but another part knows, Gingka.. You know that we are more alike than you would ever care to admit, because you would never acknowledge it... But now you do, don't you? You spent all those years, your entire life pushing me back and making a mockery of everything we stand for... So what if I kept you here until you finally realized what you're supposed to be? You really couldn't stop me.."

"Stop it..." The redhead muttered weakly, the grip of his head tightening as he began to shake, feeling the numbness that came with the overwhelming feeling that radiated from it's skin and through his clothing.
Behind him, he could feel its twisted smile, and as always, it didn't stop. "I could keep you here forever if I wanted too... Than you'd see exactly what it's like, and how it is to not have anything but nothing. You would just hope and pray that someone would let you out, that someone would come and release you from this place... Your friends, you would hope for, right? But they would never come..."

"Stop, please..." He begged in a whispered manner, reduced to nothing more but a trembling ball of pleading.

"Maybe you could see the outside, just maybe... But it would always be out of your reach, and you would always hear things from outside, but you could never be apart of it, because you're here, and you can't leave. And after so many years you would just stop and take a moment to realize that nobody cared about you, because how could anybody care about someone like you. And after awhile... You wouldn't care. You wouldn't care for the longest time, and you would remind yourself that no one else cared either..."
Silently, Gingka did his best to shake his head through his shaking, pressing the palms of his hands against the side of his head as if trying to make it all stop, but it wouldn't stop, it would never stop.
"And when there was nothing left for you here, as if there ever was, you would look outside again, and watch. Until all you wanted to do was destroy."

Ba-thump

"STOP IT!" The redhead all but screamed, doubling over further with his hands pressed against his skull, a desperate look on his face as he heard the mantra over and over again in his mind, unable to ignore the feeling of familiarity at that word.

Destroy

No.

Destroy

No, no, no.

Destroy

No, goddammit, get out!

"See what I mean?... The thing behind him questioned playfully, a small laugh escaping its lips as it watched his torment, watched him try to defy everything, watch him as he curled in on himself like a pathetic child..
"Stop it, stop it!" Gingka shouted repeatedly, pulling himself up a bit into an almost sitting position, hands on both sides of his head trying to tell the voices to stop, pupils dilated in a look of desperation and madness, breathing heavy as he heard nothing but that word echo in his head.

Destroy

"Stop it, please! I'm not like you! I'm nothing like you!" The redhead shouted over and over again, shaking his head and trying to convince himself that it was true, because he had to be right, it had to be wrong, didn't it?

It had to be.

"Nothing like me?!" It questioned in a voice filled with laughter and insanity, before Gingka felt those hands reach up from behind him and grab his head on either side before pulling it back until he was looking straight up, only to see something as snow white as the hands that he had always known, and looking into something filled with insanity that he would never be able to forget.
"I am you!"

The face he stared into was his own.