All rights reserved to Hiro Morita.
So it would be at least a war crime not having a fic with these two together, right? Anyway, like I said, longer gaps in uploads are just the order of the day at this point, my apologies. On a goofier note, midway through finishing this, I realized that this kinda served as a happier counterpart to Shu-Echoes, and changed the title, writing's funny like that sometimes!
Shu hated to hear those words again, the words that ruined his life.
"Please sir, I-I can't go on, and definitely not against that!" A desperate voice echoed out from the void that was all Shu could see as he felt his heartbeat pick up while his stomach churned. No, not here, not again.
A cold and authoritative voice answered the frantic one. This one made Shu's blood run cold. "Hmph, very well. Would you like to trade the comfort of your bed for the dirt then?"
"I- I... no."
"Then you will face him as I ask, along with the rest. Now get on with it."
The now defeated voice let out a huff. "Y-yes, sir."
The voice trailed off after that. Soon it chimed in again along with multiple sets of footsteps, as frantic as before along with about three others, each and every one was about as scared as the last.
"What do we do, man? There's no way I'm making it outside of the pit, but this guy fights like a hurricane!"
"I don't know!" Another one said in frustration. " God, this sucks! It's like he wants us to fail just so he can lighten the load around here. Everyone knows there's no stoppin' this guy!"
"Everyone just calm down." As reassuring as the voice tried to sound, it was honestly the most timid and skittish of all of them. "As long as we keep our heads cool and stick together, maybe we could pull through." The rest of the voices said nothing as their footsteps kept on. Eventually, the sound of a door sliding open came through as a pair of glassy glowing red eyes glared at Shu in the darkness. Then it came, those haunting words.
"I am Red Eye."
Shu's red eyes widened as the void around him exploded with fire and screams of agony. The white-haired boy was surrounded by a blood red void littered by flames. Shu felt his heart pick up speed as the smell of smoke bored into his mouth and he began to hack violently.
Looking at the flames surrounding him, the blaze began to float upward and coalesce, molding into a fiery face that resembled Legend Spriggan's avatar. The face's shark-like grin opened as a shadowy figure with glassy, glowing red eyes and a tailcoat began walking toward him. The figure was something he knew all too well.
Shu clutched his head and shut his eyes as he tried to gather himself. while resisting the hoarseness of his throat. This was a nightmare, nothing more, all he had to do was focus and force it out of his head.
Opening his eyes, he saw that nothing had worked. The figure was still marching toward him and his throat still burned. Shu backed away the best he could before a wall of flames intercepted him, the fire singed the back of his shirt as he cried out in pain and jumped away.
His blood ran cold as an arm grabbed onto his.
With a turn of his head, the shadow's red eyes were dead in his face as they let out a blinding glare. The shadow's words echoed through his head as he screamed in denial and agony.
"I am Red Eye, and this blaze is my fate." The figure was swept away by a wave of flames.
Shu jolted out of his bed as he looked around to find himself back in the safe dark blue walls of his bedroom, the light of day streamed through the curtains of the parallel windows behind him.
Shu jerked away his bedsheets, got to his feet and went to the window on the left. Lifting the curtains, Shu was nearly blinded by the overwhelming light and the picturesque setting in front of him. Seven years out from the Red Eye incident and it still didn't feel real, clear blue skies, birds flying everywhere, and a perfect view of the Japanese sea all while he was taking a break from being the manager of the second strongest team of the most popular sport on the face of the earth.
I am Red Eye, and this blaze is my fate.
Shu turned away from the window and pulled down the curtains as he began to get dressed, the fiery haze of that nightmare stinging at his conscience all the way through. It didn't feel right being here, all the people he hurt, all the things he'd ruined during his time as Red Eye, it couldn't snap away just like that, could it?
"Just focus on your friends." Shu said to himself in the mirror as he got done putting on his black jacket lined with red. "Focus on having a good time and we'll sort it all out later." With that, he turned to the nightstand on the left of his room and walked over to it, picking up his Bey, Burst Spriggan, putting it in his pocket, and rushing out the door, ignoring how much heavier the Bey felt in his hand than the day before.
Shu's focus barely lasted a second.
Walking down the busy streets left Shu feeling awkward, so many people just passing him on the sidewalk without a care in the world felt so strange. Thanks to the God Bladers Cup being televised practically the whole world saw his rampage with Spriggan Requiem along with how moody and irritable he was back then, and here people were, waving and smiling at him without a care in the world.
Deciding that some quiet was for the best, Shu decided to take a detour through the tree-dotted park. Here, the sky was practically blocked out by leaves with the exception of a few beams of sunlight and the world was silent with the exception of buzzing insects and flapping bird wings.
Shu began to feel the sense of unease simmer down as he took in the surroundings. It was a perfect place for him to get his thoughts together, no people, no dark thoughts, no guilt.
That was another voice chimed in. "Hey, there he is!"
Shu felt the hairs on his skin rise up as he turned around to see three guys, all about fifteen or so, standing behind him with eager looks in their eyes, that eagerness made Shu's stomach churn all the more as one of them ran up to him.
"Hey, you're Shu Kurenai, right?" Shu gave a nervous smile and nodded. The guy lit up at that. Every other word he spoke was like a knife of guilt stabbing into Shu's gut.
"Good to see you back in Japan!" He held out a hand that Shu gingerly shook. "Big fan, a real big one, poster on my wall and everything,uh..." The guy scratched his head for a bit as guilt stabbed into him further. If only this kid knew.
"Um, say," The guy said. "Sorry to pull the cliche on you, but you think you could give me and my pals some pointers?" Every second Shu looked into his eyes was another dark thought about how ruthless and horrible his Red Eye self would have been to him. He didn't deserve fans, he didn't deserve a peaceful day like this, not after doing something like that, not after knowing what was at stake. Cringing slightly, Shu let go of the guy's hand and stumbled back with a rub of his hair.
"Um, sorry, kinda busy at the moment, maybe some other day." Before they could even respond, he jogged off.
Having made it out of the park, the white-haired boy eventually found himself at the meet-up site his friends had chosen for their reunion, Beigoma Academy. Him and his friends had a ton of history in this place: aside from Valt, it was the first place he'd met with them, the first place their Beys had clashed with each other, and the sponsor of their team for the nationals.
Looking up at the boxy, beige-colored building with sigh, Shu tried to shove the thoughts of that nightmare down the best he could before making his way inside. Walking up the staircase to the roof, Shu clutched his head as it was pervaded by bleak memories: crackling electricity followed by the screams of various Bladers, an all too familiar red Bey at the center of the chaos. The Bey flung itself into the palm of that haunting face: a man in a mask with glassy red eyes.
Groaning and shoving the thought aside, Shu made his way to the top of the stairs, and pushed the door open, the darkness was replaced by the clear blue skies, warm air, and a lone Beystadium surrounded by a grid iron fence.
Walking up to the fence and clenching the thin bars tightly, Shu felt his breathing pick up as the memories didn't stop, flashes of various Blading arenas came to mind: one made of boiling volcanic rock, another awash in spikes, and a freezing cold tundra, the various screams of other Blader echoed throughout them, with the familiar form of Legend Spriggan, crushing all opponents that stood in its way.
Keep shoving it down! He thought to himself frantically as he closed his eyes. Keep shoving it—
"Hey, what's with all the intensity, man? We haven't even started!"
Shu's eyes snapped open as he turned around to the source of that cheery voice, the voice of his rival and best friend, Valt Aoi.
Seeing the spiky, blue-haired boy's wide smile and giggle did nothing but make Shu's stomach churn. It didn't feel like it should be real, like he had no right to see it after all he had done, especially to Valt. Shu felt his mouth drop into a frown before forcing it back up as he felt sweat pour down his neck and gave a wave with his left hand.
"Nothing, just excited." He stepped back a bit as Valt gave him a questioning look.
Shu.." Valt said expectantly. Oh no...
"It's nothing, Valt. I swear it—"
Shu, we've been pals for years. Whatever you wanna say, just get it out so it can be over and done with." Shu winced a bit at that. It was rather out of the loop for the two of them to have Valt be the one making sense. Furthermore, Shu was already feeling guilty, the last thing he needed to do was add to that by trying to placate his friend.
"I'm...sorry," Shu huffed as he hung his head. "It all just doesn't feel real, y'know?" Valt tilted head as Shu raised his head and spread his arms out wide. "Having you and the rest of guys by my side, leading the Raging Bulls, being number 2 in the world, being able to wake up to a beautiful day like this, it all just feels fake, like something I just dreamt up, after being well...you know."
Valt frowned at that. "Shu, it's been seven years. There's no way you could still be torn up over that.
Shu rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. His tone was dry and defeated. " Guess the guy who said 'Time heals all wounds' was a liar, huh?" He tried to collect himself a bit. "Look I-I really want to be around you guys, the problem is I don't think I should be allowed to."
"Well, I know exactly what you're allowed to do, so I'll just have to hammer it into you." Valt motioned toward an green gridded bench on the left of the roof. "If we're gonna work this out before the guys get here, then there's no point in burning daylight." With that, he walked over to the bench and took a seat, leaving Shu to deal with his expectant look.
The white-haired boy's body froze as he continued to stare at his brown-eyed friend. Valt was right, there was no point in burning daylight when it came to this. With his guilt as bad as it was already, how would he ever function again if every interaction he had with someone was filtered through the lens of the horrible things that he could have done to them? The memories bombarding his head didn't help out either, serving all at once as a reason he needed to work through this and a reason he didn't deserve to.
Valt's expectant look turning into a frown, however, pushed him over the edge. With a silent hope that this could work, and a shaky step forward, Shu soon made his way to the bench.
"Well, to kick things off, when did all of this come up? When we met up at the Dead Gran that day you were more than fine." Valt asked as he looked at Shu, the boy turned his red eyes to the ground in response.
"Well, that's kind of the thing, it started pretty much the night after you snapped me back to my senses. The problem is that I never had the time to process it due to something always coming up: evil Bladers, new tournaments, training with the Raging Bulls, but now with this break, it all just seems to be spilling out at once."
Valt put a finger to his chin to try and process that. "I guess that figures, but why all of this? The saying you don't deserve any of this stuff? I mean, think about all the good you've tried to do like stopping any other Red Eyes from cropping up, that's gotta be worth something, right?"
Shu gave a shaky gulp at that, the horror from his dreams began flooding his head again. He'd known on that day. He knew what was at stake and he just...
"No," His response was shaky as he tried to stop the tears from welling up in his eyes. "Nothing like that can even come close to the things that I did wearing that mask. Valt, y...you think you know the whole story, but you don't, you haven't even seen the half of it."
As steady as Valt tried to keep his voice, Shu swore he could feel him bristle beside him. "Well, there's no point in keeping me in the dark. I need answers if we're gonna get through this." Shu himself bristled at that, the two of them sat in silence waiting for his response. As much as the boy knew his friend was right, he couldn't help but feel that Valt could well and truly hate him.
With a strained sigh and a restrained sob, Shu let it all out. "Back when I was in the Snake Pit, people had...issues. Not just issues with Blading, real issues: poverty, homelessness, even diseases. Alexander," Shu tried to keep himself steady when he mentioned that monster's name out loud. "He used that to his advantage, held it over them as a way to keep them under his thumb, and I... I knew it the whole time. I crushed their Beys and got them thrown out of the Snake Pit just so I could help myself!"
Valt was stunned into silence while Shu stared dejectedly at the floor. Whatever negative reaction would come from Valt next would be completely justified, despite all of them being in the Snake Pit, the difference in circumstances between Shu and most of its occupants was night and day. He didn't have a broken family, some street corner he slept in at night against the chill of rain and wind; he was a Spin Emperor, one of Japan's finest Bladers and had a spot on the New York Raging Bulls, something most people could only dream of. But he had done it all anyway, because he couldn't stand being defeated by Lui and Free, couldn't stand having all his hard work invalidated.
"I...how could I even be allowed to call you my friend after something like that?"
While still waiting for Valt to say something, Shu looked up to his friend to see the boy's brown eyes shadowed with horror and concern, internally, all Shu could do was curse himself for being so desperate, for letting his desire for strength override his morals.
Then Valt's face began to harden, not with anger, like Shu would expect, but with conviction.
With a slight sniff, Valt finally spoke up. "Shu, you're right on that, what you did there was unforgivable, and like it or not, I'll never forgive you one way or the other." He gulped back some tears and took a deep breath before continuing. "But even with that, you're still the first person I'd call my best friend, and it doesn't matter how guilty you feel right now, because I'm going to do exactly what a good friend would do for you: I'm gonna help you live with yourself!"
With that, Valt got off the bench and marched over to the center of the roof, where a single Beystadium stood and gestured for Shu to come with him as he took the stadium's left side. Shu's eyes widened in confusion.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked.
"What I said I'm going to do. Pain's just a part of living and I'm not letting yours rip you away from me and the rest of the guys. I know you feel the same way too, but you're just too scared to work with me here. Please..." His eyes became more gentle with that. " All I'm asking you to do is try."
Shu bristled in his seat as he stared at Valt while giving his words some thought. He did, deep down, still want to be with them in the end, whether he was allowed to was an entirely different story. He couldn't really just shrug and live with it all could he? Then, he thought about Valt and all he had done to snap him out of being Red Eye: risking life and limb in the Snake Pit to taking him and Spriggan Requiem on directly, he couldn't make all of that pointless by turning him down, not after letting him down so many other times.
With a soft exhale, Shu pulled himself up from the bench and made his way over to the right side of the Beystadium, teeth clenched and ready for action, Valt pulled out his Ultimate Valkyrie, and cranked the blue and red Bey to his launcher, pointing it down at the stadium. One of its red, diamond-shaped blades gleamed against the sunlight.
"So how is this supposed to work exactly?" Shu asked. "How can it help me cope, I mean?"
"Just live." Valt answered. "Just live through this like it was any other battle we were having!"
Shu winced slightly as he pulled out his Burst Spriggan. The Bey was in its red and black left-spin mode and felt heavier in his hand than ever before as he cranked it to his launcher.
Memories began to flood the white-haired boy's head as he tried to shut them out: Watching Valt and the rest of his group fall into the darkness after their second battle with him as Red Eye, the chaos of the Requiem Project, trying to erase Valt from his head. Shaking his head, Shu lowered his launcher into the stadium and nodded to Valt to show he was ready.
"3,"
"2,"
"1,"
"Go Shoot!" Their Bey fell into the stadium as Spriggan spun clockwise on its star-shaped Merge' Driver while Valkyrie went counterclockwise on its wide yet flat Variable' Driver. The two Beys circled down to the center and clashed head on, Spriggan on the stadium's left and Valkyrie on its right as red and blue lightning streamed off the point of impact.
Just as soon as they'd started, Spriggan was flung back up the slope.
"Don't let that keep you down, Spriggan!" The Bey fell back on its Driver's edge and ground against the floor as sparks flew. The plan was simple: Spriggan would swing around to strike Valkyrie again, but a vision entered Shu's head, the memory of Spriggan Requiem destroying God Valkyrie's Reboot Driver. Shu winced at that, it had been a coward's move, something he'd done to keep Valt from 'getting in his way.'
Spriggan swung around and went down the slope to strike Valkyrie as it circled the stadium center, only for the blue Bey to knock it back with ease before leaving the center to circle the stadium.
"Keep up the pressure!" Shu shouted. His Bey pivoted on its Driver, and launched itself upward at Valkyrie on the slope to the stadium's left. Valt's partner zig-zagged the attack, and let Spriggan smash into a wall, causing the left-spinning Bey to fall toward the stadium center.
"Now you're all lined up." Valt said with a punch forward. "Let's knock 'em around, partner! Rush Shoot!" Valkyrie rounded the stadium in a flower pattern, kicking up blue sparks along its trail as it bombarded Spriggan with attack after attack, causing Shu's partner to begin losing its balance.
"Keep it up, Valt. You'll just be feeding him in the end. Burst Spin, Spriggan!" The wavy red rubber blades on Spriggan's layer intercepted Valkyrie's latest attack from the right and pressed inward before absorbing its opponent's power into Spriggan. Valkyrie bounced off and rounded the stadium for another attack, each one only powered up Spriggan more and more.
Things were beginning to look up for Shu until more voices entered his head. The match he had had with those Snake Pit Bladers from his dream had ended horribly. Spriggan had shattered all of their Beys on contact, leaving them to do nothing but cry and beg Alexander for a second chance before being dropped from the arena and into darkness.
For a minute, Shu felt himself falter. That minute was a Valt needed as Valkyrie came in for another attack.
Valt grit his teeth and was surrounded by a blue aura. "Ultimate Valkyrie!"
The Bey exploded into a blue energy wall that was slashed away by a horseback warrior clad in blue and gold armor. The warrior's glassy yellow eyes gleamed along with the red lightning-like markings on its cheeks as it and its white horse struck a pose.
With its spin speed increased Valkyrie managed to avoid the rubber blade and hit Spriggan's plastic with its diamond-shaped red blades, knocking the red Bey back slightly before bouncing off it and, in a flash, circling around it to slam into it again and again.
Shu winced as the words "Hold your ground, Spriggan!" died in his throat, leaving him to helplessly watch as his partner was pummeled by Valkyrie. He was out of focus and he knew it. He could have easily avoided being pinned down like this by pivoting again after Valkyrie dodged his attack, but all those thoughts kept getting in his way. No matter what he told himself, it just felt wrong.
Valkyrie's attacks let up before it bounded toward the stadium's left wall and hit it. The Bey rebounded toward Spriggan wrapped in a spiral of blue energy. Valt roared. "Ultimate Jet V!"
Time seemed to slow as Valkyrie barreled down toward Spriggan. Shu grit his teeth as he saw Spriggan doing nothing but sit and wait for the attack, an expectant and sad look from Valt just salted the wound. He knew full well that he couldn't keep living like this, how could he go about his days feeling like he shouldn't even be where he was in the first place, how could he just walk out on his friends like that. Even so, the guilt just kept getting worse in his head, pouring out more and more nightmare scenarios and memories. Shu needed to make a choice, and he needed to do it now.
And with a suck of air and an orange aura surrounding him, he did just that.
"Burst Spriggan!"
His Bey erupted into a wall of orange energy that was cut through by the golden ax of a red-skinned warrior clad in golden armor with ram-like horns. The horns sat on top of a back length mass of fire the beast had for hair. The creature bared its sharp teeth and roared out with pride.
Spriggan circled the stadium's center and ground on its Merge Driver. The Bey soon launched off to meet Valkyrie head-on while clad in flames.
"Spriggan, Cross Counter!" The two Bey collided and the arena was lost in a blinding white light, but through the searing glow Shu could see Valt's content smile as the sound of two Bey's bursts hit his ears.
The light faded and the dust settled to reveal Valkyrie and Spriggan reduced to parts on the floor of the stadium. Valt gave a wistful sigh before looking at Shu.
"So, feeling a little better?" He asked with a slight smile. Said simle dropped as Shu gingerly scratched the back of his head.
"Not exactly..."
"Shu..."
The white-haired boy quickly put up a hand in defense. "No, it's not like that. It's just... I know you're right, okay? I can't go on playing prisoner to guilt for the rest of my life, but that doesn't mean I can just throw all those things I did to the wayside. I just need some time... to adjust a little, y'know?"
Valt's smile warmed Shu's heart when he saw it. The smile grew even bigger as they both heard the door open and the sound of familiar voices filling the silence. Valt gave him a knowing look.
"Looks like you'll be getting plenty of practice, then!"