Ah, the little experiment

The wonders of having a powerful organization both created eons ago and today is the amount of shadowy allies one may have. Deep within the shadows are the typical men and women who have many selfish goals in obtaining power, wealth, men, women, children or whatever else mankind wishes to have in their posessions. With the Akatsuki, their are allies among the certain allies he has chosen to be in the Akatsuki. Riku was fond of this for no matter where he went he will have allies among him.

The walk up the hill to a certain location to Takigakure was pleasant. The weight that Leon, the 11th Vongola leader, once had after the misadventure they both experience was almost gone. Riku wouldn't say it was fully gone for he knew Leon had a bit of hatred left inside of him that would either wither away in time or it'll stay there for the rest of his life. One conclusion that Riku did not want to happen would be the anger and hatred within him would expand making him heavier and hard to deal with. The blind rage of a person was animalistic and in terms, would devour Leon in the sense of a lion trying to devour it's own tail. Riku was holding him by Leon's legs, his head was limp on his right shoulder and he heard the soft sound of his snoring in his ear. He was alseep and not in a coma like he was in Kumogakure. In time, he would wake up in Takigakure and Leon would feel the physical weight of his body being continously pummel through buildings and human bodies. But he will recover, with the will of hatred, Leon has unlocked both hyper tuition and something else. Riku couldn't put words to it yet but he'll figure it out. No, he was not the 11th vongola. He is the fifth Shikyo leader. He'll let Leon decide what to call it

The feel of the mist as it gracefully moves through the trees and pressed lightly on Riku and Leon's skin. Riku took a slow and deep breath letting that mist be inhaled inside of his body. It was a homely feeling, something that he hasn't experience in quite some time now. It was the smell of the forest and the waterfall ahead that gave him a brief thought of his mother, father and aunt in Water country. But he could not reminisce in it. Later he thought. Right now, he had to put Leon on a bed and talk to his ally. From what he heard last from the scout that Kaji had sent, he had added more onto the laboratory that Riku had created not too long ago. He wasn't going to ask the messenger of Kaji's well-being for he already knew about that. Insanity continues to grow even with the insane are not even aware. What's more, insanity has a knack of calling those agent of chaos and it is those agents decision whether he or she must eat the insanity or devour it whole. It was Riku that chose neither path. He knew what Kaji was thinking and he beleived that Kaji knew what Riku thought at the time of his recruitment. Both of them smlied chaotically.

He heard the crashing of the water as it falls eighty-five feet from a cliff that was maybe fifty meters away. If he remembers right, he was here two years ago to retrieve one of the last scrolls of Takigakure's secrets. It ended in success. If he remembered correctly, there was a back entrance in the cave that lead into the deep tunnels to the underground water tunnels. He was not going through that again. Even an easy job, he doesn't do inflitration things twice if it is not necessary. What Riku did instead was instead of going towards the path to the underground water tunnels, he decides to make a right into the forest. The thickness of the forest covered Riku well, his aura was mimicing the aura of the life around him making him invisible to the eyes. He slows his steps a bit as the incline was steadily increasing. He stops directly as the incline was starting to rise. He carefully kneels down, moving his right hand out of his pocket to grab what appeared to be a rock but it was lever. He pulls up and the hidden door was revealed. He carefully jumps into the opening of the door and the door behind him closed sealing away the chances of anyone to come in.

The clank of Riku's shoe when he landed made it highly aware of the change of enviroment. The tree's, rocks, earth, sky, the sound of wind, the waterfall had shifted to the tickering of mechanical and robotics items. He heard all of this ahead of him, the only thing Riku saw was an office which sat a young appearing man sitting down lazily as he looked at something Riku could not detect. It was the office area that Kaji probably installed and walking to this little compartment, it was exactly that. Riku looked up and saw the sign in kanji reading "Kaji's mutha fuckin office". An eyebrow rose quickly and a soft sigh. He turns the knob and opens the door. He was now hearing something like a washer and dryer makes when it was on. Not surprising, it WAS a washer and dryer that was on. He didn't question it nor did he need to. It was Kaji for goodness sake.

He didn't know whether Kaji read his mind via the messenger but there was a bed that was already made and prepared for someone to rest on. He didn't know whether it was kaji's but regardless he would set Leon there for now until he found a better spot for him. He sits himself on the bed and lets his arms around Leon's leg loose. He fell backwards and Riku laid a blanket over him "This kid is going to be destructive one day" Riku said suddenly "For a civillian, the boy has potential that maybe his hatred could be use as a weapon"

He sits up off the bed to move to Kaji was at "Your messenger was fun one. Thank you for the riddle that you gave me. I quite do enjoy a good riddle every now and then" He leans on the table and he was staring at a open glass window which revealed a semi bright energy source in the middle of this particular part of the labratory. "You didn't waste any time after I gave you permission to do whatever you wanted. I'm assuming the massive project you did was a part success?" He looks at it again and whistles impressive by the energy within that large space. "That's a helluva lot of energy. Did you use a camoflouge device and energy eraser to hide this bad boy or is Takigakure that dumb not sensing all of this load of energy?"

Kaji was wearing goggles and looking at a computer screen over the shoulder of a man. He had a devilish smirk as he watched the screen through his goggles. He started laughing as he hit the button that turned the screen off he turned around and smiled. ”Good, when Riku arrives in the next hour we will be ready for the final stage. Keep the chakra cooling rods in place until I return we don't want this thing going critical on us.” Kaji removed his goggles and tossed them onto a tray as he hit a button on the door. The door slid open and Kaji walked out as he moved his hand which was holding an Ipad. He started it up and started tapping on it opening a text file. As he walked through the facility he sighed as he typed away. He passed through the facility which had roots of the great tree in it. Kaji had a sense of nature when he expanded on this place. He also found something special as he passed the Conduit for it. He stopped and smiled.

”Ahh, Takigakure's dirty little secret. The hero's water created and purified by the tree itself. This water's abilities would make any one person a god. I'm glad that I'm destroying this place. Of course a small scientific sample is fine.” Kaji hit a button on the conduit and it opened up with a bottle sliding out on a tray. Kaji picked up the bottle sniffing it. He sighed a little bit as he capped it. He turned again walking with the bottle tucked into his cloak. He kept walking down the hallway soon coming to a doorway opening it and entering. He tossed the Ipad onto the desk with a thud as he unzipped his cloak. He balled the cloak up and tossed it into the washing machine picking up a chemical from the shelve above it and pouring some in. He yawned as he slammed down the lid of the washing machine and turned it on.

He then felt the presence of someone he knew and rolled his eyes as he walked to the wall and hit it letting a tray slide out that was carrying some clothes. He picked up the outfit and tossed them into the dryer and put them on for twenty minutes. He sighed propping his legs up and smiled as he was playing on his Ipad. ”Tap Tap Tap Tap revenge! As the song ended Riku and Leon entered his office.

Kaji opened an eye at them and just yawned as Riku put the kid onto the bed that was waiting for him. Kaji yawned again as Riku finished his speech. ”The Vongola sure are some fancy shits ain't they? Oh and I'm glad you liked my messenger he was one of my favorite birds. Oh and the project I was waiting on you before we went into the final stage.” Kaji then swiveled his chair to look out the window at the power source of the laboratory.

”Ahh yes this power source, its special the best of its kind. Its able to go critical and destroy everything within Sixty miles or so. My ultimate creation the atomic core a Five megaton bomb of pure nuclear energy! This bad boy will allow me to make the ultimate weaponry this world has ever seen.” Kaji then broke out in a maniacal laugh that lasted for a few minutes. However as he calmed down he turned back to Riku. ”Oh, hiding this thing is simple when one has complete control over the people who live above it. Yes thats right we took control of the village's leader that is how we got to hide this place so easily.” This new voice was so cold that the room's window even started to fog from its chilling effect.

Kaji shook his head. ”Takai, please stay out of normal conversations didn't we speak of this issue? Now Riku wake that punk ass kid up and lets get to the main event. Oh and in that dryer is some dry clothes for you an him . The kid really does reek of blood so please make him change before joining me.” Kaji then walked out of the office and back down the hall.

”And the Eleventh awakes. The first since the last with the powers exceeding all. And thus we call thou to judgment, to attest to thine might.”

The words rang through the darkness, echoing through Leon’s mind as he slowly opened his eyes. The cold feeling against his back told him that he was lying down on rock or some other material close to that, the darkness above told him he was in a cave, due to the tips of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Sitting up, Leon rubbed his eyes, wiping the water off his face and looked around. The cave was small, and dark, yet it seemed immense and blinding. It was an utter contradiction to itself, how could something so dark be blinding?

In the distance, or so it seemed to Leon as distance was hard to judge here, there were a multitude of lights, candles, or so it seemed. His hands pushed off the ground and his feet starting moving without being told to. The light was calling him, guiding him towards it. There was nothing to do but to obey the summons, despite any worries Leon might have had about his location or current predicament. What seemed like ages, but was actually mere seconds, Leon approached the lights.

The lights were set up weird, spaced evenly apart, 5 on each side. As Leon inspected them more closely, he could make out small black holes in the middle of the light, giving them the appearance of masquerade masks instead of candles. And then the voice came back, causing Leon to jump a few inches off the ground and backwards. When he landed, his foot caught a rock, causing Leon to fall backwards and land on his ass as he stared upwards in amazement as the lights started to move. The more they moved, the more Leon was convinced they were actually people, or ghosts, judging from the lack of substance they seemed to have.

”Are you prepared?” the voice asked, the figures moving around in circles as Leon stared, trying to pinpoint one. ”Are you prepared to inherit the sins, the past mistakes of the Vongola?”

Leon started at the name. The Vongola, one of the most powerful and prestigious families in the world. Legend had it that they had connections to the legendary Shikyo clan, and even the Akatsuki, but those were just myths. And here were 10 ghosts, 10 apparent predecessors that were asking Leon to inherit their mistakes. If he didn’t know any better, and Leon knew he had at least enough smarts for this, he would think that these people had appointed and decided to make him the next Vongola leader….Oh Riku was going to get it when this was over with. Seriously, who doesn’t tell their student that they are the next leader of a powerful and prestigious family besides Riku?

Leon shook his head and looked back to where the figures where spinning, only to realize that his eyes were shut. Weird… was that just a dream? Leon thought, opening his eyes slowly. The first coherent thought that ran through Leon’s mind was one word. Ow. Every single cell, or so it seemed, that was in Leon’s head hurt. It was like that time he had found a water bottle lying on the road and drank it because he was thirsty. He had woken up the next morning hanging upside down from a tree branch with what he thought was the mother of all hangovers. Apparently not, as this headache, or migraine rather, topped anything Leon had previously had combined.

Sitting up, Leon closed his eyes and grabbed his left hand, pressing his right thumb and pointer finger on the webbed part of his left hand. It was something he had learned as a little kid to stave away headaches, and it slowly worked here. Slowly meaning that the headache went from unbearable to Leon being able to open his eyes. Sighing, Leon looked around the room, the first thing that he noticed was that it wasn’t a Kumo hotel. The second thing being the dryer that just finished which would have clothes for Leon, provided he wasn’t passed out in some random room. Judging from Riku’s whistle that he had somehow remembered hearing not to long ago, maybe he was sleeping lighter that he thought, Leon figured it was safe to open the dryer. However, walking was a different story.

What Leon had failed to realize was that he hadn’t just been unconscious for a couple hours, but more along the lines of three days. That time period of not using his muscles suddenly became known to Leon as he stumbled forward and collided with the dryer. Hard. The resulting force caused the washing machine to tip over, and empty its contents on the floor, hot water splashing everywhere. As luck would also have it, there was a tea cup sitting on top of the washing machine, steam still rising from the rose printed ceramics, signifying it had only been there a short while. As the washing machine fell, the cup of tea shot forward, causing Leon to follow it with his eyes, which widened as he realized it was going to hit Riku dead on.

Choking down a laugh, Leon opened the dryer and pulled out a clean set of clothes. Turning to Riku to speak, Leon slowly got changed, steadying himself against the wall whenever he felt life he was going to fall over.

“Serves you right, not telling me Im Vongola. But that’s a small subject now. What the hell happened to me, why am I so unsteady? And where the hell are we? And why are we here?”

A bomb with the power of the sun, Riku heard his uncle whispering in his ear. It was faint but he could definitely comprehend it. Madness of the mind, that's all it is. Madness of the mind. With power of this magnitude, what would stop the Akatsuki for just destroying villages with sheer energy. To imagine the crumbling buildings, the corspes deformed and charcoaled by the heat would put fear in the villages.

His eyes slowly glanced at Kaji's body, looking at the surrounding aura he had. It was a maddening turquoise at the outer layer with the inner layer, a red ruby color. The ruby aura slipped out of turquoise aura. Kaji mention a Takai, another persona which lied deep in the caves of his subconscious. No, that was a mistake. It was another conscious. The entire aura was gone now, the turquoise aura was the dominanting one. It was Kaji's. Looking at him before, he laughed over a great deal of time. Into the vast space of the room he saw droplets of the turquoise spill out fading instantly.

Riku looks at Leon who was stirring now and ready to wake. Kaji told him to change out of the clothes he was wearing since it reeked of aged blood and bits of excrements. He didn't notice the smell until Kaji acknowledged it. He reeked and he can only blame himself for not changing him sooner. Leon arose from his slumber, his eyes still having the sleep from the hibernation he's been through. He notice his aura as well, a wavery tangerine with the outer layer of forest green. He was filled with many questions and many of them would be answered. Riku greeted him with a pleasant good morning by saying "Look who came out of their coma, I hope you didn't have any messed up dreams"

What was funny was that Leon had been sleeping for three days and one of those days his rage consumed him consciously and he a berseker killing and destroying. With his body completely tired, his clumsiness came out of him and he slips over to the washer where he tips it. The washer was heavy with clothes and water and there was no use for Riku to save it. What made it more nerveracking was the cup of tea -chai was it, or maybe lemongrass- that was placed on it. As the washer fell, so did the cup of tea and it was aiming for Riku. His body moved slightly to the right but there was a sharp pain in his right side. He bit his lip, unaware that he moved back to the projectory of the cup of tea which landed on his chest. His immediate response was to pat down on the warm spot of his shirt and wipe away the tea. When the heat didn't reside, his arms moved out of the sleeves of his shirt and he was shirtless, patting away at the hot luquid. He repeatedly said "hot hot hot hot hot" as he was wiping it off. He was glad it wasn't scolding hot. Bad news would've come from that.

Riku looks at Leon. His strain off holding in the laughter in his throat was hard for him contain but he swallowed it down telling him he deserved it and asking questions of what happen, where are they at, why are they hear. Riku heard none of that last part. He could only hear the selective part of "Serves you right, not telling me I was a Vongola"

Riku threw his wet shirt on the table covering a large computer pad. His sigh only showed the strain he was dealing with. He had wondered when Leon would find the evidence of his Vongola heritage but the way of finding out this soon was unlikely. The only logical thing Riku could pose was in his sleeping state either going to Kumogakure or going to Takigakure, he had an encountered with the past Vongola. "Quite hard to believe eh? You thought that I just reluctantly picked you to be a shinobi after you stole from me. I bet you honestly think I wanted to train you for the sake of training you. I'm not ridiculous, unlke some people I know" the right words were coming to him but his lips were starting to numb itself

"Your heritage is a dark one, Leon, just as my lineage of killing countless lifes are also present. You are in line to be the next Vongola leader. The 11th one" he had to get a drink, something into his mouth so it wouldn't feel like wind country was created in there.

He saw a refrigerator and opens it up. Seeing the line of booze, fruit drinks and barbeque. Barbeque? He moved pasted the whiskey and reached inside grabbing a bottled water. He opened it and slowly swallowed the content of the bottle. The soft sighed he made after his refreshment gave him more room to speak "Perhaps I haven't told you truthfully as to whom I am. I am Riku Shikyo. You may know nothing about my clan but it is darker than your heritage and has been around for longer. Ten years ago, I became the fifth leader to run the clan and the organisation behind it" he made the gesture for Leon to follow him. Both of them were walking down the hall to where Kaji resided currently.

"It was only recently that the alliance between the Vongola and the Shikyo became this strong. Before we let the Vongola do whatever they wish in the underground buisness. However, after the eighth shinobi war, things been a bit hectic, more so around both organisation. The ninth leader asked my father years ago to aid them and we so generously did. We were not enemies but we couldn't consider ourself allies at the time. The current leader is stepping down and he had found his successor, which was you. Skillfully he wanted me to train you" he dranked the last of his water. Damn, he was running solo with this one. "He did not want me to tell you that you had this heritage until you at least had some skill but things have hasten a bit"

At the end of hall, there lied another room with an open window to which he saw Kaji again, this time his hands were tinkering with something. He stops grabbing Leon's shoulder "The other questions, I'll talk to you about later. Right now, this is straight business" He opens the door to this room and saw Kaji's turquoise aura before he saw his face. There was a smile on Riku's face now and his face lit up "Alrighty then, the smelly boy has cleaned himself up"

Kaji had went down the hall down to the conduit for the Atomic Core. He had since told everyone in the facility that valued there lives to clear out within about sixty miles. As he slid goggles over his face he aligned the straps to slide right into the edges of his ears. He smirked as the slap of the strap came to the back of his head and he walked over to the console and started to flip a few switches and he hit a button that opened up the visual screen. The image of the Atomic core came up and there was the beauty of Kaji's mind.

The pure inferno of a pure red ball of energy that was constantly replicating and exploding out in a contained ball of pure energy. This ball a sense of ecstasy circled it enough energy to fuel the entire world for decades. The power that if left uncontrolled could destroy anything an everything. The pure ball of red flames that looked as if you saw each grain each pixel as a separate entity. The fire that flew off of it that instantly faded away after just a moment. The grains so tightly packed from the creation of its own gravity as if one single screw up would send it flying over that room and demolish it. Only about the size of one's own fist yet so tightly packed that it could literally be a god in its own right. The dancing color spectrum that evolved as you looked at it changing from a green that was so beautiful to a black that seemed to be a void. To a pure red that looked like blood. The currents across its surface showed its forever motion as if an ocean was the things entirety. That eerie glow that came off it that showed it was nothing but energy that was sent off by the millisecond. One would believe that with this energy the heat coming off would be unimaginable. This is where they would be wrong the chakra dampening rods that were surrounding them made it literally like any other room.

As Kaji stared at this he moved closer his face pressed at the screen as his smile grew to the point of enveloping his entire face. The contact high of just looking at his beauty was enough to bring kaji to his knee's as he stared and almost drooled onto his keyboard before coming to his senses. His hand came up and whipped what drool was in his mouth as he sat down at the chair and started hitting buttons. Soon a keyboard flipped up and a small screen was shown on the screen next to the Illuminati core. Kaji smirked as he started typing franticly. He was so lost in thought that it didn't even matter that Riku and Leon had entered the room. He was so in key to his work that he blocked out everything. The file on screen said the Chisoku project and as Kaji finally hit the enter key a small disk drive popped out of the machine. It was a floppy disk due to Kaji's odd dislike of CD-ROM. Kaji flipped it backwards at Riku's head hoping he was going to catch it. ”Thats the data you wanted. Its the base what you want its harder to study these guys than you think.”

Kaji then went back to work soon reaching down under the console and pulling out a headset. He hit three keys on the keyboard and soon a video chat appeared. On the screen was a young man. He seemed to be in a trance and was wearing a headset. Kaji let out a yawn as he slowly moved his hand up to his ear. Kaji slowly clicked the button and he spoke into the microphone at his head. ”Alright, Arashi. I'm about to start the countdown are you ready? You ran through the scenario and the simulation right?” Kaji spoke and instantly the young man in the video sprang to life his hand moving up to his ear and hitting the button on his headset. He nodded and then spoke.

”Yes, Master. I am ready to die here.” Kaji then let out a smirk as he watched the kid salute him through the video screen. Kaji returned and then spoke one final time. ”Remember when that buzzer rings get in the room grab as much plasma you can and get outta there. I'll be at the entrance of the facility by then. Remember you have about 30 seconds before you're fried. Good luck and let hell be pleasant for you.” Kaji then clicked off his headset and turned around with his eyes blurry. ”Kid's there so recklessly cute...” Kaji whipped away a single tear and then smiled again as he looked at the ceiling for a moment. ”I'm really going to miss this place. It was very pleasant with its design. However no use for something that was only pleasant shall we just get the cleansing over and get out of here?”

Kaji smiled as he had let Mizo speak the blank and utter void of his mind. The room was now one hundred percent cleansed of all emotions and Kaji's mind was now clear as he turned back around. He clicked away on the keyboard and soon a timer appeared on the screen. It had twenty minutes on the display. Kaji hit the enter key and stood up. Instantly as he hit enter a siren flared and the dampening rods in the picture began to move out of place. The computer of the system came on. ”Warning, Warning Core Illuminati meltdown imminent.” Kaji then started walking towards the door stripping off his goggles and tossing them to side. He seemed to be calm and as he reached the door he hit the button. ”Well I know its short notice but.... Its time for us to make our speedy get away.” Kaji then booked it down the hall at full speed not waiting for the fireworks.

The clock ticked down it seemed to move slowly only 25 seconds had passed when kaji had made it to the entrance. At the entrance a corpse lay there that was scorched and burned to death. Kaji stopped for a moment sliding on a glove real fast and picking up the vile the corpse held in his hand. The corpse obviously being Arashi's. Kaji however held no sympathy he had fulfilled his purpose and as he started running again he didn't stop for what seemed to be almost five-miles. Which in reality was about seven miles and running up onto the cliff face. As he got to the top after a few moments he looked down at his watch. There was about seventy-three seconds left till the core hit super critical and the safety precautions all busted sending the core into the critical and creating the blast of a lifetime. As kaji waited he kicked his legs and as he got down in his mental countdown to the ten second left mark he started counting out loud.

”jū” As soon as kaji muttered the japanese saying of ten the place in front of him instantly burst into a beautiful landscape. Starting from a center point that was Takigakure a sudden eruption of fire occurred and slowly cascaded out enveloping everything in its path of the core Illuminati. That ocean of pure energy being released across the five mile radius. This explosion of pure energy brought excitement across Kaji's face as he laughed maniacally as he watched the explosion completely turn the first two miles of land into a crater. Then after the initial explosion came to an end the mushroom cloud came tumbling down in a second ripple. This is when Kaji stood up and started backing away from the cliff face. The mushroom cloud sent off the plume downwards and out towards the clifftop. The plane around them became covered in superheated smoke and one could smell the charred remains of the tree's and animals that hadn't gotten out. As the mushroom cloud hit the cliff it was forced straight upwards. The reason Kaji had backed away was because of the superheated smoke that seemed to fling off almost unbearable heat. He hoped Riku had brought some protection for himself the kid would be fine due to the clothes he was wearing. The only reason why was because Kaji had placed his own chakra in those clothes to regulate the temperature to a minimal one-hundred and ten degree's so the kid would be severely dehydrated but he would be fine. Kaji himself was immune to the heat so he was fine.

”Well that was fun, now lets get outta here before the radiation kicks in. I'd rather not grow a fourth arm...” Kaji then started walking away heading back to there base in Amegakure. He was exhausted from lack of sleep and was a little thirsty but that could wait till they were outta this fallout zone.

A light wind blew, sweeping the sands up off of the dunes and twirling them around, looking like a mini tornado. Another one appeared next to the first, and a third appeared while the first tornado disappeared. It seemed like a never ending cycle, one was created, the other destroyed; the circle of life.

As the sand slowly moved closer and closer to the setting sun, due to the way the wind was blowing, a small glass vial was revealed in the sand, shining harshly in the glaring sun light. It was surprising how hard the sun was beating down, considering its position right above the horizon, glowing blood red. The glow made the sands a deep orange, one much like a fire after it had burned down a bit. The wind continued blowing and revealed the rest of the bottle, a deep red liquid staining the inside of it. It seemed to glow, giving off a soft red light despite the fact that the vial was in the shadow.

Reaching and sliding down the dune, feeling like he was attracted to this one area, Leon stopped to inspect the vial. This was the item that he had felt pull at him from miles away, or so it seemed. The vial itself was ornate, shaped like a tear drop with legs protruding from the bottom to let it stand upright. The top of the vial was plated with silver and gold right under the lip, and was inset with small emeralds and ruby’s giving the entire thing a mysterious look, and the look of something a very, very wealthy person would have.

The cork was not made of cork material, but more of a plastic bit, finely finished to fit into the opening. The top of the cork was also covered with gold and silver, and inset with diamonds. A piece of paper was wrapped around the vial, a think piece of paper, almost leather in nature, protecting the vial and its contents and jewels from the harsh winds and sand that was being thrown around. Written on it in blood, should Leon have looked, was the Italian word ‘Delitto’, meaning Sin.

Without knowing it, the world around Leon changed as he inspected the vial. Swirling black enveloped him, and Leon looked up with a start to realize he was sitting in a chair, fine red velvet beneath him. In front of him was a fire, crackling and sparkling with embers amidst the roaring flames. There was a bear skin rug lying on the ground, but otherwise the room was completely bare. A knock on the door caught Leon’s attention, not noticing that the vial disappeared.

----Outside Mindscape---

Leon rested on Riku’s back, slouched and hanging like a sack of potatoes, oblivious to the world. The three days he was in a coma hadn’t been enough to recover nearly any amount of energy for his body to utilize and keep awake, and the severe dehydration he had been suffering from due to the explosion made matters worse. He had barely managed to down a water skin before passing out on Riku’s back; had he not, Leon’s body would be in much more trouble than it already was.