'Venture: Dedux: Sharaku and Hyde (and Akashida) are at the Rocky Caverns!

| Wow, it's been awhile since I met these guys. | After plans of meeting at the Forgotten Tree-Houses fell though. Akashida suggested they should meet soon. He chose the location and the time. Which should be in about 30 minutes... Maybe the beach isn't the best place to meet up to do these things. | Should I have met them somewhere first then bring them here? Oh well. Just a few more minutes. |

Akashida sighed. | We should have met at a restaurant first and then come here | Oh well, he wasn't complaining. At least he would have fun. He stared into the sea and then the beach. Thinking about the times before. He sat on a rock, like the Thinker, and reflected on the year.

| Hey, at least I back into the outside world. | Akashida grinned. | Or worst, I could be dead... | Akashida chuckled to himself.

He sighed of relive. He looked at the sky. It looked like dawn and there was seagulls flying about. The beach was slightly filled. Though it was mostly fishermen out for some good catches. He sighed of relieve again because of the nice day.

Sharaku was actually sort of glad when he found out that this supposed meeting wasn’t too far from his home. Hey, it was on the island he lived on, therefore that was the synonym of not being far away in his mind. Even though, it wasn’t really that close when trying to get there by foot, he wasn’t complaining. The weather was pleasant enough, and he was in an enough of an optimistic mood. Hopefully, it wasn’t going to get ruined, because he could easily think of one certain person who had the capability of accomplishing that exact thing. But, since the thought itself didn’t annoy him right now, there was a chance it wouldn’t happen in reality either. Only a chance, mind you.

A non-specified while later, he found himself walking along the beach in question, trying not to sink into the sand. It wasn’t a hard task however, and he paid more mind to the seagulls flying high up over him, rather than the non-solid ground under his feet. A short stroll later, he came up to the rocks Akashida was hanging around. ‘’Hello there, Akashida. I hope you weren’t waiting too long.’’, he would greet the teen, as he walked up to the rock the other was sitting on. In truth, he had not looked at the time, so he could have been late. Better make sure he was actually on time. But, he didn’t see Hyde anywhere yet, so he was most likely good. ‘Now then…’

“Yooooo!!! “ Hyde walked over and waved to Raku and Ash. “Hey guys, I hope I’m not too late!” Hyde was a little stressed at the mere thought that he might have kept his friends waiting. If there was one thing Hyde had a quirk about, it was his tardiness at least. Hyde had a small book bag with him; it probably had some things that he packed up for the trip. “I think the bus was running late or something, the bus driver basically had to take a dump and never came back. Then the strangest thing happened, the bus I was on rolled down a hill. Luckily no one got hurt though!” Hyde had on his usual cheerful attitude, today was going to be a good day.

{OOC : So in about 4 turns, I'm gonna give you guys something magical. It's not a dead body or anything... probably... Edit: OH CRAP! I should have said After plans of meeting at the Forgotten Tree-Houses became dead... lol}


‘’Hello there, Akashida. I hope you weren’t waiting too long.’’

"Oh! Hey Sharaku." Akashida scratched his head. "No, to be quite honest, I got here about 10...maybe 15 minutes ago... Oh well, you get the idea..." He took off his Sackpack and was about to make some small talk about this fine day but he heard a familiar “Yooooo!!!" Akashida turned and he saw Hyde, walking and waving over to us.

“Hey guys, I hope I’m not too late!” Akashida held his Sackpack. "Oh no, dude." Akashida smiled. "Sharaku just got here and I got here around 10, maybe 15 minutes ago." Akashida got up from his rock and took out his Headlamp. He then wiped his pants of any sand and he proceeded to the entrance of the Caverns. He put on his bag and he said to his friends "So... who wants to go first?"

Akashida said he got there about 15 minutes ago, which was supposedly not long in his mind. Well, it wasn't really, but sometimes even that period of time could take forever if you had nothing to do. ''Very well. If you're sure about that....'' Sharaku didn't really get to finish what he started saying, as Hyde came barreling in loud enough to drown out the conversation. ''Right. Hello to you too.'', he would say, nodding at the redhead briefly. Turning his head around, he watched Akashida take out a lamp thingy from his bag and walk over to wherever it was they were headed to.

'Hm...' Sharaku would follow quietly, stopping beside Akashida as the teen asked who wanted to go first. Wasn't that a smart question? Either way, it didn't matter to him much. On second thought, he'd rather not go first, or they'd most certainly get lost. ''I don't really care. Up to you.'', he would say in the end, though secretly he hoped it would not fall on him.

“Ill go first if you don’t mind? Actually I have a good sense when it comes to tropical areas like this. Well, I wouldn’t call it too tropical, but it has that exotic context that’s really easy to keen in on. If that’s the case, I can have feel about the dangers here, which is slim to none as long as we stick together. I’m sure if it !” Hyde then takes out a banana and starts munching on it as he looks around the area. “Hmm, this might sound odd and stupid, but I think we should go that way. “Hyde then points in a particular direction of the cave. “I don’t have a real reason, it’s just a feeling. Also, we can always mark some areas if we get lost. Maybe we can use the banana peels or something? Then again, that does seem like a danger if someone walks in after us and slips on it. “

Hyde thought for another moment, then he started walking. “Let’s just trust my instincts for now, alright guys?” Hyde then started to lead the way into the cave.

Strength

Spoiler:

"No man. It's cool. You can lead." Akashida followed as Hyde hiked on through the caverns.



The caverns were 20 - 30 feet tall. Some walls had cracks that lit up the way. Overall, the path lead on was pretty sandy. Akashida assumed it was from the beach. "Ah! This is pretty cool." Akashida was amazed by everything in here. Getting bored, Akashida decided to have a conversation with Sharaku and Hyde. "Well, now. Since we're here, we should all make some small talk. To be honest, I'm not good with this type of stuff but still. We're here. We might as well talk about ourselves."

Akashida looked around, biting his lip. | Should I? Should I not... No, not all at once. Just Baby steps. |

Sharaku would raise an eyebrow with an unimpressed expression when Hyde volunteered to lead. That in itself was more than fine, but the way he announced it was a little overboard. They were going to look at some caverns, not explore an unknown terriory in wilderness. Was there really a need to be worried about dangers already? The only he could think of right now was slipping somewhere which wasn't worthy of so much fussing over. ''Very well, go ahead.'', he would mutter his own agreement. The sooner they went, the sooner Hyde would at least change the topic, if nothing else.

Walking just behind the two, he would look around, golden eyes scanning the cracked walls thoughtfully. Guess it didn't look half bad inside here. Akashida was obviously enjoying himself, so that was good. Bored company could be annoying. When the teen suggested making small talk, he would glance at him briefly. ''Hm, allright, sure. Anything exact? Unless you'd want me to tell you my life story?'', he would ask, a small amused smile in tow. Of course, if it came to it, he would not tell something like that. But, this was a good way of avoiding setting a topic. Having no idea what the teens might want to talk about, he chose not to set anything himself. Let's wait and see. That was always more fun.

“I guess can go first. “ Hyde would say as he continued to safely lead his friends in the cave. “My full name is Hyde Mizumi, I been an orphan all my life. As a child, I didn’t talk much, and I would hide in all kinds of places just to be away from people. Little by little, I started to grow out of it as I got older, and had the sudden urge to stand up for people who felt out of place in the world like I did. The small orphanage that had me was struggling. I did the best I could to be appealing, but never got adopted. They said it was something about my eyes that bothered the adults, like I was a wild beast. “ Hyde then frowned as he mentioned this. “ It hurt, nobody wanted me and the reasons weren’t even related to my own character traits. I don’t have any family, but I would like to think of any friends that I come across in life as family. I traveled for quite some time; I managed to stay educated when I enrolled in a school called Tiekuru University. Then I broke away and started traveling again, but I’m only seventeen. I figured that I should finish school at least, so I came to Zela. I was pretty handy with spear, a self-taught style actually. It was my only weapon in the wilderness. “ After a bit of silence, Hyde tried to laugh off the dark cloud of despair. He didn’t want to sound miserable. “But that’s my story, I’m sorry it wasn’t full of adventure and exciting encounters. But maybe that starts now, with you guys. ”Hyde would turn to his two friends with an earnest smile as he continued walking.

| Oh. Interesting. I never expected to tell life stories... But hey, that's fine. | Akashida had a blank face. He never expected that. He just expected all of the regular things like Hobbies and food. Nope. Not a whole life story. "I'm very sorry, Hyde. Truly." Akashida said with sincere forgiveness.  He ran in front of Hyde, running ahead of him. He then looked into his eyes while walking backwards. |  Flames that slowly burn into an intense passion. A star equivalent to ours screaming out "Carpe Diem!" If I was a parent, I would happily adopt him. |

He smiled at him. "They don't know what they mean, Hyde. You have awesome eyes."

Akashida shrugged. | Hey, why the hell not. | Akashida sighed. "Well, I'll try not to be sad. Mine isn't as bad as yours, Hyde." Akashida took a long breath. "Now, my mom was in the Navy, like you know Sharaku. And my dad was a stay-at-home. I'm really glad that he didn't get a job or at least get another wife. I think he was coping like I was." Akashida sighed. He then looked at another crack in the wall.

"Yeah. My mom died. Apparently there was a fire at a Naval Aircraft carrier. My mom... rescued some of the younger recruits. Then she..." Akashida's right eye teared up a bit. "Yeah. I think you know." He shed one tear. "Well, not to make this all dreary and too depressing anymore, I basically became a shut-in and played video games for a good 2 to 3 years. This year was the year that I finally got out. I realized that I was heading into a dark path. And... here I am now." Akashida tried to smile through.

Akashida looked at Sharaku. "Dude. You don't have to tell your whole life story if you don't want to. I needed to get all of that out for my coping process. I figured tell my story to the people that I trust the most."

'No way..' Sharaku hadn't expected them to actually go with that. And he hadn't even exactly suggested they tell stories. Maybe he shouldn't even have said a word about that. It was his fault though, as he could have already at least suspected that Hyde would catch on when hearing that said. 'And here I like to believe I'm not that foolish...' Oh well, he'll have to dance around somehow, as those two told quite the detailed tales. And surprisingly sad for young people like them. Guess world wasn't forgiving anyone these days.

Either way, he would listen to the two talk about their lives in the past, nodding occassionally when it felt appropriate. He wouldn't comment, as he didn't want to actually say anything upsetting. When Akashida turned to him, saying he didn't have to, he would pause to think. True, he wasn't pleased with the idea, but it would look lame if he was the only one who refused to tell. Screw him and his logic. Now he was contradicting himself. He didn't want to talk, but that went against his manners as well. Damn. Well, maybe he could say something. ''It's fine. I wouldn't want to be the only one to not tell, now would I?'' Time to give it a try.

Giving a light cough to clear his throat, he would make an attempt to summarize something. ''Ahem, well, there isn't much I should technically be telling, but let's see. As Akashida already knows, I was born in Portugal, and I lived there until I had to move to Japan when my dad got a job there. I spent about two years there, then....'', he would trail off a bit, a blank expression on his face. Now how to continue that? Shaking his head a few times to clear his thoughts, he would try again. ''Hmm, let's just say some....not very nice stuff happened, and I didn't have a chance to see my family for 5 years. Even after that, I didn't return home. After what happened, I just couldn't. I have no idea if they're even still alive. I spent the last four years up until now travelling around, eventually moving here about 2 months ago.'', he would finish, eyeing the walls rather than his two companions. That was a lame story, but he wasn't sure what to say involving those weirdo experiments and all. He wasn't sure it was a good idea to tell like that. Maybe if they were persistent. They didn't seem like they would babble stuff to everyone, but you never know.

It was Ash’s turn to talk about his life, and it was surprisingly sad. Not to say that Hyde thought he was the only one, but he could of never guessed what Ash was going through. “Though, on the bright side… you got to meet her. I bet she was really pretty…. Also..you still have your dad…and now you have us. Your mom was very brave; it takes a strong heart to care about people over your own well-being. When you realize that you are her son, I can only imagine who you’ll be in a few years, you have the makings of a great man deep down inside. So there’s no reason to retreat into a shell or anything, life gets hard sometimes… but we can make up for it…right? Though, it’s any boy’s paradise to just play video games all the time, I haven’t really got a chance to check out anything that could count as a personal hobby…unless they were comics. I did a lot of reading at most, but maybe we can play some video games at an arcade or something? It'll be fun! I always wanted to play Tekken, ever heard of that one?” That was towards Ash, and Hyde hoped that cheered him up.

Then Raku started off on his own story. “ Why didn’t you go back home? Wasn’t you homesick? I’m sure your dad misses you a lot Raku. “ Hyde was silent for a moment before he continued. What could of happened that was so bad? Wait… maybe it’s too personal for you. But…. If you have a place to go back to… I’m sure they’ll keep the hope alive… I think that’s what it means for someone to care for you…. Even if you were gone for all these years….they still care for you. And now you’re a man, sentimental feelings of your dad not being there to watch you grow up…. Getting your first car… all of the stories that I hear the other kids at school talk about. Parents are special….but on the bright side… regardless of all your hardships… you became someone that us young folks can look up to….if that means anything… I do at least… ” This was some pretty heavy stuff, but it only shows that each of them has been through some hardships. Even though it was hard to talk about, Hyde kept his smile.

{OOC: Sorry! Cousin's birthday weekend came up! Although I'm happy for him, it also made me lazy and very tired until today... lol 3 a.m. parties aren't ideal for typing conditions. Again, sorry about that! I'm also just gonna forget the planning and just show you guys what I had in store. lol}

"Yeah, Hyde. We can sometime soon." Akashida listened to Hyde's comments. He was moved, for sure. He was also surprised by his very genuine kindness. "But really though, thank you." Akashida sighed.

He also took in Sharaku's story. To him, the event about the 'not very nice' stuff was very...vague. However, Akashida understood that these things are really hard to talk about. "I'm really sorry, guys. For anyone to spend their childhood like what you all told me; That's rou-

However, Akashida stopped walking. | Hold on. What? |  Akashida looked around. "Huh? No way..."

Akashida was amazed right now. To him, it seemed like your typical, run-of-the-mill RPG boss stage. Except in real life. And the boss being your own fears.  



"Woah. Guys! Are you all seeing this?" Akashida smiled. The ceiling was larger than those "hallways" earlier. They had 40 to (possibly) 60 feet on them. The whole place had no signs of footprints or anything human here. "I think no has been in here before. This is cool. This should be a hangout spot. Why hasn't no one discovered this place yet?" Akashida then looked out of the opening.

Through the opening, you could see a lighthouse on a hill.  You could also see the beach. It had no people there. Actually, it was pretty rocky besides a dock that was near the said lighthouse.

((OoC: It's allright ^^))

Well, one thing was certain. Hyde was determined on cheering people up, in his ahem own style. When he talked to Akashida, Sharaku would only listen quietly. Until the redhead turned to him. Damn, he almost felt sorry for not telling everything with the way Hyde talked. Great, now he was starting to become sentimental. Still...''Honestly, I had wanted to go home, but you know, sometimes it's safer to not do some things even if you want to. Trust me.'', he would say, giving Hyde a slightly undecided look. ''You know what? I can tell you're curious about what that something was. How about a deal. If you don't forget, you can ask me later, and I might tell you. However, only as long as you promise to keep it a secret. It isn't something that people I don't know personally should learn.'', he would say, making an offer. Hyde seemed like an honest guy, so maybe, if all that actually went through, he would tell him more. The redhead had his ways to pry anyway, so he might as well go about it this way.

Soon thereafter Akashida started expressing his apologies for bringing these talks up, but stopped midway. That got enough of his attention to look in that direction. 'Ah..' Well, this did looks sort of nice. Definitely a lot better than the cracked walls along the way, if he was to say something. ''Yes, I think we should all be seeing the same.'', he would mutter, in amusement. Guess, what, a nice view and everyone is suddenly so excited. Maybe he just had different standards. Hah, either way, at least it was a distraction. ''Who knows....Maybe it was hiding.'', he would joke a bit when Akashida wondered why no one found this before. There wasn't really an answer to that kind of question, now was there? For now, he would just keep looking around, waiting for whatever else was to come. He was at least trying to not seem totally unimpressed. It was a bad thing he rarely got moved by anything he saw anymore, whether pretty or horrible.

“Deal!” Hyde would nod approvingly at Raku’s offer, he would ask him later about his past. Depending on how it is, Hyde might even tell Raku that he was from another world to be fair. After they kept walking the gang stumbled upon something amazing. “This is pretty amazing! Who would of thought that there would be a secret areal like this?!” Turning over to Raku and Ash, Hyde would agree that this would be their secret spot. This should definitely be out new hangout, though its pretty far from being a club house. Any decent clubhouse would have chairs and stuff. But on the bright side, we can go fishing here. Maybe this is where all the bigger fish of Azores hang out? If we start fishing here and catch all of the big ones, maybe we can sell them to the fish market for some money. We could use that money to start saving up to find a secret spot for us to hang out. “ Hyde then thinks for a moment. “IT seems a little farfetched though, I’m not sure what kind of aquatic animals live in this water. Though, its very beautiful….”