Frontiers Unexplored

16) Cinders

This chapter contains graphic mentions of gender dysphoria. It's nowhere near as heavy as the previous chapter, but I believe it's still something to be aware of. Stay safe, everyone. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Takuya's head was spinning when he first woke up next. The first thing he noticed was that he was down on some soft surface, though he couldn't quite identify it yet. His eyes felt heavy, as if someone had placed weights on both of them, but he still forced himself to try and look around. His mind felt as if it was filled with cotton, thick and suffocating all sense of regular thought. 

There was a distant voice that he could have sworn said his name, but Takuya didn't recognize who it was talking to him until a familiar streak of blonde appeared over him. It had to have been Izumi. He blinked away the fuzziness that filled his vision as Izumi continued to speak. "Takuya? Are you alright? Can you hear me?" she questioned. Takuya was vaguely aware of a ceiling above her head. 

Takuya stared at her for a moment before a small groan escaped his lips. Pushing up further didn't seem to be possible for him in that moment, but he still made an attempt. Unsurprisingly, he was unable to push himself up more than a few inches before slamming indelicately back on the sheets of the bed beneath him. "Yeah," he managed to say, but the word came out thickly and heavily. 

Takuya took in a slow, measured breath as the faces of Tomoki and Junpei appeared beside Izumi. Bokomon and Neemon were nearby, both whispering about Takuya, but he couldn't quite make out their words just yet. Koji was nowhere to be seen, but Takuya had no doubt that he was nearby in some way or another. Koji might have been prickly, but he didn't seem to be the type to simply abandon any member of the team while they were suffering this way. 

"What happened to you?" came the sharp voice of the Warrior of Light himself. Takuya attempted once again to sit up, but he wasn't able to actually accomplish it until after Junpei came to his aid, easing him into a position halfway between vertical and horizontal. Takuya realized how soft the blankets below him were, and he got a proper look at the rest of the room. It appeared to be a hotel space of some kind, but it wasn't anything like the city they had stayed in the night before. Kazemon must have carried him to another town while he was unconscious. 

Takuya took a moment to register Koji's words, mulling them over as he blinked a few times. Everything was hazy from before he had fallen unconscious, and he wasn't even sure if he truly understood what the question Koji was asking meant. 

His expression of confusion must have caught Koji's attention, because the dark-haired boy spoke up once again. "When you touched your Beast Spirit, you changed. You said that you thought you were going to have it all under control, but you didn't, and you started attacking yourself violently. What happened to you?" Koji explained, echoing his question once more. Takuya could see how strong and intense his gaze was, and he couldn't help but flinch against Koji's interrogative eyes. 

As soon as he registered what Koji had said, it all came flooding back. He remembered each part of the battle that had surrounded the discovery of his Beast Spirit, though the details regarding the rest of his team were blurred and faraway. He had been too focused on his own breakdown to fully realize what was happening to them at the time, and he didn't even remember it after being given time to recover. 

On the other hand, remembered his fallout very well. It was a larger downward spiral than he had endured in a long time, and his stomach twisted at the reminder of its occurrence. Takuya had completely collapsed emotionally as soon as he grabbed his Beast Spirit. He had been so sure that he would be free from issue since he didn't have the same traumas as Tomoki, but that had been far from the case.