Chapter 1 Annoyed one

-"Hey Kai!"

A 16 year-old teen gasped quietly and opened his light purple eyes, looking at the cheery blond guy beside him almost angrily. What was his problem anyway? Can't he see that he is really tired and needs some rest before the tournament, especially when the flight on the plane is so long?

Max laughed and rubbed his nose for a moment.

-"You almost fell asleep there, Kai. It can be a good thing, but the point is that I'm bored and because we're sitting together for hours, I though that we could at least try to talk..."

The wave of anger went straight to his heart as he heard what Max said. How dare he...he though irritated, a couple of harsh words spinning on his tongue, but never really wanting to break up with people who considered themselves his friends, he just ignored Max's proposal dryly, closing his eyes again.

Max waited for a response from his quiet teammate for sometime and realizing that he will get none, sighed and pressed his head on the cold window, watching the clouds, bored.

Kai regretted to sit with Max. He preferred to sit with Ray, who seemed to be the only person who finally got in his head that Kai doesn't like to be disturbed and wants to be alone. But now as Max finally shut up again, everything became calmer, if not counting Tyson's and Hilary's arguing a few rows in front of him, and Ray's and Kenny's quiet discussion right on the next seat.

If everyone would just shut up, the world would have been a much better place, he thought and crossed his arms across of his chest, finally relaxing for a moment, before growling quietly all irritated and staring at the dancing 16 year old teenager, who never seemed to grow up.

-"Finally we're here! My legs are so sore, we were sitting for 5 damn hours!" was shouting Tyson, still dancing and trying to make his legs to work again, being hyper for finally seeing the New York City's lights outside.

Kenny probably squeezed his eyes and started laughing nervously, poking Tyson, motioning him to sit back down and trying to ignore the looks of the passengers, staring at them with much interest, quite unsuccessfully.

-"Tyson! Stop saying all these "D" words and please sit back down!" he was whispering, truly being the only kid in the world without ever saying any harsh or swearing words. He never seemed to change and was always that 12 year old genius like before, even 4 years later.

-"But Kenny, do you want my legs to fall off? How can you not thin about the world cham..."

-"Just sit down, Tyson!" interrupted Kai's loud voice, sounding quite angry, and his cold piercing gaze met with Tyson's shining eyes.

Usually ignoring everything Kenny was saying about him, Tyson ignored him again, but the captain's angry voice got right in his heart and somehow seeing Kai all irritated, seemed quite dangerous.

Tyson stopped smiling, looked around the place at the people watching him, and mumbling something unknown he slowly sat back down beside Hilary, whose face was flashed for some reason.

-"Kai...chill," started saying Max, being not very sure, but catching an angry look from Kai as well, made him to close his mouth and look outside again.

I hate them, I hate them all so much, was circling in his mind, he was breathing kind of hard, his hear pounding from the irritation and unbelievable tiredness, questions, thousands of questions coming out, including the main one "Why am I still with Bladebreakers?" True, they were one of the strongest teams in the world, when they were all together, but so were many other teams. At least nobody in Demolition Boys and Neo-Borg was getting on his nerves! Why did he ever join this team?

Kai frowned, uncrossed his arms and buckled up the seat bells around himself, just before he was told to, and closed his eyes once again as the place was setting down, seeming to ignore absolutely everything around him coldly, just as he always did.

-"I mean, what is Kai's problem anyway? Why can't he just stop ordering me around? I know that he's a captain and stuff, but friends don't boss their friends!" was saying, almost shouting, Tyson to Hilary beside him, as they were carrying around their stuff and luggage out of the customer service, where Tyson lost his bag.

-"Well...the place was setting down, so he had a good point to tell you to sit down," started saying Hilary, her eyes shining with glittering light, face flushed for some reason almost every time when she spoke with Tyson.

-"Oh yeah, sure, take his side now!" shouted Tyson with a fake anger, but than smiled and laughed nervously as well, before looking back to look at Kai, who was walking quite far from his team, though probably heard everything Tyson was saying.

Kai was moving through the crowd, his eyes half closed and partly looking down, not caring about the looks at shouts of people at him. Apparently, he had become quite popular over the years, but he didn't care about that much. Power was the only thing he wanted and desired. The power to be the best blader in the whole world. His hand tightened the hold of the luggage as he thought of that, and a light glittered wildly in his eyes, the world fading away from him until...

-"Excuse me!" sounded a loud hale voice before Kai felt somebody bumping into him.

-"What?" he gasped and snapped back to reality in a moment, as his eyes got wide when he saw who bumped into him.

Chapter 2 Nothing is good enough

Kai hesitated for a moment there, maybe first time in his life, looking down at the black haired girl right in front of him, not really knowing what to say or do in this situation, though "What the hell?" question was spinning in his mind anyway.

The long haired girl leaned on Kai's chest a little bit more after bumping onto him, and than looked up, locking her light green eyes with his light purple eyes. She stared at him for a second, and gasped lightly taking a step back.

-"Sorry for that, it was an accident, but I did say 'Excuse Me' though..." she said, thought about smiling, but didn't see a good reason to, so tightening the grip on the beyblade in her hand, she looked him over, suddenly realizing who was it she bumped into.

-"Kai Hiwatari? Is it really you?" she started saying in awe, and now looked at him with much more admiration than before, her eyes glittering with light of seeing someone as popular as Kai, the idol of every beyblader.

Kai frowned at her, wondering what the hell was wrong with her, his eyes moving quickly to see what she was holding in her hand, seeing that it was a beyblade, and that she was probably a blader as well. But nevertheless he didn't care about that at all, so he took a hold of his bag again, continuing to walk his way, passing by her and ignoring her fully.

-"I know it is! Oh my god, you're like my idol! I'm sure that you're getting that a lot, but I just absolutely adore you!" she turned around, and ran to him, walking right by his side, looking at him with a nervous smile, eyes widened with an awe from seeing someone as famous as him. But she was about to be disappointed, because tired and all irritated Kai didn't care about anything she was saying and just wished that she would just leave him alone. Shut up, was spinning on his tongue, but he thought it a waste of his time to even pay any attention to her.

-"...We may actually face each other in the tournament, because me and my team are in it as well!" she added, forgetting about where she was going at first, breathing slowly, trying to calm herself down.

-"Hell no!" finally uttered loudly Kai, stopped and stared at her angrily, every emotion, including anger and irritation, was shown in his eyes. "Someone like you will never be able to face me or any of my teammates in any kind of beyblading tournament. Now leave me alone!" he shouted, turned away from her, and walked towards his team nearby, pulling his bag after him, feeling angry that another annoying person showed up and got on his nerves. Why can't anyone finally see and understand that he wants to be alone! Plus, he is so tired; he hadn't slept in almost 3 days!

Girl's already big eyes widened visibly and her mouth half opened in a slight shock when Kai shouted at her. She lost the ability to speak up, and didn't know what to say more, and just watched her idol leaving towards Bladebreakers, his unbeatable team.

-"Someone like me? But you don't even know me..." she whispered, sighed and looked down, turning around and walking back the way she was walking before, which was back to her team.

A tall green haired guy, turned his head slowly to look at her getting closer to him, and frowned, crossing his arms, and closing his dark, kind of evil eyes.

-"Arwen, what took you so long? Was it that hard to go take the map of the city?" asked the guy loudly and looked over at 2 other people in his team, a guy and a girl, ages 15-18. He was angry at her as well; he was not pleased with her taking much of the team's time, especially his, captain's time.

-"Um...sorry for that, Mike, but I just saw one of the teams we're going to be competing with, the Bladebreakers, including the most strong K..." started saying poor Arwen, but was interrupted, also feeling most hated now, for her everyone was angry at her, especially feeling bad that she got really annoying in front of Kai. But she just couldn't help it; he was one of the most famous people around in the world now, and now seeing one in life...

-"Arwen, be quiet!" said the team captain, threw her an angry glare, and walked away from the wall, "I do know that Bladebreakers are here, of course they are here, they would never miss any world tournament ever! Now let's get moving, we still need to go find out where our hotel is," he said, turned his back on her and motioning two other silent teammates to follow him, he started leaving, walking towards the exit.

Arwen took a deep breath, than looked down and followed her team out of the airport, feeling saddened, and helpless, being ordered around and unable to say anything to her support, still remembering every detail of the incident with one of the most powerful bladers in the world, and not being able to forget that piercing stare, full of irritation and hatred. The stare that gave her the shivers that were still traveling on her skin.

-"Kai, you do know that you're a part of this team too, right?" said Tyson, while keeping his hands around the back of his head, and looking right straight at Kai.

-"Tyson has a point there, we do not know this place, we should all keep together," added to Tyson's comment Max, smiled, and looked through the window at the outside world of New York, being really excited to see one of the biggest and most beautiful cities in the world. Ray was outside already trying to catch a cab and Kenny was standing beside Tyson, probably thinking his own genius thoughts.

Kai, still keeping the angry frown on his face, threw his heavy bag over his shoulder, and ignoring everything Tyson and Max said, started walking to the exit, the only thing being in his mind is to go to sleep, everyone finally stop getting to him and finally fall in the world of forgetfulness...

Chapter 3 Missing

When a door to their hotel room opened, each one of Bladebreakers, except Kai, gasped in awe of beauty and richness of the room they were given. Who knew that they will be getting something like that? Everyone's gaze quickly slipped on the polished 5 beds with heavy thick blankets, a quite big TV and one sofa, right beside the door way, but not blocking it.

Hilary quickly counted only 5 beds for only 6 of them and, not saying anything to anyone, rushed towards one of the beds, sitting down on it.

-"Mine!" she shouted out loud and threw a playful gaze to Tyson.

Somehow, everyone absolutely got what Hilary was doing and rushed to the rest of the beds, taking them over. Everyone, but Tyson.

He looked at each one of his friends, wondering what they were doing, but when he finally got that he was the one who got to sleep on a couch, it was too late. His eyes widened with frustration.

-"No! I'm not sleeping there! How can you even expect a world champion to do so, guys?" yelled out disappointed Tyson, and looked at everyone with a fake sad expression, really wanting someone to trade places with him.

Ray smiled. "Well, that's just too bad, because I'm not trading."

-"Me neither," added Max, and Hilary and Kenny just shook their heads slightly from side to side. Kai said nothing.

-"Aw, damn!" breathed out the world champion, lowered his head and went over to the couch, falling on it and burying his face in the pillows, being really sleepy from the big time change. And so were everyone else.

-"Good night," said Kenny, yawned wide, closed Dizzy and lied down, falling asleep right away. The same did Hilary and Ray, covering themselves with blankets and going to sleep, absolutely no one saying anything more, but the only one who couldn't go to sleep as easy as his teammates did, was Kai.

He was tired, immensely tired, he hadn't slept in almost 3 days, he really wanted to fall to fall asleep, but he couldn't. Somehow, sleep lost its natural meaning, and turned into an emptiness of lying with closed eyes.

Kai groaned quietly and slowly rose up on the bed, feeling an almost blinding sudden head ache, which almost took off his eye sight for a couple of seconds, so he grabbed his head with his hands, waiting for pain to go away. He barely had enough energy to concentrate on anything around him, and being unable to sleep was getting him somewhat worried. He did not understand what was wrong with him, but hell he would ever share that with anyone. It would show weakness, weakness of needing his friends when he always thought of himself as a loner.

He opened his eyes, realized that he could finally see again, lowered down his hand and got up from the bed. He looked around, seeing his friends all sleeping, and being grateful for that in some way, for no one will ask why isn't he sleeping or is there something bothering him. They're all always pretend to be the damn psychologists, how much he hated it, and how much he wanted to be left not talked to and untouched.

With quick movement of his hand he fixed up the long curl of his blue hair, which partly fell on his face, and throwing the white long scarf over his shoulder, went over to the door. But a sudden loud snore sounded from the couch, and Kai's eyes pierced on Tyson's figure in the dark, but realizing that it was nothing important, he continued his way to the door, slowly opened it and closed it quietly as he walked out.

He was wondering the beautiful, but empty, hallways for hours, thinking his own thoughts, waiting for the time to pass by, but it was more like an eternity, the time was moving so slow, that he thought that he was trapped in a place where time does not move at all.

Kai sighed, slowly went over to the wall and leaned back against it, before slowly sliding down on the carpeted floor, sitting down on it with one knee bend.

Sitting...and waiting.

The question of the morning was "Where the hell is Kai?" and was stated by Ray, who was the first one to wake up. But there was not really anyone to answer his question, except Kenny, but he was too busy to make his bed.

Ray frowned, looked at Kai's bad, the red blanket on which was a little bit rumpled, and stood up from his bed, his yellow cat eyes wondering around the room quickly, in hope to see any sign of Kai sitting on the chair or standing at the window. But he wasn't there.

Tyson rolled on his other side in his sleep and forgetting that his was lying on a quite thin sofa, he fell over on the floor, which made him to wake up with a gasp and make a quite loud thud.

-"OWW!!" sounded loudly from the floor and the last sleeping person, Hilary, jumped from the bed with her eyes wide and full of visible terror.

-"What happened?" she screamed in kind of wheezy from sleeping voice and stared around the room, waiting for the answer and not understanding why was everyone laughing, even something-someone from the floor.

-"Geez, Hilary, relax, that's just me dying on the floor, nothing important," said Tyson and started to rose up from the floor, one eyes still closed and rubbing his back as it hurt annoyingly from the fall. But smiling.

Hilary took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, her heart still pouting hardly from the loud unexpected scream and faked a smile.

-"Haha. You almost got me a heart attack, don't you find that important?" she asked all discontented, turned her back at him, fixed up the cover on her bed, and than grabbing her purse, locked herself up in the bathroom.

-"And I almost broke my neck! Do you find THAT important? But nevertheless you should have seen your face expression, it was priceless!" shouted Tyson in her back, right before she closed the door shut and fully stood up from the floor, finally opening his other eyes and realizing that one of his teammates was missing.

-"Where is Kai?"

Ray raised an eyebrow, feeling kind of ignored, and turned his head to look at Kenny, waiting for him to notice Kai missing too, and answer Tyson's question.

Kenny put on a questioning look on his face and looked around the room, just noticing what Tyson meant. His mouth half opened to say something, but he didn't really know what, so he looked at his laptop Dizzy, wanting her to say something.

-"Ah relax, Chief, he probably went for a walk around the city, just like he did back in Russia," Dizzy laughed and uttered cheery.

Tyson didn't know how to reply to that.

Usually happy and smiling Max, smiled, and rubbed his nose, because it was itchy and still feeling sleepy.

-"I'm sure you're right, Dizzy. Kai is known for bailing on us and not being too loyal," he said, went over to the window and opened it, letting a fresh cold air in the room. He closed his eyes with a smile, ran his fingers through his blond hair, relishing in the feel of the cool spring breeze caressing him until always hungry Tyson yelled out, "Breakfast!"

Hilary went out of the bathroom all tidy, pretty and even wearing some makeup on, came over to Tyson, keeping some distance and nodded her head agreeing. "Yeah, I'm starving," her eyes glittering with happiness, even after that small conflict she had with Tyson. She could never be mad at him for too long.

-"Same," added Kenny, tagged meditating Max by the sleeve and grabbed the laptop, closing it, and holding it under his arm, went over to the door, but Tyson was much faster and slammed the door open.

-"I'm first! I'm going to die if I'm not going to eat...AH!"

Kai put his head up at a sudden "ah" right before him and opened his tired eyes, using much strength to do so, meeting with Tyson's surprised and a little bit shocked stare, before looking away and realizing something.

-"What now?" asked Ray as he bumped on Tyson slightly when Tyson stopped unexpectedly and pushed him to the side, wanting to see why he stopped and his eyes widened, when he saw Kai and how he looked that morning...

Chapter 4 Something's not right

It was the first time ever that Ray saw one of his teammates looking as bad as that. One of the best and strongest beybladers in the whole world was looking most pale and miserable, sitting on the floor as if he was thrown out of the room, and looking that was a total shock to Ray and Tyson. Ray's careful eyes quickly noticed the blue circles under his eyes as in he wasn't sleeping for quite a long time or was really sick with something. Or was he?

Kenny made a weak attempt to more Ray out of the doorway to see why did everyone had stopped and started staring at something, but realizing that he could never have enough strength to move a tall humanoid cat with ease, he just jumped up as high as he could and finally saw Kai, over Tyson's and Ray's shoulders.

-"Kai! Wha-what are you doing here?" asked Tyson, truly being the first one to dare to speak and break the silence, his eyes fixated on Kai, and he folded his arms over his chest.

Kai frowned, didn't answer Tyson's question and pressing hard against the wall for some support for his back, started standing up from the floor, using a lot of his power to do so, which he had so little left of. Most of the time his will power was guiding him and this was the time. Finally standing on the ground, he actually hoped that his legs will hold him, he was just too exhausted.

Ray bit his lower lip with his sharp fangs, almost piercing through it to blood, but luckily he had spoken before he did that. Though Kai was one of his teammates, and he truly cared about him, the way he put all of his believing on winning against Kai in the last tournament, but lost, was still kept deep in his heart. He did wish "good luck" to him when he was going against Tyson, but he always wanted it to be himself, the one who was facing the world champion.

-"What happened? Are you feeling alright?" he asked, his yellow cat eyes pierced on Kai's rumpled figure, this time waiting for the response, and wanting to get it. It was of Kai's nature and bad attitude to simply ignore everything towards him, but there were some very important things that had to be considered even by him.

Damn, the last thing I need right now is to be discussed by these friends of mine, thought Kai angrily and throwing an irritated glare towards Ray, he answered shortly and simply, unable to hide the tones of irritation in his voice. "Just fine."

Tyson growled in anger now, feeling the hate for Kai, the one that he had hidden so long ago, coming out. Insensibly for himself, he unfolded his arms and clenched his hands into fists, really feeling like punching Kai for his bad-ass-attitude, which after all of these years had become quite annoying. He always respected and feared Kai for not only his deep will to win, but also the strong physical presence, but because Kai looked so miserable right there, leaned on the wall, that Tyson really thought of punching him right there, right now.

Max didn't like the way Kai looked that moment either, he started feeling worried for his friend and teammate, he really thought of doing something, but noticed Tyson's hands clenching into fists, and realizing what Tyson was thinking of doing, quickly put his hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. "Tyson, keep it cool," he whispered barely audible to him, with a sad look on his face, and seeing Tyson calming down a bit, he let his hand down from his shoulder and looked at Kai, wondering if he should say anything.

Kai didn't notice neither Ray's look getting sharper, nor Tyson's fists, he just noticed Max calming Tyson down for some reason, and jumping over Ray's shoulders Kenny, seeming kind of urgent to look at him for some reason. Same was with Hilary; she just stood there beside Tyson and glared at him with a visible shock in her eyes.

Freaks, he thought tiredly, lowered his head down, so his blue hair was fully closing his violet cold eyes and leaving only a dark shadow in the place of his eyes, and slowly started walking towards the elevator nearby, one of his gloved hands slipping on the wall for some slight support as he walked. He now had a fear of falling down, but when he remembered that his friends were watching his every move, he moved his hand away from the wall, and using much of the strength of his will power, the thing that was guiding him all this time, and he started walking normally, as in nothing happened or was happening with him.

Ray, who watched Kai's every move with much focus and concentration, could see the signs of some weakness, he didn't like that at all and nobody in the Bladebreakers did either, but knowing Kai, who would never ever share anything with anyone, Kai, who prefers to always stay in the shadows, rather than the light, and Kai...who was one of the most dearest people to him, was making him feel most worried.

-"I guess that's breakfast after all," broke the killing silence Hilary, but shut herself up as she caught a sad look from Max and looked down.

Chapter 5 Betrayal

-"I'm saying that there is something very wrong with Kai, Mr. Dickenson!"

-"Really? Hmm. Well, what exactly is wrong with him?"

-"Well, he looks really pale, tired and kind of sick, and acts all harsh against everyone."

-"Sounds like a basic description of someone like Kai to me, Tyson, he had always been very tired from practicing and always harsh, but..."

-"But you don't understand, it's different!"

-"Tyson, listen..."

-"The whole team is worried, Mr. Dickenson! We do not know how he will fight in the..."

-"Tyson! I'm really busy right now to listen about Kai. I'm sure it's important but we will talk some other time. Please leave."

-"But..."

-"Leave now."

Tyson growled in anger, feeling terribly angry at Mr. Dickenson's uncaring about one of their strongest players and his best friends, and hit the polished table made of red wood with both of his fists with much of his strength and hatred.

-"You do not care about him, don't you? The only thing you care about is how to get money of us and rest your fat ass on the warm chair!" he shouted right in Mr. Dickenson's face, small drops of saliva appearing on old man's face, and not saying anything more, he pulled away from the table and rushed towards the exit.

Mr. Dickenson was too shocked by Tyson's reaction to try to do something or make any attempt to stop him and say something. He just continued to sit glued in his chair, watching Tyson leaving the room, and closing the door shut. "Some attitude he grew up into," he finally uttered minutes later, his hand reached down in his right pocket to take out a small tissue and he wiped out his face from sweat and Tyson's saliva, with the trembling hand.

Tyson walked out of the office, his head lowered down, thoughts, a lot of thoughts going through his mind, none of the ideas he had, were enough to satisfy his friends who were sitting on the sofa in the hall.

Max looked up only when he heard the familiar footsteps resounding on the wooden floor, and still not looking cheery, which was quite rare, he asked quietly, "How did it go?"

Tyson didn't put his head up to meet with his friend's gaze, just shook his head slightly from side to side, himself slowly walking towards the exit of the building, feeling most broken and disappointed now.

Ray sighed, rose up from the couch and motioning Kenny, Hilary and Max to follow, followed after Tyson, all of them leaving the building, not really saying a word to each other. Only Max, the only one who just hated silences and sadness, said quietly again, "I guess we will see everything in the evening at the tournament."

Kai stood up from the arm chair he was sitting on, his head lowered down, his light purple eyes half closed and hidden after his long blue hair, and slowly walked over to the door leading to the wide big balcony of their hotel room. He reached down for the shiny golden doorknob, took a hold of it and pulled the door open, a cold strong wind rushed into the room, and he, closing his eyes, felt his hair flowing back strongly, as well as his long white scarf. That cold breeze was returning him a little bit of this strength, but not for long. He soon felt another strong headache, and squeezed his eyes, clasping his hand on his forehead, pressing his palm hard against it, this time almost begging for the headache to stop. But everything got even worse when he heard the instant voices outside and quickly recognized in them Tyson's, Max's and Hilary's.

-"Great timing," whispered Kai to himself with a anger, let his hand down from his forehead, and ignoring the strong pain in the head, quickly closed the door of the balcony, turning around and looking at the front door opening with a quiet quick.

-"Well, and than Mr. Dickinson's, like, 'I don't care. Just leave.' Well I got all angry and...oh, hi Kai," stopped telling something to Max, Tyson, and looked at Kai, biting his lip for some reason.

Kai said nothing in response, though did suspect something suspicious.

Ray sighed again, passed by Max and Tyson and walked over to his bed, kneeling down on one knee and searching for his beyblade in his bag. Pretending not to hear anything anyone was saying, which was more likely Kai's attitude, but this time he thought it of his own. He had his own reasons.

Kenny walked in the room as well, walked over to the table and opened Dizzy, fixing up his glasses up on his head. "The tournament starts in exactly 32 minutes. To get to the New York battle stadium it will take us somewhere exactly 16 minutes or maybe more, but we should start to get going if we don't want to be late," he said, destroying the uncomfortable silence, and looked at Tyson. Hilary nodded her head and Max walked over to the table, grabbing his green beyblade Draciel from it.

Tyson frowned, realized that it was his turn to say something and rubbing the back of his head slightly, being kind of nervous, he started...talking towards Kenny, but really meaning Kai.

-"Talking about tournament, Chief...you think me and Ray should go fist if our team will be battling?"

Ray continued looking for his blade, which was taking too much time, Hilary was saying nothing still, and Max was silent as well. Kenny nodded his head with a fake smile, taking a hold of Dizzy again, feeling nervous, but trying as hard as he could to take a hold of himself too.

-"That's a good idea, Tyson, you two should battle, and Kai and Max will seat off..." he said rapidly, ignoring to look at Kai.

But that was not necessary. Kai already understood what was going on there, and he started feeling most terrible. And it wasn't only the headache. It was the fact that his teammates now thought him weak. Weak, a word that he could never think he would be called someday, and a cool breeze, not from the window but from the way he felt that time, went down his skin, giving him the slight shivers. Nevertheless he frowned, thinking of shouting, but always being a quiet person in the shadows, he had just spoken out in a calm dry voice.

-"I understand what's going on here. But I never thought that my teammates will think of me that way," he said, folded his arms across of his chest, and his cold eyes pierced in Tyson, all of the emotions from his heart were conveyed with only a look. He crossed his arms not only to feel confident like he always did before, but to actually try to warm himself up from the slight emotional shock that he had right there, the same shock as he experienced a couple of years ago, when he lost to Tyson.

Ray stopped searching through his bag, which meant that he did hear every word, though he pretended that he didn't. Max's grasp on Draciel became tighter than ever, and Hilary, never being able to hold on too much of the nervous emotions, turned around and rushed out of the room, sitting down on one of the armchairs in the hallway.

Kenny became quiet too, but Tyson clenched his fists.

-"Just understand, Kai, you're in no condition to battle," he said loudly, finally looked up and met with Kai's piercing gaze, trying to look back in his eyes as long as he could, though that was probably the hardest thing for person to do.

-"He's right, Kai," finally said silent Ray, finally rose up on his feet, his legs feeling a little bit sore from sitting on one knee for some time, but he didn't care about that. There were more important things than that.

Kai knew something. He knew that he should have always followed his theory of happiness of being alone. All these people that pretend to be his friends got too annoying, and stupid. Why can't they just stop caring about everything so much? If he was kind of nice to them a couple of times in his life, it doesn't mean that they are friends, pals, or anything like that.

-"You don't know anything, Tyson, if you think that you're a world champ again, than you know everything? You don't know me or the way I feel, so be quiet," he said in a quite demanding and annoyed tone, and looking away from Tyson's eyes, he started walking towards the doorway, stopping beside the door for a moment and turning to look at Ray.

-"And you, Ray, just get off my back. I will battle when I want to, you cannot stop me," he added in a more quiet, but cold as usual voice, turned away from all of his teammates, and walked out. He passed by Hilary and said nothing to her, just disappeared from her eyesight, and went downstairs to the official BBA car on the street.

Kai felt betrayed, and now even the small trust he had for these teammates of his, was gone. Also, no one stopped him from going to the tournament.

Chapter 6 Unexpected events

A skinny figure of a dark haired girl was sitting on the bench and holding something in her hand, looking at it most dearly.

"Arrogant, selfish, and other ruthless sides of him are part of who he is..." Arwen was whispering under her nose almost mutely, only for herself, her green eyes still looking straight at the beyblade. Her long black hair was lying behind her on her back, almost touching the dirty dusty ground of the Bey-stadium, but she didn't really care if it was lying on the ground or not. In the moment, she blinked slowly and remembered where she was now, and looked around, the sounds of the applause and cheering of the fans almost scared her, but didn't.

Mike was sitting beside his sister Arwen, his arms crossed, and looking at the gigantic bey-plate in the middle of the stadium with kind of uncaring look. He didn't hear his sister whispering something to herself, and he mostly didn't need to hear that. His eyes slipped on the figures of the different beybladers sitting on the benches and waiting for the tournament to begin, just like his team was. The teams that were making him a little bit worried were Demolition Boys, All Starz, White Tigers, F Dynasty and of course Bladebreakers, who were the last ones to enter the stadium, and sit on the benches somewhere across of them, far on the other side of the New York stadium.

Tyson didn't sit down on the bench; he decided to be left just to stand beside his teammates, leaned against the metal wall of the stadium, his eyes looking up at the gigantic TV screen on the big tablo right above the stadium plate, the loud cheering coming out from the seats around the stadium, beyblade fans unable to wait for the first battle. Tyson couldn't wait for the first battle either, he really wanted to know who will be battling first, but he didn't want it to be his team, because of Kai who was too confident of himself being able to battle. Maybe he was, Tyson didn't know, but what if he wasn't?

-"So, AJ, I guess we're all finally here to see another exciting tournament of beyblade."

-"You got that right, Brad, and the crowd goes wild!"

Ray smirked on the commentaries of these two annoying narrators, the same two narrators that were making the commentaries all the time, in all and every beyblade championship tournament.

AJ was right, the crowd did go wild. The fans were screaming, being really hyper, unable to wait another minute without seeing any beyblade action.

-"So, Brad, did the judges already decide which team will be the first one to battle?"

-"They sure did, AJ, they had all decided that the first opening should make the team that won the championship last year, and you know what that means, AJ."

Tyson's heart made a leap in his chest, as he heard what the commentators said. So his team was going to go first, but it depended who they were going to fight against. It was good that each team had to lose 3 battles to get excluded; so many teams had a good chance.

-"Yes, I do, Brad; it means that the Bladebreakers will be the first ones to begin this tournament! And they will be facing against....the Demolition Boys!"

Each one of the Bladebreakers, not Kai, gasped loudly and looked at each other, wondering why everything was so wrong this time. Why were they the first team to battle and be against one of the strongest and meanest teams in the world? This team almost killed Ray by sending him to the hospital, stole all of the Bitbeasts that everyone had in the team, and almost won the tournament.

Tyson bit his lip for a moment, but than looked at Ray and nodded his head. They two were going to be the ones who will be fighting in this tournament, and Ray should go first. Ray understood that, nodded his head back to Tyson and started to rise up from the bench when suddenly a strong hand grabbed his shoulder, yanking him back on the bench.

-"I'll go," said Kai, let go of Ray's shoulder and stood up from the bench.

Tyson's eyes widened, he was about to protest and shout at Kai, but that stern, cold look of steel in Kai's eyes stopped him, and he not saying anything looked away from his eyesight, looking down. Ray couldn't do anything either.

Kai, after throwing a cold glare towards Tyson who visibly tried to stop him, but didn't, looked down, and started walking over to the gigantic metal bey-plate, not rushing towards it, and not going really slowly, just walking. He didn't care who from Demolition Boys he is facing against, he was determined to win this battle and just show his teammates that he's not weak like all of them started thinking. But he was not determined to win this tournament anymore, his hope of winning and being the world champion was gone after his last battle with Tyson for the title of the world champ.

As he walked up by the small stairs leading to the plate, feeling kind of weak, but fully ignoring it, a thin white figure of the duelist from Demolition Boys appeared, his thick red hair of the blood color was really visible in the dull light of the sun in the evening, reminding of the horns of the devil. It was no one else but Tala Valkov.

Kai stopped when he reached the bey-plate, and looked up absolutely uncaring at Tala, not feeling worried or nervous at all. His right hand reached for his blade-phoenix Dranzer.

Tala got to his place at the bey-plate, finally realized who he was going to fight against and grinned evilly. "Hey Kai! How will it feel to lose to me in the first battle of the tournament?" he shouted at Kai, and quickly reached for his beyblade as well.

Kai didn't answer. Just ignored what his former teammate said, knowing that he would never lose. He forgot absolutely that he didn't have enough strength left to battle someone like Tala.

Hilary's eyes widened and she tugged Tyson's sleeve. "Tyson!" she hissed angrily, "Kai cannot battle someone like Tala! Not right now, I mean, do you not remember his condition today?" she looked at him with a worried gaze, but let go if his sleeve, as she realized that Tyson wasn't going to do anything. She looked at Ray and Max, seeing that they were not planning to do anything against Kai either. She sighed in frustration and looked at Tala. Kenny was not looking at Kai or Tala, was too busy typing something on the computer.

Tyson looked up to look at Kai's distant figure, knowing that Hilary was right. But if Kai had made his choice or decision, than he was not going to stop him. Maybe he could win against Tala, maybe he wasn't as weak as they thought he was, maybe they all were wrong.

Arwen smiled in excitement, putting her beyblade away, not being able to wait until the battle starts. She now really wanted to see Kai battle someone like Tala, and was watching their moves very carefully.

-"Bladers get ready! 3...2...1...Let it rip!"

Kai and Tala both flung their beyblades at the dish, and right away Tala's beyblade, Wolborg, hit Dranzer's side and pushed the blade away, before quickly rushing on the other side of the dish, getting ready for another attack. He needed to see Kai's little hesitating moment, and if he would see it, he would attack.

Kai watched Dranzer being pushed away, thought Tala's move quite pathetic, and raised his hand up in the air, calling for his bit-beast, though for a moment noticing his beyblade falling to the right side, as if the axis was broken. He frowned, but still yelled out, "Dranzer, come to my lead!"

The beyblade started to shine brightly and hundreds of yellow and red stripes of fire blew up in the air, and up above appeared a fade figure of the beautiful fire bird.

On the other side of the stadium Kenny gasped loudly and shouted "No!" Tyson, Ray, Max and Hilary quickly looked to him with questioned looks. "What's wrong, chief?"

-"Did you just see what happed to Kai's blade? It just turned down to the right on 92 degrees, and though the axis on Dranzer is perfect, it's still falling! Kai's too weak to battle right now; look at Dranzer, its figure is fading!"

Tyson gasped and bared his teeth as he saw a gigantic blow up on the stadium, which meant that Kai decided to get over with Tala already. But it was too early! He also didn't like the fact that Kai's bit beast was blurry and not visible clearly.

Tala clenched his fists, not being ready for Kai's bit beast so early and quickly sent his beyblade to circle around the gigantic plate, waiting for Kai to attack him. He was being on defense mode now.

Kai felt the fire around him, felt the power of the world in his hands for a moment and felt his energy being drained rapidly. He knew that this would happen; Dranzer is feeding off his energy which he had so little left of. He quickly looked up to his bit beast floating above them, and saw it fading away quickly, soon turning into a cloud of light that was disappearing quickly. 'No, Dranzer!' his mind screamed, and he felt the bit beast's sad cry sounding instant in his ears before it disappeared fully. All full of shock, Kai looked down at his beyblade spinning really weakly down on the dish, and slowly fell on his knees, all trembling and shivering.

Tala watched Kai's bit beast disappearing and really wondering what the hell just happened, he stopped his circling around beyblade and rushed it right towards Kai's beyblade.

-"Kai, watch out!" screamed out Ray, jumping up from his seat, and so did almost everyone in the stadium.

-"In all my years, I've never seen Kai acting out like that! What happened?"

-"Don't ask me, Brad, I'm just as shocked as the whole stadium is. Never thought that I would live a day to see the strongest blader in the world losing so badly..."

Tala's beyblade rushed to Kai's beyblade and with one strong move knocked it out of the dish, Tala feeling extremely powerful and proud, with the fact that he didn't even need to use his bit beast to defeat the one who he always wanted to defeat, but never could, and also so easily and quickly. "You finally lost to me, Kai! Do you feel the pain of losing so badly? Feel it again and again, don't ever forget it!"

Kai swallowed hardly as he felt the terrible blinding headache coming back, this time it was unable to hold on from. He didn't hear neither Ray's scream, nor any other screams and shouts from the people around the stadium, including some remarks about him by commentators. The only thing he heard was the sound of the beyblades clenching and Tala's voice, which was pouring down at him like a bitter liquid. He didn't squeeze his eyes shot from the killing pain, he couldn't, and with his last strength he looked up and saw Dranzer being thrown out of the dish. He remembered it was all almost the same; his beyblade was thrown out the same way by Tyson a year ago. He remembered every detail, every sound, including the cheering of the crowd, which was most real, not for him, but for Tyson, a new world champion.

His heart yanked in his chest and the pain became almost unbearable. All dizzy, he now fully fell down on the ground, his eyes pierced on his beyblade lying knocked out nearby, his sight becoming most blurry and with the last bits of energy left in his whole body, he started reaching for his beyblade, but unable to take a grasp of it. Everything's gone dark and he, letting out one last breath that evening, closed his eyes, his head finally met the ground and he let himself to fall somewhere unknown and never-ending.

-"...somebody help....Kai...we need an ambulance...wake up...please..."

Chapter 7 Shock

Kai could almost see the bright light of the lamp through his tired and closed eyes, he really wanted to open his eyes and tell people to get that lamp away, but he couldn't, his eyelids were too heavy to put up and his whole body felt like it was filled with lead. He felt something long and sharp touching and going through the middle of his arm, and it felt like a needle. Than he heard some distant voices and it was the only thing he remembered.

The light cool wind breeze flew into the room and the white light curtains moved a little bit up, filled with cold air inside. Nevertheless, some of the air still came into the room and cool wave of breeze traveled down by his cheek with face painted shark fin blue stripes. He just lied somewhere, enjoying the feel of the breeze around him, until he finally realized that he was awake. He winced and slowly opened his light purple eyes, seeing some unknown room. He blinked and saw somewhat sad Tyson, Ray, Max, Kenny and Hilary, sitting on the couches around the bed...that he was lying on. But not only was that surprising, the fact that there was something worn on his face, around his nose and mouth, and that something was a breathing mask, was simply shocking. He quickly rose up from the pillow, reached for the breathing mask and threw it off his face, himself looking at his teammates with shock in his eyes.

Tyson gasped from the unexpected "awakening", poked sleeping Kenny and jumped up from the couch, running over to the bed. Ray saw that Kai woke up, and rushed to the bed after Tyson, a worry reflected very visibly in his yellow cat eyes.

-"Kai, you woke up! Finally, we were all so worried. How are you feeling?" shouted Tyson, his face all sad for some reason and he looked a little bit tired. So did all of the team, excluding Kenny who just got a lot of sleep and was still sleeping.

Kai ignored Tyson's comment, and asked a question himself.

-"Where am I?"

-"Hospital," answered Hilary quietly, as she walked over to the bed and looked in Kai's steel cold eyes with her brown sad ones.

Hospital... resounded in Kai's mind, and the flashback of everything that happened that evening in the beystadium finally came to his mind. No! It's can't be...it's just a dream...it couldn't have happened, he was saying to himself in his mind, not wanting to believe that nightmare, the embarrassment of losing so badly, and that terrible pain.

-"What am I doing here?" he asked, and his voice faded for a moment in the middle of the sentence, as he felt his heart pounding hardly.

-"You passed out in the beystadium when you were battling with Tala, Kai," said Ray, paused, rubbed one of his arms for a couple of seconds, and looked in Kai's eyes, continuing with a the same question Tyson asked. "Now, are you ok?"

It did happen...I, Kai Hiwatari, one of the strongest bladers in the world, had a black out in the middle of the tournament...it's true...it happened... he was thinking in complete shock and anger at himself and wanted to clench his fists to get a grip of himself, but felt something sharp in the palm of his hand, looked down at it and saw his beyblade.

"Dranzer..."

Max hurried up to answer to Kai's one word saying. "Yeah, we saw you reaching for it, so we put it in your hand," he than paused for sometime, a big deep silence came down in the hospital room, and than he added in an almost a whisper. "Kai...why did you want to die?"

Kai felt as in he was going to get a sudden heart attack, from which he would never wake up.

-"What?" he asked in a hoarse whisper and stared at Max, his usually cold stare changed from cold to an almost helpless one.

None of the Bladebreakers shouted at Max for saying something like that, so anyone else found it weird and strange. Probably they were all going to ask him that same killing question.

-"Why did you want to die?" repeated Tyson, his eyes looking straight back in Kai's eyes, being able to see bits of small fear in them. For the first time in his life.

Ray continued bluntly after Tyson. "The doctor said that there was no physical reason for you to stop breathing back there. He said that it was only something emotional. So we're asking, that is there anything bothering you so much, that you wanted to die?"

Kai's eyes were wide; he was too shocked to try to say something, so he didn't answer on their question. It was just too much. Why would he want to die? Nobody wants to die, including him, so why on earth were they saying all of these terrible things?

He understood now why he was wearing the breathing mask when he woke up, maybe he did stop breathing when he passed out, he couldn't remember. So the doctors were afraid that he would suddenly stop breathing during his sleep...that was just so weak of him...

-"How...long have I been here?" he asked in a hoarse voice, coughed slightly, getting the wheeze away, and looked at his friends with a fake confidence in his eyes. But who he was kidding? Who could he convince that he does not have any weaknesses and that he's always powerful and never needs any help?

Tyson and Hilary looked down from Kai's gaze.

Ray took a deep breath, and when talking, he really respected everyone's feelings and tried to look straight at them, right in the eyes. And so he did. "Almost 3 days..." he answered quietly, looking right at Kai's face.

His eyes lost even the fake confidence now. 3 days, he repeated in his mind, and started breathing quickly, trying not to pass out again. This was just too much for him to bear. He couldn't believe the embarrassment and lowness of what happened to him, one of the most powerful beybladers in the world. How would everyone think of his now? His heart started beating really slowly from the frustration, and he started feeling a little bit dizzy, so he lied back down on the pillow. "Get out," he demanded to everyone and squeezed his eyes from the shortage of air.

-"But Kai..." tried to protest Tyson, but another ordering tone followed, interrupting him.

-"I said, get out! Everyone, just go and leave me alone," repeated Kai in a shout, and didn't open his eyes to look at the sad glances of his teammates at him, just waited for them to leave.

Hilary looked lost and didn't know what to do, but Ray did.

-"Let's go," he said quietly, went over to still sleeping Kenny, and grabbing his shoulder went out of the room, pulling Kenny after him. Max followed.

Tyson was still standing and looking at Kai's closed eyes, waiting for him to open them, but realizing that he was not going to and was being very serious, he sighed, looked at Hilary sadly and walked out of the room. "Bye, Kai," said Hilary almost mutely, turned around and left as well.

Kai was alone once again, but that was his wish, he never felt lonely, especially not now.

He waited for the footsteps of his teammates to fade away, and than he opened his eyes, just looking up at the white ceiling. He now felt as depressed as he was when he lost to Tyson. He could almost hear the cheering and chants "Tyson." in his ears again, just as it was a year ago. That was something he could never forget.

He slowly rose up from the bed again, this time not planning to lie back down, and stood up from it fully. The most amazing thing was that he didn't feel tired anymore; he felt his energy regained, which meant that he was sleeping for the whole 2 days, redeeming it. But he didn't care about that as much. He did not find that as important at all. He was now thinking about how he will show up back at the beystadium and be able to hear and ignore the comments towards his embarrassing incident and just himself. And the death thing...was just...

He looked over himself, seeing that he was wearing a long extra large shirt of some kind, he was probably dressed up in it when his friends got him to the hospital, and quickly looked around for his old clothes. They were right there, lying on the chair beside the window, so he, not losing anymore time, went over to them, grabbed them, and changed in a hurry, not forgetting to put Dranzer in the pocket, made especially for his beyblade. His eyes moved quickly to look outside of the window, and he saw that it was a late evening, and that his room was only on the first floor. Throwing the thick long white scarf around his strong neck and shoulders, he put his right hand on the window-sill for the support and than just jumped over it with ease, jumping down on the ground safely and almost cat-like. Than he looked over at the high hill-like mountain darkening on the horizon, and not staying beside the window for the doctors and nurses to catch him, he first started walking towards the mountain, and than running.

When the nurse came into the ward to check on a 16 year-old teenager, Kai Hiwatari, that had been brought in this hospital a couple of days ago with the symptoms of heart stopping, the only thing she found was an empty bed and a hospital shirt lying on the floor near the open window.

Chapter 8 Decision

Arwen couldn't really sleep these nights anymore, especially not after what she saw at the beystadium. She remembered herself screaming out in horror as Kai Hiwatari fell down from the exhaustion, how she actually jumped up from the bench and rushed over to the bey-dish, but was stopped by Mike as he grabbed her wrist, not letting her go. She could still feel the hatred for Tala, and the words he had said towards Kai when he was already down. She didn't care if Tala would push her simply away if she came over to him; she just really wanted to punch him for doing that to someone who was not well. She could practically say that she started beyblading because of Kai, and in someway that persona was dear to her, though she didn't know him at all.

Arwen smiled and rolled over on the other side of her bed, now facing the window. She wondered if Kai would actually recognize her if she would just show up in the hospital as a girl-you-met-in-the-airport. She surely doubted that.

She sighed and stood up from the bed, looking down at her brother Mike who was sleeping on the bed near to hers. She also looked over at Jackson and Julia that were both sleeping, and knowing that she is supposed to be sleeping as well, she just couldn't fall asleep. She looked out of the window, and saw some not really high hill really close, and she thought that she will get some short walk before sleep. Arwen reached for the long brown trench coat on her bed and put it on, closing it and hiding her top witch was showing off her open back

The walk down to the mountain was quite pleasant. It was kind of chilly, but mostly it was alright. The full big silver moon was guiding her way, and the small stars were shining most welcome towards her, so she walking with a slight smile on her lips. The instant sounds of the insects singing their one-tone songs, distant sounds of the cars driving somewhere far away in Manhattan, the helicopters flying high up in the sky...

Arwen reached the mountain, all dark and even a little bit creepy, was about to turn around to walk back in the hotel, when heard a strange really quiet sound of something metallic against probably a stone or a rock. It was coming from up the hill, so she looked up in the slight interest, and decided to make the walk a little bit longer by going up the hill. That would not only make the walk more exciting by going up to somewhere which was giving her the goose bumps, but also find out about that strange sound.

Walking uphill isn't too tiring when it's sunny and you can see everything you're walking at perfectly, but for Arwen, walking uphill dark at night was quite extravagant. She thought about turning back, oh yes she did, but she was at the top of the hill when she had finally seen what was that sound...and who was making it. Her eyes widened automatically.

Kai half closed his concentrated eyes, looking straight at the big rock right before him and launched the beyblade right towards it. The beyblade flew with quite a big speed to the rock...but hit it clumsily and fell down on the ground, spinning slowly for a moment, before falling over on one side. Kai stretched out his arm above his beyblade, waiting for it to come back to his palm, but realizing that it won't, he let out yet another sigh of frustration and kneeled down on the grass to pick up Dranzer.

I'm sorry for making you look so weak and pitiful back there, Dranzer. You do not deserve such lowness, thought Kai, closed his eyes fully, feeling his eyes becoming warm and dry at the same time, something was happening and he didn't know or remember what it was. Nevertheless, he made himself to rose up on his feet, opened his eyes and putting his beyblade back in the launcher, he than flung it back towards the rock...just to watch it once again being dodged.

Arwen watched Kai silently, without making any sound or move and him apparently not seeing her yet. But as she saw his beyblade being dodged from the rock, she frowned. This wasn't something she wouldn't expect Kai's beyblade to do. She watched his every battle very carefully, and Kai beyblade could do much harder things, than breaking some little piece of rock. Some believed that one of the enormous big rocks that was blocking the passageway to the mountains back in Japan, was cut in half by Dranzer, and some were saying that it was true...the marks on the rock were identical of his beyblade.

She decided to do and say something.

-"Um...nice view up here, neh?" she uttered loudly, which she really wanted to make quietly, but was afraid that he wouldn't hear her.

Kai looked up from the not spinning and just lying on the ground Dranzer at the distant voice not far away and saw the slim figure in a long coat somewhere beside the edge. His eyes noticed the thin waist of the figure, which meant that this was a female, but it's not like he cared.

-"What do you want?" he asked dryly, looked away from her and kneeled down, picking up Dranzer from the grass, before rising up and waiting for her either to answer and leave, or just leave. No other options taken.

She thought that he would answer like that, so she wasn't too surprised when she heard a dry question towards her. "Um...nothing, I was just walking by...and uh...do you remember me?" she was pausing almost after every word to take the breath to actually talk to someone like him, and when she finally got to the point where she asked a question about herself for some reason, she slowly walked out of the shadow and the silver moonlight shined right on her, revealing her whole body, including the face, fully.

Walking by up the mountain? re-asked her question in his mind, Kai, thought about saying some comment about that, but when he heard her question and her coming out in the light...he remembered her. Actually he always did, he couldn't forget that brunette accidentally bumping on him in the airport and being terribly annoying.

Though he remembered her, he answered with a really simple, calm, short and cold word, with a voice which he had always used towards absolutely everyone...

-"No."

-"Well, alright, that's not too important..." she mumbled quietly to herself as she heard his short response, crossed her arms for a moment and than uncrossed them again, coming a little bit closer to him, but still a distance was kept between them. "What are you doing here?"

Why isn't she just leaving? thought Kai, bared his teeth, and simply ignored her question, planning to just ignore her until she realizes that he is not up for conversation and will leave him alone.

She waited for sometime for his reply and realizing that she will get none and that she forgot how much of a loner this person is, she thought about what to say for a moment, and than started a new topic again.

-"Can't break the rock? So it's not as easy as you've always made it look..."

Who the hell was she to judge? He didn't even know her name, and it's not like he would want to know her name anyway. He was terribly depressed, right that moment he actually wanted his life to be over, and now some stupid fan girl is back to annoy him. The rock was not the only problem, though it was a part of it. He destroyed the whole Abbey with Dranzer type once, and now he couldn't even break a rock now...what had he become?

-"Get lost." He cut her off and put Dranzer back in the launcher, being ready to try and try, until he will finally break the rock, even if it takes the whole night.

Oh, that sure wasn't something she was going to do. She actually thought that she finally saw what Kai's problem was, why he was so weak this tournament and she was planning to actually get him to say it. The problem was that though she already knew how, she wasn't sure that it would work. He didn't know anything about her so it was most sure that he wouldn't trust her.

-"Hmm...maybe it's not the only reason why Dranzer cannot break something as simple as that. Maybe...are you depressed, angry?" she asked, risking to get shouted at, but she would try to ignore it. He did make it look so easy.

What the hell? thought Kai, lowered the launcher down and stared at her. Can't she hear or something? Can't she see that he wants to be left alone and that he clearly sent her?

-"Do you have a problem or something?" he asked in a dry voice, feeling like pushing her off the cliff if she wouldn't turn around and leave right now.

She got him right where she wanted.

-"I suppose so, but the real problem is in you. Do you know why can't you break even something as measly as that small rock?"

He didn't, he really wanted to know what was going on with him, but hell he would ever let some stranger to discuss that.

-"Just go and leave me alone. I don't need your psychologist discussions, whatever your name is; I can deal with everything alone."

She smirked slightly and came a little bit closer to him again.

-"Basically, I know what your problem is, but I want you to say it. Name's Arwen, if you do not know, and I'm from one of the teams you may be facing against soon, and with this kind of "power" you will lose to me. No one can deal with everything alone. You need someone, you need your friends, admit it."

-"Back off. You cannot and may not speak that way about me. I do not need anything except power; I especially do not need any those people that call themselves my "friends". I need no one," said Kai in a loud voice, feeling that he will start shouting at her any moment now. "Leave, or I will have to use force."

Arwen bit her lips softly. She did get a catch that one of the bothering are his teammates, and that he doesn't understand the true meaning of friendship. But also, she felt a wave of fear coming towards her heart when he said about force, but she doubted it partly, that he would use it against her.

-"But you do care about them, don't you? They stuck with you 'till the end, they all were always there to get your back, and whatever you got in that head of yours, they care about you! Not only as one of the most powerful players in the team, but as just a person."

That's it. He had had enough and she definitely crossed the line this time.

-"You're wrong. I do now give a shit about them, and I don't care if they don't feel the same way. Love and care are for suckers, not beybladers!" he finally let out his rage and shouted at her, feeling his heart beat somewhat fastening for some reason. "Now, I'm warning you..."

-"No, you don't! Why did you get back with Bladebreakers than? They are more than just some powerful team to you, they are your friends! Why did you save one of your teammates life two years ago than? You said that you couldn't care less..."

-"Just shut up!" he said out in almost a shout again, not being able to hear another word of this discussion, and went right towards her, knowing that he had warned her...

-"What about Tyson, Kai? You hate him, it is visible that you do, but it's only the part of it, right? Admit it, you care about him dearly deep inside...What about Ray? How did it feel to see him being send to the hospital, all because of your loss?"

-"SHUT UP!" yelled out Kai, her words cutting him like a knife, going straight to his heart, when it was all surrounded by the protective walls. It hurt to remember Ray, how he was sent to the hospital, because Kai lost the battle before him, and how he couldn't recover for such a long time. "Don't dare to say anything like that! You don't know me or any of my teammates to make such judgment. Now, get out!"

Arwen took a couple of steps back away from him as he started walking towards her, knowing that any moment now she will she the full fury of someone, who has only anger, jealousy and hatred left in his heart and mind. She sure wasn't going to get out, until she would get him to say that she was right. She knew she was, right there, standing right before one of the strongest beybladers in the world, she felt as if she had known him forever. She regretted and wondered if he felt the same way.

-"You're right; I do not know you, nor anyone of your friends as good as you do. And I actually thought that you thought higher of them, than how you show it right now. Kai, if you hate all of your team so much ...why did you get back with them after the last tournament?" she asked quietly, biting her lip softly, feeling kind of worried to see him to pissed off, and wondering if everything she does right now will be helpful at all.

He wasn't going to answer that or anything else she would say or suggest. This was getting too annoying, to watch some stupid fan girl pretending to know him so much and try to help. No one would ever be able to help him; he needs to find that out by himself, no need for help from Arwen, or whatever. Basically, what he did was to come over to her and without looking in her eyes or her face, he just simply pushed her away, right towards the edge of the hill, his head lowered down.

She watched as he came over to her even closer, looked up at him, wanting to look right in his eyes, but without getting what she wanted she felt his hand right on her chest and was pushed away strongly, as if she was hugging him or something. So he wasn't bluffing after all, but at least he didn't hit her, this push-away even made her to blush a bit, but thank god it wasn't visible at night. She felt the edge of the hill with her right foot, and looked down, seeing how long the way down would have been if she was literally pushed off the cliff. Maybe that was something he was planning to do if she wouldn't leave right now, who knows?

"I do not know what kind of freak show you're running here, but while I still have some strength to hold my force against you, I ask you to leave me alone," he said calmly this time, and looked in her eyes.

Arwen sighed. "Alright, I will go as you please, but...if you want to meet tomorrow again, be here in the evening. Maybe the same time as right now," she said quietly, met with his cold steel gaze for a slight moment of time, and wrapping her light brown coat more tightly around her body, started to slowly come down the hill.

Stupid, thought Kai, turned away from her and reached for the launcher, starting to look at the rock again. He couldn't believe that after she said all of that stupidity, pretended to be a psychologist and actually thought that he would remember her forever, she thought that he would want to meet with her tomorrow as well. That was just an absolute absurd!

Nevertheless, he took out the launcher again, and aimed it right at the rock, and than realized that he couldn't get her words out of his head. As if they got to him or something. He cursed mutely through his teeth, and when launched his beyblade at the rock, a sudden thought "Where my teammates are right now?" went through his mind like a quick lightening, and before he knew it...he was watching his beyblade cutting through the rock like through the butter, just like it did a year ago. Oh, how much he missed that. His heart yanked in his chest as he thought for a moment that everything is back to normal now, and quickly reached out his hand towards the beyblade, ordering it to jump back in his palm, but it didn't listen to him. The beyblade just continued to spin on the other side of the cut rock, without listening to him. He bared his teeth in anger of disappointment he just got so suddenly, and than suddenly realized something.

What did just happen? Does she really know how to make Dranzer as powerful as it was before? I don't know how she knows that, but I start believe that it is the only option I have. Does she really think that I'm going to really meet her here tomorrow? Maybe I should, I don't know...

Chapter 9 Let me hold you

Tyson and Ray were walking around the hospital area early in the morning, both looking tired, but not seeming to lose that will to walk.

-"Where the hell do you think he went?" asked Tyson, barely moving his feet from the 3 hour walk around the area.

-"I don't know, stop asking this same question all the time!" shouted weakened Ray at his annoying teammate, but than he apologized to him shortly, forgetting that both of them were really tired. He shouldn't have gotten mad. "Let's get back to hotel. I doubt that we will find him, he will find himself, wherever he went..." uttered tiredly Ray, yawned, and without waiting for the response from his friend, turned around and went towards their hotel building nearby.

Tyson sighed. He knew that Ray was right, but still, just thinking that Kai is somewhere on the streets or whatever, being out when his condition was not yet perfectly checked, was making him feel bad.

-"Alright..." he sighed again, nodded his head and followed Ray back to the hotel. Kai...wherever you are...I hope you're alright... thought Tyson sadly and looked up at the blue sky, watching the white comfy clouds moving through each other, and than looked down, walking away. The hope of Kai showing back up before the tournament will begin again (it was Sunday) was little.

Kai was just fine, alright. Alright for the people around him but not for himself. Somehow he couldn't get the beyblade to cut or destroy anymore rocks, or stones, though he was trying to do so for almost the whole day. But how did he do that back than? He bared his teeth, inasmuch he started to fully believe that the answer to his question was in this Arwen girl. Somehow after only talking with her he could do that, not any other time.

Making an excuse that she had to go return the book in the library, Arwen rushed out of their hotel, leaving her teammates and brother a little bit too surprised. But not suspecting anything suspicious, they went for a rest, apparently not noticing that Arwen didn't come back any time soon.

And she wasn't planning to. As she quickly came down to the first floor by the elevator, she opened the exit door and started running towards the black hill-like mountain on the horizon, running there without ever stopping to take more breath. She felt more confident that Kai Hiwatari will be there, more than ever. But as soon as she started walking up by the hill, her hope and confidence was quickly slipping away. What am I doing? Why would he want to meet up again, anyway? You're not even sure that your methods worked...she was thinking, and for a moment there she actually stopped, and turned around, almost starting to walk downhill, when realizing that it would be stupid: After walking such a far way here, you will just go back? She let out a disappointed with herself sigh, turned around again and finished making her way until the top.

He was there. It was quite surprising for her, but mostly for him. Kai really didn't want to meet with her again and discuss his problems, but remembering how his blade sliced through the rock after talking with her, he made himself to come back, to sit down on the tall grass ground and wait patiently for her to come back.

As soon as he heard the quiet footsteps moving through the grass, he quickly looked up, and his cold sight met up with her warm gaze. Such an opposition.

-"I see you're here again...I'm glad," said Arwen and smiled, she was glad, it meant that he did take her seriously after all...and that also felt good, to spend sometime with your idol. But mostly because she was really willing to help.

Kai stretched out one leg, but still kept one knee bent as he sat, and looked away. He felt ashamed the he, Kai, the one who never needed anyone, was asking and needing help from some blader, especially this one, the one who was playing such a smart-ass yesterday.

-"I'm just here to find out how to return my beyblade back to the way it was before, nothing more. You seem to know the answer," said Kai coldly, still not looking back at her, and wondered what will she do or ask him now.

-"Of course, that's what I'm here for as well," she nodded her head, agreeing with him only partly. Not only was she planning to make Dranzer to spin around like it used to, but also to make Kai feel better about everything around him. She slowly walked over to him and sat down on the grass somewhere beside him, still keeping a distance and looking at him carefully. "But only if you're willing to work with me on it. I won't be able to help you if you're not willing to help yourself in the first place."

He turned his head to look at her dryly. Hoping that she was going to do everything shorter, he didn't plan to talk with her about himself for the whole night. "I am willing to help myself, that's why I came here. Now could we get on with it? I really was not planning to stay here for the whole night," he said quietly, and looked away from her smile again. He was lying. He would spend more than the whole night to finally get Dranzer back to the way it was before, he would spend as much time as it would take, but not wanting her to make it a super long conversation with her idol, he wanted it to be hurried.

The answer she needed to hear.

She slowly maneuvered over to him, while he wasn't looking at her, closured him, took a deep breath and without looking in his face, she sat down right beside him and wrapped her arms protectively around his shoulders and chest. All of this would sure freak him out, but...

-"Agh! What...are you doing, don't touch me!" he hissed angrily as he felt her arms wrapping around him in an embrace, and struggled to get her arms off himself, but her soft voice right above his ear stopped him.

-"I can't heal your spirit if I'm not going to hold you in the way you've never been held," she said, moved his protesting form against her body and leaned against the tree, putting her head on his shoulder gently. "And you've agreed to help me on this-"

-"I agreed for you to help me with Dranzer, not on some spirit holding thing," he interrupted her, feeling himself shiver a bit as she lied her head on his shoulder.

She felt him going from tense to outright stiff, and smiled sadly. It didn't surprise her. She wondered if he even had any memories of being touched in this way when he was little.

Kai struggled in her embrace once again, but she tightened her hold even more now, so he just had to stop wriggling. "Whatever you're doing-"

-"Kai," she breathed right above his ear, causing it to twitch a little. "Do you want to go back to being the powerful beyblader again?"

He blinked in surprise at her blunt inquiry. He turned his head enough to see her expression in his peripheral vision, before his eyes narrowed in aggravation from being asked such an obvious question.

-"Of c-course I do."

-"Than let me in, Kai. Let me see your heart."

-"Keh. My thoughts are my own," he said irritated, really wanting her to stop holding him in that way and wriggled a little bit more, trying to get free, but her hold became even tighter now, and though he felt that he could break loose from an embrace of a girl, something inside of him was stopping him from that.

-"I won't hold what you tell me against you," Arwen said earnestly.

-"I n-need no one."

-"Figures."

A soft growl escaped his lips.

-"I'm saying that you've been doing yourself a disservice all these years, trying to live without love. It's weakened your spirit, Kai. Not strengthened it. That's why you were defeated in the battle and couldn't get your beyblade to work the way it worked before. Beyblades and bit beasts work on the emotional feelings and senses. "

Kai needed help, her words were making absolutely no sense to him, but somehow they just sounded...right.

After a long, edgy silence, Kai sighed defeat, and finally, finally relaxed in her arms, by swallowing his pride. He rested his hands against her collarbone, and let his one hand down by the underside of her knee. "This is foolishness," he grated half-heartedly. "You won't be able to help me be the same way I was before. Just let me go and leave."

-"Leave after I agreed to help? No way. We'll see what we can do about yourself," she uttered, splaying her fingers across his ribs, feeling him twitching and shivering under her every touch. "Now tell me more...about your friends."

Chapter 10 Broken

-"What about them?"

-"Describe the way you see each one of them. Tell me the truth."

Kai's lips parted to let out a soft sigh of almost frustration. He really didn't want to tell her anything, especially discuss his teammates...his friends? But he already agreed on all of this.

-"Max...he smiles," he said quietly and paused for a second, hearing his teammates' laughter on his inner ear. "He smiles even when he has nothing. Ray is always so confident...he never gives up, even when the situation is critical. Kenny always knows the answer to any question...the world looks easier with him. And the new girl Hilary is...just something that Tyson always needed...a support, a smile..." His throat suddenly hurt. Egh. Residual swelling...

-"And what about Tyson?"

Now this was something he wasn't going to give the answer to. He could talk about anything else, but not that. Especially when it was none of her business. Besides, how the hell would expounding of his failures help to build him back up? Kai cursed his spirit for making him to depend on her, being almost forced to tolerate this cuddling as though he were a damn pet cat. Though deep inside, he knew that he needed this.

Why was she holding him like this? Sure he'd agreed to let her use her strange methods to return him back, but he knew nothing about her to let her hold and touch him that way. It was confusing. So confusing that even in the midst of the night and all of the confusion he felt by sitting with her, he was wholly aware of where his body was leaned against hers, and how warm her arms felt even around his clothed skin. He could even feel the light brush of her fingertips against his ribs...though it was most insensible.

It didn't make sense. "We don't know each other at all. What makes you think that you know everything about me?" he asked, almost wincing at his own words.

He felt her stiffen, and than sigh heavily against his ear - he wished she'd stop doing that. "I have a gift of seeing and understanding people's sorrows and problems faster than they do themselves."

-"Bullshit."

-"You think? I find it special," she said with the disturbing confidence. "Now stop avoiding the subject and answer my question. The sooner you start talking about Tyson, the sooner we both leave."

-"Change of subject."

-"No, no change of subject. I start to believe that the answer to the problem that changed you so much this time is in him."

-"Doubt that," was continuing with his stubbornness Kai, really not wanting to discuss anything about Tyson. That hurt.

-"Oh? We'll see which one of us is right or wrong. Just describe Tyson, how you see him everyday," she uttered right in his ear, and he felt a his heart yanking down in his chest, feeling her so close, letting her to be so close to him, like he'd never let anyone be.

He closed his eyes when she asked him to describe Tyson, giving in. Fighting her wouldn't help him to see his problem anyway.

-"Tyson...he's so...full of life. He's so powerful...and yet so vulnerable and needs his friends' help most of the times...He beyblades with his heart, he finds fun in beyblading. I....I respect his life, the path he chose to follow..."

-"What about your life? Why don't you not respect it?" she asked quietly, one arm around his chest loosing the hold a little, but she didn't notice that. She felt his really quiet heartbeat fastening when she asked him the question, and wondered if she hit the most hurtful spot of his heart finally.

-"My life was...full of training, discipline, nothing else. I didn't have anyone...no friends, no one to...care about me. My grandfather..." he stopped. He couldn't continue. These were his most hidden secrets and memories. They were so...terrorizing to remember that he made himself to suppress them and forget them. Now they were all coming back again.

Unnoticeably for even herself she leaned her cheek slightly against his ear, almost feeling the pain he was experiencing by telling her all of this, herself. She was sure that he could easily go back to beyblading again, but she thought that he needed to spill his soul out some more.

-"What about your grandfather?" she asked, closing her eyes as well, not feeling cold to sit on the grass anymore.

-"Voltaire knew everything about me...even before I knew it. Nevertheless he was a terrible person; he didn't care about...feelings. But Tyson's grandfather is different. I see him...and it reminds me of something I could never have." The pain in the throat came back, the pain that was like a tight seizure inside of his throat, making him to want to take the deep breaths.

-"Hmm..." She was silent for several moments, which normally wouldn't have bothered him, but telling her the most guarded secrets of his heart, left him feel vulnerable. He was suddenly very sensitive to how his actions were perceived. Did she see him weak now? Like his friends did?

So it's Tyson again? Than he is the main problem...went through Arwen's mind, she let out a soft sigh and said quietly.

-"Tell me more about Tyson..."

-"I...hate him. But I can't stop...caring about him. I can't stop helping him...when he needs help. I see him as a little brother...who is always there and needs..." he stopped again. He wasn't going to say that. He made a slight change of subject. "I can't stop giving him advices...I know that if I stopped telling them to him I would..."

-"Win the beyblading tournament last year?" she guessed in a whisper and opened her eyes, looking at the bright moon, her eyes glittering.

He nodded his head lightly. It was true. If he didn't tell him the advices during the final tournament last year, he would win for sure.

-"Why did you help him during the battle? Tell me more about it."

-"Arwen-"

-"I won't hold that against you, Kai. Tell me," she interrupted him quietly again, but felt her heart making a leap in her chest, and a slight blush on her cheeks when he...said her name. He remembered it when she told him that.

-"I waited...I defeated everyone on my way to finally get to him. I could already feel the taste of power on my lips...something that I desired the most. But...seeing him losing to me...was un-unbearable. I-I...he is just so perfect! He has friends, perfect life, perfect childhood...He puts his heart in beyblading...I watched him struggling, and realized that..." it was enough. He couldn't let anymore words out. It was too unbearable to talk about that, his throat hurt too much. His eyes started to hurt as well now and he opened them quickly, blinking rapidly, trying to push that strange pain and dryness away.

-"What did you realize, Kai?" she whispered in his ear, closing her eyes for a moment of time, before opening them again and moving her chin off his shoulder, locking her gaze on his right cheek with blue shark markings. Her heart was down in her chest, she felt his pain fully.

-"I realized that I wasn't the one who belonged there, in the light of the stage, it was him! I can lust the power as long as I live, but I can never truly deserve it," said Kai almost inaudible, his eyes opened wide and unable to hold that strange pain in his throat and eyes anymore, he embraced himself around the stomach and bent down. For the first time in all these years, tears filled his light purple eyes and he, squeezing his eyes, felt the hot streams of tears traveling down by his cheeks and falling on the cold ground, hiding in the tall grass. The stone walls surrounding his heart from everything were broken.

Sometimes, people choose an awful path to follow. My whole life was training and discipline in the coldness. Tyson, I... never lose my way. Tyson! I don't belong here...I am pitiful...

By Kai Hiwatari

Beyblade Tournament Final, 11 months ago,

Chapter 11 It worked

When he realized what he was doing, he was completely startled. And so was she. She couldn't believe her eyes, she stared at Kai bending down a bit and could clearly see the glittering in the silver light of the moon streams of transparent tears on his cheeks, partly washing off his blue face paint. She could never think that his reaction would be something like that; it just meant that he had a lot of pain kept inside.

-"What is this?" he asked quietly, his voice trembling, himself he wished for this strange feeling he had and something in his eyes to stop and just disappear.

Now she didn't know what to do, she was just too shocked to see his reaction, especially the tears from someone like him. Arwen knew he was weekend in his spirit, but she did see him stronger than that, she never thought that Kai was ever able to cry, he always looked so...tough.

-"It's tears...they happen only in the times of deep pain," she answered to him in almost a whisper, thought that he didn't need to be embraced anymore, and started to unwrap her arms.

-"Tears? But...it's so weak. I can't cry, not me, what did you do to me?" he asked angrily, denying, not wanting to believe that he was...crying. Wasn't that the worst thing to do? It was maybe even worse than fainting on the beystadium. He quickly reached for his face and wiped away the tears quickly, the face paint not getting wiped out with them, apparently.

-"Tears are no signs of weakness. They are the expression of the way one feels, in your case you kept your emotions inside without expressing them for so long, that the pain became most unbearable," she answered, her voice fading away from feeling such pity towards him, she unwrapped her arms around him fully, just left her hand on his shoulder to cheer him on. He just seemed so down that moment.

-"But...I can't, it's not me, I'm not supposed to. It's weakness, I can't be weak. I just can't!" shouted Kai in anger and frustration, stopped wiping out his tears as he finally noticed the her arms were not around him anymore, and he rose up on his feet, not noticing her hand slipping off his shoulder, feeling extremely angry now, and turned to glare at her with hatred.

-"What I don't understand the most, is that how do you think this could help me get Dranzer back? I sat here, cuddled up to you like a damn toy, spilling out my soul out..."

-"But don't you feel better? Don't you feel easier in your heart? We both know that beyblading depends on emotional power," she interrupted him with a weak confidence, still sitting on the ground and looking up at him, with a slight fear reflected in her eyes.

He frowned. In some way this dark haired blader-girl was right, but he couldn't believe how disappointed he was with himself now. He could break out of her embrace, he could feel her arms growing weaker with every passing moment, but that warmth he felt around himself by sitting wrapped in her arms was something But he wasn't going to admit it.

Still, there was the only way to see if her methods and his soul spilling worked, so he started to slowly reach for the launcher, his eyes closed; he was not even facing her anymore.

Arwen sighed and looked down. Really wondering if he was going to be back to the way he was before, she sure didn't like that frown on his face: he was still the same Kai, the cold heartless blader, who was never been defeated by anyone, but Yuuri and Tyson. She thought his fight against Tala not fair.

Kai put the launcher up, being most relaxed, his eyes still closed and flung his beyblade at the small tree, where Arwen was still sitting at, and ignoring her surprised gasp, he shouted "Dranzer!"

It worked. The beyblade, before it reached the tree, shined bright, and in a shining red-orange tornado of light coming out of the middle of it, the beyblade hit the young tree with its full strength, cutting the tree intensely with its metal blades that the pieces of bark started to fly around. Arwen watched that effect with awe, but shielded herself just in time before the bark started to fly right towards her, and quickly rushed out of the place she was sitting at.

-"Could've at least told me that you were going to do that!" she said loudly towards him, with bits of offence in her voice, as she looked at him.

He ignored that comment. He was too busy to look at the gigantic and most beautiful being on earth, shining up on the sky, right above the fallen tree, and noticing how the fire Phoenix was taking all of the gratitude the moon had before the bit beast showed up. He was back. Dranzer was back. Everything was back to the way it was before...except the fact that some girl now knew absolutely all of his secrets. He watched the Dranzer disappearing back in his beyblade, that came right back in the palm of his gloved hand, and not saying a word to Arwen or looking again at the fallen tree, he turned around and started walking towards the edge of the hill.

It's so beautiful, thought Arwen, still looking up at the sky where Dranzer was just moments ago, than blinked and turned to look at Kai, herself quickly standing up from the cold ground as well. "See...so I was right. You are back to your old self again," she said with a smile playing on her lips, and started waiting for the thanking from him, feeling extremely happy.

He ignored her once again. It didn't change anything within him, he came back to being cold, and power-lusted and he sure wasn't going to thank her, or anything like that. But she did help him with coming back, and she did know all of his secrets and fears...

He stopped, he wasn't going to admit that she was right of course, and without turning to look at her, he said coldly. "I owe you a favor. Ask for anything."

She was a bit surprised to hear that and not thank you, and she found a favor thing a lot dearer. If true, she actually loved it. Hmm...what kind of favor can I ask him? she thought, and started thinking, but from being a little bit nervous, she couldn't think as brightly as she did back there, sitting with him.

He waited for her response and not getting any, he thought that she will make up one eventually, and without saying anything else to her, jumped on the steep side of the hill, and slid down by it to the bottom on his feet with ease, the two thick white ends of his scarf behind his back, flowing and looking like the wings of the fallen angel.

And than like a quick lightning, a thought of what to ask him went through her mind.

-"Hey, wait up!" she shouted him at the back, ran over to the edge, looked over at the traces of him, apparently, making the way down much shorter and thought if she could do the same thing. But deciding that she would screw up, she just quickly ran down to the bottom, and also had to ran, to catch up with him as he walked off quite a distance already.

What now? he stopped, and turned around to gaze at her with a questioning look. Had she found out what kind of favor she wants already? He really hoped that it wouldn't be something strange or too complicated; because though he said that she can ask for anything...he wouldn't do it.

-"Do me a favor..." she said, and paused, as she stopped right before him, breathing hardly from running over to him, mostly because she was really tired for spending some time outside when she had to get some rest before the tournament tomorrow. "Of being...a friend?" she asked with a low confidence and reached out her hand for him to shake. This was something she wanted and desired at the moment, for him to be her friend, she felt like it was a good choice for both of them, especially when she knows so much about him. "Friends?" she repeated quietly, trying to look in his purple eyes, but he wasn't looking back for some reason.

He thought it strange, but not too strange. At least it wasn't something he was not going to ignore and not respond to. What she asked for wasn't hard or anything; he could just ignore her like he ignored his friends all the time.

-"Fine," he said coldly, ignored her hand, turned around and started to walk away, to the direction of the hotel where the Bladebreakers were, but he stopped and looked up at the horizon, where the first beams of the sun hit the ground, and the sky was quickly changing from dark blue to purple. He knew perfectly that there was not much point of going back to the hotel anymore, everyone in the Bladebreakers probably already woke up and were getting ready to leave.

-"Hmph," he smirked and closed his eyes, imagining something known only to him and turning to the direction of the stadium, he started to walk there.

She didn't know whether to smile to his "fine" or be sad. Basically, she understood that he agreed on being friends, but inasmuch he didn't shake her hand, she didn't know if he really did.

She let her hand down and looked at the beautiful horizon and the sky, the rainbows of different beautiful mixtures of colors reflecting in her eyes. She stood there for sometime; enjoying the wind around her, her hair flowing back as the wind blew, thinking some pleasant thoughts, until she realized that her team was waking up at this exact time everyday.

-"Oh my God!" Arwen shouted out in terror, wrapped her coat around herself and started running quickly back to her hotel, which was so far away. She ran past Kai, without even throwing him a look, so quick that he felt the long blue curls move as she passed by him. He continued to walk, watching her disappearing from the eyesight, wondering why the hell a smile was playing on his lips...

Chapter 11 Favor-friend

Arwen thought she was almost going to cry. Not only because she was yelled at greatly, when she returned back in the hotel room, but also because she was now officially almost off the team. Why? Mostly because her brother Mike, thought her too selfish and irresponsible for spending the whole night out hell knows where. She had an excuse though, but she wasn't going to open her mouth and to say it. They wouldn't believe her. Not only no one would believe that she spend the whole night out with Kai, one of the best bladers in the whole world, helping him with his social life, but also because if they would, she would get kicked out of the team fully for sure. Because she was talking to the opponent, whoever he is.

Standing on the first row of the stand with all of the simple not beyblading people was depressing. She was now treated as if she wasn't a beyblader anymore, no one was noticing her and saying "Hey, aren't you a beyblader?" She sighed heavily, her eyes almost watering and looked down at her team, being able to see their heads and caps. Even the bey-dish seemed so far away. Her eyes moved to look around the field, looking for Bladebreakers, and her eyes yanking in surprise as she realized how close they were sitting to her team. The distance between them was only a couple of meters, but nevertheless, the person she was looking in the team was not there. She wondered if Kai will show up today or not, but she was so sure that he would. Now, nothing would cheer her up, and she already thought of giving into her tears.

No one in Bladebreakers was saying a word to each other. Most of them tried to get some goodnight sleep for the last days, but couldn't. But not Tyson. He was the one who slept in the most, mostly because of the anger he spend so much on that traitor Kai. He stopped being worried about him already, he remembered how often Kai just took off without ever saying a word to anyone, so he already lost all of the trust to him to be a perfect loyal teammate.

'Wherever you are, Kai, you're not welcome back,' Tyson thought, and crossed his arms, blue cap down on his eyes, hiding them fully. Not really caring who they were going to fight against next, if they are fighting against anyone today at all.

-"Where are you?" whispered Ray, looking down, and deeply worried about his friend being somewhere hell knows where, when he almost died on the stadium a couple of days ago.

-"So, AJ, are you excited about another beyblading day today?"

-"I sure am, Brad, and right now judges will tell the names of the teams who will be beyblading today."

-"Hopefully not Bladebreakers, they are still one person short. By the way, does anybody know where Kai is right now?"

-"Nope, not me Brad. And I'm pretty sure that no one in Bladebreakers knows either."

Max sighed sadly and angrily at the same time. How much did he wish for these commentators to stop talking so loudly about everything, and saying something he really didn't want to hear. It was already enough to sense the stares of people on their team, and hear the evil laugh of Tala, who was surely proud of himself about how he won against Kai.

-"And the judges' decision is finally here!"

The crowd around the stadium started cheering wildly, terribly excited about the decision of the battle, maybe except only one person – Arwen.

-"The next battle of the Beyblade Championship Tournament is ...F Dynasty versus... XLords!"

The last word in the commentators shout made Arwen's heart to make a wide leap in her chest and almost break in half. She was waiting for her team to beybattle for so long, and now when she finally waited for it...she wasn't beyblading. She bit her lip in despair, looked over to her brother right below her on the bench and shouted out, wanting for him to be able to hear it through the loud cheering of the fans. "Mike, please! Let me go back in the team, I waited for this my whole life!"

First he seemed to ignore his little sisters cries, and so did the rest of her teammates, but than he turned to look up at her, his gaze angry.

-"That's too bad than, Arwen. It was your fault. You didn't want to rest and be ready to fight today. I can't have you lose here, our team depends on that, even though you are the strongest blader in my team." He said loudly to her, turned his back on her, and started to simply walk to the bey-plate.

She bared her teeth slightly, feeling really angry with herself, but she believed deeply that she did was she needed to do. Though someone who she did that for the most wasn't here, for some reason. And she absolutely didn't like that. She lost her place in the team to battle this day for him, and he didn't even show up to see that. Some 've at least pretend to be her friend.

Not knowing what to say against her brother, but also unable to say "good luck" she just stayed standing in the first row, feeling terribly depressed.

The sound of the beyblade falling on the dusty ground of the stadium is not a pleasant sound, especially when the beyblade is yours or any other person's who is dear to you, or somebody you know and simply care about. In this case, Arwen stood alone in the crowd of no one she knew, she stood with her hand over her quivering lips, eyes widened, watching Jackson coming back after Mike...losing the battle. Both of them did. F Dynasty won and now had one victory on their behalf, unlike her team, which had now one lost. It's all my fault...I should have been there, I am the one my team is depended on...

-"Mike...guys, I'm so..." she started saying towards her team, who were looking at her most angrily for some reason, and she started to get that reason anyway.

-"Arwen, I'm sure that if you were back there, you would win. You let the team down..." said Mike with cold tones in his voice, the ones she was able to find and hear only when Kai spoke to her.

She let her hand down from her lips, feeling his words cutting like a knife. He's right, it's my fault...

Jackson said nothing to her, though she was sure that he was going to say the same thing. That she's a full disappointment of this team, that she let the team down, that she shouldn't have had a night out yesterday. But they didn't realize how much that thing she did yesterday was important to her! But still...

She felt her eyes watering again. Why are they so cruel? Her lips started to quiver from hurt and anger, upsetting at herself. They are right, but they should try to understand...There was a shimmer seen in her eyes, usually her team being angry at her was not upsetting her, but this time...Not realizing that anyone else except her team was looking and watching her every move, Arwen turned and started to ran away from them, back into the absolutely empty entrance hall, it was quite dark and no one was there, because absolutely everyone was at the stadium.

-"Mike, you shouldn't be so hard on her, man. I don't think it's her fault, it's ours..."

-"Psh, but she left her team and lied to us! I know that it is my fault that I lost the battle, I gave it the best shot, but she would lose the battle as well when she hadn't slept for the whole night. She should understand that. Leave her alone, Jackson, let her feel guilty..."

As Arwen ran out of the loudness of the beystadium, the thick stone walls covered her in the slight silence; she could almost not hear the loud screaming of the people in the beystadium anymore. But she didn't care about that. She came over to the wall, her one hand placed on it and she slowly collapsed on her knees, hanging her head between trembling shoulders, she released a shuddering sob.

It's me, she thought in despair, as another set of tears rolled down by her cheeks. I'm not responsible enough for them to be my team. I should have known that they are all bound to me because of my power, not friendship...

The tears were falling down on the cold floor, disappearing in it, almost dissolving in it. No one would ever know that there was a great pain here. I'm not good enough for them, not good enough for anyone...

-"Get up."

Harsh. Irritated. Rude.

Arwen startled, jerking her teary face in the direction of the voice. Intense, purple eyes stared back at her, mouth set in a straight line. His hair shadowed his serious face, and the long white scarf blanketed his folded arms. The signs were subtle, but she knew him by now. Kai was unmistakably frustrated. Upset.

-"K...Kai..?" she stammered, momentarily shocked by his abrupt appearance. "When did you get back?"

-"Who are you?" he asked roughly, his flashing eyes narrowing in a frown. "Surely not the brave and confident blader whose inner strength was so great, she managed to conquer the fears and weaknesses of a beyblade champion as well..."

Arwen was shocked and winded by the poignancy of his angry words. Had he been spying on her and her team somehow?

-"Hn," he stepped towards her crumpled form. "You can't be her, because she wouldn't be reduced to a weepy, sniveling critter from disheartened infatuations of a wayward respect – over some team who has no merit to give her respect."

Her haw dropped. Where was all this coming from!? All of her negative energies were redirected at him. "How dare you! How dare you pretend to understand emotions after you've spent a lifetime denying them!" she snapped, her hurt giving way to offense. She sat back on her knees, not even bothering to wipe the tears from her eyes. "And my team is not like that. They were the first people that ever showed me any care and friendship. The first team to find me worthy..."

-"Idiot," Kai berated, his face briefly creasing in aggravation. "Your lack of suitors isn't because you're undesirable."

Arwen blinked up at him, perplexed. How could he talk with so much confidence about something he knew nothing about? But she couldn't argue with him, no matter how badly she wanted to. But it wasn't making her feel any less empty, or insufficient. She hung her head again, not enjoying this analysis one bit. "You don't understand. Just go away."

-"What is there to understand?" His following pause carried the impact of a hundred scoffs. She saw his ruffle in her peripheral vision as he unfolded his arms and clenched his fists at his sides. "You're not yourself around them, Arwen" he said, the coldness from his voice disappearing. "Timid. Insecure. Shy, unable to argue and get what you want. It's pathetic."

His words cut straight in her heart, and she glared up at him in offended hurt, before looking down again. Shocked immensely. How did he know all this? He didn't know her at all, he didn't want to get to know her at all, it didn't make any sense...

He looked at her sad hurt expression, the one that made his heart yank for some reason, and instead of berating her further and scowling back, the cold hearted beyblader's expression had softened. Traces of sympathy crossed his usually uncaring face. He surprised her further by gently catching her chin in his long fingers, tilting her head back until she was locked in his stare.

-"Self-pity doesn't suit you, Arwen. Remember who you are. Stand tall. And don't waste your energy and tears on someone who doesn't appreciate you. You're worth much more than that."

Kai released her stunned face, and turned to go, when her soft, but still hearable voice, sounded. "But you don't even know me. Why are you doing this?" she asked, still not rising back on her feet. Shock made her to stop thinking of him as someone popular...and start thinking of him as just a person, who owed her a favor.

Without turning to face her or even look at her again, he tossed her the answer in the cold voice again over his shoulder as he departed. "Returning a favor of being your friend."

Arwen didn't hear neither his footsteps fading away, nor the stadium becoming quiet for a moment a so, and than the commentators starting to say something, the whole stadium being taking over by the whisper, reminding of the sound of the leaves on the trees. No, she didn't hear any of this. She was just...shocked, or surprised, or...whatever, she was in such big mix of emotions taking over her heart that time, that the only thing she could do was to watch his figure disappearing in the light, and just continue to sit there on the cold floor.

Returning a favor of being your friend? What's that supposed to mean? She thought, not knowing whether it's a good thing or not, is he still her friend...or had he just returned the favor?

Chapter 12 Goodbye...

10 days later

-"Arwen," he said, studying her face for... something. "What is it like," he breathed, and than frowned, trying to rephrase words that were obviously having difficult making it out of his mouth. "Having...a crush...?"

Kai was standing in the shadow of the tree, his eyes closed, and his strong body, covered with a bruisers, leaned against the tall rock. The ends of his long white scarf were ripped, as were the clothes on his sleeves and arms. But he didn't care about that much. He was standing, thinking...and waiting.

Too much had happened.

Bladebreakers had advanced to the finals already, there were only them left, against Demolition Boys and F Dynasty, the teams that lost were made to leave. Just like the old times, if more precisely, a year ago, except that he was in Demolition Boys back than. In someway he still regretted to have left them, after all there was always a place in his heart for Tala, but Tala had changed too much since the tournament with Boris...he wasn't the same.

For some reason, and really quickly, Bladebreakers found another new friend...from the XLord team. For some reason, as Hilary said after, she felt bad for poor Arwen as she was punished and could not beyblade that day, the day that Kai seemed to have stuck in his memory, without ever disappearing or forgetting any detail. He tried to forget it, he spent most of his free time being alone, but he just couldn't...

Most of his free time. Not all of it. He thought all the time, he didn't know why this being-a-friendfavor turned into something more.

"What is it like...having a crush...?" the question came back out of his memory once again, the questions of why did he ask something like that Arwen was still somewhere around. He just couldn't help...but wonder.

Quiet footsteps sounded, walking through the tall and dense grass.

Kai opened his eyes slowly and in his peripheral vision he could see the thin figure of the girl with long dark hair walking to him, the soft features of her face were so much...beautifier? He did not understand what was happening with him, for some reason he wanted to look at her, watch her every move, be around with her...that's pathetic, I'm pathetic. He closed his eyes back again, pretending to ignore her being there with him, but actually being aware of everything she was doing.

-"Uh..." she thought in dismay, mentally battling another vision of them being together. "It's...," deep breath,"When you have a crush on someone, you're drawn to them. You enjoy being around them, and every gesture the make, everything the say is exciting. And as the time passes by...it's intensified...by physical attraction. Longings to be intimate, in the other words...love."

Arwen was still impressed at her own on-the-spot definition of a veryelusive subject, but thanks to her very acute, and very abrupt sentiments towards her cold hearted favor-friend, she was quite in tune with all the nuances of a crush.

-"Kai," she started saying, as she came uphill, finally finding him there, and seeing that his eyes are closed and he ignores her again, she sighed. "Why did you leave? Aren't you..." she paused again, thoughts in her mind spinning rapidly, she didn't know how to rephrase what she wanted to ask him, so she just dropped that. "Never mind that...why did you leave?"

He wasn't going to answer that. Sure it was her business this time, it was her good-bye party, all of the Bladebreakers were invited including him, but he just couldn't bring himself up to stay there. He had the answer to her question, it was simply I don't want you to leave answer, sounding so simple, but so hard to say...and he was not planning to.

She waited for a response from him, or at least a gesture or expression change, just to show her that he had heard her question and was thinking of answering that. But seeing that he hadn't said anything, or even moved when she came up to him, she looked down, and thought of leaving back to the party, but decided not to...it seemed empty.

-"The plane...is leaving tomorrow at 11 o'clock in the morning..." she tried to make the conversation with her silent friend again, feeling the words getting stuck in her throat. It was hard for her to say them out, but little she knew how Kai's heart yanked in his chest as he heard her speaking about the leaving again. "And...I was...uh, wondering if you...will come."

Awkward.

He knew that her plane was leaving, it had to leave back to Japan eventually, knew that he had to say goodbye...but he didn't want to. Yea, I will come was spinning on his tongue, it was really easy to say that, but having a habit of thinking of consequences was stopping him from saying that.

He kept his eyes closed as he pretended to ignore her quiet wish, ask, and talk towards him.

His coldness and heartlessness was turning her heart upside down, she started feeling hurt by all of this, even when before it didn't bother her at all. He could never feel the same she thought, blinked and her eyes moved to look down at the ground, feeling most ignored than she ever felt before. Why can't he see and understand that it's important for her for him to be there? Courage to leave...I need that or I won't go away...I can't.

-"Kai? Will you come tomorrow...to say goodbye?" she asked quietly, her voice starting to shake slightly, turning her voice in almost a whisper.

He couldn't ignore something that was coming from her anymore, especially when it was so narrow. Her whisper was sounding in his ears as if she was screaming at him; he just couldn't get her words out.

He opened his cold violet eyes to finally look at her, but as much as he wanted his stare to be cold, he couldn't. It was more of a sad and warm one, which happened only twice before in his life. He realized how sad, and even desperate she looked, just by standing there, a few feet away from him, the golden sunlight beams playing on her dark hair...He stared at her in a silent awe and despair reflected in his eyes, but it was not visible, the way he wanted it not to be.

-"No...I won't," he replied, his lips barely parting to say so, he couldn't bring himself up to say that, it was just immensely hard...especially when he wanted to say I will so much. But the consequences of that would have been that he wouldn't let her go in the airport. Somehow lying to her seemed...simpler, but it was making his heart heavy.

Arwen felt as if her heart was just unwittingly broken, and that she could never do anything against it, feeling herself slipping away...Almost disappearing.

-"Oh..." was the only thing she could let out of herself, not knowing what else to say. What kind of answer were you hoping to get? "Well...I guess, I'll..." He doesn't even consider you his friend. You were so stupid to think so..."I'll go..." her knees became weak, and she started cursing herself for being so trustful and hopeful.

No, don't.... "Yeah, you really should get going," Kai said sternly, notes of confidence coming out, though inside he started feeling the void, sucking in everything. Just go he thought, not knowing why he had this strange feeling of wanting to touch her so much, feel her warmth and the feel of her soft skin on his fingertips.

He wants you to leave, just go "Ok..." she breathed softly, continuing to look down, unable to meet back up with his gaze on her, not wanting to see that coldness again.

There was something Arwen wanted...needed to do. Something that would give her some confidence to leave...without him being there. Something that she would regret and remember all her life if she wouldn't make that a reality right now.

Arwen felt the tears of hurt filling in her eyes, as she looked up at him, her eyes being able to quickly slip around his figure, seeing the deep scratches on his forearms, and one big one, reminding of a scar, across of his cheek. That must have hurt a lot...but she stopped thinking about that and took one big step towards him. I have to do this...I can't... live without this, she thought, feeling her heart beat pumping in her chest, that was making her really nervous, but she had already decided. Kai looked down, being able to perfectly see the tears glittering in her big eyes, not wanting or wishing to see them, he was getting some kind of painful feeling just by looking at her sad face.

Just leave, please...I don't want you to, but...the thoughts were appearing, disappearing and than re-appearing again in his thoughts, he continued to keep his head lowered down a bit, his gaze staring right at the grass...being able to see her moving closer.

One tear had finally escaped her sad eyes, and slowly dropped on her cheek, rolling down on the ground...but she didn't notice that. Her heart still aching and broken, she rushed to him, her hands moving to his arms, making a soft slipping touch on them, before squeezing her eyes shot...and Kai not only felt her gentle hands on his arms, but also a slight soft brush of her lips against his...which lasted for only a moment of time. He had no idea what to do. Kai was so startled by that kiss and was so tense that he was just locked in the position he was standing, his heart speeding up.

Please don't hate me for this, she thought in despair, not feeling him kissing her back, and realizing that she should have expected that, she pulled away from him moments later, the tears fully escaping her eyes and rolling by her cheeks rapidly.

-"Goodbye...Kai..." she whispered, took her hands of his arms, and looking down, she turned and ran away from him. Not knowing or seeing his gloved hand reaching for her a second there...but not being fast enough to grab her.

No, wait! Kai's mind shouted, but his reflexes weren't too quick, he reached for her, to grab her hand and stop her, but...she ran away...

Kai just continued to stand there, his eyes widened, one hand reaching out...for her running and quickly fading away slim figure, not stopping or looking back.

He hadn't moved either. He had a choice of running after her, stopping her, grabbing her in the embrace, try to feel the warmth of her arms again...but he made no attempt to do so.

-"Goodbye, Arwen," he whispered almost mutely, feeling himself falling again...and unable to get back up...

Kai didn't show up with the rest of the Bladebreakers in the airport the other day. Arwen knew that he wouldn't and she wasn't looking for him. The world she was living in ended yesterday and slipped away so quickly, that she could never remember it anymore...

Kai always did, but he was always full of endless cold.

So cold, that he only thought of himself...always.