Disclaimer: Come to think of it, I never got tired saying that I don't own a single thing on Beyblade.

U-hum. Decided to continue anyway, since I kind a like this story – the plot you know. This plot has been lingering in my head for some quite time, maybe since the last 3 years – when I was still actively drawing my own comics…

Sorry for the long wait. Enjoy

-Between Two Worlds-

Chapter 1 – Guardian Spirit

Kai lowered his arms that happened to be shielding his face.

The white light that suddenly appeared in front of him was slowly forming a shape of a white tiger – a huge one to be precise, just as big as the Wolf. The White Tiger marched towards the Wolf and in a split second, it looked like as if the Wolf had been engulfed into a white vortex.

There was again a sudden bright light, which then faded 5 seconds later. And through everyone's vision, there lied the Wolf, lifeless on the ground. The White Tiger was sitting next to it, still covered in that unique white glow.

"Good work Drigger"

A boy around the age of 15 emerged from inside of the bushes of the forest. Dressed in a sort of Chinese clothing, he possessed dark hair and with his cat eyes, he looked from the White Tiger and towards Kai.

"I see you're still as brave as ever Kai. Maybe more reckless too"

Kai gave his usual 'Hn'. He looked calmly at the situation in front of him. The White Tiger or Drigger as the boy called was turning into a foggy light and 'evaporate' as soon as it was touch by its master. Kai let the grip of his sword loosened. He then turned his head towards the gate, addressing to some of the Keepers.

"I think we need a clean up… sir."

The two Keepers that stood there was a bit startled with the 'request'. They finally realized their job and started to scramble some more people to move the Beast's body.

"Hahaha… still ordering people too. That's a nice touch with the 'sir' there"

Kai turned back to the dark-haired boy, gave a boring look, and walked back towards inside The Place. He acted that nothing had occurred or whatsoever.

"Hey, you could at least say thanks"

"I didn't remember asking for help in the first place, Rei"

Rei growled. He attempted to catch up with Kai's fast pace after they are safely behind the gates when one little boy grabbed the edge of his shirt from behind.

"That was so cool Rei-niisan! Drigger looked as awesome as ever!" the boy excitedly shouted. He was the same boy that Kai woke up to just a while ago.

"Yoishi, I believe you have some weapon practice this time around." Kai interrupted

The 8-year old looked up at Kai and his eyes met Kai's red ones. "You used to be nice." He said in a wary kind of way and quickly drawn back from the 2 teens and back to his group. Rei sighed.

"Kai, you don't have to be that mean. Really, I can't imagine you having kids."

"We're just 15 Rei; we're not having kids anytime soon"

Rei shook his head, "Yeah, but you're acting like you're 35." Kai gave a death glare which in turn made Rei moving into defensive mode. "Hey, prove I'm wrong, you practically run this place!"

Kai didn't give a reply. What Rei said wasn't entirely wrong. The Keepers actually listened to what he said. He had become their unofficial leader there at The Place, north branch. Ever since the first time he set foot here, every kids there looked up on him. He was ranked as best of the best. Even the Keepers were no match with him in combat. He was indeed the perfect candidate for a Guardianz.

"I can't believe that you still can't summon a Guardian Spirit, Kai" Rei broke the silence. Kai looked at him from the corner of his eyes. Rei continued, "I was sure that you would be the first"

Kai turned his eyes away from Rei. Drigger was Rei's Guardian Spirit. Unfortunately for everyone, the Guardian Spirit chooses you, so the chances to be one might as well be 0 percent. "Drop the subject Rei, I'm not gonna be summoning any flashes of animal"

Rei kept his eyes on Kai's tall figure as one Keeper strolled in front of them. He sighed again, in their group; Kai would be the only one that still hasn't been able to summon a Guardian Spirit. These animal spirits would work as a protection for the user and to those near to the user – hence the name. These guardians would usually appear at the young age of 10, but commonly around 13 years of age. Obviously, this summoning acted as a straight ticket to The Upperworld. Rei summoned his Drigger about a year ago, right after the hot-headed Tyson and Tala. After him was the adorable Max. All of them had been friends ever since they were grouped together, where they were the ones that were expected to become the Guardianz, especially Kai.

So, no one could figure out why Kai couldn't summon a Guardian Spirit.

"Maybe because he never felt fear" thought Rei, recalling the first time he summoned Drigger. At that time, he was trapped in a packed of Tigers when Drigger came.

"Why are you here anyway?" Rei snapped hearing Kai's question

"I'm the one in charge in transporting the new kids this month"

"The new ones are coming again huh…" Kai mumbled under his breath as he entered the dorm-like area in the building again. "The system is ridiculous Rei"

Rei's eyes saddened. "It's not our call, Kai. We can't do anything about it."

Kai took a seat on his bed, his sword long gone from his hand, and eyed Rei seriously, "Yes, we can"

Rei raised a hand. "Stop it. You're not going to even think about building a regime of rebellion. I'm sure you know what happen the last time this place had a rebellion army"

The slate-haired teen didn't reply. He took his eyes away from his friend and threw it towards the little square window at the head of his bed. Rei observed these actions as Kai was lost in thoughts. It was after a quite some of time that he spoke again.

"You may not know it, but I'm sure it was never like this before." He spoke softly, his voice barely reached Rei.

The neko-jin's eyes widened. He focused his golden cats' eyes hard into the half-opened red ones. "You don't know that Kai. As far as we know, this system has always been here."

Kai closed his eyes and gave a little chuckle. His lips formed a meaningful smile

"Yeah, and you don't know about that either"

"Okay, get off the vehicles kids"

Sounds of the kids whining filled the field area of The Place the minute the door of the van was opened. The little one's eyes just couldn't stop scanning the cold and dry place that they were set to live in till they prove that they are worthy.

"I want mummy…"

"I'm hungry"

"I'm thirsty"

"What is this place?"

"Where are we?"

Unfortunately those cries for help and comfort gave no effect on the Keepers, as they with no emotions and their loud voices directed the kids into the main hall just beside the dorm. Rei and Kai who happened to watch everything from the angle of Kai's bed couldn't keep their eyes off the children.

The scared faces of those 4-year olds brought Kai's old memories back to life.

He looked away, his fingers turned into a ball of fist. He gritted his teeth as each flash of memory began to haunt him again. His knuckles were starting to turn white if Rei hadn't given him a snap back to reality.

"Kai, I should go. Are you coming?" Rei asked, more of an order than a question.

Kai gave a small grunt and pushed himself up from the bed.

"I guess most of you know why all of you are here. And I hope all of you will listen to what I'm going to say because I'm not going to repeat this again. Fail to obey a direct command can result to fatal consequences."

Everything fell silent.

Kai almost chuckle. Rei let out a 'shh…' beside him. "Kai, quiet down" he whispered.

"Hn, I don't think most of these kids even know the meaning of 'fatal consequences'" Kai mocked, crossing his hands, and laid his back against the wall.

The Head Keeper, around 42 years of age, tan skinned and a crew-cut brown hair continued his explanation, as nothing was heard at the back of the crowd. In the process, his eyes landed from one to another of the kids that were sitting in front of him. The children looked away as soon as they made eye contact. Each one of them shivered as they sit on the cold cement floor.

" As you can see, I am one of the Keepers here, as a matter of fact, all the adults here are called Keepers. Our job is to take care of you, teach you hand-to-hand combat, and other surviving skills that you may need until you are old enough to be transported to your respective branches. Girls, as soon you reach the age of 12, you'll be transported to The Place in the West branch while the boys, you'll be sent to the East branch when you reach the age of 15."

Whispers were heard among the children. Kai spotted a pair, probably twins – a boy and a girl. His eyes narrowed as he saw the little girl started to sob as she heard that she'll be separated from her brother. The brother rubbed her sister's back, and said something what Kai made out as 'It's okay'

Kai lowered his head and hid his eyes under the bangs of his hair.

"Now, I will tell you about the rules here. You all will be grouped according to abilities and battle stats. You will only move among your groups and I suggest you don't ever leave your group. None of you are permitted to go outside this gate. This is for your own personal safety. Unless, you do not value your life, you are more than welcome to walk out of this place. And I hope none of you will ever think of escaping since it will only result to one thing – which I might say, not well at all. Even if you can reach the borders, I'm pretty sure they won't let you in."

Few of the children swallowed the lump in their throat.

"There are basically 2 ways for you to prove that you are worthy enough, or in other words, for you to get back to The Upperworld. The Beasts, as we all might know, are the ones that invade the very woods in The Underworld. For you to prove yourself worthy enough, you are required to kill these beasts, 2 for every element; which would be the Land, Water, and Air. The knowledge about these types of Beasts will be educated to you throughout the whole training session. "The Keeper stopped for a while as he slipped some papers in the inside pocket of his jacket.

"For the 2nd option; which I'm not putting much hopes in would be the summoning of the Guardian Spirits. The chances are obviously slim. There is no age requirement though, it could be even now or maybe even you're over 30, but most common age would be 13. "

For some reason, this attracted the children's attention.

"And as for the how… when you can successfully summon these spirits which can be in any form – usually animals, you are automatically considered as worthy and you may cross the borders of The Upperworld with no sweat. The Guardian Spirits will acts as a protection charm, which you can use against the Beasts."

Suddenly one of the children raised a hand, "How these spirits looked like, sir?"

"Well, like I said before, it usually comes in a form of an animal, but the whole thing is entirely up to you. I'm sure some of you have seen it, probably from your parents, so I hope you all could update each other on that. Usually, the ones that topped the combat and battle skills would have higher chances in becoming the Guardianz. However – "the Keeper suddenly looked at the back of the room "that is not entirely true".

Rei realized who the Keeper was referring to, and he stole a quick glance towards Kai. Kai, whom seemed unaffected with the remark, just gave his calm look.

"Well, those are the 2 ways. But there would be an exception for the girls however, whereas this is quite special. For the girls, you may also enter to The Upperworld through marriage with the people from there."

A confused look surrounded the children "Sir, what is marriage?"

Kai laughed.

The Keeper made a noise at the back of his throat. "We'll update you on that later. Now, we'll begin the grouping session. Would all you move to the training ground at the back of the building?" the Keeper instructed the other Keepers to guide the children the way.

As soon as the children began to start moving, Kai made his way to the front section of the building and went out. Trailing behind him was Rei.

"Fuh, thank god nobody asked for a demonstration on how I summon the Guardian Spirit" Rei gave a sigh of relief.

"Too bad, I was about to mention your name just now"

"Haha, that's so funny Kai"

"Hn" a hint of smile appeared on his fair face.

Both said nothing for a while. Rei kept on following Kai, knowing that he should follow him. He realized that they came upon the training grounds at the north-east part of The Place. In the middle, drawn by chalk; was a square. Kai entered, which he then he faced towards Rei.

"Come on, it has been a while since we had a hand-to-hand combat match"

The atmosphere at the West branch of The Place was unusually damp, could be from the continuous rain for the past 2 weeks. And the cold and damp weather made no difference than any other part of The Underworld

But it was a bit different in the West branch. The place was more clean and not to mention more neat. Since it was situated at the west part of The Underworld, The Place there was more protected and isolated from The Beasts. And since its being run by woman, The Place there could be considered twice as good compared to the other branches.

The style of the area was pretty much the same; a square area surrounded by big walls and a huge gate. The big building was situated in the middle, with the training grounds surrounding the building. The soil there was damp, but there were grass growing from it. If none of these people there ever had a memory of The Upperworld, this place would be considered as paradise.

At the top of building, a slim figure felt the cold wind hitting her body. Strands of brown hair flew along with the wind, her ruby eyes were fixed at the clear sky that was far beneath reach. Her once dirty face was now as fair as a maiden's face, with her wavy hair nicely tied at the back of her head. It was quite a work to grow them that long.

Unfortunately, this young girl's quiet moment didn't last long

"Hilary!"

She turned and saw her friend Mariah behind her.

"Hilary, you need to stop this disappearing act"

Her ruby eyes just stared at the pink-haired girl. "Come on, like I'm going somewhere" she went back staring at the sky, ignoring Mariah, a newly-appointed Guardianz. She just arrived 2 days ago, bringing unexpected news.

"Seriously Hilary, I'm not trying to crush your hope, but you better give it up"

Hilary's eyes narrowed. A tear started to form. She quickly wiped it away. "I'm not giving up. How is he doing anyway?" she asked, trying to smile.

Mariah sighed "He's still the same as ever"

Hilary chuckled. Some sweet memories just reached her.

"I don't think he'll ever be a Guardianz, Hilary. There is still a chance, but I'm afraid it could be all too late for you… you need to move on"

The air was quiet.

Mariah moved forward to the brown-haired girl. She put a comforting hand on Hilary's shoulder. "Maybe you should just accept his offer"

The tears escaped Hilary's eyes. Mariah wrapped her hands around Hilary, as she cried silently. Beneath all the sobbing, Mariah could hear that Hilary kept on repeating the word 'no'.

"Hah, I guess I still can't beat you in combat" Rei remarked, panting for breath while lying on the ground. Kai, on the other hand, was standing calmly in front of him.

"Yeah, you need more practice Rei. Stop depending on Drigger"

Rei just gave a smile. "Well, that shows that I trust Drigger"

Kai raised an eyebrow "Right, I'm not sure Mariah would agree with you being so weak in combat"

The Chinese gave a small laugh, and got back to his feet. He gave a pat or two at his trousers, lifting all the dust from his pants. He then looked at Kai who was picking his scarf from the ground.

"Anyway Kai, I need to tell you something"

The slate-haired teenager turned his attention from the scarf to Rei. His face showed that he was expecting something from Rei. "I'm pretty sure, there's more to than just transporting the new kids here."

Rei hesitated. His eyes moved up, to the sides, and down. Lastly it was fixed at the amber eyes belonged to Kai. "I don't know how I should say this, but the news already spreading at The Upperworld"

Kai looked hard into Rei's eyes.

"Just spit it out Rei"

Rei took a deep breath

"Hilary's getting married"

Kai's eyes widened.

Fin.

Author's note

Okay, that's all for now. Starting june, if there are no problems, I will be updating this story every Friday and 'Light in the Darkness' every Saturday.

Thank you for all your support.

Please no comment on the spelling, since I'm pretty sure it would be wrong when I check it back. Grammatical corrections are welcomed though,