Chapter Text
On a hot summer day in Metal Bey City, three friends rested in the shade of a tree in a park. The oldest, Gingka, lay face-down in the grass, getting dirt all over his clothes and through his dark red hair. He didn’t seem to care, as he was too busy mumbling about the heat. Next to him, their smallest friend, Kenta, was crouching in the grass trying to get his friend’s face out of the dirt. Leaning against the tree was Madoka, who simply shook her head at Gingka’s whining and continued to type away at her laptop. Gingka eventually stopped moaning, so Kenta stood up and nudged his head with his foot.
“Gingka? Aw man, the heat finally killed him,” Kenta sighed.
Madoka looked up from her laptop. “It’s about time. If he didn’t stop whining soon, I would’ve done it myself.”
Gingka suddenly pushed himself up from the ground, making Kenta jump. “Hey! I can still hear you,” he whined. “It’s not my fault the sun decided to become a beam of death today.” He sat up all the way and crossed his arms and legs, sulking.
Madoka rolled her eyes at him. “If you’re so hot, go do something about it.”
“What am I supposed to do? Destroy the sun?” Gingka half suggested. However, his face went from bothered to curious as he thought about it. He stroked his chin and hummed. “Hm, could I? I have destroyed an asteroid before…”
“Oh, great. The heat has driven you mad,” Madoka droned, cutting through his delusions of grandeur.
Gingka squinted his eyes at her. “I’ve done some crazy stuff before, Madoka. Have a little faith, would you?” He pouted at her, but she just rolled her eyes again and groaned.
“I’m sure you’d give it your best shot, Gingka,” Kenta said, patting his friend on the top of his head, squishing down his hair. “But for now, as for dealing with the heat, why don’t we go get ice cream?” he suggested with his usual cheerful smile.
Madoka threw her hands in the air. “Finally, a sensible idea!” She carefully placed her laptop into her bag and zipped it up. “In fact, I know just where to go for that. There’s a good stand that’s usually not far from here.”
Gingka perked up at the mention of food. “Well, I suppose if you think my idea’s so terrible, this would be the next best thing,” he joked, making Kenta giggle. He stood up and tried to brush all the dirt off of himself, only getting half of the job done.
Madoka laughed as he struggled to get it off of his hands, so he wiped one of his dirty hands on her nice pick jacket, making her squeal. “You rat!”
Kenta interrupted their teasing as he grabbed both of them by the hands. “Come on, guys! There’s probably tons of people there already!” he exclaimed, pulling them out of the park and to the main street of the city.
Metal Bey City was always a vibrant place— especially in the summer— but today felt a little different. Everyone seemed to be buzzing with excitement. Gingka couldn’t help but notice that people were staring at him, whispering to each other happily. He was used to being stared at, having saved the world quite a few times now, but this just didn’t feel the same as it usually did. He decided to ignore it as he and his friends approached the ice cream stand. The lady working there was already getting scoops for two other kids, so they stood behind them and looked at the selection.
“Huh, not as crowded as I thought it’d be,” Kenta noted.
“So we didn’t really need to rush here, did we?” Madoka said, nudging him in the shoulder. He rubbed his arm and chuckled.
They all chose their flavours and walked up to the stand as the lady was waving goodbye to the other children. She was short and plump, with grey streaks in her hair and kind, brown eyes. Her face seemed to light up as looked at the group. “Well, if it isn’t one of Japan’s own Beyblade champions? How can I help you, sweetie?”
Gingka’s face turned red and he looked away, smiling, while the other two giggled at him; getting recognised never got any easier, it seemed. They all ordered their scoops, Gingka’s being a tall stack of as many flavours as one waffle cone could hold. He waved his hand dismissively at Madoka as she dug through her bag for her wallet and pulled out his own from his pocket. She may be the only one with a job, but his dad was the director of the WBBA, so he had pocket money to spare. Madoka simply shrugged and took her strawberry ice cream from the lady with a “Thank you.”
Just as Gingka was about to ask how much it was, the lady raised her hand. “No, no. That won’t be necessary,” she said.
Gingka was baffled. He looked down at Kenta, who was struggling to hold Gingka’s massive ice cream as well as his own. “But— we took so much? Surely—”
“It’s really not a big deal. I mean, it’s not every day you serve the captain of the Japanese Beyblading team,” she said with a wink.
Gingka looked at his friends, and then back at her. “Are you sure?” he asked.
“Positive,” she insisted. “You and your friends better eat those quickly, now. Don’t want it to melt.”
All three of them bowed gratefully at her, careful not to drop their ice cream. “Thank you!” they all said in unison. They walked to the side to let the next customers come through, and Kenta handed Gingka his tower of ice cream.
“Well, that was certainly nice of her!” Kenta piped up before shoving his face in his chocolate flavoured cone.
Gingka smiled and looked at his own ice cream, still blushing. Captain of the Japanese team. Ever since he and his friends had saved the world from Nemesis one year ago, that was what he was known for, and everyone he met since then had always thanked him for it. He had to admit, it was nice to be recognised for his competitive blading again; he missed doing it just for fun, not having the fate of the world in his hands. “It’s kind of funny, isn’t it?” he asked, “You know, that she recognised me from the world championships, and not Nemesis or anything.” The other two looked up at him.
“Yeah, I guess that is a little unusual,” Madoka noted.
“Maybe she doesn’t like saving the world as much as she likes sports?” Kenta suggested with a mouth still full of ice cream, getting a disapproving glare from Madoka.
“Swallow first, Kenta! Geez,” she nagged. Kenta put a hand over his mouth and giggled.
Gingka was just about to start on his own ice cream— which was now dripping down his hand— when he happened to hear his name from a group of kids across the street. He turned and saw that they were gathered around an electronics store with TVs playing in the window. When he squinted his eyes, he could see Blader DJ on a few of the screens. “Hey,” he got his friends’ attention and pointed towards the group, “What do you think is going on over there? Could’ve sworn I heard my name.”
Madoka leaned over to look through the crowd and at the screens. “Well, if they’re talking about Beyblade, your name’s bound to come up,” she reasoned. “You are kind of the best, after all.”
“I guess. I just can’t shake this feeling that something’s going on today. People keep staring at me— and not in the usual way, either.”
“Why don’t we go have a look, then?” Kenta suggested. Gingka nodded, and together they crossed the road. One of the kids in the other group spotted them and whispered something to his friends, who all stopped chattering and whipped around to look in stunned silence. Gingka smiled awkwardly at them, but none of their expressions changed.
When they finally reached the other side of the street, the group automatically parted ways for them to have a clear view of the screens. Blader DJ’s yelling could be heard faintly through the window. “We’ll be back soon, folks, with more news about the up-and-coming world championships!”
“Up-and-coming? Oh, is this a rerun from the last championships?” Madoka asked the group, who shared puzzled looks.
“You mean you guys don’t know?” a boy around Kenta’s age questioned. “I thought you’d be the first to know about the world championships this year.”
Gingka’s eyes widened. “The what?!” he shouted, startling all of the kids around him. His head whipped over to his two friends, searching for answers, but they looked just as surprised as he was. He turned back to the group of kids. “When was it announced?”
“Just this morning,” a slightly older boy answered. “So you really didn’t know?”
Gingka shook his head. He felt his ice cream start to melt through the cone, so he shoved the entire melty, soggy mess into his mouth. Madoka gagged at him but didn’t have time to tell him off as he started bolting down the street. “Hey! Gingka, wait up!” she yelled as she and Kenta started chasing after him, leaving a very baffled group of kids.
Gingka ran as fast as he could, the outside of his body burning in the heat and the inside freezing from swallowing all of that ice cream at once. Madoka and Kenta were hot on his tail, eventually realising where he was running in such a hurry.
They arrived at the WBBA headquarters, all huffing and panting, but they didn’t have time to catch their breath. They raced through the doors and around the halls, almost crashing into multiple employees. Once they reached the director’s office, Gingka slammed the door open. “Dad!”
Director Ryo Hagane and his assistant Hikaru jumped at the loud intrusion. “Oh, hi son! What—”
“Why didn’t you tell us about the new world championships?!” Gingka demanded, half annoyed and half excited.
Ryo and Hikaru looked at each other, smiled, and then looked back at Gingka. “Well, you know how I feel about special treatment, Gingka,” Ryo said, smiling. “You couldn’t find out before anyone else.”
Gingka pouted and crossed his arms. “You could’ve called once the announcement was made,” he mumbled.
Ryo rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at Hikaru for help. “Well, the important thing is that you all know now,” she stated, saving her boss from further scorn like she always did.
Madoka strutted up to the big screen on the wall behind the desk. “We should get in a call with the others. I bet they’d love to talk about this!”
Hikaru nodded and typed a few things up on the computer. In a few moments, the screen lit up. “They’re all already online,” she noted. Three windows popped up: one with team Wang Hu Zhong, one with team Dungeon and King, and one with Yu and Benkei. Immediately, chatter erupted throughout each group, making the speakers pop.
“I can’t believe it’s finally happening!” Masamune hailed. “A chance to show off team Dungeon’s stuff!”
“There’s no way we’re getting out in the first round again,” Zhouxing stated confidently.
“Absolutely not! We’re taking ass and kicking names!” Mei Mei cheered, earning herself a few facepalms and giggles.
“Hey Ben-Ben, are you and Yoyo going back to the African team?” Yu asked, slumped over Benkei’s shoulder.
“You bet we are! Team Wild Fang will be unstoppable!”
Ryo raised his hands. “Okay, okay. I know we’re all very excited. Let’s just take it slow for now.”
“Pfft, okay old man, try to keep up,” Masamune teased, making everyone else laugh. Ryo sighed and shook his head, smiling.
“Okay,” Gingka started off, “So I haven’t had any time to process this ‘cause, you know, dad didn’t tell me about it—” He narrowed his eyes at his father, who laughed nervously. “—But, like, this is crazy, right? It feels like only yesterday we were heading off to China for our first win!”
“Yeah!” Kenta chimed in, “I sure do remember all those fond memories of us all travelling together,” he said with a sly smirk.
Gingka put his arm around Kenta’s shoulders and ruffled his hair. “Hey, come on now, you’ve improved a lot since then! Besides, since Masamune’s going for the American team now, we don’t know for certain who’ll be on our team this year! I bet you’ll be along for the ride this time.” Kenta smiled and blushed.
“Hey, yeah!” Yu piped in, “We might have a completely different team this year! Especially since we’ve got all these legendary bladers hanging around…”
Everyone looked at each other as if that realisation had just dawned on them as well. “You’ve got a point there, Yu,” Masamune said, rubbing the back of his head.
“Well, aren’t you guys the best bladers in Japan anyway?” Daxiang asked. “I’m sure you will have nothing to worry about.”
Gingka smiled. “Yeah, I guess we are! I mean, Yuki could also be a pretty strong contender, but I don’t think competitive blading is really his thing,” he shrugged. “And besides, you can bet that I’m not gonna give up my spot!”
“If you actually have to fight for it this time…” Madoka murmured, making Ryo rub the back of his neck again and chuckle nervously.
“Yeah, Gingki better not get a fast pass through the tryouts this time! I want a chance to take you down!” Yu announced.
Masamune scoffed. “Man, a team led by Yu? Now that’s something you’d have to see to believe.”
“Hey! I could do it!” Everyone erupted with laughter.
Their laughter was so loud that they almost didn’t notice the door of Ryo’s office click. But Gingka caught the door swinging open in his peripherals and turned around to see Tsubasa entering the room. He walked a few paces into the room without acknowledging anyone in there, with a very absent-minded look on his face. “Mr. Director, you need to—”
“HI TSUBASA!” Yu and Masamune both called in unison, snapping Tsubasa out of his stupor.
He looked around at everyone in the room and on the screen, taking some time to process everybody there. “Uh— hi, everyone,” he mumbled.
“Hey, man!” Gingka exclaimed. “I assume you’ve already heard the news?”
Tsubasa frowned. “What—? Oh, right. The championships.”
Gingka’s grin widened. “Isn’t it awesome?”
“Sure.” Tsubasa turned away from Gingka and continued walking towards Ryo’s desk. “Director, you need to sign Daiki’s leave form,” he deadpanned, tossing a piece of paper onto the desk. “And tell him to stop sending me on errands. I’m not a secretary.”
Ryo looked down at the paper with a tinge of confusion. “Um, right. Of course.”
With that, Tsubasa immediately turned around to leave. Everyone in the room looked at each other with concern. “Hey, wait!” Gingka called after him. Tsubasa stopped, but only turned halfway to face Gingka. “Aren’t you excited about this?”
“About what? Blader DJ going on vacation right before one of the biggest events of the year?” he asked blankly. “Yes, I’m thrilled.”
“Wha— no, the championships! Come on, man!”
“Oh.” He looked away and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m still mulling it over.”
“What’s there to mull?” Masamune asked. “It’s gonna be epic! The world championships are the ultimate test of everyone’s Beyblading skill. Everyone should try to enter!”
Tsubasa looked back over at the screen and frowned. “I know what the championships are, Masamune. I was in them. And I don’t know if you remember, but last time didn’t go so well for me.”
“I guess… but we still won, right?” Masamune asked cautiously. Not cautious enough, apparently, as Tsubasa’s glare only got colder, making Masamune sink lower into his chair.
“No, you and Gingka won. I was stuck in a coma, being replaced by the guy who ruined the entire championships for me,” he said bluntly.
There was an uncomfortable silence. Gingka noticed Kenta tense up at the mention of the guy who ruined the championships, Ryuga. He and Tsubasa had never exactly seen eye-to-eye on the overall impact Ryuga had had on the lot of them, but he must’ve decided to hold his tongue this time.
Masamune looked like he wanted to speak again, but a sharp glare from Zeo seemed to shut him up. Ryo cleared his throat. “Well, it’s true that the last championships didn’t go without its… hiccups, the WBBA is working hard to make sure that this year’s competition is safe and fun for everyone.”
Gingka looked back at Tsubasa, who rolled his eyes. “Oh, I’m sure you’re working really hard on that. Say, are you still going to let teams get away with attacking each other before their battles?” he asked, sarcastically.
Ryo looked taken aback. “What— okay, first of all, you guys asked me to let that slide—”
“A request against the rules, made by your son. I thought there was no special treatment, Director?”
Everyone’s eyes moved between Ryo and Tsubasa, careful to not even let their breathing make any noise. How they had gotten caught in a fight between boss and employee, they didn’t know, but no one dared to interrupt it.
Ryo’s eyes were wide and his mouth gaped open, as if he wasn’t used to his model soldier talking back to him. “Why— why are you bringing this up now? Why not, I don’t know, two years ago when it actually happened?”
Tsubasa scoffed. “You can’t bring up anything when you’re unconscious, you dumba—”
“OKAY, okay, that’s enough!” Hikaru quickly cut through, putting herself between Ryo and Tsubasa. “Look, I’m sure nothing like that is going to happen again, but if Tsubasa doesn’t want to risk going through that again, we have no right to force him.” Tsubasa showed a small smile in appreciation.
Yu, Benkei and Masamune’s faces all dropped from surprise to disappointment. “But—”
“Don’t. Argue,” Hikaru threatened.
Tsubasa seemed to relax a little. “Thank you, Hikaru. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to…” he sighed, “I don’t know, feed my bird, or something.” He gave up on an excuse and stalked out of the room without another word.
There was a stunned silence for a while, no one quite sure where to go from there. Daxiang sighed loudly. “Well, that’s a shame,” he lamented, earning a solemn nod from Mei Mei.
Zhouxing rested his hands behind his head. “Man, it’s always the quiet ones with all the baggage, huh?” Chi Yun elbowed him sharply in the ribs, making him yelp. “Ow! What did I say?”
Gingka felt a pang in his chest at the thought of not fighting alongside his friend again. Sure, he knew the team may not be exactly the same this time around, but this wasn’t because there were stronger bladers out there. Tsubasa was scared. His friend couldn’t bear the thought of being in that environment again because of what other people did to ruin it for their own gain. The thought was starting to make him feel sick.
“Well, can’t say he’s wrong,” Zeo sighed. “Last time was pretty messed up.” He looked mournfully at Toby, who’s hair was still white from what his team had done to him.
King looked between the two of them, his face growing more confused by the minute. “Wait, what happened?” he asked. Everyone groaned. “What?”
“Uh, well it’s kind of a long story…” Madoka began.
“Well,” Masamune began, taking a deep breath, “We were trying out for the Japanese team when Tsubasa started getting super angry during his battles but we didn’t know what was wrong with him so we ignored it but then it happened again when we fought China but we didn’t know what it was so we kept ignoring it,” he took another deep breath, “And then we fought Africa and he almost killed everybody and was hospitalised but we won so it was okay but then he escaped and broke into Julian Konzern’s house— ”
“What?”
“And then we found out it was some dark power that was given to him by Ryuga, you know, the angry dragon guy that died, so we found Ryuga and he showed up and battled Gingka and Tsubasa conquered his darkness with the power of love.”
“Wow, that—”
“AND THEN, we got to America and Zeo was on their team and they were experimenting on the kids there to make them stronger so this creepy short kid who was their leader went out and attacked Yu and Tsubasa so they were in the hospital when we battled them so Ryuga showed up and fought one of the battles for us and we won, but then because Toby was sick they used their weird arrangement on him and brainwashed him to be a battery and their city started flying and destroying everything so we went up to stop them—”
“MASAMUNE PLEASE!” Madoka snapped, her eyelid twitching. Zeo recoiled at the memory of his former team, while Toby seemed endeared by Masamune’s recount.
King blinked a few times. “I feel like I know less now than I did before.”
“You certainly have a… story teller’s flair, don’t you?” Daxiang said, while the rest of his team suppressed their laughter.
“When did he break into Konzern’s house?” Ryo mumbled under his breath, rubbing his chin.
“The point is,” Hikaru interrupted, “That a lot of bad things happened last time. And we at the WBBA need to make absolutely sure that nothing like it ever happens again,” she stated, side-eyeing Ryo.
“Uh— yes, exactly,” he stammered.
“But Tsubasa still won’t enter,” Yu sulked, drooping over Benkei’s shoulder. Benkei pet his small friend on the head in comfort, but his face showed that he was thinking intently. About what, Gingka could only imagine.
Hikaru offered a sympathetic smile. “He didn’t say he wouldn’t enter, he just said he was thinking about it. But whatever decision he comes to, we need to be supportive no matter what, okay?”
“Hasn’t come to a decision…” Benkei muttered, still deep in thought.
Hikaru raised an eyebrow. “Hm?”
When Benkei didn’t respond, Yu flicked the side of his nose, making him flinch. “Huh— What? Oh, you know, speaking of Tsubasa, I actually have to go. Got to take the little guy home, you know?” Benkei stammered, ruffling Yu’s hair.
“Huh? Hey, who are you calling little?!” Yu squirmed angrily as Benkei picked him up and held him under his arm.
“Okay… are you going to watch the Japanese qualifiers?” Gingka asked, confused.
Benkei looked away from Yu and back at the camera. “Oh, you bet I am! Got to scope out the competition!”
“Great! Then you can tell Kyoya to stay away this time!” Madoka demanded. Benkei huffed and stuck his tongue out, making Yu laugh.
“Alright, we’d better head out too,” Daxiang announced. “We must start training immediately. Especially if we’re going up against legendary bladers this year.” He winked at the camera. Gingka felt his face go red. How did he always do that?
Masamune stretched out in his chair. “Well, if we’re all leaving…” he looked up at his friends standing around him.
Zeo rolled his eyes and smiled. “We’d better get to training too, huh?” Masamune gave a big toothy grin.
Ryo chuckled a little. “Okay everyone, we’ll wrap it up here.”
Everyone smiled and said their goodbyes, logging out of the chatroom. Hikaru walked back over to the computer and shut it down.
There was a stiff silence in the room as everyone reflected on what had just happened. “Well, that was… eventful,” Ryo sighed, rubbing his chin. “Never a dull moment, I suppose.”
Kenta looked up at him, puzzled. “You said it. Who knew Tsubasa felt that way, all this time?”
“Right?” Madoka chimed in. “Even Yu seemed to be thrown off by that one.”
Kenta turned to Gingka. “Do you think he really won’t enter?”
Gingka thought for a moment. Tsubasa had never been one to give up, but then again, neither was Hikaru, and she had decided to leave competitive blading completely after… her incident. “I don’t know, guys. Try as you might, the WBBA can’t prevent everyone from getting hurt. I can’t blame him for not wanting to take that risk.” He looked at his father, who frowned.
“Tsubasa’s certainly never been an extreme risk-taker unless absolutely necessary,” he supposed.
“And the world championships aren’t exactly necessary,” Hikaru added. “We’re just going to have to wait and see what he decides.” Everyone nodded, a little hesitantly.
Ryo clapped his hands together. “Well then, in the meantime we need to start planning the selection tournament.” He turned to Gingka. “I’ll have to be working late for a few days. You want me to order dinner for you?”
Gingka sighed. “I’ll be good, thanks.” It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to this, anyway. He turned to face Madoka and Kenta. “Should we head out, then?”
“Yeah, I should probably get back to the shop,” Madoka said. “I have a few beys in line that need repairs. You guys can come hang out if you want.”
Truthfully, Gingka felt far too drained to hang out anymore. The announcement, the excitement, and then all of that hopelessness… still, he pretended to consider Madoka’s offer. “Actually… I think I’m gonna go back to the apartment, get my afternoon nap in early,” he said, stretching his arms above his head and faking a yawn. The others all looked at him, concern tinting their faced. “All the excitement must’ve drained my energy, you know?” he tried to reason. He wasn’t sure whether or not they bought the excuse, but it didn’t matter.
Madoka raised an eyebrow. “Alright, if you insist…”
“We’ll see you later, then,” Kenta chimed, trying to sound as positive as usual.
They walked out of the building together and parted ways after a few hugs. Gingka started on his walk back to his father’s apartment, a nice penthouse overlooking the best of Metal Bey City. He had never truly considered it his own home, being nothing like his old house back in Koma Village; far too modern and fancy for his liking. So most of the time, he stayed with one of his friends. It was far less lonely that way, since his father worked most of the time. But for moments like these, being alone to sort out his feelings was just for the best.
He arrived at the penthouse, took off his shoes and slipped his feet into his dad’s giant pink bunny slippers. The apartment was high enough to get a good breeze coming through, so he opened all of the windows and the door out to the balcony and slumped down on the white leather couch. Slowly breathing in the cool air that blew through the room, he let himself doze off, his thoughts shifting through his friends, the championships, Ryuga…
“You’re not coming back, are you?” Gingka asked, softly. They lay in the grass together, looking up at an endless blue sky, not a cloud in sight.
There was a deep sigh from next to him. “I don’t know, kid,” that familiar, gravelly voice said. “It’s pretty hard to glue someone’s ashes back together.”
“It didn’t look like ashes. More like… dust?”
“What’s the difference?”
Gingka turned his head to face him. He lay completely still, his eyes closed. You could only tell that he wasn’t a corpse by the way his chest moved as he breathed— though maybe it didn’t, really. Maybe Gingka was just imagining things. His golden crown reflected the sun into Gingka’s eyes, making him squint just a little. “Hey, Ryuga?”
“What?”
“What was the point of Beyblade to you?”
He opened his eyes. “Why does that matter now?”
“I’m just curious,” Gingka shrugged.
Ryuga was quiet for a moment, his facial expression still unchanging. “Power, Gingka. I wanted power. And I got what I wanted.”
“But were you happy?” he blurted out. Ryuga’s face contorted in confusion, his eyes flicking over to Gingka for just a moment. “I mean… did you really enjoy it?”
“Did I enjoy being the most powerful person on the planet?” Ryuga scoffed. “Of course I did, you idiot. Why wouldn’t I?” His face remained smug for a while before a realisation seemed to hit him. He turned his head fully to face Gingka was a devious smile. “Oh, don’t tell me…”
Gingka frowned in confusion as Ryuga pushed himself to sit up. “What?”
“Could it be? The great Gingka Hagane, number one blader in the world, is finally sick of it all?”
“What? No!” he exclaimed, sitting up to face Ryuga again. “I mean… Beyblade is like my life force; it runs through my veins; it gives me energy. But… there is always someone who wants to take that life force and use it for evil. If bad people will never stop trying to corrupt Beyblade… is it really all that worth protecting?”
“You can decide to give up if you want, but you can’t make others do the same. There are inherent dangers to everything you do; does that make life not worth living?”
Gingka knew he was right, but still… “I just want the people I care about to be safe,” he lamented, bowing his head.
Ryuga’s face didn’t faulter at Gingka’s sadness; it never did. “Then protect them. Especially now. You know as well as anyone that those championships won’t go without a hitch.”
Slowly, Gingka started to nod. He looked back up at Ryuga and tried to match his determined expression. “I will.”
Ryuga nodded and stood up, brushing the grass off of his black pants. “You’d better. Seeing them get pummelled by that vanity freakshow would be too much for even me to bare.”
“Vanity… what? What are you talking about?”
Ryuga’s mouth moved, but all Gingka could hear was the wind whistling through his ears, getting louder and louder…
Gingka jolted awake, forgetting his dreams for just a moment while he tried to gain his bearings. His mouth was dry and everything was dark; he couldn’t even recall which room he was in. He instinctively tried to feel around for a blanket when a cold shiver went up his spine, only to faulter when he realised he was still on the couch.
His neck ached as he raised his tired head up to look around the now dark apartment. Still empty, save for himself. He pushed himself to sit up and stretched his arms behind his back, successfully cracking it to satisfaction. He could just stay here in the dark and wait for his father to return; put on a movie to distract himself from his thoughts while he ate enough junk food to make him throw up in the morning. But what would distracting himself achieve anymore?
Perhaps a walk would help to clear his head a bit— that always helped back in Koma, anyway. He stood up, threw his shoes back on, and left the apartment.
One would think that walking around in the city at night would be dangerous, but that couldn’t be further from the truth in Metal Bey City. The most danger that this city provided was dangerous bladers, but they never seemed to come out at night. Even well-known gangs like the Face Hunters used to only be active during the day. The more Gingka thought about it, the more he couldn’t help but laugh; even the most evil children still had bedtimes.
He ended up walking to one of his favourite spots: a hill that overlooked a lake near the city’s edge; where he met Madoka, where he watched Benkei train a bunch of young bladers, where he told Kenta what happened to his home village. Happy or sad, Gingka would always find comfort on this hill. He sat down on the grass with his knees up on his chest, looking over the still water that glistened in the moonlight.
“Gingka?” He jumped as a soft voice called from behind him. He whipped around and saw Kenta standing at the top of the hill, his hands clasped together in worry.
Gingka put on a smile and tried his best to sound normal. “Oh man, you scared me there, buddy! What are you doing here?”
Kenta just looked at him, a very uncommon seriousness to his face. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“Uh— you know… just hanging out, chilling like I do,” Gingka stammered, nervously.
Kenta sighed, making Gingka drop his façade a little. He knew Kenta was never going to fall for this. “So, what are you really doing?” he asked.
Gingka’s smile faded. He turned around to face the water and dropped his head down between his knees with a sigh. “I don’t know… just thinking, I guess,” he admitted.
Kenta walked down the hill and sat down next to Gingka. They stayed like this for a while, just sitting in silence while Gingka twiddled his thumbs and stared into space. “What are you thinking about?” Kenta asked gently.
“Just what Tsubasa said,” Gingka sighed. “He was right, you know. It really was a disaster. And, I mean, I just don’t know if I can take another disaster. I don’t have it in me.”
Kenta nodded. “Yeah… wait, you’re not thinking of dropping out too, are you?” he asked with wide eyes.
“Huh? no way! I could never stop competing. Honestly, I’m so excited for the new world championships! I’ve missed battling just for the sake of battling, you know? But… if it’s anything like last time, that won’t be the case. I just…” he closed his eyes and hugged his knees to his chest, “I want everyone to have fun for once.”
He felt Kenta lean against his shoulder. “Yeah, I totally get it. It’s tiring, trying to make sure no one ruins Beyblade. They just keep finding new ways to mess it all up! But your dad and Hikaru seemed really set on making sure everything runs smoothly this time.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Gingka mumbled.
“And I was really looking forward to finally getting to travel with you guys, since I couldn’t last time, and during the whole Nemesis thing I was…” he paused for a moment, “…busy. I really missed you guys, both times. I guess I never really felt like I was part of the team.”
Gingka opened his eyes and looked over at him. “Kenta…”
“I know, I know. But you get what I mean, right?”
“Yeah, I guess we’ve never adventured together for too long, have we?”
“Mhm,” Kenta hummed. Gingka put his arm around him and pulled him closer.
“Don’t worry. This time is gonna be different. We’re all gonna go together, and we’re gonna have fun. I promise,” he assured. And he knew he had to keep this promise. No matter how hard it would be, no matter the price. He would keep his friends from harm and protect their precious Beyblade. “I promise.”