For the second time that morning, Kai found himself walking begrudgingly down the road to Tyson's house.

The first time, he had approached the house with tentative steps, considering whether or not to open the gate. Instead, he had waited to see if his ears could pick out the dulcet tones of Tyson who was no doubt bragging about his three world champion wins, or perhaps Hilary was shouting because no one wanted to stick to her rigorous training schedule, or there was always Daichi, who would simply scream over everyone as if he didn't know what talking was.

Kai had quickly established that he could hear none of these things; therefore he must have been the first of the group to arrive, and he really wasn't in the mood to spend alone time with Tyson's Grandpa. It was obvious to him that short walk around the neighborhood would be prudent, and he would, hopefully, return to a full house.

Truth be told, this time on his approach to the house he could hear distant waffling, something about Tyson had stolen Daichi's egg on toast, and what was that? Fried tomatoes? Riveting, Kai thought as he headed through the gate into the traditional Japanese garden. He reached to pull back the sliding door whilst a small voice in the back of his head was pleading at him to run in the opposite direction.

The door slid back to reveal Ray, Kenny and Hilary who were all sat at one end of the table, politely tucking into their breakfast. All three of them raised their heads and offered cheerful greetings. Max was over by the toaster pouring liberal amounts of syrup onto a large stack of waffles, he grinned widely and waved. Kai grunted in return.

Kais eyes then wandered to the other end of the long kitchen table to what appeared to be the main event. Daichi was sat on top of the table holding an almost empty upside down plate, dripping with what looked like baked beans as he aimed it at Tysons face. "AUGHF!" Tyson muffled loudly through a slice of toast, and dived as the plate came hurtling towards him. Kai paused for a second, and then slid the door closed, hiding the scene of carnage. He headed back towards the garden gate; the championship was not worth this.

"KAI!" Tyson had somehow managed to catch the plate and race over to door just in time to call at his teammate before he escaped. "Hey buddy where you heading off to? You were meant to be here twenty minutes ago!" Kai turned and slouched back over to the house with a defeated look on his face. Little did Tyson know that Kai had in fact already been there twenty minutes ago, and Tyson hadn't even been awake!

He flung himself down into a chair near the corner of the room, picked up a slice of toast and began nibbling gingerly. Tyson knew better than to argue with that face, but decided to anyway. "Sorry Mr Sourpuss, get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?"

Kai scowled, "I always get out of the wrong side of the bed." He stated dully, setting the half eaten piece of toast down on an empty plate.

"Oh man what a grump!" Tyson moaned, "Are you not excited for the tournament? I'M SO EXCITED I CAN'T CONTAIN MYSELF!" Tyson exclaimed loudly, turning away from Kai and stuffing more food into his mouth. "WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, BABY!" and with that, he began to dance around excitedly, punching the air as if he had already won. Max, and Daichi quickly joined him, all chanting "World Championship, Baby!" repeatedly, reminding Kai that he needed to buy a new pair of headphones, and quick.

Ray on the other hand chuckled as he glanced between Kais furrowed brow to Tysons beaming smile and raised his glass of orange juice. "Here's to the fourth World Championship Tournament!"

"May victory prevail, and may we make many new friends along the way, and of course collect lots of data!" Kenny added, clinking his glass with Ray and Hilary's.

"Yea way cool, Chief! I can't wait to meet all the new bladers, I bet there'll be some tough competition, but no one'll ever beat me, I am the CHAMPION!" Tyson exclaimed happily. Kai rolled his eyes, extremely thankful that he had not yet poured himself a drink; if he had he might have been inclined to throw it in his teammates face.

"Its so nice to all be back together again!" Hilary smiled serenely, cupping her cheeks with her elbows resting on the table, watching Tyson and the others.

This year, with the return of the BBA, Tyson, Max, Ray and Kai had decided to put aside their rivalry and team up in original Bladebreakers style, with the addition of Daichi of course, although that was mainly because he simply wouldn't leave. The tournament was going to be help primarily in the UK, somewhere that had never held a beyblade tournament before but because of the increasing popularity of beyblading, the BBA wanted to expand and the UK seemed like a good place to start. It was a long flight from Japan to England and of course, first they had to get to the airport.

"The bus will be arriving in five minutes, I'm just going to check I've packed everything!" and with that, Hilary scurried off. No sooner had she returned than the official BBA bus pulled up noisily outside and began beeping its horn. Kai got up hastily, reaching inside his trouser pocket and quickly grasping Dranzer, giving her a tight squeeze as he strode past the other members of the team. He was going to claim the backseat of the bus as his own domain. There was no way he was letting them sit there this time.

Kai reclined lazily along the back three seats of the bus. He sat there with his eyelids shut and a sly smirk on his face; it was these small triumphs that gave him at least some satisfaction in life. He lifted his lids slightly as he heard the rest of the team slowly but animatedly make their way down the winding garden path. Max was knocking Tyson playfully on the head with his fist, "Bladebreakers…" he sighed, "more like The Moron Brigade."

It wasn't as if he hated his teammates, it was just Kai was a rather solitary being and enjoyed his alone time. As much as he respected his friends (well kinda, he hated calling them friends) they could sometimes (all the time) be a tad annoying. He watched as Tyson gave his Grandpa a goodbye hug and felt a pang of annoyance that he couldn't quite put his finger on. He sighed and closed his eyes again, mind wandering to his own grandfather, struggling to remember the last time he had exchanged as much as a small smile with the imposing man.

The journey was plagued by irritating noises. Kenny was listening loudly to Ming Ming's new album, much to the dismay of Hilary and the rest of the team.

"WOULD YOU TURN THAT OFF!" she shouted, smacking the lid of Kenny's laptop down in disgust. The Chief emitted a high-pitched outraged cry and looked around at everyone's faces, which were trying (and failing) to hide their looks of relief.

Kenny turned back to his laptop looking deflated, "fine, I guess I should be looking up our opponents for the upcoming tournament." He said as he opened the lid.

"Well how kind of you to open me up again after I was so rudely closed!" It was Dizzi, Kenny's bit beast who somehow managed to get trapped inside his laptop.

"Sorry Dizzi, it was just Hilary getting all aerated because she's jealous of Ming Ming.." he said giggling slightly.

"I am not jealous! There's nothing to be jealous of, I simply don't like her!" and with that, Hilary stood up. She had learnt how to deal with the 'jealous of Ming Ming' remarks a good few months ago, and walked towards the back of the bus. Oh no thought Kai. She was going to sit exactly where no one would bother her, next to Kai.

Kai quite liked Hilary, and admired her for putting up with Tyson and Daichi. He did however often wonder what her point to the team was, apart from to boss Tyson around, although he guessed that saved him from having to do it. None of this however excused Hilary from the displeasure she caused him whenever she invaded his three-meter personal bubble.

As always, Tyson spoke without thinking, "sitting next to your boyfriend Hilary?" and then chaos ensued.

Hilary's face went bright red. Her words started out slow and quiet, quickly turning into a onslaught of verbal abuse about how she had never thought of Kai in that way, and Tyson was disgusting to speak of it. Kai wished she wouldn't, her over compensating on the subject always made it seem as if she were trying to cover something up, when in reality, Kai was quite sure Hilary wasn't so into him as she was into the person she so often found herself yelling at.

Ray, Max and Daichi were sat behind Tyson pulling awkward faces as if waiting for an ominous rock to fall on their heads. They obviously had also picked up on Tyson and Hilary's turbulent relationship that wasn't even a relationship and were feeling very uncomfortable about the situation.

Kai however smirked, he was quite sure that with one short sentence he could both annoy Tyson, and also maybe give him a slight push in the right direction. He reclined even more in his seat and opened one eye and stared directly at his blue haired friend, "why, you jealous Tyson?" The smirk fell off Tyson's face immediately and the smaller blader rounded on him, running angrily up the center of the bus.

"YOU!" Tysons fist made its way speedily towards Kais face, "I AM NOT JEALOUS!" he shouted as Hilary jumped over onto the next seat to avoid the chaos. Kai stood up and blocked the oncoming attack, easily overpowering Tyson. It was painfully obvious that Tyson was seething with jealously, however Kai wasn't in the mood for games and so he slouched off to the front of the bus, ignoring the many obscene things that were being shouted in his direction.

The rest of the journey was relatively devoid of drama, although Hilary and Tyson were both sulking and facing in opposite directions, determined to fixate on something as far away from the other as possible.

Mr Dickinson met them at the airport and whilst on the airplane, he caught Tyson and Daichi trying to sneak into first class so they could sample the complimentary buffet. "Aw man why aren't we in first class! I'm a world champ y'know!" he informed the pretty flight attendant by speaking over Mr Dickinson who was trying his best to apologize for their behavior.

Kai thought of how he would be glad when they landed in the UK. He had asked Mr Dickinson to get him his own hotel room, vowing to pay him back as soon as he turned eighteen and could get his hands on his trust fund. Kai couldn't face another championship staying in the same hotel room with the rest of his teammates for twenty-four hours a day. He needed his space.

Even a year on from his championship match with Tyson, he still felt a divide between them. It was like they were so close and yet so far, maybe it was the rivalry or maybe it was the fact that Kai had betrayed them all so many times for his own personal gain and greed that there really was an invisible wall trying its best to keep him away from them. Not that Kai even wanted to be on their team anyway, he reminded himself firmly.

Maybe he was more like his grandfather than he thought he was. What had his actions over the past few years achieved? Not much, sure he had improved his skills, but so had everyone else. All he had really achieved was losing the only battle that was important to him, and that was his battle with Tyson. Now he was just the guy who betrayed his teammates thinking he could beat them and had it thrown back in his face. Thinking about it, it was no wonder they were acting more distant than normal, what if they thought he was some asshole loser who just wants to tag along for a bit of glory. No way, his teammates wouldn't think that, Kai told himself as he viciously picked at a scab on his knuckle.

Why was he getting insecure about such things anyway? Since when did he care if Tyson and the rest of the team had any interest in him, because he sure as hell had no interest in them.

That was a lie.

Kai found his teammates highly interesting; Daichi was young and immature yet wielded his power with such strength and control, a trait, which Kai admired greatly. Max's defensive style was always impressive, having never focused solely on defense; Kai could always learn a thing or two and was often surprised by Max in the dish. Ray on the other hand was extremely powerful, and very quick; originally upon first meeting Ray, Kai had thought he would be his biggest rival. Ray also showed great compassion towards all elements of his life and was an extremely level headed, nice guy, something that Kai could only dream of becoming.

Then there was Tyson, Kai could never think of words to describe him, sometimes he found himself wishing he could be like Tyson, or more like wishing he could be Tyson. Suddenly the image in his brain morphed into him running around Tyson's kitchen screaming, "WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, BABY!" along with the rest of the group, piece of toast hanging skewwhiff from his mouth, it made him cringe so hard he thought his eyebrows might fall off.

Kai barely noticed as they passed through customs and into the awaiting BBA taxi which sped them along the motorway towards their London hotel. They had briefly been to London when their ship, which was meant to be taking them to the Russian leg of the world championships three years ago abandoned them. Kai was glad they got to return, they hadn't had much time to explore the city of London last time and Kai couldn't wait to go and find a quiet spot to brood over his somewhat miserable life.

"We're here! Aw man, I can't wait to get in bed and watch a movie! Can we order pizza Mr. Dickinson?" Tyson asked.

"Yea PIZZA!" Exclaimed Daichi excitedly.

"Why yes, that sounds quite alright boys! But make sure you get an early night, the first rounds start tomorrow and you don't want to be tired!" Mr Dickinson replied, making a beeline for the check in desk. "Ah yes, hello! My name is Mr. Dickinson, I believe I booked five rooms for the BBA?" passing the receptionist a folder containing their booking references.

"Just one moment sir let me check that for you," the receptionist replied with a kind smile, "yes I have them right here, your rooms are ready! If you'd like your luggage brought up feel free to leave it at the concierge with your name and room number! Breakfast is from 7-9am and of course feel free to call down at any time for assistance or room service!"

"Thank you very much! I think I shall leave my suitcase here, I'm getting a bit old for carrying it around!" He mithered as the receptionist passed him four key cards.

"Would you like to take Mr Hiwatari's key also or should I pass that onto the butler?"

Kai felt a jolting stab in his stomach, "no butler!" he growled.

"No… no butler? Of course! I'm sorry-" the receptionist flushed bright red as she picked up the phone and dialed furiously.

"Butler…?" Tyson mumbled looking decidedly clueless.

Mr. Dickinson cut across him, "Right boys, I shall stay in room 238, Tyson, Daichi, Max and Ray, you'll be in room 239, Kenny if you would please take room 240 and Hillary if you'd take room 241." He then turned to Kai and passed him the last keycard, "Kai, you will be in room 401."

"Uuuuuuugh," a groan emitted from Tyson, "why is Kai on a completely different floor to the rest of us?" He demanded with a dumb look on his face, "and what's this about a butler?"

"Kai has simply chosen to have his own room," replied Mr. Dickinson plainly.

"WHAT, why don't you want to be near us Kai, are we not good enough for you?" Tyson exclaimed loudly on their way over to the lift.

"Hey Tyson, maybe Kai just wants some space, I mean, Kai likes his own company if you already hadn't noticed!" said Max with Ray nodding in agreement.

"I don't care, we're a team! I'm the best company, why don't you wanna hang out with us, it'll be like old times! I thought we'd actually be able to spend time together as a team now that we're all back together again!"

Kai sighed and pressed the button for the 20th and 40th floor, "its not like I asked for my room to be so far away from yours Tyson, but I'm kind of glad, seeing as your separation anxiety seems to have gone into overload, I'd rather not be around you!" he said in an irritated tone, wishing for the doors to open up immediately on the second so that the rest of the team would get out and leave him.

"SEPERATION ANXIETY, I DON'T HAVE SEPERATION ANXIETY, what's wrong with me wanting to get the team together for pizza and a movieeeeeeeee!"

They were at the second floor, Tyson, Ray, Max, Daichi, Kenny and Hilary exited the lift. Kai smirked, finally, peace at last. But wait, no, with great force came a flying Tyson, barely missing the closing lift door as he flung himself back into the lift desperately pressing the 40th floor button.

"What the hell, get out!" shouted Kai, attempting to push Tyson back out of the door whilst also attempting to reach for the button to open the doors again. Tyson grabbed his arm and pulled it away from the console. Kai could see Daichi, Max and Ray chuckling outside the glass door and glared at them, infuriated that they were doing nothing to help but laugh at his predicament.

"I'm coming with you!" said Tyson determinedly, bouncing around the lift as it climbed the building.

Kai threw himself back against the wall of the lift and crossed his arms, "get a grip! I'll come down for your stupid movie and pizza night alright?" he glanced over at the blue haired boy who was looking mildly excited but also slightly reproachful.

"I bet you wont! I'm still going to come see your room, then I can drag you back!"

"Great."

Finally they reached the 40th floor. The two boys walked up to the door emblazoned with the number 401, Kai noticed that there were in fact only two rooms on this floor, the other being number 400. He sighed; the butler should have been the first indication that something wasn't quite right. He quickly moved the key card over the handle and opened the door to reveal one of the most stunning penthouse suites he had ever seen. This had to be his Grandfathers fault, or maybe it was just the fact he was called Hiwatari, either way, Kai was quite sure that this would eat dramatically into his first trust fund installment.

Kai walked in and placing his key on the highly polished marble sideboard and turned to face Tyson, whose face looked frozen in a huge gawp of disbelief. Kai hated being rich, he hated having to explain situations like this to people. Of course, Tyson already knew of Voltaire's wealth, however Kai felt extremely awkward that the rest of his team would be staying in mere average hotel rooms whilst Kai had an entire pent house suite to himself. He hadn't asked for this, nor did he need it, in fact for one small second he considered inviting the entire team to move all their bags up to the 40th floor and join him in his shiny new suite, he was sure there would be multiple bedrooms and even their own kitchen. It would have been a nice gesture; he chuckled and quickly changed his mind.

"Ok, you've seen my room now, bye Tyson," he said, guiding the shocked blader, who had been rendered speechless, swiftly out of the marble hallway and into the corridor, quickly locking the door behind him.

It must have taken Tyson a good few seconds to realize what had happened. A muffled "HEY!" could be heard as he banged his fist on the door. Kai, who was already halfway down the magnificently polished corridor, glanced backwards at the noise with a sigh why do these things happen to me look on his face, and then slouched off in search of the master bedroom figuring that Tyson would eventually become bored and return to the rest of the team.

The master bedroom was huge; the bed itself could have fit the entire Bladebreakers in with ample room to spare. Kai lowered himself onto the edge of the bed and gazed around the room. Max was right, Kai liked his space, but this was a little too much. He stared at the phone on the bedside table for five minutes long minutes, maybe he should call his Grandfather to find out whether this was his doing or not. No, it could wait. He wouldn't answer anyway.

He brushed away the irritating thought and went to investigate the adjoining bathroom, which was quite exceptional. The bath was not just a bath, but also a huge marble hot tub with many different taps, no doubt containing different types of fancy ass water, which Kai had absolutely no use for. It also had as-comfy-as-marble-could-possibly-look seats, because clearly everyone needs a chair to sit on whilst in the bath. Even the shower had its own seating area, who could possibly be that lazy that they wanted to actually sit down in the shower? He pressed the start button waiting for the water to warm up, it had been a long journey and Kai thought he should freshen up before heading back down to the 20th floor.

Locking the bathroom door, not that anyone would wander in on him, Kai began to remove his clothes; he folded them neatly, placing the weighted scarf gently on top of them on the side of the empty hot tub. Stepping into the shower, Kai noticed there were already shiny gold dispensers attached to the wall, each labeled "Shampoo", "Body Wash" and so on. He let the hot water fall over his head and shoulders, cascading down his back. It had been a tiring journey, not that he had any inclination of going to sleep, he just stood there and let the water wash over him, eventually reaching for the Shampoo and rubbing it into his scalp, massaging his head slightly to ease the small headache which was approaching his mind with great enthusiasm. It's being around those idiots he thought, blaming the rest of the team for the tension in his brow, despite it being quite a common occurrence with or without his teammates. After washing out the shampoo, Kai reached for the body wash, it smelt like vanilla, a smell Kai associated with girls. He rarely used fragranced soap, wondering if he anyone might mock him for smelling like a cupcake. Probably not, they'd be too scared of him punching them in the face, Kai thought with a sly chuckle.

Once Kai had finished his soapy muscular body rub down, he exited the shower, grabbing ahold of one of the towels on the heated radiator. A brief smile flashed across his face, he guessed he did enjoy the small comforts, wrapping himself up in one towel and the other around his head, opening the bathroom door to see if anyone was there- there wasn't- obviously, so he flung himself down onto the massive bed and lay there for a good 15 minutes.

Normally he would get dressed immediately, afraid his grandfather might walk in and scald him for not being appropriately dressed for any scenario, however here he could do as he pleased, and that meant taking a good few minutes to stare at the ceiling and contemplate life. He had heard there would be many new teams emerging for this year's world championship, and Kai knew not to underestimate any of them.

In the past Kai had been known to underestimate people, a prime example being Tyson. He had also underestimated Brooklyn, and despite the fact he managed to get his revenge, it had been pretty close. How many other incredibly all-powerful naturally talented bladers were out there in the world? Kai would have to watch his back and not let his over confidence get the better of him. Sometimes he could be such a bigheaded idiot, he had to admit he was just as bad as Tyson, only Kai displayed his ego in the form of an arrogant grumpy teenager who enjoys betraying his friends to prove that he's better than them, and lets be honest, that didn't go down too well. He sighed again, picking some more skin on his knuckles.

His stomach began to growl, something Kai only let it do whilst he was alone, he began pulling on his clothes and drying his hair, which stuck up at its normal odd angles and Kai did nothing in attempt to tame it. He wondered what the others were doing, probably rampaging around their hotel rooms, or even worse, Tyson was telling the rest of the team about his fancy ass hotel room and how Kai was too much of a snob to even let him in. This was not the case, Kai simply didn't want to be in Tyson's presence, he was annoying, and it had absolutely nothing to do with being a snob.

Finally, Kai applied his signature shark fins to his face and then made his way to the door, picking up his keys from where he left them on the marble sideboard as he went and stepped into the hallway, closing the door with a quiet click. Just as Kai was about to turn around, he suddenly became aware that he was not alone. The door to the room behind him had opened, Kai froze, he hated awkward lift journeys.

Whoever it was brushed past him. Slowly, he put the key card into his pocket and turned around. In front of him was a girl, much smaller in stature than him. Her long hair swayed as she walked towards the lift. Kai considered going back inside his room to wait for her to leave, but no, that would be weird, after all she had already seen him. Instead, he surveyed the girl more closely, she was wearing a black pleated skirt which held in place with a black belt, attached to it was a small belt pack containing what looked like a beyblade launcher. Kai narrowed his eyes, yes, definitely a launcher, he thought to himself.

Interest sparked, Kai set off down the hallway after her. As she pressed the lift button she caught sight of him. They stared at each other awkwardly for a second, "were you just checking out my ass?" she asked with a scowl on her face.

Kai wasn't quite sure how to answer, of all the things she could have said, that was not what he had been expecting. Had he been checking out her ass? Not necessarily. Had he been checking out her beyblade launcher, which in all honesty, was relatively nearby? Yes.

"Yeah- I mean, no- I," he mumbled, "you're a blader, right?" he asked, wishing the floor would open up and swallow him whole.

She eyed him warily and then turned away as the doors of the lift opened, "yeah." Kai hesitated and then swiftly followed her into the lift, intrigued. She pressed the ground floor button and Kai leaned awkwardly across to press the button for the 20th floor. He grasped his Dranzer blade; it was warm and reassuring to the touch, slightly warmer than normal in fact. He glanced sideways; the girl peered back at him through lilac hair. He looked away quickly. Was she entering the tournament? And more importantly, was she any good? Dranzer certainly seemed psyched and that was usually a tell tale sign of being in the presence of a decent blader.

"You here for the championship?" he asked in an off-hand manner.

A small grin appeared across her face, "perhaps, I assume you are too."

The cogs in Kai's head were whirling around, what would he rather do, eat pizza and watch crappy horror movies with Tyson and the rest of his idiotic team or finally sink his teeth into a new opponent, "yeah," he replied, turning to face her whilst reaching inside his pocket to pull out Dranzer. "Wanna blade?" Tyson was going to be so disappointed. It had been so long since he had bladed against anyone that wasn't on the Bladebreakers.

There was a definitive silence as the doors slid shut and the lift kicked into gear; Kai could see the girl mulling things over in her head. After a few moments she said simply, "sorry but, not really."

Kai didn't quite know how to respond; after all, that was normally his line. "Why not?" he retaliated, slightly offended.

The girl shrugged, "I'm just not interested," she must have picked up on his irritation, "don't take it personally, aren't you meant to be getting out here anyway?" she asked, nodding towards the glass doors which had just sprung apart, they had reached the 20th floor without Kai even noticing.

"Hn.." He strode out of the lift; shoving Dranzer back into his pocket, uttering the words, "suit yourself," as he grumpily went in search of room 239.

Unfortunately for Kai, Tyson wouldn't be disappointed after all.

I really hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Please do leave a review 3