Disclaimer: Beyblade and all its likeness does not belong to me.
Author's Notes:
This story has many, many fragmental descriptions or generally fragmental sentences. They're meant to be that way, so please don't take the grammar very badly. Other than that, it's a mature read, so I hope a few people can enjoy this style.
The Moment
I wish that I could stay in this moment, for eternity…
Silence.
The calm sound of waves rolling onto the beach.
A white sandy beach, a place he knew well. Lying there on the soft sand, fingering a seashell that happened to be under his palm, he stared up into the sky. It was a breathtakingly beautiful sparkling sky, with every star aglow. Shining down on him so brightly, he could close his eyes and still see the brightness in the darkness behind his eyelids. Opening his eyes he saw a shooting star, falling just for them, fly across the sky.
And then another star fell, followed by another, and another, until the sky was raining stars…
He closed his eyes, letting the heavens rain down the light. Each star disappeared into the night where the sky and sea both turned black.
Something made that moment unforgettable.
And slowly his hand moved across the sand, gently clasping the shell. His fingers brushed soft warm skin, and he carefully placed the heart-shaped shell on the still palm of the person lying next to him.
He smiled sadly.
The calm sound of waves rolling onto the beach and washing away his footprints.
Kai did not open his eyes but he knew he had to. Groaning softly, he rubbed his hands over his flushed face. He rolled over and buried his head into the pillow, squeezing his eyes shut. The last grains of soft sand drifting away as his sleepiness faded.
The dream was always the same, but the feelings he woke up to always changed.
Sometimes he felt true happiness, other times horrible depression. Both extremes left his heart beating in the hollowness of his chest as he remembered the dream in its entirety.
It hurt, reliving a moment in his dreams that he could never relive in reality. It was always painful, but if it was one thing Kai Hiwatari had been taught how to do, it was to live with pain.
And he had been dreaming for seven years…
Chapter 1: The Present
When he and four other young beybladers had taken on the world years ago, the future had seemed so bright. They all had had their differences, strengths, and weaknesses that wove them together into a world champion team – The Bladebreakers.
They were going to go far too, because they were all so young. The youngest being only twelve at the time they'd won, the oldest being fifteen. And then two more championships, against the world again… World champions together until the end. Their future had been a blue sky with no clouds, an endless road waiting to be traveled.
All their futures shone so magnificently, as long as they were together, he had believed that he'd never have to wonder if his future would turn down the wrong lane.
But of course…
The future is never what we think it will be.
Kai could have handled a steady, gradual growing apart. He could have handled less team practices, less visits, less sunny days… It wouldn't have seemed so bad because although their futures were always changing, if it didn't seem like the days would get better, they eventually would. Tyson always was the ray of light that guided the team through rough situations, and the future never seemed any less bright.
The day the future lost its shine was something Kai would never forget. It was something they all would never forget, never ever… and yet, always try to forget…
A sudden striking sense of darkness.
No, more exactly, a hollow feeling at the loss of light.
All the days after that one faithful night had been permanently darkened, as if stripped of the glimmer of hope that the future had always seemed to hold.
Like a pinprick of the light of a star in the inky black sky disappearing with dawn, Tyson's small life at only fifteen had been extinguished. But stars die long before we see them pass away in their brilliant explosions. And maybe that was what the future was; a moment where the past and present collide, so sadly, so beautifully. The moment when nothing exists except a promise.
Seven years this day, a day he could never ever forget as hard as he tried… Tyson, the world champion of beyblading, and the only person he had ever truly…
Tyson was dead.
The sudden shattering of their future made Kai realize just how fragile those golden dreams had been. It was all just in pieces, everything falling to pieces. And like those pieces, the remaining Bladebreakers fell apart just as suddenly. In the blink of an eye everything had changed, the light in their… no, his life, snuffed out.
They disbanded and scattered themselves far away from Bay City, where Tyson's grave rested, its simple headstone a constant reminder of a brighter future that could never be.
It was such a dark, dark future…
And Kai wished… he wished sometimes with all his heart, and breath, and tears, that this could be the dream he woke up from. But he was forever caught up in the one moment when he hadn't cared about the future at all.
Kai's motorcycle tore across the stretch of pavement before him as he weaved through the traffic. It was another busy Tuesday afternoon, just another day in the world. His face was expressionless as someone honked their car horn loudly at him for cutting them off.
Just another day.
After seven years out of the beyblading circuit, Kai had done many things with his life he had never thought he'd do. They all had.
And maybe that was the reason why the world looked so bleak behind his helmet as he raced down the busy streets of Bay City. The tall buildings reflected in the black glass of his eye guard.
They, being the former Bladebreakers, all had many things to regret. Their lives weren't as great as everyone had thought they would have been, seven long years ago.
An unexplainable pain at hearing the news of Max's situation. An unexplainable pain at knowing of Ray's misfortune. Pain he could not explain.
Bay City, however, was booming in technological business. Their place by the water allowed for easy overseas shipping, and many companies had set up in the rapidly flourishing city. One of those companies was the origin of many of Kai's regrets.
BioVolt.
They'd rebounded, using their vast Beyblade technological expertise to set up their business. They made high-tech products that were in no way connected to the scandals they'd conducted all those years ago. At first the BBA had been so wary of them…
But it was hard for the town not to fall under its financial seduction, and with the fact the whole world had never known of their bad history…
Kai did not work for BioVolt.
The Chief. A short boy with brown hair covering his eyes. Glasses that were rarely ever used, sitting on his head… Laptop in arm. Tyson's arm usually around his shoulder. Tyson's best friend.
Kai revved the engine on his motorcycle nearly running a red light as it changed from yellow.
Kenny was BioVolt's number one lab technician.
Kai'd been repeatedly offered a job there as well. Hell, just about everyone in Bay City wanted a job at that place, and he was the only other Bladebreaker in Japan… But doing so would have stripped him of every single shred of trust he'd earned from Tyson Granger, the world champion no one remembered now almost a decade later. And Kai could not blame the world for forgetting Tyson as an individual, but he could never ever stop blaming the individuals, who Tyson had touched so deeply, for not holding onto the memory of that feeling.
For him, Tyson's touch had been red hot against his heart. So acute, he could not close his eyes without remembering… Losing himself in that moment… And realizing that the reason he had kept on living was not alive himself.
Flower petals flew from the back of his bike. A bouquet of white and red roses was attached there, waiting for him to lay it on a grave. Today was the anniversary of Tyson's death.
His motorcycle's wheels screeching to a halt into the parking spot in the lot beside the cemetery.
"Tyson." Kai managed to say quietly from where he stood in front of the simple headstone.
It was what it was, simple. Tyson's grandfather, devastated by the death of his only grandson, was the one who had had it engraved. So simple, the words, but so utterly perfect at conveying the words in his heart that Kai could not help the tears that sprang to his eyes each time he read them.
Tyson Granger
1990 – 2004
We love you.
Kai gently placed the bouquet of flowers onto the green grass before the headstone, as if any other way would be disrespectful. As he knelt there he could see the waves crashing against the beach and the shooting stars fall from the dark sky once again. A moment so beautiful it was as if the stars were falling into the ocean while the waves washed them up to shore as he and Tyson lay on the sparkling sand.
The dual-haired teen squeezed his eyes shut at the painful memory. "I love you…" He whispered softly to the grave. A tear streamed down his cheek but he did not wipe it away.
Kai wished… he sometimes wished that the stone did not say those words. He did not want to be just part of "we"… and yet, that was all he ever was to Tyson.
It was funny, in the sad ironic way. Only in Tyson's death did Kai's heart finally realize why it kept beating.
The silence of the petals blowing over the grave as his footsteps faded away.
"Tell me about your old teammates." The voice was soft, but analytical, a person with a planned conversation.
The couch felt hard beneath him. Kai sighed. "You know about them already."
"I know who they are," Dr. Dayeh replied, shifting her clipboard in her hands. She sat in a practical chair across from Kai. "How are they? Do you keep in touch?"
He closed his eyes.
A splash of water, the rip of claws, the click of keys in his ear. The sound of blades spinning in his ear. The sound of Tys-
"New topic." Kai said grimly, his wine-coloured eyes focused on his crossed arms.
Dr. Dayeh, a professionally trained psychologist and therapist, lowered her glasses down the bridge of her nose. "As your 'shrink,' I think it's a good place to start."
"A good place to start…" He repeated impassively. His eyes closed once more and stayed that way. "A good place to end." He murmured, imagining the stray rose petals in his jacket pocket.
"Mr. Hiwatari," The therapist prompted.
A fatalistic style of speech. She recognized this behaviour from her patient, Kai Hiwatari. He had started coming in every other week for sessions, about a month and a half ago. It was obvious that Kai had many deep-seated issues needed to be dealt with; he was anti-social and very private. Moreover, he had a past that he did not like to discuss, a dark past? Possibly… Something lost?
He was such a sad looking man underneath the scowl.
Coming to the conclusion that she would try her very best to help him loose whatever sadness he'd been holding onto, she dug through as much of his past as he would let her see. Kai did not say many things, though she wasn't an expert for nothing.
She'd done her standard 'shrink' tests and questions on him. She knew the things she needed to know to prescribe him a drug and send him on his way.
However…
What do you see in this ink blot?
The stars…
And this one?
A beach…
This?
Blue eyes, deep blue eyes.
The ink blots were all black, and all had rather distinctive shapes that did not look anything like stars or a stretch of beach. She needed to learn about the scene Kai saw in his head, rather than in the ink that day. She wanted to know that moment and let Kai lay it away.
"You know about Kenny." Kai's voice awoke Dr. Dayeh from her thought's process. Yes, she did know of Mr. Dion. He was BioVolt's leading technician in their amazing technological advances. It was interesting, to say the least, that that same man was once the brains behind the Bladebreakers.
The Bladebreakers. Kai's old World Champion Beyblading team, three years in a row she believed, or was it two? She'd looked up her patient's history and had come across news articles. So many news articles… He was the grandson of the tycoon of the biggest tech enterprise in Japan, maybe even the world…
But he was still a sad man.
"Max moved to America seven years ago, as did Ray to China. No, I don't keep in touch. I don't know anything else to make this topic worthwhile." The dual-haired man told her in his ever present calm voice.
She'd never heard of the Bladebreakers or Kai, himself, during that time. It really showed that the world was that big as well as that small. You may try your whole life trying to hide from the world to eventually find that the world does not know you exist. She had been in school at that time, with no interest in the sport of beyblading herself, but now, years later, she could not think of anything else.
However…
World Champion Lost
Article by: Henry Orfan
The world lost its Beyblading Champion, Tyson Granger, yesterday afternoon in a large gas explosion at the newly constructed Beyblade Battle Association (BBA) Headquarters. Officials say it was an accident due to the faulty metal used on the pipes in the main…
Tyson Granger, age 15, was the heart and soul of Beyblade itself. He was a true example of sportsmanship and a role model to children everywhere. His family and team spoke their sorrow and loss at the news…
When asked about his teammate, Kai Hiwatari, did not say anything at all. We assume he is as heartbroken as the rest of his team, as Tyson was a selfless friend and cared for all he met…
That article had been dated for seven years ago, tomorrow. She'd marked it off on her calendar repeatedly with triple underlines and many circles, until the paper became too stained with red. It was not lost on her that Kai had scheduled an appointment for this very day, a Tuesday, when he usually showed up on Fridays. It was not lost on her that Tyson Granger had been an influential person in Kai's life, had deep blue eyes, and that he had lived near a beach right here in Bay City. Dr. Dayeh knew the implications of all her special side research she'd done to help Kai.
However…
"And Tyson?"
Her question was so loaded it felt like she was holding a gun in her hands. The therapist clutched her clipboard more steadily, pen poised over a blank piece of paper.
The grayish blue locks of Kai's hair fell across his eyes. "He's in the past."
She paused, relaxing. "And what of your present, Mr. Hiwatari?"
Something in those magenta eyes flashed red, like a fire that only burned because it could do nothing else. "If you hadn't noticed, doctor, I come to these sessions because my present life is a goddamn hell."
He worked in a small office on Wellam Street, behind a computer typing in information. All sorts of information, it was a government job, nine to five every weekday. He lived in an apartment slightly larger than his office, with a pet cat named Disk, and a photograph of seven years ago in a frame next to his bed. It was a ten minute drive from his home to work on the motorcycle, which he'd purchased three years earlier because walking through the streets with roses in hand just got to be too much one day.
Sleep, then dream. Wake up with emotion on his face, and then lock it away. Pick up the picture frame and feel severe panging loss. A familiar feeling he'd lived with and did not know how to live without.
Eyes completely shadowed, Kai's posture was rigid in the patient's chair. He was silent. Kai was not stupid, he knew the reason why he came to the sessions – his boss had thought it'd be a good idea – he knew the reason he couldn't go a single day without wishing for shooting stars to wish on. He needed that, so much.
Put down the frame and take a shower. Lather, rinse, repeat. Lather, rinse, turn the water off. Brush his teeth and comb his hair, put the clothes on he'd lay out the night before. Take his jacket from the coat hanger and place his keys in the pocket. Lay a dish out for Disk, and shut the door.
"Why is your life a hell?" The doctor asked bluntly, but it was not unkind.
He knew she knew.
Go to work, type into the computer. Type into the computer. Type into the computer. Turn off the lights, and shut the door. Drive home with the helmet obscuring his vision in all directions but forward. Set out a dish for Disk. Pull the covers up, sleep, and then dream.
"You know." He whispered. The brunette doctor could see herself reflected in those magenta eyes.
For a moment, just for a moment, she could clearly see a man in love with a golden past. A perfect image of how life should always be, that was what Kai had been holding to his heart so closely for all these years.
He understood his own feelings well, but she needed to conclude this. Dr. Dayeh had promised to herself that she'd stop this man from not seeing the future he had as well, rather than the dead one he had with Tyson Granger. So much time, wasted.
"Mr. Hiwatari…" She started, knowing this was going to be their last session. "You have to let him go."
Kai shook his head slowly, not knowing why he let the emotion be seen. The ex-blader rose from his seat and walked briskly for the door.
"Kai," Rita Dayeh's blue eyes had unshed tears in them.
He stopped at the doorway, but did not turn.
"You can't change the past." She said more gently.
The soft sound of the door clicking shut and some papers on her desk rustling in the wind.
It wasn't until this day that I remembered what I had forgotten. In my constant mourning of a future without Tyson, I remembered with a clear sense of emptiness that I, myself, still had a future to live. There was a door to my destiny I had never touched the handle of, because my hands are still wrapped around the image of him, clutching to that moment and not wanting to ever let go.
Kai slid his helmet on with practiced gloved hands. He gripped the handles of the motorcycle tightly as he revved the engine and pulled out of his parking spot.
But then there is also something I remember this day. It is that I think of this every year the date of Tyson's death appears on the backs of my eyelids. I think of what I am missing by not letting his memory go.
The dual-haired man's thoughts slowed as he weaved through the traffic back to his small apartment.
But then I remember…
His heart clenched in pain as he drove off deeper into the city passing a tall building with the letters "BV" at its apex.
I miss him more than all of that, so much more.
He flicked the lights to his apartment on and set his bags on the kitchen table. He knew that Disk would be sleeping because he got home from the therapist's usually very late. Kai walked into his simple bedroom, kicking off his shoes.
The man smiled as he saw his pet sleeping on the bed, then his smile turned sad as his gaze found their way to the framed photograph.
He pulled the covers up, fell asleep, and then dreamed.
Into the early hours of the night, Kai was jolted awake by the ringing of his telephone. He blearily picked up the receiver.
"What?" He asked in a hoarse sleep-ridden voice. The stars had been falling again, and his arms had been wrapped around Tyson…
"Kai Hiwatari?" A voice asked.
He knew that voice. It was a voice he hadn't heard in years, so many years, but he knew it. Suddenly wide awake, Kai sat up in his bed and held the receiver with a grim grip.
"Yes." He replied slowly.
"As a representative of BioVolt Corporation, I am extending you an invitation for a job position in the technological advancement and experimentation program."
His eyebrows immediately formed a nasty scowl, "I don't want to work for BioVolt!" Kai said heatedly.
There was a pause at the other end of the line.
"If you want to change everything, please meet me tomorrow at midnight in the alleyway behind the south building."
Kai did not reply.
"We can change everything, Kai." The voice said once more, and the dial tone was the only thing Kai heard for a long time.
To be continued…