She had never felt so alive.
Her beyblade spun across the ground, and she ran beside it, whirling her staff and delivering attack after attack with it, being the professional she was. A smile was on her face as a certain type of giddiness (what did humans call it? Adrenaline?) coursed through her. Haipā and her beyblade passed her, and she noticed that the two spirits had identical smiles.
She rose up into the air to join Saturn behind Nemesis. Saturn had her scythe out, waiting for the precise moment to attack. Behind Nemesis, she could see their five bladers running and skidding to a stop. Her position gave her a bird's-eye view of her own blader. He was trying so hard. They all were. But all the spirits could see that the battle was wearing them down. As Fang had so graciously put it, "humans were too prideful to admit that they were weakening."
Kashikoi glanced at Saturn, and hoped that she would not do something rash. That went for her master as well. They had both been angry already after being defeated by Haipā and her blader, but her master discovering that they had been tricked added fuel to the flames.
She suddenly heard Sentōki shout, "Look out!" But he was too late.
Nemesis shot a burst of energy at the two spirits, their beys, and knocked them out of the air. As they fell, Kashikoi saw their bladers being thrown back as well. The four crashed to the ground, the spirits coincidentally beside their bladers.
Groaning, Kashikoi struggled to get up, then turned her head and saw Fang, Haipā, Sentōki, and their bladers being blown back as well by another blast of energy. The spirits were still alive, but their masters were all partly-unconscious. The beyspirit's fear for her master increased when she checked how much life was left in him. He was still alive, but just barely. And she was sure that the other four were the same way.
Seeing that his opponents were down, Nemesis began to cackle with glee. His laughter sent shivers down Kashikoi's spine. Wind blew through the ruined battleground, sending gravel and dust flying. The spirits shielded their bladers the best they could.
Kashikoi glanced up, and saw that her four friends (even Haipā) were wearing identical looks of defeat, the look she was sure she herself was wearing.
She refused to believe it, but she knew it was true. The five spirits looked at each other, and they all agreed on the same thing.
It was over.
At the same time, they grasped a hand of their masters; the masters who had been willing to sacrifice themselves if it meant getting rid of Nemesis forever. They knew that once Nemesis ended his laughter, he would destroy them.
Suddenly, a pale-blue light surrounded them, blowing away the dust covering their bodies. Nemesis stopped his laughter in surprise.
Energy slowly began to course through Kashikoi, and she suddenly felt the hand she was holding twitch. The five spirits gasped in unison, as the eyes of their bladers weakly opened.
What happened next, to Kashikoi, was a complete blur, but what she remembered was their bladers possessing the power of Gaia, clearly gifted to them by the Great One in the heavens, and both Nemesis and King Hades being sealed deep underground.
But as King Hades was sucked beneath the earth, he uttered words that Kashikoi never once forgot.
"Remember this: a new light will become a new pit of darkness. When that time comes, the true destruction will begin."
Thousands of years had passed. Kashikoi didn't know the exact number; she had lost count. In the early years after Nemesis's defeat, she had kept track of them, not because she had little else to do, but because she was grieving. Her beloved master hadn't survived. Well, he had, they all had, but their injuries were too many. King Zeus had had them taken care of by the finest healers his kingdom had to offer, but all five of them had simultaneously died during the night, two weeks after the battle.
There had been a funeral for them, and the entire kingdom had mourned for half a year. It was understandable; those five bladers had been heroes. They had accepted no rewards for what they had done, and had asked to not be treated as of they were kings. They had also, Kashikoi suddenly thought rather bitterly, probably knew they were going to die.
The date of their deaths had become a day where the humans quietly came to pay their respects to the graves of the five bladers. They had been put in caskets and placed in a small garden. Ironically, the five had been dressed in their battle outfits and battle gear. However, as time went on, the day soon became forgotten, along with the five bladers.
But no one had grieved more than the spirits. The five spirits had gone their separate ways, to grieve by themselves, and also to wait until they were obtained by another blader. Fang had retreated to his master's temple on Mist Mountain; Haipā had gone west to an unknown country; Saturn had gone east of the kingdom; Sentōki remained in the kingdom, but his whereabouts were unknown. As for Kashikoi, she had journeyed east with Saturn, but they had separated. Kashikoi had traveled farther, and finally decided to settle in an unknown country, that she now knew to be called Japan. Once she got there, she immediately retreated into her beyblade, and resolved to never come out.
A few thousand years after she arrived, she was found by an old man with glasses over a kind face, leaning on a cane. Kashikoi had not seen a kind face since the days when her master was alive. The man curiously looked down at her, then suddenly stooped down and picked her up. He examined her, in a way that made her feel as if he could see right through the beyblade into it's core, where she resided.
"What is a beyblade doing out here?" the man said aloud. Then he narrowed his eyes and examined her more carefully. "Mercury Anubius," he muttered.
Kashikoi felt bitterness rise up in her. Once, she had felt pride in being called that name. But her power had been drained from the battle, most of it being sent up into the heavens until King Hades rose again. Now she had an amount of power that most beyblades on Earth contained, and hated it. For her, that name did not hold pride, but disgrace.
The old man suddenly smiled. "Well, we can't leave you out here, can we? I think Yuki will use you more than I will."
Then he put her in the pocket of his coat, and started walking again.
Kashikoi considered her options. Either she could disappear and hide somewhere where she would never be found, or she could stay in the man's pocket and see where he was taking her. She decided to stay, and if she didn't like where the old man took her, she would disappear.
But she couldn't help but wonder: who was Yuki?
The old man cleaned up her beyblade, so that the wheel glittered in any sort of light, and replaced her tip and track as well. In spite of herself, Kashikoi began to feel some of her old pride return whenever he muttered "Mercury Anubius." Which was quite often at that.
She was still curious to know who Yuki was. One look at the man told her that he was completely incapable of using a beyblade. His son, perhaps? He looked old enough to have a grandson. Was Yuki his grandson?
Two days after the old man cleaned her up, he took her out into a forest. He walked for quite a ways, until he finally came to a small cliff. He sat down on the edge, with some difficulty. Kashikoi could see his face. He was looking up at the sky, smiling contentedly.
Just then, she heard footsteps coming from behind them. Someone was running. The old man, however, did not turn around.
"You wanted to see me, Grandfather?"
It was the voice of a little boy. Kashikoi's curiosity increased.
"Yes, Yuki," the old man said. This was Yuki? She hadn't expected Yuki to be a little boy. "Sit down." He patted the ground next to him, and the little boy sat down. She sensed his curiosity, but still could not see him.
"Yuki," the old man began. "I've been noticing you watching the other children battle with their beyblades."
"Uh..." Yuki stuttered. "You have?"
"Yes. I know you don't have a beyblade of your own, but why do you watch them while hiding behind a tree, or a bush?"
"W-well, if they saw me, they would just go away," Yuki explained.
Ah. Now Kashikoi could see what this old man was up to.
"Yuki," the man said. "I think it's about time you had a beyblade of your own."
That being said, he took Kashikoi out of his coat pocket and handed it to Yuki, who took it and stared at it. "A beyblade of my own?" he repeated.
Kashikoi gasped, and for one wild moment, she thought her master had returned to life. This little boy could have been his twin. He had the same dark red hair, the same dark blue eyes, he even had the same face!
But then Kashikoi looked closer. No, this boy was different. His face was paler, for one, but the biggest differences were that he had round glasses and his eyes had a combination of childish innocence and also childish curiosity. Still though, he was without a doubt a descendant of her master. He looked to be about seven or eight years old.
"This is Mercury Anubius," the old man said. He was smiling at Yuki. "And it is yours."
Yuki's eyes widened, excitement clearly growing inside him. Then he smiled, and Kashikoi couldn't help thinking that while the smile was also identical, it looked different. Whenever her old master smiled, it was either a tired smile or a half-hearted smile.
Yuki threw his arms around the old man saying, "Thank you, Grandpa, thank you!"
It wasn't until that night that Kashikoi had a chance to get a full look at the little boy. She hadn't been out of her beyblade for over two thousand years, and she had to admit that she was glad to be out of there.
She came out of her bey in her beast form, then decided to shift into her human form. If Yuki happened to wake up and see her, he wouldn't get too scared.
Her bey had been placed on a bedside table next to Yuki's glasses. The owner of the said glasses was sleeping peacefully in bed. Kashikoi took a good, long look at him.
Yuki looked exactly like her old master (he even had the same thin form), but when she looked closer, she suddenly saw a large bruise on his left arm. It looked as if he had been pushed into a wall. Kashikoi remembered what he had said earlier.
"If they saw me, they would just go away."
Anger suddenly rose up in her, along with a want to punish whoever had given him that bruise. But Kashikoi suddenly caught sight of her reflection in a small mirror, and her anger quickly turned to shock.
She looked terrible, even to herself. The dark red hair she had acquired from her old master was longer than she thought, dirty, and a mess. Her face was white as marble and completely unreadable. She was wearing the same battle outfit her master had worn, which was a light blue toga, a dark blue cloak with a gold fastener, and gold arm bracelets. Her toga was torn in several places, and so was her cloak, and the gold fastener and bracelets had patches of a sort of mold in several places. Her eyes, which were a golden color, were dull and lifeless.
How had she become... that?
Yuki suddenly stirred in his sleep, but then settled again.
Kashikoi suddenly thought about the words King Hades had said. What if he came back a few years from now, while Yuki was still alive?
Wait. If the power from the Star Fragment had been sent up into the heavens, then that meant it was waiting for the perfect time to return. If it did return, then it would probably return to it's original owners. That meant that it would come to Yuki someday. And when it did, people with bad intentions would most certainly come after him.
The Anubius spirit had no way of knowing who exactly would come after him, but there was no way she was going to let them hurt her master's descendant. Yes, she was going to protect this little boy, and she was going to make sure that he at least, got out of it all alive.
Now reassured, Kashikoi placed a hand on Yuki's forehead, and began to glow light blue as the human and spirit connected. She smiled.
"Hello, Master," she whispered.
Yuki was floating in space, watching as a small light blue flame grew bigger and brighter, until it was larger than any flame he had ever seen.
A shadow suddenly appeared in the flame. The shadow was a darker blue, and very vague in appearance.
"Yuki... my successor..."
Yuki's eyes flew open, and he woke up. He wasn't in space anymore, but back in his bedroom.
"What a weird dream," he muttered. He looked over at his bedside table, where his new beyblade was lying beside his glasses.
Mercury Anubius. It was such a great name for a bey. And Yuki was sure that none of the other kids had an Anubius bey. If he wasn't such an outcast, they would probably be envious.
Yuki knew for a fact that no one would want to battle him, but for once he didn't care. He wondered if beys could be like a friend, and hoped they could.
"I should get back to bed," he thought. The eight-year-old planned to start training with Anubius first thing after breakfast, since he didn't have school tomorrow. He lay back down, and fell back asleep.
And for once, he could hardly wait for morning to come.