I still remember the sweet, salty smell of the ocean the day I met him. The boy who would cause the tiny little rift between my sister and I. The boy who caused my twin and I to fight over. His name reflected the ocean, which I loved so much: Kai Hiwatari. A Russian Beyblader who bladed for the team known as the Bladebreakers. My sister and I know nothing of this 'sport', as they call it. It doesn't even involve anything other than screaming at your opponent and mental focus of some sort. But this game seemed to be the craze of our new home.
Our mother -whose job requires her to be relocated to the homeland of our father; Japan- hardly ever spends time with my sister and I. She works with some weird company that designs electronics and the stuff that goes on inside our cell phones. I really dislike how she's away so much, but it can't be helped, being the Vice President of the company. Her parents are of European back round.
My father was a track athlete and of Japanese and Korean back round. He died when I was only nine years old. We were extremely close, my father and I. He was the one who supported me the most when I started track as well. I remember so well when he died of a heart failure. The medics didn't get to him in time; he died on the track while racing. He was racing for the Olympics.
As for my sister Sarial and I, Katora, we were born in Holland. We moved with our parents to Canada and grew up there learning Dutch, Spanish, English and Japanese since we were four years old. As I mentioned before, I'm a track athlete. My sister sings really well in English, but now that we're in Japan, she might give a shot at Japanese songs.
There's something else you need to know before you continue on. I'm blind in my left eye. I was born this way. Mom and sis don't know why, neither do the doctors, but it can't be cured. I was always made fun of for having a dark green eye then a pale green eye, whereas my sister has two dark green eyes.
You, who have chosen to read my story, please do so, and learn from my mistakes.
Summer of 2005
A fluff ball of gold and white sped past my legs, out the door and down the street. Great, I thought, just what I need. Kai running away while Sarial and I are unpacking. That stupid little lab is so getting it when I catch him. Okay, Kai is my puppy by definition, considering I take care of him and such, but he can be such a big trouble sometimes. "Kai went off again. I'll be back in a bit," I said to Sarial. She shrugs and lifts another box onto the kitchen table.
"That's so like the little bugger. Good luck with finding him," she said, turning around with a swish of her long brown hair. I ran out the door and started searching for the tiny puppy. The beach wasn't far away, and Kai loved to play with water, so he might be there. I asked an elderly women where the beach was, and she pointed me in the (hopefully) right direction.
The lady, thankfully, was right about the directions, because when I got there the little lab was chewing playfully at someone's pants. The poor boy looked no older than 17, with two shades of striking blue hair. His back was facing me, but his long white scarf hid anything that was… well, anything. I ran towards the boy, calling for my puppy. "KAI! You naughty boy! Stop causing trouble!" The boy turned around to look at me, eyebrow raised, but Kai switched his target to the boy's dangling scarf.
"Hey!" the boy yelled, bending down to detach my dog from his scarf. I kneeled down next to him and carefully pried Kai's jaw open, allowing the boy to slip his scarf out of Kai's grasp. The boy stood up and stared at the puppy in my arms.
"Honestly, Kai! Bad enough you cause me trouble. Now you cause others trouble, too!" I scolded, holding Kai eye level to me. He tilted his head to the side, wagging his tail in confusion. I cradled the troublesome pup, who was gnawing at my left wrist, and looked up to meet the boy's startling brown eyes. "I apologize for Kai's inappropriate behavior. He's always like this."
"Hn."
"By the way, I'm Katora. I just moved here," I said, holding out my hand, expecting a handshake. The exact opposite. His hands remained in his pockets, where I guess they were pretty comfortable. But he did state his name.
"Kai." I giggled. So that's why he looked confused when I yelled for my dog! The poor lad must have thought that I was going to put him on a leash or something.
"It's nice to meet you, Kai. I'm sorry for any confusion we may have caused," I apologized, bowing. "I should get going, I hope to see you later." With that, I turned around and started to jog home. Once there, I found Sarial almost done unpacking her belongings, now unpacking our collection of movies, TV shows and animes in the living room. The workmen already helped her set up the plasma TV on the wall, a little ways from our burgundy leather couches.
Closing the door and setting Kai down on the floor, I walked up to a box labeled 'KATORA' and picked it up, walking upstairs while yelling 'I'm back!' to my sister. She waved a hand over her shoulder and set our Family Guy set on the shelf. Up in my room, I saw that Sarial took the liberty to set up my daybed for me. The black frame was set up by one of the windows, the blue sheets neatly folded at my bed. The workmen helped me set up my desk, the computer a mess with all the wires hanging around.
I quickly unpacked my clothes in my wardrobe and books on the shelf before running back downstairs, my sister waiting on the couch for me to start dinner (she can't cook for her life). "Can you start dinner? I have to go fix up our registration papers for our new school, "she explained, slipping on her shoes. I tossed her the house key, which she caught and pocketed into her jeans.
Dinner and registration didn't take long. Both were done in one hour, and after our meal, Sarial set the dishes away in the dishwasher. I retreated to my room with my uniform that Sarial brought back for us. I didn't bother changing; I flopped right onto my bed and fell asleep.
Next Morning
"Sarial, have you seen my bracelet!" I called down the stairs, my long, wet hair hanging down my back as I looked around my dresser. I slipped on my light blue-and-white short-sleeved sailor styled shirt and matching skirt. It was my uniform. I had no problems with skirts. I move around better in them.
"Which one? You have millions!" she shouted back. I pulled on my socks, which were the same shade of blue as the rest of my uniform. They reached a bit below the knees, whereas the skirt ended above my knees. I grabbed my brown book bag, walking down the stairs while fixing on my watch.
"The one Dad gave me. The one with the feathers hanging on one chain, and leaves on the other," I said. I got that for my eighth birthday. "I had it on yesterday. I don't remember taking it off." Kai stayed asleep in the kitchen, his soft snores heard. Sarial frowned.
"Can't we look for it later? We'll be late if we don't leave now. And being late won't put a good mark on our records," she argued. I gave a sad nod, slipping on my shoes. "See ya, Kai!" we cried to his sleeping form as we locked the door behind us. "We're going to have to run if we want to make it on time."
"You mean sprint?" I asked playfully. She punched my arm in the same manner. "Okay, okay, jog."
"Fine. I'll do my best to keep up," she huffed. "You know running is NOT my thing."
"Same goes with singing," I responded, pointing my thumb at me as I sprinted off, my sister struggling to keep up. No way she could beat me, the track star at our previous school. I'm hoping that I can race here as well.
We sprinted for another five minutes, and when we arrived at the school, we ran past a mob of students to the office. I took the left hall when I heard 'WRONG WAY KATORA!' I grinned sheepishly and turned around to sister, who stood outside a door with an "Office' sign hanging over it.
"The Ryuusei girls, I assume?" asked the secretary. She looked much like a disfigured boar, with a big nose and tiny eyes. Sarial nodded and signed a piece of paper the woman handed to her. "Doesn't sound Dutch."
"Our father's of Japanese and Korean back round," Sarial explained, taking our timetables. We had the exact same schedule, with the exception of her taking music and me taking phys.ed.
"Your first class is on the second floor, down the right hall and three doors down the left," said the boar lady. We thanked her and left the office.
"Is it me, or does she look like a boar to you?" Sarial asked me as we walked to the stairs. I let out a laugh, which she joined in with her own. "I assume we haven't lost our mind-reading powers?" An inside joke, referring to when we were little, we always thought most of the same thing without speaking. Kids back at our old school used to joke that in place of my blind eye, I got 'psychic connections' with my sister.
We came to the correct floor, and opened what we THOUGHT was the right door and slid it open. "Um… is this Ms. Kinkaid's class?" When I looked up, the class was sniggering. I looked to the teacher and knew why. It was a HE, with gray hair and a walking stick. "Eh… Excuse us."
"Sorry to interrupt your class," Sarial apologized, pushing me out the door. We slid the door closed and left of a slow breath. "Okay, wrong door. Must be the one over." Wrong again. The woman inside was Mrs. Adderly. And the next one was Ms. Yamato. And the next one Mr. Kiryu. And the next one—
"Okay, all I remember is second floor! That stupid Kinkaid has to be around here somewhere!" Sarial hissed, fire flaring in her eyes. I sighed, hoping for a sign of any sort to point us in the right direction.
"Kinkaid's class?" We turned to find a girl dressed in the uniform, straightening her dark blue bow sitting on her shirt. Her short black hair was layered, and her bangs covered her brown eyes. "Her class has been moved up to the third floor, room 312. Didn't anyone tell you? And you're late by quite a few min—"
"THANK YOU! BYE!" we shouted over our shoulders, making a mad dash for the third floor. I reached 312 before my sister and flung it open to reveal a shocked young lady with stylish brown hair and eyes. Sarial stopped just behind me, but then she suddenly lost her balance and sent me to the floor. I felt what was like my sister and some baby elephant sitting on top of me.
"Sarial! Lose some weight!"
"Tell that on the guy on top of me! He ran into me!" she shouted angrily back at me.
"Ahh! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" apologized a boy. Both Sarial and I lost our temper at that moment.
"Just get off of us!" we roared. The class laughed as the boy struggled to get up.
"TYSON! You're late again!" scolded a girl with shoulder length brown hair that flared out. Her chocolate brown eyes glared at the blue haired boy called Tyson. "Not only that, you're causing our new students trouble."
"Are you alright?" a blonde boy asked. He looked American, with plenty of freckles and big blue eyes. He wore the male uniform, consisting of dark blue pants, white short sleeve shirt and a dark blue tie. He held back another laugh. "Here, let me help you guys."
He extended a hand to Sarial, which she took and stood up. As soon as she was up, I whipped my feet under me and popped up, only to ram my head into someone else's jaw. I guess I didn't see this person.
"Damn it!" I cursed under my breath, clutching my head. I opened my good eye and saw a tall boy with messy black bangs and a long, thin ponytail wrapped in white cloth behind him. He held onto his jaw, moving it around a bit. He opened one golden eye and looked at me.
"Man, you've got a hard head," he joked, trying to grin at me through the pain. I wasn't in the mood for jokes, however.
"What was that!"
"Calm down!" Sarial said in Spanish, which surprised half the class. "First day, good impressions, remember that."
"Bit late isn't it?" I asked. "And speak Japanese, you're confusing everyone." Sarial grinned, and handed a piece of paper to Kinkaid. She explained our reason for being late.
"I apologize. The school hasn't updated the database in a while. Please, take your seats, um… who's who?" Kinkaid asked. I guess she had trouble trying to remember which one of us was who.
"I'm Katora Ryuusei. My twin, Sarial," I explained, pointing to her. I guess it was hard to tell the difference between us, because both of us left our long brown hair hanging down our backs, unadorned at all. Sarial didn't even bother putting on eyeliner today.
"I thought you were Dutch…" Kinkaid asked. She tilted her head to the side. I slapped my forehead as Sarial explained. "Oh! Well, you seats are just over there, next to Mr. Kon." Jaw-boy raised his hand and waved to us. Next to him, two seats side-by-side were empty. Sarial took the one next to the window, and I took the one that was left. Not long into the lesson, I found a folded piece of paper on my desk, with my name written on it.
'Sorry about before. I didn't mean to insult you. Ray' I quietly pulled out my pencil and wrote a reply under the desk. 'Not your fault. I'm in a bad mood this morning. It was nothing to do with waking up on the wrong side of my bed.' I threw the note onto his lap when Kinkaid turned around to write a note on the board. The stupid paper came flying back to me two seconds later. 'Want to talk about it?' I scribbled one word before dropping it again. 'Later.'
Finally, lunch came around, and Sarial suggested we take our lunch up to the roof to get a good view of what's around. Once of there, we were pretty impressed with the view. I set my tray down and climbed the fence, a rush of refreshing air beating my face. "That's nice. Considering how hot it is here."
"Careful your skirt doesn't go flying," Sarial said, climbing up with me.
"I'm wearing shorts under."
"Spandex?" She said, scrunching her nose. I nodded. She sighed, lowering herself onto the ground and sitting with the fence behind her. She tore off a piece of bread and bit into it. "Why did me move right before the end of the school year again?"
"Because Mom was stubborn. And because she 'felt it was the right choice'," I replied. We had a month left of school, and mom just decided that we should move. Kind of stupid, but she wouldn't let up. She was bent on moving. "It's way hotter here than back home."
"Canada was okay, but I still love Holland best. I miss the cool air," Sarial said quietly. "I miss Dad taking us to his friend's place and letting us play with the cows. That was fun."
"You mean like the time when one of them chased us around because we were playing around with a baby calf?" I teased. Sarial laughed with me. "Ya, that was fun," I said sadly. Suddenly, the door flew open, and that Tyson kid came running through. He had some weird looking launcher thing with a long, string of plastic going through it. Behind him was a familiar boy…
"C'mon, Kai! One try! I just want to see how strong Dranzer is!" he begged. Kai didn't give an answer, only tackled Tyson to the ground. Tyson launched the Beyblade (as it turned out), and guess where it was headed?
"Down!" I cried, shoving Sarial to the side before retreating. My hair flew out as I moved, and a few strands were cut away from the rest of my hair as the blue top flashed by and stuck itself in the fence. I breathed in and out a few times before I let loose the fury within. "What are you! Stupid? Launching that thing at us! Have a little more common sense for a tenth grader, will you!"
"Katora, calm down. It was an accident," Sarial soothed. I clamed down a bit, just like she wanted, and drank some water form my bottle. Sarial turned to the crowd coming up the stairs, all whom I guess heard my rage. "I'm sorry about Katora. She's a sweet girl, really, but she's just got anger issues."
"Of course, sis. That makes perfect sense," I said sarcastically. Sarial smirked, which I returned. The girl who had yelled at Tyson back in the classroom walked up to us.
"Hey, you guys alright?" she asked, checking us to see if there were any cuts.
"Just a scrape on my elbow. Nothing serious," Sarial said, running some water over the bit of blood coming from her elbow. "And you are…?"
"Oh, how rude of me! I'm Hilary. Hilary Tatibana. I'm the class representative. You're the twins from… where?"
"They're from Canada, originally from Holland," piped up a boy with mouse brown hair that covered his eyes completely. He looked up from his laptop (at least, I thought he did). I've got all the data about them in here. One does track, the other sings. Height 5'5". Bust 85cm. Waist 59cm. Hips 79 cm. Weight 11—AHH!"
"I don't know if you know this or not, but a girl's weight is only for her and her to know," Sarial stated, her tray now missing a spoon. I sighed.
"And I thought I had anger issues," I muttered. "So, who are you people?"
"What?" asked the mouse kid.
"You barged through the door, send a flying top at us, reveal our body measurements to your friends and, in short, you disrupt our lunch. We at least deserve to know your names," Sarial fired. An awkward silence, and then Hilary answered.
"I guess you're right." She started by pointing at Ray. "Ray Kon, he's from some remote part of China."
"I'm from Beijing."
"Yeah, sure," Hilary said, grinning. She pointed to the blonde from earlier. "Max Tate. He's American." Max grinned at us and winked. Sarial winked back; I smiled. Hilary pointed to Tyson and the boy from yesterday. "That's Tyson Granger. He's from around here. And that's—"
"Kai, right?" I finished. Hilary stared at me funnily. "We met yesterday at the beach."
"That's so like Kai to run off to the water," Sarial joked, referring to the dog. Obviously, everyone else but Kai as confused. "We have a pet lab. His name is Kai. Don't ask." Kai strode towards me and dug into his pocket for something. He held out his fist in front of me. I held out my hand. He slowly let his fingers fall loose, dropping a familiar article into my hand.
"My bracelet!" I cried, staring at the delicate silver. I looked up at him. "Thank you!"
"Hn," was his answer, pulling his blue top from the fence. Tucking it into his pocket, he walked back down the stairs.
"Sourpuss," Tyson said. Then he motioned to mouse boy. "This is Kenny by the way. He's a genius with Beyblading, so if you have any questions about anything concerning Beyblades, ask him."
"We don't Beyblade, or whatever you call it," I said, standing up with the tray in my hand. I brushed my skirt clean of any dirt. I looked back at Tyson and saw his shocked face. "What?"
"You don't Beyblade!" he cried. "Are you serious! How could you not even know of it! It's the most popular sport on TV, and the world!" Hilary chose this very moment to whack Tyson upside the head. Kenny, Max and Ray laughed while Tyson held his head in pain.
"We don't watch much TV. So that's probably why we don't know the sport well," Sarial explained. Kenny spoke up.
"So you've never heard of the Bladebreakers? What about the All Starz? And White Tigers?"
"Nope. Never heard of any of them."
"Not even Mr. Dickenson?" Kenny asked, sounding desperate to see if we knew anything. I placed a finger on my chin.
"Is he the old guy? Bit chubby, gray moustache, almost bald? Always carrying around a walking stick?" I asked. Sarial was catching on to the memory I was referring to. Max smiled.
"Yeah! That's him! So you HAVE heard of him?" he asked. Sarial smiled.
"Correction: we've met him. One of our mom's business party's a year ago. I think we were in France for a vacation when we met him. Not a bad guy. Nice, likes to joke around. We talked a lot, but no mention of Beyblades," Sarial said. "We have pictures from that party. We'll show them to you some other time." At that moment, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.
The rest of the day rushed by, and I hardly paid attention in class. I learned that Kai had the same math period and Sarial and I. I caught my sister looking at him several times. She's as boy crazy as ever. The final bell rang, and we left our first floor classroom and changed into our outdoor shoes. Sis and I were walking past the gates when we heard Hilary come up behind us.
"Hey, did you want to come over to Tyson's with the rest of us? They'll be Beyblading, and since I don't Beyblade, I usually don't have anyone to talk to. It'd be nice to have some more girls there for a change," Hilary pleaded. I thought for a moment. Tyson, Kai and Max came up behind Hilary.
"I'm not sure…" Sarial said slowly. I was unsure of whether or not to go, too. After all, we just met, and we had no idea where Tyson lived. But Hilary really wanted us to go and… gah! I don't know! "Should we go?" she asked me. I scratched my head, closing my eyes.
"Either way, I'm going back home first to feed and walk Kai. You make the decision, you're older."
"By two minutes," she said, grinning. I opened my right eye and looked at her, smiling back. "So you won't be angry with my decision?"
"Go just them what you want."
"We'll come," Sarial said, turning back to the others. We were about to leave when I felt an arm make itself comfortable on my hip.
"Well, well. I come looking for Kai and I find a little beauty as well."
Author's Note: Thank you for reading the first chapter of my fanfic It's much appreciated. Oh and before I forget, the disclaimer! I know disclaimers are supposed to be at the beginning, but I'm lazy. So here it is:
I do not own Beyblade or any of its characters. I do,however, own the ideas for the characters Katora Ryuusei and Sarial Ryuusei.
There ya go. Again, thank you for reading!