MT: Remember kiddies! This Crossover is based on the BB Anime and the CC manga. Please do have a nice day C:
Summary: The BBA Revolution has taken a trip to New York to meet some people, but overall to relax. However, when Rei's secret past, that not even the White Tigers know about, suddenly catches up with him, their trip turns out to be everything but peaceful.
Disclaimer: Beyblade, Chrno Crusade and all the characters. They belong to either Takao Aoki or Daisuke Moriyama
Warnings throughout the whole story: Possible OOC'ness, violence, possible historical errors (I'm extremely weak at US history, and I'm a lousy researcher at that point, sorry)
Chapter 1: The Book
The weak sound of a page in a book could be heard within the rather silent room. Only other thing which occasionally could be heard was the tapping sound on a laptop's keyboard.
A pair of crimson eyes opened to scan the people and surroundings in the room. Besides himself, he could count up to five other people. It was sort of surprising to him that the room was as silent as it was.
The only girl in the room was the one who happened to be reading. She had been quite glued to this book ever since she had gotten her hands on it, and the guys were pretty sure they would get to hear something about it when she had finished reading it and by so could tear her eyes from it. Her name was Hilary.
Two of the guys, namely Tyson and Max, had each taken over a couch which they at the moment were sleeping on, as they apparently had spend most of the night playing video games instead of sleeping. Fortunately they were at the given moment freed from Tyson's usual snoring from when he was sleeping.
The third guy, Kenny, was the one who was tapping away on his keyboard. What he was doing on the laptop at the given moment was a mystery. Even though it was most likely he was doing some sort of research or processing some data he had, it was also possibly he was doing something completely random, like surfing the internet.
The fourth guy in the room was Kai himself, the one who was looking across them all with his crimson eyes. He enjoyed the silence very much, but for this bunch of people he was highly surprised of the silence at the given moment, as it usually was everything but silent. Perhaps it was because their seventh friend, Daichi, had decided not to join them on their trip to New York anyway? A choice which had not bothered Kai in anyway, as Daichi wasn't exactly one of his favorite people.
Finally, Kai's eyes strayed to the very last person in the room; Rei. Rei was usually one of the quieter people of the group when he did not run along on the silliness of the others, but at the moment his quietness was brain wrecking. He was sitting in one of the windowsills, just staring out the window and seemed to be utterly lost in thoughts. This would not be such a bother if it wasn't because a sad expression was plastered onto his usual neutral or smiling face. As far as Kai was concerned, Rei did not have anything to be sad about; he wasn't in a fight with his family or his friends. It wasn't the first time Rei drifted off into his own world like this, getting that expression. But no one ever knew what it was about.
This gang of, by now, young adults, had in their teenage years been reigning champions of the sport Beyblade. Though, after winning the third championship in a row, with Tyson himself being THE Champion, the bunch of them had retired and only did this sport for fun, and sometimes helped in teaching younger people. It was the sport which had brought these people together, sent them through a lot, and would get to have absolutely nothing to do with what they would experience in the near future.
At the moment they spend their years travelling the world together, getting around to actually see the world, instead of just being in every corners of it for the tournaments. This had in the end led them to New York, the city in which Max' mom was living, as she had requested for the bunch to visit her and help her with something. Something they did not know what was as of yet.
Kai's eyes turned half-lidded as he let his mind wander back to the memories he had with these people. Good and bad memories. Some things he treasured, others he wished he could just forget had ever happened but unfortunately those were some of the memories who stuck by the most. He train of thoughts were however soon interrupted by a new sound.
The sudden sound of sniffling soon brought the other males out of their thoughts, and their sleep as well.
"Hilary? What's wrong?" Kenny was the first to react to the sniffling coming from their female companion. It wasn't normal to see Hilary in a state of crying, so it did catch the attention of them all.
Hilary merely sniffled some more, "The ending is just so sad!" she gave a smaller hiccup while closing the book in her hands as she had now finished reading it.
Rei gave a small smile at Hilary; it was kind of cute seeing this headstrong girl get emotional over what was written in a book.
Tyson on the other hand yawned loudly. "So? It's just a book. No need crying about it." He spoke this as he moved to sit up instead of lying across the whole couch which he was occupying.
Hilary's brow twitched and a growl escaped her throat, "As if someone like you would ever understand the beautifulness in it!"
Tyson gave a twitch before huffing, "Ohya? And what is that supposed to mean?"
The dear Max, who had also woken up, decided to step in before the argument got too heated. "What is the story about, Hilary?" he slammed a hand across Tyson's mouth before he could get to say any more.
Rei chuckled softly at the scene of the three and picked the book from Hilary to take a closer look at it while Hilary threw herself straight into telling about it. Rei's eyes scanned across the title and the author "The Unbelievable Bond – By Satella Harvenheit"
Tyson huffed through Max's fingers; great, now they had to listen to a tale of some silly story. No; books were not part of Tyson's favorites.
Hilary was merely happy by Max's question and forgot all about the argument she had been about to start with Tyson.
"The time takes place back in 1924 and is about a girl named Rosette who has become a nun, but she has also made a contract with this demon called Chrno. Their story starts with Rosette living in an orphanage with her brother where they one day go exploring and find Chrno in a hidden tomb. Not long after Rosette's brother is taken by an evil demon who is the leader of the bad demons, because her brother is what they call an apostle. After this Rosette makes the contract with Chrno, and together they search for her brother while having become part of the Holy organization the Magdalene Order. They at some point figure out where he is and go there, but then it ends with a large battle with half of the city they're in gets destroyed and Rosette is unconscious for a week, and they also sort of lose that battle, but as Rosette wakes up again, she goes with Chrno to a whole different place and- … What's with those faces?" Hilary all of the sudden huffed.
"…" out of Tyson, Max, Kenny and Kai who were staring rather blankly at her, Tyson was the first one to speak up. "That explanation is not making any sense at all."
Hilary gave a twitch before growling. Though, before she could get to say anything, Rei decided to cut in.
"You're missing out some details in your explanations." Rei spoke, forcing a smile, "So it's not very easy to follow and it will only make the end seem messier when you start explaining about that one... like you're missing the mentioning of Azmaria and Satella who follows along with Chrno and Rosette. Also, there are a few key-points you might be missing in the story, like the bad guys aren't really pure evil when reading between the lines, but in reality rebels against the world they're coming from and such."
A sudden shine came to Hilary's eyes and she almost glued herself to Rei, "You have read the book too?"
Tyson and Max got curious when Rei started talking. As their fellow guy-friend, he could probably tell if it actually was a book worth something, or if it was just Hilary off in her own little world again. Kai and Kenny on the other hand were more interested in why Rei's smile was so forced and why his eyes suddenly seemed so pained.
"Erh.. yes, I have." Rei replied and handed the book back to Hilary, "Though, I don't think you should attempt giving a longer and more detailed explanation to the others; I'm quite sure it's not anything they're interested in."
A bit of the shine in Hilary's eyes disappeared and she let out yet another huff, "They just don't understand what an actually good book is."
Rei gave yet another forced smile, "Probably not. Anyways, I just got to remember I have something to do, so I will go do that and I'll see you guys later, alright?"
Now Tyson's, Max's and Hilary's attention went in the same direction as Kai and Kenny already had theirs; towards Rei's apparent failing cover-up of his real mood.
Tyson stood to his feet, "Why, we can go with you and help."
Rei, who had taken a few steps away from the others and towards the door of the room, pressed his lips to a thin line, "No." he then took the notice of just how hard his tone had been and forced a toothy grin, "All I mean is, it's really not necessary; I will do quite fine on my own as it's only something a single person can do, so no need for you all to bother with it, alright? See you later!" and out the door he quickly disappeared before any of the others managed to protest.
"… What in the world just happened there." Tyson let out after a few moments of pure silence where they all had just been watching the door.
"I'm not sure… Something seemed to be bothering him quite a lot, didn't it?" Max asked, looking around at the others in search for some sort of confirmation.
Kenny adjusted his glasses, "He did seem a bit sad earlier, like other times where he's just drifting into his own world on the special way he's doing it sometimes. Though, I do wonder why his mood seemed to worsen when he got his hands on the book and Hilary started explaining about it."
Hilary gave a small twitch at that, "Perhaps he has some sad story concerning around the book with another person?"
Kai, being the usual more quiet person he was, decided not to share his two cents of thoughts with the others. For once they seemed to be on the right track of something too though.
Tyson suddenly sprung to his feet, "Well, there's only one thing to do then! We have to follow him!"
Kenny shook his head, "But he said he didn't need the help from the rest of us."
Max gave a cheeky grin, "Yes, but he didn't say anything about we couldn't follow. I'm in!"
"Let's go then!"
After no more protest than the single one Kenny had uttered, they all had decided to follow their apparently sad friend. However, they had also silently decided that they would follow him on a distance and just watch him, in case he decided not to do what he was supposed to, if he knew they were there.
By Max having his mother living in New York, and having lived in New York himself for quite some time, Max did know a lot of corners of New York, and by so also recognized the streets Rei had decided to walk along. In low whispers to his fellow stalkers of Rei, he could explain what was around them, what was nearby and so they went on with guess-work of what Rei was actually supposed to do.
After a longer time of just walking, with the group soon thinking that Rei perhaps had noticed them stalking him and so just walked around to confuse them, they finally saw a change in behavior; Rei had stopped by a flower-booth in which he bought a larger bouquet of flowers. After this, he then continued walking.
A heated, yet whispering, debate started between the stalkers of Rei; a bouquet of flowers? Then he had to be seeing someone. But as far as they all knew, he did not have any relatives in New York, so perhaps he had a secret lover? But why would he go to a secret lover with a bouquet of flowers if he was sad?
It did not take much longer before they figured out why Rei had bought the bouquet of flowers, as he soon stepped through the gates leading in to graveyard.
Finally stopped by the gates to the graveyard, Tyson blinked and looked at it. "…Why in the world is he buying a bouquet of flowers to place on a grave in New York? He's from China!"
"Well, perhaps it is a family relative. After all, we don't know that much about his family. Also, he does have that uncle in France, so it is possible it's another relative." Kenny concluded.
"Why wouldn't he just tell us so then?" Max asked. "It's not like we would make fun of him or anything."
"It is very weird indeed…" Kenny sighed softly.
Kai merely glanced between the others before sighing deeply and just stepping forward, entering the graveyard and so taking the lead towards following Rei the rest of the way; then they could perhaps get around to see exactly which grave he was placing flowers at. Unless he had just gotten the weird idea to walk through the graveyard with a bouquet of flowers which did seem rather unlikely.
The others twitched as Kai just walked ahead of them, before they quickly decided to follow the Russian.
It didn't take too long before Rei was spotted, kneeling by a grave. Despite the wrongness in stalking people on graveyards and trying to find some hide there just to stalk a person, the five others youths still decided to do so, in order to watch the Chinese.
Rei was watching the gravestone with a sad expression. He sighed softly while his thoughts were wandering, '…I'm sorry I never helped any of you, that I never got to actually meet you and only watched you from afar… I hope that you both are in peace.' With another soft sigh escaping his lips, he stood to his feet, leaving the bouquet on the grave and then walked away. He couldn't stand being there much longer and now he just needed a walk to wherever his feet would lead him. It was completely unbeknown to him that his five stalkers were watching him leave the graveyard.
When Rei seemed to have left the graveyard completely, Tyson stood straight from the hide he had been in, before he hurried to the grave along with the others to see the grave. Once he finally reached the grave, his eyebrows merely raised high in his forehead, "…What the…"
Tyson was not the only one to stare rather surprised at the gravestone. Even Kai was surprised. Kai was also the one who decided to kneel down by the gravestone, taking a closer look at it, "Rosette Christopher… born 1908, dead 1932…" his eyebrows furrowed. Nope, he did not have a single clue as to why Rei should have visited this grave.
Max scratched the back of his head, "This is really weird… You think he spotted us anyway and is just tricking us now, placing the bouquet of flowers by a random grave?"
Kenny shook his head, "Of all things Rei could do to take us off track in what he really should do, I really don't think this is one of them."
Kai looked up at the others from his kneeling position, "There has to be some reason to why Rei visited this grave. For once, I think it would be a very good idea to ask him once we see him again back at the hotel." His attention however soon turned to their female companion, "…Hilary?"
Max, Tyson and Kenny blinked and looked towards Hilary too.
The female just stood there, staring at the grave.
"…" Tyson moved over and snapped his fingers in front of Hilary's face, "Hellooo? The Earth calling Hilary, is there anyone to answer?"
Hilary snapped out of her trance by this and turned her head sharply to look at Tyson. A sort of confused look was spread across her face, "… This is just weird."
"Eh… Duh?" Tyson raised an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah, that is what we're saying." Max spoke.
Hilary quickly shook her head, "No. That's not what I mean." She pointed at the gravestone, "Rosette Christopher, is the name of the main character in the book I just read. And she was born in 1908 and died in 1932."
"…"
Tyson shook his head, "That is weird…"
"Coincidence." Kai just inquired. "Can't be more than mere coincidence." He stood to his feet, "As far as I did understand out from what you tried to tell about that book, it includes demons and apostles and supernatural stuff. Things that don't exist in the real world. The name and years of date and birth are mere coincidence."
"…" Hilary watched Kai before her eyes strayed back to the gravestone, "That is true… It is still weird though.."
The others looked back at the gravestone too. Hilary was indeed right it was weird. But it couldn't be anything but a mere coincidence.
MT: For new readers; I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will enjoy the story. For old readers; if remembering some details from since last time you read the story, you will possible notice a few changes as the story has been re-written. The story is practically the same with only minor changes in dialogues, what characters can be found in the story and then it's updated to my current writing style. Also, the story was first located in New York City, but has now been moved to Chicago!