This was an entry for a contest in the Deviantart community KaiHiwatariLovers. The idea was to write a story or draw a picture of Kai and Dranzer. I had this brilliant delusion that I could easily research about Suzaku/Zhu Que and write a story about that. LOLOLOLOL, it didn't work so well. I could find more about Ho-Oh than I could about a god that's existed for thousands of years. Thus this was born.

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade nor do I profit from writing this.

Remember a Day

Kai turned to see that the thing was still following. He hadn't been able to get a good look at it but all he knew was it had an orange top. It had been several moments since he'd seen the others. They'd been having such a nice picnic though. Takao was eating with his mouth closed, Max and Rei had been playing Frisbee, Kyouju was solving the equation to why cheesecake was the perfect dessert and there had been so many cute little kitties. Kai liked Kitties.

Then this thing had just appeared and demanded their titles and then strangely enough their pants. Takao had promptly ripped off his pants to show blue Munchlax boxers and proclaimed that the thing could have his pants but could never be the number one Pokemon master. That`s of course when the thing started breathing fire and everyone was running in different directions. For whatever reason the thing had chosen Kai to chase.

So here they were, Kai and the thing running endlessly through some random woods. Ahead the trees seemed to become sparser. He sprung through the last line of trees to find himself in a wasteland separated by a huge barbed wire fence. He came to stop and since there was nowhere else to go he turned to face the thing. He grabbed for his pokeballs to fight the thing but realised that he`d left them back at the picnic grounds; however it was too late and the thing was upon him. It was a monstrous vague shape that towered over even the trees.

"You can`t defeat me!" Kai screamed at the thing despite the fact that he was utterly defenceless. That was when he saw the other thing appear in the barren grey sky. This new thing... he knew this thing and somehow knew everything was going to be OK.

"Kai Hiwatari, you shall fall." The evil, big thing began to close the distance between it and Kai when the second flying thing appeared before Kai and with a fierce cry let loose a giant explosion of fire and energy.

Kai shielded his eyes from the brilliant explosion. He could see the colours even through his eyelids, they went from brilliant reds that faded to black and after a moment changed to a brilliant white. This is when he heard the gentle footsteps and assumed the danger had passed. Slowly he lowered his arms to see a serene garden decorated in pastels with tiny butterflies flittering about.

"The hell?" He slowly moved forward through the garden. A small group of butterflies suddenly flew up from the shrubbery they were resting upon and flew past Kai; he turned and watched them fly off towards the pastel yellow sun. When he turned around he saw before him the most beautiful and elegant person that had ever been and perhaps ever would be. They were adorned in elaborate red flowing robes decorated with various shades of reds, oranges and yellows and atop their golden hair seemed to be a crown made of sunlight.

The figure seemed to glide down the cobbled steps until they reached Kai and wordlessly placed a hand upon his shoulder. The touch made it feel as if complete peace was flowing through his body. Utter peace, joy, serenity... things he'd not felt since... well, since he was so young he could hardly remember.

"Who... Dran...?" He stuttered and looked into the fiery eyes of his companion.

"You do not need to speak young one. All questions shall be answered in time. I merely wish to tell you that no matter what comes to pass you shall endure and after all the pain and hardships have passed there shall be peace. "The figure leaned down and kissed Kai upon the forehead. "Be strong my child of the south."

With that the scenery faded away and Kai found himself looking at the white hotel ceiling. Beside him Rei was snoring lightly and had himself sprawled out over three quarters of the king bed. The two of them had come up early to start training for the upcoming tournament. Upon hearing the dojo was hosting a kendo club sleepover the previous night they`d opted to share a hotel room. Fourteen eight to twelve year old boys in the same house as Takao and his grandfather was enough to give them nightmares just thinking about it.

Kai glanced over to the bedside clock and saw that it was just after eight. With a sigh he rolled over and gently poked Rei`s arm. ``Time to get up for breakfast. "

"Ungfkht. Need to kill more zombies, five more minutes." Rei muttered and rolled over.

Rolling his eyes Kai got out of the bed then went around getting ready for the day and packing up his things. After taking a quick shower and brushing his teeth he came back to stand before the bed. He put both hands on his hips and barked at Rei, "Rei Kon, you shall wake up this instant for breakfast."

With a start Rei bolted upright and glanced around the room in utter confusion. "What? Where? ...Kai...?"

"Dojo, kendo club."

"Oh...." Rei flopped back down into the bed. "Sorry, I guess I got too used to my village. Too many late nights with Kiki playing Playstation games..."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Your village has a Playstation?"

"Well... yah... they're sort of catching up with the times. I really like Resident Evil."

"That would explain the zombies."

"I was talking in my sleep, wasn't I...?" Rei sighed then glanced over to the bedside clock. "Oh, breakfast. They have a continental breakfast don't they?"

Kai nodded his head. "You've got ten minutes. I'll pack your things for you."

Like a cat with its tail on fire Rei was out of the bed and into the bathroom with his chosen clothes for the day. Rei was ready in seven and the two of them were on their way to the restaurant for breakfast. Rei rubbed his hands together as he surveyed the large buffet. "Oh god, it looks like they have multiple kinds of pancakes!" With that stated Rei was off overfilling a plate with delicious smelling food. Kai smiled faintly and went about picking himself out some fantastic looking blueberry pancakes among other things.

The two of them picked a small two seat table near a window. Rei seemed to be in a state of euphoria with all the delicious food piled in front of him. When Rei seemed to be nearing the end of his plate and in a more comprehensive state Kai asked; "I keep having dreams about Dranzer... only it's not Dranzer in a way. It seems like a bigger entity. Do you know anything about the mythology encircling the four sacred beasts?"

Rei glanced up at him, sausage speared on his fork and half way in his mouth. "Uhh..." He finished chewing the sausage then seemed to think for a minute. "They're part of old Chinese legend; the four beast gods that rule over the quadrants of the empire. Dranzer is like Zhu Que, the Vermilion Bird of the south. It symbolises fire, elegance and nobility and is I think something like the Fenghung. I think the Japanese call it Suzaku?" Rei shrugged and ate the other half of his sausage.

"The Fenghung?" Kai raised an eyebrow and pushed away his empty plate.

"Yah, the Fenghung is the King of Birds. Only it becomes female and represents the empress when it's paired with the dragon which represents the emperor and... oh..." Rei trailed off as he saw the look of annoyance cross Kai's face. "I mean... I'm not saying Dranzer is the Fenghung or anything I'd say more the avatar of Zhu Que like my tribe believes that Drigger is an avatar of Bai Hu or Byakko in Japanese lore."

"Whatever." Kai crossed his arms over his chest but after seeing Rei's slightly hurt face he added. "Thank you. I guess I should go research this myself."

"No problem... oh hey, I think they're bringing out fresh muffins. I'm going to go grab some, you want one?"

Kai thought for a moment then nodded his head. "Sure, something with chocolate."

Nodding his head and smiling Rei sprung up from the table to retrieve the muffins.

X-X-X

It was just past ten when Kai and Rei arrived at the dojo. The children were almost all gone. One boy sat on the front steps as their parent talked jovially with Takao's grandfather. Upon seeing them the two adults said their goodbyes and Takao's grandfather began waving like the madman he was. "Yo my home dawgs long time no see!"

Seeing that Kai was having trouble controlling his teeth grinding Rei took it upon himself to say something. "Hello Mr. Kinomiya! It's so good to see you too."

The three of them entered the dojo, Rei and grandpa chatting on happily and Kai moping behind. The inside of the dojo could be described in two words: war zone. All the furniture was moved around and miscellaneous kitchen utensils and kendo equipment littered the floor. They walked past the kitchen on their way to the guest room and Kai stopped in horror. There were pancakes stuck to the ceiling. Kai Hiwatari did not stay in places that had pancakes stuck to the ceiling. There were many things that he could at least tolerate but he had to draw the line somewhere; food on the ceiling was that line.

"Kai?" Rei paused and turned to see where his team captain had gotten to. "You coming?"

As if in a trance Kai turned from the carnage and mutely followed Rei. The three of them came to a stop before the guest room and Rei slid open the door. There were yet more pancakes stuck to the ceiling. Kai set down his bag and made a break for the door.

"Wait, Kai!" Rei hurried after his captain and eventually caught his arm just before he reached the back door.

Spinning around Kai angrily spat, "I'll be back later when this place is liveable."With that said he stormed out of the door and through the yard.

"Hey Rei." Takao came to stand behind his team mate and stared after Kai. "What's his problem?"

Rei shrugged. "I guess he doesn't do pancakes on the ceiling?"

Takao shrugged as well. "But man you should've been here, it was wild. We had so much fun!"

With a chuckle Rei gently led Takao towards the kitchen. "Wanna grab a garbage bag and we'll get this place cleaned up so Mr. Frumpy pants will come stay with us tonight?" Rei stopped in the door and surveyed the disaster area to see what he could do to fix it. "Actually... we might need a whole box of them."

X-X-X

Kai found himself by the river drawing lazy shapes through the grass with Dranzer. He should be training but Rei's earlier words about Suzaku and the Fenghung weighed heavy upon him. How dare anything remotely close to his Dranzer be paired with something close to Dragoon to mean emperor and empress! The thought of having to work more closely with Takao to find balance made his blood boil. Sure he respected him as a blader but he was perhaps one of the most aggravating people he'd ever met.

"Oh wow, you're really good!" The voice startled Kai a little and he immediately recalled Dranzer. Standing behind him has a young boy of about 10 years with a backpack slung over one shoulder. "I always wanted to Beyblade but my mom says no, it's too dangerous. She's just afraid of everything after my friend drowned a few months ago." After saying this the boy looked down and kicked at the edge of the grass.

"It's not really that dangerous. There are some mean people out there but it's pretty easy to avoid them."

The boy came and sat down beside Kai and smiled. "That's what I tell mom but she's still scared. Hey, can I see your blade?"

Kai hesitated for a second then handed the blade over to the boy. "The blade is named Dranzer. We've been friends for a long time." He leaned back on both arms and gazed up at the sky.

"Wow! This is so cool. It kind of reminds me of my Ho-oh!"

Kai turned to look at the boy and raised his eyebrow. A huge grin spread across the boy's face and after he hastily handed the blade back to Kai he began digging through his bag. He produced a white DSi XL and handed it to Kai with a decal of a fire bird facing up.

"See, that's Ho-oh, he's a legendary Pokemon. I worked really hard to get him after Natsuhiko died... Ho-Oh was his favourite." Kai handed the DSi back to the boy and looked down at Dranzer. "I think that since Natsuhiko was named after summer and he loved phoenixes so much that he's going to be reborn some day."

The two of them sat in silence for a moment, thinking of the rebirth of the phoenix and lost friends. Eventually Kai was the one to break the silence. "I can make Ho-oh appear, you know. " He stood up and took his launcher and rip cord out of his pocket. After getting ready he turned back to the boy before he launched. "But you have to believe in Ho-oh and Dranzer in order to see it, can you do that?"

The boy nodded his head vigorously and sprang to his feet. "Can I call out the launch?" After a brief nod from Kai he shouted "Three, two, one, GO SHOOT!"

With that Kai launched Dranzer into the grass and let it do a few wide circles before calling the bit forth. "Dranzer!" Dranzer emerged in all its glory, wings spread wide and head held high. As if mimicking the blade's earlier actions it flew in a few wide circles before coming to fly before the two. Dranzer looked to the boy, made a strong caw then flew up into the clouds.

The young boy stared at where Dranzer had disappeared in awe for several moments. Finally a huge grin came across his face and he turned to Kai who was actually smiling for a change. "Thank you so much! I'm never going to give up on Ho-oh and becoming a Beyblade champion!"

Kai recalled Dranzer and stared at the blade for several seconds before removing the bit chip and handing it to the boy. "Here, take this blade."

The boy's eyes widened. "But, I can't! You need a beyblade too!"

"It's OK; I don't think Dranzer will mind that you have this one. Besides, I can get a new one whenever I want; I am Kai Hiwatari after all."

The boy's eyes seemed to open wider and he clutched his new blade close to his chest. "Really? I thought you kinda looked like him but I didn't want to be rude..."

Kai smiled yet again and ruffled the kid's hair. "Yes I am. Now you better get home before your mother starts to worry."

Startled the boy glanced at his watch. "Oh man, you're right!" He hastily shoved his DSi and beyblade into his bag then began heading down the path. "Thanks a lot! I'm never going to forget this! Now go win the World Championships, I'll be cheering for you!"

When the boy was finally out of sight Kai sighed and looked down at the bit chip in his hand. "Well I guess we better go find Kyouju."

Kai dug through his pockets and pulled out an antique pocket watch. After glancing at the time he scowled; it was probably time for him to head back to the dojo and see if it resembled a regular living establishment yet. Besides, the sun was beginning to set and it was becoming chilly out. Despite the cold Dranzer felt warm and comforting in his hand and for the first time in a long time Kai felt as if he'd done something good in the world.

-X-X-END-X-X-

This is just a little one shot/drabble so please don't ask for more. Yes I know it lacks a plot really. On a side note... PANCAKES.

Thanks for any and all reviews.