Chapter 1: An April Cleaning

Max Mizuhara stood on the edge of the platform, wrapping his coat tightly around him as the cold winter snow blew through the train station. The overhead clock told him that it was now a little after a eleven o' clock, meaning that he and Takao had been standing there for just over four hours.

Glancing back at his best friend, Takao Kinomiya, Max could see that he was just as cold as he was, as he tried to pull his favorite baseball cap even further down around his ears. Max smiled, appreciative that he wasn't standing there alone; facing Kai alone.

The blonde hunched his shoulders, breathing into his wool coat to try and keep his nose warm. He hadn't meant for things to turn out this way. He had meant to try and help, to understand, but now Kai was threatening to never speak to him again. Max had never hurt anybody in his life, but there was a first for everything, and this time he had messed up terribly.

Looking up into the blackened sky and watching the snow fall down, Max recalled what had transpired within the last nine months and tried, desperately, to find the words that Kai would believe to be a heartfelt apology.

(April)

"Alright," Rei said, taping the sides to the last empty cardboard box in front of him and rising from his kneeling position. "Max, I'm giving you the bathroom and the hallway closet. Takao, you get the living room and your room."

Takao yawned, stretching out his arms before placing them casually behind his head. "I still dunno why we're having to clean," he said grumpily, trying to stifle another yawn.

"It's a spring clean, Takao. We're just getting rid of the things we don't need, and if we all work together it won't be so bad."

Max smiled. It was a beautiful day outside, but it was so like Rei to want to spring clean and stay inside. For as long as Max had known him, Rei had been an obsessive neat freak and hated any sort of clutter, a trait that hadn't died out since ending their Beyblading careers two years ago.

Beyblading for the most part, while still their favorite past-time and sport, was slowly being put behind them, as college and adulthood were moving forward.

All four of Max's old teammates had decided to share a decent sized, three bedroom apartment, right outside of Tokyo. (Though Kai had protested a great deal against it), it was something that Max wouldn't have given up for the world for, and he genuinely loved sharing the same, cramped space with his old friends.

"Yeah, c'mon, Takao," Max chimed in, helping Rei's cause and giving his friend a pat on the back, "the quicker we start, the quicker we finish, and then we can go grab a bite to eat."

Takao's spirits seemed to lift a little with the promise of food. "Alright. I just don't see why the Professor and Kai aren't helping though …" He said while grabbing his boxes and stamping off down the hall.

Rei shook his head, his long bound ponytail, swaying with him. "Why can't he just do what he's told, without complaining?"

"Ah, don't worry about it, Rei. At least he didn't refuse altogether," Max said while giving the older boy and encouraging sort of look. "Well, I'll just be off to the hall closet then." Smiling one last time, he gathered up his boxes and trailed off to do his cleaning.

Even though the hall closet wasn't that big, they sure could stuff a lot of junk into it, Max thought as he looked up and stared at the cluttered shelves, before deciding where to start. Grabbing a stool, he stood on his tiptoes and reached for the very top shelf, choosing to make his way down as he went.

A couple of board games, a bag of old clothes and a tin can full of buttered cookies (obviously hidden), were all that Max found, and he carefully set each down to make a prospective pile of things to keep and things to throw away.

Sneaking one of the small cookies from the secret tin, Max then started on the next shelf, finding only a few things to keep and an armful of things to throw away: old broken beyblade parts, a few dead batteries, a box full of floppy discs and a jar full of marbles all were deemed 'clutter material' and were placed in the going out pile.

Sighing, Max then came to the third shelf. He popped his neck briefly and started pulling bags and labeled boxes off once more, before setting them down. It was then that he found, stowed away in a corner, an unlabeled blue shoe box taped shut with duck tape.

Raising a slight eyebrow, Max grabbed it and gave it a quick dusting, trying to find a label of some sort. It was heavier than it first appeared, and instantly Max assumed that the shoes were still inside, untouched. He hadn't ever seen this box before, and he quickly glanced down at the shoe size in the corner; an eleven. Blinking, he couldn't recall who in the house wore a size eleven shoe. He only wore a ten himself and he never ended up keeping the boxes.

Stepping off the stool he turned and traveled down the hall, shaking the box as he did, only to hear a loud clunking noise inside. A noise he determined that was far too heavy to be a pair of shoes. Rounding the corner, Max came into the kitchen where Rei was crouching, emptying out the refrigerator. "Rei," he asked, holding the box out and continuing to examine it. "Do you know who's this is?"

Rei's head retracted from the depths of the fridge, and quickly turned to look, squinting his golden eyes briefly. He shook his head, "No idea."

"Well, do you know who wears an eleven size shoe?"

Rei breathed in deeply, trying to summon up the obscure piece of information. Again he shook his head. "I really don't know. You could try asking Takao and see if it's his."

Max doubted very seriously that Takao would put much effort into keeping something safe, or private. Clicking his tongue, he turned and started walking back down the hall, strumming his fingers across the top of the box. He didn't want to place it in the wrong pile, and be blamed for throwing away something that wasn't supposed to be.

Weighing his options, Max decided there was only one way to find out, and he very carefully began peeling the tape up, cursing quietly every time it started tearing at the thin cardboard siding.

Max didn't know why his heart had begun beating faster as he picked at the tape with his nails, but it did, and more than once his conscience told him he shouldn't pry. He was, however, determined to know what was inside and he inhaled sharply as he managed to get the top off, revealing three very battered looking journals and a handful of old pictures.

His blue eyes stared intently at the contents inside, before sitting down on the small stool and rifling through the collection of photos. Most of them were in black and white, some filled with far away locations, and others with old family members, the most striking which was a woman posing in her wedding gown. She was possibly one of the most beautiful women Max had ever seen, and he set her photo carefully atop of the others, before lifting the journals out next.

Wrapping his fingers around one of them, he felt that they were bound in a linen and upon closer inspection that the color of them was a dark midnight blue, not black as he had originally thought.

Max could smell the stale odor of the yellowed pages and he inhaled deeply, thoughts of his grandparents coming to the surface as he did. Smiling, he looked back down into the box, noticing for the first time a small blue top that had been hidden by the first journal. It was a simple play toy, but it struck Max with the feeling of it being a precious friend, rather than a plaything.

Glancing down the hall, Max bit his lip, thinking carefully before resolving to slowly crease back the cover to the first journal. Inside on the first page, was another picture, this one too in black and white. Only instead of a cheerful looking woman staring back into Max's eyes, it was a stern, almost frightening looking man standing in front of stone building covered with snow.

Max raised an eyebrow, before flipping the page over to reveal the first journal entry, written in crisp, almost perfectly uniform, English writing. Consentrating, Max slowly began translating the script in his head.

December 13.

Balkov Abby, Russia.

My name is Kai Hiwatari; classified number 696; male.

That's all you need to know about yourself in the Abby. Nothing else matters.