Chapter One
Leant back on a wall, arms folded, eyes closed.
Yes, it must've been the old pose - unmistakable to anyone who'd ever known him - that had done it. And of course Kai had been so out of practice, so unused to acting, that the once-familiar emotionless mask simply wasn't summoned in time. He couldn't of hidden the spark of recognition that must have flared so obviously in his eyes. Rei would have known in that instant that it was him – his old team-mate who'd disappeared long ago without a word to anyone. It just atrocious luck really. To be found out now, like this, after being so careful and having gotten away with it for so long?
How many years had it been? Kai didn't even dare entertain the thought. An entire lifetime ago, but even that seemed not far enough away – it felt more like some complete other person's life. Not that that was a bad thing. Good ideas are murdered by better ones, they say, and this version of himself was less painful than the former incarnation.
He didn't agonise anymore: about his own inadequacy or being the best, about how others saw him, about food. His level of happiness (or perhaps it was self-worth? He couldn't honestly say he'd ever felt happy) no longer corresponded with the number of hours he'd trained. He slept in mornings. True, he'd also gained weight; a little belly (more than he'd ever imagined he'd acquire and yet still unnoticeable to everyone else). He engaged in infrequent, pleasant sex with girls of equally casual intentions. A college course that was interesting if not too challenging, and a generic group of friends to study with, get drunk with, hang out with... Often conversation would be based on anecdotes of parental tyranny they'd recently been liberated from, but the social circle was so wide and loosely associated that no-one much noticed Kai's lack of stories.
'A quiet guy, but nice enough'. It was only half-believable, Kai knew, but this was him now. His new mask, and the blandest personal blurb anyone could claim. Tyson certainly wouldn't swallow it. 'Not in a million years', Kai could hear him scoffing, 'not old ice-bastard-Hiwatari'. And if the poor unimaginative boy couldn't accept such a metamorphosis in a million years, how would he deal with the fact that it had only been five?
Kai closed his eyes and frowned. It had been so long that he'd avoided thinking about it. Five years since he'd quit and without so much as a backward glance forged this new identity. His bitbeast, Dranzer, lay somewhere in the bottom of a cardboard box of miscellanea, still waiting to be unpacked but instead just transferred from house to shoddy student house and unceremoniously jammed beneath a series of anonymous beds. Similarly, Kai hadn't spoken to any of them since his sly retirement from the world of Beyblading. Once or twice he might've seen Tyson and the Chief around town, but always at a distance. A student among many, they'd failed to recognise him too: the young man with mousy brown hair.
Mousy.
It was not a description that you could've previously applied to the Bladebreakers' captain in any sort of capacity.
But thinking back to that moment earlier today, and Rei's furious, flashing, feline eyes. No doubt that he'd recognised Kai. His arm coiled tight like a snake to strike, but his perfect technique was marred by anger. More out of sheer surprise than anything, the punch floored Kai. Rei seemed just as shocked everyone else by his actions, and as bystanders down the street stopped to stare at the commotion, Kai could see the doubt visibly creeping into him. Kai wouldn't have been taken down by such a weak blow. He knew his old self would most assuredly have returned it. The new Kai had considered it too (after all, he still had the muscles even if they were now disguised beneath a colourful indie-kid shirt). Except... lying on the floor with reflexive tears to an already-darkening eye, Kai also knew he must have appeared pitiful. No longer was it merely hints of uncertainty in Rei's face: he was absolutely mortified. The talent for reading people had stayed with Kai, and he could almost hear his old friend's troubled thoughts. Acting the coward was the smart move; feed the insecurity and in doing so gain an escape. If it worked, the whole incident could prove nothing more than a close-call, one that he could privately smile at in hindsight.
But he wasn't smiling now. Even before it had been too late, long before the actual act, Kai had regretted leaving them like that. For the first time in months, the guilt returned. Years of the easy life had softened Kai. Back in the day he could ignore the twisting of his guts, the shame and remorse would remain stubbornly unacknowledged. He could tell himself that he didn't care about them, and he would be able to believe it too because after all; he was a mean guy and mean guys are selfish. But he hadn't been that mean guy for years.
In the end it was some other students that rescued him from the unpleasant reunion – friends of those he was supposed to meet before Rei had shown up. One of the boys (hefty, belonged to the athletics club at college, Kai remembered) lifted him to his feet and then rounded on Rei.
"What are you doing?" He boomed.
Rei froze, and Kai inwardly cringed. Even after all the distance he had tried to put between them, even after the black eye he'd been given, he felt bad for Rei and wished he could do something to intervene.
"I am so sorry. I thought you were someone else." He appealed directly to Kai with this.
"And that makes it ok to hit him?" The boy was rolling up his sleeves, but Kai put an arm on his shoulder.
"Please, just leave it." He didn't even need to try to adopt a pleading tone, it was automatically there. Although unintentional, that must have certainly killed off any of Rei's remaining suspicions.
The big boy addressed Kai by his assumed name "Are you sure, Takanori?", then to Rei; "You'd better get out of here."
"Sorry." Rei bowed again, but to his credit was not intimidated and walked off unhurriedly. The forgotten respect Kai had once felt towards his former teammate returned, and with it the guilt of deception. But it was necessary. It had been difficult enough to leave them. He couldn't fathom how much harder it would be to have them back again.
End of Chapter 1. More on the way if people like it ^^