A Beyblade Fic
By Sakin-chan
Disclaimer
: No, I don't own Beyblade, Ray, Kai, Max Kenny or Tyson, and I don't own anything that has anything to do with Beyblade. Gaia and Co., however, are a different story. Oh, and Hong Kong and Shilong belong to the People's Republic of China.AN
: Revised, rewritten and re-mastered.Chapter 2: 'Broken Hearts'
[On the train to Rei's home, Tiger River Village…]
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"How long till we get there? I'm sick of Tyson's stupid snoring." Max moaned.
"Shut up."
The Bladebreakers were all bored to death, except Tyson, who had gone to sleep (obviously). The deadness of the journey was starting to get on even Rei's nerves, and he'd taken it before. Kai grabbed the map, and checked it.
"Where are we now?"
Rei looked out at the surrounding scenery.
"Umm… around Shilong… which means three, four hours more at the least." Ray looked surprised at his team-mates' loud groaning – even Kai looked disconcerted. What was so horrible about a few hours' wait? He'd waited a lot longer than that, once. Besides, seeing her at the end of the road made it all worth it. His friends clearly didn't think so. Tyson was still snoring.
"I suppose we'll have to walk a bit further, too." Kenny said.
"Yes, actually," Rei agreed, "15 miles."
"NOOOO!!!"
[Later, at an old, broken down train-station…]
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"Are you sure this is the right place?" Kenny asked, ever the doubtful one. The rest of the group looked menacingly at Rei.
"Sure!" he said confidently, "Trust me."
"It had better be." Tyson said darkly.
Kenny looked around the derelict station, and sighed. The floorboards of the platform creaked when you stepped on them, sounding like something out of an old horror-movie. There was an old wooden building on the platform, the wood eaten through with maggots and blackened with countless rainfalls and decay.
He went inside the building, looking for any signs of human life. Inside was worse than the outside. There was nothing there except a few scattered pieces of furniture, and one, solitary broken table.
(The place must have been a busy tavern, once,) Kenny thought, and looked at the tattered remains of what must have been a beautiful screen. It had pictures of dragons, and Chinese warriors battling fiercely in order to save a princess in a castle, which was drawn in the uppermost right corner. Kenny smiled. He would have liked to see this when it was new.
"Kenny! Come out, man, we're leaving!" He snapped out of his dream, and went outside to find the others. They weren't gathered on the platform, but before Kenny panicked, he heard Tyson squabbling with Kai, and went around the corner.
"I am not getting in THAT!" Tyson said angrily.
"D'you wanna walk instead? This is the best we've got."
Kai's coolness matched Tyson's fiery temper step for step.
"What's up?"
The boys turned to look at Kenny, who had just appeared around the corner.
"Tyson here thinks he's too good to ride a donkey-cart." Rei said, looking angry.
"I didn't say that!" Tyson snapped.
"Sure what it looks like from here."
"You need to get some glasses, man!"
Suddenly, Rei was in Tyson's face. Tyson had no memory of seeing him move: he'd been standing at least two meters away; yet here he was right in front of him, looking mighty pissed.
"You need to learn some respect." Rei growled at him, and then went to sit in the cart. The donkey brayed. He looked at the other boys.
"Whoever wants to come with me, can come in the cart. The rest can be left behind. Choose."
The boys looked at each other, and Max and Kenny both climbed the cart. They looked at Tyson, and hoped he wouldn't start another argument.
Kai glared at Tyson, and Rei just… glared. Tyson gave in.
"Oh, alright."
He climbed in, sulking. Kai climbed in after him, aware that it was hard to look cool sitting in a donkey-cart that smelled.
(Five baths as soon as we get there,) he promised himself, (and an early night.)
He thought about his grandfather, and how lonely it would have been, spending summer in that great big house full of freezing, empty halls, and hired people that didn't give a damn. He sighed.
(Give me a smelly old donkey-cart, any day.)
[The village at last, sunset…]
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The boys hopped off at the ornamental wooden gates of Rei's village, and Rei said something in Chinese to the driver, and tipped him out of his money that he had remembered to change to Yen at the last minute. His bad mood had entirely evaporated, to be replaced by a giddy feeling of happiness. Anticipation. Rei felt like he had finally found where he belonged, and realized that he had really missed the place while he was gone.
The actual village was half-a-mile below, deep in a valley between two mountains. It was a cluster of houses situated in the middle of several green rectangular fields of what looked like rice-paddies and other crops. A river snaked around it like a silver necklace that had been left carelessly on the ground. As Rei looked at it, he felt a vague sense of nostalgia – he remembered how, when he was younger, he ran down the side of this very hilltop, racing other kids and barely winning. He remembered the feeling of wild exhilaration, of believing that he could fly like a bird if he just jumped off the ground. Rei wanted to feel like that just one more time.
He grinned at the others. And set off down the hill.
"CATCH ME IF YOU CAAAAAAAN!" he cried, going faster and faster.
Tyson did not need to be told twice. "WAIT FOR ME!" he shouted, and followed Rei, who was already a dot in the distance. Kenny puffed past, running after them, or trying anyway. Only Kai and Max remained.
"Wanna race?" Max challenged Kai.
"Or are you too chicken?"
Kai narrowed his eyes, and smiled coldly.
"You think you have a chance, blondie?"
"Watch me."
The two boys sized each other up; Kai knew that Max wouldn't win. Max wanted Kai to cheer up and to do so, he realized, he had to appeal to Kai's competitiveness. He had to challenge him to a race. He knew the older boy would never have run down the hill otherwise.
"Three…" Kai narrowed his eyes at the village in the distance.
He had to win.
"Two…" Max glanced at Kai, hoping the older boy wouldn't outdistance him by too much. He stared at the faraway village.
"ONE!" And they both shot off like bullets down the steep incline, each wanting to reach the village before the other.
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Rei reached the village at the bottom, heart thudding, gasping for breath, and sweating with exertion. He staggered forwards a few steps, then bent down, his hands on his knees.
Finally, he looked up. He was here. He was really here! And after three years. He felt an urgent need to run back inside his own house right this minute, but he knew he had to wait for the others.
Rei looked at the sunset, sinking down behind the farthest houses, one of which he had spent fourteen years of his life in. How many times had he watched that same sunset from his bedroom window? Now he watched the last of it's dying rays turning the rooftops of his village into a burning orange, and the sky into a golden red and violent purple color, like the feathers of a phoenix in it's prime.
A scene so old, but which nevertheless always managed to impress Rei with it's simple beauty. He heard distant yells behind him; then, deciding that he could wait no longer, walked into the village he had not seen for three years.
Everything was the same, and yet different in his eyes. There was the bakery where he had been to buy bread from Mr. Wong ever since he could walk. To his left was the old tavern where Rhetia worked, forever on the lookout for poor, unsuspecting husbands. He chuckled, wondering if she had managed to find someone yet. There was the house that had nearly fallen in on his father a few years back, after it was set on fire by Mad Mao Jin and her baby had been trapped inside.
Some kids were running in front of him, playing with a stick and a wheel from somebody's bike. Women were walking up and down the streets, yelling at their children and at each other, even though they could hear each other perfectly well. A girl was standing and flirting with a guy, holding a basket full of laundry on her head and trying to flick her hair without dropping all the clothes on the ground. He smiled at them; each was blushing at the other, and when the girl put down the basket to hold the boy's hand, Rei felt a twinge of jealousy in his stomach. He turned away, and forced himself to move on.
Finally, he arrived.
"Home…" he whispered, anxiety building up inside him.
(What will I say?) he thought nervously;
("Oh, hi mom, what's for dinner? By the way, sorry for being gone for over three years, got caught up at a friends'." Might as well sign my death warrant.)
He looked up at the two-storey building with the red roof and wooden doors, and swallowed. He looked behind him, and saw his friends ambling along a few meters behind him; he waved at them, and went inside.
There was nobody in the hall. Rei looked at the stairs, and went inside to see where his folks had gone. He looked at the bare living room with the screen painting of a heron on it as he passed, and went to the kitchen. There was nobody there, either. He decided to go outside.
"REI!"
He jumped, and quickly looked around. When he saw who it was, he felt suddenly very relieved.
"RIKU!"
The girl ran towards him, and flung her arms around his neck, sobbing.
"I knew you would come back," she cried, "I knew you would! Ma and Pa have written you off as dead, but I knew you were still alive! Where have you been, Rei? We've all been worried sick about you, even though Pa-san won't admit it."
Rei held his little sister tightly, and sighed into her long, black hair. She had grown a lot, since Rei had last seen her. Then she'd been twelve. Now, she was fifteen, and quite a different young woman. For a woman she was fast becoming. She was his spitting image, with the dark, lustrous hair, and the amber, shining eyes. Her body was a lot curvier than when he'd last seen her; in short, she was very beautiful.
(I'm going to have to keep an eye on her,) he thought, worried that one of her many followers would try it on with her. (Over my dead body.)
"Where are Ma and Pa? What's been happening since I left? We've got a lot of catching-up to do, Riku-san." Rei looked down at his sister, and grinned. "But not now."
"Whaaaat?! But you only just came!" Riku was filled with dismay. How could Rei-san be leaving again so soon? She looked at her feet, and sulked.
"…Why are you always in such a hurry?" she asked sullenly. Rei looked at her; she had on her sad-puppy-face, and it made him smile. She hadn't changed that much after all!
"Relax!" he said, patting her head patronizingly.
"I'm just going to over to Gaia's, to say hi. I promised, you see. Then I'm yours for the rest of the holidays!" Riku looked at him gravely.
"I hope you mean it."
"I do. Meanwhile," he turned her towards the Village Square, where the rest of the Bladebreakers were walking towards them, a gaggle of kids following them. "Those are the Bladebreakers. My pals. Get them safely inside, before the crowd tramples them. Keep them occupied for me, sis."
With that said, he went outside and jumped over the fence between his house and Gaia's, leaving his sister to meet the other boys and bring them to his house.
Rei was practically burning with anticipation as he neared the backdoor of Gaia's house. He felt like he would burst if he didn't find her soon!
As he turned the corner, he heard voices coming from inside the house. He headed straight for them before he noticed that the voices weren't at all the sort of voices you would find inside Gaia's house. Gaia's house was this quiet place where nobody ever gets angry. But these voices – God, were they loud and angry. Rei sidled over to the window at the side of the house, and crouched down to eavesdrop on the conversation inside.
This is what he heard…
"NO, GRANDPA! NO!"
(That's Gaia!) he thought, wondering what had happened to make her so angry.
"I'm sorry child, but you must. It is for your own welfare."
"But I can't! I can't!"
"We will end up homeless. Is that what you want?"
Ray felt a sense of foreboding when he heard that. Just what was going on?
"No, it's just… isn't there any other way we can do this?"
He heard the old man sigh: it was a tired, heartsick old sigh. It made Rei's stomach feel a little strange. (It's called sympathy,) his mind told him.
"No."
Now he could hear nothing but silence. A tense, angry silence.
"I am sorry to put you in this position, Gaia. If it means anything to you, I am deeply regretful."
"Deeply regretful?" she says, her voice rising several decibels;
"Deeply regretful?! You're throwing me out to the wolves, and that's all you can say?!" Her voice became shaky.
"No. I refuse, Grandpa. I won't do it! I won't."
Rei could see her face in a mirror opposite the window where he crouched. He could see the tears streaming down her face, and his stomach gave a sickening lurch.
"I WILL NOT MARRY HITORU'S SON! I WILL NOT MARRY LEE TO SAVE THIS STUPID BUILDING! I REFUSE TO THROW MY LIFE AWAY FOR A DEAL WITH A WEALTHY BASTARD, WHOSE SON CANNOT FIND A WIFE THROUGH ANY OTHER MEANS THAN BLACKMAIL! NO, YOU HEAR? NO!"
Rei gasped, horrified. He couldn't believe it. (Lee?) he thought, numb. His knuckles were white where he clutched the window-sill too tightly.
(She's marrying Lee? No… no way. No way!)
Suddenly, he heard a door being flung open, and scrambled off over the fence to his yard, feeling tears threatening and an overpowering sense of betrayal. He went into his house, feeling worse than he had ever felt in his entire life.
Rei's heart was broken.
A/N: How'd you like that dose of angsty, teenage melodrama?
The worst is yet to come…