"Have you guys ever noticed how Kai always avoids writing stuff down?" Tyson asked with a mouth full of food. It was lunch at the Granger household and as usual, Tyson was the only one still eating.
"Um… no," Max replied. It was a ridiculous thing to notice of someone.
"Actually, yes," Kenny answered. "Whenever we have to fill out forms, he just hands his to Mr. Dickenson or something. And when he has to sign something, he just puts an "X" there or something. It's weird. It's almost like he doesn't know how to write."
"Hey, Chief, think we should check this out?" Ray cocked an eyebrow as he asked. A smile tugged at the edge of his lips. He'd always loved the enigma of the team. He was straight, of course, but after spending so much time sharing a room, participating in tournaments, and training together, he'd formed somewhat of a brotherly bond with him.
"I'd be willing to explore Kai, if you are, Maxy," Tyson said seriously.
"Um… Tyson?" Kenny said.
"What, Chief? I'm just saying if get closer to him we'll be able to explore better. All the nooks and crannies."
"Of… his personality, I assume?" Ray put in.
"Yeah, duh, what else? I call dibs on him first, though."
Does he not hear himself talking? Ray thought. This was Tyson he was thinking about. With all the putting his foot in his mouth he does, he'd be surprised if he ever thought about a single thing that came out of his mouth.
Kenny opened up Dizzi. "Dizzi, do you know where Kai is right now?" he asked. It was a training day at the dojo, and the captain had left for lunch. With all the disappearing he did, no one had really bothered much wondering where he went anymore. Sometimes he'd show up later, sometimes it'd be another week before they saw him again. His beyblade could be tracked, however, by the micro tracking devices they had installed after the Justice 5 tournament. Mr. Dickenson decided that the Bladebreakers got lost too darn easily.
"His beyblade tracker seems to be out of range of my compact wavelengths. Sorry, chief," she spoke. After a year off of consciousness, Dizzi lost most of her sarcastic personality.
"Oh, whatever, we'll find him later," Tyson said.
"Find who later?"
Everyone jumped. Behind the group stood Kai, leaning against the wall of the dining hall, arms crossed and a bored expression on his face.
"How much of that did you here?" Tyson blurted.
"All of it," Kai replied. That was a big lie, of course. He'd snuck into the dojo just as he heard Dizzi speaking, then heard Tyson say something about finding someone.
"Um… no one."
"No one."
"Yeah, well, I mean…"
"Tyson's uncle," Ray interjected. "He's an alcoholic and his grandpa is working on getting an intervention. But we don't know where he is. Dizzi was going to track him but we couldn't get on his wavelength."
One might think that a lie as intricate as this would make Kai, a skeptic, rather incredulous. But Ray happened to have a history in the performing arts and was capable of pulling off such a fib.
"…"
"…"
"My grandpa was an alcoholic."
"Gee, that sure explains a lot," Tyson muttered. Kai glared at him. His hearing was sharp, but not even he could catch what Tyson had said. Sometimes, it's just all in the presentation. You have to make people think you're on to them.
With that, Kai decided to exit the room. There was no use hanging around these knuckle draggers for any longer, and he didn't want their stupidity to rub off on him. With these freaks, just sleeping in the same room was enough to lower your IQ by five points. He just hoped that by the time the Senior World Championships were over, he'd still know what a pencil was for.
The issue was interesting. Not particularly rare, but it wasn't something you'd encounter every day. It was just odd enough, however, for Kai to feel self conscious about it and avoided the issue from day to day. When it came up, he'd brush it off. When someone would ask, he'd lie. When someone would notice, he'd cover it up. It wasn't debilitating or particularly annoying. But at that moment when his teammates discussed finding someone, Kai sensed a disturbance in the universe. Those pricks were lying.
He walked through the open doorway and the hall that led to the back entrance. Once outside, he kicked off his shoes, scooped up a canvas sack and threw it over his shoulder, and ran. It was a route he'd run many times before, but still required a lot of concentration not to get lost. Turning right or left according to the street, Kai soon found himself the required three miles away from the dojo before collapsing onto a bench from pure exhaustion. An experienced runner, it only took him about twenty minutes to achieve this distance, but that didn't mean it was easy.
Two minutes later, he was fully recovered. He undid the tie of the rucksack, reaching inside to pull out a cucumber.
Crunch.
The best kind. Ripe and green, crisp and fresh, the cucumbers from Tyson's grandfather's garden were simply the best. He took another bite. And another. And another.
Crunch.
He finished the long, tubular gourd vegetable in a matter of five bites. It was mastery over his mouth that allowed this defying of physics to happen.
Crunch.
Kai's ears perked up. The sound didn't come from him. It sounded more like a twig or broken branch. Like someone else was there in that alley.
Crunch.
Kai swiftly arranged his belongings into his bag, double knotting the tie on top. He sat still as a statue waiting for his ears to pick up more out-of-place sounds.
Crunch.
He shot up off the bench, darting down the street towards the dojo faster than Tyson on Mexican night. His legs burned from exertion with every stride he took, but his over reactive mind chose the flight response to a possible life or death situation, and sense of impending doom would not diminish until he was safely back in the dojo.
…
Crunch.
"Crap, he ran away," Ray said.
"UGH. It took like three hours to get over here and now he just runs away? What the heck!" Tyson whined.
"Well, technically we did intrude on him. We can't get mad at him for getting scared and fleeing."
Tyson guffawed. "Kai? Scared? You're killing me, man! Kai never gets scared. Scary, maybe, but not the scare-ee."
Ray just frowned at him. "Right…"
Tyson looked up at the sky. "It's getting kind of dark, man. We should go home."
"It's only three o'clock, it can't be dark yet."
Lightning crashed in the distance, and thunder rumbled through the air. Suddenly, water started falling from the sky, soaking both Ray and Tyson.
"Okay, this is karma."
Tyson nodded in agreement, as they started the long walk back home.