The next morning, Gingka woke up early. Sitting up, he glanced over at Madoka, who was still asleep. they had stayed up really late last night talking, with few interruptions as Anashi was banned to her room for the rest of the evening without paint. Gingka got out of bed and went outside to watch the sunrise.

A couple of hours later, Madoka got up and found him there, snoring away on a deck chair the way he always did. She snickered and popped the ever-present bubble coming out of his nose, which woke him up instantly.

He sat up, confused, then realized where he was and laughed. "why do you always get me with that?" he asked, laughing.

"because you are always sleeping like that when I wake up!" Madoka replied, wiping back tears from her eyes.

"come on, let's go get some breakfast" Gingka said, still laughing.

- a couple of minutes later…

Anashi woke up on the floor in her room. How she had gotten there instead of in her bed was anyone's guess, but she was there. She got up and toddled over to the door, only to find that it was locked. "Daddy!" she called.

Gingka sighed and left the kitchen to go open the door for her. He put the key in and turned it. "hey Anashi! Did you sleep good?" he asked, picking her up. -facepalm- "I forgot to put her in her bed last night!" he thought. "come on, lets go get some breakfast" he said, carrying her into the kitchen and putting her in her chair with a coloring book and some crayons.

"good morning Anashi!" Madoka said happily. "do you want some cereal?"

Anashi nodded.

Madoka poured a bowl of cereal. Gingka sat down at the table with some bacon and eggs that he and Madoka had cooked earlier. Madoka got her food and sat down and, for the first time in two years, they ate breakfast together.

-at the B-Pit-

Mal woke up early to discover that Hikaru wasn't there yet, so she went into the kitchen and made breakfast, Hikaru arrived about 15 minutes later having already eaten and bringing Takeshi with her.

"hey, I've seen him before!" Mal exclaimed.

"you have? this is my son Takeshi. Takeshi, this is Mal" Hikaru said, introducing her son.

"cool!" Mal said. "wait a minute, I thought he was Kyoya's son? teacher Madoka never mentioned anything to me."

Hikaru blushed. "Madoka and I promised each other we would never tell, but yes, I married Kyoya Tategami."

"you did?" Mal gasped.

"yes" Hikaru replied, turning beet red. "usually he would watch Takeshi, but he had to do something today, he wouldn't say what. Oh, and you can't tell anyone about this, ok?"

"ok" Mal replied. "can I watch him for you a bit?"

Hikaru thought for a moment. "sure, you can watch him. It would be logical, as I cannot have him running around the shop for one thing, and for another, no one knows about me and Kyoya."

"alright, ill take him upstairs then" Mal said, walking over. "hi Takeshi! Want to come play?" she asked sweetly. The boy nodded and took her hand. She led him upstairs to play with some building blocks or whatever she could find.

Hikaru sighed. "oh and Mal? Keep him away from potted plants!" she called after the girl.

"got it! "Mal replied, trying to think of a room where there were no potted plants. Taking him up to her room, she put the small plant she had on top of the bookshelf, where he couldn't reach. Then she got out some blocks.

Takeshi got really excited when he saw them. "build tower?" he asked.

"yes, build big tower!" Mal said, dumping them out on the floor. Instantly, Takeshi started stacking them up on top of each other.

Mal sighed and sat on her bed. Getting out her laptop, she opened a program and started analyzing the data she had collected that week at Bey Park, glancing up every once in a while to make sure Takeshi was ok.

-downstairs-

Hikaru opened the B-Pit, ready for her second day. As Madoka had warned, a flood of young bladers ran in, clamoring for parts and launchers.

-a couple of hours later-

Mal glanced up and was alarmed to see that Takeshi was not there! She panicked. What would Kyoya do to her if he found she had lost his daughter? He hadn't seemed very friendly yesterday. She ran downstairs, bumping into Zero who was coming up to look for her. "zero! You have to help me! I was watching Hikaru's son and he's missing!" she exclaimed.

"Hikaru has a son? But I thought-"Zero began, but was cut off.

"apparently she married Kyoya. Now you have to help me find him!" Mal said.

"got it, where do we start?" Zero asked.

"in the rooms closest to mine I guess" Mal replied. "that's where I was watching him, he couldn't have gone too far"

"ok, ill take the ones on this side of the hall, you take the ones on the other side, got it?" Zero said, running off.

"ok" Mal sighed, peeking into Madoka's empty room. "there sure are a lot of potted plants in here! I better shut the door and look very carefully." she thought, peering around every plant in sight.

Across the hallway, Zero was looking around in the kitchen.

-one hour later-

"Mal! I found him!" Zero called, picking up a very dirty Takeshi from the middle of a large fern plant.

"you did?" Mal exclaimed, rushing in. "Takeshi! What were you doing?"

Takeshi just grinned.

"man, he's really dirty. We better clean him up before Hikaru comes up here" Zero said, looking around at the messy room.

Mal sighed. "how about you take him to the bathroom and give him a bath, and ill get the vacuum cleaner and clean up this room" Mal suggested, looking around at all the potted plants lying on their sides.

"why do I have to give him a bath? You should do it!" Zero argued.

"because, he's a boy and you're a boy. Plus, you don't know how to work a vacuum cleaner, do you?" Mal replied.

"I- good point. Alright, ill get him a bath" Zero said, taking Takeshi to the bathtub and turning on the water.

-an hour later-

Mal had finished vacuuming and picking up all the pots and plants and getting them back in order. She would probably have to get someone to help her get some more potting soil to add in after all she had vacuumed up. Then, she went to check on Zero. He had finished giving Takeshi a bath, but now he was soaked while Takeshi was completely dry, except for his hair. at that moment, Hikaru walked in. Mal suddenly realized that it had taken them all day to find and clean up after Takeshi.

"is something going on here?" Hikaru asked, stifling a laugh.

"umm.. We lost track of him for a while and he got into a plant or two?" Mal said timidly.

"oh did you?" Hikaru asked Takeshi, who was staring at the floor guiltily. "thanks for watching him guys, I need to get home and stuff. Guess ill see you tomorrow!" with that, she took Takeshi and left.

-in Koma Village-

Gingka and Madoka were hanging out in the forest, still catching up about the two years they had missed.

"so then I called Hikaru, and asked her if she could watch the B-Pit for a couple of weeks. She said that she would have to ask Kyoya about it, but he was at the store. So I asked her how he was at the store without it being on the news and she said she had sprayed his hair black before he had left. I reminded her about the time that I had accidentally dyed my hair green and asked her if she had made sure it wasn't permanent. Apparently she hadn't, and then Kyoya got home, so she handed him the phone and went to check. The spray she had used turned out to be permanent, so I went over and helped her after grabbing that bottle of stuff you found when I dyed my hair and I went to the store to grab some green hair dye just in case. It took us about an hour to get it out, then Kyoya said it was ok for Hikaru to watch the B-Pit, so the next morning, I left and came here!" Madoka finished.

Gingka laughed. "yeah, I remember when you dyed your hair green."

-flashback-

Gingka was walking home from working at the WBBA. When he got to the B-Pit, Hikaru's car was parked outside. "they must be having another nail painting party" he thought, opening the door and calling out, "im back Madoka!" like he always did. Hearing them in the bathroom, he walked down the hall and knocked on the door. Hikaru opened it. "oh good, you are back. Can you go get some more shampoo please? We are having some…. Problems with Madoka's hair and we really need to wash something out of it." with that she shut the door, leaving Gingka with only a glimpse of Madoka with her head over the bathtub and lots of towels and foil and soap bubbles.

-end flashback-

"yeah, that was pretty funny" Madoka agreed.

Then, they heard Ryo shouting from the back porch. "Gingka! Anashi is painting your deck chair pink again!"

"oh no! Anashi!" Gingka yelled, jumping up and running back to the house, Madoka close behind. Gingka once again had to grab the paintbrush from Anashi without letting her paint his face. Madoka soon came out with a bucket of water and a rag to clean the paint off the chair with. As she started, Gingka was giving Anashi that lecture for the millionth time that day, but this time, he sent her to her room and put her in her bed with no toys. He was back outside by the time Madoka had finished cleaning all the paint off the deck and chair.

-back in Metal Bey City-

Zero was walking home with his hands in his pockets, thinking about the night before.

-flashback-

It was 7:00, and Kyoya was waiting at Bey Coliseum for Zero, bey and launcher in hand, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. Hikaru wasn't due home for another hour, so he figured that he had about 45 minutes with the young blader, to teach him something and find out about his blading skills. If the kid showed up… at that moment, Zero walked into the Coliseum. Kyoya smiled. "he showed up, good for him. Most people seem to be so afraid of me that they don't come at all."

"o-ok, im here now" Zero called to the apparently empty arena.

"hey kid, im right here" Kyoya said.

Zero turned. Kyoya stood up. "ready to go?" he asked, attaching Leone to his launcher.

"a-are you serious?" Zero asked, surprised that the Legendary Blader would want to have a battle with him.

"entirely, I want to test your skills. Now come on! Get ready to launch!" Kyoya growled.

Zero quickly grabbed Ifraid and his launcher. Hooking everything in place with the ease of a seasoned blader, he put his hand on the ripcord and waited for Kyoya's signal.

"3!" Kyoya growled.

Zero gulped."2!" he replied.

"1!" they both said.

"let it rip!"

Leone was soon spinning in the middle of the stadium in its usual defensive position. Ifraid was circling, and Zero's thoughts were scrambled. What do you do when you are facing a highly skilled and powerful blader who has battled with the best in the world? He had to figure something out soon or he was going to lose for sure! Well, he would probably already lose for sure, he would at least last longer if he didn't do anything, but he really wanted to impress Kyoya, Gingka's greatest rival, as it had been said so many times, the King of the Beasts.

"calm down Zero, focus" Kyoya said.

Zero gasped and looked up, straight into the calm blue eyes of the Legend Blader. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"This kid, what is he up to?" Kyoya wondered. "does he have any skills at all? He's not doing anything! What a waste of time." he closed his eyes.

"Ifraid! Attack!" Zero called, finally making a move.

Kyoya's eyes flew open. He hadn't been concentrating and Zero had actually managed to push Leone a full inch! Kyoya was surprised. "so, you do have skill" he said. "but I-" Leone smacked Ifraid away. "will not lose to anyone! Not even Gingka!" Kyoya roared." Leone, True King Lion Wild Wind Fang Dance!"

"Ifraid!" Zero yelled as his bey flew out of the stadium to land at his feet. He fell to his knees, feeling that he had failed to even do anything to impress Kyoya. He looked up as a shadow fell over him. Kyoya was standing there, Leone in his hand. "you've got something kid" he said. Zero gasped. Kyoya turned to leave. "you are the first one to actually show up, im impressed at your bravery." with that, Kyoya strode out, headed for home.

-end flashback-