Okay, I'm not going to hide the fact that I hated writing this. It's one of those pesky opening chapters where not much happens but everything is really important to set up later stuff that's way more awesome...
It's also pretty short, which isn't fair on you because it took so long for me to actually write this. And I can't make any promises on when the next part comes out, because I've just started my last year of university and that means lots of hard work if I want to pass well.
Chapter 3
It was a Saturday.
Ryuga loved Saturdays. It was his favourite day of the week. No school, no school the next day either, no schedule, no formal training – nothing. Just a day for him to be out in the sun, wind, rain or fog, blading.
(Okay, if it rained it could get pretty miserable. But sometimes he could persuade Ryuto to charm the kitchen staff into making hot chocolate, and that was always good.)
"Let it rip!"
Storm Cygnus, green as new leaves, exploded from its launcher and crashed into the opposite side of the dish, coming to a halt almost immediately. Like that made a change, Ryuga thought irritably. Why couldn't he get the hang of this? He'd been learning to blade ever since he was old enough to pick up the little tops. Apparently his mother had a picture in her room of Ryuga at eighteen months old, asleep in his cot and curled up around the first bey he'd ever owned. At that age, it would have been twice the size of his fist. It had been a child's one with soft edges and gentle plastic curves, not the powerful metal one he was allowed now. Of course, his father didn't really approve of his son being obsessed with such a childish pursuit, but his father never seemed to approve of him anyway – and besides, Ryuga loved blading. It was the one thing he actually had to work for, and he loved the challenge.
He picked up Storm Cygnus and examined it carefully. No, there was no damage to the tip or the locks that held it in the launcher, and the spin-track was fine as well. Hmph. So it was definitely not a mechanical problem. That meant it was his fault, and Ryuga didn't like things that were his fault.
He couldn't understand it. Other kids seemed to have no problem whatsoever with using these little pieces of metal and plastic to battle each other, race up and down the streets and generally run riot, so why was he struggling? He'd been fine with the childish one, but the moment that he'd grown strong enough to progress to the metal blade, he'd lost all control. It just didn't make sense.
"Ryuga! Battle me!"
Ryuga's shoulders slumped. This was just what he didn't need; Ryuto wasn't especially strong but at least he could battle normally. Every single time that his younger brother caught him practising, he would challenge him to a battle, and of course Ryuga turned him down. What was the point of battling if he couldn't even launch properly? Not that he'd ever tell Ryuto that.
"Get lost, shrimp," he sighed. "You're no match for me. You've only got one of the kiddie blades; I'd squish you in three seconds flat."
It said something for how private Ryuga managed to keep his daily practices that Ryuto still believed this lie. Then again, the kid still thought that daisies closed at night because that was where the fairies slept, so maybe not. Ryuto had always been the romantic one of the three brothers.
Ryuto pouted, apparently under the impression that because that worked on his mother and all of the maidservants it would work on his brother. "Come on, Ryuga, please?"
"No. Go back inside. I'm practising."
Now Ryuto genuinely did start sulking. "That's not fair. You practice so much you must be one of the best bladers in the whole world by now."
If only, Ryuga thought to himself.
"All the boys in the town are rubbish and I beat them ages ago. I need someone else to battle! Hey, I know! Can I sit and watch you? Then you can teach me to be as good as you as well!"
"No!" At least to this, Ryuga had a reasonable response. "You should know better, Ryuto. Blading is something you have to get better at on your own. You have to find your own way of learning, not copy mine."
That was what he had been taught in the only blading lesson he had ever had. It hadn't even been a lesson, really, just some older boy in the square in the town showing the younger kids how to hold the launchers and pull the ripcord. Ryuga had hovered at the edge, not prepared to let the other boy know just how much he wanted to learn more about this strange world where spinning tops battled for dominance and constellations shone in chosen blades and filled the earth with the splendour of the skies.
Ryuto sidled towards him and suddenly grabbed for Storm Cygnus. Startled, Ryuga didn't manage to prevent his pest of a younger brother from seizing his precious bey and running off with it.
"RYUTO! Give that back! It's mine!"
Of course Ryuto didn't give it back. That would just have made it too easy. So Ryuga had to chase after him, taking him out of the comforting privacy of the walled garden and into the main garden. He dodged around the head gardener, who shook his head at the antics of the two younger sons of the lord. Ryuga ignored him; he'd never been very popular with the household servants, not with hard-working Ryuko and adorable Ryuto there. At least the gardener still let him use the walled garden whenever he liked.
By the time that Ryuga caught up with Ryuto, the younger white-haired boy had managed to shin his way up one of the trees at the edge of the grounds and was perched high above Ryuga's head, feet dangling over the side of the massive bough he was sitting on.
"Ryuto..." Ryuga made his voice as threatening as possible without outright terrifying his brother (it wasn't like he wanted him to fall out of the tree in shock or something), who was turning the green blade over and over in his hands, scrutinising it. "Give that back, Ryuto, it's not yours."
"I just wanted to look at it," Ryuto complained. "And... hey, Ryuga - there's no scratches on this at all! Do you ever battle anyone?"
Ryuga scoffed to hide his true thoughts. "Only those who might be a challenge."
"So... no-one?" Ryuto asked, eyes wide in something that Ryuga couldn't decide whether it was admiration or disbelief. He poked the face-bolt, making a shiver run involuntarily down Ryuga's spine. "It's not fair. Mum won't let me have one of the big blades like you. She says I have to wait until I'm ten, but the butler said that you got yours when you were eight like me."
Ryuga laughed. "Perhaps you need to grow up a bit first, shrimp. You have to be a big boy to get one of these."
"Yeah, but you could tell Mum that I'm big enough..."
With a running jump, Ryuga swung up into the tree next to his younger brother and held out his hand for his blade. "You're not big enough for one like this. And anyway, Mother is far more likely to listen to you than me."
It was true. It wasn't that Ryuga's mother didn't listen to her middle son, but she was very protective of her youngest. Ryuto had almost died when he was born, and so he took priority in everything that she did. It didn't help that when she had fallen seriously ill shortly afterwards, having been ill through most of the pregnancy, Ryuto had been the only one allowed in to see her other than the nurse. Back then, Ryuga could understand it. Ryuto had been tiny, he'd needed his mother, there was nothing more complicated to it.
But after eight years, Ryuto was still the little boy who spent all his spare time outside of schooling with his mother. They played games together, danced around Mother's rooms together (okay, it wasn't really dancing... more like crazy jumping around to the beat), did everything together. Without Ryuga.
Not that Ryuga was bitter about that or anything.
Ryuto sighed and thrust Storm Cygnus back towards its true owner. "I bet Dad would let me have one."
"No he wouldn't," Ryuga told him. "You know what Father's like about all this. He thinks it's childish."
Ryuto tilted his whole body back until he was leaning far over the edge of the branch. "But I bet the professionals make loads of money. Dad'd like that."
Ryuga had no answer to that, so he jumped down from the tree. "Go back inside, Ryuto. I'm in the middle of training and I wouldn't want you to get hurt." He grinned. "The power in one of these things is far too much for someone as little as you."
"Ry-u-ga!" Ryuto whined, leaping down and racing after Ryuga as he took off across the garden again, hoping that with his longer legs he could make it to the walled garden quickly enough to bolt the gate behind him before his younger pest could get through.
Unfortunately for Ryuga, Ryuto was equally determined not to get caught out, and managed to slip through the gate just as Ryuga threw his weight against it to shut it.
"Hah!"
Ryuga closed his eyes and sighed. Why did he have to get saddled with the most irritating younger brother in history?
"Come on, Ryuga, just one launch? I want to see how much faster Cygnus is than mine!"
Except that Ryuto did have this uncanny ability to find exactly the right angle to persuade just about anyone to do what he wanted. Maybe that was why the servants all adored Ryuto and would do anything for him? Beside the fact that he was Mother's favourite, of course.
"Fine. Just one. Then you go."
"Yay!"
Reluctantly, Ryuga pulled his launcher out of his pocket, breathing a silent prayer that perhaps this time, Cygnus would at least stay spinning for a couple of seconds. The flicker of green calmed him a little. At worst, he would fluff the launch and then he would just claim that Ryuto was distracting him in order to make the little brat go away before he could get Ryuga to do anything else.
"Go Cygnus!"
To Ryuga's relief, the blade shot out of the launcher at full speed and landed perfectly, right in the middle of the dish. An almost irrational hope sparked in Ryuga's stomach as the blade held its position for one second, two seconds, three...
"Ryuga! Will you please be quiet?"
The voice came from the second floor of the house, from a window that had just been flung open with a bang. Ryuga took his attention away from his blade and instantly Cygnus ground to a halt, tumbling over in the bottom of the dish.
"Ryuko! Now look what you've gone and done!"
"Ryuga, if you're going to continue wasting time with those little spinning-tops, then I must ask you to keep the noise down!"
Ryuga's indignation spiked. That wasn't fair. He had just managed to get Cygnus to spin properly and the brother who normally refused to speak to him had yelled at him and broken his concentration! "Nobody asked you to listen, Ryuko!" he snapped.
"I don't want to! That's why I'm asking you very nicely to shut up, or I'll get Dad to take that stupid thing away from you!"
"It's not stupid!" Ryuga roared back, but Ryuko had already slammed the window shut with shattering force and gone back to the office with Father. No doubt he was already complaining about how his younger brother was causing chaos down in the gardens and that he, Ryuga, should have his privileges stopped for a week or two because didn't he understand that Ryuko was doing Important Family Work that couldn't be disturbed for anything, least of all something as trivial as a younger brother who Just Messed Around Outside And Wasted Everybody's Time.
For a long moment, heat bubbled viciously in the pit of Ryuga's stomach. No! This wasn't what was meant to happen! He was meant to be in control at all times; he was meant to be as serene and calm as a mountain lake. He screwed his eyes tight shut. Anger and rage had no place in his world.
"Ryuga?" Oh. So Ryuto hadn't gone as soon as Ryuko had shown up. How odd. That was what he usually did – ran to Mother so that Father couldn't blame him for anything later. "Hey, Ryuga? You alright?"
He ignored his brother, keeping his eyes closed as he concentrated. He couldn't lose control. He was his father's son, and that meant that he had to be calm and controlled at all times, just like Ryuko. No-one wanted a young master with a temper.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Push it back. Push it down. Forget.
He wanted to hate them – the brother who stole his father, the brother who stole his mother, the servants whose words were never quite quiet enough for him to miss as they gossiped in the kitchen and the hallways. He wanted to scream it at them, spit the building venom in his heart at them. But he couldn't allow himself that luxury. He was his father's son. He had a responsibility to be the best, and that meant he had to behave. He had to control his thoughts, and forget that this was just the tip of the iceberg, forget everything that had ever been insinuated about him, for today's enemy might be tomorrow's business partner for his father.
Ryuga would not let that happen. He was his father's son, and one of the heirs to his father's business even if Ryuko was the primary heir. He refused to do anything that might damage his father's reputation in the business world. He couldn't do anything else. That was the way it was, and the way it always had been, and the way it always would be.
It was Ryuga's role. Keeping everything just as it was – not letting anything change. Ryuko would deal with the old customers. Ryuto's charm would bring in the new ones. And Ryuga would be locked in the middle, maintaining a perfect balance on a scale that wasn't even stable. That was the way it was, and the way it always had been, and the way it always would be.
Nothing would ever change.
It was a Saturday.
Ryuga loved Saturdays.
.
For those who are worried, there is a very good reason why Ryuga is bad at blading right now. It'll be explained in about twelve chapters' time...
