All Around the World

Chapter 7: American Championships, Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own BeyBlade, yada yada yada.


BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. Ray groaned lifting his hand to silence the alarm next to him, which hadn't remembered setting last night. He moved his right hand, feeling for Kira, but all he felt were the cool silk sheets. He sat up, yawning and rubbing his golden eyes sleepily looking around. He heard the sound of running water coming from the bathroom and a voice singing a song that was foreign to his ears. Why the hell was she up at 3:30 AM? He stood up walking over to the bathroom, feeling groggy as hell and opened the door hearing Kira singing.

'If our love's insanity why are you my clarity?'

"Kira?"

"Oh, Ray! I'm almost done! Just gimme a minute." She peeked out from the curtain and grinned. He could see the suds in her hair from the shampoo and shook his head walking back into the other room. He switched the light on and sat down on the bed, sighing. It was a late night of gruesome practice last night, and he had planned to at least get another hour and a half of sleep. A few minutes later, Kira came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, her soaking wet hair trailing down her back, and droplets of water fell to the carpet beneath her feet.

"Will you please explain to me why we're up so early?" Ray asked, feeling a little irritated at his lack of sleep. His eyelids felt heavy, but he couldn't help but smile at her cheerful demeanor.

"Well, I'm not so sure why you're awake. I kind of expected you to still be asleep." Kira's gaze drifted over to Ray while kneeling and sifting through her clothes in her duffle bag.

"Well I would be had it not been for your alarm to wake me up." Kira smiled and looked in his direction, he was clearly not a morning person and was staring off into space in some sort of sleepy trance.

"Oh... I'm so sorry, I forgot about all that! I should have turned it off." She looked back down at her bag and picked out her outfit.

"What are you doing up so early anyways?" Ray asked her, fighting off another yawn.

"I have some errands to run before everyone else gets up."

"What could you possibly be doing at 3:30 in the morning?" He asked her, raising his eyebrow.

"Well when I'm finished getting ready, it won't be 3:30 in the morning. But if you must know, it's Kai's birthday today and I've got to go get him something."

"His birthday? Why didn't he tell any of us?"

"C'mon, you know him... He's not one to make such a big deal out of such a thing, plus if I can recall… it holds bad memories for him. But that is none of my business to tell any of you. Actually, it would really help me out a lot if you could do something for me." Kira stood and walked over to the bed sitting next to Ray who crossed his arms, putting on a face of rebellion.

"And why should I help you?"

"Oh stop being such a cranky butt." Kira leaned over and kissed Ray on the cheek. "Once you see Kai's face, you'll be glad you helped me. Plus I'll repay you later, promise." Ray lifted his eyebrow.

"And how will you do that?" Kira scrunched her nose and playfully shoved Ray before standing up and walking the desk opposite of the bed, grabbing a paper and placed it in Ray's hand.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, not like that!" She laughed, picking up her clothes and headed back into the bathroom to finish getting dressed.

"Well what do you expect when you're walking around half naked and all wet in a towel?" Ray murmured pulling on his pants and shirt over his boxers and headed out the door with Kira's list of items in hand.


Kira had finally finished getting ready, it was almost 4:15, and she didn't have much time before she had to leave.

She pulled her hair to the side in a fishtail braid with her bangs to the side as well. Her t-shirt was a baby blue pieced together graphic tee with striped bottom front, and zig-zag crochet detailing on back and top of the sleeves with LOVE. written across it in black ink. She also had on light wash jeans which she rolled up into capris and they had a bunch of damaged holes all down the pant leg, and she threw on some blue Toms to match.

She headed out the door climbing into her temporary jeep and headed out back onto the main island to go get Kai his surprise.


"Where is she Ray?" Kai asked with his arms crossed. Ray had stashed all the stuff that Kira told him to buy under their bed in her room. It was almost 6:30 in the morning and Kira still wasn't back, and she wasn't answering her phone. Needless to say, Kai was less than happy.

"I uh, I dunno. She ran off without telling me anything this morning." He shrugged avoiding eye contact with their leader. Ray was a horrible liar.

They all heard the door click open, and Kira peeked her head in, looking around.

"I'm back!" She said excitedly holding up a bag of breakfast tacos in her hand, and Kai paced over to her, an angry look on his face.

"Where the HELL have you been? We need to leave for the mainland in less than an hour." He pulled her inside and slammed the door behind her.

"Well I uh-"

"Save it, we don't have time for your excuses, let's go."

"Wait, no! I have a surprise for you!" Kira was bouncing on her heels excitedly, and Kai turned back to look at her.

"What?" He almost snapped, and there was a sharp tone in his voice.

"I know you don't like surprises...but I couldn't help myself. Surprise!" Kira opened the door, and smiled. There standing in the doorway was the very last person he expected to see.

"Luna...?" He asked incredulously. The girl was wearing a black and white striped long sleeve crop top that stopped short just of her ribs, and a high waisted black leather mini skirt that had a studded wrapped around her waist and stopped about mid thigh. She had her ombré'd hair down and in loose curls, with a small smile on her face and her amethyst eyes gleaming.

"Next time, try not slamming the door in my face..." The ombré'd purple haired girl rubbed her nose, and twiddled with her fingers, looking up at the birthday boy with a shy look on her face, and grabbed him in a hug which he slowly returned, still in shock. Kira smiled, seeing the obviously shocked look on Kai's face and placed her hands on her hips.

"Well I think that my work here is done. Happy Birthday Kai!" Kira exclaimed bouncing on her heels happily. "Let's get to the mainland," she looked around to her teammates. "we have a tournament to win!"


Luna

Being around the BladeBreakers while they had their game faces on was something I hadn't ever experienced before, they were all so different from the people I remember in Japan. They all lived and breathed beyblade, and when we arrived at the stadium on the mainland of Hawaii, they all changed from joking around and happy go lucky, to serious. It wasn't very much fun, but I was happy to be around Kai again.

There were so many teams here for the tournament. Apparently, people had been going up against each other since early yesterday morning, but the BladeBreakers weren't supposed to start battling until later today. The Lua Pele Lono's were up next to battle the Blading Nac's. Kira left the group who were watching from inside the waiting room to go get a glimpse first hand of these battles. It didn't surprise me that she wanted to watch Kahoru battle. She needed to prepare mentally for this battle, and fight her nerves that were eating away at her confidence.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" Kai finally spoke to me after what seemed forever, and I turned to look at him with a somewhat confused look on my face.

"Well it wouldn't have been much of a surprise if I had told you..." I whispered, my eyes falling to the table in front of me. He stared at me for a few more seconds and then turned his sapphire eyes and attention back to the TV. He didn't seem very happy to see me here so I sighed, standing up. "I'm going to go walk around." He didn't reply, so I left the room and started to explore the stadium a little bit. I can only imagine he's trying to concentrate and keep his cool. My showing up randomly must have thrown him off a little, but he could have at least shown a little bit more excitement.


Kira

The Lua Pele Lono's were astounding, and that is putting it lightly. They crushed their opponents with ease, not even breaking a sweat, which made me nervous. Would we be able to defeat them? I asked myself, beginning to feel sick to my stomach.

There were five people on their team. Kahoru, their leader, who has a broken nose, and a bruised jaw. I have to remember to give Ray a big kiss later when I see him. He uses darkness as his power, seems fitting, doesn't it? Alana, the only girl on their team; she has very sharp features, intense green eyes and stark black chin length hair. She uses water as her element. Mano, a tall chubby blader, who uses fire and brute strength. Koa, an almost exact replica of Kahoru. He was there at the party that night, one of the guys who got into a fight with Kai. He has a black eye and is wearing a sling on his right arm, but still he battles. He uses fire as well. Finally, Makaha. He has dark and dangerous looking eyes. His body is extremely toned, and he's very tall. Just the sight of him makes me nervous. Soon, we will be going up against them. Soon, I will get revenge on Kahoru for everything he's ever done to me. Soon, Kahoru will wish he never set his hands on me.

"Excuse me, you are Kira Dickenson?" I heard an elder man speaking from behind me, and turned to look at him. He was about the height of my chin, chubby, and bad a black mustache and beard. He wore a suit and reminded me of my grandfather. I nodded, bowing in respect.

"I am Neil Abercrombie, Governor of Hawaii." The man walked forward and placed his hand on my back while we walked. "I have a favor to ask of you, Ms. Dickenson." His Japanese was very weak, and I smiled.

"Sir, I can speak English, you don't need to speak Japanese for me. What ever can I do for you?" I asked and he gave me a kind smile in reply.


Ray

I couldn't help pacing around the box where we were waiting to go up next. Kira still wasn't back and no one could find her. Why did she have to keep disappearing as of late? I looked over to the box across from us. There sat the Lua Pele Lono's. Kahoru had a smug grin on his face, and the rest of his team also stared at us, but I didn't care to learn the rest of their names.

"Stop pacing." Kai said from behind me. "You will give them an advantage over us if you do not calm yourself down."

I was just worried that they had done something with Kira again. It wasn't like he hadn't done something before. I glanced up in their direction, and then walked back over to the bench sitting next to Tyson. Luna huffed running into our box.

"And where have you been?" Tyson asked her, Luna's face was flushed as if she had been running for a while.

"The guards wouldn't let me in here! They thought I was some crazy, obsessed fan girl but thankfully our grandpa told them who I was." Luna shook her head taking the seat next to me. She was avoiding eye contact with Kai, and I wondered. Is she as bad of a liar as I am? She was definitely up to something.

Suddenly the lights went out and a song unknown to my ears started playing, but it was definitely some form of techno. I heard most of the crowd in the beystadium start to cheer and scream with excitement. And that's when I saw her standing at the top of the stairs parallel to us, a single spotlight shining down on her. Kira held a silver bedazzled microphone in her hand, and was wearing a completely different outfit from before. She was wearing a pure white twisted bandeau top with a matching white skirt that cascaded down to the floor extending back a few feet. It had slit down the right side that practically went all the way up her thigh, down to the floor showing off her leg. Her hair was down and wavy and she had a flower crown on her head made of white hibiscus flowers with a pink center. She literally looked like an angel. (The song she's singing is Clarity by Zedd, in case you want to listen.)

"High dive into frozen waves where the past comes back to life." She slowly took a step down and the crowd around her stared in awe.

"WE LOVE YOU KIRA!" A random fan called out and she turned her head in the direction to smile at them.

"Fight fear for the selfish pain, it was worth it every time." Kira closed her eyes.

"Hold still right before we crash 'cause we both know how this ends. A clock ticks' til it breaks your glass and I drown in you again." As the beat hit her eyes opened and she lifted her head took another step down, and turned to a little girl who was staring up at her with wide eyes. The beat started to build up and everyone in the crowd got a little more excited, some were even singing with her. Was this why everyone knew about her?

"Cause you are the piece of me, I wish I didn't need. Chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don't know why." And she took another step down towards the stage.

"If our love is tragedy why are you my remedy? If our love's insanity why are you my clarity?" It hit me, this was the song she was singing earlier in the shower. Laser lights shone across the stadium and Kira ran down the steps on beat, taking time to stop and dance with random fans and until she made it onto the stage and a couple of dancers dressed similar to her, but in crimson red, came to join her. I didn't notice it until now, but almost everyone was singing with her. (Minus us) The whole stadium was singing in unison.

"Hey-ay, hey-ay-ay. Hey-ay, hey-ay-ay. Hey-ay, Hey-ay-ay. Heeeeey." Kira rose her left hand and as the beat dropped again, BANG BANG, she pumped her hand in the air, as did everyone else.

"If our love is tragedy why are you my remedy? If our love's insanity why are you my clarity?" The dancers surrounded her in two different sections, and they all stood there, as Kira turned to look at us with a shy smile on her face.

"Walk on through a red parade and refuse to make amends. It cuts deep through our ground and makes us forget all common sense." Kira parted her way through the crimson cladded dancers.

"Don't speak as I try to leave 'cause we both know what we'll choose. If you pull then I'll push too deep and fall right back to you." She turned to the crowd who were all jumping and dancing around.

"Cause you are the piece of me, I wish I didn't need. Chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don't know why. If our love is tragedy why are you my remedy? If our loves insanity, why are you my clarity?" She pulled the microphone from her mouth and once again, the crowd was singing with her, the middle of the stage started to rise as she spun around, with a huge smile on her face and tears forming in her eyes.

"Hey-ay, Hey-ay-ay. Hey-ay, Hey-ay-ay…"

"If you know the lyrics, sing along!" She yelled into the microphone, and a few hundred people cheered.

"Why are you my clarity?"

"Why are you my remedy?"

"Why are you my clarity?"

"Why are you my remedy?" Kira was singing, but it was so loud you couldn't even hear her voice. BANG BANG, she fist pumped again.

"If our love is tragedy why are you my remedy? If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?" She waved to the crowd and did a quick salute as they all screamed and she did a back flip off the stage in our direction and ran towards our box.

"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Tyson screeched as she ran towards us, and her eyes darted to Luna who looked away innocently.

"I don't know, LUNA. Do you have any idea about that?" Kira placed her hands on her lips, giving her cousin a pout and an accusatory look.

"Hey, who am I to keep you away from your people?" Luna held up her hands in an 'I don't know' manner, and Kira sighed.

"They are not my people Luna." Kira came to stand next to me, and I raised my eyebrow to her. It was as if she read my mind, because she whispered in my ear, "I'll explain to you later."

"Alright everyone! Who is ready for the BladeBreakers vs. the Lua Pele Lonos!?" DJ Jazz exclaimed into his microphone as he made his way on stage. The crowd cheered once again, as he laughed and held both hands up to us, as if telling us to send up our first competitors. Kai stood and began to walk forward but Kira bolted after him and grabbed his arm, stopping him. He sharply turned to look at her, anger evident on his face and she took a step back, her look never faltering.

"What? We've had this plan Kira, don't tell me you have some objection to it now."

"I…just have this feeling.." She whispered and looked back towards me, concern evident. "Send Ray up there."

"No way!" Kai crossed his arm over his body and glared down at Kira, then glancing back at me as I stood."

"Look who they're sending up, Kai… Alana. Something deep down is telling me that I know what's right. Please, just listen to me." She pleaded deeply, and maybe it was their secret connection that probably no one besides them will understand, but I saw him close his eyes and nod. "Ray, you're up."


General POV

Silence. Kira blocked everything else out as the final blow was given and Kai was declared the victor, and the crowd went wild. Cheers erupted from the stands, an extreme contrast to when Ray lost to Alana. They may have been the visiting team, but it was damn clear that the BladeBreakers were the favored ones here. Though really, who was to blame them? The amateur, although that may not be the best term, team definitely knew what they were doing.

"If you're not comfortable going up there Kira, we can send Tyson to battle." She had expected those words to come from Ray, not Kai. Maybe their ruthless leader did have somewhat of a heart inside that toned, muscular chest of his. Kira's eyes shot open as she looked up at Kai who of course had that stone cold stare on his face, but the tone of his voice was reflecting something completely different. She stood and shook her head keeping her eyes lowered to the ground.

"This isn't just something I need to do for the team, but for myself. I can't let the voices or actions of my past haunt me forever." She walked forward to the bowl, and she felt everyone's eyes on her. Everyone's.

"How nice to see you again, my dear." That voice was too familiar for Kira's liking and she felt like bugs were crawling up her skin. But she kept her eyes down, she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of her attention, he didn't deserve it. Kira reached into her holster and pulled out her launcher, twisting her blade into place. "Oh what, are you going to ignore me? Fine, have it your way Kira. You always were a stubborn little bitch."

Ray felt his nerves snapping, and his tolerance for Kahoru slipping away. Besides him, Kai, and Luna, everyone else on the team looked confused, for they remembered Kahoru to be the nice ex-boyfriend that Kira recently had a reunion with. But what no one else in the stadium knew besides Kira and Kahoru was the dark past that the two actually held.

"...alright bladers! Up next we have the beautiful and powerful Kira Dickenson battling for the BladeBreakers, and the ruthless macho Kahoru Takemaru blading for the Lua Pele Lonos! Rumor has it that these two are ex-boyfriend and girlfriend, so that should make this battle just a little bit more interesting." DJ Jazz grinned. "On your mark, 3, 2, 1, LET IT RIP!"

And within seconds the blades were out in the rink. Kira focused her eyes everywhere but on Kahoru, although soon she realized that it was harder to concentrate that way. She only had one chance to win this war, one battle could change the destiny of the BladeBreakers to go on and face the All Starz, or go back home to their respective countries. This time, Kira decided she would win. This time, she would not let Kahoru take advantage of her.

"Kira, this is the one time I would advise to use your emotions while battling." It was Kai again, who was surprisingly giving her support and advice? When did this all happen? She let her pupils drift to the right and slightly turned her head so that she could see her teammates and the beyrink in her peripheral vision.

"I know you usually use great restraint while blading, but show Kahoru he doesn't control you anymore. Your parents don't control you. You control you." She closed her eyes, listening to the voices. This time, Ray was the one to speak. She felt her nerves running rampant and her childhood insecurities rising once again. But his words were somewhat of an assurance to her. She nodded and opened her eyes, as they deleted to her blade which was skillfully dodging all of Kahoru's advancements. Slowly they rose up to meet Kahoru's dark and brooding ones, which of course was matched with his smirk.

"Well well well, if it isn't your knight in shining armor stepping up to the plate to save you once again." Kahoru clapped and Kira glared in his direction. "But will he be there to pick you and your shattered remains off the ground after I beat you? Will he want you even when I show him you're a pathetic piece of-"

"Shut it, Kahoru. You know nothing." Kira cut him off, his words making her feel sick.

"Oh but I do know, Kira. You forget I know everything about you. Your faults, your lies, your weaknesses..." Kahoru let out a small snort in laughter. "I also know that mommy and daddy wanted absolutely nothing to do with you, shipping you off to the nearest school that would take you. Don't forget Kira, I've been there for it all." Kahoru's blade slammed into Kira's, he realized he had caught her off guard, and that his plan was slowly working. "But also, don't forget that I was the one to introduce you to this sport. You should be forever grateful to me. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be standing here right now. What was that phrase? Don't bite the hand that feeds you?"

"Ha, introduce me? My grandfather is the Chairman of the BBA, don't think that you ever so graciously taught me everything I've ever known about beyblading. Sure, you may have given me my first blade and piqued my interest to the sport, but don't you think for a second that any of my ability or success is because of you." Kira's eyes glinted with a small flare as the anger built up inside of her, slowly threatening to release itself.

"Play innocent and try to pretend nothing ever happened, that's fine with me. But I will be the one laughing when you're down. Go Tenebris!"

"Draiga get him!" Kahoru's bitbeast was a black wolf, and his power was darkness, a complete contrast to Kira. The two blades collided, and like when Kira and Kai bladed, there was a force of energy that hit the two, though not as strong. Kira bent back and placed her hands in front of her face in an effort to block the blast.

"Come on Kira, this is pathetic. I thought you'd have me defeated by now. I guess it's a good thing that you have that bitbeast to hide behind, otherwise your skills are worthless." Kira growled in anger as Draiga's spinning leveled out.

"Kira..." Kai's deep voice of warning didn't even reach her ears as she was too focused on beating her opponent. She couldn't even hear the crowd screaming all around her. As far as she was concerned, the only two people in the room were her and Kahoru.

"I didn't need Draiga to beat you back then and I most certainly don't need her to beat you now." A dark glint crossed her eyes as she gave her ex boyfriend a smirk. "You'll really feel like a piece of shit when I beat you without even using my bitbeast." The blade darted back and forth dodging all of Kahoru's attempts to destroy her blade. Even though he had an advantage over her, she wasn't going to let him win. She couldn't. Her cerulean eyes followed her blades every move.

"Why don't you give up now? Your efforts to defeat me are futile." Kahoru crossed his arms, and the smirk that once crossed his face was there again.

"Why? Because I have teammates who believe in me, and I refuse to let them down. You may have once had an effect and control over my life, but that is all in the past. I'm burning my bridges and cutting my ties, Kahoru. ATTACK!" Kira's blade zig-zagged back and forth while spinning at full speed towards Kahoru's, and right before his eyes, his blade flew towards his face. The crowd's cheers erupted once again, and Draiga flew up into Kira's hand.

"And the BladeBreakers take this one! We're going to go into a short intermission, and once we come back, the BladeBreakers will be going up against the All Starz, stay tuned folks, you won't want to miss this one." Jazz talked into the microphone and camera with a dazzling smile on his face, and walked off stage once he was finished.

"Kira, that was awesome, I'm so proud of you!" Max ran forward and grabbed his friend in a hug, as she laughed, patting his back.

"Thanks Max." She smiled as they pulled away, but then frowned seeing his face. She turned to look behind her, and saw Max's mom standing above, watching them.

"Oh, we're going up against your mom's team next, aren't we?" Kira asked him, and saw him nodding slowly. "Don't worry, I'm sure we're going to be fi-...Max?" Kira's eyebrows furred in worry as he darted off, and down the hall, and she crossed her arms and turned back to look where Max's mom had been standing, but the woman was gone. 'Don't worry Max, I promise, we won't lose.'


I hope you all enjoyed! I'm sorry about the delay in an update, I've just been so busy. Just one more chapter 'til they go to Europe! I am so excited for that, I can't even begin to explain to y'all. Well, thanks for reading, and if you enjoyed, don't forget to follow, fave, and or review.