I have quite a few notes for this chapter and since I don't want to keep you from waiting to read this chapter, I'm going to address them all at the end :).

Thanks to all of you readers for the reviews, alerts, and favorites; seriously I appriciate it so much!

Hope you like this chapter! :)

I do not own MFB.


Pitter patter...pitter patter...pitter patter...

Rain drizzled relentlessly onto the glass windows, streaming down the pane as if making a desperate attempt to cover the gloomy, grey skies and depressing atmosphere of the outside world. The cars of Metal City bustled along, beeping and swerving; engines roaring lazily. Warm, golden light glowed from the windows of the tall buildings, and the few souls that were brave enough to venture into the storm were carrying umbrellas. Little circular things that made them look like dots gliding across the wet sidewalks.

Inside Tsubasa's apartment, however, things were definitely less-than-gloomy.

Three eager students sat at the dinky kitchen table, cupping mugs of steaming hot chocolate and grinning ear to ear.

Today was day 4 of the training session. Day 4.

Tsubasa couldn't believe that it had come this far already. He couldn't believe the excited faces of his pupils, even after all the lessons. And he couldn't believe that he was going to have to turn those happy smiles into frowns.

"I've thought long and hard about this class and I've come to a difficult decision," he began, clearing his throat. His eagle, Aquila, rested on his shoulder, piercing stares at the others. They seemed slightly intimidated.

"A difficult decision? Well, we know that it must've been hard to choose your apartment over the gym today, but really, we all needed a change of scenery," Ginka told him. He sipped his hot beverage thoughtfully. "Besides, there's chocolate here. Real chocolate. Chocolate motivates me."

"Me too," Masamune seconded, playing with the strand of scarlet hair that hung in his face.

"Me third," Yu agreed with an adorable little chocolate mustache.

Ginka laughed and pointed at the edible facial hair,

"Yu, I think you might need a razor, because your mustache needs shaving!"

"Really now?" He beamed and slipped his tongue out to lick the cocoa, crossing his eyes to see the mustache in the process. The result was the most hilarious face imaginable.

"You look like a lunatic!" Masamune cackled.

"A delicious lunatic," Yu smiled, smacking his lips together in memory of the chocolate.

Placing his hands on the table with a thud, Tsubasa regained their attention and continued,
"I wasn't talking about the apartment; I was talking about the class. Guys," he bit his lip and looked at the ground, already feeling guilty about the reaction he knew he was going to get, "I think I'm going to have to cancel the spy lessons."

"NO!" Masamune jumped out of his chair, startling the others. "I was going to turn my hair into a lethal weapon so I could spy on the aliens and then capture them!"

After spending strenuous time with Masamune, Tsubasa had become accustomed to this sort of thing and didn't even need to question it.

"Masamune, there are no aliens," he assured calmly, "And besides, your hair is already a lethal weapon."

Masamune furrowed his eyebrows at this, "There are too aliens! Ginka's one of them."

"Ginka is not an-"

"Masamune! How could you give away my secret!" Ginka growled, crossing his arms at the unicorn lover, "It's not exactly a normal thing to be an alien! What if someone wanted to do research on me or something, huh? What then?"

"You're the alien! You figure it out!"

"What! You'd be the one that would get me in the stupid mess!"

"And you would be the one to get yourself out."

They froze, staring daggers into the other's eyes while Tsubasa and Yu watched confusedly, just plain stunned at their outbursts.

Then the tension broke and they started laughing.

"You are good Masamune."

"Same to you, bro. Same to you."

They shook hands and did the peace sign, still cracking up hysterically.

They will never, ever change. Ever.

Tsubasa did a mental facepalm before continuing,

"Well, that was...appropriate. Anyway, in case you didn't hear, I told you that I'm not teaching anymore."

Yu began sobbing almost immediately,

"W-why don't you want t-to teach us anymore? Weren't you h-having fun?"

"Sure I was having fun!" Tsubasa nodded sarcasticly, "If you consider getting a favorite book sliced up, obtaining a lifetime job at the library against your will, and seeing your love life ruined, then sure-! I was having a ton of fun!"

Yu threw his hands into the air passionately.

"Aha! So you do like Hikaru!" he accused.

"That's not the point."

"In denial."

"I never said anything!"

"Ah, but your eyes told the whole story."

Exhaling with irritation, Tsubasa slumped into the fourth chair and tapped his fingers on the surface of the table. Aquila shuffled his talons and he felt the claws brush his bare shoulder. Was he trying to tell him something? Tsubasa couldn't be sure.

"I'm just letting you guys know that I'm done with all the craziness. I'm sorry. It's just too much, what with my new job and my secret agent duties, it's too much of a hassle."

"But...b-but...you...us...we," Ginka whimpered.

"Sorry. It's over."

"But we were learning so much!" Masamune jumped out of his chair and balled his fists, "In fact, the other day, Yu, very kindly I might add, gave this man on the street a bomb and taught him how to hide it effectively."

What?

Tsubasa remembered something in the newspaper yesterday about a bomb. A bomb exploding and destroying a whole beyblade stadium right before a big match.

"That doesn't have anything to do with the maniac that exploded that beyblade stadium yesterday? Does it?"

Masamune shrugged a little sheepishly,

"Okay, so maybe he turned out to be an insane pyromaniac that hated beyblade with a passion. Big deal. Fact is, Yu actually learned something cool and wanted to share it with someone."

"Uh huh," Tsubasa nodded slowly and cautiously, shocked that they-his pupils-were the cause of that huge upset.

"In the future, he'll be smarter about who he shares it with," Ginka added.

"Really!" Yu's reddened face nodded up and down, still crumpled and sad.

Analyzing their expressions, Tsubasa could not deny the determined look in their shining eyes. Maybe they could do it? He didn't know. It was like reading an unpredictable book with those three. You could never tell what would happen next. Or what they would do next for that matter.

But still, he was firm in his decision. If this chaos kept up, not only was it extremely unlikely that Ryo would promote him, it could also put his job in jeopardy.

Feeling a nuzzling, feathered head against his ear, he was reminded that Aquila was right there. Right there with him.

Make the right decision, the bird seemed to say.

"I'm really sorry guys. You've been my friends for a long time, and trust me, this was not an easy decision, but I can't teach you any longer. It's too risky and dangerous."

All three stood up at once.

"If you continue to teach us, I'll personally bake you a cake," Ginka begged.

Oh. Didn't that sound lovely. A cake. Hopefully it would taste better than the one he baked a few days earlier. That oozing blob had been thrown away immediately.

"No, I-"

"I'll give you all your M&Ms back," Yu timidly offered, "I hid them behind the coffee machine. In a jar. Inside another jar. Inside a jar that was disguised as a jar. In a jar."

Ah, so that's where his favorite candy went.

"Okay, that you should've done anyw-"

"I promise not to make fun of your hair for a whole week!" Masamune pleaded, folding his hands together.

"What? My hair's not-"

"Ha, it looks like you swapped with Rapunzel," he smirked.

"I thought you said you weren't going to make fun of it for a week."

"Yeah after that one. Had to get it out of my system."

Oh brother.

"Guys, I really can't. Look," he focused down at his pants-a creamy off-white, baggy and comfortable-in preparation of what he was going to say. Clutching the fabric of his pants in his hands, he looked up at them.

"I have this dream of being President of the WBBA someday."

Laughter erupted immediately.

"Ha! Can you imagine that?" Masamune giggled, "You'd make everyone, like, all have their own pet eagles or something. And then they'd all go around with their ponytails and glare people down until they spilled their information!"

"Tsubasa, you're such a Bossy Boots, no wonder you want the job. Then you could tell everyone what to do," Yu said, before slurping his hot cocoa.

"And after all that, you'd have to coach the next generation of bladers," Ginka reminded, seriously for once, "It would be a super big responsibility."

Ignoring the other two, Tsubasa turned to Ginka and nodded,

"I know. And I'm ready for that kind of responsibility. Once Ryo retires, I want to succeed him, but..." he let his gaze wander to the windows. Droplets of rain stuck to the windows, joining together until the weight was too much and they fell miserably. "There's one problem. Hikaru wants the job too."

"Woah," they all exclaimed at once.

"That's heavy," Masamune breathed.

"I can't believe you still like her after that!" Yu shook his head, "No offense, but you're a little insane."

Sighing, Tsubasa willed his head to drop onto the table,

"I never said I liked her. To be honest, we've always been in competition. When you told her that I had feelings for her, it kinda messed everything up. She probably sees it as my newest strategy to beat her. Even if I did like her..." he trailed off and moaned softly, "Everything's just too complicated."

"You know Tsubasa," Ginka began, "I think you would make a great WBBA president. I'm rooting for you." The red-head smiled genuinely, like he did oh-so-rarely.

"Thanks Ginka," Tsubasa cracked a slight smile and turned his head to face the boy, "It's just...if something goes wrong during the lessons, it'll look bad in front of Ryo and that just can't happen. So teaching you right now is too much of a risk."

"But," Masamune pointed out, "If nothing went wrong, then it would look good in front of Mr. Hagane. Very good, in fact."

"True..."

"What if we promised you that nothing will go wrong?" Yu piped up, "We could take extra caution and everything!"

"I don't know about -"

"PLEASE?" He begged, flashing the puppy dog eyes. Big, green eyes full of pleading.

No one has said no to them yet.

Would he be the first?

If he was going to teach young bladers someday, then teaching these three would be perfect training. They were difficult enough. Maybe even more than enough. Assuming that his future students wouldn't be as...rowdy as this bunch, it would be an excellent training opportunity for him.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to continue teaching them?

Gold, brown, and green eyes stared into his expectantly, full of begging and hope.

"Please Tsubasa?"

"It would mean a lot to us."

"And again, I won't make fun of your hair for a whole week."

Inhaling deeply, he made the important decision that would ultimately change his life.

"Well, if it means that much to you guys..."

Cheers erupted from the three and they threw their hands into the air victoriously. In the process, Masamune somehow managed to spill his hot cocoa onto his shirt, the brown liquid staining the cloth instantly.

"OWCHIES! HOT CLOTHES! HOT CLOTHES! HOT CLOTHES!" He proceeded to hop on one foot, fanning the boiling hot stain on his top, taking sharp breaths in and out; sounds that could only be compared to monkeys.

"Take your shirt off, dummy!" Ginka yelled, grappling to grab the hem-line, "You're going to get a burn if you keep it on!"

"I'm trying Ginka! But my. Shirt. Won't. Come. Off!"

He tugged furiously, but he had told the truth. The collar was too small for his head and, as a result, it couldn't fit through.

"I've got the solution!" Yu's adorable voice broke in.

Oh no.

Scissor blades gleaming in the light of the chandelier, he let out a fake evil cackle, snipping them rapidly in preparation of his unknown idea.

An electric flash of lightning streaked across the sky right then, illuminating the room in an eerie blue-ish/white-ish glow, creating shadows on Yu's face. He laughed with even more volume when a boom of thunder sounded right afterwards, startling everyone.

"MWAHAHAHA! Let me help you with that Masamoomoo!" he chortled, starting to snip the shirt off with the scissors.

"NO! THIS IS MY FAVORITE SHIRT! MY UNICORN SHIRT! NO!" spasmistically throwing his hands everywhere, he did everything in his power to avoid Yu's blades.

Aquila had apparently become fed up with it all because after letting this situation go on for a few more minutes, he launched himself off Tsubasa's shoulder and attached his talons to Masamune's shirt. Then, using all the force the large bird could muster, he beat his wings powerfully and succeeded in ripping the top off easily.

"Now I'm cold!" Masamune complained, tossing his kelly-green hoodie on over his bare skin, "Stupid bird. You ruined my unicorn shirt! The one with Charlie on it no less!"

Aquila fixed his gaze on the raven haired boy and kept his piercing glare there for awhile. He didn't appreciate the word 'stupid' associated with 'bird.'

After calming down from those shenanigans, everyone settled back into their chairs and gave Tsubasa their full attention, awaiting the reveal of the lesson.

"What are we learning today, oh long-haired one?" Masamune asked, still sending the occasional glares Aquila's way.

"Masamune," Tsubasa began patiently, playing with his hair out of habit, "I thought we agreed that you weren't to make fun of my hair for a week."

"Yeah, but I've been waiting to say that one for months."

"Ugg..."

"So, Tsubasa, what are we learning today?" Yu questioned eagerly.

After stroking Aquila's feathers thoughtfully, a subtle smile crossed his lips and he faced them confidently,

"Recording devices."


So I know that this chapter took a little break from the normal "lessons" and such, but I felt like it was moving, moving, moving and that there needed to be a little break from it all for a chapter :). Next chapter will go back to lessons and such (oh. my. gosh. I am crazyyy excited to write the next chapter. It's going to be greattttt...:D)

Onto the notes!

1. Aquila is Tsubasa's eagle. I knowww that techincally the eagle's name is, indeed, Eagle (because I think Tsubasa called it that before?), but just for this story, it's Aquila (that way, it can have an actual name.). Plus, Aquila just sounds so. much. cooler.

2. Tsubasa's dream to be president of the WBBA is a nod to MFB Zero G (which is the newest season). He's actually the president of the WBBA in that season, so this story is starting to become a backstory to that. :)

3. Ha. Charlie the unicorn. I don't own that either. Go put a banana in your ear and watch out for the liopleurodon (XD).

4. The 'leathal weapon' thing is a reference to Episode 17 of Metal Masters (or Metal Fight Explosion) where Tsubasa actually says that Masamune's hair is a lethal weapon. Yep. It's just awesomeness.

5. And last, the Bossy Boots thing is from the same episode as mentioned above. Go watch that episode. Now. It's, like, the best episode ever! No joke!

Wow, I really had a lot of notes this time...

I apologize for that :P.

Well, I hope you liked this! Stay tuned for chapter 10 (double digits! *squeals*)!