In this chapter there are quite a few scene changes, especially later on. I have tried to make it obvious where they are.

Chapter 21 - The Party

In which many mysteries are discovered

It was Tyson's idea, of course. It was always Tyson's idea.

Now that everyone pretty much knew everyone else, he had declared that the best possible thing to happen would be a massive party in the dojo with everyone there, complete with futons spread out on the floor, silly games and probably more than one food fight.

And when Tyson said "everyone", he meant "everyone".

Putting nineteen people in the dojo wasn't a problem. There was probably room in there for thirty; not that they even had to stay in the dojo, having all of the house to wander around in.

Getting people to talk also wasn't a problem. When you had Madoka, Kenny, Gingka, Daichi and Tyson in one room, along with Yuu and Mystel, talkativeness was never a problem. And most of them now knew each other well enough that mingling wasn't difficult. Of course, the usual suspects kept to the edge, but Yuu's wide green eyes and Gingka's persistence had been employed to drag Tsubasa – very unwillingly - away from the wall, so there was only Kai, really, and he could look after himself.

The "no-blading" rule was also not a problem. Everyone simply left their blades safely locked away at their respective houses, with one notable exception. But that had been expected, and he couldn't exactly attack anyone, so there wouldn't be any repairs needed to the dojo afterwards. Even Ryuga respected the rule that only people with blades could be launched at.

No, the problem was just that they were all there. It was hard enough keeping Yuu and Daichi from destroying everything in sight at the best of times, but when surrounded by all of their friends, four of whom were glaring at each other so fiercely that Hilary seriously expected the walls to catch fire, it went from bad to worse.

Of course, there was no way that Tyson would have accepted the idea of perhaps not inviting the Siebolt household at the same time as everyone else. But there was no doubt that it would have made life a lot easier if Brooklyn and Ryuga weren't there, let alone Mystel, who was showing Yuu and Daichi how to hang upside down from the light fitting.

It seemed that Brooklyn and Ryuga had got over their original animosity and were working together as a horribly twisted double act that was scaring the life out of Hilary and Madoka. Both had an unnerving ability to appear out of nowhere as soundlessly as Kai, and both of them were significantly taller than either of the girls. Especially in the case of Ryuga, who had the slightest hint of L-Drago's flame drifting around him, this was terrifying. Hiro was having a very difficult time keeping the two of them – or Brooklyn at least – under control.

"I don't think I've ever seen Ryuga smiling like that," Kenta commented to Tyson as they stood next to the food-laden table. "I mean, I've seen him grin evilly before, but that looks more like he's honestly enjoying himself. It's... it's scary."

Tyson shrugged. "Brooklyn's the other way round. He gets scary when he stops smiling, because that's when he's cross." He paused. "Then again, he smiles when he thinks he's winning, and he can be pretty scary when he does that too."

"They're both scary," Hilary huffed, joining them. "I'm not sure which one's worse, actually."

"Well, Ryuga tried to take over the world a month or so ago," Kenta began.

"But Brooklyn moved the entire world into a different dimension inside his extremely twisted mind two years ago, and destroyed a whole city," Tyson interrupted.

"L-Drago's scarier than Zeus," Madoka said, making the trio into a quartet. "Look at what he did to Ryuga – he took him over and then reshaped his body into a kind of half-dragon thing that didn't even act like Ryuga."

"But Zeus scared Kai, and Kai's not scared of anything," argued Hilary.

"I think they're as bad as each other," sighed Hiro, who suddenly materialised next to Hilary and grabbed a sandwich. "Both of them are totally uncontrollable and do whatever they want to get their own way. I'm amazed Garland's still sane after looking after the two of them for so long." He shook his head and disappeared into the small crowd, apparently giving up on his charges and going to talk to Tsubasa.

"They are both very scary," Kenta admitted. "And together they're even scarier."

"Oh come on, this is getting far too serious," Tyson suddenly exclaimed. "Let's get everyone together and play a game or something. Then they won't be trying to scare you all the time."

"Tyson, if you even think about suggesting that we play Truth or Dare, I will tie you up, gag you and lock you in the under-stairs cupboard for the rest of the week."

Tyson yelped in shock and swung round to stare at the taller blader whose cold voice had appeared, like him, out of nowhere. Kai's eyes held absolutely no trace of humour; he meant every word.

"Oh, come on, Kai! It's a fun game!"

Kai's already dangerous expression tightened. "No, it's not. It's the best way for at least four people in this room to attempt to kill each other, and if you remember correctly, the last time you played this so called game, your hat ended up on the roof of the hotel and you had to bribe Ray to get it back for you, Max lost his voice after singing the entirety of "One Hundred Green Bottles Standing On The Wall" thanks to Daichi, and I had my blankets stolen on three consecutive nights by one of the Fernandez twins."

Tyson winced, remembering. "Fine. Not Truth or Dare. What, then?"

"How should I know?" And Kai walked off, leaving behind a fuming Tyson.

"And after all that, he just... ugh, he annoys me so much!"

Yuu tugged at his jacket to get his attention. "How about Hide and Seek?" he asked. "It's warm outside, so we can go anywhere."

Tyson grinned. "Good idea, Yuu. Hey, everyone, who wants to play Hide and Seek?"

.

It took nearly half an hour to persuade the majority of bladers in the room that Hide and Seek was not the worst idea that Tyson had ever had (done mostly by pointing out that it was Yuu's idea in the first place) and then another fifteen minutes to persuade them to come and join in. Brooklyn was summarily banned from using Zeus to find people, or to hide in another dimension, and Ryuga had been told that the slightest hint of L-Drago appearing would lead to Tyson and Daichi both going for their blades and taking him out. Having no desire to test the still-weakened L-Drago against the two other powerful dragons, Ryuga reluctantly promised not to use his constellation to cheat.

Kai had refused to join them on principle, and as Tyson had been the one to suggest the game, he was the designated seeker. So, as everyone else scattered to hide, Tyson sat in the middle of the dojo floor and began counting. Kai simply rolled his eyes at the childishness of his companions and went to help himself to some more food whilst everyone else was out.

.

"Ninety-nine, one hundred!" Tyson sang out, opening his eyes. He was completely alone in the dojo, apart from Kai who was sitting in the corner and ignoring the rest of the world. Hah. Typical Kai. But never mind him, he had seventeen other people to find!

The easiest to find was surprisingly not Benkei, the biggest, but Hiro. He was standing on the windowsill in the main room, hidden behind the curtains. Unfortunately for him, he had forgotten that curtains tend to cover windows, which are made to be seen through. Tyson easily spotted him as he ran around the outside of the house first.

Grumpily (whenever they had played as children, it had always taken Tyson hours to find him) Hiro returned to the dojo, which was surprisingly peaceful. Grampa had come out to start clearing the table and set out the room for bed, and Kai was speaking softly into a mobile phone in a language Hiro could only assume was Russian. He wondered if Tyson and the rest of the gang knew that Kai actually had a mobile phone, and exactly how valuable that piece of information would be as blackmail. Then again, Kai still didn't trust him after the events at BEGA, so that probably wouldn't be the best of ideas either.

As the silver-haired teen was clearly going to ignore him completely, Hiro settled down on the floor with a plate of pilfered food and started planning his next visit to his father's dig site. He couldn't leave for too long, of course, because even Garland's saint-like patience could be severely tried by the unholy alliance of lightning and death otherwise known as Brooklyn and Ryuga. Hiro had absolutely no idea how the two of them had worked out their differences, but one thing was certain – it had been very effective. For the last couple of days, they had been almost inseparable.

And talking of that, where on earth could they be hiding?

.

At that moment in time, only three people knew the answer to Hiro's question. Two of them were, naturally, Brooklyn and Ryuga themselves, who had headed for the garden in order to find good hiding places. Brooklyn was lying on his back in the flowerbed, a small bat flitting around his head. A couple of feet away, Ryuga was sitting against a tree, toying with L-Drago's launcher which was still on his arm. It was almost impossible to see either of them unless the seeker pushed his way through several large bushes and part of the hedge.

Almost impossible. There was one other way to see them, and that was how the third person had discovered where the two were. Ray was balanced high in the tree above Ryuga's head, keeping completely still so as to almost vanish into the trunk. He had scrambled up into the thickest-leaved tree he could find when the group had scattered to hide, knowing that Tyson would never look up. At least, that was the plan.

It seemed that neither Brooklyn nor Ryuga had seen him either, or if they had they were ignoring him. In the near-darkness, it was only Ray's superb eyesight that allowed him to see Brooklyn lifting a hand to let the bat to wrap its tiny claws around his fingers, the membranes of the wings stretching across the rest of his hand. Ryuga didn't take any notice, clicking the holder for L-Drago open and taking out the blade. He seemed to be examining it in the faint light coming from the house.

"Can you remember it? When he took over?"

The murmur came out of nowhere, and Ray suddenly realised that he wasn't certain who had spoken.

"Yes," came the returning whisper in the dark, equally impossible to recognise. "I remember it all. The darkness... the call."

There was a laugh. "That rhymes."

The only response was a rather undignified snort, which still could have come from either of the two below. "It wasn't meant to."

"Did it hurt? When he changed your body?"

A shudder ran up and down Ray's spine as he realised what Brooklyn – or Ryuga, whoever it was – was talking about, and he wrapped his arms around the tree a little tighter to make sure that he absolutely did not tumble out. This was one conversation that nobody should fall into, however literally.

"How long did you know about it?"

"What do you mean?" That voice was a bit lower, a bit more like a growl. Ray decided that it was probably Ryuga.

"Did you get any warning before he did it?"

The soft chuckle made Ray stop and think for a bit, because it sounded a lot more like Brooklyn than the cruel laugh he had heard from Ryuga that first time they had all met. "Not much warning. The battle before he took over, my control was slipping. But... I'm still not sure."

"Not sure of what?" A movement below finally identified the speaker as Brooklyn as the tiny bat flitted past Ray's head.

"I'm not sure exactly what it was that happened," Ryuga explained quietly. "I don't know if he took over... or whether I just let him."

Brooklyn was sitting up now, facing the other blader with his white-coated arms wrapped around his knees. "You think you let him take over?"

Ray froze as Ryuga tilted his head back, the yellow irises glittering even in the dark. "He was much stronger than when I'd first taken him. I didn't realise how exhausting it would be to be full of rage all the time, because he was always hungry, always taking. Some days it was a struggle just to find the energy to get mad at something."

"But you did, clearly."

Ryuga laughed as he looked back at his companion, and this time it was closer to the horrific sound Ray had heard that first day. "You don't need to know about that. No-one does, except him."

The silence that followed was surprisingly gentle, and Ray even dared to take a breath. The sound of Tyson apparently finding Hilary and Madoka could easily be heard on the heavy night air – he wasn't very far away from their hiding place.

"I need to get him back under control." Ryuga's voice, when it came, was clear and determined, though still quiet just in case Tyson's hearing was sharper than it appeared. "No matter how long it takes. I want him as firmly under my control as Zeus is under yours. I don't want him fighting me any more, and I'm not letting anyone take him from me ever again."

Brooklyn stayed still and quiet, apparently waiting for Ryuga to continue. When it became clear that nothing else was forthcoming, he asked softly "Where will you go?"

"Who says I'm going anywhere?" Ryuga growled, his voice holding more than a hint of shock. Ray couldn't see, but he suspected that Brooklyn was smiling in that strange, calm way of his, down below in the dark.

"Because you're Ryuga," he said. "You don't belong in cities, with so many other bladers around you to try and distract you or make you practice their way, not yours."

Ryuga sighed. "You've got a point. If he's around other bladers, I know L-Drago will just keep trying to get to them and their power. And though that'll certainly make him stronger, it's very distracting having your constellation's attention wandering all the time." He tilted his head back again, and his eyes gleamed in the dark like a cat's. "Wouldn't you say, Ray?"

Ray almost fell out of the tree in shock. "Y-you knew I was here?" he hissed, tightening his grip on the trunk.

"Of course!" Brooklyn exclaimed, his voice deceptively full of smiles. "But you're nice – we don't mind you being here."

"How..." Ray began, but two soft lights from below answered his question before he could get any further. Zeus' green eyes glowed with something that Ray desperately hoped was simple mischief, whilst L-Drago's flames settled, nimbus-like, around Ryuga.

"Your tiger is very fierce, and very strong," Ryuga said. "And he's also very loud."

Deep in the space he occupied in Ray's mind, Driger growled threateningly, thunder before lightning. Shushing him gently, Ray slid out of the tree, landing cat-like on all-fours in front of Ryuga, who gave him a steady look.

"So how do you win the loyalty of a bit-beast?" he asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?" It was Brooklyn who responded before Ray had a chance to get his thoughts in order.

"Do you... win them from opponents? Do you choose them? Do you find them?"

Ray exchanged a look with the serenely-smiling Brooklyn, and rolled his eyes as he realised that he was the one in the best position to explain, as little as he wanted to. "They choose us," he said. "No-one really knows how it works, but forcing a bit-beast to work with you instead of it choosing you is never the strongest option. But we also have to work to earn and keep their respect and loyalty. Driger has left me before because I... because he lost his respect for me. I wasn't battling as well as I should have been, and he just went, until I did something to earn him back again." Suddenly realising what Ryuga might have actually been asking, he paused. "Do... do you think it might be the same with L-Drago?"

Ryuga never had a chance to answer. At that exact moment, Tyson's head popped through the bushes, wearing a triumphant expression as well as his hat. "There you are!" he crowed. "I'd never have found you if I hadn't seen Zeus – this is a really good hiding place and you were being really quiet!"

Sure enough, Zeus' massive body was more than visible over the tops of the bushes, his eyes glowing from within to identify and locate him even if his enormous shadow failed to do so. Brooklyn groaned and quickly recalled his bit-beast as he stood up to follow Tyson back into the dojo. They had been caught fair and square.

But they certainly weren't the first to be caught.

.

When Tyson had started counting, Gingka had raced for the kitchen, intending to hide beneath the large table that was draped in a cloth that reached the ground. He knew from experience that finding suitable hiding places in the mostly open-plan house was more difficult than most people expected, though at least the roof was out of bounds. However, when he lifted up the corner of the cloth he found himself nose-to-nose with Kenny, who pushed him away.

"Get back!" the other boy hissed. "I'm already sharing with Kenta and there's not enough room for another person here!"

Disappointed but determined not to be the first one caught, Gingka fled the kitchen and headed straight for Tyson's room and the relative safety of under the bed.

Except that once again he was thwarted. Max and Daichi were already hidden away there, though they proved more welcoming than Kenny, and allowed Gingka to scramble underneath to join them.

"Hey," Gingka whispered to Max. "How likely is Tyson to look under here?"

"Quite likely," Max admitted. "But he'll go hunting through the kitchen first, I bet, so we won't be first to be found."

That was fair enough, Gingka decided, and was about to ask something else when the door to the bedroom blew open again. Instantly, all three boys froze, until a blonde whirlwind shot across the room and dived under the bed.

"Hi!" said Yuu. "Oh wow, there's loads of people under here, this is awesome!"

"Shhh!" Daichi hissed, managing somehow to be even louder than Yuu. Max elbowed him.

"Ha! Found you, Hiro!" came a distant yell, followed by the sounds of a disgruntled Hiro stomping back to the dojo. The four under the bed exchanged looks. Well, at least they weren't first.

From the sounds of it, Tyson had indeed headed for the kitchen, so Gingka took his chance to ask Max something that had been on his mind for a while. "Hey, Max? Is... is that Tala guy trustworthy?"

Max was silent for a long moment, listening for any approaching Tysons whilst considering his answer. Eventually, he said "Yes. You can trust him to always say or do what is right, no matter what."

Yuu seemed to consider this, then said "But was he being serious about the... the World Championships?" Even though his voice was quiet, he couldn't disguise the excitement in it.

"Tala doesn't lie," Max informed him sternly. "Not unless it's about his ability to keep blading whilst injured. For something like that... no, Tala was definitely telling the truth."

Now it was Yuu and Gingka's turn to exchange excited looks. "So it's real," Gingka breathed. "We'll finally get to find out who the best blader in the world is."

"Yay!" Yuu squeaked, making Daichi jump and clamp his hand over the blonde's mouth. "MmmrflemmphflemitGingka!"

Gingka shook his head in amusement as Daichi took his hand away. "Say that again? But slower."

"I wonder how they'll do it, Gingka," Yuu repeated. "Will we fight in teams? In pairs? Solo, like in Battle Bladers? We'll be in the winning group, no matter what it is!"

"They still need to pick a director," Gingka pointed out. "But we'll find out soon enough."

"Find what out soon enough?" Tyson asked, sticking his head under the bed.

"AAAAAHHH!"

"Whoa, how'd you get so many people under my bed?" Tyson laughed as the four of them clambered out stiffly. "That's amazing. I don't have many more people to find now. Everyone seemed to be hiding together for some reason. Hilary and Madoka were in the larder, and I nearly missed them because Benkei was in there too and he blocked them from view. And Kenny and Kenta were under the table...I'm off to look for Brooklyn and Ryuga – I bet they'll be hiding together too." And with that, he disappeared.

Gingka stretched and helped Max scramble to his feet. "Let's go back to the dojo," he suggested. "Then we can see who else has been caught already."

.

It turned out that Tyson had actually listed all of the people he had caught, which meant that there were still seven missing. Kenny and Kenta were sitting in the far corner, apparently deeply involved in a conversation, whilst Benkei was hovering near the food table as Grampa Granger refilled some of the plates. Hilary and Madoka were also talking quietly, not too far away from Kai, who appeared to be asleep. Both Max and Daichi knew better, though.

"You got caught too, then?"

Gingka spun round to find himself face to face with Hiro. He hadn't seen much of Tyson's brother over the past few weeks, apart from in the precious few photos that Tyson had in his room. After all, the older man didn't live in the same house, living and working with the group that had once been his students in BEGA instead.

"Yeah, but it was fun while it lasted," Yuu interrupted. "I wonder where all the others are, though. I wanted to talk to Mystel again."

"I'm more worried about Brooklyn and Ryuga, actually," Hiro admitted, leaning against the wall. "Who knows what the two of them could get up to if they're left to their own devices for too long?"

"True," Gingka grinned, remembering the amount of chaos he had always been able to cause with Hyoma back in Koma Village in extremely short spaces of time. "But there can't be very many more places to look, surely? I mean, there were four people just hiding under the bed, and there's not actually very many good hiding places left."

Hiro snorted. "That's because this house is so ridiculously open-plan. I think I saw Mystel attempting to hide behind a pot-plant, but that's the only person I've seen. I'm surprised that Tyson hasn't found him yet, though – he wasn't exactly very well hidden."

Gingka was about to say something else when the dojo doors opened, and three equally tall people walked in. Ray was in between Brooklyn and Ryuga, talking softly to the latter.

"I wonder what they could be talking about?" Gingka wondered out loud. "I've never seen Ryuga voluntarily talk to someone like that."

Max had overheard him. "It doesn't really matter," he said, sliding into the conversation. "Ray's one of the nicest people I know – he'll know exactly how to talk to Ryuga."

"I suppose," Hiro sighed, rubbing his head. "Ryuga confuses me so much."

"They're talking about places to train far away from other people," Yuu said, his sharp ears having picked up the other conversation. "I didn't know Ryuga was planning to go anywhere. I wanted him to stay around."

Gingka put his hand on the young boy's shoulder, understanding the unspoken words. "I know," he smiled sadly. "Maybe when he comes back, though, he'll be able to battle you properly, and then you can prove yourself to him."

Yuu nodded. "He'll be fine, though. He's good at surviving in the wild. I can wait."

"Wait for who?"

"Ryuga, of course – oh! Tsubasa!" Yuu looked up at the tall, silver-haired blader with a dazzling smile. "You got found, then?"

"Why else would I be here?" Tsubasa laughed. "Tyson's done really well – there's loads of people in here."

The dojo was returning to its pre-game noisiness as everyone began to splinter off into smaller groups to continue conversations and start new ones. Tsubasa watched as Yuu brazenly approached Ryuga and Ray, only to have Brooklyn spot him. Moments later the two of them were conspiring together in the middle of the room, two bladers with white coats and wild hair, the mysteries of their respective teams. It was good to see that Yuu had found someone else to confide in so soon after Ryuga had broken his trust, even if it would only be temporary. Besides, Tsubasa hadn't seen anything to make him worry about Yuu's proximity to the red-haired blader, unlike with Ryuga. It was a good result all round.

Tsubasa retreated to the edge of the room to carry on watching the convoluted interactions going on between the two so different and yet so similar groups of bladers. He wasn't too surprised when Garland suddenly dropped down beside him. "Hey."

"Garland," Tsubasa acknowledged. "Tyson found you, then?"

The other silver-haired blader shrugged. "It's Tyson's house, and I've only been here a couple of times. Of course he was going to find me pretty quickly."

"He hasn't found Mystel yet, though." Tsubasa stretched, suddenly realising that it was completely dark outside. Grampa and Hiro were ferrying blankets and bedding into the dojo in small piles, setting it all at the side for whenever people decided to go to bed – which, admittedly, didn't look like it was going to be any time soon.

Beside him, Garland sighed. "I hope he's not getting into too much trouble. Mystel's a handful at the best of times."

"Sounds just like Yuu," Tsubasa grinned.

"Just like me?" Garland looked very confused.

"No, no, like Yuu. Little guy over there."

Garland's expression cleared. "Oh yes. Small, over-active and ridiculously bubbly. Did I see Mystel trying to teach him to swing from the rafters earlier?"

"Yes." It was clear from Tsubasa's tone that he was not impressed by this. "Does Mystel like ice-cream, by any chance?"

Garland threw back his head and laughed, such a surprising sound that several of the bladers in the room looked around to see what was going on. "They're so alike."

"You can say that again," Tsubasa grumbled, watching as Yuu waved his arms around excitedly, demonstrating something to Brooklyn. From the little he could see, Brooklyn had Libra in his hands, and was examining it with an expert eye. Tsubasa kept watching until the older blader returned the yellow blade to its owner, not noticing until he glanced sideways that Garland had been watching him the whole time.

"You protect him," Garland said when Tsubasa glared him into explanation. "You don't want anything to happen to him."

Tsubasa looked away. "I don't know what it is about that kid. He's like the annoying little brother I've never had, and never really wanted. But when Ryuga... when I saw what Ryuga did to him, all I cared about was forcing him to see what it had done to Yuu. Kenta dealt with Reiji, who was the guy who did the actual damage, but when Ryuga rejected Yuu's friendship, that was the final straw. I couldn't just do nothing."

To his surprise, Garland just nodded. "Mystel's older than Yuu, of course, but I know the feeling. All of the BEGA team are like my family. When Boris and Hiro forced Brooklyn too far to get him to fight Tyson at full power, I kept trying to get them to swap him for me so that he wouldn't be hurt - I'd have done the same for Mystel in a heartbeat. I might have failed Brooklyn then, but I swore I never would again – that's why he's living with me now."

Tsubasa allowed himself a small, almost fond smile. "You and I are very similar, aren't we?"

Garland's returning smile was equally gentle. "Your principles are strong, but you're not afraid of fighting with everything you have in order to claim your victory."

"And I'm not the only one to feel responsible for a young, wild-haired, ice-cream-loving blader with more power than people expect," Tsubasa responded.

The other young man smiled even more broadly. "Though talking of that, where on earth is Mystel? I think he's the winner – I can't see him anywhere and everyone else is here."

"No, Kyouya's not here either," Kenny suddenly interrupted from his seat a couple of metres away. Tsubasa and Garland glanced at each other.

"What's the betting they're hiding together?" they asked at exactly the same time.

.

Tsubasa and Garland knew their friends far too well. Kyouya and Mystel were indeed hiding together, and much to Mystel's amusement Tyson had already looked in their hiding place twice and hadn't spotted them.

"How did you get up there?" Kyouya asked, his voice muffled by the pile of clothes and towels on his head. The pair of them were in the large wardrobe in Hiro's old room, and Mystel had somehow managed to tuck himself onto the top shelf and then drape a tablecloth in front of him so that he couldn't be seen. Kyouya, on the other hand, was at the bottom, covered in fallen clothes and towels from the shelf Mystel was on. So far, Tyson hadn't thought to pull the material aside to check, obviously under the impression that nobody could possibly be agile enough to reach the higher shelves, or thin enough to creep into the lower ones.

"Training," Mystel whispered back, peering over the edge of his shelf. "Flexibility, strength and fluidity of movement – all the characteristics of water. That's my element, so that's how I train."

Kyouya didn't really understand, but the idea of using the strengths of the wind as his training was... well, it was certainly different to Wolf Canyon. That was entirely endurance.

"Do you mean that you try to train to be like water?" he asked, still keeping his voice low.

"Yeah, that's it," Mystel answered. "When I can move with the water like I'm one with it, that's when I'm strongest, and that's when I understand my blade best."

"Hmmm," Kyouya mused, shifting a little as the crick in his neck became too uncomfortable. What if he was to try and become like the tornado? He'd never actually seen a real tornado, so he wasn't sure how that would work. But if it made him stronger and more likely to defeat Gingka and Pegasus, whenever the latter returned, then he was willing to do anything.

So what were real tornadoes like? He knew that they were tall funnels of fast-flowing wind that could also move over the ground, and he knew that they could be horrifically destructive, but that was about it. He really needed to get out and find some proper tornadoes to watch, at least, just so he could understand them. If he could do that, then maybe he could learn how to make his own attacks stronger, could learn how to become one with the wind.

He liked the sound of that. He would become the wind, and then the wings of the Eagle and the Pegasus would be helpless against his fury.

"And because it's fun."

The sudden voice made Kyouya jump, and he hit his head on the shelf above him. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Oops, sorry." Mystel didn't sound sorry at all. Kyouya frowned.

"What do you mean, it's fun?"

"Training!"

Now this was unexpected. If he was honest, it was also pretty inexplicable. "How is training fun?"

Mystel laughed, though it wasn't as loud as it could have been. "Because blading is fun. The better I am at blading, the more fun it is, so the more I train the better I get and the more fun it gets."

"That still makes no sense."

There was a half-laugh, half-sigh from high above. "I have fun blading. I want to blade, so it makes sense that I want to train to get better at blading. I'm doing the two things that I love most in the world – jumping around and defying gravity, and being with my bit-beast Poseidon. And when I'm training, I'm blading, aren't I? So it must be fun."

"Mystel? Kyouya? I give up, okay!" Tyson's voice floated through the house. "Can't you just come out? Otherwise we'll have to spend AGES looking for you."

"Are you going?" Kyouya whispered up to his hiding companion, who let out a stifled giggle.

"Of course not!" he hissed back. "I'm not stupid!"

There was silence in the wardrobe for several minutes after that as Tyson repeated his call through the rest of the house. Kyouya was considering everything that Mystel had just said. He had never really considered blading like that, and he wasn't sure if he agreed with the happy-go-lucky blonde. After all, blading was a way to demonstrate your power, to defeat those who were your true rivals, and to prove yourself to the world. Once it became mixed up with fun,then there was a very clear problem, at least to Kyouya's mind. If you thought the game was fun, it would only be a small step to saying that the victories and losses were "just for fun" as well, that they didn't matter.

Victories and losses meant everything to Kyouya. Fun meant... well, pretty much nothing. The game was more than just a game to him – it was all he had and all he was.

Suddenly, the door to the wardrobe burst open. Unable to see through the thick towel covering his eyes, Kyouya froze.

"Alright, Mystel, that's enough." Garland's voice was stern. "You've had your fun, now stop showing off and get down from there."

From the silence that followed, Kyouya realised that Mystel was pretending not to exist. Unfortunately for him, Garland knew him far too well. There was a rustle and then a weight fell onto Kyouya's head – the sheet that had been hiding Mystel.

"Gaaaarland..." Mystel complained. "You're not seeker, it doesn't count!"

"Yes, it does," Garland informed him frostily. "Don't you remember the rules? Anyone who's been caught is allowed to help the seeker."

"You made that up!" Mystel accused. From the sound of it he was manoeuvring himself out of his rather cramped hiding place, apparently deciding that the game was up anyway, even if Garland was cheating. Kyouya didn't have time to think about the implications before a Mystel-sized lump dropped on top of him.

"Oooffff!"

There was another rustle, and light poured into Kyouya's hiding place as Garland pulled back the sheets and towels. "Oh! Hello Kyouya. I was right, I see."

Kyouya had no idea what he was talking about, and subsequently ignored him in favour of clambering out of the lowest shelf. Mystel gave him an apologetic look as he straightened up, and Kyouya glared at him.

"Come on," Garland ordered. "Back to the dojo. You two are the last, everyone's waiting for you."

Actually, only Tyson seemed to be waiting for them. The rest of the group had separated into little clusters, talking and laughing and eating with friends new and old. Kyouya headed straight for Kenny, who looked rather surprised to see the green-haired teen drop down beside him and Kenta, but quickly included him in the conversation. Mystel, on the other hand, was almost immediately spotted by Yuu and Daichi, and was just as quickly dragged into their little group, which had grown to include Brooklyn and Gingka.

"Guys?" Tyson called as everyone started to spread out. "Guys? Who's for another round...?"

The next morning was quiet, at least inside. Outside, the storm had finally broken the summer heat to lash rain against the walls of the dojo. It was this which woke Tsubasa, when he realised that the window above his head was letting all the water in. Sighing, he got to his feet to close it, wondering what on earth had possessed him to fall asleep against a wooden wall when there was a perfectly comfortable futon not three feet away (though admittedly, said futon now contained Hiro Granger).

Then again, no-one else seemed to have decided to use the available futons either, which led Tsubasa to the belief that either they were infected with some deadly poison he didn't know about, or everyone was too deep in conversation to notice that they'd fallen asleep.

He frowned. If he was beginning to believe that the futons were coated in poison, he'd had less sleep than he thought.

"It's half past six," said a voice from his left, and Tsubasa looked down at the silvery-grey head of Kai.

Tsubasa made some non-committal sound and dropped down beside the Phoenix. "Figures."

He and Kai appeared to be the only two awake of the entire dojo. Just beyond Kai was the sleeping figure of Garland, who had probably placed himself there so that anyone – well, Brooklyn - would have to trip over him to get out of the dojo door. Kai didn't seem too bothered by the fact that one of his rivals now had his head on Kai's shoulder, though Tsubasa decided that was more to do with the fact that it would be more bother shoving the bearer of Apollon away than to just leave him where he was.

Tyson was snoring away next to the buffet table, sandwiched between Kenny and Benkei. It seemed that Tyson and Benkei had managed a midnight feast too. Well, probably a four in the morning feast, Tsubasa corrected himself, but the principle still stood. Privately, he was surprised that Gingka hadn't joined them.

Ray and Kyouya were sleeping back-to-back, as if on guard against encroaching Yuus or Daichis. The encroachers in question were in fact part of a circular tangle of limbs made up of Daichi, Brooklyn, Gingka, Yuu, Mystel and Max. They must have been having an in-depth conversation about something before they dropped off, as their heads were quite close together, highlighting the amusing fact that all of the red-heads and all of the blonde-haired people had managed to group together. Tsubasa envied them a little, as any conversation involving Brooklyn, Mystel, Gingka and Yuu was bound to be highly entertaining, or at least come out with some very strange and probably ice-cream related tangents.

Hilary and Madoka were lying on the bench at the far end of the dojo, one at either end. They at least had blankets draped over them, unlike almost everyone else.

In fact, apart from Hiro, the only other person in the room who looked like he had actually meant to fall asleep was Ryuga, who was wrapped up in his own white greatcoat and a single blanket, leaning against the corner of the wall. In fact, he didn't just look like he meant to fall asleep there, he looked downright comfortable, something that Tsubasa was fairly certain was not allowed to be possible when leaning against a wooden wall.

But even this wasn't the greatest puzzle to Tsubasa's barely-awake mind. No, the person who was confusing Tsubasa the most at the moment was in fact Kenta. Kenta, who was fast asleep on his side, on the only other occupied futon (well, partly on, anyway). He was tightly rolled up in a blanket and seemed perfectly happy that way.

But still Tsubasa couldn't see how he had managed to get there by accident. Because there was no way on earth that Kenta would have chosen to fall asleep with his head pillowed on Ryuga's crossed ankles, was there?

A/N – and the chapter went into the morning purely for the sake of lots of sleepy beybladers, Tsubasa being all fuzzy-headed like Juniper is when the alarm goes off, all the red-heads and blondes in a bundle on the floor, and the frankly bizarre double-act that is Ryuga and Kenta in the third series... it just works.

A/N 2 – for those who don't know, "Ten Green Bottles" is a nursery song that involves removing one of the aforementioned bottles each verse by it falling off the wall and breaking. It's a counting song, if you will, normally from ten to zero green bottles. However, Daichi being Daichi decided it was so much more fun to get Max to sing it from one hundred. Trust Juniper when she says that she did actually try this once, and never will again. Ever.