Chapter 5
It was early in the evening; the first round of the Japanese preliminaries had ended that day. The sun already had retired, and the stars glared into the darkness of the night, tirelessly glittering as six teenagers walked home under the streetlamps lights.
The Bladebreakers joyfully discussed the matches from that day, arguing who was a promising talent and who just a show-off.
Tyson saw many familiar faces he was lucky to know from the previous tournaments, battling with their best efforts. He loved competing and measuring his skills with others, pushing his limits to the end, but meeting with people whose companion he appreciated was even better. It was like a huge class reunion. Everyone knew him and his name, lots of them had a few kind words to say to the champion and Tyson boundlessly enjoyed these gestures.
Thanks to these moments, he was confident to walk on the right path of his life; he was a good man and good friend, and Tyson didn't need a better feedback from anyone to feel self-content.
"I'm so glad the championship started finally!" Tyson exclaimed at the dark sky, unable to contain his joy and stop grinning.
The others only chuckled at his uncontrollable euphoria.
"Sure, it was a good idea to expand the registration conditions, so the smaller teams can compete, as well. Mr. Dickenson knows what he's doing!" Kenny chirped with satisfaction. He could collect a significant amount of data, although, most of them was probably useless because only the better players could qualify themselves to the next round.
"Yeah, but it'll take time until the new bladers get experienced. They didn't seem too dangerous." Ray added with a more serious tone. He was not so impressed by the new challengers; they were too young.
"This was only the first round of the preliminaries. We can't sit back and enjoy the weather. We'll have to train hard if we want to find ourselves in the finals." Kenny reminded him and the team.
"Don't worry, guys, you can already start to train tomorrow morning." Hilary's announcement was followed by a collective growl, however, deep down the boys were happy to hear that.
"The Blitzkrieg Boys won their battles pretty easily. I expected nothing else." Tyson folded his hands on his nape. He wished a rematch with Tala's team; seeing him winning the qualifiers without a struggle made him excited.
"It's only Blitzkriegs now, without the boys." Kenny corrected him.
"Oh, right! They have a new member, the blonde girl!" Max joined in and a small smile appeared on his face. "She looked pretty. Menacing like her teammates, but pretty."
Tyson frowned at Max, trying to recall a girl's figure, but he failed.
"I didn't see any girl from the Russian team beybattling."
"It's because she didn't fight. Only Tala, Boris and Sergei battled today. The girl stood behind them, sulking." Hilary snorted, reviving the girl's pissed expression. "She didn't seem happy."
"I can understand her. I would hate if I couldn't beyblade on the championship. What do you think, why she didn't battle?" Tyson asked, looking at his friends all at once.
"I think it wasn't her decision not participating in the preliminaries. Maybe it's a strategy of Tala. She practically glared a hole into his head." Kenny piped up, sharing his opinion about the question.
Ray hummed disapprovingly.
"That's kind of unwise. I'd make her play in every possible round to get used to the championship since probably this is her first tournament. Maybe she couldn't beyblade because of technical reasons. A deflected beyblade or a smaller injury, perhaps."
"No." Kai's firm voice rejected all their theories. He kept his eyes on the darkening road, his brows furrowed, his hands curled in strong fists. He seemed irritated.
"I think Tala doesn't want to show her true strength until she's getting underestimated by other teams, thus she can surprise her opponents."
"Huh! So be it, I will defeat her too, just like any other opponent." Tyson smiled cockily, he was itching to beyblade. Being automatically qualified sucked!
Kai rolled his eyes as he exhaled. He knew Tyson for more than 3 years, yet he still hadn't improved the patience of a special education teacher.
"You can't defeat a Blitzkriegs member just like that. Tala can be very picky regarding his team. He only accepts the member who perfectly suitable for his motives and a competent beyblader."
"Are you flattering yourself, now?" Tyson scoffed and Kai shot him a glance.
"I agree with Kai." Kenny's words raised several eyebrows around him.
He didn't agree often with the Russian so when it came that the two of them were on the same page, the team knew they had to say something important.
"Tala is a well-trained leader." Chief continued. "I'm sure this is part of a well-thought-out strategy. I couldn't find any data – and by any, I mean literally nothing – about that girl, excluding her name and age. Alexandra Katin, 17 years old, which was stated in the registration form. And knowing the Blitzkriegs, I bet they chose a dangerously strong and professional blader because they generally don't tolerate the inexperienced beginners."
Kai stayed in stubborn silence meanwhile they reached the dojo. Kenny was always smart enough to clearly see someone's game.
"If that's true, it's not a question that she possesses a bit beast. Did you find something about that?" Hilary asked genuinely.
"As I said, nothing!" The small boy shook his head in his frustration. He didn't get used to it when his data betrayed him.
"That doesn't mean anything. Maybe she has just started to beyblade and that's why there's no data on her." Ray said, following Tyson as he scrolled open the dojo's door and he took off his shoes, entering the wide room with the others behind him.
"Yes, like the White Tigers. It was the same situation with them. Emily was quite upset about it, I remember." Max was nodding approvingly while they sat down in a circle.
"You may be right..." Kenny admitted reluctantly.
"You said 'professional'. What do you mean by that? We are professionals, we already won several tournaments, but how can be a blader, who is not known by anyone and can't be find data of, professional?"
"It's a good question, Tyson, although, it was already answered years ago. Professional bladers are purposely trained for tournaments, as any sportsman for monumental competition, like the Olympics. If you think about it, on our first championship, every Russian blader, who we met, were professional thanks to Vladimir Volkov but we hadn't heard about most of them. It's because Volkov was smart and didn't play all his best cards at once. Instead, he only used an amount of talented beybladers at a time. I'm talking about the Demolition Boys and Justice-5 teams, of course. We can't know exactly how many bladers Volkov actually trained for the championship until the Government of Moscow decided to shut down the Abbey years ago." Kenny explained eagerly.
He enjoyed when his team listened to him in deep silence, it made feel himself important and was happy that the others respected his opinion.
"Hn. I admire how keenly you chose the word 'use' in your speech, objectifying all children from the Abbey as a simple tool for Volkov." Kai's venomous remark sounded almost hurtful.
Kenny froze in his place. The others awkwardly looked between him and Kai, unsure how to react the situation.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean like that." The mechanic quickly confirmed with deep regret in his voice.
Kai dismissed his apology with a rough grunt.
"So, you think the girl was grown up in the Abbey?" Ray concluded Kenny's speech, turning back to the object.
"I think it has a high probability."
"Is it possible that you know her?" Tyson looked at the captain in the corner where Kai sat, not joining their circle.
Everyone waited for his answer, but Kai didn't deign to answer. He relaxed comfortably in his usual posture; his back leant against the wall of the dojo, arms crossed, eyes closed. It didn't seem the most comfortable position, but it definitely was for him, considering how often he used it.
"Earth to Kai, are you here with us?" Hilary called him.
Kai's eyes snapped open, irritation burnt in them, and the brunette shut it immediately. He ignored both Hilary and Tyson, and surprisingly, he turned to the mechanic.
"Impressing theory, Kenny, but there's a little problem with that. Only boys were trained in the abbey. I don't remember seeing any girl there, and I honestly doubt they would have survived in that sinkhole. But even if it was true, I can't remember of that episode of my life and I am fine with that. So, I'd highly appreciate it if you dropped this topic finally, and stop wasting your breath creating dumb conspiracies about my past. Shift your focus on more important things, let us say, our strategy."
The guys didn't respond straightaway, a few long seconds of thick and awkward silence occupied the room. Kai never ever talked about his life in the Abbey, nor his past, it was a sensitive subject for him. Therefore, the team always respected it and tried to avoid even mentioning it, apart from few exceptional occasions, like this one.
Kai also didn't say so many words in a row for a whole week, so it was a shock for the team unexpectedly hearing such long sentences from him.
"Hey, did you see Antonio? He has improved a lot since the last time we met him." Tyson blurted out suddenly, willing to change the subject and ease the tension in the air among his friends, although, he also felt the uncontainable excitement again for the championship.
"Antonio? Who's that?" Hilary looked at him in confusion.
"You don't know him." Ray replied. "We met him on our first tournament, three years ago."
"He trained us, but he couldn't even launch his beyblade back then, remember?" Tyson snapped his knee as he cackled at the ridiculous memory.
"You're not serious." Hilary growled with disbelieve while the others laughed with Tyson.
"Then Kai showed him some tricks to keep his beyblade in the dish during the night, and Antonio actually managed to defeat Tyson the next day. Hahaha! How unreal!" Max chortled and Ray burst out with laughter with him.
Kai, who was sitting in silence in the corner until now, sent a self-contented smirk at Tyson. The dragon did not appreciate the gesture.
"I wouldn't have called him our trainer. He really was weak." Kenny specified in a scholastic manner after the boys' laughter quieted. He typed something in on his computer then turned the screen to his friends. "However, Tyson is right. There's an impressive improvement in his game."
He played a video about Antonio's match, data on rotation, speed and other related important details about his beyblade on the right side of the screen. Everyone nearby him leaned closer and watched.
"Man, his dream has come true! He can finally represent his country, the Dominican Republic. He's grown up! " Tyson said almost touched.
The video has ended with Antonio's win and Kenny turned back his laptop.
"His team was qualified in the next round."
"We should congratulate to his efforts! I hope we can fight him!" Max cheered enthusiastically.
"I'm not sure about that. He still has to improve a lot." Kenny sighed heavily as his smile disappeared.
"What's wrong? He seems good now." Ray added noncommittally.
"Still not enough. Taking only a look at the participants the competition's going to be tough in this year. And I'm talking not just about the old opponents we've met before and we have data on, there are plenty of new bladers whose performance is as promising as some experienced ones'. Antonio is a good boy but we all know he's not a talent in beyblade. I don't think his team can make it in the next round of preliminaries, their opponents will be the Bladesharks."
"Bladesharks?" Tyson repeated, giving a questioning look. "It sounds familiar."
"Of course, it does! Bladesharks was Kai's former team before the Bladebreakers." Kenny explained.
Recalling the old memories, he gulped. He hated those guys and didn't like that merciless and mean Kai who had been back then. In those days, that group's only goal was to destroy every blade and steal all sacred beasts to gain power.
The mechanic peered a brief glance at the Russian in the corner, but Kai didn't seem bothered by the topic. He was sitting impassively with his closed eyes, completely ignorant what was happening around him.
"Oh right! You've already talked about them before!" Hilary nodded, finally catching up what the boys were talking about.
She met Tyson and the others only one year later after the Bladebreakers had formed, but sometimes Hilary felt like she had actually missed years.
"They've improved pretty well, but we don't have to worry about them." Kenny reviewed the data he collected that day and he nodded to his own words with satisfaction.
"So, the next round of preliminaries will be exciting!" Tyson announced, concluding his point of the whole conversation.
"Until then let's go train!" Ray didn't wait for his teammates to follow, he straightaway headed outside.