That's right, I'm back! In a surprisingly short amount of time too... This was not exactly a planned chapter, the idea came to me after watching a TV show the other day. So I hope you like it!

Kyoya: xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade Metal Fight in any way.

Nile: Italics is used for flashbacks, regular print for stuff happening in the present.


Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock. Knock knock kno-

"Yeah yeah, we're coming," came an annoyed voice from inside the house whose door was being knocked on.

"I wonder who could be knocking. We don't have any visitors on the schedule, do we Kyoya?" Nile asked.

Kyoya frowned and looked at their group calendar on the wall. "Nothing."

The Egyptian blader answered Kyoya's door.

"Oh good, you're here too Nile. I was hoping I wouldn't have to make a second trip to your house and ask you."

"Ask me what?" Nile was a bit confused.

By this time, Kyoya had finished checking the calendar and come to see who was at his door. "Kenta? Where's Gingka?"

"You're looking for Gingka?" Kenta asked.

"No. I just figured that since you always follow him around, he would be here too."

"Oh."

"Can someone please answer my question?" Nile put in.

"Right," Kenta replied with a sigh. "It all began after the success of my documentary…"

"Hey Kenta, want to battle?"

"No Kenta, battle me!"

"No, not him, me!"

"Me!"

"Me!"

"Me!"

"So lots of people wanted to battle you?" Nile asked.

"Sounds like a good problem to me," Kyoya added with a smirk.

Kenta sighed again. "Just hear the rest of the story."

So Kenta battled first one and then another and another and another. Only he wasn't strong enough. He couldn't beat everyone who challenged him. And when he failed, they all laughed at him and said they thought he would be cooler because of his documentary.

So Kenta decided: "I must become stronger!"

"Good idea," Kyoya interrupted.

So Kenta decided to ask his friends for advice on the best training methods.

"I practice the basics, over and over, and then battle my friends!" Gingka told him happily. "I'm sure it will work for you!" Basics? Those were boring, the Sagitario blader decided. And he had too many friends to battle now. That was the whole point of this training!

"I go to the weight room and lift. That way me strength is superior to everyone!" Benkei told his small friend happily. Kenta decided this might not be best due to his small stature though. A mental image of him being crushed by some bodybuilder not watching where they were going in the gym made the boy shudder and look for advice from someone else.

"We, the OTA Musketeers, always practice together!" Osamu announced when Kenta found him.

"Because teamwork makes the dream work!" Akira said, with Takashi nodding in agreement.

But I don't have a team to practice with, thought Kenta. Clearly his three friends' advice was not for him.

Next up to give him advice was Tsubasa. "Well Kenta, I'm glad you came to me for advice. I go out into the wilderness with Eagle and together we train. We work together and catch our own food, find our own shelter and everything. You should give it a try with Sagitario." Kenta pictured his fish-catching failure back when he was traveling with Ryuga and shuddered. Nope, Tsubasa's training techniques were definitely not for him.

"Huh? Oh, I almost didn't see you down there kid. What did you want again?" the Dragon Emperor spoke to Kenta.

"I'm trying to get stronger. What training techniques do you suggest?"

"I'd go to a volcano and fire my bey into the lava until we become one in spirit. It really works wonders." Ryuga then slammed the door and went back inside. Was that some sort of videogame he was playing? No, Kenta must be imagining things. And seriously? Volcano training? That was training that would work for Ryuga, not Kenta. It was like the Legendary Blader of Summer had been… distracted. But by what? Oh well, it was time to visit one last person before he gave up.

"Hey Madoka. I know you're not a blader, but you've always given Gingka great advice. So what would you suggest if I were to start a new training regimen for blading?" Kenta had headed to the B-Pit to get some advice from everyone's favorite mechanic.

Before she could answer, though, Yu chimed in from where he was sitting on the couch. "Join my basketball team!"

"Basketball team?" Kenta echoed, utterly confused. What did this have to do with beyblading?

As if reading his mind, Yu replied, "In beyblading, you must become one with your bey and also have some amount of physical strength to be successful. In basketball, you must work with your teammates and also have a little physical strength to boot as well. So recently, I joined a local club team that plays games on weekends and practices Monday, Wednesday and Friday."

"Sounds like a lot of work," Kenta admitted.

"No pain no gain, as Gingka would probably say," Madoka finally spoke. "This would be a great experience for you, Kenta, why don't you join Yu's team!"

Kenta looked at the excited Libra blader, thought about all the ideas everyone had given him, and said "Okay, why not?"

"I still don't know what this has to do with us," Kyoya said, tapping his foot impatiently. Nile couldn't say he disagreed.

"But this is exactly why the story connects to you. Just let me finish the story." Kenta finally continued (hopefully for the last time, Kyoya and Nile silently thought).

Kenta showed up to practice that Monday to a depressed Yu. "What's wrong? I thought you loved the team!"

"I do, but our coach quit. He said he just couldn't stand coaching us anymore. Whaah! What will we do Kenchi?" Yu bawled. His other teammates loitered around looking similarly depressed.

"Don't worry team! Your new recruit Kenta will save the day!" The Sagitario blader had somehow taken it upon himself to find a new leader for their team. Yu grinned and laughed, and everyone cheered his name.

"Alright, cut. I get it," Nile said. "You want Kyoya and I to coach your team because no one else will."

"Pleasy please!" the kid begged. "I asked Madoka, but she said she was busy keeping Gingka from crashing into things while playing this new phone app he got. And I also asked Ryuga, but he slammed the door in my face and said he couldn't afford to snap his Call of Duty winning streak in order to take time to coach a kids' basketball team. Just between me and you, he's obsessed." Kenta whispered the last part to the two friends.

"And you think that we will agree to be your coaches because…?" Kyoya said with his usual scowl.

Just then, Gingka walked over, still staring at his phone, with Madoka not far behind him. He looked up at Kyoya and Nile. "Dude, if you two coach Kenta, I'll give you these." He held up two slips of paper.

Kyoya snatched one and read it. "Roundtrip to New York City two months from today? What's this about?"

"They'll belong to you. If you agree to coach Kenta's team." Gingka leaned in and whispered to them, "Please guys, he'll never stop asking if you say no."

Nile shrugged. "I could use a vacation. How about you Kyoya?"

The Leone blader sighed. "I guess I don't have a choice. Though I must say, I'm wondering why exactly the coach quit. He said he couldn't stand them anymore. I want to know why."

"Guess we'll find out Wednesday," Nile replied. "See you then, Kenta."

Kenta grinned and walked away. Coaches found!

xXxXx

"THIS is what we're supposed to work with?" Kyoya yelled.

The startled kids on the team looked up at him. Kenta and Yu seemed to be the only serious people on the team, stretching at center court to prepare for practice. The other various kids who Kyoya didn't think he would ever bother to remember sat around chit-chatting.

"Is this how you normally warm up before practice?" Nile asked them as he walked over. No wonder the old coach had quit, with this complete lack of effort by the team very evident. "I'm Nile, your new coach, along with my friend Kyoya here."

The Leone blader walked over looking angry. "I hope you kids are ready to work hard. Because I don't tolerate losers."

The kids finally showed emotion: fright. Kyoya grinned. Yes, yes, he and Nile would make these kids into the greatest basketball team in the league because, let's face it, they were the best at everything. Now, all they had to do was get Yu and Kenta to be the team leaders and set an example for their slacker-offer teammates. "Time for some layups, kids!"

Saturday came, and the team's first game arrived. They were playing the Griffins, not that that meant anything in particular to the two friends. But Yu told them the Griffins were their biggest rival and always blew them out in league games.

"So we have to win this more than ever!" he told them on Friday's practice.

"First of all we have to change your team name," Nile mused, looking at the league rosters. "The Prancing Ponies? What kind of lame name is that?"

"I strictly refuse to be a part of such a team," Kyoya told the kids. "So you better pick a better name ASAP."

Nile pulled out a long list and handed copies of it to the team. "These are a list of team names approved by your two coaches. Vote on your favorites and get back to us in… five minutes."

"What's a Kraken?" one kid asked.

"Ooh! A scary sea monster? That's an option?" Yu asked excitedly before spotting it on his list. "Hey guys, let's be the Krakens! Sounds more fearsome than the Prancing Ponies, don't you think?"

His teammates agreed.

So here they were, warming up for the game in layup lines with their new team name on the scoreboard as Guest and the Griffins as Home. Someone's grandma had even stitched the team a giant flag with a kraken on it. Kyoya and Nile hung it up behind the team's chairs which served as the team bench. The kids were looking slightly more energetic than usual – perhaps because of the whole rivalry thing with the Griffins.

Anyway, the game began, and soon the Krakens were down. By a lot. Kyoya and Nile yelled at the team, told them what to do, but to no avail. Simply put: two practices run by them had made the team better, but not the best. With the final score 50-27, the two coaches were not proud of their team. But then they heard Yu congratulating his teammates. "Hey guys, we did great out there! Last time we played the Griffins we didn't even score in the double digits!"

Kyoya and Nile looked at each other in shock. So the team really had improved greatly, it just seemed like they hadn't. Okay, they could work with this. For their vacation to New York City, they would keep working and finally get this team to win. Even against the Griffins.

Training montage: Monday was passing day. After the entire team ran a mile for conditioning, Yu and Kenta practiced passing to their teammates, getting open, receiving the ball and shooting it. Since the two had scored 20 of their 27 points, Kyoya and Nile focused on honing their offensive skills most of all. Wednesday was defense day: everyone practiced basic defense and the two friends taught them man to man and zone styles. Friday was scrimmage day. The team was mixed up and played each other in simulated games, with their coaches stopping and correcting things that went wrong. Everyone practiced their shooting as well.

Finally, Saturday came again. This time the Krakens faced off against the Ravens. "They're not the greatest team, but not the worst," Yu told Kyoya and Nile.

"Alright then. The team goal is to win this game," Nile said to the group. After all their hard practice, it should be doable – especially if they had improved so much in just a few days before their first game. "Now go out there and win!"

The team cheered and the five starters ran onto the floor. This game went much better than the last – though it was clear the Ravens weren't at the same level as the Griffins. The final score of this one was 38-30, with the Krakens as the winners. Kyoya and Nile couldn't help but be proud of their team for coming this much further in another week. Clearly their training style was working.

Several more weeks passed. Several more victories came as well. The Griffins were the team's only loss so far. But this coming week, they would face their rivals again. This time, things would go differently. Kyoya and Nile took their places on the bench next to the nonstarters. They saw Gingka and Madoka waving from the audience, where they were sitting next to Gingka's father. Yu and Kenta had invited them to the game. The Griffins looked tough as ever, but there was just no way they could let their team lose this game. Not after they had given up so much of their time to coach, after all. At halftime, the score was tied, much to the distress of the Griffins and their coach. With two minutes left, the Griffins had a slight lead, but the Krakens soon tied it up thanks to a basket by Yu. Back and forth it went, until the Griffins scored with only six seconds left for the Krakens to score a bucket.

"Timeout!" called Nile.

"Here's the play," Kyoya told the team, drawing it out on the board. "Run it and we can tie it up and go into overtime."

"Break!" one of the kids called, slapping the ball as his teammates scrambled to get open on the inbound play. Only the Griffins were guarding Yu and Kenta tight – there was no way to get them open. The kid inbounding held the ball for five seconds and the referee called it. The ball went back to the Griffins.

Right before they inbounded, Kyoya shouted "Steal the ball!"

Yu and Kenta ran forward, but were too far back to do it. The random kid by the basket jerked forward and intercepted the pass. Time ticked down as he held it. The other team was running in to get the ball away from him.

"Shoot it!" Kyoya and Nile shouted at the same time.

The kid flinched and threw the ball at the basket. It hit the backboard. The buzzer went off. The ball went in. The Krakens had won! A roar went up from the audience. Gingka and Madoka were cheering the loudest, even though the redhead seemed to be holding… his phone?

"We did it!" Nile shouted over the crowd.

"Mission accomplished!" Kyoya agreed as their kids basked in the glow of victory.

The next Monday, the kids were confused. "Where are Kyoya and Nile?" Kenta asked the new adult in the room.

"Yeah, they're our coaches," put in Yu.

"Not any longer. I will be your new coach!" grinned Ryo Hagane. After the game, he had been so impressed by the team that he wanted to coach a team himself. He needed something to do after his WBBA job hours were done anyway, and since teams practiced in the late afternoon, it worked out perfectly in his schedule. So he had checked for possible vacancies in coaching and found only one: the Krakens. Kyoya and Nile had told the league that they were only temporary coaches, filling in because their friend has asked them to, and if a fulltime coach for the team could be found, it would be greatly appreciated.

"So that's why I am here!" Ryo said after telling his story.

The team blinked at him. "So what are we doing today? It's a Monday, so passing?" Kenta asked.

"Well, yes, I guess." Ryo honestly didn't have anything in particular planned. Kyoya and Nile had given him their practice plans, but he had lost them somewhere amongst the WBBA paperwork stacks in his office. He should really get on that. Hikaru had been pestering him about it for ages.

When he cleared his thoughts, he saw the team doing drills. "Huh. Guess I'll just supervise then." And so the team went on to practice just as they had been taught by their two favoritest coaches ever: Kyoya and Nile. And Ryo showed up to games and practices and got the credit for their continuing string of victories. But the two former Wild Fang bladers didn't really care. They were busy packing for their trip to New York City the next day thanks to the two tickets Gingka had given them in order to bribe them into coaching the team in the first place.


Gingka: Wait, my dad is the new coach?

Ryo: Aren't you proud of me, son? I finally feel like I am doing something for the community!

Gingka: Dad, you basically run the WBBA.

Me: (herds them outside) That's enough arguing for today, you two. I just want to thank those of you who reviewed the last chapter. I'm glad to know people are still reading this story and finding it humorous, even though it was started quite a while ago. Thanks again!