Chapter 1.
After the 3rd World Championships and the BEGA threat, the Bladebreakers were at the top of their game and had been for 3 years straight. Tyson held the grand title of World Champion but Kai, Ray and Max were each revered as top world beybladers in their own right. In fact, there were divided opinions as to whether Kai was the best beyblader in the world as he had a higher win/loss ratio in comparison to Tyson. Most of America backed Max as the World Champion and China to Ray. The Bladebreakers/BBA Revolution were at the top of their game and after 3 long successful years they took the difficult decision to retire from competitions.
After having held the spotlight for so long, they decided to step down and focus on their education, future careers and make something of themselves outside of the Beyblading universe. It was time to grow up and for the Bladebreakers...some grew up more than others.
For Tyson, not competing in a 4th World Championship was emotionally extremely tough on him. He wanted another year of "Letting it Rip" but the only one that agreed to go with him was Daichi. Kai, Ray, Max, Hilary and Kenny had enough of the fame and sought more normal lives.
When the 4th World Championships was announced, a now 17 year old Tyson sulked for a month and wouldn't speak to any of his friends until Grandpa Granger gave him a stern "chattin to". The hip old geezer threatened to send Tyson off to an Amazon ruin where his Dad was excavating at the time in order to "get his head in check". To Tyson, missing the competition was like missing the biggest party on earth. It was time to let another kid take the crown and as a 17 year old it was time to think of his adult future, whatever that entailed. After all you can't be the champion forever, as hard as it was for him to accept.
The Japanese bey-champ resisted the normal life that the others wanted. He basked in as much of the fame as he could. He attended nearly all regional Beyblade tournaments as a Guest Star which involved handing trophies to the winners of the year, handshakes, signed photos and autographs to who ever asked. He was on TV a few times as a talk show guest meeting other celebrities. He was lapped up every second of the limelight for he didn't know how long it would last. As much as he didn't want the normal life, he mandatorily attended Senior year at High School with Hilary, Kenny and Max (whom after he had enrolled and attained his dual Japanese citizenship) and as badgered by Grandpa Granger...practised Kendo at least an hour a day.
Scroll forward 10 years and The World Beyblading Champion Tyson Granger was long gone and replaced by a slightly chubby, bored, unemployed, young, Japanese man who gravitated more towards food, manga and Xbox games. He was still very much a celebrity in the beyblading community and had made many friends over the years using his charm and infectious personality. He was happy but something was missing. He longed hard for the old days of the Bladebreakers. The travelling, trouble they got in and out of, the excitement and his close-bonded friends clustered around him. He would sometimes sit on the porch and gaze out to the open spaces of the dojos' garden next to the pond. He remembered longingly where Kenny would sit cross legged with Dizzi tinkering with some ones' Beyblade. Ray training Driger; zip-zagging between tin cans, Maxs' Draciel practising with a new defence ring and Kai leaning up against a tree with his eyes closed and arms crossed, white scarf billowing lightly in the breeze. The flashbacks would take him by surprise some days and he was reminded of how much he missed them.
Ray left for China soon after the BEGA fiasco was wrapped up with authorities. As with everyone on a tourist visa; his time in Japan had come to an end. Ray loved travelling but the White Tiger Village needed him. White Tiger Hills was his home and he missed Mariah whenever they were apart. Ray was the first to leave and although sad to see him go, Tyson understood that he had a duty to his village, wished him the best in his new life and told him sternly not to be a stranger. The whole team was there to wave him off; including Kai. Ray didn't stay away though. He made 2 or 3 trips a year back to Japan for Christmas and birthdays to see the team he called his 2nd family and regularly wrote letters on rice paper to Tyson and Kenny.
Hilary was still in Tysons' life...sort of. They had dated on and off ever since High School. Once Tyson turned 17 he started noticing girls as most teenage boys did and boy did he use his notoriety to his advantage. Being a celebrity of sorts and a fairly attractive guy, girls fancied him quite a bit. The ex-beyblade World Champion pretty much had his pick and relished the female attention. Deep down though he only really liked one girl and that was Hilary. The bossy brunette dated other boys but felt the same...never quite liked them as much as that annoying ignorant idiot she grassed up to Miss Kincade the first day he was late to class. They loved each other but neither had the courage to say. For now they casually meet for lunch, movies, meet for birthdays and Christmas and that's the way it's always been. They meet, argue, ignore each other, miss each other, meet up and the cycle repeated.
Daichi was Tysons' most frequent visitor whether invited or not. "Monkey Boy" flits between his deeply rural village and Tysons' house. From what Tyson could gather, he had no formal education at all and his only talents consist of wood chopping and beyblading. Daichi would spend half his time at home presumably helping his mum and doing villagey things. But when he was with Tyson he would eat, sleep and game hard. He loved the addictive Xbox too, once he was on it there was no getting him off. Daichi remained unchanged, his routine, the way he dressed, the way he behaved. There was no career plans in Daichis' calendar.
Soon after finishing High School, Max got a call from his Mum who had found him a job as a laboratory assistant at the BBA research facility in California. He was faced with an agonising decision to leave Japan, a country he had learned to love and made many livelong friends as well as the casual girlfriends. He wanted to always be involved with Beyblades and this job opportunity was too good to pass up. With a heavy heart he told Tyson the sad news that he was leaving, unsurprisingly the Japanese teen took it very harshly. Max was his best friend and Tyson took a long time to get over the quietness of his blonde bestie leaving.
The Bey-champ was dealt another blow no less than 2 months later when The Chief was offered a job at the same place as Max. Kenny had always dreamed of working at the BBA research facility in California from the first day he visited it, back during the First World Championships with the team. The role was as a technology assistant and nearly had a heart attack when he received Maxs' email offering him the job. Rarely did this job role have a vacancy but thanks to inside influence i.e. Maxs' Mum, the usual method of applying and passing interviews would not be necessary. Kennys' dream job had been offered to him on a plate. When the beyblade braniac accepted; Tyson took this news even harder and for a while sank into a bout of depression. He moped around the dojo and even went off his food for a while. Max was his best friend but Kenny was the first of the Bladebreakers, the one who tweeked his blade into being the winning Dragoon it is today. He knew he would never have got as far as a competitor without The Chief. As with Max they promised to stay in touch and always did with email and face-timed whenever the time difference would allow. Max and Kenny had family in Japan so came back on a semi regular basis for birthdays including Tyson's, Daichis' and Hilarys'. Although they lived half a world apart, they still stayed in contact as promised the day they parted ways at the airport. The same however couldn't be said for a certain member of the Bladebreakers.
The last time anyone of the team saw Kai, was after they'd dropped Ray at the airport. They waved their arms high as the Chinese beyblader disappeared towards bag check in. Once he was out of sight they retreated back into Maxs' Dads people carrier. Only Kais' seat was empty. He had quietly taken his bag out of the trunk, thrust it over one shoulder and before anyone could say anything he made his way to the nearby taxi rank. The dwindling G-Revolution watched him cooly stride away only to turned on his heels to give them one last look. He muttered "See ya guys. Thanks for everything", smirked and carried on walking. The team watched wide eyed as he got into a waiting taxi and was driven away. Although a little miffed he left the way that he did with no explanation of where or what he was doing next; the team felt privileged they even got a goodbye. Hilary thought that Kai left the way he did because goodbyes are painful and he wanted it over quickly but Tyson thought more realistically. He was just being typical Kai, a selfish jerk who showed little consideration for the feelings of others.
For the following years Kai completely ghosted his old team mates. Despite his frosty personality, Tyson thought a lot of Dranzers' master and would often smile warmly remembering moments with the greatest opponent and ally he'd ever had.
2 years after the G-Revolution team had dispersed. Tyson, Hilary, Max, Daichi, Ray and Kenny were having a birthday lunch at a cafe when they came across The Japan Times newspaper abandoned on a neighbouring table. It displayed an article on the front page announcing that Kai Hiwatari had turned 20 years old and now had inherited his grandfathers company. Voltaire was ousted as a criminal back at the end of the First World Championships and management had been up in arms about a successor ever since his incarceration. After a lengthy court battle Kai had won his right to successor ship despite Voltaire claiming he would rather Hiwatari Enterprises burn to the ground before his traitor of a grandson rule it. As an adult now (age of adulthood in Japan is 20 years old) he had reign of the business. Tyson felt a wave of pride and jealousy for what Kai had achieved; given all he had managed was to finish High School, complete the newest xbox game in a week or have read a large library of manga collections. Tyson, Hilary and Daichi had attempted to call Kais' office on a few occasions to congratulate him and arrange meetups only to be told by various secretaries that they needed an appointment for a phone call, this frustrated Tyson to no end. Rather than actually follow through with procedure and make an appointment for a call back, he would slam the phone down yelling "That's ridiculous, make an appointment for a phone call?" and snort angrily. Daichi just thought Kai didn't want to know them and tried to talk Tyson into not bothering anymore. Hilary understood that Kai was this "big hot shot with a big office" now and probably too busy to talk. Tyson wanted to march down to the office in Ginza but if getting a phone call was hard he could imagine the fuss for a face to face meet. Neither Ray, Max or Kenny had heard anything from him either. Kenny sent him an email once about a Christmas meetup, to which Kai replied to 4 weeks too late. They had all come to accept that Kai wasn't reachable or didn't want to be reached so they left him alone, hoping that one day he would come to them. This was Kai after all, Mr Anti-social.
