Disclaimer: Not mine…
A journey to remember
Beginning of a journey
It was a clear and cold afternoon, two weeks after the World Championchips. The Bladebreakers had been staying in Russia, sightseeing and – of course – beyblading. Well, as long as either Takao wasn't whining about how hungry he was or Kenny wasn't complaining about the freezing temperatures.
Max was beeing his usual sunny self, feeling really great and enjoying his free time, while Ray was almost completly healthy again. Kai was slowly coming out of his icy shell, however it was indeed very, very slowly.
"You need to concentrate more, Takao." ,he simply stated, his blade landing in his outstreched palm, while Takao was picking his up from the ground.
Takao took his loss with a grin, "Ah, well, ... there's no big tournament coming up, so I guess, I'm not that focused, after all."
"You should be."
Kai turned around and stopped to lean against the wall a few metres away. Closing his eyes he signaled this conversation was over.
Kenny never heard anything of it, he was to busy typing away on his beloved laptop to notice anything, Max and Ray simply shrugged it off.
"Ah, man, you'd think he was an iceberg or something." ,Takao was shaking his head.
"Nothing out of the ordinary." ,Max said.
Kenny pulled his three layers of coats tighter around his small form. Actually, he was huddled in a corner of the huge training room, close to the heater and shivering.
"G-g-g-g-guys, c-c-ca-can't y-you hu-hu-hurry up-p?"
And everyone spared him a pitying glance, only Kai glared at him through one eye.
"Training shouldn't be rushed up."
Max was sure, Kenny was close to crying although his eyes couldn't be seen. "Come on, man." ,Takao argued, "We've done enough for today. No need to stress it."
Max simply nodded.
Kai opened both eyes to glare at them.
Before an argument could ensue, Rei spoke up.
"Whether you have or not, I believe you three still have to pack. And if you don't start now, we'll miss our plane later."
He gave them a mischievous smile. Max understood at once and the question what could take them five hours to pack their luggage was never raised. Probably, because it was highly possible that Takao would really need five hours.
"And Kai, if you'd like to continue training, I've already packed my stuff, so I've got some time."
"You're sure, you're up to this, Rei?" Takao asked with sudden concern.
"Ta-takao's r-right, you kn-know." ,Kenny added.
Inside Rei was mildly annoyed. True, he had been hurt quite badly, however that was bygone. The doctors had instructed him to do nothing strenuous, but some exercises couldn't hurt. Actually, he had already taken up to practizing material arts again; early in the mornings before everyone else woke up.
Had Takao and Max gotten their way, he probably still would be spending half of the days in bed, 'resting'.
"Hey, I've got to train, too, don't I?" ,he asked lightly.
Kenny grudgingly accepted this answer.
"Very well." ,Kai said solemnly and made everyone jump. They had completely forgotten about him.
He would never admit it aloud, but he was actually glad that Rei had offered to battle. One reason was of course, that Rei really had to start training again. The major reason was, that Kai himself felt that he needed to train more. Not only training on his own, but improving his battle skills. It had all been so easy, when he had Black Dranzer...
Now victory wasn't easy to achieve, neither was perfection.
And although many people believed, now, that Voltaire was out of his life, he wouldn't be as ambitious, he still wanted to become the perfect blader.
Batteling with Max or Takao in the last few days hadn't been a task. Both hadn't put any true effort in it, so winning was predestinied. Kai hoped, that Rei would be concentrated.
"You can leave." ,he said in the direction of Takao.
Their presence certainly wouldn't be doing anything good for anyone's nerves.
Takao hmphed and stalked away, muttering some not too nice things about having an icecube for captain. Kenny hurried after him and Max only stopped to pat Rei's shoulder, add "Take it easy.", and left the room, too.
Kenny was shivering badly until they finally arrived their nicely furnitured hotel rooms. Max was slightly worried. "You're okay?" ,he asked and received a slight nod from Kenny.
"Yes... And although Russia is a fine place, I'll be very happy when we're finally in a warmer country."
"Ah..." ,Max sighed, "I can't believe it. We're already leaving tonight. Man, those four weeks passed like a second, it all went by so fast. It feels like it was yesterday that we won the Championships."
"I definitely agree with you, Max." ,Kenny said.
Takao flopped down on his bed. "Man, you guys sound like you're nostalgic. Not even my grandpa is that bad..."
Max giggled slightly. "Don't tell me, you're not emotional about this. We know you better than that, Takao, trust me."
"Yes, I admit, I am emotionally touched." ,Takao said in a perfect imitation of Kai's voice and caused a round of friendly laughter to warm the room even more. Kenny was slowly peeling of his cocoon layer by layer.
"How come you're always picking on Kai?" ,Max asked, as the laughter subsided, leaving a light-hearted and open atmosphere in the room.
"Well...",Takao started, "First, his whole behaviour is just asking for it. Second, it's really funny seeing him trying to glare somebody dead. ... And third, when he snaps, he's at least not that antisocial anymore."
"True, true." ,Max agreed, grinning, "..Though he changed. Not too much, but a bit."
"A very small, tiny bit." ,Takao insisted, "He's still an icecube."
"Well, then probably flying to warmer place will help." ,Dizzy decided to join the conversation.
Not for long, because their minds were quickly occupied with their holiday trip to Australia.
Only five hours and quite a long flight away.
Or so they thought.
Night had already fallen, when the small group finally arrived at the airport. The cab ride had been strangely quiet and even Max wasn't purely happy for once. Kai stepped out, breathing the chilling cold air for one last time, allowing himself a sentimental moment, watching snowflakes drift through the air, past the other cars and covering the ground. Soft crunching noises told him the others were also getting out.
Takao stopped beside him, turned around once more and said: "Goodbye Russia."
Then he shivered, started cursing the cold and left to grab his luggage and scuffle inside. Kai allowed him a small smile, wondering if Takao had any idea what his simple phrase meant to him.
"I'm not only leaving a country." ,he realized, "I'm leaving my old life."
He took one more look at the frozen landscape before turning around.
Kenny, Max and Takao were already on the warm inside, waiting impatiently for Rei and Kai to join them. Rei was walking unusually slowly.
'No surprise there.',Kai thought. He had been battling with Rei for at least three hours and well, it had been quite fierce. Short, the strain on the healing injuries had probably been to great.
Kai sighed and caught up with Rei.
"Give me your luggage." ,he demanded.
Rei shook his head firmly, although he was panting slightly. "No, tha..."
Kai was in no mood for arguments that evening, so he simply seized Rei's back and walked away.
"Can't believe it." ,Takao muttered, "Mr. Sourpuss actually cares..."
"Max told you he changed." ,replied Kenny, completely oblivious to Takao's irony.
"Ah, boys, there you are!" ,somebody exclaimed, making everyone in the impressive airport terminal turn around before going back to their business.
"Oh, hi Mr.Dickinson." ,Max greeted friendly, sporting a disturbingly huge smile.
"Hi, nice to see you again." ,Kenny agreed, while Takao was already running up to their inofficial tutor.
They were chatting away, when the whole team finally came together.
"So you've all been doing fine?" ,Mr.Dickinson asked, "Ready for some holidays?"
"Always, always!", Takao agreed wholeheartedly, "Especially if it involves a lot of food."
That got everyone laughing.
"I actually wanted to tell you once again, that you were performing very well. However, try to improve your teamwork. You never know, when you'll need it." ,Mr.Dickinson said, winking.
After another hour of amiable talking, they were finally forced to leave.
Max, Takao and Kenny were still pondering how fast time had went by and how exciting everything had been. Rei certainly would have been also involved in their conversation, had he not been asleep on his feet. Kai kept to himself, naturally.
It wouldn't suit him to add somethink like, "It has been such a beautiful time...".
On the other hand the look on Takao's face would certainly be priceless.
Then again... somebody had to make sure, they would get on the correct plane.
And that was, when his senses picked up something strange. Instead of a usual jumbo, there was a very small and old plane. His thoughts were speeding up again.
Probably it was only the light or the lack thereof which made the plane appear rather ragged. Still, it was suspiciously small.
Standing there alone on the huge, snow covered airport grounds, while the snow kept falling.
He glanced towards Rei to discover that he, too, was frowning.
"Somebody was obviously very greedy." ,Takao stated, not really minding what he was seeing. After a long day he was by now tired and hungry. One meal, after that he'd go straight to sleep. And nobody and nothing would stop him.
Kai tried to reason with himself, that Takao's assumption was correct. However, something made a shiver crawl down his spine. There was something about that plane, that wasn't right. He couldn't quite place it, but the closer he looked, the more intense his dreading feeling grew.
Probably he was only being paranoid.
Imagining things.
That would only be logical. He was weary. It had been a tiring day after all, although he would never say that out loud.
He was about to turn around, when the drifting snowflakes parted slightly to let him catch a glimpse of a very familar logo painted on the side of the plane.
Kai did not twitch. Neither did he jump. He tensed his muscles and turned around. "Rei?" , he called out to his half asleep teammate.
Half-closed golden eyes looked back at him, asking an unspoken question.
"Could you come over for a minute?"
There was no way, Rei would ever refuse such a serious request. No matter, how tired he was, he got up and staggered over to Kai.
Snow and darkness had once again claimed the logo away from Kai's prying eyes. Darkness however would give Rei, with his cat-like abilities, no problems.
"Can you decipher the logo on the side of the plane?" ,Kai asked.
There was no question why, Rei simply accepted the request and stepped closer to the window. Trying to see through darkness took some concentration from him and the additional snowstorm wasn't helping. Neither was the fact that his eyes actually refused to stay open.
Rei needed a minute to focus.
"It's... some sort of a globe..." ,he murmured.
His head started throbbing. Kai only nodded. That neither confirmed nor denied his suspicion.
Rey's pupils became even smaller. The snow was getting in his vision.
He concentrated more.
"It's green... As if there was some sort of leaf... and there's something written beneath..."
Kai's breath caught in his throat. That was absolutely no good.
"Guys, what are you waiting for? Let's go!" ,Takao yelled, while dragging a dozing Kenny behind him on the plane. Max was following on his heels.
"Stupid snow..." ,Rei mumbled, his voice slurred.
The flakes were getting bigger and bigger, occuping his vision almost completely, making him feel lightheaded.
Kai frowned and reclutantly concluded, that they should board the plane.
After all, there was no real proof for his suspicions.
He turned to Rei, who was still highly focused on the outside, however his eyes were glazed over and he was swaying on his feet. Obviously without realizing it.
Kai grabbed his luggage for the second time of the evening and turned to Rei.
"Let's go."
Voltaire Hiwatari's gaze drifted over to the ancient grandfather clock decorating his office.
"They should be leaving about now..." ,he noted.
A malicious smirk crossed his features.
"I hope they'll enjoy the little surprise."