By Shadou-sama
I sat on the grungy cot that passed for a bed, glaring at the concrete wall across from me. The only light came from the little shatterproof window on the cell door. The little room measured three meters across, five meters lengthwise. There wasn't even enough room to pace. Occasionally, a guard would come and peek inside the little window. Less regularly, the guard would come to escort me to the exercise yard or bring me food. For the most part, I was alone, completely alone in the dark. This cell was where I'd spend the rest of my life in.
All because of my treacherous grandson. He betrayed me, worked against me. All he had to do was take the Bladebreakers' bit-beasts, just three little bit-beasts, so that we could rule the world together. And I do mean together. All say that I was using my own grandson, but what I did was for him. He didn't understand. He thought that I did it all for power. No, I did it for him.
My father died a long time ago, fifty years ago when I was only ten. My mother had died at my birth. They had no siblings, and their parents had already died by the time they had met. So when my father died… there was no one there for me.
***
I walked into the lawyer's office, sitting down on a brown leather chair. The whole office seemed grubby and expensively decorated. The lawyer sat across from me, in his fancy pinstriped suit. The kind my father had always worn. I hate pinstriped suits.
"Now, Mr. Hiwatari, I know this must be rough—"
"Just get on with it," I ordered. I didn't have all day to listen to this leech's sentimentalities.
"Er, yes, the reading of the will. There isn't much point, since he left everything he had to you."
"Which is?"
"A leather shoe."
This couldn't be right. I was ten years old with no one to provide for me and no means to provide for myself. Plus there were funeral fees to pay. My father had to have left some money.
"Apparently, your father owed the bank a lot of money. They foreclosed on his house and acquired all of his assets to pay off his loans. The only thing they didn't take was a leather shoe."
So, that was it. I was going to survive in this world with only the clothes on my back and an old leather shoe.
***
Had it really been three years? I asked myself. Three years since the lawyer told me that I had nothing. It seems longer. I jingled the small coin in my hand. All day freezing on the main road, all for one little coin. But it was better than most days, when I got nothing. I should be elated.
I kicked at the snow with my foot. It burned me where it got through the holes of my worn shoes. I huddled in my paper-thing coat, hoping that it would trap the warmth. I knew it wouldn't. It never does.
"Kisha had better come through tonight," I grumbled. Or they'll be more bodies to move in the morning. Kisha was the one who stole matches so that we could all be warm. Without it on such a night… well, not all twenty-three orphans would be alive by dawn.
Though, they might die anyway. From starvation, or from a fight. A kid last week was killed in a fight over a scrap of ham. Under the bridge is a feral place.
***
But one thing, besides the shoe, that the bank could never take away from me was my intelligence. Even at fourteen years of age, I had a keen business sense. I started a small shoe polishing business, myself being the only employee.
Once I had enough money, I moved my attentions elsewhere. I learned how to fix things, like clocks and phones. I offered my newfound expertise to people for a low price.
Before I knew it, my business skyrocketed. I had a shop, an apartment, and employees. I was growing wealthier by the day, and I found love.
***
She walked into my newly bought shop on a fine summer afternoon. She came with a small roman numbered clock, which the hands would go backwards. I could see that even from my workman's bench.
I jumped up and greeted her. She introduced herself as Alika Shunomachi. She had long dark hair, pulled into a knot, with just a few locks framing her pixie face. Her eyes were dark, but more full of warmth than a furnace. She wasn't graceful or elegant, she tripped when coming in, but she walked purposefully and happily. If you measured her, the numbers would be small, but the way she moved made her look taller. Or maybe it was the slender blue yukata. She certainly was no model, but in my eyes nothing could be more beautiful. It was love at first sight.
I fixed her clock as we talked about the news, politics, and even religion. We agreed on everything. She had the most intoxicating laugh, like bells ringing. I worked up my courage and asked her to go on a date with me. She agreed quickly.
***
Three years after, we were married. I soon discovered the world of beyblading, and I recognized the business potential. I evolved my business to cater to beybladers and called it Biovolt. It was a huge success. Few other businesses focused on the sport.
***
"I'm looking for Voltaire Hiwatari," said the woman who had just arrived in my shop. I set down the used beyblade parts I had been checking.
"I am he," I said.
"You knew my son, Dateni Kokashe, right?"
I nodded. "I helped him build his beyblade." The woman nodded. "He died a week ago. Pneumonia."
"I'm very sorry to hear that."
"Thank you. You gave him those parts for free, didn't you?"
"I did," I said. "He had great talent, Mrs. Kokashe, to much that I couldn't 'not' give them to him." I recalled Dateni telling me that the Kokashes didn't have money to spare on things like beyblades.
She nodded; pulling out a kerchief covered bundle. She set it down on the counter between us. "I want you to have them back. And to thank you for giving our son the joy of beyblading."
She turned and left, too quickly for me to even answer her. I could've run after her. Instead, I opened up the bundle.
The blue and green beyblade was the same as when I had last seen it, except for a few more scratches. They were not in good enough condition to sell, but I hadn't planned on it anyway. And there was… a phoenix drawn onto the bit. My eyes widened. It was a bit-beast.
I had seen one only once before at a beydish a few years ago. I had been watching the matches between amateurs, since there wasn't anyone else there. Or so had I thought. During a match, one of the bits started glowing. Then a yellow crab rose out, and crushed its opponent's beyblade. I've never seen such power before.
What would I do with this phoenix? Give it to my children to beyblade with. And maybe their children, and their children. This phoenix would be in the family for a long time, hopefully.
What should I call it? If it was going to be in the family for awhile, it should at least have a name. Dranzer, I immediately thought. And so Dranzer it was.
***
Tragically, my love's life was cut short two years later at the birth of our son. I didn't even get to say goodbye, for I waited outside the delivery room as was proper at the time. I wished I had waved tradition, I wish very much.
This scenario seemed very similar to me until I realized it had been the same for my parents. In ten years, would I die and leave my son nothing? I vowed not.
I needn't have worried. I outlived my son. He died from cancer a year after his own son was born. His wife, stricken by grief, leaped off a seven-floor building. Little Kai Hiwatari was left alone in this world exactly as I had been. Except with one difference, I hadn't had a grandfather to care for me. Suddenly, my life had a new aim.
***
There was a knock at my office door. Not even looking up, I summoned them in. Just from the way the person walked, I knew it was Boris, the new chief scientist I had hired. "What is it?"
"Sir, I've come up with a way to make your, err, goal reality," Boris said, with a slight bow of his head.
"And that would be?"
"Bit-beasts."
"Bit-beasts?"
"They hold tremendous amounts of power, which can be used against military forces."
"But we have only one bit-beast."
"We can get more. They reside in small objects of cultural value. If we can collect some, we can extract the bit-beasts into bits. Or, we can develop a way to siphon bit-beasts from living creatures. We just need to do one thing first."
"Which would be?"
"Train beybladers that are capable of handling them. And for this purpose, I suggest we move Biovolt to Russia."
"Why Russia?"
"The beyblading talent and interest there is great. We can recruit potential beybladers to attend a 'beyblading school' much more easily than in any other nation."
"This is an interesting proposition." I closed my eyes, considering.
"I've already found the perfect new location within Moscow."
"Do you really think this will work?"
"Yes, I have complete faith in it."
"Good. Have a written copy for it on my desk for me to sign by Monday."
***
When Kai was old enough and the school, which was housed in an old Abbey, was developed enough, I sent him there to train. I knew that if I just handed him everything, he'd never be a leader, never have any skills. So I gave him something to hone his talents. If he helped me achieve my goal, then it would be all the sweeter for Kai.
So what was my goal? I wanted to leave Kai everything, the world. I wanted him to have a head start in life, not start out the way I did. What could be better than leaving him rule of the world?
But Kai didn't see it that way. He never saw things the way that I saw them. He always had to be a rebel. Believe in what he wanted to believe. And that didn't include my vision. Maybe now he'll understand.
Maybe I should've waited longer, waited until he got passed his rebel stage. But there was no time. It had to be this World Championship. Because I won't live to see another. Two and half years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer and even with treatment, I wouldn't live long. For the pass six months, I've been living on sheer will alone. But no longer. I have nothing left to live for, nothing to see me through.
I won't live to see another day.
The End.