Chapter Eight

A decision, which had to be made

Ray looked down to his blade that continued to spin in the dish. Thoughts still ran through his mind about how Kai's blade had managed to lose control just moments ago.

"What aren't you telling me Kai?" Ray looked up to where Kai's and his room was, the blinds where still opened from the day before where Kai and he didn't sleep in there bed. Ray due to comforting the blue-headed blader, Tyson as he came to terms of Max's death, and Kai's being unknown.

Ray went and picked up Driger, well Driger it looks like you didn't get the match that we had both hoped for. Ray thought as he knew that the Bitbeast would of heard him.

"What is wrong with me, why can't I tell Ray everything? Why can't I let him in as he has let me in?" Kai thought as he paced around Ray and his bedroom. The emotions that were building up inside of him were starting to drive him crazy. He wasn't used to this type of emotion in all his born days.

Ever since Kai was a child, all his memories were of the Abbey and his grandfather. Memories of him battling with his Bitbeast Dranzer. Training at the Abbey, training to become the best. He never was taught to handle all these emotions that he was getting and what Ray was sharing.

Kai sat on his bed and held his head in his hands. I must get rid of them. Or I am going to end up losing my insanity. Kai looked up to where a mirror hung on the wall in Ray and his room. He saw a face that he hadn't seen in about six months. It was the face that he had used when he had first met the Bladebreakers. It was his cold face. "It is time."

Hours had past since Ray had seen Kai, he thought that Kai just needed some time to be with himself so he had left him to do so. But now he was starting to get worried, it wasn't like Kai to be kept up in their room for this long.

Ray knocked on their door and walked into their room, the sight he saw wasn't what he was expecting to see.

"Kai?" Ray looked at their bed. On it was a bag filled with clothes, and by the look of it, it was Kai's.

Kai came out of the bathroom to see a confused Ray waiting for answers; he stopped walking and waited for Ray to say something.

"Kai what is going on? What is...this?" Ray asked pointing to the bag that lay on their bed.

Kai throw his toiletry bag on their bed. "Ray I have to go back home for awhile."

"What do you mean that you have to go back home?" Ray stressed. "You can't leave now. Not with Max's funeral next week."

"I have to. I can't..." Kai looked away from Ray. This was a moment where his training and what he felt couldn't help him any more. This was Kai's weakest moment. "...I can't handle this anymore."

"What do you mean what can't you handle?"

"This," Kai through up his arms. "I can't handle what is going on in this house, what's inside me." Kai step forward to Ray. "I wasn't ready for all this."

"Kai what was there to be ready for this is life...like you told me, things happen that we can't change." Ray turned around and walked away from him, he couldn't believe that the boy that he loved was running away from him, from what was happing. Ray turned to him. "So your just going to run away from what is happing. From us?"

Kai saw the sadness that was in Ray's eyes, he knew that this was going to hurt the keeper of the tiger bitbeast. "I am not running away from us, or from what is happing here. I am just going home to seek some guidance. You know me Ray; I would never run away from anything that stood in my path."

"Well I'm guessing that this time you are," Ray said walking out of the room.

Kai sighed. He didn't want to leave on this type of note. He loved Ray and he never wanted to hurt him, but this is something he has to do, if he didn't leave now, he wouldn't be able to control what happened in the future.

I can't believe him, him of all people should know how we feel about people that leave. "Why is he doing this to me?" Ray asked himself as he sat down on the front steps of the house.

"What's wrong Ray?" a small voice asked.

Ray looked around to see the boy that they all called the Chief. "Kenny," Ray smiled and then thought of what was going on upstairs in his room. "Oh...nothing."

"I can't be nothing if you are looking upset...are you thinking of Max again?" Kenny asked as he took a seat on the step beside Ray.

"No it's not that...it's...Kai-"

"Why what has he done...has he hurt you?" Kenny asked jumping to conclusions.

"Kenny chill, he hasn't hurt me or anything like that," Ray said kind of comforted that the small boy cared so much.

Kenny looked at him strangely. Why is he upset for then, if Kai hasn't hurt him and he isn't thinking of Max? "Then what's wrong Ray?"

"He...he is leaving," Ray stood up and away from the step that he was sitting on and the boy that he was sitting next to. "He is running away from what we share, what we have. He says that he can't handle what is going on in this house, what is going on inside him."

"Ray you have got to understand something," Kenny said as he got up to go over and comfort the older boy. "Kai isn't like us. And he never will be like us. He wasn't brought up to feel these kinds of emotions."

"But Kenny you don't understand the bond that Kai and I share, we are meant to help each other in these kinds of situations..." Ray took a deep breath. "How am I meant to live if he is not with me?"

Kenny looked at the tiger as tears began to well in his eyes. He didn't know what he was meant to do, he didn't know what they were all meant to do when their captain leaves them to going on his journey for answers.

Both Kenny and Ray looked to the front door as it began to open. There standing in the doorway was Kai, already to leave the house, the Breakers and Ray.

Kenny looked away from Kai. He had, had enough of everyone leaving him; he couldn't stand there and watch as another one of his friends left him.

Kai looked to the small boy. "I know what your thinking Kenny."

"Oh really and what's that Kai?" Kenny asked letting his anger get the better of him. "What do you think I am thinking? Do you think that I am thinking that the only person in this team that has kept us strong is now leaving us?"

Kai was taken back as the boy let out his emotion. "Kenny I'm not leaving you or the team for good. I'm just going to be gone for a few days."

Kenny didn't want to hear it, as he pushed passed Kai and went inside and up to his room.

Kai watched as the boy ran into the house then looked back to his love that was left on the porch. "Do you understand why I am doing this, why I am leaving?"

Ray didn't answer he just stood there with his arms crossed in front of him.

"I am not running away from you or the team. I know that you might think that but, if I don't go away for a few days to sort out the stuff in my head I might end up hurting myself or the people around me." Kai put his stuff down and walked over to Ray. "And I know deep in my heart that I couldn't bare to hurt you."

Ray looked away from Kai for a moment. He was scared. He was scared that Kai wouldn't come back, he thought if he went away and thought that life was better with out him and the Breakers he would stay away from them for good. Ray sighed then looked back to Kai. "I understand that you have to leave...but promise me that you will come back to us Kai, back the team and back to me, as I wouldn't be able to bare living with out you?"

Kai nodded and leaned in and kissed Ray passionately. Kai knew that he wouldn't be able to hold the tiger in his arms for a while so he was going to make the most of the moments he shared with him now.

Once they broke apart, Ray reached into Kai's pocket and pulled out his pocketknife, and without another moments thought he grabbed hold of his hair and cut off his horsetail.

Kai watched on in horror as he watched the Chinese boy cut off the hair that he had been growing for all his life. "Ray-"

"Don't say anything Kai, I know what I am doing," Ray said as he cut the last of his hair then held it out in his palm. "I want you take it with you."

Kai took hold of the hair, it was one of the things that he had loved about the boy the first time he had met him. Kai looked up from the hair and to the tiger. "But I have nothing to give you."

"You have already given me the best thing imaginable," Kai looked at him oddly. "Your love and friendship."

Kai smiled at him then embraced him in another hug. "I will miss you my little tiger."

"And I will you my Captain."