Haru:
End of a Winter's Solstice
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Bey Blade and Sakura Taisen. I do own the OC's portrayed herein. So don't sue me.
Max
Name: Mizuhara, Maximillian Christopher
Country of Origin: Japan
Nationality: 1/2 Japanese, 1/2 American
Birthplace: Kyouto
Age: 13
Height: 160 cm
Weight: 46 kg
Blood Type: O
Birthday: June 30
Skills: Tactician, Weapons Specialist
PRN: 0020 - 002 - 000
EP: 90
AP: 93
Test Results: 100% Passing
COMMENTS:
Recommended for transfer to 35th Imperial Capital Defense Headquarters. Training for Elite Kagekidan Branch approved. For immediate action.
Signed:
JUDY MIZUHARA,
Head Instructor,
Imperial Capital Defense Satellite Headquarters,
KYOUTO
Max was grinning expectantly at his other teammates. "Uh...well? Aren't you all going to welcome him aboard?"
Lei looked down at his feet, clutching his suitcases. There was absolute silence in the room.
"Hey!" There was a scraping sound as a chair was pushed back somewhere in the middle of the room. "Uh, Lei, isn't it? My name's Takao, Takao Kinogu! Welcome to the Kagekidan!"
Lei looked up. An average-sized boy wearing a white polo shirt inside a deep blue kimono-style upper tunic over a pair of black hakama and tabi-clad feet in zori stood up and was grinning at him, with an openness like that of Max's. He had dark blue-black hair and eyes, and his longish hair was tied back by means of a white piece of cord at the base of his nape. He bows down. "It's a real honor to meet you!"
"Uh...y-yes, same here!" Lei answered. He reciprocated his bow by a low bow as well.
"Y-yes, welcome!" A mousy-haired boy added, standing up almost immediately after Takao Kinogu, fixing his glasses on his nose. He also bows down. "My name is Kenichiro Hasami, but everybody calls me 'Kyouju'. How do you do?"
"F-fine, thanks," Lei replies, bowing to him as well.
"..." There was an almost lazy flap of a sheaf of papers at the other end of the room.
"What's your expertise?" Takao Kinogu asks almost immediately.
"Errh~~~"
"I mean, we can all sing and dance to an extent, but what area are you really good at?"
"S-sing and dance?" Lei couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I thought~~~"
"And ACT!" Max was nodding. "Don't forget that, Takao."
"Oh. Yes!"
"Uh..." Lei gulped. "W-well, I used to be part of the traveling Beijing Opera Troupe...for 3 weeks."
"Wow, you did Chinese opera?" Kenichiro Hasami asks, his deep green eyes wide. "That's good!"
"Uh...yes."
"What good is it if you only acted for 3 weeks?" There was another scraping sound of a chair being pushed back in the middle of the room. "Recruits these days. Daitenji-kacho should be more selective of what the Kagekidan really NEEDS, and not just greenhorns about to be let loose on stage, piping Shakespeare as if it were some sort of a piece of news article."
"Kai..." Max said.
"And that's Kai Hiwatari, the scion of Hiwatari Heavy Industries, grandson of the billionaire steam magnate," Takao whispers to Lei with definite and undisguised disgust at the last person to stand up in the room to acknowledge the Chinese youth. Takao pouted. "Just because he went to England to study in one of those chi-chi private boarding schools, Kai thinks he's a lot better than everybody else. Don't let him get to you."
"I...I'll try," Lei answered.
"Your name is Lei Kon, isn't it? Well, my name is Kai Hiwatari. I would like to say beforehand that acting for 3 weeks is clearly NOT acting. You have to prove to yourself that you're more than the 3 week wonder. In Kagekidan, we don't like slack-offs and insufferable know-it-alls. And people who think they're better than everybody else."
"I think he's describing himself," Takao mutters with a definite innocent expression on his face.
"You're here for the glory of the Imperial Capital, and all you have to show is your mediocre acting. Now where's the proud defender of the Chrysanthemum Throne in that? The reason why you were selected for the Kagekidan is that you have the TALENT and the SKILLS needed for the good of the Imperial Capital. Now, if you think you can't do anything better than tying up the laces of your boots, then I suggest that you lead your own way out. We need resistance, not a hindrance." Kai Hiwatari gets his script then gave Lei a critical look-through before turning on his heel to walk away. "I'll see you around."
"~~~~" Takao clenched his fists, glaring right after Kai, who already left the room. "That...spoiled brat..."
"Hey Lei, don't let him get to you," Max told him. "It's his own way of greeting you and welcoming you aboard. I remember the first time I went here, I was always imagining him to have smoke coming out of his nostrils or something. He's always so angry. He tells it like it is; I guess he never has too many servants to yell at back at their manor."
"It's alright. I have lots of practice," Lei told him reassuringly. "My old Classics teacher was even worse."
There was an awkward silence as the 4 of them stood in the now empty rehearsal hall.
"Well...now that we're properly introduced, let us take the liberty of showing you around Kagekidan with Max-senpai here," Kenichiro told him. "What do you say?"
"Uh...alright."
"Good." Takao grabs his own script and his sword sheathed inside its scabbard by the chair he sat on a while ago. "Puck was rather beginning to bore me. Let's go."
Max was quiet as they all went through the esteemed halls of the Kagekidan with Lei in tow.
***Shouldn't be with them, shouldn't be with ANYBODY.***
Max could still hear his American grandfather as he yelled at his mother the first and last time they visited his mother's family's farm somewhere in Western Virginia. Max was barely 3 years old then.
***I shouldn't have let you go to that...trash land...when I had a chance! All you had to do was fall in love with that peasant~~~***
***Daddy, I know what's right and what's wrong for me now. I am not a little girl anymore.***
***And you have the result right HERE~~~!!!*** Max could still see his grandfather pointing at him, as if he was accusing him of turning his mother into something that was less than human. ***He's just a copycat. He may look like any normal kid out there but inside he's as rotten as his peasant father~~~!!!***
***I will not have Max insulted like that!***
***Oh, so now you're naming him like any American kid on the block? Is it because you are shamed of his mixed-up heritage, you're trying to hide your mistake away by calling him THAT?***
They took the next available boat right back to Hong Kong that very day. Max knew that he did something really bad, because his mother was crying all the way from Western Virginia to Hong Kong; his grandfather was glaring daggers at him as they hurriedly left.
***...you are not a mistake...***
***Ma...ma...?***
***You are not a mistake, Max.*** Max could remember how pretty his mother looked that day, with her long blond hair set in ringlets underneath her soft lacey hat; pretty, yet so sad. ***You were never a mistake. That was why Tetsuji and I decided to have you.***
***Ma...ma...***
***Shhh...*** Judy Mizuhara held him close, her beautiful blue eyes, so much like Max's were, softening. ***Everything's right, all of this is right, and most importantly, you are so RIGHT. Don't you forget that, Max. Don't you ever forget that...***
"...and that's the main concert hall, where we all literally turn into instant musical theater thespians every 'magic' season," Takao was saying as the 4 of them were going through all of the Kagekidan's key points of interest. "Down the left-leftmost hall we go to the main attraction itself: the DRESSING ROOMS~~~!!!"
"Uh...why is it a main attraction?" Lei asked curiously.
"Nothing's secret in that room while we go change," Takao said with a very solemn look on his face. "They monitor EVERYTHING."
"R...really?"
Takao and Kenichiro both nodded.
"Uh..." Lei had started to gulp and sweatdrop.
"Don't worry, the monitoring people are guys," Kenichiro assured him. He shudders. "Imagine if they happened to be girls."
"Don't even START~~~!!!" Takao stuck his tongue out as if the very idea itself was revolting. "Let's just go 'incognito', I bet Lei would now want to see what lies beneath all this pomp and artistry. Are you coming with us, Max?"
"H-huh? Oh, yes."
"Good." Takao bolted off, dragging Lei by the hand behind him. "Last one to the slides is a rotten glob of NATTO~~~!!!"
And so they raced each other to where "incognito" was. And Max forgot being a "right mistake" for a while: for now, he's just a 13 year-old kid who happened to like a lot of fun.
And being with friends.
******
AUTHOR'S NOTES: "Kyouju" in Japanese literally means "Professor" (yes, I looked it up). Yep, I made Professor/Chief/Kenny "visually-perfect", if you get what I mean. Kenny's got EYES~~~!!! ^o^ And his Japanese name here is a slight pun to his English-dubbed one ("Keni-chan-kyouju" or "Keni-kyouju-chan" is what literally comes to my mind...@@;;). Oh, and natto is a traditional Japanese fare that means fermented beans. Senpai is an honorific term for one's esteemed advanced/senior/higher colleague. Max is the doer, while Kenny's the planner. Get it? ^-^;; Anyway, I hope you like this ficcie. Am in a loss for using Kobus or Zakus or Quebeleys in this ficcie. Tell me what you think! Should I use the traditional Kobus or other sort of mech type? Please help me! Via e-mail (eduin_goddess@yahoo.com/Eidolon_Masouki@hotmail.com) . Thanks! ^o^