Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade. So bite me.
Claimer: I own (from this chapter): Gen, June, the Soul Catcher Beyblade
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alannacrystal: Welcome to...here! (seeing as I can't write the stupid website's name...) I'll get around to reading your story some time ;)
SchoolBoredom: You're still here? I thought you'd be sick of my story by nowWell, thanks for reading
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MidnightBallad: Um...this chapter rated a little higher because it contains "Mature Themes". I might need to raise the actual story rating now.
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Hold my Hand
Chapter Nine: A Darkened Return
Kai felt as though ice had been forced down his throat. 'Gen, what happened?'
Gen just sniffed and gave a small sob.
'What happened? Gen – are you still there?'
Gen suddenly whispered, 'I have to go.' She cut the connection. Kai put his own phone down slowly.
There was no way Kai could sleep, not now, not after hearing Gen's voice over the phone. So he sat up in bed, wondering what he was going to do.
Of course, in the morning, he would go to the orphanage, but there was no way he could go now. Whatever had happened at the orphanage, he was sure he wouldn't be allowed in now.
Kai thought hard, planned his conversation with Gen early. He was dying to pick up the phone and talk to her again, but would Gen answer him again?
Kai then realised how strange he felt. When he had run into Gen this morning, she had been quite cold to him, but not that she was in some sort of crisis, she seemed to be able to talk to Kai. And Kai could talk to her in return. It was as if they'd never been apart.
How long had it been since Gen had been thrown in the orphanage? Kai was guessing at least thirteen years...thirteen years without a family, without anyone to love and call your own. The thought was depressing; Kai wondered how Gen had managed. Maybe being called 'Susi' helped keep her feelings, her real name and what little of her past life she knew about, inside of her.
Kai wished that he could do the same.
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The doorbell to Kai's room was ringing furiously as he awoke in the morning. Groaning slightly, Kai glanced out the window – it was snowing thickly outside, and the glass of the window had thin cobwebs of frost growing across it.
The doorbell wrung another six times.
'Yeah, hang on!' Kai yelled, climbing out of bed and staring through the tiny peephole in the door. Hilary's nose was maximised to about three times its normal size.
'Hilary?' Kai asked. Rei's head appeared in the hole's view.
'Me too!' Rei chimed.
'What do you guys want?'
'Aren't you going to go and talk to Gen today?'
Kai gasped silently. How could he have forgotten? Gen was a mess over at the orphanage. In under a minute, Kai was ready to get going, Beyblade jammed in his pocket, scarves wrapped around his neck, as well as a jacket or two and gloves.
Hilary and Rei were dressed the same, although Hilary looked more like a polar bear than a human, her head almost invisible beneath a fluffy white hood.
'Morning!' Hilary said cheerfully, as if trying to stain Kai with her mood, but Kai couldn't be brightened this morning.
'Yeah, whatever, we got to go.' Kai said, closing his door hurriedly and putting the key in one of his many pockets.
'Why are you in such a rush?' Rei asked, frowning the slightest.
Kai explained to the two what had happened last night as they made their way to the elevators.
'Kai, are you sure you don't have a second sight?' Hilary asked, watching Rei tap the call button several times. Kai raised an eyebrow and turned to her. After meeting Haine and the angel Neblina, he would think too hard about the possibility of second sights.
The elevator arrived with a short ping. Kai, Hilary and Rei squished in amongst a bunch of others and rode it down to the ground level, before hurrying out onto the streets and gazing up and down the frozen road for a taxi. When one passed, Hilary jumped up and down so much on the sidewalk that she fell over.
The driver went through the early-morning traffic and turned off down a quiet street. Not many people seemed to be out so early in the cold. Hilary and Rei drew on the taxi windows to amuse themselves, but Kai couldn't really think of anything but the orphanage.
The taxi suddenly stopped.
'Are you sure this is the place?' The driver asked, his English barely recognisable under a thick Russian accent. Kai stared out the front windshield: there were police cars parked in every possible space outside of The Saint's Orphanage, and they had strung tape across the main gate.
'What's going on?' Rei asked no one in particular.
Hilary quivered next to Kai. 'Did someone...die?'
Kai payed the taxi driver without a word and stepped onto the street, making his way to the orphanage with Hilary and Rei not far behind.
The police weren't happy that Kai and the others had come. Hilary and Rei watched on helplessly as Kai got himself into a heated argument with a police officer, the conversation just one big strand of Russian to them. Finally, the officer spoke into one of his radios, and he turned back to the teens.
'Wait a minute. Your friend's coming down to get you.'
Kai turned back to Hilary and Rei. They said nothing, but their eyes asked for answers instead.
'Someone's been killed,' Kai explained. 'That or a suicide. The police can't tell.'
'What do you mean, "they can't tell"?' Rei snapped. 'Isn't there a murder weapon or anything?'
Kai shook his head. Just then, someone called to him from the front gate of the orphanage. Kai, Hilary and Rei went up to the gate and were greeted by a red-eyed Gen. She looked very cold, very tired and very distressed.
'Hey,' Kai said quietly. 'Are you okay?'
Gen wrapped her bare fingers around the bars of the gate. 'June's died.'
'Any idea how?' Hilary asked.
Gen squeezed her lips together before saying, 'No... Her throat had been slashed. By the time I got there...she was gone. She couldn't tell me who did it; whether it was herself or an attacker.'
'The police can't find anything?' Rei questioned.
'No. They said it was as if no one was there. There was no sign of a struggle – there was no sign of anything.'
There was silence for a few moments.
'Can we come on?' Kai asked. Gen sniffed and looked behind her.
'I'll ask. Can you wait for a minute?'
'Yeah.' Kai answered.
Gen was gone in a flash. The trio waited only two minutes before the gates opened and Kai, Hilary and Rei were allowed in under the watch of many police officers.
The orphanage seemed eerie and silent. Just about every child or adolescent inside had been moved out of the main building and were now seated out in the snow, squatting around fires as the police interrogated a few people. All they seemed to be getting was crying youngsters and moody teenagers.
The three were taken upstairs by an officer and met Gen just outside of her own dormitory. The police seemed to not want to let her go: she had been the last person to talk to June before she turned up dead.
'Did she seem upset when you spoke to her last? Was she talking about anything she regretted?' An officer was asking. Gen launched into a short story about her last conversation with June.
Gen eventually pulled away from them and came up to Kai and the others.
'What's going to happen?' Hilary asked in a hushed voice.
'They'll give her a funeral. She won't be buried here, though.'
Kai watched officers go in and out of June's room. 'They think she killed herself?'
'Don't know,' Gen replied. 'If she'd killed herself, then the weapon would still be around. If someone else did it, the only way out was through the main gate, and there's a security camera there: after you three left, no one came or went.'
'Maybe it was someone here?' Kai proposed. Gen's face went red.
'No one here would kill someone. I'd bet my own life on that.' She growled.
Kai then had a thought; eyes fixed on June's room, he asked Gen, 'Do you think I could get a look?'
'Um...maybe. Just go, and if they stop you, then ask them.'
Kai made his way into June's room, Hilary and Rei a few steps behind, Gen walking close behind Rei.
Kai stepped back into Hilary when he saw the amount of blood on the floor. June had been covered with a sheet, but nothing else had been touched. There were forensic investigators in the room, taking photos and dusting for foot- or fingerprints. The only thing disturbed was the window, which was left open, letting snow fall into the room.
Kai knelt down next to the lumpy sheet that was June. He glanced over his shoulder at Gen, who stood shivering behind Rei still. 'You might not want to look.'
Gen shook her head. 'It's okay. Go...'
Kai lifted the sheet from June's face. Her eyes had been closed, her face was deathly white, lips dark blue, and her hair fell gently over her face. Kai held his breath and looked down at the bloody mess that was the death-causing wound for June.
The gash was unlike anything Kai had been on any cop show. It wasn't clean, as if it had been done with a knife. In fast, it looked like it had been done with...
'No way.' Kai whispered, taking his Beyblade from his back pocket. He ran his fingers over its attack ring, and then looked at the slash across June's throat.
'Someone did this with a Beyblade.' Kai said, loud enough for everyone to hear.
That got people's heads turning.
'W-what?' Gen stammered. 'A Beyblade?'
It was then that the police chose to come striding into June's room, holding something in a clear plastic bag – a bloodstained, white stone Beyblade.
Kai saw the colour drain from Gen's face.
'Is this yours?' One of the officers asked.
Gen was stunned, so much so that she could barely speak.
'Take her away.' The same officer said.
Everyone moved at once. The police hurried for Gen; Hilary gasped and slapped her hands to her mouth; Kai leapt to his feet and fastened a hand around Gen's arm.
'Let her go!' Kai yelled.
'Get lost, kid!' One of officers holding Gen spat.
'I said: let her go!'
'I said: get lost ki –'
'WAIT!'
All eyes fell to Rei, who was standing over June's lifeless body. He pointed to the white Beyblade in the bag.
'Can I have that for a second?' He asked.
The officers hesitated, before handing the Beyblade over to Rei. Without taking it from the bag, Rei held the Beyblade up the gash. For at least three minutes he observed – no one else moved or dared to speak.
Finally, Rei straightened up. 'There is no way that Gen's Beyblade did this. If it had, the wound would be a lot bigger – look at the scythes on the thing,' he added, holding up Gen's blade. It looked as though it had dagger blades attached to it. Then Rei took out his own Beyblade. 'It would have been done with something more like mine.' He put Drigger away.
'Maybe she didn't use enough force.' Growled one of the officers.
'Do a DNA test on the blood on that Beyblade and you'll see I'm right.' Rei said simply, eyeing the officers with his neko eyes. He looked at Gen, who smiled slightly.
Thank you, she mouthed.
After a long wait, the officers released Gen and she stumbled back.
'We'll do just that. Until then...' The police left the room, seemingly disappointed that they hadn't been able to take Gen around.
'Alright,' Kai said, once they were alone in the room. 'Nice work Rei –'
'You're welcome.' Rei said with a smug smile on his face. Hilary punched him lightly on the back.
'Show-off...' She muttered.
'Who would have done it?' Gen was whispering. 'Who would have gone through the trouble of killing June and setting me up for it?'
Kai sighed, looking back at June. 'I've got a pretty good idea who.'
Hilary shivered. 'Haine?'
'Haine it is. He's after us again.'
-End chapter nine-
MidnightBallad: Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Don't forget to review :)