Secrets
The winter weather came later on in the month, soothing the warm weather that had come, dissipating the gentle breezes with days of gray skies and cold weather. It did not snow, but rains came and went quickly, hardly giving Mystel a chance to visit the girl of his dreams. The only time he saw her during the week of rains was between training sessions when it wasn't raining. Because of the rain, he had to stay inside, thanks to a mister kick boxer bailing him out to the star ninja of BEGA. It wasn't all that bad, though, because Mystel got a lot more challenges inside than outside. All the kids wanting to become pro kept challenging him, Garland, Crusher, and Ming-Ming to battle them. Not a lot out of the four of them cared. Brooklyn, on the other hand, had disappeared all of a sudden, mimicking Mystel's common show-off attitude.
Now Mystel was sitting in front of a window, staring out at the rain in a bored attitude, his teammates behind him, training and beybattling against each other. He was so bored. He just wanted to see FD. At least then, something exciting would happen. Maybe not physically, but emotionally or spiritually it did. In their personal training room, the BEGA Justice 5 had their own little fireplace that Ming-Ming kept rushing toward to stare at it. Mystel even caught himself staring at it, mesmerized by the recognizable power that fire held, the flames licking at what was left of the log. Something about it reminded him of FD.
"Mystel, play with me!"
Mystel turned around, hoping to see FD, but only to see Ming-Ming smiling at him. He rolled his eyes beneath his mask and sighed. "Not now, Ming-Ming," he spoke solemnly. She folded her arms over her chest and pouted, but to no success. Mystel's mind kept drifting to that passionate kiss he and FD shared that one night on her balcony. Sure, they had kissed before, but never like that. Sometimes he drifted to that memory, licking his lips at the memory of how sweet she was, how warm her touch was. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't delude her image from his mind. She was permanently there.
He stood up and left the room, leaving his teammates confused and stuck with concerned looks. As the blond walked down the hall, he was thinking of heading over there now, just to see her. No one knew of their relationship, if there even was one. Only Garland, but he only had brief hints throughout it. The only way he could ever understand this was if talked to her now. Then everything would be straightened out.
Just as he thought this, he heard excited laughter and cheers coming from the public training room. He rushed over to the balcony staring down into it and gasped. Standing in front of a stadium, battling three kids at once, was a tall slender woman. Her black hair was flowing behind her, her gray eyes sparkling with excitement and enjoyment. Her outfit was unusual, though. A pink shirt with black lining and spaghetti straps along with a matching sweater. The shirt was low cut, looking like a tube top, kind of. Surrounding her legs was a black and pink skirt, checker pattern flowing down to the hem. But what was on her face really surprised even Mystel. White eye shadow that hovered over her eyes, lip-gloss that was a pink color and her cheeks were a rosy color instead of the known cute winter blush.
"Yeah! Go Ra!" she yelled, and her blade circled the stadium, hitting all the beyblades at once, but somehow they stayed in. She must not have hit them that hard.
"Hey, Mystel!" came a voice. The blond looked up to see his teammates running toward him. Garland looked down at the beybattle and gasped.
"Wow! She's good! Her style's almost like Brooklyn's," Garland spoke. Ming-Ming watched with interest, while Crusher just glared down at it, but the blond could see he was interested by the interesting flickers of excitement in his dark eyes. Mystel just chuckled and watched as the girl battled with such brute force.
"Now! Ra, burning wings!" she yelled. Her blade suddenly began to glow a bright white, and flames erupted on it. Mystel at first thought it was literally on fire, but then saw as it attacked the blades all together with such a speed he had never seen before. All of the blades but hers flew out of the beystadium and hit the ground hard. The attack rings were burned black and the kids fell to their knees in astonishment. That was amazing.
"Who is that girl?" Ming-Ming asked.
"Her name's…Rika. But I warn you to call her FD," Mystel spoke.
"That's her!" Garland yelled. "That's Alexis' sister! That's the famous Rika Micamura!"
"I thought you had data on her?" the blond asked.
"Yeah, but I didn't know what she looked like! I mean, man, you should've brought her in sooner! Then I could've actually met her! I mean, she's hot!" Garland cried, a burning red heat forming beneath his eyes.
Mystel glared at him angrily, but Garland didn't notice. He was too awed with the battle. The girl looked up and smiled at them when she recognized Mystel.
"Hey, Mystel!" FD yelled to him. He waved to her, amazed that she was wearing make-up. Did she just start wearing it, or has she wore make-up before he met her?
"Allow me to introduce myself. Garland, at your service," Garland spoke suavely at the new girl, taking her hand. Again, Mystel glared at him, and again Garland did not notice.
"Nice to meet you, Garland," FD spoke, pulling her hand from him. She smiled at Mystel, who got the message. She wasn't interested in him.
"I'm Ming-Ming, I'm sure you've heard all about me!" Ming-Ming spoke, her ego going through the roof again, but that smile quickly vanished when she saw the look on FD's face.
"No, not really," she spoke.
"Pop star? Famous singer? Strong blader? I was on talk shows all this week," Ming-Ming spoke again.
"Um, sorry, I don't pay attention to fads and new coming wannabes. Sorry. I stick to who I like," FD confessed. Ming-Ming frowned sadly, and a chuckle escaped Mystel's lips. She couldn't always win.
"Crusher's the name. You're a real strong blader," Crusher spoke, approaching her, but didn't shake her hand. What he did do, though, surprised Mystel. He bumped his fist with hers, like how rappers and other popular people did. Mystel knew how to do it, but he never did. He couldn't believe FD knew how to do it.
"So, Alexis told me you're her stepsister. Which part?" Garland asked, curious.
"My dad married her mother," FD spoke.
"Oh. What happened to your mother?" Garland asked. Suddenly, that excited and happy look faded from FD's eyes, and she turned away. Garland suddenly gasped as she ran out of there. Mystel looked at Garland, who caught the glare, and then the blond followed her.
He chased down out of the building and down the street. He found her on the bridge over the river, crying. He approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, and then looked away.
"Hey, what's wrong? Was it what Garland said? Do you want me to beat his ass for you?" Mystel asked, trying to cheer her up. But it didn't work.
"No, it's fine. I haven't talked about my mother in years. I never even cried for her, no one asked me about her, so eventually I ignored it. Garland was the first one to ask about her. Everyone thought Gina was my mother, because I look somewhat like her," FD spoke sadly. Mystel ran his fingers softly through her hair.
"Do you want to talk about it now?" he asked. She looked at him, and he wiped away the tears falling from her eyes. She then touched his hand and sighed.
"I didn't use to live here in Japan. I used to live in America, in a beautiful city near the ocean, right between the border to Mexico. My parents have been divorced since I was six, my mother took me and Nathan with her to San Diego, that city, where she got married to another man. She got interested in the law and became a defense attorney for the people of San Diego. She got caught up in a murder case, and her life was threatened because of it. A drug dealer killed a woman just because she insulted him. And then when my mother told him he had no right to do that, he threatened to kill her. My mother pretended to die, and had to go into witness protection," FD explained.
"Did she die?" Mystel asked.
"I don't know. The Feds knew that in order to track her, they would come after me and Nathan, so they sent me and Nathan to live with our dad, and, in order to protect us better, he moved us here to Japan, so no one would get us. I haven't heard from my mother since then. And that was five years ago. I have no clue if she's dead or not," she said sadly. "Because I didn't know, I eventually just shrugged it off and ignored it for the rest of the time. No one knew, so no one asked. For five years, I've pretended to be Gina's kid, pretending that Nathan and I didn't have another mother. The pain died, but the memories didn't."
Mystel looked at her, then sighed and embraced her as she began to cry into his shoulder. He caressed her through her hair, whispering softly into her ear, telling her it would be alright. He wanted to cry with her, but he couldn't for some reason. That promise he made to himself not to ever cry? Or was it something else? Right now, she needed him to comfort her, not to cry with her.
He pulled away, and looked into her eyes. "What else are you keeping inside?" he asked. "Now's the perfect time to let it all out."
"Well, Alexis and Dustin aren't blood siblings. They're half. My dad adopted Dustin because his dad disappeared right after he was born, but Alexis he couldn't because her dad was still in the picture. I've been trying to help my dad pay for Dustin's adoption, because at the time he didn't have very much money. I worry for my dad. He was the closest person to me. But now…he's expecting too much of me. Drawing is the only way I can break away from the stress," FD spoke. Mystel sighed again, but this time sadly. This girl, beautiful as she was, lived a horrible life. He could tell. He took her hand and pulled her off the bridge.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked him.
"To meet someone that will inspire you, inspire your art," he spoke. He dragged her back to BEGA, but not to inside it. They went around it and ended up in the beautiful, peaceful yard in it, trees spreading behind it, gardens of flowers laid at her feet. She gasped at the beauty of it, but Mystel pulled her along. A slight sigh came from the gardens, and he found him. A pair of dark, mystically azure eyes smiled at them, pulling FD into a shock.
