Disclaimer: (checks bag) School file, pencil case, French Dictionary, random notes I passed in class, some big piece of paper I haven't used yet, atlas, dictionary and thesaurus, and another school file. (shuts bag) Sorry, no Beyblade in there.
Ah, now before we begin, let's check the reviews…
BloodyShadows: That, my friend, was a cliffhanger! KAWAHAHAHA! That is my trademark laugh. Don't steal it. XD And yes, I have now UPDATED! WOOT!
Kiko cat: Curious. That's a word you'll probably hear quite a bit in these first few chappies.
Platinum Rei: Read and find out! And no, it's not. I'm not sure how long it's gonna be.
Henry The Magical Pancake: Next time, don't use my account to review! XD And yes, yes, it was quite suss. Let's see if I can squeeze a sexual reference into every chapter!
Thanks all! Now, on with the story!
Rei woke early the next morning. He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and yawning. His feet struggled to find their slippers on the floor. Eventually, Rei gave up, hopping out of bed and bending over to grab them. Once they were on, he snatched his dressing gown from the doorknob and he was off down the hall.
He had thought it over last night. He would go to Kai's room and knock on the door in case Kai was still asleep, which Rei doubted he would be. If he was, Rei would simply say, 'I was wondering if you wouldn't mind pancakes for breakfast' or something of the sort. If he wasn't Rei would obviously go ahead with the plan.
His knuckles rapped on the door, not so loudly that it would wake everyone up, but loud enough that it would get Kai's attention if he was inside. Nothing happened, so Rei slowly pushed the door forwards. The familiar smell of Kai washed over him, and once again he saw the neat surroundings of the older boy's bedroom. Rei pushed the door shut again and walked, without a sound, over to the closet.
It opened easily, and Rei quickly found again the hidden door. He stood for a moment, wondering what answers and secrets lay kept safe behind these doors. But he found it hard to hesitate for long, and pushed on the door. It didn't move. He moved a shirt to one side, and seeing no sign of a handle or similar, he pushed again. Still, no reaction. Rei pushed with all his might, and finally the door gave way, letting the boy tumble into a new room through a cloud of dust he had caused to appear. Obviously this place has not been entered for a while, Rei thought, trying not to cough as he brushed the dust off his pants.
Slowly, he stood and lifted his head to a sight he had never expected. It was a shrine. A shrine to…him. But what was this doing in Kai's room? He looked on the wall straight ahead of him, and saw a huge, larger than life-size poster of his face from when the Bladebreakers first banded together. There was a chest of drawers to the right of that, and one to the left as well, each with three drawers. There was a label on each drawer, Rei noticed. Tapes, dolls, photos, sketches, gifts, bits and pieces…this was unbelievable.
He opened the drawer marked dolls, and not surprisingly, it was half filled with little hand-made figures of Rei. In the drawer marked tapes, he saw various home-made videos, no doubt of him. And in the 'Bits and Pieces' drawer, he saw scraps of clothing, pieces of hair, tears preserved in a jar…How did Kai get his hands on this stuff?
Scared that Kai might turn up soon, and astonished at his discovery, Rei grabbed two tapes and a sketch book into his arms. He noticed a little brown, leather-bound book on the floor near him, and picked that up too. He tucked these things into his dressing gown, shut the drawers, took one last look at the secret shrine, and left.
Back in his room, Rei slapped on a padlock so that no-one could get it without his unlocking the door first. Then he leapt onto his bed and quickly removed his dressing gown so he could get a closer look at what was inside. (A/N: Ding ding! Sexual reference #2!) He took out the sketch book first, thinking to leave the mysterious leather book till last.
He opened it up to the cover page. It read, 'Rei Sketches – Book 18'. He decided that the number must mean that this was the eighteenth book that Kai had finished. He paused, thinking and wondering if he really wanted to look further inside. Then curiosity got the better of him and he turned to the next page. Kai drew this? He thought incredulously. He's really good at drawing! All through the book were sketches of Rei. Sleeping, laughing, talking, battling, shouting, training, thinking. He wondered if Kai had a sketch for the last time they had seen each other – yesterday, outside the Beystadium. Then he realised that was a stupid thought; Kai had not had a book or a camera with him on that day.
Closing the book, he then turned to the first tape. It was labelled 'Rei Videos – Tape 23'. He put this into the VCR on his television and pressed play. Immediately, the tape sprang into life. Rei was watching himself, walking in the park and holding Driger. Kai was mumbling in the background. Commentating, Rei realised. He strained to hear what Kai was saying. Unfortunately, some parts of the dialogue were masked by the crackling sounds of the old video.
"– yesterday. He had a great battle, fought well, and … up winning against his opponent. It … have made him so tired. I really felt … … him. Oh look, it's Takao. I wish … stop his whining once … … while. It must annoy Rei to … end."
There the scene stopped, and flashed to one of Rei dipping his feet into the river.
"It's not every day … catch Rei doing something like this. But he … to sit by himself a lot, which I don't … the others have really grasped … concept of. Poor …"
Both tapes went on like this, for two hours each, until Rei felt a year's sleep couldn't have satisfied him. But he wanted to know why Kai was doing all this, so he rewound the tape back to the beginning and took it out of the machine. Then he picked up the little book. It never occurred to him that Kai might like him, maybe love him – or maybe he just didn't want to believe it.
He fiddled with the binding on the cover until it came undone. The pages were going slightly yellow, as if Kai had had this book for longer than he remembered. The first page read: 'Diary, Kai Hiwatari'.
He turned to the next page. The date was from a long time ago. Rei realised it was before he and Kai had ever met.
'Rei Kon, White Tigers. Someday he will band together with me and the Blade Sharks. We'll be a true team then. He doesn't know me – we've never even met. But I feel that when we do, ours will be a good friendship. Good friendship. Ha. I've never had one before. I guess that makes it unlike any other, which is a good thing and a bad thing, in its own way.
'I fear that becoming friends with Rei will cause the other members of the team to become suspicious of me. Maybe even…realise who I am. This is my private life, not theirs to meddle with, and I will make sure that they don't.
'Carlos is foolish. He has lost a match to a boy named Takao, and with it, lost all of the blades he has ever taken! Carlos' great weakness aside, this 'Takao' must be strong. Of course, with all Carlos' incoherent gibbering, you never know. Takao may as well be just as much of a weakling as Carlos.
'I shall defeat this Takao, whatever it may take. The Blade Sharks shall prevail, under the command of their team captain, Kai Hiwatari.'
That was the end of the first entry. By now, Rei's eyelids were drooping and he wasn't sure he could take in any more information. He hid the 'borrowed' belongings in his wardrobe, unlocked the door, and lay down for a short nap. He hadn't eaten breakfast, but for all that had happened today already, he may as well have.
When he awoke, he would eat lunch and stay downstairs for a while before going back up and reading the next entry. He had to know more. Questions still remained in his mind. Why was Kai doing all this? How long had he known Takao before the Bladebreakers? What did he mean by…'realising who he is'? He had to find the answers, and he knew somehow that they were in this very room, stashed away behind a pair of pants and a white hair tie.