CHAPTER 9
Twenty-eighth of November has arrived and instead of going to school that day, the duo took a limo to the BBC Workshop. The day was cold and cloudy but the limo was warm as they drove down the road.
"This is… awesome!" cried James, looking around the inside of the limo.
"Like it?"
"This yours?" he asked.
The FBI soldier nodded. "Do you know the Shozuko Mansion?" she asked.
The male brunette nodded. "Who doesn't?"
"I'm the heiress of that mansion. My mother is Hikaru Shonez, aka Hikaru Hiwatari,"
James could do nothing but gape. Founding that his jaw was opened rudely, he immediately closed it and looked in front of him.
He was wearing jeans, and a hooded jumper contrary to Rayne who was wearing her usual jeans and crop top.
"Don't you feel cold?" he asked.
"Nah. Russia has worse climax: between three to five degrees Celsius."
Again James gaped at her.
"That's FREEZING!" he almost yelled.
"That's Russia for you," the girl giggled.
"How can you stand that cold?" he asked.
"I'm an FBI, J," she looked over at him as he blushed very faintly. "I do training in the coldest climax ever and when you do work, you feel hot, so the temperature doesn't even bother me."
"You're mad," he blurted after a while.
"I may and I may not be. That's your opinion."
"And you don't care," he grinned. Rayne said nothing as she played her music softly. James followed lead and stayed quiet throughout the rest of the journey.
-00-
"Good morning and welcome to the BBC Workshop," greeted the manager when James and Rayne settled themselves down on the seat in his office. "My name is Mr. Lovegood and I'm the manager of the BBC Workshop for young children, over thirteen years of age."
"My name is Rayne and this is James," Rayne introduced.
"According to what Mr. Jurgen said, you have been voted to be number on in the singing contest. And that you beat Tenebrae Rosa," he smiled.
"We all have our own ways to sing," Rayne sighed.
"We have heard your voice and your choice of music and we thought that maybe you would like to go straight into making music?" asked the man.
Rayne and James looked at each other, the answer exchanged without a sound and Rayne spoke, "Sure."
The trio got up and exited the mahogany office and lead by Mr. Lovegood, the teens went to the studio.
-00-
The morning went like a blur: the duo was taken all around the workshop, being introduced to the crew, the designer, the make-up artist etc. Then they were taken to the studio where they will be working those twenty days. It took so long to go around that instead of working straight away, they had a break at the canteen.
Rayne got herself a small sandwich and a drink as James got some crisps and drink. When they sat down, the crazy frog ring tone rang. Digging her hand into her pocket, Rayne took out her mobile. She flicked open the lid and started talking in Russian.
"How was it," James heard the other line say.
"Boring so far. We only got the tour around the workshop. We haven't started it yet," answered the FBI grimly.
"Is James with you at the mo?"
"Yeah," she breathed and passed the phone to said boy. "Ten," she said and shut herself off, drinking her 'Dr. Pepper'.
"Hey," James greeted.
"Hey, lil bro. How is everything?" Ten asked.
"Boring so far. But as soon as we get started I'm sure it will be fun," he smiled.
"How long was the journey?"
"No more than 10 minutes."
"That's quite near," someone else said.
James felt a soft kick on his shin and looked up to Rayne.
"We're going," she spoke softly.
James nodded and finished off the conversation.
"Listen, sis. I've gotta go. I'll see you tonight." And with that he shut off the phone and passed it to Rayne. He got up and followed her back to the studio.
-00-
The duo waited in the studio for the recorder and editor to arrive as they were stuck in traffic from the route they had taken from their respective location. James had brought along his guitar and began to play some notes while Rayne looked up and down the walls of the studio, looking at the pictures of the band that had the same editor the duo were going to work with.
"OMFG!" she breathed.
"What?" frowned the brunette.
"Nightwish is here," she beamed.
"Where?" James almost fell off his chair at the name of Nightwish. He walked over to where the soldier was stood and looked at a picture of their favorite band Nightwish. At the bottom was the date the photo was taken: June 2004.
"2004?" muttered James. "That was when they released their latest album, 'once'."
Rayne nodded and looked at each of the member.
"When I was younger, and first heard of Nightwish, I went onto the internet to find some images of them. And as soon as I saw Jukka, the drummer, I suddenly thought: 'he's good-looking."
James chuckled. Another voice also joined but it wasn't Rayne.
"Many youngsters such as yourself, have a knack for Nightwish," a voice spoke out. The duo turned to the speaker who stood at the doorway. He was slim and a slight muscular, tall and tanned with soft golden locks. He was about in his early thirties.
"My name is Mr Jones, and I'm the BBC editor as well as Nightwish's manager," he smiled and went down the few steps.
"Afternoon," greeted the FBI. "My name is Rayne Hiwatari, and my friend James Rosa."
"Aah, yes. I remember. You have a sister. Ten, is her name?" he grinned.
"That's right," nodded the brunette.
"I've heard your song, Demons, and I must say your voice is very soft and graceful. Full of emotions: it almost got me crying,"
"Thank you," Rayne sat down on one of the stools, the manager pointed.
"And, for this workshop, I want to do a song that has a similar base."
Rayne and James exchanged glances.
"Which is…?"
"Mary Creek's Blood."
-00-
James and Rayne returned to school next day only to find out there was a swimming lesson that afternoon. Reluctantly, they agreed to tag along and join in the fun.
"How long has the lesson been going on?" asked the FBI.
"It just started," answered the co-captain of the Blade Angel. "Don't know why we have to do it in winter. It's freezing!"
And indeed it was freezing. Soft snow was lightly pouring outside and almost every student was wearing his or her coat, scarf, gloves and boots. Some had to come in buses and cars others walked as they lived really close to the school. But nothing like that can stop them from chattering around so much inside the school building.
"They better cancel it, or else, I'm going to kill myself," shivered the black-headed girl, wrapping her arms around herself.
"I'm sure the water will be warm, Iris," Ten comforted her best friend.
"And I thought you are used to this climax," muttered rayne to Anya. "After all, this is warmer than Russia, when it is in winter."
"Lets just say I'm used to Japan more than Russia," she grinned sheepishly. The teacher arrived as the bell rang and the students all filed into the classroom the gang was in, sitting at their seat and waiting for the register to start the day as normal. But as the last person's name rang out, the teacher announced the coach arrived.
"We're doing this right now?" Iris was in shocked and the fact that the window was open right behind her didn't cool her down.
"Yes, Miss Blanchett, we're doing this every morning, once a week," snarled the teacher. Looks like he's not approved of this, as he had to tag along. "I want you all to be on your best behavior."
-00-
With the roads filled a thin layer of ice, the traffic jam began early in the morning, a round of beeping horns waking the sleepy heads that were still in bed. Of course during the winter, almost everything became dangerous; with the roads into ice, there's a 50 chance that it would make the car slip and there would be a round of accidents. Accidents the drivers want to escape and not get involved.
But in the early hours of the day, just as the school bell began to ring, heavy footsteps muffled against the almost two inches thick snow. But because the sole of the boots are flat, the little shrimp did not sink into the snow as he ran down the pavement to the nearest traffic lights.
Arriving there, he shouted over the noises of the cars and horns, "Hey guys!"
Said men looked up from where they were sitting on the bench and stood up, their height gives them the advantage of being able to see their four- feet-eight-inches friend. One of the two had soft lilac-hair with matching lilac eyes. The other had wooden blonde hair and dull green eyes.
"About time! What took you so long?" the boy name Bryan called out.
"Blame my manager!" Ian shot back.
The traffic was thinning, as the car continued to drove and soon the end of the line was coming near. Behind that they were other cars coming but at the moment they were small pecks. The traffic lights turned Red right after the last car of the lines drove past and the green walking man was switched.
Ian took the signal and walked casually and carefully on the zebra crossing to cross the road. But the excitement that was rising in the pit of his stomach made him deaf and he didn't noticed a slipping car racing down the street towards him.
"Ian!" cried Bryan.
"Ian! Watch out!" shouted Spencer.
At the warning Ian stopped dead in his track in the middle of the road and looked to his left to see a car skidding down the ice towards him. The fright made him froze root to his spot and even though his friends shouted at him to move, he couldn't. And everything went so fast.
The beeping horn; the crash and a lifeless body.
-00-
It was nearing to the end of the swimming lesson and Rayne was half through her last lap. Something she did while the others chilled out. She was about to reach her the end when she suddenly felt cold, loosing her balance and float, sinking to the bottom of the pool.
The FBI tried as desperately as she can to swim back up to the surface but an invisible force kept her where she was at the this moment. The blue water wavered and images began to appear, as Rayne focused her vision.
What she saw was so gob-smack, she almost couldn't breath under water. As soon as it came, the images went and Rayne swam as fast as she could to the surface, gasping for breath.
"Rayne?" Kai called, getting up from his seat on the side bench. "Are you OK?"
"Something's wrong, Kai," she gasped, swimming to the edge. Using her upper body, she got out the pool and towards the bench where the gang was. Taking her towel out of her bag she wiped herself dry.
"Ian's dead!" she gasped.
The gang was silence.
"How do you know?" her redhead friend asked.
"I saw it."
"But, Rayne, we can't be sure-" two boys entering their private lesson interrupted James: One with lilac hair and the other with wooden blonde hair.
"Bryan and Spencer," whispered Vivien.
"Rayne!" Bryan gasped. "It's Ian."
"He's-" Spencer also gasped.
"Dead," whispered Rayne, her drying forgotten.
-00-
A few days after the accident, the funeral began, paid by Rayne and Kai themselves. The weather that day would begin with clouds covering the blue sky, followed by soft snows, and if things go well, it would be sunny said the weatherman.
But no weather would lighten Rayne up. She lost too much already as she sat down on the couch in her black clothes, flicking through the channel.
She lost her parents when she was a little girl; lost her innocent-looking when she was in the abbey (she was not rape, she's still a virgin. I'm talking about her personality, nice and caring etc); almost lost her brother when she escaped; two years ago she lost her faithful bit-beast followed by her boyfriend. And now she lost one of her favorite friends, the one she always likes to call 'shrimp' because of his height compare to her. Barely reach her chest. Ian.
Kai walked down the stairs, in his black suit with black shirt instead of white; no blue triangles on his face, making him look less like a boy and more like a man… more like the true heir of the throne to Russia. He saw one of the doors leading to the living room open and flashes of white light and made his way through it, only to find Rayne slumped on the coach, looking sulky and distress.
He slowly walked up to her, sitting down beside her. He sighed, looking at his shaken hand then back at the pale face of his twin sister.
"Rayne," his voice croaked. Maybe it was because he hadn't talked for several days. Said girl didn't look up at him, but continued to flick the channel. The blunette sighed and wrapped her limp body in his arms.
"Why do I lose everything?" she whispered, silent tears rolling down her cheeks.
"You haven't lost everything,"
"But I am slowly. Mum and dad are gone, I'm no longer the innocent girl I was when I was three-years-old, I almost lost you." She buried her face against his chest. "Then I lost deathscythe, then Tala and now Ian."
Said boy, Tala, was at the doorway of the room, when she said those things and was about to talk when a hand was felt on his left shoulder of his suit. He turned his blue orbs to lock gaze with the identical one, belonging to his female duplicate. Anya shook her head.
"We'll bring Tala back. And mum and dad are not gone; we can see them, remember. What we have lost, we gain something else. Instead of mum and dad, we have Boris to take care of us, and Mr. Dickinson instead of Voltaire. No one can replace Tala, but you have your happiness in James these past term," Kai explained, wiping away her tears.
"I'm glad you didn't mention Deathscythe. I would have scream 'no one can replace Deathscythe'," Rayne gave a watery chuckle.
"No one can replace our bit-beast. I also learnt that first hand when I lost Dranzer against Spencer in that Russian Tournament."
"And Rei lost Driger in the Asian Tournament,"
There was a knock on the door and the Hiwatari twins stopped their conversation.
"We're ready to go," Ten's soft voice rang.
Rayne switched off the TV and got up, making her way to the limo she ordered, with the rest of the gang behind her.
-00-
"We are here today, to say our last goodbye to a faithful friend of ours that has lived with us since the day we met him," a priest cried out, saying the funeral prayer. "He has been like a little brother to some of us, a natural friend to others. Ian, we love you forever and more,"
With a small nod, the priest got off the stands outside the courtyard behind the church and Rayne took up the steps. That went unnoticed to some people as they gazed down at Ina's dead body, all cleaned up from the accident.
Time it took the most of me
And left me with no key
To unlock the chest of remedy
Tala took a sharp turn when he heard the familiar singing voice, looking up at the stand where the priest had once been a while ago, to see a pale and dark looking Rayne, singing, her voice croaky from the start, but stronger.
Mother, the pain ain't hurting me
But the love that I feel
When you hold me near
Said mother arrived in her ghost form, visible only to the Hiwatari offspring, a ghost of a smile on her face as she looked over her daughter. She too can sense her distress not only for the death of her friend, not only for the loss she felt in her heart, but her worry of loosing everything. For Rayne, once she grasp something, that thing manages to wriggle out of her hand before she knows it, sometimes letting it go willingly.
The hopes were high
The choirs were vast
Now my dreams are left to live through you
Ten looked at the pale face of the FBI, reading her features and the words behind this song. It was obviously what every girl would feel, when they love someone so much, but hurt by them because they found someone else, that their most desired dream would be performed by someone else, or lived through the one that broke them, yet it still confused to Ten how Rayne could be like this. Was she in love with Ian? If so, why does she hardly talk about him, let alone not mention him at all until he died? But then, what if she doesn't really love him like she does to Tala? So many questions, so little answers.
Red sun rising
Drown without inhaling
Within the dark holds hard
Red sun rising
Curtain falling
Higher than hope my cure lies
Suddenly, Tala felt a pain in his head and he placed a hand against his temple, rubbing it, to sooth the pain. But as he looked up to see Rayne he saw something else.
Passiontide
An angel by my side
But no Christ to end this war
To deliver my soul from the sword
"Tala! Vere are you?" a young girl with long black hair braided till it reached her waist ran down the empty corridors of the abbey, her small legs running underneath her. She was wearing her favourite baggy pants and long sleeves t-shirt. There was a slit across her chest, an inch or two above her breast to show a bit of her pale skin and fingerless gloves, with trainers.
There was enough light in front of her for her to see a couple of feet, as she was also able to see the next door on either side of her. One of the doors was opened, making her stop dead in her tracks. Curiosity is one thing she had inherited and she made her way towards the open door. Entering it, to her was a bad idea at the time for the door automatically closed, scaring the life out of her. Then suddenly…
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
Hope has shown me a scenery
Paradise poetry
With first snow I'll be gone
Rayne let out a small squeal at the sudden surprise before she gasped and giggled, running to Boris first. His arms were out when she ran half way and scooped her up in his arm, nuzzling her neck.
"Happy birthday, squirt," he smiled.
"Vank you," her accent was still fresh Russian.
"Hey, vhat about me," a redhead, spiky haired boy pouted. Rayne was put down and surprising her crush, she glomped him.
"Vank you, vank, you, vank you!" she cried. Tala went hot red on the face, his eyes dreamy, and a small drool dripping from the corner of his mouth. Sylvia giggled, pushing a few strands of silver hair away from her shoulders.
The hopes were high
The choirs were vast
Now my dreams are left to live through you
Kai locked gaze with the identical grey eyes of her sister and read the emotion there, even if it was half covered by her tears. She wasn't singing only for Ian and herself, but for all the heartbroken around the world.
Red sun rising
Drown without inhaling
Within the dark holds hard
Red sun rising
Curtain falling
Higher than hope my cure lies
Scolding himself, Kai left his spot beside Vivien and made his way to where Rayne was. Slowly the rest of the Blade Angels did the same, standing beside the Hiwatari twins. Anya entwined her fingers with Rayne and Amber, as Vivien did the same to Kai and Alexia. With a deep breath, all six of them began to sing the rest of the song.
Your death saved me
Red sun rising
Drown without inhaling
Within the dark holds hard
Red sun rising
Curtain falling
Higher than hope my cure lies
And with that, the first snow of the day fell. Rayne lowered her grey hues, landing on Ina's limp body in the dug up grave. How innocent, angelic looking he is, just sleeping there, watching over them all from above along with her parents. But life is not over for the gang; no matter if their heart is broken or whole, each and every one of them will make a living, something to keep them happy. For Rayne, that happiness may not be retrieve. Even if she beyblade, sing, dance or be an FBI, none of them would make her happy, like Tala did when they were together. Tala was, is and will be her happiness.
Slowly, as if in a trance, Rayne walked down from the small platform and across the graveyard towards Ian's grave, a small red rose in her hand. She went down onto her knees and carefully reached towards Ian's body, her hand holding the rose. The red rose was dropped and landed where Ian's heart had stopped beating, blooming into a full rose. With a nod, and stepping back, Rayne watched as the dug up earth covered the body of her shrimp friend.
"Ian, we will always remember you," she whispered.
TBC…