Through the fire

by Ajedrez

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Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply.

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Summary:

After a tragic loss, the Bladebreakers are finally back on track, only to find themselves and their friends in another of those 'situations'. Secrets and lies, new threats and new hopes. Things aren't always what they seem. A changed outlook on the past might just provide new perspectives for the future. (Set in two timelines after the first season.)

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AN:

If some of you are waiting for responses to your signed reviews for my other story – they are coming, as is the next chapter (though I might need a little more time...).

Not much to say for this chapter, so here we go...

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VI. (Dima)

Not long after the overwhelming success in the All-Japanese tournament, the Bladebreakers found themselves back at school. Almost three years ago, the decision had been made to have them all go to the same school, since Mr Dickinson put a great emphasis on a good education for "his boys" and it seemed the best solution to make certain they got the appropriate training as a team. They found the ideal institute in the boarding school they now attended, which catered for all kinds of sports stars, allowing them enough time off to take part in competitions and providing the necessary training facilities. Also, there were hopefuls and stars from the most diverse activities, from gymnasts, through ice-hockey players to swimmers, so chances were slim to be singled out by fans.

The boys and Hilary were all in the same year. The little age difference between them had not mattered much, as Ray, the eldest of the guys, though fluent in spoken Japanese, found it hard to follow the classes in this foreign tongue at first, and Kenny, the youngest, was such a little genius, he had no problems skipping a year. Nina, though half-Japanese, had the same difficulties as Ray in the beginning, so she would only graduate this year, meaning one year late, but since she wanted to concentrate on her beyblading career anyway, she saw no problem there.

It was generally a very pleasant atmosphere in their school, still, it did not take long for Tyson to suffer from "camp psychosis". Especially after they had taken up their strict training sessions again. Despite his change of attitude, he definitely was the type to thrive in competitions – and slack in training phases. Although Ray was much more relenting than Kai, they basically were back to their old captain's schedule. It had been difficult to accept that the bluenette's training concept actually made a lot of sense...

After Kai's departure, they had been secretly relieved to leave the fast-paced and demanding workout behind. The very first thing they had agreed upon, even before the decision about his successor had been made, was to slack off with the training they had always considered too harsh. And it had worked well for a while, tempting them to shove their performances right into their old captain's face, should they meet him again. It was sooo obvious that all that training was for nothing, duh. They never realized that, to a large extent, they were just lucky in their initial wins. Their opponents did not pose a threat, even if their own capacities were going down.

Only later did it become clearer that Kai had not only aimed for direct results, but for a long-term effect. Gradually, they realized that their fitness was reduced to zilch, which finally showed in their performance, too. Tyson's figure clearly reflected his fondness for food, while the others simply realized that they tired out faster and that their energy levels were dropping. Luckily, they were honest and smart enough to admit that, after all, practice did pay off.

It was then that Ray retrieved the little book containing Kai's notes on their training. The others did not even know such a thing existed, but Ray sometimes wondered why their ex-captain had left it behind. It was unlike Kai to forget such a thing, yet he must have known that sooner or later his room mate would find it. It wasn't really a big deal, there were no big revelations to be found in that little book (as far as Ray could see, of course he did not know what some of the annotations in Russian meant), but as he read through the notes, he thought he understood the enigmatic boy a little better.

The progressive training schedule set up by Kai indeed made a lot of sense to him, now he could read it through – enough for him to adopt it. What was more, he realized that the cold and distant boy might have cared just a little about them, in his very own way. There were some scribbles in Kai's neat handwriting showing that, whenever one of them seemed to have a particular problem with his (and later also her) technique, Kai adapted his training to those special needs, without ever commenting on it. Unless the person concerned was Tyson, of course, who always needed a little more encouragement and therefore received his stern "lectures". It gave Ray a kind of warm feeling that he might have been right, and there was a beating heart underneath that stony exterior. He did not tell his team mates, though, seeing that Kai had taken great pains to cultivate his bastard image...

He did let the others in on his plans, however, to go back to their old way of exercising and, grudgingly, they all agreed, even if Tyson, like now, never managed to keep himself from complaining. He found it especially hard to return to their routine whenever they just came back from a competition. Also, he had not really had a fun day in his classes, so it came as a ray of light to him, when he realized they had a visitor on the training grounds.

It was none other than Nina's uncle, who had started to accompany them on many of their trips after his niece had joined the Bladebreakers. At first, it had been strange to be escorted by someone other than the Grangers, but they had adapted really quickly to him – all but Kai, of course, yet what else would you expect.

Dima, not that much older than the Bladebreakers considering he was Nina's uncle, was good at handling kids – sometimes he even behaved as if he were one himself, although at the same time he was a very responsible person. Sometimes Hilary thought you could mistake him for a grown-up Tyson. They acted so similar that many people thought him to be related to Dragoon's wielder instead of Nina, yet, unlike the rambunctious teen, he rarely embarrassed the other Bladebreakers in public.

The man with untameable light-brown hair always knew how to cheer the team up and that was exactly what he had come for now.

"Hey guys and girls, how 'bout a trip to the beach?" He asked sauntering up to them.

Of course they were all for it. They changed quickly, grabbed the necessary items for the trip and off they went in the van Dima had hired. Soon the team was listening raptly to the adult's stories of his latest travel adventures. Nina's uncle was a born story-teller and he knew how to embellish the weird situations in which he somehow always managed to land himself, to make them sound even more hilarious. It took only a short while to get to the seashore, still Dima caught on to the fact that Ray did not seem to enjoy his anecdotes as he usually did.

"Are you feeling alright, Ray?" he asked with evident concern, making the boy's team mates realize their captain's strange mood.

"I'm fine. Don't worry." Ray answered with an almost tired smile.

"He's been like that ever since the last tournament," Tyson butted in with a careless air that caused a sudden bout of irritation in Ray.

"Really now. And why is that?" Dima asked, completely clueless.

Ray barely managed to contain his irritation, but he felt the older man deserved an answer, so he quietly gave one.

"It's nothing really. I've just been thinking a lot... That final was Kai's death day, you know..."

That revelation changed the atmosphere in the minibus all of a sudden. The others stared at their captain wide-eyed. They truly had forgotten about that...

Ray noted that even their driver seemed to look somewhat contrite, although he had not even been there.

"Well, we're here." Dima finally broke the ensuing silence as he parked the van. Immediately the others darted out of the vehicle, leaving Dima and Ray behind, who followed at a slower pace. The Bladebreakers might have matured over the years, still, right now the urge was most prominent to secure themselves the best spot on the beach, not willing to let their former captain spoil another fun day even after his death, when he had done enough of that while he was alive.

"Don't let it get to you," Dima tried to console the teen walking next to him. "I'm sure they all mourn him in their own way. Don't forget you were the one closest to him. And Kai certainly wasn't the easiest person to be around, so it's just as complicated to cope with his death, you know... " There was a short pause as they reached the spot where the others had dropped their things to head straight into the water. The two of them laid out their towels and independently decided to do a little sunbathing first, before joining the others.

Ray was actually dozing off, when suddenly Dima's voice drifted over to him again.

"Oh and Ray... don't even think of blaming yourself, okay? There's nothing you could have done..."

Surprised, Ray looked up to find Dima sitting up, his warm brown eyes trained on the horizon with a strange faraway expression the seventeen-year old could not quite fathom. The moment was interrupted by Tyson, however, who splashed them with seawater and took off again. Only to stop a short distance away, trying to get a rise out of them.

"Stop moping, you two. It's not like Kai would have done the same for you – or any of us."

Dima was up in an instant and chased after him. "That calls for revenge, Tyson!" Like the kid before him, he stopped midway and turned back towards Ray.

"He's right, though. Kai wouldn't want you to keep grieving... He'd rather tell you to stop whining and start training." Ray couldn't help but return the boyish, yet at the same time sad half-smile on the other's face, as he dashed after Tyson. Ray shook his head. Dima really was one of a kind. Odd, he had not expected the older man to understand him so well, seeing as he and the two-toned bluenette never got on well, right from the start...

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For the umpteenth time after Nina had joined the team, the Bladebreakers were slaving away in the training area of their new school. Apparently their leader thought she had a lot of catching up to do and made everyone suffer with her. That was what you got, when you outvoted him all against one, though none of his team mates dared to utter that thought aloud. Kai had been in an awful mood ever since. After a short break, they were just getting ready for another round, when suddenly their team captain spoke up.

"What are you doing here?"

The so addressed man did not react to the frosty question, mostly because at the exact moment a pair of arms was flung around his neck followed by a slender body slamming into him.

"Dima!" Nina practically squealed.

"Hey Nina, don't you think the guy's a little too old for you?" Tyson, as usual, could not refrain from making a flippant remark.

Nina let go immediately and sent the younger boy a glare that bore an uncanny resemblance to their captain's, though Ray was too amused to notice at the time, simply due to another demonstration of how naturally they all switched to English whenever someone new arrived. Not that they didn't often use this language when they were among themselves. It was one of the quirks of being such an international team that they had two "working languages" – Japanese and English – using both rather randomly, with the addition of one or the other swear word in Russian or Chinese which, for all they knew, could luckily only be understood by the one who uttered it.

Meanwhile Nina had started to introduce everybody.

"Guys, this is my uncle Dima. Dima this is..."

They all shook hands until niece and uncle came to Kai who had stood back a bit and now refused to extract a hand from his characteristically crossed arms. While Tyson muttered about this impolite behaviour, the Chinese blader was probably the only one to observe the strange tension between the captain and the newcomer. Kai was sending the other one of his withering cold-fire glares while asking disdainfully: "What do you want?"

There was something in the older man's gaze that Ray could not interpret, yet there seemed to be a hesitant silent challenge in there.

"Mr. Dickinson sent me..." 'Ah, that would explain a lot – he had been forewarned of Kai's less than welcoming nature,' Ray thought. "...to make sure you guys don't overdo your training. I was planning to take you out to the roller rink..."

"We're not done yet," Kai ground out, annoyance evident in his voice and posture, yet Ray thought he caught a kind of searching look his room mate sent towards the intruder. Well, Ray for one thought that was just the thing the BBA director would do. Why should this Dima be lying?

"I say you are. I'm sure they have had enough for the day, right guys?" The Bladebreakers with the exception of their captain cheered and made to pack in. "Of course you can continue on your own, if you don't want to accompany us..." The last part was already spoken over his shoulder and in a mocking tone, that made Drigger's master wonder why an almost anxious look flitted through the speaker's eyes. Kai might be a little aggressive at times, but never downright violent and he usually treated adults with at least a minimum degree of respect. As the Chinese teen turned his head back to his captain, he was astonished not to see Kai's trademark glare directed at them, but a look of utter confusion which he had never seen before on the other. He almost felt bad for leaving the lone figure behind...

They had lots of fun chasing each other at the roller rink. Additionally, Dima and Tyson, with the occasional input from Nina and Max, were outdoing themselves sending barbs at the absent bluenette, that had them all laughing their asses off. Yet, at some point Ray could not help but feel that Nina's uncle no longer put his heart into it, little as he knew the man. And after a while, he began to get uncomfortable. It seemed a bit cowardly to mock Kai behind his back, and while there was no doubt that he was a difficult person, Ray wasn't sure their captain deserved this. A look towards Kenny told him that their computer genius was beginning to find the situation awkward, as well. Luckily, it did not take much longer, until Tyson complained about being hungry and they decided to get some dinner. At Hilary's insistence they asked Kai to come along first, who, to everyone's surprise, decided to join them.

Dinner started off as a rather calm affair. The team captain only tried once or twice to rein in Tyson's distasteful eating habits, opting to send the adult among them some barely concealed assessing glances through narrowed eyes - which were actually returned in kind.

Once everyone but a certain ever-hungry teen had sated their appetite, most of the team were putting in an effort to make some small talk.

"Hey, how come you don't look the slightest bit Japanese if you're Nina's uncle," Tyson had one of his sudden bouts of misplaced curiousness while the others just looked at him in bewilderment. Then Dima laughed good-naturedly.

"Um, that would be because I'm her mother's brother, I guess..." Poor Tyson turned bright red when he realized the stupidity of his question – of course he had known the girl was only half-Japanese...

"So what are you doing for a living," Kenny asked Dima to fill the silence.

"I'm a writer. Mystery novels and thrillers mostly,"Dima answered without sounding pretentious.

"Figures," a soft, but clearly audible voice sounded and every head turned to the bluenette sitting back with his arms folded and eyes closed. Kai, sensing the angry glares directed at him, slowly opened his eyes. His team mates did not quite understand what he was getting at, but the scorn in his tone had been unmistakeable. After a second of shocked silence, Dima, who unlike the others seemed to know what this was about, answered the contemptuous remark with calm fury: "And I'd say it figures that you are a bully just like your grandfather, but don't expect me to be intimidated."

That had been the end of the discussion that night. Kai simply took off wordlessly while the others were just fascinated how Dima handled the cold, but hot-tempered teen. Time would show that, while the rest of the team grew quite attached to the usually laid-back Dima, this evening was only the first of many occasions where he and the young team captain would clash rather vehemently for whatever reason.

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TBC

AN: A little question for the native speakers of English among you... Does bluenette look/sound right for you, since Kai's actually a guy? I mean, I really like the word bluenette (says it all, doesn't it) and I've seen it in use many times, but would you use brunette for a male, seeing as it's etymologically the feminine form? Am I weird for wondering about that? - sometimes I just get caught up in little things like that...

Answers to the (first) question and any other comments more than welcome.

08/05/06