In the beginning, we cut the red ribbon in two.

But now, when we need it the most, will we able to tie the loose ends,

Safe, In Your Arms

Chapter 16: Tying the Knot

It didn't take long for Forrest to notice the scowls that Mrs. Hiwatari was giving her. She constantly sighed and rolled her eyes to herself as she propped herself against her soft armchair and tried to read Macbeth, which was assigned by the English teacher. She knew better than to disturb Kai to help her with her Japanese work, so she did her other homework first. She rubbed her eyes roughly and blew some hair out of her view. She leaned down unconsciously and she felt gravity take over.

Oh shit, she thought before a crash was heard and Theresa came rushing in the room. She rubbed her head furiously and gave a growl.

"See? How could you let someone like her reside in this house, son?" came a harsh voice.

"She was just being careless for a moment, it's not like she broke anything—"

"I don't care about materialistic things or anything related to money, Kai!"

Yeah right you don't, then why did yell at me for renting that room away three thousand less yens (1)that I should have? He wanted to rebuke back but he knew that he shouldn't, it would cause much more trouble.

Kai knew his mother well, she wasn't perfect but she was knowledgeable, pretty, and elegant. The only thing that she was missing was a calm temper to be the perfect mother and wife. And most of all, she wouldn't admit that she loved money and spending it mostly.

"So as I was saying," she started again. Kai just looked in her direction for politeness. "We're inviting very high class people here, unless you count your brother's dear old friends and personally none of your schoolmates will be invited either, expect for that dear lady that I've met before. This is a private little dinner."

"Yes, mother, I understand," he replied, dully.

"And make sure that she doesn't disturb either. It will be perfect; it has to be perfect for your brother. You'll understand when you become engaged yourself, honey," she said sweetly.

"I guess that I will," he paused and an awkward silence hung. "Excuse me, mom, I should do some school work," he mumbled as he pushed himself up from the couch in the lounge.

"Yes, yes, keep yourself busy in academics! You'll achieve great things!"

Apparently there's no chance that she'll accept beyblading as my choice of career, he thought as he strolled to the study room without any further words.

"Your own mother wouldn't allow you to invite your friends to a party?" a voice exclaimed, sounding rather surprised.

"Don't remind me of that," Kai muttered. "So why are you here?"

"I was searching for a quick talk," the red-head rolled his eyes, "but apparently this isn't the greatest timing."

"Spill, Tala," Kai spat.

"Voltaire wants a new beyblading team," he said, simply.

"And may I ask why did my dear grandfather tell you before telling his grandson?" Kai inquired. Tala noticed the sarcasm in his friend's voice.

"You did betray him last time," Tala stated.

"And since when did you know this?"

"Since I came here… but then again, you were busy. And I was busy, too."

"Busy?" he raised his eyebrow, "busy doing what, exactly?"

The red-head rolled his eyes slowly.

"Top secret things?" Kai answered for him. Tala shrugged and propped himself against the couch. "Right and I'll pretend that you're not here," he continued as he turned attention to the computer screen.

"Suit yourself. Just tell him the answer when he gets here."

"He's coming here?" Kai asked, not looking at Tala.

"Your brother's party," Tala said slowly, giving the expression that it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"And how do you know about that?"

"Connections, you know," Tala shrugged as he played with the remote control.

Both heard a knock on the open door, Kai turned his head and looked at the intruder.

"Um, Kai? I'm completely stuck and Theresa just ran off," came a voice.

Forrest stepped in the room wearing a very loose t-shirt and khaki pants. She had a stack of paper in her hands and handed them to Kai so that he could proofread her Japanese homework.

"Forrest? Ah yes, just the person who I was looking for," Tala said.

"You were looking for me?" Forrest inquired, raising an eyebrow with an exaggerated surprised expression on her face.

"I wanted to ask you about your friend," he started.

"My friend?"

"At least I think that she's your friend. You don't have many friends anyway," Forrest scowled at Tala as he spoke. "Shayna Tanaka."

"Oh right," Forrest mumbled as she took a seat on the couch, far away from Tala. "What about her?"

"What does she like?" he asked, interested.

"Music," she said, but he rolled his eyes; he already knew that, "skateboarding, reading, arts and I just found that she's quite good at Chinese checkers." Tala raised his eyebrow slightly and smirked, showing his perfect dimples.

"What does she hate?" he asked.

"Illogical people, jerks, morons, sexist or people with prejudice against others and typical stuff…," Forrest trailed off. "Why?"

Tala gave an infamous smirk and shrugged. "I asked her out."

Forrest snorted and rolled her eyes. "I feel bad for Shayna, you're worse than Kai." At that, the blue haired Russian boy turned his attention to the two.

"Excuse me? I heard my name," Kai inquired as he glared at Forrest.

"Nothing, nothing. Go back at correcting that essay, thanks," she muttered as she sent him a glare back.

"What do you mean I'm worse than him?"

"Well you guys aren't exactly the nicest people around," Forrest shrugged as she sighed. "But then again if Shayna accepted, you must have some kind of a good personality. But unfortunately I haven't noticed it yet."

"Look beyond the cover," Tala said, simply.

"I have and I don't see anything good," Forrest replied, as she gave a quick yawn.

"You're not looking deep enough."

For some reason, that sentence lingered in her thoughts for the whole week. I've heard that sentence before…

Two weeks later…

The party that was organized for Kai's brother was very formal. People were dressed in fancy dresses with many layers, men wore suits or tuxes. Most of them looked ridiculous to Forrest's eyes but then again, she wasn't there to judge them. She wasn't even invited to a party that went on in the house that she lived in. This is stupid, she thought. I don't want to go there anyway, hn. But it was impossible to not hear the light chatters flowing in the house. They were sophisticated conversations and Forrest groaned as she flipped a page of her book.

"Ouch!"

Her finger was slit a little and it started bleeding. Paper cut, ergh, she thought as she quickly went to the bathroom to find a band-aid. But no luck. None at all. She slowly opened the double doors that led to the hallway and waltz out slowly, inspecting her entourage with care. Not far from her door stood two people, side by side, holding a normal conversation. It was a guy and a girl, both about her age.

"Hiwatari?" she inquired.

"—I haven't met her yet but I've heard enough of my brother's praises—yes?" he raised his delicate eyebrows.

He was dressed in a dark grey suit, matching his hair; his inner white shirt's top buttons were left unbuttoned which gave him a young-but-serious-and-mature look. He wore no tie or bow around his neck. He looked good. Very good.

"Compliments on the dark suit, is it Bloomingdales?" she asked casually.

"Blooming-what?"

"Bloomingdales, Kai. Widely known store, you know," the person beside him added.

The lady beside him wore a well-fitting royal blue dress that faded to a very light blue at the bottom. It was half-backless, a little lacy and very vintage looking. The bottom of the dress rippled as it reached the ground. Her hair was curled and let loose carelessly on the side; some were dripped over her shoulder while others went down her half-naked back. She was beautiful. There seemed to be a glowing aura around her giving her an air of innocence and beauty at the same time. Her eyes were accented with blue eye shadow that brought up the color of her dark blue hair and dress. She was like the night sky, so beautiful to look at and so soothing.

"Felicia…," Forrest was speechless, "you're… gorgeous."

"Thanks," the girl replied, smiling widely. "I don't know why but I was invited and we were supposed to stand by your door." Kai scowled at her. "Oops, I just told too much," she gave a light giggle. Forrest cocked an eyebrow and chuckled.

"No one trusts me around here, oh well. I just need some band-aid."

"Band-aid? What's that?" Felicia inquired while Kai just shrugged.

"Err," Forrest showed her cut finger.

"Oh, that, here you go," Felicia replied after she fondled in her tiny purse and retrieved a piece of band-aid. "Always carry one around, quite useful."

"Thank you," Forrest mumbled as she blushed crimson. She's so thoughtful.

"Go back in your room," Kai said simply. Forrest mouthed a 'huh'. "Mother's orders. Not sure why."

"Well, I know why, Kai. And personally, I don't even want to be part of this fancy party. Good night," she spun around, losing her temper quickly and slammed the double doors behind her as she stomped back into her room, holding the band-aid tight in her hand.

They don't want me. Too bad. I don't want them either, she fumed as she wrapped the tiny bandage around her injured finger.

Outside the room, Kai and Felicia stood near the door, looking down into the sitting room that was half-crowded with gentlemen in penguin suits and some ladies who wore dresses prettier than Felicia's and chandelier earrings that were probably worth more than the plasma TV sitting in the room.

"It looks like someone is going to have a speech," Felicia commented.

"Probably my brother. Let's go," he didn't want for another second to descend the stairs carefully, not destroying the decorations that hung on the sides of the staircase. Felicia followed silently. She was quite confused.

Kai was right; it was his brother who began to give a speech.

"Ladies," he paused, "and gentlemen," he nodded to several people who just arrived. "Old friends and new," he smiled widely while Kai frowned slightly, "and my dear family. Tonight is my engagement party and with no further ado, here's my beautiful fiancée!"

She stepped to some sort of temporary stage in the middle of the big room, it seemed like the spotlight was on her. Her dress was a very light pink that resembled white and her make-up was also of a similar color. Her figure was slim and tall; she was less than one head shorter than Jake Hiwatari himself. When she smiled, white bleached teeth were shown, contrasting with her tanned skin. Silky light brown curls fell on her naked shoulders and she wore her ring on her forth finger with pride. Kai could see why his mother had liked the girl so much; his brother's fiancée was almost like his mother. Almost like a clone, minus the dark skin and the brown hair. Even her grin resembled his mother's. He shivered at the thought.

"Good evening, friends, family," she gave a sweet-sounding chuckle, "well, you know the routine."

Almost everyone in the room gave a quick laugh in response.

"I'm Caeline Hovk, Jake's fiancée," Kai almost snorted because the woman added a faint "y" to his brother's name.

Jakey. Yes, Jakey, he smirked.

"I'm no great public speaker so I will stop my very short speech here. I wish to talk to each one of you individually and thank you so much for coming!"

"That was a silly speech," Felicia commented, "even I would have done better."

"Well, we'll see at your engagement party, won't we?" he replied casually but as he turned his gaze on Felicia's face, he bit his bottom lip. Felicia was blushing furiously.

What is wrong with girls and talking about engagements and weddings? he asked himself, confused.

The evening past slowly, as eight o'clock came, Forrest dressed herself casually and made her way out of the house from her perched balcony. She landed on her butt and gave an annoyed groan. At least this is the last family meeting, she thought as she made her way to the streets and called a cab to go to Jacqueline's.

"I'll see you tomorrow, oh-brilliant-tournament."

He felt a light tap on his shoulder and even before he turned around to look at the person, he already had a bad feeling. Voltaire…

And unsurprisingly enough, it was his grandfather.

"Kai, I've much need to speak with you," the old man started, leaning on his cane, acting weak.

"Excuse me, I'm busy," the Russian boy ignored his elder and turned his attention back to his dinner.

"No, immediately and no buts… unless, of course, you completely agree to the terms that I've offered."

"What terms?" Kai asked, annoyed.

"You seem interested," Voltaire replied, smiling sinisterly.

"Right," he muttered, "be right back," he added Felicia and the rest of his family.

He carefully placed the heavy wooden chair back into its spot and frowned at his grandfather.

"So…"

"I believe that Mr. Valkov has informed you of everything."

"Tala? He told me that you wanted to join your team. Is that everything? If so, There is no way and I'll go back to my food," Kai replied, determined of his decision.

"Don't be stubborn, Kai. You'll see the power of my new team."

"Oh please. Your plan of taking over the world is so cheesy."

"I've changed my plans, Kai. I no longer desire power. I desire influence."

"There is no difference between those two words… when it comes from you."

"Reconsider, Kai. You know that it's for the better. Remember all those training… you know what you have to do. Beyblading is far from a game now. Every match in this tournament will lead to the fight of the century in the finals and you'll stand there, on the side, watching my team take away the trophy. Don't you wish that you were a winner?"

Without a single word in reply, Kai turned around and got back in his chair. He turned his head to look at his grandfather in the eyes.

"I prefer to give up beyblading rather than to have to do anything with you," he spat.

"So that's your decision. I guess that this world changed… one cannot depend on his family anymore. You've made a grave mistake, Kai."

"Fuck off!" he roared as his grandfather touched the last of his nerves.

All the chattering noises stopped one after another. The mansion soon was filled with mutterings and whispers. Kai walked away, making sure that his chair was toppled over. His mother was too embarrassed to call her son back. Jake Hiwatari merely smirked while his fiancée looked horrified. Felicia was more than amused by Kai's rude comment.

The double doors that led to his room were slammed shut.

Voltaire set off furiously, ignoring the stares of his daughter.

"Fellow Beybladers!" he cried into the microphone, his voice ringing through the big beyblade battle dome. The red bandana around his head matched the red clothing that he wore with the official sign of the BBA on it. "Welcome to a very special event in the beyblading history!" his voice faded a little. "Winning teams from all over Asia and other recognized teams have been invited here for the biggest battles of a life time! This is a special Asian tournament!"

There were two big screens in the dome; one for every half of the dome. The spectators' attention went to the screens that showed the name of every team invited to the tournament.

"Here is the Astral Spirits team from the famous Abbott academy from India! They blade with extreme speed, dodging almost every attack. Their bitbeasts are a representation of themselves, hence 'astral'. They are also winner of the South Asian tournament last year!"

A group of five people stepped forward and the audience clapped before they stepped back and the host went on.

"The Beethovens, from the Philippines. Their musical talents give their bitbeasts a boost. A round of applause, please, for this team who placed third in the Asian tournament two years ago!"

A group of four people stepped forward, Forrest noticed that one of them had a guitar strapped to his back.

"The Bladebreakers!" Forrest felt her heart beating crazily against her chest. "Last year's world champion team! They control many kinds of attacks and are fierce in battle!"

A round of applause was heard around the stadium mixed with some cat calls and silly whistles. Forrest looked beside her and noticed Kai completely bored as she was flushed. He wore his infamous white scarf, sleeveless black shirt, baggy navy pants and a silver wolf-head belt around his waist. Next to him was Ray, wearing his Chinese style white-blue-and-yellow costume; Forrest wondered how he could be comfortable in those. Max wore orange long-sleeve shirt with bright green details on it and beige capris. Tyson wore his usual yellow-and-red outfit with his signature hat and ponytail. Kenny, who was holding on his laptop, wore a white shirt with a dark green tie and navy jeans. They all stepped back.

"The Corsellas, a group of young ladies that blade with style and second runner-up in the South Asian tournament!"

Five girls who looked a little older than Forrest stepped to the center of the stadium, waving courteously to the crowd. They all wore some sort of long and silky Chinese qi-paos.

"Dreams of Eden! A new but very remarkable team, they haven't lost a match yet!"

A group consisting of three boys and two girls stepped out. Forrest watched the process go on and leaned against the wall carelessly.

There was about 60 teams invited and each team took about half a minute to introduce.

Time passed by and the announcement ended with:

"The White Tigers from China, second in last year's Asian tournament!"

She shot her head towards the other side of the stadium, where the White Tigers were. Mariah was in the team along with some people whom she never met. She grinned. I've watched them in battle before, she thought.

"We will start the first round today! Let's scramble the teams and see who's up first!"

Forrest watched the big screen hanging in the air as the name of two teams appeared.

"Corsellas against Slayers!"

Satomi…, Forrest thought as she gave a soft sigh.

She tensed up as she saw her friend Satomi and her other team mates make towards the beyblading dish. The captains of both teams shook their hands.

Meanwhile, the other teams made their way to sit along with the spectators. Forrest climbed the stairs last and took a seat in the front row between Kenny and Max.

"It looks like the teams have chosen their teammates to battle! Up first are… Annalie from the Corsellas against Satomi from the Slayers!" Forrest grinned.

"Go Satomi!" she cheered along the other spectators; she was no different from the others.

Both opponents stepped to the center of the dish and positioned themselves for the launch. The normal silver dish had been redesigned to what seemed like something that came out of a painting. It was a landscape including water, grass, flowers, mountains, and etc. But neither Satomi or Annalie took notice of the dish.

"3, 2, 1, let it riiipppp!" the host screamed into his microphone.

The two blades were launched and collided several times in mid-air before landing in the dish. They went to separate sides and started to dodge each other's attacks. Satomi's blade spun on the grassed area, chopping off some of the vegetation while her opponent's blade was on the shoreline.

"Artemis, meteor shower!"

Some animal that resembled a lynx rose above from the blade. Its shining fur coat glimmered under the light.

"You groomed you bitbeast?" Satomi mocked.

Without giving back a response, Annalie ordered her bitbeast to dodge some attacks. Slowly, it started to glow. Satomi noticed something falling from the ceiling. It was raining stars. Literally. Raining stars.

"Galopsus, dodge them!" Satomi cried as she saw her bitbeast in trouble.

The burning stars were easy to dodge at first but the fall of them became so abundant that every part of the dish was covered by them. The grass-covered ground became ablaze; only the pond of the landscape stayed intact.

"Those stars are hot," Annalie said, sweetly.

"My attacks are hotter."

Obeying her master, Galopsus appeared. She was a horned horse. Her color was something between gold and bronze, making her look like a statue of some sort. Galopsus's mane danced in the wind and its air of elegance was obvious.

"Your bitbeast is a unicorn? I love unicorns!" Annalie exclaimed dramatically childishly.

"I do too, dear, I do too," Satomi said while rolling her eyes.

The so-called unicorn charged towards her opponent several times to lead it near the water.

I see where this is going, Forrest thought as she watched from the audience's point of view. Soon enough, what she'd predicted became true. Galopsus's horn shone and sparks of electricity came out of it. It seemed like Galopsus bowed down so that her horn touched the water, transferring the electricity across the whole artificial lake.

"Clever," Annalie mumbled. "Let's see if we'll see the constellations tonight, alright?"

"What?" Satomi exclaimed, shocked. She frowned and scratched her forehead nervously.

The answer came quick enough as the setting of the whole beyblade dish switched. There were no more advantages to Satomi; everything turned into nothingness. It seemed like the blades were just… spinning in mid-air.

"No more of your elemental advantages!" Annalie exclaimed.

"Fine," Satomi rolled her eyes. "Thunder outrage!"

As sparks appeared around Galopsus's horn, stars started glowing and they sucked the energy away. Slowly, the light coming from the bitbeast disappeared and the stars shone a little brighter.

"What the—"

"Meteor shower!"

The attack was much stronger because Galopsus had boosted the power of the stars with her electricity. Satomi took a step back and beads of sweat glided down her forehead.

"They suck all attacks away," she stated.

"But not physical ones," Satomi said, flatly. Galopsus growled loudly and charged with all her strength towards her opponent.

The two blades collided against each other, pushing each other head to head like two stags battling with their antlers. Galopsus gave an angry growl and anchored her body on the dish. Artemis couldn't push further. Galopsus made a sudden move back and then charged forward forcefully.

The match stopped as Annalie's blade flew out of the illusion-ized dish. Most of the spectators gave an 'oooh' and Satomi grinned.

"That was a great match," Annalie said, smiling.

"Ditto that to you."

Satomi glanced around at the audience, it felt great to win. She stretched her hand forward and Galopsus, who was still spinning, landed on her hand. She grasped her beyblade tightly. Satomi strolled back to her team with a proud grin on face.

"That was just the first match, don't be over-confident," a guy with sandy brown hair and auburn eyes said.

"You're such a fucking kill joy, Kata," Satomi stated as she walked over to the bench and sat down straight away..

"But I'm a good captain," he retorted coldly.

"Just shut up," another boy mumbled as he straightened his cloak. His eyes were hidden from view and his cloak seemed three sizes too big for him.

"Dude, it's fucking hot here. Take off that cloak, it makes you look fucking retarded," Satomi groaned as she fanned herself with her hands.

"Satomi, why do you have to talk so much?" a soft but piercing voice came.

"You don't talk enough, Lyn. I don't understand you," Satomi stated flatly.

A round of applause rang through the stadium as a young lady wearing a magenta silk Chinese dress stepped to the dish. Her hair was held up in a bun with two chopsticks and a warm smile graced her lips. Her launcher was a color of magenta, too, and she positioned herself, waiting for her opponent to arrive.

"Why are we a team again? Remind me," the cloaked boy asked as he stood up from the bench and walked to the dish; it was his turn to blade.

"We aren't a team. We're just individuals grouped together to participate in this tournament that took me two weeks to get an invitation from, Kazu. And you better win this."

The cloaked figure, or so-called Kazu, seemed like he glided to the dish. Satomi shivered at the thought.

"2nd match of the Corsellas versus the Slayers! 3, 2, 1… let it rip!"

The lady launched her blade first and it landed gracefully into a dish. This time, it was a normal silver dish except for the magnetic field in the center of it. Kazu's blade was launched from somewhere inside his cloak. The crowd could not tell exactly where.

"He pisses me off," Satomi gritted between her teeth, "too fucking mysterious."

"And what's your problem with the word 'fucking'?" Pierce Kata inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Why do you fucking care?" she barked, rolling her eyes.

"Sorry that I asked," he spat as he turned around and looked back at the battle.

The match lasted quite a while because most of Kazu's attacks were banned in the first few rounds because it damaged the player. But nevertheless, the boy had a strong defense and slowly took his opponent down with some tricks hidden in his cloak. His grin broadened and white teeth were shown, contrasting with his dark figure.

"Good match," his opponent stated with a high but soothing voice. Something about that girl made him respect her.

"Yes, great match," he repeated as he gave a quick nod to her and glided back to his team.

"You almost lost, you know," Pierce said apathetically.

"Would it actually matter?" Kazu asked, shrugging.

"Nope."

"All right, folks! The winner is the Slayers winning 2 out of 3 matches. The next match will be…," the host paused as he watched the computer making a random selection on the screen. "The Mariners against the Sky Gliders!"

Forrest gave a heavy sigh and tapped on Kenny's shoulder.

"Should we leave? We're probably not gonna play today. There's only two more matches," she grumbled.

"You can leave. I've nothing better to do, right, Dizzi?" the brown haired boy replied casually. The laptop gave an approval.

"Okay," Forrest mumbled.

As she walked lazily down the stairs to the waiting rooms, she suddenly realized that someone had left too. Kai… how can he be so discreet? The boy's seat beside Tyson has been left empty and unnoticed. She gave an annoyed grunt.

In the corner of the room stood two figures, one leaning on the wall and another one leaning on what seemed like a cane.

"We'll have no problems with this tournament, or so-called tournament. I don't really consider this a real tournament," one said.

"Just because there are no evil grandfathers trying to take over the world doesn't mean that this won't be a challenge, Kai. There are some very talented teams here," the other one said.

Forrest frowned as she tried to recognize the other voice. She's heard it once or twice somewhere… somewhere. She rolled her eyes to herself as she stepped into the waiting room to see the two males closer. The one leaning against the wall was Kai, but she already knew that.

"Mr. Dickenson!" Forrest exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Aren't you too busy?"

"Well, I wouldn't be too busy for my tournament would I?" the old man gave a warm chuckle.

Forrest frowned. "Kai, you should respect Mr. Dickenson's choices. If he thinks that the teams are worthy to be invited he must have a really good reason. Stop being so… anti-everything," she gave him a quick glare.

The Russian boy merely shrugged and mumbled: "I was just telling the truth". There was a short moment of silence.

"And the match goes to the Sky Gliders bringing it to 1 to 1!" the announcer exclaimed.

Mr. Dickenson's face brightened up and he chuckled lightly. "Well, kids, I'll leave you to have fun but I need to watch this match!"

Forrest watched the old man leave slowly. He seemed to have gotten a lot older since I first saw him on the news, she thought. She unconsciously let her eyes wander on the figure of the Russian boy. There was something that I wanted to ask him…

"Oh yes, Kai, can you let me beyblade in the semi-finals? I know that you don't want me to play in the finals but I think that it's only fair if—"

"Yes, alright," he grunted and propped himself once again against the walls.
"Oh, right," she blinked to herself, thinking that it would be much harder to convince him. "I have some good news, I think. My beyblade can spin from one of the pool to the other."

"Good," he said simply, "I'll verify that tonight."

He moved from his spot slowly, every action of his seemed graceful to her. His white scarf flowed after him as he walked outside of the waiting room.

"I suggest that you study the tactics of the teams, especially the Slayers, I've got a bad feeling about them," he said before he shut the door with a click.

She grumbled some nonsense under her breath and followed his footstep. She was in no mood to speak to anyone at the moment.

At the dish were two magnificent bitbeast fighting each other. One was a small and agile hummingbird that was of a shade of a beautiful green while the other was a ferocious octopus with its eight legs busy trying to catch the little bird. The hummingbird wasn't even close to the octopus's size but the bird was very clever; it flew around so that three of the octopus's "legs" were entangled and it seemed like it was giggling because it emitted sound kind of a happy sounding humming.

"Typhoon!"

A tornado appeared, as fast as the hummingbird's quick movements, and swept across the dish. The two blades were already very weak; both wobbled and it was a rather long match. The octopus tried to attack the hummingbird but it was hard because the creature was so small and agile. The tornado hit the octopus and sent the blade flying towards its owner. As soon as the match terminated, the hummingbird returned to its chip; it was exhausted.

"2 to 1 for the Sky Gliders! That was a terrific match!" the host announced with awe, "next match will be…," all the attention of the crowd turned to the two screens hanging in mid-air, "the Weather Girls against the Bladebreakers!"

Forrest frowned, she thought that they wouldn't have to battle on the first day because it was the last match anyway. But she was wrong; she was always wrong. She sighed and made her way to the benches. From the corner of her eyes, she saw the crowds cheering and she blushed furiously.

"Three minutes for the teams to choose their players!" the host said into the microphone.

Forrest bit her nails nervously and glanced at her teammates. Kai sat on the bench with his arms folded. Ray stood near the bench and glanced into the crowd. Max and Tyson were doing rock-paper-scissors to decide who was going last. Max groaned as he lost.

"Alright, I'm second then," the boy said.

"How come I don't get to choose?" Forrest asked, rolling her eyes.

"Well, we all thought that if you went first… then we'd catch up if you know…" Kenny started.

"If I lost. Gee, thanks," she grumbled as she walked towards the dish. The three minutes were almost up and the worst was that her team didn't even believe in her. So if I lose, they'll have a chance to prepare to win twice, but I won't lose. I'll show them!

"It seems like the first match will be between Forrest and Spring!"

Forrest nodded to herself and bended her knees a little. Relax…

"3!" Forrest relaxed her shoulders, "2!" she gripped on her ripcord, "1! Let it rip!"

She pulled on the cord forcefully and watched her blade being launched into the air and colliding with her opponent's before landing in the normal silver dish.

"Veezula, let's fill this dish with vegetation!"

Forrest frowned. Vegetation?

(1) from what I know about Japanese money, 3000 yens is a pretty small amount of money … the rent there is very high and besides, for someone like Voltaire's child, it should be a very small amount of money

Author's Notes: Cliffie. Yeah. Next chapter will be much shorter.