A/N: Konnichiwa, minna! I'm back with a new chappie for all of you to consume! Hope that makes everyone happy! (Okay, why am I in hyper mode? That's my sister's job...) ; Anyway, not too many reviewed; in a way, that's a good thing. It makes it easier for me to say 'thank you'!
Wolfchilde - Thank you so much for the comment on the story and on my 'talent'. I really appreciate it.
LiahWoodsKainTalalover - Gah, what a loooong penname...Anyway, thanks for the comment. I tried to make Yuuya (Wyatt) sound as cute as I possible without going overboard, and as well as I could interpret from the images that were running through my head as I wrote that chapter.
Ghostymangarocker - You don't have to call me 'sensei', ya know...but if you want to, why not! Lol XD Anyway, glad you enjoyed the plot twist. Kind of surprising, huh?
KawaiiYuki - Yes, he's living with Yuuya now. I don't know where that came from though...I think it was a dream I had...I update as soon as I can, meaning as soon as I have Internet access...If I made you wait, SORRY!
Kuro1107 - Thanks!
FireieGurl - Yeah, I know it happened pretty early...I was trying to come up with an explanation for why Kai felt so responsible for Yuuya in Beyblade 2002. I update as soon as possible. Correction: This was never a TyKa pairing in the first place. I chose the wrong character thingy...sorry for the confusion!
Phoenixfromtheflames-2 - What can I say but...Thanks!
storm-of-insanity - Thanks for the nice comment. I try to be as original as possible without confusing readers. However, this fic is about to get a little bit confusing - at least, in later chapters...
Phew! This chapter's 'thanking session' is done. On with the fic!
Disclaimer: If only...
Chapter 5 – The Accident
Kai carefully swung open the door to Kyouju's room, just in case it squeaked. Poking his head inside, he scanned the room. No sign of the bespectacled teen. Where are they? He thought irritably. The same thing had happened when he checked Max's and Rei's rooms. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, racking his brains.
I know I heard them go into their rooms earlier tonight…
Suddenly, his eyes snapped open as it occurred to him.
Takao…
"Yuuya…" Takao rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That name sounds familiar, doesn't it?"
"Yeah." Max said, staring blankly at the page Kyouju had just read. "Where did I hear it before?"
"I don't know, Max." Kyouju said, still holding the file. He started to turn to the next page. "Anyway, let's finish this file before Kai decides there's something fishy going on." He glanced at the page he'd just turned to, and his jaw dropped.
"Guys! Look at this!" He exclaimed excitedly, laying the file on the floor so everyone could see it.
Everyone's eyes widened. In front of them were a couple of photos that had probably been pasted onto the original file. They showed a younger Kai with an even younger brown-haired child, whom they all knew very well.
"That…that's the first guy who fought Kai using Cyber Dranzer!" Takao said, aghast.
"Yeah!" Rei added. "No wonder the name sounded so familiar. Kai 'introduced' him to us that day, remember?"
Max nodded. "And that would explain why Kai felt so responsible for him back then, when using Cyber Dranzer drove Yuuya half-insane." Max smiled slightly as he recalled the image of Kai cradling a much older, maniacally laughing Yuuya. "He treated him so much like a brother; it was, well, heartening to see him so gentle."
"Yeah. Wonder when he'll act like that towards us…" Takao muttered."
"Takao!" Max, Kyouju, and Rei exclaimed in unison. Takao grinned sheepishly.
"Okay, okay! It was just a thought…"
"C'mon, lets get this over with." Kyouju urged, picking up the file. He scanned the contents for a few minutes.
"Chief, what's it say?" Takao asked, impatient.
"Well, it says here that there's a gap of around six months from the previous part, which we've just read. So that would mean that Kai's now six years old."
"Okay, so can we just get started?"
I am nervous. It's my first day at Daitou Gakuen Elementary. I look down at my uniform – white shirt, red necktie, and black short pants – and clutch my school bag tightly. I don't know anyone here, and I don't even know which class I belong to.
I look over my shoulder, searching for Ichiro's car. He's gone now. I sigh and glance up at the building. I am barely aware that the schoolyard is filling with students. I take a deep breath, square my shoulders, and stride purposefully into the building.
Inside, I glance quickly at the school map, looking for directions to the principal's office, just like Ichiro told me to. It turns out that the office is one corridor to the left down from the main entrance, so I run as fast as I can down the halls to it. I don't want to be late on my first day.
Before I know it, I'm standing in front of the desk of a young lady, who must have been the secretary. She looks at me over her glasses. "How may I help you?"
"I'm Kai Hiwatari, ma'am, and I'd like to know to which class I belong."
She smiles, probably impressed that I know how to take care of myself. "Well, Hiwatari is it? This is your first day at Daitou Gakuen?"
I nod. "Yes, ma'am."
"I see. Well, young Kai, you belong to class…"she pauses to glance at her files, then back at me. "Class 1-A. That's the second door to your left once you leave the office."
I smile. "Okay. Thank you, ma'am." I bow before letting myself out of the office. Once outside, I start walking slowly, counting the doors. Soon I spot the door to my classroom, and I swing it open.
I look around. There are only a few kids there, and most of them are sleeping. Quietly, I make my way to a seat near the window, and then set my bag on the floor beside my chair. I then lean back against the back of my seat and close my eyes, feeling the warm sunrays on my face.
"Hey, are you new?"
I am startled by the voice. I realize that I must have dropped off to sleep in my chair. I open my eyes to see a boy about my age, with dark blue hair and dark green eyes. He repeats his question.
"Excuse me, are you a new student?" As he says this, he plops down into the seat beside me.
I blink a few times, and then turn to face him. "Yeah. It's my first day here. Of course, it's everyone else's first day, too, but this is the first time I've set foot in this school."
"Oh, well, that's good. At least I'll have company," the boy says.
"Huh?"
"Well, it's my first time in this school, too." He says, smiling faintly. "See, my family relocated here from Australia."
"You're Australian?" I am shocked. "But…you're Japanese is perfect!"
The boy laughs, but not in a harsh way; it's more of apologetic laughter. "Oh, I'm not entirely Japanese. I'm half-Australian. My dad is Japanese, my mom is Australian."
"Oh."
There is silence for several minutes. Suddenly, the bell chimes, and, in the blink of an eye, the classroom is full of boys and girls, all scrambling over the seats by the window.
I stare at them, puzzled. Is this how it is every time school starts? I glance at my seatmate, who glances back and shrugs his shoulders, as if to say: How should I know?
"Good morning, class." An authoritative voice sounds from the front of the room, and the whole class jumps to its feet.
"Good morning, Ms. Tanaka," we say, before, with a curt nod, the teacher bids us sit down. Jeez! I think. I didn't think I'd be learning stuff under a general! I glance at my seatmate again, and I can see that he's thinking the same thing.
"Very good." She says, glancing down at her clipboard. "Now, when I call your name, you are to stand and say something about yourself. Don't worry; I'm not strict with what you are to say; just say whatever comes to mind.
At this point, my seatmate leans over and whispers, "By the way, my name's Kane Tsubasa. What's yours?"
"It's Kai. Kai Hiwatari." At the mention of my last name, Kane's eyes grow wide.
"Your last name's Hiwatari?" he asks, incredulous.
I nod. "Why, is something wrong?"
He shakes his head. "No, nothing really. It's just that when we were in Australia, my dad worked for this company called 'Hiwatari Enterprises'.
It's my turn to look surprised. "Y'mean that there's a company that's being run by the Hiwataris?"
"You mean to tell my that you didn't know?" Kane frowns. "How come?"
"Well, it's a long story, and I don't feel like tellin' you right now."
"Why not?"
"I…just don't!" I smile at him, willing him to understand. "But I promise, when I work up the guts, and when I feel the time is right, I'll tell you everything." I hold out my hand. Kane smiles back at me as he takes my hand in a firm grip.
"Okay, I'll pretend to forget about it for now, but remember, I'll hold you to your promise."
"Deal."
"So he met Kane, too?" Rei sat back on his heels in disbelief. "That's kind of hard to believe."
Kyouju nodded in agreement, but said nothing.
"Man! I feel like this file holds page after page of surprises!" Takao took off the blue and red baseball cap he always wore and laid it on the floor. "Check it out: first we find out that he'd actually lived with Max's family for a while, and then the first foster parents he had were Yuuya's parents, and now this! What's next?"
Before anyone could say anything else, there was a sudden, sharp knock on the door. Kyouju squeaked and quickly hid the file under the bed and reached for his laptop to switch it on, while Rei got up and, as calmly as possible, walked to the door to open it.
"Yes?" he asked, poking his head out.
"What are you all doing in Takao's room?"
"Oh, Kai! Ah, umm…we were…" he trailed off, turning to his other teammates to check if they were ready. Takao gave the thumbs-up. Rei turned back to his captain. "We were just, uh…checking out this website that Kyouju found! Yeah, that's it!"
"I'll just bet." Kai said, his voice monotone, as he pushed his way into the room.
Kyouju, having heard what Rei said, quickly typed in a URL without glancing at it. Max and Takao tried to look interested in the screen, which remained blank while it was downloading whatever information it needed to display the site. Rei followed closely at Kai's heels.
"Web-surfing, huh?" Kai said as soon as he'd reached the trio still seated on the floor. "May I take a look at this 'website', Kyouju?" he held out his hand for the laptop, which Kyouju readily gave to him, trying to smile to hide his nervousness.
Kai took one look at the website the group had been 'checking out', and his eyes widened in surprise. However, he quickly recovered, a slight smile on his face.
"Well, you guys certainly have a different idea of what 'interesting' is. But then, you're all near that age, aren't you." He handed the laptop back to Kyouju, who took it back without a sound. Meanwhile, Kai had walked back to the door and was now opening it. Before he stepped out into the hall, he glanced back over his shoulder. "Oh, enjoy those pictures." He said, smirking.
The door swung shut, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"What did Kai mean by 'enjoy those pictures'?" Rei asked, squatting down beside Kyouju once more.
"I have no-GAAAH!" Kyouju's eyes (?) widened, and he turned positively red.
"Chief what's wrong?" Max glanced over the smaller teen's shoulder. When he saw what it was that made his friend's face turn into a ripe tomato, he, too turned red.
"Well, Max?" Takao approached the two. "What was it?"
"Yeah," Rei said, crawling closer as well. "What's so funny- Oh…my…"
The neko-jin and the brunette were both red in the face now, only Reiwas trying to hold in his laughter.Takao was the first to break the silence.
"Chief!" the brunette exclaimed. He jabbed a finger at the screen. "Why'd you open a porn website?"
Kyouju looked sheepish. "Well, there wasn't any time to type in a 'proper' URL, since Kai was already in the room…"
Max flopped down onto the carpeted floor. "Way to go, Chief! Now Kai thinks we're all porn freaks!"
Rei, however, was chuckling. "Good thing I wasn't one of those 'looking' at that thing! But you guys…looked so interested in it!"
"Did you guys see Kai's face when he saw it, though?" Takao said, chuckling slightly as he recalled his captain's shocked look. "Aw, man! That was the best!"
Kyouju was still blushing a little as he shut off the laptop again. "C'mon, guys, let's forget what happened, okay? Kai's suspicious already, so lets finish reading this file before he checks up on us again."
"Okay." Max sat up again and took his place in the circle, as did Takao and Rei. Kyouju turned to the next page.
"Looks like it deviates a bit from the chronological order of the file," Kyouju said, scanning it.
"What's it say?"
"It says it's an account of the one nearly-fatal injury Kai received while living with his mother."
"What injury?"
"The stab wound he received when he was nearly five years old."
"WHAT?"
Social Worker: Kai, what happened before this accident?
Kai: Well, I was around four and a couple of months old that time, but I already knew how to do the dishes that time.
SW: Wow. Do you know that you're the only child who, at your age, knows how to do the dishes? Did you ever break any plates?
K: Yes, a few. Mother got really mad. Those times, she sent me to bed without dinner.
SW: That's awful!
K: I was used to it.
SW: I see…anyway, so what happened on the night you were accidentally stabbed?
K: I was sitting on the stairs as I do every night before dinner. Then Mother called me upstairs to the kitchen. Once I was there, she said that I had twenty-five minutes to do the dishes and put them away. I remember that I was shocked; she'd never placed such a short time limit on doing the dishes before. I found out why in a minute.
SW: What do you mean?
K: She grabbed a carving knife off the knife rack on the nearby counter, saying that she'd kill me if I went even two seconds past the limit. But I was used to her saying that, over and over again, so I didn't care. But I sensed that something was wrong as I went to grab a stool to stand on so I could reach the sink. I turned around to face Mother again, and examined her face. It was the same as always; still, I couldn't shake the feeling.
SW: And what happened next?
K: I saw a wet patch on the kitchen tiles; Mother mustn't have seen it when she was mopping up. She saw me staring at me and got even madder. She started yelling at me, asking why I was looking at her like that. She stomped closer, and I remember wishing that she'd slip and fall, hurting herself. She did slip, but she caught herself in time. However, as she fell, she let go of the knife. I didn't see it either, but I felt it go into my upper abdomen. And then, I lost consciousness, I guess.
SW: Did your mother treat you?
K: I think she did. When I woke up, I was lying on my cot without a shirt, and there was a bloodstained bandage around my middle. I looked up and saw Mother mopping my brow with a wet washcloth. She said I'd been running a fever throughout the night, and that she was glad that I'd finally woken up.
SW: So there was an improvement in your relationship.
K: Well, she treated me nice for around two days, but that was it. The wound healed in about a week, but I'm not sure if it was infected or not.
SW: How did you feel after the accident?
K: I felt…relieved, I guess, during the two days that Mother was nicer to me. I thought that, by being stabbed accidentally, I'd been 'freed' from the nightmare world Mother had built and in which I'd lived. But after that, things were back to 'normal', and then I felt sad again. Also, I think that was the first – and only – time I saw Mother cry when she realized that she'd hurt me.