Chapter 8: "Driger Attack!"
"All right, today, we are going to learn about gravity," this was Mr. Yang talking, who was one of Jenna's great many teachers in her school down the road from her house.
"Great," she said sarcastically. She didn't know why teachers always had to teach them stuff they had learned the year before (i. e. how to add). She was in 8th grade, which, in her opinion, was the second-greatest grade in the all of school life, the first being senior year. I have to agree with her.
But she was too preoccupied to think any of this. At that moment, she was
thinking of her upcoming practice that afternoon. Today would be the first time she had
ever launched Driger. The reason she felt so excited was because she hoped to battle
her father one day, who once was a great blader. Oh, she couldn't wait!
"Jenna? Jenna!" Mr. Yang was yelling.
"Wuzgoinon?" Jenna jolted from her doze.
"Kindly pay attention to your science lesson." He turned back to the class. "Now,
as I was saying, British scientist Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity when sitting one
day under a tree an apple fell on his head. In the year…"
His voice trailed off, so Jenna turned around to find out why. In the door stood her
own father. Mr. Yang seemed surprised, even frightened.
"Mr. Kon! What a pleasant surprise! We always enjoy—"
Not waiting for him to finish, Ray came up to the front and said, "Mr. Yang, I
would like to take my daughter home, now."
"But, sir—"
"Now." He turned around. "Come, Jenna. You have training to attend." He left
out the door.
"Bye, guys!" She said to the rest of the class, gathered her things, and followed
her father out the door. "Where are we going, Father?" she asked him when she had
caught up with him.
"To the top of the mountain. You might want to put your school stuff in the house.
And get your blade." He stood next to the back door of their house.
"Um, okay." Jenna went inside, put down her bag, and grabbed her black silk bag
that her blades, launchers, and spare ripcords were in. When she had gotten together all of it, she went out through the door she had come.
"Okay, I'm ready now. But why are we going?" They started walking.
"Oh, you'll see. It's really cool up there. Great places to practice, great places to
gather your thoughts…Have you ever been to the top?" He asked her.
"No, I don't think so."
"Well, it's probably because they haven't but recently put those steps into its face.
Before, you used to have to climb through the branches. Have I ever told you the story of
the Fruit-Loving Mystel?"
"Nope," she had heard a lot about this person named Mystel from her Uncle Lee,
but had never heard her father mention him.
"Ah, well, this would be a good time to tell it then. Well, one ordinary day, in this
very village, a boy named Mystel came to 'visit'. Well, on that same day, me and your
mother, and your Uncle Lee and Kevin and Gary were just hanging out, when at one
point, Lee saw Mystel jump from that water fall." He pointed to the water fall they were
passing, one that looked very tall.
"Wow! That fall must be 100 feet high!"
"Yes, actually, it is. Good estimation. Anyway, so your uncle saw Mystel jump
from and he came and told me, and I thought, 'What is he talking about?' I let it go.
"Then your mother came to me and said, 'I almost lost my scarf and he saved
it!' And again I thought that it was nothing to worry about.
"And finally, Kevin and Gary came and said that they had been trying to save a
kitten for its mother, and that this guy came out of nowhere and did it. Then I had to
investigate it. So one day, when were trying to climb this very mountain with our blades,
he came from somewhere and burst past mine right before I got to the top, and he
knocked all the fruit we had been trying to get down. We were all surprised except your
uncle. He got real annoyed and started yelling at Mystel. Mystel just laughed at him.
"So then Lee challenged Mystel to a battle. He lost."
"Who did?"
"Lee."
"Really?"
"Yep, right out of the dish, or should I say crater? So then I challenged him
myself. He said he would. So I loaded, and he loaded. We let it rip. We battled for about
5 minutes—it was hard I'll tell you that. So he gets to the top do his special attack and he
falls, and he was lucky I caught him because he surely would have broken his neck.
We've been friends ever since. Well, here we are." He laid down his pack on the ground. He looked around.
"Looks like they're not here yet. Oh, wait—" He twiddle his ears and said, "Yes
they are."
"How do you know that? And who is 'they'?" asked Jenna.
"Because if you move your ears you can hear them. And 'they' would happen to
be your relations." He pointed up the path. "Go talk to them."
"Um…okay," she ran up to the top, and looked down onto a small natural
terrace.
There she saw Mr. Kevin, Mr. Gary, her mother, her Uncle Lee, and a man with
blonde hair and a mask who she didn't recognize. All of them had their blades out,
spinning in the deepest part of the terrace, which seemed to be a natural beystadium. She
called down to them, "Hey, can I come down there?"
Her mother looked up. "Well, it's about time. Tell your father to get down here!
Mr. God-of-Fruit here is getting ansy!"
The blonde-haired man spoke. "I am not getting ansy, I am just eagerly waiting
patiently."
"Mm-hmm, what-ever."
"Hey, long no time no see, Mystel!" Ray said to the blonde haired man.
"M-Mystel! The Mystel that I heard about in the story?" She looked at Mystel,
her eyes as wide as dinner-plates.
"The one-and-only, at your service," Mystel said, bowing to her as if she was a
great imperial princess. "Ray has told me a lot about you. He says you might be as good a
blader as he was."
"Well, I don't know about that."
"Why not? Any offspring of Ray's is bound to be the best in their country, not to
mention as good as their sire." He winked at her, or at least, she thought he did, she
couldn't see anything behind the mask.
This apparently showed in her face, because Lee said, "Why don't you take off
the mask, Mystel? Maybe the young'un would like to see what the great Mystel looks
like."
"Oh I'm sorry. Here." He took off the mask.
Jenna had no idea why he would want to hide his face. It was tan from sun, with
eyes the color of brilliant sea-water. His expression seemed to stay happy and fruity, and
his blonde hair was some-what pale, with his bangs falling down slightly past his eyes.
His hair was tied behind him in a tight braid.
"Well, now that formalities are over with, let's get started," Kevin said. "Gary?"
Gary put his blade in his launcher, and pulled the ripcord out real fast. His blade
came loose and started to spin, and all you could see of it was a red blur. Everyone else
did the same, except Ray and Mystel. Kevin's was purplish blur, while Mariah's was
pinkish and Lee's black.
"Aren't you guys going to launch?" Mariah asked her husband.
"Yes, just give us a minute to relax…Okay…ready, Mystel?"
"Whenever you are, Ray." He loaded his bow launcher.
"Now this, Jenna, is going to be what you call an 'Old-Time' battle," Ray said to
his daughter.
"An 'Old-Time' battle?" Jenna asked.
"Yes. Mystel and I never got even with each other completely. He still owes me a
battle." He looked at Mystel, his expression unreadable.
"Yes, I believe I do. Let it rip!" He pulled on his string on the launcher, and the
blade rocketed off the launcher.
"Let it rip!" Ray pulled on his ripcord too, and Jenna saw a black and silver blur
come out of his launcher. "Come on, Driger MS! Let's take them out quick!"
"Dr-Driger MS! Whoa!" Jenna was awestruck. She had never seen such a
marvelous blade in all her life, especially a Driger blade.
"Thunder Slash!" One minute, Mystel's blade was spinning steadily, and then
stopped, knocked out of the beystadium.
"Daddy, that was awesome! What?" She looked down and saw Poseidon, sitting
there all still and unmoving, which is basically the same thing.
"Good battle, Ray," Mystel said. He and Ray shook hands. "Probably the best one
I've had in, let's see," he counted on his gold-ringed fingers. "Um…16 years, isn't it?" Ray nodded.
Trying to change the subject because of his need to not know the number of years
since anyone of the old days had bladed, Lee asked Mystel, "Have you heard anything of
the tournament, Mystel?"
"Yes, actually. The preliminaries for this country are going to be held in the
capital and on the 7th of this month. Oh and one more thing. Whoever wins here goes to
the championship tourney to face America and Russia and all the other countries."
"I think Jenna might liked that, huh?" Ray turned to his daughter.
"Yeah, I would love to!" She beamed up at the adults. "I'm going to make my
tribe proud!"
"That's good," her mother said. "Do better than we did, we didn't even get to the
final round." She looked crestfallen.
"Who did?"
Mystel cut across Mariah. "Another story for another time. Ray, I must leave.
You train your little tiger to be the best, okay? Later, fruities!" He jumped into the
nearest tree and disappeared.
"Wow! A tournament! This is going to be the best, Dad!" Jenna looked up her
father.
"Yep, and hopefully you'll be the best of them all. Come on, you have school to
get back to."
"I still have to go to school?" Jenna asked him.
"Yes, Jenna, you still have at least an hour and a half before they even think about
letting you guys out. Come on, Mariah." And so the Kon family left with Kevin and Gary
behind them, arguing who could cook better, Mariah or Gala. (Gala in my opinion.)
Chapter 9 preview: "The Candle-lit Room"
Another Hiwatari chapter, I just can't tell you what happens in it! You'll just
have to wait! Thanx! Squirrel