Authors Note: I started writing this chapter back in summer of 2021, so constructive criticism would be appreciated.
Beyblade Burst is not owned by me. Please Support the official release.
3! I steadid my launcher grip. 2! I slid my left leg to the side. 1! I twisted my body, along with my launcher to be directed at the referee. Let it rip! I spun my launcher back to face the stadium and pulled the ripcord.
"Interesting launch," I heard Trad say. He was the newest trainer on the Raging Bulls. Apparently, he had just arrived a few weeks ago. My bey circled the stadium.
"Let's go Wu Kong!" I said.
"I'm the one who's going to be winning!" announced my opponent as his bey circled to take the center. I would have normally scouted out my opponents weaknesses, but I was trying to get on the Raging Bulls and I needed to make a memorable first impression.
"Attack!" I ordered. Wu Kong raced into the center, knocking the other bey back.
"What?!" my opponent cried, flabbergasted.
"Again!" I say. Bam! My bey slammed straight through my opponent.
"It's a burst finish for Sun Wu Kong!" The ref said. "That means Jing wins!" I sighed. It hadn't really been much of a challenge beating all of my fellow bladers. Most of the other beys bursted after the first hit.
"T-that was a fluke!" the blader protests. "There's no way a girl could beat me!"
"Rules are rules Jake," said Trad. Jake looked angrily at me one more time before storming off. I picked up my bey. You did good out there. I think, before looking up.
"He doesn't take losing very well does he?" I noticed.
"We're still working on that," Trad told me, "Anyways, welcome to the Raging Bulls."
"Wait, really?"
"Yes, you managed to beat many of our current members, but we'll need to officialize your spot on the Raging Bulls now."
"Um, can I take a minute to process that?" This was my dream sure, but it always seemed out of reach for all the wrong reasons.
"Yes, I can wait a bit," Trad began to tap away at his tablet. I pulled out my phone subconsciously and opened…I put it back. Stupid habits die hard.
"Are you ready?," Trad asked. I nodded. He hesitated. "We'll have to sign the contract at Glass's office. I…..might as well show you around the club as we go."
"Uh, okay then," I said, while confused about his reluctance. He gave a reassuring smile, and began walking into the hallway. I followed him, only to end up back in the main area on the ground floor.
"Here is the lobby," Trad said "This is the only floor open to staff, as the other floors are only allowed to bey team members and staff." I glanced up at the large video screen on the right wall. The club logo was currently being displayed. Below that was the reception desk area. My eyes followed a set of stairs on the back wall. Trad noticed where I was looking.
"Up there is the public training area. It's for the public to see the type of environment we have here."
"Are we allowed to use it?" I asked.
"Yes, it can be used like any other training area." He motioned for me to follow him. Trad led us into an elevator located under the giant screen. I got in and noticed that there weren't many elevator buttons.
"Why aren't there many floors?" I asked as he selected the 3rd highest floor. The doors closed, and elevator music began to start.
"The Raging Bulls don't actually own this entire building. Many of the floors are used by other companies as office space. They have a different entrance into the building." I nodded in understanding. I remembered my dad renting many of his office buildings to other corporations.
Ding! The doors opened, revealing a corridor lined with doors, with a double door at the end. Other corridors intersected this main hallway, presumably leading to more rooms.
"This is the dormitory floor." Trad explained. "It's where our members stay unless they have other living arrangements." He walked down a few doors and opened the second to last door on the left side of the hallway. I peeked into the room, to find it empty. The walls were bare, and the bedsheets still had creases from the packaging. There was a desk with a lamp. A black suitcase was stored underneath it.
"Doesn't look like anyone lives here," I said.
"No, The person who lives here just doesn't spend much time here." explained Trad. I looked back into the hallway to see someone leaving the cafeteria. A boy with curly black hair and a red and white shirt walked over.
"Hello Bruce," Trad said politely.
"Hey Trad," said Bruce. He pointed to me. "Who's that?"
"That's…...," he started "Our newest recruit." Bruce raised his eyebrows.
"Okay, see you around," he gave me the stink eye before walking away.
"That was…...rude," I observed.
"We've wasted enough time," decided Trad. He seemed regretful. He lightly grabbed my arm and led me back out into the hallway and into the elevator. I could tell that something was troubling him.
A minute later, there was a light "ding!" and the doors opened. The top floor had a similar layout to the previous floor, but having much more decoration and furnishings. It kind of reminded me of my dad's office, whenever I used to try and sneak into it. I was so lost in thought, I almost bumped into a door.
"Careful," said a new voice. I jumped at his voice. He sounded sinister, like one of those evil masterminds in TV shows. I quickly turned around.
"Sorry," I apologized. I noticed that the person with the scary voice was tall, broad, and condescending. "Are you….?"
"Yes, I am Theodore Glass," the man replied. "And you are Jing Zhang, correct?"
"Yes," I said. I was getting a lot of strange vibes from him. One the one hand, he seemed friendly enough. On the other hand, my brain was screaming Run! Get out of here!
"I've noticed your extraordinary performance today," he told me. "If you will just follow me, you will soon officially be a part of the Raging Bulls." He gestured for me to go into his office. Against my better judgment I followed him inside.
His office had an eerie similarity to my dad's office. Most of the furniture was in the same place, with similar decorations, although Glass's office had none of the Chinese characters or banners on his walls.
"If you will just fill out these two forms here," the owner instructed. "Are you sure you don't want this event to be publicized?"
"No thank you, but the offer is appreciated." I expertly parried the question. The two sheets looked like most other forms. The first one was a standard 'I officially join blank', and the second was a health form. I finished filling the two out with the pen that was lying on the desk, and handed them to Glass. He checked them.
"Excellent," he said. "Welcome to the Raging Bulls." He stretched his hand out. I reluctantly took it, to find that his hand was ice cold, despite the AC not being on. It sent a chill down my spine.
"Thank you," I quickly said, before slipping out of the room. I found the hallway empty. Huh. I wonder where Trad went? I think as I get in the elevator. I clicked for the lobby, since I had to go there to find out my dorm number and grab my stuff. I had managed to convince my mom that I only needed one suitcase. I did not want to think about the possibility of carrying 5 suitcases.
Ding! I got out, and began walking over to the reception desk. Before I got there however, I heard the unmistakable sound of….fangirling over at the bey stadium. I decided to go check that out. I wouldn't take long, and who could create a group this big? As I went up the stairs, I increasingly heard the comments of the spectators.
"That bey is amazing!" said one.
"I wish I could battle him," said another. I began to push through the crowd. Who could be so popular? Maybe Joshua Burns, but I would have heard about it at least a week in advance.
As I managed to squeeze my way through the crowd to find…wait. I looked at the center. A certain yellow dragon looked right back at me. The very person I had almost called was standing in front of me.
"Free?" I said, stunned. All other noises retreated from my attention. He looked up, and his eyes widened, before masking the surprise quickly.
"Huh," he grunted uninterestedly, before grabbing Fafnir out of the stadium and pushing his way out of the crowd.
"Why's he leaving?" asked a few people. They were getting agitated. Someone pointed at my back.
"It was her!" they said, lying through their teeth. "She said something mean!" I pulled up my hoodie and melted into the slowly dispersing crowd. When the last people stopped looking so agitated, I walked up to one of the receptionists who was writing something down. I wasn't sure how long the crowd would be looking for me, but I didn't want to find out.
"Hello," I said with a soft voice. I was not taking any chances.
"Hello," replied the receptionists as she put down her pen. "What can I do for you?"
"Um, I recently joined the Raging Bulls," I said. "Could you tell me where my dorm number was?"
"Ah, so you're Jing," she said. "Let me take a look." While the receptionist was checking her computer, I stole a glance around the area. I wonder where Free is now? He probably isn't in one of the dorms, though maybe….he never liked to sleep inside.
"Here we go," the receptionist said. "You are in room 76. Here's the key."
"Thanks," I said as I accepted the metal key from her. It was a bit old fashioned, with a round handle and 76 etched into the key.
"And your stuff is in that room," she said, pointing to a room that I hadn't seen earlier.
"Thanks," I said before walking into that room. I opened the door before quickly closing it behind me, before pulling out my phone again to try and find any recent articles. Unfortunately, his contact info was still open, which just led me back to the memory when I first met Ghost Boy.
"Mom? Dad?" I called out. My family had gone on vacation to Spain, which I had been looking forward to. I had never traveled outside of China, so it was exciting to see the outside world.
I pushed away a low hanging branch while following a dirt path through the forest. While visiting the BC Sol bey club, I wandered into the forest behind the property. As a seven year old, I found the rest of the property much more interesting than most of the training buildings. Soon though, I had gotten lost. Continuing on the path, I found an old bey stadium sitting within an old marble platform, with broken arches surrounding it. Intrigued, I walked over to it, and noticed a couple of scratch marks. Cool. I pulled out my bey and launcher, before getting ready to launch.
"3," I said, as I kneeled onto the ground.
"2," said another voice.
"1!" We began pulling our launchers. "Let it rip!" My bey and the other bey flew into the stadium.
"Let's go!" I said. The name of my bey was Victory Valkyrie; an attack type. My opponent had King Kerbeus; a defense type, which meant I had the disadvantage. I attacked anyway. Ding! Bang! I managed to force it out of the center and began circling back to the center.
"Don't let them take the center again!" I said. Valkyrie circled back, crashing into Kerberus.
"Is that the best you can do?" I looked up, to see a boy around my age, with spiky, blonde hair with a red streak. He had gray eyes, with a look of boredness in his eyes while smiling.
"I'm just getting started," boasted before focusing on the battle. My bey was slowly being overpowered, as it began to lose steam. The other bey showed no signs of stopping. I had to do something fast.
"You got this!" I blurted out, believing every word I said. The bey circled back and charged straight into the center. Bang! A gust of wind blew the other bey onto the old marble floor while my bey scraped against the stadium before stopping altogether.
"Yes!" I air pumped while grinning.
"That…..was a tie," said my opponent. I stopped celebrating for a moment, digesting what he just said.
"Aw…." I said disappointed. "That was a cool battle though. What's your name?" He hesitated.
"Free," Free said cautiously before speaking.
"I'm Jing," I told him. He looked at me carefully.
"You're not from here, right?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm here on vacation," I admitted. "Are you from here?"
"Yes," he said, but didn't elaborate.
"Where are your parents?" I said bluntly. He turned away, with his fists clenched. "Sorry…..we can talk about something else." Free turned back, now calm.
"It's fine," he said. "I never knew them,"
"So, you're an orphan?" I said quietly.
"I live with a friend," he said. Before I could ask more, we could hear footsteps coming from the direction I had. I whipped around to see a pink haired teenager jogging over.
"Free, have you seen….." she stopped talking when she spotted me. "Oh, never mind."
"Is Kris the friend you mentioned?" I asked Free. I had met her when we had first arrived and were introduced to the owner. He nodded,
"Well, see ya," he said before walking off. I must have looked a bit confused because Kris began talking.
"So, you've met Free," she stated.
"Yeah," I said. "He's weird."
"His past was….rough," Kris said. Before I could ask more about it, Kris suddenly looked at her watch. "We should get going," She grabbed my hand and began pulling me along.
"Where did he go?" I asked, turning around to try and see him.
"Not sure," she said while walking. "Nobody ever figured it out. He sometimes goes into the woods for a couple of hours and just comes back. When he first began doing that, everyone panicked. To be honest, I was running around like a headless chicken trying to find him." I stopped walking to laugh.
"R-really?" I tried to say with a straight face, while failing miserably, as my face kept splitting into a grin.
"Ha ha," Kris said sarcastically while dragging me along. "Let's hurry up." We kept up this banter for a couple more minutes until the main area was revealed. My parents (really just my dad) looked somewhat worried and annoyed. My dad was wearing a blue suit and tie, while my mom had on a black skirt and leggings with a white shirt. The pair noticed me and Kris cmoing over.
"Thank you Kris," said my dad. He pulled me close.
"I'm sorry for all the trouble she caused," added my mom.
"It was alright," she replied, before heading back into the main building.
"You were very lucky that Kris offered to find you," My dad scolded.
"Where were you anyway?" My mom asked. "You were gone for an hour." I wasn't entirely sure if I should tell them about Free. After a couple of seconds, I decided that I would make it a guessing game.
"I found someone," I said vaguely.
"Who?" my mom pressed
"Nobody," I grinned.
"Now now, lets get going," my dad declared before my mom could continue further.
"We're leaving?" I asked, confused.
"We only realized you were gone after the tour," he explained. "So we should get going."
"Oh," I said, a bit disappointed. "Can I come back tomorrow?"
"I'll have to ask Kris's dad," he explained. "But sure, we'll drop you off tomorrow if he says yes."
"Yay!" I exclaimed as I began jumping up and down. My mom grabbed my arms to stop me from jumping.
"Now, let's get going before you make a scene," she encouraged while quickly walking me in the direction of the exit.
For the rest of the month, I was dropped at BC Sol for the day, and was picked back up in the evening. During that time, I met Agnes and a baby named Kit Lopez. Most of all, I got to battle Free over and over, before we soon began to hang out with each other.
Even after that summer, we grew closer and closer. Until he vanished.
I was shaken out of my thoughts by a box falling off a shelf. I checked my watch, only to realize 5 minutes had passed. I stood and looked around, before locating my suitcase and picking it up. I opened the door and quickly walked over to the elevator and stepped in.
I opened the door to my dorm to reveal an exact replica of the room I had seen earlier. I sat my stuff on the desk at the corner of the room, and collapsed on the bed. I needed some time to think. I checked my watch again. 4:58 pm. I closed my eyes. It had been a long and crazy day. Before I could drift off to sleep, a knock came at the door.
"Who is it?" I asked tiredly. Maybe Trad? The door creaked open to reveal a certain someone leaning against the door frame. He looked back at me with his lopsided smile.
"Long time no see Jing."