I'm glad you guys like Minkah's name!

"Lets see…" Makoto was staring at the tournament set-up sheet on the wall.

"Okay, I have no idea how to read this," Makoto confessed. Everyone anime falls.

"Okay! Makoto, our team's over here, can't you read 'Blazing Bladebreakers?' It's not even in Chinese," said Rayna pointed to their team name.

"Yeah, but everything else is in Chinese," Makoto whined.

"Yeah, but just follow the lines up and you'll reach the top where the finals are. Anyone can read brackets, Loser," said Kaiya.

"Oh! (Takes a step back) Brackets!" Makoto exclaimed and everyone just sighed with sweat drops.

"Rayna, can you find your brother's team?" Kaiya asked with a monotone voice,

"Why does that matter?" Makoto asked. Someone that wasn't Kaiya answered for him.

"Because it'll determine whether we'll face off in the tournament or in the finals."

The team looked over to see the Bai Hu Tzi team and someone else in a mask.

"Guh Guh," said Rayna quietly.

"Oh!" said Makoto like it was actually hard to figure out.

"Loser," Kaiya grumbled.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" Makoto snapped.

"Come on guys, this is embarrassing to us," said Mark trying to calm Makoto down.

Gou looked over at the one with an old mask on,

"Is that you, Minkah?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Hn, guess you're not as stupid as I thought you were," said Minkah and took the ancient thing off his face revealing his already tan skin and sparkly blue eyes.

Cam stared and felt heat going up to her cheeks. Kaiya looked up and the first thing she noticed was the Egyptian.

"Maybe coming here wasn't a waste after all…" Kaiya thought and shook the idea out of her head and looked away again…then looks again every few seconds.

"Why did he have to be Egyptian and have nice eyes?" Kaiya thought angrily.

"Minkah, are you going to watch the tournament…or are you in it?" Rayna asked with a worried voice.

"Well, I'm not exactly on the team, but I'll be watching them beybattle in the benches," Minkah answered.

"I see…" said Rayna and looked disappointed.

"I'll see you in the finals. That is, if you even make it there," said Xiao Dien who only gave her a short look and then looked away, turning around to leave.

"Bye Xiao Sen!" everyone else but Chung-Chung went and waved a 'see you later' to her.

"Sheesh, your brother is grumpier than my sister," said Gou. Kaiya grew and vein and pounded him on the head.

Throughout the tournament, Cam decides the line-up for the team and they don't have a choice but go for it.

"I have to ask, just what are the people saying after they lose?" Makoto asked before the next battle to Rayna sitting on the bench.

"Well, lets just say they aren't happy," Rayna answered.

"They were cursing. If not, crying in defeat," Kaiya answered in her usual position on the bench: arms crossed, one leg over the other, and depending on the case, eyes closed or open.

"Saying that they were crying in defeat wasn't very nice," said Mark.

"Whatever," Kaiya replied.

"Jerk," Makoto and Mark mumbled at the same time.

"Okay, you're up, Mark," said Cam after Gou won his round.

"Finals! Here we come!" said Gou and plopped down on the bench. Kaiya then started lecturing Gou again about being over confident but as usual, he just tunes out and nods every now and then. Gou's eyes floated over to Rayna and noticed her in deep thought. Kaiya continued on but wasn't looking at him. She was just talking and assuming he's listening. So he slowly scooted over to Rayna.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly so Kaiya won't notice.

"It's…nothing," she replied without looking at him.

"Oh come on, even I'm not that dumb…you don't want to talk about it with me right?" Gou asked and was about to scoot back when Rayna finally looked at him.

"It's…my brother," said Rayna finally.

"What about him?" Gou asked.

"Hey! I'm talking to you! Gou? Hello? Gou…GOU!" Kaiya shouted and finally got her brother's attention since he turned around immediately.

"What?"

"I was calling you,"

"I know, I just had to…ignore you for moment…" said Gou slowly.

"…"

Silence meant that Kaiya didn't want to bother arguing so the conversation is over.

"Whatever, did you even hear a word I was telling you?" Kaiya asked a bit slow.

"Uh…yes," said Gou calmly.

"If he was supposed to pay attention to you, I'm sorry because it was my fault. I was talking with him and…" Rayna couldn't find another excuse.

"I…see. Okay then, I just won't ask. Is the battle over yet?" Kaiya asked impatiently and looked over at Mark who just won the battle.

"Never mind."

"Tomorrow's the finals you guys, you've all done well so far!" said Cam and smiled at them.

"Thanks! But you helped too," Makoto reminded.

"It was teamwork too since we wouldn't even be here without each other," said Mark.

"We have motivation, right?" asked Rayna.

"Not really, I'm only hear because of my brother," said Kaiya.

"Don't mind her, but we still owe her thanks since she's the one that made us train for 3 hours straight for the past couple of days," said Gou and everyone groaned at the reminder.

On their way out and back to Rayna's place, the team walked right past Bai Hu Tzi. The teams exchanged glares or, for a couple of them, just friendly smiles.

For Rayna however, time seemed to have gone twice as slow when she and her brother looked straight into each other's eyes. Rayna just wanted to look away and never see his dark yellow cat eyes again, but right now, she just can't look away; no matter how hard she tried. Finally, the teams were out of sight when they completely walked past each other.

"Guh Guh…" Rayna said below a whisper.

Rayna was jumping up, trying to get an apple off a tree, unfortunately, being young also equals being very short. It was a very small tree and yet, the apple was still out of Rayna's reach. She was young, with shorter hair; at this age, Rayna only had pink hair for some reason. She had a small pink and white skirt on with a cute kitten face on the front and a big red bow in her hair.

Another hand reached the apple and picked it off. Rayna stopped jumping and the apple was handed to her.

"Shieh Shieh, Guh Guh," said Rayna happily.

"You're welcome! Keep eating fruits and rice and drink lots of milk, then you'll be as tall and strong as me someday!" said Xiao Dien smiling. Xiao Dien had hair down to his shoulders, it was messy since he doesn't bother to brush it. You could say he's one of the laziest kids in the village when it comes to getting dressed in the mornings, since all he ever wears are random shirts, shorts, and sandals. Though every kid knew he wasn't the laziest because everyday at least once, you'll find him training with his blade.

"You think so?" Rayna asked with stars in her eyes.

"Of course! But…I'll always be stronger," said Xiao Dien in a teasing way. Rayna's cheeks puffed out in annoyance.

"And why's that?"

"Because you're a girl and you're younger, I'll always physically stronger," her brother answered.

"…what does 'physically' mean?" Rayna asked and Xiao Dien did an anime fall.

"Check this out!" said Xiao Dien as he launches a blade and destroys a rock.

"Cool! That was great Guh Guh!" said Rayna like she was cheering and took another bite of her apple that Xiao Dien got for her.

"When you get your own blade, I'll teach you. Then, we'll be the best in the village!"

"Okay!" Rayna replied happily.

Rayna looked up at the night sky while under the same tree where her brother picked the apple for her for the last time. It was still kind of small but it's grown and not so many leaves, but just enough that you're able to see the sky through it.

"I thought my sister was the midnight person," said a voice. Rayna turned her head and almost had a heart attack! Gou was hanging upside-down from a thick branch and his face was right next to hers. Rayna stared with wide eyes.

"Gou! You scared me!"

"Sorry, I thought someone like you could hear me coming," said Gou and flipped himself down and sat next to her.

"I guess, I was daydreaming too hard and too much," said Rayna and leaned back on the tree and stared out in space.

"It's nice to daydream, gets your mind off of troubles," said Gou.

"Yeah, sometimes,"

"What do you mean 'sometimes'? If you daydream hard enough, troubles will be forgotten," said Gou and puts his arms behind his head.

"It's not as easy sometimes," said Rayna.

"Uh huh…hey, does this tree belong to you?" Gou asked,

"It belongs to the whole village, we all take the apples off the tree if it's good enough to eat," Rayna replied.

"I see…" Gou reached for a bright round red one right above Rayna and picked it. He tossed it to Rayna who caught it by surprise.

"Have a midnight snack, maybe that'll get your mind off things," said Gou. Rayna finally turned to look at him and sighed.

"Just because you can get your mind off of troubles, it doesn't mean the troubles will go away," said Rayna.

"I know, but after some thoughts off it, the answer can sometimes just come to you. You shouldn't stress yourself out from thinking too hard," said Gou and took something out from his pocket and puts the thing to his mouth. Gou puts his hands over the item like he was covering his mouth and blew into it, his harmonica.

It started out as soothing music, a relaxing melody. Rayna sighed and gave in; she rested against the tree and listened.

Gou's music playing then got a bit livelier; the melody matched the sounds of the crickets and the breeze of the soft winds. The melody of leaves dancing in the air, it's like his music was one with nature; one with this midnight hour.

A smile was finally spread across Rayna's lips and Gou looked over at her just in time to see it.

Gou's song slowed down,

"Wait, keep playing. Please? Just a bit longer?" Rayna asked and Gou replied by continuing to play.

"Shieh Shieh…" Rayna said quietly just below a whisper.

"You're welcome…" thought Gou.

"Okay, here's the plan. It's the final round and guess who we're up against?" Cam asked,

"How am I supposed to know?" asked Makoto like he really doesn't have a clue. Everyone else sighs.

"Bai Hu Tzi, right?" Mark asked.

"Yup, and this is how I plan this. I've watched their team battle up to here, the finals and made some notes. So, this is what I think our strategy should be: First up will be Mark, he'll start us off with a defensive strategy to throw our opponents off. Mark, I'm sure you'll be an expert in the defensive part,"

"Of course!" Mark replied to Cam.

"Then we'll move straight to the attack with Makoto. Now, unless our opponents play a rock, paper, scissors game with us and counter our blade types, we should have this match in our hands," Cam concluded.

"What about our third player? Don't we need someone in case we have a third round?" Gou asked.

"I will decide that if we do have a third round," said Cam.

"…If it's not too much to ask, can I...be put in this match?" Rayna asked and everyone turned to look at her.

"Well…okay," said Cam.

"It's really important to me, if my brother will be beybattling, I want to be the one to face him," said Rayna.

"…Well, why not?" Cam shrugged.

The team was called out to the stadium and the roaring cheers came to greet them.

"This is the final round, so it's going to be a bit different. During our way up, one blader just has to win a match and score the team a point. But in the finals, the blader has to win best of three rounds just to score one point for the team. Got that?" Cam asked after explaining and everyone nodded.

"Are you ready Beybladers?" J.P. shouted announcing the finals. The crowd roars and the teams stare each other down.

Mark steps up to the dish just as Chung-Chung does.

"Great, he's facing the brat," said Makoto and Rayna slowly turned her head to him giving him a glare,

"Well…he's your friends so I guess I have no right to call him a brat. Heh, sorry," said Makoto and looked away.

"3-2-1-Let it Rip!"

"Cam, what does your little computer say about the kid's blade and tactics?" Kaiya asked looking over Cam's computer.

"Uh, I don't know much about him, he's hardly battled throughout the tournament," Cam answered a little worried.

"Okay…what do you know about him?" Kaiya asked already getting impatient.

"Well…his blade is fast and is a defense type like Mark's except it's got just as much attack power as defense!"

"How is that possible?" Gou asked going over to Cam as well just as Chung-Chung won round one against Mark.

"…Great. Well, this blades got a double attack ring. And-"

"That kind of blade also gives it good balance and endurance," Kaiya cut in.

"Pth! This should be considered a combination type!" said Gou.

"So what's Mark going to do?" Makoto asked getting worried.

"Don't worry about it guys! I got this! Draciel!"

The powerful Draciel rose and attacked with a wave of rage.

"Looks like round two goes to Mark," said Makoto.

"Okay, while they get their third round going, let me ask you this Cam: Did you expect them to start off with the squirt?" Kaiya asked.

"Well…no. But I know what you're thinking, Kaiya. They started off with a pretty balanced blade and a pretty good blader. So…who's their next blader?" Cam asked out loud.

"Maybe it's not a good idea to send Makoto in next. I mean, my friends are pretty good battle tacticians…especially Minkah…" Rayna said the last part in a whisper.

Gou heard,

"Well, that team isn't the only one with a good tactician. Cam, I want me or my sister to go next," said Gou.

"What? What about me then?" asked Makoto taken back by this.

"Trust me, I know exactly who they're going to have battle us next," said Gou.

"…Alright," said Cam.

"Good, now…do you want me to battle or do you want to battle them, Kaiya?" Gou asked.

"If I want to lose, I'll have you battle, but since I have a reputation I'm going to battle," said Kaiya getting ready to battle next and leaving Gou under a storm cloud.

"Oh no…" Mark mumbled. He shuts his eyes as Draciel gets knocked out of the dish.

"Aw man! Round one point goes to the Bai Hu Tzi!" Makoto exclaimed angrily.

"You better win, Kaiya!" Makoto added.

"Of course I will," said Kaiya and walked up to the dish ready to face Chang.

"So, he's beybattling him," Cam said to herself and started checking her notes on him.

"Interesting…I was sure that they were going to send in the boy with the most attack power," said Minkah sounding impressed with their decision.

"Well you're almost no help then," said Xiao Dien rudely but Minkah only smiled.

"I like your sister's new friends. Especially the brother of the girl Chang is facing," said Minkah and kept watching the battle.

"Oh? And why's that?" Xiao Dien asked when his curiosity sprouted.

"Well…he reminds me of you a few years back. And…he matches my intelligence when it comes to battle strategy. It's nice to have rival…" said Minkah and looked over at Rayna.

"In a way, it's nice to have a rival, but I don't want competition exactly either…" Minkah thought.

"I am nothing like that kid!" Xiao Dien shouted knocking Minkah out of his thoughts.

"Well, I said he reminded me of what you were like back a few years. Or have you forgotten the person you used to be? The big brother that Rayna looks up to. The older brother of us all. Why do you think we all look to you as leader?" Minkah asked and a small smirk appeared.

"…Because I'm a Kon," Xiao Dien replied.

"No…If the reason was because of your family background, I bet the whole team would've wanted Rayna as leader," said Minkah shaking his head.

"WHAT?" Xiao Dien snapped.

"But no…it's not because you're a Kon, it's because-"

"Chang lost!" Xiao Tzi exclaimed.

Minkah and Dien looked at the dish to see that it was true.

"Just as I expected to happen," Gou and Minkah said simultaneously on their side.

"And what do you mean by that?" Xiao Dien asked.

"It's not easy beating a Hiwatari," said Minkah calmly.

"It's not easy beating my sister! Or me!" said Gou proudly.

"Alright, final round, who do you think should battle this for us to win?" Cam asked.

"…I think it should be Rayna," said Gou and Makoto anime falls.

"What about me?" he whined.

"I'm sure you can battle when we go to our next country," said Mark and patted his friend on the back.

"Okay…I'm ready," said Rayna clutching her blade and walks towards the dish.

"Good luck!" said Mark.

"She'll be fine," said Gou and smiled.

Just as Rayna thought, she's going to meet face to face with her brother.

"3-2-1-Let it RIP!"

"Driger! Nail him down!"

"Don't think so!"

The two blades clashed.

"Rayna…doesn't look like she's even concentrating on the battle," said Kaiya.

She wasn't, she spends half the time staring at her brother. This cost her one round.

"RAYNA!" everyone went.

"What the heck was that?" Makoto asked annoyed.

"You can do better than that!" Mark exclaimed.

"Come on Rayna! You can do it!" said Cam.

"…Hey!" Minkah stood up and shouted to Rayna to get her attention.

"What are you more afraid of? Your brother or losing the match again and let your new team down already?" Minkah asked in a serious tone.

"Just whose side are you on?" Chung-Chung snapped at Minkah.

"No one's side. Remember, I'm not officially part of this team," Minkah reminded.

Rayna thought about it. Minkah's right, she can't let down her teammates when they've gone this far. This was her dream team and she won't let them down this early in the game!

Rayna clutched her fists.

"I'm going to win this," she said and got into position to launch.

The bladers launched their blades and Rayna fought back like a wild cat. With new confidence and her brother thrown off guard by this, round two was an easy win for her. This last match will decide the entire win of the teams.

"I let my guard down…I'll admit this much, you've gotten stronger," said Xiao Dien.

"Well, that was more than what I expected you to say," said Rayna.

"Hn…"

"3-2-1-Let it RIP!"

"As leader, I'll win this!" Xiao Dien exclaimed.

"No you won't! I know why you're fighting me like this! After all these years! Why are you still angry and jealous? Why?" Rayna asked with a serious tone.

"I should be asking the questions here! First, it was Driger, and then you left the village and the team! And I still don't understand why. You didn't have any right to leave us," said Xiao Dien.

"…Yes I did!" Rayna snapped.

"Ouch, she just talked back to her older brother," said Minkah a bit surprised.

"I had every right to do so. I wasn't even on the team! I just wanted to be a great blader and I wanted to prove that I am worthy to be called a Kon. You don't have control over my life, Guh Guh! I'm not your puppet!"

"Okay…I can tell she's mad," said Mark.

"That's new," said Makoto.

"You can't tell me what to do anymore! I'm still your little sister…but I'm not little anymore! Driger! Attack!"

Please Review and thank you for those that has.

Next: The battle continues as the siblings sort out their differences…