Chapter 15: The Final Problem

Kyoya: …

Nile: …

Me: Yeah I got nothing. There's absolutely no excuse for leaving this story in-progress for so long. I can hardly believe it's been almost six years since I posted the last chapter. I was going to just mark the story complete but that didn't seem right. Then I thought about posting a note as a final chapter that the story was over, but that seemed even worse.

Kyoya: Then you got this idea and just went with it.

Me: Exactly!

Nile: Disclaimer, xxstarsnowxx does not own Beyblade in any way.

Me: Or Sherlock Holmes for the title reference.

The sound of screaming woke Kyoya from his restful slumber. Groaning, he rolled over and pried his eyelids open to look at the clock. It was 7am. Early, but not that early. Too early for screaming in the streets though. The Leone blader slowly rose from his bed and lifted one side of his curtain back to see what was going on outside. However, the one who had been screaming was nowhere in sight. Sighing, he got dressed, ate some cereal for breakfast, and decided to see if Nile was up and about. The Egyptian was an earlier riser than him so chances were high that would be the case.

The walk over to Nile's place was uneventful, causing Kyoya to push the screaming incident which had awoken him so rudely to the back of his mind. He knocked on the door. It was over a minute before the door lock clicked and Kyoya let himself in, seeing Nile sprinting back to his living room wearing a headset, frantically mashing buttons on his Xbox controller as soon as he had a visual on the television once again. "That's one knockdown for me."

Ah, so Nile was gaming early in the morning. After the match had been won by Nile and his squad, Kyoya looked at his friend questioningly.

Nile responded to the silent question. "Sorry about that. I was just getting in some early gaming with Ryuga. Didn't expect you to stop over so early. You tend to sleep in late."

"Well I would have slept later but-"

"Just a second, Ryuga wants to get in on the conversion too." Nile switched some settings so that Ryuga's voice could be heard over the TV now instead of just Nile's headset. "Ok you're connected now Ryuga. Continue, Kyoya."

The Leone blader blinked. "As I was saying, I would have slept later but someone was screaming in the streets at 7am. I went to the window to see, but they were already out of sight by then."

"Screaming in the streets? Sounds like a typical day in Metal Bey City," commented Ryuga. "Too bad you couldn't tell if it was Gingka, Masamune, Yu or one of Kenta's friends. Then you could get revenge in a bey battle."

"Those were my guesses for the screamer too. Hey Nile, should we do some investigating?" Kyoya asked. " I don't feel like gaming today."

"Suit yourselves. I'll keep playing on my own. Catch you two later." With that, the Dragon Emperor signed out of the voice chat.

Nile turned off the TV and turned his full attention to Kyoya. "Sure, why not. Could lead to something interesting."

So with that, the two friends headed out and began their search by heading in the direction the screamer had been heading when Kyoya had first been woken by them. The street led out to a main thoroughfare though, so the trail ended up being lost. Anyone could have gone anywhere on that busy street.

"Hmm, we could try tracing backward to find the source of the scream," suggested Nile.

Kyoya shrugged, guessing it would probably end up the same as this search, but agreed it was their best bet. "Ok, let's try it."

Tracing their steps back past Kyoya's place and up the street, they soon came upon another busy street running perpendicular to theirs. "Great, another dead end," the Leone blader deadpanned.

He and Nile looked up and down the street. Across from them was one of the WBBA offices. Further down from that building would be some of the larger outdoor and indoor bey stadiums and arenas, all a part of the WBBA complex at large. It looked like some construction was being done down that way. The Wild Fang duo could see cranes in the distance. If they took a left and then crossed the street at the next intersection they would be at Bey Park, the smaller stadiums used by amateur bladers for the most part, though that didn't stop professionals from stopping by for some battles.

Nile looked thoughtful. Just as he opened his mouth to reply to Kyoya's statement, more screaming could be heard. Dodging traffic across the street came Kenta, Osamu, Takashi and Akira.

"I can't believe it!" wailed Osamu.

"Why did Masamune have to be right?" groaned Kenta.

"No kidding," added Akira.

Takashi shrugged. "It looks like it might be interesting."

The other three stared at him with wide eyes, as if what he said was so far beyond belief it could not even be fathomed in the slightest. "Traitor," Osamu stated matter-of-factly as he strutted off with Akira and Kenta in tow. Takashi ended up following along after them babbling about how he wanted to give it a chance before dissing it like them. None in the group (which had been crossing on the opposite side of the street from Kyoya and Nile) noticed the Wild Fang duo standing just a road-width away, they were so caught up in whatever they had just seen.

A good minute after the group had run off, Kyoya and Nile finally finished processing what had just happened and turned to look at each other. "Well that was something," Nile commented.

"Sounds like our answer is straight down this street." Kyoya pressed the crosswalk button and waited for the busy street to get a red light. He and Nile had no interest in being yelled at by drivers and possibly hit while dodging traffic across the street like Kenta's group.

After safely crossing, a familiar shock of red hair was spotted coming their way from the left. It was Gingka, along with Madoka and Yu. They had been coming from the direction of Bey Park, likely having some minor battles against Gingka and Yu's fans there.

"Hey guys, are you headed to the stadiums too?" Madoka asked in greeting.

"Actually, we're trying to figure out why Kyoya was woken up at 7am due to screaming," Nile replied.

Madoka blinked. She had not been expecting that.

"Screaming? 7am? Sounds like that was Masamoomoo," Yu put in helpfully. Turns out one of Ryuga's hypotheses on the culprit of the screaming was spot-on. "He stopped by Gingki's place around that time, right Gingki?"

Gingka sighed. "Yeah, that was him. Fortunately I was already up and about and having breakfast. Hey. Why don't we go make him apologize to Kyoya?" The Pegasus blader, who had at the beginning of his statements seemed downright sullen, perked up by the end of his few short sentences.

Kyoya was quick to gesture 'no' with a wave of his hands. "That won't be necessary. Nile and I are more interested in why he was screaming at such an early hour. Did he say anything about it to you?" Plus that conversation between Kenta and his three friends had some clues to it as well. Something new was going on around here, and he and Nile had yet to hear about it.

Yu held up his hands in an exaggerated shrug. "Moomoo just said that something awful was happening at his favorite bey stadium. Since he has claimed half of the bey stadiums in existence are his favorite at some point, we went to check out Bey Park but didn't see anything of interest there, Yo-yo. So now we are off to check out the larger stadiums!"

Kyoya's eyebrow twitched at his nickname, but it was Nile who spoke next. "We're headed that way too. Maybe we can all get to the bottom of this together."

And so the group set off down the sidewalk past WBBA headquarters. Gingka waved at it as though his father happened to be looking out the window of his office, which ironically was on the other side of the building and therefore impossible for him to be looking out at Gingka. The sounds of construction got louder and louder as they got further down the street.

"I do recall Hikaru mentioning that two of the stadiums were getting renovated soon," Madoka said to break the silence. "It didn't occur to me before that maybe that was what Masamune was screaming about."

"Renovated?" Kyoya asked. "Not replaced from a big battle, but renovated?" Most of the construction and reconstruction on bey stadiums was due to the powers some pro bladers emitted as they fought. Like Gingka and Ryuga's last fight, which had left an outdoor stadium in disarray.

Madoka shrugged. "I'm just telling you what I remember her saying."

"We'll find out soon, come on!" Gingka had energy once again. "I'll race you there, Yu!"

The two of them sprinted off. Kyoya and Nile continued along at a normal walking pace with Madoka. They would get there soon enough. The whole group met up at the site of the construction they had seen from afar. A crane was lifting something through the open roof of a building. What it was, none of the newcomers knew. It was very oddly shaped. Tsubasa was at the construction site, wearing a hard hat and gesturing to indicate where the crane operator needed to place the large item.

As Kyoya, Nile and Madoka approached, Gingka stood scratching his head at the scene while Yu ran up to ask Tsubasa what was going on. Yu soon scampered back and explained once the group had walked far enough from the sounds of construction to be heard without shouting. A new type of bey stadium was replacing two of the old style stadiums in the building. The crane was hoisting one of the two new stadiums through the roof of the building hence all the construction noise around the scene. The roof was going to need to be redone since it had to be removed to get the new stadium in.

"Tsubasi didn't have any details," Yu added. "He was just helping out on the new stadium placement. He said we should talk to Hippity Hop and Gingki's dad at WBBA HQ if we're interested."

"That would explain why Masamune ran by my place screaming," Kyoya said dryly. "He has a flair for the dramatics and any change in blading would set that off."

The others all nodded and filed through the doors at WBBA Headquarters. Gingka led the way through the corridors toward his dad's office, but found Ryo Hagane on a phone call when the Pegasus blader knocked and then immediately opened the door. Gingka waved and then closed the door. "He's busy, guys. Madoka, do you know where Hikaru's office is?"

"I think it's right next to your dad's." Madoka took a few steps down the hall and pointed to the sign on the door saying 'Hikaru Hasama'. Gingka facepalmed. He should have remembered that. Madoka knocked and the group was admitted by a voice within, calling "Come in!"

Hikaru was sitting at her desk and looked surprised at the group filing in behind Gingka and Madoka. Yu gave a cheery wave. Kyoya and Nile gave polite hellos and let Gingka do the talking. "We're following up on the mystery of Masamune's screaming and found the construction site Tsubasa was at," the redhead began. This of course led to a longer explanation of who heard Masamune screaming and why this large group ended up investigating at all. Once Hikaru heard the basics from Kyoya, Gingka went on.

"So you see, after hearing about the new bey stadium from Tsubasa, we figured that the construction going on at the old stadium was what set Masamune off and sent him screaming down the street. After all, half the stadiums in existence have been his favorite at one point or another."

Hikaru nodded. "I see. So you want to hear about the Zero-G stadium?"

"Woah, is that what it's called?" cut in Yu. "Sounds epic! Does it produce an environmental effect to make blading harder or something?"

"I guess in a way it does. It tilts depending on the forces acting on it, providing an unstable battlefield. And before you go asking to battle in it, the answer is no. These new stadiums are only for use with the WBBA's new product line of beyblades. We're calling it Shogun Steel." Here Hikaru launched into what was clearly a well-rehearsed set of lines. "Like I said, Shogun Steel is a new product line of beys being manufactured by the WBBA. Unlike your star-fragment beys, they are man-made, focusing on diamond-shaped faces, asymmetrical shapes and a crystal in the metal. The first launch of the new line is based on mythical creatures instead of constellations. The Zero-G stadium's chaotic environment will make battles between these asymmetrically shaped beys more interesting than if they were symmetrical like the current bey styles used. Initial pricing starts at 2,000 yen and goes up to 7,000 yen, depending on the type. This is all in order to proliferate the sport of beyblading even more within the populace worldwide and diversify our market portfolio to attract more investors to our shares."

By the end of her speech, Yu had sunk to the ground with stars flying around his head and Gingka's eyes had gone all swirly. Madoka looked like she had mostly understood, as did Kyoya and Nile.

"You just ran out of constellations didn't you?" Kyoya couldn't resist asking.

Hikaru began laughing, somewhat hysterically. Everyone, even Gingka and Yu (who had recovered from their confused states) looked at her funny. "Sorry, the stress of the new launch is getting to me. Work is busier than ever!" She laughed once more before answering the question. "These beys are man-made and do not have the power of constellations behind them. This will make blading safer too, since the large-scale destruction of battles has some investors balking at the risk versus reward of building a stadium and then performing constant maintenance and upkeep on it from destructive battles. No one has forgotten the Nemesis Crisis."

Everyone was solemn for a moment. Then Nile spoke. "Well, the mystery has been solved, and we found out plenty of other information as well. I'd call this a productive day and case closed."

Kyoya nodded in agreement. Gingka and Yu looked slightly put-out that they couldn't use the new stadium, but thanked Hikaru for her help and then ran off to explain things to Masamune, the original source of the mystery.

Madoka thanked Hikaru as well and headed off to the B-Pit to perform some maintenance on the piles of beys that had been stacking up while she spent the morning with Gingka.

Kyoya and Nile followed her out of the WBBA building and then stood in front of it. "Want to hit up one of the normal stadiums for some blading practice?" Kyoya asked.

"Sure thing!" came Nile's response.

And with that, the two friends walked one building over, claimed a stadium to practice at, and said the familiar countdown: "3, 2, 1, Let it rip!"

Meanwhile…

"You heard it here first! A new type of beyblading is coming to town! Get your Shogun Steel beyblades at any local store which sells official World Beyblade Battle Association merchandise now, and battle it out in a Zero-G stadium!" The excited voice of Blader DJ came through the TV, followed by a quickly-spoken disclaimer.

"Stadiums coming soon. The WBBA is not responsible for your health while battling. Please take into consideration any hazards before battling."

"What? I take one break from gaming to eat and watch some TV and I find out the WBBA is launching a new product line of artificial beyblades? What even is this crap?!" Ryuga complained.

The next day, he would find out he could not battle with LDrago in one of the new stadiums and would storm off in a temper to the nearest volcano to let off some steam.

Me: Whew, that was a fairly long chapter by the standards of this story! And yes, it will be the last. It's been quite the ride, but this story deserves to finally get marked 'complete'. I got the idea for this final chapter while thinking about how to end this story and reminiscing on Beyblade Metal Fight and the few episodes of Shogun Steel I made it through back when the show originally came out. Also, note that 2,000-7,000 yen is around 15-50 USD. I know in previous chapters I converted everything to USD automatically, but I'm trying to be a bit more realistic now lol.

Kyoya: You made me get up early…

Nile: It was for the plotline, Kyoya.

Ryuga: Where did Gingka go? I need to send this angry letter to his father and don't want to pay for postage.

Me: *points vaguely off in a direction* Methinks I see him over yonder hill!

Ryuga: *Stalks off in that direction*

Kyoya: Wow, he really IS mad if he didn't just insult you for your sarcastic and likely false directions.

Me: *brushes off hands* I'm sure he'll find Gingka just fine. Eventually. All's well that ends well. At least for us. I pity Ryo once he gets that letter. Say goodbye and thank you, guys!

Kyoya: Bye.

Nile: Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed and/or favorited this story.

THE END