"Ma'am, could you please tell me whether or not a flight to Beijing, China has departed already?" Takao asks almost out of breath to the young woman, who works at baggage.

"Yes I can sir, give me just a couple of seconds," The woman politely answers before she glances down at her computer terminal and starts to press a couple of keys on the keyboard.

"Do you think we got here too late, Rei?" Takao solemnly inquires when he turns to face one of his closes friends with a hopeful expression present on his face.

Luckily for Rei, he did not have to supply an answer to the question since the young woman interjects in between their conversation.

"There was a layover flight from Los Angles, California that recently landed but it has already departed for Beijing a couple of minutes ago." The woman reports to Takao.

Rei sensed from the sudden change in body language that Takao was not satisfied with the woman's answer.

"I have one more question for you ma'am…did you see a young girl with brunette hair, red eyes, kind of pale, and about ye high?" Takao rattles off a description of Hiromi to the woman in front of him.

The woman cordially nods her head in an up and down manner, "She was here a few minutes ago but she did not check a bag in though."

"Okay then. Thank you." Takao replied in a dejected manner while he turned away from the lady and faced Rei.

"Let's go back home." The blue haired dejectedly mumbles to Rei once he approaches him before he pushes pass his concern friend.

'This is going to be a long day today for him.' Rei inwardly concludes about how his friend would act for the rest of the day.

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Hiromi releases a breath once one of the flight attendants announces that the plane had ascend to proper altitude and was free to move about the cabin.

She then casts her eyes over to Audrey, who currently wears tiny earplugs in her ears and merrily bobs her head while she listens to her music.

The brunette recalled what she told her earlier before they boarded the plane.

'She said something along the line of to travel on a quest.' Hiromi inwardly repeats what the blonde reveals about her reason behind her trip.

Her ruby red eyes returned to the seat in front of her when she watched the teen girl lifted her hands up to her ears and removed her earphones.

"Hiromi," Audrey calls Hiromi by her name, which causes her to turn her in the blonde's direction, "So exactly why are you going to China?"

She slightly tensed up at the question but felt somewhat obligated since Audrey told her about why she was going to China.

"To discover my purpose." Hiromi admits to her companion as she relaxes her shoulders and adjusts herself in her seat.

Audrey did not immediately respond to the question instead she resumes her previous activity and returns the earphones back in her ears.

'That was kind of weird…' Hiromi mentally notes her reaction to her answer.

'It looks like its going to be a while before we land in China. I wonder if they started their morning stretches by now.' She ponders to herself.

The brunette sleepily leans her head back against the headrest and closes her eyes.

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Grandpa patiently waited at the front gate for his grandson to return and silently prayed that Hiromi was in his company along with Rei.

Yet somehow he knew deep down that the plane he just laid his eyes on carried the girl, who his grandson held near and dear to his heart.

He knew that the sudden departure of the brunette girl was going to affect everyone in their camp but it would hit Takao the hardest.

'It's something about the letter that just doesn't add up.' The eldest Kinoyama thought to himself as he recalled the content of Hiromi's letter.

Even still for her to just up and leave everyone behind without a proper goodbye is definitely gut-wrenching for his grandson.

It was not until Max was announcing the arrival of his grandson by running up to him and asking him, "Are you alright?"

He notices the sadness that seems to radiate off of his body and his body language seems to present that he was not in the mood to do anything but remain to himself.

"I'm fine." Takao simply responses to the question with a shift of his right hand to remove Max's hand off of his shoulder.

Rei's face seems to speak from the calm and rational point of view as he states the obvious, "We didn't make it in time."

This time it was Grandpa, who slightly hung his head, before Kai spoke up, "We will hold practice off until tomorrow morning."

Takao was too out of it to register that Kai blessed them with an extremely rare opportunity of not participating in their daily training.

"I think we should have training today for the rest of us since the WBBA Tournament is coming up in a couple of weeks." Rei offers another suggestion.

Kai shakes his head before he counters with, "Everything we're going to do is as a team so there is no training today."

Max merely exchanges look between the two before he interjects, "So you're telling me that I just ran a 5K this morning only to find out that we don't have practice."

Kai turns away and walks back to his designated sleeping area in order to ponder up new various strategies to improve their skills before the next WBBA tournament.

'It would've been easier if Hiromi was here.' He ruminates to himself as he makes his way inside of Takao's grandfather's home/dojo.

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"Hey, Hiromi," Hiromi hears someone calling her name and shaking her arm in the process, which causes her to slowly wake from her slumber.

She rubs the sleep from her eyes with the side of her right hand and stifles a yawn with the palm of her left hand.

"We're here!" She hears a feminine voice shouts after removing their hand from her arm.

Hiromi stretches out against the airplane's seat and takes in her surroundings when she notices that she was currently in an airplane and next to her was this excited blonde haired girl, who appears around her age.

'Oh yeah that's right.' She thought once her actions start to flood her memory banks before she glances over to where Audrey was pointing out of the window.

"Oh my god, I can see the Great Wall from here!" She exclaims as she turns her head so she could hold Hiromi in her gaze and points with her index finger.

A smile graces her face as Audrey's excitement seems to radiate from her body and on to her. 'She's definitely new to traveling.'

The vibration that was felt throughout the plane signaled to Hiromi that the landing gear had been released and that they were about to reach their destination.

'It's too late to turn back now.' Hiromi thought to herself as she releases a held breath before a jerking sensation can be felt as the wheels of the plane finally connect with the concrete runway strip.

The sound of the pilot welcoming the passengers to China meant that it was time for them to grab their respective luggage and exit from the airplane.

Audrey remains seated until Hiromi tells her that it was time for them to leave. "Boy am I glad that I ran into you at the Tokyo Airport or I would've been lost again."

Hiromi smiles at the blonde as she grabs both of their stuff and makes their way off of the airplane behind a line of people.

'I can't believe that I'm finally here.' Hiromi thought as Audrey had a similar thought as well with the same wide smile on her face.

"So do you need help getting to your next destination?" Hiromi poses to Audrey as she adjusts her luggage in her hand.

She cuts her gaze over to the blonde and notices that Audrey was looking at a piece of paper that she holds in her grasp.

Audrey mutters, "Once you arrive make your way to the taxi pick up and search for your name on the board. Direct the driver to take you to the Forbidden City."

It was then that Hiromi realize that the Forbidden City was her destination as well, 'Something's not adding up here.'

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Grandpa slightly cracks Takao's shoji door and notices that he still had his back facing away from the door.

He closes the door back and exhales a deep breath as it simply broke his heart to see his grandson in his current state.

'I don't think he will be able to rebound from this so easily.' He thought to himself since he was all too familiar with Takao's feelings toward Hiromi.

Grandpa soon begins to ponder to himself, 'It must be eating him alive that she didn't confide in him like she would always do.'

He removes himself from in front of the door and turns to head to the living room where the other members of the Bladebreakers were.

'I need to go and check up on how those three are doing too.' He mentally notes as he nears the living room and could hear the trio talking among themselves.

"This is crazy! How could Hiromi just up and leave us like that?" Grandpa can hear Max ask the group in a tone of disbelief.

"I just wished she would have told us sooner so we could have proper sending off party." Rei states his opinion about the situation.

Kai choose to remain quiet and serve as a spectator rather than a participant in the duo's conversation about Hiromi.

'If she wanted to go to China on her own then that's her choice. She is human and can choice on her own behalf what she wants to do with her life.' he inwardly thought since he was familiar with Hiromi's current mindset.

"I think it was something important but for Takao to blindside as well means that Hiromi didn't want either one of us to know about it. I know it is hurting him the most." Max mentions to Rei, who merely nods his head in agreement.

"Then the timing of her leaving is when we're so close to the next world tournament is going to leave Takao's not being able to concentrate in training." Rei adds in.

"Enough." Kai declares, which earns him looks from both of his teammates, "Takao's passion for bey battling will not change in the slightest. It's his desire to be number one that will keep his mind distracted from these events. We will continue on with our training regime as if it was any other day bright and early in the morning."

Max and Rei face each other and find themselves agreeing with Kai's statement. "You're right, Kai." "We should have never doubt Takao's strong blader spirit."

Grandpa seem rather please with that the outcome of their conversation was positive rather than a negative one.

'As long as those three stay focus then Takao has no other choice but to fall in line.'

Meanwhile…

Takao could not bring himself to read the content of Hiromi's letter since his emotions were still raw and all over the place.

Yet, there was this underlying pain in his heart when he realize that he had lost Hiromi and did not know the reason behind the brunette haired girl sudden departure.

'I wonder why she didn't say anything about going to China earlier.' He thought to himself.

Takao tries to recall past memories that would provide him a hint or a clue as to why she left.

'No there wasn't any signs…' he concludes as he turns his back now against the surface of his bed and his eyes glued on to the ceiling of his bedroom.

'But still…why did she leave?'

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Author's Note:

04.26.2017 Major editing revisions