Chapter Two

Bakuten Academy

A screeching alarm greeted Steph at five past seven the next morning. She cracked one eye open reluctantly to glare at the offending clock across the room on Becky's bedside table. Sunlight streamed through the large window around the edges of the blanket she and Becky had fashioned as a curtain the night before.

With a groan, she rolled over and covered her head with her pillow - she was not a morning person!

She heard Becky fumble with the alarm clock as she stumbled out of bed, followed by a colourful array of swear words and something about jet lag. Abruptly, Steph's pillow and blankets were yanked away inviting the chilly spring air into her bed.

"Oi!" she glared up at her cousin, who was standing over her and holding her pillow hostage.

"School," Becky mumbled, dumping the pillow on the end of the bed and heading downstairs to shower as Steph crawled out of bed, reaching for her phone.

There were multiple notifications, most of them from Hilary asking about school. There was a message from her mother, wishing her luck, and one from her sister reminding her to be on time. She skipped through them all and opened the last one from her best friend.

Max: Lets walk to school together! Meet outside the dojo at 8?!

The text was followed by no less than six smiley face emojis. Even in the morning, Max was bright and cheery. Craving her morning coffee, she pulled on her school uniform, tucked her beyblade into her pocket and headed downstairs. The spirit inside her beyblade was quiet this morning, but their connection felt stronger the longer she was in Japan - a side effect, Steph guessed, of the six spirits being in such close proximity again.

In the tiny bathroom, Becky was running a curling iron through her hair. Steph squeezed in next to her and reached for her hairbrush.

"Don't plug the hairdryer and the straightener in at the same time," the younger girl suggested.

"Did you trip the circuit breaker already?" Steph guessed. Becky merely shrugged and continued curling.

Side by side in front of the mirror, the differences between the two girls were strikingly apparent. Becky was the taller of the two, with mousy hair dyed blonde and peachy skin. Steph, on the other hand, had pale skin from spending too much time indoors and long and straight dark hair.

"You better hurry," she told her cousin as she tied her hair up in a ponytail. "We're walking to school, remember?"

"We wouldn't have to walk if you'd let Enrique buy us a car," Becky said, her tone somewhat sour.

Many painstaking hours had been spent in the car with Enrique teaching her, but Steph had finally gotten her driver's license over the summer. While it was usually easier to placate Enrique by accepting his over zealous gifts, Steph had drawn the line at him buying her a car. Enrique could never just buy a car - he had to buy the most expensive and frivolous car he could find. In Bakuten, where everyone drove mid tier Japanese cars, an Alpha Romeo would have looked entirely out of place.

"Exercise is good for the soul," Steph told her, dumping her hairbrush in the drawer and leaving Becky to finish her curls while she hunted down her morning dose of caffeine.

Hiro was sitting at the kitchen table, sipping his own coffee with a bowl of chopped fruit in front of him and reading something on his iPad. The small T.V in the kitchen was tuned to the weather, announcing a mild, nineteen degree day with partial cloud cover. Meiko, the Granger's cat was curled atop the TV, purring loudly.

"Morning," she greeted, crossing the kitchen to the coffee maker. It was a welcomed surprise to see Grandpa had upgraded the coffee machine since she'd last stayed at the dojo. She filled her cup, poured in the milk and a heaped teaspoon of sugar before joining Hiro at the table.

"No breakfast?" he queried.

Steph shook her head. "Just coffee," she said. "Where's Grandpa?"

"The dojo," Hiro replied. "Grandpa always starts his day with his morning kendo routine. He packed you a lunch for your first day." He jabbed his finger towards a stack of lunch boxes on the kitchen counter. Steph hadn't had a home made lunch since she was in middle school. "Make sure Tyson doesn't forget his."

Figuring that it was a strong possibility, Steph tucked Tyson's lunch into her school bag beside her own and sat down at the table with her coffee. She sipped her coffee, wondering whether or not Hiro was the morning conversation type of person. It seemed polite to at least offer some conversation.

"Your sister called this morning."

"Oh?" Steph said, unable to disguise her surprise.

"She wanted to check you'd settled in. I said the move went fine. She mentioned you were taking a few accelerated classes this year. Are you planning on applying at Oxford next year?"

"It's the family tradition," Steph said. Her mother, father and aunts had all been Oxford graduates. Enrique had already sent in his application and been accepted to study Ancient History beginning next year.

"Law?" Hiro guessed. "Or maybe Medicine like your mom? She's a doctor isn't she."

"Yep - a surgeon actually," Steph nodded. "I'm not sure what I want to do yet, though."

"I think that's pretty common at your age," Hiro commented. "What about extracurriculars? I remember you being a keen photographer and the school has a good photography program."

Participation in at least one after school group was mandatory for students at Bakuten Academy. Before enrolling, Steph had been made to sit down with one of the school's curriculum advisors, a very old, stern looking Japanese woman who had gone over all of Steph's school records.

Despite her good grades, the advisor had expressed doubts about Steph managing the accelerated subjects alongside training and competing. Instead she had suggested something less involved for an after school group, and then gone on to talk about calligraphy and flower-arrangement groups, neither of which appealed to Steph in the very least.

"Yeah," she said. "Photography might be nice."

Silence fell between them once again and Hiro resumed reading the news while Steph stare down at her coffee, willing the caffeine to jumpstart her brain.

It was almost eight before Tyson entered the kitchen, still half asleep and mumbling about breakfast. He made a bee-line for the cupboard and poured himself a bowl of cereal and joined them at the table.

"Your jumper is on backwards," Hiro commented, his eyes barely leaving his iPad. Tyson looked down at his navy jumper and swore loudly before pulling his arms back through the sleeves. He shimmied the jumper around until the Bakuten crest was at the front, then shoved his arms unceremoniously back into the sleeves.

"Skillful," Steph commented, watching him stab his spoon into the cereal, sloshing milk over the kitchen table.

Hiro narrowed his eyes, pulling his iPad out of Tyson's vicinity. "You might want to pick a healthy breakfast option when training starts tomorrow," he commented dryly. Tyson merely stuck out his tongue before heaping a spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"Are we training here at the dojo?" Steph asked.

Hiro shook his head. "The school has been kind enough to lend us their gym while the BBA Headquarters are being renovated. I'm hoping we can train at least four nights a week."

"Four times a week?" Tyson groaned. "Are you trying to kill us? We've never had to practice that much."

Hiro's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "You've also never taken a year off before. Do I need to remind you that while you've been catching up on your comic books this last year, the White Tigers, the All Starz and the Blitzkrieg Boys all placed first in their respective national leagues?"

Tyson pulled a face while helping himself to a second bowl of cereal. "Why you gotta hate on the comics? We can't all be stiffs and read the news."

Hiro, with years of practice ignoring his younger brother's jabs, merely sipped his coffee. "Maybe, but last I checked both Clarke Kent and Peter Parker worked for a newspaper."

Steph laughed and checked her phone. There was another message from Max, letting her know he was waiting outside. As she tucked her phone carefully back into her pocket, her fingers brushed the bitchip of her beyblade and she felt Seraphina's excitement - the spirit could sense Draciel and Drigger nearby.

"If you don't hurry up, we're going to be late," she told him lightly. She tipped the rest of her coffee into her travel mug, then filled a second mug straight from the pot and headed for the door just as Becky came down the stairs, her hair freshly curled and her Hello Kitty backpack slung over her shoulder.

"Thanks," she said, taking the mug. "Where's Tyson?"

Steph nodded her head towards the kitchen while she slipped on her shoes and grabbed the keys Grandpa had left out for them.

Becky peered into the kitchen where Tyson was heaping more cereal into his bowl. "Tyson, we're leaving without you!"

Tyson's reply was muffled by food, but sounded almost like an "I'm coming!" Laughing and shaking her head, Steph opened the door and the two girls headed toward the rear gates of the Dojo where Max was waiting for them.

The blonde American was sitting on the rear fence, doodling in his notebook, an earphone in one ear. Beside him, their Chinese teammate, Ray Kon was reading a graphic novel while leaning up against the fence post.

"There you are!" Max said at once, his ocean blue eyes lighting up when he saw them. "Tyson not ready yet?" He hopped down from the fence and gave both girls an enthusiastic hug.

Max was sixteen, and along with Becky, would be starting in the eleventh grade. Like Tyson, he'd grown significantly taller over the last twelve months. He wore his blonde hair shorter than Steph remembered, and his freckles had mostly faded.

"Still on his third bowl of cereal," she explained.

"Sounds like Tyson," Ray muttered. "Hilary will skin him alive if he's late on his first day." He closed his book and tucked it into his bag. He'd swapped out his usual red headband for a blue one that matched the school uniform, but his hair was as unruly as ever. Some things, Steph thought with a smile, never changed.

"That'll save Hiro from doing it a t training later this week," Becky said. She had pulled out her phone and was testing someone - probably Hilary - with one hand, while sipping coffee with the other. "Shall we, then?" she suggested without looking up.

The Academy was a short walk from the Dojo, and while it would have been nice to have a car, the walk gave the four of them some time to catch up. Ray had spent the school break with his White Tiger teammates teachings kids in remote regions of China about beyblading. He'd flown back to Japan only days before Steph and Becky because he'd stayed to watch Lee win the Chinese tournament.

"That makes two consecutive championships for Lee in two years," Steph commented. "Master Tao must be so proud."

"It didn't stop him from working us half to death over the break," Ray said with the ghost of a smile. "How about you Max, did you get much practice in over the break?"

"Not as much as I should have," Max admitted somewhat sheepishly. "We spent a lot of the break renovating the shop for the reopening."

Max's dad, Taro, ran a hobby shop that specialised in Beyblade parts. Following the rise of BEGA, however, the hobby shop had been forced out of business when he refused to stock BEGA's parts. Steph was glad to hear he'd managed to reopen.

"That reminds me," he added. "My mom just got her equipment shipped over from the States." He said "mom" in his typical American accent. "Dad ordered all of the latest parts as well. He said we could use them to upgrade our beyblades before the tournament."

"Is Judy still working for the PPB?" Becky asked. Project Power Beyblade was the American Beyblade Organisation Judy worked for.

"Yep," Max said proudly. "But they're letting her work from their headquarters in Japan - at least until Charlotte is old enough to go to school."

They rounded the corner and the gates of Bakuten Academy came into view. In all her trips to Bakuten, Steph had never seen the school up close before. From the street, only the front entrance to the school, marked by wrought iron gates, could be seen. The rest of the Academy was concealed behind tall hedges that lined its perimeter.

"Pretentious," Becky remarked, looking up from her phone just long enough to give her appraisal of the school.

"It's bigger than I thought it would be," Max said. "It kind of looks like the Ivy League schools back home."

"Does Mr Dickenson really expect us to fit in here?" Tyson said, appearing behind them and making Becky exclaim in surprise. His red, blue and white baseball cap was tucked under his arm and he appeared slightly out of breath.

"Did you run all the way here?" Ray asked, a hint of disapproval in his voice.

Tyson nodded between breaths. "Maybe I'm more out of shape than I thought," he said.

"Can we go inside now?" Becky muttered uncomfortably. "People are starting to stare at us."

Now that Becky had pointed them out, Steph could see a number of students had indeed gathered around the gates and were looking over at them and whispering to one another. "She's right," she said. "Let's keep moving."

They made their way through the gates. The school buildings were all made of stone and surrounded a spacious courtyard decorated with stone pathways and large cherry blossom trees waiting to bloom. The stares followed them through the gates and into the bustling school grounds. The other students moved around them, giving the newcomers a wide birth. Some of them were subtle about it, others barely bothered to hide it, whispering under their breath as they passed.

"Is that Tyson Granger? Did you know he went to school here?"

"And that's Max Tate. Isn't he on the PPB All Starz?" another voice said.

"I'm feeling a very 'deer-in-the-headlights' vibe right now," Steph muttered under her breath, nervously hitching her school bag a little higher onto her shoulder.

"The BEGA tournament was heavily publicised across Japan last year," Max said with a shrug. "They probably recognise us from the tournament."

One of the students, a male with pale skin and dark blue highlights in his hair was staring directly at them as they made their way through the double doors into the main building. Steph felt a chill creep up her spine. "I get that - but why are they looking at us as though we're a snack?" she asked.

"A lot of that publicity wasn't the greatest," Ray reminded her. "The BEGA team were pretty popular. As far as the general populace is concerned, we're the rag tag group that usurped Boris's superstars. They don't know what went on behind the scenes."

Between Tala and Garland, he means, Steph thought to herself. Of course Boris would want to keep quiet about the outcome of that match. Tala had been placed in a medically induced coma for six weeks following the match, and Steph knew that if it hadn't been for Dranzer, he might not have woken up.

"If there was one thing Boris was good at," Becky muttered, and there was an edge to her voice; "it was feeding people a bunch of lies."

"That's for the BBA to worry about now," Steph reminded her kindly. She knew the BBA would be launching an inquest into Boris's takeover, but she also knew that those sort of legal matters could take years. There wasn't any point worrying about it now. "Let's just focus on getting through school today."

"I think that's a good idea," Ray agreed. "It looks like the main building is over there," Max said, pointing to a large building on their left. Above the main doorway, written in both kanji and letters were the words 'school office'. He led the way through the double doors and into the entrance hall where they were immediately swooped upon by Hilary.

"There you are," she said, making Tyson and Max jump with surprise. The former BBA Revolutions manager wore her hair neatly in two braids she held a stack of books in her arms and her school bag was bursting at the seams with the rest of her school things.

"Tyson, your tie is crooked," she tsked, tucking her books under one arm and reaching over to fix the offending uniform, much to the World Champion's chargrin. "I thought you were going to be late," she went on. "I got here an hour early, of course, so I went ahead and got everyone's class schedules and school diaries." Satisfied with Tyson's appearance, she began handing out a handful of timetables.

"It's good to see you're only slightly neurotic today, Hilary," Ray told her. His tone was teasing, but with his usual friendliness, causing Hilary to flush.

"Well, you know - I wanted to be prepared," she said, handing him his timetable and diary. "Mr Dickenson went to a lot of trouble organising these scholarships for us - do you know that Bakuten offers an entire English curriculum alongside the standard Japanese curriculum?"

Steph did know that, actually. Next to Hilary, she was probably the only other team member that had read the Academy handbook from cover to cover. She glanced down at her timetable; She had Math first, then History. Chemistry, Biology and Gym were after recess; English and Physics rounded off the day after lunch.

Becky peered over Steph's shoulder and huffed disapprovingly. "We only have two classes together." She handed Steph her timetable for comparison. Becky had been placed in accelerated English and Biology for the twelfth grade. She'd also been assigned to English Literature, Algebra and Psychology.

"We have Gym together too," Steph remarked. That was one subject she wasn't looking forward to. Her coordination, or lack there of, meant that physically activity outside of Beyblading was risky business. "We're in Daisy's English class in fifth period."

"I have English fifth period too," Max piped up. "And I'm in Algebra with Becky."

"Kenny's in that class too," Hilary informed them. "He's already went to Homeroom. The eleventh grade classrooms are down that hall," she said pointing. "The senior classrooms are upstairs."

They waved goodbye to Becky and Max, and Hilary led the way up the stairs. Steph was about to follow when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. When she checked the notification there was no text, only a blurred photo of a timetable. Her phone buzzed again, this time with a message to accompany the photo.

Tala: Please tell me I'm not suffering through the whole day with Hiwatari on my own?!

Steph grinned to herself. It appeared her best friend was as blunt as always today. Snapping a photo of her own timetable, she sent it back along with a caption.

Steph: Only until third period. We have Chemistry together.

The reply was almost instantaneous.

Tala: Nerd. Trust you to be taking three sciences.

"Are you coming, Steph?" Hilary called impatiently from the stairs. Typing a final hasty reply, Steph stuffed her phone into her pocket and hurried after her.