Hello readers! This is a very long chapter than my usual, I even considered to split it in two, but I want to move forward with the story. There will be a lot of explanations, I hope it's not too "heavy".

This wasn't the first time Rei got into a fight.

A kid alone on the road always got the attention of shady characters. Unfortunately for them, they didn't know that the young boy was from a secret tribe who taught their people how to fight at a young age. Now, Rei didn't really like violence, but he would fight with all his might to defend his friends or like in this case himself.

The blonde man launched at him and Rei moved quickly, avoiding the punch and unleashing a kick that knocked the man off his feet. There was a flash of movement and Rei turned to his right at the last second, missing the blow from the brown-head. The man lost his equilibrium and Rei landed a hit on his back, making him fall over his buddy.

Use the enemy's own higher numbers against them. It was one of the first lessons that Master Tao had taught him.

"Damn, you idiot! Move away!" the blond-haired man shouted. "And use that damn thing already!"

"Well, I would if you would make your job and keep him still!"

Rei tilted his head as he watched the two men argue. His plan was to let them tire themselves down and then question them to know who had sent them and what they wanted from him. One thing was sure, whoever had hired them was even a bigger idiot than this two. They were making a dumb job if they were trying to be subtle or intimidating. And then, who went around dressed in black suits in the middle of the summer? Rei was starting to pity them.

Somehow the two buffoons managed to detangle from each other and tried to attack him again.

Rei avoided hit after hit and waited for the right moment. When they seemed tired enough Rei blocked the blond guy's head with his arms around and put him between himself and the other man like a shield. Before the man could understand what was happening, Rei slammed his knee into his stomach and knocked him out.

With a yell, the other man launched at him. Rei rolled his eyes and stopped his attack, twisting the man's arm and making him fall on his knees.

Now it was time for answers.

"Oh my god, what the hell are you doing you two?!" someone shouted.

Rei was sure nobody had been here a minute ago. Without thinking, Rei turned his head and the distraction cost him. He felt something sting into his neck and the last thing he saw was Mrs. Hiwatari's bewildered face. . .

Rei runs. He is in the forest. Driger is warm in his hand. The sun is almost gone.

Home isn't far. He can see the small house close to the river. A man is sitting outside on a bench, smoking a pipe after a hard day of work in the field.

Rei runs faster, he is at the edge of the forest but then he trips on a root. He falls and Driger slips from his hand.

The roots grab his legs and drag him back in the forest. Rei screams for help, but the man doesn't hear him.

"I won today!" he tells him, trying to get his attention.

The man is closer now and looks down at him. His amber eyes are harsh. His tied brown hair barely reaches his shoulder.

"One step, one footprint. But you have a long way to reach the top of the mountain, Rei."

Rei bits his lower lip and feels his eyes getting wet.

Finally, the man holds out his hand and Rei tries to grab it, but the roots pull him down- someone else screams.

Rei opened his eyes slowly. He felt tired. His head hurt a bit and the banter happing somewhere close to him wasn't helping.

"- and who is the idiot here?"

"I fired them, what else do you want me to do?"

"I told you we should have taken him to the hospital!"

"Oh, come on, he is fine. They said he was going to wake up in one hour."

"One hour passed five minutes ago!"

"You are so impatient, dear. You should stay calm in your condition- Oh look, he woke up!"

Rei tried to stand up, but his head throbbed painfully, and he fell back on the couch. He closed his eyes and touched the bridge of his nose. He felt like after a drinking night with Takao and Max.

"Hey, easy there, lad."

Rei looked up and stiffened.

Mr. Hiwatari was hovering over him and was offering a glass of water. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to startle you," he said with a friendly smile.

Rei accepted the glass of water and exanimated his surroundings. It was a simple living room with a kitchen area, but the furniture looked expensive. Everything smelled new. His gaze fell on the small table in front of him where his Beyblade was laying.

"Driger!" Rei grabbed it and hold it close to his chest.

"It fell from your jacket when we took you here," Mr. Hiwatari informed him, sitting on another couch. "I couldn't help but analyze it, I hope you'll forgive me for it."

Rei looked at the man in confusion. Took him here? What did it mean? He tried to remember but his mind was just a mess. The last thing he remembered was Lai's call and nothing more. A sense of panic tried to crawl into his heart but he kept it at bay.

"It's a very interesting balance type Beyblade," Mr. Hiwatari said, more to himself. "The attack ring has short Upper Attack slopes, and through their angle still allows them to exhibit very effective Upper Attack, the Attack Ring is perhaps more notable for its Smash Attack. This is due to the excellent angle of its contact points, which focus the full force of the Beyblade's motion behind every hit- and the addition of the heavy metal system is just amazing-"

Rei felt his headache increase as the man talked and focused instead on his expressive eyes who were very similar but also so different from Kai's.

"Susumu, please, you are confusing him even more," Mrs. Hiwatari interrupted him.

Mr. Hiwatari put a hand behind his neck and chuckled. "Sorry, I'm always get carried away when I see a Beyblade."

"You know about Beyblade?" Rei asked, intrigued.

"Oh well. . ." the man smiled sheepishly. He sure smiled a lot, unlike someone else. "I'm a Beyblade engineer."

Of course, Kai's father was a Beyblade engineer, only someone in the field could know those things. He would get along great with the Professor.

Rei shook his head, trying to clear his mind. What the hell was he doing here? Chatting with those people like they were old friends. He had to focus, how did he get here with Kai's parents? Rei touched his neck and felt something like a patch.

Suddenly two men dressed in black showed up in his mind and his memories came back at full speed. He had been drugged!

Coming back to his senses, Rei stood up on his shaky legs and stared down at Mr. Hiwatari. "What do you want from me?!" he demanded. "If you think it will be easy to keep me here then you are deeply wrong!"

Mr. Hiwatari blinked and then started to laugh. "He thinks we have kidnapped him," he said with tears in his eyes.

Rei was flabbergasted as he stared at the surreal scene in front of him. Anger turned into more confusion. Mr. Hiwatari continued to laugh, unaware of Mrs. Hiwatari showing up behind him. She smacked her husband behind his head with a journal and the man finally stopped to laugh.

"Ouch!" he cried, probably overreacting. "What was that for?"

"That's because we basically did it, dumbass!" the woman growled. "What must the poor boy think if you send two burly men against him?!"

"It was a misunderstanding!" the man defended himself. "I didn't tell them to kidnap him!"

"You told to your stupid bodyguards to bring him to you at all costs!"

"I was joking!"

Rei couldn't hold himself up any longer and sat back on the couch. He must have hit his head very hard earlier, this was the only explanation he could find to explain this situation. Maybe he was in a coma.

"How do you feel now, dear?" Mrs. Hiwatari asked, turning to Rei. "I'm very sorry about the inconvenience we caused you. I assure you, you are not a prisoner here."

Rei was still speechless. He had imagined these two people to be cruel, he didn't expect them to be so. . . silly.

A tea kettle whistled, and Mrs. Hiwatari smiled. "Let's talk this over a cup of tea," she said softly. "We'll explain you everything."

After tea was served, Mrs. Hiwatari took a place beside her husband and they explained "everything". The couple had just wanted to have a chat with him, but the bodyguards had misunderstood Mr. Hiwatari who had just asked them to invite Rei to see them.

It was difficult to believe their story, but Rei had seen a lot of absurd things in his life. Ha had fought werewolves with silver coins, met children androids, got almost swallowed by a black hole. . . Being accidentally kidnapped didn't affect him much.

What made him more worried was what the two wanted to talk about.

Rei sipped his tea, watching the couple carefully.

"So, Rei. . ." Mr. Hiwatari paused, frowning. "I can call you by your name, right?"

He nodded, being called by his surname always made him feel uncomfortable.

"What do you know about us?"

Rei narrowed his eyes at the man's question. "Kai told me enough."

A sad smile appeared on Mr. Hiwatari's face and it took Rei off guard.

"I don't think you know the whole truth," Mrs. Hiwatari uttered. "Not even Kai does."

"You left him with his grandfather, didn't you?" Rei said, giving them an accusing look. "Just for money."

"We did leave him with my father," Mr. Hiwatari confirmed reluctantly. "But not for what you think."

Rei crossed his arms in front of his chest. "That's very difficult to believe," he countered. "What's the truth then?"

"Well, how to begin this. . ." Mr. Hiwatari rubbed a hand over his dark stubble. "It all started before I went to college, more than twenty years ago."

Rei blinked but didn't interrupt.

"I had always been home-schooled before I went to college. The only people I interact with were the one my father chose and the one I met at the high society parties. It was during one of these parties that I met Daitenji Kogoro."

"You know President Daitenji?" Rei asked, surprised.

Mr. Hiwatari grinned. "He was the one who introduced me to Beyblade. I quickly become interested and soon obsessed with it. Beyblade was something new and different from what my father made me study. Finally, when I went to college I was free to do what I wanted and I decided to found a Beyblade club but it didn't go well. That day only one person showed up."

Mr. Hiwatari's expression became severe, his eyes darkened.

"Vladimir Volkov."

"What?!" Rei breathed.

"He was different back then, or at least so I thought," Mr. Hiwatari said with disappointment. "We were both freshmen and soon we become friends. Best friends."

Rei stared at the man, deeply disturbed by the idea.

"I tried to involve other students," Mr. Hiwatari continued. "But nobody was interested. Beyblade wasn't a known sport back then. But I was stubborn and still decided to not close the club, hoping one day people would become interested and love this sport too. And one day it happened."

He grasped his wife's hand and they both shared a fond smile. Rei glanced away, feeling out of place.

Mr. Hiwatari cleared his throat and continued his story. "Misaki showed up at the end of the first term. She was very popular in the university and her interest in my club attired other people. By the end of the first year, everyone knew what Beyblade was. . . But Volkov didn't like it." Mr. Hiwatari's voice became heavier as he kept talking. "While I thought Beyblade was a sport that connected and brought people together, he had a different idea from mine, he thought it was something like. . . A military discipline. For him, there was no place for sentiments."

The Abbey. . . Rei thought bitterly.

"I thought we could have worked on our differences, but our friendship was doomed. Our goals clashed at the end of college and after a big fight, I decided to cut ties with him. I guess he never stopped to hate me. He thought I abandoned him." Mr. Hiwatari closed his hands around his knees. "If only I knew what he would have done in the future. It is because of me that he met my father," he said, looking ashamed. "How foolish I was."

Rei thought about the Neoborg team, all the kids who had suffered in the abbey. . . What Moses and Ming Ming had been almost forced to do.

What Kai had almost become because of him.

"He was a deviated man," Rei said, "there was nothing you could have done to change him."

Mr. Hiwatari looked surprised for a moment before he continued his story. "After college, Misaki and I had decided to work in the Beyblade field. My father, of course, disapproved. He thought Beyblade was just a children's play before he discovered its full "potential", thanks to Volkov," Mr. Hiwatari snorted. "He also disliked my relationship with Misaki since she wasn't from a wealthy family. He told me to forget about Beyblade and my relationship or he would disinherit me. I couldn't care less, I hated him and company.

"So, we decided to leave everything behind and start a new life, far away from our families. But our plan got a slow down when Kai was born. Don't get us wrong, we were really happy."

Mrs. Hiwatari opened her bag and passed Rei a picture. It was a family portrait with a young Kai sitting between his parents and smiling at the camera. He was absolutely adorable! Rei couldn't help but smile.

"It was a beautiful time, but soon things started to get difficult," Mr. Hiwatari said, casting his eyes down. "My father- no, Soichiro never forgave me for leaving the company and ruin his years of planning. He decided to make our lives hell. Every job we got, we always lost it after a few months and soon just weeks. We had always to move to find a new place where to live. . ."

"But he always found us," Mrs. Hiwatari broke in when she saw her husband in difficulty. "We always tried to live with just the little we had. We hoped one day our Beyblade project would work but things go downhill when Kai got sick. . ." She made a pause and her husband patted her knee in silent comfort. "His fever wouldn't get down and the doctor at the hospital didn't know what was wrong with him. He was almost dying."

A flicker of fear curled in Rei's chest but then he remembered that Kai was fine now.

"We were desperate and decided to contact Soichiro. If there was someone who could help us, it was him. He would have enough resources to help us. He decided to help but on one condition. Kai had to stay with him and had no contact with us."

"And you accepted," Rei said, not kindly.

Mr. Hiwatari stared at him with hollow eyes. "We didn't have a choice."

Kai's words resonated in Rei's mind. There is always a choice. Whether you make it or not. Rei wondered if it really was so.

"Thanks to Soichiro's help, Kai healed," Mr. Hiwatari said. "We tried to see him, but it was impossible with Soichiro. He made a restraining order and treated us to send us to prison forever if we ever showed our faces again or tried to contact Kai. So, we stopped. I just asked Soichiro to give Kai a last gift from us in the hope that one day he would remember about us. Dranzer and the Red Phoenix. But he never looked for us. . ."

"Because he thinks you abandoned him," Rei finished for them. Kai's grandfather had taken advantage of his young age, lied about his parents to manipulate him.

A heavy silence fell in the room as Rei absorbed what Mr. and Mrs. Hiwatari had told him. He believed them, his instinct was good when it came to lies. But there was still something they weren't telling him.

"Why didn't you show up earlier?" he asked. After Hiwatari Soichiro had been arrested there would have been nothing that could have stopped them. "Why only now?"

"We were scared," Mrs. Hiwatari admitted. "What kind of parents would not fight for their child?"

"We know we are not perfect, Rei," Mr. Hiwatari said. "We should have tried harder, the mistakes we made will be forever our burden, but we want to amend us now. Please believe us!"

Rei looked at them cautiously. "I believe you," he said after a moment.

Mr. Hiwatari smiled and Mrs. Hiwatari sighed relieved.

"But why did you contact me?" Rei couldn't understand why they decided to tell him their story.

"Well, Kai made it clear that he wants nothing to do with us," Mr. Hiwatari said, touching his face. His bruise had become darker since this morning.

"But when you showed up this morning, we saw something in Kai's face that told us if there was someone who could change Kai's mind about us, to make him understand, that's you, Rei."

It took a moment for Rei to understand what he meant. "No," he said. "I can't do this." Kai would be furious if discovered it.

"Please, Rei," Mrs. Hiwatari begged. "We are not asking you to lie for us. Just to help us make peace with Kai."

"There is something very important we have to tell him," Mr. Hiwatari confessed. "Something we have to tell him personally."

Rei stared back at the family picture. They seemed so happy, especially Kai. He knew it wasn't his business, Kai himself had told him to not get involved but Rei couldn't just ignore or forget what Kai's parents had told him.

Kai needed to know the truth and from there he will make his decision. Rei had just to hope to not get burned.

He put the picture on the small table and looked back at the couple, who had been patiently waiting for his decision. "I will try to talk to him," he said, and raised a hand when he saw the couple's expressions turn happy. "But I can't do any promises. Everything will be up to him."

Mr. Hiwatari clapped his hands. "That's perfect!" he exclaimed, delighted. "We are not asking more, we just want a chance."

There was surely more to Mr. and Mrs. Hiwatari story but Rei doubted that his mind could take any more information. He needed some time alone to think. He told his intention to the couple and they agreed wholly. It had been a rough morning for all of them.

"It was very nice to meet you, Rei," Mrs. Hiwatari said as she led him to the door.

Rei wasn't sure he could say the same. He was tired and felt overwhelmed. He just wanted to eat his baozi (thankfully the takeaway bag hadn't been left in the park) and go to sleep. Whatever sedative he had been injected with hadn't still ended its effects.

"Here, have this." She handed him a bunch of bills. "They should be enough to pay the cab."

She had insisted to call a taxi for him, but Rei couldn't accept the money as well.

"I insist, Rei," Mrs. Hiwatari said, determinate. "This is the least I can do. You offend us if you don't accept."

And never offend a Hiwatari, Rei thought hopelessly. "Thank you, Mrs. Hiwatari," he replied, accepting the money.

"You're welcome, dear, but please just call me Misaki," she said, opening the door.

Rei bid her goodbye and walked out in the hallway. The apartment was in a fancy building situated in the wealthiest part of the city.

"Rei?" she called him as he waited for the lift.

Rei turned his head to look at her.

"No matter how this will end, I'm happy Kai has a person like you by his side," Misaki said, grateful.

Rei felt his cheeks warm up and he averted her brown eyes, not wanting to let her see that there was something more on his part. "He has a lot of faithful friends by his side now. You don't have to worry."

Misaki stared at him quietly then winked. "Goodbye, Rei."

Once he got in the cab and told the driver his address, Rei took out his phone. He had four text messages. Two were from Max and Takao. Today was their last day of school before summer vacation and they were super excited to be finally free from "hell".

One was from Hiromi. She, on the other hand, felt depressed since she didn't have anything to do for a month and Takao mocked her for it. Rei! You surely can understand me! she had surely written in anger.

Rei shook his head and opened the last message.

It was from President Daitenji.

Rei, we have an emergency. The event planner we assumed can't help us anymore and I can only ask you. Can you please organize the opening night of the new BB stadium?

Rei reread the text three times. The opening was in two weeks.

Maybe it was time to consider moving to the Himalayas and become a hermit.

So, now that the truth about Kai's parents is out I want to give some explanation that I couldn't give earlier to not spoil anything.

Susumu Hiwatari's history is clearly inspired by his manga backstory. You can find it on internet but to sum it up Susumu had an argument with his father over Beyblades and decided to leave the company and left Kai with Soichiro. There is no information about Kai's mother apart from being just there and doing nothing. I had to make up her entire character and /even her name/, the name has been corrected, I've been informed her name is Misaki.

The only things that the Susumu in this fic shares with manga Susumu are the passion for Beyblade and the argument with Kai's grandfather. I tried to build a backstory that could have made sense in the anime context. Vorkov's past with Susumo was made up too. I hope it makes sense. I don't know how Susumu is in the manga (I didn't read it, just found some information on the internet) I tried to make him make him funny but at the same time serious.

I hope you weren't disappointed. If you have questions just ask.

Next chapter will focus again on Rei and Kai and other characters will finally show up :)