Chapter 9

"Morning Max." Tori greeted with a yawn as she entered the Dojo and saw him sitting there.

"Good morning." Max said happily, his hyper-ness making Tori wince.

"How can you be so cheery in the morning?" she asked. She suddenly thought back to the other day in his room, "Actually…don't answer that."

Max smiled happily at her, pulling her down onto the ground to sit next to him.

"Where are the others?" Tori asked, lying back on the ground next to him.

"Kai left, Tyson is in bed and Ray is making breakfast."

"Hey, does Tyson really want me to go wake him up? Cause I'm pretty sure that I can find many more painful ways to wake him up."

"Yeah, I'm sure you can. I heard how you woke him yesterday, sounded cruel but I'll bet it was funny."

Tori laughed thinking back, "Yeah it was pretty funny to watch, it was even funnier that I got to do it. It's not like it was something I got to do everyday."

"Then let's go wake him." Max told her, getting off the ground.

"Sounds good to me." Tori said, shooting off the ground and chasing after Max to Tyson's room.

"Hey where are you two going?" Ray asked, looking out of the kitchen as he saw the two mischievous teenagers run past and heard them chase each other up the stairs.

"To wake Tyson." Tori called. Max and Tori peeked into Tyson's room, laughter already building up as they walked inside the sleeping boy's room. "So any ideas?" she asked, not bothering to whisper.

"Not really, I was just hoping you would think of something."

"How about we start off by tossing him out of bed like yesterday?"

The grin on Max's face easly answered Tori's questions and both went to tug at the sheets. Tori mouthed a 'one, two, three' and on the mark they both rolled the sleeping blader out of his bed and onto the ground as Tori had done yesterday.

"I still find it hard to believe he doesn't wake up when he hits the ground." Max said, staring at the fallen boy.

"Yeah, it's weird if you ask me."

"So what next?" Max asked hurriedly.

"I don't know, how about…we throw him against a wall?!" Tori asked quickly, a bit of excitement and humour in her voice.

"That's something Kai would say." Max told her.

"Is it? Who would've thought." Tori thought with a laugh. "So I take it that it's too rough to actually do huh?"

"Yeah, let's try something that won't cause brain damage."

"Is it possible to cause any more?" Tori asked rather casually, holding a straight face.

Max laughed before turning back to Tyson on the ground, maybe thinking of something to wake him.

"Hey Max…" Tori asked slowly, mostly quiet.

"Yeah?" Max asked, looking at her, seeing she was staring at the ground beneath her.

"Where did Kai go?" Tori asked, looking up at him.

---With Kai---

'Why can't I get that stupid dream out of my head?!' Kai asked himself, for about the tenth time since he left the Dojo early that morning. He's had strange dreams before, some terrifying ones too but the one he had had the night before was one that he just couldn't forget. He sat in a café at a table by himself, a mug of coffee in his hand though his mind was far from the present and the coffee had probably gotten cold long before.

---Dream---

All the Bladebreakers sat in the Dojo, the silence was strong and it had been that way ever since they got that one call. Max had tears slipping off his face, Ray clearly looked upset and like the others, he was shocked. Tyson sat there, a bit of anger in his eyes through the tears that he chose not to let slip just yet. Kai sat at the back of the room his eyes closed, trying so hard to pretend that all he had heard wasn't true or in the least that he didn't care about what happened. "I cant believe it." Max whispered.

"She's gone, Max!" Tyson yelled angrily.

"We didn't even know, you couldn't even tell." Ray went on.

The news had just come in, Tori had died earlier that morning. All they were told was that she was in a bad condition though they weren't told what exactly was wrong with her. Now all their hearts broke at the thought that their trainer was dead and they wouldn't be seeing her smile every morning or hearing her orders for training ever again. Komatsu Tori was gone with the wind, gone from the physical plane and all that lived on where the memories in their hearts and minds but for Kai…he swore that not even that would be left for if she were gone then he would ban every memory and thought of the girl, as if the auburn-haired teenager never existed to him as he did so many others.

---End Dream---

Somehow the emotions from that dream began to get to him and he hated the feelings he got from it. He probably hated it the most because he couldn't help but suddenly give in to the thought that he may just be letting Tori be a friend to him. He couldn't help it, there was something about her that stuck by him that no matter how hard he pushed her away she'd keep coming back to help him. He couldn't even help but think that maybe his dream could come true, and maybe something bad did happen to her and he was just sitting in a café feeling horrible about what happened the night before and for considering her a friend to him.

Getting off the chair, paid for all the coffee he drank just that morning and made his way back to the Dojo. On the way there his heart beat quickened, fear nagging at his heart silently praying that nothing bad had happened to Tori, hoping that it was just a dream and nothing more. At any second he was more than ready to kill himself for letting himself get so emotionally attached to the younger girl and letting himself get so worked up over a dream that involved the teenager.

He arrived at Tyson's place, seeing Tori sitting out on the porch talking to Tyson. Relief washed over Kai as he saw her though he made sure that it didn't show and that nothing more than a blank look on his face and the coldness in his eyes could be seen. "Morning Kai." Tori greeted, seeming happy as always.

He gave her a nod in reply then silently walked past them and went inside. Tori looked on after him, wanting to follow after him to talk to him for a while, maybe see if he was mad at her or something. Once again she was snapped out of her thoughts by the neko-jin beside her as she had apparently spaced out again. "He's alright you know." Ray told her.

"Oh?"

"He had breakfast this morning and he slept last night." Max told her happily.

"Whatever you said to him must have really got to him." Ray said.

Tori turned to look back to where Kai had gone, 'Though now I wish I said nothing.' She thought. She shook her head and got up, wavering slightly at first before starting to walk over to the bey dish to get some personal practice in before training the others. Stopping she reconsidered everything, her face went expressionless and she just stood there, her arms by her side she slowly felt forward and onto the ground. Her hands moved as she tried to stop herself from falling but she was too late and the aching pain in her head persisted.

The other two male teenagers ran towards her, helping her sit up, all of their worrying overwhelming her. Kai was just about to walk out of the Dojo when he saw Tori collapse, his breath caught in his throat and he turned back to where he had come from, running back up the stairs to his bedroom, the sight of what had happened scaring him more than he realized.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Max asked, both Ray and him helping Tori off the ground.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Tori answered. "I think I'm going to go home though." She said quietly, "Is that alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure. We'll walk you home."

"No!" Tori said quickly, "There's no need." She added, making her way towards the exit.

"What if you collapse again?"

"Trust me, you'll be the first to know." Tori told them, walking on out of sight. She kept on walking, ignoring the protests off the team mates that she left behind at the Dojo's gate.

'Mistress…'

'How long now?' Tori interrupted.

'5 months, Mistress.'

'Sounds right.'

'Mistress…you still have a chance…please.' The bitbeast pleaded through her cracking voice and tears.

'I've made my decision and I'm not changing it.' Tori said calmly though Denzelle's fearful voice in her mind almost making her want to cry and change her mind, though she stood strong, she had made her decision. She arrived back at home, not hearing a word from her bitbeast, who, as far as she could tell, was still crying.

Tori tried her best to ignore the sobbing bitbeast and got changed, sliding beneath the covers of her soft bed she rested her head on her arms on the pillow. Denzelle appeared beside her, sit on the pillow next to her in a pure white icy dress, plain and simple. "I'm not being very supportive am I?" she asked.

"What gave you that idea?" Tori asked almost spitefully.

"I'm sorry…" Denzelle started.

"It doesn't matter, I'm not that mad or anything."

"I still feel the need to apologize."

"Well don't. You're going to give me a headache with all the apologizing you'll probably do."

"Now that's something I don't want to do." Denzelle said with a laugh, stopping when she did hear a laugh from her Mistress, "Are you alright?" she asked quietly.

The teenager didn't give an answer as she had just fallen asleep again, Denzelle smiled softly before leaving the girl to her peaceful dreams. She walked into the living room and set herself down on the sofa, her eyes falling on Tori's mobile that was on the table. She picked it up and looked around until she found Mr Dickinson's and for a long time she considered calling him to tell him what was wrong. N the end though she decided not to, she was all for her Mistress' privacy, yet she was also for her Mistress' health.

---Next Morning---

"Where is she?" Tyson asked impatiently and angrily. "Try call her again!" he yelled at Ray.

"We've already tried, Tyson." Kai pointed out.

"Then try again!"

Before Kai could lash out at him they all heard the phone ring and Tyson went to pick it up, like most times it was Mr Dickinson which disappointed them all seeing as they were hoping it was Tori. He called claiming he wanted to know how things where going around there with their training and all but Tyson was quick to ask if he knew where Tori was or if he'd heard from her. "Well of what I've heard is that Tori had an important doctors appointment this morning, maybe she'll be there later." Mr Dickinson replied.

"Oh, we'll try contact her later then."

Soon Kai was on his way out, "Where are you going, Kai?" Max asked.

"Out, you've got the morning off." Kai replied, leaving them alone as he walked off to Tori's place in search for some answers. He arrived there in record timing, nothing on his mind aside from the will to get answers about what was going on with the auburn-haired teenager. He knocked hard on her apartment door and saw a girl in pure white answer the door, "Who are you?" he asked.

"Denzelle."

"Right so where's Tori?" Kai asked, not entirely believing her anyway.

Denzelle stared at the ground for a second, biting down on her lip, "Kai, she's at the hospital…things aren't looking too good." She said quietly.

A/N: As I do with most of my fics, I put a little spin on things. Can anyone say they saw any of this coming? Honestly? Well tell me if you did, if you didn't and what you think is going to happen. I really want to know what you thought of this, I promise I'm trying really really hard to make this fic the best I can. I hope you're enjoying it so far!

Arigato, sayonara!