Chapter VII:

All Bark and No Bite… Right?

Kai spent the rest of the day in his room, while Andy and Kayla tidied the rest of the house up. After lunch Andy went upstairs and knocked on the door. Cautiously she poked her head in and sniffed the room.

"Yuck, take a bath," she ordered. "Then I'll redress those cuts."

Once he came back he sat down on the neatly made bed and let his wife bandage up his wounds. Pain shot through his arm as she poked one of his bruises.

"That hurts you know," he grumbled.

"Sorry," she apologized, "So have you brewed up a plan to beat Tyson up yet… or are you still mad and not going to tell me."

"I'm not mad at you, what makes you say that?" Kai asked, knowing the answer.

"Hmm, let me think… there was that whole storming out of the kitchen thing," she joked.

"Well for your information I'm not going to touch a single hair on his body," he said innocently.

"If you say so," she sighed, "but if I hear that the once world beyblading champion is dead on the news, I'll know you had a part in it."

"Boy you're trusting," he said sarcastically.

"Say what you will Kai I know you're up to something," she accused.

then the door bell rang, Kai and Andy listened to Kayla greet their guests. Andy sensed discomfort in her sister-in-law's voice as she spoke to them.

"Kai, Tala and Bryan are here for you," Kayla called.

"Bryan?" Andy said shocked. "I was joking about Tyson's death being on the news Kai."

"I know," he said, putting on his jacket, "I may be home late, so don't wait up."

"Don't do anything stupid," she warned.

"I won't," Kai said, kissing his wife on the cheek.

Andy followed him downstairs and watched him and his old abbey friends leave. Something didn't feel right, not one bit…

Meanwhile Ray happily walked into his favourite restaurant. He chose one of booths in the far end and waited for Mariah to show up. 'It's not a date though' he told himself, 'Kayla would kill me.' As he sat and drummed his fingers a group of people sat in the booth behind him. 'No biggie,' he thought.

"Are you sure about this," a familiar voice asked.

'Kai,' he thought.

"Positive," another voice said.

'Tala.'

"This is gonna be sweet," a third voice eatlk d suspicously.uch?of mney to Boris.e now.urned tmumbledcon.

At that Ray almost jumped out of his skin. 'Bryan,' he yelled in his head. 'I wonder what's going on.' With that, he quietly inched bit closer so he could hear better.

"Tyson will have no idea what hit him," Brian said.

"As long as my family doesn't find out," he heard Kai warn.

"They'll never know," Tala assured. "So eleven o-clock, right?"

Quietly Ray crept out of his seat and tiptoed away. 'Gotta call Andy,' was his first thought, 'she'll put a stop to this.' Quickly he made his way to a payphone and dialled his sister's number. The phone rang three time before someone answered.

"Hello," Andy said.

"Andy, it's Ray, I just heard Kai talking to Tala and Bryan," he said, "I think he's gonna do something stupid."

"What else is new?" Andy joked.

"But he was hanging out with Bryan and Tala, and I think it's really serious," Ray protested.

"Do you know anything at all?" she asked.

"Well they're meeting at eleven," he murmured, "And Bryan seems really pleased with this plan."

"Like extreme pain pleased or Tyson's dead pleased?" she wondered.

"Tyson's dead pleased."

"Great, I'll see what I can do," she sighed.

"Bye then."

"Bye."

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At ten thirty Kai returned home almost happy. But his cheerfulness ceased when he saw Andy waiting for him. At that moment he saw a mother looking down at her child, as if he had painted on the wall.

"I got an interesting call today," she said.

"Oh really, who?" he asked innocently.

"Don't act all innocent with me," she snapped. "I know what you're up to, Ray was sitting right there."

"Just wait a second, where's there?"

"At the restaurant," she almost yelled. "You know, you, Tala and Bryan went to plan your little murder."

"Damn it," he murmured. "Look, I said I'm not going to touch him and I won't. I'm sort of the bait."

"Bait or not, you could get caught, especially since Lee and Ozuma are on duty tonight," she scolded.

"Could you stop acting like your mother first?" he asked.

"Kai this isn't like getting into a fight at the bar," she sighed. "You can be sentenced to death for this."

"I know, that's why we'll be careful," he defended.

"I'm going with you," she said firmly.

"No," he protested.

"Do you want me to tell Kayla," she warned, "I haven't yet but I could. She would've already called Lee and made sure you stayed home."

"Fine," he groaned. "I got a job for you then."

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While Andy and Kai argued, Ray was just finish a sitting down with Mariah at her house. No matter what he did though his mind always returned to his earlier conversation with his sister. Finally Mariah tossed a pillow at him and said,

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he lied.

"I know you better than that Raymond Kon," she accused. "So spill the beans already." With a sigh Ray told the whole story, from Tyson and Andy last month, to the conversation he overheard. After a moment of thought she said, "I'm not surprised."

"You're not? I was," he said bitterly.

"Of course you would be, you're a guy not to mention Tyson's best friend. You wouldn't believe anyone if they said such things… unless they had proof. Tyson has done things like this for a while now. I heard he even owes a lot of money to Boris."

"How do you know so much?" He asked suspiciously.

"Girls talk to each other, unlike you men."

"What about what Kai and the others are up to?"

"It's Kai, what do you think? You know him better than I do."

"That's just it, I don't know! They can be violent but they've never killed anyone before."

"You're right, they could never commit such a crime."

"No they couldn't…. Mind you nothing like this has ever happened before and I wouldn't put anything past Bryan"

"True. But what would they do? Sneak into the dojo and slit his throat while he was sleeping? Daichi still lives there, along with a very old Grandpa."

"Unless they…" Ray began, looking at the watch. "I gotta go stop a brother of mine."

Quickly Ray jumped out of his seat and Ray out the door. As he ran down the road he prayed that he would find them in time.

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A/N Well there you go as always pleease review