LV: Keepin' it up, and hoping that I can get this done!

Mana: You can do it, yes you can! Fight on, person, fight on, man!

LV: …Please don't be a cheerleader. Ever. You're worse at it than I am.

Viper's Nest

Written by Lunare Valhart

Batuken Shoot Beyblade is © Aoki Takao

All original characters are © Lunare Valhart, and are not to be used without permission

Chapter 4: Shining Star

"Bu-but, Koshio-sensei…!"

"No." The stern man snorted and turned away from his pleading student, "If he wishes to attend, he should at least show the decency to come here himself."

"I told them to start training without me, they really need to be on top of their game if they want to stand any chance against whatever competition!"

"Rather pointless, considering."

"Koshio-sensei, I beg of you! You have to excuse him this once!"

"I said no, Dion-san." He snapped his book shut and peered at his intelligent young student sharply. "I don't care how important this tournament of his is to him, Kinomiya-san has to learn that punctuality is a necessity in this world."

The brunette boy made a movement as if he were going to keep trying to reason with the stern teacher, but then sighed and hung his head resignedly. "I… understand, Koshio-sensei. I am sorry for wasting your time."

The man shook his head as the boy left the classroom dejectedly, almost missing the soft voice that interrupted him next, "Excuse me, Koshio-sensei? I think I may have a solution that will be fitting for everyone…"

…

Tyson scrambled around his room, making sure he had everything he needed. Frantic, he nearly knocked over a picture frame sitting neatly near his bedside. The frame tipped back and forth, eventually regaining balance with a faint clank.

The noise jolted Tyson out of his nervous pacing, and he looked over in the direction of the noise to discern exactly what it was. His eyes softened when he realized it was the picture frame. Walking over, he gently picked it up and ran a thumb over the glass surface.

Children laughing. A sweet and loving smile. A squeal from a surprised boy…

"Wish me luck," Tyson said softly to the photograph as he placed it back on his bedside drawer. "We'll see each other soon, I hope."

The phone suddenly trilled loudly, startling him out of his reverie. He sighed and grabbed the phone from the hook. "Moshi-moshi."

"Tyson! You'll never believe this!"

"Kenny?" Tyson blinked, confused. "What're you calling for? Don't you have to pack for tomorrow?"

"I'm already packed!" The brunette huffed from his end of the line. "Remember how I spoke to one of the teachers about your admittance towards the tournament?"

"Chief, Kincaid-sensei already approved it," Tyson sniggered. "She bumped into Koshio-sensei at the store the other day while I was over there and I overheard them chatting about it. The grouch doesn't seem to like it, but she does. And everyone in school knows how much he respects her." He was sure he could hear Kenny's blush through the line. It was no secret that Koshio-sensei, despite being such a grump, held a more-than-minor crush for his open-minded coworker. However, many knew better than to let Koshio-sensei know others knew – his detentions were grueling and seemed to stop just short of abusive.

"Kincaid-sensei?" Kenny blinked. "That's… Oh, never mind. Anyway, Mr. Dickenson sent me the copies of the paperwork to turn in to the officials at the tournament. I just thought I'd let you know." With that, the connection ended with a click.

Tyson stared at the phone oddly, wondering what that was about.

…

Numerous tongues could be heard as passengers from all parts of the globe bustled through the airport. The calls of different flights and airlines managed to permeate across the building, and the panicked passengers that were lagging behind bumped into others that were either early or were simply waiting for a plane to land with its cargo with rushed apologies.

One of the early passengers was Kai, leaning against the wall of the main hub with his carry-on bag in tow at his feet. Having already checked in his larger bags up front, he waited passively for his two teammates.

The sound of his name being called startled him slightly, and he glanced in the direction it was coming from curiously. He was surprised to see the flash of red material that was virtually signature to his much more exuberant teammate. 'Is that Tyson? Early?'

"Kai!" The boy's voice called out again, "Hey, Kai!"

'That's his voice, all right.' He commented to himself as Tyson bounded up, grinning his usual grin and slightly out of breath. Kai gave the boy a neutral look, brows raised curiously. "This is different – for once, you're not late."

Tyson threw him a sideways glower. "Oh, hardee-har-har, Niwatori. Glad to see you're getting a sense of humor at my expense!" Kai twitched at the nickname.

'I will never forgive Max for that stupid observation of his.' "Stop calling me that, Kinomiya."

An outsider's observation of their conversation would say that Tyson's expression turned teasing – Kai knew better, however, and wondered why he was choosing now, of all times, to be flirty. "Oh, really? What'cha gonna do if I don't?"

Well, two could play at that game, Kai mentally decided, noting the unspoken challenge being presented. He smirked and leaned in, gesturing Tyson to do the same. "Remember, Kinomiya: I'm in charge of rooming, and it would certainly be a shame if you were to lose the view to someone who wouldn't appreciate it as much."

It took a moment for the words to sink in, but the shade of red that had promptly colored the shorter boy's cheeks upon realization was worth it. "Tease!" Tyson grumbled under his breath, shooting the smug youth a feeble glower.

"Only for you," was the light response.

Kenny appeared another uneventful twenty minutes later, his medicine bag in tow. "Hey, Kai, Tyson!" He greeted, wondering what was wrong with the scene presented in front of him. Something clicked, and Kenny jumped when he suddenly snapped his head to look at Tyson. "Tyson? How did you get here before me?"

Tyson blinked. "Sheesh, it took you that long to get? What's wrong, the old CPU up there need replacing?" He emphasized the statement with a playful knock on the brunette's head. Kenny swatted at his hand irritably, an embarrassed blush tingeing his cheeks.

The friendly banter was suddenly interrupted by someone smacking Tyson upside the head with a rolled-up pamphlet. Tyson winced, turning around to frown at the person and give them a piece of his mind. "Hey, what's the big idea!" One look at the person responsible, though, and his face fell.

The person, a young woman their age, had a hand on her hip as she waved the rolled-up pamphlet in the boy's face. "You are really pushing things, Kinomiya! And what's this about you being early for some tournament and still being late for classes?"

Tyson stared blankly at her before turning towards Kenny with a thunderous expression. "Kenny, why is she here?"

Kenny quailed under the normally cheerful boy's dark features. "Well, we owed her for helping us with Naoko several weeks ago! She's the reason you're even allowed to participate!"

"What?"

Hiromi scowled at the stricken expression her classmate had, wondering why she even agreed to this. "I overheard Kenny talking with Koshio-sensei about how you needed to be at this tournament, so I talked to him and convinced him to let you go, so long as I got to go, too."

"As our tutor," Kenny finished, looking at his feet in embarrassment. "Mr. Dickenson said he was planning on having one with us this circuit, anyway. Just… not this soon. He knew we'd be too wrapped up in the competition to consider the make-up work."

"Yeesh!" Tyson threw his hands up in the air. "You get wrapped up in practice once and you're suddenly a slacker! What gives?" Kai narrowed his eyes at Hiromi, suddenly suspicious.

"Does this include me, by any chance?"

Hiromi huffed and held up an open binder, each of the boys' names scribbled onto the separating tabs. "I'm doing all five of you, Hiwatari-san. I'm a little surprised with – what's his name again, Rei? – since he doesn't have any technical schooling… Anyway, from what your teachers said, you shouldn't be too bad. I'm a little surprised at your math grade, though."

Kai tried desperately not to heat up in front of Tyson, feeling the embarrassment at having some girl that had simply been at the right place at the right time mention the results of his feud with his petulant math teacher. "My math is perfectly fine. It's the teacher that gets on my nerves."

"Yes, he did put that note in…" She flipped the papers until she found it, reading it over once more. "Hm. Well, you're right about your ability to understand and complete the problems correctly – writing down the process shouldn't be that much of a stretch."

"Can we go now?" Tyson interrupted, to Kai's relief. "The plane's leaving in almost an hour, and we're not even at the gate."

The four paused for a silent moment before scrambling for the waiting area for their flight.

…

An hour later, the four were seated on board as the stewards walked around reminding everyone about the instructional video that would be playing just before take-off. Hiromi glanced around the cabin, surprise evident in her wide brown eyes.

"You guys get first class?" She gaped, nestling down further into the chair. Kai, having been forced to sit next to her, snorted at her eagerness.

Kenny laughed meekly. "Well, normally, we got economy – you know, three to a row? I'm guessing this is just a perk of being World Champions."

It was true. Instead of the economy class's three seats a row, first class had two to a row. To compensate, the seats were wider and had more legroom, and often two rows would face each other, making conversation much easier for groups that were larger than a pair.

Tyson twitched when he saw some tourists babbling excitedly with their company, waving around their digital camera. "I thought they didn't allow cameras on planes," he grumbled darkly. He let out a sigh of relief when a steward gently told the tourist to put away the camera, much to their disappointment.

"Paranoid, much?" Kenny asked lightly, determined to get even for his embarrassment earlier that morning. Tyson glowered at him.

Hiromi cleared her throat, brush some lint off her skirt. "So… how long have you all known each other, anyway?"

"Long enough," Kai answered flatly before the other two could provide a more diplomatic response. Hiromi frowned at him, but he wasn't the least bit perturbed.

"We've known each other roughly a year, maybe a few months more," Kenny restated, frowning at Kai, as well. Tyson gave him a look.

Refusing to back down, Hiromi continued, "How did you meet? It had to be interesting, I'm sure."

"Okay, now you're beginning to sound like the reporter from Hell," Tyson commented with a disturbed expression. "I wouldn't be too insulted by Kai, though – he's like that with everyone." To her surprise, Kai smirked at her classmate somewhat smugly.

"Tyson knows better than anyone," Kai sniffed haughtily. "He wouldn't leave me alone long enough to ignore him."

Kenny groaned and cupped his face in his hands, much to Hiromi's confusion. But what surprised her more was the look the two other boys had shared during the exchange.

'Hm…' She narrowed her eyes at them suspiciously, remembering what she heard on Naoko's tapes before she gave the girl the two-week detention. 'Maybe there's more to that tabloid article than I thought…'

…

The night cast a shadow over the city, lights from buildings dotting the dark expanse and providing a colder mirror image of the night sky city influences hid from a passerby's view.

"Yes… Yes, I see." A labored sigh. "Very well. Good day, Señora."

The man gently placed the receiver back into its cradle, hand lingering as he focused on a single speck of dust. A strong voice cut into the silence from the shadow and moonlight painted expanse before him.

"I take it our presence is needed," the figure stated, knowing from the man's posture and features that it was true.

"I'm afraid so." He lifted his eyes to meet the eyes of two shadowed men, one with dark eyes that blended into the shadows as he did and the other with eyes that held an animalistic sheen that caused them to stand out. "He is against the arrangements, true, but as soon as he heard of the bonuses for it, he agreed without a hitch."

The one with wild eyes could almost be seen grinning determinedly. "So, we'll finally be able to take that freak of nature out for good…!"

"No," the man ordered sharply. "He is not to be killed, under any circumstance. Do what you must to detain him, but I prefer that he stay in one piece and relatively unharmed. He could have important information about them that we could use to our advantage."

The one with dark eyes could be heard sighing. "Sir, I mean no disrespect, but we all know he isn't the sort to blurt out anything. If he says nothing, I wouldn't be surprised."

"That's why I keep saying he needs to be exterminated!" The wild-eyed one argued irritably. "He's useless to us, he's dangerous to the world – he's a freak, he doesn't belong anywhere!"

The man slammed his hands against his desk, eyes narrowed at the shadow with wild eyes. "No! There will be no more death, as far as I am concerned! As long as I stand as your superior, I suggest you'd do your best to remember that."

With a low growl, the wild-eyed figure submitted, "Yes, sir…"

…

Snores could be heard throughout the cabin, the faint whine of the engines and propellers lulling those having trouble sleeping into a state between the subconscious and the conscious. A few passengers were tuned out, dozing with the airline radio humming in their ears. Several bored insomniacs (along with those too fearful of sleeping on planes) were far more interested in seeing how many ways they could rouse their seating partners and not get in trouble with the cranky risers.

Tyson was one of those still awake, though he knew better than to bug his teammates when they were sleeping and he wasn't going to risk facing Hiromi's wrath in such close quarters. Instead, he glanced at the piece of paper in his hand. The letter he had been asking Kenny about earlier, when the four of them had been waiting to board.

The truth was, he hadn't even read past the first few lines, becoming too mentally distracted by images what they might expect once they arrived on the island. Maybe, if he were lucky, he'd finally see…

"Nah," he shrugged off, shaking his head at the ridiculous idea. That was expecting too much. Steeling himself, he began trying to read Rei's letter once more, determined to not let his mind wander again.

-

Hello, Kenny and Tyson.

I hope you're doing well in Japan. I've never missed my village more than when I was traveling the world with you guys, despite all the great and not-so-great times we all had; it's that feeling you get when you see your home after a long time away, you know? ("Don't get distracted, don't get distracted…" Tyson repeated to himself at this point.) I would be nice if either of you would visit, so you could see why I love this place so much. However, I know that public schooling and a lack of funds are stopping you. I won't hold it against you two, but you both owe me one visit!

As for this tournament, I think it sounds very interesting! They have a bunch of new rules with it, too, or so I hear. New experiences, new challenges… I bet you're completely stoked, Tyson – I can practically see your reaction to this in my mind! Lee and the others have signed up, so I'll be traveling with them to Puerto Rico, but I'm still ready to take everybody on as a Bladebreaker. We've heard that other teams are coming along, too – I just hope one of them isn't Neoborg. The last thing I need is a reminder of why I can't stand doctors now walking around!

I'm sorry I have to cut this short, but it's almost time for the mail carrier to come through. Can't have this letter be delayed, now can I? See you guys at the tournament!

Always,

Rei

-

At this point, Tyson noticed something scribbled onto the back of the letter, and he peered at it for a closer look. "'P.S. By the way, Tyson – you and Kai?'" Tyson blinked. Once. Twice. He peered at the small doodle just underneath the extra note, a sloppy caricature of him and Kai –

He flushed brightly. Rei was dead when he saw him.

"Even Rei's making fun of it, the creep!" He hissed under his breath, using all his willpower not to shred the paper in his hands.

"Who?" Kai's gruff question came from in front of him, where the older male was sitting for the flight. Tyson wasn't shocked to find Kai awake – they'd always known him to be a light sleeper.

He handed over Rei's letter with a snort of annoyance. "The human feline, that's who." Kai scanned the letter before noticing the extra note and giving the doodle a strange look. He glanced toward Tyson nervously.

"Is that supposed to be us having – ?"

"Kai!" Tyson hissed, cheeks burning. "There're kids in the cabin!" He then grumbled to himself, "I can't believe Rei has the nerve to call me the girl…"

Kai's lip twitched upward. "Well, compared to me – "

"If you want to live to see this tournament," Tyson bit out, voice icy, "you'll shove it. Now." Kai snickered to himself, but decided to ignore the unintentional bait Tyson had given him.

The two were silent for a moment before Tyson sighed, "I don't understand it, Kai. I don't understand it at all." Kai looked up at him worriedly. "I want to tell them, just like we agreed – I do – but they're all treating this like some kind of big joke!"

Tyson was worried, Kai realized. He'd only seen the expression on the younger boy's face a few scant times, all of which were not his proudest or most pleasant memories. Reaching over, he gently clasped his hand over the boy's tanned one, causing Tyson to look up at him in surprise.

"Tyson, I know we agreed to tell them," he began, somewhat awkwardly, "but, if you want to wait until they stop thinking of it as an elaborate prank… it's fine."

Tyson blinked in surprise before his face melted into a warm, soft smile. "Aw, Kai… You sure you're as cold as everyone thinks you are?"

"My reputation precedes me, apparently." He was taken by surprise when Tyson's other hand was placed over his, and he looked up to meet dark silver-blue eyes. "Tyson…"

"You're nervous, too, aren't you?" Tyson stated, knowing it was true despite leaving it in question form. "Too much, too soon?"

"…Yeah, I guess," Kai admitted. "It's not because of you, it's just that… well, I'm not used to all this quite yet. It took me ages when I first left the Abbey to get used to the idea of women, but this is something completely different. It doesn't make me uncomfortable. It's… overwhelming, after all I had been taught. But in a good way." He shook his head, slate bangs swaying with the motion. "Does that make any sense?"

"It's you," Tyson commented lightly. "Of course it makes sense. So, we just hold off on telling them a little while longer. Right?"

Kai was silent for another moment before he squeezed Tyson's hand, giving him a small, sweet smile. "Thank you. For everything."

Tyson blushed faintly, smiling in return as he lifted up their entwined hands and pressed one of Kai's bare knuckles to his lips. "You're welcome."