"Hey dad!" Kenny said walking past the noodle shop counter

"hey Kenny….how are you?" he dad asked a little apprehensive

"good, I went to Max's dads shop today, picked up some new parts"

His dad frowned, "how was Max?"

"he wasn't there" Kenny shrugged

"and hows the rest of the team?"

"out of shape" said Kenny shaking his head

"no, I mean since Rei's death"

"oh…well it was a bad loss but we still have enough people to compete so we should be ok. It's just we've all been to busy to practice." Kenny explained, "well I've got a lot of work to do" he ran upstairs to his room.

His dad sighed, Kenny hadn't cried, he hadn't been sad, he had just moved on but in a way that was worse. He took it all in his stride and that couldn't be healthy. There was nothing logical about Rei's death, losing a friend could never just be an obstacle in your game plan and yet that was how his son acted.

Kenny dumped his bag on the floor and pulled out his new parts. He quickly got to work, he was creating a new defence system for Dragoon. It would be awesome. They would defiantly win the Championship with this improvement. Even if they didn't have Rei. After all Rei wasn't the strongest member of the team, he wasn't essential. The only problem was the rest of the team. They were so caught up with other things that they didn't have time to practice. He hadn't seen Tyson since the funeral, he wouldn't answer his calls and Max was always so morose at school. Kai had almost disappeared; he didn't even know how to contact their leader. He had to think of a way to remedy this. He knew it work out. It always did. Kai had left several times but he always came back. Even when the team was completely separated it wasn't the end, they came together again.

He reached over for a part when something caught his eyes. It was the gears system he had been making, just for Drigger. He would have loved to see it in action. Now he never would…no! That wasn't true. He'd re-do it to work in one of the others blades. It'd be better then ever! But first he needed Dragoon to fit the defence system onto.

He grabbed his bag and headed back downstairs.

"Kenny!" His dad called out to him.

"yes dad?"

"where are you going?"

"Tyson's"

"We need to talk."

"can it wait?"

"no, I really want to talk to you"

"ok" Kenny sighed and took a seat at the counter, "what's wrong?"

"It hasn't been that long since Rei died has it?"

"no not really" Kenny shrugged.

Kenny's dad sighed, "Kenny doesn't it hurt?"

"hurt? Well yeah offcourse it hurt that he didn't want to be part of the team anymore but that was his choice dad, besides it doesn't really matter we don't need him that badly"

"But Rei wasn't just a team member. He was your friend"

Kenny shook his head, "obviously not. But like I said it doesn't matter I have the rest of the team"

"Kenny! Why aren't you upset about this? You haven't cried, you haven't been sad at all."

"because it'll all be ok wont it?"

"Rei is never coming back. No matter how long you wait and none of your friends will ever be the same again. I'm not trying to upset you but you have to face it Kenny."

"It will get better dad, the guys are just being emotional as ever. They always get over it" Kenny argued

His dad sighed again, "the longer you try to keep this in, the longer you keep telling yourself that the worse you'll feel. Remember when grandpa died and I had to be mature and responsible about it because I had to organise the funeral and I had to comfort my sister, tell her everything would be ok? I felt so much better when I got home and I cried and accepted that he was gone and nothing was the same"

"Everything is the same! Everything is fine! Is that all you wanted to tell me?"

"yes" his dad nodded

"ok then, bye!" he ran out of the shops and down the streets. He found his way to Tyson's new house, where he lived with his mum. He rung the door bell.

"hello?" a strange lady answered the door.

"um…is Tyson home?"

"Oh! You must be one of his little friends. Dianna! Some one here to see Tyson" she called out and Tyson's mum appeared.

"hello Kenny" she said, she looked like she'd been crying.

"Hello ma'am, can I see Tyson?" he asked politely

"I'm sorry he's not here. He's run off. He's still upset about Rei. How are you?" she asked maternally.

"Well it's been a pain trying to re organise everything but it'll be fine. The team has never let anything get in the way before." He said cheerfully, "well I better get going. Have a good day ma'am"

Tysons mum stared as the cheerful child walked away.

Now Kenny was getting annoyed, how was he ever going to get the team organised if they were always running off! He walked slowly back home. There was no reason to hurry. Well he did have to work out some new surprise strategies to throw this years competition off. He couldn't wait to see them all back in action again. It would be the best season yet. Every year the opponents got more difficult to beat and the fun was winning despite all that. He sat down on the sidewalk, it would be ok. It was fine! Everything was fine! He had to believe that. He had to…

AN: so Kenny is less emotional and so I don't expect you all to be crying or anything but this is the way he's dealt with it. It's rather sad I think. He'll just keep telling himself it's fine meanwhile it'll eat away at him from the inside. He knows it wont be but he just keeps lying to himself. And while he acts this way he's putting a chasm between his friends and himself. I suppose the message is 'you have to accept things because lying to yourself doesn't solve anything'. I don't expect many people to like this chapter as its not particularly angsty and leaves you feeling a sort of nothingness but I really like it because of that and when you think about it Kenny is really someone to feel sorry for. I can see a few months from now when Mr. Dickinson says, 'kenny, there is no bladebreakers team!' he breaks down and cries….