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Once and a while, he wondered. He wondered that if this were to happen when he was with his friends, if he would have reacted the same way. Never before could a person say that Kai Hiwatari was broken, but now, as the boy laid on his side, facing the wall of his cell, resfusing to move, one could say that this was the case.
Meanwhile, across the way, the two Carsons tried desperately - to no avail - to convince Kai to talk to them. The fact of the matter was that Kai would not budge. He was still difficult as ever, and perhaps even more so at this point.
Rose bit her lip and closed her eyes, tearstains still on her face. They had lost one child, and they would be damned if they lost another. For a while, she stayed silent, listening to the shallow breathing of the boy and the heartbeat of her husband beside her.
They had been struck blindly in learning that their daughter had killed herself. None of them thought that their situation was truly that bad. It was not good, but there was no need to kill oneself, ever.
Each day following, their true captor, whose name they knew not, along with a man called 'One' would step between the two cells and gloat. While it was like throwing salt in to a fresh wound, they prayed it would awaken Kai at some point.
"Please Kai, say something," She said softly. A soft sniffle indicated that she had his attention. Rose spoke. "I-"
Her husband covered her mouth quietly. "Son, did you plan on marrying our daughter?"
Rose glanced delicately at her husband, though shock adorned her features. Truthfully, she had never even thought about that. She remembered what AJ had done with her ring, but that did not mean that he was going to pop the question anyday.
Kai sighed and rolled over. His tears had subsided, though the after-effects: puffy eyes, tearstains, and a mild case of the hiccups had set in. "Over the holidays," He said quietly.
Silence overcame them for a moment. "You'd have our blessing, Kai. You're a part of our family. You've been, but even without her, that invitation is still there."
The Russian champion said nothing for a moment. And then, "I just don't get it."
"I know," Rose whispered. "She was never the type. But the papers..."
"I wish they were wrong."
"As do we," The adults agreed.
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It was the epidomy of ironic. Here she stood, beneath the sakura trees, letting the light fragrance of their blossoms surround her. People gathered before her, facing toward the front of what looked like a podium. Many had tears decorating their faces, others had somber, withdrawn expressions.
She found herself gazing at the many candles and photos beside the podium. None of them included Kai, and somehow, a story had been made up to cover their relationship. Audrey Carson sighed, looking at her black attire. It was horribly depressing, really.
News reporters gathered like the plague, though a tearful Stanley Dickenson shooed them away with his most business-like glare. It was intended that the news would receive the story later about the memorial service.
She bit back a sadistic laugh. What fun it was, to be at her own memorial service, alive and in the flesh.
Had no one put together the pieces? A few people - mainly rescue workers - had announced that there was no way for her to have survived. So what? She was no ordinary person. She was - and that's just it, was - a world champion. She was powerful. Not to mention that she just randomly possessed both Dranzer and Viatsu. Had no one thouht of that?
"Alright," Tyson said softly, walking up to the podium. Although it was difficult, the boy said a few words, focusing on the positives: How AJ loved everyone, fought bravely for everything, and feared no one and nothing. No one touched on the 'suicide' point, she noted, as he and his team mates concluded their speeches, being champions themselves. Roses were thrown upon the ground beside the candles and pictures, as they would have been thrown in her coffin, had they found a body.
Mr. Dickenson spoke through tears. Her Aunt said a few words, mostly about how much she loved AJ as if she were her own, before beckoning Hilary to the podium. Tears poured generously from her cheeks.
Tyson accompanied Hilary to the podium, where their small group - plus the scathes of paparazzi members - waited patiently for her to find the words she wished to say.
"Aud," She began softly, knowing that was what Kai typically called her, "Audrey was a wonderful person, a great friend and teacher; I remember going to live with her for a summer and coming back to Japan with a victory against Tyson under my belt." The group laughed gently as Tyson blushed. "She was a beatiful woman, an amazing cousin, and a whole-hearted lover..." She trailed off, leaving the paparazzi to question her words with curious stares, "And-"
In the back of the crowd, AJ smirked. Hilary would never blow her in about Kai. Hil knew better, and AJ knew better than to trust her group of dim-wittted beyblading friends to know what was going on. Wordlessly, she shifted her shoulders, so that she no longer leaned against one of the cherry-blossom trees. Meanwhile, her left hand moved up to her aviator sun-glasses.
"And-"
Despite the stuttering and lack of words, Hilary found herself staring out at the gathering with no amount of stage fright. She merely had trouble picking out what she wanted to say. She gazed toward the back of their group, noticing a woman who had been there from the very beginning. Her hair was long, the color undefinable thanks to a number of highlights, and her form was covered in a long black coat and dress pants, despite the slightly warm temperature. Gold rimmed sunglasses adorned her face; the pinkish-amber lenses providing a well needed splash of color to her face.
Audrey linked eyes with Hilary from behind her sunglasses, before using her left hand to slip them down, so her eyes were visible.
"She-"
Apparently, the former champion realized, her glares were lethal. Her poor cousin had promptly fainted upon direct eye contact. Tyson had caught her gingerly before she hit the ground, and while the mob of gatherers rushed forward to make sure the girl was alright, AJ took the opportunity to leave.
Step two of her plan had been initiated, but in order to move on, she had to figure out where exactly she was headed.
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The Hiwatari Manson was quite the production, overall. While she had stocked up on all the necessities of food she could possibly ever need, she realized that amongst the corridors, there were other things she could use.
For example, there was a computer room, with a large-screen monitor, like the ones used for displaying battles outside the BBA's Bakuten Arena. Her eyes enlarged as she realized that the manframe - yes, the Hiwatari Industries, aka B.I.O.V.O.L.T. manframe - was still online.
She wriggled her fingers. This would be fun...
And hey, look, she didn't even have to break any firewalls to get in. Looks like it's her lucky day. She kicked back in the leather chair, well aware that Voltaire Hiwatari had used it last. "Well, well, well... I never thought the bastard would actually be able to help me out."
She typed into the computer, stopping only a few times to read the large screen's data.
A mechanical voice prompted her. "Voice command activated. State search subject."
Hmm, she thought. What should she say? A second later, she locked in on it. "Search bit beast seeking affilates."
A long list of people's names stretched across the screen. None of the names had she heard of before, though according to the legend aside the list, the ones underlined had a hand in B.I.O.V.O.L.T.'s activities. The others - ones with lines through it, were ones under the heading Terminated. She shrugged, figuring that her boyfriend's grandfather had attained all the bit beast seeking glory he had ever wanted before getting arrested.
"Search current news related to beyblading."
The computer beeped once, before a brand new list, much like one she would have found upon any search engine, appeared. She scanned it. Not much was going on that didn't relate to either herself, Kai, or her parents.
Well, there were no criminal reports, only paparazzi reports or memorial articles. Shrugging, she decided that a new direction might hold some possibilities.
"Search Carson Enterprises."
Another beep, followed by an official web site, as well as a few news headlines provided everything she needed to get the ball rolling.
"Bingo."
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Hilary laid, yet again, upon the couch in her living room, however this time she found herself breathing into a paper bag. In-between puffs, she glanced at her boyfriend, who stood before her. He paced across the white carpeting as if he were going to dig a trench in it.
"Tyson, chill out, you're making me nervous," Daichi said, sprawled out on the floor. "Anyway, Old Lady, why'd ya faint? Somethin' musta freaked ya out."
"Daichi-" Tyson began, but Hilary shut him up by scrumpling up the paper bag and throwing it at him.
She took a deep breath and sat up. "I don't think she killed herself."
Max looked frightfully at Ray, who had since taken over all motherly duties, as well as those of Kai. After all, the group looked to the neko-jin, the oldest aside from Kai, to keep them in line. "Hil..." Ray began carefully. He looked pointedly at Tyson.
"Hil," Tyson said gently, looking at the curious brunette who regarded them with wide eyes, "You saw what happened. The rescue workers said that even if she did survive landing in the river, the current would have carried her into the lake. They didn't find any footprints and the water made them lose her scent. There's no way she's alive."
"I saw her, damn it!" Hilary said, desperately trying not to hyperventalate - again. "She looked right at me during the memorial service. She was wearing all black and her aviators. She pulled down her glasses and I saw her eyes! I swear, Tys! I swear it was her! I saw her!"
Ray sat down beside her. "Hilary, calm down." The brunette took a few shaky breaths. "It isn't like AJ not to be in contact with us."
The monkey-child suddenly found use of his mouth. "Maybe she planned it."
There was silence.
This silence was broken almost a milisecond later, when Kenny began typing furiously upon Dizzi's keyboard. Obviously the genius's brain had picked up a lead the rest of theirs had not. "What if," the tech-wizard said quickly, "What if she planned it thinking that whoever took Kai and her parents would lower their guard?"
"That would make a lotta sense, Kenny," Hilary said, beaming. "See, I told you!" She gloated.
"Now, now," The chief said, typing incredibly fast. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Hilary. I never said she was alive. If she was, where would she be staying? There's nowhere around here where she wouldn't be recognized. As you said, as soon as she took off her glasses, you knew who she was.
Ray suddenly grasped another idea. "Are there any pictures from the service? Of the crowd, I mean."
"Yeah," Hilary said, taking off toward the kitchen. "Here," she said, huffing, a moment later. "These are the ones I've got."
The tiger nodded, scanning them. His eyes seemed to go out of focus, and it seemed to the rest of them that he was zooming in and out, deciphering faces. After going through four of five pictures, he handed one to the Chief. "Kenny, can you zoom in this one, please?"
Dizzi made a few grumbles about having to work after being so viciously typed upon, but focused the web-camera upon the image. Moments later, it appeared upon her monitor. Kenny took instructions from the Neko-Jin, cropping and zooming the image in with amazing clarity.
"That's her," Ray said victoriously. "Right Hil?"
Hilary gawked at the image. "That's the girl who looked at me."
"Kenny," Max said, getting a good glimpse, "Can you zoom in on her face?" The Chief did as asked. "Got her." Max smirked. "Tyson, come here."
The blunette peered over Kenny's shoulder. "Wow," the champion said. "Okay, so that's her. Where do we find her?"
"Where would you go if you didn't want to be found?"
"Over a bridge?" Daichi asked.
Hilary rolled her eyes. "No, you dolt."
"Wait," Tyson said, obviously racking his brain - a rather painful experience for him - "Didn't Kai's granfather have a place around here?"
"Everything he had belongs to Kai -"
"And everything of Kai's belongs to AJ. There you have it," Hilary said with a smirk. "Do you know where it is?"
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Although it still felt a bit creepy around the edges, the mansion screamed of Kai. She had no problem sleeping at night, since the pillows held a ghostly touch of her beloved. She stretched, looking at the clock in the bedroom. It was nearly noon, and she knew she'd have to do something today.
A shower sounded nice.
Knowing that no one would be around, she stripped, rummaging through the bags of clothes she had bought with Kai's credit card the other day to find something suitable. Settling on a pair of jeans and a regular - red - tee, she headed toward the bathroom, making a single stop on the way.
Thank God for soundproofed walls, because she liked her music LOUD.
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They snuck in silently, having crawled beneath the large gates. Luckily, the security had been shut off for whatever reason. They stayed quiet until they came to the front door. It slid open with a creak, but the loud music inside the huge mansion covered the sound.
"This is definitely some music she likes. Who the heck else would play loud rock music in a gothic-ish victoria-styled mansion?" Hilary said quietly.
After a few minutes of searching, they found their way to a large-sized kitchen, whose light was on. There were papers as well as a few empty bags of groceries.
"Hey," Ray said, nearly having to yell over the music, "Who's this?"
The gathered around the Neko-Jin, gazing at a crazed-looking man with greenish-black hair.
"As of last Tuesday, following the death of Miss Audrey Carson, as well as the disappearance of the two CEOs of Carson Enterprises, the board of directors has elected a temporary leader, the business savvy Gregory Morrison. According to sources, the man had been attempting to form a partnership with Rose and Matthew Carson, directly before their abduction. It was said that a meeting had been scheduled.
"Morrison states that the London C.E. building will serve as headquarters until the two Carsons return to take control of their company. Meanwhile, he plans on employing an envoy of men to search for the two missing CEOs later this month. As far as other plans, Morrison says that he will be planning on endorsing many smaller businesses to recover from the profit loss over the past month and a half.
"'I believe that action must be taken," Morrison stated last week. "With the tragic loss of the Carson's heiress, we believe that we must act quickly to preserve the legacy left behind by her beloved parents."
'"Beyond this, Morrison has already merged his small company with the Enterprise, saying that their technology with bit beasts will help the Carsons' profoundly. Morrison's business involved the usage of enhanced bit beasts to help with trauma therapy and recovery, though he says that his search for one creature in particular would help his propositions exponentially.
"Morrison has been in the business world for twelve years, all of which he has dedicated his time to helping others. 'It will be a refreshing experience,' he states, 'Helping others with his own ideas while continuing those and endorsing the many hospitals that the Carson legacy began with.'
The group gazed at the picture.
Hilary shook her head. "Something seems off about that guy."
"I agree," Kenny said. "I don't like the look in his eyes."
Nodding ensued by the rest of the team. Tyson smirked. "So the rest of these papers, what are they?"
"They all say B.I.O.V.O.L.T. on them," Max said, while Kenny scanned them.
"They've been retreived from some sort of mainframe, and judging by the folder, this stuff over here," The chief pointed to a folder, "Looks like its some private file of Voltaire's."
"If AJ's here, why would she go through Voltaire's mainframe?"
No one knew the answer to that. Apparently, in their thoughts, they had never realized that the music had stopped.
"Excuse me," A voice bellowed - feminine in tone - "I don't appreciate people meddling in my business. What the hell are you doing here?"
The group turned and stared, all in shock. The commanding form of a rather angry Audrey Carson came toward them, her launcher out with her beyblade attached and at the ready.
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Hilary literally clung to her cousin, tears pouring down her face. Almost a moment later, she snapped out of it, reprimanding the older teen as if she were Tyson.
"You dolt! Why didn't you tell us you were planning that?"
The calm form of Audrey Carson lingered at the papers they had just rummaged through. "If I did a thing like that, someone - like Tyson - would have told everyone. Not on purpose, but who wants to see their family suffer? No one, and I mean no one can know about this. Just you guys. If that Morrison guy finds out too soon, we might have a problem on our hands."
"What does he have to do with anything?"
Audrey smirked. "Everything."
"And that's cryptic. We aren't Kai, we don't understand that talk," Tyson said.
Ray laughed. "Maybe you don't, but I'm sure Kenny and I do. He's the guy that took over your parents' company, right?"
The group nodded.
"If he's working with bit beasts, I know my parents would have never wanted to work with him. They don't want to get involved with that type of therapy he raves about. While beyblading is good for you, they merely endorse the B.B.A. and provide sponsorships and scholarships. Otherwise, they're a medical physility that focuses on nothing related to beyblading whatsoever."
"So you think-"
"But wouldn't the board of directors disapprove this action, if it wasn't what your parents wanted?" Kenny asked.
"Typically," The ex-champion said, hugging one of the pillows from the living room in her lap. "But if everyone that once ran the company is mia, and the only person to succeed those people - not that I want to and my parents know that - is dead, they'll do anything to bring the dropping profit rates back up."
"So where does this involve your parents?"
"Bit beasts."
"And why does this have anything to do with you?"
"Yeah!" Max said, his blue-green eyes a bit brighter now that he knew she was alive. "What's the deal with you having to 'die?'"
The youngest of the Carsons shrugged. "He would never have taken over unless I was dead, seeing as my parents have instilled the same beliefs in me about the company. When they die, I'm supposed to pick a successor, and then remove myself completely. If I'm not alive, the board can select a person. Meanwhile, I think you and I both know that someone with bit beast related materials in a medical-related company - mind you, they focus very little on therapy, much less bit beast related therapy - is a bad idea.
"So," Kenny said, "If you were out of the picture, you figured that the person responsible for the kidnapping would show up?"
"Yeppers," She said smoothly.
The group seemed to accept this, though Tyson was a bit skeptical. "Do you think that maybe they were just after your parents' company, and not Viatsu? Maybe this Morrison guy wanted you out of the picture so he could have a successful corporate takeover."
Casually, the American female stood up, and walked to the counter, gathering the papers. She took the folder, one with a rather vicious looking B.I.O.V.O.L.T. label atop it, along with the name Morrison, Gregory on it. Returning to the couch, she threw the papers on the floor, where they sat huddled around her.
"According to what Voltaire says about this guy, he's crazy. And not just like Voltaire crazy, since Voltaire Hiwatari is a raving lunatic in some insane-asylum-slash-prison somewhere." She took a breath. "He did an analysis on all of the smaller companies with affiliations to Hiwatari Enterprises, AKA B.I.O.V.O.L.T., so I swiped this from the unlocked mainframe down the north wing."
"You hacked into the mainframe?" Kenny asked.
The group smiled, laughing gently at the computer-geek. "When I'm done briefing you guys, I'll let you have a good look at it."
The Chief was whole-heartedly satisfied with this, and their attention returned on AJ.
"So, anyway, the analysis concluded that this guy has a fettish with certain bit beasts. All of them have one thing in common: Their green color. Initially, a few years ago, he was quite interested in Draciel. When Boris Balkov's Demolition Boys stole him from you Max, they planned on using his power to improve Black Dranzer, then give what was left of him to Morrison to genetically enhance, or 'induce evolution.' Voltaire thought this was insane, and then Tyson destroyed Tala, so they never had the chance to worry about that."
"Now you think he wants Viatsu," Ray said.
She nodded. "That's my guess, since now that I'm dead, they're sending out search teams to look for my parents. I doubt that he's looking for them at all."
Kenny figured it out. "You think he's sending that envoy to find Viatsu, don't you?"
"I do."
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Notes: Okay, a big information chapter, but at least AJ's back with the group. Next chapter, we'll check back in with Kai and the Carsons, then we'll find out just what the gang back in Japan is planning to do. You can garauntee it will be big, especially since they're working with a 'dead' person.
Hopefully the next update won't be so long in coming. I'm up to the mid-way of chapter ten right now, I've just been so busy that I've forgotten to post! Thanks for sticking with me though!
Reviews are appreciated, though you reading is awesome too!
Thanks and hope you enjoyed it!
Love ya!
Distant Storm