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Warning: I guess it's a really long chapter! So you need to a be a little patient! Sorry about that! I hope you enjoy it though!
A pink haired girl was staring at the wilderness beyond the cliffs she'd been standing on for a while. She sighed and looked at the letter in her hand. She read the contents of the letter for a hundredth time, or even more. It was like Rei had written the letter very carefully, so distant, like you were obliged to write in order not to be rude. It was plain weird, a weird letter! He writes to her after five months and says what? The peaches they bought were delicious? What the hell was that? And yet, here she was, madly in love with the golden eyed blader, who had once broken her heart.
"I don't know Lee… I guess I'd be moving to Russia for a while now. Kai needs my help. In fact he needs us, all of us. I'm going to try and do my best," Rei said, trying to explain the reason behind his sudden decision to leave for Russia. Rei had just completed packing for his journey the next day morning. It was late in the night when Lee knocked at his door.
"Rei, I know I've been bitter before. About you leaving the team and all. But, you are not just a part of this team or just our leader. We're friends; we're family and not anything less. Kai needs his friends right now. What that guy's doing is not easy, definitely not! And I'm no one to stop you from doing what you have to do. Rei, you've done a lot for this team. And I guess we don't have any right to control you or decide for you…"
Lee was interrupted by a disturbed Rei, "It's not like what you're saying Lee. It's just that…"
"No Rei. I mean it," Lee said brushing him away, "I know we've been selfish trying to keep you with us, when in fact, you belonged there; as a part of the Bladebreakers…"
"Shut up Lee!" Rei said annoyed, "It was by choice that I returned to this team. It wasn't just me. Max and Kai returned to their old teams too… If anybody was selfish, it was me Lee. It was me! But you know what? I'm glad I came back, because I now know I have a family that I can depend on. That I can trust, no matter what."
Rei pulled Lee into a brotherly embrace when Lee said, "You're free Rei. No hard feelings and no guilty conscience."
"Don't say it like that," Rei said pulling away from his teammate, "It was never guilt."
"I know," Lee said smiling.
Rei smiled at his friend, but the smile soon faded when he saw a certain pink haired girl standing at the door, her eyes fixed on the cold ground underneath her feet.
Lee put a hand on Rei shoulder; nodded at him and the left the two of them alone.
"You're not going to come in?" he asked Mariah.
She looked up, determined not to show her tears. However, her eyes betrayed her.
Rei flinched at the sight of her tears.
"Why does she always make it so difficult for me?" he thought.
"Mariah…" Rei made an attempt to deal with her tears.
"It's alright Rei. I understand. I mean it when I say that. I'm not going to stop you this time," she said aloud, "Because, apparently, I can't," she added to herself.
"You do?" Rei asked, a little skeptical.
"Yes. I do Rei," Mariah said wiping her tears away, only to realize that the fresh ones were already replacing them, "Damn!" she swore, "They won't stop."
She was taken by surprise when she felt a pair of arms, wrapped around her, "I want you to know something. You're a very special to me, Mariah, very special."
"Yeah… but not special enough for you to ask me to accompany you," she wanted to say it aloud, but refrained from it. "What's the whole damn point?" she thought. They were not kids, definitely not! They were freaking adults now! Eighteen years! They've known each other for eighteen years, well not exactly, but at least whatever time they've been together and that wasn't certainly insignificant. If the guy hasn't made a move on you, even if it was quite clear to him that you liked him, scratch that head over heels in love with him; then get the message girl. He is just not interested in you, that way. Or he is gay! Which Rei certainly wasn't, that is, the latter!
"Get lost," Mariah said pulling away, "Get lost before I changed my mind."
"What?" Rei said, not sure about what he had just heard.
"You heard me Rei!" Mariah said turning away, finally getting rid of her tears.
That was when the unexpected happened. Mariah felt a strong hand grab her shoulder and turn her around. Rei wrapped the other hand around her waist and pulled her towards him, knocking her breath off. She gasped finding herself staring at his golden eyes. No! Who was she kidding? In a split second, her eyes had darted off to his lips. She tried to pry her eyes away and tried to focus on his face instead, which was, by the way, very difficult. The half smile plastered on his lips and that mischievous look in his eyes told her that they were both thinking about the same thing. Only, she realized it too late.
"Rei, no…" she tried to push him away, but in turn, was pushed towards the door, which was for until a moment ago, open. Something else wasn't where it was, previously. Rei's right hand that was supposed to keep her trapped in his embrace was now busy bolting the door, which definitely wasn't a good sign!
And she was right! Before she could comprehend its consequences she found herself kissing the guy of her dreams, like there was no tomorrow. Little did she know then that she would be spending the night there. (No! Nothing happened! Mariah managed to convince Rei that she wouldn't do or let him do anything stupid, now that he was on his way to Russia, for God knows how long. She told him that he would now definitely regret that he was a tad bit too late in telling her his feelings, something he should've done long back. Rei only rolled his eyes and pulled her closer, slipping into the much needed sleep, smiling to himself.)
Mariah turned a deep shade of red at the reminder of the passionate kiss they had shared. By the time she got up the next day morning, Rei was gone. So much like in a movie; waking up to find that your lover was now long gone leaving you a note stuck to a bed lamp or something. Only, there was no note.
Now, Mariah wondered, was there a reason behind the absence of the note? That was a way too ridiculous thought because Rei had later written a long letter apologizing for what he did. He was getting late, he explained, and she was showing no signs of waking up leaving him with no other choice. Besides, she looked too cute to disturb, when she was asleep. That sentence was enough for her anger to melt away. Idiot, she had murmured, reading that letter apart from blushing every now and then. She however, right now, couldn't help being suspicious about the absence of a ridiculous note, considering the ridiculous letter he had just sent.
She hadn't seen him for about seven months now. He had visited them after last year's championships, the one the Bladebreakers hadn't participated in due to several reasons, as in, (i) testifying against the criminals of the Russian Syndicate who had helped Boris and Voltaire, while being constantly bugged by the Interpol. (ii) Helping Kai reforming the Abbey and also saving themselves from a life threatening attack by some angry leaders of the Russian Syndicate. She remembered how she had freaked out and fainted upon hearing that Rei had nearly missed a bullet through his head and was in an ICU, recovering from lethal wounds. So much for being a loyal friend! Not just Rei, every one of the Bladebreakers, not to forget the Blitzkrieg Boys, had taken a huge risk by deciding to fight against Biovolt and get rid of it once and for all. And they were successful too, if the fact that Voltaire managed to disappear is ignored.
"Still thinking about that boyfriend of yours?" Mariah turned to face the source of the familiar voice.
"What gives?" she said walking towards Lee, smirking.
Police Headquarters, Tokyo.
"Toshi, Mr. Dickenson just called," Aiko said to her partner peeking in through the partly opened door of his cabin, "Toshi!" she called out a little louder to grab his attention from the white board and the several flow charts randomly scribbled on it.
"Tell him I'd call him in an hour and after that why don't you come and join me? I have a few questions to ask you," Toshi said without turning away from his board. Anybody except for Aiko would've found such a request weird. Aiko knew his method of working too well to find it weird. She knew he had another theory in mind and would now cross check it.
She returned to his cabin in a few minutes, "What is it?"
"Tell me Aiko, if you ever plan adopt a child," Toshi began, still facing the board, "Will you adopt someone who was treated for a considerably long time in an asylum, also taking complete responsibility of their treatment later on? Would you even approach an asylum in the first place?"
"Not really. I wouldn't consider an asylum at all. I'd rather go to any normal orphanage…" Aiko was slowly getting a wind of what Toshi was thinking and who he was talking about, "Unless…"
"Someone tells you about her…" Toshi completed her sentence.
"Or I know her… I mean that child," Aiko added and continued, "You mean to say that the adoption of Akira by the Inei couple wasn't random and they'd known her before?"
"Or her mother. They'd known her mother. There is another possibility though. They could've heard about her from someone working in the asylum and were so moved by her story that they decided to adopt her," Toshi suggested.
"Maybe," Aiko said shrugging, "But why are we even discussing Akira? Shouldn't we be focusing find those missing bladers? Besides, that girl has come clean. She has a solid proven alibi. And why are you constantly forgetting the fact that she was on the list "Targets"?"
"Why are you forgetting what you've learnt from me so far? That could be a trick to mislead us! You also cannot ignore the fact that the security cameras in the stadium have recorded the presence of the dead guy at the stadium during the qualifiers. He happens to be the same man who had allegedly stolen the dangerous beyblade eleven years back from the orphanage. How can you be so sure that…"
"I'm so sure Toshi because we've found nothing from her room we'd searched at Mr. Granger's place last night. Nothing suspicious from her hotel room too! And the Chief isn't really impressed with what you did. Barging into a civilian's house like that. She's clean and you have absolutely nothing against her to deny her permission from leaving Japan to participate in the Championships," Aiko pointed out quite firmly to her partner.
Toshi remained silent for a while, angry with the fact that his partner was right. Only his intuition was saying something else. That there was something going on and Akira had something to do with it, even though she was indeed innocent.
"What? They had a search warrant with them?" Akira exclaimed upon knowing that her room, in fact the entire Dojo, was thoroughly searched by some police officers. Kai had disappeared into his own room with the excuse of an important call and as always no one dared to ask who it was.
The team was fairly surprised because it was the first time she had shown any kind of emotion in front of them.
"Yup…" Tyson said and nodded, "And Grandpa was not really happy about it."
Hillary kicked him in his ankle causing him yelp in pain, "Tyson, that is not what you're supposed to say, you idiot!"
"It's okay Hillary. Of course no one would be happy having a bunch of police officers messing up things at your place," Akira said rubbing her forehead. A mild head ache had already started and she knew it was only going to get worse.
By now Max had joined them, which led Rei to ask, "Is everything alright?"
"I don't know! She's joined the All Stars and all. God knows what Mom's planning to do now!" Max said lowering himself into the sofa.
"Whatever it is Max, I'm sure Judy would take care of it," Hillary said as a matter of fact.
"I certainly hope so," Max said sighing.
"Wait a minute… did you just say Judy, a Judy who is right now in America?" Akira suddenly spoke, frowning, "As in Judy Tate?"
"Yes…" Hillary said, a bit taken aback.
"That's my Mom," Max intervened, "How do you know her?"
"She is the woman Isabel, I mean my mother mentioned to me. Let me guess, she is the Head Scientist at the Beyblade Research Facility in New York and also the Joint Director of BBA America?"
"Yes. You got that right. You mean my mother and your mother know each other?" Max asked quite surprised.
"No. They more than just know each other. I could figure that out from the way my mother had been talking about her. Like they were really good friends or something… in the past and couldn't keep in touch due to some reasons. She mentioned Judy, I mean your mother, because she knew I'd be meeting her during the Championships," Akira was talking a lot for someone who had the made the impression of not liking conversations.
"Oh… what did you say your mother's name was?" Max asked, curious.
"Isabel… Isabel Inei. I don't know her maiden name though…" Akira said shrugging.
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