A/N: Sorry for the delay! The Mute Lion took almost all the time I had for writing last week, and for some reason this chapter has been extra reluctant to turn into reasonable sentences (everyone of you who have written something yourself probably know the feeling...) The result isn't what I'd like it to be, but now I want to move on with the story.

"Oh, how I wish they'd have a sauna on this station!", Kiti thought when they neared the tiny station building in the gray twilight."Or an onsen. Or even a bathtub!"

Her wish didn't come true. They arrived to the station only to notice the first train of the morning was already there. They had barely time to by the tickets and jump on board. When they walked through the cars to their seats they noticed people staring them, some of them hiding their noses in their sleeves.

"We must look terrible. And smell, too!", she thought. "I wonder if they'll let us sit here among normal passengers, or if we are shooed in a freight car?"

When finally on the right car they found their places were already occupied. Two harsh-looking teenagers were drowsing on the benches, their feet lifted up on them. Tsubasa couched.

"Excuse me, but these places are ..."

A more than half-eaten apple thumped on his forehead, accompanied with guffaw. He wiped calmly his face with his already filthy sleeve, but Kyoya thrust past him. He stepped straight to the guy who had thrown the apple, grabbed his collar and yanked him up to the wall.

"Move – your – ass!", he hissed and hurled the poor youngster to the corridor like he had been a sack. Then he threw his pack on the shelf, thumped on the seat and closed his eyes, showing clearly what would happen if anybody tried to prevent him. The other teen slipped quickly out of the car.

Tsubasa helped Kiti's pack on the shelf with his own and sat on his place. Kiti had already curled on the window seat opposite Kyoya, both of them snoring happily.

Tsubasa sighed. Sometimes he really envied his comrades' ability to sack out where- and whenever they wanted. The car they were in was old and the benches seemed to be even older, with no armrests at all nor any possibility to adjust the back rest. He tried to think all the good sides of the situation: They were on their way to south, sitting in a warm and dry place, and what most important, as far as he could judge there would be no fear of attacks as long as they stayed there. At the interchange they could buy something to eat, if they didn't want to rob the restaurant car before it, or if they weren't thrown out because of spoiling the air of the car. And when in Metal City, they'd take the first taxi to take them home. If he only could be sure Kiti would be safe in her apartment with Bluewolf before they could leave it to Ryo...

The air in the car was stuffy and the sleepy breathing of his team-mates sounded really calming. Just when he was drifting off he felt something lean heavily on his shoulder but was too tired to care.

Kyoya stretched his neck, still half asleep. There was no use to open his eyes yet, he could sense the situation around him hadn't changed essentially during his sleep. The light was brighter, of course, and there was more people in the car, but those were not reasons to wake up properly.

But oh, how he wished there was a system in human body how to cut one's head off and put it on the shelf or on one's lap when forced to sleep in upright position! He moved fretfully. He could usually find a way to organize his limbs comfortably, but head and neck were a nuisance. Whoever had made these seats, he hadn't made them for sleeping, that was sure! If he only could find something to use as a pillow...

He opened his eyes to reach his pack but the sight in front of him made him freeze. His team-mates were there alright, still fast asleep, but their position...

Kiti had moved in her sleep and ended up to lean on Tsubasa's shoulder. The slight jolting of the train had caused her to slide downwards, until her head, arms and shoulders were resting on Eagle's lap. On top of that, Tsubasa had wrapped his arm protectively round her waist.

Kyoya gritted his teeth. The girl was ragged and soiled like a little hobgoblin, but something in the combination made him feel there wasn't enough air to breathe in the car. He stormed up and past them to the door.

Tsubasa startled awake. He saw Kyoya's empty seat and recognized vaguely his receding steps, but why... His face turned scarlet. For five seconds he couldn't but stare the sleeping figure on his lap.

How could this have happened? Had he really been so comatose he hadn't noticed anything?

With extreme carefulness he lifted his arm off the girl, thinking desperately how to get out of the situation. The last thing he wanted was to let her wake up on her current position, but how on earth could he make her move before it happened? No doubt Kyoya had already seen them, and that was bad enough.

Suddenly the girl jerked and mumbled in her sleep. Wincing she stretched her arms, like pushing something away.

"Pois... käärme... Kyo, EI!" The mumbling turned into a scream. She pounced up, ready to run heedlessly on anything, when Tsubasa caught her arms.

"Kiti, calm down! It's just a nightmare!"

She blinked and tried to wrench her hands free. Tsubasa let her go.

"Everything's alright. It's me, Tsubasa. You're safe now." He spoke soothingly, like he had often calmed Yuu after his nightmares.

"Tsu..." Slowly she returned back to the reality. "Where are we?", she asked bluntly.

"Somewhere between Hokkaido and Kyushu." Kyoya materialized between the benches. "The train is late and we have already missed the one we should have taken to Metal City. The next one leaves so late we won't get there before midnight."

Moaning Kiti slumped on her seat. At least twelve more hours traveling before she could get her bath. She'd have rather walked that time, that would have been at least doing something, but as it was, they couldn't but sit and wait.

Nobody dared – or cared – to sleep soundly anymore. Kyoya had managed to make an adjustable pillow of his jacket and was dozing off every now and then, but the other two were too restless to close their eyes. Neither one of them wanted to repeat the situation they had woke up, one because of his embarrassment, the other because of her fright.

Kiti didn't remember exactly what she had been dreaming of, but the abhorrent feeling didn't disappear. Besides, she got an uncomfortable feeling something awkward could happen if she let herself sleep again. She glanced to Tsubasa who was sitting there with Aquila in his hands, his eyes closed. His concentrated countenance told her he wasn't sleeping, and reminded her of the incredibly strong connection the bladers seemed to have with their beys.

"Maybe they are discussing about something", she thought. "It must be an awesome feeling to get contact with something so powerful, and to be able to control it."

Even the feeling she had got when managing a practical bey for the very first time had been incomparable.

"Just follow me." Tsubasa demonstrated very slowly.

"The bey into the launcher – straighten your hand – target to the middle of the dish – and rip!"

Kiti closed her eyes and ripped. The bey whizzed through the air and landed beautifully, a couple of inches from the middle.

"Very good! That was an excellent launch!" Tsubasa nodded her encouragingly. Kiti could only stare the spinning bey, her eyes open wide.

"What shall I do with it now? And where can I put these..." She handed clumsily the launcher and the ripchord. Madoka came to help.

"I'll take them."

Tsubasa continued.

"Now you must get a contact with the bey. Every bey, with or without constellation, creates a kind of energy circle around it when spinning. It's that circle the blader communicates with, and controls its movements", he explained. Madoka smiled at Kiti's confused appearance.

"It's not always easy to get the contact with a new bey.", she said. "The more powerful bey, the more outstanding the energy it creates, but then it's also more difficult to control. This one is very tame, so it may be quite hard at first to..."

Kiti was not really listening.

"An energy circle, indeed. Get a contact, for sure.", she thought.

She raised her hands towards the bey. No good.

"Contact."

"Energy."

The only thing she could sense from the bey was a quiet scratching sound. She closed her eyes and focused her mind to follow the point that caused the sound.

"There. And that should be moved?"

In her mind she dragged the point towards the deepest part of the dish. It didn't follow too easily.

"Oh!" Madoka gasped.

Kiti opened her eyes. The bey spun now exactly on the middle of the dish. Tsubasa swallowed what he had been just about to say and waited for the next move.

"So that's how it works. Let's move the scratching, then. How about a figure eight?"

Focusing her eyes and ears to the spinning top she started to move it.

At that very moment Ryo's face appeared in the doorway, Gingka and the rest of the gang on his heels. Seeing the excited faces and slowly moving bey he stopped suddenly, causing the others to bump on him.

"What's happening there?" Kenta whispered, ducking under Benkei's arm. Ryo waved them to be quiet.

"Shh. Let's go to the monitoring room."

He led the others to a small room beside the practice room. Through the one-way mirror they could see how Kiti – totally ignorant of the world around her – carefully drew her figure eight, over and over again, faster and faster. Her eyes were narrowed and lips set, while her hands moved unconsciously according to the movements of the bey.

Tsubasa whistled silently. Normally beginners were only able to push or fling their beys without much power or accuracy, but this newbie seemed to have it totally under her will. Of course, she didn't have any speed yet to speak of, but the way she kept the bey under her control was remarkable.

Suddenly she squatted down and made the bey come nearer her outstretched hand.

"Come to mama!" she whispered.

Kiti sneered. The rest of the show hadn't been too flattering for her. Trying to lift the spinning bey to spin on her fingertips, she had lost her balance and landed headfirst into the dish. But that hadn't lessened the amount of praise and enthusiasm Ryo had showed on her. He had insisted her to start beyblading seriously at once, and had ordained Tsubasa to be her coach before she had had time to think the whole thing over. Of course she didn't have anything against learning new skills, and the silvery haired teen had been a really nice sensei, but she still felt a bit strange in this new world they had dragged her in.

In her home nobody had been interested in beyblading, and she hadn't even touched a bey before arriving to Japan. Her father had sometimes mentioned something about the "great times" he had had with Ryo when they were young, but she had never cared to listen.

Anyway, training with the bey had been a nice counterbalance to her practicing with the harp, and it would be cool to be someday good enough to challenge Kyoya. And maybe someday she'd have a bey of her own, instead of that dull and soulless practical one.

She stretched her feet and happened to kick Kyoya's boots, receiving a furious glance from him.

"I must ask Tsubasa if there is other beys operating with sounds and pitch, like Yuu's Libra", she thought, and leaned her head on the window. "That would be just the thing for me."