DISCLAIMER:

I don't own Beyblade: Metal Fight.

My head throbbed wildly as I struggled to regain consciousness. Hurts... The tiny fragments of light were distant and fuzzy, and I felt something in my arm; an IV. I was in the hospital.

I slowly flexed my stiff fingers, then my toes. There was something off, though, but I... couldn't put a finger on it.

I tried to sit up, but I didn't get very far because of my protesting limbs, which were wrapped tightly in bandages. I slowly opened heavy eyelids; the world was a swirling blur around me.

"Mommy!" a muffled voice yelped. "She's waking up!"

My vision eventually started to clear. Isamu? Why does he... have two heads? Then, the memories flooded back towards me; all the running, the blood, the truck... my parents' confession. My head ached more than ever, and my heart beat frantically in my chest.

I focused my unsteady, wavering gaze on my mother, whose violet eyes were frantic with worry. There were dark circles under them; did she even sleep while I was out? I blinked groggily, trying to adjust to the bright fluorescent lights. Isamu shrieked in joy and jumped up towards me, but Mom caught him and set him back on the floor.

"Isamu!" she scolded him. "Yumiko's still healing; please try not to break her."

"But Mommy!" he whined. "I wanna hug her!"

"Hug her arm, then," Mom suggested. A millisecond later, I felt Isamu wrap his hand around my left wrist. "Yumiko," my brother mumbled into my hand. I slowly let my fingers glide to the top of his head, and I ruffled his spiky hair, feeling the silky-smooth strands glide over my skin.

Gradually, my aches and feelings of nausea faded. I examined the room carefully, noting the TV in the corner and the enormous gift basket on the nightstand piled high with cards, pastries, and fruit. These are the good things about being in a hospital - they pamper you, I thought humorlessly. But I still couldn't help eyeing a large blueberry muffin near the top of the heap, looking fresh and scrumptious with its dark blue-purple chunks baked into the moist-looking dough baked into a beautiful golden brown... My mouth watered as I wondered how long it has been since I'd last eaten.

"Are you feeling alright?" Mom asked me.

"Yeah." My voice was scratchy and almost inaudible from use. Mom held a glass of water to my dry lips and I drank without complaint. I looked around, confused, as I tried to get used to my weakened senses. As my earlier thoughts stated, there was something horribly wrong. I looked down towards the foot of my bed and screamed.

"WHERE...!" I couldn't form any words at all, and I felt like I was going to faint.

"Yumiko, calm down!" My mother put a hand on my arm, trying to comfort me - tell me that everything was going to be alright. Trying to lie.

I broke down in tears. "What... what happened?" I wailed.

My left leg... my left leg was gone. Literally gone. I pulled up the hem of my hospital gown, not really wanting to see what was underneath it, but... I gaped. Where my leg used to be... was a stump, still covered in bandages. I rubbed the strips of fabric. Oh, no. Mom gently pulled me into a hug, and I didn't even care when my head started to hurt again. Isamu stood beside my bed, quietly assessing the scene. He softly put a tiny hand on my remaining leg.

Creak... The door opened and my father met my gaze with his yellow eyes, which had shadows under them, like Mom's. "You're awake," he said in a hollow voice. Two words - which were barely louder than a whisper - and they held so many feelings - love, grief, uncertainty, and sorrow... and even a little guilt. When I looked closer, I saw that his eyes bore a haunted look, and he looked like he hadn't shaved for a while. His clothes were tattered and dirty as if he'd gotten into several fights... or Beybattles. In his current state, he looked like he had aged ten years.

"We called an ambulance," Mom murmured.

A familiar pair of turquoise-blue eyes peered at me through the door. "Yumiko, are you... okay?" Haruki asked, coppery-red hair hanging over his face. I shook my head in frustration, tears still flowing. "N-No, you idiot! My leg's gone! WHY THE HELL WOULD I BE OKAY?"

He flinched. Dad glared at him half-heartedly. "Just go. She needs time to adjust," he said tiredly. Haruki nodded, sent me one last glance, like, "I think you're crazy now," and closed the door. The lock clicked shut. For a second, I worried that I've scared him off. Then, my current situation bubbled up again and that little problem evaporated. I started crying again.

My father stayed a good distance away from me, refusing to meet my gaze as he fidgeted uncomfortably. Mom looked from Dad to me. Her eyes watered with understanding. Then, she picked up Isamu and left the room, giving me one last, miserable stare, then softly pulled the door shut behind her.

Dad sat down at the edge of my bed and grasped my hand tightly. "I'm so sorry, Yumi," he said, massaging my palm with his thumb. I looked up at him, confused. "Why are you sorry?" I whimpered. "I'm the one who should apologize; after all, I was the one who ran in front of that truck in the first place." I clenched my fist, closing my fingers around his thumb.

"Yeah, that was pretty stupid," he told me. I said nothing, willing him to go on. "But I was the one who did those horrible things. Your mother and I - we didn't want you to find out this way." He turned away from me, as if afraid that he might cry. "So, it's my fault that you got hurt, and lost your leg."

"At least I'm still alive," I told him.

"You must think I'm a horrible person," he mumbled miserably. It was as if he was trying to ignore me. He buried his face in his arms. I heard him sniffling and noticed his body sputtering up and down. A low moan escaped his lips as he quietly cried for me - this time, for real. I felt so bad; he looked like he needed a hug.

"It's okay, Dad," I said. "I'm sure I could manage with only one leg. So stop acting like I'm gonna die!" I added fiercely. Then, a sense of dread crept over me. "I'm not gonna die, aren't I?'

He shook his head. "No, but how are you going to travel the world, see new places?" The expression that came to his face was so full of guilt and horror that I wanted to cry myself, but I'd run out of tears. "What if there's no way you can Beyblade?" he whispered, probably to himself.

I'd almost forgotten about that. "We'll figure it out," I assured him. Geez, and I thought that he was supposed to the the comforting parent; then again, Mom has told me more than once that he wasn't really good about making people feel better about themselves.

Neither of us spoke, awkward tension hanging in the air above us like an approaching storm.

Someone knocked on the door and Mom and Isamu filed into the room, followed by Haruki, Gingka, Madoka, Kenta, Benkei, Kyoya, and two other people I recognized as Yu Tendo and Tsubasa Otori. Dad lifted his head, examined the guests, then went back to sulking.

"It's alright," I told them. "Nothing serious. Just a leg."

"'Just a leg?'" Haruki burst. "How could you be so calm about this?" Sending me an apologetic glance, Madoka grabbed her son's arm and squeezed it, as if reminding him not to yell at me - the poor girl with only one leg left. A familiar surge of anger bubbled up in my chest, boiling and churning and increasing the pressure on my already-depressed mind; I hate pity. I balled my hands into fists. I felt like throwing a childish tantrum on the spot, but I was worried how Haruki would take it...

I mentally slapped myself. Yumiko, this is no time to be thinking about your boy-problems! I thought. So instead of throwing a tantrum or mooning over Haruki, I snapped, "Quit treating me like I'm a helpless little baby!"

Most of them recoiled immediately. "Yumiko! Please, stop that right now! You're injured!" Mom said.

"Could you all pipe down?" my father snarled. "She doesn't want your useless pity! It ain't gonna help her back on her feet with a Beyblade!" I really appreciated him coming to my defense; he knew exactly how I felt.

After losing the battle with the evil guy named Nemesis, he gave his Legend Blader Star Fragment to Kenta to help save the world, and L-Drago Destroy F:S disintigrated. He ran away from the island, but it was hard since he had donated most of his energy and power. When he finally came to, he was in the hospital - like me - and everyone was fussing over him. So he escaped, and a couple of years later, L-Drago Guardian descended from the stars - fresh and well-rested - and the two of them became partners, once again. I've always admired my dad for his courage.

Everyone else was quiet. Then, Yu made the dumbest mistake that he ever could've made at the moment. He asked, "Ryuga, are you crying?"

It took the combined strengths of Benkei, Kyoya, Kenta, and Tsubasa to pry my cursing, mad-as-hell father off the Libra-user.

I was crying as I wrote part of this chapter. Or maybe it was because of my cold. XD

But I couldn't help adding in the last part because I wanted to make myself laugh.