Hi!

Thanks to all who reviewed!

And now…drum roll please…

Without further ado…

Chapter 7

Oh, wait…one more thing…

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade…if I did, there would be a lot more plot, a lot less blading, Dranzer wouldn't have been destroyed and Hilary would blade too…

Now, without further ado…yatta yatta yatta…

-x-x-x-x-

Kai calmly leaned against the wall and watched his teammates file into the room where the party decorations were still up.

Rei's sharp eyes picked up the poster Kai had gotten for his birth day on the floor. Curious, he bent down and picked it up…only to find that it was almost ripped in half.

"Kai, someone ripped your birth day present," he announced before realizing that would only annoy the dual-haired blader. His comment made Kai glance in his direction before looking away.

'I didn't rip it when I stepped on it…' Kai mentally commented.

At a loss for words, Rei continued scrutinizing the poster…there was something awfully familiar about it…

Scowling at his thought…but curious, Rei's gaze drifted to the bottom right hand corner.

Rei dropped the poster as his complexion faded to a dead white.

"Rei," Max asked concernedly as everyone turned to glance at their normally calm and composed friend.

"Kai, you might want to take a closer look at this," the solemn neko-jin stated before picking it up off the ground and handing it to him.

Deciding he would pretend just to have the subject dropped, he took the paper and let his eyes wash over it; a scowl appeared on his face.

There was his footprint and now, it was obviously ripped in half, but Kai didn't notice anything significant about it. He was about to just crumple it up and throw it out when he caught a letter out of the corner of his eye. It was then he noticed the signature in the bottom right hand corner. The paper slipped out of his grasp and fluttered to the floor.

They all saw the signature.

For several moments, there was complete silence before Rei managed to find his voice.

"You think…" His shaky voice cracked. "You think that has anything to do with the fact that we can't find Hil?" The others nodded in unison. "Thought so…"

The only sound in the house was a shuffling of feet as Rei headed towards the kitchen-and the phone.

'Only two people I can think of know Hil well enough to know where she's gone…her mom…and Mariah...' With that in mind, he hurriedly dialed Mariah's number, waiting for her to pick up.

"Hello, Mariah here," a chirpy voice he knew so well answered.

"Mariah, it's Rei…"

"Hold on…I can tell just by your voice that something's wrong…what is it?"

"Hilary…" He began, but his voice cracked again.

"What about Hils! Is she okay! What's wrong!"

"She…she's gone…" He managed out at last.

"Gone!" The confused and half-panicked sounding voice at the other end of the conversation repeated.

"Yeah…"

"Where would she go!"

"I was hoping you could tell me…" Rei's now dull sounding voice replied.

"I…I honestly don't know…I'll be over as quick as I can, and I'll let everyone else know." There was a click as Mariah hung up, and was undoubtedly doing just what she had said. Swallowing a wave of panic, he dialed the number he had memorized incase of an emergency. Well, there was an emergency now!

-x-x-x-x-

Hilary sighed softly as she shifted the bag on her shoulder. Glancing around warily, she pulled her cap down lower over her now-exposed eyes.

'I don't know how fast word travels around here, but I'll just have to be careful…the question is whether to try to blend in in the city or head out to the suburbs…either way, I'll have to be enrolled in school…' A soft sigh escaped her as she headed out of the airport terminal and towards a dusty, lonely road. 'Suburbs it is…'

"Miss Tachibana…" A familiar voice asked hesitantly. It sounded shy but sweet and instantly reminded her of Max.

'It hasn't even been a day yet,' she thought wearily as she turned around to face whoever had recognized her. She froze as her eyes met green ones.

-x-x-x-x-

Rei nervously tapped his foot as the phone rang.

'What is taking so long,' he wondered worriedly. 'Does she already know?'

"Hello? Tachibana residence…may I ask who this is?"

"Hello, Mrs. Tachibana, this is Rei Kon," he replied, managing to keep his voice even.

"Calling about Hilary," the sad but resigned sounding voice inquired wearily.

"H-hai," he replied softly; he swore he could see the woman on the other end of the receiver smile, if it was a bit sad.

"She's gone on an adventure…one she asks that we don't try to interrupt, or follow her on…"

"W-what," Rei choked out.

"She left…I'm assuming she left you a note?"

"No," Rei replied sharply. "We have no note here of any kind…"

"Then whatever chased her off must have occurred there…forgive my saying this, but I think that Kai's return is what caused her to leave…"

"No…it's been a week since Kai came back…if she had wanted to leave before because of him coming back, she wouldn't have waited this long…" He theorized.

"Correct," Hilary's mom commented. "It's up to you to find out why my daughter left…I, however, am going to respect her wishes, and not search for her…"

"Okay," Rei replied and was about to hang up.

"Wait a moment…" Rei paused obligingly. "Just so you know, Hilary will probably come back faster if you don't search for her…" His eyes widened. "Although it is unlikely she did this as a cry for attention, if she did…you would just be giving her what she wanted…" A scowl found itself on Rei's face after that comment.

"Good-"

"I'm not done…the bigger the fuss you make, the less likely she is to come home…" With that, he heard the dial tone, signifying that their conversation had ended. His scowl deepening, he slammed the phone down on the receiver and stalked back into the room that held his teammates.

All of them hadn't moved from their previous positions upon finding out that Hilary had hand drawn it for Kai and someone had messed it up. Big time.

"When I find out who did that to her poster…" Tyson growled.

"Well," Rei began, but Max cut in.

"Isn't it obvious?" All of his teammates immediately stopped their side conversation. They had never heard this tone in Max's voice. "It's ripped because it was on the floor…Hilary probably found it by stepping on it and slipping…and when she slipped on it, she ripped it."

Everyone else just stared at the sullen Max, surprised by first off, how much sense that made...and secondly, how it didn't fit.

"Ripping it was only the icing on the cake…" He supplied.

"Icing on the cake?" Kenny, who was normally in tune to this sort of thing, was completely lost.

"It may have been dark, but Hil has an eye for her art…the footprint right across it sure as hell didn't come from her," he seethed quietly.

Tyson and Kenny exchanged worried glances. Hilary running off had obviously upset Max an awful lot.

"Max, calm down. We'll find her, bring her home and that'll be the end of it," Kai supplied in his normal tone.

"I'm not done," the normally sweet and sugary blonde hissed. "None of us when we went to bed walked through there, or we would have found it before hand."

Rei did not like where this was going.

Max stood, picked up his sweatshirt from a chair, tied it around his waist and headed for the door after checking to make sure Draciel was safely in his pocket. The sound of the front door slamming shattered the heavy silence that had settled in the air after Max's last statement.

"He's implying it's all your fault, Kai…" Kenny summed it up, voicing everyone's thoughts. His reply was a white scarf swishing around the corner and out of sight. The front door slamming left Tyson dumbfounded, Kenny surprised, and Rei downhearted.

"Ironic, isn't it," Rei laughed bitterly. "We finally all just got back together again…"

"…you aren't going to leave to Rei…are you…?" Tyson whispered.

"No…" Rei replied. "Someone has to stick around…besides, Mariah's coming to help and I can't exactly turn up in China and have Lee asking where his sister is…"

"Sensible," Tyson agreed in a hollow tone. Kenny's gaze held pity in it as he watched his long time friend sit there, soaking in the silence.

'Everyone splitting up last time devastated him…last time, at least, Hil and I were still here, and he had us to fall back on…' Kenny reminded himself.

"You survived the "final fight" with Brooklyn, Tyson…" Rei clapped a hand to his shoulder. "If you survived that, you can survive anything…"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence…" Tyson muttered, the corners of his mouth twitching into a small smile.

Kenny and Rei exchanged worried looks over his head.

Today was a bad day. Very bad.

-x-x-x-x-

Hilary just stared at the person who had recognized her. She had completely frozen. The person's green eyes were looking into her ruby colored ones with a slightly surprised look in them.

"Are the Bladebreakers in town then," they asked in a soft voice.

Hilary was wondering where her voice had run off to. All of a sudden, she found the edges of her vision going blurry and breathing became an effort. Everything faded to black.

The last thing she heard was that person's voice calling, "Miss Tachibana! Miss Tachibana," worriedly as it drew closer.

'Oh no…oh god no…' She begged mentally as she completely lost consciousness.

-x-x-x-x-

:The Next Day:

Rei arose with difficulty; even the rays of the sun that kept blinding his eyes weren't helping him get up and get moving.

The events of yesterday trickled back into his mind, one by one, jolting him wide awake. He hurriedly sat up and leapt out of bed. Remembering his phone call to Mariah, he hurriedly got dressed. If there was one thing he knew from experience, it was that Mariah did what she said she would do.

As soon as possible for Mariah, when she was coming from China, would be sometime this morning. Wondering where on earth his sanity had gone to, he slipped into the bathroom to wash his face, brush his hair and brush his teeth.

Just as he finished his morning preparations, he heard the doorbell ring.

'Here we go…' He thought, and braced himself. Taking a deep breath, he walked over and opened the front door to reveal…

-x-x-x-x-

Well, this is where I leave you…and I KNOW Max is OOC in this chapter, but it's necessary for my plot…

Anyone wanna guess who the mystery person who recognized Hilary is?

Take a stab at it…anyway…

I must admit, I sincerely enjoyed writing this chapter…I wanted to introduce at least one more girl into the story, and I'm glad I finally got to!

Oh, and please, no Mariah bashing…if you're going to leave a nasty comment about her, just don't bother reading from this point on…because she's going to be in this fic from now on…

I'd like to once again, thank all those who took the time review…

And if anyone just decides to flame me, your flame will be used to burn my report cards from school…so go ahead and make my day…

Emma

Ps: I am currently typing up Chapter Nine, if anyone is wondering...I'm getting a bit ahead of myself so it will be easier to update...and from now on I will ONLY be updating once a day, or once every two days...

Thinking up ideas is a fun, creative, and utterly nonsense process, but it's draining...especially if you only got seven hours of sleep!

HINT: next chapter I will be introducing a character...there will be TWO major plot twists involving her, so try and figure them out! I'll be giving subtle hints all through out the upcoming chapter/chapters...

If you think you HAVE figured it out, kindly drop me a line VIA e-mail...if you really have figured it out, I don't want you ruining the plot for everyone else!