Okay, everybody, here we go again.

Also.

I just want to let you know a bit about me: I usually listen to Pandora internet radio while I read and occasionally while I write too, which I'm doing now. I recommend that you listen to this track while you read this chapter:

The Dance, from the album Forever Friends by Janie Becker.

Also I wonder as I wander, from the album Whisperings by David Nevue, if The Dance finishes before the chapter.

And finally, the single The Aviators by Helen Jane Long.

It's what I'm listening to right now as I write. I'll be recommending tracks a lot after this chapter, so if you find yourself listening to piano while you read, it's my fault.

Summer weeks pass slowly, as Kenta, Osamu, and Tekashi found out soon enough. While spring and fall could be likened to the crash of a waterfall tumbling down, summer was undoubtedly more like molasses pouring out of a mug and pooling onto a saucer below in an incredibly and unbearably slow stream.

The worst part about looking forwards to the summer was that Akira would not be a part of it.

After school he didn't come to Bey Park as he used to, even when he hadn't any homework. Akira hardly ever bladed anymore. He wanted to go into academics. It drove the other three nearly to tears at the thought that their quad was now only a trio.

3 days had passed since the day Kenta had first battled, and the three boys had almost forgotten already what shoes were.

Les saw them scuffing down the street, heads hung in melancholy and the humidity in the air already causing their hair to droop. He looked up from his guitar and said, "Hey, sons. What's a-troublin' you? Ya seem ta be a lil' under tha weather. Which is not necessary cos' the weather now ain't so high itself."

The boys gathered around Les's feet as they had before, and Kenta said sadly, "We aren't a quad any longer."

"A squad? Ah know a lotta bout squads. Whatsa troublin' with yer squad?"

"Not a squad, Les, a quad. We used to be four boys but now we're only three."

"Why? That borin' youngster gone off ta jump in the sea already?"

"No, not him, Les. We had another friend named Akira but we never see him anymore."

Les hemmed and hawed softly, singing a few lines on his guitar.

"When that sun a-shinin' down don't come no more and yer heart be sore...huh. Well. If ya got nowhere to go there's something you can know: I'll always, uh. Always. Ah, here we go. I'll always be here right here right now...I don't know, sons. Don't seem like there's nothin' you can do 'bout it else you'da done it already. Yer smart boys, ya know."

"Thanks, Les, but Akira wouldn't listen to us anyway. I was hoping you had something that would help us."

"All ah got is songs, sonny-boy, and don't rightly know if songs'll getche outta this situation right here..."

"Probably not."

"Huh."

Well I don't know but music sure does seem ta soothe tha soul

When you git a hole in yer life and yer heart just ain't quite whole

Ya get ya down ta the music store and pound round on tha keys

then yer vision's gonna get as clear's clear kin be...

"Say, son, you done anythin' bout that fusion wheel o' yours?"

"I haven't yet."

"Ya battled with it any more?" Les narrowed his eyes at Kenta.

"Umm...yes. Twice."

Les slammed his hands down on the guitar as he had done three days ago. "Now didn't ah TELL YA that the damage'd only git WORSE if ya battle wit' it!"

"Uh - yes, but - "

"YES BUT! SON, THAT AIN'T NO EXCUSE. Ah seen CHICKENS what could do better'n that!"

"I'm sorry, Les, I-I..."

"Don't. Jus' don't talk, sonny. Damage's been done either way, ya jus' SHOULDN'TA DONE IT. Lemme see it."

Kenta handed over the bey, ashamed for not following Les's orders. Street busker he may be, but still he was a figure of authority and wisdom in Kenta's life as of a few weeks ago.

"LOOK HERE. See whatcha done ta your OWN BEY!? This burn's done gone an' got deeper n' wider'n ever! DON'T NEED NO RULER TA TELL YA THAT!"

The burn now spread out towards the edges of the fusion wheel and in one place you could see the facebolt through the rust.

"Lookit. Take a good look and see what messin wit' dragons kin do ta ya."

Osamu stood. "Dragons aren't real, though, are they Les?"

"There's a-way more dragons in this her world'n you'd know, Osamu. An' one done gone'n birnt up 'is fusion wheel right here. Now Kenta, you git yerself back ta that mechanic shop AND GET A NEW FUSION WHEEL, and ah don't wanna see yer face until ya done it. GIT."

Kenta scrambled up and hurried off, while Osamu and Tekashi stayed to listen to Les play guitar.

Madoka said that it would have to wait until tomorrow, as a couple of compatible defence/attack fusion wheels would be coming in tomorrow.

"What did you do to your bey, Kenta? It looks like it's really badly rusted."

"I think it got hit by L-Drago's bitbeast a little to hard in the energy transition", Kenta said. Close enough to the truth.

Had a real dragon burnt Sagittario, or was Les being metaphoric?

And since he obviously was not allowed to show his face past the street corner until Sagittario was repaired, he busied himself with stringing his old fusion wheel on a cord around his neck for nostalgia's sake and staring at the garden floor the rest of the day, wondering if the snapdragons would return.