Did I mention that this fic was already complete? Warnings are the same as before, as is the disclaimer. I also admit I did zero research on burns and the like, so yeah.
Chapter 1
Four weeks after the already-infamous train wreck that had quickly become international news, Doctor Janet Frasier was still at Tokyo General Hospital as a guest physician. Her duties were remarkably light, having only one patient to tend to, but this one patient turned out to be a full-time job in and of itself. She was faintly surprised that the US Air Force was allowing her to stay in Japan, as she had duties to attend to back home, but after talking with the hospital administrator and various child psychology experts she knew that perhaps this was the best situation for her lone patient.
The boy in question she knew only as Ryou, and he was the boy she'd struggled so desperately to save those many weeks ago. He'd awakened a week after the wreck in a state of acute terror and disorientation, and it had been Janet and her adopted daughter, Cassandra, that had calmed the boy enough to explain what was going on, and only after days of talking to the terrified boy. It was only after gaining his trust that they learned of his inability to remember who he was. Since then, he only seemed to trust Janet and Cassandra, the latter having gifted him with his new name.
Three weeks later, he'd gone from a terrified young man to a closed off teen, staring at everyone but Janet and Cassandra with a mix of fear and distrust. Janet walked into his room this morning to see the familiar guarded expression, a single violet eye glittering dangerously in the dusk of the room. He didn't like having the blinds open or the lights on, forcing Janet to work in a state of dim twilight. It wasn't the worst conditions she'd ever seen, but it didn't bode well for Ryou himself.
"Good morning," Janet greeted him in passable Japanese, closing the door behind her and walking over to the bed. She picked up the boy's chart, glad that the hospital had printed out a separate chart for her to work with, and glanced over the contents with a practiced eye. "How are you feeling today?"
The boy turned from her, closing his one visible eye dismissively. Janet found the bulky bandage covering the boy's left eye and cheek, as well as his head, to be strangely symbolic, as if the real Ryou were only hiding from her, to be revealed in time. Poetic thoughts pushed aside, she set about her morning routine, snapping on her gloves and systematically stripping the boy's bandages, cleaning the burns and gashes, and rewrapping them. To her dismay, these bandages still covered most of his body, but it was with mingled relief and hope that she noted that with every passing day, she bandaged less.
She left the most obvious bandage for last, talking lightly as she unwrapped the boy's head and observed the damage. His skull was still reddened, black strands of hair persevering despite their damaged homes, but she noted that within a day or so, she wouldn't need to bandage his skull. His eye was a different matter, she soon found when she shone her penlight into it. The optometrists were optimistic about him being able to use it again, but for now Ryou couldn't see out of it due to the blast of heat that had nearly burned it out of its socket, rupturing vessels within the eye itself. The cut on his left cheek, she was saddened to note, would scar, but it seemed like a small price to pay for the privilege of living.
After noting her observations on the chart, she set to the task of bandaging the boy's head once more. All through this she kept up the light chatter, mostly in Japanese but sometimes lapsing into English when she couldn't think of the words, and Ryou didn't say one word, though she hadn't expected him to. It was disheartening to see him close himself off like this, though…
"You know," she said conversationally as she finished her task, "you won't make any friends if you don't talk to anyone."
This stirred him into action, one violet eye glaring piercingly at her. "And what would I talk about?" he asked bitterly. "Their friends? Family?" He looked away, but not before she caught the pain lingering in his gaze. "No thanks."
Janet sighed, not liking the bit of news she was to pass on, but knowing it had to be said. "The hospital is thinking of releasing you in a few weeks," she informed him. "Since we don't know who your family is, you'll be released into a foster home or orphanage until the state can figure out where you go. We're only guessing at your age, so it may be a bit tricky…"
Ryou said nothing, and she found her train of thought derailed. With an effort, she forced herself back to her task.
"I've done some asking around and I've found a few families who would be willing to take you in," she said softly. "Any one of them that you'd choose, the hospital will release you to them. They want to meet you, but only if you're willing. What do you want to do?"
The boy glanced at the door, then back at her, reading her more thoroughly than she'd have liked to admit. "I'm guessing," he declared, voice emotionless, "that one family is waiting outside."
Janet had the grace to look sheepish. "You're right. Mr. Mizuhara runs a gaming store and has a son a bit younger than we believe you to be, and he's eager to help you. Please give him a chance?"
Ryou looked at Janet, shocking the doctor at his suddenly grateful expression. It was the first emotion besides terror she'd seen the young man willingly show. "I'll meet them. Thank you for looking after me this whole time."
"It's no trouble at all," she grinned, elated. There was hope for him, she knew. "I'll get them."
Ryou turned to the window as the door opened and closed again, raising a hand self-consciously to his bandaged face. He hadn't seen himself in a mirror since his awakening, so his appearance was a mystery in and of itself, and he wondered briefly what the Mizuharas would see when they opened the door. He wondered, should he turn on the light? He only kept it dim because the light had hurt his eyes when he'd opened them the first time. Janet's penlight had stopped bothering him a week ago, so maybe…
Reaching for the bedside remote, it was with only minute hesitation that he clicked the light on. He winced, slitting his eyes and staring away from the light until the pain subsided, then opened his one good eye and looked around, seeing his hospital room anew.
Janet returned a moment later, a tall man with brown hair and smiling brown eyes behind her, followed by a teenager in a green and yellow t-shirt and orange pants, an orange shirt tied around his waist, longish blonde hair falling into a kind round face but doing nothing to obscure friendly blue eyes. Janet blinked at the unexpected brightness in the room and glanced up at the light, before grinning at her patient.
"Are your eyes bothering you?" Janet asked, abandoning her guests for a moment to go to Ryou's bedside. For once, she wasn't quick to snap out her penlight, instead turning the boy's face to her and scrutinizing his visible eye critically.
"Not really," he assured her. "I thought that it might have been too dark in here for Mr. Mizuhara, that's all. The light hurt for a bit but I'm used to it now, I think."
The doctor released him and turned back to the father and son standing by the door. "Mr. Mizuhara, Max, this is Ryou. Ryou, Mr. Mizuhara and his son Max. I'll leave you three alone to get acquainted."
Ryou stared after the departing woman, feeling a bit lost without her to act as a buffer. Seeming not to notice his discomfort, Max bounced onto his bed, taking great care not to land on Ryou's still-burned legs. "It's nice to meet you!" the blonde grinned, swinging his legs off the bed. "We've been waiting for a week to meet you! Dad knows Janet from when he worked in America, and after the accident we've been hoping to help out somehow. I'm glad we can help you!"
Mr. Mizuhara shook his head fondly at his son's actions. "Don't scare him! Janet told us that he's not used to people, remember?" He looked at Ryou, a kind smile gracing his features. "I'm sorry if my son is making you uncomfortable, but we're really quite eager to help you."
"He's fine," Ryou assured the elder, unconsciously turning his face away from them so that all they could see was a hint of bandages and a single violet eye. "What did Janet tell you about me?"
"She said that you couldn't remember who you were," Max said, his cheerful demeanor sobering somewhat. "She also said that you're still badly injured, so you won't be coming home with us for a few more weeks. That won't stop me from coming to visit, though!"
Mr. Mizuhara laughed. "Be careful, Ryou! The last time one of his friends was in the hospital, the staff had to kick him out when visiting hours were over. You may not get a good night's rest!"
Ryou smiled slightly. "As long as he's not offended if I'm not so friendly."
A week after Ryou was introduced to the Mizuharas, Janet brought another family for him to meet. Takao Kinomiya was a boisterous young man with laughing brown eyes and odd blue hair held back from his face by his blue and red baseball cap, quite distinctive in his yellow shirt, red jacket, and jeans, and despite his reservations, Ryou found himself liking the younger teen almost immediately. Grandpa Kinomiya was an elderly man, his grey hair and slight figure misleading as to his frailty. Ryou winced himself when Grandpa snatched a practice sword from seemingly nowhere and chased a laughing Takao around his room, the now ever-present Max giggling at them from his refuge on Ryou's bed.
"Are they always like this?" the bedridden teen asked Max behind his hand.
Max waved his hand in a so-so manner. "It depends on how often Takao forgoes his martial arts training, but it's not an uncommon occurrence. Me and Rei have learned when to duck."
Ryou had also met Rei Kon and Kai Hiwatari, Max having dragging them along on his daily visits during the week. Rei was a friendly young man, long black hair restrained by a cloth wrap from his neck all the way to the tip. Ryou had been surprised by his golden yellow eyes the first time he'd seen them, but he also had a similar reaction from others to his own violet eyes, so unusual but getting more common, or so Janet had said. She'd then went on about genetic dominance and the violet-eyed gene getting more common in the mainstream population, and Ryou had tuned her out with his usual indifferent demeanor before she confused him any further. Kai was a tall teen with dual-toned grey hair and imposing red eyes, dressed in blues with only a long white scarf and blue markings on his face adding any color to his figure. He'd made Ryou nervous at first, but the fear had quickly evaporated when Max dumped Ryou's ice water on the other teen's head and had been unharmed. In fact, Max confided with Ryou a few days later that Kai had been amused by the act.
Even Cassie had stopped by a few times with Janet, her Japanese not very good but her presence alone enough to cheer up the injured teen. The brunette girl somehow was able to get across her meaning despite her lack of words, and with Max there to act as a translator he found her to be a mature teenager with unusual views on the world. All Janet would say when he asked about her was that she was from Toronto, which made him even more interested.
With every visit from Max, he found it harder to pass his fear and insecurity off as indifference, though, and Max would often keep bothering him until he gave some answer to whatever minor question he had been asked. It was also harder to pretend he wasn't listening without the cumbersome bandage covering his entire head. Janet had removed it a few days after Max's first visit, uncovering his still-unseeing left eye and leaving only a small bandage covering the gash along his left cheek. The optometrist Janet consulted with was still optimistic about Ryou's eye recovering fully, but admitted it might take surgery if it didn't recover on its own in a few months. Janet had also taken the liberty of arranging a visit from a dentist, who looked over the remains of broken teeth in the teen's mouth and made an appointment to fix them after his release date.
With his days no longer dark and lonely, it wasn't a surprise that Ryou's discharge date came so quickly from his point of view. He was going to stay with the Mizuhara family, as he thought it would be far tamer than Takao's household, and he wasn't sure how he'd take being chased by a crazy old man with a practice sword.
"It's sort of sad to have you leave," Janet commented, holding out a white dress shirt for him to get into. "I'll miss having you here."
Ryou, already in a pair of khaki pants, slipped his arms into the shirt timidly, mindful of anything that might disturb the bandages on his back. His burns were mostly healed, with just a few patches on his back and arms that still required bandages, but it was the large gash on his back that had Janet still worried. She'd made him promise to have Mr. Mizuhara look at it every day before she'd sent off the discharge papers, and Max had shown up a half an hour ago with the clothes he was now changing into.
"It's all I've known," Ryou admitted. "I'm not sure what to look forward to out there, but I'll miss it in here." He fumbled a bit with the buttons on the dress shirt but managed to get them done up, before sitting back on the bed and taking the socks Janet handed to him next. "I'll also miss you, Doctor Frasier. You were very supportive this whole time, and I appreciate everything you've done for me."
Janet handed him a pair of sneakers next, which he put on, struggling a bit with the laces. "Here's my address," she said, offering a business card. He took it and eyed the foreign names, wondering where Colorado Springs was and making a note to find a map. "With you being discharged, I'm needed back in America, so I guess this is goodbye."
"Air Force?" Ryou wondered, tracing the insignia with one finger. "You don't strike me as a military type."
"Sorry to disappoint," she replied lightly. "Don't forget to write me, okay? Max can help you with the English if you need it, I can't read Japanese to save my life." She offered her hand with a sheepish smile.
Ryou took it, grinning. "I'll remember that."
"Oh, just don't call my work number unless it's an emergency, okay?" Janet suddenly went from sheepish to stern. "The Air Force really doesn't like people chatting on their time, and it'd be really awkward for me."
"Yes, Doctor Frasier." He surprised her by giving her a hug, which she returned while being ever-mindful of the bandages across his back. "Have a safe flight, and tell Cassie goodbye for me, okay?"
A knock on the door startled them, preventing Janet from replying. Instead, Ryou stepped away, straightening his sleeves self-consciously as he called, "Come in!"
Max poked his head into the room. "Hey Ryou! Dad's just about finished with all that paperwork, so it shouldn't be too long before we get to go! Do you have everything?"
"I do," Ryou answered, then turned back to Doctor Frasier and bowed deeply. "Thank you for everything."
"Take care, Ryou. Try not to have me come back here, huh?" She winked at him, then laughed with him and made a shooing motion with her hands.
"I won't!" Ryou called over his shoulder as he left, Max just in front of him. He got several odd looks as he passed, ranging from simple curiosity to downright surprise. Most of the doctors that they passed he had, in his first few days of confused awareness, fought against and refused treatment from because he'd been afraid, and now they looked at him with expressions he couldn't place. Now he held his head down, walking past them without a word, not really knowing how he should begin to apologize for his behavior. He toyed with his sleeves, seeing the scars that stretched out over his hands, continuing down out of sight onto his arms. His body was riddled with the scars, he knew, and Janet had told him that they may fade, but he'd always have them now.
He nearly ran into Max when the other stopped suddenly, and he looked up to find that they'd passed into a waiting room, where Mr. Mizuhara was waiting for them. "Are we ready to go?" the man asked, looking Ryou over critically. "They fit! I'm glad."
"I'm ready to go," the teen answered, flushing a bit. "Thank you for the clothes."
"Not a problem," Mr. Mizuhara said dismissively. "We'll be buying you a lot more than clothes later on! For now, all the papers are in order, so we can leave anytime. I'll bet you're done being in hospitals, huh?"
Ryou shrugged. "I'm looking forward to seeing what's out there, but it's a bit scary too," he confessed.
"Don't worry!" Max assured him, his grin so infectious it drew a smile from the other teen. "Everything'll be okay. Let's go!"
. . . . . . .
Ryou looked at their shopping cart as they made their way to the registers, eyes wide. "This is too much, Mr. Mizuhara!" he protested, even as Max started loading clothes, shoes, and other essentials onto the conveyor belt. The cashier looked at them oddly but dutifully started ringing up the pile.
"It's just clothes and toiletries," Mr. Mizuhara assured him. "It's not too much, really. Max has more than this!"
"And he constantly reminds me about it," Max interjected. At Ryou's stricken look he laughed. "Just kidding!"
Ryou hung his head. "I appreciate this, but I'm sorry you have to do this just for me."
"I had to buy Max some stuff too, so don't worry about it." Mr. Mizuhara handed the cashier a check card, then signed his named where he was told. Ryou, seeing that his arguing wasn't doing any good, turned instead to help Max load the shopping cart again with their bags. Mr. Mizuhara took his card back and followed the two boys out of the store, where their rental car waited to be occupied again. They were driving a rental because, given how Ryou had ended up in the hospital in the first place, they didn't think he'd want to take the train again, something the teen was very grateful for. Even without remembering the actual crash, the idea of riding a train again, knowing what it had done to him, was more than a little disconcerting.
The drive was a silent one, Ryou too overwhelmed by the Mizuharas' kindness to do much more than be grateful and wonder how he was going to repay their kindness. As they turned down a street, Max's voice suddenly broke the silence.
"Hey, Dad, you mind if we go to Takao's house? It's not far from here, and we'll definitely be back before it gets too late!" He bounced in his seat, twisting around to grin at Ryou. "Takao said that everyone was going to be training today, and I don't think he'd mind if Ryou came with!"
"I don't mind if you go," Mr. Mizuhara said, pulling over to the side of the road. "But don't you think you should ask Ryou if he wants to go, too? He just got out of the hospital, I wouldn't be surprised if he just wanted to get home and rest."
Ryou considered it for only a moment before unbuckling his seat belt. "I'll go with Max. I've rested enough for the past two months!"
Mr. Mizuhara grinned. "Just be careful! Don't do anything too strenuous, and be mindful of your back! And try to be home early tonight, you still have these packages to put away."
"Yes, Mr. Mizuhara." Ryou and Max got out of the car and, after waving farewell to Mr. Mizuhara, set off down the street, the blonde teen leading the way. Ryou lingered behind him, looking around interestedly at everything he could see through his good eye. Janet had recommended that he wear an eyepatch a few days ago, but he wondered, how was he supposed to know when his eye started getting better if he wasn't trying to use it?
The sights and smells of the city were completely different from the hospital, he was very pleased to notice, a contented smile settling on his face. The sun was warm on his face, different scents drifting to him on the breeze. He could smell someone cooking a few houses away, and the smell of cut grass was sharp as he passed someone hard at work over a lawnmower. Max was talking to him as they walked, but he wasn't paying attention, as caught up as he was in the simple thing that was the outside.
Max stopped suddenly, nearly causing Ryou to run into him. "We're here!" he announced. "Takao's house!"
Ryou looked over the old-style dojo, from which he could hear boys shouting and what sounded liked metal clashing. "Sounds like someone's home."
"That would be Takao, Rei, Kai, and probably Kyouju," Max agreed, pushing open the gate leading to the front courtyard without bothering to knock first. The injured teen followed him, looking curiously around the well-kept grounds even as he followed Max around the side of the house. He soon saw several teens gathered around two spinning tops, realizing after a moment that the tops were the source of the clanging he'd heard.
"Hey guys!" Max called, jogging ahead of Ryou to catch up to the other teens, whom the other found to be, sure enough, Takao, Rei, Kai, and a fourth boy he didn't know the name of, happily typing away at his computer. "Look who I brought!"
Everyone looked up at him, then past him, seeing Ryou making his way steadily towards them. He didn't want to admit it, but after being bedridden for most of two months, his body wasn't happy with all of the activity, but he grit his teeth determinedly and pressed forward, reaching his goal with a barely perceptible sigh of relief.
"It's good to see you up!" Takao exclaimed, holding out one hand absently. To Ryou's surprise, one of the spinning tops on the ground sped towards him and leapt into his waiting palm. "Max said you were being released today, but I didn't expect you to come here! How're you feeling?"
"A bit tired," he admitted, sinking down to the ground and leaning gingerly against a rock next to the boy with the laptop. "We went shopping, but Max wanted to come see you guys."
"Don't overexert yourself," Rei warned, mirroring Takao's actions. The other top obediently jumped into his waiting hand.
"I won't. So what were you guys doing?" he asked curiously. "Is this that beyblading thing you were talking about in the hospital?"
"Yeap!" the boy next to him grinned. "Nice to meet you, by the way. I'm Kyouju! Sorry I didn't come to visit you in the hospital, but I was busy updating these guys' beyblades. The world championship is still a few months away, but you can never practice too hard!"
"Ryou," the other teen introduced. "You all told me about beyblading, but I've never seen a match."
"You want to?" Takao asked, eyes sparkling mischievously. "Kyouju just updated our blades and we were testing them out."
"Sure!" Ryou nodded enthusiastically. "I think I remember the rules you guys told me, so I think I can follow the match."
"All right!" Takao grinned, looking at his companions thoughtfully. "Me and Rei just finished a battle, so why don't you and Kai go, Max? He hasn't had a chance to test out his improvements."
Max obligingly pulled out his beyblade and launcher, threading the ripcord into the gun-like mechanism and attaching the beyblade to the bottom of the launcher. Kai was doing the same, his red and blue beyblade and launcher a direct contrast to Max's green, and the two of them as one took their stances.
"Three, two, one, let it rip!" they cried, pulling the ripcords in unison. Their beyblades shot from the launchers, thumping to the ground and immediately zooming towards each other.
"So if I remember correctly," Ryou said conversationally to the teen next to him, Kyouju typing busily away at his laptop, "the goal of this game is to get one of the other beyblades to stop spinning, right?"
Kyouju nodded. "Usually it's either knock the blade out or stop it from spinning, but without a stadium it's hard to mark an out of bounds area."
Ryou watched the spinning beyblades, enthralled. Max's green blade held its ground as Kai's circled it, occasionally darting forward, as if to test the blonde's defenses, but each time Max met him head on, a squeal of metal echoing around the yard. Max looked decidedly smug, Kai's own expression impassive as the match wore on.
"It looks like Max uses a defensive style," Ryou mused, "while Kai prefers direct, piercing attacks. Does the style of play usually determine the winner?"
"Not really," Kyouju shrugged. "Max and Kai are about equal when it comes to how often they've won. It's just a matter of skill and luck, and having a good blade. In this case, it's good to have info on our opponents, because we can get a good idea of their abilities."
"Max mentioned something about 'bit beasts'," Ryou wondered. "What're those?"
"As far as we can tell, they're ancient spirits that live in objects like our beyblades. Takao's bit beast used to possess his family's sword, while Rei's was passed down through his village. I'm not sure how many there are, but we've faced more than our fair share of them in tournaments." It was hard to tell with Kyouju's hair obscured by his face, but Ryou thought the other teen glanced at him. "Have you thought about taking up beyblading?"
The injured teen shrugged, running a hand through his extremely short black hair. He wished it would grow faster so he could hide some of the scars on his neck, but there was nothing he could do to speed up the process. "The way everyone talks about it, it seems like it's worth a decent try."
Kyouju grinned. "I was sort've hoping you'd say that!" Abandoning his computer to Ryou's care, he dashed across the yard, taking care to avoid the still-battling pair, and dug into a bag hidden nearly out of sight under the raised porch of the house. With his prize in hand, he returned to the raven-haired teen's side, holding out a blue launcher, ripcord, and nondescript grey beyblade. Ryou took all three, studying them while Kyouju took back his laptop. "I built that for you, since the way Max talked about you it seemed like you might want to try it. I didn't do anything too fancy to it, since I don't know what sort of style you'd have, so it's just a basic beyblade, balanced in attack, defense, and speed. Once you've had a bit of practice we can start customizing this to better suit you."
Ryou nodded, pulling experimentally on the ripcord to see how it felt. "Thanks."
"Don't thank me yet! If you're going to beyblade, you need to practice!" Kyouju grinned at him. "Let's set you up with some basic exercises so you can get a feel for your blade."
That was how Ryou found himself several hours later, out of the way of the practice battles between Rei, Takao, Max, and Kai, launching his blade over and over again onto different targets marked with Xs. It had been harder than he'd thought it would be just to aim his blade properly, but at long last he got it, grinning triumphantly while his beyblade spun squarely in the junction of the X farthest away from him. Max popped up next to him, as one of the more experienced beybladers had been doing periodically, and grinned as well.
"Congratulations!" the blond beamed, peering critically at the still-spinning blade.
"Thanks," Ryou said, mimicking the others by holding out his hand. His beyblade zoomed right over to him and gave a funny little hop that nevertheless landed it right in his outstretched palm."I think I'm ready to move on. What's next?"
"We're going home," Max informed him. "It's late, and I told Dad we'd be home early tonight, remember?"
Surprised, the raven-haired teen glanced up at the sky and found that the sun was, indeed, going down. He'd been so focused on his task that he hadn't noticed time passing, but he now realized that his muscles were protesting at him as well. The simple act of launching a beyblade, he'd found, was just as strenuous as any sort of exercise. "I remember."
"I called Dad to pick us up, since it's a long walk from here, so he should be here any minute. He said he wasn't going to return the rental car until tomorrow in case we needed something else."
"Until then, would you like to come in?" Takao put in, appearing unexpectedly on his other side. "No sense in waiting out here."
Ryou looked around, noticing the absence of Rei, Kai, and Kyouju. "Where'd the others go?"
"Home. They left a few minutes ago." Takao led them into the house, reminding Ryou to take off his shoes at the entrance, and offered to get them something to drink. Ryou only wanted a glass of water, and settled back to watch Takao and Max talk. They discussed everything from the weather to an upcoming beyblading tournament, and debated whether or not to attend this tournament. The novice beyblader was surprised to hear that he was currently training with the three-time world beyblading champions, but they didn't boast about it to him. Instead, it was merely a fact in their conversation, as they wondered whether to let the other teams have a chance in the tournament.
Ten minutes passed like this until Mr. Mizuhara poked his head into Takao's room to let Max and Ryou know it was time to go. They bid farewell to Takao and promised to stop by again tomorrow, then followed the elder man out to the car.
