Warnings and Disclaimer are in the first chapter.
Chapter 7
Returning to Japan and his normal routine after the Beyblade World Championships was, for Ryou, both a relief and a disappointment. It had been hectic to be always on the move, having to be in different places almost constantly and say goodbye to everyone a lot. At the same time, the amnesiac had been so caught up in the simple thrill of the experience that he missed it. He woke up every day feeling a little bit empty, going through his normal routine mechanically. With the next World Championship a year away, Ryou was at a loss for what to fill the gap left by that event.
A month passed painfully slowly for him, as he spent his days at Takao's practicing with his friends and adopted family and his nights working in Mr. Mizuhara's shop. Drasonet could feel his dissatisfaction and worked hard to help keep him entertained, but there was only so much the bit beast could do for him. Each day he woke up it was harder and harder to get out of bed, and he went to bed grateful for the sanctuary of sleep. He mused, awake but still in bed one day, that it couldn't have been a good sign for him to prefer the realm of dreams instead of wakefulness.
That afternoon, he was once again in Takao's yard, ruthlessly beating one of Kyouju's spare beyblades into spare parts. Rei, Kai, and Zeo weren't there, each tending to whatever business they had outside of beyblading. Their absence reminded the amnesiac that all he had was beyblading, as he lacked a past and a direction for his future. Though, while he was thinking of it, a lot of college brochures had been popping up around the house lately. Maybe he'd start looking through them…
He'd spaced out as he'd gotten lost in his thoughts, so he felt he could be forgiven his alarmed shout when a tap came to his shoulder. Drasonet hit the worse-for-wear beyblade at an odd angle and was deflected into the wall, but Ryou only spared an apologetic thought for his friend. He whirled around to see who had snuck up on him, blinking when he came face to face with a familiar pink bear.
"Kumagoro?" he asked blankly. "I thought you were upstairs in my closet."
"That's just Kumagoro's brother!" the bear, in a high-pitched version of Ryuichi's voice, replied. Ryou, not feeling like playing any games, took the few steps around the corner of the house to see Ryuichi pressed flat against the house.
"Hi Ryuichi," the amnesiac greeted. He was regarded with surprised violet eyes before Ryuichi grinned and bounced away, whirling on his heels before coming to rest facing Ryou.
"Hi Ryou!" Ryuichi chirped, hugging his bear tightly to his chest. "I heard about the world championships! You did really well, huh?"
"Not well enough," Ryou sighed, leaning against the wall. "How about your singing career?"
"It's fun! Not as fun as it could be, though. Me and everyone are busy with preparing for the concert in two months," the singer sighed, rocking on his feet. "You know in two months it'll be exactly one year since the train accident?"
Ryou winced. "I wasn't thinking about it."
"Oh, right, you were in the accident too!" Ryuichi leaned in close and peered at him. "I wonder…" He hummed, glancing around the empty courtyard. Ryou followed suit and found that Kyouju and Takao were nowhere to be seen. "The concert I mentioned? It's a memorial one! You know, for the wreck!"
"Didn't your bandmate die there?" Ryou asked, though something shifted oddly in his chest at the words.
"And you survived!" Ryuichi bounced. "And look at you! Nearly Beyblade World Champion, friends all over the world! Did you know that other wreck survivors look to you for inspiration?"
That drew a blush in Ryou's cheeks, and he ducked his head to hide it. "Stop saying things like that. I'm just me."
"No really!" Ryuichi insisted. "Me and Hiro have been out talking to wreck survivors, and they all said that they look at you! You don't take pictures though, so they have screenshots of your last beybattle framed, but they like you!"
"What's to like?" Ryou murmured. "I don't have a past, and all I am is beyblading."
"But you made it to the World Championships!" Ryuichi insisted. "Even without a past, you're striving forward and doing what you can. And look how far you went! I already mentioned that you went to the World Championships, right? Went around the world? That's more than most of those people can say!"
"There's nothing now, though!" Ryou growled. He turned around and stormed to the wall, setting his attention on prying his partner out of the pockmarked wood. "I devoted everything to the world championships, and now there's nothing for me. I wake up every day and do nothing! How can I inspire anyone by doing nothing?" He punctuated his remark with a last fierce tug, freeing Drasonet and sending himself backwards from the force. Ryuichi giggled at the sight of him on the ground, and he scrambled to his feet with a scowl.
"Well, there is something you could do," Ryuichi said in a sing-song tone of voice. "Something isn't nothing, and it would be nice for all of the people who look up to you."
"Like what?" Ryou sighed.
"Would you appear at the concert?" the singer asked, suddenly deathly serious. The switch from bubbly was sudden enough to cause Ryou to blink twice, but then he frowned.
"What for? What could I possibly do?"
"Mr. Daitenji suggested that you and Team Gravity could have an exhibition match," Ryuichi suggested. "In between songs, you know? We'll be singing a lot of Shuichi's songs in his memory, but halfway through you all could just have a match! What do you think of that?"
Ryou chewed on his lip thoughtfully, weighing his options in his head.
"That sounds like a good idea!" Takao's voice suddenly spoke up, startling both violet-eyed boys. They turned to see Takao, Max, and Kyouju had appeared from in the house and had been listening to them. "I don't know about Rei and Kai, but I'd be happy to be your opponent!"
"I think we can get Zeo in on it too!" Max enthused. "What do you think, Ryou? You were wanting to do something, and it's something important too!"
Part of Ryou really wanted to say no. He'd survived the wreck he couldn't remember, and he was quite happy to keep moving forward and not look back. However, he knew that he had to do something different from what he was doing now, searching for a direction where he had none. And if what he did was helpful to someone…
"Why not?" he sighed.
Maybe while he was doing something for everyone else, he would find something for himself as well.
. . . . . . .
Ryou got off his bike and looked up at his destination, shading his eyes from the bright light. For the last few weeks he hadn't needed to wear the eyepatch while riding his bike or beyblading, as his left eye was only mildly blurry now, and if he wasn't focused on it he couldn't tell any difference between his left and right eyes. But now and again the blurriness would catch him off guard, serving to remind him that he still wasn't completely healed from that wreck that left him without his memory.
Gazing up at the NG Studios building, he had a fleeting, poetic thought, that maybe his eye wouldn't heal until his memory did. It passed quickly, though, and he turned his attention to securing his bike. That done, he looked around for any sign of his friends without expecting to see them. They were going to take the train to get here, and he'd had to leave before them if he'd had any hope of getting there on time on his bike. They hadn't asked him any questions when he'd told them, politely, that there was no way he was getting on a train.
There wasn't any sign of his friends, like he'd thought, so he ignored the looks of the people on the street and entered the building. On his way over he'd grudgingly begun to believe Ryuichi's claims about him, as he'd been stopped several times by all kinds of people. He'd been flattered by the requests for autographs, but there had been one young boy in particular that stood out.
"Aunty!" the boy cried upon seeing Ryou, tugging on a woman's arm and pointing at the amnesiac heading towards them. "It's him! It's Ryou, that beyblader! We saw him on TV, remember?"
"Are you sure?" the woman asked, looking up at Ryou. "Ah! It is him! Ryou!" she called, waving her hand. "Ryou Mizuhara! Can we have a word?"
Ryou obligingly slowed to a stop just in front of the woman and child. "Yes, can I help you?"
"What would you like to say to him, Tim?" the woman prompted. The child had blushed, hiding his face briefly before letting go of his aunt and taking a step towards Ryou. As he'd done so the teen had noted a long scar running across his head and around his eyes, as well as thin white lines traced over his arms.
"Thank you!" Tim said, bowing deeply to Ryou. "Even though you can't remember who you are, you're working hard towards what you believe in, so thank you! You're an inspiration to the rest of us who were in the train wreck too! I'm going to be a beyblader too when I get old enough, so I can help out everyone else who was hurt!"
Ryou didn't know what to say to that except, "Er, you're welcome?" He thought he may have been blushing.
"You look like that person who helped me, you know," Tim said, bouncing gleefully.
That got Ryou's attention. "Who?"
"The man who helped me out of the wreck. Mommy and sister were dead," and the boy's face scrunched up with tears he was furiously holding back, "but the man helped me. All I really saw were his eyes, they were like yours, but he grabbed me and helped me out of the window. I don't know what happened to him, I just ran." Tim had sniffled. "I think he died. It's not fair! He helped me and he should have lived too."
"Now, now Tim. You know that sometimes things don't work out the way we want," his aunt admonished. "And I'm sure Ryou has important things to do." She looked up at Ryou and smiled. "Thank you for indulging us."
"I'm glad that I can help someone," the amnesiac nodded, smiling back. He rode off a little way before Tim's voice stopped him again.
"Ryou, Ryou! Can I have your autograph?"
"Tim!" his aunt sighed. Ryou grinned and obliged.
He smiled fondly as he pushed the button to summon the elevator. If he was an inspiration to more than just one small boy, then maybe there was something to this whole memorial concert thing after all.
"Oh! Ryou!" Ryuichi's voice sounded from behind him, and he turned to see the singer waving at him. "You're here early! Where're the rest of your friends?" As always, he had Kumagoro with him, and the bunny's ears flopped with the singer's jog across the lobby.
Ryou shrugged. "Probably on the train. I didn't feel like taking it."
"I understand. Don't you, Kumagoro?" The bunny didn't answer in any way Ryou could see, but Ryuichi nodded sagely. The elevator arrived just then, and the two of them got on it.
Ryou said nothing the whole trip up, though he contemplated telling Ryuuichi about that boy on the way. He decided against it at the last moment. He didn't want to have to weather Ryuuichi's predictably enthusiastic response. The singer, for his part, was cooing softly at Kumagoro, oblivious to what was going on in Ryou's head.
"We'll be meeting in the third room on the left," Ryuichi said once the elevator arrived on the right floor. "You can go wait there, k? I'll go find K and Tohma and we can get the meeting started just as soon as your friends get here!"
Before Ryou could respond the singer was gone, bouncing down the hallway and humming a happy tune. He stared after Ryuichi for a moment before shrugging and heading towards the allotted room. It was a bare room, holding only a long table with many chairs and a TV in the corner, well lit by the light streaming in from the window. No one else was there, and the TV was just showing commercials for bands that Ryou had only heard of in passing. For lack of anything else to do, he wandered over to the window, looking down at the sidewalk. The room faced the road, providing the perfect vantage point to view the arrival of his friends, and he settled against the window frame to wait.
He didn't know low long he stood like that, staring out at the people on the street. He felt strangely at home here, in this building, and it was an odd sensation, to say the least. As far as he knew, he'd never been here before. Still, the familiarity he felt was undeniable. He wondered, fleetingly, if he'd have been able to find this room without Ryuichi's help. Green hair suddenly appeared on the sidewalk below him, and he leaned forward to get a better look. Sure enough, there was Zeo bouncing towards the door, and if he wasn't mistaken Kai was dragging Takao away from a street vendor, the rest of their friends looking on and giggling. Ryou let out a sigh of relief, not realizing until then just how worried he'd been for his friends.
"Oh, I didn't realize there was anyone else here," a surprised voice said from behind him, startling him out of his reverie. He jerked back away from the window, twisting to see Suguru and an unknown redhead staring at him interestedly.
"Ah, it's okay," he said quickly. He took a deep breath to try and slow his suddenly racing heart. "I was lost in thought, it's no problem."
"You're Ryou, right?" Suguru said, frowning a bit. "What are you doing here? Ryuichi didn't do something, did he?"
"It wouldn't surprise me," the redhead sighed, rubbing his forehead tiredly. "I can only advise you to run."
"Too late!" Ryuichi chirped, bouncing into the room. Ryou's friends and teammates were right behind him, followed by two blondes that Ryou didn't know and Mr. Daitenji. One of the blondes wore simple khakis and a dress shirt, his long hair tied high on his head and his eyes hidden behind sunglasses. The other's hair was short and his clothes were simply elegant, dark pants and a dark shirt that shimmered in the sunlight streaming from the window. "Everyone's here now, so let's get started!"
"Thank you, Ryuichi," the short-haired blonde said, amused. "I think I can take it from here."
Ryuichi hid his pout behind Kumagoro.
"All right then, if we'll all get seated, we can get started," the blonde said. Everyone moved towards chairs, and Ryou found a seat between Max and Zeo. The Bladebreakers were seated along with Mr. Daitenji on the same side of the table, while the others sat on the other side. The blonde in charge remained standing at the head of the table, right next to the TV. "Bladebreakers, Team Gravity, meet Bad Luck. They're the ones who'll be singing at the concert. Bad Luck, these teams will be having a match during a break in the concert."
The redhead frowned. "How does a memorial concert turn into a beyblade match?"
"Ryou Mizuhara, as most of you are aware, was a victim of the train wreck," was the reply. "Ryuichi found that many of the other victims idolized Ryou, so I, along with Mr. Daitenji, thought that we'd get a better turnout if he was included in the concert in some way."
"It makes sense, in a way," Suguru mused. "But a beyblade match isn't involved with us, so why did you call the meeting, Mr. Seguchi?"
"I just thought you'd like to meet each other, since you'll all be at the same concert," Mr. Seguchi answered calmly. "We'll have to collaborate on advertising and everything else, and it would be good for our image if we worked closely on this."
"It makes sense," Rei mused. "It's all well and good for us to appear at a memorial together, but if we don't look like we're doing this willingly and cooperating then the public won't be inclined to attend. And this is also a charity concert, right?"
"Correct, Mr. Kon. All of the proceeds from the concert will be going to the victims and the families of victims," Mr. Seguchi said approvingly. "Therefore, it will be best if we get the highest turnout possible."
"So let's get to know each other!" Ryuichi chirped, bouncing in his seat. "What could we do, hm? Play a game, go out to eat?"
"Ryuichi…" the redhead sighed.
"Ah, I've got it!" Ryuichi said, jumping to his feet and dashing outside.
"I have a bad feeling about this, Hiro," Suguru murmured to the redhead next to him.
"Is he always like this?" Max asked curiously.
"Run for your life," Hiro deadpanned.
Ryuichi reappeared dragging something into the room, then set himself to hooking several wires up to the TV, humming to himself. After a moment he looked over his shoulder and made a face at everyone watching him. "Talk to each other! You'll know when I'm done."
Quiet conversations slowly started around the table, and Ryou found himself introduced in full to Hiroshi Nakano, Suguru Fujisaki, Tohma Seguchi, and the other blonde who only called himself K. He deflected many questions about the accident and his loss of memory, preferring to listen to them chitchat with his teammates. They talked about the concert and singing, and beyblading, and everything in between.
"Aha!" Ryuichi suddenly declared, flipping a few switches on his machine. Music suddenly blasted out of it, and on the TV screen the words "The Rage Beat" were shown. Ryuichi fished a microphone from behind the machine and offered it, a grin on his face and a sparkle in his eye. "What better way to get to know each other than to sing?"
Hiro's head fell to the table with a dull thunk. "Here we go…"
"I'll do it!" Takao jumped up and retrieved the microphone from Ryuichi.
"I'm out of here," Kai said, standing and leaving without another word. The rest of the beybladers looked between each other, then at the musicians, and a few minutes later they all wished they'd left with Kai.
"Very nice!" Ryuichi grinned, taking back the microphone and holding it out to everyone else at the table. "Who's next?"
The next hour and a half was a very musical one. Poked and prodded (and in Kai's case chased) by the crazed singer, everyone stood and took a turn at the microphone except Ryou, who passed on his turn to someone else every time the microphone was handed to him. In between songs, while Ryuichi was setting up the next one, everyone talked amongst themselves. Ryou found himself drawn into a discussion about guitars with Hiro and Max when Zeo finished his song and relinquished control of the microphone back to Ryuichi.
"And that's almost everyone, I think," the singer mused, looking over at his victims. "I think we've just got one person left! Come on, Ryou!"
The amnesiac scowled at him. "No thank you."
"Come on," Ryuichi whined, clasping his hands in front of him and just looking at Ryou in the same way that he'd gotten Kai to eventually get up and sing, once the reticent beyblader had actually returned to the room (thanks to Ryuichi dragging him back in). Ryou hung his head and sighed.
"You're not going to give up, are you?" he asked plaintively, standing up and reluctantly accepting the microphone from the suddenly eager singer. "If it'll get you to stop, fine. But I warn you, I've never sung before."
"Never say never," Ryuichi said sagely, poking a few buttons on the machine. "Just do your best!"
Ryou looked over at the TV so he could see the words and saw the song title, "Glaring Dream," fade away, replaced by the song lyrics. The music was playing next to him, and he closed his eyes and sighed before opening them and starting to sing. It was by no means a perfect performance, as he'd never heard the song before and was relying solely on the background vocals and lyrics to figure out what he had to sing and how. He fell flat several times and pre-empted the background vocals almost every time, and once the song was over he was quite happy to hand the microphone back to Ryuichi and return to his seat.
"I told you that was a bad idea," he informed the singer as he sank into his seat, his ears burning in embarrassment. "I got used to beyblading in front of people, I've never sung in front of anyone!"
Ryuichi waved his hand at him in between packing up the machine. "You did fine! Just need some more practice and I might have found someone new for Bad Luck!"
"No way." "I don't think so." "Not on your life," Ryou, Suguru, and Hiro said simultaneously. They shot looks at each other, then turned back to Ryuichi. "I mean," Hiro continued, "No offense to Ryou, but he's a beyblader. What would he be able to do as a singer?"
"And I'm horrible, or did you not hear just now?" Ryou grumped. "I think I'll stick with beyblading."
Tohma, at the back of the room, got to his feet, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "Ryuichi may be onto something here," he mused, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "If we have Ryou sing, it'll draw in more of the beyblading crowd. A lot of people would be interested in hearing a beyblader sing, as long as he can at least carry a basic tune."
"But what if I don't want to sing?" Ryou sighed, leaning back in his chair.
Max nudged him. "I think you'd do fine," his adopted brother sing-songed.
"And Takao would jump on this without hesitation," Rei added, his voice carrying the appropriate hint. Takao, next to him, nodded absently. He was currently trying to stare down Kai and losing horribly.
"But if you don't want to, I suppose we can ask Takao to do it," Tohma mused. "A singing beyblader might be enough to draw the crowds, even if it isn't Ryou specifically…"
Ryou threw his head back with a disgusted sigh. "Fine! If it'll spare the world from having to hear Takao sing I guess I can."
"Good!" Tohma beamed. "Ryuichi, take Ryou to one of the soundstages. I'll trust you with his vocal training."
Ryou stared at him, but found himself being hauled up by an enthusiastic singer. "Let's go, Ryou!"
All the amnesiac could do was sigh.
