Chapter 7.

The sun was blazing, birds were chirping and the sky was as blue as the eye could see. A typical summers' day for most in Japan but on this particular day; the Charity Beyblade Tournament was to be born. It was a solid 30 degrees C in Japan and a certain group of friends were terribly grateful for the air conditioned blue 8 seater minibus; that a certain Mr Dickenson had arranged for them. Tyson was staring out of the window watching as they pulled away from his dojo, enjoying the breeze of the fan above him. The bus was silent with deep thinkers and a thick mist of anticipation choked the air.

Tyson thought about how long he had waited for today. Not quite the 4th World championships he'd hoped for but this Charity Tournament was going to be "wicked." "Who will I end up facing? Gahh I don't care. I can't wait to hear my fans cheering my name." It had been a while since he was last in the public eye and missed the hype of being a major celebrity. Amongst the feelings of excitement, he was a little nervous too. He hoped and wished hard that he'd crammed enough training in and promised to give his best no matter what. He knew he could be facing tough opponents out there and although he wasn't the current World Champion, he still had a reputation to uphold. "Me and Dragoon can handle anything." He thought, clutching his Dragoon tightly in his right fist. The cap wearing young man was right; he did have a knack for pulling wins out of the bag even when it seemed impossible and the odds were stacked against him. A true underdog.

Mr Granger sat in the seat next to his beloved grandson. He was tagging along for this ride too for "moral support." Although everyone knew he just wanted to flirt with any woman who looked under 40 years old and show off in front of the cameras with his famous Grandpa Sideshow. His clowning around comprised of taking his shirt off and performing some weird circus act with his kendo stick and a straw hat. Much to Tysons' annoyance his antics would sometimes get more attention than he did. Mr Granger was well equipped for today in blue shorts, flip flops, a Hawaiian shirt with the top 3 buttons undone, kendo stick accessory and his trusty yellow straw hat.

Ray sat in the next row behind. His right hand clutched Driger and his left was laced with Mariahs' hand right. He thought about all the training he'd been doing at home, the years of mental and physical training that had made him into a much better blader than years before. He was edgier, sharper, Drigers' attacks were more focused and he barely lost a match back home. He had gained quite a reputation as the strongest beyblader in White Tiger Village. Today he was here to prove himself, move up the ranks internationally and defeat Kai and Tyson. Max too was a worthy opponent and was eager to see how he had advanced given the blade time he puts in 5 days a week in California. He grasped Driger harder and smiled as he felt a wave of electricity through his already charged body.

Mariahs' right hand was gently curled around Rays' and she glowed with how much she loved him. She was so glad to be there to experience this pre-fight buzz and that was all thanks to Ray and his idea to attend. She watched as the scenery whizzed past and could feel Galux lightly growling in her pocket. "Be patient Galux you will get your cut of flesh today. I guarantee it. Whether we win or lose though it's gunna be fun teaching those boys what hard work and endless training looks like." She purred at the thought of maybe winning this tournament herself. Tyson was hardly on top form so why the heck wouldn't she win.

The next row behind. Max was buzzing as the blonde half American boy always was before a tournament, or any beybattle for that matter. Draciel lightly hummed in his side pouch and all he could think about was competing and getting that high again. "There's nothing like stepping into a stadium and the crowds cheer so loud you can feel vibrations in your chest. I can't wait to see who I'm against first." And the realisation hit that at some point he could face Ray, Kai, Tyson and Daichi. Finally his chance to prove to himself, his Mom and the World exactly what he and his mastery of defensive style beyblading can do.

Daichi was sat next to Max and was chowing down on cheesy Doritos making a giant pile of mess around him and in his lap, littering his shirt with yellow crumbs and half spat out mouth debris. He thought only of how he was finally going take centre stage and "send everyone packin". He had proved himself a professional beyblader as a member of G-Revolution with Tyson all those years ago but today he was going to show the world exactly what he could do without a partner. With his beyblading skills so revved up...how could he lose? "Today is going to be my time to shine no matter who they get me to fight...I'm takin em all down." He thought as he reached the bottom of the packet and became dismayed that he ate them all so quickly.

Kenny was a mixture of nerves, anticipation and a dash of excitement. His usual role at these tournaments was to gather data and analyse opponents moves quicker than the beyblades had a chance to fly out of the dish. Kai and Ray rarely needed his advice but his analysis, deduction and solution to an opponents' strategy would sometimes mean a win or loss for Tyson, Daichi and Max. "Max is a higher skilled strategist now and is more than capable of pulling out a win so I don't need to worry too much about him nowadays. Daichi just charges in and rarely thinks before he acts. Whether he admits it or not he may need my help with clever strategists...Kai is a prime example of someone to watch out for. And then there's Tyson. I'm concerned about him. His cramming for the last 2 days has shaped him up better but will it be enough? I think he's going to need me to watch his back and give him a tip here and there." Using an index finger he pushed his glasses up to his nose and gushed at the thought of putting his years of learning and research into action.

Hilary was all kinds of animated. She was slightly nervous and ecstatic. After the last world championships and the BEGA episode she faded very quickly out of the limelight. She was just another 16 year old girl, your average high school student who used to hang out with the famous Bladebreakers. Although she wasn't a beyblader, she was still a part of the team; or at least the boys told her she was when she hadn't ticked them off with her nagging. She would see herself in the newspapers and magazines in the backgrounds of the guys' photoshoots and she loved the notoriety despite the articles being solely about the boys. She would occasionally be asked for autographs as "the teams coach"; although technically Hiro was but she gladly assumed the title and never put anyone straight. She had her own little following of fan boys too which Tyson hated although was careful not to express it too often. He'd say "they only want to get close to you to get close to me". Hilary could see straight through his jealousy, flatly ignore him and oblige her "adoring fans." She began to fantasise and imagined herself walking out on the red carpet with the Bladebreakers. Her sea of avid followers would trample the guys fans to death . She could hear them now. "Miss Hilary will you please sign this. Pleaseee." The feisty brunettes' brain had run away with her and star shapes engulfed her pupils.

Hilary was daydreaming so much that she failed to notice the minibus had stopped and that Ray, Grandpa Granger, Mariah, Max, Daichi and Kenny had already left their seats and leaving the recluse of the vehicle in single file.

Tyson had climbed over the seating and was staring at her with one highly raised eyebrow and his face close to hers. "Are you ok Hilary? You're not having a stroke are you? He jibbed teasing without a drip of concern.

The female went from starry eyed to fire ball eyed in 1 second flat.

"Leave me alone Tyson. I was just day dreaming is all!" she threw her arms crossed and pouted.

"Well when you're done dreaming you might wanna look out the window...cus were herrree." he beamed and began leap-frogging to the front of the bus in a way no man of his age should be doing.

Hilary snapped her neck around to look outside and it was "show time!" A brilliant royal red carpet was laid out from where the bus had stopped all the way to the doors of the stadium for which looked like a mile. Hoards of paparazzi and several television crews each from major television broadcasters clustered behind metal crowd barriers either side of the carpet. Various sizes of cameras and voice recording equipment jostled the air and banners were held high by...yes hundreds of squished and sweaty fans. The banners were decorated with emojis and various love symbols and read "Go Tyson" "Kai you're the greatest" "Maxie you turtley rock my world" "Ray will you marry me?" much to Mariahs' discontent. He was her Ray-Ray and hated the thought of any girl looking at him let alone touch him. He was for her claws only and she shot daggers at any girl waving anything of the sort.

Once outside of the minibus, the gang were ushered onto the carpet by security staff in the straightest black suit, white shirts, black ties with sun glasses they had ever seen.

"Make your way down please." One said with a deep voice.

Kennys' teeth started to chatter and he began to sweat. "Gahhhh we are stilll so popular."

Tyson grabbed the trembling brain box by the shoulders and began shoving him forward. "Come on Chief it's time to wave to your adoring fans."

Tyson was right, to their left stood 3x Kenny cosplayers each wearing outfits he wore for the three World Championships.

The computer geek completely forgot his anxiety and rushed to his fans who cried "We love you Kenny!" and they got him to sign their laptops and ties.

Hilary was in Gaga land. She was being wolf whistled and her loyal fan boys had never died away. She had a cluster of young men asking to sign their caps, t-shirts and one weirdly asked her to sign his boxer shorts which she declined rather quickly in favour or signing a poster he had custom printed of her. Selfies were now a major thing and she elegantly posed with clusters of boy-fans at a time.

Tyson was too busy to care about the Chief or fuss about Hilarys' ahhermm strange following. The blue haired boy was busy hopping from one fan to another, his wrist was on fire and his cheeks pink with several layers of womens' lipstick which had been planted there much to his delight. "Tyson! Come over here!" "Tyson I want a selfie with you!" "Tyson can I ask you to sign this?!" Tyson was in high demand but equally so was the rest of the gang.

Ray and Mariah waved at the cameras with feline like smiles and their canine teeth glimmered in the dazzling sunlight. Mariah still routinely glared at women who pronounced any love towards Ray, and that wasn't going to change anytime soon. They signed autographs for who ever asked for them and relished the attention. "The crowds here are wild huh Ray." Exclaimed the pinkette as she squiggled on another persons' favourite baseball cap. Mariah stuck to Ray like glue and made sure any selfies of Ray and another girl were ruined by an "accidental" finger over the lens or she would ninja like photo-bomb at the last second.

Max had obtained his own layer of pink lipstick on each of his cheeks and received 4 women's mobile numbers and social media account names in the process. He enjoyed the female attention as much as Tyson if not more. He found himself sweating in the heat and fluster of the demanding fans. The American half breed noticed a couple cosplayers of him and was astounded by the effort they had gone to after they explained they dyed their hair too to be blonde. He spent a few minutes chatting to them and being the typical friendly Max, he added them on Facebook.

As it turns out...Daichi was more popular than he thought. Usually he would receive no mention from news crews and certainly no kissing women but today he ended up with the pinkest cheeks and dished out a surmountable number of autographs. He lapped it up thicker and faster than Tyson ever did. For all those times he was a nobody, he must have made an impression at the BEGA tournament and a cult following was born. He was a very obliging guy and took selfies with anyone who wanted one.

Grandpa Granger for once was behaving himself. He knew what today meant to Tyson and his friends and decided to be a normalish grandfather for once. The world can see his barely aged torso and hat on a kendo stick trick another day. He walked on having told Tyson he was going on ahead to see if Mr Dickenson needed any help.

Some paparazzi each begged the bladers, Hilary and Kenny to stand still and pose for photos. The flashes were fewer than usual... they were saving their film rolls for the "money shots", the photos that would fetch the highest price and get them the most brownie points at the editors office. The highest value shots were of ALL the team together and the final piece to the collection had just rocked up in his car.

A familiar Mercedes E Class pulled up softly where the Tyson and Co had emerged a few minutes prior. The chanting went a decibel quieter for a moment as some fans and paparazzi held their breaths wondering who had just pulled up. Tyson, Max, Ray, Mariah, Kenny, Daichi and Hilary were oblivious to the new arrival and carried on signing, chatting, being kissed or posing for selfies until...

"Kai!" "Kai!" "Kai over here!" "Kai Please can you sign this!" "Kai! You are my HERO" "Will you marry me Kai!" and a barrage of camera flashes began at the tall, athletically built and quite late to arrive ex-Bladebreaker.

Kai was here and now the paparazzi wanted their pay days and begged for Kai to come to them.

"Kai you're late as usual." Yelled a rosy cheeked Tyson with an enormous grin plastered across his face.

Ray and Mariah gave him a glance and carried on with their fan service. Kenny tried to wave to Kai but was soon yanked back to a fan who asked him a technical question regarding his beyblade. Kenny was more than willing to assist and relished talking about the mechanics of beyblades. Max didn't even notice Kai arrive as he was handed a 6th womans' mobile number and he was trying to work out what to say to not give her any hope he would call her. Hilary was off with the fairies and Daichi ignored Kai most of the time anyway.

Kai began his decent down the red carpet to catch up with where the others had snaked down to. They were about half way down the stream and still had many more of their fanatics to make happy.

Half a sea of Kai-fans bellowed, yelled, kissed at, begged and pleaded for their idol to come their way. Instead he just walked straight past them as his highness usually did. He walked down the centre of the carpet so as not to be physically grabbed or touched by any reaching hands. Kai always believed most of his signatures would be on Ebay by the days' end and didn't see any point in any of it. In reality though, he had many die-hard fans who would argue and contest aggressively with anyone that Kai was/is the World Champion of beyblading and would defend their beliefs until death. For them... his signature would be regarded as a sacred item to be kept in a sealed plastic protective casing and never touched with human hands again; and decorated in a shrine or locked away in a high security vault. His fans waved beyblades, posters, t-shirts and the odd teddy bear in his view to sign and he ignored every one of them. Kai did not do fan-service...ever. Which for some; made fans even more determined to get his autograph. He did however stop for the odd photograph for his followers and you could even call it a pose. No selfies though. He point blank drew the line at selfies and abhorred the idea of fake smiling next to a stranger. He stood straight; his head poised regally, shoulders back, hands in his pockets and sported a barely visible smile across his lips. The women turned to a creamy mess and a couple fainted in the heat... or more like shock of how handsome and cool he was. The cameras and various phones went crazy flashing so much he felt his eyes sting a little and white dots speckled his vision.

He posed at a couple of spots either side of the barriers twice then strode on to catch up with the others. The gang noticed him when the heckling got louder as he drew closer. Kai was prime real estate and everyone wanted to buy a piece. Tyson, Ray and Max instinctively knew what to do. They stood next to Kai as they knew the only way they would get a photo of all 4 of them was if they got in place and a photographer was lucky enough to snap a shot of them all looking the same way. They had this wolf pack technique to a T and Kai knew exactly what they were doing as he had overheard them in a locker room during the first World Championships; discussing how to get a group photo without his total co-operation.

Kai had been successfully circled and outnumbered by his friends' entrapment with no escape. He went with it... lightly smiled, posed and allowed the cameramen and women to take their shots. He knew better to fight this, besides it was only for today and he lumped it in with what he owed them for his 10 year disappearance. Daichi soon cottoned on that they were taking group shots and decided he wanted to be in the middle. He wedged himself in between Tyson and Kai and stood with his arms crossed and head held high. Max posed with the Victory finger sign next to Kai and Ray leaned the other side of Tyson. Mariah linked arms with Ray so that she snuck into this photo too. Hilary and Kenny decorated the edges of the frame and the cameras went the wildest they had ever seen. Finally for some of the paparazzi, they had the shots they wanted. The Bladebreakers plus a pink wearing White Tiger was back together. Tyson couldn't remember the last time he was this happy. Max beamed from head to toe; the PPB Allstarz were never this popular as individuals. Hilary was in heaven. Daichi was finally getting the recognition he had always wanted, Kenny felt more worshipped than he had ever felt before, Mariah still glared at girls who wanted to marry her Ray-ray and Kai...tolerated the excessive superficial attention.

"Sirs and Madams make your way inside please." The head security man ushered flatly. His towering form was not to be argued with. He gestured with long bulky arms to the glass double doors where the Charity Beyblade Tournament was brewing.

"Ohhhhhhhhhh alllllllll right! Spoilt sport." Poked Tyson to the suit clad man as he scribbled his name on another Tyson cosplayers' cap; much to the youngsters delight as he was handed back his favourite prop. Tyson clearly hadn't had enough of the golden attention and wasn't done yet.

Kenny jolted his arm up to get a get look at his wrist watch."Oh geeezzzz guys its only 40mins until it all kicks off." He exclaimed.

Mariah wiped at sweaty forehead with a white handkerchief she had produced from her pocket. "Yeah we best get a move on if we want enough time to get freshened up."

Max was stuffing an 8th ladies number written on a napkin into his pocket. "Agreed let's get going. We can see all of our fans on the way out after todays' matches."

Daichi cried whilst signing yet another t-shirt with his face on it."Ohhhh why so soon!They love me out here!"

The group all did as they were told and moved off in a boisterous herd towards the lavish double doors decorated with flowering climbing plants on its exterior. Tyson and Daichi were being dragged by their ear lobes by Hilary who Kenny was grateful for taking charge. Mariah and Ray chuckled at Tyson and Daichis' struggling forms; Hilary was stronger than she looked. Max waved goodbye googley eyed to his "new girlfriends" and Kai strolled up the rear with his eyes closed and hands in his pockets cooly. The stadium was dome shape with curved walls and a simple design. The Tokyo Metro Stadium. A brand new stadium built to host the next Beyblade World Championships and was to be christened with the Charity Beyblade Tournament. It was a splendid no expenses spared venue with glass doors and silver handles, the walls inside were a sky blue and furnished with planted mini palm trees dotted along the corridors. The Tokyo Metro Stadium contained a giant beydish in the middle; like all venues made for hosting beybattles. Off the sides were public areas and sectioned off private areas for athletes and celebrities. The gang was met with more security inside who guided them to their private locker area. After the bathroom was well used and the complimentary snacks of potato chips, sushi, onigiri and melon bread demolished, it was time to head to their designated areas.

*Knock knock* *Knock knock*

"Who's that?" said Kenny who was just packing his tool kit away having given all the beyblades a once over.

"I'll get it!" Screeched Daichi before anyone could offer. That was after leapfrogging over a chair.

Mariah was tying her hair back after a quick brush through, Ray had just finished meditating on a yoga mat on the floor, Max was checking his hair in the bathroom, Hilary was straightening her skirt out after having just been sitting for a while on the opposite bench to Kenny, watching the genius as he worked and Kai was sat quietly on a back bench not really caring who was at the door.

Daichi flung open the door and before him stood 6 girls ranging from the age of 16 to 25. Each wearing t-shirts with Tysons' face on them and held little flags with Dragoon emblems on them and waved them proudly like the solid fan-girls they were. 3 were wearing copies of Tysons' baseball cap and one had dyed and cut her hair to be the same style as Tyson.

"Ummmmmm helllooooo can we see Tyson Please?" They cried in unison like their lives depended on seeing him. Their eyes were bulging and their love for their hero emanated as much as the cheap feminine perfume they had doused themselves with.

"No... that loser's not here."Choked Daichi. Who then slammed the door in their faces so hard and so fast that the rush of air leaving the room could be felt, even by Kai who was on the farthest side of the room.

"Why you little..." Whatdya do thaaaaat for?" Growled Tyson who was polishing Dragoon next to Kenny and therefore heard every word.

"Come back pleaseeee girls!" Tyson slammed the door open so quick that he struck Daichis' foot sending him into frenzied yelps. Daichi hopped in the air whilst clutching his left foot and nobody saw fit to ask him if he was ok. Mariah still found their fighting quite funny and chuckled to herself, Ray, Max and Kai didn't even bat an eyelid.

Tyson pelted after them and was now being touched, hugged and selfie'd with in the corner down the hall.

"Tyson were going now." Hilary scolded as Tysons' ego was being groomed like a top prize poodle by his awestruck worshippers.

The gang had emptied themselves, beyblades triple checked, hair in place, shirts and collars straightened up (if they had them) shoe laces tied...the usual drill before going out live on TV and being an idol for the whole world to see.

"Yeah yeah guys I'll be there in a sec! I'll catch up with you." Tyson said through a grin as two of the girls had their arms around his waist and the gazillionth photo was shot.

Hilarys' arms were well and truly affixed to her hips. She pouted monstrously and the guys began to sense she was about to let rip herself.

Max placed a light hand on Hilarys' shoulder. "Don't worry Hil, he'll catch us up."

"Let him suck up the attention for a little longer cus its gunna get serious real soon." Warned Ray with a friendly smile. Half chuckling at Tysons' antics.

Kenny yelled as loud as his lungs could."Hey Tyson! Just so you know we've got to be out there in 26 minutes ya hear?"

"Yeah yeah I hear ya!" Tyson recited in his head. "36 minutes. I've got 36 minutes. Now girls where were we?" The pretend Casanova was attention-drunk.