A/N: The beginning of giving Hikaru's character justice. The writers really did her dirty, all because she was a girl in a show made for selling toys to young boys. Well, no more! This is the recovery arc that she deserves and more.

A PROMISE NEGLECTED TOO LONG

Hikaru Hazama was not having a great day.

It had been two weeks since the fall of Nemesis, and the whole world was in need of rebuilding. The damages were endless, world population had been reduced by a solid 35%, and as one of the most influential corporations around the world, the WBBA had its fair share of duties. Which meant a lot. Every single city in the world had taken a beating, and her responsibilities alone involved handling damages adding up to a little over 782 quadrillion yen.

Sure, it shouldn't have been that much, but unfortunately for her, Ryo Hagane – her boss – barely knew how to turn on a computer. Her boss, the director of the WBBA. How he had managed to get that position, she didn't know. Her assumption was that his status of hailing from Koma village – the birthplace of modern beyblading – had given him an enormous advantage.

Tsubasa was supposed to be there too, but the moment Earth Eagle had been fixed up, he had gone out to handle the riots.

"Seriously, a God nearly destroyed the world, and you people riot?! Do you have any idea how much coffee I have to drink every day? I've been working here every day for a year, 12 hours per day, with no days or even weekends off, no vacations, and an incompetent boss! I'm a 16-year-old who is practically running one of the largest corporations in the world! I haven't slept in three days, I've had to put the freaking president of America on hold, and I'm signing checks worth more money than Japan's annual GDP and I have to handle the lives of the guys who saved the world because they are immature children! I'm underage, overworked, caffeinated and an insomniac! All this, and you lazy pricks have the nerve to riot and tell me that I'm not working enough?! I haven't moved from this chair in 53 hours, not even to go to the bathroom! I swear, if any of you riot outside this building again, I'm going to lose it!"

Hikaru downed her sixth cup of coffee in an hour, continuing to tap away at her keyboard with one hand.

"Suzuki, more coffee!" She demanded of the intercom system. In a minute, a man hurriedly rushed in with yet another cup of coffee, which he set down on Hikaru's desk. One of her desks, actually. She had to undertake so much work that she needed five desks worth of space and equipment. Suzuki quickly departed. Who wouldn't? His boss was looking like a maniac – her eyes were red, her hair was unkempt and wild, and she had consumed her weight in coffee over the past two weeks.

Hikaru's bladder gave a scream of protest as she ignored it, continuing her work. The stock market had collapsed, and crime rate was rising. Three of her phones rang at once. She picked up two of them at once.

"Hello?"

"Miss Hazama…" Hikaru recognized that voice. President of the United States of America.

"Hikaru….." That was Tsubasa. Field report, then.

"Hold on a minute, Tsubasa," Hikaru said, picking up the third phone. "Hello?"

"Hel-lo, Hikaru!" A cheerful voice said. It was the voice that she had been begging to hear for the past ten days. It was also the voice that sent her over the edge. "How have you been? How's …."

"DIRECTOR!" Hikaru thundered, not caring that the president of America was on the other phone. "I DON'T CARE WHERE YOU ARE! IF YOU ARE NOT BACK HERE IN ONE HOUR, THEN YOU'RE FIRED! I'VE BEEN RUNNING THE WBBA ON MY OWN! I DON'T CARE THAT YOU'RE MY SUPERIOR, I'VE GOT THE GODDAMNED PRESIDENT OF AMERICA ON HOLD! I'VE GOT A MEETING WITH THE UNITED NATIONS TOMORROW WHICH YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO ATTEND, AND I'VE GONE SIXTY-ONE HOURS WITHOUT SLEEP! SO, YOU GET BACK HERE NOW, OR DON'T COME BACK AT ALL! IF YOU ARE EVEN A SECOND LATE, I'LL THROW YOU TO THE RIOTERS MYSELF!"

Hikaru slammed the phone down, crushing it in the process.

"Hello, Mr. President, sir. What can I do for you today?"

"Um, Miss Hazama," The president said, clearly terrified. "Are you not the director of the WBBA?"

"No. I'm his secretary, but I might as well be the director, since I'm the only one who does any work around here."

"Pardon my asking, but how old are you?"

"Sixteen. Now get to the point. I've got a special agent on hold, and a truckload of paperwork that needs to be done."

"In that case, congratulations on your promotion, Ms. Director."

"Nope. Not happening. I haven't had a single day off for the entire duration of my employment, which is over a year, and I have a long break planned after this mess gets sorted out. Now get to the point, Mr. President. I've told you before, I will not waste any of my time, even on you."

"I see. This changes things. In that case, you can take your vacation early, after tomorrow's UN assembly. The current director will be having to cut his break short, whether he wants to or not. He will also have to go over the proposal that I was about to discuss with you. In fact, you should rest before tomorrow's assembly. Your work shall be handled."

"Are you serious?!"

"Very much so. In fact, what you are going through could get the current director arrested. Child labor is illegal, after all."

"I really don't want to say anything, but I have to. Without me here, the WBBA won't last a week. I'm the only one here who can do this."

"On your return flight tomorrow, I will send a workforce with you which will be at your disposal. Accept this gift, Ms. Hazama. You have earned it more than anyone, judging by the work you have put in these last two weeks. Oh my God, don't tell me you did ALL that work?!"

"Okay, I won't. Now goodbye, I have a special agent I need to talk to." Hikaru put the phone down, ending the call. She picked up the phone on which Tsubasa had called.

"Hello, Tsubasa."

"Oh, hey, Hikaru. I've handled the situation in Spin city, extra damages aren't much. Just a vandalized bey park."

"Pfft, extra damages he says. With the money I'm handling, it's not even worth my attention. The entire city could have been destroyed, and it still wouldn't have even amounted to 1% of what I deal with." Hikaru thought but didn't say any of that.

"Good work. I'll send in a construction team. You've got to go to Kanto next. The gangs there have gotten rather notorious, and they've broken into just about every shop in the city. Destroy them."

"Got it, boss." Tsubasa said, hanging up.

Hikaru leaned back in her chair, not completely believing the conversation she just had. She had been authorized to take a vacation by one of the most powerful people in the world. (Although, nowadays she was on equal footing with the world leaders.) Her bladder protested again, and she listened to it for the first time in days. After she was done, she packed her laptops (Yes, plural. Laptops.) and headed straight for her personal jump jet waiting for her on the helipad. (Yes, she had commandeered one of those from the JSDF, pilot included. Perks of being the highest authoritative figure in all of Asia.) The moment she got into her seat; she fell into a sleep so deep that even the roar of the engine did not wake her.

.

.

.

.

.

"Hazama-sama. Hazama-sama," Hikaru blinked the sleep out of her eyes as her pilot shook her awake. "We shall be landing in five minutes."

"Thank you, Misaka-san. You may return to Japan and resume your duties at will. I shall be returning with several assistants."

"Thank you, Hazama-sama. It was a pleasure working with you." The older woman said, returning her attention to landing the jet on the helipad of the hotel Hikaru would be staying at. The original plan was to drop her off at the meeting directly at the UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, but since she had actually cut her work short, she had arrived sixteen hours early.

As soon as the wheels of the jet touched down, Hikaru opened the cockpit and jumped out, walking briskly towards her room which she had booked just before takeoff. Her jet took off immediately, heading towards the airport for refueling, but she didn't care. She had work to do.

One good thing that had come out of her incredibly unhealthy lifestyle was that she was completely unaffected by jet lag. Her body clock was completely messed up, and unlike others, she was able to stay awake throughout the 8-hour meeting without yawning. Funding had been discussed, along with several heads of state being shocked at the fact that a 16-year-old was in charge of one of the most important corporations in the world. The east coast of Japan and the west coast of USA had taken the biggest hits. The east coast of Japan (actually, the whole of Japan) fell under Hikaru's jurisdiction as did California, because of the WBBA's large presence there.

That had increased her funding by a few trillion yen, a mere drop in the bucket compared to what she already had to deal with. Hawaii was a joint operation between USA, Russia and the WBBA, which had added another quadrillion yen to her expenses, since the volcanoes had nearly destroyed the whole thing. The silver lining to that thundercloud was that undersea volcanoes had added a few islands as well.

Of course, since the incident had been caused by beyblading, it was the WBBA's responsibility, which also meant it was her responsibility. This ended up with Hikaru having to draw up reconstruction schemes for literally every single country in the UN, which she had finished the previous day. Doing that much work single-handedly was unthinkable, especially in the span of ten days. But she had managed it, much to the shock of most of the old geezers at the meeting.

The UN had tried to bully her because they thought she would give in under pressure. Fools. She had taken more responsibility than she should have because she felt personally responsible for what had happened, but there was a limit to the amount of shit she would take from others. She had faced horrors that none of them could even dream about and had survived. As if a few hundred people could scare her. She had counterattacked and had exerted her dominance over the others. Heck, if she had wanted to, she could have taken control of the whole of the UN, since she was handling twice as many funds as anyone else. Without her, the world would fall into even more disrepair.

Overall, she had dominated six hours of the meeting, her funds now amounted to a little over 1.5 quintillion yen, and Samuel Adams, the president of the USA had supplied her with a team that would handle everything she did, and the Swiss government had provided her a private jet, pilot included.

The American team had been confident, but as Hikaru began to assign them her work, the color began to drain from their faces. By the time the plane landed at the Metal city airport, all nine of them had broken into a cold sweat, unable to believe that a 16-year-old girl held this much responsibility and power. She hadn't even taught them everything yet, and it was already too much.

For the first time in over a month, Hikaru had a good night's sleep. 'Night' being a technical term. Hikaru's body could no longer differentiate. It was in fact two in the afternoon.

Until the nightmares appeared.

Hikaru found herself in a hospital room. It was completely white, and it had only two occupants.

The patient was a woman whose hair was nearly white, but upon close observation, the blue in her hair had just faded away.

The second occupant was a little girl, no more than five years old, who was sitting on a chair with her chin on the hospital bed, looking rather disappointed.

Hikaru found herself choking as she recognized the scene. This was the last conversation she had ever held with her mother.

"Hikaru, what's wrong?" Hinata Hazama asked gently, running her hand through her daughter's hair. Young Hikaru sniffled.

"I lost, mom. Again. All of them are so much bigger and stronger than I am. I just can't win against them!" Young Hikaru received a light karate chop to the head for that.

"It's okay to lose, Hikaru. What is important is that you learn something from your defeat and become bigger and stronger. There are plenty of bladers out there who will naturally be stronger than you and I, but you just have to keep on trying. Lose, learn from your mistakes, grow, and try again."

"But mom, they all laughed at me. They said I was a weakling."

"What they say doesn't matter, daughter mine. If they laugh at you when you fall, stand back up and try again. If you fall again, stand up once more and keep trying. As long as you keep standing up every time you fall, one day, they will be the ones who will be defeated.

"Neither of us were born nor gifted with power, but if you just keep trying, then one day you will reap the fruit borne from your efforts, and it will be that much sweeter. I mean, look at me! I kept going, and I gave that Doji a beating of a lifetime, even though I ended up in here."

Wait, what?

The older woman continued to rub Hikaru's head. "I tried you know. I tried to be the best. But this time, I think I've fallen just a little too far."

"You'll get better, right?" Young Hikaru asked, her eyes filled with tears. A smile came over Hinata Hazama's face as she looked at her daughter.

"I'll do my best."

Young Hikaru felt happy at her mother's dedication, but the older Hikaru could see the lie, now that she was older and more experienced.

"Now, why don't you try one more time? Try again and again, and one day, you just might become the best in the world. Promise me, that no matter what, you'll keep trying." Young Hikaru wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I promise, mom."

Hikaru watched in despair as her younger self left the room. This had been the absolute last memory she had of her mother.

Unexpectedly, she saw her mother staring right at her.

"Mom?" Hikaru asked nervously.

"You failed me, daughter."

"Mom, I-"

"No excuses! You promised you wouldn't give up. You promised me that you would one day become the strongest. And look at you now. You're not even worthy of being a sidekick! You're barely worthy of being the sidekicks' sidekick! And you call yourself my legacy?"

"But mom! Ryuga-!"

"Ryuga nothing! No matter the opponent, I taught you to never back down. What, you lost in one move, so you give up? Is that it?! I'm disappointed in you."

Before Hikaru could begin to respond, there was an awful roar and purple filled her vision. She fell back, and was confronted with a completely destroyed hospital, save for the two pillars they were standing on. They being herself and…..

"Ryuga." Hikaru let out a horrified whisper, unable to move. Then, she saw her mother, held by Ryuga at the throat.

"Well, come on. Keep getting back up was what she said, wasn't it?" Ryuga taunted. "Then how about you launch your bey before I launch your mother into L-Drago's mouth? He tells me he's rather hungry." Hikaru looked down and was confronted by the three purple dragons of destruction, waiting, with their gaping maws wide open.

Hikaru frantically searched herself for Aquario but came up empty-handed. No launcher, no Aquario, nothing. Her bey had abandoned her, the same way she had abandoned it.

"Well, too late." Ryuga said uncaringly, as he dropped Hinata Hazama. "Whoops."

"Mom, no!" Hikaru screamed, snapping out of her dream and sitting upright in her bed. Her pajamas were drenched in sweat, and tears were pouring down her face. She had also probably wet her futon, but there was too much sweat to tell, and her nose was too clogged up to smell anything.

Hikaru pulled her knees to her chest and cried for hours.

Hikaru had gotten ready slower than she ever had. She had, in fact wet her futon, and had to properly wash and dry it. She had cleaned herself for the first time in days. She had actually given herself the luxury of taking a bath instead of the thirty-second showers she had gotten accustomed to ever since the threat of the God of Destruction had made itself apparent. She dressed up in her business skirt and blazer. She locked up her small apartment and headed back to work.

The trains weren't running due to damages, so Hikaru had assigned herself a driver's license, and had bought herself a rugged pickup truck, which was necessary due to the busted roads. This was illegal, but no one could question the highest authority in the beyblading world as well as the overall highest authority in Asia. She outranked the Japanese prime minister in his own country, so she could damn well have a car and a license if she wanted. Pushing the pedal all the way down, she pulled out of her parking space with expertise and sped towards the WBBA HQ.

In the dim light of dawn, she could see the scars left over from the big battle to save the world. Buildings had fallen over, the roads were cracked, and rioters had laid waste to everything within twenty feet off the ground. There was also some idiotic anti-beyblade graffiti. It was painful, seeing humanity crumble in on itself.

But the pain was nothing compared to the pain Hikaru felt upon recalling the promise she had made to her mother. The promise which she had broken. It had all started with Kenta. She had been defeated – by Kenta! Sure, it wouldn't be surprising now, because he was a legendary blader and all that, but she had been beaten by the Kenta who had to run from nameless street thugs. Then she had been beaten by Gingka, and then Yuu, and the list had just kept on growing from that point. She had persisted, however, and had continued to take the beatings, growing stronger all the while.

The biggest blow to her pride had been when Saotome Teru had defeated her. A guy who was supposed to be a dancer, who only took up beyblading because he broke his leg, had beaten her. He was better at his secondary job than she was at her primary job. What was even worse was that Hikaru easily had the most experience out of them all. Heck, she had learned how to launch a bey before she could walk and talk. She had worked harder than anyone, and then nobodies like Teru and Yuu who had their hands on a bey for like, five minutes, came around and beat the crap out of her. That didn't even begin to cover little shits like Julian Konzern who had their hands on a bey for LITERALLY five minutes and were able to beat Gingka with little effort. It was frustrating, and depressing.

But she hadn't given up. She had continued fighting, and with blood, sweat, and tears, she had managed to get into battle bladers. It had been the worst mistake of her life, as well as the rudest awakening anyone could have ever received.

Ten seconds.

That's how long her last real battle had lasted.

How foolish she had been, to think that she could have defeated Ryuga. She had learned the hard way that there were powers in the world against which she could not compete.

She had stepped onto the platform, confident in her abilities, but the moment he started walking up the steps, she had realized the futility of her efforts. He wasn't human – he was a monster. There was just something about him that absolutely terrified her. There had been something within him, something that never should have been released.

"Dark move: Dragon Emperor Soaring Bite Strike!"

Hikaru swerved and pulled on the handbrake, sending her pickup truck into a last-second drift. She barely managed to avoid the building in her path, and took a deep, shuddering breath as the tires stopped squealing. Suffering a case of déjà vu while running in the 90s was dangerous.

She had taken the full brunt of the attack, which had continued to carve a hole through the stadium, and then another building or two beyond that. The destruction had been unbelievable.

Her highly trained body and over a decade of experience of harnessing the power of her bey were the only things that had allowed her to survive, and even then, barely. Her soul had been torn from her body and had been trapped inside the darkness for days. It hadn't been a pleasant experience.

Tires squealed and Hikaru drifted into the parking lot, stopping in the spot closest to the entrance. She shook her head, ridding herself of flashbacks and nightmares. She'd have plenty of time for that once she taught her new subordinates the ropes. She took the elevator up to her office, where her subordinates would be doing whatever she taught them yesterday. With any luck, he would be there too.

Today just happened to be Hikaru's lucky day. He was indeed there, looking rather whipped.

"Director!" Hikaru said in a falsely sweet voice. Had she not gotten any sleep on the flight to Geneva or just a few hours ago, nothing would have spared him from her wrath. "So nice to have you back."

"Um, yeah. Sorry for-"

"Oh, no need to apologize, director!" Hikaru said with even more fake cheer. Her newest subordinates were trembling in fear of the 16-year-old, whose presence was dominating the room. Even Ryo Hagane felt that something was off.

"Take a seat, director." Hikaru said, forcing Ryo into his seat (which she had commandeered during his absence) and turned on all three computers. The machinery whirred to life, and Hikaru opened all the necessary files. "All these areas are our responsibility. This is our budget, and-"

"Whoa!" Ryo exclaimed in shock. "The budget is 2 quadrillion yen?! You've had to handle that much money? And aren't 3 cities too much?"

A smile appeared on Hikaru's face. A smile so evil that it could have sent Nemesis running for the hills. Ryo almost lost control of his bladder.

"Oh, no, director, you misunderstand," Hikaru said, her voice cold enough to freeze the sun. "This is only your daily quota after I've divided the work among these people over here. Note that for the past two weeks, I've been handling all this by myself. Now, director, you have a meeting with the prime minister of Japan scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at 1300 hours in Tokyo, a meeting with the president of Russia in Moscow, scheduled for the day after tomorrow at 0700 hours IST, then there are these checks which need to be sent to mayors of cities. I've done all the work and filled these in," Hikaru said, patting the tower of paper on one of the desks. "But these only cover today until the day after tomorrow. You'll have to take damages into account and appropriate the necessary funds while trying not to get swindled.

"You are also the only person in the building with the authority to dispatch and manage the WBBA agents throughout the world, all of which I have placed in strategic locations. All national managers of the WBBA will report to you, and you have to co-operate with them to manage the agents around the world. You are in direct command of 53 agents, including Tsubasa, and you have to post them in the most violence-prone regions in the country, and you also have to organize them as a peacekeeping force right before the construction crews move in. You'll also receive surprise calls and emails from various heads of state. You will also have to co-ordinate with the UN and the JSDF to dispatch security forces. You are also the only person in the world with the authority to dispatch the WBBA special agents, and you will need to constantly monitor all their activities because they will always be in extreme danger.

"While you are doing all that, you will also have to deal with the bladers who are committing crimes, as well as those new anti-beyblading protesters who go around smashing beys. You will also have to make sure that powerful bladers around the world don't cause any more damage. After the world is fixed, the security for all beyblading competitions has to be improved so that we don't have any more people who butt into other people's battles."

Ryo was pale beyond imagination, and his clothes were soaked with sweat. His eyes filled with horror at the literal mountain of work that had been pushed upon him.

"Hi-Hikaru, don't tell me you've been doing so much work. This is just too much!"

"Don't complain, director. I've divided my workload among the ten of you, and all of them have twice as much work as you do."

"B-but I-I'll die! Doing this much work will kill me!" Hikaru's smile reached levels of evilness which broke the laws of nature.

"Well, then it's a good thing that the immortal phoenix is immortal, right?"

With that bit of savagery dealt to her former boss (Yes, former. The UN as a whole had created an entirely new position for her because they felt threatened by an assistant having enough power to collapse the world economy. So, she was now the unwilling Head of Operations of the WBBA, as well as the CEO of a dozen smaller corporations), she began to get her replacement team up to speed with what she did. They were much more experienced than her in this field and were able to understand her rapid teachings.

She took over the role of supervisor as soon as she finished teaching, making sure that nobody made any errors. Of course, temporary director Ryo Hagane had messed up everything, but she had told her team to double-check everything he did, which prevented the WBBA from going bankrupt. She had also personally hunted for a replacement director, because a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Ryo Hagane would lead to nuclear war. None of her choices were half as good as her but were still leagues better than Ryo. Eventually, she had settled on the young Australian national chief, Aashif Lee. She had promoted him to director, and he would arrive in Japan tomorrow. Ryo had been fired, but there was no need for him to know that before he suffered for a day.

Hikaru's thoughts were interrupted when a thunderous boom shook the building.

"What was that?!" One of the women from her team screamed. There was another boom, and everyone scrambled to get under their tables as cracks began to run across the windows.

Everyone except Hikaru.

She recognized those sounds.

And she was pissed.

Hikaru kicked off her high-heels, and raced down the stairs, jumping ten steps at a time. Within a minute, she had reached the ground floor, and then she tore off towards the beystadiums behind the building.

Sure enough, legendary bladers Aguma and Kyoya were locked in intense battle. Each collision generated shockwaves which shook the earth, and shattered glass.

Hikaru's rage was so palpable, that all the other legendary bladers noticed it immediately and scooted away. Then, she exploded.

"STOP THAT THIS INSTANT!" She roared, loud enough to drown out the sound of the beys clashing.

"Oh, Hikaru. What's up?" Kyoya said, while Aguma just stared at her, confused.

"For once in your life, try thinking with your brain, and not your bey! Stop battling this instant! Aguma, I know you're smarter than Kyoya, so stop this right now!" Aguma looked conflicted for a moment, but upon seeing Hikaru's rage-filled expression, he recalled Scythe Kronos to his hand.

"HEY, what gives?!" Kyoya shouted, clearly irritated.

"Don't take that tone with me!" Hikaru yelled back. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"I said it earlier – After the whole Nemesis thing, I would defeat every legendary blader, and prove myself to be the strongest! Don't get in my way!"

"You stupid little…! Do you have any idea how much damage you're causing?! Guess who has to deal with it? Me, that's who! I already have to repair the world, and I don't need you to make my job any harder!"

"That has nothing to do with me!"

"If I want, I can make it have everything to do with you! I'm warning you, no more battling in cities, or I will make you regret it!"

"Try it!"

"Chris, I'm hiring you. Aguma, I'll give you your own temple, built to your specifications. Gingka, your father has been fired, and I am the only person in the world who has the power to do anything for him. Dynamis, I'll give you free Wi-Fi for as long as you want, wherever you want it. I have enough resources to buy all the food in Japan and starve you all to death! Don't cross me."

"Why you -!"

"Kyoya, I will not repeat myself again. Right now, I have four legendary bladers who I have bribed or blackmailed to take you down. Even you will not win a four-on-one battle. Once Leone is damaged enough, I will buy out every single bey mechanic in Japan, including Madoka. With a broken bey and with no one to repair it, your life will become meaningless, with no way to redeem yourself. Should you somehow manage to repair Leone on your own, I can send half the world's military after you, as well as every single blader for hire on this planet, along with every last one of the WBBA's special agents, who will not rest until they have taken Leone from you or have turned it into dust. There's more coffee in me than blood right now, and I will not hesitate to ruin anyone, even you, Kyoya Tategami!"

Silence hung in the wake of Hikaru's outburst. Taking a deep breath, she turned around and headed for her pickup truck. She was now officially on vacation. Well, she would be after she assigned a special squad to watch the legendary bladers and keep them from battling. Dynamis would be heading back to his temple, Aguma would be returning to his clan to continue their training, Yuu and Tithi would be going back to Tithi's home village, King would be off to New York with Masamune. She could hire Chris to clear the worst rioters and gangs around the world. Kenta was sensible enough not to do something stupid, and he had been thinking of going on a training journey on his own as it was.

Which meant that she would need to assign squads to King, Gingka, and Kyoya. The three of them were battle-happy idiots. Well, Tithi was also a battle-happy idiot, but at least the six-year-old had enough sense to not destroy everything while battling, given that he avoided cities.

"Okay, first, I have to contact Aashif and tell him to hire Chris. Also Misaka-san to be his pilot. Then I'll need someone to place trackers on all the legendary bladers. I'll also have to co-ordinate with the UN peacekeeping force, now that Chris' Orion is repaired. Ugh, looks like I'll be taking my laptop with me."

Hikaru silenced her thoughts as she brought her pickup truck to a stop in her parking spot. She took the stairs and entered her apartment, and immediately started sorting out the most important issues. Chris was sent the job offer, Aashif was provided with all the necessary details, as well as the reason why Chris' pay was so high. She had contacted the JSDF and basically ordered them to assign Misaka to Chris. Given that he would have to be dropped at very dangerous locations, a pilot with combat experience made sense.

With business out of the way, Hikaru stripped herself of the restricting business clothes, and switched over to a set of deep blue cargo pants, a sky-blue tank top, and a red full-sleeved jacket. She packed her bags – more clothes, a toothbrush, a laptop, a device that amplified her phone signal so that she could use it even when in the middle of nowhere, her long-unused mountaineering equipment, her old tent, a few nets for catching fish, a few skewers for roasting the fish, a hunting knife just in case of emergency, two airtight boxes for storing food, and several extra water bottles.

She filled the numerous pockets of her cargo pants with stuff like suspension cables, a nail cutter, a screwdriver which could switch heads, a pair of flintstones, a magnifying glass, and other miscellaneous items. She put on her boots, gloves, and a pair of sunglasses. She gave herself a once-over in the mirror.

"Huh. It's…. been a while since I wandered anywhere alone. Ah, the good old days."

Hikaru attached her launcher to her belt on her left hip and attached her bey holder on her right. She ensured that Aquario was locked securely in its holder, and then picked up her bags. She was pleasantly surprised to note that she was still strong enough to lift over thirty kilograms of equipment without much difficulty. She pocketed her phone and wallet, and then left her apartment. She locked the door and headed downstairs. Piling all her stuff into the backseats (except the laptop bag, which got passenger seat) she started the engine and pulled out onto the main street. She stopped at the fuel station to refuel, as well as to fill an extra tank. The people working there had been suspicious of a sixteen-year-old driving a pickup truck, but a call from the prime minister changed that. She also made one last stop at an electronics store, buying three extra power packs, as well as a solar panel roughly a square foot in area. It would be her only source of electricity in the wilderness.

Completing her purchases, she added her spoils to her pickup truck, and drove off, exiting Metal city within two hours. She put on her sunglasses and took a deep breath. Exhaling, she turned off the road and continued her drive off-road, towards the setting sun.

"I'm sorry that I gave up, mom," Hikaru thought as she drove with no destination in mind, leaving civilization behind. "I was afraid. Afraid that if I ever took to beyblading again, I'd run into Ryuga. I still would be terrified. But he's dead now. He's gone, and he's not coming back.

"I feel….. relieved. I will never have to see him again. According to the others, both Ryuga and L-Drago are gone. Neither of my worst nightmares exist anymore. That's why….. I think I can do this.

"I'm going to try once more, mom. I know I've got a long way to go before I'm anywhere near the level of the world champions, let alone the legendary bladers, but given a year or two of intense training, I should be able to put up a fight against them. If I keep increasing the difficulty of my training and add another year, I just might become the strongest in the world. If I don't, then I'll just get back up again and try again.

"I can do this."

A/N: It begins.