Hiromi imagined her first beyblading match to be vastly different. Probably with some other rookie in a smaller, more manageable stadium, and under less threatening circumstances.
Not against one of the strongest bladers of their generation, and Kai may kill her. And she wants to save him.
Whatever.
If... the desire to win, or love beyblading is a source of motivation for her team... then is... wanting to save people... a source of motivation?
And then she thought of the sleepless nights lately.
She thought of Grandpa, waiting for Takao to come home.
She thought of Mao crying on the phone.
This Blake ... he has control of her team.
And the flames around her grew in response to her feeling of frustration.
"Hey!" she screamed through the flames. "KAI!"
He wasn't listening, as he was getting angrier.
"KAI!"
"These disgusting flames!" he snarled. "I will extinguish them."
"What?" she asked slowly.
She looked around herself at Blue Suzaku.
Why does... her bit-beast infuriate him?
Whatever!
"Kai, I don't know if you can hear me, but you're part of our team. Takao, Myself, Max, Rei, Daichi, Kyoujyu," she called out to him. "You fought with us for BBA, against Brooklyn, against the odds—"
"SHUT UP!"
"YOU WERE AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR TEAM!" she yelled.
But it doesn't matter anymore who he beat... does it? This is not him... is it? What does she really know of Kai?
He roared in anger. "SHUT UP!"
Her Suzaku and Suzaku clashed at the heart of the warehouse, as they both yelled in unison, lighting up, and blowing off the rooftop as their beyblades rammed into each other. Sparks flew. The windows blew out. The night sky was lit up with sparks. Heat and wind surrounded they yelled their attacks.
"SUZAKUUUU! FIRE ARROW!"
"SUZAKUU!" she repeated. "FIRE-ARROW!"
"STOP COPYING ME!"
They both clashed and set the entire warehouse walls on fire as Hiromi felt the bit-beast surround her with blue flames to protect her from the onslaught. Her beyblade collided into his.
For a brief second, a sliver of a second, through fire, sparks and smoke, she saw his eyes clear from that cloudiness. He stared at her. Hiromi was thrown back.
"I..." she got to her feet. She may not know everything about him. But one thing's for sure. "YOU ARE NOT A PUPPET!"
For a split second, he widened his eyes at her.
And then he clutched his head.
"SHUT UP SHUT UP!" he screamed.
"NO!" she yelled back. "IF MY VOICE ANNOYS YOU! LET IT! THIS IS NOT WHO YOU ARE! YOU'RE NOT A PUPPET!"
Hiromi got to her feet, ignoring her burns.
"I SWEAR WHATEVER IT TAKES, I'LL DRAG YOU AND THE OTHERS OUT OF THIS HELL, BUT STARTING WITH YOU! WE'RE GOING BACK HOME. I'M NOT GOING TO LET HIM USE YOU!"
Then she felt it. A link. Something tethering the two of them.
This... Connection. Their flames started to connect, creating a circle around them.
The fires around Kai collapsed, as he's struggling against something, the mind-control or whatever. He trashed around, as he crashed to his knees.
She tried to cross over towards him.
Then circle of flames collapsed.
His flames barred her.
"I..." she thought. "I'm not strong enough to brave Suzaku's flames... but still... I can't do nothing. He's so close."
The flames increased in intensity.
"Kai..." she held out her hand.
He had his head in his hands.
"Kai, listen to me," she said. "You're strong enough to break free of this. You're stronger than you think. I..."
He then stood up as the flames around started to coil, and they increased in ferocious intensity forming a powerful fire vortex around him.
His eyes were red again.
Hiromi stared at him with wide eyes.
"Suzaku," he said. "Burn her."
Seriously?
Hiromi stared up at the powerful vortex.
She... she can't copy this one... This... true Suzaku is too powerful. She felt her helplessness fight against her frustration.
That's when another beyblade entered the fray. "You ain't gunna do that to her, KAI!" she heard. "YOU'LL REGRET IT!"
"Wolborg! ATTACK!"
And an ice-bridge divided them protecting her from Suzaku's onslaught.
"FALBORGGG!"
"SEABORG!!"
What?
Hiromi kept her eyes trained on Kai, who glared at them, and Suzaku shattered the ice. He was struggling.
Suzaku churned within fire, as a maniacal grin overtook Kai's face, and Hiromi's heart broke.
And with one final clash, Suzaku sent their beyblades flying. The Flames covered his departure through flames and smoke, as he looked over his shoulder at her one last time.
She thought she saw someone else through the flames.
She got to her feet.
Huh?
And then she broke into a run.
"OI!" Yuriy yelled at her.
She ran through the warehouse, past the smoke and fire, and the falling beams. And out into the cold night, where she saw nothing. HIromi spun around.
"Kai?" she called out into the night. "KAI!"
The sound of the waves crashing against the shoreline met her followed by the sound of another beam falling.
.
.
.
"I dunno what to do!" Boris said. "We looked all 'round for 'im, and can't find him."
Hiromi walked up to them, past the warehouses which were on fire.
"Drat," Yuriy said. "So he's gone or something."
"I was gunna beat 'im up before he tried to beat me up!" Boris said.
Sergei nodded solemnly, and he glanced over at Hiromi.
"What do we tell Kyoujyu? Is this the girl he was worried about?"
There was... a moment there... She sighed. She's so tired.
"Oi," Yuriy called out to her. "Are you the one who Kyoujyu was worried 'bout?"
"Oi, GIRL! YOU! GIRL!" Boris said. "If we weren't gunna save ya, you'd be roasted. Where's our thanks?" He wagged his finger at her.
She blinked as she looked up.
"Oh," she said with a smile "Thanks for that."
And they stared at her awkwardly, like they didn't expect her to thank them.
"Kyoujyu sent you?" she continued. She had been talking to him on the phone when she spotted Kai around the town.
"I didn't know Takao's teammate could beyblade," Yuriy said as he squinted at her.
"I don't."
"Huh!?" Boris said. "Then whaddya doing beyblading Kai?! Are ya crazy?"
"Haha. Well he was in town... for one reason or the other... likely to finish off Brooklyn, and I ran into him on my way back."
"Oh."
"Oh okay?!?"
"GUYS!"
She spun around to see Kyoujyu.
"You guys are safe! And Kai didn't destroy you guys."
"Whaddya mean Kai can destroy us?" Boris got all up in his face.
Yuriy stared at Kyoujyu and then he pointed at Hiromi, who rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish look.
"She was beyblading him, actually."
"Huh!?" Kyoujyu asked her. "I... I thought I told you not to do that!"
"Kyoujyu," Hiromi said with a smile.
"We don't know the capabilities of... something like that?! Incomplete Suzaku. What kind of... it's so cold and weird...?!"
"Kyoujyu."
"And beyblading Kai?! Are you serious!? Do you want to die!?"
"Kyoujyu."
"I KNOW WE'RE both frustrated! But you can at least wait for Brooklyn and me?!"
He pointed at the warehouse which was still burning.
"Kyoujyu!"
"What!?"
He was fuming. The Demolition boys stared between them.
"I think..." she said with a sooty smile. "I think I almost managed to break control off Kai."
After Hiromi realized that it wasn't an ordinary beyblade, and she started to have strange dreams of "Incomplete Suzaku," she consulted Daitenji Kaichou.
“Daitenji-Kaichou?”
“Yes, Hiromi?”
“What are the results from the cops?”
“Ah yes, Clearance for things from that island—yes you may see the notes. But Hiromi, we’re definitely keeping it a top secret. Please do not let anyone else know about it.”
“Not even the team?”
“They need clearance.”
“What kind of background check would you do on them, though?”
“Haha, I mean—It’s really our council deciding if you can get access. You’re a reliable girl and you probably won’t put it to any underhanded use.”
“Oh! Yes."
"Can't imagine what you'd want it for though, Hiromi."
From the island, they confiscated data, things that could be used against the Bladebreakers—more data on the bitbeasts. Cyber bit-beasts of other kinds. Hiromi specifically took a journal, some diagrams, some maps, and a tape recorder in an envelope, and it all belonged to a deceased researcher. The maps had notes littered all over it.
See, all of this goes haywire after Brooklyn and Takao destroy the BEGA tower, and also all of the research material also gets destroyed… Except for whatever Hiromi took. PPB at some point took the cyber bitbeasts.
And no one from BBA required it what was taken back from her, since now it’s no one’s business.
BBA doesn’t really exist as a research facility one year after, and they are slowly rebuilding.
Hiromi spent her free time painstakingly translating a russian’s scientist’s journal on the matter to Japanese.
She didn’t tell Kyoujyu or Takao or anyone, because he already told her to put this Suzaku beyblade back wherever she found it. Well, she wasn't sure how to, from the little she'd translated.
They'd be upset at her for irresponsibly using this beyblade.
Maybe... she should... tell them after all...
.
Journal Entry
Should this journal fall into anyone else’s hands—consider me a dead man.
Alchemy made men believe they could transmute materials to gold or find the elixir of life. You can directly "create" bit-beasts through alchemy. After all, Rasputin created Black Suzaku with his primitive understanding of alchemy and he plunged Russia into chaos.
We can do the same with science and chemistry. Alchemy is, after all, the crude predecessor of modern day chemistry.
In the previous place I worked was doing a project to create clones of Suzaku, because the client wanted us to create an ultimate bit-beast to capture other bit beasts, but it ultimately fell through. Client got arrested. We fled.
After it, I fled—and found employment elsewhere, and I took some notes and some failed clones with me.
These failed clones are created from the former Black Suzaku, after Kai Hiwatari used it and abandoned it. But he was the last person capable of handling this powerful beyblade.
I’m attempting to create a new form of Suzaku using these failed clones as a base... with our understanding of science, and hopefully, this will be the bit-beast which will rival the actual Suzaku.
We’ll attempt to create it from the “ashes of Black Suzaku.” This Suzaku will have the DNA of both Suzakus.
Will it be stronger? The strongest?
.
.
.
In Hiromi's dream, she takes a step forward towards the thrashing bird bit beast.
"What do you... what do you want?!" she asked, as she caught flames.
"I..." It screeched. "I just want to be whole."
She was engulfed in flames.
"I'm too weak."
And she woke up, and parts of her comforter were scorched. The beyblade glinted on her night-stand.
