Three years have passed since the Asian tournament where the Bladebreakers fought the White Tigers. Three years since Rei's old friend Lee swore to destroy Rei and his team at all costs. Three years since he has seen his old friend Mariah. Every day Rei hears the voice of his old friend Mariah echo through his head " I totally miss being your friend, friend ,friend...."
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Rei did not go to further education after he finished his final year at school. He continues with his beyblading but not as much any more. The tournaments are still held annualy, but Rei feels his role in the team is less important now especially since Kenny is now not only the tactical assistant to the team, but he now has recently started competing again. Rei has set up his own apartment on the fifth floor near the beach. Every day at six he gets up, walks down to the beach and walks along the shores. Then he sits down to watch the sunrise. After arriving home he makes himself a tea and starts his day. He has kept to his usual schedule for almost half a year now. Although his friends are still in college, Kai has dissapeared for 2 years, and Kenny is completing high school with flying colours. He still feels like something is wrong in his life. Its the thing that wakes him up to gaze at the stars at night: he is lonely.
His alarm wakes him up at six o' clock as usual, and he goes to the beach as usual. When Rei gets home there is a sudden phone call, the moment he enters his apartment. Rei immediately walks over to his phone, "Hello?" Rei says, "................" there is no reply. "Hello?!", still no reply. "Look Tyson! im not in the mood I'll see you at lunch ok? now I've got to go!" Rei immediately hangs up the phone and throws it into the couch. As he sits down to drink his tea the phone rings again, "hello?" Rei says. He still gets no reply "I've had enough of this! I'm hanging up". Just as Rei is hanging up the phone he hears Max's voice on the other end "Don't hang up Rei!! I need to talk to you" Rei puts the phone back to his ear, "sorry Max, did you call me a minute ago?". "No". "I just woke up and I need to talk to you at lunch can you come to the College please?" Max asks, "Ok, I was going to come down later anyway, see you there". "Gee he seemed rather desperate to talk to me, I wonder whats going on?" Rei has never turned down his friends, even when he is feeling down.
"Glad you could make it Rei" Max sits down to eat lunch at the cafe next to his college. "Would I ever miss the chance to hang around with you guys?" "Never " Tyson joins them with 3 lunches on his tray, all for him. "Rei did you hear the news?" Max asks "actually there is two important things you should know" Tyson explains, "first there is a new outdoor tournament being held in Tokyo next week and Kenny has to study for his finals so we were wondering if you could make it?" "Sure I guess, whats the other news?" Max and Tyson look at each other for a minute and Tyson finally remembers "OH YEAH Kai is coming back! and Max and I are out of town on the twenty-fourth and Kenny couldn't possibly go to see him so we were wondering if you would be able to pick him up?". Rei looks suprised it's almost as if they were asking a favour of him, "Sure no problem" "Oh yeah just show him around you know bring back memories and we'll meet you up at dinner time. Shall we say eight o' clock ?" Rei is startled at this conversation. Now they are inviting themselves over. "Yeah....sure I guess". "Great see you at 8".
"Oh my god how am I going to get a dinner ready by tomorrow?!?!" Rei panics, "I've got nothing in the cupboards and I have one day" Rei is stressing about the task at hand, dinner with his old friends. His house can cater for a dinner party but when Rei likes to cook he likes to cook a three course meal (or two three course meals for Tyson). "I better go shopping"
Six o'clock as usual, the alarm goes off, it wakes Rei up. Rei heads off to the beach. At the beach, just as Rei is watching the sunrise he rememered "WHAT TIME IS KAI EXPECTED IN?!?!?". As Rei dashes home he stops for a minute........."HOW DO I KNOW HE IS FLYING?!?!?" Rei begins to sprint home. As Rei gets home he immediately rings Max "Hello?" "Hey Max when does Kai get in?" "Are you ok?" Max asks "you are panting a lot" "Oh yeah never mind" "Look all I know is that he is flying over here from Russia i think its flight 5751 or something like that, dont quote me though, look Ive got to go to college now. Sorry buddy, why dont you try and call Tyson?" "Yeah thanks" Rei hangs up the phone ".........from Russia....5751....lot of use that gives me". Rei goes to check on the internet for the flight times but he forgot, he doesn't know what company Kai is flying. Rei finally decides to give Tyson a phone call "Hello Tyson, sorry to wake you up but when does Kai get in" "uuurgh what time is it?" "errr 7:25 am" "OH MY GOD YOU'VE GOT 5 MINUTES TO GET THERE" Rei lets out a stressful scream as he throws the phone on the couch, grabs his keys and gets into his car.
" You're 30 minutes late Rei" Kai says "better than Tyson though, he had such a convinent excuse to sleep in.....not" "Kai it's good to see you buddy". "Two old pals meet at the airport, such a common place for a reunion wouldn't you agree Rei" "Have you gone philosophical all of a sudden Kai? Tell me why did you dissapear all of a sudden?" Rei says " You had to bring that up, didn't you. Well to tell you the truth there was no reason, or logic behind my departure, I just felt like returning home and trying to redevelop my basics in combat. I met up with old friends, they set me up and I stayed there for a few years and then I decided to come back here". "Tell me Rei how is your beyblading going?" "I haven't been doing much beyblading for quite a while I've basically been setting myself up for the future, buying a home a car and things like that". "Rei, can I ask a favour of you?" "Anything Kai" "Do you think i could stay at your house for a while, so I can get set up?" "Sure thing I have a foldout couch that you can use" Rei says kindly, "Thanks, that means a lot, you know I would ask tyson but he might freak out" Kai laughs, "Gee Kai you've changed a lot since I last saw you" "You haven't changed a bit old friend" the two talk for hours and hours, they finally get back to the apartment to settle down. "You can put your stuff in this cupboard, and i'll show you how to fold out the couch" "Nah its ok it shouldn't be that hard" "So, where do you want to go?" Rei asks " How about the seaside dome?" Kai says eagerly.
"They have completely demolished the dome to make way for new shopping malls, but they have made another arena out on the water over there" Rei points out to the horizon "Yhats a big waste of money for such a small amount of space" "Yeah I know, and with all the boats that go out to dock there and queue up it takes the competitors another half an hour to an hour more just to get in!" "Thats ridiculous" "I'll admit that the stadium did need some patching up along with the city" Rei replied. The two continue to talk about beyblading and their past two years when they sit down for lunch at a cafe. "Kai i'll pay, what would you like?" "Thats very nice of you but im not that hungry, ill just get a coffee thanks" "Sure thing". "so as I was saying before the Russian tournaments are getting more and more harder, the last tournament I went to it was won by this unknown in the area, but I'll admit I've seen him before, but I cant remember his name...." Kai says "It'll come back to me later".
"Well I hope all that running around and reminicing has made you hungry Kai because i'm going to cook up a storm tonight" Rei says proudly "Gee I didn't know you were a master chef as well as a champion bey blader", Rei blushes "Well I dont know about master chef but I guess I'm good at one thing". " First I'll cook up some fried rice for an entree, then the main will be t-bone steaks and for dessert, some ice cream". "Let me guess you made the ice cream as well?", "No I cant take the credit for that" Rei smiles.
"Hey guys what smells soo good" "Hey Tyson, Max, Kenny glad you coud make it" "Wow you have all grown up soo fast" Kai says "Gee Kai are you like a mother or parental figure now?" Tyson teases "Very funny short stuff I thought you would have matured as well....guess not" " oOOoo shut down" Max exclaims. "Rei would you like a hand in the kitchen?" Kenny asks, "No im about to serve firsts, I'm fine thanks Kenny".
The gang sit down at the dinner table for dinner. "Wow this is great Rei whats your secret?" Max asks "Frying the soy sauce" Rei says proudly "It's been in my families recepie book for generatons, and I finally found it in the bookshelf" "Well good for you Rei"Kai says "Do you have seconds?" Tyson asks, "Sure do". "So Tyson im sure you have you own home now?" "yeah my grandfather left it for me, im thinking of starting my own martial arts academy!" Tyson says proudly "but I need approval from millions of organisatons" "Millions?" Kai asks " "well not exactly but you get the point, it will just be soo tedious I dont think its worth the effort" "So your saying becoming a beyblading champion is less work than opening up your own dojo?!?!" Kai shouts "well its not mission impossible either" Tyson replies "Jeez I can't believe you Tyson, why don't you honour you grandfathers spirit by doing him proud?!?! Tyson I cant believe you sometimes!!!".
-Later that night- "Rei I'm sorry I shooutedd at Tyson during dinner it's just....." "Go on he's not here anymore" "He and I never ever got along and seeing him again brought some old memories back and......" Kai suddenly pauses and looks shocked and suprised "What, what is it Kai?" "Lee!" "what?!?" Rei shouts "Lee was the guy who beat me at the last Russian tournament!" "You know, Lee from the White Tiger team?" "of course I know him, do you remember the threats he said to me? He swore to destroy me at any costs, JUST for leaving the team and beating him in the finals" "Yeah I know how you feel I've had death threats and things like that in the past, you cant let it get you down, you have to rely on friends to help you through rough times, which reminds me" "Yeah what?" ".......oh never mind you'll find out later" "No really tell me Kai!" "tell you what?" "don't play games with me Kai" "Who?" "ah forget it!!" "What?" "You are so annoying!"
"Ok so i've got the tv all set up for you infront of the couch Kai, there are two remotes one for the DVD player and the other for cable and VCR. There are videos and dvd's in this cupboard feel free to watch anything, I think you'll find this most interesting. Kenny made a video on our best tournaments we went through as a team. "That sounds great I cant wait to watch it" " You can watch it now, I'm going to bed I'm beat." Rei shuts the door and gets changed for bed.
Rei has a restless sleep. He keeps on seeing images of Lee, Mariah, his old team and the old village. Suddenly the images in his mind flash and all of them appear more deformed and frightening. He sees the Village where he lived on fire in the valley, lee with blood on his face and hands, his old team in a fatal car crash and mariah lying still on the ground. "MARIAH!" Rei wakes up from his nighmare and takes a look at the time 1:45 am. Rei gets up from his bed and peers out at the family room, Kai is still awake and watching dvd's. Rei walks out onto the balcony. The sea breeze is blowing quite early for this time of day. He lies down on the couch and gazes at the stars. ".........I miss them."
