Sakura Wars Fan Fiction / Beyblade Fan Fiction ❯ Sakura Taisen:Zero One ❯ Cold Hearts, Warm Hands ( Chapter 7 )

After a day of touring the studio and listening to the captain's rather informal briefing, the boys exhaustedly flopped onto their beds that night.

"I'm flumped," gasped Kyoju. "This place is unbelievably HUGE!!"

"Unbelievable" moaned Max, trying to regain his breath. "I can't believe that they are actually using the acting arts to extract spiritual power for their mecha. Not to mention that weird mecha.......it's almost hard to imagine that we will be riding in one of those in the coming days!!"

"Not to mention the kids that mobbed us back there," added Rei, who was lying face down on his bed. "I'm glad those girls didn't see that or they'll be jealous!"

"I can't move," groaned Takao.

The boys laid flat on their backs as they stared into the well-decorated ceiling. After falling silent for a few moments, Takao said, "Hey guys, well........what made you accept the offer?"

"Why did you ask that all of a sudden?" asked Rei.

"Well, we all know that this training thing is no picnic, and we're leaving a lot of people behind."

"To be honest," said Rei, "It's kinda hard for me to leave the Tribe after leaving it for so long. But I have no time to think about that, since I know that there are a lot more people who will need my services here."

"Same goes for me," said Max, "I'm not sure, but there's something in me that says I need to do this, no matter what. And besides, I will get a chance to do something big outside of Beyblading."

"Mom and Dad kinda panicked when they first read the summons and were unwilling to let go of me at first," said Kyoju, "Daitouji-san had a hard time convincing them that it's my obligation to render my services in times like this, but he managed to. Actually, I kinda find it odd. I don't have a Bit Beast, yet I was one of those who were chosen."

"What do you mean you DON'T HAVE ONE?!" exclaimed Dizzi, who was recharging at a nearby desk.

"Sorry to offend you, Dizzi. But you know very well that you can't really do much for me now."

"Oh yeah? Put me in one of those Kobu thingies and watch those girls eat their words against you!"

"Thanks Dizzi," said Kyoju, as he gave some rather caressing keystrokes on the laptop. "but I have to prove to those girls that I'm worth recruiting. Don't worry; once we have settled here, I'll let the officers know of your volunteering."

"Awwshucks, thanks, Kyoju-kun," said Dizzi.

"How about you, Hiroya?" asked Takao, "What did your folks say?"

"Same as Kyoju: my folks went berserk and the Chairman had a hard time talking them out of barring me from the BBA."

"WHAT??!"

"Yep. They don't exactly want me to be a Blader, since to them, it's a waste of time and money. And now, they're even blaming the BBA for throwing me into this military outfit." He shrugged. "Oh well. I guess this genius just outgrew them I suppose."

"Would you cut that out?" Takao said angrily. "You're not exactly doing a good service to your folks in that way....."

"Leave him alone."

"Kai?"

"This is his personal problem. If he doesn't want to tell you anything, let him be. We could at least respect each other's privacy. Not that I care."

"Aww, I don't think he's sure about that" Dizzi piped up in a syrupy voice.

"Oh well," sitting up, Takao said, "at least we could do whatever we can to not lose touch of each other. I don't know why, but I just know that we have to. After all, we're all on the same boat."

"You couldn't be more right," sighed Rei. "Ever since Hiromi and the Chairman had left, I felt that we had been transported into another land. We've only got each other now, so we can't afford to fight."

"Can't agree more," said Max, "and besides, we can show those girls teamwork, Bladebreakers style!"

"I'd dare say that that's the one thing they can't shake a stick at," said Kyoju.

A knock on the door startled them.

"Now who could that be?" asked Takao, "It's late in the night."

"I'll get it," said Rei, as he quickly bounded (?!) for the door. When he opened it, he and everyone else in the room were surprised. "You're....."

Hesitantly standing still in the doorway, there was Sakura, as she said,
"Uh........may I.........may I come in?"

"Uh, sure," said Rei, "Come in."

The others smirked. "That's Rei for you," said Max, "a bona fide ladies' man"

"So what can we do for you?" asked Kyoju.

"Uh.....I came here to apologize."

Before the boys realized what was happening, Sakura was bowing down profusely and said, "Sumimasen! Honto ni gomen nasai!! (I'm sorry! I'm truly sorry!) I'm really sorry for what happened this morning! It's just that.......it's just that everybody's not in a good mood......but I know that's not a good enough reason to treat you like that. That's why I'm apologizing I couldn't even do something about it. I'm very sorry!!"

"Whoa whoa, slow down," said Max, "we're not really angry with what happened."

"He's right," said Kyoju, "Besides, I can see that you don't have that much authority so you couldn't do anything about your teammates' behavior. At least, we now know that someone's still thinking in our favor."

"Thank you for being so understanding," said Sakura, "but I couldn't rest until you have formally given me your forgiveness!" bowing down as low as she could, she said "Please give me your forgiveness."

"Weird girl," muttered Hiroya.

"Well, almost everyone in Team Hana is weird, but I don't really mind," Takao said with an impish grin. Approaching Sakura, he knelt down to her level and said, "Apology accepted."

Brightening up, Sakura did the formal kneeling and said, "Arigatou gozaimas!"

In a rather playful mood, Takao said, "Domo. Now arise, my faithful warrior, and do the deed!" Everybody did a quizzical stare at each other before breaking out into laughter.

"Aha, cozying up with the newcomers eh?"

Standing in the doorway is the impressionable towering figure that they all got to be familiar with.

"Kanna-san!" said Sakura. Standing up, she said, "What are you doing here?"

"That's what I'm gonna ask you. But I figured out that you can't pass the night without your rather ritualistic apology." Kanna turned to the boys and said "May I come in?"

"Sure!" said Max. "Right guys?" and everyone in the room nodded.

"Boy, you kids sure are a friendly lot," said Kanna. As she walked inside, she took a long look at the boys and said, "And the staff girls have a good reason to go gaga over you. In fairness, you're an unusually cute bunch."

"Awwshucks......."

"But you know, good looks are not enough to get the other members of our team's attention and respect. I'm gonna be honest: they're not as understanding as Sakura and myself. In fact, their standards are higher than what could be expected from a normal person. That just makes them so impossible."

"You're telling me," sighed Kyoju.

"But I guess I need not worry," said the redheaded, muscled woman as she surveyed the group of young boys around her. "From what I can see so far, you're not really that affected by the shabby treatment the others gave you, especially the `snake woman'."

"Snake woman?" asked Takao.

"That's what Kanna-san usually calls Sumire- san," explained Sakura, "And I'm telling you, Sumire-san really gets mad when being called that!"

"Snake lady huh?" said Takao, grinning mischievously. He and the others imagined a half snake, half woman creature with the likeness of the violet-haired Sumire. At that, everybody (except Kai, obviously) burst out into a loud, rambunctious laughter.

"Yep, I can see that you are not easily affected by strong personalities," said Kanna, "and maybe that's the reason why the Major got you here. Oh well, guess I have to go. Oi, Sakura, we better hit it. We still have another taping session tomorrow."

"Uh, h-hai!" Bowing down again at the boys, Sakura said "Arigatou gozaimas! Oyasumi nasai! (Thanks a lot! Good night!)"

"Yeah, same to you!" "Oyasumi!"

The two started heading for the door when Kanna stopped and turned back. "Hey, I almost forgot. Oi, you long-haired were cat with the yin-yang bandana."

"Who? Me?"

"Yep. You're Rei, right?"

"That's the name. Why?"

"Before you came here, the Major showed us video footages that were taken from last week's incident. I'd say you guys really kicked butt, but for me, Rei really stood out the most. He'd beaten up those Wakiji with his bare fists. I'd say you're really keen at being a martial artist."

"You think so?" asked Rei, a bit sheepish from the compliment.

"You bet. Hey, would you like a sparring session on one of these days?"

"Really?"

"Yep. But I'm warning you, even if you're a kid, I'm not gonna be easy on you."

"That's my line," said the catboy with a rather impish grin.

"Oh well, I gotta go now. See you tomorrow."

As the door to their room closed, the boys readily jumped in their beds, lightened by the fact that they just had a friendly conversation.

"Whoa, that was sweet!" sighed Max, his face turning into "Mokona mode"

"At least someone from the team acknowledged that what they did was wrong," said Kyoju. "And come to think of it, those two aren't brats at all."

"She called me cute!" said Takao, his eyes sparkling. "She called me cute, guys!"

"Yeah," said Kai, "But will you seriously go on a date with that musclewoman, dare I ask?"

The blue-haired fellow fell flat on his face as everyone else around him laughed.

"Leave it to Kai to burst a bubble of wishful thinking," said Dizzi.

"He has every reason to," said Kyoju, "Remember that we're not here for a vacation. We better prepare for the coming days, because we don't know when our formal training will start."

"You mean the theatrical training?" said Rei. "By the way, I really find it interesting. Tapping the spiritual power of combatants thru acting: that's one uncanny idea. No wonder this place is heavily guarded: that secret is very powerful and dangerous when it falls into the wrong hands."

"You said it," said Kyoju, "Like what we saw in the hangar, this facility is every robot scientist's dream come true."

"You mean YOUR dream come true," said Takao, "I never saw anyone huggle an industrial processor like you do. Not to mention that you almost squashed the leg of that Kobu thingy with your bear hug," and he face faulted as he remembered how they tried their best to restrain Kyoju, as the latter hugged and brushed his cheeks against the side of every high end computer and machinery in sight.

"That's Kyoju for you," said Max, "A computer maniac till the end."

"And you forgot that someone's getting jealous here...." Dizzi said in a singsong voice.

The people around her laughed.

"Well, I guess I got to turn in for the night," said Takao, as he stifled a yawn. "I'm bent."

"That goes for all of us," said Kyoju, "We need all the rest we can get for tomorrow."

After turning of the light and saying their good-nights, everybody curled up into their beds and soon, the room was dominated with silence, as all of them succumbed to the Sandman's call. All........except one.

The moonlight streaming from the windows framing the sharp, defined edges of his Dranzer, the gleam of the top containing the phoenix spirit was what kept Kai's eyes on the bedside table wher it lay. At those moments, he recalled how, once again, he held his ground against his grandfather, just for him to get here. The heat of their previous argument was still clear in his mind.

{I'll never tell him a damn thing, that's what I told myself. But too bad, somehow, he got his dirty hands on the letter. And that's when I asked him: if he wanted our family's honor to be restored, why wouldn't he let me join the Force?}

"That is NOT the way our clan does it! That sorry excuse for a military institution is nothing more than a ridiculous circus! Our kind will gain absolutely nothing from being involved in that!"

"Circus??!"

"What else will you call that mawkish nonsense called the theater?!"

"Hey wait. How did you learn about that?!"

"Of course. I'm your grandfather! I should know everything that's going on with my grandson!"

"Look who's talking. Aren't you the one who dragged me into everything that made my life a living hell in the first place? And aren't you the one who nearly ransacked this planet many times at that? So stop acting like you're concerned about me, because it's damn obvious that you're NOT!!!"

"Don't turn your back on me!"

"Why shouldn't I? You will do likewise, if I'm no longer useful to you."

"Ingrate! Don't you forget that I'm the one who raised you ever since your parents ere gone. And for that, you'll answer only to ME!!"

"You're lucky that I've been conditioned not to kill anyone without a good reason, otherwise I would've gotten your throat by now."

"Why you...."

"Stop dominating me, because you never will. I will restore this family's honor in MY own way."

{Yes, in my own way.} As he clutched the blanket, that fierce, resolute look once again burned in his deep, crimson eyes. {I will do it in my own way. And no one, not even him, or those girls, will stop me.}