Your POV 

Today was the day. 

After several long days of training endlessly, it was finally time to pack up and go to the God Blader's Cup. I was still bursting with excitement, even though Shu was gone. But I just believed I could bring him back. I had to. But right now I had to focus. 

I had trained until 11pm last night, so I had overslept. Sasha and Honey had already packed up their needs from our dorm and left. I hastily threw my spare clothes into a big backpack, as well as a water bottle. I stood up and wiped the sweat beads off my forehead. I was done. 

'Hey.'

A familiar voice tinged with laziness and absolutely no energy rang around the room. Completely different from the last time we met. The voice was overflowing with emotion.

What if I had broke him? 

I slowly spun around to look at the Drain Fafnir owner, who was lazily using the door beam as support. 'Hi.'

'Chris is waiting for you,' he said emotionlessly, as if we hadn't been former lovers. 'Everyone leaves at ten to the God Blader's Cup.'

His eyes glistened as if he had something to prove. And I don't think that was directed at me. I realized he was thinking about Lui. Valt had told me all about the video, how Lui had completely crushed Free. 

'Okay,' I hummed, picking up my bags. The Golden Boy stayed emotionlessly at the door beam. As I passed I couldn't help but hug the Drain Fafnir owner. 'Are you okay?'

'I'm fine, (y/n),' he gazed at me. His eyes seemed so dull and boring. I worried that he had been broken permanently. 'Are you?'

'I'll be fine,' I smiled, hoping Free wouldn't pay attention to the future tense. 'I'll get over Shu. I just want to be friends with you. Just because our relationship is broken doesn't mean our friendship should.'

'I agree completely.'

His response took me by surprise. What surprised my even more was the smile the graced his lips. He didn't bother to hide it, and I realized it was the first time I had seen him smile with happiness. He had changed, but he wasn't broken. 

'Hurry up you two!' Chris's voice echoed loudly from downstairs. I became aware that we had been staring at each other, deep in thought as silence replaced words. I swallowed and quickly hurried down, where the A-Team of BC Sol was waiting. Not everyone was going on this trip. The B-Team and all of the juniors except for Kitt and Honey weren't coming. I took my seat on the plain bus, next to Valt's seat. The bus smelled faintly of mustard, and I wondered if somebody had had a hotdog once here. 

'What were you doing?' Valt asked me curiously. I frowned, confused. 'Upstairs with Free.'

'Not much,' I responded impassively. 'Just re-establishing our friendship.'

A smile broke onto Valt's chubby face. 'Good. I don't want any issues between you two, especially since we all need to concentrate more than ever with our upcoming battles.'

I nodded in agreement. 'It's a shame that we aren't in the same group, though.'

'Yeah,' sighed Valt, looking down and Valtryek which seemed to shine. 'How do you feel about facing Shu?'

This question caught me off-guard. I guess I hadn't really perceived my emotions fully yet. I opened my mouth to respond, but Chris saved me from answering the awkward question. 

'Attention, everyone!' she commanded, authority shimmering in her cerulean eyes. Immediately all of the noise quietened down under the demand. 'This bus trip will go for approximately seven hours. Once we reach the gate from Europe to America (just pretend there is one), we will have a lunch stop. Electronics are allowed and same with food and drinks. But please, don't practice beyblading on this bus. Oh, and be nice to the competitors and everyone else when we get there. Everyone okay with that?'

Everyone on the bus chorused in agreement. Chris nodded, satisfied, before taking a seat next to Raul and discussing battle strategies. I turned back to the blunette, expecting that he still wanted an answer. How wrong I was. 

A small smile was drawn onto my features as I saw the Valtryek owner asleep, halfway through eating a Beybread. 

Classic Valt. 

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'We're here!'

I jumped out of the bus and yawned loudly. I had been curled up in the bus for seven hours, after all. Besides, this was a whole city just built for the tournament. We had arrived in a corner that was sort of like a fair, with a Ferris wheel and some roller coasters. Restaurants, clubs and bars lined the fringes of the fair. A rich, delicious, tempting smell of warm food wafted out in the air. Outside of the fair was a circle of glassed-paneled apartments, each one holding a number of fans. A towering structure could be seen above everything else, placed right in the heart of this city. That must be it. 

The beyblade arena. 

Suddenly all the excitement was extinguished from my body. I realized just how serious and competitive this tournament was going to be. And just how dangerous it was. I wasn't just talking about Shu's psychopath side emotionally hurting me. No, something was off. I couldn't place my finger on it, though. 

'Food!' exclaimed Valt happily, as if he didn't just have lunch. I rolled my eyes as he, Kitt and Honcho ran off to a burger restaurant. 

'Not going to join them, (y/n)?' Chris asked me, gently placing her hand on my shoulder. I shook my head. 

'No.'

Instead of going to the BC Sol apartment, my eyes glanced the crowd for the familiar face I was looking for. But I didn't have to look so thoroughly. The tall redhead was still towering over the crowd, visible even from where I was standing. A huge smile broke onto my face. 

'Xander!' I cried out in excitement, running towards the giant. He turned around and immediately my smile mirrored on his face. 

'Hey, cuz,' he grinned down at me. 'How you've been? You've changed a lot. Look more older and taller.'

'Thanks,' I replied happily. 'You too.'

'But I'm still the tallest,' laughed Xander. However, his laughter stopped suddenly, as if a horrible thought had just occurred to him. '(y/n), are you okay? With all of the Free and Shu stuff?'

'I'll...be fine,' I promised confidently. 'I'll beat Shu and hopefully that will get him back.'

'Glad you're not anxious going up against your ex. Especially considering the, er...recent events.'

By "recent events" I could tell what he meant. Shu's personality change. It still opened up a wound in the organ left of my chest, but I knew Xander didn't intentionally try to make me heartsick again. I wondered if that side of Shu had always been there, but I knew that couldn't be true. I would've noticed that when we were dating. 

'It's fine, honestly,' I brushed it off, desperately wanting to change the topic. 'So, you're here with Renwu?'

'Yeah,' he responded, even though he seemed a little concerned because of the topic change. 'It's just us two from SB Rios.'

'Somebody say my name?'

The owner of Shelter Regulus walked up to us casually, his forehead creased as his eyes flickered between us. Those blue eyes always made me feel a little on edge. They were a deep blue, just like the ocean. And just like the ocean, it concealed many mysteries and emotions. It seemed those eyes were always swirling with thoughts and intelligence. I felt like I was being evaluated in just a split-second. 

'Just confirming you were in the God Blader's Cup,' I kept my eyes on him, silently daring him to look away. After what seemed like an age his ocean hues scampered to Xander. 

'So this is your cousin.'

Judging from Xander's expression, he had never told Renwu that I was his cousin. I wondered if he had picked all of that up from just looking at us. 'But we don't look anything alike.'

'Pardon?' Renwu asked politely, and I realized I had muttered the last sentence. 

'Just wondering how you were able to tell we were related. We don't look alike.'

'Not really,' Renwu agreed, his eyes taking in my appearance as he leaned on his bamboo stick. 'It's just that you two have the same fire in your eyes, the confidence that you wear like it's a crown. The way your eyes lit up, as if you won't back down, not now, not ever. You both have fire in yourselves.'

'Wow,' chuckled Xander, putting his hand on Renwu's shoulder. 'That was...a different way of describing us.'

'I suppose so,' answered Renwu softly. He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off from a loud grumble emitting from Xander's belly. We both sweat dropped as Xander sheepishly laughed. 'C'mon, let's go have lunch.'

------------------------

Lunch with Renwu and Xander wasn't too bad. 

We grabbed some pizza and burgers and caught up with each other. The rest of SB Rios had stayed back in Brazil, only Xander, Renwu and their coach had come to the God Blader's Cup. They were staying on the northern side of the tower, just above the fair. I told them about my worries and feelings about the tournament, and the encounter with Shu, as well as the drama going on between us and Free. 

'Oh man...' Xander frowned, going up to pay the bill. We all followed him, licking the last scoops of ice-cream.  'Your life is completely drama-filled.'

'Too drama-filled,' I agreed, dumping the ice-cream cone in the bin on our way out. A warm, American breeze picked up, whipping my hair everywhere. Renwu opened his mouth to say something,  but a familiar scream sounded throughout the street, the source coming from a near alleyway, where about three freakish elf-sized were in the middle of cornering a very familiar trio. The trio consisted of a small boy clutching an iPad nervously, a tall figure with a fan spread out behind him, and a short boy with a haircut that resembled a blue hedgehog. Kitt, Honcho and Valt. I clenched my jaw and slowly approached them. As I got closer, I could hear the leader of the clown gang threatening them, although his threats didn't seem very serious considering his height. 

'You can't beat us in a fight,' the clown was saying. I raised an eyebrow and exchanged cunning looks with Renwu and Xander. They both got the gist and smirked simultaneously.

'Maybe I can,' said Xander, drawing up his full height as he placed one of his huge hands on the clown's shoulders. A freakish scream echoed in the valley way as Valt, Honcho and Kitt hurried back to us and the clowns scrambled against the walls. 

'N-No! We can not fail!' shrieked the strange leader, his eyes glistening in panic. Then, surprisingly, he got in a fight stance, although he didn't look very sure. 'Fight us!'

'If you insist,' smirked Renwu calmly. He propelled himself up in the air using his bamboo stick before landing in front of Xander. He thrust out his right hand forcefully, and a strong gust of wind whipped towards the odd trio, all of them shrieking madly. 

'What's going on here?' 

I turned around in curiosity at the sound of the unfamiliar, deep voice. A tall male about the height of Xander towered above us. He had an angular face, spiked green hair with a yellow streak of hair in the center, red eyes, purple earrings, and red eye-shadow. He wore a black bodysuit with a green and purple striped spaulder on his shoulder, and green and purple gauntlets. He also wore a light red-orange piece of cloth with a white frilled cuff tied around his waist with purple straps, green metallic material beneath his knees, and green and purple shoes. I hadn't seen him in ages, but I could still faintly recall his thundering name. 

Kurtz Baratier. 

'Why are you three here?' glowered Kurtz. At first, I thought he was talking to us, until I saw his small eyes shimmer with anger as he focused in one the three freaks. 

'We came to pick up his bey,' gulped the leader, pointing towards Honcho. I frowned, wondering just what I had missed. 

'Don't bother.'

'What?' asked the clown, his face contorting into pure shock. 

'You heard me,' Kurtz replied smoothly. His scarlet eyes darted to us, as if they were evaluating us harshly, not like Renwu. His eyes lingered on Xander and Renwu, and I was sure he recognized them from the Big Five. 'Don't bother.'

He promptly turned and left, the three freaks scrambling to him. Something about Kurtz definitely was off. I couldn't remember how I knew his name, and it seemed like neither did Renwu or Xander. I turned around to face Valt, Kitt and Honcho, raising an eyebrow. 

'Mind explaining to us?'

------------------

'(y/n) (l/n)!'

The bright lights nearly blinded me, but I managed to keep a straight face. I stared straight out to the audience, where screams and cheers could be heard. Thousands of cameras flashed, the light faintly lighting up for a second. Excitement thundered around in my body, straight to my heart which was doing jumping-jacks. I clenched my fists and my lips broke into a dazzling smile. 

'Xander Shakadera!'

'Renwu Sun!'

'Red Eye!'

'Norman Tarver!'

The lights then illuminated my friends and my enemies. I avoided Shu's crimson eyes that were radiating with resentment and focused on Norman Tarver, a man with very pale skin and dark eye bags, along with sea green hair drawn up into a short ponytail, with a stray lock of hair falling over his face. He wore a blue trench coat with red accents and buttons, a bright yellow turtleneck shirt, and black gloves, pants, and boots. My forehead crinkled. Just like Kurtz, and this tournament, there was something off about him. As well as Boa Alcazaba. 

I couldn't shake the feeling that the boy was definitely the same murky-eyed trainer that had collapsed in front of my very eyes in the Snake Pit lair. But how on earth did he make it to the tournament is such little time? I was sure that both him and Norman hadn't participated in any tournaments before this one.

'And finally, it's Kurtz Baratier!'

Enemy or not, I felt all the eyes of the contestants peering towards the mysterious person who had arrived. 

Kurtz Baratier. 

The former champion. 

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Hope that was long enough for you. 

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Word count: 2469