Media: (from left to right) Reiki, Ryutaro, Dan

It was a week after I was released from the hospital and the doctors confirmed that my condition was stable enough to be left on my own, although I was required to be brought back almost every day.

I sat on the bench in the park, watching as a group of kids flocked around someone I couldn't see properly, or any hints of them whatsoever.

In my back pocket, my phone buzzed, and I fumbled with it slightly before flicking it open and bringing it to my ear in one motion. "Hello?"

"Hey, Tess," my brother greeted, his voice glitching due to the bad connection (probably).

"Shaun," I replied with a nod, then realized he couldn't see me. "What up?"

"I just wanted to tell you that after the recent tests, the doctors say that you're good to go for blading, although you should take it easy."

The news made me smile, the corners of my mouth twitching up and the sensation even spreading to my ears. "This... this isn't a joke, right?"

"Why would I joke about something like that!"

"Hell yeah!" I cheered, attracting the looks of several people walking by and punching the air before cradling my side. "Crap, really hope I didn't reopen anything..."

"Don't tell me you just flailed your limbs around."

"What? Haha, no way," I lied.

"... you're a terrible liar. That being said, I'm gonna leave you alone now, Kato's calling me."

The connection turned off, and I brought the phone away from my ear, shutting it and sliding it in my pocket before I burst out in a series of cheers and happy mumbling.

"Come on, come on, goooo!"

The clash of metal against metal.

"Pisces! Hah!"

Pisces.. the only two people I know with that bey is Grayson, who can't beyblade since his arm is broken, and...

"Distortion Drive!"

To my surprise, the ground seemed to light up beneath my feet as I walked towards it, lines being drawn by glowing white... line.

"What? How'd you do that?!"

A piece of metal flew over my head, and a kid flew past me, probably to go retrieve her beyblade. I turned my attention back to the ground as the crowd parted to reveal someone I had seen before.

"Ryutaro?"

The magician blinked, flicking out his fan at the sight of me. "Oh, hello."

"You- were you even in Battle Bladers?"

"I was," Ryutaro sighed, allowing the hand holding his fan to fall to his fan. "I don't recall seeing you there."

"That's because I couldn't get there," I gritted my teeth and tugged out my counter, displaying the screen towards him. "You got 50,000 points?"

The Pisces blader looked hesitant to answer, but he deeply inhaled and exhaled. "No. I got... a free pass, if you will."

"Wh- How?"

"I was apart of the Dark Nebula."

My hands flew to my ears once I heard the word 'Dark', yet blackness still teased at the edge of my vision. "W- Okay, okay! I-I don't need anymore information!"

"Oh.. that's right, you were put in the pod..."

"Ryutaro, I don't think it's a good idea to trigger her. She's been through a lot."

That voice..

My head snapped up, and Dan smirked at me, crossing his red-clothed arms across his chest. "Long time-"

"- no see," Reiki chimed in from beside him.

"You say not to trigger her, yet you're the ones she last saw before she was put in that said pod," Ryutaro said, looking sideways at the two twins.

"Oh, details, details."

My tongue went numb, and it took me more then a few seconds to finally construct a response. "You guys-"

Both twins peered at me, Reiki with a smug smile on his face, but Dan had wiped his expression of his smirk.

"- what... you're still apart of t-them, right?"

"What? No, of course now," Reiki waved a hand dismissively. "That'd be stupid."

"Just like you are, bro," Dan huffed.

The two dissolved into a cat-fight, so I turned my attention to Ryutaro for answers.

"... if you lost in Battle Bladers, you'd get your energy drained and used as food for Ryuga and L-Drago," he said, glancing away. "I was the only one who made it to the second round, if you exclude the Serpent blader."

That made my blood grow cold, at the words 'the Serpent blader', but I brushed it off.

"You can imagine that once Ryuga was defeated, we didn't want anything to do with them anymore," Ryutaro explained with a nod. "Even Gingka Hagane can define the future, it seems..."

"Huh?"

"Ryuga was supposed to win that battle- can you two please be quiet? But Gingka pushed through and won."

Dan snorted, crossing his arms. "But we're gonna be original bladers from now on. Well, at least... yeah, Reiki and I are gonna stick together, but we're not gonna be apart of some organization."

"I'm surprised you two are still together, seeing how much you bicker."

Dan jerked his thumb at Reiki while his twin jutted his chin out at Dan, and said at the same time. "It's his fault."

"Oi- what do you mean, it's my fault?!"

"If you weren't so hasty to attack, maybe we'd win more!"

"They never get old, do they?" I smiled at them, despite the situation. When we had battled, they seemed so in sync, yet now they were just siblings. Siblings, with no need to fight for Doji and Ryuga anymore.

"Tess, perhaps, would you like to battle?" Ryutaro asked me.

Immediately, both the twins perked up. "Battle? We wanna join in!"

"Hey, don't just forget about me!"

"To- what?! Oi, Captain Crapri, where'd you-"

Someone I also recognized- Tobio from all those battles back, appeared beside me, his afro the same blinding shade of yellow, lollipop in his mouth.

"For the last time, it's Captain Capri, not Crapri!"

Both of the twins burst out in mocking laughter.

"Hey, so do you want to do a two on two battle?" Reiki asked.

"Two on two?" There was a pop as Tobio pulled out the lollipop he had in his mouth, rolling the stick around in his fingers. "Whose's with who?"

"We need to battle Tess again," the twins replied instantly. "Ryutaro, you're with us."

"Wh- no, I need to battle her again! She defeated us last time!"

"She defeated all of us," Ryutaro said smoothly. "But I can be on your side. There's a stadium not that far from here."

"I'm with you, then, Captain Crapri," I said mockingly.

"Wh- Now, don't you start!" Tobio fussed.

"Kidding, kidding, come on, let's go so we can get this started with as soon as possible!"

The Dark Nebula members weren't really bad guys.

Dan, I discovered, had a knack for sewing while Reiki had unnatural talent with a yo-yo, Tobio's nickname of 'Captain Capri' was given to him by his grandma since he's always liked shooting games, and Ryutaro choked on cherry blossom petals more then once.

My afternoon was spent in highlights of bright colors and laughter.

[All right, I realized that most people say that the former Dark Nebula bladers (except for Yu) like Tobio, Testuya, Dan, Reiki, Reiji, and Ryutaro are still bad guys. Nope. They didn't know why Doji/Ryuga were planning.

Anyways, Tess is probably gonna be really good friends with these guys since they're so underrated. You'll see more of them (and also I realized I really like writing for Dan and Reiki).

The final chapter is going to be posted tomorrow! Hope you enjoyed!]