"He wasn't in his apartment either," Nika said as the twins ran up to the others gathered in the Beypark. Apparently, Shu was nowhere to be found and Valt was worried.

"He never does that," he said, looking down at Valtryek sadly. "Shu never goes anywhere without telling."

"Hi, Valt!" Xander's voice said from somewhere behind. All of them jumped in shock. Valt turned around only to see Xander swinging upside down from a tree branch.

"By the way, Shu's with my grandfather. I suggested him that because of his shoulder injury."

All of them blinked in sync and Xander jumped down. "Y'all can come if you want."

"Really?" Valt suddenly perked up.

"Yeah, I was also about to go there," Xander laughed.

"Okay, I'll ask mom!" Valt said, running towards his house.

"Wait, don't forget to ask for us!" Toko and Nika shouted after him. Then the both of them shared a look, realizing Valt probably didn't hear.

"VAAALTT!!" They screamed and ran behind him.

"I think we should go too," Rantaro suggested. Daigo and Ken nodded in agreement.

"What about (Y/n)?" Daigo suddenly remembered.

"I don't know," Rantaro admitted.

"Maybe Daigo should go to her home and tell her about the trip," Ken (Keru) said.

"Nope. That girl will probably eat me alive," Daigo said and then shuddered at the thought.

"Then you eat her up as well," Rantaro smirked.

Silence.

"You and your mind," Daigo rolled his eyes.

Outside Valt's house ~

"Maybe we should take (Y/n) as well!" Valt beamed at the idea.

"Yea!" the twins agreed.

"THEN IT'S DECIDED!" Valt screamed, already running towards her house leaving a trail of smoke behind him. Toko and Nika shared a 'Valt is stupid' look, before heading towards the Beypark.

Valt took no time in reaching (Y/n)'s house. He stopped right in front of the door and rang the doorbell a million times. From inside, came her voice, "Who comes to the doorsteps of hell?"

"Meeee!!" Valt replied enthusiastically.

"Go away."

"At least open the door."

There was a little silence on the opposite side but then came her voice again. "No."

"But whyyyyy?" Valt whined.

No reply.

"(Y/nnnnnn)~"

"Ugh, you're still there," she growled in frustration. Valt grinned uncontrollably.

"Open the dooooor," he started singing.

There was no reply again. Valt paused for a moment then clenched his hands into fists and started banging on the door, making ghostly voices, shouting weird and random things.

After six minutes, when (Y/n) couldn't bear it anymore, she opened her front door, screamed a "Go die!" and slammed it shut again.

(Y/n) sighed in relief, turning around only to bump right into Valt who was standing there with a big smile on his face.

"When did you come in?!"

Valt looked confused. "You didn't see me? When you were closing the door, I squeezed myself and came from under it."

(Y/n) racked her brain to figure out if what Valt said, was even possible. But when she couldn't wrap her mind around the arcane idea, she left it alone and returned to the problem at hand. "Get out."

"But I—"

"OUT."

"We're going to—"

"Hell? Yes, go away."

"...Xander's dojo," Valt mumbled with a cute face on. Sadly, puppy eyes and adorable faces don't work so effectively on her.

"Then why're you here?" She asked with a bored expression.

"I came to ask you."

"For?"

"Are you dumb?"

Silence.

"Okay that's enough communication for today," (Y/n) decided, pushing Valt out of the house. "Go to hell or dojo or wherever you were going. I don't care."

Valt smoothly ducked and sprinted back inside. (Y/n) sighed in annoyance, kicking the nearest thing (which happened to be a flower vase) and started chasing behind him.

Around the living room, over the dining table, across the kitchen counter, under the bed, crawling upside down on the ceiling, hanging from the curtains, throwing pillows at the TV, squeezing innocent toothpaste tubes, and dropping ice cubes on the floor.

"ENOUGH!" (Y/n) shrieked, then looked around confusingly when she didn't see Valt anywhere.

There came a faint shuffling sound inside the kitchen, (Y/n) suspiciously followed it inside. After another moment of silence, Valt peeked from inside the fridge, halfway at eating a chocolate. "You were saying?"

(Y/n) scowled and grabbed him by his hoodie, dragging him all the way away outside the house. Then dumping him down, she gave him a "Meet you at the station," and slammed the door shut.

"Really??" Valt shouted inside.

Silence.

"You there?"

"Yes yes," she replied, highly irritated. "Now if you'll please leave me alone and kindly go die somewhere else before I change my mind?"

"Right!" He beamed happily before walking away.

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

Valt fell into a yet another trap hole. Xander turned around (with the twins on his shoulders) and laughed. "It's not so difficult. There's no fun without those traps! You can easily avoid them if you're a samurai."

"But I'm not samurai!" Valt complained from somewhere inside the pit. There was a small pause before his voice came out again. "Someone pull me out?"

Rantaro, Ken and Daigo shared a look and then Rantaro helped Valt out.

"(Y/n), you there?" Toko asked, looking forward at the irregular rocks covering the mountain. He scratched his head when he couldn't spot her anywhere.

Somewhere from Xander's right, the leaves of the tree said an "I'm here," and a very grumpy (Y/n) appeared. She was still mad at Valt. For obvious reasons though.

Toko looked at (Y/n). There was a moment of silence before he screeched and hugged Xander's head. "You just popped out of that tree trunk!"

Xander burst out laughing. She frowned at him, wondering what was so awesome.

"I don't know how you're not laughing right now. Toko's face was so funny!" Xander said between fits. "By the way, I never thought a ninja would be Valt's friend!"

"Who you're talking about?" Valt asked with a confused face. (Y/n) looked at him angrily, leaning against the tree trunk, standing on a thick branch. Valt grinned back. "You mad? What happened? Did I do something?"

She sighed and jumped down from the tree, but not before muttering, "He was talking about me being a ninja. And no Xander, I'm NOT a ninja. Stop bothering me."

Valt turned to Daigo. "Why was she looking at me like that? Is she mad at me? I don't remember doing anything illegal."

Daigo nodded calmly. "She was probably wondering the secret behind your insanity," he put his hands in his pockets. "And maybe still mad at you for bringing her here."

Valt puffed his cheeks and crossed his arms, thinking about it. The bluenette looked so cute anyone would wanna hug him right there.

'But she came here herself! I didn't bring her,' he pondered, eventually shrugging at the thought. The summer sun was burning high and Valt was already covered in sweat. But that didn't stop him from running forward, only to fall into another hole.

"Pull me, uh, out?" He squeaked from inside. Daigo, Ken and Rantaro shared another look before Rantaro sighed and helped up Valt.

"How come only Honcho helps me?!" He asked suspiciously. "What happened to you two? Do y'all not love me?"

"Ken is wearing mittens, and Daigo will fall himself if he tries to pull you," Rantaro laughed. "He's too short."

Valt giggled cutely and a very grumpy Daigo put his hands in his pockets. "Shut up."

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

"Shuuuuu...!" Valt whined, pressing his face against the glass. His nose flattened and he looked like a goblin.

"Wipe off your nose and don't cry," Shu chuckled. "I'll be fine."

"Is your shoulder aching too much? I didn't wanna hurt you."

"I'll be okay before the Nationals."

Outside, (Y/n) was leaning against the wall, her eyes tightly shut, arms crossed and eyebrows knit.

Xander noticed and laughed. She snapped her head up to look at him. "Now what's so funny? I'm getting irritated by the constant display of your pointed, zig-zag, irregular, shark-like teeth."

Reminds me of Lui, she wanted to add.

Xander laughed more. "No one has ever given such interesting adjectives to my teeth. Where did you get that from?"

"I don't find it necessary to reply to you."

Xander scratch to the back of his neck nervously and then looked at Rantaro. "What's her problem?"

"Nothing, she's always like that."

"You mean she is normally this angry?" Xander asked, somewhat surprised.

Not considering it important to hear anymore, (Y/n) turned around to walk away; only to come face to face with the twins. Beads of sweat trickled on the sides of her face as she told herself to be calm.

Okay, this isn't so difficult. Just say something friendly and walk away. Preferably, without scaring off the kids. You can do it!

For about four minutes, she rehearsed some friendly lines and finally said something very awesome like "Eh..um, hh?"

The kids shared a look and Toko shook his head at Nika. The latter shrugged and both of them returned their attention to (Y/n) again. "What are you all doing? We both were getting bored by Valt's ranting," Toko said.

"Sure," Xander laughed from behind her and she turned around, squinting her eyes suspiciously, wondering if he's laughing so much purposely to piss her off.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Valt chimed about a thousand times. "What about a battle, Xander?"

"Why not?" Xander chuckled and (Y/n) suddenly turned around to face a nearby tree.

"I think there's a green thing up there," she pointed and looked at Xander. "Do y'all normally have green monkeys hiding behind tree leaves?"

"Nah, it must be Yugo being himself," Xander laughed and then shouted up, "You can come out now!"

"So you found me, Xander?" A voice said from up.

Valt gazed up just in time to look at the owner of the voice. Yugo jumped down and landed five inches in front of him. Valt stepped back in surprise. "I heard the runner up of the District Tournament is coming here. But I can't figure out what the commotion was all about. You don't look anything special."

He studied Valt closely, and then stepped back as well. Xander put a hand on Yugo's shoulder and introduced him, "Meet my friend, Yugo Nansui. He's like my right hand man."

Yugo held out his hand. "Hey."

Valt shook it sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Hi, I'm Valt Aoi."

A few moments passed but Yugo didn't look in the mood of returning Valt's hand. Valt's eyes widened and he immediately shouted. "Okay, okay, enough shake hand. Give me back my hand!"

Yugo smirked and left Valt's hand, but pointed his index finger at him. "I can't believe you actually fell for those traps. They were so easy."

"So it was you!" Valt scowled back.

"Sorry, you can't be a samurai."

"Who even wants to be?!" Valt shot back.

For the first time Yugo seemed to notice (Y/n) there. He turned sideways and studied her properly. (Y/n) did the same. Neither of them said anything and continued staring, expecting the other to speak first.

One minute passed.

Three days passed.

Six weeks went away.

Eleven months. No, not yet.

After four years...uh, still not there.

Seven trillion centuries later ~

By now, Ken, Daigo, Xander, Valt, Toko, Nika and Rantaro had gathered around the both of them, watching the staring contest eagerly.

"So," Valt started. "Who do you think's gonna speak first?"

"I don't know," Xander said, for the first time not laughing. "Yugo has always been the silent and serious one around here. I don't think he'll speak first. Bet?"

The others murmured something amongst themselves.

"Then this'll be interesting because (Y/n) also doesn't talk to strangers that often," Daigo said. "She wouldn't speak first. Bet?"

"Bet," Xander echoed.

"Let's make it fifty yen."

"Sure," Xander laughed. "I remember the first time I talked to her. I didn't tell you people, did I? It was pretty much one-sided. She spoke only three sentences. Enough to be counted on fingers."

(Y/n) and Yugo shrugged and walked away from each other. This caught the others' attention.

"The hell happened here just now?" Daigo asked and suddenly everyone started speaking at once.

"I don't know," Nika.
"But who won the bet?" Xander.
"Neither of them spoke," Toko.
"So no one won," Ken (Keru).
"I think that's a cloud above us," Valt.
"It was there all along," Daigo.
"How's it white?" Toko.
"You'll know when you get older," Rantaro.
"Just admit you don't know either," Ken (Besu).
"Who said that?!" Rantaro.
"It's difficult to tell this way," Xander.
"That's an ant!" Valt.
"I like ants," Toko.
"I'm scared of ants," Nika.
"I'm asking again. Who insulted me?!" Rantaro.
"Chill, Honcho," Xander.
"Which one of you was it?" Rantaro.
"It was Valt," Ken (Keru).
"I bet it was Keru," Daigo.
"I clearly heard Daigo," Toko.
"It was Toko," Nika.
"I can swear it was Nika," Xander.
"Xander. I saw him," Valt.
"It was Besu," (Y/n).

Silence.

"Did (Y/n) just enter our arugment?" Rantaro fascinated.

"I think so," Nika replied.

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

"You call that training?" Valt asked.

"Yep," Xander laughed. Shu was standing on his right and Yugo on his left. (Y/n) was standing a little away from everyone.

"Train..ing...?" Daigo panted. "Training, you say? Standing on stalagmites is training? Hanging from stalactites is training? Then climbing a thousand stairs. Running uphill with three tires tied to your back. You call all this training? And yeah, Beyblade training definitely involves climbing a damn mountain!"

"I agree..." Ken (Besu) said, breathing heavily. "But first...(Y-Y/n) needs to be interrogated properly."

"Yeah," Valt agreed. "I still don't understand why she didn't get tired. Was that too easy for her?"

"Hey, guys," Shu interrupted. "Where's Rantaro?"

"Good question," Valt wondered, looking around.

As if on cue, a scream was heard from the bushes behind, attracting everyone's attention. After a while, a ball of grass came rolling forward. (Y/n)'s eyes widened and she quickly ran out of the way, barely dodging it. She turned around with an even more bewildered expression when Rantaro popped out from it.

There was an awkward moment of silence as Rantaro sat there, trying to recover from all the rolling and training. Then a high pitched scream filled the mountains. "A BUG!!"

It was surprisingly Rantaro's.

(Y/n) still looked in shock. Rantaro Kiyama, the blader of Raging Rocktavor; that strong person who always acts so manly; the only one to keep a lollipop in his mouth; the one and only to take a fan with him everywhere—is scared of bugs?

When everyone recovered from the astonishment, Xander walked up to (Y/n). "I always wanted to battle you. What about now?"

"H-Hey..." Rantaro said lightly. His face was filled with fear and he was still sprawled on the ground. "You said you'll battle me. What about that? I'll avenge Valt by beating you."

"Aww," Valt let out a squeal. "You're such a true friend!"

"No prob, buddy," he gave Valt a weak and shaky thumbs up from the ground. "Anytime," then he passed out.

Xander laughed. "So, (Y/n), would you like to battle me soon? Like, after Rantaro?"

"I'm working on a new move," she told him. "Maybe we can battle tomorrow. I should be able to master it by then," she nodded. "You'll be the first one to experience it."

Way to ruin her good mood, Xander laughed. "I'd love to!"

(Y/n) gave him a scowl. "And may I know why you laugh so much?"

He laughed again. "Laughing isn't bad. You should also try it sometime."

"That's the worst advice I've ever gotten from anyo—" she stopped abruptly, sharply turning around and squinting her eyes at the forest.

"Something the matter?" Shu asked. The others were too busy calming down themselves from the hard training that they didn't involve in the conversation. Toko and Nika were offering water and caressing Valt's back gently. It was quite cute. Though Rantaro didn't get anyone to look after him. Poor guy.

"No," she replied with that usual straight expression. "Let's go in."

Most of them agreed, Yugo already walking off. When they became busy in talking, (Y/n) slipped away from the group without notice. The stealth was doing pretty good.

"I could swear I saw something blue," she muttered, moving towards the forest.

Ukyo was sitting on the branch of a tree, wondering how good (Y/n) is. First, she spotted Yugo and then she also felt Ukyo watching them. It wasn't a small thing. He wasn't supposed to be noticed. He's the Shadow Walker and shadows are his speciality, not hers.

He looked down with an amused expression, taking it as a personal challenge to catch her off guard before she catches him.

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

In 2846 words.

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