He saw nothing at first, just plain black. Then the little sparks, red and blue and gold and orange that welded together into ribbons that flickered instead of glowing, weaving themselves together. More and more sparks came, burning themselves into a circular shape, one forged out of sparks and flames, and delicate things welded into death itself. The edges and rough curves smoothed out until it was a single red disc, which began to glow brightly- too brightly, and it burst into tiny pieces, fading to ash.

A four foot eight boy woke with a start, only to realize his homework was stuck to his cheek. He slammed his fist on the desk. "Argh! I hate math!" Stupid dream. What even was that? Ribbons and ashes? Sounds like a dumb fairytale.

Well, you could always ask Shu for help, Daigo, his bey, Dark Doomscyther suggested, heavy sarcasm in his voice.

Absolutely not. You're the only person I'm going to ask for help.

I feel like that was a compliment. But I'm going to go ahead and say that you are definitely going to end up relying on someone at some point.

The wise gandalf speaks.

Daigo Kurogami clearly heard Doomscyther snickering. As a Descendant of a Beyblade, he could speak to his spinning top, along with see souls. For each Descendant, the second power was different. Some played with fire. Others were super-strong. Still others had extremely powerful voices, like Zac. Daigo was pretty sure the popstar was a Descendant. He knee the idea was a bit weird- after all, who would speak to a spinning top toy?- but it seemed to work for a lot o people. The beys spoke back, so he guessed there were spirits inside of the beys.

His phone dinged. 

My friends are texting again. What is it now?

Buy-ME-beybread: I'm HEaDed To the PARK for BeYBLadE PRactiCe. WanNA come?

Loli Manga Nerd: Totes. LETS GO!

Albino Child: Sure. I'm already there.

Keru_Besu: Got it.

HonchoSucks: My place is so much better. But I suppose, I could deign to join you guys.

Loli Manga Nerd: WAKIYA! cHANGE YOUR USERNAME BACK! RIGHT NOW!

HonchoSucks: You're on Caps Lock. And I'll never change it back!

Daigo tapped out a response.

Goth:Enough arguing. I'll come too.

Goth: Wait, who changed my username?

Keru_Besu: It definitely wasn't me!

Keru_Besu: Besu! You're not supposed to say that, no one will believe you!

Goth: Just change it back, Ken.

Keru_Besu: Done.

NiTeCoRemo: Thnx. be there in a few minutes.

Lolli Manga Nerd: Nightcore EMO? Really?

NiTeCoRemo: Says the talking Lollipop

Before they could get into a World War Chat (again,) he logged off and started walking toward the park.

The park was a huge expanse of open space. Tables were scattered in clumps throughout the sea of green. Several individual trees, bushes, and flowered archways usually made the western section a popular place for adults to go. The right side had been claimed by the younger people. They had managed to get a giant rope course with mats on one side. The other consisted of several beyblade stadiums-- giant marked bowls designed to withstand the wound up power of beyblade and human. Farther to the west, a sea of trees connected to the powerful mountains the Shakadera Dojo was on. The forest was well maintained. In short, it was an extremely popular place for all ages, and Daigo was no exception.

When he got there, he immediately saw his friends at one of the bey stadiums, talking and several yelling. Daigo took out his launcher. "Are we going to battle?"

No one heard him. The most frequent arguers- if frequent arguerer points were a thing, they'd have close to a billion- Honcho and Wakiya, were yelling at each other. Honcho Kiyama was a tall boy, eleven years old, with short blond hair sticking up, and the proud owner of Raging Rocktavor. He wore a red tank top, covered by a black jacket. His pants were tall black, martial arts ones, with a white belt. If he was in martial arts before, Honcho certainly didn't get very far.

Wakiya Murasaki was another blonde, with long hair tied in a ponytail and slung carelessly across his left shoulder. He wore a purple jacket with a lighter purple wyvron wrapping around it, purple pants, and black boots. Wakiya was the owner of Wild Wyvron, and very rich. Rich and arrogant and had an ego the size of the Americas, but Daigo had known him for a while and suspected there was a heart somewhere.

Ken Midori was playing with his puppets, Keru and Besu. He was a shy ventriloquist who used a bey called King Kerbeus. He had a wild mane of black hair that never got combed, a long green jacket that ended in jagged spikes of cloth, and dark green pants. The blue and brown puppets definitely didn't match. 

Valt Aoi, an over-excited short boy, was talking with Shu. Valt didn't really care what other people thought, so his hair was spiked using a headband. His warm brown eyes lit up when he mentioned Victory Valtryek, his bey. He had a red mark under his right eyes, a blue and white vest with a red shirt under, and blue jeans. Most of his friends secretly called him either a little Sonic, or a smol bean.

Shu was almost the complete opposite of him. Quiet and calm, his red eyes sparkled as he listened to Valt yap on and on. Shu Kurenai was an albino, with white hair and pale skin. He was a member of the Supreme Four, some of the strongest beybladers in Japan who had beybladeded their way to the top. He wore a pink shirt and black tie under a short black vest, in addition to black pants. Valt often complained about his best friend's lack of style. Shu had a not-so-secret crush on Valt since a long time, love that Daigo knew Valt secretly returned. Daigo assumed that Valt was the only reason the high-ranked albino stuck around.

"Hey! Everyone! We should start practice!" When everyone ignored Daogo, again, he marched over to Shu.

He knocked Shu on the arm and pointed to the others.

Shu stood up and said quietly, "Ready to begin training?" Everyone stopped what they were doing and lined up by the beystadium. Daigo scowled, mildly annoyed his voice carried so little influence. Daigo stood at the back of the line, fingers sneaking into Wakiya's pocket, hoping for money or at least some blackmail.

Shu took out a piece of paper from his backpack. "Valt versus Honcho. Wakiya versus Daigo. And me versus Ken."

After the battles, in which Valt beat Honcho, but got overconfident and lost to Daigo and Shu, everyone sat down to take a break.

"As you know, it's the end of spring break. My sister, Robin is starting school at Beigoma tomorrow," Shu said quietly. That got everyone's attention. Poor Shu was bombarded with questions from everyone but Daigo.

A sister, hmm? Must be a twin. Not very close to each other, or Shu would have introduced us. I wonder who she is...

"She's a Descendant, you know, the son or daughter of a beyblade, or granddaughter or really far down the line," he continued. "Please don't bring her to the beyclub, even if she has a Bey. Robin turned my hair white, and put me in the hospital for a month."

Everyone stared. Were they dealing with a murderer? Had she tried to kill Shu? Honcho looked terrified out of his mind, and Wakiya looked a bit pale. He was cluthcing his purple beyblade so tightly he saw a few red-black drops slide across his fingers. Ken took a careful step back, probably scared too. Daigo really didn't care either way. If she came to school with knives and a scary smile like a demon, he'd give her the names of a few people who he thought deserved to die. Nothing to it.

Valt, the adorable little Sonic, broke the silence. "What color was your hair before?"

Wakiya sighed. "Valt, that is not the most important thing right now! We need to figure out how to deal with this!"

"But I was just curious," Valt protested.

Shu playfully rolled his eyes. "Blue. Light blue. Shigure's hair color."

Daigo drowned their voices out, considering the new information. So either Shu watched Fruits Basket or played Fire Emblem . Huh. His spiked, annoyingly fluffy hair swayed slightly as he made contact with his bey again.

Robin Kurenai. Supposed try to kill, descendant of a beyblade, Shu hates her. And he plays Fire Emblem. Huh. Doomsyther?

Yeah?  Doomscyther replied in his head, stretching. He sounded annoyed to be woken up. What is it? 

Find the beyblade of Robin Kurenai.

Oooh, Doomsyther said in a teasing tone. Somebody already crushin' on your friend's sister?

I don't know her, and we both need to know possible opponents, Daigo grumbled back. He had little patience for his bey's antics today, especially because being dissed put him in a bad mood. He didn't particularly care is Doomscyther tried to take revenge on him. Besides, the beyblade still needed him; after all, winning was their only goal

Right, then. Wait a minute. He heard shuffling of paper. Doomscyther kept track of every bey and opponent he found.

Got it! Let's see. Ooh! Interesting! Robin Kurenai has a defense bey called Rise Phoenix. According to my findings, she did not acquire this bey with the usual means.

What?

She saved this beyblade from being abandoned. A guy who just lost at a tournament threw Rising Phoenix to the ground outside. Robin, watching, managed to catch it. After a brief fistfight- in which she apparently beat the guy to a pulp and left him in a rat-infested alley,- Robin walked away with her new beyblade. Oh, and Shu has no idea about any of this, so don't tell him. If the girl joins, I'll have to see what happens. I love drama!

Very funny. You're starting to act like a girl.

I'm bored. Good luck dealing with Robin.

I wonder what this Kurenai will be like. Will she like Shu? Calm, quiet voice with ith power? Or the opposite, talkitive and hyper like Valt? Could she turn out to act like me?

Daigo ended the connection and looked up. Night had fallen, and Shu was just finishing beating Valt.

"Counter Break!" he yelled, white hair swaying. The scar on his eye, the one Shu tried so hard to hide, was darker against his skin as he threw out his hand. Shu always took Valt seriously, for reasons unknown. Reacting to the name of it's move, Spryzen's tip began to glow brightly. It reversed direction and top speed and flew towards Valtryek.

"Rush, rush, rush!" Valt yelled even louder. Valtryek's energy layer began to glow blue, and  sparks flew from it. The bey's speed increased dramatically. Butwhy did his voice have to be so painful?

Daigo winced and covered his ears, missing the part where the two beys collided abd Valtryek burst... again.

"Aw," Valt pouted, scooping up the pieces. The tears in those warm brown eyes look blue from the streetlights. Almost line they were glowing, but Valt had no Descendant power. Immediately the tears faded, replaced with determination. "Rematch!"

"It's seven," Shu reminded him gently. "And nighttime. We should all go home."

Daigo grinned, making himself look as spooky as possible. It wasn't hard, considering his spiky black hair, dark eyes and skulls dangling from his blood-red bandanna. It helped that most people whispered he possessed dark magic. "Unless you want the undead to catch you, away from your friends, helpless..." Behind his back, he turned on his cell phone.

"What is undead?" Valt asked, tilting his head.

"Things that have already died, but come back to life. Like skeletons. Or ghosts." Daigo turned the phone pickpocketed from Wakiya on and changed Wakiya's ringtone. Behind him, he thought he heard something in the bushes. He almost turned around, but decided to finish the prank.

The mini Sonic shivered."I'm scared."

Daigo tried to look as menacing as possible. Apparently, when you have tiny skulls hanging off a blood-colored bandanna, it's not too hard. "Between dusk and dawn, the undead roam the streets, and if they find a blue-haired Sonic, well, let me show you!"

He whipped his phone out from behind his back, blinding Valt with light and freaking him out with zombie sounds and skeleton creaks from Minecraft.

Valt screamed, and everyone started laughing.

"What was THAT?" Honcho shrieked, collapsing and banging his fist against the ground.

Wakiya grinned. "Valt, your reaction was nearly as uncivilized as this buffoon's."

The blonde on the ground lifted his head. "I don't see any buffoons."

The edge of a smile was on Shu's face, a rare accomplishment. Even though he didn't say much normally, it was nice to know he had emotions. 

So what would the second Kurenai be like?

Poor Sonic.

Robin out!!!