Of Love and Death.

The Present Chapter 12: The Battle of Flames and Thoughts Pt. 1

Cold and a bit of danger  and such is mentioned a few times, but not to a huge extent. I don't currently have a summ (If you want  me to write on  though say so). Which means, we have  our first no warnings (sort of) chapter in a long, long time! 

    "This will be a three point battle. Survivor and Ring Out Finishes are worth one point. Burst Finishes are worth two points." The ref held up two fingers to recap the information that neither Shu nor Valt needed to know in the slightest. It was more for the audience than anything. Not that most of them needed to know either.

     Taking a moment, Shu looked around at the crowd. It would appear that he and Valt had accomplished their goal. The stadium was fully packed to the brim with cheering bey fans. It brought a smile to his face. One of the best feelings in the world for him was when he managed to do something good with his blading prowess. In this case, raise a charity event for a museum.

       Besides, in a slightly less altruistic vein of thought, Shu got an excuse to battle Valt. Not that he ever really needed one. But he had an excuse to go all out against his best friend in a stadium that could handle it.

     Speaking of which, Shu looked at Valt. Standing just a bey stadium away from him, his friend looked like Valt Aoi. That was the only way to explain how the blue-haired blader looked. Standing with a grin filled with excitement. Above all else, Valt loved to battle. He was practically bouncing up and down. If they had been a bit younger, then the world champion probably would have been.

      There was a spotlight shining on Valt's head, but he was no longer frozen in place by stagefright whenever a single person watched him battle. He was standing there, the light framing his face. It was, in all honesty, a strange look for him. Maybe not bad, but Shu thought that how he had looked on the plane had suited him better. Surrounded by such low light it was practically darkness.

     "Hey, Valt," Shu said. He spoke quietly enough that no one in the stands could possibly hear. Yet loud enough that his crush could. Tilting his head, Valt asked a silent question. What is it? For a movement, Shu couldn't muster any response but a smile. "I'm glad to be here," He said honestly.

    "We've been all over the place lately. You've been coming to me, and we've been calling, and such. But we haven't gotten to just battle like this for a while," Shu paused. He reached into his belt and pulled out his bey. His partner. The great fiery warrior, Spryzen. The red top shone in the light, as Shu held him out to Valt. "So I'm glad we get to do this. I'm glad I get to battle you with all of my heart and soul. And we are going to take you down!"

     Valt looked at Shu. Gazed at him was more accurate. He was always so put together, even when traveling like this. The white-haired blader was always calm, always ready to battle. Or to hang out, or to fight an evil ice woman. Where did that one come from?

    Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Valt decided it didn't matter. It could be thrown in with the whole lot of other things he'd been told to ignore until after this battle with Shu. Solid advice. After all, a battle with his greatest rival was not anything to be distracted during. He wanted to give his full attention to the thing that he enjoyed, not have a black ocean of secrets weighing him down.

      With a single fluid motion, Valt pulled Valtryek out of his pocket. "Shu. Trust me, I'm as ready for this battle as you are. I'm as excited as you are. But I think we disagree on one crucial thing," Valt paused. He wanted to make sure that this sunk in. Unable to contain an almost cocky smirk, he continued, "I am going to be the one winning today!"

     Kris looked up at Kit as the young blader was dragged away by Ilya. BC Sol's newest member seemed to be laughing her head off as she took her friend to meet the waving group of Reina, Pheng, and Laban. Those two had made a fast friendship once Ms. Mao joined the team. But still... "Kit's been acting a bit strange lately, hasn't he?" She asked the person sitting next to her.

     The only reply that BC Sol's owner got from Free was a small laugh and a shrug. Accompanied by a single word, "Yeah," he remarked, folding his hands behind his head. Well, it was more than he said a lot of the time. The former number one blader was a man of few words.

     With an eye roll, Kris crossed her arms. "And I'm guessing that you know exactly why?"

     "Yup."

     Well that was super descriptive. Kris sighed. "And you're not going to tell me?" It was a rhetorical question but Free shook his head anyway. It wasn't worth being exasperated to her. For all of his lazing around and lacking off, Free came around when he needed to. That had earned him Kris's trust. Free would speak up if Kit was in any trouble, she knew that much.

     "I'm guessing that you also know why Valt fainted?"

     Now that got a reaction from the blond blader. Kris could see him visibly tense up. Yes, Free knew, and it disturbed him. Now she was a bit concerned. If Free was nervous about something, what was going on? "Just keep your head out of it," Free advised, "I'm sure he'll be fine."

     Free didn't sound sure though.

     "First Battle!" The referee declared.

     Placing Spryzen into his launcher, Shu double checked that his bey was in the right mode. Clockwise balance mode. Okay, that was good. I'm nervous, He realized. Why did he feel the need to double check how Spryzen was being launched? It was one of the things he'd drilled into himself to do correctly, lest it be his downfall on day.

    All of the sudden, Shu got the urge to blink. So he did. What else was he going to do? Not blink? That would be dumb. Once the momentary darkness had passed, he saw that his world had changed. No longer was Shu standing in the bey arena he'd battled in so many times. He was facing Spryzen in the world of their bond. "You're nervous because you want to win," Spryzen said without missing a beat.

    It was almost enough to bring a smile to Shu's face. Of course he was nervous because he wanted to win. That was perhaps the most obvious reason to win. It wasn't even real nerves. He wasn't scared like he was before a test. He was just scared that he wouldn't do himself right, and his partner right. He wanted to do the best he could.

      Exasperatedly, Spryzen shook his head. "Well then, just try and put everything else out of your mind. There's nothing you can worry about right now except this battle. So, you know, battle!" The bey spun his giant flaming axe around for emphasis. Which Shu definitely did not duck out of the way of, even though he was more than far enough away from the blade's path of travel.

      Spinning axes are intimidating.

     Nevertheless, Spryzen was correct. There was nothing that Shu could do about anything. How much he had trained. How strong his bond with his partner was. If he was tired or fresh or whatever. It was just this battle. Nothing else, nothing more and nothing less. So Shu took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay, I can try."

     Because Shu could try. Because Shu could calm down and focus. At the end of the day, there were no consequences to winning or losing this battle. It wasn't official, and they'd already raised more than enough money for the museum. Perhaps one could say that his pride was on the line, but that wasn't it. If there was anyone that would take away his pride because he lost to them, it wasn't the number one blader in the world.

    That being said, Shu wasn't going to roll over and accept defeat. At the end of the day, he and Valt were an even match. He could do this. And he had every intention of doing this. "Okay. Let's do this," the fiery blader declared, resonance surrounding him. The towering bey nodded in agreement, and the world faded back to normal in a flurry of red sparks.