Crimson Red /// Beyblade Burst Fanfic

Chapter 6

This will be a particularly long chapter to make up for the short ones before.

Valt's P.O.V.

Shu averted his eyes from my stare.

"What didn't you tell me, Shu?" I demanded. Shu fixed me with a hard stare. "Ask your mom. She knows."

"You told her and not me?" "I didn't tell her. Someone else did. Okay, Valt?"

"But—" "Drop it."

"Okay. But I have a question. You either answer this one truthfully, or the last one. And answer the ones following truthfully."

"Fine."

"Promise."

"I promise."

"Were you attacked, and do you know who did it?"

"That's two questions."

"You promised.

"I— okay," Shu sighed. "I was attacked." "By who?" I questioned, interested. Shu shrugged. "I don't know. But it was a boy. He was holding a knife and had several more tucked away in his belt. He was dressed in a jet-black outfit. He wore a mask over their face, also black. What else do you want to know?" 

"How did the fight go down?" I wasn't trying to pry anything out of my best friend anymore. I just wanted to know, and he knew what I wanted. "They approached me and asked me to a battle. I accepted. Then one the battle began, he didn't launch his Bey, and instead, he grabbed Spryzen and ran. I chased him and shouted at him to give me Spryzen back. He said to me, 'This is your Bey, huh? Sure is powerful. Storm Spryzen, isn't it?' I told him to give Spryzen back again, but he kept talking. 'Come with me. I can teach you. I can mentor you. Spryzen will grow even stronger. It will be powerful. Battle me, Shu. Then you will see what I mean.' "

"Did you accept that offer?" I asked.

"I pretended to. I told him, 'Sure. But show me your Bey first. I didn't get a good look at it.' He knew he had me hooked, and took out his Bey again. Meet Shadow Starvyn.' From the moment I saw it, I knew he stole it. It was the complete opposite of his personality. He seemed to be fighting for control over it. He had destroyed the name of its previous owner from it."

"Wow..." I whispered. "That sounds intense." "You have no idea," Shu answered.

"I told him to give Spryzen back, and that's when he knew he couldn't win me over. He attacked me and went for my neck. I dodged. Then I asked who he was and used his own knife against him. After just laughing and not saying who he was, he snatched the knife out of my hand and attacked. This time he succeeded. But after all that, he gave me Spryzen back."

My eyes flickered to the red Beast Beyblade sitting atop Shu's beside table. "That's good."

"Yeah... it is."

"Valt!" Mom's voice flickered over the intercom. "Look at the time!" It was 6:30. "Sorry! I lost track of time. I checked my phone to look for missed calls.

>Mom

Mom: Valt, are you on your way back?

Mom: Are you still there?

Missed call from Mom

Mom: Where are you?

Mom: Valt Aoi. Not funny. It's almost 6:15

Mom: That's it. I'm coming to pick you up at the hospital.

Mom: Meet me there.

Mom has logged off

Shu stifled a laugh next to me.

"Sorry Mom! Didn't see the messages!"

Mom rolled her eyes.

"I just had a great idea!" I announced. "Mom, come in." "Yeah sure," Shu muttered uncertainly. Mom entered the room. "Now what is this great idea?" she asked.

"Shu said he got really sick once, and you know about it," I explained. "Now tell me about it." "Now?" "Yes! I want to know."

Mom glanced at Shu. "Maybe we should do this at home."

I stood up. "Bye Shu." "See you soon, Valt."

On the way back, Mom lectured me about not checking my phone and not being responsible enough, and about how was I to deal with Toko and Nika when she was out? And so on.

"Mom, are you going to tell me about how Shu got sick or not?"

"Yes," she said finally. "Tonight."

She kept putting it off! I was so frustrated, until I realized she probably didn't like this story very much.

That night, Mom came into my room. Her phone was on, and there was a video call from Shu on it. "I thought he could help explain," Mom told me. "He said he would do most of the talking."

"You know I live alone," Shu began.

"Yes."

"You know my mom is a scientist and my dad is a pilot."

"Yes."

"Do you know when Mom left me to care for myself?"

"When you were eight, right?" "Correct," Shu answered

"Two years ago, you remember I caught the flu." I nodded. Why was Shu stating these facts? Valt already knew them. Maybe it had something to do with the story.

"At the time, there was a major surge in the flu cases. It was nearly an epidemic. All the worst were hospitalized. Do you remember?" I answered, "Yes. But why are you telling me this? I know all of it."

Shu didn't answer his question. "Did you see when the news reported all hospitals were full and their staff were overworked?" I nodded again. His friend's eyes turned hard. "So overworked they refused to let a doctor check me, or give me medicine."

"I went to your mom for help. She sent me some of your medicine and I got a little better. But she was with you. I had to care for myself.

"Around the third week since I caught it, I got much worse. Still, they refused to help me because the patients there were afraid they would get worse by staying with me. I told them they could move some of the healthier ones, but they still refused. Luckily, they send a bag of medicine back with me."

"I sent Valt back to school again at that time, because he was feeling better," Mom interjected. "Do you remember about a week afterwards, you asked me where Shu was and why wasn't he going to school?"

I said, "Yes. And you told me that he had caught the flu but was better now, but he was staying at home in case he got other students sick."

"That was a lie," Mom told him. "When I went out for groceries the day before, I was actually also going to check on Shu. That's when I found him nearly dying and demanded the hospital take him in."

"Oh." My voice was so small. "Why did you lie?"

"I didn't want you to worry," Shu answered.

With that, he clicked off the call.

"Goodnight, Valt," Mom said.

"Goodnight, Mom."