Chapter Text
“Okay, okay! I know you’re all excited, but one at a time—”
Shu chuckles to himself, moving discreetly out of the way as what must be hundreds of kids run towards Valt. “You sure are popular.”
Valt shoots him an annoyed look that he can read easily as ‘not helping!’ and Shu immediately quiets down. It’s not as much, but he has his own group of children that have flocked to him, and some don’t seem to care which one they get a battle with at all.
He finds it amusing, he wouldn’t ever have survived this kind of attention during his earlier blading days. Even after years of being at the top of the scene, he’s still surprised at the sheer number of fans he has. The kids here are especially rowdy, Shu can barely make out what they’re saying over the noise and shouts.
He doesn’t blame them, though. They are just kids, after all, most still below ten years old. At this age, he was running around in the school playground trying to catch up with Valt and Xander to no avail. Even if his parents were only home once in a blue moon, they were there, on weekends and holidays. Besides, he had Chiharu and Kento when they weren’t.
The children in front of him don’t see their parents ever, not even on Sunday. He doesn’t mind battling with them for hours if it means they’re happy.
“Hey, come on, don’t yell, alright? You’ll lose all your energy and then you’ll be too tired to even launch properly.” Shu mumbles, and instantly the noise dissipates. Some of the kids look genuinely horrified at his words, trying to force themselves into conserving as much energy as possible.
Valt stares at him, fascinated. “How did you do that?! You gotta teach me sometime…”
“I don’t think it’s something you can teach.” Shu answers and Valt frowns in disappointment. He’s not even sure himself, sometimes it works, and other times the shouts get louder instead of stopping.
“Whatever you say,” Valt sighs, turning back to the kids. “So! You guys can line up at whichever stadium you want, ‘kay? That left one if you wanna go against Shu, or this one to battle with me and Valtryek! Once you’re done, you can go join the other line, or you can even battle with each other if you want!”
The children disperse immediately, trying their best to make a proper line. A few of them argue over who was in which spot first, but most are too excited to stay angry and the disputes clear up quickly. Unsurprisingly, many more are in the line to battle against Valt than Shu, but he’s not the type to get hung up on petty things like that.
Shu glances at the very front of the line. He’s about to say something when a boy with blonde hair sprints all the way there, nearly bumping into the black-haired one who was already there. Shu recognises him as being the most entranced by his and Valt’s showcase earlier, and the first to manage a proper launch when they were teaching them.
“Hey, you shouldn’t cut the line,” Shu tells him quietly, but the black-haired boy laughs instead of being annoyed.
“No, it’s okay. Jaxon can go first.” He insists. “He’s been talking about this nonstop since we found out you guys were coming here!”
Shu blinks. “Oh, I see. Nice to meet you, Jaxon. Or, nice to meet you again. I remember you.”
Jaxon stares at him, practically glowing. “Really?! No kidding?!”
“No, no kidding,” Shu shakes his head. “You got the hang of that launcher pretty quickly, huh? I guess you’re a natural.”
“Natural? You think I’m a natural?!” Jaxon breaks into a giant grin, and Shu tries very hard to not let his amusement show. The rest of the line has already erupted into laughter, but it’s in Jaxon’s support. He can make out little snippets—
“Hey, that means he really wasn’t bluffing about becoming a Blader!”
“Whoa, Jaxon finally got his chance. He’s never gonna shut up about this now.”
“He got complimented by Shu? I’m jealous…”
“I wouldn’t lie about something like that,” Shu reassures him. “I’m sure Spryzen is looking forward to battling you.”
“Tell it that I wanna battle too!” Jaxon fishes out the bey he got from his pocket. All of the beys they gave out were random, and his just so happens to be a green-colored Defense Type. He stares at it, before pouting. “No, no, not this one!”
Jaxon turns to the black-haired boy standing behind him, and promptly takes his bey right out of his hand. This time, it’s a yellow Stamina Type, but he still doesn’t seem satisfied, putting it back into the other kid’s hand just as easily as he took it.
Shu should probably scold him for grabbing other people’s beyblades like that, but he’s quite intrigued by Jaxon’s antics. The boy goes down the entire line, plucking each person’s bey and then returning it when he inevitably doesn’t find what he’s looking for. Eventually, he’s reached the very last person, and his expression is nothing short of distressed.
“Nope, nope…” Jaxon looks up from his hand and suddenly locks onto Valt, who’s still chatting with his soon-to-be opponent, bey already in hand. His eyes light up.
“It’s alright if you mess up! Just remember—” Valt pauses, seeing Jaxon run to his side now, but he doesn’t join the line. Instead, he sprints right toward him and happily snatches Valtryek from his hand, smiling.
Jaxon looks at Valtryek in awe, and cheerfully returns to his place at the front of Shu’s line, not even bothering to glance at the person he’s just stolen from.
“Hey! You can’t just take Valtryek like that!” Valt calls after him, though he seems more surprised at how nonchalantly Jaxon ran off with his bey.
Jaxon glances at him. “Sorry! But, um, can I use it…? Just for one battle!”
“You really shouldn’t take others’ beys,” Shu finally tells him, but he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t entertaining to watch. “They’re not just things, you know? That one in particular is very important to Valt.”
“I know!” Jaxon insists, but he’s getting more remorseful by the second.
Valt’s still eyeing Valtryek, but after a moment, he laughs and turns his head. “Alright, alright. You can have it.”
“You mean it?” Jaxon questions, sounding much quieter than he has all day.
“Just one battle, like you said.” Valt replies. “But, you gotta win.”
“Huh?”
“Well, I mean, c’mon! If you’re gonna battle Shu with my bey, then you have to win. You’re not just gonna let Spryzen beat you, right? Valtryek doesn’t really ‘lose’ to Spryzen anymore.”
Jaxon listens, and very quickly, his frown is gone. “Okay! I can do that!”
“Are you serious—” Shu cuts himself off. Sure, Jaxon might be a talented kid, and Valtryek might be a seriously strong bey, but he still finds it incredibly insulting to say that it would win against Spryzen. “Well, we’ll see about that.”
“Thank you!” Jaxon looks back at the stadium. “It’s so cool… Best day ever!”
Shu smiles slightly. Jaxon really is completely enamored by everything around him, he can’t seem to decide on something to focus on. After all, it’s his first real beybattle.
“Whoa…!”
Jaxon almost trips in his excitement after both Valtryek and Spryzen hit the beystadium. Strangely, even though his launch was perfectly fine, Valtryek still moves awkwardly, as if it doesn’t quite know how to work alongside someone besides Valt. Nevertheless, Jaxon remains transfixed on both it and Spryzen, grin getting wider by the second. Even when his bey gets knocked aside or starts to wobble, his smile doesn’t lessen one bit. He appears to be marveling at Spryzen’s movements too, despite it being his opponent,
…It reminds Shu of something. Or perhaps, someone.
Click.
Valtryek lands in three pieces besides Jaxon, but he doesn’t register it, watching Spryzen spin on its own.
“So… cool…” Jaxon excitedly picks up Valtryek, clearly ready to go again. “Oh, wait, I already did one battle. Aw, man…”
“Yeah, but you had fun, right?” Valt asks him.
Jaxon nods furiously. “Yes! Super fun! It’s the best!” He looks to Valtryek, mumbling a little ‘bye’ quietly, before handing it back to Valt. “Thanks for letting me use it!”
“No problem,” Valt laughs, returning the Defense Type bey Jaxon had back to him. “But don’t take it again, alright?”
“I won’t!” Jaxon answers very seriously, but as soon as he spots Shu picking up Spryzen from the beystadium, he lights up again.
“Well, that was—” Shu starts, but is interrupted by Jaxon now running off with Spryzen. “I should have expected that.”
“Hey, I said I won’t take Valtryek again,” Jaxon giggles and runs to the front of the other line. “Not that I won’t take any beyblade!”
“I mean,” Valt shrugs. “He’s right.”
Shu blinks rapidly for a moment before sighing. “If it’s really just one battle, then I guess it’s okay. Just… don’t break it.”
Jaxon gasps. “Like I’d ever do anything to hurt a bey!”
“Yeah, Shu,” Valt plays along with him, feigning extreme disappointment. “How can you even say something like that? Jaxon would never!”
“I’m very sorry.”
Valt smiles at him. “Now that’s more like it.”
“Yeah, sure,” Shu mumbles under his breath, but he’s got his eyes on the right-side stadium now. Jaxon looks just as ecstatic as the first time, watching Valtryek zoom across. It’s much faster and more stable now, thankful to have its usual Blader back. Spryzen, on the other hand, moves almost angrily, as opposed to its usual calmer style. It can barely take any of its opponent’s attacks, but Jaxon doesn’t appear to care very much.
Click.
This time, Spryzen shoots up and bursts mid-air from a collision.
“Whoa, it’s there… but then over there?” Jaxon’s eyes follow Valtryek closely, and once Valt inevitably lifts it from the beystadium, his smile turns to a frown. “Hmph, I was watching!”
“Uh, sorry, buddy. But Valtryek can’t spin forever, y’know? It’s the kind that wears itself down after a while.”
“You’re just saying that…” Jaxon huffs and turns away, placing Spryzen back in Shu’s hand. “Spryzen is cool too! But it’s not that fast. I like the fast ones.”
“Spryzen’s not really supposed to be fast,” Shu replies, and Jaxon’s face scrunches up in confusion.
“Huh? Why wouldn’t you want it to be as fast as possible? Like Valtryek!”
“Because it’s not an Attack Type.” Shu explains. “It’s Balance. Speed makes it good at attacking, sure, but that weakens its stamina a lot.”
Jaxon doesn’t look convinced. “It could still be faster…”
“Yes, it could, but—” Shu stops, realising that nothing can change Jaxon’s mind about speed being the most important of a bey. “If you really like fast beys that much, you can watch as many of Valt’s battles as you like.”
“Watch? But that’s not as fun as battling!” Jaxon glances between both of the stadiums. Realising that he most likely won’t get a battle with either of Valt or Shu again, he pouts and sprints away to one of the others with his original Defense Type.
“Aw, I hope that kid isn’t sad now,” Valt mumbles. “He’s pretty good!”
Shu nods. “...Yeah. But we’re wasting time.”
“Hm? Oh—” Valt’s expression turns guilty after seeing the amount of children that are still waiting on him. “Sorry! Alright, you guys can actually start now, I guess I got caught up in Jaxon stealing Valtryek...”
The other kids don’t seem surprised at Jaxon’s antics at all, some even look like they expected more than just ‘borrowing’ a few beys. After any of them finish a battle with both Valt and Shu, he instantly runs and drags them to another stadium to go against him instead. Jaxon wins practically every match, but each time he just grins more and launches again. Occasionally, he tries out the other types of beyblades that his friends have, and takes a liking to another fast Attack Type like Valtryek.
…
“How do you do that?!” A little girl with brown hair asks Jaxon after losing to him. It didn’t take as much time as they thought for them to battle every kid there, fortunately.
“Oh, I’ll tell you!” He points to the stadium. “You just have to, y’know, make your bey go super pow and woosh! Then they’ll do these cool moves and the other one’ll definitely burst!”
“What…?”
Jaxon looks at her very seriously. “Yup! That’s all you have to do!”
She tilts her head, and fiddles around with her launcher. “Woosh? Pow? But those aren’t even words, are they?”
Another boy sneaks up behind her, whispering. “I don’t think he knows what that means either…”
She’s silent for a moment, and then sighs. “Yup, I thought so. Classic Jaxon.”
“Hey, hey,” the boy lights up with an idea. “We can just ask Shu to figure out his weird advice! He’ll know! Probably.”
“Oh, you’re right!” She replies, and the both of them approach Shu, who’s still chatting to Valt about something or another. “Shu! Can we ask you something?”
Shu quickly stifles a chuckle. “Yes, of course. What did you want to ask?”
“Um, see Jaxon over there?” The little girl gestures to a beystadium in the far corner, where he’s easily gathered a crowd of other kids. “He keeps winning against all of us, so we asked him for advice. But then he just said something about a woosh and a pow…?”
Valt freezes, turning sheepish all of a sudden.
“Yeah! And we don’t get what he’s sayin’ at all!” The boy continues for her. “So, what does he mean? You guys know, right?”
Shu tilts his head, and then promptly glances at Valt. “You tell them.”
“Huh? Why me?!” Valt answers almost defensively.
“You know why.” Shu smiles. “You’re way more familiar with this ‘woosh’ and ‘pow’ business than I am. Why not let an expert answer this question?”
“You still remember that?!” Valt gasps, and then looks both concerned and fond at Shu’s nod. “...Ack, fine. Basically, he means that you gotta launch your bey without holding back. If you hesitate even a bit, then it might mess the whole spin up, so you should be confident! The ‘woosh’ means that your bey should land on the stadium smoothly and the ‘pow’ means that it should be able to hit its opponent.”
Both of the children listen carefully, and then look at each other as if they just found out a secret. They actually bought that explanation? Shu is almost impressed. The little girl holds her launcher much tighter now. “Oh, that makes sense! I’ll definitely beat Jaxon now!” With that, she runs to join the crowd, and Jaxon looks delighted to see another opponent.
“Hey, wait for me!” The boy rushes after her, nearly tripping.
“Watch where you’re going!” Valt calls after the both of them, but no one seems to hear him. “Heh, Jaxon’s pretty popular around here. You sure that battle was actually his first one?”
“Yeah.” Shu answers, watching as Jaxon wins yet again. “But apparently, he’s been talking about wanting to become a Blader for a long time. That’s probably why he’s so excited, he’s finally getting what he wants.”
“Oh! That’s awesome! Maybe in like, ten years we’ll see him in a tournament? That’d be really cool… He’s definitely got the right vibe to be a pro Blader!”
“Right vibe? Is that really how you decide people’s potential?”
“Yeah! So what?” Valt shrugs. “Not like I’ve ever been wrong about that.”
“No, I guess you haven’t.” Shu chuckles. “He’s been battling for a while, but I don’t think he’s going to get bored any time soon.”
“Nah, no way! Did you see him during our battle? I don’t think he’s ever gonna get bored of blading.”
“Yeah. Reminds me of someone.”
Valt blinks, and turns away. “...When did you turn into such a sap?”
“Not that long ago.”
“Uh-huh. Sure.” Valt mumbles, but he’s smiling. “Man, how is it this late already? Feels like no time at all. We’re gonna have to leave soon, huh?”
Shu watches the children silently for a moment. The boy Jaxon just defeated looks close to tears, but quickly the rest of the kids cheer him up, including Jaxon, though he doesn’t seem to know how to. He must have said something ridiculous, because his opponent is taken so off-guard that he completely forgets about the battle, and laughs at whatever nonsense Jaxon told him.
He finds himself not really wanting to look away. There was a time where losing any beybattle would earn you laughs and mean-spirited comments from other Bladers instead of encouragement. Nowadays, even these children who didn’t much care for blading until today can cheer their friends up after a loss. Someone as talented as Jaxon would’ve been boasting about his constant wins if it was back then, but he still attempts to help the others anyway, though his ‘advice’ leaves much to be desired.
“...Yeah. But we can watch a little longer.”
—————
“Tch, this is so unfair…”
Valt kicks at a stray pebble on the ground, watching it roll for a few seconds before skidding to a stop. He’s tempted to stand up and kick it again, to see how far it’ll go that time. Maybe if he tries hard enough, it’ll go all the way to that bench. Something moves beside him. He looks away for a second, and suddenly the pebble is gone. Huh, it was just here. Where did it—
“Looking for this?”
Valt is rudely tapped by the same rock he’s searching for. “How did you even do that so fast?”
“It wasn’t that hard. You’re not really paying attention to anything right now, anyway,” Shu throws the pebble back on the ground. “What’s unfair?”
“Y’know, the fact that we left so early! It’s not like we’re doing anything important just sitting here,” Valt answers, frustrated. “You mean you didn’t feel like a supervillain after leaving all those kids? I don’t think I’m gonna get over this for a while.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“You’re just saying that.” Valt sighs. Shu’s barely convincing himself with that sentence. He wants to go back immediately, but there’s only so much time, and it’s already late. Most of the children are probably asleep by now, or just too tired to play with, anyway.
“I mean,” Shu replies, sitting down beside him. “It’s better than forcing them to keep going, right? I don’t think kids that young should be awake for this long.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Valt mutters under his breath.
…
When they walked past this little gazebo this morning, it was practically packed with another group of kids. Now it’s painfully quiet, everyone else must be asleep already.
Years ago, no one came here at all, because very few kids in their small town had an interest in blading, so he and Shu had it all to themselves. Sometimes the rest of the BeyClub practiced here too, but even they left eventually. With time, their ‘small town’ hasn’t exactly stayed very small, and now people tend to fight over their chance to battle in this little park. It’s become something of a legend now.
But tonight, they’re right back to before any of that.
“Well, if you really don’t want to just sit and do nothing,” Shu stands up, gesturing to the beystadium. “...Then we can battle.”
“Heh, you’re right,” Valt chuckles, fishing in his pocket for Valtryek.
…?
“Uh, Shu? Are you trying to play a prank on me?”
“What? No.”
Valt checks his other pocket. Not there. He looks around, maybe he took it out and then left it on a random bench somewhere. Not there. He pokes around for it in the small bag he carried. Not there. Not anywhere.
“Then where’s Valtryek...?”
Shu freezes. “Did you seriously lose it? Maybe you gave it to me, hold on,” Valt watches him check his coat pocket. Nothing. “Huh? But I kept Spryzen...”
“No way. We both lost our beys?” Valt considers it for a second. “Unless…”
His eyes instantly dart to the small bit of blonde hair he’s just now spotted behind one of the gazebo’s pillars. The person is small, just a kid, maybe five at the oldest. The tiniest bit of wide, blue eyes peeks out from the pillar, and he can hear a light, happy giggle. The spy seems to be delighted at finally being noticed.
“Hey, you’re Jaxon!”
Shu follows where he’s looking, and takes a step back in surprise. “You… aren’t you supposed to be asleep? What are you doing here? Your caretakers must be worried about where you are.”
“No, it’s okay,” Jaxon answers, laughing as he steps forward. “I followed you the whole way back, y’know? Both of you talk a lot. It’s funny.”
“Um, thanks?” Valt glances down, and finds both Valtryek and Spryzen in Jaxon’s hand. “Oh, so you’re the thief! When did you even have time to get those, buddy?”
“Oh, these?” Jaxon grins proudly. “I’m not telling you.”
Valt scratches the back of his head. “Right, of course. Well, we’d be really happy if you gave them back.”
“Nope.”
Shu tilts his head. “‘Nope’?”
“Nope! That means, I’m not gonna give ‘em back. Don’t wanna,” Jaxon answers completely casually.
“You don’t wanna? You kinda have to. I mean I know you think they’re cool and all, but you can’t just keep them.” Valt tries his best to sound convincing, but Jaxon doesn’t budge.
“Nope, I’m not giving ‘em back. But…” Jaxon giggles again. “If you battle me again, I might. Maybe.”
Oh. Valt exhales. That’s what this is about. He pushes himself up from the stairs, smiling. “You could’ve just started with that.”
“All for another battle?” Shu mumbles to himself. “Shouldn’t we—”
“Let him be,” Valt replies quietly. “Besides, I don’t think we’ve got any right to judge him for staying up late to have beybattles. It’s technically not midnight yet.”
Jaxon beams. “Yay! Okay, you can have them back now!”
“That was easy.” Shu carefully moves to take Spryzen back.
“No, no,” Jaxon shakes his head rapidly, taking back his hand as soon as Shu reaches out. “That’s boring!” Instead, he cheerfully gives Shu Valtryek.
Shu tries to reach and take Spryzen, but Jaxon’s already skipped back. He stays still for a moment in surprise, before quietly turning towards Valt. Quickly, he is dragged away to the stadium.
“No!” Jaxon insists, and runs to the other side before Shu can protest. “It’s more fun this way, I promise! Don’t you wanna try with Valtryek, too?”
“I don’t think he does, Jaxon,” Valt chuckles. “At least give me Spryzen?”
“Nope. If I do that, you’re just gonna give it back to him.”
“...You’re pretty smart, huh? Yeah, I was gonna do that.”
Jaxon glares at him with the most disappointment Valt’s ever seen on a child this young. It’s real enough to make him want to give in and apologise for even considering that kind of trick, especially with a five-year-old. At the very least, Jaxon recognises his remorse and brightens up.
“O-kay!” Jaxon’s eyes dart across the gazebo before landing on the beystadium in amazement. “Whoa… I didn’t even know there was a stadium so close by! Thanks for showing me! This place is so cool!”
“You’re welcome,” Shu mutters, and then awkwardly holds up Valtryek in his hand. It’s wrong and nothing like Spryzen at all. In fact, he might be the worst person for this particular bey. “But, you know I don’t really know Valtryek, right? I’m not exactly—”
“What?!” Jaxon’s disappointment returns again, directed at Shu this time. “You’re a legendary Blader! And Valtryek’s a legendary bey! It’s not that different from Spryzen! What do you mean you don’t know it? If I can blade with Valtryek, then you can too!”
“It’s not that I can’t, it’s just—” Shu exhales. “...Nevermind, I guess I can try.”
Jaxon nods in approval. “Good! C’mon, let’s battle already! I don’t like waiting.”
“I can tell,” Shu replies, glancing at Valt as if asking permission to use Valtryek. He just shrugs in response. Not like whatever I say’s gonna change Jaxon’s mind.
Though he wasn’t keen on anyone using his bey, Valt certainly was fixated by Valtryek’s performance in this battle. Unlike Jaxon, it at least knew Shu was, but it’s obvious that such an erratic bey doesn’t suit his best fri—er, husband’s—more precise style at all. Jaxon, on the other hand, seems to have taken another kid’s Attack Type beyblade, and for a moment, it looks as though Shu might actually lose just from the sheer disconnect between him and Valtryek.
He really is like me, Valt admits to himself in his head. That wide grin and fixation on the stadium is all too familiar to him, and he recalls saying the same thing about this place when he and Shu first found it. Even now, he hasn’t figured out why this small park has a beystadium at all. Maybe it was just fate, after all.
Though, he notices that Jaxon isn’t much unlike Shu, either. For one, he hasn’t messed up a single launch so far, and while he’s still too young to know the words for it, Valt can tell he’s observing the battle carefully—he seems to be doing it almost unconsciously, like the workings of beys just come naturally to him.
Click.
“Oops,” Jaxon mumbles, and quickly picks up the pieces of his bey. “But that was kinda weird.”
“What’s weird?” Shu asks him, yet he appears surprised too.
Jaxon points to Valtryek in the stadium. “Um, I could see it this time.”
“Huh? Of course you can see it.”
“No, no, not like that,” Jaxon closes his eyes, perhaps trying to recall something. “In my battle with Valt, it went super zoom everywhere. Like it was at one place, then the other in a second! It didn’t go zoom this time. Why?”
“Oh, right,” Shu hesitantly picks Valtryek up from the stadium. “It’s because this is Valt’s bey, not mine. I’m not really used to making beys go zoom like that. Since Valt’s had Valtryek for years, he knows how to use it better than me.”
Jaxon opens his eyes. “Huh. Does that mean you can’t make any bey go zoom? Even a fast one like Valtryek? That’s kinda sad.”
“No, I guess I can’t.” Shu replies, and quietly throws Valtryek back to Valt. Before he’s even processed it, Jaxon’s already caught it.
“No!” Jaxon almost sounds exasperated now. “Hey, Valt? If you can make Valtryek go super-duper zoom like that, then does that mean if you launch Spryzen, it’ll go zoom too? I wanna see that!”
Valt half-heartedly reaches out for Valtryek, but it’s torn away from him the second his hand lifts. “I’m not sure… I mean, I can do that ‘cause Valtryek and I are partners for life, y’know? I’ll try, but don’t expect much. I dunno if Spryzen is even capable of going as fast as Valtryek.”
“You’ll try?! Yay!” Jaxon rushes back to Shu—though not before carelessly chucking Spryzen at Valt instead—who’s been watching the entire interaction with varying degrees of amusement and concern. He pushes, or at least, tries to push Shu to the side.
“Okay, okay, I’m going! You don’t need to push me.”
“No, I do need to push you.”
Valt just barely manages to catch Spryzen before it clatters to the ground. He doesn’t really want to think about what would have happened if Shu saw it fall like that. By the time he reaches the stadium, Shu has already forcefully been shoved to the side, and Jaxon gives him quite a stern look before running back himself.
“Bolt Spryzen, huh…” Valt fiddles with the bey in his hand. It’s far more complicated than Valtryek, for sure. He remembers learning that Balance Types were the hardest to control, and Spryzen must’ve been the most difficult of all. Besides, he’s never considered using a different bey aside from Valtryek ever, and never planned to, either.
But he figures he should still try to ‘make it go zoom,’ so to speak.
“Hey!” Jaxon shouts at him. “C’mon! What’re you doing?!”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just thinkin’.” Valt laughs to himself, but Jaxon is not amused. He’s very good at making Valt feel guilty about stalling, despite not having spent that much time thinking at all.
Unfortunately, even Valt is incapable of making Spryzen ‘go zoom.’ It’s the kind of bey that requires you to know everything about it just to get it to launch properly. The only reason he can pull it off is because he’s seen it battle a million times before, and it’s nowhere near its usual strength. Valt wonders how Jaxon managed to have a half-decent launch with it, at age five, no less.
Yet, Jaxon doesn’t look very disappointed that Spryzen isn’t going as fast as Valtryek. In fact, Valt doubts he’d ever look anything less than enchanted during a beybattle. He does this too, fixate on a battle and forget that the rest of the world exists outside it, only focusing on the beys spinning in the stadium and how much fun it is.
He wouldn’t be surprised if Jaxon had more fun with beybattles than even he did.
Click.
Jaxon’s bey bursts on a particularly strong collision, though Spryzen wobbles and stops spinning soon afterwards. “Hmph… I lost again!” Jaxon grumbles.
“Awh, sorry, bud,” Valt walks over to him, kneeling down to reassemble the bursted bey. “You don’t have to be sad about it. You’ll definitely win next time!”
Jaxon lights up. “You mean I can battle you again?!”
“Yeah!” Valt answers, smiling, but quickly turns sheepish. “But, er, not right now. It’s too late, almost midnight! We’ll take you back, okay?”
He sees the boy’s expression deflate in real time, and he mumbles a very small and enthusiastic ‘okay.’ Valt’s surprised that Jaxon hasn’t tired himself out, with how much he was running around earlier and the number of beybattles he’s had today.
“It’s for your own good,” Shu reassures him, but the poor kid steals glances at Valtryek and Spryzen the whole walk back, clearly wanting to spend more time there. When he isn’t looking at their beys, he stares at the launcher he got today, turning it over and around tens of times to presumably try to understand how it works. Sometimes he spots another beystadium in a distant park and looks at it with the most longing Valt’s ever seen on a five-year-old.
They never heard the end of the caretaker, Ms. Erika’s apologies after they got back, something about ‘Jaxon’s just really passionate about these things’ and ‘he didn’t sleep for days after we told the kids you two would be coming here…’ Jaxon watched them until they left the entire area—or perhaps he kept watching them even after that and they just couldn’t see him after a certain point—refusing to go to sleep until they were completely out of sight, with an uncharacteristically sad face.
“Jeez, now I feel even worse for leaving that kid,” Valt finds his favourite rock on the ground again. This time it rolls for a while before being stopped by the gazebo’s steps. They always find their way back to this place eventually.
Shu watches the pebble for a moment. Does he want to kick it too…? Once it stops, he sighs and turns his attention to the empty beystadium. “He’s just a kid. I just hope he gets some sleep tonight, at least.”
“Whoa, you’re talking about sleep? Hypocrite.” Valt retorts. “Don’t act like you weren’t sad, too. Jaxon looked like he was gonna cry.”
“...A little sad,” Shu mumbles. “And I don’t need as much sleep as a child does.”
“Sure, whatever helps you not sleep at night, I guess,” Valt eyes Valtryek still in Shu’s hand. “Give it back.”
“No, I think I’ve taken a liking to it. Might just keep it to myself now.”
“You—give it back!”
Shu expertly moves his hand out of the way when Valt tries to get his bey back.
“Seriously? Fine, I guess I’m keeping Spryzen too!”
“Yeah,” Shu chuckles, much to Valt’s dismay. “We’ll see about that.”
—————
Shu found out the hard way that Jaxon was also just as stubborn as Valt.
Actually, Jaxon was probably more stubborn than Valt. After that day, the boy wouldn’t leave them alone. Somehow, he always figured out where they were and what they were doing and jumped them there. How he manages to sneak out so often and never get caught until he shows himself to them is a question Shu would very much like to know the answer to.
No matter how many times they have to return him back to the orphanage—each time, Ms. Erika’s apologies multiplied by ten—he always finds his way back. The other children were curious the first few days when he and Valt were there when they weren’t supposed to be, but even they caught on after the seventh or eighth time. Soon enough they became a regular there just because of Jaxon’s antics.
Ms. Erika definitely wasn’t lying when she said Jaxon was very passionate about Beyblade. Shu realised that himself early on, but only now has he really just how passionate the kid is. He talks about the sport constantly, always finding a way to relate whatever situation they’re in to a beybattle. Every time he sees other children blading, he instantly joins them and makes friends with them as soon as he can.
Beyblade is everything to Jaxon. Valt used to ramble about how ‘cool’ and ‘epic’ blading was when he was young too, that was how Shu found out what a bey even was in the first place. But he’d only talk about it if the topic was brought up. Jaxon never stopped talking about it, and never got bored of it. He practically lived and breathed it.
Which was why Shu found each encounter stranger than the last.
The first night, Jaxon seemed content after battling, but ever since then, he’d stay with them a little longer each time. He’d try a pastry at the random restaurant they were at, or convince them to watch a street performer that he found. Of course, that meant he got more and more upset when he inevitably had to go back, insisting each time that it was okay if he stayed with them for ‘just a little longer.’ Yesterday they saw him cry.
Oh, right, yesterday.
Yesterday, he managed to find their house and cheerfully greeted them at the door as if he was just a normal guest. It’s not a very extravagant house that any normal person would know that it's theirs, but Jaxon works in mysterious ways. Finding out that they had an entire beystadium to themselves there was just the tip of the iceberg.
After battling many, many times, Jaxon decided that he could stay there for however much time he wanted, and neither he nor Valt are very good at saying no to children’s whims. Eventually, Shu ended up giving a portion of the pasta he made to Jaxon, too, despite Valt insisting that ‘if he tries it once, he’s never going to forget!’
Valt was probably right, but how is Shu supposed to refuse such an adorable kid?
He also found out that Jaxon also has the same amount of appetite that Valt used to have at five, which is a lot. He’s not very picky, either, anything is fine, he doesn’t even mind vegetables that much. Valt slipped up and mentioned the concept of beybread to him yesterday as well, and after forcing him to make one of every bey that he could think of, Jaxon was fascinated by the idea that other dishes might have Beyblade incorporated into them too. Shu tried to brainstorm a so-called ‘bey-spaghetti’ recipe, but Valt stopped him because apparently such a thing would be too powerful.
Jaxon must have stayed there for hours, but he still refused to go back at all, tugging on Shu’s coat sleeve the entire time. It was difficult to not feel like a monster after seeing a child beg you to stay with them like that, even more so when he started crying. He really didn’t like seeing that. He doesn’t like seeing any child cry, of course, but this was technically his fault.
Nevertheless, Jaxon Cross—’Cross’ supposedly being his real last name according to Ms. Erika, though he seems to despise being called that—is nothing if not determined. That’s why Shu really shouldn’t have been so surprised when he followed them to the celebration for the BeyClub’s tenth consecutive win in the National Team Tournament.
Shu still can’t believe it’s gone to ten now. They haven’t lost a single battle in the tournament since the first time they won, back when Fubuki was leading the club. Ironic that the only tournament they didn’t win in was the very first one, with a team whose members are now all considered ‘legendary.’
The long, drawn-out formalities are over now, and all of the kids on the roster for the BeyClub this year are trying very hard to pretend like they don’t want to party—and not in the ‘normal’ way.
Shu doesn’t really like parties very much, they’re more of Valt’s specialty, but it would be wrong to not attend this one. Besides, it’s always both uplifting and a little frightening to see just how much the club grows every year without them finding out. To think that once upon a time, Valt could barely reach the five members minimum to even start it in the first place.
There must be over five hundred now.
Shu’s talking to one of the younger kids there, who is nothing if not starstruck at seeing him here. He’s about to say something when—
“Heeyy…”
Shu pauses, and the student looks confused. “Sorry, one second.” He looks down, and sure enough, Jaxon is clinging to his coat with a mischievous grin.
“Oh,” Shu chuckles. “You again.”
Jaxon sticks his tongue out at him. “Heh, found you!”
Shu’s not really sure how. As far as he knows, the celebration is only for members of the club, and the students that volunteer to make sure no one else sneaks in are very serious about their job. Plus, how did Jaxon even know this was happening?
“Whoa!” The young Blader he was talking to—Hinata, he recalls—finally sees Jaxon and jumps back in surprise. After the initial shock, he exhales and glances back at the small child. “Huh… you’re like, what, four?”
Jaxon shakes his head angrily. “No! I just turned five!”
“Right, right, sorry!” Hinata apologises, and Jaxon giggles at his expression. “Mr. Kurenai... you know this kid?”
“Yeah, very well,” Shu replies. “And just Shu is fine.”
Jaxon nods very seriously. “Yes, I know him!”
“O-Oh! Good to know,” Hinata stammers and then his face widens in realisation. “Wait, don’t tell me he’s your kid?! That would explain how he got here! Is that why you and Valt look so tired lately? Hey, I mean, congrats—”
“Er,” Shu interrupts. “...No. Not my kid.”
Shu looks down at Jaxon, expecting him to confirm that—is he… crying? Tch, now he really is a monster, and God, does he hate seeing that kid cry. It’s quiet and upset and real, not like when kids cry about not wanting to go to school or having to do their homework. It’s also far too reminiscent of how Valt used to cry back then.
“Ack! I’m so sorry!” Hinata throws his hands onto his own face, looking close to tears himself. Right, he’s a kid, too. “Hey, uh, don’t cry? Um, how about I get you some… uh.. there should be chocolate here… Yeah! How about I get you chocolate?”
“I don’t think that would help,” Shu mumbles. Jaxon sobs slightly when he looks away, and instantly he turns back. He can’t place why Jaxon’s crying, though. Is he that upset from being bored or is it because of that?
No, Shu reasons. It’s not that. It can’t be that, because that has certain… implications. If it’s that, then he has much more important things than this party to deal with right now.
“Hey, Shu! Did you hear? Principal Shinoda’s granddaughter—” Valt stops, spotting Jaxon and more importantly, the fact that he’s crying. Right, he must’ve been chatting away with the older kids. “Whoa, what happened to you, buddy? Shu say no to a battle or somethin’?”
As soon as he catches sight of Valt, Jaxon immediately sprints toward him. “He’s mean…”
“Mean?” He instinctively pats Jaxon’s head, but the kid just sniffs and doesn’t say a word, save for a small little sob here and there. Valt looks up at Shu and Hinata, confused. “What’d you guys do? He never cries like this.”
Hinata shrinks back, terrified, but Shu talks before he can apologise again. “I don’t really know. But it’s not Hinata’s fault.”
He’s lying, he knows exactly why Jaxon is crying. It’s just too that to say out loud.
“Huh?” Valt looks back at Jaxon. “Hey, buddy, whatever Shu said, I’m sure he didn’t mean it the way you think!”
…
“D’you wanna tell me about it?”
…
“No? That’s okay,” Valt nods, trying to reassure him. Jaxon still hasn’t said a word. He glances at the stairs for a second and then appears to have formed some kind of idea. “Hey, y’know… there’s a beystadium on the roof.”
“Wh-what…?” Jaxon looks up and Shu really shouldn’t keep looking at his crying face. It only makes him feel even more like a monster. “B-Beystadium?”
“Mhm!” Valt grins. “And you’re mad at Shu, right?”
Jaxon mumbles very quietly. “Little bit.”
“Then,” Valt’s smile turns mischievous. “You should go battle him there and beat him this time! That way, he’ll think twice before saying stuff like that again!”
“B-Battle?!” Jaxon’s expression shifts into a wobbly grin. “But I…”
“Hey, tell you what, I’ll let you use Valtryek.”
“Wait, really?!” Jaxon’s voice regains some of its usual excitement, and for just a second, he glares at Shu with vengeance. Shu, for one, hasn’t felt this terrible about himself since…
…Nevermind. He stays quiet, listening to Jaxon and Valt talk.
“Yup! Really! And…” Valt kneels down, whispering something to Jaxon that Shu can’t make out. Whatever it is, it makes the kid’s face light up again, so he’s grateful for it regardless. Valt hands Jaxon Valtryek, and stands up. “...Got that?”
Jaxon nods his head vigorously, holding Valtryek tightly as though someone might take it away from him. “Yeah! Thank you!” He quickly wipes away the tears on his face and grabs Shu’s wrist, already dragging him to the staircase.
“Good luck, Jaxon! But, I know you can win without luck too,” Valt calls out to him, and his face turns completely focused. Valt smiles, and then lowers his voice just slightly. “...And you gotta tell me what happened after the battle, alright?”
Shu realises he’s talking to him. “Yeah.”
…
For ten years now, the Beigoma Academy BeyClub has been associated with that gigantic gym downstairs. It makes sense, that’s usually where they practice after all, and that’s where all the celebration parties take place.
Shu understands that much, but this roof has always been the club’s real stomping grounds for him. The gym is for every sports club at Beigoma, really, and that’s certainly how it was when he was attending. There wasn’t much space there for the club most of the time, in fact, there wasn’t much space for Beyblade in general. That’s why Valt set up this little beystadium here, so they could have a place all to themselves.
“Whoa! It’s real!” Jaxon abruptly lets go of his wrist and runs toward the stadium, eyes wide with excitement.
“Mhm,” Shu hums lightly, and Jaxon glares at him in response.
“You!” Jaxon points at him very seriously. “Hmph, you’re definitely losing this time!”
Shu doesn’t reply, and silently walks to the opposite side of the stadium. He hopes that he’ll lose too, if that would keep Jaxon from bursting into tears again.
“Heh, y-you’re too scared to say anything!” Jaxon mutters. The stammer doesn’t suit him very well. He should sound jumpy and cheerful, like always.
Right, if Jaxon wants to win so badly, and that’s what would cheer him up, then Shu should mislaunch on purpose. But would that really work? He’d tried it once with Valt years ago and he didn’t like it at all, insisting that he wanted to win for real.
It’s not that he thinks Jaxon can’t win against him. He probably could, in due time. But it’s certainly impossible for that to happen now, no matter how talented he is. Shu would rather have a fake loss on his conscience than making a child cry twice in one day, especially Jaxon.
Especially Jaxon?
Shu doesn’t think about that for very long. He just goes with the plan regardless. It’s not a mislaunch, but Spryzen’s certainly losing spin fast enough that it’s bound to tip over soon. This way, Jaxon won’t realise that he did it on purpose and he can still—
“...Wait.”
Valtryek isn’t wobbly like it was when Jaxon launched it last time. It’s perfectly stable, tilted down just slightly to make contact with the stadium below it. It’s fast, really fast, and Jaxon is absolutely enamored by it. It zips across the entire outer line, and narrowly avoids all of Spryzen’s half-hearted attacks.
Then it shifts into a flower pattern. A very familiar flower pattern, knocking into Spryzen over and over again, like it’s gained a second wind. Jaxon is the one that performed it, yet this is probably the first time he’s ever seen this particular special move. He’s all but forgotten about crying now.
But Shu knows this very well, and last time he saw this trick—
Click.
Valtryek collides into Spryzen one last time before it bursts in the centre of the stadium.
“Hah! See?! I told you!”
“Huh…” Shu watches the remaining bey’s movement. That’s right, he does know this style. “That was impressive. Say, what do you call that move of yours?”
Jaxon looks up from where he was still watching Valtryek spin. “Oh! Um, I think Valt told me it was called Ultra—” He stops himself, sheepishly realising that he’s just blown his cover.
“I figured as much,” Shu chuckles, sitting down on the bench to observe Jaxon’s face turn from sheepish to curious. “It’s called Ultra Flash Rush Launch, right? Yeah, I know. I think it’s a mouthful too.”
“You know it?” Jaxon asks excitedly, though he’s a little saddened when Valtryek loses its stamina and falls over. He picks it up, and almost falls onto it in the process. Shu notices now that the kid’s hand just barely reaches the centre if he tries particularly hard. Despite that, Jaxon manages to do it and plops down beside him on the bench. “How? Wait, did Valt tell you, too?”
“Oh, no. I’ve just seen it before.” Shu answers. “It was one of his special moves years ago. He doesn’t really use it anymore.”
“Eh?” Jaxon looks surprised. “Why not? It makes Valtryek go suuuper fast! It’s awesome!”
“Well, Valtryek can do much more than just go fast and attack repeatedly now. It’s not called Ultimate Valtryek for nothing. You must’ve seen it on TV, right?”
Jaxon has stars in his eyes now. “Yup! It’s so cool! I don’t really get how, but Valtryek always has those awesome tricks and stuff! I didn’t even know beys could do stuff like that!”
“Mhm. It’s pretty great,” Shu nods. “Hey, can I ask you a question?”
“Huh? Me? Sure!”
Shu considers his words for a moment. Jaxon is in a good mood now, but children this young have the tendency to completely shift emotions in a matter of seconds. “...Can you tell me why you started crying earlier?”
“Oh! Um…” Jaxon looks away, embarrassed. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s not ‘nothing’ if you’re crying about it.” Shu replies. “You don’t have to tell me, but you shouldn’t brush it off as ‘nothing’ either.”
Jaxon glances at him for just a second before returning to look at the sky. “Um, I told Auntie Erika about it yesterday. She was super surprised and then she started crying too and saying stuff like ‘that’s wonderful’ or something like that. Then she started talking about what happened with Aiko last month.”
“Whose Aiko?” Shu asks, curious.
“Oh! She’s my friend!” Jaxon grins. “She likes blading too! We used to watch blading shows together. Um, I think she left last month with a pretty couple and Auntie Erika said that she got ‘adopted.’ All of my other friends were pretty sad but I don’t get why.”
“Well, aren’t you upset that your friend went away?”
Jaxon shakes his head. “Nope, Aiko was super happy when she left! Plus, she said that she’s gonna be a Blader too, and that once she gets her bey, she’ll tell me and then we’ll have a beybattle! When you guys showed up, I called her about it and she said she’ll ask her parents to get one for her.”
Shu listens intently. Surprisingly, Jaxon seems more mature than he thought at first, especially for a five-year-old. That friendship between him and Aiko reminds him of when Valt made him promise to get a Beyblade of his own if he didn’t have another career decided by the time he got his.
“That’s really nice. You two still talk often?”
“Mhm! Auntie Erika lets me call her whenever I want.” Jaxon closes his eyes like he did that first night, recalling something again. “Hm… but she was crying when Aiko left too. She always does that when people leave. I don’t think it’s that sad, it just means they got a family, right?”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Shu swallows slightly. So it is about that. He knew already, but he didn’t want to guess. “...Is that why you were crying?”
Jaxon opens his eyes, but he’s still looking absently at the sky instead of Shu. “Oh… you figured it out?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re smart,” Jaxon mumbles in response. “Auntie Erika said that she’ll tell you in a few days, and that I shouldn’t. Will she get mad at me now that you know anyway?”
“No,” Shu replies and Jaxon sighs in relief. “It’s not like you told me. But… you mean it? That’s not just a little thing, Jaxon. It’s really important.”
Jaxon huffs, dangerously close to crying again. “I know, I know. But I th-thought you and Valt liked me! You let me stay for a while yesterday! So what’s the problem…?”
There it is. Shu swallows again. In the last few weeks, his life really has taken a serious turn. It’s ironic that even deciding to organise an event at that little orphanage was just a random idea that Valt had and he went along with it. It certainly doesn’t feel like a coincidence now.
“No, Jaxon, we do like you, but—”
“Then that’s it!” Jaxon is suddenly locked onto him, determined. “I know Auntie Erika says it’s ‘complicated’ or whatever, but I don’t think so! Plus, you’re super smart, so you can figure it out!”
Shu somehow forgets whatever he was going to say after ‘but—’. It’s for the best, it was probably an excuse that Jaxon wouldn’t buy anyway. Perhaps if he were not Shu, he could have remembered and said no to the kid right there and then, and not felt all that bad about it.
If.
Shu exhales, reaching up to ruffle Jaxon’s hair. “Yeah, alright, I hear you. I’ll talk to Valt and Ms. Erika, okay?”
“Really?! Yay, you’re the best!” Jaxon breaks into another grin immediately, and scoots over to Shu on the bench. It’s fascinating how quickly children like him can go from being frustrated to cheerful in the blink of an eye if they’re told the right things.
“Thank you,” Shu smiles slightly, and Jaxon lights up even more.
“Okay, my turn to ask a question,” Jaxon decides, pointing at the beystadium. “Why’s it here? The celebration is downstairs, right? So why’s there a stadium here on the roof, too?”
“Oh, that. Valt set that up years ago, and no one bothered to take it out, I guess.” Shu explains and Jaxon peers at him curiously.
“Oh! Hm, but don’t you guys have one at home already? Why’d he need one on this random rooftop?”
Shu coughs slightly at it being called a ‘random rooftop.’ “We used to go to this school too. That’s why. Actually, Valt started the BeyClub, and it kept going even after we graduated.”
“Wait, really?” Jaxon gasps. “I thought you went to like, um, a special bey-school or something.”
“No, we didn’t. I’m pretty sure bey-schools don’t exist, either.”
For a moment, Shu wonders if he’s broken Jaxon’s entire worldview because the boy doesn’t respond for a solid fifteen seconds. “Aw, man… that means Aiko was right. I was sure that bey-schools were real! They’re in shows all the time! They should be real!”
Shu nods in agreement. “Maybe they’ll be invented someday.”
“Yeah! That’d be so cool!” Jaxon blinks. “But, if you didn’t go to a bey-school, then how come you’re so good at blading? I wanna be that good at blading, too!”
“I’ve just been practicing for a long time, and I like it. That’s the most important part,” Shu answers, then laughs to himself. “But I guess you’ve already got that perfected, huh?”
“Yup! No one likes blading as much as I do! No way!”
Shu pats Jaxon’s head again, and he looks nothing short of ecstatic. “Yeah, no way.”
Jaxon scoots even closer to him, examining the little stylised Beyblade symbol on his coat very carefully. He seems to like it, as he nods in approval a moment later. The noise downstairs has quieted down and… how did it get this late? The party must have finished by now.
“Hey, Shu! Don’t tell me you and Jaxon are still fighting,” Valt appears at the top of the stairs, and then pauses. “Whoa, not fighting at all. Sorry, am I ruining the moment?”
Jaxon jumps up from the bench, running over to Valt. “Thanks for letting me use Valtryek! I won this time! It was awesome! It went super zoom and woosh in the stadium and burst Spryzen!
Valt high-fives him. “Heh, serves him right. You had fun?”
“Mhm! Lots of fun!” Jaxon answers excitedly, though his voice is a little lower from being tired.
“Oh no, look at that. Even you’re tired now. C’mon, we’ll take you back.”
Jaxon glares at Shu. Right. He needs to tell Valt about that.
“Hey, Shu, you too! Why did you guys even stay up here this long? I thought you’d come back after like, ten minutes.”
“Just talking,” Shu mutters, trying to avoid Jaxon’s stare as he gets up.
“Huh. What happened that made Jaxon cry, anyway? You said you’d tell me.”
“...Later.”
—————
Valt was expecting a lot of things from that conversation, but it certainly wasn’t that.
Though, after he thought about it, it didn’t seem all that far-fetched. Why else would Jaxon keep following them around everywhere? Ms. Erika told them that he’d talked to her about it too, and she didn’t tell them out of fear that they’d want nothing to do with something like that. After what had to be hundreds of apologies, Valt was half-convinced she’d also start saying sorry for apologising so much.
Seeing Jaxon cry so much in one day really isn’t good for his psyche. It’s too wrong and quiet and feels too much like it’s his fault every time. He doesn’t even want to imagine what will happen if they refuse. Something tells him that he wouldn’t forget about it for years if that did happen.
Shu was much more open to the idea than he thought. Something about ‘do you think you could say no to that kid’s face?’ No, he couldn’t. It’s not like he doesn’t want to go ahead with it, but Valt figured he should at least tell his parents, and Toko and Nika. They deserve to know.
He’s convinced his mother is going to cry thrice as much as she did at the wedding. In fact, she’s already reached the double mark.
His father isn’t any better, though he’s desperately trying to seem like he is.
He needed to make Toko and Nika take a day off—Jeez, they’re twenty-five this year. He remembers seeing them as babies—but quickly both of them have turned from mildly concerned to shocked. Toko in particular looks to his sister every five seconds as if to ask ‘is he joking?!’ but Nika doesn’t have an answer for him.
Shu sits behind where he’s standing. Tch, that guy made Valt explain all of it himself.
“...And that’s the gist of it. So, I just wanted to ask if—”
Valt is cut off by Chiharu’s bone-crushing hug. It must be genetic, he reasons. She’s fully sobbing now, he can both hear and feel it.
“Oh, I can’t believe my boy is so grown-up already!”
“I think I’ve been ‘grown up’ for a while now, Mom…” Valt mumbles to her, but he can’t help but smile too. Seriously, it’s been a decade since he became an adult. Not like he can blame his mother, he didn’t exactly act very mature the first few years.
She laughs shakily. “You know what I mean.”
Toko peers over so Valt can see him. “You didn’t say all that just to mess with us, right? You’re actually adopting a kid?” He is promptly pushed slightly by his twin sister.
“Duh! Do you think this is something people joke about, Toko?!” Nika scoffs, correcting her now one ponytail. How things have changed. “But you guys!” She points at Valt and Shu accusingly. “You just got married last year, and you’re already doing this?”
“Oh, it’s alright,” Kento struggles to speak through the tears. “You kids have no idea how long your mother and I have been waiting for a day like this! To think you’re the same boy who made me tell your teachers that you actually—”
“Please don’t.” Valt interrupts him, and immediately he can see Shu’s face fall from the corner of his eye. He was definitely looking forward to hearing that story. He doesn’t need to, at least not for another ten years. It’s personal.
Chiharu chuckles, finally pulling away and wiping away her tears. “What are all of you even talking about? I couldn’t care less, I’m getting a grandchild for goodness sake! Who is it? I need to know! You can’t just keep this from me!”
“You’ll meet him soon enough.” Shu answers for him this time. At least he said something.
Chiharu lights up, now smiling widely though her tears don’t look ready to stop just yet. She returns to his father’s side, whispering something to him that makes both of them giggle. Valt’s not sure if he wants to know what it was.
Poor Toko, his eyes are still wide as saucers, and he looks as though his entire world has been flipped upside down. Valt’s seen him pinch himself a total of thirteen times today, and now he just did it for the fourteenth time. For complaining so much about having to give up a day of training, he’s completely forgotten about it, and might genuinely faint if any other information is conveyed to him.
Nika, on the other hand, seems to be considering which of her five-thousand questions to ask them first. “So! What’s my nephew’s name?”
Nephew? Whoa, she adjusted fast. “Jaxon.” Valt almost adds the ‘Cross’ on instinct, but that’s wrong now.
“Huh, that’s not a name from around here. Did Shu pick up some kid in New York?” Nika asks curiously.
Shu coughs. “I wouldn’t do something like that.”
“...No, he didn’t,” Valt confirms. He’s never really thought about it before, but she’s right. Jaxon doesn’t have a Japanese name at all, but he doesn’t appear to be an outcast in this town at all. His aversion to his own last name is something to take note of. “I’m not fully sure yet. He doesn’t like talking about it very much.”
Nika nods like this makes complete sense. Toko blinks rapidly beside her and exhales, trying to calm his nerves. It doesn’t seem to work.
“Soo…” Toko starts, stops, and tries again in a second. “Does the kid know about the whole Beyblade thing? I mean you guys are kinda famous and all.”
“No, he doesn’t know about it at all,” Valt says sarcastically, but for one terrifying moment, Toko believes it. He quickly shakes his head. “Okay, I was kidding that time. He really likes blading. Very much. He’s great at it too! I’m pretty sure he’ll be a top Blader when he’s older. You have to see him in a battle. Actually, I’ll—”
“Dude, stop it! You’re already starting to talk like a dad, it’s creeping me out,” Toko stops him suddenly, and he does actually look a little frightened. “Tch, I was hopin’ you’d stay dumb and irresponsible forever so I could at least have that over you. Then last year you did the whole ‘getting married’ thing and now you’re saying you’ve got a whole kid? Nothin’ in my life makes sense anymore…”
Nika pats her twin’s shoulder pityingly. “There, there, Toko. I’m sure you’ll find someone for you eventually. Probably. I hope so, anyway.”
“Thanks for nothing, Nika.” Toko shoots back, and she just laughs in response. He ignores her and keeps talking to Valt. “So he wants to be a Blader too.”
“He already is, technically.” Shu corrects quietly.
“At five?”
“Mhm.”
Toko stares at Shu, then pinches himself for the fifteenth time. Valt is curious whether he even realises he’s doing it at all. “Well, I would say that I’d like to teach him blading sometime but…” He gestures to the both of them. “Guess he’s already got two mentors as a bonus for getting adopted.”
“Giving up already, brother? That’s such a you thing,” Nika sighs dramatically. Alright, Valt admits to himself. Guess they haven’t grown up at all. It’s better this way, he couldn’t live with it if they were too different.
“Oh, I almost forgot!” Chiharu turns to Shu and gives him the same full-force hug from earlier. “Thank you so much for keeping Valt in check!”
Keeping me in check? Maybe Valt hasn’t grown up either, since that comment still annoys him the slightest amount. Shu mumbles something close to “It’s not a problem” but Chiharu doesn’t hear him in her excitement.
“Hey, kid,” Kento pauses and bursts out laughing. “Sorry, you’re no kid anymore, are you? I was a good few years younger than twenty-eight when you were born. Well, I trust you two’ll be good at it, but ask for help sometimes if you need it, ‘kay?” He tilts his head at Shu. “That goes for you too.”
Shu blinks once. “...Yes, I know.”
“Absolutely sure you know?” Valt asks on his father’s behalf.
“Yeah, I know.”
—————
Shu has discovered that Jaxon looks far too perfect when happy for him to ever deny him anything.
Just the expression that Jaxon had when he found out that he really was staying with them will stay in his mind forever. He keeps replaying that particular moment over and over again, and can’t help wanting to see that expression over and over again too. Jaxon isn’t exactly a very demanding child, but he certainly is never going to need to ask for too long before Shu gives in.
How unfortunate, isn’t he supposed to be the responsible and realistic one of the two? His public perception will surely see a drastic turn if anyone ever figures out just how often he caves to that kid—no, his son, now—’s every whim. He doesn’t mind that idea, since he’s never cared for his reputation all that much anyway.
Not that Jaxon is perfectly easy to take care of. He can’t place a number for how many times Valt has had to chase him through the whole house. It’s amusing, and as Chiharu puts it, karma, for making her run everywhere to find him, too. Jaxon also has enough energy to power a city, and he never wastes any of it. Until night-time, anyway, then he falls asleep as soon as he flops onto the bed.
Ms. Erika was just as delighted as Jaxon then, swapping out her countless apologies for countless ‘thank you’s this time. In the middle of all those variations of expressions of gratitude, she mumbled along the lines of ‘are you going to tell people?’ People, as in, other people, not just Valt’s family.
They haven’t decided on that yet. Jaxon would probably say yes if they asked him, but he’s too young to understand the real consequences of the entire world knowing who he is. Shu didn’t think to tell anyone, except Fubuki, and that conversation was more than enough for him—he couldn’t make out any part of what the other was trying to say after the tenth ‘are you sure?!’
Fubuki turned out to be a lot more excited about this development that Shu expected him to be. Something about how he had ‘another little brother now,’ Lain was supposedly the first one. Nowadays, he’s become much more mature and level-headed, but when Shu talked to him about Jaxon, he’s right back to that starstruck child that he met on Beigoma’s rooftop. The only thing he seemed distraught about was that this would inevitably mess up Shu’s sleep schedule even more than it already is.
“Yes, I promise I’ll try to rest more, Fubuki...” He’d mumbled on the phone, and he just hoped Fubuki took him at his word. Shu has to say it, because he’s not looking to die by his own student’s hands anytime soon. Or ever.
He’s definitely going to break that promise though—but Fubuki doesn’t need to know that. As long as he gets everything done, it’s fine. Besides, he can live off just a few hours of—
“Nope, not today,” Valt rudely blocks him from the kitchen. What? That’s his kitchen. “You look like you’re gonna pass out from exhaustion. Go keep Jaxon company, alright?”
“Huh? But then who’ll—”
“Me, duh!” Valt gently pushes him toward the table. “Now go. Sit down!”
Shu reluctantly takes a step toward the table, and Jaxon giggles from his chair, watching them. “You’re gonna cook? I trust you with the baking but—”
“Oh, c’mon, it’ll be fine! I can learn, I always learn fast,” Valt insists. “Plus, sushi can’t be that hard to make, can it? Don’t worry!”
Shu sighs and mutters a ‘whatever you say’ under his breath before sitting besides Jaxon. He instantly perks up, moving his chair closer to Shu’s. “Papa! Good morning! Hi hi!”
Papa? Shu’s heard it a lot the past few days, but he’s not sure if he’ll ever get used to it. Maybe in a decade, or two. It sounds nice though, really nice.
“Good morning,” Shu smiles, ruffling Jaxon’s hair. He really likes that, and starts giggling again. It’s seriously unfair. He doesn’t understand how anyone could ever not want to hear that sound forever.
“What happened?” Jaxon asks quietly, like it’s a secret.
“Nothing too important,” Shu answers, though he keeps glancing at the kitchen door. Is Valt really going to be okay in there…? “Apparently you’re gonna have sushi today.”
Jaxon grins. “Really? Yay! I’ve never tried it before, but I see it on TV sometimes!”
“TV? I’ve never seen you watching cooking shows.”
“Nope, not cooking shows,” Jaxon explains. “But there’s tons of sushi in blading cartoons too! I dunno why, but it always looks really good there.”
“Oh, right,” Shu laughs softly, remembering those… interesting cartoons. There’s one that Jaxon loves in particular, one about an exceptionally talented Blader who uses his skills to help a little boy escape from some thugs. It’s an old show, even older than him, considering it still depicted second-generation beys instead of the current third-generation.
Even Jaxon seems to realise the absurdity of that show, though. It paints Beyblade as some kind of mystical art with its own spirits and practices. Shu remembers hearing about a connection between beys and mythology, but he’s certain that there’s no malicious deity looking to destroy the world with Beyblades, either. It is quite entertaining though, and the protagonist’s bey reminds him of Valt’s in a way, so he tries to understand it for Jaxon’s sake.
“Buuut, aren’t you the one who makes the yummy food?” Jaxon questions all of a sudden, trying to see through the tiny opening in the kitchen door. “Why is Dada doing it today? Are you sick?!”
“No, no, I’m alright,” Shu answers quickly. Dada, huh? He’s not getting used to that either. “Valt just wants to try today. So why not let him?”
“Oh, okay!” Jaxon smiles. “Can I try?”
“You? Well, you’re a little young for that, sweetheart. You might burn yourself.”
Jaxon pouts. “Eh? No! I’d be good at it. You can teach me.”
“Maybe when you’re older,” Shu mutters, and Jaxon’s pout deepens. “Okay, okay, you can help me another day, alright?”
“Thank you!” Jaxon goes back to smiling. Good.
Suddenly, there are two plates on the table, one in front of him and one in front of Jaxon. When he looks up, Valt is grinning like an idiot, clearly far too proud of… what is that? Shu’s not sure if the food on the plate could even count as sushi. It looks like it could make a real sushi chef cry if you just showed it to them.
“Heh, that wasn’t even that hard,” Valt leans on an empty chair, gesturing to the ‘sushi.’ “C’mon, don’t just look at it. Try!”
Jaxon’s too young to realise just how unique this particular type of sushi is, but Shu’s not sure whether he even wants to know what is in that abomination, let alone eat it. Experimentation is a crucial part of cooking, but that is far too much in the ‘ridiculous’ direction.
“Are you serious…” Shu mutters under his breath, but Valt just shrugs, as if to say ‘don’t knock until you try it!’ He doesn’t want to try it, no matter how much he might trust Valt. Maybe just one bite couldn’t hurt…
He’s wrong. Very wrong. Shu regrets his decision as soon as he registers the taste. There’s at least six separate, clashing flavours in the dish, and if any of them would taste good on their own, they certainly weren’t right now. It’s absolutely atrocious in a way that he would almost feel bad for Valt, if he wasn't currently being forced to eat it.
Valt notices his expression and his face falls. “Awh. Fine, how bad is it?”
“It’s okay,” Shu reluctantly gulps down the thing that’s trying to imitate sushi. “I still love you.”
“Oh,” Valt sighs in relief. “Phew!”
“It’s still disgusting though.”
Valt exhales. “Yeah, I knew it.” He turns to Jaxon, who has been watching their conversation with a curious expression. “What about you, buddy?”
Jaxon blinks, and then takes a bite of the ‘sushi.’ He eats it quickly, and his eyes seem to glow when he opens them again. Shu can’t believe it. “Whoa! I love it! It’s super yummy!”
What?
“Thanks—” Valt replies instinctively, then looks surprised himself. “Wait, really?”
Jaxon nods. “Yup! It’s the best! Try it, you’ll love it too!” He takes another bite of the sushi, chewing happily. He’s not lying, Shu can tell, but it makes no sense. There’s no way he actually enjoys that sad excuse for a dish.
“Huh.” Valt plucks one of the pieces from his plate and tries it himself. Quickly his face turns just as disappointed as Shu’s was a second ago, mixed with confusion. “Uh…”
Jaxon is completely unfazed, easily finishing another piece. “Hm? What’s with the face? It’s really good! Best food ever!” He declares confidently and then returns to munching.
Shu watches him, and he really does look like he’s eating a five-star meal. Jaxon’s smile is even wider than when he tried the pasta for the first time. It’s almost unnerving how much he’s enjoying it. After there’s only a few left on the plate, he eyes Shu’s longingly.
“Yeah, you can have it,” Shu pushes the food towards him, and Jaxon excitedly plucks the sushi and places it on his own plate. He doesn’t take all of it, though, which means Shu might actually have to finish this on his own.
“Alright, alright, I’m sorry! I know it’s, er, not the best,” Valt admits sheepishly. “You don’t have to eat it if you don’t want to. I can—”
“No, it’s okay,” Shu answers, still fixated on how happy Jaxon looks as he chews the food. It’s way too perfect. “He likes it. So it’s fine.”
Valt glances at Jaxon, sighing fondly. “Oh yeah. Don’t really get why he likes it so much, but I’m not complaining. Guess I should try to make sushi more often. If he likes this so much, he’ll probably go crazy for something even half-decent.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Shu agrees. “But just let me do it next time.”
“Eh, you couldn’t’ve come up with something like this.”
“Yeah, and I don’t want to be able to, either. It’s awful.”
“I know.”
Shu doesn’t reply after that, content with watching Jaxon eat away, even if he will never understand how he could possibly like it.
—————
A different reporter pushes his way into the front of the crowd, and a different mic is shoved in Valt’s face.
He doesn’t really feel like there’s been any change whatsoever. Most of the questions he’s been asked today are just the same, boring ones he gets asked at every interview. The identity of the person holding the mic doesn’t make much difference in the long-run.
Usually. Sometimes, there are outliers who ask the strangest, most abstract questions that Valt can’t even comprehend in the fifteen seconds they allow him to ponder. Other times, the reporters are genuinely clever and experienced, letting him actually say something worth people’s time to watch on TV. It’s rare, but he’s grateful for every time it does happen.
Mostly, it’s little ‘ambushes’ like this. Back in Barcelona, they used to only happen when the entirety of BC Sol was out and about together, and Valt was just one of many Bladers to get bombarded. In the past three years or so, so much has happened that their questions never quite cease, and most of them aren’t worth answering, or simply too intrusive. The amount of ‘ambushes’ has thus increased tenfold and now he can’t even fall on Free or Silas to deal with them for half a minute.
Valt answers them anyway. Even if it’s the thousandth time he’s been asked about why he lives in Japan now, it’s the first time for that particular reporter to ask it. He can’t imagine how it must feel to be the only one out of a group of your colleagues to not get an interview with a celebrity, but he certainly knows how it feels to think you’re worse than everyone else you’re competing with.
Right now, he’d really rather just go home though.
He was supposed to be back in fifty minutes, but every minute he spends here proves that he won’t, not today. Plus, he isn’t just missing out on a random training opportunity or being interrupted while hanging out with his teammates—he has a very important, very real responsibility, and that ‘responsibility’ is a very impatient, very energetic five-year-old.
Valt exhales, preparing for another random interview. Hey, at least, this is the last reporter he has to talk to today, so if he can get this done fast and make a run for it, he’ll only be around ten minutes late. He would have liked to be zero minutes late, but what can he do?
“I understand you might be in a hurry, Valt, but there has been a particularly interesting development that you might have something to say about,” The reporter says, and he looks bright, as though he’s sure that this will be some kind of big break for him. “Lately, for around the last two months, you and Shu have been spotted all around town with what seems to be a five-year-old boy. Today, we saw that same child looking out of your house’s window. Just who is this boy?”
Valt freezes. They know already?!
He swallows once. He thought he had more time to figure out what the public should and shouldn’t know about Jaxon, but now the question is right in front of him, and the reporter doesn’t look willing to give up his shot at a breakthrough. There’s no way he can dodge this, which is a testament to the reporter’s skill, but makes it a hundred times more difficult for Valt.
He glances to the side, and sure enough, there is a camera recording. It has been recording for a long time now, but he’s only just noticed it. Valt’s gotten used to being on camera and TV, unlike that first conference after the International Blader’s Cup. He still cringes at that one whenever it’s brought up. It’s not the stage fright this time, more so that Shu and Jaxon are surely watching this right now and he has no idea how to answer.
He looks back before anyone can notice that he’s stalling answering the question. Should he just tell them the truth? He would like to think that telling the public would be a good thing, and Jaxon would definitely say yes if they asked him. But he’s just a child and Valt’s not that stupid anymore.
Valt was famous at sixteen, more than a decade older than Jaxon is now, and even then there were those questions. There is a real threat to the kid’s safety if people know who he is, at the extreme level. At the lesser level, there will be thousands more to answer and he knows very well how personal those questions can get. At the very, very short-term level, it means that he’ll be here for another hour and a half.
But then what should he do? Valt’s decent at lying, but this question requires a much more well-thought out lie than anything he can come up with in thirty seconds. Not only does it need to be something that it needs to be something that he and Shu can keep up for a long time, but also something that Jaxon can play along with, too. If Jaxon really is that much like he was at five, then it won’t be easy for him to understand a complicated cover-up.
Valt’s mind races with ideas—some normal, some absolutely ridiculous—but he can’t decide. If he doesn’t answer in time, the people will start to think he really is covering something more important and that never ends well. Uh, what would be normal for me and Shu to do?
He thinks for another two seconds. Oh, right, that! Duh!
“Oh, you saw Jaxon?” Valt fake-laughs. He’s good at it, so the crowd buys it. “Guess you could say he’s a real blading prodigy. That’s why both me and Shu took him as an apprentice!”
…
The reporter looks confused for a moment before returning to a professional smile. “Apprentice? Both you and Kurenai’s? Is this… ‘Jaxon’ really so talented?”
“Oh, yeah! ‘Course he is.”
“I see,” the reporter nods once. “Then why is there no information on him? Surely such a young prodigy would be well-known by now.”
Tch, Valt would have bit his lip if he wasn’t on camera. Since when did these guys get so good at this?
“Ah, you see,” Valt starts. “He’s not really old enough to be a professional Blader yet. He hasn’t been in a real, official battle yet, so of course there’s no data on him.”
“Is that so? Then, could you tell us something about this hidden gem of a Blader?”
No, I don’t want to, Valt would really prefer to say something like that instead.
“Tell you?” Valt grins. “Then what would be the point in keeping it a surprise?”
The reporter smirks for a second in triumph before realising where he is. “Surprise, hm? I suppose we will know in due time, then?”
“Mhm!”
For an agonising five seconds, Valt is terrified that he might have to answer more questions about Jaxon. Thankfully, the reporter gestures something to the cameraman and the latter nods, turning the recording off. Phew.
As soon as the crowd has lessened a little, Valt slips away. He needs to get home right now.
…
“Hmm,” Jaxon changes the channel once Valt’s interview has concluded, thinking to himself. Shu figures he doesn’t understand many of the words that either Valt or the reporters used, which is good, because he doesn’t need to know all of that.
Jaxon turns his head to look at him, curious.
“What’s an ‘apprentice’?”