DISCLAIMER: Bakuten Shoot Beyblade belongs to Aoki Takao and Sign of Wish belongs to Makiyo.

I got the idea for this fic while listening to Sign of Wish during a rainy night. The scenes just kept on entering my mind for some reason; I couldn't control my mind and since I haven't read a fic with this kind of plot, why not try it? If there's any story which resembles this, what a coincidence. Oh yeah, I'm using the characters in their G-Revolution forms already but since the time setting is between 2002 and G-Revolution, their attitudes are still pretty much the same, so meaning Takao is not yet the (more) mature guy that he is in G-Revolution.

Since I'm editing my notes...

I found a more credible chorus translation of Sign of Wish while I was inactive in writing fics. Still, I give thanks to Sakuraa HiME for including another chorus translation in a review. I appreciate it a lot.

Anyway, let's get it on! Hope you enjoy!

I believe my dream is short-lived but in this corner of the world

As I endure sadness while I wait for those brilliant days

It will never fade...

A sign of wish

SIGN OF WISH

ChApTeR 1

"This is it. This is the very last time, I swear."

"Takao, I've heard you say the same words just a few days ago."

"No, I mean it, Kyouju. This is the last time I'm getting a needless class cleaning because of Hiromi. Does that girl have a grudge on me or what? I always receive some sort of punishment from her practically every day!"

"Not that I can blame her. You always come late, disrupt the class often, not to mention 'conveniently' forgetting to clean the classroom when it's rightfully your turn—"

"Whose side are you on, anyway? Mine or hers?" Takao accompanied that demand for a question with a slight glare in his dark eyes.

"No one's." Kyouju put up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Don't include me. Besides, I thought you said before you'd rather serve detention without her around. And since she left school early today, you got your wish, didn't you?"

"I'm beginning to wish I didn't actually wish at all. Having Hiromi stay with me to make sure I don't escape is one bad thing. Serving an ordered needless punishment with all the other girls guarding me is another, just worse. I couldn't get out!"

"And you weren't happy." How observant of Kyouju. "So Hiromi-san managed to get our classmates' cooperation to make sure you do your job, is that it? I never thought our teacher would agree but she did. Well, we can't help it if we have such a very nice homeroom teacher."

"Or more likely, she sweetened her act while at it. 'Sensei, there's something important I need to do this afternoon but Takao has to clean the entire classroom alone for coming late and disturbing the class with his antics for the nth time. Oh, what should I do to keep him in check without me around?'" Takao clasped his hands together near his neck, head bent sideway with eyes raised heavenward while mimicking in a ridiculously high-pitched tone what was supposedly Hiromi's voice, starry-eyed with sparkles and all.

"Now that's exaggerated. Hiromi-san never said that to begin with. Maybe you just thought you were lucky when she had left immediately because no one was going to watch over you. I guess you ran out of luck."

"I wouldn't be even in that room in the first place if it weren't for Hiromi. And in case she forgot, which she probably did, that important thing happens to be a small farewell party for Rei and Max at my place, and she's free and off to shop for it while she expects me to help a lot to prepare it. You think that's possible when she had me stuck with cleaning the classroom all by myself? I don't mind about the party for our friends but she has to stop being a pain in my neck even for just a week."

"You shouldn't say stuff like that about Hiromi-san. She's your friend."

"That's the problem! She's supposed to be my friend! I thought after everything we'd been through, from our first encounter with the Saint Shields to the very last battle with ZO, she'd be a lot nicer to me during class, but noooo! Inside school, she's still the same old bossy class president I always have to put up with."

"I guess inside school, her duty is more important than your friendship."

"No kidding. There must be some way to stop her from continuing making my life hell."

"Come on, she's a different person when it comes to the team and beyblading."

"How I wish. If it's not about food, it's about how long I sleep. I bet she's never like that around you guys, especially Kai. In fact, I think the only time Hiromi's acting humane is whenever Kai's around. It's like all of a sudden she becomes super nice to everyone, including me—" He stopped, realizing what he was saying.

Kyouju's brows rose. "What?"

A piece of memory flashed him its light. Wait a minute… Takao remembered those two times he had asked Hiromi pointblank if she had a crush on Kai after catching her in the act of secretly gazing at the older teen sometime after their last tournament. The third time had been about her faint blush though. Of course the girl had been in major denial about it but to the Japanese champion, it hadn't been much of importance to him.

Until now anyway. Yeah… The wheels of brilliance in Takao's mind started working on the formation of an idea. An idea too brilliant to be true. But if it was going to work to his advantage, then why not try it? It was also amazing how fast he could come up of a way to execute it. "I think Hiromi likes Kai, as in more than just a friend. And we can prove it."

"We?" Kyouju echoed. "You're not thinking about including me to—"

Takao nodded. "Why not? It's the perfect solution, Kyouju! If we can prove that Hiromi really has a crush on Kai, not that I think she'll approve letting the news spread, then I'll have a hold on her and make her stop bugging me and ordering me around! I mean, she doesn't have any plans in letting Kai know how she feels about him, does she? Hey, maybe it's my turn to order her around. That would be so much fun as a payback for a change." Okay, so it was more of a scheme than a real solution, but hey, as someone said before, the end justifies the means, right? Or was that the means justifies the end? Ah, who cares? Once he had the control over the brunette—

"Your plan is to blackmail her?" Kyouju shook his head. "Well, count me out. This is a bad idea. Hiromi-san's my friend, our friend, and with that plan of yours she'll only get hurt when she finds out."

"Come on, Kyouju! We'll just see her reaction, that's all. We won't really hurt her."

"You're not even sure about your guess."

"It's not a guess, Kyouju. It's a fact and I'm absolutely sure. All that it needs is living proof."

"I don't want to join you. Hiromi-san's been a good friend to me. I think the reason why you want to do this to her is that you have a problem with each other."

"Not that she'd care about knowing that," Takao muttered.

"Care about knowing what?"

Takao's body turned into hard stone at the sound of Hiromi's inquiring voice just three feet away from him. Damn it, did she hear what we're talking about? Just imagining the dreaded answer sent chills down his spine. "Hiromi," he greeted weakly, turning to face his dark-haired oppressor carrying sets of grocery and shopping bags in her hands. Oh no, she's not smiling.

"So you finally got out," the girl stated, staring at Takao in suspicion. "I hope you didn't attempt escaping from duty again."

"Yeah, yeah." With your horde of brainwashed followers heavily guarding me, how can I even try? Takao rolled his eyes. As he did, he took note of the dull gray sky above him, pulling at his red jacket a little tighter. The wind had been blowing weirdly lately, he noticed, but his paid attention to that died the moment his eyes fell on Hiromi's less than enthusiastic face. "How long have you been standing there?" Say you just got here, please say you just got here!

"Long enough to hear you say that I wouldn't care about knowing something." Hiromi's face was scrunched up with a frown. "Is there something you know that I don't?"

Good enough, Takao thought, relief washing over him at her answer. Then he did his best to adopt a somber expression. I hope I can pull this off properly. "Well… yeah. It's… Never mind; you wouldn't be able to understand it."

"What is it? Tell me." Hiromi's attention was fully captured. "Maybe I can do something about it."

"It's… It's about Kai. I'm just worried." Takao's voice oozed with fake sadness and worry. "Well, forget what I said; you can't help anyway."

"Takao, how can I even try to help if you don't tell me what the problem is?" Hiromi was visibly filled with impatience but Takao could have sworn he detected a glimmer of worry in her eyes. "What's this about Kai?"

Takao stared at the ground. "Well, for the past few days, he's been becoming more distant and colder to everyone, including us. We try to figure out what's wrong with him and ask him what's the matter but he just keeps on brushing us off. He just doesn't care."

The brunette's eyebrows scrunched. "Really?"

Takao nodded. "I think Kai has a problem but he won't let us help him or even let us know. Lately he keeps on disappearing from everyone else's sight, sometimes even during the night."

The worry in her eyes grew but then suddenly vanished. "Nice try, Takao."

"W-What?" Oh man, she didn't fall for it? "What do you mean?"

"Oh please, Takao. You've always been such a bad actor. Like remember the time you wanted to show up so badly at that tournament where you were first defeated by Ozuma and you tried to pretend you were having some problem with your—"

"I know, I know." But you fell for that in the end, he wanted to say but bit back that comment instead. One wrong word and his plan would fail for good. "But this time it's different. I'm telling the truth, honest! Kai may be even drinking without us knowing it!"

"You can try it the next time, Takao." If Takao thought Hiromi wasn't capable of scoffing at anyone, well, he did now. "I'm not falling for another of your award-deprived acts again."

"This is a serious matter, Hiromi!" Takao yelled, secretly in great surprise that his voice was filled with anger he didn't know where it originated. But his desperation for his plan to work was getting into him, making him act in ways he couldn't control. "I didn't know it's so bad to care about one of my closest friends! Kai's suffering from some problems none of us has an idea of, and I can't help thinking if he's doing some stuff just to forget about them. What if he has been drinking in secret, even as of this moment? He wasn't even in the dojo when I woke up today." That last sentence was actually true, he realized, but what mattered now was for Hiromi to believe him. "Of course, you wouldn't know about that. You're not around the team lately, only just now for the party."

The disbelief in her eyes sparked again but soon diminished. "So is Kai really… having problems?"

Takao nodded, then swept his gaze across the darkening sky, unable to look directly at Hiromi in the eye. Cool wind blew once again, teasing his bangs to block out his eyes and he brushed them away from his face.

Hiromi followed his gaze although she mistook its message, a worried look on her face. "Takao, Kyouju, I'll be back in a minute, okay?"

Dragoon's wielder watched as the girl hurried to the nearest telephone booth and made a call. After a minute or two, she emerged, now seeming to be in a hurry.

"What happened?" Kyouju inquired, visibly confused by her actions.

"I called at the dojo. Max said he hasn't seen Kai since last night." Hiromi picked up her shopping bags together with her school bag and shoved them at her two friends. "Take these back to the dojo for me, will you?"

"What are these stuff, Hiromi-san? Hey, where are you going?"

"Stuff for the party and my farewell gifts for Max and Rei. You guys go ahead and prepare the party without me. I'm going to look for Kai."

"You mean now?" Kyouju looked bewildered as Takao bit back a grin. "I don't think it's a good idea—"

"I'll be all right, Kyouju!" Hiromi raised her umbrella to indicate her point before dashing off until she was out of the boys' sight.

And once she was, the grin Takao had been holding back stretched fully. "See? I was right!"

"Well, I have to agree with you on that." Kyouju turned to the capped boy. "Aren't you going to go after her and call it off? You've seen how she reacted already."

"Nah, let her be that way for a while. Hiromi may be a slave driver but she's smart," the latter reassured. "She'll come to her senses in a few minutes or so."

"I hope you know what you're doing. I have a strong feeling you'll be regretting this later."

"Don't worry." Takao eagerly picked up the bags Hiromi had left them. "Now let's get these to the dojo."

Mission accomplished.

More than one hour later, Takao was pacing back and forth across the floor of the dojo. Around him were small trays of various food and a banner, or what should be a banner, hung carelessly at the wooden walls. "Why isn't she back yet?"

Kyouju covered his well-hidden eyes with his hand in doom. "I told you this was a bad idea."

"Hey, guys. I'm back."

Takao spun around but was disappointed to find Rei at the entrance, shaking off his raincoat.

"What, not happy to see me, Takao? Not exactly the kind of reception I was hoping for." The Chinese beyblader scanned the almost empty practice room. "Where is everybody else?"

"Takao." Max put down the phone, starting to look uncomfortable and worried. "Tachibana-san said Hiromi-chan's not home. In fact, she asked me if she's here because of the party."

"Hiromi-san's gone?" Rei's brows scrunched with the hint of question and concern. "What did I miss?"

"Damn it!" Takao completely ignored Rei, worry gnawing him. "Max, what exactly did you say to Hiromi? Before she left she said she talked to you on the phone."

"Not much, just where everyone was because she wanted to know but she was very particular about Kai." The blond's freckled face screwed with a frown. "Takao, do you know exactly why Hiromi-chan would call like that?"

"Well…" I'm so dead. He wished he didn't have to answer that one.

Rei stepped forward. "So you mean Hiromi-san is still somewhere in a bad weather like this?" His voice incredulous, catlike eyes studied the harsh winds blowing outside.

"Well… so is Kai too, isn't he?" Takao attempted, trying to sidetrack his brunet friend.

"Forget about Kai! Trying to digress won't work, so say it."

"Takao, you have to tell us!" Even Max sounded demanding.

"I didn't know it would go too far!"

"What would go too far?" Rei demanded. At Takao's hesitation, he turned to the boy with the laptop. "Kyouju, do you know what Takao's hiding? This is important because we don't know what's happening now to Hiromi-san as I speak."

"Well…" Kyouju started, "Takao tried a prank on Hiromi-san this afternoon… I guess she hasn't realized it yet."

"A prank?" Rei repeated. "And it made her stay out in the beginning of a stormy night like this?" He shot a look at Takao.

"How the heck was I supposed to know she was going to take it that seriously?" the Japanese teen defended, not liking the disbelieving stares his teammates were giving him. "I thought she would easily figure out that it was just a prank."

"Takao!" Max and Rei shouted at the same time. "How could you!"

Kyouju tried to slide away, turning on the radio that was just nearby. "I think I should be looking out for the weather update…"

"I didn't mean for it to get out of hand!" Takao just wanted to see her reaction, not this! And with everyone reprimanding him, there was no way he could worm out his way of this one.

"Well, you have to bring it back under control." Max's usually cheerful expression now stated disapproval. "And based on the way I last talked to Hiromi-chan, I have a feeling your prank has something to do with Kai."

"Well, it does have something to do with Kai." Takao tried using as less facts as possible.

"Hold it." Disapproval slipped back into disbelief. "No way! Say this is just a figment of my imagination gone haywire but Hiromi-chan is spending the night now looking for him?"

"Look, I'm sorry! But—"

"So Hiromi's not back yet."

The familiar masculine voice behind Takao made him freeze. Uh oh. He slowly turned around to find Kai standing at the entrance. From the intimidating glare he was directing at Takao, it was clear that he hadn't missed a single word the navy-haired teen had said. "Kai, you're back."

Kai completely brushed the greeting off, the seemingly deadly advances of his feet making Takao wonder if he would still get to live after this. "What exactly did you tell her?"

"Well, I didn't know she'll react that strongly about you!"

"Five seconds, Kinomiya. Spit it out." Kai's voice steeled at the command.

"Guys, bad news!" Kyouju exclaimed from his position on the floor like he was on the verge of a panic attack. "The typhoon's expected to be at full blast anytime—" The message was cut off by a very sudden spell of hard rain, accompanied by loud hissing sounds of swaying branches of the trees nearby.

"—as I speak," the data analyzer finished helplessly.

Kai looked at each guy's face. "And she went off alone?"

"Well…"

Without another word, Kai turned around to leave.

"Wait, I'll go with you, Kai!" Max offered.

"No, I'll go alone. We don't need another person missing." The older teen stopped to cast one last stony glance at Takao. "Nothing's going to save you from this conversation." Heading toward the gate, he grabbed the nearest object nearby.

Max tried going after him. "But Kai, that's my…"

The door was shut closed.

"…umbrella."

Takao ran and opened the door wide. "Kai!" he called after his teammate. "Hiromi's using a dark red umbrella!"

Rei slowly shook his head. "Trying to help Kai won't ease your punishment. You might as well confess everything, Takao. Because whatever you do, you'll still be in serious trouble when they come back."

Chapter one ends! (Hiromi, to have someone like Hiwatari Kai searching for you in the typhoon, you lucky girl!) Okay, I just want to ask for a little advice. Regarding the next chapter, I don't know yet what to choose between two options: uploading the next very long chapter and then end of fic, or, split the chapter into two shorter ones. Some feedback explaining the better choice would be nice. This is not really a matter of the majority wins but it helps me decide better.

Please review and tell me what you think. Shall I continue? Unless it sucked, of course, I can just end it here... Flames will be doused by the typhoon rain. Thanks. :)