A Loyal Mutt

Experiment

"Go now! Knock him out!"

"Not yet!"

"Darn! Missed it!"

"I got you now!"

"Doing good! Dodge it again!"

She had grown accustomed to the constant yelling quite quickly. Everyone was busy 'training' with their beys, as Doji called it. Strange thing is, he hasn't given her one yet.

She had been there for a couple of months now, but she had not been used for anything. She spends the majority of the time in her room and only come out if she was called.

On her third month, she was finally given an assignment. Doji came to pick her up himself, instead of getting Merci to guide her. He led her down with the elevator to what looked like a laboratory.

In the center of the room was a machine that looked like it could fit a person inside.

Her assumptions were proven to be right when he told her to climb in.

"You will be put to sleep for a little while, but don't worry. If everything goes according to plan, you will wake up quite soon." He had said.

"... I'm not worried." Considering how he said 'if', she was probably the first to do this. Nonetheless, she was brought here to serve this man, so that's what she will do.

She climbed in and the glass closed above her. Slowly, she felt herself drifting off to slumber.

~~~~~

Back then, she didn't know what happened to her. She just knew that when she woke up, that man had a bey prepared for her.

Her eyes drifted from the ceiling to the table beside her. There, her bey sat, still as stone. She hadn't bothered to touch it. There was no need to.

She can feel her bey's thoughts just fine. It's very tranquil and it's like it's as relaxed as she is. That peace would change of course, as soon as someone enters the room. It would be as if the bey was taking the defensive stance, like a dog protecting his owner.

She turned the TV on, switching channel to channel, until one caught her attention. A bey tournament was being held in a distant location. A desert of sort.

There, standing by the edge of the stadium, was Ryuga, launcher pointed at a small child. She knew that child to be in Battle Bladers too, the one who lost to one of the Dark Nebula's creeps, Reiji Mizuchi. His name was... Kenta? Kenta Yumiya? The battle was over as soon as it began, and when Ryuga left, rejecting the year supply of salt for a prize, that boy followed him as well. She wondered what they were doing together.

Whatever it was, the dragon emperor was no longer battling, so she had no interest in watching whatever happens next.

~~~~~

"The experiment was a success."

"Excellent. Proceed to the next phase."

Those were the words that kept repeating for the next few days. Or was it weeks? She had been trapped down there for a long time. There was no clock in the room she was kept in.

She hadn't been allowed back to he surface since the first day she came down there. The room she had now seems much more like a prison, compared to the rather grand one she had stayed in upstairs. Merci provided her with the foods and drinks she needed.

Her bey was still in the lab. She hadn't gotten the chance to actually battle with it. She hasn't even touched it yet.

She didn't complain. It was still hell, but it's better than the orphanage. She could only obey.

Not long after... Did they say it was the 58th trial? Doji took her back up to the surface, leaving her bey behind.

"As a reward for being so obedient," The man explained to her what the experiment was. A test to create the perfect blader for the perfect bey. A way to harness the abilities of the most powerful beys and bring out the blader's best performance.

"And after 15 months of trial, we finally succeded with the prototype. I really must thank you, Chi."

That statement made her stop. "15... Months...?"

"Why, yes. You have been down there for quite a while, helping us complete the project." The man chuckled darkly. "Really, I always thought you would break, but you didn't. So as thanks, I will show you something magnificent."

He led her to one of the training rooms. Or at least, that's what it looked like. This one was quite different from the rest. It was a cylindrical room that had a high ceiling and a single stadium.

There were about 30 people in the room, having a battle royale. For a second, she wasn't sure what he wanted her to see, but then she heard a loud yell from the other side of the arena.

"Go now! Crush them all!" It was a boy, with a face distinctly different from the rest. Tanned skin, white hair with a red patch, sharp golden yellow eyes. He looked quite menacing compared to the rest, more so than Doji, if she dared to say.

The boy's bey spun much faster than the rest and knocked out any other standing in its path. She watched as it made a full spin before returning to its owner's hand.

Doji clapped. "Well done, Master Ryuga."

This boy is his master? If that were the case, she wondered why she had never seen him before.

He clicked his tongue. "They're weak. Even this temporary bey could destroy them in one go." He paid no mind to the beys he was stepping on as he walked over to them.

Upon the sudden loss of distance, she realized just how tall the boy was. He looked down at her with an unimpressed face. "One of your guinea pigs?"

"The most successful too." The man said, somewhat showing her off. "Thanks to her, we have finally completed the preparations."

The boy- Ryuga turned his attention back to her with an eyebrow raised. Up close, he really was intimidating, but she didn't care about that. Her mind was replaying the battle repeatedly.

She had never seen anything like it before.