The waiting room of the WBBA National Stadium was practically empty compared to the morning rush, but the ambient stress levels were significantly higher.
Ryu O'Hara stood in front of a brightly lit vending machine nestled in the hallway just outside the staging area. He pressed the illuminated button for a bottle of premium alkaline water.
The internal coil turned. The plastic bottle inched forward, tipped over the edge, and immediately wedged itself diagonally between the glass and the shelf below it.
Ryu stared at the suspended bottle.
He didn't sigh. He didn't complain. He just processed the failure. The drop angle was too steep, and the friction of the plastic wrapper had caught the metal railing.
"Tough break, kid."
A random eliminated blader walking down the hall snickered, pointing at the machine. "You have to shake it from the top. Everyone knows that."
Ryu didn't look at him. He simply raised his right hand, curled his fingers into a loose fist.
He tapped the bottom right corner of the glass with the heel of his palm. It wasn't a heavy hit.
*Thwack.*
The trapped water bottle immediately dropped into the collection bin.
The vibration traveled upward through the coils. Three seconds later, two extra bottles of iced tea and a canned coffee dislodged from the upper shelves and rained down into the bin with a loud clatter.
The eliminated blader stopped laughing, his jaw dropping slightly.
Ryu calmly reached into the flap, retrieved his single bottle of water, and walked back into the waiting room, leaving the extra drinks sitting in the tray.
He returned to his plastic chair in the corner, unscrewed the cap, and directed his attention to the large monitor on the wall.
"Ladies and gentlemen, keep your eyes on the stadium!" Senor Hanami's voice blared from the speakers. "Match 2 of the quarter-finals is about to begin! In the blue corner, the unpredictable, high-energy rookie of Beigoma Academy, Valt Aoi! And in the purple corner, the aristocratic master of defense, Wakiya Murasaki!"
On the screen, Wakiya stepped up to the arena. With a dramatic, practiced flourish, he grabbed the collar of his purple jacket and tossed it backward. One of his silent bodyguards caught it flawlessly.
Wakiya smirked, pulling out his launcher and locking Wyvern into place. "I hope you brought a broom, Valt. I'm going to sweep you right out of this bracket."
Across from him, Valt didn't take the bait. He didn't yell back or strike a goofy pose.
Valt attached his new carbon-fiber grip to his launcher. He locked Valkyrie onto the prongs. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. He stepped up to the plastic rim and lowered his center of gravity.
Ryu leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on his knees.
*His back foot is positioned correctly,* Ryu noted. *His knees are bent. He is anchoring his weight into the floor. He remembered.*
"First Battle!" the referee shouted, cutting his hand through the air. "Ready... Set!"
"Three!" Wakiya yelled.
"Two!" Valt called out, his voice sharp and focused.
"One!"
"Go Shoot!"
Both ripcords tore through their gears.
Wakiya's launch was incredibly refined. Wyvern hit the stadium floor and immediately secured the center. The free-spinning purple ring on its outer layer blurred into a solid halo. It was a perfect defensive posture, designed to parry and deflect.
Valt's launch was explosive.
He twisted his torso, letting his core absorb the massive recoil of the heavy pull. His feet didn't slip a single millimeter. Valkyrie hit the upper slope with a deafening *crack*, the rubber driver biting into the plastic with absolute, terrifying traction.
"Whoa!" Hanami yelled. "Look at the speed on Valkyrie! It's moving so fast it's practically a blue blur!"
"Rush Shoot!" Valt roared.
Valkyrie banked hard off the ridge and dove straight for the center.
Wakiya sneered. "Idiots never learn. Shield Crash!"
Valkyrie struck Wyvern head-on. But Wyvern didn't absorb the blow; the free-spinning ring caught Valkyrie's contact point and immediately rotated, sliding the attack off its axis. Valkyrie's kinetic energy was deflected outward, sending the blue Bey bouncing away harmlessly.
"See?!" Wakiya gloated, throwing his head back with a laugh. "You can't pierce the absolute defense! Every attack you throw just drains your own stamina!"
Valkyrie hit the stadium wall, rebounding back for a second strike.
*Clash.* Deflected again.
*Clash.* Deflected again.
Up in the stands, Rantaro gripped the railing, his knuckles turning white. "Dammit! Wakiya's right! The Rush Shoot relies on chained impacts, but if Wyvern keeps parrying them, Valkyrie is just going to gas out!"
In the waiting room, Ryu took a sip of his water.
*Wakiya's defense is functionally solid,* Ryu calculated. *A free-spinning ring negates direct lateral force. To break it, Valt needs to alter the vertical angle of the strike. But Valkyrie's driver is flat. It cannot change its height on the slope naturally.*
On the screen, Valt was gritting his teeth. Valkyrie was launching its fifth strike, and its speed was already beginning to drop. The rubber driver was losing its grip.
"It's over!" Wakiya yelled, pointing his launcher at the stadium. "Wyvern! End this!"
"No!" Valt screamed.
He didn't step back. He didn't panic. He stared directly at the blue Bey bouncing off the stadium wall. He remembered the feeling of Ryu's Nidhogg pushing back against him. He remembered the heavy, immovable weight.
"We are not stopping here!" Valt shouted, his voice cracking with sheer willpower. "Push through it, Valkyrie!"
Valkyrie hit the upper slope for its sixth strike. But because its spin velocity had dropped, the rubber driver didn't grip the top ridge perfectly. It slipped downward by a fraction of an inch, catching the steep, angled groove of the lower slope instead.
Ryu's mismatched eyes narrowed. *A chance.*
The slight drop in elevation changed everything. Valkyrie didn't rush in horizontally. It banked downward, accelerating with a sudden, jagged burst of speed that defied the standard friction coefficient.
"Flash Shoot!" Valt roared, completely inventing the name on the spot.
Valkyrie didn't hit Wyvern's free-spinning ring. Because of the downward angle, it struck Wyvern directly underneath the ring, catching the exposed, stationary polycarbonate of the main layer.
The collision was brutal.
Wakiya's gloating laugh was cut off instantly. "What?!"
The heavy, upward-angled strike bypassed the parry entirely. Wyvern was violently launched into the air, its locking mechanism screaming under the sudden, massive transfer of kinetic energy.
*Burst.*
The purple Bey shattered mid-air. The pieces rained down across the stadium floor.
Valkyrie scraped against the plastic, wobbled heavily, and came to a dead stop, completely drained of stamina. But it was in one piece.
The stadium fell completely, utterly silent.
The referee stared at the pieces of Wyvern scattered across the floor. He slowly raised his hand toward the blue corner. "B-Burst Finish! Two points! Valt Aoi advances to the semi-finals!"
The crowd erupted. The noise was so loud it actually rattled the plastic casing of the monitor in the waiting room.
Wakiya stood frozen at the stadium edge. He stared at the broken pieces of Wyvern. His hands began to shake. His perfect defense. His custom parts. His months of training. All of it, completely dismantled by a kid who tripped over his own feet three days ago.
"No," Wakiya breathed, his face going pale. "No, that was a fluke. The angle was wrong. That shouldn't have worked."
Valt let out a massive, breathless cheer. He dropped to his knees, carefully picking up Valkyrie. He held it against his forehead, his eyes closed. "We did it, partner. We actually did it."
In the waiting room, Ryu lowered his water bottle.
The Flash Shoot wasn't a calculated move. It was the result of Valt's Bey losing stamina and slipping on the slope. By all the common sense , a loss of stamina should result in a weaker attack. But Valt had somehow weaponized the failure of his own equipment, riding the steep lower groove to bypass a shield he couldn't break directly.
It was messy. It was entirely unrepeatable on command.
And it was incredibly effective.
Ryu leaned back in his chair, a very faint, almost invisible smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. "The boy holds."
Five minutes later, the waiting room doors burst open.
Valt sprinted into the room, looking like he had just run a marathon. He spotted Ryu in the corner and immediately made a beeline for him, his arms wide open.
Ryu saw him coming. He didn't panic. He simply stood up, picked up his plastic chair, and smoothly stepped one pace to the right, placing the chair directly in Valt's path.
Valt collided with the back of the empty chair, grabbing it in a tight hug before realizing it was made of cold plastic. He blinked, peering over the backrest to see Ryu standing safely to the side.
"Ryu! I won!" Valt yelled, completely unbothered by the chair. "Did you see it?! The Flash Shoot! I just let Valkyrie drop lower on the slope and BAM!"
"I saw it," Ryu replied, setting his water bottle down. "It was a critical failure of your rubber driver's grip caused by stamina decay. You utilized an accident to achieve a magical victory."
Valt tilted his head, his smile unwavering. "Is that a compliment?"
"It is an observation," Ryu stated. "But your footing was solid. You did not fall over. That is an improvement."
Rantaro and Daigo walked into the room a moment later. Rantaro was grinning from ear to ear, fanning himself rapidly.
"I can't believe it," Rantaro laughed, clapping Valt on the back. "You actually knocked the king of the rich kids out of the tournament. You should have seen his face when he walked past us in the hall. He looked like he was going to explode."
Daigo gave a small nod, adjusting his bandana. "It was a good launch, Valt. You trusted your Bey when it mattered."
"Thanks guys!" Valt beamed. He looked back up at the monitor. "Okay, who's next?!"
"Match 3," the intercom announced. "Shu Kurenai vs. Taru Fukami. Please report to the stage."
Shu pushed off the wall near the doorway. He didn't say a word. He just walked out of the room, his white hair catching the harsh fluorescent lights of the hallway.
Ryu watched him leave. Taru was the blader Valt had defeated in the first round—the one with the heavy green Defense type.
"This won't take long," Ryu murmured, sitting back down in his newly repositioned chair.
He was right.
The match lasted exactly four seconds. Shu didn't even use a special move. He simply launched Storm Spriggan with such overwhelming, terrifying precision that it caught Taru's Defense type on the very first rotation, shattering it instantly with a Burst Finish.
Taru was left staring at his launcher, completely traumatized. Shu caught his Bey and walked off the stage without breaking a sweat.
When Shu returned to the waiting room, the atmosphere shifted. The celebration over Valt's victory immediately dialed back. Shu walked over to the group, his red eyes briefly meeting Valt's, and then shifting directly to Ryu.
"The bracket is updating," Shu said quietly.
They all looked at the monitor.
The quarter-finals were half over. The names shifted on the digital board, sliding into the semi-final slots.
*Semi-Final 1: Ryu O'Hara vs. Valt Aoi.*
Valt gasped, pointing at the screen. He turned to Ryu, his eyes burning with pure excitement. "We're up! It's you and me, Ryu!"
Ryu looked at his name next to Valt's. He thought about the heavy, immovable mass of Nidhogg against the erratic, chaotic speed of Valkyrie. It was the ultimate test of his baseline against Valt's shenanigans .
"It appears so," Ryu said evenly.
"I'm not going to hold back!" Valt declared, gripping his launcher tight. "I'm going to hit you with everything I've got!"
"If you do not," Ryu replied, picking up his water bottle, "your Bey will shatter on the first impact. I expect maximum output."
"Match 4," the intercom chimed. "Daigo Kurogami vs. Ken Midori. Please report to the stage."
Daigo took a deep breath. He looked at Valt, then at Shu. "My turn."
Ryu watched Daigo walk out. Ken was a skilled defensive blader, and Daigo relied on psychological warfare and unbalanced attacks. It would be a slow, methodical match.
Ryu closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the concrete wall.
The semi-finals were locked in. The noise, the chaos, the entirely illogical passion of the Beigoma BeyClub had officially dragged him into the deep end of the tournament.
He reached into his pocket, his fingers brushing against the cold, familiar metal of Eclipse Nidhogg. The faint hum vibrated against his skin.
He was ready.
.....
Who's your favorite burst character and why?