Ryuga x King

A Fierce Rematch

Ryuga's POV

Ryuga was sitting outside on the porch, writing in his notebook. It had been two days since King left Japan and Ryuga had spent most of his time trying to take his mind off him, mostly by training. He tried not to overwork himself, remembering King's advice. However, the temptation to drown all his sadness with the intensity of battle was hard to ignore. That was why he had registered for a tournament later that day and was doing some last-minute preparation. He needed a way to defeat Kyoya's new special move. It was more powerful than any tornado he had created in the past and had been Ryuga's downfall during their last battle. *There has to be a way to destroy it...*

Ryuga stiffened when the door opened behind him. He looked over his shoulder.

"Hey kiddo," Kenta's dad greeted, closing the door behind him. "Whatcha up to?"

Ryuga looked back at his notebook. "Trying to destroy a tornado." He hoped an absurd response like that would make him leave, or at least freak him out. Instead, it did the opposite.

"Hm. Not a lot of tornadoes in Japan." His voice was completely calm as he sat next to Ryuga on the bench.

"It's for a battle," Ryuga grunted. He instinctively pulled his notebook into his chest to hide what he'd written.

"Oh," Kenta's dad nodded like that somehow made perfect sense to him. "How are you going to destroy it?"

"That's... what I'm figuring out," Ryuga replied, looking away.

"Ah, I see. I was never the best at science." *Me neither,* Ryuga thought, dipping his head. "But I do know tornadoes don't do well on rough terrain and they form when a warm front and a cold front collide."

Ryuga perked up. "Cold front and warm front..." he muttered, looking back at his notes and writing that down. "So... would a warmer temperature destroy it?"

Kenta's dad shook his head. "No, the warmer the weather the stronger the tornado."

"What? Dangit." *There goes what little of an idea I had,* he thought as he began drawing.

"Yeah," Kenta's dad shrugged. "Something to do with pressure... a higher temperature means higher pressure and tornadoes need a lot of pressure... or something."

"I can't lower the temperature or the pressure," Ryuga mumbled, focusing on his drawing. So far it was two arrows, the one on the left labelled 'warm air' and the one on the right labelled 'cold air.'

"Oh, that's not right..." Kenta's dad informed.

"What?" Ryuga glanced at him.

"Your model." Kenta's dad gestured to the drawing. "The cold air is actually on top of the warm air. That's what causes the imbalance to make the tornado."

Ryuga raised an eyebrow. "How would that cause an imbalance?"

"Because warm air rises and cold air sinks, that's why your basement gets so cold. So when the two collide in the opposite way, it creates a tornado."

Ryuga began drawing a model that matched this description. He gazed at it for a moment. *Cold air sinks, huh?* Ryuga glanced at his bey. By that logic, adding more warm air to the bottom of the tornado would make it stronger but adding warm air to the top...

"I've got it!" He exclaimed, jumping to his feet. His notebook fell to the ground beside him. Ryuga froze. Clearing his throat, he straightened up and started to walk away. "I should be getting to my tournament."

"Good luck," Kenta's dad called after him.

Ryuga dipped his head. He made his way toward the stadium. Seven bladers were lined up in front of the bleachers. Among them, Ryuga recognized Kyoya, of course, along with Yu, Benkei, and... who was that guy? Ryuga knew he had seen him before. His hair was short and scruffy, a bit like King's when it was blue, but also white like his was during battle. This guy... they battled in a volcano, right? Ryuga couldn't for the life of him remember anything about this guy, let alone his name or bey.