The Element Warriors
A long time ago in Japan, people believed in the power of the four elements. There have been people who dedicated their lives to studying the ways of one element. In time, they learned to generate and manipulate it for their own means. Like many cultures, they would pass this knowledge down to their children.
The harmony of the elements was disrupted when Lord Oromashi began his reign over Japan. He craved power and had a dragon on his side, and nobody dared to defy him. If they did, they became the dragon's meal. Nobody could manipulate elements unless they joined his army.
One woman ignored the danger of Lord Oromashi's punishments. She left her home among the rice fields to learn the remaining three elements: fire, earth, and wind. Through five years of traveling around the country and being taught in secret, she accomplished this goal. By acts of heroism, her name, Keiko, became known across all of Japan.
Prologue
Keiko opened her eyes when she felt the warm sunlight on her face. Even though people knew of her acts against Lord Oromashi, they refused to house Keiko because of fear. She didn't blame them either, but she knew if she could only slay that dragon, the people would rise up against Lord Oromashi. The thought made her smile to think of the people living descent lives again. People living like slaves wasn't the kind of life Keiko thought was acceptable for anyone.
She got on her feet and turned to admire the beauty of the sakura blossom tree she chose to sleep under. Through five years, she finally understood why Lord Oromashi prohibited element influencing. He saw their abilities as a threat to him. The lord obviously didn't understand the people. People didn't use the elements for power. They loved the elements and respected them.
Keiko's thoughts were interrupted when she heard someone screaming. She grabbed her tonfa blasters from her belt holster and ran in the direction of the noise.
When she reached the source, she found a man with glasses and a long white coat was being circled by four soldiers. Keiko quickly hide behind a nearby tree. Thankfully, none of them noticed her. The soldiers were too concerned with the man they had cornered.
Looking at them, Keiko knew three of the soldiers could manipulate fire and the other specialized in earth. It was simple because of the color of their clothes. All soldiers wore white zubon, but their uwagi and obi belt depended on the element they specialised in: red, brown, blue, and light green.
"You're a threat to Lord Oromashi with your inventions. Now come with us and don't cause any trouble," stated the earth manipulator.
"No, please! I'll stop inventing contraptions. Please!" pleaded the defenseless man.
"What you can stop doing is stalling. Now move it!" yelled one of the fire experts. With a punch of his fist, he sent fire at the prisoner. The man jumped and fell to the ground.
Keiko knew she needed to do something. She jumped away from the tree and fired her tonfa blasters at the one soldier. The force of her weapons sent her backwards, and she dodged some fire one of the soldiers sent her way. Keiko tried running around the tree she hide behind to get a new angle on her opponents but tripped. Immediately, thorn vines started wrapping around her feet and legs.
"Well, isn't it our lucky day boys," said the earth soldier with a grin. "Not only do we get to bring in that coward of a scientist, but we caught public enemy number one."
The four soldiers started laughing, and the frightened scientist helplessly watched Keiko.
Keiko winced at the pain the vines brought to her legs. She said, "You forgot one thing."
"And what's that?" asked the earth soldier with laughter still in his voice.
"I'm worth a fortune for a reason."
The vines that were wrapping themselves around Keiko's legs freed its captive, grew ten times larger, and engulfed the soldiers.
Keiko got up and put her tonfa blasters in their holsters. She ran over to the shocked scientist and pulled him up off the ground. "Come on. That's not going to hold them forever."
With his hand in hers, she guided them away as fast as she could. Her wind master always taught Keiko to remain calm like the peaceful winds. Right now, she had to be calm for two people. The scientist was shaking so badly, his nerves were probably a wreck.
Keiko looked over her shoulder and saw fire erupt into the sky. She stopped and the scientist did the same. Keiko knew she couldn't outrun four men, especially dragging the scientist around. Their only chance was to hide and fast.
She looked around and spotted a tree. Water must have washed dirt away from its base because there was room underneath it. There wasn't enough room for the both of them so she had to create more room. Lowering the earth beneath the tree could threaten its stability. She knew it was risky, but she had to try.
Very carefully, Keiko started moving the earth beneath the tree into a downward dome shape. When she was finished, she was relieved that the tree itself didn't move.
She ordered the scientist to get in, and he did as was told. Keiko followed him and created a layer of earth above them. The layer touched the bottom of the tree trunk and sloped downward slightly. She hoped it looked normal so the soldiers wouldn't notice if they came by.
After a few minutes, Keiko heard the soldiers run by. After waiting close to an hour in silence and didn't hear the soldiers come back, the scientist finally spoke.
"My name is Lee Wong. I take it that you're the famous Keiko."
"You guessed right. I don't think the soldiers are coming back," said Keiko.
She let the layer of dirt above them go, and the two of them were covered in it. Lee Wong was coughing while Keiko messaged her arm.
"We should head back to my home. We'll be safe there," said Lee after he stopped coughing.
"That's the first place the soldiers will look for you, but do as you please."
Keiko grabbed one of the tree's roots and pulled herself up out of the hole she created.
"No. I have a devise at my home. If I can analyse your element abilities with the machine, it can be the ultimate security system. Helping people is what you do, right?" pleaded Lee.
Keiko held out her hand, which the man accepted. She helped pull him out, and replaced the dome with earth. She turned to Lee and said, " I guess it's worth a shot."
Lee Wong lead the way while Keiko remained alert of their surroundings. She didn't want to take any chances of getting ambushed.
When they reached the house, Lee quickly unlocked the door and left Keiko in. Even before Lee lit a match to light a lantern, Keiko caught a glimpse of his house. Unexplainable machines were all over the place.
"Please. My invention is this way," said Lee as he lead the way around his home. He finally stopped at a table with straps. It had cords traveling from it to four different glass cylinder chambers.
"This is your security machine?" asked Keiko, looking at the whole setting with confusing.
"Yes. All you have to do is let me strap you onto the table, and I'll run my machine."
"I thought you said the machine would analyze my abilities," said Keiko. "How would the machine do that if I'm strapped down?"
"That's how I programmed it. Having the machine analyze you performing all your abilities would take too long."
Lee went to the table and opened all the straps. Keiko reluctantly walked over to the table. When she laid down on the table, Lee quickly strapped her in.
He left Keiko to go to the control panel of his machine. He turned on the machine, and the glass cylinders lighted up. What came next was something Keiko didn't expect. Thin, short rods of steel shot up through her arms and legs.
Keiko screamed in agonizing pain. "What's going on?"
Lee pushed another button, and Keiko started to feel weak. On the glass chambers glowed red.
"I'm draining the elements from your body. Without them, you'll no longer pose a threat to Lord Oromashi," said Lee.
Keiko would have said something in return, but she couldn't find the energy to do so. When the procedure was done, the glass chamber was full of red liquid. Lee pushed another button and the second chamber glowed light green. By the time Lee was done, all the chambers were full of colored liquid: red, light green, blue, and brown.
Lee Wong was proud of his accomplishment and ran to tell Lord Oromashi of his success. Keiko was all alone and defenseless. She couldn't feel anything. So weak, so tired, Keiko quickly lost consciousness.
When Keiko finally woke up, it took her a few moments to remember where she was. She tried to free herself but failed miserably. Her effort only made her tired. She looked at the glass chambers that contained everything she once had.
They seemed different. She could see herself in the glass chambers. For a moment, Keiko thought she was going crazy. She looked away and said, "It must be my reflection."
She felt like crying but not tears formed at her eyes. She thought, "How could I have been such a fool?"
Keiko looked around some more. She had absolutely no idea how long she slept. It could have been days or even weeks. It seemed the longer she stayed awake, the more weak she felt.
Before Keiko fell asleep again, she knew she was going to die strapped to this table.
The next time Keiko woke up, she didn't try to free herself. She knew it would only make her weak faster. On the other hand, she decided to merely look around.
When Keiko's eyes caught the sight of the glass chambers, she noticed a drastic change. They were no longer filled with glowing colored liquid. Instead, they each contained a girl that looked like Keiko with some differences. The girl in the fire chamber had white hair and a tan. The next girl that formed from the wind had brown hair. Then, the girl from the water chamber had blue hair, and the last girl in the earth chamber had red hair.
Keiko cried out to them. When she did, her voice was so low it was a miracle she was talking at all. She started feeling weak, but Keiko didn't stop crying but to these girls. Just when Keiko was about to lose consciousness, the girl in the fire chamber finally woke up.
It took a while for this girl to come to her senses. When she did, she realized that Keiko was crying for her. She began beating on the glass with her fists. Finally, she broke the glass so she could get out. Her knuckles were all bloody.
The girl took about a minute to reach Keiko because she never used her legs before. She wabbled around until she discovered her balance. She looked around at Keiko and released the straps. For the first time, the white-haired girl looked around and noticed the other girls in the glass chambers. She grabbed one of Keiko's tonfa blasters and ran towards the chambers. Turning the blaster around to use it like a baton, she smashed in the glass.
After freeing all the girls, this girl from the fire chamber realized Keiko lost consciousness. She ran over to Keiko and started shaking her but she stayed asleep.
The girl abandoned her attempts to wake up Keiko and ran to awaken the other girls. She succeeded this time. The girl with brown hair opened her eyes.
"Who are you?" asked the brunette.
"I could ask you the same," replied the white-haired girl. "I don't know where we are either. All I know is that that woman over there was crying for help."
The girl of wind attempted to stand up but fell over. With the aid of the other girl, she walked over to examine Keiko.
"If she was crying for help, it's probably not safe here," claimed the brunette.
"What should we do then?"
The brunette separated herself from the girl and began walking around while using the table for minimal support. Once she was comfortable walking on her own, she finally answered the other girl's question.
"I'll carry this woman out. Do you believe you're capable carrying those other two girls?"
The girl of fire replaced Keiko's tonfa blaster in her holster and walked over to the girls. With much effort, she managed to get them over her shoulders.
The brunette carefully slid Keiko's arms and legs out of the steel rods. Then she hoisted Keiko into her arms. The women fled Lee Wong's house and into the darkness of the night.