This story is actually based on a picture that I drew about, oh, maybe five years ago and I decided, what the heck, I'll try to redraw it and make my own Ronin character, and as a bonus, I'll throw in its own story. Now how generous is that? ^_~
Armor of Iceheart, Tou Jin!!!
By Ryoken
Our story begins not long after the Ronin Warriors meet Mia and Yulie and are scattered across the land. We see Sage of the Halo and Mia driving up a mountain, searching for Kento of Hard Rock.
"What do you mean 'I can't go with you'?" Mia argued with Sage. The mountain around them was beginning to get steeper and the road was getting more and more slippery by the minute.
"I mean you can't go with me. It's too dangerous and you'll just slow me down," Sage replied lazily.
"You don't even know where to start looking!"
"I'll find him eventually."
"You guys are hopeless!" Mia sighed. She knew she wasn't going to get anywhere. Mia turned a corner and hit a dead end. She abruptly stopped the jeep.
Now's my chance, Sage thought and hurriedly jumped out of the car and up a cliff, leaving Mia behind.
"Grrrrrrr, that Ronin!!!" Mia grumbled. "I'm going with him whether he likes it or not!"
Suddenly, Mia felt as though she was being watched and the howls of a pack of wolves sounded off in the distance. Seeing a large group of dark clouds off in the distance, Mia pulled her coat closer to herself and began to slowly climb after Sage. When she reached the top, she hurriedly walked in the direction of where the bearer of the armor of Halo might of gone.
"Great, just what I needed, a snowstorm," Sage thought aloud as he kicked two of the attacking wolves that pounced towards him.
Suddenly, a familiar voice called his name. Oh no, not Mia! The wolves, who sensed the presence of another prey, turned around to lunge at the human who was just beginning to realize that they were going to attack. Sage quickly leapt to Mia's side and was considering fighting the rest of them, but decided another source of action was required.
"Run!!" Sage yelled as he grabbed Mia's arm and began to run away from the rabid-like wolves. As they passed beneath a cliff, a mysterious figure grinned evilly and slashed the snow-covered cliff, causing the snow to violently fall. Sage saw this in the nick of time as he jumped to safety, out of the way of the avalanche and causing the wild dogs to be buried under the snow. The mysterious figure frowned for only a moment and then vanished.
"Looks like you'll be sticking with me, then," he said, looking at the blocked path back to the car. Mia was about to say something when Sage quickly grabbed her by the waist and jumped up the top of the cliff. He immediately saw what they had been looking for: The Throne of the Gods. "There it is! Come on!" As soon as he said that, the blizzard strangely lifted until it became no more than a light fall of snowflakes.
Suddenly, laughter echoed itself throughout the mountains. Sage immediately recognized it. "Kale."
"Aww, and here I thought you'd be happy to see me, Halo."
"Don't flatter yourself. Armor of the Halo, Tou Jin!!," Sage said, calling forth his armor. "Get out here and help me, Kento!" He brought his sword down on the rock, but didn't even make a scratch. "What?!"
Kale laughed heartily, and without a word, he attacked the stone himself, thrusting his blade into the rock. "While my sword searches for Hard Rock's heart, I'll deal with you meddling kids myself!" He said, attacking with his clawed hand.
As Sage was only able to block the warlord's attacks, another mysterious figure and a large cat watched the battle from above a cliff.
"Not yet, my friend. Just a little while longer." The figure took an incredibly light blue talisman shaped like a heart from the animal and hung it by the string it was on near the figure's blade. The snowstorm renewed itself.
Mia, who kept watching Sage's fight, noticed that he was slowly being pushed off of a cliff. Running to him, she cried "Sage, look out!" But when she reached him, the cliff broke away, leaving Sage and Mia to fall to their deaths.
"Now go. Quickly, my friend!" The mysterious figure cried and the creature beside the figure leapt from their perch, bounding quickly to the side and jumping over the cliff where Sage and Mia disappeared. "Now it gets interesting." The figure took the talisman and put it in a slot near the base of the blade. The sword was then engulfed in a blue flame and the snowstorm thickened to that where not even the Dark Warlord could see a foot in front of his face. But the figure could see as clear as a summer afternoon as the person continued to watch Kale's futile antics to see where he was going.
"Sage, you must conquer the demons within before fighting the demon outside. Find your center and use the Thunderbolt Cut to free Hard Rock," came a voice in Sage's dreams.
"Ancient One?"
Sage awoke to find Mia lying next to him, unconscious, but beginning to stir. He looked in front of him to just barely see a jade-colored tail withdrawing itself from waterfall. He looked around him and found himself to be in a cave, obviously behind the waterfall.
"Sage, I had a vision of the Ancient One. He said-"
"I know. I saw him too."
"Listen, I know we don't have much time, so I'll go and distract Kale while you stay here."
"No Mia-"
"It's the only way, Sage!" She had a point. He sighed.
"Fine."
"Good," she said as she exited the waterfall.
Mia climbed up the side, seeing as there was sort of a path, and when she reached the top, she looked around to find that no one was there. So she decided to yell.
"Hey there, Warlord! The Ronin Warriors will beat you, Kale. You can count on that! And they won't stop fighting until the very end until you're gone from this world for good. So.. so there!!"
"Hmph, brave words, but it will cost her," said the mysterious figure from the cliff. The large cat was rejoined it's master. "Perhaps you should go down and protect her, Shard?" she said, petting the cat's head. The cat roared loudly and once again bounded off of the ledge and raced for the girl.
"What was that?!" Mia cried as she heard a loud roar, like that of White Blaze, coming from another direction. But he's back in Toyama...He couldn't have come all the way here that fast, could he?? Mia turned around and saw the Ancient One standing near the edge of a cliff. "Ancient One, please helps us!!" She cried, but the Ancient's staff chimed and he disappeared. Suddenly, something behind Mia pushed the back of her legs gently. She forced herself to look at the big thing that had nuzzled her. It was a light green -jade- colored panther, by the look of it. It had a scar down it's right eye and three round red gems imbedded into it's forehead. All it did was stare up at her and nuzzle her again, like it wanted her to ride him.
"Foolish girl!" Came a familiar voice. She turned again and saw Kale through the thick snow, coming for her. "Do you really think that those puny Ronins can save this world?"
The panther nudged her again, this time more urgently. Something caused Mia to move then, and get on the panther's back, but it wasn't by her own will. Even faster than White Blaze, the panther took off to the right, Kale trying to follow it, but not succeeding very well in the storm.
"What the hell kind of a storm is this?! I never summoned this thing!" Kale complained as he tried to keep the jade panther in sight. But it seemed to almost blend into it's surroundings.
The panther did a u-turn and Mia noticed they were now heading up. The storm was so bad here that she had to cover her eyes. The panther slowed down and a soft voice spoke out to it.
"Well done, my friend. I see you've brought her here to me safely." The storm seemed to lighten at those words and Mia could now let her arm down and see who this stranger was. She was rendered speechless.
In front of Mia was a blue armor, it's color much lighter than Cye's but not completely white. The place on the helmet where the face would be was covered by the face mask which completely covered the mouth and nose and what must have acted as glasses, black lenses covered the eyes. The armor held a jagged scimitar that was engulfed in blue flames, and a string hanging out from it at it's base. The person inside the armor made no attempt to talk to Mia, but only held out it's hand and waited for Mia to take it. She was so frightened that the panther had to push her towards the armor. Now the armor took Mia's hand from her side and pulled Mia to it's side. The panther went and sat on the armor's other side as a light-blue bubble, the same color as the armor, surrounded them. The armor raised it's sword to the sky and blizzard came down even harder than it had been before. Mia could clearly see Kale stumbling around as the snow hit him hard, and she would have laughed if she hadn't been so afraid.
"WHEN I FIND YOU, YOU WILL DIE, DO YOU HEAR ME, GIRL?!!?!?" Kale yelled out in a vain attempt to frighten her into telling him where she was. "Stupid blizzard, I've never experienced such a tempest, not even one that I could summon." Kale glanced in the direction where the stone Kento lay resting in was. "Hard Rock will be dead in a mere few moments!" He said, sensing just how far his sword had imbedded itself. It was a lie, of course, there was still quite a bit of ground for it to cover before it reached Hard Rock's heart. He continued to try and head in the direction of the panther. "AND YOUR LITTLE PANTHER TOO!!!!!"
"Kento!" Mia cried, but knowing there wasn't anything she could do. The person in the armor seemed to hear her, even with the wind blowing furiously.
"Shard." The person said. "Stay here with this woman." The armor turned to Mia. "You will stay here where it is safe, understood?" Mia still had no idea if this person was a woman or a man. She only nodded. Then the armor's hand took the string from the sword and pulled hard. Out popped a blue heart shaped talisman and the person wrapped it around Shard's neck. The fire consuming the sword died. The person whispered something in the panther's ear, then jumped off the cliff side as the storm slowly began to stop.
"Huh? Who are you??" Kale said, noticing light blue armor coming towards him. It said nothing and continued to come ever closer. "I asked you a question!! Who are you?!" But it just continued to walk towards him. "No one ignores the Warlord of Darkness!!" Kale ran up to greet the armor with his claws, but the armor merely swiped him to the side with it's free hand. Kale, dazed by this feat, stood up and angrily tried to swipe at the person again. This time, the armor turned towards him and, with both hands on the hilt of the scimitar, hit his chin and he flew in the direction of Mia and Shard. He landed against the wall of the cliff. The armored person, first taking note that the warlord was indeed out cold, then hurried in the direction of the Throne of the Gods.
What is going on out there? Kento couldn't be released yet, could he? But then, who else could be fighting Kale? Certainly not Mia, but could it have been White Blaze? Sage mentally shook off his questions and tried to focus once more. I can't think about who's doing what, I've got to focus on the task at hand.
"Ohhhhhh, my head. Good thing I've got a helmet on," Kale said to himself. He carefully stood up. "Now, where'd that guy go??" Kale heard a gasp from above him and saw that stupid girl above him, in a bubble with that panther. He jumped up to the cliff. "Well, well, well. Lookie what I've found," he said, laughing manically. Kale slashed at the bubble with his claws, but found that it didn't do a thing. "Huh? What the..." he pondered. Suddenly, an idea came to his head, and he called upon his wolves to come and tear the two apart.
"Uh oh," said the voice of the armor out loud. "Better find Halo, and fast." The person in the armor ran until they came to the edge of a cliff with a waterfall. They could sense that he was in there, somewhere. With their mind, they reached out to him and almost yelled Halo, get your butt outta meditating and help Mia! The person did it without having to reveal their voice and the person began running towards Kento's stone.
Sage opened his eyes immediately as the message Halo, get your butt outta meditating and help Mia! was yelled into his mind. He hoped that what he'd done was enough to summon the more powerful Thunderbolt Cut and jumped through the waterfall to the top of the cliff. He sensed Kale's presence in the direction he was facing, but almost felt another, more powerful one headed towards Kento. No time for Kento right now, Mia needs me, he thought as he raced towards Kale.
"Come on, Halo! Show yourself! Or would rather this girl die?!" Kale shouted as his wolves surrounded the bubble. They had just arrived, and he had no idea whether they'd be able to break it's seal or not.
"Here I am!" Sage said from behind as he brought down his sword, Kale dodging it by mere seconds.
"Kill them!" Kale ordered, and the wolves launched themselves into an attack on the bubble.
"NO!!!!" But the bubble held, and the wolves bounced off of it, some of them falling to their deaths off of the cliff. "What...what is that thing??"
Kale took that moment to slash at the wondering Halo, who just barely blocked it. As they intertwined in their battle, Mia looked on and whispered "I hope Kento's still alive."
About time, thought the armored stranger. Now then, first the sword. The armor placed it's hand on the opening the sword had made, now that it was fully in the stone and it's hilt now out of physical reach. The armor concentrated and the sword began to slowly emerge from the hole. Once the person could grab the handle, they tore the sword from the stone and threw it in the direction where Kale and Sage now fought.
"OW!!!" Kale said as the butt of his sword flew and hit him in his head. He picked it up and looked at it as though it were a foreign object. "How is this possible??"
Whoever was able to do that sure is strong...Maybe it is Kento? Sage pondered, keeping his eyes focused on Kale, and trying to stifle a laugh.
"Now...AWAKEN HARD ROCK!!!" The stranger bellowed. The armored person took their scimitar and jumped up as high as they could. "PIERCING ICICLE RAIN!!!!" The person screamed, bring down the sword as they said it. Icicles as big as the sword and sharp as it as well began to come down and break the rock. The last one that fell split it in two, and Kento of Hard Rock was free.
"Man, why'd you have to wake me up, I...Who the heck are you?!" Kento said, pointed at the armored stranger.
"No time, Sage is in need of your help," they said, hurrying off in the direction of the battle with Kento following behind.
"Sage, my man!" Came a familiar voice.
"Kento!" Mia and Sage said.
"IRON ROCK CRUSHER!!!!!!" Kento said, summoning his sure kill and disposing of Kale. "Hey, how come Mia's in a bubble?"
"I don't know, but not even Kale could get her out, so obviously he didn't create it," Sage replied.
"Maybe it was that guy in the blue armor?"
"Probably."
"It is," said the voice of the person clad in light blue armor. They turned around to see the person floating in midair, arms-crossed. They put out their hand, snapped their fingers and Mia and Shard were released. The panther jumped from the ledge to his master, protectively. The person only laughed and stroked the panther. "No need, Shard, they aren't the enemy."
"Hey, who are you?" Sage asked.
"Yeah, you can tell us! We're the good guys!" Kento exclaimed.
The person stood up. "In time, when you are all gathered, you shall see. For now, I must bid you adieu," they said, hopping onto Shard's back. The cat ran off, leaving the three behind.
"Well, that was quite an adventure!" Mia said. The two Ronins nodded and headed for Mia's jeep.
Well, that's it for now. It'll get better than this (I hope! _).