Heart of Darkness
By Icewyche
The standard disclaimers apply.
Prologue
From the journal of Sage Date:
Seven years.
It has been seven years since we wore the Ronin armors for the final time. Seven years since Suzunagi, that poor, bitter spirit, decided to make us the targets of a vengeance stretching back before any of us were even born. The armors originally given to us by the Ancient were gone --- destroyed forever in that apocalyptic battle with the Black Inferno Armor --- but we had worn them and in fact still retained some of their powers. That was enough for Suzunagi. One by one she trapped us, until only Ryo was left. I don't know exactly what happened to make her change her mind about us; I saw the beginnings of doubt in her face before I was taken into the awful, smothering darkness of limbo, but what happened after that Ryo never told us and I never asked. All I know is that, somehow, Suzunagi found the peace that had eluded her all those years. But she left us a gift: five new armors, stronger than their predecessors, with none of the taint of Talpa's black evil. Five armors forged from regret and honor and love. These armors we could be proud to wear in battle, although fortunately we never had to. And now it's been seven years since we removed the armors and put the kanji crystals away for what we all hoped was the last time. Seven years today, in fact.
A lot has happened since then. Ryo got his degree in Veterinary Medicine and now works at a zoo in Tokyo. I know he misses White Blaze terribly --- the old tiger left the day after we graduated from high school --- but I think working with animals gives him solace and happiness, especially after the deaths of his beloved grandparents. He and Mia were a couple for a long time, but for some reason they decided to put their relationship on hold for a while. Right now Mia is in Canada as a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto, where she'll be for the next year although she assures me she'll come home long enough for my wedding --- she says she has to see it with her own eyes.
Cye and Rowen are both working on their Master's degrees --- Cye in Marine Biology and Rowen in Aerospace Engineering. None of this is a surprise. Cye's family still runs the pottery business in Hagi, although most of the responsibility falls with his sister and her husband now as his mother is getting kind of frail. Cye helps out when he can, but I think they all know it's not what he really wants to do with his life and are wonderfully understanding about it --- after all, Cye's gifts simply lie elsewhere. Rowen, meanwhile, spends most of his time either in a lab or teaching and we have to drag him out into the real world every now and then to keep him from turning into a carbon copy of his father. He doesn't see his dad much anymore and hasn't seen his mom in years, although she does write occasionally. He says the four of us are his family now; he was always closer to us anyway. It's not that he doesn't love his parents, but it's kind of hard to get attached to someone who isn't there much. His hair is still blue, incidentally. Carey teases him about it, saying that it's going to be interesting to see what color his kids' hair turns out to be…assuming he emerges from his research long enough to find someone and get married. We've tried to set him up with someone, but so far no luck.
Kento surprised us all by going to college and majoring in Criminal Justice. It's not that he's not smart enough, but let's face it, school was never Kento's favorite activity. He's talking about joining the police force, but for now he helps run the family restaurant, which has expanded into a small chain and is doing quite well. I think he's dating, but he just laughs when we ask him about it so who knows?
As for me, I graduated college with a degree in Art History and was promptly offered a position as executive assistant to Matsuka Kazuhara, the head of the art gallery where I had been working since I started college. My grandfather made no secret of his disappointment --- he had expected me to come straight home and help run the family dojo. But this time I stood firm; I was going to live my own life before I lived the one he wanted for me. I loved and still love working at the gallery, and it brought me the most precious thing in my life --- my beloved ballerina, my Carey, who first taught me to dance and then taught me to love, neither of which was an easy task. Granted, ours may not have been the smoothest courtship on record --- she almost took a job dancing in Seattle but backed out at the last minute, and Grandfather isn't too happy about my plans to marry someone who isn't Japanese --- but we're together and we're happy and we're getting married soon and that's all that really matters. Carey doesn't know about my past as a Ronin Warrior; she thinks the guys are just my best friends from high school, and I plan to keep it that way. After all, we haven't needed the armors in years. The battle is over, we've survived, and we're all finally living happy, normal lives. Why dredge up all that pain when there's no need?
The armors are gone. Let them rest. Let us rest.
Sage Date
March 21, 1998
