Important note: Locations belonging to the world of reality are not as described in this story. Also, only the creations of my own imagination belong to me, everything else is the property of its respective owners.

Densetsu no Ryu Tsuwamono

Prologue

There are many stories in the worlds that have been lost, some simply forgotten and others have been destroyed. This story however, has yet to begin, and the characters don't know how it might end. In the beginning, there was a general peace within the Worlds. Their inhabitants were unaware of those who kept control of the Chaos.

So they never knew that, one day, a great power was unleashed upon the unsuspecting Worlds. On that day the Guardians of those worlds knew, a Dragon Warrior had fallen.

His name was Muramasa Senzoryu, and he had finally given into the Chaos. It changed him, into a being of evil, and multiplied his power beyond that of the Guardians. When his fellow Warriors found him, they knew what had to be done.

However their power alone wasn't enough to stop him.

When the Warriors tried to stop Muramasa many of them were absorbed by Muramasa and added to his power. Their battle raged on for seven days until only 3 of the original 17 were left: Drake the first, Ryu the second, and Masamune the fourth. Drake continued to fight, while Ryu and Masamune were left with orders to seal the First and Second Worlds. This seal prevented Muramasa from tainting these Worlds.

Ryu left and told Masamune to protect the First and Second Worlds and setup a refugee camp for any survivors of the battle and Masamune's rampaging to live in. Ryu rejoined Drake in the fighting and they were successful in driving off Muramasa, however the cost to their spirits was too much and they died sealing half of Muramasa's power. Masamune continued his work in the Second World, to found an organization to help the victims of the destruction Muramasa and the Taint caused, and to fix and reclaim lost Worlds.

172 years later this organization gained a secure footing in the Second World and succeeded in Cleansing four Worlds so far. Masamune is thought of as legend; however he is still alive and well. In that time Muramasa changed his last name to Kontonryu because he thought it fit himself better. In all this time the First World has been untouched by any outside power, good or evil, now it waits until the power of the Dragon Warriors returns. On the 173rd year a great shift in power took place, and Muramasa regained his lost power, and where this story begins…

Chapter 1: Of dragons and foxes

A young man was sitting in the middle of a meadow under the shade of a big tree. He was busy reading a journal of a Japanese archeologist when, an entry caught his attention: "We have been excavating the ruins for well over a week, and nothing of great importance has been discovered. Most of the ancient glyphs speak of an age old battle; it would seem as if it was between Gods." this entry was dated August 6, 1862.

The young man spoke to himself. "That would be the 5th time ruins described a battle between Gods, and that's across 3 continents and the ruins all have different estimated ages." He made a note of this in his journal. As he finished he noticed that it was 4:43. "Crap!" he said with slight disdain, "I only have 17 minutes to get back."

He quickly started to pack up his stuff, when his cell phone started ringing. He picked it up and answered. "Hello?" He said into the phone. "I suggest you hurry up." Said a male voice on the other end. "You're not helping." He retorted. "Well I thought you might want to know that the boss-man comith" Replied the voice.

The young man sighed, "Thanks for the info, but I better get going." "Good luck, Drake." The voice said. "Thanks Sora, I'm going to need it." Drake replied. He shut the phone with a click and slid it into his backpack. Then he continued to put the backpack on and started his 6 mile trek to his bike.

Drake checked his watch and to his displeasure it read 4:47. "I'm going to have to take the highway to get there in time." He said to himself as he quickened his pace. When he got to his bike, which happened to be a lime green Kawasaki ZX-6R Ninja, he checked his watch again and it read 4:53. "Wow," he said to himself as he mounted and started his motorcycle, "60 MPH, that's a new record."

Drake had to make the 15 miles to his school in less than 7 minutes, which would be impossible unless he went almost 130 MPH on the whole way there, so he decided to shoot for 5:04, he would be very late but at least he wouldn't go to jail. He made it to the highway in less than a minute.

With 14 miles to go, Drake turned into the fast lane and gunned it. He serpentined through the light traffic and empty road until he reached his exit without any problems. He checked his watch; 5:05 read the blue display. "Well at least I didn't get pulled over." He thought to himself as he pulled over to the left.

He looked over and noticed a little boy looking at him. He smiled and waved with his left hand, and the boy smiled back. The kid was still watching him from his SUV when Drake continued on his path to his school. When he finally made it to his school, Drake parked his bike across the street, and checked his watch.

"5:09," He sighed "I'm going to be scrubbing the floors for weeks." As he crossed the street he looks up at his school. It was a small wooden building surrounded by grass and small trees. There was a garden in the back that he loved to meditate in. The school was located in the countryside of southern Japan, and resided in a small village.

The villagers were nice, and provided a steady income for anyone willing to do some chores. Drake always dreaded his chores at his old home in America; however he was the schools most hard-working student, he even built his own house in the village with the residents help. He even worked for free in his spare time, growing in popularity within the village.

His family was surprised at his change when he visited them a week before. He seemed to have grown greatly in his short year there. He was at least twice as strong and even pushed their car when it broke down, reaching a top speed of 25MPH. When they questioned him about his sudden gain in strength he said it was just hard work, eating right, and believing in himself. They called Bullshit but he didn't change his story.

As he walked up the steps to the school, he paused and read the sign on the door: "Red Dragon Dojo". Drake always liked the name and hoped to become one of the Red Dragons. They were the most honored members, and the least seen. Drake has only seen one of the Red Dragons, other than his Sensei, and he was rather reluctant to talk to Drake. To become a Red Dragon is one simple test: beat their Sensei in a fight.

The memory of the challenge in his first mount there was still fresh in his head. The students name was Jack, and he was also from America. He quickly got agitated with the teaching style of the dojo. He said that they were "Holding me back" and "A waste of my time". He also wanted to beat their Sensei as quickly as possible. When Jack challenged their Sensei to a fight, he accepted with a warning: "I'm not going to go easy on you".

When the fight started, Jack wasn't even able to land a single hit before he was unconscious, their Sensei knocked him out with a single hit without taking more than a single step. Afterwards Jack left and apparently became a very successful lawyer, who ironically helped defend the dojo from lawsuits from students who were injured.

When the memory faded Drake opened the door to find every one of his fellow students (About 25 give or take) sitting in rows to his left, and to his right sat 7 strangers wearing dark clothing and to Drake's amusement, black trench coats. Between the two was a path to the raised platform that was at the back end of the dojo and took up two thirds of the space of the dojo which was 2500square feet. The dojo itself was a two story tall wooden building with traditional Japanese style walls and paper doors on both sides of the first floor, two on both the left and right, one at the end of the platform on either side and the center of the far wall. The stairs to the second floor are outside and the second floor is the living quarters for their Sensei and where the students can study and relax.

"What's going on?" Drake asked nervously. He looked over to his right at the 7 strangers, and wondered who they were. "If you were on time you would know." Replied a man sitting in the middle of the platform, Drake recognized the man as Niji, one of the lower level Sensei's who helped teach the students.

"I'm sorry," Drake answered "I was studying another journal and lost track of the time." "Oh?" Niji asked with little interest. "Did this journal contain anything remarkable?" "I'm not finished, but it did talk about glyphs describing a battle between Gods." "And why should I care?" Niji replied with an icy tone. "Because others I've read had depicted the same thing, and each from a different continent." Drake said getting exited.

Throughout this conversation the 7 strangers continued to discuss something with hushed murmurs. Every once and a while they would stop and look at Drake, then continue to talk to each other. Two of them however, were in a quite argument, what it was about, Drake didn't know. "We don't have the time for this," Niji said while standing up and walking towards Drake. "Introduce yourself to our guests and sit down." Niji said face to face with Drake.

"Oh right!" Drake replied nervously, as he turned away from the irritated Niji and to the strangers, he then bowed and said: "Hello and welcome to the Red Dragon!" Niji proceeded to hit him on the head saying "They know that already, just tell them your name." "Right, right…" He walked up to the nearest person, who stood up and offered his hand. Drake took it and shook it saying, "I'm pleased to meet you, my name is Ryu Tamashii." Drake smiled with his eyes closed expecting a similar response. When he opened his eyes why he hadn't responded, the man was standing there with a shocked look on his face and was staring at Drake.

Drake noticed a similar surprised look on the rest of the strangers faces. His fellow classmates and Niji seem to feel the same as Drake, wonder what had surprised them so. The man seemed to recover and regained his composure and said, "Sorry! That was very rude of me," he retracted his hand and bowed, "My name is Allen, and this is Dart," gesturing to a blonde with short strait hair, and pale blue eyes, to his left.

"Hello!" he replied with a slight accent, and shook Drakes hand. "And this is Cloud," Allen continued gesturing to another blonde with spiky hair, and slightly glowing blue eyes. "Hello." He replied and just nodded in his direction, Drake nodded back. "This is Squall," Allen said gesturing to a man leaning against the wall, when he looked up Drake saw the scar on his face after his brown hair moved out of his face. "Hello." Was all he said, and nodded in his direction.

Drake nodded back thinking 'My neck is going to be sore in the morning.' "This is Zoro," gesturing to a man with green hair sitting next to Squall. Drake could tell he was asleep, and there was a few seconds of awkward science before a silver haired man tapped him with his foot, and he woke up. He was confused for a little bit then he tried to gain his composure and said "Uh, hello."

Drake tried to stifle a grin as he said "Hello." Afterwards Zoro went back to sleep. "This is Dante." A rather displeased Allen gesturing to the silver haired man who kicked Zoro. "Yo!" Dante said, Drake smiled and nodded in his direction. "And this is…" Allen started. "Jade." Finished a young lady, who held out her hand. Allen seemed a little upset as Drake reached out to shake her hand.

When they shook hands Drake felt a strange feeling about Jade. Drake looked straight into her dark green eyes and he thought that there was more to her than it seemed. His thoughts were interrupted by loud footsteps from outside the dojo. "It's about time!" Niji exclaimed as he ushered Drake to the empty spot up by the platform. As he sat down Drake looked across the room and noticed Jade watching him, he waved at her and she waved back. Then the front door opened with a bang.