Chapter Two:

Co-Written with Sifirela

Looking back at it now, I s'pose some could accuse us of being in over our heads. Hell, we were in over our heads the moment we accepted the Ancient's armors. But, that didn't mean we were concerned with it at the time. No, we had more important things to do. We had a world to save from a demonic emperor. We ended up fighting things that should never have been able to exist, yet they did exist...Some still do.

It didn't make any sense to me then, and even now it continues to evade my understanding. Why us? Out of all the millions of people on this planet, how is it that five fourteen-year-olds were chosen for such a momentous task? I get now, that the armors are the ones that picked us, but why? Did we embody the virtues the Ancient told them to look for, or was it for another reason altogether? These questions shouldn't bother me anymore, but they still do at times...I have no clue why either.

It's been a long time since any of us had to fight, and we've all moved on...Or, it looks like we have, but maybe we really haven't. How can you let go of a past like ours, without losing some of the good? Or, can you really let go of it at all?

A midnight blue eye slipped open, before the man let out a yawn and sat up in his bed. His blue hair was sticking out at odd angles, but was easily fixed as he ran a hand through it, then took said hand and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

His alarm clock read six-thirty; it would not go off until seven, which was when he needed to get up in order to get ready to go to work. Rowen Hashiba let out a long languid sigh and got to his feet. He might as well start getting ready now, there was no point in trying to go back to sleep to catch just a miniscule thirty minutes.

The Ronin of Strata had learned how to function on little to no sleep back in his last year of highschool. Of course, getting up had been the hard part. Staying up late, and then having low-blood pressure to top it off, certainly had not helped him to be a morning person.

But, he was on medication to help manage his low blood pressure (which somehow had become so dangerously low his oriental doctor had nearly gone white) and he had learned to deal with staying up until midnight, and then getting up early in the morning. He still needed an exorbitant amount of caffeine to make it through the day, though.

Fifteen minutes later, the archer emerged from his bathroom, showered and dressed for the day ahead. In the beginning, the young man had simply been another person in the Research and Development department, now with his expertise and well-versed knowledge, he practically ran it.

As evidence by the fact his boss stuck him with all the new employees, or new interns. Rowen had been made aware of the fact there would be a new intern today...He wasn't necessarily looking forward to it.

The normally independent archer had become downright anti-social during his time in the United States. He stayed focused on his job, and only interacted with his co-workers when he had no other choice. Rowen rarely went out, and he had not taken a vacation since his first year of working at the company's United States firm.

As such, his relationship with the other Ronin was practically non-existent. He was horrible with letters and email, a trait he had undoubtedly picked up from his father, and calling was quite expensive. So, he had not heard from Cye since he moved, Kento he'd e-mailed last maybe two or three months ago...And Ryo had a habit of calling him once a month and sending him an email once a week.

Here Strata's bearer had to pause, on his way out the door, and roll his eyes. They had always accused Cye and Sage of being 'mother hens,' but if anyone fell into that category now, it was the Ronin of Wildfire. Ryo was always checking up on him, making sure he was okay.

Granted, Rowen could somewhat understand the reason for the Fire Ronin's seeming paranoia. The archer had taken ill and been placed in the hospital, twice so far that year. No matter how hard Strata's bearer tried to reassure him, Ryo just did not buy the fact that Rowen was getting too involved in projects and simply forgetting his medication.

"What does he think I'm trying to do?" the blue-haired man muttered to himself, as he walked into the elevator. Once the metal doors slid shut, he leaned back against the wall, a small frown framing his features.

He and Sage talked weekly now, but it had not been that way for a great length of time. Rowen's frown turned into a scowl as he thought back on the fight they had just before he had moved to the States. It had not been a pretty one; both of them had exchanged exceedingly nasty words. The end result had been they stormed off from each other, and those were the last words they had.

At least, that was up until two years ago when the swordsman had called him, most likely having gotten the number from Ryo, and apologized. Well, they had both been right and wrong, as Rowen had told him, and it was best just to leave it at that.

Since then, they had been communicating rather regularly and whatever tension having been there before was gone by this point. Of course, Rowen got the distinct feeling his blond friend wasn't telling him everything. It wasn't like he could call Sage on it though; he would have been a hypocrite for doing so.

There were things he wasn't telling anyone, much preferring to deal with them by himself and on his own terms. Yet, it would have been more correct to say he wasn't dealing with them at all.

Rowen took a quick glance at the clock on the wall, as he paused in his typing, it was eight-thirty now. His boss would be in soon to introduce the new intern. The Ronin of Strata only hoped this person would be a little more capable than the last six he had to deal with.

It wasn't abnormal for Rowen to come into work early, and immediately begin working. The company didn't care about overtime, as long as the projects got completed, that was all that mattered.

Strata's bearer happened to be very good at his job, more so when he did not have any distractions. New people were always a distraction. Either they were so incompetent it drove him insane, or they knew of his reputation for being on par with a super computer in brain power.

Nothing was more frustrating than that, nothing. The door opened, and Rowen did not bother to look up, already knowing who had entered.

"Good morning, Mr. Bennigan," the archer greeted, hands moving across the keyboard as he kept his focus on the computer screen.

Thomas Bennigan was a short, stout man, of Irish descent, though being fourth generation American, he had no accent to speak of, other than an exceedingly heavy city one, "Ah, Mr. Hashiba. I did give you fair warning about the new intern, didn't I?"

"Yes sir, you did," Rowen finally looked up to see what he was going to be stuck with this time. His jaw would have clattered to the floor, if it had been able.

Rowen eyed the young woman standing behind his boss rather warily. How could this be possible? Of all the people he had to deal with, of all the ones he could have possibly dealt with in the future...This was unreal!

Did she not know she was in the wrong time? Especially with those clothes, he might not have been a fashion freak, but even he knew that her style was severely out-dated. Actually, as a matter of fact her whole age was out-dated.

His boss seemed to misunderstand the look, and went on to explain, "Now Mr. Hashiba. She's here for a year, the internship program only works for that long. She has even requested she be under your wing. I told her she made a fine choice." Mr. Bennigan said with a faint smile.

"Uh--uh..." Rowen could only helplessly blink, all intelligent words failing him completely. He looked from Kayura to his boss, from his boss to Kayura again...The yellow thread-suit not doing her beauty justice. It made her look like a blue-haired bumble-bee.

"Oh. Come now, Hashiba!" Mr. Bennigan slapped Rowen on the back with a laugh. "She's a beauty, so teach her right okay?" Mr. Bennigan smiled at Kayura, waved and walked out.

As soon as the door clicked closed, Rowen scowled, "What the HELL are you doing here?"

Kayura gave a snort as the archer's display of attitude, "Living my life, what does it look like?"

She sighed in relief eyeing the closed door, "Thank God he left. I was afraid I'd never be able to get out of this thing."

The Lady Ancient proceeded to undress right in front of the archer...Sort of, she simply pulled off the yellow suit and pants and promptly dumped them into the trash bin. She was now left in a belle-sleeved dress shirt, and pressed pants, which were much more fitting for her figure.

"Sekhmet bought the suite for me. Damn fool is color blind, but I promised I'd wear it on my first day. So I humored him. Humoring now over."

"I thought you were in charge of the Netherworld, you know, keeping is safe, and free of demons, like the ones you live with," Rowen said dryly. He did his best not to stare at the young woman, even though it had been sometime since he'd seen her last.

The last time he had seen her, had been maybe three or four years after Talpa's final defeat. Ryo had conned the others into meeting up with her and the Warlords in order to remember Anubis. Well, that had been an interesting outing to say the very least.

She had looked very much like a child then, but she was definitely a young woman now. The Lady Ancient had grown several inches, and filled out, losing the girlish looks she once had. Her hair had also been cut, slightly shorter than what he was used to seeing. Rowen had to admit it complemented her face much better.

And, the minute that thought crossed his mind the Strata Ronin mentally slapped himself and returned to working on his laptop.

Kayura gave a snort and rolled her eyes, "I was doing that. Until the Ancient told me that I would be better off here. He said to leave the Warlords in charge so I did. I've been in the mortal realm for the past five years. I didn't get here yesterday."

"Leave it in their hands?" Rowen arched an eyebrow, and snorted, "Are they even capable of doing that? Last time I saw them they were drunk as could be on the anniversary of Anubis's death."

Yeah, that was what had made the outing so interesting. Three overtly drunk Warlords...Of course, it had been exceedingly alarming at the time. But now, he could look back on it and laugh.

"You haven't had to live with them, they're capable enough and where they can't handle it, I know she can, so it's not an issue," Kayura said dismissively. Of course, she was leaving out the fact the Warlords had begun living in the mortal realm three-years-ago, but she found no need to concern the Strata Ronin with that information.

"She? Who's she?" Rowen asked, tilting his head towards Kayura. Mentally punching himself this time, when he noticed he was staring at her body again. It had been way too long since he'd been in a relationship. Rowen had practically married his work, and while many of his female coworkers had thrown themselves at his feet...He just wasn't the type of man interested in that sort of thing.

"Oh, well the Nether Realm isn't filled with just demons," she remarked offhandedly, as she sat down in a chair and pulled open a book with numbers and data in them. "There are some rather old beings therein, young by their standards, old by our standards. They showed up not long after they heard Talpa was gone; they've been helping us out."

Kayura gave a grin as she looked to Strata's bearer, "I made friends with someone about my age, and she's even more capable than I am at handling things. I'm not worried."

"I see," Rowen said stretching in his chair. "So you've made progress into the modern-day world. I'm surprised."

"Not that I'm calling you remedial," he quickly added before cracking his neck.

"This world was an easy study," Kayura said seemingly unconcerned with his comments; "So exactly what part of this project do you want me to work on?"

"Ah this part," Rowen handed her some files, his eyes taking on a bored look, "Since you're 'new,' I have to give you something 'easy.' So that the boss won't think I'm too hard on you."

Kayura let out a chuckle in amusement, "Poor Ro, everyone says you're a slave-driver. Oh if they only knew. You were always soft and squishy." She chortled at his look, and gladly took the files opening up the first and reading it over carefully.
Rowen merely shook his head and went back to work, knowing she was baiting him to say something more. He knew better than to rise to such bait, luckily.

An hour-and-a-half later the archer once more moved, this time to stretch. As he did so, he grasped something. A small frown framed his face as he squeezed it, as he did so he heard a sharp gasp and earned a pock in the back of his head.

His eyes nearly popped out of his skull as he whipped his head around, though he relaxed once he realized he had simply grabbed a doughnut Kayura had been going to eat.

Rowen rubbed at the back of his head with his clean hand, now he would have to wash the other off to get rid of the sticky substance. He got to his feet and walked to the door, opened it.

"Get your own sugar," Kayura told him, though it was in play.

"Sorry, not a sugar-holic, I already went through that phase. I don't need a fat butt," Rowen called back over his shoulder.

"Butt looks fine to me," the Lady Ancient said in a sing-song voice, as she finished her doughnut and the Ronin of Strata walked back into the room.

His face immediately flushed at the comment, and he grumbled something unintelligible under his breath, before returning to his desk and resuming the work.

To this the Lady Ancient gave a triumphant smirk, and went back to her own task...Though, by this point she was already half-way through the files she had been given.

The rest of the day continued on with a certain amount of normalcy, Rowen would never have expected possible considering he was working with a former enemy. Not to mention, one that had nearly succeeded in killing him half-a-dozen times.

But, he had let that go a very long time ago. No matter how much he had wanted to hold onto that anger and that hatred...He just couldn't. There was no logic in something as foolish as that, or that was how he had explained it to himself.

By four o'clock Kayura's time at the job was done for the day. She did not say much, simply a goodbye and see you later, before she walked out of his office and disappeared down the hall.

The Ronin of Strata had gotten up, pausing in what he was doing, to see what she had done and what else he would have to do. He was surprised to find the folders he had given her now neatly arranged in order of importance, the information within them arranged in chronological order, and that whatever missing data had been there was now filled in with very neat script.

It was definitely a pleasant surprise. Kayura was actually capable of doing the job that almost made her sudden appearance less disconcerting. Well, not quite but he wouldn't worry about that now.

At five, he packed up his things and grabbed the rest of what he had been working on and went home to work on it some more. He had wanted to get this one project done today, and he was going to try and get it finished so he could get on to the next thing. The hours passed quickly once he got home, he only took two or three small breaks before returning to typing away on his laptop. The piece of technology was protesting the overuse quite a great deal, not as much as his body, but close enough.

When Strata's bearer finally bothered to glance at the clock, he was so bleary eyed he could barely read it. It was just past midnight. Rowen let out a groan and rubbed at his eyes, then saved everything and shutdown the laptop. So much for getting it all done, but he was a lot closer now than what he had been before.

The archer let out a sigh, and then headed off to bed far too tired to think about why the Lady Ancient had suddenly appeared, and too exhausted to care. Well, he would probably care in the morning when the realization completely dawned on him.