Disclaimer: I don't own Ronin Warriors. If I did The Legend of the Kikoutei never would have been made. Who would think it would be cool if our boys lost their armors?
Chapter 2
Mason's First Offer
One early morning, Mason left his estate. There was a single place on his mind. The excitement of what was to come was burning inside him. Would he get more than usual? This was the first time he had done this type of thing before.
The greed inside himself kept growing as he was driven to the fancy hotel a ways away from his estate where his money-maker was being kept.
When Mason reached the fancy hotel, the man got out of the limousine. His hands went to his brown hair to make sure that it hadn't moved since he had combed it. He wanted to look his finest to give a good impression.
He silently walked through the door and past the receptionist. The man knew how to reach the hidden room by heart by now. His green eyes didn't even need to scan the place for the unassuming door. He took out his key card from his suit pocket and opened it.
When he walked inside the large room, a vast area with a big table sitting in the middle of it, he saw that most of his comrades were already there. He sat in his usual seat among the many people around the single table.
"Are we all gathered here today?" The leader of the group asked. When everyone nodded the man began the meeting. "Do any of you have anything to sell?" He asked the people around the table.
A woman in rich clothes held up her hand. "I came across some very rare diamonds the other day," she informed the group. "Would any of you like to buy them?"
Mason saw the greed on some of his comrades' faces. If he wasn't so excited about his own, he might have focused on out-bidding any of them. As it was, he wanted to wait until the right moment for the best impact.
The diamonds were quickly sold.
"Anyone else?" The leader asked.
"I bought some rare, Egyptian silk from Egypt itself," came the second offer.
The silk wasn't sold as fast as the rare diamonds that the woman had offered.
Mason waited for another 3 biddings before making his own.
"I have a new offer for you," Mason interrupted. "I'm sure everyone here will be interested in it."
A middle-aged woman with a fur scarf rolled her eyes. "Again? When will you learn that you can only be paid so much for those things?"
Mason smiled. "But, my dear, this is a first for everyone here," he pleasantly told the woman.
The leader's interest was spiked. "What is this offer, Mason?" He asked the man.
Mason smiled again. "I am offering to fight any fight for you. All you have to do is offer more money than everyone else here."
"Oh?" The middle-aged woman said with a raised eye brow.
"Yes, my dear, any fight you wish for me to take care of, I will. No questions asked."
Mason never specifically stated who would fight the fights which Mason was offering to do. He wasn't about to tell them of his newest money-maker. No, that single teenager was his secret that he wouldn't share with anyone. Who knows what would happen to Ryo if the people around the table ever found out about him and the power of his mysterious armor.
The biddings started. Mason just sat back and watched with satisfaction and greed as the money he would be paid increased the longer that the bidding kept going. When it finished, Mason was disappointed. The sum of money he would be given was a nice amount but he had thought that he would have been paid more with this offer.
Patience, he told himself, patience. It'll eventually pay off. This is the first time; they are bound to be hesitant.
"Is that the highest bid?" The leader asked.
No one said anything.
"What is the fight you would have me to do?" Mason politely asked.
"There is a group people near my estate who are giving me trouble," the young woman answered. "I'd like you to subdue them so that they will submit to me."
Mason nodded. "Very well," he said. "Transfer the money to the usual account and I will take care of the fight."
The brunette man stood and left the room. When his back was to the closed door his neutral facial expression turned to a frown. Today hadn't gone how he had thought it would when he had awoken this morning. Patience, he reminded himself, patience is the key. It'll eventually rise to the amount that I want.
All Mason had to do now was tell the Sorceress that he had given his first offer.
He returned to his limousine which was waiting in front of the hotel. He was driven back to his mansion. When he walked inside, he called for one of his servants. He was told where the Sorceress was and he walked to talk to the woman. He wanted to tell her about what had happened while he was in the room where the black market was located.
When he reached the door to the Sorceress' suite, he knocked on the door.
"It's Mason," he called through the door. "I've returned."
The door opened with the Sorceress still sitting on the couch in her sitting room. Mason walked through the door. It shut behind him after the Sorceress spoke words that the man couldn't understand.
The man sat in the armchair near the Sorceress.
"I just came back," he informed the woman.
The Sorceress' gray eyes turned to him. "How did it go?" She asked.
"It didn't go as well as I had wanted," the man admitted.
The Sorceress' auburn hair moved across her back slightly as she shook her head.
"It's only natural that they will not pay you more," she pointed out. "You make your living as a mercenary. It's only natural that they do not pay you more this time. It will increase over time once they see that you are able to always keep your end of the deal."
Mason changed the subject.
"I've got our first fight," Mason told the Sorceress. "One of them wants us to subdue a group of people near her estate."
"When will Ryo fight?" The Sorceress asked.
"Once I am paid the money, we'll send Ryo to subdue the group of people. I trust that you will go with him?"
She nodded. "Of course," she responded. "After all, I am the only one who can unlock his Sealing Mark and force him to fight."
Mason stood. He bowed slightly to the woman on the couch.
"I will take my leave then," he told her.
Her gray eyes followed his back as he walked out of the room. The woman spoke in the unfamiliar language. The door closed behind Mason without her standing.
…
At breakfast the next morning, Mason informed the auburn woman that he had been paid the money already. The Sorceress told him that she would take Ryo to where the fight would be after breakfast.
Once the Sorceress had finished eating, she left to grab Ryo. When she entered the Ronin Warrior's prison she found him by the fire pit.
"We're leaving," she told the teenager.
The black-haired teenager looked at her. His blue eyes watched her warily as she came closer to him.
"Where are we going?" He asked the woman.
The woman smiled sweetly. "You will see," she told him. "Now, you can come willingly or I will force you to come with me."
Ryo didn't want to be forced to go wherever she was taking him. He stood and followed the woman to the open gate. Many guards where in front of it when the teenager reached it. They fell into step around him as he walked behind the woman, being careful not to step on her flowing, black dress.
When Ryo was led outside of the mansion he saw a fancy-looking minivan. The side door was opened and the teenager was told to get inside. Ryo sat in the middle, next to the woman. The woman said something that he couldn't understand. When he went to move to find a more comfortable position, he found that he couldn't move.
What is going on? He thought. Suddenly I can't move.
None of the others inside the minivan, including the Sorceress, seemed to have the same problem that he did. It annoyed him for some reason. Why was he the only one who was being treated as a disobedient dog?
Ryo sat in silence glaring at the driver he was sitting behind. He didn't say anything as he was taken to wherever their destination was.
When the vehicle finally reached it, the minivan's side door was opened again.
"Don't try anything funny," one of the guards behind him said.
Ryo couldn't turn his head to see who had given the warning. All he could do was wait for the men in the minivan to get out with the Sorceress following behind them. She said some unknown words again.
"Move," another guard told the teenager.
Ryo wasn't sure he could even move but the gun pointed at him gave him enough motivation to try. Much to his surprise his muscles obeyed him. He scooted across the seat to the minivan's side door. He got out and stretched. The Sorceress waited for the teenager to have his hands fall down before going to him.
"Are you willing to fight, Ryo?" The Sorceress asked.
Ryo gave her a are you kidding me? look. "I'm not going fight anyone," he flat out told the woman.
"You don't have a choice, Ryo," she told him.
Ryo took a step backwards when he saw the guards coming closer with their guns pointed at him.
"Get moving," one of them said.
There was a force from the middle of his back that made the teenager stumble. At this moment he wished that the guards were Dynasty Soldiers. If they weren't normal people, Ryo would have had no problem killing them. But, because they were human, Ryo couldn't make himself even hit one of them. Instead, he just walked forwards with the guns still pointed at him.
Eventually the Sorceress stopped. She turned to Ryo and motioned for the guards to move away from the teenager. She went to Ryo and said something that he couldn't hear.
Ryo felt his connection to the Wildfire come back. He would have smiled if he didn't see the look in her eyes. 2 of her fingers touched his forehead and she spoke again words that he couldn't understand.
Horror came with the need to destroy – anything or anyone was fine as long as he decimated them. That was all that mattered to him right now. He felt the Wildfire react to this sudden feeling. He could feel the armor wrap itself protectively around him. His hands took his swords from their sheathes without him thinking.
"What did you do?" Wildfire asked the Sorceress.
The Sorceress just smiled and stepped aside. She motioned for the teenager to start walking to the people below them.
"Remember," she told him, "you are to subdue them, not to let them run."
Ryo found himself walking towards the people below him. His hands tightened on the hilts of his swords. No, he pleaded as he was forced to walk, please don't make me do this. I don't want to do this.
Wildfire crept to the edge of the group. He put his right sword diagonal in front of him. He waited for the nearest person to come. When he saw his target, he charged at the man in front of him.
"RUN!" He screamed as he ran.
The man jumped in surprise. He was always ready to fight but hadn't thought he would have to fight someone wearing funny-looking armor that was going to fight with swords. The man shot a bullet at the teenager's chest, fully expecting his attacker to die before reaching him. When the bullet just bounced off the armor, the man didn't know what to think of it.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Ryo screamed as his right sword went to run the man through.
The man jumped back. He turned and ran.
"INTRUDER!" He yelled as he ran away from Wildfire.
Ryo ran after the man. Since the teenager was faster than anyone who was there, he quickly caught up to his enemy. His sword went through the man, barely missing any vital places. He pulled out his bloody, red sword and the man fell in a heap at his feet.
"EVERYONE, GET OUT OF HERE!" Ryo screamed at anyone listening. He didn't want to hurt another human being. Injuring the one at his feet was bad enough. He didn't want to think about what would happen to the others who were here if they didn't run away from him.
Many bullets hit the Wildfire's armor. Ryo just stood there without any of them even denting it. When the firing had ceased, Ryo ran to where the bullets had come from. He found many women and men hiding inside what looked like an abandoned building.
"I told you to run!" He told the people in the building.
They just held up their guns, ready to shoot.
"Don't you guys understand? You can't harm me," he told them.
It didn't take long for Ryo to incapacitate the people in the building. He left to find the others who were living in the area. Through the entire time the teenager had futilely tried to either stop himself or to get the people to run away before he could harm them. The only consolation – if you could call it that – was that he hadn't killed anyone while he went through the buildings looking for any people who had escaped. When everyone was injured, Ryo found himself returning to where the Sorceress was waiting for him. He stopped in front of the woman. He felt the Wildfire leave him. When Ryo was wearing his regular clothes again, he found that he was frozen like he had been in the van. The Sorceress softly said something different from last time and Ryo lost his connection to the Wildfire's soul inside him. The Sorceress' fingers touched Ryo's forehead and the need to destroy went away. All that was left was a sick feeling.
"Get back into the van," the Sorceress told the black-haired teenager.
Ryo found himself in the minivan before he really registered what his prison keeper had said. He felt as if he was in a daze as he was taken back to his fancy prison.
…
The Sorceress returned to her rooms to think. She had found something peculiar about her prisoner. She had felt something inside him – an unknown entity if you will – that wasn't either the armor's soul or Ryo's own.
She sat in the chair in her sitting room. She couldn't think of what that unknown entity was inside that teenager. It was something that she had never come across before and she didn't like it. She liked controlling others and the mystery she had just been given made her feel as if her control over Ryo wasn't as thorough as she had thought. If she knew what that unknown entity inside the teenager was, she knew she would get total control over him.
She eventually went to find Mason. Her employer would want to know how the fight had gone. When she found the man, she started talking.
"You were right, Mason," she told the brunette man. "That boy holds incredible power inside him."
"How did it go?" Mason asked her.
The Sorceress smiled. "Perfect," she replied. "He subdued those people as if they were nothing. He didn't even have to kill any one of them."
"That's good to hear," Mason said with satisfaction.
"But, Mason," the Sorceress interrupted, "I've come across something peculiar while I had total control over him."
"What is it?" Mason asked.
"There is something inside Ryo that I had not been expecting," she told him, "it is not his armor's soul or even his own."
"Do you know what it is?"
The Sorceress shook her head. "Truthfully, I've never come across this before."
Mason's curiosity spiked. "I didn't think there was something special about that boy besides that armor of his that has the destruction power of a regular sized army."
"What should we do about this?" The Sorceress asked.
"We'll just have to watch him to figure out what that unknown entity is," Mason replied. "I don't know if Ryo even knows about it."
"I agree," the Sorceress said. "We will have to watch him for now to find the answer about the unknown entity inside of him."
The Sorceress returned to her rooms. She sat on her couch and a large mirror showed in front of her. She saw that Ryo was outside by the fire pit.
…
To say that Ryo felt uneasy was an understatement right now. The fear inside him was gnawing at him. Ryo didn't know that the Sorceress already knew that there was something else besides the Wildfire's soul and his own inside of him.
It was the fear of the Sorceress and Mason finding out about the Inferno that wouldn't leave him. He knew that the Inferno was much more powerful than all 5 of the Ronin armors combined. He knew the amount of destruction that the Inferno could cause – all of the Ronin Warriors knew that intimately. He knew the amount of damage it would cause if the Sorceress ever knew about it. After what had happened today, he was certain that the Sorceress could control it and he was scared because of that.
…
The Sorceress watched Ryo's actions – or lack thereof – in her mirror. He hadn't moved for hours but she could tell that the teenager was scared of something. It didn't catch her interest much as Ryo was her and Mason's prisoner and he had just been forced to fight his first fight since they had kidnapped him.
She sat there for a while longer, watching the teenager just stare into the fire in the fire pit. It was dark by the time she had the mirror disappear. She stood and went to find Mason. She was going to report that Ryo seemed scared for some reason. It wouldn't do if it caused any hiccups in their plans.
"Ryo is scared, Mason," she said when she found the man.
"What do you mean?" Mason asked.
The Sorceress moved an auburn lock behind her ear.
"The boy seems to be scared of something," she explained.
Mason shrugged. He didn't think much of it since Ryo had just been forced to do something.
"Just keep an eye on him for now," he told the woman.
The woman nodded and left him alone.
…
Ryo was trying to sleep one night after the fight. He couldn't stop thinking about what could have happened between eating dinner with his friends, Mia and Yuli, and when he woke up at Mason's estate.
Ryo could see a vague picture of someone in his mind. He couldn't recall the specifics of what that person looked like or even if they were male or female. He lay there trying to make the picture come more into focus. He felt that if he remembered enough of what they looked like, the memory he was missing would return.
He was almost asleep when it finally came to him.
Ryo was standing in front of a candy shop's window. He had just eaten with the guys and had gone off to buy some dessert on his own. He had heard of this place from someone recently and had been wanting to try it. He hadn't told anyone where he was going because he knew that Kento would insist on coming with him. He didn't have enough money to pay for the huge amount of food that his friend would want if Wildfire had brought him along.
"My," a young woman said from behind him, "are you also looking for something to eat?"
Ryo turned around. He could tell that she was well off; her clothes gave it away perfectly.
The teenager smiled politely. "Yeah," he answered. "I heard about this place and wanted to try it."
The woman smiled brightly. She held up an opened box for Wildfire to see. "I happen to have the best chocolate of this place," she said. "Would you care to join me? I didn't realize I had bought too much until after I paid for it."
Ryo smiled at her. "I wouldn't mind," he said, thinking of his pitiful amount of money he had left in his pocket. He had been meaning to ask Mia if he could borrow some money but kept forgetting each time he saw her.
"Why don't we enjoy it at the park near here?" She suggested with a smile.
Ryo nodded. She held out her free arm for him. He walked the few steps between them. He hooked his arm around hers.
"Lead the way," he told her.
She smiled in delight. She started walking down the street, away from the area that Ryo's hotel was in. Ryo kept pace with her as they talked. He didn't notice how far he had come until they arrived at a park in an area of town that Ryo hadn't ever been to.
"This way," she said. "There is some nice shade over there with a bench for us to sit on while we eat."
Ryo let himself be lead away from the main traffic path. He sat on the bench beside the young woman. She carefully opened the box that was now on her lap. She held up the full box of chocolates.
"Why don't you have the first pick?" She asked.
….
…
.…..what happened after that?
Ryo couldn't remember.
The memory of his time with the unknown young woman kept going through his head as if there was something he was missing. There was something, right?
…
About a week after Ryo had been forced to fight, Sage, Kento, Cye, Mia, Yuli and Rowen were still looking for their missing friend. They had completely given up trying to look for Ryo on their own. Now they were asking people they came across if any of them had somehow seen Ryo when he had disappeared. They used their best description of Wildfire but it seemed as if none of them had ever seen anyone who looked like Ryo.
Disappointment was starting to hang over them like a raincloud the more days that passed without them being able to find the black-haired teenager.
They kept asking for a couple of more days with the same result. It was starting feel as if they would never find Ryo. Mia tried to cheer up the Ronin Warriors but even she was starting to feel the effects of not being able to find Ryo. It was after this that they caught a glimmer of hope and light.
"Yeah, I've seen someone like that," a woman said as she brought her toddler higher on her hip. "Strange boy, really; he was walking alongside a rich woman, wearing clothes that looked just as fine as yours and mine do."
Mia nodded her head to show she was listening. "Did you see anything else?" She asked.
The woman's fingers went to her lip as if she was thinking. "It was odd though," she commented. "That same boy was unconscious and being carried in a beefy man's arms when he went past me again. I've never seen that man around here before."
Mia's blood ran cold.