Okay, basic disclaimer: the Samurai Troopers, Warlords, Kayura, Nasté, Jun, White Blaze, and Kaos do not belong to me; they belong to some Japanese company that makes a lot of money off of me. Anything that ain't from the show or credited to something else that appears in my stories belongs to me, that's all.
As to the story, I do hope you enjoy it. You'll notice in the story that I use (POV Shift) and (Time Skip) to signal such things. This is due to this site not allowing me to make use of the publishing industry standard of a line with three asterisks to signal a change in POV and a skipped line to signal a time skip. I put those things in, and it takes them out. So, I had to resort to the above, instead of following standard practice within the publishing industry. I apologize for that. Thanks for taking the time to read my story, by the way.
Mind, Soul, and Body:
Book One: Shadows of the Past
Chapter Seven: Transilience
By Corlock Striker
February 14, 2001 Mamaroneck, NY -
Jane looked over the contents of her locker and checked the items in her arms, making sure she had all the books she needed for math. She hated Trig. She checked her hair in the small mirror on her locker door, using one hand to adjust it to her liking, being careful not to drop her books. She frowned slightly to herself, what Mike had said to her over a week ago was still bothering her. Was he right, was it the guys she was hanging out with that were the problem, rather than an essential flaw within the male sex as a whole?
The thought that it was maybe the guys she hung around, rather than just guys in general made her watch the behaviors of guys all around the school more carefully. The guys in her crowd, the popular ones, certainly seemed to reinforce her opinions. She wasn't sure what to to think of the guys in some of the other cliques though. They actually seemed like they might be decent people, not totally motivated by that thing between their legs. She wasn't naive enough to think that they weren't motivated by that at all, but it seemed like it might not be their primary motivation.
She was still looking at her hair in the mirror. It was small, her head took up almost the whole frame, so she didn't see Tom come up behind her. Instead she felt his arms wrap around her waist, and his body press lightly against her back. He whispered into her ear, "Happy Valentine's Day, babe. My parents are going out tonight, so I'll have the house to myself. I was thinking maybe you could come over, we could have some dinner, and then see where things go from there."
She could feel that smart, suggestive smirk on his face, his hands and body oozing over her. That was a new sensation. Tom was her boyfriend and up until her conversation with Mike, she'd been content with the relationship. She imagined that was because she'd believed that every guy was solely motivated by lust, so she didn't expect much else from them. Which meant that Tom's usual behavior hadn't bothered her. Since that conversation she'd started questioning whether or not she really had to settle for a guy that seemed solely motivated by his baser instincts. As the seed of doubt Mike had planted began to take root, she grew more and more uncomfortable around Tom and more unhappy with their relationship.
She gently disengaged herself from Tom's grasp and turned to face him. She studied him for a moment. Yes, he was handsome but his personality left a lot to be desired and she was starting to realize that personality meant a lot more in a relationship than looks. She frowned and looked down at the ground. She raised her head, her blue eyes looking straight into Tom's green ones. This was a bad day to do this, but she realized that she really couldn't stay in a relationship with him any longer, not with the way she felt when she was around him now. She sighed softly, "Tom, I'm sorry, this is sort of the worst day to do this, but, well. Hmm, how do I put this?"
Tom straightened, electrified, rage storming in his green eyes, "Are you breaking up with me?"
She shrank back from his accusation, swallowing a mouthful of air.
"You can't dump me. I won't let you. Screw you, Jane. We're done!" He stormed passed her, knocking into her shoulder with his own.
She was thrown a little off balance mentally by his reaction and the blow to her shoulder served to upset her physical balance as well. She spun slightly, knocked backwards, the bank of lockers behind her catching her none too gently. Well, that didn't go very well.
One of the girls she regularly hung out with materialized, "Oh my god, I can't believe you just broke up with Thomas Smythe. He's only like the hottest and most popular guy in the school. Are you crazy? You can't find a better boyfriend than him." Jane looked over, it was Megan Walsh.
She'd never really liked Megan. She was very pretty but had zero personality and had always come across as a vapid ass kisser to Jane. Jane would know, Megan had spent plenty of time kissing her ass. Jane also knew that Megan had spoken rather poorly about her to other girls. Megan was the very definition of a sycophant. Seeing Megan and hearing what she was saying, it dawned on Jane that she really had been hanging around with the wrong people.
An involuntary sneer formed on her face as she looked at Megan hovering around her. Jane looked up at a clock, she had to hurry to Trig. She pushed away from the lockers, walking away from Megan without a word.
(POV Shift)
May 5, 2001 Larchmont, NY -
Shu glanced around the restaurant, the space was on the smaller side, and it seemed more cramped due to it's narrow nature. If you took the same square footage and made it a square, it probably wouldn't seem as small as it did in this layout. He'd arrived in America on the last day of April and had spent the last week learning the particulars of this restaurant. He'd been horrified to learn what was considered "Chinese" food in America. That knowledge was thanks to some visits to other local Chinese restaurants to get a feel for the competition.
The food at this particular restaurant was a bit more authentic than in the others he'd seen. Even so it was still a far cry from the real thing. However, he knew enough to know that he shouldn't fool around with the menu too much. If he did he might drive off customers. So, he'd keep the food as it was, for now, and maybe start trying to add some more authentic dishes to the menu one by one as time went on. His uncle also decided to keep the name of the place, to keep customers. So, Shu was now running Ray's Cafe in Larchmont, NY.
He looked down at his watch, the others had arrived in America around the same time as him and spent the last week getting acquainted with their jobs. They were going to meet up for dinner at Ray's today. It was Jess's idea. Her grandmother lived in Larchmont, so she knew the town fairly well, and knew exactly where the restaurant was once he told her the name. Jess had stopped by earlier in the week to check in on him and to introduce him to her grandmother. Jessica said the woman insisted on meeting each of the Troopers individually. She seemed like a nice woman, she gave off a similar vibe to Kaos.
It turned out that most of the Troopers had ended up outside of Manhattan in an area called Westchester County. Shu was in Larchmont, Seiji was one town south in New Rochelle, Shin was in Mamaroneck, which Jess said was basically the same as being in Larchmont but not at the same time. Shu didn't fully understand what she meant by that. Ryo was a little north of Larchmont in a town called Rye. Toma was being put up in Manhattan by New York University. Jessica said they should meet in Larchmont, since it was sort of the middle ground between the Troopers in Westchester. She also suggested it because it'd be more convenient for her, she could spend the weekend at her grandmother's. Jess offered to help Toma get here from the city by train.
It was getting close to 7:00 pm, the time they had agreed to meet for dinner. No one was here yet, Shu was getting anxious. The door opened and Seiji stepped in, Shu let out a sigh of relief and greeted his friend. "Hey Seiji, good to see you. How's the house your company set you up in?" Shu clapped a hand onto Seiji's shoulder, shaking his hand. As he did Nasté stepped through the door. Shu did a double take, "Huh, wha..Nasté, it's wonderful to see you. What a surprise! What are you doing here?" Shu abandoned Seiji, giving Nasté a hug.
Nasté blushed and returned the hug, "Hi Shu. Yes, it's nice to see you as well. Umm..."
Seiji interrupted, "It was sort of a last minute thing, Nasté coming. She and I...Well, we started dating when we all got back together again. So, I invited her to come over with me. I was expecting her to say no, but she said yes, so here she is."
Shu stepped back from Nasté and looked between her and Seiji before a big smile broke out on his face, "Well, it's about time! Come on, sit down." Shu laughed and led them over to a table that could seat twelve but was set for eleven. The door opened again, Shin walked in. Another large smile split Shu's face, "Shin, so glad you're here. Come on over. Seiji and Nasté are here already!"
Shin smiled and walked over. He paused briefly when Shu mentioned Nasté's name and mouthed "Seiji AND Nasté?"
Shu beamed back and mouthed, "Dating."
Shin mouthed, "Oh," and made his way to the table, greeting everyone. Jessica and Toma stepped through the door as he did.
Shu hurried over, a huge smile on his face, "Toma, Jessica, great to see you. Shin, Seiji and Nasté are all here already, come say hi." Toma paused and gave Shu a quizzical look at the mention of Nasté's name. Shu smiled, "I'll let Seiji explain. Everyone's waiting at the table, it's just inside." Shu would have led them over himself but Ryo stepped through the door.
Shu went through the ritual of greeting Ryo and inviting him in, finishing just as Kayura and the Mashou showed up. As he was welcoming them one of the bus boys came up from the kitchen and put a take out order on the bar. Everyone had moved away from the table and was congregating around the bar now. Shu slipped into the narrow space behind the counter and started taking drink orders. The group was chatting quite happily amongst themselves. The presence of Nasté a common topic of conversation.
Shu's smile widened, it was nice to see all his friends together and having a good time, including the Mashou. They had grown to be friends as well over the years, even Rajura, though Shu still didn't quite fully trust him. The door creaked open and a teenaged boy slipped in. He looked like he was fourteen, short blonde hair, oval glasses, thin as a twig. His clothes looked a little too big for him, like they were hand-me-downs or he'd recently lost a lot of weight. He rubbed his temple slightly before nimbly navigating the crowd surrounding the bar and stepped up to it. He glanced around for a moment before catching Shu's eye.
Shu sidled over to the teenager, "Can I help you?"
The boy nodded, "Yeah, I'm here to pick up. Last name's Smith."
Shu nodded, "Ah, yes, of course. Your order is all ready. How will you be paying?"
He handed Shu a gold colored MasterCard as he rubbed his temple once again. Shu looked at the card quizzically, the boy was far too young to have a credit card.
The boy smirked answering Shu's unspoken question, "It's my dad's, he's out in the car. I have his permission to use it."
"Ah, okay then." Shu shrugged, the staff at the restaurant had told him this sort of thing wasn't too unusual here and that he wouldn't get into any sort of legal trouble for running the card. He went ahead and charged it. He eyed the boy again, " Are you feeling okay?"
"Just got a sudden headache. No big deal." He looked around the restaurant, "Busy night tonight."
Shu looked up, "Ah, yes, well, I'm having a little celebration tonight."
"Oh, what are you celebrating?"
Shu smiled, "My arrival to America."
"Oh, are you the new owner, then?"
"Well, my uncle is the new owner, I'm just running the place for him. My name is Shu Rei Fang."
The boy paused, "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Rei Fang. I'm Sad Smith, I knew Ray, the guy who originally owned this place. He was my swimming coach way back. Nice guy." Once again, the boy massaged his temple.
"Ah, well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Sad Smith. Sad, that's an unusual name. Please, call me Shu." Shu tore off the charge slip and handed it and a pen to Sad.
"It's a family name, short for Sadlier. Thank you, Shu. I'll see you again soon, I'm sure." Sad signed the slip and passed it back to Shu, before grabbing the bag with the food and ducking out of the restaurant.
After he left Kayura and Jessica came over to Shu, both were lowering their hands from their temples. Kayura asked, "Who was that boy just now?"
Shu shrugged, "A customer picking up take out. He said his name was Sad Smith. Why?"
Kayura looked at Jessica and then back at Shu, "I'm not sure. I..we thought we sensed something unusual about the boy, but it passed quickly. We were probably mistaken."
Shu frowned, "If you say so." He looked around, "Well, if everyone's got their drinks, shall we eat?" Everyone nodded and Shu led them back to the table. It was time for his favorite past time.
(POV Shift)
February 26, 2001 Mamaroneck, NY -
Mike was at a table in the library with a bunch of his friends, where they typically spent their free periods. He let out a quiet laugh after Jake told a joke. They discussed their plans for the weekend. Sounded like it was going to be pretty fun.
A female voice broke into their conversation, "Um, excuse me, Mike?"
He turned to face the voice, it was Emilia Turner. She was a cute girl, a year behind him, in Jason's grade. That brought a frown to his face. Jason's parents had called his house on Saturday asking if he'd seen Jason. Jason hadn't come home since going out that afternoon and Mike hadn't seen him in school today. "Yeah, what's up?"
Emilia looked down at her feet, before her dark eyes darted back up to Mike's, "I was wondering if you knew were Jason is? I noticed he wasn't in school today and thought you might know if he was sick or something."
Mike's eyes darted to the left before catching Emilia's again, he wasn't sure what to tell her. He didn't want to start any rumors, not before they knew what actually happened to Jason. "Um, yeah, he's just sick. It seemed pretty bad this weekend. He probably won't be in for a while. Why?"
Emilia seemed startled by his question and blushed, "Oh, um, he and I were just, um, supposed to work on a project together for, uh, history today. Um, yeah, thanks." Emilia evaporated before Mike could ask her anything else.
"Well, that was weird," Jake interjected.
Mike, watching Emilia's retreating back, gave a vacant response, "Yeah."
(Time Skip)
He stepped out into the Junior Lot, which was an actual parking lot in the back of the Palmer building. He headed for his car when he felt someone tug on his sleeve. He turned, Jane Whitticker was on the other end of that arm. He'd heard she broke up with her boyfriend recently. What was his name, Tim, Jim? He'd also heard that she'd started avoiding the people that she usually hung out with. That kind of behavior was always the talk of a high school. He studied her, she seemed drained somehow, and maybe afraid. "Can I help you?"
"I don't know," Jane let go of his sleeve and brought two fingers to each temple letting out a sigh. "I've been pretty confused lately, like I've just woken up from a dream. I thought a lot about what you said the last time we talked. I realize now that the people I called friends, they weren't very good people." She dropped her hands to her sides and slumped a little, "I'm not sure what to do anymore." She shook her head and turned her face away from him, bringing one hand to the bridge of her nose, "I'm not even sure why I'm telling you this."
Mike looked at her and smiled sadly, "Because you need a friend. Come on, let's get something to eat."
"Huh, what?"
Mike smiled, "Just come with me. I promise I won't go anywhere near your pants."
A smile tugged ever so faintly at her lips and she let out a not-quite forced laugh, "Alright, I guess. Not like I've got anything better to do."
Mike led her to his car, as he turned away from the building he could swear a knife went into his back. He looked over his shoulder and saw Thomas Smythe standing there. That was her ex-boyfriend's name! The guy was giving him a death glare. Mike shrugged and looked back at Jane. She was walking slowly next to him, waiting for him to tell her which one was his car. He stopped by a blue '92 Mazda, "I know it's not the kind of car you're used to, but hey, at least it gets me around."
Jane smiled a bit, "I'm starting to realize that a thing like a car doesn't make someone a good person."
Mike smiled back and opened his door, unlocking the car, "Well, that's a good start. Get in."
Jane paused and took a deep breath. She opened the door and got in. They both shut their doors and took off.
(POV Shift)
March 16, 2001 Rye, NY -
Things were going well for Sad. It had finally quieted down for him, students stopped trying to get answers out of him. Most likely because he never gave any. Plus, he was getting out of his casts this weekend, just in time for his eighteenth birthday on the twenty third. Additionally, he and Trish were starting to become friends. He was still surprised a girl like her wanted anything to do with him. His friends and psychiatrist told him it was perfectly natural for her to want to get to know him after what he'd done. He had trouble believing that, he didn't think he'd done anything all that special. He looked down at both his casts and smirked, each one was completely covered with signatures.
It was an interesting phenomenon about casts he'd always noticed. Even if you didn't like the person in the cast, you still wanted to sign it. That's why the signatures on his made him laugh. He wondered how many of them were from people who actually liked him as opposed to people who just wanted to sign them. He was sprawled out in a chair in the senior lounge. Technically, it was the student lounge, it wasn't supposed to be exclusively for the seniors, plus it was completely open to the hallway. Still, the seniors claimed it as their own. It was a fairly large space. It was funny, when he started at RCDS there hadn't been a student lounge.
What was now the lounge was a computer lab when he started out, there had been a second much smaller one, as well. There were still two computer labs, but both were rather small. One of them was where his ninth grade English class had met. The school decided to do away with the large computer lab and turn it into a student lounge because last year RCDS had given all the freshmen and sophomores laptops. Sad had a blueberry iBook, one of the first generation of iBooks. The juniors and seniors hadn't received laptops, but all future grades would. As every student but the current seniors had laptops, the school saw no need for a large computer lab, thus the student lounge.
Normally, the seniors would have given Sad a hard time about being in the lounge, not that it would have made him leave. These days, they left him alone, probably because they didn't want to make a kid in casts get up. Plus there weren't really any other chairs around the school for students to sit in, outside of the classrooms. Those two facts seemed sufficient reason for the seniors to leave him be to Sad. He never considered that they might be scared of him or that they had some measure of respect for him. Sad leaned his head back against the chair and closed his eyes. Trish was in class right now, he had a free period. He shook his head, he still couldn't quite believe that Trish had actually said yes when he asked if she wanted to come to his birthday party next Friday.
"Hey Sad," he knew that female voice pretty well, Katherine Doyle. He'd had a crush on her for the longest time. He was on sort of friendly terms with her. They mostly spoke online, no real interaction at school, though she wasn't completely cold to him in person. They were just in completely different crowds, especially since Sad wasn't really in any crowd. He'd made attempts to hint at the fact that he wanted to date her, probably rather heavy handed ones. He wasn't exactly smooth. She acted like she didn't pick up on them.
His one triumph in the whole endeavor was getting her to agree to a bet. If she could figure out where his house was, without asking any living person for directions by a certain date, he'd either make her dinner or take her out to dinner. If she couldn't do it by that date, then she had to do the same for him. He was continually pushing the deadline back. He was fairly certain she never had any intention of trying to find his house. She was just being polite about it by claiming she was too busy to make the effort. Of course, when he asked if she was actually serious about it and why she'd even agreed to the bet in the first place, she said she was serious and that she wanted to get to know him better.
He opened a single slate blue eye and looked up at her, she was very pretty. Social standing wise, Trish was considered hotter, but Katherine was a bit more developed. She had brown hair that fell past her shoulders and green eyes, her jaw line was soft, sort of rounded. He felt his pulse quicken, "What's up?"
"You know that bet we made?" Her shoulders looked just the slightest bit tense, as if she was slightly nervous. Why the hell would she be nervous around him? She'd never been before.
He had to swallow a bit of air, "Um, yeah. What about it?" He felt himself getting excited. Thoughts of Trish kept creeping into his head, along with a slight feeling of guilt.
"Well, I haven't found your house yet, and the deadline was last Friday, right? So, I owe you a dinner. I was thinking we could maybe do it this weekend?" Her tone and body language seemed completely calm, but there was some sort of frenzied energy that Sad could just barely perceive.
He pinched his eyes, this was something he'd desperately wanted for years and it was finally within his grasp. Only he knew why she was finally showing interest in him and it pissed him off. She hadn't given him the time of day in terms of his romantic feelings towards her before the incident with Paul and Trish. Even though they'd struck up something of a friendship, she hadn't been able to look past his appearance and reputation to see that he might be worth dating. She was only interested now because she'd seen what he did for Trish.
Granted the same could be said for Trish, but Trish seemed genuinely interested in him, at least as a friend. Katherine just seemed to be jumping on the bandwagon, well after the fact. He grabbed the anger that was rising up within him by the throat and forced it down, not letting it come out in his voice, or so he thought. "I'm sorry Katherine, this weekend just isn't good for me. I'm getting my casts off and my parents want to celebrate with me. So do my friends. My whole weekend is booked. And spring vacation starts after next week and that's finals week. I'm going to be studying all week. Maybe we can try for April?" He couldn't believe that he was turning down Katherine, him.
Everything he said was true. He'd made plans with his parents for Friday night or rather they had made them. His friends laid claim to the entirety of Saturday, and Trish surprised him by insisting that he spend Sunday with her. The bit about next week being finals week was also true. RCDS was on a very weird schedule in regards to that. After his freshman year finals had been moved to taking place three quarters of the way through the year, just before spring break, which was always the last two weeks of March. The school told them they had made this change so that if students did poorly on their finals they would still have some time left in the school year to make up for the poor grade.
Katherine's shoulders dropped just the slightest bit. He would have missed it if he hadn't been watching her intently. "Oh, okay. Yeah, I guess it'll have to wait until April. Okay then, we'll figure it out after break." Katherine turned and walked away.
Sad looked down at his watch, it was almost time for his next class. He forced himself up out of his chair. He started to swing his way to class. He wondered how Trish's day was going.
(POV Shift)
Date Unknown, Valaskjálf, Asgard -
The entirety of the Nine Realms were laid out before him as he sat upon his throne, Hlidskjalf. He rested his chin on his right hand, the elbow supported by the armrest of his white marble throne. Fingers ran along his chin in thought as his left hand rubbed at the hanging scar upon his neck. His single eye scanned back and forth over the realms. Huginn and Muninn, his ravens, whispered into his ears what they had seen, telling him of what had come to pass during his imprisonment. It had been easy enough to find Heimdallr's armor. The man took his job to watch for the coming of Ragnarok so seriously, he could not abandon his post. The Monk that defeated Odin had most likely discovered that when he attempted to hide Heimdallr's Armor it could not be moved from the foot of Bifrost. Thus the monk had been forced to leave it there, making it ever so easy for Odin to find.
With Heimdallr's Armor in hand it had been exceedingly simple to find the Armor of Diana. The Monk had linked it to Heimdallr's. Luck seemed to be favoring Odin thus far, for when he found Diana's Armor he found the girl that was meant to wear it. He set Gilgamesh to watch her home, in the hopes the one who was to wear Heimdallr's Armor would be drawn there, and he had. Odin now had two of the fifteen armors and their bearers in his possession. Frigga and Hel were currently in the process of breaking the two bearers, Claire and Jason they said their names were. When they were done, the two would be his loyal servants, and he would have two of the fifteen at his disposal to help him defeat the rest.
He had also cast the runes and questioned Mímir in regards to the locations of the other armors. Both had given him vague answers, and Huginn and Muninn told him that all knowledge of the armors had passed out of common knowledge in Midgard. Mímir told him that Loki had been reborn though he had yet to come into his power. Odin could not let Loki do so. He had to find him before he had a chance to gain enough strength to challenge Odin. Thus did his eye scan over the Nine Realms, searching for Loki.
As was his habit, Loki was proving difficult to find, though Odin's eye kept being drawn to a part of a country called the United States of America that was called New York and more specifically the city of that name, though his vision seemed to alternate between focusing in on the city and pulling out just slightly from it to encompass the surrounding area. Jason and Claire had been found in the same town in that area, perhaps Loki was inadvertently drawing the others to himself? It seemed that would be the place to start then. He would take Midgard, and he would start with New York.
Freki and Geri, the two wolves who laid at his feet, growled, informing him that someone approached. He brought the gaze of his single eye back to the silver halls of Valaskjálf, where he saw Frigg and Hel approaching. He smiled at the sight of his wife Frigg. She was the most beautiful of the gods, only her necklace Brisingamen came close to her beauty. As always, she wore her cloak of falcon feathers which allowed her to change her shape. While Frigg brought a smile of pure delight to his cracked lips, Hel brought one of twisted humor. There seemed to be a line drawn vertically down Hel's body, on one half of the line she was nearly as beautiful as Frigg, on the other she was nothing more than a skeleton. Her presence on his side amused him for the simple fact that she was Loki's daughter and yet she had chosen to side with him against her father, simply marvelous.
The two women stopped before Hlidskjalf, Freki and Geri still growling, their hackles rising. Odin lowered a hand before one of the wolves, fingers splayed. Both quieted and resumed resting at his feet. The two women bowed and Frigg spoke, "All Father, we came to report how things are progressing with the two human children you left in our care."
Odin nodded, "Well, what have to you report to us?"
Hel raised her head, her half human half bone mouth in motion a most disturbing vision, "The girl, Claire as she calls herself is broken. We have begun the indoctrination process with her. She will be ready soon. The boy, Jason, is proving slightly more resilient to our efforts."
Odin frowned, "Shall we find a replacement for the two of you then?"
Frigg spoke quickly, "No, my lord, of course not. We will break him, it is only a matter of time. We simply thought you would like to know of our progress and that it might take a little longer than usual."
Odin nodded, "We understand. Thank you for your report. Return to your work immediately."
The two women nodded and rose, turning around to glide out of the hall. As they exited a powerfully built man limped into the gleaming silver hall. Odin waited patiently as he ponderously made his way up to Hlidskjalf, dragging one leg behind him. He stopped before the throne and knelt, waiting to be acknowledged.
"And what do you have to report to us, Hephaestus? How goes the work we set you to with Dvalin, the dwarf?"
Hephaestus raised his head, his bare broad shoulders the mark of his craft, "The forging goes well. The materials you gave us were of the highest quality and Dvalin and his kind know how to work such materials wonderfully. With the addition of my skills and power all nine will be ready on time. They may well be my finest work yet. You need only find people to use them."
Odin smiled again, Hephaestus and Dvalin's latest work would serve to swing the odds further in his favor. All that remained was to find suitable vessels for their creations. "You have our deepest gratitude for your hard and timely work, Hephaestus. You are a great asset to our cause and your contribution will not go unremembered or unrewarded. You will have a high place in the order to come."
"Thank you All Father, it is a pleasure to serve."
"Yes, we are sure it is. You may take your leave."
"At once, All Father." Hephaestus rose and limped out of the hall.
Odin smiled, everything was going according to plan. Loki had no hope, no hope at all.
Author's Note:
I'd appreciate any feedback anyone is willing to give. Just contact me by e-mail or through the site. My only request is that you put something in the subject line about your e-mail being in response to my Ronin fanfic. I get a lot of spam, and I tend to delete mail from SNs I do not recognize. If you put something about your e-mail being about my writing, I won't delete it and then I will respond to you; if you don't do that I can't guarantee anything. My e-mail address is in my profile.
Well, I said that this Chapter would be out pretty soon. So, here you go. Things are going a bit faster on the writing front these days. And the story is starting to hit its stride, so things should start happening pretty quickly from here on. Chapter 8 is called Renascence.
Thanks for reading.
- Corlock Striker