Chapter Twenty

"Unbelievable," Kento griped in complaint. "Damn things keep pushing us further and further away from where we were."

"Bear with it Shuu," Rowen told the man from where he currently fought. The Raikken had taken little time to get them apart from the Senshi. Why they were so intent on keeping them separate was anyone's guess at this point.

Cye gritted his teeth together shoving a Raikken back and then slicing it through, before catching his breath. It didn't make sense to him. Normally they could fight Raikken without issue, and yet right now it was impossible to deal with them. Sure, they had put some of the strength off on the fact a number of them had most likely come from the future.

For this many though? It just didn't add up. Cye had the sinking feeling that something else was going on. Whatever it was, it meant definite trouble for them. As if they weren't in enough of that already. Riynd's newest clone had just shown up.

'Speaking of, where the hell-´ the thought remained unfinished as a green blur swept past him and slammed into the building directly behind him. "Seiji!"

The Water Ronin rushed over just as the blond swordsman picked himself up amidst the rubble that had now been created.

"You wounded?" Torrent's bearer asked, noticing the deep grimace in the other's face.

Sage shook his head clearing it, before saying, "Just my pride at this point," before lunging forward at the clone swinging his sword.

Cye could only stare after him in disbelief, while Kento shouted out, "Oi! Blondie, what are you doing? It's Ryou's job to be that reckless."

"We decided to switch roles today," the swordsman called back, "Sorry, I must've forgotten to forward the memo."

The Ronin of Hardrock actually managed a comeback, "Bastard."

Torrent's bearer rolled his eyes at their banter, and then a thought came to mind, "Where exactly is our self-sacrificing leader anyway?"

"Probably keeping an eye on Mia and Yuli," the archer offered in answer.

He then winced when a voice beside him said, "Why do we need to have an eye kept on us exactly?" Mia brought down the naginata slicing through the Raikken that had been about to smash Rowen's skull in.

The bearer of Strata was instantly reminded of how scary she was with a weapon, and stuttered, "I-uh-that-is. Um-"

Kento ignored the floundering archer and cut in, "No reason in particular. Where's Ry?"

"Yuli and I have been keeping an eye on him."

Rowen let out a nervous chuckle, well aware she was directing the comment at him. He actually used his intelligence for a change and kept his mouth shut.

"Mi," Cye had made his way over to where she was, he could see it in her face, "What's with the look?" Concern, worry, and puzzlement was what he saw.

"What the fuck has been going on exactly? He looks like hell."

The red-head blinked when they stared at her for issuing the cuss. Sage was fighting Riynd one-on-one and even he stopped to gape at her, though the moment was short lived since Riynd was intent on putting him through his paces.

"Ya, how many times have you called Inferno this week?" Yuli butted in, as he and Ryo emerged from the same side street Mia had.

"We haven't used it in months," the Ronin of Strata admitted and he was taken aback at seeing Ryo. "She's right, what the hell buddy?"

"Us not using it is the problem," Ryo muttered.

His skin was pale and it looked as though he'd run a hundred mile endurance race in under an hour. His movements were also off, nowhere near at the speed they normally were.

Kento was currently helping Sage fight Riynd, deciding he couldn't let the blond hog all the good fighting. While not exactly thrilled at the intrusion (at least outwardly), it gave the swordsman a slight reprieve. Enabling him to better assess what was going on with his teammates.

Sage gave a brief glance in the Wildfire Ronin's direction, "So, it's fighting you again?"

"And it's taking all my energy and concentration just to keep it in check," the Ronin Leader murmured. "It might be because we've been ignoring it since we fought in Akemliek's Domain."

The Water Ronin was frowning, "Maybe we should let it loose. It tends to calm down after that."

"I can't believe you of all people would suggest that," Mia remarked settling into a defensive stance having been in offensive the last several minutes. The Raikken had dwindled considerably by this point, and taking a break where you could was always a good idea.

"No, he's got a point," Rowen said thinking it over. "It's sole purpose is to fight, and with no guiding virtue of it's own to keep in check we have to work around it. In the past, we used it and then it calmed for a while. Typically how it works."

"It won't this time," Wildfire's bearer sucked in a breath, and gritted his teeth together.

Yuli held the sword he had loosely in his hands, eyeing the man with worry, "Ryo-ni?"

"Look, it was pulling before we even successfully summoned it with these new armor. I'm glad it ignored our call back with Suzunagi; but, it's worse now," he paused, "Think about it, all right? I almost strangled Elayne to death, and more recently the thing has been exerting influence over the four of you too. I'm not using the damn armor until it accepts we're in charge. Otherwise, there's no way we're going to be able to control it."

"Don't blame ya, dude," Kento commented.

Sage let out a swear catching everyone's attention; the clone had simply melted, "Damn it! The Senshi must've gotten the other one." Whatever Raikken remained, vanished from sight.

Yuli was sniggering, mostly at the sulky look on the blond's face, "Sage-ni lost his mouse."

"Ya, and now the cat is pouting," the Torrent Ronin sniggered.

The swordsman gave him a bored look, "You realize that cats also like seafood, right?"

"Bring it, chibi-neko. The shark won't mind chomping you to little itty bitty bits," Cye tossed back. He received a death glare and an eye twitch for that comment.

"Please don't tell me this is how you guys always fight," Mia addressed the Strata Ronin who merely chuckled and said: "I won't say anything then."

She simply smiled and shook her head. She really hadn't expected it to be any different. Seeing that their bond had not suffered from the strain of years gone, it helped put her at ease. After all, they were still her little brothers and she still felt responsible for them. At times anyway, other times she wanted nothing to do with their off-the-wall shenanigans.

"Ryo-ni-chan!" Yuli watched in alarm as the moment Ryo took Wildfire off he want crashing to his knees.

"I'm-"

"A horrible liar anyway, so don't bother to finish the sentence," Elayne chided, having walked up behind the pair. Her hand now rested on Ryo's shoulder, "I don't even know why you try. We all know you're bad at it. You okay there, Ry?"

The Ronin Leader place a hand over hers, a small smile gracing his lips, "Ya, but I try anyway. And, shouldn't I be the one asking if you're all right?"

"I'm obviously doing better than you are," she scoffed out, closing her eyes a moment.

Ryo felt the armor back off and let out a relaxed breath, "Thanks."

"Don't worry about it," she murmured, before saying louder, "Hey guys, how goes it?"

"Mei mei," Hardrock's bearer let out a sigh of relief at seeing her. She seemed to be okay for the most part.

Cye offered the young woman a waning smile, "We're all still here."

"Not that its much of a consolation prize," the Strata Ronin offered up with a smirk.

"Glad you're still with us imouto," the blond swordsman said as he shed his armor, "You had me worried."

"Aw you guys are so cute, worried about little ole me," she said in a teasing tone, before snorting, "Come on, get real. You're only saying all of that to be nice."

"Oi, are not!"

"I don't believe any of you," Elayne informed, sniggering when it dawned on them she was simply pulling their legs.

Mia was shaking her head, naginata resting calmly at her side, "And here I was starting to wonder why they still acted like teenagers."

"I'm only operating at a level they can comprehend," the young woman retorted in a smug voice.

"HEY!" Came the loud protest from the five of them.

Yuli sniggered at the dirty looks his oniichans were giving Elayne, who of course was blatantly ignored them by this point. He had put his sword back in its sheath once the fighting had seemed to come to an end. He looked to her and grinned, "Thanks for going by my place and grabbing this for me."

"No prob, I wasn't going to leave you and Mi unarmed," she winked, "After all, we can't expect Ryo-tachi to be able to do everything by themselves. Let's think about their track record for a minute."

"I gotcha," he sniggered, wincing when five pairs of eyes turned to glare at him.

Mia rolled her eyes, "Boys, cut it out." She pointed the naginata at them for emphasis and they all gulped and suddenly became very interested in talking amongst themselves. She sighed through her nose and turned her attention to Elayne.

"I appreciate you lending me the naginata, it made life much easier," the red-head remarked.

Elayne chuckled, "I figured you and Yuli needed to make up for old times sake, and had lots of pent up anger issues to work out. Letting you have weapons and turning you loose seemed like a pretty good idea to me."

"I don't think they share that sentiment," Mia was smirking, of course referring to the Ronin, "They seemed a little unnerved when we started beating the crap out of-"

"The backwards-Dynasty soldiers. These Raikken things are dumb, if this Akem…Whatever, guy is so bad, where the hell he'd pick up those things at?" the teen wanted to know.

Elayne shrugged her shoulders, "I have absolutely no idea, and really don't want to find out that badly. Anyway Mi, you can go ahead and keep that one, add it to your collection. It's too long for me."

"Thanks," the red-head chirped, apparently she had a love for pointy objects too. Scary thought.

Cye sniggered, teasing Elayne with, "That's cause you're a universal midget."

"You're going to be-" the young woman began, but was halted when Ryo slammed his hand over her mouth.

"Don't threaten my teammates, please?" He then let out a piercing yowl and quickly retracted his hand, "OW! That hurt!"

Elayne was smirking at him, "Hm, funny, you weren't complaining-"

"Shut up," he yelped overtop of her. Then blinked and took a step back once he noticed both Kento and Sage were looking at him with annoyed looks on both their faces.

Yuli shook his head at the pair, saying as he started to walk, "Oi, get over it. She's just screwing with your heads."

"Aw, Jun-kun you're such a spoil sport," the young woman said with a pout, before telling the Ronin, "While the divergence was good, to be more on subject, the Senshi are already back at the Estate."

"Darien?" Rowen queried having none-to-gently given the blond swordsman a shove to make him walk forward.

"He's with them, I got him out of where he was."

"Good to hear. Bet he was pissed though," Cye chuckled in amusement.

"On par with you and Sage kinda pissed. Amusing, other than trying to get into a sword fight with me." Elayne paused a moment and then thought it over, "Speaking of, why is it that all you men have been fighting with me lately? If you all want to die that badly just say the word, I'll take my leave and Akemliek can kill you again."

Mia laughed as she put an arm around her friend's shoulders, "Aw, you know you don't mean that. You know you love them, you'd never hurt them."

"Hence why I said I'd leave. I was stupid and took a "do no harm" oath, so I can't hurt or kill them. But someone else can do it for me, not an issue. As you're well aware I have no problems with other people getting all the credit and glory as long as the job gets done."

"You're kidding right?" Kento queried, sounding a little worried.

Elayne offered absolutely no answer to him, simply changing the topic, "Anyway, it seems to be over for now. So, we might as well head back to the Estate ourselves."

"Makes sense to me," the blond swordsman said, "We could use the rest. We've been at this for hours now."

Mia and Yuli watched as the entire group suddenly snapped their heads to one particular direction, each having sensed the same thing.

"Kayura-tachi are back," the Ronin Leader remarked.

The Ronin of Halo was frowning, "They're not alone either."

"Oi, hey! Don't even go there, you guys are bordering exhaustion. Get back to the Estate," Elayne said with a scowl, not liking the thought they were going to push themselves even further than what they'd already been pushed.

"Any other day, we'd argue with you," Torrent's bearer said to prevent coming protests, "But you're right, we're done."

Kento sighed through his nose, he hated when Cye did things like that, but he couldn't blame the man, it was the right call to make, "You win, mei mei. Just be careful this time, please?"

"No sweat, you did tell me never to lose two times in one day after all," she winked, she waved to the group before darting down an alleyway and leaving their sight.

Ryo watched her go with a frown, something about her mannerism seemed…Off in a way. Any chance to spend more time pondering this was lost, as he and the others made their way back to the mansion.

Dais was currently cussing a blue streak in Ancient Japanese as he ripped through the demons in front of him. He and the others had gotten to the Nether Realm, and while things had appeared quiet on the surface, all of a sudden all hell had broken loose. That made him a very unhappy camper. The former Warlord of Illusion despised being surprised; it was his job to deal such an upset to people. No one was allowed to get the drop on him, especially not like this.

It had only been a matter of minutes; from them entering the castle to Riynd acting up…He'd sensed nothing. None of them had sensed a damn thing!

"You might invest in calming down," Cale called out from where he was fighting, "Your mental rambling is insanely distracting."

"Then don't listen," was the white-haired man's retort. He paused and let out a loose breath, eyeing the mixture of Raikken and demons-ones they hadn't seen in quite sometime. They might've been comparable to the Nether Spirits, but their form was more solid and they did not adorn robes…A light armor was what it might have been, but Dais had never been too sure on that.

Either way, they put the Nether Spirits to shame. They were twice as strong, and twice as capable of doing real harm: Minlin Spirits, Akemliek's old allies from at least two millennia ago.

He wasn't quite sure where they'd vanished off to, but it stood to reason that Riynd had come to this past and then stirred them into action. That was going to make their lives so much better. He wondered if it could get any worse…And that was when a dynasty gate opened to the mortal realm.

"It would seem Touma's premonition was fairly accurate," the Seasonal of Spring remarked.

Sekhmet rolled his eyes, "Why should that come as a surprise? The fool normally states the obvious, it makes sense his premonitions would do the same."

"Be nice," Kayura told him, having whapped him in the head on her way passed, "Let's focus on stopping these things from getting too far into the mortal realm, shall we?"

Before Dais could make a snippy comment that she simply didn't want Naaza to badmouth her boyfriend, she had already gone through the gate. The Summer Seasonal snapped his fingers, and at his side Cale gave a nod.

"I know, I swear she does it on purpose to avoid our teasing."

"Perhaps it's because she knows you as well as I do," Anubis blandly remarked, "And before you smartly comment: how much is that? It's way the hell too much, and for way the hell too long." He then proceeded to go through the gate himself.

Dais and Cale blinked, and Sekhmet said, "Well, it seems being dead did improve him, if only a little."

"Smart-ass," Dais clocked him in the head, "Come on, or the two of them are going to get all the glory."

"Whatever happened to not caring about that?" Cale asked with a smirk on his face.

The white-haired man gave a snort, "I don't care when it comes to the Elemental Ronin or the Senshi. However, I do take issue when my younger teammates show me up."

"Ya, you two old farts do, don't you?" Sekhmet rhetorically mused, before dashing on ahead of them to avoid a retaliatory strike leaving both Dais and Cale to eyetwitch at his back.

Cale sighed through his nose, "Isn't it about time?"

"We traded them in, and traded up?" Dais finished, nodding, "It's way overdue as far as I'm concerned."

"OI! Ojiisama-tachi, hurry up before the gate closes," the green-haired Seasonal called back over his shoulder.

"Or, we could just kill them," the Winter Seasonal said.

There was a pause and then Dais queried, "Do you think Universe would mind if we did?"

"Hey, Kay-tachi," Elayne called out as she drew to a halt, "Aw, I missed all the fun didn't I?"

The five of them had managed to deal with all the demons that had gotten through, preventing them from getting too far and halting any further advance from the Nether Realm. Right now, they were back in street clothes and catching a much needed breath.

"What are you doing here?" Anubis queried with a frown. He knew where she had said she would be, going through and instating new wards to keep out of the fighting.

"Wasn't able to stay neutral forever. Not like it comes as a shock, ne?"

Dais shook his head a little, "So you fought regardless of what you said. I'm sure the Ronin and Senshi were thrilled."

"Ya, really happy," the young woman agreed rolling her eyes, "I wish they'd stop treating me like some china doll. I've been at this a lot longer than any of you, I actually know what I'm doing at this point in my life."

Kayura gave a small smile, "You know they mean well. They just can't help themselves, that's all. They never could either."

"Ya, ya I know," she grumbled out.

Sekhmet sighed through his nose, "Before you ask, yes the Nether Realm is a mess. And no, we can't get it cleaned up in one shot."

"What happened on this end?" Cale queried looking around, "Because, we didn't do all this damage. Was like this when we got here."

"How about I explain on our way back to the mansion?" Elayne offered, "Everyone else has made it there and is waiting."

"It sounds like a wise decision," Anubis agreed.

The green-haired Seasonal of Fall arched an eyebrow as he looked to Elayne who'd started to walk, "Wouldn't it be quicker to teleport than to walk?"

"Only if one of you wants to teleport an extra," she said, tone of voice calm, "Because I can't now."

"You didn't," Kayura complained, "You broke the pendant?!"

Elayne cast a glance over her shoulder, "I didn't exactly have much of a choice in the matter. Riynd was not going to get her hands on the Ginzoshou, and the other Senshi were delayed. I couldn't just sit on my ass, like I'm normally forced to do. You guys did give me free rein, after all."

"We're more than aware," Dais chuckled out, "I still find it amusing that you take full advantage of it. One would think you'd be tired of all of this, though." He was implying she should have taken the free rein and simply left.

"Oh trust me I am more than tired of it. But, I still have my honor and my pride. I might eventually leave, but that'll be after I've lost both. And since hell will probably freeze then thaw, then freeze again before that happens, you've got nothing to worry about on that front."

Yes, they could just worry about everything else.