Chapter Two: Encountering the Enemy

It took quite a while for everything to be settled. First, everyone had to be rounded up and only after everyone was together could they get situated. Then, they boarded the next possible flight to Hong Kong.
"I don't see why you made me take Allyson along," Rowen murmured to Cye. "Wouldn't she have been better off not coming?"
"Don't worry, mate. My sister's as tough as nails," Cye smirked. "Besides, she'd kill us both if we left her out of anything this important."
"So Kayra," Ryo turned to her, bringing all eyes to fall on the two of them, with the exception of Rebecca and Samantha's. "What's with the weapons Becca and Sam carry?"
"I thought it a fitting idea," she replied. "Since they are the sisters of Rowen and Sage, their weapons are the 'sisters' of Rowen and Sage's weapons. I followed a similar principle when I made this staff for Allyson," Kayra held out a staff that looked like Cye's weapon.
"What exactly do you mean by 'sister weapons'?" Ryo asked.
"I mean that Rebecca's arrows can perform the Arrow Shockwave, Samantha's sword can perform the Thunderbolt Cut, and Allyson's staff can perform Super Wave Smasher."
"But. how? I thought only weapons that came with one of the nine armors could perform those techniques," Sage said, butting into the conversation.
"That is not necessarily true, Sage of the Halo. Other weapons can produce such effects if forged from the same amount and type of energy and if the owners of those weapons have the power to use them correctly. Samantha and Rebecca took awhile to get used to their weapons so I trust the same will be true of Allyson. We'll have to start training her right away."
"Give me that!" Allyson snapped the staff from Kayra's hand. "I need no practice and no training! I'll master this staff with ease."
"As you wish," Kayra replied.
"Hey. this is fun.," Allyson said to herself as she formed a large ball of water with the trident's power. "Hey Kayra!"
"What is it?" Kayra asked, turning around to face Allyson.
"Catch!" Allyson grinned and sent the ball of water straight into Kayra's face.
"I.," Kayra wiped the water from her face, "I can't believe she was able to use the trident so quickly."
"Of course she was able to," Cye sat back in his seat and closed his eyes. "She can perform Super Wave Smasher with her bare hands; what makes you think she can't make a little ball of water with the trident?"
"That's impossible!" Kayra said. "Nobody can perform such a technique with his or her bare hands!"
"Did I also forget to mention she's only my half-sister?" Cye asked.
"Half-sister?" Rowen asked.
"Yeah. Her mum was a demon," he answered.
"Yep, a demon of nature. She was a great woman. Very strong but very sweet- you'd never expect her to be a demon," Allyson said as she formulated a thunderbolt in her hands. "Hey! I never made a thunderbolt before!"
"Mia, did you manage to locate the burial site of that armor?" Kayra asked.
"Yes, I did. In the far northeast of Hong Kong."
"How convenient," Sage said. "That's where the plane lands, isn't it?"
"Lucky us," Ryo murmured.

After departing from the plane once it landed, the group set out to search for the burial site of the armor. It was a simple search, seeing as Mia had found the exact coordinates in advance, but something was peculiar about the scenery.
It was like the world had shifted into another world. The outskirts of the city disappeared and the whole area became dead and silent. It looked like an ordinary rural scene but it felt too cold to be any earthly place.
Ahead of them, at the exact site where the armor was supposedly buried, there stood a woman. She was tall and had long blonde hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. She wore a blue cloak and there was something peculiar about her.. Her skin gave off a faint glow and her feet did not touch the ground.
"Hello! Who are you? And what are you doing out here?" Ryo asked. He knew from the start that this woman was most likely the demon but he decided to ask first.
"I," she turned to them, "am Kaze. This armor is my doing, Ronin, and so it belongs to me. Now leave."
Allyson perked up at the tone of the voice- how it maintained a certain soft characteristic though being so bitter and hateful- but she remained silent. Cye picked up on the same thing but, since Allyson had said nothing, he said nothing as well.
"You're Kaze? The Wind Goddess?" Ryo asked.
"You humans are so stupid," Kaze replied sharply. "I am not a goddess! I am a demon!"
"So you're the demon," Rowen growled. "I've got half a mind to kick your head in, lady. Leave the armor and I might reconsider."
"Very well," Kaze said. "You may have the armor for now. Might as well let you have the upper hand before I demonstrate my full potential." With that, Kaze vanished and the feeling of life slowly reentered the landscape.
"God, Cye! How could she do this to me!?" Allyson suddenly burst into tears on her brother's shoulder.
"Sorry, Sis. We all have to face our fair share of problems in life," Cye wrapped a comforting arm around Allyson.
"What's wrong?" Rowen asked, approaching them slowly.
"That," Cye said softly, "was Allyson's mom, mate."
"Kaze is your mother, Allyson?" Rowen placed a gentle hand on Allyson's shoulder. She gave a soft nod and he frowned, "I'm sorry. I wish things weren't this way but they are."
"I can't believe she'd do this to me," Allyson wiped away her tears. "The only way to get the revenge I seek for this wrong. is for me to be the one to take that armor and defeat her."
"Go ahead and try," Ryo said. "I think it's a good idea- you take the armor."
Allyson slowly marched up the path to the armor's resting place. Kaze had dug it up before they arrived, so there was no work to be done. All she had to do was reach out and touch it. The armor was hers. Hesitantly, Allyson stretched out her arm and toughed the armor.
There was no reaction. The armor refused Allyson as its owner. Furious and frustrated, Allyson kicked the armor to the ground and cried again. The others approached slowly, hoping to offer some solace. While everyone else was busy comforting Allyson, Yuli looked at the armor on the ground. Even though he was only a child, he realized what a disgrace it was to leave an armor laying on the ground like garbage. Yuli knelt down to set the armor back up and suddenly. it happened. The armor found its owner in a small boy.
"Well," Sage said in order to break the shocked silence, "At least we know now why our dreams showed Yuli as being a very active part of this fight."
Allyson headed back to the city without a word. She was slightly upset at what had happened. A child had received the armor she was after. Once Rowen noticed she was on the move, he followed Allyson back, hoping that she would be alright.
"Allyson, wait up!" Rowen called.
"Leave me alone!" she yelled back. "I want to be left alone!"
"What's wrong with you!?" Rowen demanded, grabbing her wrist and pushing her to the wall of an old warehouse they were passing. "Why do you have to be so stubborn!? I want to help you!"
"I don't want or need your help," Allyson growled.
"If you don't need my help, then at least take it for my sake," Rowen smiled softly.
"I don't want your help. but, now that I think about it, I could use your company."

Rowen and Allyson arrived back at the hotel a little while later. They went up to the room Rowen Cye and Allyson all shared. (It wasn't cheap to rent hotel rooms for fourteen people and Cye wasn't going to let Rowen and Allyson share a hotel room alone.) Allyson flicked on the lights and picked up her bags.
"That looks like an awful lot of stuff for what we think is only going to be one week here. What do you have in there?" Rowen asked.
"Book after book after book," Allyson replied, pulling out a couple of poetry books. "Do you like poetry?"
"Sort of," Rowen replied. "Some of it's kinda stupid though. Ever read any Robert. What was his last name again?"
"Robert Frost, maybe?" Allyson offered.
"Yeah! That's him!"
"I've read him. I personally find him overrated. He writes garbage and people think it's the greatest."
"I know. What about that one about the horse? How can anyone spend two pages saying, 'I saw a horse. It ran away. I drove off.'?" Rowen said as he began paging through one of a poetry book. "Ah! Here's a great writer!"
"Yeah? Who do you have there?" Allyson leaned forward.
"'Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December/ And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor./Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had sought to borrow/ From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore-/ For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore-/ Nameless here for evermore.'"
"Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven," Allyson said. "He really is the best. Even when it isn't his key focus, he still writes a fantastic poem. Like this one from 'The Fall of the House of Usher'- 'But evil things, in robes of sorrow/ Assailed the monarch's high estate/ Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow/ Shall dawn upon him, desolate!/ And, round about his home, the glory/ That blushed and bloomed/ Is but a dim-remembered story/ Of the old time entombed.'"
"Yeah, the only problem is understanding some of the language he uses. Did you ever read 'The Cask of Amontillado'?"
"I had to have an English teacher explain that one to me. All the same, it was great. For living in an era where delving into the human psyche was still considered witchcraft to some extent, he sure knew a lot about the inner workings of the human mind and psychosis."
"'Ello mates," Cye smiled as he entered the room. "What are you two up to?"
"Reading," Allyson replied, turning the pages to 'The Cask of Amontillado'. "I haven't read it since I was ten," she thought to herself, "maybe I was just too young to understand."
"Well you might want to keep the volume down on your 'Poe Commentary.' We're all the way down the hall in Ryo's Sage's and Kento's room and we can hear you two clear as a bell," Cye said.
"Sorry," Allyson apologized, slightly blushing in embarrassment of the volume of her voice.
"It's okay. I'll be down in that room for a bit. We're playing board games. Come join us if you want," Cye left, only to return an instant later. "Oh and Sage says that quote from 'The Fall of the House of Usher' was in fact a song. He says, 'In case you missed the symbolism, the song is really about Roderick slipping into insanity. He is the king and the kingdom is his mind.'" With that, Cye left.
"We know that!" Allyson and Rowen shouted after him in unison.