Ch. 5
What's new pussycat,
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa,
What's new pussycat?
-What's new
pussycat, Your guess is as good as mine.
Mia sighed as she sipped her tea. It
had sure been quiet in the house. She missed the Ronins, Seiji and Touma and
Shin and Shou and Ryo...well, she didn't want to think about how much she
missed Ryo. Whiteblaze sensed her restlessness and sat up. He put his head in
her lap and she smiled slightly.
"Feel
like going into the city, boy?" Whiteblaze fairly nodded. Mia smiled.
"C'mon,
we can go pick up the girls."
Usagi
was stunned to see Mia sitting in a jeep outside of their school with
Whiteblaze sitting BESIDE? Ami walked up to the jeep. Mia smiled at them.
"Where're you headed?" Ami
shrugged.
"To
the temple." Mia motioned to the jeep and the girls got in. Makoto glanced
out her window.
"Why's
Whiteblaze outside?" she asked. Mia shrugged.
"He
can't really fit inside the jeep and besides, he has no trouble running and
keeping up with me. Ule usually rides-" at this she stopped. She hadn't
meant to remind the girls of the guys. Ami's face twisted and Makoto patted her
on the back.
"It'll
be okay, Ami." she said. Ami shook her head and bit her lip to keep from
crying. Ever since meeting Touma, she'd never been without him for more than a
day. Except for that big fight, but
that didn't count. It had been about four days now. Weren't the Ronins ever
going to come home? Wasn't Touma ever going to come back? She missed him like
crazy. She thought as hard as she could. Touma, you better not be dead. You
better hang in there. You told me Talpa himself couldn't keep you away from me.
You have to come back. I miss you.
Touma woke with a start. Had he
heard Ami's voice? He thought he had. The only thing he could recall hearing
now was "I miss you." He sighed.
"I miss you too, Ami." he
whispered. He sighed and looked around. Light, or what could pass for light
around here, was coming up. He reached over and woke up the guys, resolving to
never again sleep in his pre-armor. Shou, who was not usually a morning person
and who generally stayed asleep until noon if he could, got up immediately. It
was Shin and Seiji that had trouble awakening. Shin kept on murmuring that the
school didn't get out until 3 and Seiji couldn't seem to focus long enough to
remember what was going on. Touma sighed and slapped both of them across the
face, bringing both back to reality immediately. Shin felt his face.
"I
would appreciate it if ye would nae slap me with yer armor on." Touma
grinned.
"Got
you up, didn't it?" Seiji shook his hair out of his face, only to have it
fall back in place again.
"Barely."
Shin stretched.
"Rough ground, though, quite honestly, I
think I could've slept on a bed of hot coals and cold seaweed." Seiji,
Touma and Shou all nodded. Shou felt better than he had the day before. They
hadn't slept in three days. Maybe it would be another three before they did
again, but now, they HAD to find Ryo.
Ryo
yelled out in pain as Rajura hit him across the back yet again with a whip.
They had taken his pre-armor and now he was in his regular clothes. He was
sweating and his back was bleeding, but he would not relent. He would NOT join
the Dynasty. Rajura grinned and hit Ryo again, causing him to yell out even
louder. Bertie's stomach was doing flipflops. She stepped up to Rajura softly.
Even though she loved Rajura, she still knew a cute guy when she saw one, and
it hurt her to see Ryo being beaten so brutally.
"Rajura,
I think that's enough for now." Rajura looked at her surprised.
"Don't
you want him to pay?" he asked, puzzled. She nodded.
"But
you said you were going to make it painfully slow. If you keep this up with
your strength, you'll eventually kill him. And that's not really the type of
death you want, is it?" Rajura
thought on this a second, gave Ryo one final hard lash, then he threw the whip
to the other side of the room. He kicked Ryo for good measure then stormed out.
Ryo looked up weak yet puzzled at Bertie.
"Why?"
was all he could choke out. Bertie shrugged and turned away.
"SHE STOPPED YOU??" Naaza
and Anubis both asked at the same time. Rajura nodded.
"I
don't understand it. One minute, I can feel her rooting me on. The next, she
takes his side." Anubis shook his head.
"Women.."
he muttered. Rajura nodded.
"Tell
me about it."
Rei had a feeling that she was being
watched. But by whom, she didn't know. It wasn't an evil presence, but she
couldn't see them either. She heard a soft jingle, like that of bells...or
rings. She sighed and went back to her sweeping. If she had looked a little
harder up in the treetops, however, she would have seen she was right.
Shin stared in horror at the image.
It showed Ryo, brutally beaten and scared. Really, he was starting to look like
Yamcha without the ponytail. Shou started to shake all over. He pulled Seiji
aside.
"Look,"
he started.
"If I do anything stupid, like endanger
any of you, I want you to stop me in anyway possible." Seiji stared at
him. What was he talking about?
"Why,
Shou? What's wrong?"
"Just
do it, okay? I can't promise I'll be much help to you once we get in
there." Seiji had a bad feeling, but he consented, reluctantly. An image
of Rajura, Anubis, Naaza and Sh'ten appeared.
"You
ready to die?" Naaza asked, amusedly. Shin grit his teeth.
"Ye're
the ones who're going to fall." Anubis grinned, and the image switched to
one of Makoto lying beaten and bloodied in a field. This sent Shin into a fury.
"YE
BLOODY SON OF A BITCH!!! IF YE HAVE TOUCHED HER, I SWEAR.." Anubis
laughed.
"Yeah,
I bet." He said, reappearing with the other warlords. Sh'ten stepped up.
"If
you REALLY want your friends back," A warphole appeared before them.
"Step
through." Shin nearly went in without hesitation, but Seiji and Touma held
him back. Shou looked at Rajura, and Rajura grinned under his armor. The look
on Shou's face was one of extreme doubt. And fear. And Rajura was loving every
part of it. Touma looked at the warphole.
"Do
we go through?" Shin grit his teeth.
"If
they've done anything to Makoto, I'll kill them all with me bare.."
"Hold
it, Rambo." Seiji cut in. "We don't know if they actually HAVE Makoto
or not. They probably don't." Shin glared at him.
"What
if they have Minako? What then?" Seiji stiffened, but he said nothing.
Touma sighed.
"We
have no other choice. We're probably walking into a net or something, but at
least we'll be a few steps closer to getting Ryo and Ule out of there."
Shin and Seiji nodded. Shou looked doubtful, but as they stepped through the
warphole, Shou looked at Seiji and he mouthed something. Seiji understood, but
it worried him. Shou had said
"Remember
your promise."