Chapter One: Dream Girl

It was the first day of my sophomore year at Han A' High started. I was excited about the starting year. I enjoyed school, for the most part. For me, it was even more interesting because I was schooling in a foreign country as an exchange student. I'd been in Japan for a few years, but I still enjoyed the feeling of being, in some ways, on my own and away from my mother and sister. Oh, I missed them both terribly, but it was nice having a little bit more independence.

Little did I know, but I'd be getting a little more independence than I bargained for. A LOT more than I bargained for.

I had my locker away from my friends, in a different wing. I heard struggling from a few lockers down and looked over to see who was having trouble. What I saw was a beautiful girl with thick red hair wearing a pink sweater, a white shirt, a black skirt, and blue suede clogs. She was struggling to get her locker open.

"Stupid locker," she said in poor Japanese. Must've been another exchange student.

"Need a little assistance?" I asked. The girl looked over at me with big, green eyes.

She nodded. "Thank you, it's jammed," she said. I grasped the handle, jostling it and the locker came loose. "How'd you do that?"

"I've been messing with rusty lockers for a while," I said. "So, where are you from? You're obviously not from around here."

"And neither are you," she noted. "I'm from Dublin, Ireland."

"Newport, England," I said. "My name's Cye Mouri."

The girl shook my hand. "My name's Shelia McConner. Well, that explains why our lockers are so close together. Looks like they stuck the 'M' people in this wing," she said. "How do you spell your name? I've seen that name spelled C-Y, C-Y-E, S-A-I, and S-I."

"C-Y-E," I said. "I don't mind C-Y, that'll happen, it's the last two that drive me nuts."

Shelia nodded. "So, you starting junior year, too?"

I gulped. She was a junior? "Actually, I'm a sophomore," I said nervously.

"So, you're a cute sophomore," she said. My cheeks must have turned crimson red. She thought I was cute? "Hey, meet me after school by the bleachers on the football field, okay?"

"Uh, sure," I said as she walked off, waving to me.

"Are you telling me that a JUNIOR was flirting with you?" asked Sage Date, one of my closer friends. The five of us sat at a lunch table in the cafeteria, which was loud, noisy, and smelled funny. Basically, it was your typical high school cafeteria. Sage is a tall blonde with hair falling into one eye. The only reason he's blonde is because his mother is an American, so he's sometimes not considered Japanese. He's a notorious flirt (he's been dubbed "Flirt King of Han A' High") and unlike most other flirts, he doesn't take advantage of the women he flirts with. I respect that, I don't believe women should be taken advantage off.

Also note that I grew up in a household without any other men around.

I shrugged. "I'm not sure, I've never really flirted before," I said.

Rowen Hashiba sighed. "This Shelia McConner, what's she like?" Rowen is the oldest in the group, a junior unlike the rest of us. His parents are divorced, since his mother travels around the world writing for a magazine (National Geographic, I think, it's that or some other nature magazine) while his father is a scientist. Rowen has blue hair with a forelock between his indigo eyes and is a super genius that sleeps like a log and can't cook if his life depended on it.

Ryo Sanada, our leader, narrowed his eyes. "No offense Cye, but you're WAY younger than she is, why would she be hitting on you?" Ryo, unlike the rest of us, is an orphan (Even though kids back in England called me a "half-orphan" because my father died shortly before I was born) and grew up in the wilderness with his faithful pet, White Blaze. White Blaze happens to be a full-grown Himalayan white tiger, by the way. Ryo doesn't really talk to must about his past, but he's a good guy, I guess. Ryo has shoulder length black hair and tiger like blue eyes.

Kento Rei Fuang, my best friend since I came to Japan, swallowed a bit from his huge lunch. "I say that if Cye's got a shot with a girl, go for it! Think about it, a JUNIOR is asking you out, go for it!" Kento, like me and Sage, is not Japanese. He and his family emigrated from China after his mother became pregnant with a second child, which is illegal in China. Kento has a hefty appetite (Which makes me the perfect best friend for him since I'm excellent in the kitchen) and a lot of brute strength. He's also got a tendency to run into trouble head on.

I sighed. "I don't know what to do. She wants me to meet her after school, but why?!" I asked.

"Just. GO!" said Kento. "Cye, dude, just go for it! Hit a home run-"

"Kento!" I said. "You know how I feel about that."

"What's wrong with baseball?" asked Ryo.

"He didn't mean THAT kind of a home run, Ryo," said Rowen.

"Oh, THAT home run. Why not?!"

I glared at Ryo. "I am a Christian. Christians believe in practicing abstinence until your wedding night, than you can go wild, until then, no means no," I said.

Ryo and the guys nodded (Minus Sage, his mother insisted apon raising him and his two sisters Christian so he knew everything I was talking about) and understood. They wouldn't push me to do anything anyways.

Maybe I should explain a little about myself. My name is obviously Cye Mouri. I'm the youngest in our group, and the smallest, but not by much. I'm from England, and I'm in a program that's keeping me in Japan from age twelve to whenever I graduate college, unless I decided to stay. I had auburn hair, sea green eyes, and somewhat pale skin. I love to cook and swim, and I want to throw up at the sight of seafood.

The reason for that is because my friends and I are the Ronin Warriors, the first and last line of defense against Talpa's evil Dynasty. Talpa is your basic evil emperor: Big, ugly, evil genius, wants to take over the mortal realm, bothers the heroes, has minions with tapioca for brains and a few with an IQ higher than a peach pit, the usual. What sets him aside from all those comic books villains is that our powers came FROM him. And he wants them back.

These powers are nine armors. The armors are Wildfire, Halo, Torrent, Hardrock, Strata, Ogre, Cobra, Darkness, and Illusion. The first five belong to my friends and me. The last four belong to the former Dark Warlords, who used to work for Talpa, but he's now dead and the Warlords have seen "the light." My armor happens to be Torrent, giving me a connection with the water. And for that matter, sea life, so I get upset when I see my fishy friends served up on a seafood platter.

Of course, no one even knows that there was a threat. No one remembers anything except for us and two civilians, Mia Koji and Yuli Yamato. Mia is the granddaughter of a professor at the University of Toyama. Sehkment, Warlord of Venom (Cobra), killed him. She inherited his estate and was letting us live in her mansion. Yuli is a kid that was orphaned after his parents never reappeared after Talpa captured them. They're either dead or have amnesia and are wandering around somewhere. Either way, both of them were used as hostages by the Warlords and helped us out a lot during the battles.

But Talpa was gone. I expected to have a nice, relaxing rest of my life. Little did I know but I was about to endure in something that would blow my mind, and eventually, Talpa would return, three more armors would appear, and it would be up to me to be the leader for once.