Chapter 1-Wildfire

"So," Mia began, "who wants to go first?"

"I will," Wildfire smiled.

Mia nodded as the Fire Armor began to tell "his" tale. "I've been in the Sanada Family for generations," the armor began, "I was entrusted to the Sanada Family by our sire, The Ancient One, who created us from the armor of the Demon Lord Talpa. I was guarded over by the Sanada family diligently, but at the time, the current owners didn't carry the required virtue. So I began looking outside the family. I found many people with the required virtue, but they just didn't have the attitude or personality I was looking for."

"You mean you were not restricted to just the Sanada family?" Mia questioned.

Wildfire smiled, "the nine virtues are not just Japanese. Many other countries and cultures around the world place emphasis or virtues such as Goodness, Loyalty, Serenity, Justice, Trust, Wisdom, Life, Piety, and Obedience. It's just that the Japanese culture places emphasis all nine virtues."

Mia raised an eyebrow as she thought, 'if cultures around the world emphasis these virtues, then why haven't there been any armor bearers from different parts of the world.'

Wildfire must have heard Mia's inner conversation, because he smiled and responded, "there was one," the Fire Armor replied, "he was the leader of a nation in their time of trial, and he had everything I was looking for in a potential bearer."

"Who was that?" Mia asked.

"His name was Abraham Lincoln," Wildfire sighed.

"The President of the United States of America during the American Civil War?" Mia frowned.

"Yes," Wildfire replied. "When I look for a person to become my master, I look for many things: modesty, humility, compassion, a person who's not afraid to go against popular opinion for the sake of what is right, but most of all, a person with a large and understanding heart. Lincoln had all of those characteristics, and if only I had been a bit more forceful, then maybe he would have been my master. But Lincoln was a very superstitious man, he found the supernatural fascinating, but was weary of it at the same time. I wanted to introduce myself to him subtlety, but I knew that if I went to see him in my "human" form, the American Mortals, including that witch of a wife, Mary Todd, would get suspicious. Therefore, I decided to introduce myself to the president subtlety, through dreams and visions, but before I could make a move, he had been shot. He died the next day, and I had lost my potential master."

"He was an American," Illusion scoffed, "how can you expect him to understand the relationship between armor and Armor Bearer."

Cruelty shot Illusion an ugly look. "An American can have the virtue of Goodness, just like an American can have the virtue of Loyalty."

Illusion responded by throwing Cruelty another ugly look, but let Wildfire continue "his" story.

"So I kept looking for a new master, and eventually I found him. I saw Ryo for the first time when he was little. He was very modest, and very compassionate with people and animals. As he got older, he became very shy and developed the largest heart I've ever seen, even greater than Lincoln's heart. He had everything I was looking for, and this time, I was determined to keep this potential bearer alive."

"And you succeeded," Torrent laughed.

"I have no regrets choosing Ryo," Wildfire smiled, "I'm glad he accepted my offer."

"Like he had any choice," Venom smirked.

Wildfire shot Venom a nasty scowl, "At least I'm not like a certain armor, who will remain nameless, who purposely hunts down his bearer and threatened to make his life worse than it already was if he didn't accept the armor's offer."

Venom hissed, but didn't attempt to make a come back remark.

Mia looked shocked, armors taking bearers against their will, foreigners having Japanese virtues, armors worried about being subtle. This was almost too much to handle. "So Cruelty," Mia asked, trying to change the subject, "what did you mean by an American having the virtue of Loyalty?"

Cruelty smiled, "I'll tell you the story of a man named Anubis, a place called Korea, and an American named George Thomas Sullivan."