Tears of Twilight
Chapter 4.
Ryo frowned as he glanced at the clock on the living room wall. He set his gameboy advance down and looked at the others. "Guys, is it just me, or has Cye been gone for a really long time?"
Kaye checked the time as well and stood up, concern appearing on her face. "Hey, you're right. He has been gone for a long time. I wonder what could be taking him so long?"
"Maybe he decided to visit his mom for a bit?" Kento suggested.
"Yeah, but wouldn't he have called?" Rowen asked.
"You would think so," Sage said. "Why don't we call there and see if he stayed behind." He stood up and grabbed the phone, and dialed the numbers. The phone rang and rang. Just as he was about to hang up, there was a click, and a, "Hello?"
"Ms. Mouri, hi, this is Sage."
"Hello, dear."
"Hi, um, Ms. Mouri, the rest of us were wondering, did Cye stay behind with you?"
"No, he didn't. In fact after he saw me into the door, he left for home."
Sage frowned deeply. Something wasn't right. Cye should have came home. And he never went anywhere without telling any of them. "Alright, Ms. Mouri, thanks."
"Sage, is there something wrong?" Ms. Mouri asked, her own concern rising suddenly.
"I sincerely hope not," he replied. "Just Cye's late coming home."
"Well, call me the moment he comes in, will you?"
"I'll do that, Ms. Mouri."
Sage hung up the phone and sighed heavily as he looked at the others. "Guys, Cye's missing."
Ryo frowned deeply. "So he wasn't there at all? This is just great."
"We have to find him!" Mia cried out. "Who knows what could have happened to him?"
Kaye was frowning deeply. "Damn it, I should have gone with him. Why does this feel like it was all of my fault? What could have happened to him? We had just found out we're related, and all of the sudden something happens to split us apart. And there's no way he would just take off on his own. Just no way!"
"Kaye?" Kento said suddenly breaking her out of her thoughts. She looked up at him apologetically, and he frowned. She seemed to be taking this pretty hard. And why not? She had been through so much just in the past year. It was actually amazing how strong she still was. Some people would have cracked by now.
"I'm sorry, Kento," she said.
"It's okay. Let's just go and look for Cye."
"Should we split up?" Sage asked.
"Yeah, but let's split up into groups," Ryo said. "It'll be safer that way."
It was agreed. Kento, Kaye, and Sage took one way. Mia, Rowen, and Ryo took another way. White Blaze headed off his own way. They would meet back within two hours whether or not they found Cye, and hopefully one of them would have Cye among them.
About twenty minutes later, Kaye, Kento, and Sage still had not found Cye. They were getting more and more worried with each passing moment. What could have happened to him? He couldn't have just disappeared into thin air like that. He had to be somewhere around.
"I swear when we find Cye," Kento said. "I'm letting him have it!"
"Kento," Sage said as he looked at him with a frown, "we'll find him, okay?"
Kento nodded his head. He was very worried about Cye; after all the two had been best friends since ever Kento could remember.
Kaye sighed heavily as they were nearing a vacated park. The situation seemed so hopeless, but she knew they couldn't give up. She looked toward her right suddenly when she thought she saw something. She let out a small gasp of surprise. For staring back at her was a large white animal. It looked like a.. no, it couldn't be. She shook her head then quickly looked away, figuring it might be her imagination. Yeah, she had to have been stressed over Cye. Just to make sure though, she quickly looked back toward where she saw it. Nothing was there. ˜I knew it," she said. "Just my overactive imagination."
They kept on walking, hoping by some chance they would run into Cye, or hear from the others saying they had found him, but no such luck.
Sage frowned. "It's just like he vanished," he said ruefully. "I can't sense him anywhere at all, and I've got my sensory on high alert."
"This is bad," Kaye said. "I hope the others are having better luck."
Kento nodded his head in agreement as they rounded a U-bend Then Kaye suddenly stopped and blinked in surprise. There was that animal again! It was a wolf!
The other two stopped when they noticed this. Both of them were surprised at the sheer size of the animal. For the wolf was at least a foot taller than White Blaze. His eyes were sapphire blue, his stamina high and calm. His fur was so thick and so white, it looked like a pile of soft snow had been piled on top of him with downy feathers. He seemed quite powerful, and yet majestic at the same time.
There were three teenagers with the wolf. A brown haired girl who was standing next to him, one hand running along his back, a orange-brown haired boy, who Kento almost mistook for Cye until he noticed a few different things about him, and a tall blond haired boy.
Sage noticed that Kaye seemed to be in a daze of some sort. He didn't see why though. But then he turned his head and looked at the girl more closely. ˜Someone else to flirt with," he thought. ˜Neat. Unless that blond guy or smaller guy over there is already her boyfriend."
Flash suddenly looked up and stared at Kaye in recognition. She slowly walked away from the wolf she stood near as she stared at Kaye, her cerulean eyes filled with surprise. "Hey, you're the girl across the street from us."
"Yeah," Kaye said with just as much shock. "We noticed you three moving in yesterday."
"Where are you from?" Kento asked point blank.
"From North America," the girl told him. The three nodded their heads. As much as they'd like to stick around to chat, they had to find Cye. But then Kento had an idea.
"Say, you by chance didn't see a guy around our age? He's got brown hair about down past his neck a bit, sea blue eyes, and he's about five foot five inches."
The boy with the orange and brown hair came closer to them. He was shaking his head as he stared at Kaye and the two Ronins with his sky blue eyes. "We haven't seen anyone who resembled your description," he said. "But if we do, we can tell him you're looking for him. What's his name?"
"Cye," Sage said, his voice filled with concern. As much as he wanted to flirt with that girl, there was just no time. They had to keep moving. For all they knew Cye could be hurt or worse. Hopefully, it was neither, but for some reason he couldn't help feel that there was something wrong, that Cye was someplace close to them, but yet so far, and was trying to reach out to them, but was unable to.
"Well, thanks," Kaye said.
"No problem," Flash said. "Hope you find him."
Kento turned and headed away from them. Sage and Kaye followed, and soon the three were once again down the road, keeping their eyes peeled out for their friend. They saw no one who looked like him, and when they asked other people they were given negative answers. This was getting so hopeless. He had to be somewhere but where?
Sage looked up at the sky which was now showing some stars slowly coming out on the horizon. His mind reflected over how they had all been acting the past few days and how withdrawn Cye had seem. ˜I hope the others are having a better time finding him than we are," he thought to himself.
Suddenly, the area around them grew pitch black. This caused them to go into an alarmed state and in a defensive mode. Kaye stood there, her eyes wide. She quickly grabbed her kanji ball, and looked to her right, then to her left. She could see nothing. "Kento?!" she cried out.
All that replied was the swishing of the tree leaves in the wind. She kept silent, hearing her heart thump against her chest as if wanting to jump out. Okay, she would stay calm, and alert. There was an enemy nearby, but where? And who? Was it that one enemy? Jakada?
"Good guess, girl," came a cold, but familiar voice.
Kaye gasped out loud and whirled around quickly. Nothing was in front of her, but she knew he was close by. She was shocked though. She had only thought about him. Could it be he could read minds?
"In answer to your question, I can," Jakada replied as he appeared in front of her. He swiped at her with his weapon to which she quickly somersaulted backward, avoiding getting her head cut off. He chuckled. Whether he was amused or impressed there was no telling.
"You've been trained well, Tiger," he said. "It's too bad it won't help you in the end. I plan to bring you back with me."
"You'll never take me!" Kaye said angrily, her eyes blazing at him as she stood her ground.
"Funny," he replied. "Your friend said the same exact thing."
Kaye gasped. "You have Cye!"
"Yes, he was easy to capture. Well, not really. He put up quite a fight, for one being so small. After I take you, there is just one more to receive, then the real fun begins."
"And who's that third one?" Kaye demanded.
"You'll see soon," Jakada answered. He suddenly attacked without warning. Kaye was doing all she could to block his attacks, but he was so fast. And it seemed like whenever she made a move he would know exactly where she was going to be. She somersaulted over his head, kicking at his head, but he ducked down at the same time and grabbed her leg in mid air. She grunted as she hit the ground, landing on her face.
Just as Jakada was about to grab her, she suddenly threw a foot into his stomach, causing him to gasp and stagger backward. She quickly jumped to her feet and threw a round house kick to his head.
He flew backward, but was on his feet in a matter of minutes. He wiped away the blood from his top lip. "I see I'll have to do this the hard way," he said as he narrowed his eyes.
"Give it your best try!" Kaye shot back, getting into another defensive mode.
Jakada did not answer her. Instead he leaped high into the air and somersaulted several times in the air. Kaye had no time to dodge him. In a matter of minutes she was on the ground, with Jakada sitting on her back. He drew back a fist and slammed it in the back of her head. She lost consciousness and laid limp underneath him.
Jakada sat back a bit. "Well, that was interesting. These Ronins are definitely strong. I'll have to be careful when I fight them in their true armor." He stood up and picked Kaye up. Summoning a portal he carried her through it. Now there was just one more left.
Ryo stopped for a moment, letting out a frown. He wasn't sure why, but he felt like there was something terribly wrong. Rowen noticed this and glanced at him in concern. Walking past some bushes he stood in front of his friend and his leader.
"Hey, Ryo, are you okay?" he asked.
Ryo shook his head as he glanced backward behind him. "I'm not sure, Rowen," he answered. "It feels like something's wrong."
Mia looked at them. "Do you think it's the others, or Cye?"
Ryo didn't answer for a moment. His tiger blue eyes were narrowed as the feeling he had seemed to be getting worse and worse. Finally, he could take no more. He suddenly took off like a speeding bullet, running down the sidewalk, going toward the other Ronins. Something was wrong, very wrong. And he was determined to help his friends no matter the cost was.
Rowen and Mia followed right behind him, both wondering what was wrong with him. But the further they ran, the more Rowen began to feel the same feeling Ryo was feeling.
Suddenly they saw Sage and Kento up ahead. Each of them were in their armor and were fighting against several Dynasty soldiers. But where was Kaye?
They had no time to ponder that, because the soldiers suddenly attacked them. Ryo threw a punch to one soldier's face, then elbowed another into a tree. He quickly called his armor. "Armor of the Wildfire! Dao Jin!"
After armoring he took his swords and began to slash away through the midst of the soldiers, destroying two or three at a time.
Rowen ducked from a dangerous blow, then did his famous flying kick against another one. He landed on the ground, and called his armor as well. "Armor of Strata! Dao Inochi!" He drew his bow and arrow, and began firing arrow after arrow toward the soldiers. To his right, Sage was hacking away through the soldiers with his nodatchi, and to his left Kento was swinging his tetsubo left and right, taking soldiers down. Mia was wise enough to stay out of the way, but there were times when a soldier came at her, and one of them would quickly have to come to her defense.
The fighting seemed to be getting more and more intense though. Several more soldiers were quickly taking the places of the ones destroyed. They started to use their surekills on them, hoping that by some chance they would totally wipe them all out. There seemed to be no such luck with that though. They just kept coming and coming.
"This is just great!" Sage said angrily as he took his nodatchi and brought it upward, then sideways in a flash against a Dynasty soldier. It crumbled right in half and vanished.
"It feels like they're blocking us from something, somehow," Rowen said as he shot off another arrow.
"The question is what though?" Ryo wanted to know as he took his two swords and slashed before and behind him at two soldiers charging at him from opposite ends.
"Has anyone seen Kaye?" Kento suddenly asked as he defended himself from an onslaught, then repelled back by slamming the sharp end of his tetsubo through the chest area. The soldier dissolved immediately.
Everyone frowned. No one had seen Kaye since before the fog. Now they were all very worried. The fighting continued on. They began to call their surekills as it became more and more intense.
The light from their attacks shown over a radius of perhaps thirty miles from where they started. Fire, air, light, and earth joined together as one force to vanquish the enemy and send them back from where they came from. The only problem they had was finding Cye and now Kaye.
Suddenly Mia screamed. A soldier was charging right at her, its spear high above, aimed for her forehead. Rowen quickly dislodged a soldier, then ran for her. He knew he had to get to her as fast as possible. But then another soldier blocked him. "Mia!" he cried.
Mia screamed again; the soldier had now pierced her neck with the spear, and she had backed away just in time from being speared to death.
"Leave her alone!" Ryo cried angrily as he slashed his way through. The onslaught was terrible. He had to get to her, and fast. The other two were trying to get to her as well, but it seemed their way was blocked by more and more soldiers.
"Yeah, you heard him! Leave her alone!" came a new voice.
Suddenly there was a flash of blue and white, and a large sword that cut right down through the soldier that had been attacking Mia. Two more joined it. A flash of red, and a flash of yellow. Soon three teens in armors appeared before them all, slashing away and fighting with the martial arts skills.
"Who are these guys?" Kento asked as he blocked an attack from a soldier.
"Who cares?" Sage replied as he slashed his nodatchi through the torso of another soldier. It crumbled before his feet and then vanished.
Ryo's katanas suddenly struck out at either side, decapitating two soldiers. Their heads fell to the ground, then vanished along with their bodies. He paid no attention to the three mysterious teenagers who had suddenly appeared and began to help them. He spun through the air, hacking his way through soldiers, blocking a blow, parrying, swinging his sword in a high circular arc and taking three more soldiers apart. He was worried about Cye and Kaye, who knew what happened to them, and what was happening to them now. For all he knew they could be...
˜No, Ryo!" he admonished himself. ˜Don't you dare start thinking that! They're alive!"
He continued to fight, wishing in vain they would just appear before them and help his anxiousness of worrying over them. He momentarily glanced over at Kento. So far he was holding up strong, but they all knew he was fighting to scream his head off. Kaye meant the world to him, and even more than that.
Rowen was still shooting his arrows off, deflecting attacks from soldiers who were further away. Once in a while he would glance at the newcomers. The one in the blue and white armor, a female, from what he could see, was as good as Ryo as she fought. She was taking down soldiers left and right, dodging attacks and taking them apart. Once she had been knocked down, but she was quickly back on her feet.
He felt a whiz rush by him and quickly retaliated by drawing the string back on his bow and releasing his arrow. The arrow went in a straight projectile and immediately struck the attacker's torso, piercing right through it. It tried to grab the arrow out, but failed to do so as it suddenly crumbled up and vanished.
The one in the red armor with the black designs, a male, fought valiantly and yet gracefully. He seemed to possess an inner strength the others did not have. How that could be explained was impossible as Rowen did not know him. His nodatchi spun through the air and he brought it down in a wide circular arc taking three soldiers down with it. One jumped on his back, but he quickly deflected it and threw it over his shoulder. It hit a tree and fell to the ground. Upon standing, Kento took its upper torso off with one swing of his nanjinta.
"Man! They just keep coming!" he grumbled.
"Yeah, and I think I know why," Ryo said as he continued to fight.
"Please enlighten us, leader," Kento said to him as he took another soldier apart. But he had a feeling he knew why.
Ryo bit his lip. He did not want to believe it, but there was no denying it. He looked Kento right in the eye and spoke firmly, yet softly. "They've been captured."
Kento's eyes lit up like fire. He knew that Ryo was right, and this fueled his strength. Whoever had captured them would get theirs. He would make sure of that. The fighting still continued on though. And if not for the help of the three mysterious strangers the Ronins would have had a much harder time. They could tell they had been trained well, with martial arts and the mastery of weaponry, but by who they did not know. And it did not matter. All they knew was that they had to win this battle, find out where Cye and Kaye were being held, and rescue them.
Then at long last, the fighting was over. Ryo, Rowen, Kento, Sage, and Mia all stood there facing the three fighters. White Blaze came to stand by Ryo's side, and he, too, stared at them. For a long time no one spoke. The silence in the air was almost deafening, but then at last Ryo broke it for them all.
"Who are you?"
The girl answered. "We're called the Warriors.. I'm Flash of the Firestarter, this is Thunder of the Storm, and Scorpio of the Current."
Sage's eyes lit up. "Wait, you three were in the park earlier!"
Scorpio nodded. "Yeah, we were there. We're sorry about your friends. Anything we can do to help?"
Mia spoke up. "Perhaps we better go back to the house. We can talk more there and find out what happened to Cye and Kaye."
They all agreed to that, and one by one they walked back to the house. As they were leaving, a figure stood hidden in the trees, watching them, particularly one. It was the last one that had to be captured in order to fulfill the prophecy. When they were out of sight, a cruel smile spread across his lips and he vanished into a cloud of black smoke.
At the house, the eight of them sat at a large table in Mia's dining room. Each of them had a cup of hot tea, except Flash who had told Mia she was allergic to it. So she had juice instead. At the moment they sat in silence, trying to get themselves cooled down and to think everything over. The house was tensed and seemed empty at the same time. Finally Mia was the first to speak.
"The one guy who attacked Cye and Kaye the first time, he called himself Jakada right?"
The Ronins nodded their heads. They were beginning to realize where she was getting at.
"That's right," Rowen said with a nod of his head. "I remember he had attacked them both just before we found out about Kaye's relation to Cye."
"Yeah, then when Cye takes their mom home after that, he comes up missing," Kento said. "And now Kaye is missing."
"So we know that Jakada has them both," Ryo said. "Question is where is he keeping them? Is he even from this realm?"
"None of us know, Ryo," Sage said with a shake of his head. "But my guess is, no, he's not from this realm."
Flash, Thunder, and Scorpio glanced at each other, then back at them. They really did want to help, and by doing so questions had to be asked and answered, no matter from which side.
"Okay, this Jakada person," Flash said, "what do you know of him?"
They all shook their heads.
"Nothing at all," Rowen admitted.
"Which really stinks, because he has my girlfriend and my best friend!" Kento bellowed angrily.
"That was your girlfriend?" Thunder asked him. That was the first time he had spoken in front of them all.
Kento nodded. "Yeah, she is. And I'm really worried about her."
Ryo looked at him. "Don't worry, Kento, we'll get her and Cye back. Whether we have to force our way through all of the realms. One way or another, we'll find them and rescue them."
Flash nodded her head. She knew how it felt to have people taken away, and have to worry about whether or not they were okay. She had been through it many, many times before. And she wanted to help in any way she could. "We'll help as well. In fact it would be our pleasure."
The Ronins and Mia looked over at her. They weren't sure if they could allow this. They didn't know how strong these three were exactly, and they couldn't afford to have anyone else hurt or captured.
However, they did not have much of a choice at the time. They would need all the help they could get.
"Would it be okay, if we tested your fighting abilities and attacks if you have any?" Ryo asked.
"Sure," they all replied in unison.
"In fact we can start right now," Scorpio said.
Sage nodded. He believed that was a good idea. So, they all stood up from the table and headed out the back door. Outside, it was now pretty dark with stars shining all over in the night sky. There was an eerie silence as if they were waiting for something.
Ryo looked toward the Warriors. There were three of them, and four Ronins. Okay, this might be a bit difficult, but certainly not impossible. "Okay, I'll go against Flash, Kento can go against Thunder, and Sage can go against Scorpio. Then after who ever is defeated, or whoever wins, Rowen will take that person next. Ok?"
The Ronins and Warriors nodded.
"Sounds good to me," Sage answered.
"Ditto," Kento nodded.
"Let's get started," Flash said.
Each of them got in their armors and gripped their weapons firmly in his or her hand. Mia, Rowen, and White Blaze stood off to the side, watching, waiting. And so it began.
Ryo and Flash were going head to head, neither one really outdoing the other, but neither one giving in to each other. Their strengths seemed to match, but there was something about her that seemed to intrigue him. It was as if he could feel another force inside her, something warm and comfortable, yet a compelling force. And he had a feeling there was more to her than what she was letting on.
Sage was impressed by Scorpio, but Scorpio was also impressed by Sage. The blond haired Ronin Warrior was far faster and stronger, and yet Scorpio was able to counterattack each time. Every time Sage swung his nodatchi at him, he ducked and retaliated back with his spearstaff. At one point he had even tripped Sage, but Sage had quickly gotten to his feet and swiped at him. He quickly dodged the attack, but nearly fell backward as Sage slashed at him again. Then he began to lunge back just as furiously.
Kento wasn't sure about Thunder at all. For one thing, the tall Warrior seemed to possess and inner strength that reminded him vaguely of Sage. He knew Kendo, and was using it on him, but with a touch of another martial artistic ability. He could tell he was very strong, but still he, Kento of Hardrock, had the advantage. They were surrounded by earth constantly, and he was strengthened by it, while wearing his armor. He swung his tetsubo around his head and aimed it for Thunder's. However Thunder blocked it with his nodatchi and then did a front snap kick suddenly to Kento's torso. The Ronin went tumbling back, but he was again on his feet. Using his tetsubo like a pole vault he flipped himself over Thunder and struck his back with it. Thunder gritted his teeth in pain. He would be feeling that later. He held back his tears, and turned around, raising his sword high, then releasing it sideways and swiping at Kento's mid-section, sending him flipping backward as well. But like Thunder, he was once again on his feet.
The six of them continued on, while the other three watched. Finally Sage had defeated Scorpio, and it was now Rowen's turn to go up against the smallest Warrior. At once Scorpio was amazed by Rowen's speed. He was a lot faster and more agile than Sage was. Although he didn't use his arrows on him, he did use his bow as a weapon and a defense against Scorpio's spearstaff. Rowen, too, was impressed by Scorpio's fighting skills. He seemed to be strong in his own natural way, but it was like he had been taught how to handle certain situations. He had quick thinking and quick reflexes. In the end neither one won, and neither lost. It was the same for all of them.
"I think," Ryo said as they all unarmored, "that we've found out just how good you guys are."
"You guys are pretty good yourselves," Flash told them.
"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Sage asked.
"We were trained by a Mystic known as Chinook," Thunder explained. "It's a really long story, but to make it short, he came from Japan, found eight of us, told us who we were, and began to train us. He taught us everything we know about fighting, our armors, our skills, and our enemy."
"He taught you pretty well, then," Rowen said with a nod of his head.
"Yeah, that was pretty amazing," Kento agreed.
"You guys, we should see about finding out where Cye and Kaye are," Mia said.
"Mia's right," Ryo said. "Let's go inside now."
They all went inside, one by one, each one thinking and wondering what would come next, and whether or not Kaye and Cye were all right, and whether they would ever be seen again.
Chapter 4.
Ryo frowned as he glanced at the clock on the living room wall. He set his gameboy advance down and looked at the others. "Guys, is it just me, or has Cye been gone for a really long time?"
Kaye checked the time as well and stood up, concern appearing on her face. "Hey, you're right. He has been gone for a long time. I wonder what could be taking him so long?"
"Maybe he decided to visit his mom for a bit?" Kento suggested.
"Yeah, but wouldn't he have called?" Rowen asked.
"You would think so," Sage said. "Why don't we call there and see if he stayed behind." He stood up and grabbed the phone, and dialed the numbers. The phone rang and rang. Just as he was about to hang up, there was a click, and a, "Hello?"
"Ms. Mouri, hi, this is Sage."
"Hello, dear."
"Hi, um, Ms. Mouri, the rest of us were wondering, did Cye stay behind with you?"
"No, he didn't. In fact after he saw me into the door, he left for home."
Sage frowned deeply. Something wasn't right. Cye should have came home. And he never went anywhere without telling any of them. "Alright, Ms. Mouri, thanks."
"Sage, is there something wrong?" Ms. Mouri asked, her own concern rising suddenly.
"I sincerely hope not," he replied. "Just Cye's late coming home."
"Well, call me the moment he comes in, will you?"
"I'll do that, Ms. Mouri."
Sage hung up the phone and sighed heavily as he looked at the others. "Guys, Cye's missing."
Ryo frowned deeply. "So he wasn't there at all? This is just great."
"We have to find him!" Mia cried out. "Who knows what could have happened to him?"
Kaye was frowning deeply. "Damn it, I should have gone with him. Why does this feel like it was all of my fault? What could have happened to him? We had just found out we're related, and all of the sudden something happens to split us apart. And there's no way he would just take off on his own. Just no way!"
"Kaye?" Kento said suddenly breaking her out of her thoughts. She looked up at him apologetically, and he frowned. She seemed to be taking this pretty hard. And why not? She had been through so much just in the past year. It was actually amazing how strong she still was. Some people would have cracked by now.
"I'm sorry, Kento," she said.
"It's okay. Let's just go and look for Cye."
"Should we split up?" Sage asked.
"Yeah, but let's split up into groups," Ryo said. "It'll be safer that way."
It was agreed. Kento, Kaye, and Sage took one way. Mia, Rowen, and Ryo took another way. White Blaze headed off his own way. They would meet back within two hours whether or not they found Cye, and hopefully one of them would have Cye among them.
About twenty minutes later, Kaye, Kento, and Sage still had not found Cye. They were getting more and more worried with each passing moment. What could have happened to him? He couldn't have just disappeared into thin air like that. He had to be somewhere around.
"I swear when we find Cye," Kento said. "I'm letting him have it!"
"Kento," Sage said as he looked at him with a frown, "we'll find him, okay?"
Kento nodded his head. He was very worried about Cye; after all the two had been best friends since ever Kento could remember.
Kaye sighed heavily as they were nearing a vacated park. The situation seemed so hopeless, but she knew they couldn't give up. She looked toward her right suddenly when she thought she saw something. She let out a small gasp of surprise. For staring back at her was a large white animal. It looked like a.. no, it couldn't be. She shook her head then quickly looked away, figuring it might be her imagination. Yeah, she had to have been stressed over Cye. Just to make sure though, she quickly looked back toward where she saw it. Nothing was there. ˜I knew it," she said. "Just my overactive imagination."
They kept on walking, hoping by some chance they would run into Cye, or hear from the others saying they had found him, but no such luck.
Sage frowned. "It's just like he vanished," he said ruefully. "I can't sense him anywhere at all, and I've got my sensory on high alert."
"This is bad," Kaye said. "I hope the others are having better luck."
Kento nodded his head in agreement as they rounded a U-bend Then Kaye suddenly stopped and blinked in surprise. There was that animal again! It was a wolf!
The other two stopped when they noticed this. Both of them were surprised at the sheer size of the animal. For the wolf was at least a foot taller than White Blaze. His eyes were sapphire blue, his stamina high and calm. His fur was so thick and so white, it looked like a pile of soft snow had been piled on top of him with downy feathers. He seemed quite powerful, and yet majestic at the same time.
There were three teenagers with the wolf. A brown haired girl who was standing next to him, one hand running along his back, a orange-brown haired boy, who Kento almost mistook for Cye until he noticed a few different things about him, and a tall blond haired boy.
Sage noticed that Kaye seemed to be in a daze of some sort. He didn't see why though. But then he turned his head and looked at the girl more closely. ˜Someone else to flirt with," he thought. ˜Neat. Unless that blond guy or smaller guy over there is already her boyfriend."
Flash suddenly looked up and stared at Kaye in recognition. She slowly walked away from the wolf she stood near as she stared at Kaye, her cerulean eyes filled with surprise. "Hey, you're the girl across the street from us."
"Yeah," Kaye said with just as much shock. "We noticed you three moving in yesterday."
"Where are you from?" Kento asked point blank.
"From North America," the girl told him. The three nodded their heads. As much as they'd like to stick around to chat, they had to find Cye. But then Kento had an idea.
"Say, you by chance didn't see a guy around our age? He's got brown hair about down past his neck a bit, sea blue eyes, and he's about five foot five inches."
The boy with the orange and brown hair came closer to them. He was shaking his head as he stared at Kaye and the two Ronins with his sky blue eyes. "We haven't seen anyone who resembled your description," he said. "But if we do, we can tell him you're looking for him. What's his name?"
"Cye," Sage said, his voice filled with concern. As much as he wanted to flirt with that girl, there was just no time. They had to keep moving. For all they knew Cye could be hurt or worse. Hopefully, it was neither, but for some reason he couldn't help feel that there was something wrong, that Cye was someplace close to them, but yet so far, and was trying to reach out to them, but was unable to.
"Well, thanks," Kaye said.
"No problem," Flash said. "Hope you find him."
Kento turned and headed away from them. Sage and Kaye followed, and soon the three were once again down the road, keeping their eyes peeled out for their friend. They saw no one who looked like him, and when they asked other people they were given negative answers. This was getting so hopeless. He had to be somewhere but where?
Sage looked up at the sky which was now showing some stars slowly coming out on the horizon. His mind reflected over how they had all been acting the past few days and how withdrawn Cye had seem. ˜I hope the others are having a better time finding him than we are," he thought to himself.
Suddenly, the area around them grew pitch black. This caused them to go into an alarmed state and in a defensive mode. Kaye stood there, her eyes wide. She quickly grabbed her kanji ball, and looked to her right, then to her left. She could see nothing. "Kento?!" she cried out.
All that replied was the swishing of the tree leaves in the wind. She kept silent, hearing her heart thump against her chest as if wanting to jump out. Okay, she would stay calm, and alert. There was an enemy nearby, but where? And who? Was it that one enemy? Jakada?
"Good guess, girl," came a cold, but familiar voice.
Kaye gasped out loud and whirled around quickly. Nothing was in front of her, but she knew he was close by. She was shocked though. She had only thought about him. Could it be he could read minds?
"In answer to your question, I can," Jakada replied as he appeared in front of her. He swiped at her with his weapon to which she quickly somersaulted backward, avoiding getting her head cut off. He chuckled. Whether he was amused or impressed there was no telling.
"You've been trained well, Tiger," he said. "It's too bad it won't help you in the end. I plan to bring you back with me."
"You'll never take me!" Kaye said angrily, her eyes blazing at him as she stood her ground.
"Funny," he replied. "Your friend said the same exact thing."
Kaye gasped. "You have Cye!"
"Yes, he was easy to capture. Well, not really. He put up quite a fight, for one being so small. After I take you, there is just one more to receive, then the real fun begins."
"And who's that third one?" Kaye demanded.
"You'll see soon," Jakada answered. He suddenly attacked without warning. Kaye was doing all she could to block his attacks, but he was so fast. And it seemed like whenever she made a move he would know exactly where she was going to be. She somersaulted over his head, kicking at his head, but he ducked down at the same time and grabbed her leg in mid air. She grunted as she hit the ground, landing on her face.
Just as Jakada was about to grab her, she suddenly threw a foot into his stomach, causing him to gasp and stagger backward. She quickly jumped to her feet and threw a round house kick to his head.
He flew backward, but was on his feet in a matter of minutes. He wiped away the blood from his top lip. "I see I'll have to do this the hard way," he said as he narrowed his eyes.
"Give it your best try!" Kaye shot back, getting into another defensive mode.
Jakada did not answer her. Instead he leaped high into the air and somersaulted several times in the air. Kaye had no time to dodge him. In a matter of minutes she was on the ground, with Jakada sitting on her back. He drew back a fist and slammed it in the back of her head. She lost consciousness and laid limp underneath him.
Jakada sat back a bit. "Well, that was interesting. These Ronins are definitely strong. I'll have to be careful when I fight them in their true armor." He stood up and picked Kaye up. Summoning a portal he carried her through it. Now there was just one more left.
Ryo stopped for a moment, letting out a frown. He wasn't sure why, but he felt like there was something terribly wrong. Rowen noticed this and glanced at him in concern. Walking past some bushes he stood in front of his friend and his leader.
"Hey, Ryo, are you okay?" he asked.
Ryo shook his head as he glanced backward behind him. "I'm not sure, Rowen," he answered. "It feels like something's wrong."
Mia looked at them. "Do you think it's the others, or Cye?"
Ryo didn't answer for a moment. His tiger blue eyes were narrowed as the feeling he had seemed to be getting worse and worse. Finally, he could take no more. He suddenly took off like a speeding bullet, running down the sidewalk, going toward the other Ronins. Something was wrong, very wrong. And he was determined to help his friends no matter the cost was.
Rowen and Mia followed right behind him, both wondering what was wrong with him. But the further they ran, the more Rowen began to feel the same feeling Ryo was feeling.
Suddenly they saw Sage and Kento up ahead. Each of them were in their armor and were fighting against several Dynasty soldiers. But where was Kaye?
They had no time to ponder that, because the soldiers suddenly attacked them. Ryo threw a punch to one soldier's face, then elbowed another into a tree. He quickly called his armor. "Armor of the Wildfire! Dao Jin!"
After armoring he took his swords and began to slash away through the midst of the soldiers, destroying two or three at a time.
Rowen ducked from a dangerous blow, then did his famous flying kick against another one. He landed on the ground, and called his armor as well. "Armor of Strata! Dao Inochi!" He drew his bow and arrow, and began firing arrow after arrow toward the soldiers. To his right, Sage was hacking away through the soldiers with his nodatchi, and to his left Kento was swinging his tetsubo left and right, taking soldiers down. Mia was wise enough to stay out of the way, but there were times when a soldier came at her, and one of them would quickly have to come to her defense.
The fighting seemed to be getting more and more intense though. Several more soldiers were quickly taking the places of the ones destroyed. They started to use their surekills on them, hoping that by some chance they would totally wipe them all out. There seemed to be no such luck with that though. They just kept coming and coming.
"This is just great!" Sage said angrily as he took his nodatchi and brought it upward, then sideways in a flash against a Dynasty soldier. It crumbled right in half and vanished.
"It feels like they're blocking us from something, somehow," Rowen said as he shot off another arrow.
"The question is what though?" Ryo wanted to know as he took his two swords and slashed before and behind him at two soldiers charging at him from opposite ends.
"Has anyone seen Kaye?" Kento suddenly asked as he defended himself from an onslaught, then repelled back by slamming the sharp end of his tetsubo through the chest area. The soldier dissolved immediately.
Everyone frowned. No one had seen Kaye since before the fog. Now they were all very worried. The fighting continued on. They began to call their surekills as it became more and more intense.
The light from their attacks shown over a radius of perhaps thirty miles from where they started. Fire, air, light, and earth joined together as one force to vanquish the enemy and send them back from where they came from. The only problem they had was finding Cye and now Kaye.
Suddenly Mia screamed. A soldier was charging right at her, its spear high above, aimed for her forehead. Rowen quickly dislodged a soldier, then ran for her. He knew he had to get to her as fast as possible. But then another soldier blocked him. "Mia!" he cried.
Mia screamed again; the soldier had now pierced her neck with the spear, and she had backed away just in time from being speared to death.
"Leave her alone!" Ryo cried angrily as he slashed his way through. The onslaught was terrible. He had to get to her, and fast. The other two were trying to get to her as well, but it seemed their way was blocked by more and more soldiers.
"Yeah, you heard him! Leave her alone!" came a new voice.
Suddenly there was a flash of blue and white, and a large sword that cut right down through the soldier that had been attacking Mia. Two more joined it. A flash of red, and a flash of yellow. Soon three teens in armors appeared before them all, slashing away and fighting with the martial arts skills.
"Who are these guys?" Kento asked as he blocked an attack from a soldier.
"Who cares?" Sage replied as he slashed his nodatchi through the torso of another soldier. It crumbled before his feet and then vanished.
Ryo's katanas suddenly struck out at either side, decapitating two soldiers. Their heads fell to the ground, then vanished along with their bodies. He paid no attention to the three mysterious teenagers who had suddenly appeared and began to help them. He spun through the air, hacking his way through soldiers, blocking a blow, parrying, swinging his sword in a high circular arc and taking three more soldiers apart. He was worried about Cye and Kaye, who knew what happened to them, and what was happening to them now. For all he knew they could be...
˜No, Ryo!" he admonished himself. ˜Don't you dare start thinking that! They're alive!"
He continued to fight, wishing in vain they would just appear before them and help his anxiousness of worrying over them. He momentarily glanced over at Kento. So far he was holding up strong, but they all knew he was fighting to scream his head off. Kaye meant the world to him, and even more than that.
Rowen was still shooting his arrows off, deflecting attacks from soldiers who were further away. Once in a while he would glance at the newcomers. The one in the blue and white armor, a female, from what he could see, was as good as Ryo as she fought. She was taking down soldiers left and right, dodging attacks and taking them apart. Once she had been knocked down, but she was quickly back on her feet.
He felt a whiz rush by him and quickly retaliated by drawing the string back on his bow and releasing his arrow. The arrow went in a straight projectile and immediately struck the attacker's torso, piercing right through it. It tried to grab the arrow out, but failed to do so as it suddenly crumbled up and vanished.
The one in the red armor with the black designs, a male, fought valiantly and yet gracefully. He seemed to possess an inner strength the others did not have. How that could be explained was impossible as Rowen did not know him. His nodatchi spun through the air and he brought it down in a wide circular arc taking three soldiers down with it. One jumped on his back, but he quickly deflected it and threw it over his shoulder. It hit a tree and fell to the ground. Upon standing, Kento took its upper torso off with one swing of his nanjinta.
"Man! They just keep coming!" he grumbled.
"Yeah, and I think I know why," Ryo said as he continued to fight.
"Please enlighten us, leader," Kento said to him as he took another soldier apart. But he had a feeling he knew why.
Ryo bit his lip. He did not want to believe it, but there was no denying it. He looked Kento right in the eye and spoke firmly, yet softly. "They've been captured."
Kento's eyes lit up like fire. He knew that Ryo was right, and this fueled his strength. Whoever had captured them would get theirs. He would make sure of that. The fighting still continued on though. And if not for the help of the three mysterious strangers the Ronins would have had a much harder time. They could tell they had been trained well, with martial arts and the mastery of weaponry, but by who they did not know. And it did not matter. All they knew was that they had to win this battle, find out where Cye and Kaye were being held, and rescue them.
Then at long last, the fighting was over. Ryo, Rowen, Kento, Sage, and Mia all stood there facing the three fighters. White Blaze came to stand by Ryo's side, and he, too, stared at them. For a long time no one spoke. The silence in the air was almost deafening, but then at last Ryo broke it for them all.
"Who are you?"
The girl answered. "We're called the Warriors.. I'm Flash of the Firestarter, this is Thunder of the Storm, and Scorpio of the Current."
Sage's eyes lit up. "Wait, you three were in the park earlier!"
Scorpio nodded. "Yeah, we were there. We're sorry about your friends. Anything we can do to help?"
Mia spoke up. "Perhaps we better go back to the house. We can talk more there and find out what happened to Cye and Kaye."
They all agreed to that, and one by one they walked back to the house. As they were leaving, a figure stood hidden in the trees, watching them, particularly one. It was the last one that had to be captured in order to fulfill the prophecy. When they were out of sight, a cruel smile spread across his lips and he vanished into a cloud of black smoke.
At the house, the eight of them sat at a large table in Mia's dining room. Each of them had a cup of hot tea, except Flash who had told Mia she was allergic to it. So she had juice instead. At the moment they sat in silence, trying to get themselves cooled down and to think everything over. The house was tensed and seemed empty at the same time. Finally Mia was the first to speak.
"The one guy who attacked Cye and Kaye the first time, he called himself Jakada right?"
The Ronins nodded their heads. They were beginning to realize where she was getting at.
"That's right," Rowen said with a nod of his head. "I remember he had attacked them both just before we found out about Kaye's relation to Cye."
"Yeah, then when Cye takes their mom home after that, he comes up missing," Kento said. "And now Kaye is missing."
"So we know that Jakada has them both," Ryo said. "Question is where is he keeping them? Is he even from this realm?"
"None of us know, Ryo," Sage said with a shake of his head. "But my guess is, no, he's not from this realm."
Flash, Thunder, and Scorpio glanced at each other, then back at them. They really did want to help, and by doing so questions had to be asked and answered, no matter from which side.
"Okay, this Jakada person," Flash said, "what do you know of him?"
They all shook their heads.
"Nothing at all," Rowen admitted.
"Which really stinks, because he has my girlfriend and my best friend!" Kento bellowed angrily.
"That was your girlfriend?" Thunder asked him. That was the first time he had spoken in front of them all.
Kento nodded. "Yeah, she is. And I'm really worried about her."
Ryo looked at him. "Don't worry, Kento, we'll get her and Cye back. Whether we have to force our way through all of the realms. One way or another, we'll find them and rescue them."
Flash nodded her head. She knew how it felt to have people taken away, and have to worry about whether or not they were okay. She had been through it many, many times before. And she wanted to help in any way she could. "We'll help as well. In fact it would be our pleasure."
The Ronins and Mia looked over at her. They weren't sure if they could allow this. They didn't know how strong these three were exactly, and they couldn't afford to have anyone else hurt or captured.
However, they did not have much of a choice at the time. They would need all the help they could get.
"Would it be okay, if we tested your fighting abilities and attacks if you have any?" Ryo asked.
"Sure," they all replied in unison.
"In fact we can start right now," Scorpio said.
Sage nodded. He believed that was a good idea. So, they all stood up from the table and headed out the back door. Outside, it was now pretty dark with stars shining all over in the night sky. There was an eerie silence as if they were waiting for something.
Ryo looked toward the Warriors. There were three of them, and four Ronins. Okay, this might be a bit difficult, but certainly not impossible. "Okay, I'll go against Flash, Kento can go against Thunder, and Sage can go against Scorpio. Then after who ever is defeated, or whoever wins, Rowen will take that person next. Ok?"
The Ronins and Warriors nodded.
"Sounds good to me," Sage answered.
"Ditto," Kento nodded.
"Let's get started," Flash said.
Each of them got in their armors and gripped their weapons firmly in his or her hand. Mia, Rowen, and White Blaze stood off to the side, watching, waiting. And so it began.
Ryo and Flash were going head to head, neither one really outdoing the other, but neither one giving in to each other. Their strengths seemed to match, but there was something about her that seemed to intrigue him. It was as if he could feel another force inside her, something warm and comfortable, yet a compelling force. And he had a feeling there was more to her than what she was letting on.
Sage was impressed by Scorpio, but Scorpio was also impressed by Sage. The blond haired Ronin Warrior was far faster and stronger, and yet Scorpio was able to counterattack each time. Every time Sage swung his nodatchi at him, he ducked and retaliated back with his spearstaff. At one point he had even tripped Sage, but Sage had quickly gotten to his feet and swiped at him. He quickly dodged the attack, but nearly fell backward as Sage slashed at him again. Then he began to lunge back just as furiously.
Kento wasn't sure about Thunder at all. For one thing, the tall Warrior seemed to possess and inner strength that reminded him vaguely of Sage. He knew Kendo, and was using it on him, but with a touch of another martial artistic ability. He could tell he was very strong, but still he, Kento of Hardrock, had the advantage. They were surrounded by earth constantly, and he was strengthened by it, while wearing his armor. He swung his tetsubo around his head and aimed it for Thunder's. However Thunder blocked it with his nodatchi and then did a front snap kick suddenly to Kento's torso. The Ronin went tumbling back, but he was again on his feet. Using his tetsubo like a pole vault he flipped himself over Thunder and struck his back with it. Thunder gritted his teeth in pain. He would be feeling that later. He held back his tears, and turned around, raising his sword high, then releasing it sideways and swiping at Kento's mid-section, sending him flipping backward as well. But like Thunder, he was once again on his feet.
The six of them continued on, while the other three watched. Finally Sage had defeated Scorpio, and it was now Rowen's turn to go up against the smallest Warrior. At once Scorpio was amazed by Rowen's speed. He was a lot faster and more agile than Sage was. Although he didn't use his arrows on him, he did use his bow as a weapon and a defense against Scorpio's spearstaff. Rowen, too, was impressed by Scorpio's fighting skills. He seemed to be strong in his own natural way, but it was like he had been taught how to handle certain situations. He had quick thinking and quick reflexes. In the end neither one won, and neither lost. It was the same for all of them.
"I think," Ryo said as they all unarmored, "that we've found out just how good you guys are."
"You guys are pretty good yourselves," Flash told them.
"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Sage asked.
"We were trained by a Mystic known as Chinook," Thunder explained. "It's a really long story, but to make it short, he came from Japan, found eight of us, told us who we were, and began to train us. He taught us everything we know about fighting, our armors, our skills, and our enemy."
"He taught you pretty well, then," Rowen said with a nod of his head.
"Yeah, that was pretty amazing," Kento agreed.
"You guys, we should see about finding out where Cye and Kaye are," Mia said.
"Mia's right," Ryo said. "Let's go inside now."
They all went inside, one by one, each one thinking and wondering what would come next, and whether or not Kaye and Cye were all right, and whether they would ever be seen again.