Realm Remix
Chapter 6
"I can't believe she's been gone so long," Kento said as he stared at the sky. He was sitting on the back porch with his chin on his knees, his dark eyes full of concern.
"Well, they are out there in the whole wide universe," Rowen shrugged. He was sitting on the rail of the porch with a faraway look in his bright blue eyes. "They could be in another plane for all we know. They could be anywhere, lost in the infinite--"
"Oh, good, Rowen. Offer him words of comfort, why don't you," Cye deadpanned from the door. "Dinner's ready. Shrimp curry, Ken."
"Really!" Kento looked up hopefully, then his face fell. "I'm not eating with the Warlords."
"Oy," Rowen snorted.
"Oh come on, Kento," Cye pleaded in that way he had. "Be a sport. You can at least tolerate them."
"I can, but I'm not going to. What if Kaye comes back and she's hurt or something? I need to wait for her." Kento turned away and watched the sky. "Could you do me a favor and bring my dinner out here?"
"Cye's right, Ken." Rowen jumped off the rail and started towards the kitchen. "I'll save you some scraps if you're quick." Cye stood watching his friend for a moment before following him in.
Kento sighed as he sat there. From inside the kitchen he could hear Mia ordering people around and the clatter of pots and pans. He realized that he was being a little ridiculous, like a dog waiting pointlessly at the grave of its dead master. Kaye was so capable, she could take care of herself. He didn't need to wait for her to come home -- he knew she always would. He sighed. "What do I expect -- she'll just fall from the sky? I guess I am being kinda--"
"Waaah!" There was a sparkle of silvery light as a large glowing form dropped out of the sky and hit the lawn with a thud. The sparkles died down and resolved into three forms; only one was standing, supporting the other two. "Ow."
"-- People keep proving me wrong, you know that?!" Kento demanded of no one in particular. He jumped up and off the porch, skipping the steps entirely. He raced towards the standing figure on the lawn. "Kaye!"
Kaye blinked and smiled at him, shifting Tigermoon's dead weight a little. "Yeah, why, who else were you expecting?" she joked, supporting Kayura as the smaller woman started sinking to the ground.
Kayura opened one eye blearily as Kaye caught her again. "Note to self -- never transport from high places to low ones," she drawled tiredly. "We fell out of the bloody sky!"
"Yeah, I noticed," Kaye said dryly. "Kento, would you mind helping me out here?" She nodded to Tigermoon, still unconscious, and Kayura, who seemed to have fallen asleep. "I'm feeling the same way myself."
Kento nodded and picked up Kayura. For someone so small and thin-looking, she was actually quite heavy. She weighed almost as much as Cye. As if sensing his thoughts, she opened one eye again. "Muscle weighs more than fat. Put me down, Hardrock, I can walk just fine."
Kento shrugged. "Well, okay." He set her on her feet and she fell over. Kento and Kaye shared a raised-eyebrow look as they gathered up the fallen and started towards the house.
------
Mia had almost finished setting the table when Kento burst in. "Wipe your feet," she stated automatically without looking up. When she did look up, her eyes widened. "Oh, my goodness! Get them on the couches," Mia commanded, dropping the rest of the silverware with a loud clatter. "Sage, come in here!"
"What's going on?" Dais asked in his usual monotone, looking in from the kitchen.
"I have no earthly idea, but Tigermoon and Kayura are hurt," Kaye answered as she followed Kento in. She didn't look in the best of shape either, but she had a triumphant grin on her face. "We got Tigermoon, and we got the staff. A lot of other stuff happened, too."
As soon as he heard that Kayura was hurt, Sekhmet came bolting in from wherever he had been. Unlike the Ronins and their ceremonious movements, he slid into his subarmor without seeming to think about it. The next thing Kento knew, Kayura was out of his arms and into Sekhmet's, a deep green light surrounding both of them.
"He can heal?" Sage demanded of the room in general as he walked in, wearing his subarmor. "Why didn't anybody tell me?"
"You never asked," Kaye said absently, slinging Tigermoon's arms off her shoulders and setting the small girl on the couch. Sage rounded on her. "What, you knew?"
"Of course I knew, soon as he walked in the room," Kaye replied off-handedly. She carefully unpried Tigermoon's fingers from their death grip on the Ancient's staff. The staff was cool now, but oddly not as cold as it had been.
"And here I've been doing all the work," Sage growled as he knelt down next to her. "What happened to you guys? You're covered in dirt."
"Oh, I was kneeling in some dirt when we were looking for tracks." Kaye rubbed her jaw and her hand came away with a little mud on it. "That must have happened when the cliff collapsed."
"Cliff?" Ryo had entered the living room and was staring at her blankly.
"Yes, we were fighting this thing, and then --" Kaye stopped when she realized that she wasn't going to make any kind of sense. "Look, I'll tell you later. Let's just take care of these two." She frowned and sniffed. "Is Mia cooking shrimp curry?"
"Yes, she was," Ryo said as he turned around, "But..."
"But?" Mia asked as she walked back in with a pot of tea.
"But... it's gone." Ryo offered her a sheepish smile as he pointed to the dining room table. There was an empty serving dish in the middle of it that seemed to have been licked clean. Oddly enough, the table seemed to have sprouted a long black-and-white-striped tail that stuck out from underneath it.
"That... TIGER!" Mia shouted as she ran into the dining room. She lifted the tablecloth, and there was White Blaze, licking his chops. "Ryo, get this beast out of here. I've had enough."
"Yes, Mia," he said meekly as he dragged the tiger outside. Mia stalked into the kitchen. Those in the living room could hear her ordering her kitchen crew -- Cye and Dais, the only ones who could be trusted not to explode anything -- to start making sandwiches.
Sage gently let go of Tigermoon and reached out to Kaye. "Sage, I'm fine," she protested as he put his hand on her forehead.
"No, you're not, you've got some scrapes and bruises. Hold still."
"I'm not hurt, what I really need is to clean up." Kaye brushed his hand away, rocked to her feet, and jogged to her bedroom.
Sekhmet set Kayura down as she started to wake up. He wandered over to Tigermoon and looked her over. "What's this?" he asked, pulling a small black feather from her clothing. Sage shrugged. "I don't know, I haven't even been introduced to her." He set the feather on the windowsill and stood up. "Kayura all right?"
"I'm fine," Kayura said.
"Yeah, sure," Kento said from his chair, where he had been sitting quietly. "Last time you said that, you fell over unconscious."
She gave him a look that a harpy would have envied.
----------------
Between Earth and the Netherworld is a small buffer realm, an in-between area with no natural inhabitants or life of its own. Usually, there was no living creature within its tiny sphere of existence. It was like a bridge between two countries. People live in the countries, but they don't live on the bridge. Centuries could pass with no being passing through it. It was a lonely place, but a safe one.
Talpa had once made use of the realm. The demon had stripped whatever power the realm had to make use of for himself, drawing on the energy of the land to power his conquests. He had forgotten it as soon as it was no longer useful for him.
Now, for the past few weeks, the forgotten realm was seeing more changes than it probably ever had in its whole existence. The tattered shreds of its energy networks were slowly pulling together.
In that buffer zone, a lone figure sat in a lonelier marsh. It reached forward and touched the surface of the still water. It swirled with a blue color, as if it was reflecting Earth's blue sky. Then it cleared to reveal the inside of someone's living room. A small, wiry-looking girl lay sleeping on a couch. Her dark brown and purple hair spread out around her.
"She doesn't have the staff. What happened?" the person demanded angrily. They watched the girl for another minute. "Fine. I'll just deal with this myself."
-----------------
Tigermoon groaned as she sat up. "Whoa... um, ow."
"Ow? That was it?" a voice asked her. "No sarcastic comment?"
She crossed her eyes in an attempt to focus on the person who was speaking. "There must be something wrong with my vision," she said finally, "I could have sworn that your hair is blue."
Rowen huffed and sat back down. He shrugged at Cye, who was sitting next to him. "I can't communicate with it. You try."
Cye offered her a sandwich. Tigermoon looked at it, then at him."I beg your pardon. What in the nine hells is that?"
"Peanut butter and lettuce," Cye said apologetically. "Our tiger ate all the groceries."
She gave him a long slow look. Taking the sandwich, she examined it minutely. "What do you do with it?"
"Eat it."
Tigermoon stared at Rowen, as if he had just told her to eat a dead weasel. "No, thank you. I rather like living."
"It's actually not that bad," Kento announced. Tigermoon looked around. The Nine armor bearers, Kayura, the blonde woman, and an auburn-haired woman with an air of authority were all seated around the room. There really was no point in running. Resigning herself to her fate, she handed the sandwich to Kento. "All yours."
"I didn't say I wanted it."
"I'll eat it," Cale announced. Sekhmet grabbed a pillow and hit him with it.
Kaye sighed and helped herself to some more tea. "All right, guys, calm down. We really should introduce ourselves."
Turning to Tigermoon, she said, "My name is Kaye. I think you already know the Warlords and Kayura. These are the Ronin Warriors -- Kento, Sage, Cye, Rowen and Ryo. This is my friend Mia, she owns the house. We already know your name."
"Oh." Tigermoon couldn't really think of anything else to say. "Um. What do you people do for a killer headache?"
"Aspirin." Mia, who always seemed to know what everyone needed, handed her some, and a glass of water. Tigermoon downed them obediently. "Thanks." She leaned her head back, her eyes starting to close again.
Mia glanced out the window. It's getting dark, she realized. Where is everyone going to stay? Biting her lip, she started planning. "Kaye, would you mind sharing your room with Kayura and Tigermoon...?
--------
That night, Tigermoon awoke with a start. She had another start when she didn't recognize her surroundings. She was on a bed, in a room she couldn't remember seeing before. Her breath choked in her throat -- not another nightmare!
Then she heard someone sigh beside her, and she looked down to see a young woman in a sleeping bag. Kaye used her arm as a pillow and a few strands of blond hair were spread across her face. Her face was serene in a broad beam of moonlight that spread across the room. Seeing someone sleeping so peacefully gave Tigermoon a grounding in reality that she really needed.
A rustle at the foot of the bed proved to be Kayura, who was clutching what looked like a very moth-eaten teddy bear. She, too, looked peaceful-- like a very little girl instead of... well, like Kayura.
Tigermoon kicked off the covers and slid carefully off the bed. She wanted to get some air. Thankfully, she could see very well in the dark. Blowing a streaked strand of hair out of her face, she reached for the window and stopped cold.
She saw something out there...
Kaye snapped awake to the sound of shattering glass.
Chapter 6
"I can't believe she's been gone so long," Kento said as he stared at the sky. He was sitting on the back porch with his chin on his knees, his dark eyes full of concern.
"Well, they are out there in the whole wide universe," Rowen shrugged. He was sitting on the rail of the porch with a faraway look in his bright blue eyes. "They could be in another plane for all we know. They could be anywhere, lost in the infinite--"
"Oh, good, Rowen. Offer him words of comfort, why don't you," Cye deadpanned from the door. "Dinner's ready. Shrimp curry, Ken."
"Really!" Kento looked up hopefully, then his face fell. "I'm not eating with the Warlords."
"Oy," Rowen snorted.
"Oh come on, Kento," Cye pleaded in that way he had. "Be a sport. You can at least tolerate them."
"I can, but I'm not going to. What if Kaye comes back and she's hurt or something? I need to wait for her." Kento turned away and watched the sky. "Could you do me a favor and bring my dinner out here?"
"Cye's right, Ken." Rowen jumped off the rail and started towards the kitchen. "I'll save you some scraps if you're quick." Cye stood watching his friend for a moment before following him in.
Kento sighed as he sat there. From inside the kitchen he could hear Mia ordering people around and the clatter of pots and pans. He realized that he was being a little ridiculous, like a dog waiting pointlessly at the grave of its dead master. Kaye was so capable, she could take care of herself. He didn't need to wait for her to come home -- he knew she always would. He sighed. "What do I expect -- she'll just fall from the sky? I guess I am being kinda--"
"Waaah!" There was a sparkle of silvery light as a large glowing form dropped out of the sky and hit the lawn with a thud. The sparkles died down and resolved into three forms; only one was standing, supporting the other two. "Ow."
"-- People keep proving me wrong, you know that?!" Kento demanded of no one in particular. He jumped up and off the porch, skipping the steps entirely. He raced towards the standing figure on the lawn. "Kaye!"
Kaye blinked and smiled at him, shifting Tigermoon's dead weight a little. "Yeah, why, who else were you expecting?" she joked, supporting Kayura as the smaller woman started sinking to the ground.
Kayura opened one eye blearily as Kaye caught her again. "Note to self -- never transport from high places to low ones," she drawled tiredly. "We fell out of the bloody sky!"
"Yeah, I noticed," Kaye said dryly. "Kento, would you mind helping me out here?" She nodded to Tigermoon, still unconscious, and Kayura, who seemed to have fallen asleep. "I'm feeling the same way myself."
Kento nodded and picked up Kayura. For someone so small and thin-looking, she was actually quite heavy. She weighed almost as much as Cye. As if sensing his thoughts, she opened one eye again. "Muscle weighs more than fat. Put me down, Hardrock, I can walk just fine."
Kento shrugged. "Well, okay." He set her on her feet and she fell over. Kento and Kaye shared a raised-eyebrow look as they gathered up the fallen and started towards the house.
------
Mia had almost finished setting the table when Kento burst in. "Wipe your feet," she stated automatically without looking up. When she did look up, her eyes widened. "Oh, my goodness! Get them on the couches," Mia commanded, dropping the rest of the silverware with a loud clatter. "Sage, come in here!"
"What's going on?" Dais asked in his usual monotone, looking in from the kitchen.
"I have no earthly idea, but Tigermoon and Kayura are hurt," Kaye answered as she followed Kento in. She didn't look in the best of shape either, but she had a triumphant grin on her face. "We got Tigermoon, and we got the staff. A lot of other stuff happened, too."
As soon as he heard that Kayura was hurt, Sekhmet came bolting in from wherever he had been. Unlike the Ronins and their ceremonious movements, he slid into his subarmor without seeming to think about it. The next thing Kento knew, Kayura was out of his arms and into Sekhmet's, a deep green light surrounding both of them.
"He can heal?" Sage demanded of the room in general as he walked in, wearing his subarmor. "Why didn't anybody tell me?"
"You never asked," Kaye said absently, slinging Tigermoon's arms off her shoulders and setting the small girl on the couch. Sage rounded on her. "What, you knew?"
"Of course I knew, soon as he walked in the room," Kaye replied off-handedly. She carefully unpried Tigermoon's fingers from their death grip on the Ancient's staff. The staff was cool now, but oddly not as cold as it had been.
"And here I've been doing all the work," Sage growled as he knelt down next to her. "What happened to you guys? You're covered in dirt."
"Oh, I was kneeling in some dirt when we were looking for tracks." Kaye rubbed her jaw and her hand came away with a little mud on it. "That must have happened when the cliff collapsed."
"Cliff?" Ryo had entered the living room and was staring at her blankly.
"Yes, we were fighting this thing, and then --" Kaye stopped when she realized that she wasn't going to make any kind of sense. "Look, I'll tell you later. Let's just take care of these two." She frowned and sniffed. "Is Mia cooking shrimp curry?"
"Yes, she was," Ryo said as he turned around, "But..."
"But?" Mia asked as she walked back in with a pot of tea.
"But... it's gone." Ryo offered her a sheepish smile as he pointed to the dining room table. There was an empty serving dish in the middle of it that seemed to have been licked clean. Oddly enough, the table seemed to have sprouted a long black-and-white-striped tail that stuck out from underneath it.
"That... TIGER!" Mia shouted as she ran into the dining room. She lifted the tablecloth, and there was White Blaze, licking his chops. "Ryo, get this beast out of here. I've had enough."
"Yes, Mia," he said meekly as he dragged the tiger outside. Mia stalked into the kitchen. Those in the living room could hear her ordering her kitchen crew -- Cye and Dais, the only ones who could be trusted not to explode anything -- to start making sandwiches.
Sage gently let go of Tigermoon and reached out to Kaye. "Sage, I'm fine," she protested as he put his hand on her forehead.
"No, you're not, you've got some scrapes and bruises. Hold still."
"I'm not hurt, what I really need is to clean up." Kaye brushed his hand away, rocked to her feet, and jogged to her bedroom.
Sekhmet set Kayura down as she started to wake up. He wandered over to Tigermoon and looked her over. "What's this?" he asked, pulling a small black feather from her clothing. Sage shrugged. "I don't know, I haven't even been introduced to her." He set the feather on the windowsill and stood up. "Kayura all right?"
"I'm fine," Kayura said.
"Yeah, sure," Kento said from his chair, where he had been sitting quietly. "Last time you said that, you fell over unconscious."
She gave him a look that a harpy would have envied.
----------------
Between Earth and the Netherworld is a small buffer realm, an in-between area with no natural inhabitants or life of its own. Usually, there was no living creature within its tiny sphere of existence. It was like a bridge between two countries. People live in the countries, but they don't live on the bridge. Centuries could pass with no being passing through it. It was a lonely place, but a safe one.
Talpa had once made use of the realm. The demon had stripped whatever power the realm had to make use of for himself, drawing on the energy of the land to power his conquests. He had forgotten it as soon as it was no longer useful for him.
Now, for the past few weeks, the forgotten realm was seeing more changes than it probably ever had in its whole existence. The tattered shreds of its energy networks were slowly pulling together.
In that buffer zone, a lone figure sat in a lonelier marsh. It reached forward and touched the surface of the still water. It swirled with a blue color, as if it was reflecting Earth's blue sky. Then it cleared to reveal the inside of someone's living room. A small, wiry-looking girl lay sleeping on a couch. Her dark brown and purple hair spread out around her.
"She doesn't have the staff. What happened?" the person demanded angrily. They watched the girl for another minute. "Fine. I'll just deal with this myself."
-----------------
Tigermoon groaned as she sat up. "Whoa... um, ow."
"Ow? That was it?" a voice asked her. "No sarcastic comment?"
She crossed her eyes in an attempt to focus on the person who was speaking. "There must be something wrong with my vision," she said finally, "I could have sworn that your hair is blue."
Rowen huffed and sat back down. He shrugged at Cye, who was sitting next to him. "I can't communicate with it. You try."
Cye offered her a sandwich. Tigermoon looked at it, then at him."I beg your pardon. What in the nine hells is that?"
"Peanut butter and lettuce," Cye said apologetically. "Our tiger ate all the groceries."
She gave him a long slow look. Taking the sandwich, she examined it minutely. "What do you do with it?"
"Eat it."
Tigermoon stared at Rowen, as if he had just told her to eat a dead weasel. "No, thank you. I rather like living."
"It's actually not that bad," Kento announced. Tigermoon looked around. The Nine armor bearers, Kayura, the blonde woman, and an auburn-haired woman with an air of authority were all seated around the room. There really was no point in running. Resigning herself to her fate, she handed the sandwich to Kento. "All yours."
"I didn't say I wanted it."
"I'll eat it," Cale announced. Sekhmet grabbed a pillow and hit him with it.
Kaye sighed and helped herself to some more tea. "All right, guys, calm down. We really should introduce ourselves."
Turning to Tigermoon, she said, "My name is Kaye. I think you already know the Warlords and Kayura. These are the Ronin Warriors -- Kento, Sage, Cye, Rowen and Ryo. This is my friend Mia, she owns the house. We already know your name."
"Oh." Tigermoon couldn't really think of anything else to say. "Um. What do you people do for a killer headache?"
"Aspirin." Mia, who always seemed to know what everyone needed, handed her some, and a glass of water. Tigermoon downed them obediently. "Thanks." She leaned her head back, her eyes starting to close again.
Mia glanced out the window. It's getting dark, she realized. Where is everyone going to stay? Biting her lip, she started planning. "Kaye, would you mind sharing your room with Kayura and Tigermoon...?
--------
That night, Tigermoon awoke with a start. She had another start when she didn't recognize her surroundings. She was on a bed, in a room she couldn't remember seeing before. Her breath choked in her throat -- not another nightmare!
Then she heard someone sigh beside her, and she looked down to see a young woman in a sleeping bag. Kaye used her arm as a pillow and a few strands of blond hair were spread across her face. Her face was serene in a broad beam of moonlight that spread across the room. Seeing someone sleeping so peacefully gave Tigermoon a grounding in reality that she really needed.
A rustle at the foot of the bed proved to be Kayura, who was clutching what looked like a very moth-eaten teddy bear. She, too, looked peaceful-- like a very little girl instead of... well, like Kayura.
Tigermoon kicked off the covers and slid carefully off the bed. She wanted to get some air. Thankfully, she could see very well in the dark. Blowing a streaked strand of hair out of her face, she reached for the window and stopped cold.
She saw something out there...
Kaye snapped awake to the sound of shattering glass.