"Wait, let me get this straight...you're saying that the storm was out to get you?" Rowen repeated.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Ryo almost shouted, exasperated.
He lay on the couch in the living room, an ice pack on his knee where he had bruised it in the fall and a pillow under his aching back. The other Ronins and Mia were scattered around the room, having just heard Ryo explain again how he came to be found unconscious on the kitchen floor just a half hour ago.
"Calm down, Ryo." Sage said calmly. "We're just trying to get all the facts straight."
Ryo winced as he sat up, ignoring Cye's hands, trying to push him back down on the couch.
"Look." Ryo growled. "There was definitely something sinister about that thunderstorm. The lightning almost hit me four times. Tell me that's not a coincidence."
"Well..." Rowen muttered. It just didn't make sense, why would the lightning be aiming for Ryo?
"Maybe it wasn't aiming at you." Kento said suddenly as if he had heard Rowen's thoughts. "Maybe you were attracting it."
"Attracting it? How could I be attracting it?" Ryo asked, thoughtfully.
"Your armor?" Cye put in quietly. He didn't like this. The air didn't smell right. Usually after a storm the air smelled fresh and clean, like everything was washed away in the rain. But for some reason, this storm had been different. It didn't smell fresh and clean, it smelled musty and metallic, like energy lingering somewhere in the air.
"That's possible, but our armors have never attracted lightning before." Sage said.
"True. You guys didn't notice anything unusual about that storm?" Ryo asked.
All the Ronins shook their heads 'no'.
The evening had been going quietly enough. After diner Ryo had headed outside while Cye and Kento hooked up the Play Station Two. Sage had gone to meditate and Rowen to his room t study. Later, when Rowen went down to get a glass of water he had found Ryo laying unconscious on the kitchen floor, White Blaze laying nearby and had called the other Ronins. Bringing them to the present scene.
"Well, we can think about this more in the morning." Mia said, standing up and stretching her legs. "For now, I think that we should all try to get some sleep, especially you, Ryo." She looked pointedly at the young man sitting on the couch.
"I agree. Let's get some sleep and think abut this more in the morning. I don't know about you guys, but I have an 8:00 class tomorrow at the university and I'm tired already." Cye yawned, sleepily.
"Ugh, don't remind me." Rowen groaned.
"Rowen, I thought you like your classes?" Kento said, slightly shocked that the genius was complaining about school.
"It's not the classes, it's the fact that my first class is at 9:30 in the morning." Rowen said, making a face.
"Well, maybe if you went to bed at a decent hour, it wouldn't be so hard for you to get up in the morning." Mia grinned.
Rowen stuck his tongue out at her and stalked off up the stairs to his and Sages' room. Mia and Cye followed soon after and Kento helped Ryo up the stairs.
Sage watched them go silently before turning to the dark window and looking out at the clouds still littering the night sky, not allowing any of the stars to shine their brilliance on the earth. The wind howled ominously and Sage shivered at the sound.
Shaking off the creepy feeling he had just gotten, he turned and slowly ascended the stairs towards his room, not noticing the dark figure that watched him from the tree line of the woods.
"I'm going to be late!" Rowen cried as he ran full tilt down the hallway of the university's main building.
He had accidentally fallen asleep while studying in the library and was now sprinting down the hallway in an attempt to make it to his last class of the day on time. Book bag swinging precariously and loose papers flying, Rowen ran to the end of the hallway, glancing at the clock on the wall long enough to see that he had two minutes left before his professor shut the door and he missed his class.
Turning a corner sharply, he slammed into another figure, walking quickly in the other direction. With a cry, Rowen and the other person went down in a tangle of arms, legs, textbooks and papers.
Groaning, Rowen rolled over onto his back, blinking up at the light fixtures on the ceiling, watching as a few more papers glided gently down to the ground.
"Hey, are you all right?" A voice asked.
Rowen sat up stiffly and regarded the black haired boy kneeling on the ground next to him.
"Yeah." He said, slowly rising to his feet. "Are you okay?"
"Me? Yeah, I'm fine, why do you ask?" The boy asked, helping Rowen pick up his papers and books.
Rowen blinked at the boy. "Well, generally when two people collide and fall on the ground, neither one is feeling too good afterwards. Look, sorry I ran into you like that, I was in a hurry and I guess I wasn't watching where I was going." Rowen said.
"We didn't run into each other." The boy said, handing Rowen his papers. "I was on my way to the water fountain down the hall there," The boy pointed to the water fountain at the other end of the hall. "and I saw you laying here, so I came to see if you were all right."
Rowen stared at the boy. "I...I didn't run into you?"
"Nope, I just found you laying here like this." The black haired boy smiled at Rowen and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. "Look, you took a nasty fall, are you sure you're going to be all right?"
Rowen stared at him for a moment before the question registered in his mind and he answered. "Yeah...yeah I'll be fine."
"Alright, if you're sure. By the way, my name's Hajime." He said, extending a hand to Rowen.
Rowen took the proffered hand with a small grin. "Hajime...I'm Rowen. Pleasure to meet you. And thanks."
"Anytime, Rowen." Hajime answered, turning and walking back down the hallway.
Rowen watched him walk away until he turned a corner and was out of sight, confusion riddling his mind.
"Okay, that was weird." Rowen said to himself.
With a sigh, he looked at his watch. 11:15. Great. He had missed his class.
Groaning, he trudged back the way he came, exiting the building and walking out towards his car. Shoving his book bag and papers in the back of his car, Rowen jumped in and started up the engine. Pulling out of the university parking lot, Rowen headed towards the mansion, still thinking about Hajime.
Kento laughed heartily as he watched Ryo trying to give White Blaze a bath. The bearer of the Wildfire armor was soaking wet, his T-shirt clinging to him as he sat in the puddle of water mixed with soap suds and mud that had been created in the yard. White Blaze stood a few feet off to the side, calmly licking his paws and completely dry.
"Ryo, man, just give it up." Kento said through his laughter.
Ryo pouted and crossed his arms, glaring at the tiger.
"Kento! Ryo!" Cye called from the porch. "Lunch is ready!"
Ryo grudgingly got up and followed Kento inside, shooting one last glare in the smirking tigers' direction.
"Good heavens Ryo!" Cye exclaimed. "What happened to you?"
"Nothing." Ryo growled, stomping up the stairs to change while Kento laughed and filled Cye in.
A few minutes later, Ryo came down the stairs again, in dry clothes and with his hair fluffed up and only slightly damp, evidence of his attempt at drying it.
"Ryo," Cye said. "If Mia finds out you've been using her hair dryer again, she's going to have a conniption."
Kento laughed outright and Ryo paled a bit.
"Please don't tell her!" Ryo begged, making puppy eyes at the warrior of Torrent.
Cye laughed, "I wasn't going to. Now, eat up."
Cye sat at the table and joined Kento and Ryo in eating. Silence filled the room as the occupants ate Cye's good cooking.
"Hey, where are Mia and Sage?" Ryo asked, suddenly. He knew Rowen had a class at 11:00 but usually Mia and Sage were home early enough to eat with them.
"Oh, Mia called from the university, something about doing some extra research and Sage went to the mall to pick up a few things he needed." Cye answered.
Ryo was about to reply when they heard the front door slam.
"Then, again, maybe not." Cye said.
But neither Sage nore Mia entered the kitchen, instead a tired looking warrior of Strata graced the little assembly with his presence.
"Oh, no, Rowen. You didn't miss class, AGAIN." Cye said, his tone gently scolding.
Rowen nodded and sat down at the table, helping himself to some of Cye's cooking.
"Geez, man, you're gonna get dropped soon if you keep missing classes like this." Kento warned, though a glint of mischief shone in his eyes.
"Mph mmm pht." Rowen replied, his mouth full.
"What was that, Ro? We couldn't quiet hear you over the food in your mouth.": Ryo said, snickering slightly.
Rowen glared at Ryo and swallowed.
"I said, it wasn't my fault."
"What do you mean it wasn't you're fault?" Cye asked, curiously.
Rowen filled them in on the events of the morning, from the time when he fell asleep in the library to the present.
"Well, that's bizarre." Ryo said.
"Yeah. Anyway, that's why I didn't go to class. Hey, where are Sage and Mia?" Rowen asked, noticing that the table was empty in two places.
Cye told him where they were and the group fell silent again.
Soon they finished the meal and Kento stayed behind to help Cye with the dishes. Ryo went out back to try and coax White Blaze into a bath again, and Rowen decided to go for a walk.
Rowen sighed in pleasure as he walked slowly down the path in the woods. The birds were singing, the sun was shining and all was right with the world. All was right, except, of course, for the odd circumstances that had been plaguing himself and his friends the last two days.
Rowen frowned as his thoughts turned to the storm from the other night and Ryo's apparent brush with death.
'Ryo said that the storm seemed unnaturally violent. Like it was angry. Then there was the instance with the lightning. Four times it nearly struck him. That can't be a coincidence. But was the lightning aiming for him or was his armor somehow attracting it?' Rowen thought to himself as he wandered deeper into the woods.
'Then there's that mysterious thing that saved him.'
The mysterious figure that Ryo said had protected him from the lightning had been dismissed by the Ryo and the other Ronins as a figment of Ryo's imagination.
'But what if it had been real? What if something really had protected Ryo from the lightning?' Rowen thought. 'Let's see...Ryo said that it seemed to appear out of no where...nothing as large as what he described could have gotten to him that quickly unless it either, teleported, flew or was really fast. Well ,being fast seems to be out of the picture. Nothing as large as what he described could move that fast. I doubt it could fly either. Teleportation? Maybe.'
Rowen rambled on and on in his mind as he wandered further and further into the forest, trying to come up with an explanation for the mysterious form.
'Maybe it was just a figment of his imagination.' Rowen thought was a sigh. Noting made any sense.
Suddenly, Rowen felt a chill in the air. He shivered slightly and looked around himself. He had wandered a far distance from the mansion, almost to the highway that ran parallel with the forest on the other side. He looked down at his watch. 3:10. He had been walking for hours.
'Had it really been that long?' Rowen thought, distantly.
Suddenly, he realized something.
The forest was completely silent.
The birds were no longer singing softly from the trees, and the wind had picked up dramatically, tossing his azure locks around haphazardly. He looked up to the sky and frowned at the gray clouds covering the sun's light and causing a chill in the air. Dark shadows danced around the trees and Rowen turned back the way he had come, walking purposefully towards the mansion he knew lay in the distance.
Suddenly, a great rumbling sounds echoed through the forest, birds took flight from their nests in the nearby trees as the ground began to shake. Rowen shouted in alarm as he lost his footing on the shaking ground, the earth turning up in great rolling waves that uprooted trees and rocks in the once peaceful forest. Rowen heard the sound of trees snapping and falling to the shaking earth as he tried to regain his footing on the unstable earth.
Reaching into his pocket for his armor orb, Rowen intended to leave the forest and fly above the chaos, but a particularly violent wave struck the surprised Ronin and he fell, the orb slipping from his fingers and rolling away down a small hill.
Rowen's eyes widened in alarm as a cracking, groaning sound erupted off to his left. Looking up, he saw the figure of a great oak, nearly fifty feet high and as broad as a car tilt under the shifting earth and begin to fall, directly upon the startle Ronin.
Rowen watched, unable to move as the towering oak fell towards him, promising death with it's crushing weight.
Rowen opened his mouth to scream when he saw a flash of something out of the corner of his eye, just a moment before he was pushed out of the way of the tree. Rolling down a small hill he landed on his back, breathing heavily as he realized that he had just cheated death.
The ground stopped shaking and the forest stilled, as Rowen lay there, trying to catch his breath and calm his racing heart. Seeing his armor orb nearby, nestled in a small patch of grass, Rowen grabbed it and stumbled upright, swaying slightly as he tried to keep his balance.
Shaking his head to dispel the nausea rising up from his stomach, Rowen scrambled back up the hill, with one thought in mind.
'Someone pushed me out of the way.'
Reaching the top, Rowen gasped at what he saw. The great oak had indeed fall directly where he had been, but instead of his broken body beneath its weight, there lay another.