Chapter 4
Rona Hashiba rolled her purple-blue eyes to the sky while she mentally cursed the day her cousin had been born. Heather, herself, and Rylea were supposed to all meet up at the food court in the Toyama mall before then going off to help Heather 'shop'. Well wonders never ceaseRylea hadn't shown up and now here was Rona, stuck with the preppy blond while she shopped. "I'm going to kill her, I swear I am," Rona grumbled to herself from behind gritted teeth, "She'd better have one heck of an explanation."
"What do you think of this, Rona?" Heather asked for about the hundredth time that day.
Rona looked over at the trendy top she was holding up. It was something she didn't like, but to be nice forced a smile anyway and a nod, "It's nice Heather." The blond smiled, seeming to have liked the response she had gotten from the royal-blue-haired girl.
After what seemed like an eternity, Heather had finally concluded her shopping for the day, walking out of the store at least ten pounds heavier than when she had gone in. Rona sighed in annoyance and began to walk ahead of the blond but, before Rona could get too far ahead of her, she suddenly found herself coming in contact with the floor. A searing pain racked her body and she let out a cry of agony. Heather ran over to her, checking to make sure she was ok. "Hey, you ok?" she asked her friend.
"Yeah," Rona replied weakly, "I'm fine."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to run into you like that," Rona heard a male's voice she didn't recognize ask her. She looked up to find a very handsome guy who looked to be about her age or not that much older with steely blue eyes and a very weird dingy blond hairstyle gazing down at her with a frown pinching at his forehead. Rona blinked a few times to make sure that she wasn't seeing things when the man was still there she knew he was real.
"It's ok, no harm done," she replied with a nervous smile to him.
"Good, here let me help you up," the man said and offered his hand to her.
Rona took his hand, blushing slightly and allowed him to help her up. An electric shock ran through her hand and up her arm when she touched his skin a shock that made her think twice about who this guy was. She let go of his hand immediately after she was on her feet again and rubbed the hand against the side of her leg trying to get rid of the tingling feeling that was still there.
Heather took one look at the young blond male in front of them and instantly let her flirting skills take over. "Hi," she said with a flirty smile and tossed her soft golden blond hair over her shoulder, "I don't believe I've seen the likes of you around here before. What's your name?"
The blond man looked over at her and smiled briefly. "Tadin," he replied.
"Well, Tadin, I'm Date Heather and this is," she told him and then pointed to Rona, "Hashiba Rona."
"Konnichiwa," Rona said politely to him, still uncertain as to if he was human or if it had been a static shock she had gotten from him.
"So, what school do you go to? Do you live around here?" Heather asked him, now in full out flirt mode.
Tadin smiled at her, he sensed some kind of power from these two girls and decided it might be best to stick around them. "I'm not sure yet," he replied with an easy smile towards Heather, "I just moved here."
"Oh," Heather said and lifted one blond eyebrow at him. "Well my friend and I go to Han'a JuniorHigh. You might want to check it out," she added with a wink at him.
"I think I just might have to do that," Tadin replied while keeping that same cool smile on his face. This girl was trying to playfully flirt with him, but was coming off as way too desperate anyway and he found it funny in some way.
"Yes, well, we must be going now. It was nice to meet you, Tadin. Hope to see you around some time. Ja ne!" Rona hurriedly got out in a rush as she began to push her friend away from the guy.
Heather protested loudly against being pushed away, "Rona, what is your problem?"
"We need to get going. Remember we have that thing to do?" Rona implied to her while narrowing her purple-blue eyes at the blond.
"What thing? What are you talking about?" Heather asked, thoroughly annoyed now by her.
"Just come on!" Rona shouted and dragged the still protesting Heather along behind her.
Tadin smiled more as he watched the taller, blue haired girl drag the shorter, blond haired girl away in a hurried fashion. "I'll definitely be seeing you girls later," he said with a sly smirk and then disappeared into a shimmer of air from the hall in the mall.
-
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
A tanned arm came out from under the covers before the hand then crashed down on the chirping alarm clock. When the beeping didn't stop, a sleepy head then popped out and glared at the alarm clock before the hand once again came crashing down on the thing until it had stopped chirping its psychotic melody. With the room now back in tranquil silence, the girl covered her head up and rolled over to her side to once again fall back to sleep. A knock came at her door, but she ignored it hoping that whoever it was would get the hint and go away. Instead, the person did the exact opposite and came in.
Ryo popped his head into the room. Seeing that his daughter was still in bed, he then opened the door fully to walk in. The first thing he noticed as he walked into the room was the now destroyed alarm clock that sat on her nightstand, blinking a steady 12:00 in defeat. Ryo chuckled to himself as he shook his head. Third one this week. I've got to get the ones that are made from heavy duty metal or something, he thought to himself wryly. "Lea, Jouchan, you have to get up," he said as he cautiously walked over to her bed, careful as to not trip over the clothes and various other items that littered her bedroom floor.
A groan came from under the covers and he knew she was at least somewhat awake. "Come on Lea, get up sweetie. Save me from having to carry you into the bathroom again," Ryo pleaded with his temperamental daughter, shaking her gently as he did so to try and bring her back to the land of the living.
Rylea whined and tried to bat him away tiredly from under the covers. "Leaf me lone," she slurred out sleepily.
Ryo frowned and shook her again, "Come on, get up."
Rylea growled and threw the covers from over her head while trying to focus her eyes into a glare at her stunned father. "Just leave me alone!" she yelled at him in a mad furry.
Ryo eyed his daughter while a frown creased his forehead. "Rylea..." was all he could manage to say to her. He stared at the girl in front of him, the girl who was now looking like she could and would like to kill him. Looking now directly into Rylea's china blue eyes, Ryo could have sworn he saw something there. Something dark and evil something pacing, longing to get out. A cold chill ran down his spine the more he looked into her eyes, but that something was gone when she blinked. Now all he could see was the same vivid blue eyes he'd looked into for the last fifteen years. Whatever he had seen was gone, masked behind her bright blue eyes once again.
Rylea sighed and shakily ran a hand through her messy dark brown-black hair. What is wrong with me? She asked her self. "Gomen ne, Otousan," Rylea said quietly, refusing to look at him now. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you like that."
Ryo didn't know what to say. His mind was still reeling over what he had seen and felt just a moment ago. What was that? Am I seeing things now? Am I going crazy? Blinking to clear his thoughts, he forced a smile at Rylea and acted like it was no big deal. "It's ok, Lea. We all know you're not a morning person," he replied and patted her knee softly as he got up to leave the room.
Rylea stared at her father's back as he walked for her door. She was now worried about him; he was acting strange and she had thought she'd heard his thoughts not liking what she had heard from him. "Dad?" she waited for him to 'hm' her and turn around before she continued, "Are you ok?"
Ryo gave her a genuine smile to reassure her that he was just fine. "Hai, I'm fine, Lea," he answered and then turned back to the door. "You'd better get up or you're going to be late though," he finished before then leaving the room.
Rylea sighed; she knew he wasn't. The way he forced his smile and talked to her gave that away. What did you see that got you so upset, Dad? What is going on with me? She sighed again before deciding to get up to get dressed. Her father had a point: she was going to be late, yet again, for another one of Leinto's great training sessions. The girl groaned at the thought of having to listen to another one of his long drawn out speeches about responsibility and such as she got around.
-
Leinto stood in front of four out of the five girls he was charge over. Four out of the five had shown up and now, here he was, waiting for the fifth to show up yet again. He looked over at the four young girls that he had been working with for a little over three months now. Leinto felt a certain amount of responsibility and love towards these girls and had found that at times he could act like a father towards them.
In the three short months that he had been charge over them, Leinto had gotten to know each girl very well and was glad that he didn't have to put up with Keish and Rylea but for three short hours five out of seven days a week. He held much respect for their fathers, who had to deal with them on a regular basis. He loved them as if they were his own, but would also love to strangle them at times, especially Rylea lately, more often than the others, for some reason.
Leinto had noticed an attitude change from her over the three month period a very bad attitude change. She hadn't had the best attitude to begin with, but now, the more he thought about it, she had become worse. She arrived late, like today, at least three days out of the five they met; she back-talked him constantly; she was very sarcastic even more than was usual for her; and, now,
she was snapping or going off on anyone at any time.
Leinto frowned while he thought more about her sudden mood swings. Even the other girls are starting to notice her mood swings and bad behavior, he thought to himself. Maybe I should bring this to Ryo's attention? Somehow I have this sinking feeling that there's something wrong with her more than what I'm seeing. Leinto stopped his thoughts when he saw her form coming over the hill and walking towards them. He wasn't positive yet, but was pretty sure she was a telepath. If his accusations turned out to be true then he didn't want her to hear his musings.
Leinto cleared his throat and glanced over at the girl when she had made her way to the rest of the girls. Immediately, he got chills when he looked at her. That look in her eyes reminded him of something, but he couldn't put his finger on what. "A little late today, Rylea?" he asked her, keeping his tone calm and conversational.
Rylea shrugged half-heartedly, brushing it off like it was no big deal. "Alarm clock broke, so I got up late," she replied and the other girls snickered or rolled their eyes at her reply, knowing full well what had really happened.
Leinto frowned inwardly, but kept his facial features on the outside calm. That other, almost demonic side of her was back again he could tell by the way her eyes looked clouded and held a far away feel to them. Her mannerisms and voice were another dead give away. Leinto would have to keep a close eye on her while she was with him today. "Well, make sure you fix it or get a new one," he told her and left it at that.
"Sure thing," Rylea replied cheerily and then strolled over to stand next to her cousin and Keish. The ash-blue haired girl grinned and gave her a low five behind her back when Rylea stopped beside her, making Rona roll her eyes at the two and their behavior.
Looking now over at her cousin, Rylea asked with a cheery voice, "So how did things go with that guy from the club?" Rona in turn gave her cousin a look that said all she needed to know about it. "Not so good I take it," she said with a cringe and then brightened up and patted the blue haired teen on the back. "No worries, I'll find that special guy for you sooner or later."
Keish broke out into a fit of coughs while Rona only glared more at her cousin; Rylea in turn gave the girl a big, pearly white smile in way of response to her glare and then began to laugh herself. "Rylea!" Leinto's booming voice shouted and the coughing, laughter ended immediately. Snapping to face forward, the girls were met with the sight of the charges glaring gaze focused on them.
"Knock off the foolishness," he stated sternly, pointing to Rylea in way of showing who he was directing it to. "Or you'll be standing next to me for the remainder of the training session."
Rylea saluted him while saying, "Yes, sir."
Satisfied with her now, Leinto then stepped closer to the group of five young girls, using his staff for support slightly as he walked. "Today," he started in a loud enough voice for them to all hear him, "We are going to work on subarmor and possibly get to elemental powers today as well."
"Elemental powers?" Kami repeated as if not hearing him right and then glanced over at the other girls with an unsure look.
"Yes, all of you have a unique basic power along with an elemental, magical power," he clarified further for her, "We're going to be working on the elemental powers and save the unique basic powers for another time."
"Man this is boring shit. When do we get to put on our armors and really fight?" Keish asked and folded her arms over her chest with a look that said she wasn't interested in elemental anything. She seemed more interested in crushing something rather than learning anything.
Leinto smiled at Keish; he had expected she'd say something like that, "You can't master the armor until you have mastered the other power that rests within you all." At the raised eyebrows and mystified expressions he got from all of them he continued on, "Your subarmors are only one part to the armor. You need to master your elemental and basic powers before you can put on the armors."
"So then, how are we supposed to learn these "necessary" powers?" Heather asked in her usual, why-do-I-have-to-be-here type attitude.
"Better question: what do you mean by basic powers and what are our basic powers?" Rona spoke up, sounding like a mature teenager and got a sneer from Heather in return for it. Rylea gave Heather a glare from where she stood beside her cousin and the blond turned her head back to look at the charge without another word said.
Leinto allowed himself a light smile in Rona's direction. He could always count on her to ask the good questions. "Your basic powers we will learn as we go on. I have an idea what some of yours are already though," he said and glanced over in Rylea's direction. He frowned deeply when she appeared to be in her own little world, not even paying attention to him at all. "The first thing I want you all to learn is how to use your elemental powers. They may come in handy if you don't have your armors and are attacked."
With that said, the aging charge then reached into a pouch on his side, pulling his hand back out and producing five seemingly ordinary necklaces; then walked over to Kami. The petite brunette eyed him skeptically, really not sure as to what he was doing. Leinto took one of the necklaces from the five in his hand and held it up in front of her. "Water," he said and placed the silver chain around her neck. A blue wave that seemed to be swirling and crashing lay softly against her chest now.
He then moved onto the next girl. Heather looked at him with a slight frown pinching at her features, somewhat intrigued by what she was about to receive from him. Leinto smiled softly at her expression before then taking another necklace from the group. "Lightning," he said to her and placed the silver chain around her neck. A gray storm cloud with a gold lightning bolt that seemed to shift and change colors lay against her chest.
Moving on to the next girl, he now looked at Keish and smirked. "Earth," he spoke to her. Taking another necklace from the now smaller group he placed the silver chain around her neck. A silver rock with tanish brown earth beneath it dangled from the silver chain, the rock shimmered and the earth shifted colors.
Taking the last two necklaces in his hands Leinto moved onto the last two girls of the group. Taking a silver chain from the last two, he placed the necklace around Rona's neck. A swirling and churning white-gray funnel hung from the chain. "Air," he pronounced to her.
Looking over at the last one, Rylea, he then turned from Rona and stepped over to the hotheaded leader. Leinto took the last necklace and placed it around her neck where it came to rest next to her pendant. At the end of the silver chain hung a crackling, shifting and swirling flame of red and orange fire. "Fire," he said to her.
Stepping back from the five girls, he examined each necklace that seemed to glow and come to life for a brief moment before returning to its crashing, shifting, shimmering, swirling or crackling state. "These necklaces represent your individual elemental powers. They will help you to bring forth and use those powers," Leinto said and looked at each girl in turn, "Never take them off. They are not to leave your necks under any circumstances, understand?"
Each girl nodded her head in understanding and then went to work at examining the new treasure they had been given all of them except for Rylea who just stood where she was, arms crossed and staring off into space as if she were thinking about something really hard. Rona turned to her cousin, obviously excited about what she had been given. "Hey, Lea what do-" she stopped mid sentence and frowned, waving a hand in front of her cousin's face. Rona was concerned when Rylea didn't so much as even blink in response. "Lea? Earth to, Lea, come in, Lea," Rona said to her and snapped her fingers in Rylea's face.
Rylea came out of her stupor with a jerk back into reality. "Huh? Nani?" she stuttered while blinking several times.
Rona frowned slightly at her cousin as she asked, "You ok?" And then smirked while teasing, "Were you day-dreaming again, Lea?"
Rylea smiled brightly and placed her hands behind her head, "Maybe, why do you care?"
"I don't," Rona replied dryly, "It's just that you were staring pretty hard off into space."
Rylea shrugged lightly while keeping her hands behind her head, "So I found that happy place and wanted to make sure I stayed there. Gotta have some place to go to when you're at one of Leinto's training sessions. "
Rona couldn't help but laugh at her immature cousin. She liked her cousin a lot more when she was being immature than acting like a cold hearted bitch which she had been doing a lot of lately. "Ok, Lea, but you might want to try and focus a little more," she lectured her hardheaded cousin with a point of her finger.
Rylea took her hands from behind her head and simply waved the royal-blue-haired girl off, "Yeah, yeah, when pigs fly, Rona." Rona smirked and gave Rylea a playful shove as a reply to her comment. Rylea in turn grinned and pushed her back and before they knew it, both girls were laughing and pushing each other.
"Girls!" Leinto shouted to gain their attention when he had noticed the game of 'shove', "Playtime later, work-time now."
Rona and Rylea both giggled and gave each other one last shove before stopping to listen to him. Leinto sighed, but continued with what he had to teach them. The time was drawing closer; he could feel it and these girls were not even close to being ready for what was coming. He cleared his throat and commanded, "I need all of you to put on your subarmor."
"Why?" Rylea asked while placing her hand on her hip in a cocky manner.
Leinto willed himself to keep from hurting her as he said as calmly as he could, "Just because I told you to, that's why."
"I don't know," Rylea teased and looked over at Keish, "You think that's a good enough reason?"
Keish laughed, playing into her little scheme and folded her arms over her chest while saying, "Depends on what he wants us to do next."
Kami sighed , "Grow up you two."
"Grow up?" Rylea repeated and pretended to be shocked by her statement, "Why would we want to do that?"
The brunette in turn sighed and shook her head at how difficult the leader of the group made things at times. Keish then laughed and wrapped an arm around the petite girls' shoulders while saying, "Lighten up, Kami. It's ok to have fun."
"Yeah, you've been hanging around Heather too much. You're starting to sound like her too," Rylea told her, knowing that it went enrage the blond.
Heather glared menacingly at the dark brown-black haired leader, "And just what is that supposed to mean?"
"It means-"
Rona clamped her hand firmly over her cousin's big mouth before an argument could break out between the two girls. "It means nothing, Heather. Just ignore her," Rona replied for Rylea who grumbled in protest for the girl speaking up for her.
Heather smirked arrogantly at Rylea, "That's what I thought."
Rylea glared daggers at the blond and tried to shout things at her that only came out as muffled sounds thanks to Rona's hand over her mouth. Leinto sighed at the group of girls and looked up at the sky to say, "Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this kind of torture?" He now glanced back at the arguing teenagers; his patience with them was wearing thin. "Alright, that's enough!"
The girls stopped and stared at Leinto, who wasn't looking very happy at the moment. "We have things to do, now stop this foolishness and get to work," he ordered them and more specifically pointed out one girl as he said, "Rylea, so help me, if you don't get it in check I will be forced to tell your father."
Rona let go of Rylea's mouth then and took one giant step away from her as if she had caught poison ivy. Rylea gasped dramatically and held her hand up to her mouth, "No, you wouldn't tell my, Dad would you? You can't! Oh, please don't!" she pleaded in fake fear and then laughed as she watched his face grow redder with anger at her.
Leinto shook his head now as he watched the young leader joke with the young Hardrock wielder not taking any of this seriously. Give me strength, he asked and then tried to get the rowdy girls to settle down and listen to him. Getting them to actually do what he needed them to do was not an easy task for the charge.
-
Rylea walked into the two story, three bedroom house that she had lived in her entire life from the meeting with Leinto. She closed the door and then collapsed against it; all of a sudden she felt weak and dizzy. Rylea winced and closed her eyes against the pain that seemed to consume her whole body, an intense, almost burning sensation that swept over her like a wildfire. Her head was pounding and her body now ached from the inside out. Her strength was leaving her and she could feel it.
Panic seized Rylea whole at what was going on; the fear making her heart seem to pound loudly in her ears. One thing ran through her now fear-gripped mind: to find her Dad. Getting her now aching and throbbing body to focus on her target, she forced her legs to move in the direction her father usually was; in a slow, staggered pace. A wave of dizziness washed over her and she had to grab onto the door handle with one hand while placing her other hand against the wall to steady herself again. "Dad!" she croaked out, but got no reply.
Trying to move away from the door again, this time she managed to take only three steps before her world started to swirl before her eyes and Rylea had to grab onto whatever she could to keep her balance. "Daddy!" she cried out once again, now beginning to panic more. Again no reply came from him.
Now scared and not understanding what was happening to her or where her father was, Rylea gritted her teeth and told herself to at least make it to the front room. Pushing herself away from the wall, the girl tried her best to stagger into the room. That was as far as she got before everything started to swirl together and go black. Her strength finally gave out and she collapsed onto the front room floor.
-
Ryo and Ryu pulled up to the house later that night and were surprised to find the house completely dark. A sinking feeling of dread rushed over Ryo and he suddenly had this horrible feeling that something bad had happened to his daughter. Almost as if knowing what was going through his father's mind, Ryu looked over at him from the driver's side of his car and tried to give him a reassuring smile.
"Maybe she went to Rona's," he suggested lightly and got out of the vehicle.
Both men exited the automobile and walked up the front steps to the dark and seemingly deserted house. Ryu glanced over at his father with a puzzled look when he found the door unlocked and Ryo's frown only deepened at it. The memory of him finding the door ajar that fatal night hit him with an odd amount of reality to what was happening to him now. Ryo now had a sinking feeling that something bad had happened after all.
Opening it, Ryu went in, flipping the switch next to the door and light filled the hallway. Ryo came in after him and couldn't seem to shake that feeling of dread; something about all of this didn't settle well with him. Ryu went in the direction of the front room while Ryo went to the kitchen, flipping lights on here and there as he went so he could see.
"Dad!" came the audibly trembling shout from Ryu what seemed like only seconds later. Ryo turned from the kitchen and sprinted for the front room where he knew his son had gone. However, he wasn't really prepared for what he was going to find there.
Coming into the front room, he was met by the sight of his daughter lying unconscious on the floor while his son knelt next to her, checking to make sure she had a pulse and was still breathing. As soon as Ryo could make his legs work again, he was springing into action. "My gods, Lea!" he found himself saying while making his way to her and then was kneeling beside her. "Ryu, call 911! Do it, now!" Ryo ordered his son who quickly got up to follow out his directions.
Ryo then gently scooped his unconscious daughter up, cradling her in his arms. "Lea, Lea baby wake up!" he shouted at her, his voice was trembling now as fear took a hold of him. "Oh Gods, please, Lea don't do this to me now."
Ryu came rushing back in, talking to a dispatcher on the phone. He checked Rylea's pulse and a few other things while answering the person on the other end. Ryo didn't even hear him now; everything was starting to become fuzzy to him. It was almost like someone had hit the slow motion button on a remote and he was stuck in it. He was reliving a nightmare that had happened so long ago. The last thing Ryo remembered hearing was Ryu saying that an ambulance was on its way before he went numb to the world.
-
A/N: Oh my, what happened to Rylea? I guess you'll just have to wait to find out. Ok I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed this. Rogue, Harry, Firestorm, Jallana and Sifirela, thank you all. Ok, this is to Harry since he keeps insisting I tell him what happened to Mia. (clears throat) I, myself, personally, can not stand Mia. That is why she is not in this fic and I try to keep her out of my other fics as much as possible. If it will make you feel better I can maybe have them mention her once or twice in the fic. Will that make you feel better Harry?