Shadows on the Wall

Chapter Six

Disclaimer: I drew the Sailor Scouts and the Ronin Warriors! They are all mine! laughs evilly Actually, I can't even draw worth crap, so I'll just let their respective owners take all the glory.

Mina tapped her fingernails against the dashboard as she patiently waited for Rowen to hurry out of the supermarket he'd disappeared into. They'd planned a special picnic that afternoon and they had just been on their way when Rowen remembered that he'd forgotten to get something from the store, promising that he'd only be a few minutes as he slammed his car door shut. Of course, that had been ten minutes ago and Mina fully intended on giving him a piece of her mind when he returned.

A few days had passed since Mina's arrival and, luckily, Rowen still hadn't brought up the subject of the incident that happened the night she'd arrived in Toyoma and it was starting to look as though he was going to leave it be. Rowen had looked surprised, then suspicious when he'd discovered that her wounds had mysteriously healed up, leaving only the faintest of scars, but he let it slide. They'd spent their first two days getting to know each other, learning each other's likes and dislikes, and now they spent their days acting like little children, fighting over the TV remote or battling it out on Rowen's PS2 console. Surprisingly, more often than not, Mina was the winner, despite being one-handed, but everytime Rowen suggested that they go out and do something, Mina quickly refused, and for a good reason. She still wasn't sure if he purposely let her beat him or not, but Mina could still remember the look of pure shock on his face when she'd beaten him for the first time on the PS2.. One-handed. She'd taken a picture of it so that she would never forget it once she returned home, and she was starting to think that perhaps Artemis had been right when he said that something good might come of her otherwise bad situation. She was having a blast with a cousin that she never would've gotten to know otherwise, but Mina felt guilty about having so much fun while her mother was probably sitting at home, worried sick about her. She quickly decided that it was about time to give her mother a call and let her know that everything was fine, that she had no reason to worry about her... at least not about the investigation anyway.

In the backseat of Rowen's car, Artemis had dozed off and his snoring brought Mina back into reality just in time to see Rowen balancing a small chocolate cake in his arms along with his other purchases. Leaning over, Mina opened the door for him and eyed his purchases wearily. "It took you that long to get that many groceries?" she teased, beaming at him as he placed the bags in the back, forgetting about Artemis until a growl could be heard. "Oh, sorry Artemis." The cat glared at him as he removed the bags from on top of him, and the blue-haired Ronin wondered why Mina had insisted on bringing him along and why on earth he was apologizing to a cat. Rowen couldn't put his finger on it, but that cat just seemed a lot like White Blaze.. very understanding of the human language. He swore up and down that Artemis understood everything he told him and complied, albeit somewhat grumpily. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Rowen hopped into the drivers seat, buckling up before starting the car and pulling out into the parking lot. From where she sat, Mina could see that her cousin suspected something about Artemis, but, miraculously, Artemis had managed to keep his mouth shut the entire time, not saying one word, although Mina half-expected lightning to come from nowhere and strike the same place four times in a row. The blond-haired girl was pretty sure that it was only the human look in Artemis' icy blue eyes that had Rowen suspecting anything, and she intended on keeping it that way if it were possible. By the time they reached the park where they were going to have their picnic, it was noon and things were really starting to heat up. Luckily, Rowen had warned Mina to bring her bathing suit, so she'd slipped it on underneath her white T-shirt and blue jean shorts and was glad she did. She was relieved to see a pool sitting right next to the park, but she instantly noticed that there was no place to change.

While Rowen set up the blanket they were going to be sitting on, Mina retrieved the picnic basket from the car and Artemis sauntered nonchalantly behind her, his tail waving lazily from side to side. Putting on her sunglasses to protect her sensitive eyes from the sun, Mina glanced over at Rowen as she sat down just to see that he had done the same and rolled her eyes. She opened up the basket and dug through it, finally handing Rowen his lunch, which consisted of a turkey sandwich, a drink, and a package of Twinkies. "Hey, that's your sandwich," he protested, making a face. Mina glared at him humorously. "Nuh-uh! I marked yours," she retorted, pointing to the star-shaped symbol on his sandwich wrapper. "I didn't want to eat the sandwich you made, so I put a heart on mine and a star on yours." Mina missed the odd expression that crossed his face momentarily because she was grabbing her lunch from the basket, and by the time she looked back up at him, the expression was gone. "So, are we going swimming after lunch?" Rowen opened his mouth to reply but Mina, seeing that he was about to launch into one of his infamous lectures, quickly spoke up. "I know, I know. We have to wait half an hour before we go swimming or we'll get stomach cramps and drown," she drawled in a monotone voice.

Rowen couldn't help but laugh before taking a bite of his sandwich. "We couldn't have you drowning, otherwise I'd have to kill you." Mina choked on the juice she'd been drinking as he said that, glaring at him as she coughed uncontrollably. "Well, that makes a whole lot of sense, Ro," she muttered after she regained control once more, rolling her eyes. "If I'm dead, then you can't kill me, you know. Besides, all you have to do is say something like that while I'm drinking and you won't have to kill me."

Just as the two burst out laughing at that remark, an unfamiliar voice interrupted. "Hey Ro!" Mina glanced up to see two teenage boys around her age standing there, one with reddish brown hair and the most beautiful sea- green eyes she had ever seen and the other with dark blue hair and the most unusual bluish-grey eyes. Rowen popped the last of his sandwich into his mouth as he leapt to his feet, dusting himself off. "Hey guys!" The muscular boy with dark blue hair studied Mina for a moment before turning back to Rowen with a mischievous grin. "Hey, Ro, why didn't you tell me you got a girlfriend, you old dog?" It took Mina a moment to realize that he was talking about her, and she turned red at the thought as she gagged. Rowen burst out laughing. "Well, umm.. actually, she's my cousin, Kento. Mina, this is Kento Faun and Cye Mouri. Guys, this is my cousin Mina from Tokyo." Mina waved slightly, still bright red from Kento's comment about her being Rowen's girlfriend and the other two returned the gesture uncertainly. She realized they did have good reason to think that she was his girlfriend; after all, they didn't have a whole lot of similarities. He had to be pushing 6' while Mina was barely reaching the 5'5 mark, not to mention the fact that she had blond hair while he had a thick head of blue hair. "Nice to meet you guys," she muttered somewhat shyly.

"Hey, Ro, do you know how hard I tried to get a hold of you for the last two days?" A raven-haired youth with beautiful sapphire-blue eyes jogged up, lightly punching Rowen's shoulder. Rowen chuckled nervously, guiltily recalling all the times the phone rang but he ignored it since he was usually in the middle of a game with Mina or trying to wrestle the remote from her hands. "Yea, I do actually. I've just been so busy that I didn't have time to get the phone," he replied sheepishly. The newcomer was greeted by Kento and Cye as well, and it was apparent to Mina that they were all friends. "Mina, this is my friend Ryo Sanada. Ryo, this is my cousin Mina from Tokyo." Mina shook his hand, beaming brightly. "Hi! It's nice to meet you!" Her legs felt like a bowl full of jelly around all these people that she didn't know, but Ryo didn't appear to notice. He grinned as he bowed slightly. "Hi!" Mina glanced at her watch before poking Rowen's shoulder. "Well, Ro, it's almost been half an hour. Can we go swimming now?" She begged, wanting to escape the heat. Rowen nodded before turning back to his friends. "Are you guys coming?" Kento laughed. "Are you nuts? We didn't come all this way to not go swimming," he replied as they all nodded. They all split in several different directions to gather their things and while Rowen returned the blanket and the basket to the car, Mina tried to decide what to do with Artemis. Being a cat, he didn't get along too well with water, as she had certainly found out, but she was pretty sure that he didn't want to fry in the car either. Mina finally decided to just let him do whatever he wanted, go wherever he wanted to go as she grabbed her towel when Rowen walked up. "All right then, let's go!"

When they reached the pool, Mina was instantly reminded that there was no place to shower or change and she tried her hardest not to stare as Rowen and his group of friends stripped off their shirts, revealing muscular chests. With a sigh, she peeled off her shirt and tossed it on top of her towel, blushing self-consciously as catcalls and whistles rang out from the pool. Mina honestly didn't think that she could turn a deeper shade of red than it already was as she tried her hardest to ignore them. She was immensely relieved when Kento, the muscle of the group, leapt into the pool and threatened to smash the face of any guy that dared catcall or whistle again and they both missed the sneaky look Rowen and Ryo shared just before they leapt into the pool. She quickly peeled off her shorts, revealing a dark purple bathing suit with a matching skirt and was about to leap into the deep water where Rowen was when she remembered about her broken arm. Without the use of her right arm, there was no way that Mina would be able to keep herself afloat in the deep end, so she walked over to the shallow end instead.

She sighed as soon as she stepped into the water, her relief written all over her face. Mina swam forward until she could barely reach the bottom anymore, then turned around and swam back to where it came up to her shoulders when she sat down in the water. She closed her eyes and leaned back in the water, not noticing Rowen & Co. swimming up. Her shriek was cut off as her head disappeared underneath the water for a split second, her eyes flaming when she caught sight of Rowen laughing his head off as she resurfaced. "Rowen Hashiba, do you know what I am going to do to you?" she yelled, holding up her cast threateningly. Kento laughed. "I wouldn't hit him over the head with that if I were you," he warned. When he saw her questioning look, the stocky boy chuckled. "You might break your cast on that hard head of his!" Rowen somehow managed to look completely innocent. "I didn't do anything wrong!" He pointed at Cye. "He did it!" Mina lunged for his neck, completely misjudging the distance and the angle he was at and missing him completely, landing on Ryo instead, which had been standing right next to Rowen. "Whoops! Sorry!" She laughed, swimming in the direction Rowen had swam. Everyone laughed as they watched Mina try to dunk Rowen, but he was definitely stronger than he looked and she just wasn't strong enough to dunk him with only one arm. Finally, she enlisted Kento's help and, together, they managed to dunk him.

"Not fair! You had help!" Mina stuck her tongue out at him. "So? I'd like to see you try to dunk someone with only one good arm," she replied gleefully, not noticing Ryo sneaking up on her until it was too late. She was underwater before she knew it, but by the time she'd surfaced again, Kento had already dunked Ryo for her and was laughing at the raven-haired boy's expression as he swam away. Rowen winked mischievously as Ryo. "You know, I kinda get the impression that Kento is getting a little friendly with Mina, don't you so, Ryo?" As Ryo laughed and nodded, Mina and Kento both pounced on Rowen, shoving him underwater. "Shut up, Ro!" they chorused, a vein popping on Mina's forehead as she blushed furiously. This started a whole other round of teasing, Rowen and Ryo running for dear life as Cye sat back and watched, laughing so hard that tears streamed down his cheeks.

"What is going on here?" Everyone froze and glanced up at the unexpected arrival of the last member of Rowen's group of friends and Mina felt her jaw drop to the bottom of the pool. There, standing not two feet from her, was the young man from her dream and she swore she saw a flash of recognition in those icy violet eyes of his, but she wasn't sure. All traces of humor had disappeared from Mina's face and she was pale as a ghost as she backed away, accidentally bumping into Kento. "Sorry," she muttered apologetically, moving out of his way as she continued to back away. She didn't realize that she was backing straight into the deep end until it was too late. "Mina!" Rowen's warning shout came a second too late as the blond-haired girl disappeared under the water at the part where the water deepened without warning and both Kento and Rowen rushed to her aid. Meanwhile, Mina was struggling to reach the surface and she was only two inches away from taking a breath of life-saving air, but it seemed so far away at the same time. No matter how hard she struggled, she just didn't have the energy to make it and was just starting to sink further when Kento and Rowen each grabbed and arm, hauling her up to the surface. Mina sputtered uncontrollably as she gasped for breath, grateful that she'd decided to braid her hair instead of leaving it down. When she finally had the courage to look her cousin in the eye, she instantly wished she hadn't. Rowen was shaking in anger, but somehow managed to look angry, relieved, and concerned all at the same time, and she was afraid that he would start asking those questions that she had no answers for. She quickly muttered an apology, wishing that they'd just let her sink. Ryo, Kento, and Cye all looked worried as well, and it wasn't just because she'd nearly drowned herself. It was because she'd nearly drowned herself trying to get away from their friend, and they had seen the mixed expression of horror and surprise on her face moments before she disappeared under the water.

Rowen had seen that expression once before, the night that he was supposed to pick her up and he'd had troubles starting his car, which was funny because he hadn't had a any trouble with it since. He still felt incredibly guilty about what happened that night, even though she'd assured him many times that it wasn't his fault. Rowen was pretty sure that Mina had never met Sage before, and it made him wonder why she would react to his presence like that. "Mina, are you sure you're ok?" There was that note of concern in his voice that had been there the night she'd arrived, and he looked tired as Mina nodded, still avoiding the newcomer's gaze. "Sage, this is my cousin Mina. Mina, this is my friend Sage Date." Well, at least Mina had his name now. There was tension in the air as Mina attempted to greet her cousin's friend. "Hi!" She waved slightly, but Sage said nothing, making no attempt to acknowledge her presence. The tense silence that followed set everyone on the edge, and it was then that Rowen spoke up. "Well, we should probably be going now," he said, grabbing Mina's arm. "It was nice seeing you, Sage." Sage merely nodded as Rowen and Mina got out of the pool and gathered their things, the tension still there even as they left. Neither of them said anything as they got into Rowen's car, Artemis silently leaping into Mina's lap and curling up into a ball before falling asleep...

Well, there you have it! Chapter six is out! I had a completely different ending, and I wrote it down on paper, but then my paper got spilled on and I couldn't make anything out, so I had to write something completely different in.

Aphrodite2: That particular little conversation will happen eventually, I promise! XD Rowen in definitely involved in this plot, as is Kento, but you will just have to trust me. The next chapter is very long, and but it is also very important to my plot.

Jewels14: Thanks for reading my story! XD I know a lot of people don't know who the Ronins are, but I thought this would be an interesting story to do, so I hope you enjoy it!