Chapter 3 Going Home
Sage was shaken from his meditation by a wave of fear, anger, and confusion. When he tried to place where it came from he thought it came from Ryo but that was impossible. The feelings that had hit him were from a mind that was unorganized and distorted, something he might feel from an animal. Just then Cye came walking back from his search for Ryo.
"So you didn't find him?" sneered Kento "Well after the last few months I almost wish that he would just leave for awhile and give us a break."
"Yeah I have been thinking that lately too. If Ryo wants to be so defensive and angry let him go home for awhile and then when he feels ready to talk to us he can come back." Rowen admitted
Sage didn't say anything. Ryo had been trying to talk to him. He would come up and start to talk to Sage but then he would just say never mind and leave. When Sage had finally come to Ryo to see if there was anything bothering him, Ryo had freaked. Told him leave him the hell alone and that if he wanted to play psychiatrist he could just do it somewhere else. He knew that it was out of character for Ryo to say things like this especially to his friends but it had made him mad, despite himself. Every time after that, when Ryo came to talk to him he ignored him or just plain walked off. They were all doing that now, ever since Ryo had started lashing out at the slightest things, but he wasn't sure he wanted Ryo to leave.
"Yeah well I don't think we have to worry about that anymore." Said Cye
Sage had a bad feeling about this. Cye had done something to Ryo. He could feel it. Ever since the fight with Talpa he had blocked most of his ability as an empath. There was no reason for him to constantly feel what ever his friends were feeling and it sometimes gave him headaches. The only thing that he had not blocked was his ability to feel evil. Right now, after that wave of emotion earlier, he had unblocked his power. What he was getting from Cye right now was the same thing that he would have gotten from Kento when he stole a cookie from the cookie jar, the knowledge that he had done something wrong but he didn't feel much, if any remorse for it.
"I found Ryo and he attacked me. He was just standing out on a barely frozen lake mumbling nonsense. I went out to get him, since you know what would happen if he fell in the freezing water. When I got there he screamed and threw me into the water." Explained Cye.
"I wondered why you were all wet." Said Yulie philosophically. Cye ignored him and just kept going.
"Well if it had been anyone else but me, the water would have killed them. I just sort of snapped and I told him to go. Just to leave and that none of us wanted him here anymore. Then he said if we didn't want him here that was fine he would just leave and he ran off." Cye finished telling the story.
Sage could tell that despite the nonchalance that he was trying achieve, Cye was actually beginning to feel ashamed of what he had done and was hoping that the no one would be too mad with him.
"Way to go Cye. Never thought you had it in you. Well I guess Ryo gets his break from us and we get our break from him."
It was quite apparent that Kento had no problems with what Cye had done, but Sage figured that was reasonable. Ryo had been the hardest on Kento. Well that just left Rowen to say what he thought.
"Well I don't exactly think that was the right way to get Ryo to leave. Plus even though I had been thinking that myself, I never would have made him leave. Did either of you truly look at Ryo lately. He has lost a lot of weight and he looks deathly ill. None of you can tell me you haven't noticed the way his eyes are almost always glazed and he doesn't really seem aware of what is going on around him. I think that he was sick and we just chased him away from the only place he has."
"Come on Rowen. So what if Ryo was a little sick. That didn't mean that he had to treat us the way he did and Cye was right he could have killed one of us." Argued Kento
"I guess your right. Ryo was becoming a danger to us all. Maybe all he needed was a break from us. I just don't think Cye should have made him leave angry with us."
"Does anyone know where Ryo lived before everyone moved into my house?" asked Mia
Everyone sort of looked at each other. No one knew. Ryo didn't talk much about his life before becoming a Ronin Warrior. All Sage knew was that his mother had died when Ryo was very young. When Sage first met Ryo, his aurora had many of the signs of a person that lost their mother at an early age. It gave off a hidden loneliness and sorrow. For the first few months after meeting Ryo it had stayed and then as he began to develop bonds with his friends it disappeared.
"I don't think we know. Ryo doesn't talk much about his past." Said Rowen after looking at everyone's blank faces.
"Well when we first met him I thought that he came from some where in the mountains cause he just seemed like that kind of guy." Said Kento
"Nah, he lived in a house with his father on the outskirts of the city." Said Yulie
Everyone stopped and looked at Yulie. Sage couldn't help wondering how Yulie seemed to know this when Ryo's friends who had known him for years didn't know.
"Yulie, how do you know this?" asked Sage.
"I uh, went through Ryo's things. He had taken away my sword when I accidentally hit him with it and I was looking for it. I found this book with all these addresses in it and one was a house address and Ryo had written Dad next to it." Yulie looked really embarrassed now. He was afraid that he was going to be in trouble for going through Ryo's things.
"Well then that's settled. In a month we'll throw a party and invite Ryo back. Then if he still isn't better we can force him to tell us what is wrong." Kento then sat down and started eating; to him the problem was solved.
Sage looked around, trying to gage if everyone else was just going to let Ryo leave like this. It seemed so. Rowen and Mia didn't look too happy about the idea, but they remained quiet. Cye was still too mad about what had happened to not like the plan. The only ones who seemed to be upset and ready to voice his opinion was Yulie, but then he sat down and began eating too. Sage knew that it was because Yulie thought that his opinion wasn't going to matter.
Sage just couldn't believe that the inseparable Ronin Warriors were just going to let Ryo leave like that, but he also couldn't help but think that maybe they had done the right thing. Ryo was becoming a danger to them all. He had seen Ryo almost hit Yulie when Yulie had asked Ryo to play soccer with him. Sage sat down and remained silent.
Ryo POV
"Sir in order to ride on this bus you have to buy a ticket." Said an exasperated ticket master
"I have to go home. I have to go home…" Ryo was just rocking himself back and forth and repeating that line over and over.
"Yes sir, you have said that already, but you need money to buy a ticket."
"Listen I'll buy the poor boy his ticket. Can't you see that this young man has some sort of mental instability? He reminds me of my poor autistic grand baby. Let him on the bus and I'll keep him out of trouble." Said this elderly lady behind Ryo in line.
When she said this, a silent cheer could be heard from all of the people standing behind Ryo in line. He had been holding the line up now for the past 15 minutes. Ryo turned and looked at the old lady. She smiled at him. He stopped repeating I have to go home. His mind had jumped again. It was hard for him to stay focused on one thing for too long, especially with all these people around. It had taken everything he had to stay focused on trying to get the ticket master to let him go home. Now he was thinking about his Grandma. His mind became a jumbled mess of voices and memories. Grandma's pie, nice gave me cookies; she'll take me home.
"Come along young man. You can sit next to me on the bus." The elderly lady reached out and took Ryo's hand and began to pull him towards one of the waiting busses. "Your parents must be really worried about you." The lady kept talking to Ryo trying to reassure him that everything would be ok. She told him all kinds of things but Ryo heard little of what she said. He had immersed himself in the feelings of security and happiness that the old lady was giving off. Through it all Ryo sat and rocked slowly back and forth.
A few hours later the bus had reached its destination. When the lady stood up so did Ryo. For some reason Ryo just knew that he couldn't be separated from this lady and that she would keep the voices away. Being around her was also making it easier for him to find himself in all the voices and feelings that were again threatening to overwhelm his mind.
"If you tell me where you live I'll walk you home."
He recited his address and felt a moment of triumph. His grandmother was going to take him home and his mom would be there and everything would be all right. The voices would go away and all these feelings that didn't belong to him, it would all go away. Soon after this they had walked through the down town part of the city. Ryo began to make small whimpering sounds. He was loosing himself again in all these foreign thoughts.
Deadlines…I can't meet them…I am going to loose my jobFire me…I'll show them…
I am going to be late to pick her up…
Stupid Cab drivers…
I told him to be here an hour ago…Thousands of voices were yelling in his mind. Ryo could no longer distinguish his thoughts from the ones that didn't belong to him. He did the only thing he knew how to do he screamed for help through the bond.