Chapter 8 Birthday reunion and leavings
"Kento stop fidgeting. He'll be here any minute." Mia was getting aggravated with Kento's constant movement. First he had paced around the room and then he had started tapping his foot against the wall. Now he was busy picking at a string that was hanging off the curtain. There was only so much Mia could take.
"Awww, Mia I'm just worried about Ryo. What if he doesn't come?" Kento had been whining like this ever since that morning.
"Kento, we've told you a million times he is going to come. He still has another five minutes to get here before he is late, so just calm down." Cye was getting just as annoyed with Kento as Mia. They had all been short tempered today. Everyone was worried about Ryo.
"Guys look I think I see Whiteblaze!" Rowen was acting as look out for Ryo. When he said that everyone ran to the door to see if it was Whiteblaze. "I think I see Ryo." Everyone scrambled to find hiding places. They were planning on jumping out when Ryo reached the edge of the porch and yell surprise.
Whiteblaze knew that everyone was hiding in an attempt to surprise Ryo, but he knew it wasn't going to work. Ryo was still asleep and Whiteblaze was having trouble getting him to wake up. He could tell that Ryo was almost awake but not quite. There was nothing he could do about it. He kept walking until he had reached the edge of the porch. Maybe when they yelled surprise Ryo would wake up.
"SURPRI…" everyone stopped mid surprise when they saw Ryo. He was still sleeping on top of Whiteblaze. Whiteblaze turned his head until he was nudging Ryo's shoulder with his nose.
You're missing the surprise. I know you can hear me. You're scaring your friends.
Ryo opened his eyes and sat up. Everyone was standing on the porch just staring at him.
"Um Hi?" Ryo wasn't sure what to expect after everything that had happened.
"Surprise Ryo. Happy Birthday. We threw you a party." Mia was the first to recover from seeing Ryo. Everyone had thought that Ryo was unconscious or hurt badly when he hadn't woke up.
"Yeah happy birthday. Welcome back." Various greetings from all of the Ronins could be heard.
Ryo got down off of Whiteblaze and was hit with the most wonderful smell he could think of at the moment. "Is Cye making Hamburgers? Cause I am really hungry."
That seemed to break the awkwardness of the reunion. Soon Kento had started a game of soccer and everyone but Ryo was playing. He didn't want to risk making his ribs worse and he knew that he wouldn't make it through a whole game of soccer. He sat down at one of the picnic tables that had been set up for the occasion and soon was asleep.
"Hey Sage? You don't think Ryo still holds a grudge against us for making him leave do you?" Kento was looking curiously over at Ryo
"I don't know Kento."
"Do you think that he's sick or something? He was sleeping when he got here and then he refused to play soccer so he could sleep. He must be sick." Kento was still looking over at Ryo.
"I don't know Kento." Sage was getting tired of Kento asking him all these questions, like he was somehow supposed to know what was happening with Ryo.
"Well couldn't you just use that empath thing that you have and see what's wrong?"
"Will it shut you up if I do?" At Kento's nod, Sage opened himself to his gift and tried to see what he could feel from Ryo. When he reached Ryo's mind he was surprised to find that it was protected by strong shields, some of them were stronger than even he could build. All that Sage was able to sense from him was that he felt safe enough to sleep now that he was back with his friends.
"Well did you find out anything?" Sage was taken out of his probing by Kento's impatience.
"All I found out was that Ryo feels safe and that is why he is sleeping now." Sage didn't say anything about the shields. He wasn't sure what to make of them. Most normal people couldn't build shields like that, only people with gifts like his could normally.
"Ryo couldn't be could he?"
Ryo woke from his sleep when he felt someone was standing behind him. He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep but at some point while he was sleeping he lowered some of the shields that blocked thoughts. He didn't just feel the person standing behind him he could hear what they were thinking too. It was Rowen. Ryo kept his eyes shut. He didn't want Rowen to know he was awake just yet. He could feel the worry coming off of him in waves.
Rowen was still worried that something was wrong with Ryo. He wanted to wake Ryo up and ask him if he was ok but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Rowen was beating himself up about not looking for Ryo earlier. Ryo could tell that they all were. He could feel their worry and their anxiety that there might still be something wrong with him. He couldn't take it anymore and so he stopped pretending to sleep and opened his eyes.
"Hey Rowen. Did you need something?"
Rowen just stared at Ryo's back. He had thought Ryo was asleep but he must not have been. Ryo must have seen Rowen come up behind him because he hadn't turned around to look to see who was behind him.
"I just wanted to make sure you were ok. You've been gone all this time and now that you're back all you've done is sleep. You're not still sick are you?"
"I'm not sick Rowen and you can tell the guys if you want. I'm just tired. I didn't get much sleep while I was gone." Ryo smiled like there was some secret joke hidden within what he had said that Rowen just didn't get.
"Why didn't you sleep while you were with your dad? Having to much fun or something?" Rowen still felt like something had happened to Ryo and everything wasn't ok yet. He felt that it had to have something to do with his dad.
"Yeah something like that." Ryo didn't want to say anything else about the subject, but he was still curious about one thing. "How did you know that I was at my dad's house?"
Rowen blushed at this. He wasn't real sure what he should tell Ryo or how Ryo would react when he heard that Yulie had gone through his stuff.
"Well…" Rowen trailed off. He wasn't going to tell Ryo but Ryo kept looking at him with this expectant look on his face and he didn't want to make Ryo mad by not telling him. "Yulie went through your things trying to find something of his you had. He found an address book that had dad written next to one of the addresses. That was how we knew where to send the invitation to the party."
"You sent an invitation to my house?" Rowen didn't answer. He had turned to look at Cye who was yelling that the hamburgers were done and that he needed help getting the food to the table. Rowen left to help before Kento got to them first. If he had stayed he might have seen Ryo go pale and begin to shake. Ryo realized that this meant that his parents now knew how to find him here. He wasn't safe here anymore. Ryo felt all the happiness he had felt at leaving his house and his parents and getting back to his friends and safety disappear like a popped balloon.
Sage looked up suddenly and looked towards Ryo. Something had changed. Before he didn't feel much from Ryo but he could still feel something. Now he just felt nothing. It was like Ryo had disappeared behind an impenetrable wall. Something had happened after Rowen had talked to him. Something bad to have caused this kind of reaction but Sage just couldn't figure out what it could have been. Sage picked up some of the food and headed back to the table with everyone else.
Everyone sat down after setting the table. Ryo just sat at the picnic table like he couldn't see everyone placing food on the table around him. He didn't offer to help. They looked at Ryo. His eyes were glazed and he was staring straight ahead. Everyone felt their heart sink. Ryo wasn't better.
Ryo what happened? You've got to come out of the trance. You're not in trouble. Ryo you're scaring your friends.
Ryo shook himself. To everyone watching it looked like he was coming out of a daydream and then immediately reentered it. His eyes had cleared for a moment but then had glazed again almost as quickly. Ryo had to talk to Whiteblaze and tell him what had happened.
Whiteblaze, they sent an invitation to my house. They can find me now. I'm not safe here anymore.
It will be ok. I'll keep a look out for them while you're here. Tell the other Ronins. I'm sure they will understand and help.
NO I can't do that. They can't know. They can't know about any of it. Not my parents or my new powers I don't want them to know.
Your going to have to tell them sometime you know.
Ryo could feel Whiteblaze move farther away to start patrolling and to keep a look out for Ryo's parents. He felt safer then, but only a little. He looked up and realized that everyone was staring at him and no one was eating.
"Are we just going to stare or are we going to eat?" Ryo started piling food onto his plate.
After that dinner was almost like normal. Everyone told stories about what had been going on and Ryo made up a few about what he had been doing when asked. Everyone laughed together and told jokes. It was just like old times. Ryo only phased out once during the entire time but no one really noticed. Kento made jokes about how much Ryo was eating. Ryo had eaten more than Kento already and was still eating. Cye got up and headed towards the grill. Ryo had eaten all the extra food he had made to cover Kento's huge appetite. They were going to need more food.
"Then Cye, he pushed Kento, and they knocked over a whole row of canned vegetables. You should have seen the managers face Ryo." Rowen was trying not to laugh the whole time he was telling this story.
"Oh come on it wasn't my fault, really. If Cye hadn't pushed me it never would have happened." Kento was laughing now as well.
"Guys quiet. There's something wrong with Ryo." Sage hadn't been listening to the conversation but had been watching Ryo. When Cye had gotten up Ryo's eyes had lost focus. He was staring straight ahead and was starting to rock back and forth. Everyone was now watching Ryo as he kept rocking and was slowly starting to shake.
"What's wrong with him?" No one answered. They just watched Ryo. Sage reached out to touch Ryo's shoulder but before he touched him Ryo stood up and screamed.
"CYE!" With that Ryo took off running towards Cye and the grill, with the rest of the Ronins running after him. He reached Cye and pushed him backwards from the grill and into the side of the porch. Then he turned to the grill just as there was an explosion of fire. He reached into the flames and tried to keep it from actually causing an explosion. He had to absorb the flame and without his armor on to protect his hands from the heat. He knew that they were going to burn. He could feel them starting to burn already, but still he worked to control the flame. He felt the fire getting smaller and soon it was no longer there. He sighed with relief. He went to check on Cye, who was now surrounded by the rest of the Ronins. Ryo realized with a jolt of guilt that when he pushed Cye he had knocked him unconscious.
Kento stood up and angrily faced Ryo. Slowly Sage and Rowen followed suit. They were all glaring angrily at Ryo. Ryo was loosing his control again. Their anger was overwhelming his defenses and he didn't understand what they were mad about. He had knocked Cye out but not on purpose. If he hadn't Cye would have been caught in the explosion. Ryo was fighting to keep the little bit of control he had left.
"What did you do that for?" Kento was angrily yelling "Do you not like Cye or something? First you attack him in the woods and now this." Kento was walking menacingly towards Ryo.
"We invited you back because we wanted to help you. We thought that you would be safer here with us and you attacked him again." Rowen was closing in on Ryo as well.
"I don't know what's wrong with you Ryo, none of us do, but you can't come back here and just start attacking people." Sage moved up to surround Ryo as well.
Ryo was backing a way from them. He had lost all control. He was no longer aware of the people around him or what they were saying. He wasn't even sure if he knew these people that were surrounding him. All he could feel was an overwhelming anger. His body was instinctively backing away from what it felt was an obvious danger. Ryo didn't even see the hands that pushed him backwards. He lost his balance and fell.
"JUST LEAVE RYO." All three Ronins said at the same time.
Ryo looked up at them from the ground and felt like he was dieing. He was pulling deeper and deeper inside of himself trying to hide from what they were saying. He was didn't want to accept that the security that he had wanted so badly was disappearing. A foot came from somewhere and kicked him in the stomach. Pain shot through him. Whoever had kicked him had hit one of the injured ribs. Ryo no longer had any conscious thought; he was running on instinct and autopilot. He was in danger, so he reacted. He ran. He ran away from the only home he had ever truly known and into the woods. He felt himself calling Whiteblaze and crying, but that was all. He didn't feel the burns on his hands or the briars catching on his clothes. Everything seemed far away. He kept running.