Part 4: Becoming a Knight
There were 4 dark blue weighted wristbands, a pair of baggy blue pants that would go to my ankles, a sleeveless silver vest, a belt, and an orb made of crystal about the size of a marble shooter and was the color of silver and blue and they were constantly swirling together.
"Wait a minute that can't be it." I said as I slammed the tailor up against the wall.
"That's what Lord Van asked for!" Tailor screeched. I slapped myself on the forehead.
"D-ooh. Sorry." I set Tailor down my face burning with embarrassment. I picked up my clothes excluding the orb, and headed quickly to the dressing room.
"Dang it, why does this always happen to me?" I mumbled to myself as I put on my pants my tail going through the hole in the back. I weaved my belt through the belt loops and snapped the belt buckle together like the seatbelt on an airplane and the belt buckle had a dragon on it. I put 2 of the weighted wristbands around my ankles and the other 2 around my wrists, and has I walked out of the dressing room I whipped the vest around putting one arm through one sleeve and the other arm through the other, fixed the collar and flung my hair over it. I walked over to the table, picked up the orb that was sitting there, and put it in my pocket.
"Damn. You look good." Merle said. Reeko flicked her shoulder. Hard. "Ow."
"But she is right." Hitomi said. I put my cloak back on no hood and we headed back to the castle. When we got there we headed into the dining room. We ate dinner, which was huge, and we went to our quarters. I unlocked my door, went inside, and locked the door behind me. I took off my cloak and hung it on the coat hanger, and threw my vest on the arm of my chair and went into my bedroom.
"What a day." I said as I lay down on my bed. I looked around and saw a box on my pillow.
"What the..? How did that get there?" I shot up and grabbed the little box I heard something rolling around inside of it. I extended my all my claws on my right hand and sliced the lid clear off the box onto my dresser. It was another crystal orb slightly larger than the one in my pocket, but the same color with a note. It said,
"Activate the 2 spheres and meet on the roof at 10:00 P.M. Allen Schezar and Van Fanel."
"How do I activate the bleepin' orbs!" I roared in frustration. I took the first orb out of my pocket and said,
"Open pretty please?" Nothing.
"Drat."
What do you want to prove to the world? Van asked in thought.
"What the..? Where did that come from?" I look around the room.
What do stand for? Hitomi asked
"Huh?" Still confused.
What are your virtues? Van and Hitomi said in unison.
"Huh?" then it clicked. "Of course! The 9 virtues from the code of the ancient samurai, Bushido, are the key. Yes!"
"Virtue!" The orb glowed red then died.
"Life!" It glowed dark blue then died.
"Wisdom." It glowed green then died.
"Trust" It glowed light blue then died.
"Justice!" It glowed orange then died.
"Loyalty!" It glowed dark gray then died.
"Obedience!" It glowed black then died.
"Sincerity!" It glowed pink then died.
"Piety or righteousness!" It glowed brown then died. Then it started flashing all of the colors.
"COOL!" Then without warning it exploded.
"Oh-no!" Bright white light filled the room and blinded my vision. When the light when away and my vision return, I grabbed the other orb and ran into the living room. I threw the other orb on the chair and looked into mirror. I was on fire.
"Aaaah! Wait a minute I can't be burning, otherwise it would burn like a Glasgow bikini wax." The fire was silver-mixed with blue, and it covered all of my body except my head and tail.
"Cool." The flames died down and what was left blew me away. There was silver sub armor so to speak on my shoulders, upper arms, and thighs. There was sea blue sub armor on my chest, waist, and the rest of my legs, my feet, and my forearms and on my hands. On the back of my feet there was a hook that was went from one ankle to the other. My tail was not blocked it was free to move. I turned around and the other orb was hovering in front of me. It was resonating. Then it disappeared in a flash of light. I said the 1st words that popped into my head.
"Armor of Wildfire! DAO JIN!" I roared.
My sub-armor glowed red and the sign of virtue appeared in front of me and exploded into red and pink lotus petals that flew around me and landed all over my body except for my head and tail. When the petals landed on me they created incredible fire red armor. I felt the armor connect onto my knees covering them and my lower legs, feet, forearms, 2 plates covered the outside of my thigh, one covered the base of my tail and they were all connected by a belt and one plate connects the belt together covers my groin. And the belt connected to my waist. The chest plate attached to my chest and I felt the back plate connect to the chest plate and to me. The shoulder blades attached to my sub armor and I felt 2 katanas attach to my back plate going from right to left diagonally. I held out 1 of my hands and a bunch of lotus petals gathered there, there was a flash of light, a helmet appeared, its faceplate was facing towards me and was elongated to fit mine so I turned it around and over and put it on. I looked in the mirror and saw myself.
"Whoa." I could still extend my claws, which was good. I had opened and activated my armor.
"Ya for me!" I then looked at the clock. It was midnight.
"Oh crap, I'm two hours late!" I raced out onto my balcony, extended my claws ran to the side jumped off grabbed a hold on the wall with my claws. I realized my armor was feather-light.
"Man, is this going like totally vertical or what?" I said as I quickly climbed the wall. When I saw the edge of the wall I started speeding up. Then when I reached the edge, I dug my claws in and pulled myself up, hard and fast. I flew 5 ft into the air, flipped several times, and landed stealthy on the other side of wall. I saw Van and Allen their swords drawn like they were going to jump me when I came through the corridor. Glad I came this way.
"Where is he?" Allen whispered to Van in frustration.
"I don't know." Van whispered back. I reached around to my right shoulder with my left arm, grabbed one of my 2 katanas, and pulled it out. It was a slightly curved sword aka Katana. I swung it around to get a feel of it. I started to approach Van and Allen, but I quickly put my katana away and jumped behind a pillar about 2½ feet wide. Why? I guess your thinking? Because I heard footsteps and 3 scents blew past my excellent nose. I smelt Van and Allen the third one I couldn't really make out because Van and Allen were really close. The 3rd scent was getting stronger. It was Hitomi. I climbed up to the top of the pillar with my back touching it. I heard Van and Allen yell their battle cries and Hitomi scream.
"Oh, I'm so sorry Hitomi." Allen said apologizing.
"Are you ok?" Van said also apologizing.
"Am I okay! You almost gave me a heart attack Jeez!" Hitomi yelled as I tried hard not burst out laughing. Digging my claws in to grip the stone so I wouldn't fall, giving away my position.
"How's Merle doing?" Allen asked.
"She pretty shook up. When Sage died, she kinda freaked." Hitomi said to Van and Allen. "Reeko has calmed her down and she's asleep," She continued "She's okay for now."
"You better go to sleep." Van said.
"Ok, good night" Hitomi said.
"I hope Sage shows." Allen said.
"Maybe he's here, right under our noses." Van said. By then I had managed to climb onto the crawling on the ceiling, crawling like a chameleon, to where I was directly over them. I took out one of my katanas, stabbed it deep into the ceiling, and my muscles coiled up like springs as I prepared to pounce. I spring at them, flipping over, because a cat, always lands on his feet I retracted my claws the rest of the way, drew my other katana, and roared my battle cry. Of course I was falling pretty fast so all of this happened in a split-second. I saw Allen and Van look up.
"Whoa" Van exclaimed.
"What the…!" Allen exclaimed as well. Van jumped to the left and Allen jumped to the right. I hit the ground hard, my legs absorbing the impact my feet making little craters where I landed. I charged at Van with incredible speed, swinging my sword and attacked with a ferocity that I never knew I had. Van was fighting defensively blocking me blow for blow.
For once all that practice with Tai paid off. And my mom said that would never come in handy. I saw out of the corner of my eye Allen getting ready to charge. He charged. I jumped up high doing a back flip over him and grabbed the other katana that was stuck in the roof. When I landed I saw Van and Allen side by side.
"Ready?" They said to me has they got into their battle stances.
"Bring it on." I roared as I got into my battle-stance. They charged. I stood my ground. When they just about got to me I jumped. Over the heads I flew as I flipped, but I landed between them.
"Whoops." They both struck downwards. Ching! I did the splits as I blocked both of their swords with both of mine. I sprung up ninja-style as Van and Allen started to attack me from two fronts. I was blocking every attack with a style that was truly cat-like. I flowed like water with each of my blocks and attacks. But it was stinkin' hard! My speed, endurance, and strength were unbelievable to me. With one precise slash at the tsuba (guard) I knocked Van's sword out of his hand and continued to fight Allen. We stopped and I put away one of my katanas and said.
"Let's end this."
"Right." Allen responded. We got into our battle-stances and we charged. I extended and dug in the claws on my feet and I tore up the rock floor as I sped towards Allen. Allen jumped up to attack from the air. However, I was one step ahead I slid underneath him. I jumped up and Allen landed, spun around, and charged. The charge would have taken out my right lung, but I blocked it with the side of my sword and used Allen momentum and speed against him. The tsubas of our swords met with a clank.
"Urrah!" I pushed up on my sword with all my strength. Allen flew up over my head his sword flying to the right and stuck into the floor.
"Aaaah. Ouch!" Allen yelled has he flew and hit the ground on his back. I roared in victory and then I put away my other katana and walked over to Allen. Picking up his sword on the way.
"I won." I said shocked, Allen is one of the best swordsmen on Gaia.
"Yea you won now help me up." Allen said as he held out his arm. I grabbed it and pulled him up.
"You're a great fighter." Van said.
"Thanks. Uh how strong is my armor?" I asked.
"Its strength is unknown." Van answered.
"Whoa."
"Can I have my sword back?" Allen said.
"Huh? Oh, yea here." I handed him his sword.
"Kneel before me." Van said drawing his sword. I pressed a hidden button on my left temple on my helmet, and the mask on my helmet split in half and slid back into the sides of my helmet as I kneeled before Van.
"Remove thy helmet." I took it off letting my long jet-black hair fall down.
"I dub you my personal guardian." Van said as he tapped my on my shoulders with his sword.
"It will be a serious honor." I responded after a moment of silence.
Thank you I said to Van in thought.
You deserve it Van responded. There was more silence.
"You'd better get some sleep. Flying lessons tomorrow." Van said.
"But Van what if I fall again?" I said nervously.
"You won't." Allen said as he slapped me on the back.
"See ya tomorrow." I said. Van and Allen walked off to their quarters. I put my helmet back on, closed the mask, ran to the edge of the roof, and stopped. I sniffed the air there were no pollutants. It may be a bit late for this, but I have night-vision. Even though it was 1 or 2 in the morning, it was as almost as bright as day. I climbed down head first to my balcony. Walked into my bedroom and took off everything except for my shorts, sub-armor which I don't how I got off, and all threw it all onto the floor. My fur was matted from sweat, caused by combat and summoning my armor and sub-armor. I fell asleep curled up underneath the covers of my bed. Exhausted. I dreamt of my home, and everyone at school.