New Blood
by Saber Alexander McConnell
Rated PG13

CHAPTER 34: Kale's Assessment

Nohano was wakened in the middle of the night by Xander's warning cry. "Wake up!" he yelled loudly. "Trouble! Wake up!"

Suddenly wide awake, shaking with adrenaline, Nohano lurched to his feet and looked wildly around, taking in a brief, confusing look at what was happening. No one attacked them, but the ground was shaking violently, rocks rattling on the hard ground and sand shifting beneath his feet. Rashida and Suisei had armored up by instinct, and Xander looked like he was about to panic.

Oddly, Nohano calmed on seeing they weren't being attacked, because he had experienced earthquakes before. He didn't think any of his friends ever had, though he wasn't sure. "Stay calm, guys!" he called. "Stay low to the ground and grab the packs. We won't want to lose the supplies!" 'Damn, he thought, watching the others taking his advice and getting on their hands and knees and grabbing for their backpacks. 'This has gotta be at least an eight on the scale!' Of all the things he had expected in this land, an earthquake was last on the list.

Is there danger? Rashida asked, her arms flung out to keep her balance.

Nohano cursed as the rumbling intensified, and he was thrown to the ground. "Ow...damn it. Some!" he answered, inching towards his backpack. "Not nearly as much as it would be in a city full of tall buildings, though! We just need to stay in one place, and--"

An unearthly rending sound and a terrified scream from Amaya cut him off, and he turned in horror to see a great rift breaking apart in the ground, and Amaya falling—

He didn't stop to think; he lunged for Amaya, scrabbling for purchase on the heaving ground. He dove at the rift, grabbing Amaya's hand as she lost her tenuous grip on the edge of the chasm, clenching his teeth at her sudden weight straining his arm and pulling him halfway down.

Nohano yelled at the top of his lungs for help, clenching his hand as tightly as he could around Amaya's wrist, his other hand digging desperately into the ground. The ground still shook, shaking his grip, threatening to spill them both into a chasm whose bottom Nohano could not see. He thought the noise must deafen him, his own cry lost in the thunderous rumbling and the breaking of stone.

And then there were hands on his wrist, on his arm, pulling him towards the dubious safety above. He looked briefly, seeing Rashida and Xander were there pulling them both up, and that Suisei had lain on the ground right next to them, reaching his long arm down to reach for Amaya's free hand.

Nohano closed his eyes briefly in relief, aiding his friends as much as possible in getting himself and Amaya out of the wretched hole. Once Nohano was able to get leg up onto the shaking ground, and Suisei was able to reach Amaya's hand, they all heaved backwards, tumbling in a pile and scrambling away from the break in the ground.

No one had time to say anything, grabbing the backpacks and fleeing as far and as quickly as possible from the chasm. But the ground's shaking was already beginning to abate, the stone settling down and becoming suddenly still. Nohano stood, looking shakily at the chasm he'd nearly died in, catching sight of Amaya, whose dark face was oddly white. She looked at him then took a step forward, and then she was hugging him, gratitude shining through the mind link like a beacon. He was surprised for only a moment before returning the embrace, closing his eyes for a moment and taking a big, calming breath. He and Amaya did not get along always, but he knew that if she'd died, he'd have felt just as wretched as if any of the other Ronin had died. He couldn't describe his relief that he'd gotten to her in time.

When Amaya pulled away, Nohano was startled to see she'd wept; he didn't think he had ever seen Amaya cry in his life. He cried more than she did! She'd always been calm and steady, taking things as they came. He supposed it had taken her by surprise; she'd nearly died from something she had no control whatsoever over. That would shake anyone. For that matter, Nohano was crying, too.

"Arigatou," Amaya whispered, and Nohano remembered that it meant "thank you" in Japanese. Amaya shook her head and switched to mind speech, obviously too shaken to want to bother with English. It's not enough. But I mean it from the core of my spirit.

"You're welcome," said Nohano with a little laugh, touched by the sincerity in her voice, and amazed that he had just saved someone's life. "You're right, words are kinda stupid sometimes, aren't they?"

Amaya surprised him by laughing and nodding her head in agreement. Nohano looked around at the other three, who all looked as pale and shaken as he and Amaya were, then hugged each in turn. "My turn," he said with another shaky laugh. "Thanks. I owe you guys big."

"Aw, no way," said Xan with an admirably casual grin. "You'd do the same for us. No debts in this group—none of this 'owe ya' crap."

Nohano grinned and gave the thumbs-up. "Deal," he said. "Well. I'm awake now. Let's get some distance away from this damned area."

Everyone agreed quickly, and they picked up their supplies. It was only then that Nohano realized they were missing a pack, and frowned, figuring out whose was missing. 'Amaya's. She must have lost it in the Bottomless Pit. Damn.' He tried to remember what she'd had in her pack besides her personal supplies, and sighed ruefully once he remembered. She'd not had anything vital, but she'd certainly had something that was of great use. "Man, we lost all the toilet paper."

Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare for a moment. Xander groaned, Suisei and Rashida laughed wearily, and Amaya looked faintly embarrassed. Nohano finally laughed, too, slowly shaking his head. He'd never in his life thought he would have the problems that he was experiencing as a Ronin Warrior. Somehow losing all their toilet paper seemed to be an extremely undignified hardship.

"Well, we got some normal paper," said Xander finally. "And we can share food and water supplies. I think we're all right; let's just get the hell out of here."

No one argued.

"Does that happen a lot?" Suisei asked about a half-hour later. "With earthquakes? The earth opening like that and all?"

"No," said Nohano quietly, his mood sober once more. "I've never heard of it happening at all—that wasn't a normal thing."

"You think it was Talpa's doing?"

The answer did not at first come from Nohano. A harsh, sinister laugh echoed all around them, deep amusement in its tone, and everyone stopped, moving closer together. That was all, just a brief chuckle, but it was enough to unnerve them all. "Yeah," said Nohano, looking disgustedly up towards the unnaturally dark sky. "Yeah, I do."

Mildly demoralized and seriously spooked, the group did not travel far. Once the excitement of their "adventure" began to wear off, they remembered they'd not gotten more than three hours of sleep.

They had been traveling towards rockier terrain, which made Nohano nervous, since an earthquake near rocks and cliffs could be just as deadly as bottomless pits. So he scouted out a nice, open area to camp out in, and Amaya said she'd take watch because there was no way she'd sleep after that. Nohano didn't blame her; he wasn't feeling much like sleeping, either. He was feeling paranoid, in fact, wary of another ground quake. He only managed to drift off after Amaya had woken Suisei for his watch and gone to sleep.

---

The next day, Nohano was extremely grouchy, sore and tired. Everyone seemed to be feeling surly, in fact, and no one spoke much the entire morning. Nohano vowed that the first thing he was going to do when he met Talpa was to deck him.

As noon approached, evident only when they looked up to see the position of the creepy sun, Nohano's doom began to dissipate a little bit. The fact that Xander complained of having dreamed of dating the president and being chased by her furious husband had a lot to do with his lightened mood. Nohano had not dreamt anything he'd remembered, and decided that he was glad. The Nether World was lousy for nighttime visions.

"Amaya?" asked Nohano during their lunch, which was a bit more meager than it had been the day before, so that they saved the supplies they had left.

"Yes?"

"The virtues of our armor...what are they in Japanese? The original Ronin, they would have used the Japanese terms, right?"

Amaya smiled; Nohano knew she enjoyed telling the Ronin stories, and being asked about her country, and the others all looked interested as well. Well, yours is jin, she said. Your virtue is literally virtue.

Nohano felt his face heat a little, but he couldn't help grinning. It was still very weird to him, being told he personified virtue, righteousness. Sometimes it was an honor he didn't think that he deserved.

Suisei's is inochi, she went on. Life, of course. Rashida's is rei, which sort of translates to courtesy, or grace. It can be very loosely translated to wisdom, in English. It carries over oddly. Killian's—his is trust. Shin. Demetrius's is justice, whish is gi.

"How do you know this?" asked Rashida.

The kanji, the symbols on the spheres. They are words in Japanese. Nohano's kanji is the word jin, so I know it is virtue.

Rashida briefly banished her riot gear, peering at the symbol on her orb. All this time I never thought to look up the kanji, she said wonderingly. It's not easy to see it, either. It sort of shines within the mist.

Amaya smiled, nodding in agreement as Rashida armored once more. Sometimes people forget that the symbols are our written language. One form of it, that is. Tarun's kanji is omoi, which can mean many things. Joy, emotion, love... She sighed quietly, and Nohano intuited that she missed the boy, and presumably Demetrius and Killian as well. Nohano knew exactly how she felt. Xan, yours is aigo. Protection. Xander grinned, seeming to like it. As for me, I have shinwa, fellowship. And I know that Nohano's armor is rekka, Japanese for Wildfire.

"Japanese is weird," said Xander, earning mock furious looks from Amaya and Suisei. Xander laughed, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. "Hey, don't get sore! It is weird! I could never learn it—two written languages and different words for the same things, and prefixes, and--there's just too much to wrap my poor, puny brain around."

Suisei laughed. "Well, since you have a poor, puny brain I guess I can't be too angry with you."

"Thank you," said Xander with a grin, finishing the rest of his lunch. "And my lunch matches my brain. Don't feel bad," he said hurriedly to Amaya, who looked upset, having been the one who lost some of their supplies. Xander looked embarrassed. "It's not you. They weren't exactly big to begin with. Now, if you could come over here and help me get my foot out of my mouth I'd appreciate it."

Nohano and Suisei both cracked up at Xander's red face and pitiful plea, though Amaya and Rashida looked quite perplexed. Suisei explained briefly through the mental link what it meant to put one's foot in one's mouth, and then they were able to laugh.

Xan shrugged sheepishly. "Guess I'm good at that," he said.

"Don't worry about it," said Suisei with a chuckle. "We forgive you. Your puny brain, remember?" Xander snorted, but chose not to reply.

"All right," said Nohano with a sigh, gazing at the distant mountain. "That miserable mountain is gonna take days to reach. I wish we all had Tarun's speed!" Amaya had tried to transport earlier in the day, and been blasted unceremoniously back as she had before—Talpa obviously had protection magic in his realm.

That would be convenient, Rashida agreed. Though it would mean we hadn't your fire power and virtue, nor Amaya's teleportation, nor Suisei's life abilities...you get the idea.

Nohano nodded seriously. "Logical," he said. "But I'm not logical. So I refuse to make sense."

Rashida was surprised into a laugh, shaking her head ruefully as she picked up her pack of supplies.

---

From behind the cover of a large outcropping of rock, a man crouched, watching the group of five youths trekking wearily across the lands, peering through the metal mask that obscured his features. Kale, sent by Talpa to make sure their passage was not an easy one and to judge their skill and knowledge, had watched them struggle against Talpa's earthquake and followed them since.

Moral and Cade had gotten plenty of intelligence on the Ronin, and the warlords were gaining a bit of information from their three prisoners, but there was some information that could only be gained by watching them dealing with adversity. Enemies, disasters... Kale had left Jin Tanaka in charge of the young Ronin boy, and put several of the lessers on alert to be ready to fight at a moment's notice.

Smiling, Kale stood, keeping to the rocks, and followed.

He decided to wait until the sun was setting to confront the Ronin Warriors with their next challenge. The Dynasty soldiers who had rounded up nearly all of the people from the American city were now back in the Nether Realm, giving Kale a vast resource of fighters to set against the Ronin. He summoned a group of them now, smiling as they materialized behind him, and nodded towards the weary youths. The soulless fighters swarmed towards the group while Kale climbed up into a niche in the rock face, wanting a better vantage point from which to watch the battle.

It was Wildfire who first heard the approaching soldiers, empty, horrifying, ancient suits of armor advancing on foot and on horseback. Even the horses were not mortal, made of dark energy, rather than flesh and blood. The boy yelled in alarm, leaping back from the approaching horde of soldiers, and crying out, "Armor of Wildfire!"

It was strange to Kale, watching the Hawaiian boy summoning rekka. The only Wildfire he had ever known had been Sanada Ryo, and Kale had never thought to see another bear the armor. He watched with interest as the girl, Halo, cried our her summoning in her own Middle Eastern language, and the redheaded American called for "Armor of Twilight". The two Japanese youths, Strata and Night, called for yoroi tenku and yoroi shinkou.

They were intimately familiar with their armor, that was clear. Kale watched as the soldiers descended upon the group, swords and spears slashing, nunchaku flying, and the hooves of the spirit horses creating an unholy din in the still air.

Clearly the best fighter among the five Ronin was Night. The girl possessed grace and agility, and strength that her small frame belied. Her nunchaku had taken out three of the soldiers before the others even got to their battles. Strata tried his best to stay out of the middle of the fight, for his longbow was useless in close-up fighting. His aim was nearly as good as Tenku no Touma's had been, and he was quick enough to take out several soldiers before they even got to the group.

Halo seemed to be the strongest of the group below; she was sturdy and powerful, wielding her nodatchi with very little effort. What she lacked in litheness, she made up for with power and skill, using hand-to-hand fighting as much as her weapon. Kale judged that she had not studied swordwork nearly as long as she had studied her unarmed fighting. Twilight did not fight; he spent the entirety of his energy protecting the others, eyes darting worriedly back and forth to judge who was in the most danger, dashing forward and flashing up fields of energy to deflect blows or trip the attacking soldiers and their mounts. Kale knew the boy was able to form his shield energy into deadly weapons; Tai Shuang had been badly injured by such a weapon, but Twilight did not use them now. "It's not in his nature," murmured Kale. He was more worried about keeping his friends safe than fighting.

This new Wildfire, Nohano, interested Kale the most. Kale knew more of his fighting style than of anyone else's, having battled him more than the others, but it was difficult to objectively judge one's opponent while fighting him. This way Kale had the leisure to observe him, to notice the boy's strange awkwardness when fighting, as if he'd never held a blade before in his life until discovering his rekka armor. Kale was astonished at how well he managed to fight, even with this awkwardness, this lack of proper technique. Often he used his katana like bludgeons, swinging them as if they were baseball bats. He ducked and dodged to avoid the weapons blows of the soldiers, looking more like a child who has tried on his father's armor than a warrior himself. And he was grinning from ear to ear. Whatever he thought of the Dynasty or being a Ronin Warrior, he liked to fight. Kale had seen that in the tundra battle, too.

'His ferocity,' he thought suddenly, his eyes widening in comprehension. 'That is why his awkwardness does not hamper his fighting nearly as much as it should.' The boy was like a firestorm, each move nearly exploding with the energy of the boy's spirit. He truly belonged with the Wildfire armor. 'I wonder if he knows of Kikoutei yet.'

The Inferno armor. Talpa was most interested in this, as always, for it was an item of great power. He especially wanted to know if the three new sets were designed to work with the Inferno armor, understanding that with eight, not five, Inferno would be that much more powerful.

The battle was brief and brutal. Soon there lay smoking ruins of dark armor around the whole area, with the five Ronin standing back to back in the middle, looking for just a moment like the original five Ronin. Kale blinked, shaking his head slightly, and let himself notice the differences. Aside from two of the armors being completely new, they who bore the armor were very different. He never thought he'd live to see an American with any of the nine armors.

He heard Twilight spit an insult of some kind at the defeated soldiers, kicking one of them before removing his helmet and running a hand through his red hair. Halo assessed her comrades, and Kale watched with interest as she discovered a nasty wound on Amaya's head and healed the injury. 'So, she has discovered her healing power.' They were learning more and more about their abilities, of what they could do when their spirits and the spirits of their armor combined. The more they knew, the more dangerous they became.

Wildfire sheathed his katana and clenched his fists briefly in a gesture of triumph before banishing his main armor, leaving him clad only in the sub-gear. Strata rejoined the group, putting away his bow and also reverting to his sub-gear. The other three soon followed suit.

Despite himself, Kale was impressed. Halo and night had both studied fighting, and it was evident, but the others had not fought in their lives before becoming Ronin. They had learned much in a few short months, increased their skill greatly. He remembered Moral had said they practiced for hours a day, nearly every day, taught by Halo and Night.

Kale turned his gaze once more to the Hawaiian boy, who had sat down with his head held tiredly in his metal-covered hands. The battle had certainly wearied him, though he was still grinning foolishly. Leaving the Ronin to lick their wounds, Kale retreated back into the shadows, and left to report to Talpa.