Oh man. Ryo's head was killing him. He needed the number of the train that had run him over, and then backed up to do it again. The sound of a soft, feminine groan from beside him brought him fully awake like an ice-cold bucket of water to the head.
He hadn't been having a nightmare. The battle had been real. And that meant –
Rolling over, Ryo noticed the Senshi with the short blue hair. And no one else.
And they were in a cemetery. And the sun was sinking rapidly. Why the hell was it so cold?! He shivered once, rising to his hands and knees. The woman moaned again, and Ryo crawled over to her. Her brow was furrowed, the lines of her face tense with pain. He clenched his fists and looked away for a moment, searching for something that could help him anchor himself.
He'd been wary of them at first, and now he blamed himself in part for what had happened. If he had trusted them, treated them as true allies, maybe….
Well, he didn't really know how things could be different. But they might have been. He still felt responsible. And to make matters worse, the rest of the Troopers and the Senshi were who knew where. This place was definitely hostile, and he hadn't even met the residents yet.
And the woman in front of him was hurting. It was enough to set his armor off at a steady burn.
Or would, if he could figure out where it had gone. He could feel its warmth, but when he clenched a fist and tried to call it, nothing happened. Ryo pulled his yoroi out and scowled at it. It glowed a soft red in the palm of his hand, but its light seemed dimmer, less vibrant. Inside of him, it felt muted. He furrowed his brow, and stubbornly tried again.
The resulting sensation felt an awful lot like being in a car when someone slammed the brakes suddenly and unannounced. His body lurched a bit and it felt like he'd been thrown into a wall. But nothing else happened. It was like banging at an iron blockade. He could feel Rekka behind it. The warmth of the armor was there. But he couldn't connect with it. He felt his stomach drop as he took another look around.
This wasn't a great place to be hanging out without armor. Ryo felt trepidation wind spindly fingers up his spine. This was bad. This was very bad.
The woman beside moaned again, reminding him of her presence. He looked over at her just as her eyes fluttered open. "Nnng….'sagi?" She breathed.
Ryo put a careful hand on her shoulder. "I'm not sure who that is, but it looks like it's just you and me. I promise you we'll find your friends, ok?" Huge blue eyes, lost and disoriented, blinked up at him, and he felt something inside of him…twitch.
"Oh. You're one of the samurai, aren't you? You're….Ryo, right?" Mercury sat up, and he noticed she wasn't in her cute little uniform any longer. Ryo nodded, sitting back. "Yeah, that's me. I'm Ryo Sanada. Pleased to make your acquaintance." He pulled himself into a quick and awkward seated bow. She smiled at him and it transformed her face. Strange….his armor seemed to be reacting to something. His cheeks felt hot.
"Pleased to meet you Sanada. I'm Ami Mizuno." She bowed in greeting, and as her head came up their gazes caught, and Ryo felt himself still. She blinked and he snapped out of it. Man, he didn't know what was going on, but he needed to get it together. Every time she looked at him he got distracted, and the last thing he should be right now was distracted.
Ami Mizuno was counting on him to get them through this place and reunite her with her friends. The Troopers needed him to find them and pull them together again. Somewhere out there, some asshole with way too much power was probably plotting to take them all down, and here they were, separated. He'd know, in his heart, if any of them were in serious trouble, but that didn't make him feel better.
If there was going to be serious trouble, Ryo wanted everyone nearby.
"Well, let me see if I can pick anything up with a scan." Ami touched her earing for some reason, and a cool blue visor appeared out of nowhere across her eyes. It lit up with figures and characters that Ryo could only guess at, though he was willing to bet that Touma could translate what was happening smoothly.
Almost as soon as the display lit up, Ami cried out and put her hands to her ears. It was then that he realized they were bleeding. Alarm opened up inside of him as the visor disappeared with a volley of electrical current and she slumped, still holding her head. He was unable to stop himself from putting an arm around her shoulders. He pulled one of her hands away from the ear closest to him so he could get a better look. He wasn't a doctor, and the flow of blood had already stopped, but he didn't like that far away look in her eyes.
"Mizuno. Talk to me. Are you alright?!" He said in a firm voice, trying to bring her back around. She made a low noise in her throat that made his skin feel too tight, and then fell against him, gingerly reaching up to touch a temple. He squeezed the hand he was still holding gently in an attempt to focus her and she inhaled sharply through her nose, blinking up at him, her expression hazy. "I'm….ok."
He didn't believe her. Her voice sounded thin and high. What he needed right now was a damn hospital. The only thing he saw was a rapidly darkening graveyard, which reinforced the fact that they were all alone in hostile territory, possibly being hunted by some kind of monster. The darkness of night appeared to be spreading across the horizon, shadowing the dull grey sky like a nasty bruise.
…At least he hoped this darkness was only night. It felt….permanent. He rose, pulling Ami with him gently. She groaned, but followed his lead, shakily getting her feet under her. Ryo waited, steadying her as she got her bearings, relieved when she seemed stable.
"I'm alright Sanada, thank you. It appears I can't use the Mercury computer here. I won't be able to help us figure out where we are or what direction we should head in." her voice gained strength as she spoke, and Ryo felt some relief. She was recovering. He smiled for her.
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure we can figure it out. Don't hurt yourself, ok?" Ami nodded.
"Yes. It was foolish to try again, but I just….needed to confirm." Ryo nodded.
"I understand. But let's not rely on it in the future, right?" She nodded again, and Ryo took another study of their surroundings. It looked like the cemetery around them was in turn bordered by a thick and shadowed forest. An occasional pale light flashed in in the trees – almost like a firefly. If he were being optimistic.
Unfortunately, he had a feeling optimism didn't really have a place here.
The shape of a massive, intimidating shrine cut an ominous silhouette at the end of the graveyard, and Ryo studied it carefully. It might be a good place to find shelter. Or death. Or something in between. Either way, a wall to put his back against or a corner to wedge himself into seemed a far better option than hanging out with a bunch of dead bodies in the open.
Keeping a supportive arm wrapped around Ami, he began to steer them in that direction. "Come on. We'll try this place for now, okay?" Ami looked hesitant, her wide blue eyes taking the structure in before she bobbed her head in agreement.
"Yes. I agree that might be a good place to start," she replied.
Ryo tried to be reassuring. "Hey, don't worry Mizuno. I've got your back."
"I thought I was here to help you." She teased as they moved, but the line felt flat to his ears, the reminder a glacial avalanche over the small amount of comfort he'd managed to gather around himself.
"Yeah. I don't know what that thing was, but he had no business dragging you away from home and into this mess," he muttered, feeling off kilter. He liked to think he wasn't too proud to accept help, but the idea that Ami and her friends had been torn from a separate universe to do it? Ryo rubbed at his chest with agitation. Something didn't feel right, but he had no idea how to articulate what was bothering him.
Ami seemed to sense the shift in mood. "Hmm. Well, I gathered that we've all been dragged into this quite unsuspectingly. I don't know what he meant when he was talking about Izanami-sama causing an uprising, but I don't like the sound of it at all." It was Ryo's turn to nod as they approached the shrine steps. He peered up into the shadows that loomed at the top of them, realizing he hadn't felt this unprepared for battle since the very first time he'd met the other Troopers and taken on the demon lord of the Youjakai at fourteen.
More than a decade later, and now he was feeling overwhelmed all over again. Like a kid.
Ryo reminded himself that he was a grown-up, Arago was dead, and whatever was going on, the Troopers would have it handled.
Tightening his grip on Ami, he resolved to keep her safe as they headed up, lapsing into silence. Behind them somewhere, dry grass began to rustle, and Ryo put some hustle into his pace as Ami turned to look over her shoulder. "I don't see anything," she said, in a bewilderingly calm tone of voice. Ryo didn't need to see anything. He practically carried her up the rest of the steps and into the entryway, trying to ignore the way his skin crawled as he slammed the door shut behind them.
