Sai awoke, clear consciousness coming to him like light pouring into a pitch-black room. He yawned, stretched, and smiled. Then, he noticed the nice smell of air, the feel of both soft blankets and coarse covers, and the way his muscles pulled and tensed with each movement. He remembered those sensations should now be forbidden to him. He sat straight up in bed. "What the –"
Sai blinked, acutely aware of the air and then moisture over his round eyes. " . . . Ryo?" He wanted to repeat that name again, not so much for the reaffirmation of the sight of his friend who had died thirty years before him, but for the strange vibrations in his throat when he spoke. "Ryo!"
"Hey, Sai." Ryo smiled. "We're all here."
Sai surveyed the room. Ryo, Rowen, Sage . . . he looked at the bed next to him and saw Kento munching on some chips. "You're right. We're all here, but –" He noticed five other young men sitting on a couch near the wall. "Seito?"
A tired young man in a leather jacket and a familiar white cap waved at him.
Sai glanced back at his friends and stared at them in amazement. They had been together in the spirit world, but seeing them in the physical world was a different matter. He knew who each of them were by sight, but placing a physical image to them now seemed bizarre. He recognized each of his friends but could not consciously recall how they looked. If he closed his eyes, he would not be able to visualize them mentally. "There's something unusual about our appearances, isn't there?"
One of the young men at the back, a burly man with indiscernible ethnicity, spoke up, "if you're referring to more than your presence here, you're right."
Sai frowned, wondering whose great-grandson that man was. He guessed that the small-boned and chubby man with purple hair and eyes was Toriyama Hashiba, and another of the young men had a strong resemblance to Ryo but with green eyes and a lighter hair color, so that man was probably Aiden Sanada. He knew Seito's appearance by instinct.
Ryo spoke up, "For some reason, we left the spirit world. None of us realized anything was happening. Fortunately, our great-grandsons sensed something," he glanced at them appreciatively, "and they cared for us while we were . . . recovering. They say we were in pretty bad shape when we first got here."
"Yes, I think I remember that, but . . ." He frowned, trying to recall how his friends looked when he last saw them alive. "Rowen's hair was different, and your hair was also different Ryo. Shorter and silv-" His eyes widened. "We haven't looked this way in a long time. Not since we were teenagers."
The man with purple hair and eyes said, "We figure you guys appear to be seventeen. I think whoever brought you here has some connection to your past from when you were originally seventeen."
Ryo frowned, "I'm not sure who." He glanced at his friends; they also didn't know. All had bewildered expressions.
Rowen said, "This is probably due to our condition last night and shifting from one world to another. We remember events, and we know the dates. However, we cannot fit each event with when it happened. The events and dates seem disconnected from each other."
The purple-haired man replied, "Well, you did just wake up. Maybe you'll think of who later when you're feeling better. Your awareness of time might still need to adjust to this world."
Kento waved the empty chip bag. "Hey, is there a restaurant near here? I'm starving."
That question made the original warriors smile.
The new warriors glanced at each other nervously. The purple-haired man said to Seito, "Except for Sai, they have been awake for quite a while now. Sage has been up for twenty-five minutes, a lot longer than yesterday and last night. They're very coherent."
Seito spoke to the originals, "I hope you don't mind waiting another ten or twenty minutes. I want to make sure you guys don't have a relapse or something."
The five original warriors lowered their stares at the floor. Knowledge of their invalid condition frightened them. The entire room fell into an awkward silence. Kento finished off the crumbs in the chip bag. Enjoying the movements, Sai stood up and began to pace, switching from a slow walk to a light jog; in his last memories of the human world, he had been seventy-eight, so seventeen was quite thrilling. Sage closed his eyes, amazed at how he literally felt the passage of time. Rowen stretched.
The purple-haired man said, "It's very cool that you're here, Rowen."
"You're welcome, Tori."
Tori smiled.
Ryo spoke up to the new group, "Hey, guys? Could you please introduce yourselves? Aiden is the only one I recognize."
The new warriors did so. Sai was proven correct in his assumption. The one resembling Ryo was Aiden Sanada, and the purple-haired man was Toriyama Hashiba. Reiji Date didn't share many of Sage's physical traits, although Sai noticed a few of his grandfather's traits. The one with indiscernible ethnicity was Kento's namesake. Sai noticed a bit of his grandfather in his appearance as well. Jari Rei Faun had been adopted into the Rei Faun family from the United States. Jari had married a woman of Japanese ethnicity, and his son must have had married a woman of foreign descent for their son to have an unidentifiable heritage.
"How is Jari?" the first Kento wondered.
The second Kento fidgeted with his speech, "He's, um, -"
"Is the restaurant business okay?" When Kento-sama, the first Kento, left the mortal world, his family restaurant had been in financial trouble with stores closing down as crime increased in certain areas. Society had been shifting. Pleasant, peaceful neighborhoods became dangerous, and new neighborhoods were not yet built.
"Yes!" The second Kento was better able to talk to the first about the restaurant. "Older sister bought two new stores last year."
"Alright! Everything got better, then. Jari must be proud. You say you have an older sister?"
His namesake crossed his arms and turned his head away. Remembering his own grandfather's funeral just last year, Seito took an uneasy breath. Apparently, the original Ronin Warriors were not aware of the status of their families. Their families suffered because of their armors, Rei Faun being the most afflicted by the armors, and two families were trapped in the societal shift that turned good neighborhoods into dangerous neighborhoods.
The first Kento continued speaking, "Hey, has it been ten minutes yet? I'm still hungry."
Startled, his namesake swung his head over and stared at him. Seito said, "Yeah, I guess it's alright. There's a place to eat on the hotel's first floor."
"Hotel?" Kento surveyed the room. He noticed on his friends' expressions a flash of recognition. Something about being seventeen and at a hotel seemed to fit together.
His namesake asked, "You didn't realize you were at a hotel?"
"No, not really. Well, kinda."
**********
Aiden and Reiji exited the hotel room first to guide their great-grandfathers to the bottom floor. The old warriors then followed them. Kento-kun, Seito, and Tori walked behind the originals.
"Something's definitely clicking here," the first Kento said as they traveled down the elevator. His friends agreed. Something about being seventeen and at a certain hotel fit together.
The appearance of the other occupants in the elevator forced them into an uncomfortable silence. A black woman dressed in loose woolen clothes and wearing green feathers in her hair glanced at the old warriors and their gaping stares. A Japanese woman in her mid-twenties was dressed in thick leather shirt and shorts, which fortunately was more modestly-designed than the leather clothes the old warriors remembered. The sleeves came down to her elbows, and the legs on her shorts came down to her knees. However, the woman wore blood-red lipstick, and her hair was dyed the same color. A man of mixed ethnicity next to her was dressed in a similar fashion. His bald head was dotted with metallic beads and spikes.
The man noticed their gaping stares and stepped away from the woman as though to approach hostilely. "Do you have a problem with us?"
"No!" Ryo blurted out. "No, no. We don't have a problem. We just –"
The man scowled belligerently.
Aiden told the man, "They're from out of town. They're from a small village and aren't used to the sights around here."
The man put his hands into his jacket pockets and walked back to his girlfriend in disgust.
The original warriors glanced at their own clothes, a century out-of-date. They compared their outfits with those of their great-grandsons'. Aside from Seito's leather jacket, the clothes of the new warriors were made of two different materials. One material was brighter, smoother, and crisper in appearance like Seito's T-shirt; the other material was animal wool, such as the pants they wore and Aiden's shirt. Only Kento's namesake wore denim pants.
Once they entered the hotel's restaurant, Ryo felt lost and confused, following Aiden and Reiji obediently to a table. He surveyed the room. "Hey, guys? Are you sure we're in Japan?" he asked after they sat down. "I don't see many Japanese here."
The new warriors tensed in shock. Reiji and the second Kento glared at Ryo briefly in consternation while the others kept their stares at the table.
Sai spoke up, "Ryo . . ."
"Yeah?" Where were all the Japanese? He saw people from four different distinct ethnic groups and a few Japanese.
"Do you remember the immigration that occurred before you –" He let that sentence drop.
Ryo nodded. "It was mainly Indians and Chinese." 250 million Indians and 250 million Chinese - almost twice the population of the United States and due to troubles within their own countries, suddenly immigrated all over the world. The emigration enabled India to become a stronger first world country, but it caused significant problems for China.
"It was not only the Indians and the Chinese. It was everyone else - Africans, South Americans, Middle Easterners, Europeans; everyone immigrated."
Reiji glared at Ryo. "Japan has changed quite a lot since you were last here. Everyone here is Japanese."
"Yeah, it looks completely different."
Reiji's glare deepened, the color of his eyes reminding Ryo of whenever Sage was furious. Ryo felt chastised and scolded, but he didn't know for what. He decided to avoid the topic of immigration and picked up his menu.
There was little conversation as they selected their meals and then waited. Tori asked Rowen what he was ordering. Sai worried about Ryo, aware that because of the thirty-years difference between their deaths, some of the things he was now accustomed to were foreign to his friend. Even Kento would have some difficulty adjusting. Modern Japan might as well be a different country to them.
Sai frowned, wondering how much difficulty he would have despite being the last to leave the physical world. Using chopsticks distracted him for a moment. The renewed agility in his fingers amazed him. He clapped the two sticks together before eating. In his final years, he had almost been a complete invalid, dependent upon his wife and children for his most basic needs. Now, however . . . He lifted a piece of food into his mouth and again clapped the two chopsticks together as he chewed. No arthritis at all.
"Look at how he eats!" Kento's namesake grumbled, indicating the first Kento. "Do I eat that much or that fast?"
The new warriors shook their heads.
Tori wondered, "Do I eat that much?"
"No, you just eat a little of many different things."
Kento paused in his eating and pointed his chopsticks at his namesake to indicate whom he wanted to talk to as he finished chewing and swallowing. "Hey, what year is it?"
"2070."
"Then . . . the last year I remember is 2035, so I haven't had anything to eat in over thirty years! Gimme a break!"
His namesake appeared indignant as everyone else at the table began laughing.
"Don't worry about it," Kento said, noticing the younger's expression, "Your grandfather never could eat as much as me. He tried to, but never could."
After the laughter quieted, Sai asked, "Seito, how old are you?"
"Twenty-one."
Sai had nineteen years of changes to adjust to.
When Sage finished his breakfast – he had the least to eat -, he pushed his bowl away. "I am certain we remember Suzunagi."
"How can we forget her?" Kento wondered before shoving another large bite of food into his mouth.
"We met Suzunagi . . . at this hotel . . . when we were seventeen . . ."
Everyone quit eating.
"You're right," said Ryo. All the events and dates – what happened and when – now fit together. Their sense of time, which had been gradually healing over the course of their meal, was now complete.
Rowen inquired, "Were we wearing these exact same clothes when we met Suzunagi?"
Sai glanced at the familiar white cap which Seito was still wearing. "I think you're right. Do you think Suzunagi has something to do with our arrival?"
"I'm not certain. So far, she seems like the only person who could bring us here. Why else would we be the same age and wearing the same clothes as when we first met her?"
Then, they paused to explain to the new warriors who Suzunagi was and their connection with her. The new warriors had known their armors were not the ones which defeated Talpa and the Dynasty, but they didn't know the entire story behind the armors that their great-grandfathers received after defeating the two Inferno armors.
The new warriors listened to them with sentiments alternating between inspiration and consternation. After they finished their tale, Sai speculated, "I wonder if Suzunagi brought us here so that we could start over without having to fight. I know it seems strange, but we aren't the Ronin Warriors anymore. We really aren't. Maybe, after how we've helped her, she brought us back so that we could lead normal lives."
Kento's namesake crossed his arms and scowled.
Ryo said, "You're right. And it would be a nice thing for her to do."
The second Kento's scowl deepened.
Rowen said, "So far, it's the only thing that makes sense."
The second Kento exclaimed vehemently, "You're wrong! It's not practical. Why should she bring you back when she could just as easily bring her parents and herself back? It's what I'd do, and it's her parents' deaths which caused all her problems to begin with. It's not practical."
Sai tried to speak in a calming tone, "Sometimes the nice and generous thing to do isn't always practical."
This made the second Kento more furious, and he opened his mouth to speak, but fortunately Tori interrupted him, "Well, um, um, how – how would Suzunagi bring someone back to life? How would someone do that? I mean, she is already dead . . . how could a dead person bring other dead people back to life?"
"That is a good question," Rowen commented.
Tori smiled.
"But, there are plenty of things we don't understand like exactly how Suzunagi created the armors. The conversion between the spiritual and the physical is something I have not understood very well."
"Well, we can figure that out later. Can you talk to Suzunagi somehow?" Tori added with a shrug, "Maybe she still has a connection with the armors."
The original warriors glanced at each other.
Sage replied, "I doubt she retains a connection with the armors since you have not been aware of her existence. After all of your experiences with the armors, I believe you would be aware of her by now. Not even we have communicated with her after obtaining our new armors."
Kento's namesake, having calmed down, spoke up, "Why don't you guys go meditate on her or something just to make sure? If she does have something to do with you being here, then she should still be close by."
Sage stood up. "That might be the only way to be certain." He stretched out his hand, palm-open, to receive the Halo orb.
As Reiji handed him the armor orb, the second Kento wondered, "Sage is the only one of you who meditates?"
Ryo and Rowen followed Sage to the top floor where Rowen had met Suzunagi in the past.
********
Once three of the original warriors left, Reiji urged Kento-kun away from the table to an empty section nearby and proceeded to lecture him there. "I cannot believe you would be so disrespectful to our great-grandfathers! Our armor spirits! You were becoming hostile to them!"
"I really don't like the whole idea that they get a second chance."
"Were you listening to them?"
"Yeah. They get a second chance to live happy and carefree. I might drown in a pool of my own blood, and will I get a second chance? Prob'ly not. Is that just? No. Why should they get a second chance to be happy and not us? Will my entire family get a second chance? I'm sorry, but the whole idea goes against my sense of Justice, and Justice is the entire reason why I am a Ronin Warrior."
Kento-kun began to storm off, but Reiji stopped him by asking, "You have never been able to reconcile your past and the armors, have you?"
"Nope. Have you?"
Reiji refused to answer and let Kento-kun walk away. The original Ronin Warriors had been born in a better Japan, and the transition wouldn't be easy for them.
************
Rowen pointed to a set of windows. "That's where I met Suzunagi. She showed me a vision of the Ancient One breaking the seal on the Strata armor."
Sage walked over to the windows, turned his back to them, and sat down cross-legged. He placed his cupped hands, cradling the Halo orb, in his lap. He closed his eyes.
Rowen and Ryo waited. Ryo wished he had a watch with him. Rowen counted the seconds. They watched Sage meditate, his eyes sometimes twitching in concentration. After 3025 seconds, Sage opened his eyes.
"I cannot even sense Halo. Our connection with the armors has been severed."
*********
Not everyone finished their breakfast. A few of the warriors, both new and old, had lost their appetites. They returned to the hotel room the new warriors had rented to discuss the situation. The original warriors were seventeen again and now homeless, stuck in the mortal world
"We need to figure out a place for you to stay," said Seito.
The original warriors nodded.
"Toriyama Hashiba is the only one of us who has a house. The rest of us live in dorms and one-bedroom apartments. I've thought about calling Yamano-san, but-"
Ryo interrupted, "Yamano-san?"
"Yuli Yamano, but I figure the shock would be too big for him."
"Oh, god . . ." The last year Ryo remembered was 2021, leaving a fifty-years difference between the Yuli he knew and the Yuli currently living. "No, we can't stay with him."
Seito nodded. "He doesn't know any of what's happened in the past few days. Like I've said, Tori is the only one with a house. Four bedroom. Plenty of space. Are you fine with this, Tori?"
The second Ronin of Strata nodded, "yeah, but I'll have to call Lena. She doesn't really know what's happened either. I just told her that our current mission was taking longer than expected. I'm sure she'll agree."
Lena wouldn't have much of a choice.
Tori checked the clock on his cell phone. "She'll be getting out of class in a few minutes."
Kento-sama wondered, "What about the Koji mansion? We could stay over there, and it wouldn't bother you as much."
Aiden replied, "We haven't been in contact with the Koji family. We have no idea how well-versed they are in the Ronin legends anymore or how much they believe in our existence."
Tori walked away to talk on his cell phone.
Ryo asked the new warriors, "What can we expect in Tori's home?"
"Toriyama's married. Lena's his wife. They have a baby. I've never been there, but I hear it's a great place." Aiden glanced at Kento-kun.
The second Kento spoke up, "I'm the only one who's been to Tori's house. It's pretty much like Aiden says. It's nice and quiet. Peaceful." He lifted his hands in a little shrug. "Tori and Lena get along great. They have a basketball set, a couch and chairs, a table, a television, computer, books . . . oh, man, a lot of books . . . They only have one bed, but a lot of blankets and pillows for you guys. The house isn't cluttered. It's clean and easy to navigate. It's a great place. I always go there to relax."
Reiji suggested, "Perhaps we should also spend the night at the Hashiba residence in case anything else happens."
Seito nodded. "I'll go tell Tori."