The new warriors informed the old warriors about their families after dinner in the order of who died first and had the most to learn. Aiden told them first that both good and bad things happened to their families and that because of all the time which elapsed, a lot of their relatives had passed away.

Ryo's family became internationally famous. His stepson, Hikaru Hideo-Sanada, grew up to be a respected lawyer and defended Mia Koji and her books about the Ronin Warriors when the government reconsidered her status as Japanese and her influence upon Japanese society. Being half-French and well-known in Japan, Mia became vulnerable to the wrath of the anti-foreign population. Ryo's daughter, Banana (named after the writer Banana Yoshimoto), improved the conditions for women in Japan. She married a police officer, and they had a few children. After her husband's death, her daughter moved to Korea, and Bana-chan moved with her. Ryo's son, Hiroyuki, Aiden's grandfather, became one of the world's leading environmental scientists. Hikaru Hideo-Sanada died a few years ago, and Aiden was the only Sanada living in Japan. Ryo's wife, Sayoko, was also dead.

Aiden's father was one of many Ministers of Ecology in Europe. Aiden's mother was a wealthy Scottish landowner. He and his two siblings grew up on their mother's estate while their father attended conferences around the world.

Aiden himself was very politically and environmentally active. He was the president of his college's ecological committee and also planned to lead a political rally at his college. His older sister worked as a nurse helping refugees, and his younger brother was attending a college in Edinburgh. They spoke eight different languages besides Japanese fluently. Ryo considered how the way he and Sayoko raised their children could lead to the family's current condition. They had taught their children to respect nature and humanity, to treat everyone with dignity, and to do the right thing. Sayoko encouraged their children to be aware of the world and recent events. Their children simply took their parents' lessons to the next level and became more involved in society, and then their children took it another step further.

Kento's namesake dreaded discussing the Rei Faun family, but he had to since it was the right thing, and his great-grandfather deserved to know. "Okay, to put it simply, um, your wife Kousei is dead. She died 13 years ago. She was 81. Jari took over the restaurant. Um, it was going great. I'm sure you remember that."

Kento urged his namesake on by asking, "how are they now?"

So, Kento-kun said bluntly, "The restaurant exploded and burst into flames when I was 15. My grandmother, grandfather, and father were killed. I came out unharmed. I am sure you know why." The Hardrock armor saved him, unscathed. "Never could figure out the cause, really. We could have been targets because of the Ronin armors, it was a few months after I got the armor, but might be some other cause. My twin sister survived 'cause she was waiting tables away from the kitchen. My mom and older sister survived 'cause they were away shopping. We rebuilt the restaurant. My older sister manages it."

Kento stormed off, knowing now what had injured his namesake's sense of Justice and corrupted him right before his first mission. It was exactly what the enemies of the Ronin Warriors would do, but it also matched human cruelty. The other warriors shifted uneasily, aware that their heirs might have similar stories.

Reiji spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, devoid of pride and shame. "I grew up in Sendai in Miyagi prefecture. I have a younger brother, Ashida, seven years my junior. He is attending a high school away from Miyagi, and I am attending a college also away from Miyagi. I major in the fine arts, and I minor in sociology. My mother died giving birth to my brother. My father remarried when I was nine. My father was murdered by a race gang when I was 16."

Hiding his emotions, Sage said, "Rowen, you are next." By then, Rowen and Sai doubted they would have anything good to hear.

Tori beamed with pride as he informed them, "Mateo Hashiba helped Hikaru Hideo-Sanada defend Mia Koji. They and a few other people formed a committee, and it's all 'cause of them that Japan still knows about the Ronin Warriors." Tori smiled. "And Mateo was a very popular college professor, just like you, Rowen. Thank you for writing your memoirs for me. My father would've also been popular, but, um… My father and mother died in a car crash when I was six, and my father's friend Kuroda-san raised me. My grandparents were already dead. Kuroda-san was the only man they trusted with the Ronin Legend."

Rowen took a deep breath. "And how goes your college education?"

"I dropped out of college after Lena and I married."

"What?"

"Well, I wanted to relax and be with my family. College is such boring work."

"Toriyama!"

"What?"

Rowen took another deep breath. "Nothing," he gasped out, "I'm in shock."

Sai was scared to learn about his family. "Not a lot can change in 19 years, can it? I've always known that my children and grandchildren have had a mischievous side and end up in trouble, but they always settle down. They get it from Michiko."

Seito nodded, "I don't think a lot has changed. We still have several stores and some occasional property damage from hurricanes. We're still prosperous. Our prefecture has been fairly quiet. I'm going to college for a general degree. I have a sister who's four-years younger than me. I also have a lot of cousins. Michiko died the year before I got my armor, and Yoshio died last year. Kaede and Kaori are still alive."

Everyone went to bed early, but the original Ronins couldn't sleep, so they snacked and drank chocolate milk in Tori's workroom. Both sets of warriors decided they would go to the public bathhouse the next morning, and Kento-kun would take their clothes to be washed. Then, the new warriors would leave to return to their classes and their jobs, but they would come back over the weekend and take the old warriors shopping for clothes.

'This is the first time I've had chocolate milk,' Sage thought, 'not a bad taste.'

Kento sighed, "I can't believe the way our families turned out. I never imagined this would happen!"

Sai hoped to console him, "They did rebuilt the restaurant, and your great-grandchild survived."

"I know, but Japan itself! I saved my namesake. I rescued him, but – I guess I never thought of what put him in danger or if anyone –"

They were silent for several moments until Ryo wondered, "Do you really think Suzunagi brought us here?"

Rowen replied, "It's the only thing that makes sense. She brought us back so that we can start over and lead happy lives without having to fight."

Sai spoke up, "yes, but I wish our children could've been happy without us having to fight."

Those words made everyone silent again. They all felt a certain amount of guilt over being both fathers and Ronin Warriors, and their duties hurt and also shaped their families. Sai's first marriage ended in divorce because his first wife couldn't live with the fear that her husband might die. The child custody debate was more bitter and hostile than their agreement for a divorce. According to Japanese culture at the time, one parent had to be a "bad parent" and the children must stay with the "good parent." Joint-custody was unheard of, and Sai was proven the bad parent. His first wife convinced him to give up custody by asking, "What if you suddenly have to leave for a battle? Who will take care of our sons then?" Ichiro and Nozomu were toddlers at the time. If he hadn't been a Ronin Warrior, they would have still been married, and their two sons would have known him as their father. Of course, he wouldn't have married Michiko and wouldn't have had their three children, Yoshio, Kaede, and Kaori. But even then, his duties as a warrior hurt them. Seven years after his second marriage, a youja from the netherworld invaded, snatching people at random. Sai and Yoshio had been caught, and Yoshio witnessed more bloodshed than Sai did in his first few years as a warrior. Sai had to abandon his son repeatedly to assist his friends in battle, and Yoshio became psychologically scarred for life. Because he was a Ronin Warrior, he was a horrible father.

Eventually, the old warriors went to sleep. They dreamed about the armors, their histories, the many different worlds, and the elements. They dreamed about how everything flowed together in intricate patterns. In their sleep, they felt as intricate and complex as an entire universe. Fire, earth, air, water, and light working together and contradicting each other in the biosphere. From suffering comes the highest virtues and the worst evils, one leading into and also eliminating the other. They dreamed about Japan and the human world. When they awoke, they were changed.

"Ryo!" Kento exclaimed. "Are you okay, man? Your eyes-"

"What? Kento!" Ryo looked at his other friends. "Sage? Sai?"

They both jumped and stared at each other in alarm and consternation.

Kento groaned, "Aw, man. You too?"

Sai whimpered, "This is very disturbing."

Then, Rowen who had been sleeping during this incident awoke and opened his eyes. Everyone screamed.

Ryo sprang up. "Okay, okay! We have all changed. We can see that." The whites of their eyes were no longer white. Instead of white, they were a beautiful pale blue.

Lena Hashiba left for class before breakfast. She peered in on the old warriors long enough to see their blue (and blue-within-blue for some) eyes, and she decided she didn't want to stick around for ronin business.

Both sets of warriors discussed the transformation over breakfast.

Rowen said, "There's no reason for Suzunagi to do this."

Kento's namesake whined, "Toriyama . . . can you explain –"

Tori exclaimed, "No, I can't explain it! It's like giving me a bunch of variables without giving me an equation! Give me an equation!"

"Okay, then, explain 'blue eyes.' Variable 'blue eyes' equals…"

Tori sighed. "They might have some powers. I'm not sure. In all the mythology I've read, blue eyes represent someone holy and sacred."

Rowen nodded, "I agree. However, if we do have powers, we won't know what they are until we need to use it. We retained powers from our old armors, and we didn't know we had those until Suzunagi put us in situations that required us to use them."

Kento-kun suggested, "So, they might still be spirits?"

Tori replied, "No, I didn't say that. That's a big 'if.' There's no reason to think they're still spirits."

"I'm thinking they're still spirits. And I have an idea on how to find out."

There was a long moment of silence.

Ryo asked, "What is it?"

Kento-kun smirked. "We bleed you. Not a little. I'm not saying knives or anything. Just a little prick of blood. If you can bleed a little, you can certainly bleed a lot. Toriyama has some safety pins for us to use."

Tori cried out, "That's not what they're for!"

Ryo suggested, "well, we get hungry. How's that as proof we're alive and mortal again? If we don't eat, we'll starve and die."

Kento-kun replied, "You could simply be imagining that you're hungry."

Tori commented, "They could imagine out the blood too."

"Toriyama, quit being so abstract!" Kento-kun sighed and addressed the new warriors. "If it'll help, I'll stab myself with a safety pin too, just to make things even."

Sage stood up, "If that is what it takes to convince everyone. I also have my doubts."

Tori pulled out two safety pins and filled two tiny glasses with disinfectant. Kento-kun pointed out a certain spot on the thumb which would draw the most blood. They stabbed themselves without any indication of pain. However, when they put their bleeding thumbs in the disinfectant, Sage gasped and Kento-kun yelped. The old warriors were, without a doubt, alive.

Rowen mumbled again, "There's no reason for Suzunagi to do this. Not when we were armor spirits, and our powers then were capable of reaching into the mortal world to help you during a crisis."

Sai wondered, "How can we explain our appearances to people we meet? If we do reenter society, how can we explain this?"

Kento's namesake shrugged. "Just say you used to be a bunch of Neon Goths."

"Excuse me?"

"Say you used to be into all that gothic stuff."

"I'm sorry if I sound biased or anything, but don't Goths worship vampires?"

Kento-kun replied, "Nope. Say you used to be Neon Goths, not Classic Goths. Neon Goths worship rainbows. Vampiric rainbows, but still – rainbows."

"You have an odd sense of humor."

'My first attempt has failed,' Katsuo thought, 'I can't figure out what I've done wrong.' He glanced up from his papers at a picture of his childhood friends, most of whom were dead. He stared at one person in particular, a youth with a smooth pale complexion, crystalline eyes with an eyelid drooping down, and light brown hair.

Katsuo dialed a classmate's phone number. As usual over the past few days, he received the answering machine: "Hello, this is Kento Rei Faun. If you have the right number, I'd like to know who you are and why you're calling me. Leave your message after the beep."

Katsuo hung up the phone. He had already left a message a few days ago. It wasn't like Kento to be away for so long.

The public bathhouse had some amusing and disturbing incidents. Seito and Sai noticed they had the same surgical scars from where their appendixes had been removed.

The old warriors discovered that Reiji's entire torso was covered with healed burn scars. No one remembered a battle against evil in which he could have received those injuries. When Sage inquired about those wounds, Reiji merely replied that not every battle involves the Ronin Warriors. Kento then commented to Sage that Reiji seemed a little disturbing. Sage admitted, "Before we left the spirit world, I sensed Reiji was having trouble with his guiding virtue. I think it is a problem which has progressed gradually over the years."

Ryo couldn't rinse all the soap out of his hair. He had too much hair and used up the two-liter water limit. When Sai told him he would have to cut it off again, Ryo grumbled, "I liked having long hair…"

Overall, the trip to the public bathhouse was a normal and relaxing event.

Aiden sighed as he and the other new warriors prepared to depart. "It was nice meeting you, Ryo. I hope everything goes well. We'll come back again in a few days and help you guys around the mall. I hope you don't mind wearing the same thing for a few more days."

Ryo smiled. "It was great meeting you, Aiden."

Kento said to his namesake, "Hey, if you ever have anything you wanna talk about, you have Tori's phone number, and I'll probably be there until who-knows-when. If you just wanna chat, that's fine. I'll love it."

His namesake replied, "Um, yeah. Thanks."

Seito said to Sai, "What can I say? Having you here has been exciting. I never thought we'd actually meet."

"I never thought so, either. When I last saw you, you were still in diapers!"

Seito laughed. "I still have that picture."

"Oh, I remember that. I didn't look so good then."

Sage said to Reiji, "Remember that even though I am mortal again and youthful in appearance, I still have an entire lifetime of knowledge and experience. If you need my help, I will give it freely."

"I know."

Since they were staying at Tori's house, Tori and Rowen didn't share any parting words.

Kento-kun collapsed on his couch. He had the strangest feeling that his entire life would be upturned again, and all because of his armor spirit. His life lacked stability ever since he became a Ronin Warrior. He recalled a conversation that he and Reiji once had. Tori had encouraged Ryo to talk about Japanese society in 2021 for Reiji because Reiji was interested in sociology and might like to hear from a person who came from that time period.

After Ryo finished talking about the Japan of 2021, Reiji told Kento-kun that Ryo was the kind of man he disliked. Reiji told him about the formation of early race gangs. Kind and caring parents who felt threatened by the immigrant population encouraged their children against them, although those parents usually wanted deportation only for the immigrants or otherwise never thought about what their kids would do. Then, there were kind and caring children who couldn't get jobs because of the immigrants and whose parents had their jobs replaced by immigrants when once upon a time, foreigners were hired to teach English and nothing else.

Where had the Japanese loyalty gone to?

Those children banded together and did what they could to help society. They attacked the foreigners, who they saw as invaders, with the hopes of forcing the immigrants to leave so that the original Japanese could regain control. However, each successive generation became more violent and embittered. The foreigners developed their own race gangs. Retaliation brought about more retaliation, but such violence and hate began with loving parents who worried about their family's future.

'Reiji, if this is what you're thinking, you're right. There prob'ly is no point in being a Ronin Warrior. Our great-grandfathers couldn't heal humanity, and neither can we. But, we were born this way, and this is what we'll do until we die.'

Kento-kun closed his eyes and then convinced himself to get up and call his teachers for the class work he missed. Several essays and lectures, notes… two days missing off his paycheck. He could call his teachers and attempt again to build a life for himself apart from the Ronin Warriors. He hoped Kento-sama wouldn't call anytime soon. He considered briefly avoiding Toriyama's house while on vacation but decided against it. Tori always expected him now. He approached his phone on the kitchen counter and noticed four missed calls on his answering machine. He checked them. All from Katsuo Kanzari, asking for help about the Ronin Legend.

Kento-kun grumbled, "I better get paid for this tutoring," as he dialed the number.

"Hello?"

"Katsuo, what is it?"

"Kento! It's good to hear from you again. Where have you been?"

"I've been out. I'm not in a good mood. What is it?"

"You know Rowen Hashiba published a book about the armor world."

"Yeah."

"Well, I don't quite understand it."

"Alright, can it wait until an official tutoring session? I work at the tutoring center tomorrow."

Author's notes: Tell me what you think! Love it? Hate it? Is it interesting? Realistic? Should I continue? I've been pretty nervous about doing all this stuff to the guy's families, and I've also been pretty nervous about dealing with a new generation of warriors.