Ch.3: Truth
Soken and Ringo arrive below the clock of East Side High. *So he knew huh?* thought Ringo as Soken put her down.
"Surprised?" Soken said aloud. "You shouldn't be."
"Why not? It's not everyday that some one calls me that name," she responded and what he whispered to her echoed in her head.
_
"It's time our truths clashed, Crazy Apple."
_
"So what do you mean by what you said," she asked with a serious expression.
"Ikki has done something nobody thought he could do. He and Agito brought down The Great Beast. From here on, he will be sought after for battle and for an alliance."
"What do you mean alliance?"
"Just as I said. A certain swallow will seek him out." Ringo's eyes opened wide.
"Simca…" she said with aggravation. "She is always in my way!"
"Calm down," he said easily. "It's time for me to tell you when the first time it was that I met you. Remember when Ikki first started and he ran around betting your emblem?"
"How could I forget?"
Ikki fell from trying to learn the ways of the AT world and attach a sticker to Simca's butt.
"Damn it!" he said aggravated.
"Try a bit harder little crow," she said flirtingly. He tried again and almost had her, but he missed and his sticker attached to another sticker upon the ground with the name Reaper on it. Everybody stared in silence at the sight of the Sleeping forest sticker atop the Reaper sticker.
"Why is everybody so quiet?" asked a puzzled Ikki.
"Your sticker has been placed atop mine kid, and in the AT world, that is the same as spouting off fighting words," said a Skeleton hooded male that seemed to appear out of thin air.
"Ahhh! Where the hell did you come from?" yelled Ikki.
"Your sister, what the hell do you think?"
"You bastard! I'm gonna have to kick your ass to teach you a lesson!" said Ikki as he attempted to punch the male in the face, however, the boy had disappeared before the hit made contact.
"You talk a lot of crap with shitty speed like that," said the boy as he sent a back-hand fist to Ikki's face and sent him flying into a building.
"D- class. Cube Fight without the cube. The name is Reaper to you." All of a sudden, Ringo, Mikan, and Ume dropped from the sky.
"Who the hell said you could bet our emblem dumb ass!?" yelled Mikan.
"Good thing we came or you would've lost it for sure," said Ume.
"We'll take it from here, Ikki. Just sit back and watch," said Ringo. *The current Thorn Queen huh?* thought Reaper.
"The tree branches reach around and up to the sky...
The leaves crowd together and swallow all light,
The forest grows darker and darker, and then...
The man in the forest might think that he is safe...
That hunter doesn't hear the bearing of teeth,
On this night, the hunter will become the prey…
As he has now stepped into the Sleeping Forest..." These words echoed from Ringo, Mikan, and Ume As they mounted an attack on Reaper.
"Idiots. Om would know better," said Reaper as his ATs began to glow. "Looks like I have three adequate volunteers to help me test my regalia!" he said aloud as he vanished. The Noyamano sisters stopped in place as if in an instant, bruises and scars appeared upon their bodies. Ikki's eyes opened wide with fear as his sisters fell.
Ringo struggled to gaze at his feet as her sisters were out cold. She gasped when she saw his feet. His ATs had changed. The once Gray ATs were now jet black with a green glowing stripe alone the base, but that is not what surprised her. It was the fact all four wheels had vanished.
"Shocked?" said Reaper chuckling. "Allow me to formally introduce myself. I am Reaper, the Eclipse King of Shadow rode, and this is my regalia: the Sable Dusk, with this regalia, the shadows of the sky become my wheels!"
A looming, armored, humanoid wolf with a wing upon both hind legs stood over him. This appeared to be his shadow. He tossed the Sleeping forest emblem to the ground.
"Keep your emblem. I know for a fact that that idiot over there is not part of Sleeping Forest, but…" Reaper stood directly over Ringo and bent down.
"Should this happen again, I will keep the emblem." His words echoed as his presence vanished from sight.
"Reaper and I are one and the same," said Soken turning to walk away. "You'd better thank Om for your life, otherwise you wouldn't be breathing right now, he said as he disappeared. Ringo just stood there, shocked and fearful at what she had heard and fell to her knees.
_
"How did it go teacher?" said the strawberry blonde girl right before Soken appeared as she was tuning his regalia.
"Let's just say, It has been set in motion Calighe," he said smirking.
"That's good right?" asked Calighe.
"Yes."
"OK. Just checking. You know how you like to confuse me as if it was an olympic sport."
"It's part of your training you know."
"How is that part of my training?" Soken walked over and laid down on the couch in the souped up, high-tech, underground base point.
"You want to be a Queen of my road right?"
"Yes."
"What is my road?"
"The shadow road, but you are starting to puzzle me."
"What good is learning the shadow road if you can't see through the shadow of life itself?"
She thought about it for a minute. "I get it now!" She clapped happily. "Hooray for no confusion! I want a cookie!"
Soken chuckled and walked to the refrigerator and tossed a cookie in her mouth and pulled out a grape soda for himself.
"Mmmmm! Chocolate chip!" said Calighe as she continued to mess with her teacher's ATs.
*She is crazy,* thought Soken, *but she is my student and one hell of a tuner.*