Phew, it's been a long time since I uploaded this story but it's because my Hard drive crashed last fall and it took me a little while to get it replaced and I also I was involved in several plays at my school which took up the vast majority of my free time. Add all that plus school and homework and...well you get my point. To make up for it I plan to update four chapters of Rekka and another story each before my summer ends since I'm at a university now and my summer extends to August 26th. If you're fans of Ryou you'll probably really like this chapter, but if you're not you'll probably like it anyway. Many things are explain and more questions are asked so without further distractions let's get to it.
Disclaimer: Pyrorynox does not own Kamen Rider. Are you happy Toei? Bastards.
All the students held their hands in prayer as they waited in the lunch room for word on what the school board would do about their classes on account of the recent monster attacks. In the middle of the school Union sat three in particular who were in debate on the subject.
"So do you think they'll close the school down?" asked Nick. "It would be great to get a break for a while and I would really like to see my folks considering all that's happened the past few days. My parents called me over and over again about me staying here after that Minotaur attacked."
"Likewise," said Bethany. Nick only flinched slightly at the sound of her voice. It had taken some convincing from Ryou but he was finally starting to get used to having her in such close proximity without fear of a sudden fangirl attack. He didn't know what Ryou did, but he had really gotten her to be more serious. Bethany was hoping that they would get some time off, even if it was a really short break. The place had been dangerous over the past week.
Ryou in particular was feeling kind of exhausted, having been the one to secretly beat the two Mythics. He was now officially putting his life on the line and there was no turning back. But he was okay with that as long as he could save as many people as he could. But right now he was the most exhausted out of anyone. Blaze had told he and Bethany the day after Tsubako's attack about the man who Bethany had met at the warehouse.
"I suppose that I should tell you about the human you met that night, girl." she said to them.
Bethany scoffed in impatience. "Well that would be nice." This made the tiny bird shoot flames from her nostrils which in turn made Bethany shut up with a squeak.
"As I was saying, the human whom you met was an associate of mine named Dr. Luke White. He was a self proclaimed scholar on mythological creatures and a genius technician. He was working on a way to make the Rekka armor safe for humans as well as inventions that would help to combat Mythics but Mintauros found out about the warehouse in which we were housed and we had to run, but Dr. White was caught. He, with his vast wisdom, hid the belt in a safe place only accessible by humans. Not even I could get to it."
"So what exactly are the Mythics after?" Ryou asked.
"Some of the ones I've defeated with other users of Rekka were just like Mintauros and Tsubako, killing for enjoyment and no real reason, but there are others who seemed to be...searching for something. For what I am not quite sure. But I'm sure we will find out."
Ryou was taken out of his thoughts by a beeping sound from overhead, one of the suspended big screen tv's used to display important announcements around the campus. "After a memorial service for the students who were lost in the attack, all students will be dismissed from campus until the administration can decide what to do for the foreseeable future."
In any other situation cheers would roar through the halls of every building on campus, but all was quiet as the students thought of friends and in some cases family that were not with them anymore. Ryou in particular thought long and hard about just how many people were now dead.
"If I had just accepted earlier then I could have saved a lot more people." Only Bethany heard him though. She gave him a little punch on the shoulder and a look that said 'don't blame yourself.' He nodded and stood up to leave.
"Where you goin, Ryou?" asked Nick.
"Well we're all going home aren't we? I'm going to go pack." He had an uncharacteristically determined look on his face as he turned and walked away. Nick stared after him curiously.
"That's really weird. He normally hates even thinking of going home. I practically had to drag him out of the dorm last year during spring break when they closed campus kicking and screaming because he was so afraid of going."
"What?" Bethany asked. "Why would he be afraid of going home? Doesn't he miss his family?"
"Of course he does. I honestly don't know much about them and I've never met them, but sometimes he talks in his sleep. Very loudly. He calls out to his parents, but for some reason the thought of going home completely terrified him until now. It was almost like he thought he was gonna die if he went back."
"Hmmm. Interesting." She got a look on her face that spoke of mischievousness. It unnerved Nick slightly, having many times been the target of such a look, but it looked like her sights were set on Ryou this time.
...
A couple days later Ryou threw his last shirt into a duffle bag and zipped it up before going outside and putting the bag underneath the seat of his scooter. The memorial service had just ended an hour before. There was crying and screaming, and some angry tears from his own eyes. But now the easy part was over. It was time to get stronger so that this hopefully never happened again. He put on his helmet and prepared to get on his scooter when a group of students walked by.
"Hey Okibi, I see you finally upgraded but that thing still ain't gonna get you all the way back to Japan." the guy who said it laughed while the other looked at him like the idiot he was.
"How can you talk about someone like that when you probably live in some trailer park?" came Bethany's voice. Bethany came to Ryou's rescue as she pulled up on her own scooter. "I can't believe you. We just buried our classmates. Have you not learned anything? Even your friends have enough sense not to act so immature." The guy scoffed and walked off with his friends who had left him behind without a word.
Ryou looked at Bethany with a questioning stare as he got on his scooter. "Bethany, shouldn't you be heading home now? You've got a long way to go don't you?"
"Well normally yes, but I talked to my parents and they said I could stay at a friend's house instead since it would cost a lot get to Mississippi on such short notice. So let's go." She revved up her scooter.
"Wait. I'm the friend?"
"Yup. I'm going to your place. If you have a problem with that then too bad." Ryou wanted to say no, but couldn't find it in himself to do so.
"Fine, but you'll have to ride on my scooter. Yours wouldn't be able to keep up."
"Okay?" She looked confused wondering how his old busted scooter could keep up with her's until she looked at the one he was sitting on and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. But she kept her surprise to herself as she took her stuff from her scooter and stuffed it into Ryou's before getting on it behind him. They took off from the campus and towards the outskirts of town. Bethany thought the scooter ran much smoother than her own scooter as they were easily going the 70mph hour speed limit even with two people, but where had he even got it from? She had never seen it before. "Um, Ryou, where did you get the-"
"I think we're far enough away now. So how do I do this again? I think Blaze said I have to will it to change." He went silent and focused hard before his scooter became engulfed in flames. This made Bethany scream as loud as she could until the flames subsided and the scooter was replaced by the Blazing Wing. It roared as it zoomed down the road even faster than the scooter had. Bethany held on tightly and pressed her forehead to Ryou's back.
"The bird?" she inquired.
"The bird," he responded with a laugh.
...
They had driven for a few hours when Ryou stopped the bike in the middle of the road. It was consumed in flames again before it changed back into the scooter and they drove into the nearby hillside.
"Hey! Why'd you change it back? I liked the speed."
"Well this scooter once belonged to my father, and when he sees me on this he won't know that it's his and there's no telling what he'll do then if he thinks I replaced the scooter that he's had for decades. Let alone if he thinks I replaced it with a motorcycle. He's already going to obliterate me."
"Well he can't be that bad, can he?" She took one look at Ryou's face and knew he was serious. "Well, um, let's go."
They turned off into a thickly wooded area and set off down a long dirt road. It was much more dense than the woods that Bethany was used to. But she noticed that some of the trees had been cut down.
"Hey Ryou. Is there some kind of timber work going on around here?"
"What?" He suddenly skidded to a halt, nearly throwing Bethany off and looked around.
"What the hell, Ryou!? You could've hurt me!"
"Where did you see the trees?" Bethany pointed back to where she'd seen them and followed Ryou as he ran back to look. His brow furrowed as he looked upon the scene. "Something isn't right here. There's no way my family would let anyone do any logging around here. We own all of this land and to my grandfather it might as well be sacred. Anyone who tried would be run off for sure."
"So who would do this then?"
Ryou closely examined the tree and noticed the deep slash marks in the bark. "I think it's more like what did this. We need to hurry to my home to make sure everything's okay." They jumped back on the scooter and drove off further into the trees until they reached what looked like a small, but impressive looking village. "Finally home."
"Well this is a nice little village, Ryou. Which house is yours?"
"Village?" Ryou asked. "This is all part of my home."
"What!?"
"Yes. All of these smaller houses are actually a part of a much larger estate. My grandfather's apprentices reside in them."
"Apprentices?" Bethany asked with a raised eyebrow.
One of the doors opened and out came a man in a ceremonial robe. He yawned then turned his eyes in Ryou's direction. He eyes went wide. "Ryou?"
"Takemine-San," Ryou said respectfully with a slight bow. "It's a pleasure to see you after I've been away so long."
Takemine got excited and jumped up and down. "Hey everybody, Ryou's back!"
From all of the smaller houses families piled out by the truckload, all showing great excitement at seeing Ryou. "Ryou, who are all these people?" Bethany asked confused.
"They're people who live on my family's land. Well they're pretty much family themselves. Since we had so much space we decided to make a sort of safe haven for those who had no homes. As long as they take care of the land, they can stay as long as they want, and a lot of them are of my family's...occupation."
"Are you going to see your folks,Ryou? Your family has missed the crap out of you. Your mom in particular has been pretty excited about you coming home," said Takemine.
"I'm going there now. I have to see Ojii-sama," he said ominously.
At this, everyone but Bethany went silent in both surprise and confusion. They began to talk amongst themselves as Ryou drove off further down the road.
When they stopped again it was in front of a considerably sized mansion. "Um Ryou, who lives here?" Bethany asked with growing curiosity.
"I do," he simply responded. Bethany looked back and forth between the mansion and Ryou with a gaping mouth.
"I know you said all those houses were part of a larger estate, but you're rich!?" Ryou shook his head, making Bethany only more confused.
"Legend has it that a monster used to inhabit these lands, but it suddenly vanished. The local people were so spooked about this place that they abandoned it. My family came and claimed it as our own. After a while the person who really owned the land came and tried to take it, but once he saw how well we were using it, he gave our family the deed so we legally own the land."
"That's amazing. You live in the extravagant place and you own it with no strings attached. Why wouldn't you want to come home more often?"
Ryou looked up at the front door of the mansion. "Because of the family legacy." At that moment the doors of the mansion opened and out stepped a beautiful blonde woman who looked to be in her mid to late twenties. Upon seeing Ryou she gave a look of surprise then smiled warmly as she walked down the steps to the pair.
"Who is she? Is she like the house keeper or something? Because if she is, that would be a shame. She's so beautiful."
"No, that's Okibi Maria. Okaa-san." he said happily with tears in his eyes as his mother swept him up a loving hug.
"Oh how I have missed you my little robin. It's been too long since you've been home. Oh my. What's wrong?" She looked down at him and wiped away his tears with her thumb.
"It's nothing. I'm just really happy to see you. Like you said, it's been too long since I've been home."
"So that's his mother. She's not at all what I expected. And he can't tell her that he's nearly died twice in the past week.. It's understandable that he would want his mom to comfort him." Bethany though to herself as she stood behind the pair. Maria looked over and saw Bethany and nearly squealed. "What the?"
"Oh my little Ryou has a girlfriend! And she's so cute! Wait until I tell your father; he'll be so proud." She nearly knocked Ryou out of the way just to put Bethany in a death hug. Bethany started gasping and wheezing for air as Ryou starting laughing, glad that his mother was doing that to someone else for once.
"I'm/She's not my girlfriend," the two said at the same time.
"She's not?" his mother asked, dropping Bethany on her hind. "Aww, that's such a shame little Ryou. She's so cute."
"Mother, not to be rude, but where's father and Jii-sama? I want to ask them what's been going on in the forest. It's looked like something...ripped the trees out of the ground."
Maria looked out towards the forest. "Well...over the past few weeks we've been hearing strange sounds. Roars and booming noises. And then these harsh blizzards came from out of nowhere. We get pretty bad snow here sometimes but this was almost unnatural. Most of the people around here get their sustenance from the wildlife around here but one of our townspeople found a dead bear not too long ago."
"A bear?" Ryou asked. "Did the cold weather cause it?"
"I wish that were the case, but it was gutted by something. Since then we've been finding more dead animals and areas of the forest being turned to rubble and we've been trying to hunt down whatever is in the forest. Some of us have seen it from a distance but it disappears before anyone can get close to it. It's been pretty elusive. Not even your father has been able to find it. Although, he hasn't been able to track like he used to since he passed down his partner to you."
"Partner?" asked Bethany.
Ryou suddenly look over to his scooter and blanched. "When he sees what happened to it he'll kill me."
Bethany looked back and forth between the two Okibi's and looked at Ryou's scooter. "Are you talking about that old, piece-of-crap pathetic excuse for a scooter that looked like satan crapped on, puked on, and peed on?"
"Yes, that's it. Oh My! Where is it!?" asked Maria in a panic. She looked over and saw the scooter that they rode in on before she looked behind her. "What happened to your father's scooter!?"
"Well that has to do with why I'm home. I'm just hoping my father understands."
"Understands what?" The two young adults turned to the voice in the doorway as Maria nearly broke her neck trying to turn around. In the doorway was a tall man with long black hair that almost reached his shoulders, but his bangs had been tucked back behind his ears. His eyes were brown and cold as they looked from Ryou to the scooter and his chiseled jaw was clenched in what looked to be anger. But before Maria and Ryou could let out the screams that were threatening to explode from their throats the man laughed and casually walked down the steps with his hands in his pockets.
"Hello, son. It's rare that I see you come home. What's with that look? You and Maria look like you were both expecting me to come out on a chariot pulled by demonic horses or something." He put his hands on the seat of the scooter and closed his eyes. "Hello, old friend. You may look different now, but I know my partner when I see it."
"Yamato? This is your scooter?" Maria breathed out in relief as her husband nodded. "Ryou what happened to it?"
"Well that kind of has to do with why I'm here. There was an accident a little while ago and it was too damaged to fix, but a friend of mine offered to melt it down and use it to build a new one."
"It's totally my fault!" Bethany said. "We didn't exactly get along until recently and I kind of made him wreck it. I'd be willing to pay for any damages that I caused before it was rebuilt."
"Nah, don't sweat it. This old bird was on its last legs when I gave it to Ryou. The only reason it was still functioning up til then was probably because Ryou took good care of it, which is why I gave it to him in the first place. But my old friend has been reborn from the ashes like a freaking phoenix. I think this is a sign that it really belongs to Ryou now. Besides, I can tell it's happy. And nice to meet you, Bethany. I heard everything from beside the door."
"O-oh, well it's nice to meet you Mr. Okibi."
"Yamato is fine. If you call me 'Mr.' all the time I'm gonna start feeling as old as my father. Hahaha. Ryou, I'm not sure why you came home after so long, but you picked a rough time. Your grandfather is in the forest trying to track that monster. I was gonna get some of the townspeople and try to find him. The old man is tough, but he's also stubborn as a dragon. Everybody stay here til I get back. You know the drill, Maria. Doors locked and guns ready just in case. Ryou, you too."
"No, I want to go with you to find Jii-san." Ryou put his helmet back on and got on his scooter.
"Well that isn't like you, Ryou. I expected you to jet inside like you did when you were a kid and Take told you scary stories. But it's good to see you take initiative. Meet me at the forest gate in five minutes. That's where my father went."
"Are you sure about this Ryou?" Bethany asked quietly. "This thing sounds like a Mythic and you don't have a way to fight without that bird."
Ryou gripped her shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. "You should really pay attention more. Blaze hasn't let me out of her sight since I agreed to be Rekka." He pointed to the sky with his thumb with a slight grin on his face.
Bethany looked up and could see a bird circling around overhead. "Is that?" Ryou nodded.
"Everything will be fine. I promise." He patted her shoulder reassuringly and darted off towards where his father went to.
...
An older man was walking through the forest as he finally found some fresh tracks in the snow. "I'm finally on the verge of finding the beast. Looks like it went towards the river." He ran through the snow in thick fur covered boots. He wore light, flexible clothing which would've had any other man freezing in that kind of weather but the cold hardly seemed to affect him at all. He followed the tracks to the river where the tracks stopped. "Hmmm. Seems like it crossed the river here. The current is fairly powerful so it must be stronger than I thought. I can still sense it nearby." He squinted his eyes trying to focus his sight across the river but did not see anymore tracks. "Wait. It's not across the river." He turned around slowly as a mountain of snow seemingly erupted out of nowhere and exploded like a bomb, sending snow everywhere and blasting the old man off of his feet. The man covered his face as he hit the ground, but heard a loud roar echo from where the mountain of snow had been a few seconds before. He uncovered his face and saw the beast he had been hunting for.
It was large, maybe nine to ten feet and covered in shaggy white fur. It was built like a large gorilla with fur covered most of its face save for its large teeth and large, red eyes. It roared again and reared back its fists to pummel the man, but he rolled out of the way at a speed of a much younger man before he got to his feet and prepared to face the beast. "Maybe I shouldn't have come out here alone." The beast roared again and jumped towards the man in an attempt to stomp on him, but just like before the old man dodged like a man half his age. "Ch. I could try tiring it out, but it looks like it has a vast amount of stamina."
"HEY!" The old man's ears perked up as the sudden shout got the beast's attention and he turned around, only for a snowball to hit it right between the eyes. The beast became enraged and charged at a boy on a motor scooter, Ryou, as he revved up and charged right back at the beast.
"Ryou!?" The old man shouted in shock.
As the two charged each other, Ryou leaned down and gathered snow in his hand, keeping near perfect balance on his scooter in the snow. The beast roared and pounced and everything suddenly seemed to go into slow motion. Ryou reared his arm back and prepared to throw the snowball but at the last minute stuck his tongue out teasingly at the monster before a small bird swooped in between the two and breathed a breath of hot flames into the beast's face. It was only a fraction of a second in real time and nobody but Ryou and the beast saw it. The phoenix mythic shot off but not before telling Ryou to lure the beast into a nearby clearing. The beast roared in agony and fell to its stomach while holding it's face and screaming.
"That has to hurt. Let me help." Ryou turned the scooter around and revved up hard, making the rear wheel kick up a stream of snow into the beast's face, both cooling it off and pissing it off at the same time. It roared again and tried to grab for Ryou but the young rider shot off just like the phoenix and the monster followed after him.
Yamato and a group of villagers he had gathered made it to the river just in time to see the monster give chase to Ryou. Yamato was concerned but wanted to check on his father first. "Dad!" He ran over and hugged his father before looking him over to make sure he wasn't injured. "Are you alright? What happened?"
"Your son happened. I tracked the beast here but I underestimated it and it got the jump on me. Ryou suddenly showed up and lured it away. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me."
"Sorry to say you haven't gone crazy yet old man." Yamato looked towards the direction his son had gone into. "Guess we've missed quite a bit since he's been gone."
Ryou swerved around trees in an effort to confuse the beast but any tree that got in its way was just literally shoved aside like a toothpick by it. He saw the clearing up ahead and gunned the engine distancing himself further away from it, getting to the center of the clearing just as the beast entered the clearing and roared loudly at him in primal rage. Ryou got off of the scooter and stood facing the beast before the two charged at one another.
"BLAZE!" Ryou cried as he ran, and at that call said mythic flew up behind Ryou and flew around his waist with a stream of flames trailing behind her. "HENSHIN!" He grabbed her out of the sky and snapped her into the belt and transformed into Rekka just as he got to the monster then slid between its legs in the snow before jumping up behind it and punching it in the middle of the back with a flaming punch. The beast howled in pain again before quickly turning around again, only for Rekka to be gone. It looked to its sides searching for him before a cry from above it alerted it to his location. "Here I am!" Rekka brought his leg down in an axe kick to the beast's head and brought it down hard before he ran back away from it and got into a runner's stance. "I'll finish this quick." He pulled Blaze's wings back together before snapping them apart again. The phoenix mythic gave a powerful cry as more of her power ran through Ryou's suit and charged his finisher. With a loud war cry he shot forward running far faster than was humanly possible while trailing flames behind him. He ran around the recovering beast created a flaming tornado around it, the heat of the flames lifting it up higher and higher as the tornado quick grew taller. Ryou stopped running and quickly jumped into the sky with a beat of the wings of Rekka, propelling him over the opening of the funnel where the confused beast was just exiting. "HAAAAA!" Another beat of the wings sent Ryou into a nose dive as his foot caught some of the flames from the tornado and glowed with fiery energy. He suddenly flipped his body and slammed his foot into the beast's chest sending the both of them down the funnel and to the ground with enough force to blow away all the flames. When Ryou looked down, breathing hard from the attack, he saw the creature beneath his foot, seemingly lifeless, and in a crater shaped like bird wings.
He turned around and walked calmly back to his scooter as Blaze unhooked herself and Ryou changed back. "And he says he requires training? I find that hard to believe. If anything, he's a little too good when he's confident." She watched as Ryou gave her a quick wave and drove off back in the direction he came in as unbeknownst to her and Ryou, the 'lifeless' corpse smiled and dissolved into the snow, leaving no trace of it.
...
Yamato, Takemine, and Ryou's grandfather led the group towards the direction that they had seen Ryou go in just in time to see him coming towards them on his scooter. "Ryou!" His father yelled as he ran towards him. "Are you alright?" Ryou skidding calmly to a stop and took off his helmet.
"Yes, Father. I'm fine. I lured the monster towards a cliff and it fell off. It almost got me though. Hopefully that's the last we see of it."
"Baka!" His father smacked him upside the head then hugged his son tightly. "It's not like you to do something dangerous like that. What if you had gotten hurt? Your mother would've murdered me!"
Ryou sighed and hugged his father back. In their eyes it may have seen as recklessness, but he had known exactly what he was doing. He couldn't tell them the truth though. "Sorry, maybe I should've thought that through better. It won't happen again."
"Leave the boy be, Yamato. I think he held his own very well."
"Ryuuji-san?" Takemine asked. "It's not like you to take up for Ryou like that. Usually you're the one he's being protected from. Still, the fact that he tricked it like that proves that's gotten pretty badass. I guess his bad luck's gone."
"Wait, what?" Ryou said. Yamato yanked his son over about a foot to the right as a large tree branch fell right where he had been standing. "Ah! Thank you, Father."
Yamato, Ryuuji, and everyone else glared at Takemine as he laughed nervously in embarrassment. "I guess I kind of Jinxed it. Well let's go back shall we?" He shot off like a rocket as the others."
"Idiot," said Ryuuji.
...
"So that's what's been going on since you've been away huh? Sounds like your school life came right out of a horror movie," said Maria in concern. Safe to say that she was surprised about what her son had told, but she thought he was joking until Bethany pulled up news pictures of the area and all of the people in the hospital.
"Yeah. Things are dangerous down there and I want to be able to protect myself better. Finally take on the family training."
Maria and Ryuuji looked at him in shock as Yamato laughed heartily. Bethany just looked confused. "Um, did I miss something?"
Ryuuji finally found himself and cleared his throat as he began to talk. "Yes. You see, for generations the Okibi family has been trained in a unique form of fighting. It's based around the use of their unique body temperature."
"Body temperature?"
"Ah. You see, normally human beings all have a core temperature of around 98 degrees, but are greatly affected by external environments. But for those who have Okibi blood, they have the ability to adjust to the environment by fully controlling their core body temperature. Hence why Yamato wears light clothing in this kind of frigid weather. If it gets cold he can raise his temperature to keep warm, even melt the snow beneath his feet is need be, and vice versa in warmer weather."
"You can really do that? If that's the case then why is Ryou all wrapped up like he lives at the North Pole?"
"Because if you don't learn to use the ability at a young age then there's a backlash and our body temperature becomes constantly cold. Almost unbearably so. Ryou attempted to learn when he was young but could never master it, so he just bundled up like that. He figured it would be easier for him."
"So that was the reason for it. We all wondered about it, but I never would've thought it was something like that." Bethany had felt bad before for picking on him for his weird taste in clothing, but now that she knew the reason for it she felt even worse.
"Yamato. Let's give him a day to prepare. You're training starts tomorrow. Use today to brush up on what little basics you've learned, and anything...new that you might have come up with."
...
The next day, Ryou was seated in a training room not far from the main house. He was sitting Indian style thinking of how he was going to go about doing the training. He thought back to his youth when he had tried learning before. It had required focus, which he had always had in abundance. His father and grandmother had told him that the first step was the find what they called the heat source. It was like a ball of energy that resided deep within the body.
"Ryou?" He heard his father's voice on the other side of the sliding door before he entered. "I see you're up bright and early. Well since I'm oldest of Okibi blood in the area I'll be overseeing your progress." At this Ryou frowned slightly, remembering that the last time he tried this someone else was helping him. His father frowned at his expression and sighed. "I realize this must be hard for you in more ways than one. It'll probably make you think of your grandmother, but you can't let yourself get distracted right now. You know that right?"
"Hai. It's just...she said she'd make sure I learned to do this. But she was gone before she could."
"That's part of the reason you put this off until now, isn't it?" His father asked.
Ryou nodded and looked up at his father. "But I'm ready to do this now. So let's get started."
Yamato smiled and sat down in front of his son. "First you have to take off most of that armor you have on," he joked. "I know you're cold, but it's only hurting your training. Like a handicap." Ryou started to take off his clothing until he only in a single t-shirt and gym shorts and started to shiver uncontrollably. It was a sad reminder to Yamato just how much his son was suffering. "The sooner we start the sooner you won't even need those clothes anymore. Now I want you to close your eyes and breathe slowly, in through the nose and out through the mouth. Just like that," he said as Ryou followed his instructions. "Good. Now I need you to focus and try to go within yourself. Like you're diving into an ocean of your inner self. If you fall deep enough you should fall into a trance and cease to hear voice. After that you're on your own, but I'll make sure you don't freeze to death."
Ryou could feel himself slipping, the familiar feeling of his consciousness fading overcoming his thoughts. Then he opened his eyes but he was surrounded by darkness. "I remember this. Next comes...!" He squinted his eyes shut as everything suddenly lit up with intense light. Even behind his eyelids the light hurt. "This is it. Father and Obaa-san thought I never found my heat source and that's why I quit trying. But I found it. Something this big is hard to miss." He slowly opened his eyes. "They always said that when they found their heat sources they were small balls of fire that could fit in the palm of their hands. Wonder what they would say about this." He peered out and looked at the miniture sun that that engulfed the entire sky of his mind. Waves of fire dozens of times bigger than himself danced across the surface like slithering snakes.
"The real reason I gave up was because this terrified me as a child. It was so big, I felt like it would consume me. I could feel it pulling me towards it, just like now. I had enough focus for ten people, but this would scare anyone adult or child." The giant fireball seemed to roar in response.
"I was afraid of you before because I had never felt something so strong, so amazing. I can tell you're much different from what any of my family expected and there's no way they could comprehend it, let along me as a small child. But I've felt something similar recently. And I've seen things far more terrifying now." He raised his hand towards the fireball and smiled. "Let's go." He suddenly jumped towards the sky, soaring as if he had wings, right into the center of the fireball. He grit his teeth struggling to control the flames as they seemed to flow into him.
"Ryou?" came his father's voice again. Ryou opened his started breathing extremely hard. He was soaking with sweat and his entire body felt thirty pounds heavier. He looked over at his father who was looking with the biggest expression of surprise he'd ever seen on a person. "Holy hell, Ryou."
"W-what do I do now?" His breathing was getting heavier and he was clenching his hands into tight fists.
"Calm down. Your body is used to being cold so you're reacting violently to the heat. Just calm down and steady your breathing and your body temperature should regulate."
"O-okay. I'd forgotten how it felt to be hot." He slowly calmed himself down and his temperature dropped until he was cold again, but not nearly as cold as before. "How long did that take?"
"Almost a day. Longer than most of our family's taken. I was about to try and pull you out of it until it felt like you exploded. I couldn't even touch you because you were so hot. Safe to say you did it. What was it like?"
"Comforting," Ryou said with a smile.
...
The next few days of Ryou's training went by slowly. The day after that he was put into a room which simulated fierce desert heat with his father and grandfather and forced to fight for several hours as his body adjusted slowly to the raised temperature. The second day he had to do the same in a room that was the opposite extreme. Having balance his temperature while having his mind elsewhere proved difficult at first but he was steadily getting the hang of it. He would have to do it until it became second nature. While this was going on, Bethany would record whether or not there was any word on them going back to school. On the sixth day of Ryou's training, his father decided to up the ante a bit.
Yamato put a water balloon into each of his hands and smiled at his son's confused expression.
"What exactly am I doing with these?"
"Now that you've gotten better control with controlling your temperature, I think it's time you worked on controlling both raising it and lowering it at the same time. So with the balloon in your right hand I want you to boil the water, and with the one in your left hand I want you to freeze the water."
Ryou gawked at his father. "That's impossible isn't it?"
"Nope. Watch." He took the water balloons from his son's hands and held them in his own. He stood for a minute with them in his hands like was just holding them but suddenly one of them exploded at the same time he dropped the other, shattering like ice as it hit the floor.
Ryou clapped at his father's display and his father handed him two more water balloons. "That was amazing Father. I'll begin working on doing the same." Yamato sighed and ruffled his son's hair. "Father?"
"Look Ryou. You're a polite and respectful young man, always have been. But I think it's also a big flaw that you have. It's important to be like that when the situation calls for it, but you have to be remember to be laid back at times also. How about calling me Dad every once in a while, or calling your Jii-chan Grandpa or something? Start doing what comes natural, because I know you're forcing it a little bit. Not just your training, but how you react with people also."
"How did you?"
"I call Nick every now and then to see how you're doing. I'm saying this so that you can have a few more friends at your school and so you can finally get a girlfriend. Your grandpa's gonna want an heir soon. So you might wanna get on that pronto."
Ryou's eye twitch in embarrassment. "Father! That's the last thing on my mind right now!" Yamato tried to suppress a laugh but failed.
"See how much more laid back when you don't think about it? Listen to that." He pointed to the two balloons. One sounded like the water was bubbling and the other sounded like it was cracking. As soon as Ryou noticed it though the water stopped bowling and the water in the other balloon quickly melted back to its liquid state.
"How did I do that? I wasn't even trying."
"Well the key to achieving control is to just let it happen. You couldn't do it when you were younger because you were scared of everything. But I feel as though the stuff that's been going on lately has given you a stronger sense of purpose and duty. You may think that you can keep it from me, but I'm your dad. I know you better than anyone. You feel that this is something only you can do right?"
Ryou nodded and looked at water balloon in his hands. "I can't tell you everything, but I can promise you that you'd be proud of me if you knew the truth. Ow!" He winced as he father flicked him in the forehead.
"Idiot. I've been proud of you since the day you were born. Never forget that. No matter what." He started to choke up from his own words and turned away from his son so he wouldn't see the almost cartoonish tears that were streaming down his face. "You go back to your training. I have something in my eye!" He ran off rubbing his eyes, bawling dramatically while his son stared after him.
"Why is he so strange? Oh well, back to work." He looked back at his father's still retreating form and grinned. "Thanks Dad."
...
While Ryou was training Bethany was spending time with Okibi Maria, who was exchanging stories with Takemine who came to visit nearly everyday that Ryou was home. "And so Ryou comes bolting out of the forest screaming his head off and he grandfather jumps out of a tree and tackles him to the ground and berates him from running from a frog that surprised him. The old man was so angry at him afterwards that he lifted the kid up and chunked him back into the forest. Could you imagine doing that to a five-year-old like that. Ryuuji-san scares the shit out of most of us." said Takemine as he laughed, not aware that Ryuuji was right behind him about ready to blow his top.
"I'll show you anger!" He grabbed Takemine by his shirt, dragged him outside, and threw him into the forest. "Ha! That oughta learn ya!"
"Ryuuji, don't you think that was a bit much? He isn't Yamato or Ryou you know." said Maria as Bethany laughed at what just happened.
"Ch. If anything he babied Ryou even more than you did."
"What's the story with Takemine anyway?" Bethany asked. "He's clearly not Japanese like you, Yamato, and Ryou."
"His real name is Timothy. And he moved here with his parents when he was around thirteen years old. They were down on their luck and wanted to start over. You see Ryou is an only child and since Timothy was an older child Ryou was just kind of drawn to him. The nickname Takemine comes from the guitar he brought with him, a Takemine brand that he would play for Ryou whenever he had the chance. Ryou associated the guitar with Timothy and just started calling Takemine all the time. Timothy took it as a nickname to make Ryou happy and it stuck so everyone calls him that. I don't know what things are like at your school, but here everyone sees Ryou as family. And they're always getting onto me about being too hard on him growing up, but since his grandmother died a few years after his birth I just haven't been the same."
"Oh," Bethany looked down suddenly feeling a bit awkward. "You must've loved her very much."
"Heh, that's an understatement. I practically worshiped the ground she walked on. I'm sure you've noticed that Yamato and Ryou have green eyes." Bethany nodded. "Well they get that from my wife, Yukino. All of the Okibi family are born with uncharacteristically green eyes. I'm actually an Okibi by marriage so that's why my eyes are the normal brown. Back in Japan I studied under her father. Yukino used to berate me all the time because the training was difficult for me. But we fell in love after a while and had Yamato. I respected the Okibi name so much that I took it as my own so that it wouldn't die. My brother could continue my family name in my place." He heard something in the wind and looked up at the sky. "Maria, you might want to prepare for a storm. I'm not sure how bad it will be, but I'm sure things will be completely different in the morning."
"I'll go do that. Bethany, do you mind staying here for a bit?"
"Sure," said Bethany with a smile. She was left alone with Ryuuji, who seemed unsure of what to say. Bethany had a couple of questions though.
"So what's the story with the whole 'controlling the core' thing that your family is capable of? Could I possibly learn it?"
Ryuuji shook his head and sighed as he took a seat at table. "I'm afraid not. Only those of the Okibi line are able to do it. Although the ability has grown weaker with every generation."
"Why is that? And why can't you do it if you're an Okibi?"
"Well legend has it that the Okibi family is descended from a great phoenix, and as the bloodline continues the blood of that phoenix is diluted because the Obiki become more and more human."
"I see. I never would've thought that Ryou's family would have such a cool legend behind it. My family is from a small town in Mississippi so I don't hear stuff like that a lot. Although my sister's friends could probably tell you a few stories. I think I'm going to go check on Ryou. It's getting late and he's not back yet." She moved towards the front door to the house as Maria came back with blankets and food.
"I have good timing. Could you take some of this food to him and have some for yourself as well. The blankets are for you in case you feel like staying with him for a while. He shouldn't have too much problem if there's a storm, and from what Yamato tells me he'll probably be spending the night in the dojo. It has a rest area for guests. Just don't try to tempt Ryou."
"Heh, Ryou wouldn't be into that kind of thing anyway."
"That's what I thought about Yamato as well. Ah, I remember when I first met him. Riding that old scooter with his black trenchcoat flapping in the wind. Oh he got into so much trouble on that thing, him and his gang of bikers. It was like taking a hungry tiger, but I was able to do it. Over and over and over-"
"I'LL BE GOING NOW!" Bethany quickly ran from the house with his face blushing crimson.
...
Out in the forest a pile of snow rose until it finally changed back into the yeti from before. It cracked its neck and flexed its muscles before laughing to itself. "Feels like I finally have my strength back after fighting the Kamen Rider. I'll have to kill him if I want to find the stone. But first I'll have to increase my strength with a little snow." He raised his arms to sky but a scoff averted his attention. "I suppose I'm not alone," it said in a deep booming voice. "So it's the phoenix," he said as he turned around.
"So that's what you're after. The jewels of the three Ancient clans. A special stone each representing of the clans: Mythics, Mystics, and Horror. Individually they are able to augment the strength of each of their respective clans. But their true power comes out when the three are brought together. So tell me. What is it you wish for?" Said Blaze as she looked down from a nearby tree.
"Psh. As if I would tell my wish to a Mythic that's sided with humans. I, Saruyuki of the Mountains will end you here." Saruyuki swiped his hand in the air and sent snow from the ground flying at the tree. Blaze quickly opened her mouth and breathed flames at the oncoming assault, but the force of the snow was more intense than her stream of flames so she quickly dodge as her fire was overpowered.
"So you are more than just a mindless brute I see. Ryou should still be able to defeat you as easily as before."
"You think so? Well I have a few tricks up my sleeve." He jumped at her at a speed that was suprising for a creature his size and swiped Blaze out of the sky and into the ground. "Let's find out if a phoenix can freeze to death." He waved his arms around seemingly randomly, but the snow around Blaze started to whirl around and lifted her off of the ground. She gasped for air as a funnel formed and condensed around her and froze her in a block of ice. And just for good measure he threw her at the foot of a tree and buried her under even more snow. "Now that that's finished." He raised his arms to the sky as the clouds slowly got thicker and the air got even colder. "Get ready for a white out."
And that is the end of that chapter. If you liked it then please review. If you didn't, then review anyway because if there's any way I can improve this story it would be much appreciated.