Ryoma opened his eyes slowly and saw that he was floating in his subconscious, it was the same feeling he had when he first tried to summon his dragon familiar. It was the same as before, there was nothing around him, only that this time the surroundings were all white instead of endless darkness. He just floated there, with no strength to move his body, eyes scanning the area for anything noticeable.

Suddenly his surroundings changed. There were shouts for help and continuous screaming. Ryoma's eyes went wide when buildings, or what remained of them, came into view. Everything was on fire, bodies laid motionlessly between the crumbled rocks which were once walls, children hopelessly crying for their parents, people mourning for their lost love ones.

Then the scenery changed again. This time he was staring at some ceiling, while the sounds of somebody arguing could be heard. It was quite hard to hear with all the noise in the background but he could make out that the voices belong to a female and a male.

"NO! How can we just send him away like that?! He's just a baby!" cried the female

"It's the best way for now! And we only have enough power to send him alone"

Muffled sounds of crying from the female could be heard.

"We'll go back for him when it's over. I'll make sure he is teleported to somewhere safe. I promise he will be alright. We will all be alright" the male comforted her.

Suddenly, Ryoma found himself falling from a hole. "RYOMAAAAAA" a young boy's shout came vibrating through the hole. Then a wall of fire covered the view and everything went black.

A dark laugh echoed through the darkness before he felt himself regaining consciousness and gradually starting to wake up.


"So that means…"

"We will have to end him if we have to" Fuji said firmly with his icy blue eyes opened.

"Are you serious?! Is there really no other way?" Momo was the first to recover from the sudden change of events.

"Or we can free him and let him go to that bastard Therdirus. Let him have control over Echizen and use him against us." After hearing that, everyone immediately remained quiet as they know Fuji was right. Their only hope now was to pray that the antidote worked.

At that exact moment, everyone's attention turned to the bundle of chains as a small groan came from it. "Was that the chains or was it his stomach?" someone asked, probably Momo. Everyone became alert when the chains suddenly shifted a bit and another moan came from it. "He's starting to wake up!" Oishi acted on instinct and casted a shield that wrapped around the whole area of the bed.

"Everyone! Be prepared for the worse!" Fuji ordered as he summoned a few fireballs. The others hesitated a little before taking their defense stances as well and prepared to attack. They watched tensely at the shield as Ryoma started to stir and tried to move his body but failed to do so as it was restrained by the chains. After a few moments, Ryoma's eyes clinched tight then relaxed as they finally opened.

The two orbs aimlessly flickered and looked around the room, trying to make sense of blurry images that he was seeing. He saw a layer of something which was semi-transparent in front of him and tried to move his arm to touch it, but he then noticed he couldn't move any part of his body and something heavy and cold was binding him. He started to panic a little and struggled at the chains.

"Oishi! We can't really see the color of his eyes with your shield being semi-transparent you know. And his struggling sounds aren't actually helping either" someone said. "Oh, right"

The orange hue of the semi-transparent thing, which Ryoma now assume is a shield, slowly faded and became clear and transparent. The blinding light that was semi-blocked by the shield a few seconds ago, now shone brightly towards Ryoma. His eyes tried to shield themselves as they gradually adjusted to the bright light. He could make out the shapes of the people surrounding him as his eyes slowly became focused.

The Zanteis gasped and froze as they saw the two orbs that were now focused on them.

Two golden orbs.

" O'chibi/Echizen!" they immediately relaxed and couldn't help but to all shout in relief and joy. They all hurriedly approached Ryoma when the shield dissipated, shouting all sorts of happy greetings and questions. A very bewildered Ryoma just looked at them in surprise; he wondered why he had the urge to smile as well. But before that…

"What are these for?" he ended up asking instead.

"We were thinking of sending you as a peace offering to the Vonkages, but then we changed our minds and decided to keep you as our slave instead. So until you agree to our terms you will remain chained and tortured for the rest of your life." Fuji said with an evil smirk. As a response they all just stared at Fuji silently.

"Uhhh… Fuji, your sadistic side is showing again" Eiji broke the silence and poked at Fuji's face a few times.

"Saa… just a suggestion" Fuji gave a chuckle. "Now, where did I put those keys?" he muttered with a troubled face.

"Mou! Fuji!"

"I think I threw them away since I thought we would have to chain him for life"

"FUJIII!"

"I was just joking" Fuji chuckled and took out a bunch of keys from his pocket

"… Just how many padlocks did you put?"

"Saa… I lost count"


"Hoh… So a boy from the human world awakened his spiritual power through the ring?" the man asked curiously while shifting his left leg into a more comfortable position.

"Yes, the ring is already showing 3 triangles but we think that he still has more power in him than we know" Tezuka adjusted his glasses

"Really?… So what's the name of this boy?" the man was always interested in strong opponents and can't bypass a challenge.

"Echizen Ryoma" the man's eyes widened a bit when he heard the name but he recomposed himself quickly before anyone noticed.

"Bring him to me when you can, we will discuss this execution thing after that"

"As you wish, Zenechi-sama" Tezuka bowed and left to go back to the human world.

"Echizen… Ryoma" the man whispered to himself, he shifted his gaze towards the orange in his hand; he tossed it in the air while giving a soft but sad smile.


Me: Yay! Ryoma is cured! But I guess some of you might have seen that coming. Hehe

Ryoma: Yea, we're not dumb you know.

Me: What? I could have just ended the story by killing you ,ya know~ *smirks evilly*

Ryoma: *gulps*

Me: But these few chapters aren't pointless~

Fuji: Who's the man?

Me: Saa... someone important I guess. *shrugs*

Ryoma: you mean you don't know?!

Me: Not gonna tell ya, that'll just spoil the fun *pouts*

Fuji: Yoshiro, you have something to say right?

Me: Oh! Yea! *sits down politely and clears throat* To all my lovely readers, I will try to update when I really have free time, I will not abandon the story no matter how long it will take for me to finish it. I hope you will also support me along the way. Thank you for all the reviews, follows and favourites, they really made me very happy. Thank you *bows* and hopefully I'll see you in the next chapter. =)