Chapter Five

The fight had escalated even further, as most of those that were home for the day had now taken part. Sage and Cale, for their part, were starting to take the fighting a little too personally. This soon resulted in both warriors working their way into the woods, tossing snow and ice at one another.

"Look at it this way," the blonde swordsman called out, pulling his head back behind the tree to avoid getting hit in the face, "At least Ryo will make us skip the sparring session."

Cale gave a snort, taking a snowball to the shoulder and then tossing another, "That's one thing to look forward to, eh?" He gave a scowl when he missed his target, and then raised both eyebrows when Sage came out from behind his tree-shield.

The Ronin of Halo was smirking, "Yeah." He easily threw the snowball at his opponent, yet he aimed extraordinarily high.

"You missed, Sage," the Winter Seasonal stared at the swordsman blankly, confused because before this the man's aim had been quite accurate.

"Oh not quite," Sage was smirking, and watched in satisfaction as the snow dislodged from the tree and landed on his former enemy…Wow, that had worked perfectly! "How do you like that Cale? Still think I'm not a worthy opponent?" Sage chortled out, before turning and jogging off, knowing he was going to have a very mad Seasonal on his hands.

"HALO!"

Yeah, it was safe to say that Cale was pretty annoyed right now. Sending Cale packing in the garage? Like a million yens worth of damage (to said garage). Fending the Dark Warlord off during the raid on Talpa's castle? Slightly satisfying, and more yen. Sage besting his former enemy in a simple snow fight? Priceless.

All of a sudden the Ronin of Halo skidded to a halt, a frown immediately framing his face. The snow here, it had been disturbed…There were impressions in the ground.

He held up a hand to Cale, signifying a time out, as he sank to his knees, scanning the ground before him, "Cale, get over here."

The Winter Seasonal had watched as the swordsman completely stopped and called for the time out. He knew it wasn't a game or anything of the like, simply by seeing the man's posture. Then he caught the tone in the voice, and headed over.

On approach he could see why the other man had halted, he let out a long whistle, remarking, "You really do have good eyesight."

Sage looked over his shoulder and grinned, before turning his attention back to the ground before him. He let his gaze wander over the small clearing, a frown settling firmly onto his features, "There was a fight."

"Yes, and most likely it was Raikken," Cale agreed with a nod, having ventured further away from him, tracking the prints. "The impressions match them."

"Anyway for you to tell how old the impressions are?" the Ronin of Halo queried, watching as the man sank down and placed his hand to the snow.

"An hour at least," he responded standing back up, eyeing the young man with a perplexed frown. Sage was in thought, turning things over in his head.

"Everyone is accounted for, more or less," He murmured quietly to himself, before saying louder, "Meaning…" His eyes widened as the sudden realization hit him, and he bolted off following the trail. Cale could only helplessly stare at the man's retreating form, before grumbling something about kids, and following after him.

Sage slammed to a halt, eyes darting around as he surveyed the ground. There had been more here? A lot more by the looks of it, and…The red stood out in sharp contrast to the snowy white ground.

He let out a loose breath, and when Cale finally caught up to him he was prepared to dart off again. Sage waited though, noticing how annoyed and out of breath the Winter Seasonal seemed to be.

"Just what…" Cale began to demand, quirking an eyebrow when the swordsman simply commented, "She's hurt."

"Who?" His eyes were that close to twitching.

"Universe," Sage answered quietly, before picking back up his run, not caring if Cale kept pace with him or not. "It's the only explanation as to why the Raikken have been showing up briefly, and then vanishing. She's been fighting them."

"It's a sound logic," no way Cale was lagging behind this time. "Though, what makes you think it is her, this time? It is daylight after all."

"Don't ask me why, or how," the Halo Ronin sounded a little confused, "But, I can actually sense her. I noticed it the last time she was around, but didn't think much of it. Now, I am though."

"Interesting," Cale murmured out, "The Senshi can't even do that, and she's supposed to be one of them. No matter how much of an independent they make her out to be, you would think they'd be able to find her. And, I would have thought they'd know her energy signature…Pluto if no one else."

"She doesn't though," Sage brought in, still frowning, "If Universe was putting out a fake signature, or masking it, they wouldn't know the real one. I don't know why, but it wouldn't surprise me that she'd be doing that."

"I wonder if this means your past memories are returning?" Cale mused, more to himself than to his companion.

"I don't know, because I'm not getting memories…More like impressions," Sage once more came to a halt, his violet eyes narrowing as he could clearly hear the sounds of a fight not too far up ahead. In an instant the subarmor had formed around him, and he turned to say something to Cale to find the man was already in his own undergear.

The Winter Seasonal put a finger to his lips signaling for silence to which Sage gave a nod in agreement, and both cautiously approached. They had no desire to give away their presence without first knowing the situation.

Once they managed to push through the brush to see what was going on, the fighting seemed to have halted. Sage's eyes sparked and narrowed, four intermediate level Raikken had her surrounded.

"It is Universe," Cale sounded rather impressed, "The point goes to you."

"Gee thanks," Sage rolled his eyes, returning his attention to the scene before him.

It was apparent that she was exhausted it showed in her stance even though she was in a fighting position. Her breathing was ragged, and her right arm hung limply at her side.

It seemed to him that it would be her wrist on that arm that was broken or sprained. He could see a few cuts only due to the dried blood. However, there was no gash to explain the amount of blood he had seen on the ground.

Cale spoke once again, having seen everything Halo had he remarked, "She looks like hell."

Sage could only nod in agreement, Universe might have been holding her own earlier…But now she looked about ready to collapse. She was also weaponless…At least, that was what he thought until a glint caught his attention and he noticed the small dagger in her usable hand.

Both men watched in slight surprise as she proceeded to take out the remaining Raikken simply by using the dagger.

Universe waited for the Raikken to explode into ash, before slipping into a defensive stance and warily scanning the area. Satisfied that there weren't any more, she sank to her knees and put her knife back into her boot.

She then let out a heavy breath, and leaned back so she could sit down. Hoping she could catch enough of a break to gain some strength back.

A sudden thought came to her, and she let her eyes land on the spot the two men were at, "You can come out now, you know."

Sage flushed with embarrassment at hearing this, and walked forward sheepishly saying, "Sorry, but we didn't want to distract you."

"Believe me, I appreciate it," Universe responded, closing her eyes for a brief moment.

Cale echoed his earlier comment to Sage, "You look like hell."

The Senshi could not help but chuckle at that, "Why thanks for the sweet compliment, nice to see you again this soon too."

Sage arched an eyebrow waiting for some sort of explanation on that one, Cale was quick to offer it up, "Her powers are not limited in the Nether Realm; she goes there on occasion to recover. She was there a little during the break we took."

"I see," the Halo Ronin murmured, before asking of the Scout, "But, for the rest of the time, you were here, right? You've been fighting the Raikken?"

"Yes," she gave a nod warily watching as he came closer. "Thanos and Kali are busying themselves with trying to remove the seal. There haven't been that many Raikken, but what ones there are, I have dealt with. You all needed the break, fighting with those things after a while drags you down and I can block the emotion better."

Sage was scrutinizing her, trying to find where she had gotten injured that had caused her to bleed so much…That's when he noticed the dried blood on the left side of her head. He lightly touched the spot noticing her flinch, "How?"

She offered a weak smile to his question, and opened her eyes, "Wasn't paying attention to the one that got behind me; ripped my feet right out from underneath of me. I made move to recover, but was a little too slow. Hit my head on a rock…I think."

She thought? Sage gave a soft snort, great someone else that didn't seem to care about their own wellbeing. A grim look was on his face, just by lightly touching her before he had felt the pain she was in. That wound was deep, deep enough that it required stitches…And if she had hit her head hard…

"Look at me," he said in a cool voice, noticing that she was doing everything to avoid his gaze.

Universe did look at him, blinking in total confusion. She wasn't the only one completely lost on the matter. Cale had both eyebrows raised; had he missed something?

"It doesn't look like they're dilated," Sage finally announced, "You might avoid a concussion." He proceeded to lightly brush the tips of his fingers against the wound in her head.

"Sage, don't you dare!" Universe protested, recalling all too well what had happened the last time he healed…Her eyes abruptly widened in surprise when he merely grinned.

"Too late, over and done with," the blond swordsman cheerfully quipped, getting to his feet, and offering her a hand up.

Once more she seemed wary, but eventually accepted his help though a frown was on her face as she studied him.

"In November you were terrified of the attempt, because you couldn't block. Now all of a sudden your calm and can block out the other person's emotions?"

"I don't know how it happened," Sage admitted honestly, nervously running a hand through his hair. "It's strange, but one minute I don't know anything and in the next I do. A week or so ago, I tried to heal, and it just happened without any incident at all."

Cale blinked at this new tidbit of information, and tilted his head. There was more to it than that, wasn't there?

Sage uncomfortably shifted, "I apologize. I know it doesn't make any sense." He proceeded to arch a golden eyebrow at the Scout when she laughed.

"Oh, it makes perfect sense," the laughter subsided, but the amusement did not die down from her face. "Your armor happens to be cheating. In its own way it's slowly taking down what barriers there are between you and your memories, enabling you to do things you couldn't before without you being any the wiser. I am certain the others are doing the same thing."

"They are trying to avoid raising suspicion?" Cale inquired sounding curious.

"Believe it or not, they like secrecy. One thing about them that has not changed in the past millennia," Universe sounded exceedingly amused, as she stretched out her body to prevent it from stiffening up.

"You speak of them," the Ronin of Halo brought in, having fallen in step next to her, for she had started to walk away now. "As though they were living."

"They are to an extent," the Scout admitted, coolly commenting, "You know that far better than I would. Out of all the others you were the one closest in sync to your armor, it was easier for Korin to communicate with you back then." She took a pause, eyeing the blond man carefully, "Before the incident which led you to distrust it so."

Sage went pale, his pulse started to speed up, and his breath caught in his throat, "You know?"

"Of course I know," she quietly answered. "What kind of guardian would I be, secondary or not, if I had no clue as to what happened to bring you all to this point? I might be heavily restricted Seiji, but I can manage my way around rules. After all, I've been doing it for centuries. I apologize for bringing it up, it was uncalled for. I will leave this warning for you though, if you do not trust Korin now, it will not be able to protect you later."

The blond swordsman let out a loose breath, and gave a nod in understanding. No, he had never really trusted the armor from Talpa, after New York…Nothing could make him completely trust it the way he had before. With this new armor?

It had taken a bit to get used to, but he had come to accept, come to realize that it was more on his side then it had been before. While the previous armor had been neither good nor evil, it was more likely to slide over to evil just because of where it came from.

This armor, in fact all the ones that Suzunagi had created, might have been created from her hatred and loathing, but when the Ronins freed her spirit, they had eradicated that bitterness within the armors…Had actually made them more pure. According to what Universe was telling him now, they had made them more like what they were before.

Still, Sage found himself weary to completely trust the armor…He felt entitled to be paranoid about it, he never wanted to be taken advantage of, in that way, ever again; hence his obvious reluctance.

"At any rate, you know how alive they are," Universe was quick to change the subject, "Especially, after coming across the world they are from when you stumbled across Kikoutei."

"Kikoutei?" There was a frown on Sage's face, as he did not recognize the word.

"Sorry, that was the name it had when–" She gave a pause, though for what reason was hard to guess, "I knew of it. I think you call it, uh, Inferno?"

"Yeah, we do," the Ronin of Halo gave a nod, noticing that the exhaustion seemed to be fading from her as she continued to walk along.

"Ah, okay," She rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck, "So, how's Rekka-kun holding up?"

That hit something in Sage and his eyes widened slightly, she even knew something was wrong with Ryo? That was not just coincidence, something was definitely going on and he had missed it. As he opened his mouth, Cale responded with, "Ryo's condition has not gotten any better. If possible he is weaker, I believe."

"Are you serious?" She bit her lip, "That's not good. He should be starting to recover especially by now."

"Hold it," Sage cut across them both, violet eyes slightly flashing. "We thought it was just a normal cold. We've figured for a bit now it was more than that, but-"

"You mean Ryo still has not told you?" Cale inquired both eyebrows sharply raised, the Senshi looked confused as well. The Winter Seasonal was frowning, "Why has he not said anything?"

"We asked Kayura to tell us, but she said she didn't want to betray his trust," Sage thought he saw the Senshi of the Universe flinch. He tilted his head at her, "Are you okay?"

"No, no I'm not," Universe was grimacing. "This one's my fault. I thought he'd tell you himself, so I told Kayura not to worry about it, and that her instinct to leave it to him was the right one. Oh what a mess I've managed to make. Cale, you have to tell her that the vow of silence is off, more so than before if he's gotten worse."

"You should stop in and check for yourself," the Winter Seasonal commented to her, before becoming grim, "You sound concerned. Is something the matter?"

"I think I will have to, Senshi around or not," Universe murmured, before sighing through her nose. "Dread…It's starting to linger in the air again. Things are moving faster than what they did for Rini's time, and I am afraid that something will go terribly wrong."

She shook herself to rid herself of the doubt, "I mean it Cale, be cautious the enemy is bound to do something unpredictable and soon."

"I will keep that in mind, and inform Kayura," Cale murmured with a bow of his head, which she then returned.

The Scout turned her attention to Sage then who had stood there uncomfortably shifting as the two of them had conversed back and forth. She gave him a smile, "Stay well and safe, Sage. I'll be keeping an eye on you guys when I can."

The Ronin of Halo let out a chuckle, playfully rolling his eyes, "Oh great. All we needed was another female stalking us."

Universe merely grinned saying smoothly, "Don't you mean it was the last thing you needed? Besides, no worries. I don't believe in looking below my league anyway."

Sage could do nothing more than gape at her in disbelief, while Cale started to howl in laughter. The Senshi merely permitted herself a chuckle before walking into the shadows and vanishing from their sight line.

Cale was quick to get a hold of his self, and he looked to the Ronin Elemental, "Let us head back, so I can deliver word to Kayura."

The bearer of Halo only offered a nod, far too preoccupied with his own thoughts and worries to make a verbal response. The trip back to the mansion was done in complete silence.