Chapter Thirty:
Rowen sat up on the roof, his long legs stretched out before him, as he leaned back propped up solely by his elbows. The wind was moving lightly that day, and gently tossed his hair about.
The archer let out a long drawn-out sigh, slightly jumping when a voice sounded from behind him.
"Room for one more?"
The Ronin of Strata turned his head slightly and grinned to look at her, "Sure."
"Cool," Kayura chirped having picked up the phrase from one of the Senshi.
She sat down next to him, and then stretched her arms above her head, remarking, "Things certainly managed to settle down, didn't they?"
"Mhm," Rowen said with a nod for acknowledgement, but he said nothing more on the matter, permitting his thoughts once more to drift.
It was now the final week of March, and the time spent after that battle in Akemliek's territory had been used to recuperate. There had been no sight of Raikken, or Thanos since then.
The enemy had suffered quite a bit of damage, as the warriors had managed to collapse over more than half of the main passageways due to their fighting. The only way for the Raikken to get out was in very small numbers, and Akemliek wouldn't be bothered to send any. Not now.
No, the way Universe told it, because they had managed to fight so well, and do that much on their own, only needing her aide at the very last second, that they had successfully impressed him. Meaning he would be respectful and allow them time to recover.
Rowen was thankful for the breather, they all were…They definitely needed it at this point. This train of thought also brought one more thing up, the fact that the Senshi would be leaving.
Their part in this was over now, for the most part. There was no way to prevent the enemy from going after them, but it was a risk they were willing to take. They couldn't spend the rest of theirs lives just sitting around and waiting. None of them could, Ronin or Senshi…It was something they all knew and understood, now.
Fighting evil was just one more aspect of their lives; it did not mean they had to put everything on hold. They could easily manage both if they tried.
For the past two weeks the Inner and Outer Senshi had been finding places to stay, or making arrangements to go back to where they had been, before they had to give it all up for the safety of the innocent people around them.
They would be leaving by the end of the day, and Rowen was not that sad to see them go. Sure, he liked them all well enough…In fact he had grown rather accustomed to their presence and varying attitudes. But living with them for these past few months, had been hell.
Of course, the Elemental Senshi wouldn't be going anywhere, and that really didn't bother the Ronin of Strata. They didn't often clash with one another, or go out of their way to make him uncomfortable…Well, not like the other Senshi did that on purpose, it just seemed to happen.
Anyway, as Kirstin had put it, the Sailor Elementals, "bummed off of poor Elayne," and thus would be hanging around. Though, the young women weren't sure if they wanted to move back into the Estate and just leave the mansion for the Ronin and Seasonals to use.
The main problem, Vanessa had admitted to him, is that they'd be leaving Kayura alone with the nine men. Oh, they knew Kayura could take care of herself, it happened to be the guys they were worried about. If one of the men annoyed Kayura, it was just common sense that he'd be dead, and the other eight would soon follow.
"Ro?" Kayura queried, as she gently poked him in the shoulder.
Rowen shook his head vigorously as he came back to the world around him once more, "What's a matter?"
"You're quiet again, these past few weeks…I don't think I've ever seen you get lost in thought so often," the Lady Ancient remarked, "Is everything all right?"
"Ah, it's fine," the archer answered. "I'm still trying to put it altogether in my head to make sure I haven't missed anything. Plus, there's a lot I'm still unsure on, ya know?"
No, that wasn't completely true. There was a lot he still didn't want to admit was true. But there was no need for him to make the remark aloud, he was sure she had figured it out long ago.
A comfortable silence fell over them, as they turned their attention to the white clouds that passed by.
Kento finished his sit-ups, and then immediately went to work on his push-ups.
It was a nice day out, plenty of sunshine, a nice cooling breeze, couldn't get better practice weather than this.
Kirstin was not far from him, going through a number of easy self-defense movements. She tried to keep her concentration focused solely on the task at hand, but she found it kept wandering.
Finally, she gave an irritated sigh through her nose, "Oi, Kento? Don't push yourself so hard. You're going to pull a muscle, or bruise a tendon."
The Ronin of Hardrock chuckled in amusement at her concern, "No worries, Kirs. I'm not straining my muscles yet."
"You are as stubborn as your skull is thick," his elemental partner teased.
"Yup, I know," the Warrior of Strength chuckled, going to a one-handed push up. "At least I have my redeeming qualities though."
"Oh, really?" Kirstin queried, eyebrows quickly shooting up.
"Mhm, my good looks, and rugged charm."
Needless to say, Kirstin completely fell out of her stance and landed on the lawn laughing hysterically.
"Hey! I was being serious that time!" Kento protested, this caused her to merely laugh harder.
Cye sat down on one of the whicker chairs, almost surprised at seeing Sage in the other, seemingly asleep. The Ronin of Torrent heard Kirstin's laughter, and wondered what had her in stitches.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when an answer came from the blond.
"Kento made a rather amusing comment about how charming he is."
Cye let out a loose breath, "You enjoy scaring to people to death, don't you?" He then chuckled while making the remark, "Ah, that'd do it then."
The Ronin of Trust now leaned back into the chair, "Think this rest will last for much longer?"
Sage gave a snort to that, saying as he opened his eyes, "I doubt it, but I'm thankful for whatever we can get at this point. I'd rather not deal with that desperate a situation again, anytime in the immediate future."
"Know what you mean," Torrent's bearer murmured. Silence reigned for a few minutes, before Cye queried with a grin, "Think they'll show back up to see the girls off?"
The blond swordsman let out a chuckle, "Knowing imouto? They'll be here."
"Ya, I gave the Jewel to Kayura yesterday," Ryo said in answer to her question. The two were running alongside one another, not very fast or anything abnormal, just a light jog with the occasional sprint thrown in.
"It did enough, I'm as good as new!"
Elayne chortled outright, "Oh ho, look who's gotten cocky now!"
"I'm confident," Ryo retorted rolling his eyes at her blatant teasing.
"Confident, cocky, they're synonymous when dealing with men," the girl remarked in a dry tone.
The Ronin of Wildfire gave a snort to this, but made no retort. He happened to know better when it came to dealing with her, then to offer her witty comments retorts. She just came up with worse comebacks, and made you wish you had never opened your mouth.
Ryo had been true to his word, the day after receiving the vast amount of information from her he and the other warriors had sat down to talk about what they were going to do now. The first thing that came up to discussion, was how to handle Universe, or whether they should even bother.
He had been fully prepared to argue his point, but he had started off calmly, not wanting to ruffle feathers too early in the game. Surprisingly, there hadn't been any real opposition to letting Universe live her life and do what she felt she needed to do…With or without their approval.
The Outer Senshi, Lindsay had not taken part in the debate she had simply kept silent, had not wanted to restrict her simply because it was Universe they were talking about. The way they saw it, she'd been restricted enough as it was.
The other four Ronin had commented that even though they had not known Universe well, nor remembered much about her, they knew she was trust worthy and would make the right choices when she needed to. Plus, really, this was Elayne they were really talking about. There was no way they could do that to her…None.
Since then, that had been it for any heavy discussions. They all were just burnt out at that point, and didn't want to deal with anything else. The others had accepted the fact Universe was among them, and had been so for all their lives.
For Ryo, that had been a point of relief. He worried about her, probably why he'd been hanging around her so much these past few weeks. If given the chance, he knew she'd draw inward, let the guilt laying just beneath the surface get it's claws fully into her.
And, he had missed her company. The other Ronin could make all the awful jokes they wanted about that. He did not happen to care.
Elayne was important to him, and Universe had been that way to Ryou. So he felt he had every right to-
"Oi! Stop thinking about that so loudly," Elayne rebuked him with a grumble, rubbing at her forehead.
Ryo gave a nervous chuckle, she was still tired too, meaning her walls weren't anywhere near as strong as they normally were, she couldn't block loud thoughts out, "Sorry. Hey, shouldn't we head back to see the space cases off?"
The girl drew to a halt then that sounded about right to her, but she double-checked her watch to make sure, "Ya, we should."
Fifteen minutes later, everyone was gathered on the lawn. There were a few noted exceptions. The white and black tigers that were off somewhere sleeping, it would seem that the humans had worn them out way too much for their own liking.
The Sailor Elementals were also absent, having to run off not more than an hour before when their recording studio called. Saying that they had to re-record a song, because the original copy got trashed in the system, and the cd was scheduled for release within two months time, so they needed the new version done, now.
Elayne sat up on the second floor balcony, having said her goodbyes to the Senshi already. She let her legs dangle over the edge, and watched her charges with a neutral expression on her face.
"Well," Amara spoke to break the silence. "If nothing else, this has been amusing."
Sekhmet gave a snort, "Yes, agreed…Amusing in the "totally-amazing-any-of-us-survived" aspect."
"Thanks for that tidbit of wisdom," Cye snorted out, rolling his eyes, "Please leave all further statements of that nature to Rowen, thanks."
"Hey!" the archer groused, "Find someone else to pick on you guys!"
Serena bit down a laugh, she stood next to her Scouts, Rini and Darien off to her right, "Well, if you need us, don't hesitate to call us. It was an honor to fight alongside you." She bowed her respect.
"Mm," Lita nodded and grinned, "If there's a fight, I want to know about it."
"Of course," Kento chuckled out in amusement, bowing his head politely, "Take it easy, minna."
"Same to all of you," Ami bowed back, turning around and then started to walk away. Lita and Serena smiled, and then followed after her.
"Keep Pyro over there from life-threatening situations, if at all possible," Rei quipped before waving, and then jogging after her friends.
"Bye guys!" Mina chirped, trotting after the others.
Trista addressed the Ronin in a calm and even tone, "I look forward to working with you in the future. Farewell for now." She bowed and then walked away.
Amara gave a shrug of her shoulders, offering, "Later."
Michelle bowed and winked, "If you manage to avoid death traps, anyway."
"Oh ho, good one," Cye grumbled at her back.
Dais snorted down a laugh, "They have a point.
"Shut up spider-eye, no one asked you," the Hardrock Ronin commented as he punched his rival in the arm.
Lindsay gave a grin, "See you boys, I'm going to so miss looking at you." The woman then chortled at the look of horror on the Ronins and Seasonals faces, winked to Kayura, and then practically skipped off.
Hotaru sighed through her nose at the woman's antics, before bowing her head, "It was both a pleasure and honor to work with you all. I hope to see you again soon!"
"Later, Hotaru-chan," Sage said in acknowledgement, a small grin on his face.
She beamed a smile before walking away, she paused a moment, and then turned offering a wave to the girl on the balcony, before moving to catch up with her fellow Senshi.
"Dare, stay alive dude," Kento told the young man.
Darien chortled as he bumped his knuckles against the Warrior of Strength's, "Will do." He proceeded to go through and shake hands with the other men, exchanging a polite farewell comment with each. He bowed to Kayura, and then waited for Rini to say goodbye.
"Bye minna, I'll see you soon," Rini chirped as she proceeded to glomp each of them.
"Later, squirt," Ryo chuckled at the adolescent. The nine men and Lady Ancient watched in silence as the Senshi continued to walk away. Then, all of a sudden, Darien called back, "Hey! Elayne?"
She dropped down from the balcony, landed next to the Ronin of Halo, and stood upright, "Yes?"
"Keep them alive, would you?"
Elayne laughed for a few minutes, before answering with a wide grin, "Of course I will. After all, that's what I'm here for."
~The End
.........For now.