As Shin readjusted to the ice, he carefully walked closer to the woman. His weapon was ready to defend himself if needed.
"Okay, I'm here." He said, as the wind blew snow around, "What have you been talking about?"
"You've been born into a family with a purpose. That armor you wear has been passed down, and each bearer has died using it; am I correct?"
"For the most part, yes."
Walking close to him, the woman spoke again, "I can free you from it; the curse, the duty. I just need you to do something for me." One of her fingers ran down his chest plate, "I've been where you are now. I was cursed with a burden I didn't want. It's difficult being the daughter of the sea."
"Who are you? I'm not entirely cultured to Irish folk lore."
"You may call me Nuala." She smiled, "Come Suiko, help me."
Her face was inching closer to his. He was slowly losing his will of thinking. Her hair and loose clothes followed the wind.
"Melt this ice; flood the world with the pain you have endured with this armor and you can live happily without the burden it gives you." With each word their faces got closer. Shin felt at peace near the spirit but something in the back of his mind was screaming to get free.
Their lips were almost touching when Shin broke away, "No. I live to protect this world. I can't destroy it."
"But I've heard your dreams. You hesitated against the African warrior, lost to a man who was born of man and snake, barely beat a man in the snow and told an angry soul that you were a not meant to fight. I can give you a world where you would not have to wear this armor to fight."
Shin's eye grew large, "You're asking me to flood the world. What kind of life would I have if I was left alone?" He fell into a fighting stance, "Explain that."
"Fool. You'll die for your disobedience." She said, sending spikes of ice at the warrior.
Cutting most of them down, he brought water up from the ocean with his weapon. Forcing it at the spirit, he followed with his weapon to attack. Ice came up to catch his ankles, causing his helmet to come off. Grabbing it with his left hand, he threw it at the spirit.
"Stop running and fight me." He yelled.
"Sorry Suiko." She smiled.
Getting up, he chased after her on the ice. His nose and ears were red from the cold, and his breath was freezing to his beard. He could feel his eyes begin to freeze over. His run became a slow jog as his lungs were not used to the cold air of the Antarctic.
"You're not fun, if you're just going to die here in the cold." She teased.
The ice under him started to crack. He placed his trident into the ice to stabilized himself.
"Have fun watching the icebergs break off." She said, leaving him on the separated chunk of ice.
Angry, he raised his weapon.
"Cho Ryu Haaa!" the spirit heard, before crashing into the ice.
Tidal waves carrying the broken ice shelf crashed around the both of them. Bringing the water around the both of them, Shin created a wall of ice. Jumping towards the top of the wall, he was about to send the spirit to a frozen grave.
"Wait!" she called. A high pitched scream could be heard from far off.
Ignoring her calls, Shin brought the walls down upon the spirit. The walls collapsed, trapping the spirit, but also dragging Shin along with her. Dropping his weapon, he tried to grasp the ledge but fell when the ice broke. A deep strange laugh was heard as he continued to fall.
Standing at the harbor, Seiji, Ryo and Shu were decided who was going to jump in the water to look for the missing trooper's orb. May had brought warmer weather that was ideal for going in.
"I can't swim guys." Shu said, looking at the water.
"Rekka doesn't do well in water." Ryo added in.
"You guys are going to make me do it, aren't you?" Seiji asked.
"Do you have a better excuse?" Shu questioned.
"I don't like getting wet?" Seiji responded, knowing the other two were going to through him in.
Sure enough, he found himself in the water with Korin on. As he searched for something, a painful vision came. It was of Shin fighting in the snow and then falling through. Now knowing that Suiko was not in the bay, he swam up.
"Did you get it too?" Ryo asked.
"Yeah. He's somewhere really cold." Seiji added.
"Then we should call Nasuti and Touma and tell them to come back to Japan?" Shu asked.
Seiji laughed, "And tell Touma that his 'school year' is over?"
"Well, yeah. Shin just got blasted. We need to find him." Ryo said, "The vision narrows it down."
"To what?" Shu asked, "There's no more snow here in Japan.
"Siberia?" Ryo added.
"I was thinking poles." Seiji added, "And since it's almost summer in the northern hemisphere, I'm going to bet that he's at the southern one."
"You want us to go to Antarctica?" Shu spat out, "No way man. There's no way there."
"Well if Shin found a way there, then we need to." Ryo spoke quietly, "We can't just leave him there by himself."
"Alright." Seiji started, "I'll give Nasuti a call before she heads to work in the morning."
"Ugh, all this talking about snow and ice is making me hungry." Shu spoke after a moment of silence.
"Soup?" Ryo suggested.
"Yup." The other two agreed.
Later that evening, Ryo and Shu were waiting for Seiji to get off the phone with Nasuti. She was on another trip to the U.N. in New York City. Seiji was trying to convince her to get them on a flight to the Antarctic. From the sounds coming out of the office, it sounded like Seiji was losing. He walked out of the room with a sad look.
"No luck?" Ryo asked.
"No, she told me that she does not have the ability to get us on a C-130. We don't have anything to do with science."
"Damn Touma, he could have given her something." Shu shook his fist, "When is school over there anyways?"
"June."
"Well, it looks like Shin screwed the pooch on that one. Now we'll have to get to the South Pole to look for Suiko." Shu sighed.
"Listen Shu, just because we had that vision, doesn't mean Shin's dead. We can't just give up on him." Ryo spoke after he stood, "He's one of us."
"Maybe he should have let us known where he was going so we could follow." Shu argued back.
"Yeah because we would have all swam to the South Pole." Seiji added.
"Why not?"
"One, you said earlier that you can't swim. Two, we're not marathon swimmers like Shin is. We would have had to stop once we hit open waters. I know Korin can't make long swims."
"Toryuki." Ryo spoke softly.
"Who what now?" Shu spat out.
Seiji laughed at Ryo's suggestion, "Now you're going crazy. We don't know where to look for him or if he's still around. Shin blasted him pretty good."
"But if anyone is good with ice, it would be him."
"We should just ask the Masho to go since we're talking about past baddies." Shu added.
Ryo and Seiji put their hands to their faces.
"How could we forget about them?" Ryo said.
"Shu, you are a genius."
"Score! Now we have to find a way to tell them." Shu added.
The trio sat in silence.
"I hate feeling useless." Shu finally spoke.
Ryo and Seiji agreed.