Enjoy.

It was early in the morning when Seiji left the bedroom. He was hearing noises from downstairs, so he went to check. He was on his guard for anything. Then the smell hit him. Someone was up early cooking bacon. There were only two people he knew who cooked with bacon, and one of them was in his bed sleeping.

"Shin," he covered his eyes from the bright light, "What are you doing up at six in the morning?"

Shin was standing by the sink, apparently talking to the tiger who laid in the middle of the room.

"I can't sleep."

"Why not? You had a busy day yesterday. Didn't you and Nasuti stay up late talking about what's it's like without the armor?"

"Someone threw my cigarettes into the lake." Shin reminded him, "So I got up to take my mind off of them. Byauken has been keeping me company."

He turned, fiddled with a few things before setting a cup of tea in front of the blonde, "Here."

"Thank you." He said.

"Yeah, it's been awhile. I won't be surprised if it is a bit off."

"It's fine, just a bit stronger than normal."

They both sat in an awkward silence while eating what was cooked. Their silence was broken up by a buzzer. Shin jumped up, to pull out what was in the oven. Seiji leaned back in his chair, taking in the quiet. That too was interrupted by fast moving foot stomps. Shu was seen running down the stairs.

"I wasn't dreaming." He said, "Shin's cooking."

"And there's plenty for you to eat." Seiji said.

Moments later, an angry Ryo came down. He was muttering something about Shu being loud.

"What time is it?"

"Six-fifteen." Seiji answered, "I wouldn't go in there."

"Why not?" Ryo stopped before entering the kitchen.

They heard Shin called out, and then Shu apologize; many times.

"Shin and Shu are in there."

"Right, I'll just wait for Shu to leave." Ryo said, taking a chair.

Shu came out with a couple plates of food, red round marks on his arms and face, and a few muffin crumbs in his hair.

"Those muffins were hot." He said.

"He just pulled them out of the oven." Seiji responded calmly, "You're lucky it was just muffins he threw at you."

"I know. He was reaching for the pot of water when I ran out."

The rest of the warriors soon came down at random times. Seiji was going through the house looking for more chairs, when he stopped in front of Touma's room. His friend was still sleeping. He wasn't sleeping when the window was open letting in the snow and Seiji had flipped the bed mattress. To make it worse, Seiji had grabbed a handful of snow and dropped it all on Touma's face and bare chest.

"I'm up!" he yelled.

"Good; I was about to get the Muffin Warrior to wake you up."

"Shin made muffins? Maybe there's hope for him yet."

"Yes. Now get a shirt on."

The duo met Shin walking up the stairway. He mumbled something about a shower. Touma grinned, which Seiji caught.

"What are you planning?"

"He hasn't worn the Milkball shirt yet."

"What's your plan?" Seiji grinned.

Five minutes into his shower, he heard Jun frantically banging on the door yelling something about being attacked. Not wanting to miss the fight, he turned the water off and wrapped one of the towels around him.

"Here, put this on. Hurry up Shin!" Jun said tossing him a shirt as he left the room.

Not looking at it, he started to put it on until he noticed the yellow color.

"What the hell? Are you trying to get me into the Milkball shirt?"

Jun gave him a grin, watching Touma and Seiji sneak from a bedroom into the bathroom and back out again.

"No." he lied, "I just grabbed something when I heard the noise from outside."

Shin gave the boy a look before heading back to the bathroom.

"Hey Shin, need that?" Touma came out, grabbing the towel around Shin's waist.

"Touma!" Shin screamed, covering himself up with the shirt, "Naked."

"Stop being a pervert Shin." Seiji said, following Touma, "There are women about."

Peeking into the bathroom, Shin noticed his other clothes and the returned armor orb were missing. Left was a pink speedo.

"You guys are mean." Shin yelled down the staircase.

"Wear it Shin." Touma was heard.

"I'd rather stay naked."

Shin heard a cough from behind him. Turning slowly, it came from a smiling Kayura.

"Nice butt, Fish-boy." She teased, "It's nice, tanned and round. The African sun did it well."

"Ugh," Shin stood there, red as Rekka, "I'm going now."

Touma and Seiji high-fived as they heard the bathroom door slam shut. Everyone else was still at the table, laughing. Nasuti shook her head in disbelief.

"You all never grow up."

"It was his turn." Touma said, "And the speedo made it better."

"We were nicer though." Ryo added, "We didn't give you pink a speedo and Kayura didn't walk up behind you."

"We saved the best for last. And I still haven't received my clothes back from Shu's brother."

"May I ask why you have a pink speedo?" Naaza asked.

Rajura sighed, "Do you want to know?"

Touma blushed, "No, you'd rather not want to know why I have one."

Shin soon came down after struggling to get his bedroom door open. He was a bit angry about not being able to actually get the door to open, and decided that the others would pay for leaving him with the Milkball shirt and a speedo. He started walking down the staircase, when Nasuti let out a breath of surprise. Her hand instantly covered Jun's eyes.

"Shin!"

"What? I'm going for a swim." He had a small grin as he was still embarrassed about walking out with the pink speedo.

"Here!" Touma yelled, tossing Suiko back to its owner.

"Thank you."

They heard the front door shut, before everyone laughed.

"That backfired." Seiji said.

"Yeah. I didn't think he'd just walk out." Touma added.

Shu sighed, "Was anyone else a little disturbed?"

"A little?" Naaza asked, "How about I never want to see anyone in one of that atrocious bit of swimming gear again."

"Agreed."

Standing on the dock, Shin shivered as he was looking at the orb. Byauken was standing next to him.

"I'm never walking out in a speedo in December again." He told the large cat.

He thought he could hear the cat laugh at him.

Ignoring the cold, he tried to put the armor on. Expecting to fly across the lake, he had embraced himself by the dock on the ice. Opening his eyes, he noticed that he hadn't flown anywhere. The armor's effects were instant. He could feel that all the bad memories from before were slightly blocked, and his nicotine addiction was lessened.

Everyone inside ran out when they heard some sort of explosion. Running towards the lake, they noticed the ice was gone except for what particles hung around in the air. They were all in their under armor. The tiger was lying near the dock cleaning his paws.

"Shin?" Shu called out.

Touma was standing on the deck, trying to figure out what had happened.

"He was here. His footprints are fresh still."

"I wouldn't stand on the dock if I were you." Naaza grinned, watching the four troopers stand on the dock.

"Why no-" Ryo couldn't finish his sentence as a wave of water pushed the four into the water.

Coughing the water out, Touma saw that the warrior of water was now in front of him.

"Mean." He said, before getting a face full of water, "Ugh, do you know how many germs are in the human mouth."

"Enough for you to have to ask me that."

"Okay, I'm getting out now." Touma said.

"What? The water's nice."

"It was covered in ice. It's not nice, it's freaking cold!"

Shin grinned, "So you won't push me into the water again? Or make me wear this speedo ever again?"

"Yes! Just let me get out."

Touma turned to swim back towards the shore before feeling a wave crash over him.

"Shin!"

"What? My hands are holding my trident."

Touma turned again, and again was pushed by a wave.

After a quick match in the water, the eight warriors were preparing to enter the Demon World to get their plan started. Touma spent a few minutes calling back to California. Although it wasn't as comforting as he hoped, he could tell it was better than nothing. As he was hanging up, he felt the large house shake. Running out the door, he saw the rest of the warriors engaged with several giant snakes. Soon Tenku found himself on the ground with the warrior of illusion on top of him.

"Hey man," Touma started, "You're not helping me by laying on me."

"Can it. Talking is not going to help us win this."

The warriors knew they were losing after seeing Anubisu and Shu were swallowed by the snakes. Seiji was having a hard time catching his breath when suddenly he was thrown back into the red jeep. He moaned, watching the warrior of fire step in front of him. Ryo was now in between the down warrior and a snake. That was shortly ended when Ryo was tossed aside. Now focusing on Rekka, the snake charged. Ryo covered his face waiting for the end. When it didn't happen, he looked up seeing Naaza killing the demon. The warrior of venom was about to say something until he keeled over in pain. He had not noticed his evil younger brother coming up behind him.

"Your armor is mine." Masafumi laughed, taking it from him, "I'll see you Rekka in my new realm. You and your friends better not be late. I have quite the deal to make."

Slamming his swords down, Ryo let out a yell, "Get back here you coward!"

"Yuck, I hate snakes." Shu said after being cut out of one.

"They hate you too, buddy." Shin responded.

"What's got Ryo in a bunch?"

Shin sighed, "Naaza's dead. He was killed saving Ryo."

"What?" Shu said loudly, "Urrgh, this guy needs a beat down and soon."

"I agree. Seiji, Touma and Rajura are trying to come up with a new plan. They should be back soon."

"Fuck that; let's just get him."

"Easy there." Shin laughed, "You were just eaten by a snake."

"Now that you mention it, I could eat something."

"Atta boy. Help me get Anubisu out of a snake and we'll go eat."