Chapter Sixteen

Sage picked Hoshi up from work, so that they could go to the Thursday meeting together. She had to talk to Rowen, but he noticed she was procrastinating or in denial, he couldn't tell which but she hadn't talked to either Rowen or Mia about the shadows. He was concerned, but he was sure that Hoshi was taking it that he was being bossy. He stopped in front of the school and she walked out of the main building, he saw Leea waving to her in the distance. He hadn't personally met the girl, but he could tell she was extremely enthusiastic or as Rowen put in intrusive. He laughed, he wondered what she thought her friend was doing hanging around these guys along with Rowen.

Hoshi came to the corvette and said, "this is your ride?"

"Jealous," he asked as a reply as she opened the door and slid in. She was wearing a simple cream colored suit today, pumps, and a hot pink tie. He thought she tried too hard to be professional and fashionable.

"No, but Leea might have you on her engagement list."

Sage laughed as he started up his car and they started to drive, "this is the reason why I don't like to take the subway."

Hoshi laughed, the car was fast, "I don't think that's the only reason, your 'fan club' might get to close."

" I don't have a fan club," he complained, and she just stiffly smiled. He changed the subject quickly, "you need to talk to Rowen about the shadows."

She looked down, "I know, but he's been so busy with finals, I never had a chance to..."

"He would find time, if you told him it was important," Sage replied and she nodded reluctantly. "And Mia..."

"She thinks I'm intruding on her territory," Hoshi replied and Sage barked out a laugh.

"Well, she was pretty mad when you told her the other half of the poem," he paused as they switched lanes. "Have you seen anymore of them?"

"Just an occasional one," she paused, she didn't like keeping a secret from Rowen but she thought it was almost ironic that the secret was with Sage. "Like I said, they don't bug me too often. Just the one at the lake..."

Sage glanced at her but tried to focus on his driving, "the one at the lake?"

"It just sort of plays this incessant music," she said as she leaned against the car window. "Like pipes or something, but its always calming."

Sage frowned, "you really need to talk to Mia and Rowen."

"Okay, I will tonight," she paused, "so glad finals are done with."

"How did those go," asked Sage and she just chuckled.

"Ruby just about had a stroke that she ended my class with an A," Hoshi continued to chuckle, "that girl would have a conniption if she found out most of Mia's research was real."

Sage couldn't help but laugh, he had heard of Ruby but she sounded so weird, "is she your favorite student?"

"Should I even have a favorite?" Hoshi paused, "Sounds something stereotypical thing that a professor would do."

He nodded, "well, is she?"

"I guess, she puts a lot more effort in her papers than the average student," Hoshi paused with a smile,

"I actually think she has a crush on me, because she gets so mad when she sees one of you guys hanging around my office. She especially doesn't like you."

"Don't tell Kento about that, I'm sure he has some sort of adult fantasy like that," Sage grinned and she replied with a distinct 'ew'.

Mia's house came into view, and Hoshi felt anxiety came over her and a tremor started in her hand. Sage glanced at her as he shifted gears, "are you alright?"

"The music is already here," she mumbled as she grabbed onto her right hand to keep it from shaking. "That one is a lot stronger than the others..."

Sage parked his car, and looked out at the lake, he could see a dark figure. He heard the music ever so lightly on the wind, and he saw her shiver. He locked eyes with the shadow, who grinned at him with an almost cartoon like cheshire grin.

Power replaces power, ronin.

The time will come when an even exchange must be made.

You have no hopes of protecting her and protecting humanity.

It's one or the other.

Sage glared at the spirit who vanished. He looked over at Hoshi, she was shaking really bad, especially in her right arm which she was trying to control by clutching it close to her body. He leaned over, and placed a hand on her shoulder, he was hoping the power of his healing ability would calm her. Slowly her tremors subsided, and she looked at him wearily.

"What was that," she asked as she looked at the concerned ronin.

He pushed her hair out of her face, "I tried to calm your tremors with my healing abilities, did it work?"

She nodded, "whenever they start, they always feel like fire...you stopped it..."

"Mia should still be home, she won't go pick up Yuli til Cye gets here, you really need to talk to her," he said seriously.

She nodded silently. He felt he might have upset her, but he didn't care, this was for her best. If caring about his best friend's girlfriend made him come off chauvinistic then so be it. He got out of the car and walked around to open the door for her, she clutched her purse to her as he helped her stand. He wasn't going to put up with her being stubborn.

She starred at him for a moment, "I'm sorry..."

He was expecting her to be a little bratty, but she looked genuinely scarred. "Did that thing really scare you," he asked, "you've been dealing with them for a while..."

"He's never said that much," she stuttered as they walked towards the quiet house. "It's usually an offer of power, not a threat."

Sage nodded quietly as he unlocked the front door. He had a spare key, actually all the guys had spare keys for Mia's house for when they had to come by, which was often. Less often in the past few years, but they had started coming together again for obvious reasons. He figured she was probably in her grandfather's office. Hoshi followed him upstairs, she felt uneasy. That spirit hadn't been threatening til it knew the ronins knew he was there. She wondered if the spirits just instinctively hated the ronins, or perhaps they were just wanting play a naive girl. She figured a bit of both, and she felt sick. She had been a bigger fool in this than she realized.

Mia was sitting at a desk grading papers and she looked up wearily, "you're both here early."

"Hello, Mia," Sage greeted and she smiled softly. She looked really tired, how Hoshi had felt a few days before she had finished all of her classes. All she had to do was submit her grades and she was done, but not all the universities worked on the same schedules.

"How many more days of grading hell," Hoshi asked and Mia grinned at the girl.

"Just a few more," she replied and ran a hand through her soft red brown hair. "What's up?"

Hoshi looked at Sage, but he had that stoic look she disliked so much and it wasn't helping her. "Mia, I've been seeing nether spirits," she finally forced herself to say and the woman groaned.

She looked at the short woman, "nether spirits?"

"I've been calling them shadows," Hoshi paused nervously, but Sage gave her a semi sincere look of concern to urge her on. It was better than him being a statue. "I've seeing them since Raleigh showed up...they haven't really been bothering until Sage saw one of them..."

Mia frowned and rolled away from her desk in a rolling chair, and went her a books shelf. She reached for one of her grandfather's books, "I've been afraid of this..."

Sage frowned, "should we wait for Rowen?"

"She can tell him herself," she paused to give Hoshi a bit of stink eye. She flipped through the book's pages, "I mean I've been wondering why me, grandfather, and the other select people in your lives can remember things that happen with the nether realm but the average person can't..."

Hoshi looked at Sage, "I've been wondering about that as well, I don't remember any of the other attacks on Japan."

Sage shrugged, "we always just thought the average person just doesn't remember."

"There's more to it than that, Sage," Mia said as she stopped on a page. "My grandfather's first interaction with the nether realm was with a being he called a shadow, it offered him some sort of power...he was our age when this happened. It's what got him so interested in this sort of stuff... I think these shadows, give some sort of blessing. I don't think we always see them, but they're there."

Hoshi frowned as she looked out on the lake, "there's one out there, Mia. He always asks me if I want power but he's never really done anything until today. He threatened Sage."

Mia frowned and looked at Sage, "well, he is the warrior of Light."

Hoshi frowned, then remembered the vision she had when she saved Raleigh. She looked at Sage, was he the light that was mentioned in the vision? She decided to keep to herself for a bit about it. She knew it was unwise but she figured that still had too much on her plate to be chasing something that was barely even mentioned. However, she couldn't shake that Sage was important in all of this. She had seen her vision in his sword, he was able to see the shadows, and he could control her tremors with his abilities.

She let out a deep sigh, and walked over to the window. She could still see the shadowy figure standing in the middle of the lake. Mia watched her, and said to Sage, "Rowen should be here in a few minutes. Can you send him up when he gets here?"

Sage knew when she was ushering him off, "Cye should be here soon as well."

"Can you go pick up Yuli then?"

Sage shrugged, "sure..."

Mia smiled as he left and she went over to Hoshi. She as still freaked out a bit, despite the strong words she had been giving the boys. She realized that she needed to reach out to the girl, "the boys try and make this simple."

"They do?"

Mia nodded and said, "you know, there's good and there's bad, and people die because of us..."

Hoshi nodded like she understood.

"'We're just trying to protect you', that sort of stuff," she paused to look out the window as well. She couldn't see what Hoshi was seeing, but she was sure it frightened Hoshi, "my grandfather had been researching the dynasty and the nether realms for years, he had plenty of contact with shadows and other spirits. I didn't expect that he would die...the way he did... It wasn't anyone's fault...but it was definitely not my main focus when the ronins faught Talpa the first time. My main focus was just trying to survive and keep Yuli safe. It was when the boys had been fighting the people who wanted to take their armors for their own so that they could rule the nether realm themselves, that I had to deal with my grandfather's disappearance. It turned out he had a lawyer and he had set up an inheritance just in case he did such a thing...a lot of my family still doesn't hold me in the best regards...but he knew I needed to protect this land because he knew its connection to the nether realm. Had my brothers possessed this place, they would have sold to developers and the nether realm would have a continuous gateway here..."

Hoshi looked at the woman, she had told her a lot that probably none of the others knew. "So this land is connected to the nether realm," Hoshi asked and Mia nodded slowly. "Mia, don't tell the boys this. The nether realm is searching for something, I don't know why yet, but I think it's called the Light."

Mia saw Sage pulling out of her drive way, "you don't think they're after him, do you?"

Hoshi shook her small head, "I hope not, it would break Rowen's heart just as much as if it was me, but I know I need to talk to Rowen about the shadows."

"He's not going to be happy you kept this from him," Mia paused to think about how grouchy Rowen could be. "He can be a bit a grump like Sage. Actually, I take that back, all those guys can asses at times."

Hoshi smiled to herself sadly, "I figured as much."