~ duh, duh, duh ~~~~

So yeah Rowen is feeling a bit better but who is this Cerule Hashiba? And what is Leea going to do all on her own?

Chapter Forty

They decided to take two cars since Sage had brought his as well, but he was not fond of other people in his car. His exception was was Rowen and the late Hoshi. So he sat in silence with Rowen as they headed to Mia's lab. Sage glanced over his friend, who looked out the window of his car at the glowing city as they drove along. He returned his gaze forward, he had heard Cye scolding him earlier from downstairs, but he didn't know exactly what it was that was that Cye had said.

Rowen softly said, which surprised Sage, "don't blame yourself for anything, Sage."

"Ro..."

"Ruby told me that Hoshi was destined to perish, I was just too foolish to believe that I could prevent it and keep everyone else safe too," Rowen paused as he saw Sage's eyes widen for a moment but he didn't say anything. "...don't blame yourself for warning me, you knew something was off Sage, or felt it from the very beginning and I ignored your warning."

Sage shook his head, "I shouldn't have made you regret your relationship with her by saying that sort of stuff. She was priceless Rowen. I dare say that I enjoyed her company much more than my sisters."

"No kidding," Rowen laughed and Sage nodded.

Sage sighed, "If there is anyway of getting her back, you know we'll do it."

"I'm sorry..."

Sage changed gears and his car thrummed an even deeper growl, "don't even worry about it, Ro, I would have one the same."

Rowen looked at his friend with deep concern but then looked out the window, "Hoshi wouldn't want me to be this way either."

Sage just remained silent, but the silence was different this time. It wasn't as dense as it was, but almost normal. Rowen wanted to smile to himself, he was too sad too, but Cye had been right about him enclosing himself off. It was doing no one good.

Sage parked his car at the university and they got out. There were cop cars around one of the buildings, and he could see Mia and the other three already heading that way. He heard Sage's phone buzz, and he saw him glance at it and groan.

"Who?"

"Leea," Sage said shaking his head with a laugh. "That girl has to know exactly everything going on. She's a textaholic."

Rowen nodded, "you should see how often she texted her best friend. Gosh, I sware Hoshi would have shut off her phone service if it hadn't been for her. I think she only kept the phone for her sake. She didn't most of her calls at the office."

Sage nodded, and laughed, "though, I think its her only outside contact with the world now, so I can't blame her."

They got out of the car and went to go find Mia and the others at the building. Sure enough there was a a police line, and several other people standing at the line. It seemed it was mostly campus students from the late hour and the fact that most of them were in pajamas or party clothes. Rowen shifted uneasily as they passed the police cars and fire engines.

"Rowen," Sage gasped as they saw the building, it was half gone. Not like it had been bombed, or even shattered like when Raleigh had attacked them. Literally, half gone, like someone had cut the old building with a huge knife and lifted it away.

They hear Mia sobbing, and Ryo say, "holy...I thought you said broke into? Not vanished?"

Mia stopped a passing officer, "sir, I was given a call! My office was in that building."

"Detective Stell will be right with you," the officer smiled politely and she froze.

Kento whispered back to them, "this stinks of nether realm."

Cye nodded, "should we go look around a bit?"

"Yeah," Ryo nodded, "Kento stay with Mia, I'll go with Cye around that way. Rowen and Sage can got the other way."

The boys nodded, and slipped away from the scene as Kento bugged an officer for more details about what was going on. Obviously making a scene so that they wouldn't be noticed as they slipped away into the crowd. Mia watched them go with a sigh, all of her grandfather's work had been in there. She wondered if she had anything left, but then told herself she was being ridiculous, half of the building had just vanished. Of course it wasn't there.

Detective Stell made her way over, "Miss Koji!"

Kento whispered, "woah, this is her?"

Mia elbowed him in the ribs as the woman smiled, she still had her sunglasses on even though it was night time. She replied, and tried to act mortified, "what in blazes is going on!"

"Well, your office is gone..."

"...I see that!"

She smiled at the young man next to Mia, "is this your boyfriend?"

"No, just a friend who was having dinner with me and some other friends," Mia replied honestly, figuring she couldn't be nervous if she was giving partial truths. She pointed to the disheveled building but didn't pass the line, "what in blazes does something like that?"

Detective Stell seemed to be assessing her reaction and said, "well, come with me Miss Koji, your friend can come too, and I can tell you a bit more about this dangerous girl we're looking for."

She pulled up the line and the students watched as Mia and Kento went under it and followed the woman who casually put her hands in her pockets. Kento frowned, and whispered to Mia, "I don't like this!"

Mia rolled her eyes, "Detective, this is highly unusual!"

"It sure is," the detective said as they came to a large black suv. She opened the door for them to climb in the back, and Kento shook his head.

He whispered again, "dude, this is how people vanish!"

Mia ignored him again and climbed in, he followed of course, because he was the one who was supposed to be protecting her. Detective Stell climbed into the front seat and closed the doors. She took off her glasses and her eyes were striking, they were electric blue. She pulled out the photo of the girl from earlier, "Cerule Hashiba, is a very dangerous person..."

Kento couldn't stifle his comment, "I told you, terrorist!"

"Not quite," the detective paused as she pulled out some additional photos. There was one for each of the ronins, and each of them showed them in their subarmor. "You came to the UN a few years ago, Miss Koji, to come tell a bunch of old politicians pointless information. They're just war mongers, who have no idea that they should have listened to you..."

Mia frowned, "so they did take me seriously."

"No," the woman paused. "They didn't, but we did."

"Who is we," Kento asked suspiciously and Mia elbowed him softly to shut up.

"We, Kento Rei Faun, are the Acolytes Of Nike," she replied softly as she put their photos away. "We are an organization that has been around for a long time. We were once a group of Oracles in Delphi, but when the ancient sealed up the nether realm, most of our kind died out."

"So you're an Oracle," Mia said, hoping Hoshi hadn't been the only one.

"No, Hoshi was the last true oracle," she paused to pull out a candid picture of her looking back over her shoulder. "We were the ones who 'erased' her."

"Why," Mia asked, things were so much more confusing now.

"Because, when normal people get involved, things get hairy. That's what happened to her parents, they were part of our organization and thought they could use her powers for the greater good, but they didn't realize their moral obligation called darkness to them..."

"You mean her parents accident," Mia interrupted and she nodded.

"We have other abilities that are strictly human, and not nether realm born," she paused and her eyes flashed a little making her shiver. She looked at Kento, "we...much like the ancients, keep an eye on the armors and other things like that. Our organization set up a good foster home for Hoshi, who wouldn't question her disappearance should the time come, but we didn't know she would come in contact with the legendary ronins."

Mia sighed, and rubbed and her temples, "and who is this Cerule Hashiba?"

"I honestly don't know, I checked into everything you gave me information about," she paused to look out the window. "His father was an only child, and his father was an only son. Rowen is an only child too, I've checked in with much of his father's coworkers, there have been no other women. He's pretty obsessed with his work, does Rowen share that trait?"

"He can be a little 'thorough," Mia grumbled with a shrug, even though she and Kento both knew he was.

"I see," she said softly as she seemed to think about what was going on. She looked out the window, and pointed at the building, "I'm afraid that's her doing."

Kento frowned, "whoa, she must be really powerful, or can make a really good bomb."

"That's no bomb, Rei Faun," she said sadly as she looked at the building. "That is the power of a guardian armor."

Mia frowned, "I am so tired of all this mythology that my grandfather never left me with..."

"He couldn't, we forbid him too."

"You, what?"

Detective Stell nodded, "he was a very prominent member of our group, he found most of the lost texts that we could never hope to find ourselves.."

Kento and Mia looked at each other and Mia asked, "you have more of my grandfather's work."

"Yes, and it would be most helpful if you were to look through them for us, and figure out which guardian did this."

"What's a guardian," asked Kento, he felt his pocket where his stone orb laid sleeping.

"No that's the right word, what did my sister call it...yojimbo!"

They froze and Mia said, "was one of them a wolf?"

"Yes," she paused, "once the Light wakes up, so does her royal guard and her advisers. I feel you may have met the wolf, but there are two more yojimbo: the rabbit and the lion..."

"...we've met the lion," kento interrupted as he remembered Baroness not so fondly, but remembered that she wasn't quite a yojimbo either.

"But the Light also has three advisers: The Pearl Dragons, The Jade Tiger, and the Steel Tortoise."

Kento grumbled, "sounds like you know more than we do."

"We know the dragon, but not the tiger or the tortoise," Mia said and the detective nodded.

"My sister said as much," she sighed and grumbled. "Can you help us Miss Koji, we have no way of figuring out the rest of your grandfather's inscription."

"Haha, he still did that til the very end," she grinned to herself. "Still though, how did Cerule do all this?"

"She's the Steel Rabbit," she paused silently. "I don't know how she did it though."

"Is she still out there," Kento asked and she nodded, watching him spring from the car and going to look for the guys.