Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Requiem of Summer ❯ Chapter Seventeen ( Chapter 17 )

As soon as Cye stepped forth into the house, it felt as if the start button on a timer was pressed. His body ached from his recent battle; he could still feel the sharp stings piercing through his limbs. What kind of attack did that woman use to make it linger like this? During the car ride, Aika went into some sort of shock. She didn’t say anything and just stared at the back of the passenger seat. Take tried to talk to her, but he got no response from the teen. The two of them entered the house right after Cye.

Ryo was the first one to notice Cye and his injured form. He raced toward his comrade in an instant. “Cye! What happened to you?!” He saw the clean deep cuts on his friend’s face; a trail of dried blood went down his cheeks. He called for Rowen and Kento, who all raced into the kitchen at once. “Rowen, call Sage and tell him we need him home ASAP.”

“What happened?!” Kento exclaimed and placed both hands on Cye’s shoulders. The Bearer of Torrent winced at the simple touch. Kento snapped his hands away as Cye nearly crumbled under his palms.

Cye’s face hardened and pain revealed itself in his teal eyes. He felt sick to his stomach as he recalled the scene where Taikoku and his lackey took the girls. He couldn’t help them. He had failed them both. His eyes started to water as he looked at his leader with determined eyes. “Let me sit,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I’ll explain everything when Sage gets here.” He looked at Take, who was holding Aika close to him. Still there was no sign of life on the girl’s face. “You can take her to my room and lay her down. Maybe it will help. It’s the first door to your right down the hall.”

The older man nodded without saying a word and guided his niece to the bedroom down the hall. With careful steps, Cye walked into the living room and slowly sat down in one of the armchairs. The pain was slowly subsiding now that he wasn’t on his feet.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Kento asked, trying not to yell. “Where are the girls and why are Hana’s uncle and sister here?”

Ryo shot Kento a look, telling him to calm down. “Cye, we’ll wait until Sage gets here. I’m sure this isn’t something small.”

Rowen entered the room and sat on the leather couch. “Sage is on his way. He was just cleaning up the dojo when I called. He sounded… nervous when I told him the state Cye was in.” The blue-haired man looked at his injured friend from head to toe. “This could be linked to the nightmares Sage has been having.”

The auburn-haired man’s eyes widened at the comment. “Yellow eyes…” he whispered. “Yellow eyes.” He looked at his comrades as if he saw a ghost. “The man who attacked had yellow eyes.”

“What?!” Kento yelled. “That means there is a new enemy on the loose!” Rowen shushed him. Hardrock tried to contain his excitement. It had been months since he had a good fight. Then he remembered the girls and dread hit him like a ton of bricks. “The girls…”

Sage entered the house and closed the front door. He dropped his bag on the island and walked into the living room where everyone was. “What happened?” He looked at Cye and walked over to him, placing both of his hands on his friend’s face. Warm energy enveloped his hands as he focused his healing powers on the wounds. “What happened, Cye?” Sage wasn’t going to beat around the bush with this one. The nightmares he was recently having had become more powerful and vivid, almost to the point where he could see the figure’s face.

Cye closed his eyes and tried to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat. The warmth from Sage’s healing was soothing to the touch. The sharp stings that he was feeling were vanishing. “There was a guy who showed up at Hana’s aunt’s house. He… kissed her aunt and she turned into one of the Dynasty soldiers.” The image of the armor protruding from the older woman’s body and the sound of the crunching bones made him nauseous. “It was horrifying. I never saw anything like it. He said that he drained her of her life source.”

“That would explain the missing people throughout the city,” Rowen said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t know if you guys have been keeping up with the news, but there have been a lot of missing-persons reports filed. At least in the papers there are some articles about it. I just didn’t think too much on it. I didn’t see a pattern.”

“There was nothing on the television about multiple missings. I did hear about a woman who was supposed to meet her boyfriend for dinner and never showed up. She wasn’t answering her calls or her door,” Ryo mentioned.

“Anyway, this girl showed up with two big fans. I armored up, but I didn’t stand a chance against her attacks. I was immobilized. The searing pain is still lingering. He took Natsumi, but Hana tried to stop him. She got taken, too.” Tears slowly ran down his face. “I couldn’t save them. Hana was trying to protect her family, me, and Natsumi.”

“And that’s why her uncle and her sister are here,” Rowen concluded.

“Aika saw her aunt turn into that mindless thing. She saw the battle unfold right before her eyes,” Cye whispered as he wipe the tears from his face. “The man responsible said that he was the brother of Talpa.” Silence fell heavily like thick fog through the room. He could see the mixture of shock and fear in his friends’ eyes. “His name is Taikoku, the new lord of the Dynasty.”

“You said that he had yellow eyes,” Ryo mentioned. He couldn’t hide the fact that his body was shaking due to the news. They almost died during their battle with Talpa. If it wasn’t for the Jewel of Life, he was certain that he wouldn’t be here.

“He did?” Sage questioned. Cye simply nodded his head. The Bearer of Halo’s mouth felt like sandpaper as he recalled his nightmares. He was right. They were premonitions on what was to come, the new battle that they had to face.

“There has to be a reason why he was going after Natsumi,” Rowen thought out loud. It was crystal clear that Taikoku’s intentions were in relation to the mortal realm. What Rowen didn’t understand was why he’d go through the trouble of capturing one human girl. He could have took out Cye and left it at that, but he didn’t. Why?

“He knew about me,” Cye added. “He knew about my armor, too.”

“Is that even possible? He wasn’t even there when we kicked Talpa’s ass,” Kento spat. “There is no way he would know.” Patience was running thin with him. They were wasting time just sitting around. He hated the thought of what the girls could be going through. “Ugh! Why are we just standing around here for?!”

Sage glared at Kento from the side. “Chill. We need to think things through carefully. We don’t want to go headfirst into battle.”

“What’s the plan, Ryo?” Rowen asked. He could see the gears turning within his leader’s head.

Cye sat in his chair, pain clearly on his face. He couldn’t protect the ones he loved from getting taken by evil, and it felt like a vise was tightening around his heart. His power was no match for the girl’s attack. She brushed it aside like it was nothing but light dust. It was his fault. He closed his eyes tightly; his hands became tight fists on his lap. He was a weak, hopeless warrior. He heard Ryo ask if he was okay, but he didn’t respond.

Ryo’s lips became a thin line as his brows furrowed. “We need to get away from here,” he suggested. “It’s obvious that they know us and are probably going to target us at any chance they get. If we stay here, then we’ll be risking the people around us. I say we go to Mia’s. It’s away from the city limits, and I know she would want to know what is going on.”

“Sounds good,” Rowen agreed. “We should take Hana’s uncle and sister with us. Who knows if they are the next target.”

Getting to his feet slowly, Cye walked over to the bedroom where Hana’s family resided. The door felt as if it were attached to a sandbag. It took a lot of effort just to open the door. Take was sitting on the bed with Aika lying upon it; his hand was holding the teen’s. He looked like he aged a few years by just sitting there. Aika’s eyes were still staring out into the abyss. He felt a sharp pain in his chest before he spoke. “We are taking you somewhere safe.”

“What do you mean?” the old man asked wearily. “Please, you have to tell me what is going on.”

Cye could see the sorrow in Take’s eyes from the passing of his wife and the abduction of his niece. He owed him a great deal. After resting against the wall, Cye took in a deep breath through his nostrils. As calm as he could, he told Hana’s uncle of the events that had happened throughout the years. There were tiresome nights of fighting and battling a being from a different world to save this one. He then went on to explain how he met Hana and her battle with evil, up to the event that had just passed. He absent-mindedly took out his armor orb and rolled the smooth light-blue sphere with his fingers.

Take wasn’t sure if he should believe the young man or call them all psychotic, but after what he saw back at his house, he knew deep down it was all true. Even Hana’s crazy ability seemed to make some sense. It was crazy that the world was in the hands of such young individuals. He looked at Cye, not with doubt, but with curiosity. “What do we do? How can I help you?”

The Bearer of Torrent was a little taken aback by the response. “Well, we are going to Mia’s place. You went there when you came to check up on Hana last year. She’s away from the city and we think it would be safer. We just need your support while we figure things out.” Cye’s teal eyes wandered over to the still form on the bed. He wasn’t sure how Aika would react after she came out of her trance. What would she do? “We need to act fast. Meet us in the living room.” He removed himself from the wall he was leaning on and exited the room.

Take looked down at his niece and took his hand from hers. He gently shook her shoulder, hoping that it would rouse her. It did; the teen sat up straight in the bed. Aika’s eyes scanned the area of the room. Her legs felt like jelly when she swung them over the edge of the bed. Her stomach uncomfortably churned as she made her way to the bedroom door.

“Are you okay?” Take asked as he got up and went to her side. He noticed her pale complexion.

“I need a bathroom,” she said weakly as she turned the doorknob to the door. When she stepped out into the hallway, she noticed the bathroom right across the hall. She ran for it and immediately got sick to her stomach. Take offered his assistance, but all she did was shoo him away. He closed the door gently behind him.

Aika rested her body against the cool tiled floor. Her brain throbbed violently against her skull. She held her head with her hands and closed her eyes, trying to come to grips with what had happened. She was confused. She hoped it was just a horrible nightmare. Reality came crashing down on her when Cye entered the bathroom. She felt the contents in her stomach slowly rise up her esophagus.

He bent down and examined her. She looked up at him with teary eyes. Her skin was pale and her body was shaking a little bit. A tear rolled down his cheek as he took her into his strong arms, holding her tightly. “Nothing will happen to you,” he whispered. “I promise you that we will fix this.” His lips trembled as more tears flowed freely from his tightly closed eyes. “I… I’m sorry. I couldn’t save her…”

Aika wrapped her arms around him, tears of her own falling down her pale cheeks. “Where’s my sister? What happened to Auntie? What is going on?” She was done being left in the dark, not knowing what was going on. She wanted answers.

“I’ll explain things in the car, but we have to get going. We are going to Mia’s where it’s safe,” Cye explained. He got up and extended his hand out to the teen. She accepted his offer and slowly got to her feet. Her legs still had that uncomfortable sensation of weakness. She still felt a little bit nauseous. The pressure against her skull was still pounding. What was going to happen next?

In the car, Cye retold telling the story that he told Take to Aika. In the rearview mirror, he saw the teen staring at her hands that were resting on her lap, completely silent. She didn’t utter a word in between the story or afterwards, not like Take, who had curiosity written all over his face.

“She’s probably taking all the information in,” Take suggested as he looked at the young man who was driving. “It’s not every day we hear something like this.” Cye couldn’t deny that.

Scenes played within Aika’s mind like some sort of horror film. She could still hear the sickening crunching of her aunt’s bones as she morphed into that metal thing. She watched in complete horror as Cye fought this woman who had powers just like her sister. It was then that she clung onto Hana without a second thought, fear racing from her head to her toes, her heart pounding ferociously against her ribcage. Her sister protected her, even after she ran away from her. And now Hana was taken because she tried to save Natsumi.

She felt that sickening feeling again as her stomach dropped. Guilt was all she felt now because of the terrible things she thought of after she witnessed Hana’s strange ability. Aika overheard her older sister tell their aunt about her hardships and the guilt she harbored, wishing things were different. Would Auntie Jun have forgiven Hana after all this time? They would never know now because her aunt was gone, or to put it in Cye’s words, her spirit was no longer here with them.

The teen rubbed the sides of her temple with her fingers; the annoying pounding of her headache was still making itself known. She had no choice but to believe what was happening because she saw everything unfold right before her eyes.

Cye pulled into the driveway of Mia’s place, with Kento not too far behind him. They all filed out of their vehicles and made it to the front door, silence amongst them. Mia opened the door and welcomed her friends into the house. Ryo had called her prior to them heading over and explained to her, in short, on what had happened.

Luckily for the guys, she was one step ahead of them in her research. “I’m currently uploading files onto the computer,” she mentioned as everyone took a seat in the living room. “It must be linked to the missing people. More have vanished as of late last night.”

“It doesn’t make any sense. Why would the paper post articles on the missing reports and not the news stations on the television?” Rowen asked thoughtfully.

“We can’t think about that right now,” Kento said with his arms crossed over his chest. “We know that this Taikoku is responsible.”

Mia looked at Kento for a moment before turning her attention to Cye. “You saw this new enemy?” The Bearer of Torrent nodded his head slowly. “The name doesn’t ring a bell, but I did look through my grandfather’s old files. Maybe there is something there. We just have to wait until it loads.”

“I just can’t believe Talpa has a brother,” Ryo said with his brows furrowed hard. “And he took Natsumi and Hana for a reason.” He could feel his blood boil within his veins. Just like Kento, he wanted to go and bring the girls back home safely, but he knew he had to look before he leaped. In the past he would go off without thinking, letting his emotions get the best of him. Now that he was older, he had to be cautious, especially now that Natsumi was involved.

Mia noticed Take holding Aika close to him. The older man was listening intently to the conversation. “We’ll get the girls back. I know we will.” The older woman walked over and bent down in front of the solemn teen. “I’m sorry that this happened. Are you okay?”

Aika didn’t really know how to answer that question. She wasn’t fine, but she was glad that she got the answers as to what was happening. At the same time, she was trying to get rid of all the horrible images that kept flipping through her mind.

“Mia, the file is up,” Yuli announced as he made his way into the living room.

“I didn’t know you were here, Yuli,” Rowen said. “Did you just show up?”

Their old friend nodded his head. “Yeah. A few hours before you guys. I came to Mia because there was some weird activity by where I live. I was walking home from the video store when I saw one of those tin soldiers. I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn’t going crazy. It was the real deal, so I took off here to tell her. That’s when she got the call from you, Ryo. We both knew this wasn’t a coincidence.”

“We should go look at those files, then. If the soldiers are appearing here, then we have no time to waste,” Sage said as he got up from his seat on the couch. He started for the office with the rest of the gang in tow.

Take got up, as well, and started to follow them, but stopped when he noticed that his niece wasn’t with him. “Are you coming, Aika?” She shook her head. “Okay. I’ll check up on you in a bit.”

Everyone headed out of the room and to the office, but Yuli stayed behind. Concern was etched on the boy’s face as he looked at the troubled girl on the sofa. “Hey. Everything will be alright. The Ronin Warriors will defeat this new guy and your sister will come home safely.” He sat down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure of it.”

Aika looked at Yuli with teary eyes, doubt clearly written on her tearstained face. “How can you be so sure of yourself? My aunt turned into some kind of monster. My sister and Natsumi were taken by some whack job. Now I’m hearing that the world is in danger. How can you have so much confidence?”

Yuli squeezed Aika’s shoulder in comfort. He didn’t know about her aunt. He tried to give her a smile, but couldn’t. “I’ve been through it. My parents were captured years ago when I was eight. That’s how I met Mia and the guys. I’ve seen the turmoil that evil can produce. Even so, the Ronin Warriors were always there to make things right. That’s why I have confidence that they will rescue your sister and bring her home to you. Just have faith, okay?”

“I was horrible to her,” Aika confessed softly, tears falling to the floor below. She hung her head lower as she sniffled. “She tried to protect us.”

“But how were you horrible to her?”

Aika wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I saw Hana use her powers. I got scared and ran away. All I could think of at the time was how my aunt was right and that Hana was some sort of horrible monster. If I hadn’t run away, maybe things would have turned out differently.” She looked at the palms of her hands. That was the other reason why she felt so guilty, the feeling that she was responsible for what happened to her aunt.

Yuli shook his head. “Don’t put so much pressure on yourself. It’s clear that Taikoku wanted Natsumi for whatever reason. Hana just got into the mix and your aunt, too. He would have shown up no matter what.” He took a deep breath in through his nose and out through his mouth. “Do you want me to stay here with you?”

“You can go. I’ll follow you,” Aika said softly. The young boy smiled and got up, extending his hand out. She took the hand willingly and followed him to where the others were.

Kento looked at the small computer screen with wide eyes. “Look at all those pages,” he said in fascination as Mia scrolled through the file. He was standing behind her, looking over her shoulder.

The older woman concentrated on the task at hand, her eyes shifting over the screen. She stopped her scrolling and moved in closer in interest. “I think I found something. It’s not much, but it’ll have to do.” She paused for a moment and read it to herself first. “He ruled the Dynasty before Talpa came and dethroned him. It looks like the two didn’t get along. Taikoku was put into a deep sleep where he lay dormant for centuries. He was the original ruler…” The last sentence came out in a whisper.

“But Talpa defeated him and took over,” Kento repeated. “Exactly how powerful is this dude?”

“Not very powerful at the moment. I’m guessing he’s feeding off of humans to get his fix.”

“He turns them into his mindless army toys,” Cye said through gritted teeth. “That’s what he did with Hana’s aunt.”

“But that doesn’t explain the reason why he went after Natsumi specifically,” Ryo said. His patience was growing thin now. “What is his plan?”

“To get us,” Sage said simply. He walked over to the wall that displayed a lot of armor helmets. “Cye said that Taikoku knew who he was, armor and all. He’s probably using them as bait.”

“Do you think he knows about the white armor?” Yui inquired. He was still holding onto Aika’s hand near the entryway of the office.

“I don’t know, Yuli,” Rowen replied, crossing his arms over his chest in thought. “But he has a motive, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did know about the Inferno Armor.”

“Shit,” Kento spat.

“Kento, there are children here,” Mia scowled. She returned her attention to Ryo, who looked like he was ready to bust out of the room. “I’m sure she’s safe. I doubt they’ll do anything to her. It’s you they want.”

“That’s all easy to say, Mia,” Ryo said in annoyance. “But if he is anything like Talpa, he’ll have his fun with her.” His hand balled into a tight fist at his side.

“What’s going to happen to my sister?” Aika questioned in a shaky voice. All this talk was making her feel uneasy. Take walked over and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, hoping for an answer.

“Your sister is strong,” Cye said as he walked over to the teen, as well. “Her stubbornness will get her through. If anything happens to Natsumi, she’ll be there fighting. Don’t underestimate her power; she’s stronger than she looks. I’m sure you know this.”

“Her attitude has gotten her into some trouble,” Take added. Kento silently agreed.

Sage leaned against a small dresser. “We need to think of something. How do we even get into the Dynasty? The Ancient One is gone and so is Anubis. We can’t battle them here on Earth. It’s too risky.”

Everyone fell silent after Sage spoke. They had almost forgotten about the Ancient One and how he was their ticket to the Nether Realm. There had to be another way to access the dark domain.

Mia’s head lifted from the computer screen when she heard knocking coming from the front door. She removed herself from her seat and headed toward the door. She wasn’t expecting any more company. Her hand grasped the copper doorknob and opened the door, a gasp escaping through her partly opened mouth as she took a look at her visitor.