Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Sorrow of the Dragon ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Sorrow of the Dragon

Chapter 1

Disclaimer:

You know the deal with disclaimers and all. So, do I have to go there? All I own is the plot, Jenna, a few other later mentioned charas, and so on and so forth.... I'll note them later. And I am not too sure on the color of the Warlord's under gears, so please bare with me! Oh, and another note. The song used in the chapter, or rather the snippets of it, is called "Soldiers of Fire" from one of the YSTCDs. The song is also one of Ryo's theme songs. I do not own it and I will be using other snippets of the guy's themes later on in the fic.

Ja for now!

Always,

~ Jenna

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He sighed as he stood in the middle of the small group; the two heavy beats of the drums pounding around him as he heard the sound of an electric guitar join in. Suddenly, the soft sounds from a keyboard echoed in. He opened his tiger like blue eyes before starting to play on his own guitar.

"This town is burning up, looking back as I run thru…" He sang into the mic, his black hair flaring in the wind that blew by them as they practiced on the outside stage, his red muscle shirt clinging to his body, his black pants hanging loosely as he stood his ground in his white, red, and black sneakers. The vibrations from the music moved from the floor and into his legs, closing his eyes as he kept playing in time to the beat of the drums, singing the words with all he had.

"Burnin' in the fire!" His friends sang as they continued playing on. For Ryo Sanada and his friends, life was much more simple now.

No longer were the five of them plagued with the pains of fighting and the sin of destruction as the Ronin Warriors. They could live at peace and enjoy the calm lives that a teenager and his group of friends should. But, that did not mean that the battles ceased to haunt them. They still had very vivid dreams of each and every time that they had to call on their mystical powers to aide them in battle.

He looked at his friends a moment, glancing from one to the other. Sage Date, a very mysterious and loved by almost all girls at their high school played on his guitar beside Ryo, playing with perfect precision as he kept his icy azure eyes closed, tossing his perfect hair into the wind. The wind also ruffled his green tank top as he moved to the music a little, his legs covered in dark khaki shorts, brown sandals on his feet. He was the most wise out of them all and the most mature. It was no wonder that all of the chicks flocked to him. Sage had grown up in a dojo just outside of Sendai, Japan. The training his grandfather, who was at the time the dojo master, had more of an effect on Sage than he could have imagined. He had the wisdom of a man three times his age of 17.

Ryo then moved his eyes to the next figure. He stood a little near the back of the small stage, pounding on the large barrel like drum. Rowen Hashiba had had years of practice in different forms of percussion, but his forte was books. Yes, he was the labeled geek of their little band. As sweat poured from under his blue, yes BLUE, hair and down his face, his cobalt colored eyes never watched his drum sticks as he beat them to the drum, threw them in the air, caught them, and beat them repeatively again one after the other. And, just like his hair, he sported a dark blue muscle shirt, matching jeans, and white sneakers with blue laces. Rowen was a tall, built for basketball teenager, despite the fact that when he stood beside Sage, he looked short. Then again, all of them did.

He smiled, his eyes landing on the most trusted and silent of the Ronins. Cye Mouri had been the first to make friends with Ryo when they were in training together some 4 years ago. He had shaggy auburn hair and gentle sea like eyes. Ryo had rarely seen the young water Ronin angry, but knew that it could be easier to trigger his temper then one would think. Just like the others that Ryo had looked at, the British Ronin wore a shirt that matched the color of his armor, but only he wore it under a Hawaiian button up shirt that he had left undone, leading down to bleached jeans and beach sandals. Cye was a skilled pianist since he was a child, thus making him the perfect candidate to play keyboard for the band they had made to pass time. He also was an amazing songwriter, even though he and the others wrote some as well. He was the shortest and skinniest of the five of them, that Cye was. But, he had a large and kind heart to share with everyone he met. You never walked away from Cye's presence without a smile on your face.

Alas, for every team of fighters that he had ever heard of, every single one of them had a man that was pure strength. And Ryo was glad to have Kento Rei Fuan to be the muscle of their team. Kento was very muscular and by far out weighed them all. It wasn't that he was fat; he was just, as said, muscular. He, like Ryo himself, had a short temper and was very set in his ways. No one could change his mind once he got it suck on doing something. The wind too whipped through his ashy blue colored hair, his grey-blue eyes laughing as he pounded on his drum set, beating the bass drum in time with Rowen's, hitting the thimbles and the snare drum with his thinner drum sticks to the music. Kento always wore the most simplistic and, well, Kento looking clothes. As he played on, the wind picked up at his brown coveralls a little, ruffling through the sleeves of his cut off sleeve, orange shirt, once more, sporting the color of his armor.

Satisfied with all that he saw Ryo went back to playing with all of his heart. Just as he was about to start the last verse, a horrid screeching noise reached his ears. Covering them, he looked towards Sage again. "What in the name of Shiva happened?!"

"Sorry, man. String broke in mid note…" The blonde said, an innocent and apologetic look on his face. Ryo smiled and patted his shoulder.

"It's okay, dude. Let's just take a few minutes to rest. We've been at it for a few hours…" As the group got down off of the stage, Ryo went to a jeep near by and honked it's horn, calling up to the house in front of him, "Hey, Mia! Can you toss me down some A-cord?! Sage broke his again…"

"Here, Ryo!" Called a female voice from inside the open window. She stuck her red haired head out the window long enough for her to make sure he would catch the ball of wire. Normally, Mia Kogi's hair would be worn down straight, but today, as she was going through some old things she had in storage about the house, she had it pinned back into a high, braided ponytail, keeping her long, crimson colored locks out of her face. Her gentle green eyes only looked down at her young friend for a moment, a smile flashing in them. Mia had been a friend to Ryo and the Ronins for a few years now. After meeting her in Toyama during their first encounter with the Dynasty, she had been more than a great help. She was somewhere between a sister and a sergeant-mother to them all now. With the way that she opened her house up to the small band of warriors, one would think that she was their legal guardian or something of that sort. But, in realty, she was nothing more than a close friend.

"Thanks!" As he turned to go back to the others, he heard her call down to him again.

"Tell the others to wrap it up for the day! I want to go in town and do some things and I need a few of you to go with me!" She added, a box in her arms now as she looked out the window at her jet-black haired friend.

"Okay! I'll tell them!" He then neared the stage. "And I know who is going to be the first one to volunteer." He muttered more to himself than anyone else.

Okay, truth be told, Mia was a little more than a sister or would be mother to one member of the group. Sage was always hitting on her and trying to scoop her up as a date. But, that was just Sage for you.

"Hey, guys! Mia needs three of ya to go into town with her to get some stuff." Ryo said as she tossed the string to Sage, once more apart of the group.

Sage grinned. "Say… Ryo…"

The fire Ronin sighed and ran a hand through his wild hair. "Don't even ask, Sage. I'll fix the stupid cord and you can go."

"Man, I owe you!" Sage said before jumping off of his perch on the stage and dashing off towards the way that Ryo had just come from.

Cye chuckled, a bottle of water in his hand. "That makes, what, 29 times he's said that to at least one of us in the last week?"

"No, 31…" Ryo said, leaning against the stage, his back facing it and his elbows leaning down upon it. "Because he asked me yesterday to do the laundry for him…"

"And he asked me to clean his side of the bedroom." Rowen added as he stretched. "I better go and supervise our little blonde-haired Halo before he tries to embarrass Mia in public again."

"Dude! I'm going with ya!" Kento said finishing with polishing the thimbles on his drum set before running from where he was standing at the back of the stage and leaping over their heads, landing perfectly on the ground. If it were any other person, Kento would have probably broken something in his land. Alas, such are the benefits of training day and night for war, though. It made each and everyone of their coordination skills heighten ten fold then that of a normal teenage boy.

Ryo sighed and leaned his head back as the two left, closing his eyes, letting the sun beat down on his face. "I guess this leaves you and me to clean up, Cye…"

"Again…" The two chuckled, speaking at the same time.

"I know one thing for sure…" Cye said moments later, in the middle of placing his keyboard away and folding the stand that balanced it. "I'm glad we don't have to fight right now…"

Ryo sighed. "Me too…" He placed his guitar in a closet before going to take down Kento's drum set. "I mean… For the sake of the world, it was worth it… But… Aw, heck, you know what I mean…"

Cye chuckled, rolling the bass drum into the closet as well. "I think I'm the only one that does."

If it was one thing that Cye and Ryo had in common other than their calm, cool natures, it was that they both hated senseless fighting. If it could be avoided, then better to the people involved.

"Here, Cye. Help me push this thing in the corner." Ryo said once they were done with everything except Rowen's drum. It took at least two, if not three people to move it. With Ryo pulling it and Cye on the other end pushing, they worked it towards the wall. Even though it wasn't that long of a distance, it was hard as heck. The drum weighed at least double both of their weights combined. How Rowen managed to get any noise out of it was beyond them.

"That's it…" Cye said once it was in place, sliding down against the wall, breathing heavy. "I'll take back what I said about fighting…" His accent was heavy in his voice, filling it richly. "We're outta shape…"

"We? What do you mean we?" Ryo gasped through ragged breaths, wiping sweat out of his face. "At least I'm still standing…"

Cye grinned up at him. "Fine, Mr. Big Shot. We'll settle this the fair way…" Even though they were best friends, they still joked with squabbles. "Race ya to the house!" Cye called over his shoulder, dashing towards it.

Ryo growled, running towards the edge of the stage after Cye's soaring figure. Just as his friend landed on the ground, he thrust himself off of the edge, but much harder than his opponent had, making him go further. Landing on his hands, he sprung himself to his feet, landing in step run with Cye.

"Thought you could be slick, huh!?" Ryo laughed as they ran.

"No… Not yet!" Cye then went to swipe his hand out to try to ward Ryo off, managing to push him to the ground. Ryo growled.

"No fair!" He then grabbed Cye's ankle, making him trip and fall before taking off again. But no sooner at he got half way up the trek to the house, he heard a battle cry from the trees. He skidded to a halt, Cye catching up to him a moment later. "What on earth…"

"What was that…" Cye wondered, leaning down on his knees a little to catch his breath, wiping smeared dirt off of his cheek.

"Let's check it out…" Ryo said, creeping towards the trees. Just as he was about to reach out and pull back some shrubbery, a voice above him made itself known.

"Ryo of Wildfire, Cye of Torrent. I've found you at last…"