Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Vamps and Ronins ❯ The Gift of Giving with No Reason to Hide ( Chapter 15 )

Vamps and Ronins

Chapter Fifteen: The Gift of Giving with No Reason to Hide

Written by: Tiasha

~

What are you going to do with your gift dear child?

Give life, give love, give soul?

Divided is the one who dances

For the soul is so exposed

So exposed

Let's leave…oh let's get away

Get lost in time

Where there's no reason to hide

Let's leave…oh let's get away

Run in fields of time

Where there's no reason to hide

Creed, "Hide"

~

The weekend before exams found several young people studying non-stop, while a young redhead annoyed several others. One older woman was to be found in the kitchen making a snack for the studious teenagers while another older woman sat at the kitchen counter, glancing over at the table of teenagers every now and then before looking back at her pen and pad of paper.

"Come on! Ask me another one!" the young redhead pleaded, holding a worksheet out in front of her friend's face.

"Why? You've got most of them right already," her friend stated, ignoring the paper dandling in front of him.

"Please Cye?" the young redhead again pleaded.

"Robyn, why don't you study for our Trig exam now?" Rowen interjected. The young redhead pouted for a moment before opening her trigonometry notebook and pulled out a worksheet and pencil.

Silence reigned, aside from the sound of pencil on paper and turning pages, for nearly fifteen minutes before another older woman entered the kitchen. The two twins greeted her politely as they were not taking exams next week and studying for them, unlike the six teenagers gathered around the kitchen table.

Mrs. Mouri had arrived home a day after Robyn had gone to Matt's concert with Mariko and was quite surprised to find two new people stopping by the house frequently; but she had merely smiled and welcomed them, saying that it was nice to see Robyn with some female companions of her own, aside from Kami (who had taken her exams early in order to go on vacation).

The twins had found an immediate companion in Mrs. Mouri, Mariko particularly since the elder twin was more the mother of her group; all three enjoyed pottery and Cye had more often than not found either Mariko or Cody sitting in the pottery room chatting with his mother in the last few days. It bothered him but at the same time relieved him that his mother was not greatly disturbed by the sudden appearance the twin's had made in Robyn's life.

Presently, Mrs. Mouri poured herself a drink before accepting a piece of food that Cody had offered her. The older woman complimented the younger twin on her cooking before looking over Mariko's shoulder at the pad of paper the elder twin was sketching on.

"Oh my, that's exceptional work," Mrs. Mouri murmured, commending the elder twin on her drawing skills.

"Thank you, but it's just a sketch, ma'am," Mariko said, signing her name and date at the bottom of the paper before placing the cap on her pen.

"Even so, it's very good. You have an eye for detail."

"Thank you, but-"

"Stop being so modest, onesan," Cody said, not even skipping a beat as she finished preparing the snacks for all of them.

"You hush imoto."

Mrs. Mouri chuckled and left the two sisters to their bickering, making her way over to the table of teenagers.

"Go ahead and take a break. I think you all are ready for a snack anyway," she said, smiling as many of the teenagers gratefully closed their books and notebooks. Feeling that her job as mother was done for now, she went ahead and left them alone, taking her drink with her as she headed upstairs.

Robyn was curious to see what exactly it was that Mrs. Mouri had complimented Mariko on and so she moved to look at the sketchpad that was lying on the counter in front of the bearer of Phoenix. She couldn't believe Mariko was trying to say that it wasn't good. Robyn would have loved to have Mariko's talent if that drawing was just a sketch! It was a sketch of the six of them sitting at the kitchen table; Robyn was facing Cye as the latter was looking down at a book, Kento's head was bent over a paper with a pencil in hand, and Ryo, Sage and Rowen were all looking at their own books.

"I still haven't mastered the technique for ink drawings yet, but I think I'm getting the hang of it," she heard Mariko explain. Robyn looked at the other woman with a slight look of disbelief on her face. "I know, I know…stop being modest," the elder twin sighed, reading Robyn's expression clearly. She then said as an afterthought, "You can keep it, if you want it that is."

Robyn thanked her as Mariko tore the piece of paper off the pad and handed it to her. The young redhead then grabbed herself something to eat and joined the guys at the table while the twins stayed at the counter, due to lack of room at the table.

After a few moments, Cody began elbowing her older sister in the ribs, which caused Mariko to elbow her sister back, which only encouraged Cody to elbow Mariko again. Finally growing annoyed with her sister's antics, Mariko practically shoved her sister off the stool she was seated on. A squeal emitted from the younger twin as she ungracefully fell, grabbing onto her sister's arm at the same time. Mariko cursed as she held onto the counter and attempted to keep herself from being dragged to the floor with her sister. She was somewhat successful. What ended up happening was Cody's rear softly hit the floor (instead of falling on it hard) as she clung to her sister's arm, who in turn clung to the countertop with her free arm.

"Jeez! What'd ya push me off for?" Cody asked, releasing the death grip on her sister's arm. "All I was trying to do was give you a hint!"

Mariko frowned and bit her lip, "You can't whisper?"

"Of course I can!"

"Well, then why didn't you?"

"Hint about what?" the two heard Kento question and they looked to see the six teenagers watching them curiously, perhaps even a little strangely.

"Nothing," Mariko said and promptly got a smack on the back of the head from Cody. As Mariko rubbed her now sore head, Cody moved to stand near the table.

"Since she isn't going to tell you, I will. We think we've figured out who the marble belongs to," Cody explained. "Remember that Italian kid who moved next door to you Ryo? We think that it's him."

"Okay, cool. I'll give it to Ryo and he can give it to the kid," Robyn said happily, glad to finally be rid of that thing.

"It's…not that simple…" Mariko began, "You have to give it to the boy yourself, Robyn."

"What? Why?"

"The newer armors are…oh, how to explain it…they don't like being abandoned. To a new armor, you placing your duties as guardian onto another is the same as abandonment to it. And it will take on a monstrous form and go on a rampage."

"Eek! That's not good!"

"No it's not, which is why Josh is going to take you to see the boy and Yasalia as soon as possible."

"Just Robyn? Can't we go with her?" Cye asked, not liking the sound of this.

"I would highly advise against it. The boy, according to Josh, was separated from his mother recently and feels vulnerable. If we were to have your armors near the boy while Apollo is there, the boy will be uncomfortable and the new armor will see your armors as a threat."

"Jeez! Who made these things anyway?" Kento commented.

Mariko calmly replied, "The Ancient One."

"What?" came from five young men promptly afterwards. Mariko rolled her eyes and sighed.

"To make a long story short. The atarashii armors were a back up plan, should your armors have failed to destroy Talpa and failed to protect the Mortal Realm."

Robyn blinked as most of what was going on went over her head. What little she knew of the Ancient One was from what the guys had told her but all of this new stuff about the new armors being connected to this Ancient guy went right over her head. So she turned to look out the open and window, only to find a small gold fog bank hovering near the window that was behind her and the others. She immediately recognized the fog bank as Joshua and smiled, watching as he slipped through the metal screen and flowed across the floor inconspicuously towards the living room. Robyn had come to find that he was strange like that, not really wanting anyone to see him shift forms, but she never really understood why and he always refused to explain.

"Okay, but is Robyn going to be safe with this kid once he gets that armor?" Cye asked, not at all realizing that there was now a new occupant in the house. It was not until Joshua's voice drifted into the kitchen that the majority of them were startled by the sudden appearance of the soul gaki.

"I don't think you need to worry about Arain harming princhipesa here," announced the soul gaki as he entered the kitchen and came to stand near Mariko.

"Prin-what?" Ryo questioned but was distracted by Robyn correcting him.

"Princhipesa Ryo, didn't any of you ever watch Life is Beautiful? Oh never mind," Robyn said, shaking her head at their confused looks. "It's princess in Italian." Robyn then looked at Joshua. "Wait, why am I suddenly 'princess' here?"

"Because, both Yasalia and I refused to tell him your name and such. So instead of saying 'that girl' or 'that friend of yours,' he refers to you as princhipesa."

"But why princhipesa?"

"Because to him, you sound like a princhipesa."

Robyn flushed at that, demanding in an annoyed tone to know what exactly Joshua had said to the 'poor child.' Joshua, however, laughed and answered 'nothing but the truth.'

"Still…I don't see why he has to call me princhipesa," Robyn said, pouting. It was not that she didn't appreciate being called a princess, it was just that stereotypically a princess was a brat who always got her way, and she was far from that in her opinion.

"It's not meant to be an insult, Robyn. To him, you sound like a kind person and in his mind, that is a princess. I mean, he's only eleven."

Robyn shrugged her shoulders and went back to finishing her snack, which Kento had been eyeballing for past two minutes. The next comment Joshua made nearly caused Robyn to choke on her snack.

"Besides you don't seem to mind Jayzen treating you like a 'princhipesa,' at least not from what I've seen."

Robyn could feel the tension in the room growing at the mention of the name and she threw a glare at the soul gaki. Only she noticed that from the expression on his face, Joshua had said that out of concern.

"I hope you're not letting his words cloud your judgment," the soul gaki said calmly.

"First off, I don't need you getting on to my case about him. God knows these guys are bad enough," she said, motioning off-handily towards those sitting next to her. "And second, why do you say that?"

"I don't trust him and I know Yasalia is going out of her mind trying to figure out what the meaning of his aura is. She senses a hint of dark magick in his aura, but she can't figure out if it's because it's in his blood or from an outside source. If it's in his blood, then there's nothing to worry about really. He's probably got some relation to a dark elf or shadow mage if it's his blood."

"You mean elves really do exist?" Robyn asked excitedly but her question was quickly forgotten when Sage posed his own.

"Just who is this Yasalia you keep mentioning? Can she be trusted?"

Joshua nodded, explaining that Yasalia was a soul-gaki and that it was impossible for a soul-gaki to deceive another. "I would stake my existence that she can be trusted. She hated Talpa when he first entered this realm and has no desire to see his bastard son try to follow in his footsteps."

"Okay, so there's two more to chalk up under the allies category," Cody said from where she was leaning against the wall. "'Cause I think that little Italian boy is going to love the chance to be the valiant knight who protects his 'princhipesa.' Don't you, Robyn?"

Robyn groaned and placed her head in her hands. Now the whole 'princhipesa' was starting to get out of hand and a little humiliating. Her? A damsel in distress? While she was the first to admit that she practically would never take a swing at a person, she just didn't see herself as the damsel sort!

"In any case, when did you want to see if Arain is the one we've been looking for?" Joshua asked, noting Robyn's discomfort about the 'princhipesa' subject.

Robyn shrugged, "I don't know, how soon does it have to be?"

"There's no real deadline…but the sooner the better," Mariko answered. "Why not this evening? I know you all have been studying so hard, but too much studying can be as bad as too little. So we'll go out to eat and it'll be on me. What do you think?"

---

Robyn huffed as she dug through her stuff to find the stupid marble before they all left to go out. She was so preoccupied before hand that she hadn't paid attention to where she had put it and now, of all the times she needed to find it, she couldn't. She growled and shoved a drawer closed, standing and crossing her arms as she surveyed the disaster area that was her room. Where had she put it?

"Mew."

Robyn paused and frowned; mew? Where had that come from?

"Mew."

More importantly, what had that come from? Robyn slowly turned towards her bed only to find a strange animal looking at her curiously. She froze as she stared at the animal, unsure of where it had come from and unsure of what it was going to do. But it was so cute looking!

"Mew."

Robyn smiled, "Well, you're too cute for words." The animal was a cross between a cat, a fox and a red panda. It was too cute!!! She was half tempted to take it downstairs and ask Cye if she could keep it. The look on his face would be priceless!

"Mew."

Robyn raised an eyebrow at it as it leaped off her bed and bounded towards her dresser. The creature was about as large as a housecat and seemed to act like one too. It made little noises as it batted its paw underneath her dresser.

Curious, Robyn moved towards the dresser, getting on her hands and knees to look under it as the creature continued to bat at something. She peered under the piece of furniture before sticking her hand in the area that the creature was so interested in. The creature, she noticed, immediately ceased its attempts to get whatever it was when Robyn searched for it herself. Running her hand across the carpet, she came across something smooth and cold, like glass. And it was spherical in shape, she realized after she grabbed the object.

Pulling out the object, she found herself holding the item she had been searching for. She looked the creature straight in the eyes as it flicked its slender, striped tail back and forth. It was obviously pleased with itself for it purred contentedly and looked at her with such a proud gaze.

"Well, thank you," Robyn said, standing. The creature immediately wove in and out of Robyn legs, purring as it rubbed itself against her. Giggling, Robyn reached down to scratch it behind the ears. "Now how did you get in here is what I want to know."

"Mew."

Sighing, Robyn disentangled herself from the creature's meandering path and moved to the door, preparing to go down and join the others.

"Mew."

Robyn looked back over shoulder to smile and say good-bye to the creature…only to find her bedroom empty. Looking around the hallway and her room, she surmised that it was indeed gone. Had it vanished? Odd, was all she could come up with as she went downstairs.

"Hey Cye," she began, slipping on her canvas tennis shoes. "If you see something that's a cross between a cat, fox and red panda running around the house finding things for ya…let me know. I wanna keep it."

She smiled at the look on his face, perplexed confusion and distaste. Priceless…

---

Robyn stared at the little New Age store Joshua had brought her to and shivered involuntarily as she looked at some of the merchandise that was displayed in the window. The store reminded her of the place where she had first met Jason and had learned of Nago and his dark powers. Joshua wasn't actually serious about this place was he? If so, she was not sure if she could keep from shivering the whole time, despite the warm, muggy weather that blanketed the city this time of year.

She frowned and looked at her watch. She and Joshua had separated from the rest of the group no longer than twenty minutes ago, the rest of them going to a little diner that Cody knew of. But it was not that late and there was hardly anybody out on the street. Was this Joshua's doing? Was Joshua going to betray her like Scott had?

Robyn shook her head to clear it of such thoughts. No, Mariko had told her that Scott had sold his soul to Dragon/Tregarde without their knowledge because at one point, they had all thought that Cody had been buried alive under a ton of rubble. Obviously the ronin of Gaea had survived…but Scott had already sold his soul by the time that they had found out…

"Anyone looking?" she heard Joshua ask her and she immediately snapped to attention. Looking around her, she frowned at the lack of people.

"Anyone looking?" she echoed his question, heaving an exasperated sigh. "Josh, there's no one here!"

When she turned back to look at him, she found herself staring at dense bank of gold fog with glowing gold eyes. She squeaked in surprise before watching apprehensively as the fog bank slid underneath the door. Seeing that there was a curtain closed behind the door, she snapped her fingers. She had been hoping to see Joshua turn solid!

After a moment, Joshua appeared from behind the curtain and unlocked the door for her, holding it open and locking it again after she slipped inside. He then made sure that no one could peek in, pulling the curtain in all the right places to block everything from the view outside.

Robyn turned her attention to the inside of the store, feeling some of her previous nervousness ease away as the smell of cherry blossoms drifted to her nose. She glanced around for the source and found some incense burning here and there. A little pagoda had been set up in the middle of the store and in it a rock waterfall pond, which was also the only evident noise in the store. She ran a hand across a pale blue sarong that had been draped around the edge of a counter before turning to Joshua when he spoke.

"Pretty nice in here, huh?" he commented, inhaling the scent of cherry blossoms deeply. She smiled as he then hopped up to sit on top of a counter that had some Egyptian artifacts and merchandise.

"Are you sure you weren't just trying to get me alone," she teased, laughing when he blinked at her rapidly, mouth open as if to protest. "I'm kidding," she soothed but he didn't seem too convinced as he kept giving her an unsure look. "So, where is this Yasay-er-Yasal-uh-"

"It's Yasalia," he corrected, smiling gently. "And don't freak out when you see her. Her eyes are-unique."

"Like yours?" she questioned and grinned when she saw that faraway look, even if it was for a split second. When he nodded, her grin grew even larger. "You like her," she said, waggling her eyebrows at him, smiling. At the slight stain across his cheekbones, she roared in triumph, "Aha! You like her! I knew it! You had this look on your face that totally gave it away! Even if it was for a split second but still-it was there! I saw it!"

"Shh! Don't say anything to her about it!" he hissed, a dark look suddenly on his face. Robyn immediately quieted at this, thoroughly confused at his behavior. Did this Yasalia not feel the same way? Or was it another one of those gaki things she kept being told of?

She didn't have time to ask before Josh cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered. "Oi! Kitsune-onna!"

"BAKA!" came an enraged female voice from somewhere. Robyn quickly turned her attention to a midnight blue curtain near the counter as it was thrown aside and a stapler went flying through the air at Joshua. The soul-gaki merely laughed and caught the appliance in mid-air.

"You ungrateful, egotistical, tori-atama!" the voice continued. "Never have I yet met a male who is as ungrateful and inconsiderate and disrespectful as you! Why did the Ancient Ones curse me with such a fate as to meet someone like you I will never know-"

"Oi! Kitsune, are you done?" Joshua asked a smirk on his face as a frustrated scream heralded the entrance of a young woman with long blonde hair. Robyn blinked and looked at the woman in surprise as the blonde stalked menacingly toward the smirking soul gaki. She had the perfect figure from what she could see with the long ritual robe that was wrapped around her.

The woman then took a deep breath as if to calm herself and turned to look at Robyn. Robyn could not stop the slight gasp that escaped her lips as she found herself staring into a pair of blood red eyes. This had to be that soul gaki that Cye had seen that one night, it just had to be…

"Ah, I see you are doing well. I had been worried about you since I found out you had a run in with Tregarde already. Unfortunate that it happened and unfortunate that you nearly cracked too but you seem to be well now. I take it Halo's aura has helped along with Torrent's," the woman said to her and Robyn swallowed nervously. This place was really starting to disturb her.

"Is this Princhipesa?" a boy's voice asked and Robyn looked past the woman to the young boy by the curtain. He had blonde hair as well, but his eyes were the strangest blue-so light that they seemed almost grey, like a silver.

"Arain meet Robyn. Robyn this is Arain," Joshua said from his seat on the counter. Robyn smiled politely at the boy who had a large grin on his face, who then turned to the woman, Yasalia, and spoke to her in what Robyn assumed was Italian. The two conversed for a moment before the boy gave a startled gasp when the woman grabbed his arms, shaking him gently as she continued to speak.

Robyn blinked as the boy suddenly yanked out of the woman's grasp and ran towards her, Robyn, wrapping his arms around her in what seemed like desperation. She gave a questioning gaze to the woman who shook her head apologetically.

"Please forgive him," Yasalia said, speaking softly. "He claims that you remind him of his mother, though younger."

Looking down at the boy who held her fiercely, Robyn slowly encircled her arms around the small frame as she heard him begin to cry. So the kid really missed his mother and she, Robyn, was a reminder of what he had left behind.

"Arain has been sent to live with his Aunt while the Italian government grants his mother sole custody and annulment from his father," Yasalia continued. "Apparently his mother had been forced into the marriage without her consent and the courts are still debating on whether she is truly married or not."

'He loves her very much,' Robyn thought as she looked down at the boy and began to comfort him. She could sense his desire to protect his mother, his desire to protect someone, like his mother had for him.

Robyn suddenly yelped as a piercing heat pressed against her and she roughly pulled away from the boy, digging into her front pocket to pull out the armor orb. Both she and Arain stared at the orb in surprise when it began to float out of Robyn's hand and levitate in mid-air between them. She watched as Arain hesitantly reached out to touch the orb.

The moment his hand touched it, the orb flared so brightly that Robyn cried out in surprise and covered her eyes. She heard the boy gasp in surprise and pain and Robyn wondered what was going on. Had the orb done something to hurt the boy? Was the boy not the bearer after all?

When the light had faded, Robyn looked at Arain to see if the boy was all right but gasped at the sight in front of her. He was in full battle armor, which resembled Sage's a great deal, only instead of the large sword that the Halo armor sported, Arain's had a bow and quiver that greatly resembled Rowen's. The coloring was different as well; where the guys had white, there was black and Arain's colors were gold, yellow and little bit of white here and there.

"Wow," was all Robyn could manage to whisper as the boy inspected himself, a look of complete awe on his face.

He finally came to his sense though, for he then smiled up at her as happy as could be before turning to Yasalia with a questioning look. "Now what do I do?" he asked her.

The blonde woman shrugged, "Imagine how you were before in your clothes and concentrate. You'll know when to stop."

The boy gave her an odd look but did as he was instructed, closing his eyes and concentrating. Robyn watched as the armor flickered and reverted to subarmor instead of the boy's t-shirt, pants and sneakers. Eyes still closed, Arain frowned, concentrating harder and Robyn found herself holding her breath as she waited. The subarmor began to flicker and finally fade back to the boy's clothes.

When he opened his eyes, a grin once again spread across his face, but his body drooped a little. "That was harder than I thought it would be," he complained slightly and Robyn giggled at the kid.

"Mou, you just get your armor and you already expect it to be easy to be an atarashii ronin?" Joshua quipped, ignoring the sharp look Yasalia gave him. A small smile appeared on the gaki's face though as he then said, "Don't push yourself too hard, kid. You'll get there eventually. It did with the ronins before you so don't sweat it."

Robyn smiled, looking at the boy and then at Josh. So now that she had given the armor to its rightful owner, things were supposed to ease up a bit, right?

---

Apparently not, she realized as she found herself blinking rapidly up at the face of Jayzen as he smiled down at her in surprise. Right, like she really needed this before exams. Sighing almost inaudibly, she smiled back at the handsome young man in front of her.

"Jayzen! Wow! What are you doing here?" she asked in what she hoped was a surprised, yet happy tone. God knew she just wanted to eat, go home and sleep right now. All that studying had wiped her out and she wanted to be rested for exams on Monday.

"Ah, I had a craving for a good ol' American cheeseburger and this is the best place to get one," he answered truthfully, still smiling. "What about you?"

"Oh, I was kind of doing the same thing, except my friend suggested this place."

He nodded and then glanced over at the table that her friends were waiting at, many of them trying not to be caught watching the two of them. Robyn again sighed, this time aloud, before rolling her eyes and turning back to Jayzen.

"I getcha," he said chuckling. "They aren't too keen on me, huh?"

"You have no idea."

He again chuckled before turning slightly serious. "Listen, I tried calling you the other day but your friend's mom said that you were busy all this weekend. What's up?"

Robyn gave him a lop-sided grin, "Let's see, it's nearing the end of the school year…I'm also a senior this year…so I have both exams and Graduation practice to deal with."

He grinned ruefully back at her, "I hope yours turns out better than mine. Mine was almost a complete disaster. And trust me, you don't want to know how; it could take hours to explain."

Robyn laughed at that, "Okay, I guess I'll take your word for it, but you are going to tell me it sometime, right?"

"Sure."

She smiled at that and listened with interest as Jayzen went onto a different subject while they waited for their food. She would join the others when hers got there but why not enjoy the wait?

Robyn suddenly went still, her back slowly going rigid as she sat up straighter. Something was wrong…she didn't know how she knew it but she could just-feel-sense-that something was off. It was like a dark mood one could sense hanging around a person…only she couldn't figure out who it was coming from. The feeling made her skin crawl and she glanced at the others to see if they felt the same way.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath in an attempt to rid herself of the creepy feeling. The others didn't seem bothered by it…though Cye had given her a questioning look, in which she shook her head in answer to. Something was just…off.

A sharp pain at her temple made her wince and she quickly reached up to massage it. Great, she now had a headache on top of everything else. Wait, she thought to herself as she massaged her left temple, this feels kind of like when my legs got all heavy at the hospital…right before I passed out…

Robyn looked up at the others to see if they were near being finished. Whatever it was that was off, she didn't like it. Not one bit. "Are we almost done?" she asked, almost apprehensively. Some of them gave her an odd look and she couldn't blame them for the look; she'd only eaten maybe half of her meal.

Mariko gave her a concerned look, "Something wrong?"

Robyn bit her lower lip before shaking her head, "No, I'm just tired."

That answer satisfied most of them and Robyn turned to look around the little diner, trying to figure out where the creepy feeling was coming from. She had no such luck and was interrupted when Jayzen came to stand in front of her (she was on the end of the booth).

"Hey, I just wanted say good-bye and I guess I'll call you later," he said and Robyn smiled up at him, trying to hide the creepy feeling that was still plaguing her.

"Sure, but preferably after graduation," she reminded him and he nodded, chuckling.

"Yeah, good luck with that," he said before politely saying good-bye to the others at the table.

Robyn watched him leave through the glass doors and disappear out of sight before closing her eyes and massaging her temple that was now throbbing with a dull ache. Terrible time to get a headache, she mused to herself.

"Something about that guy is starting to give me the creeps," Cody commented in between munching on her French fries and sipping her soda. Robyn heaved a frustrated sigh and gave the younger twin a pointed look. "What? I'm just saying that he seemed like he was in a bad mood or something."

Robyn's look turned to a thoughtful one. Bad mood? Could it have been Jayzen that that feeling had been coming from? Well, anything was possible, she figured. But why was she suddenly sensing things like bad moods with more clarity than she had before?

Sage narrowed his eyes as Robyn once again massaged her left temple. He hadn't liked the way Jayzen's aura had been radiating with dark magic. It most certainly did not feel right, not natural at least; in fact, the young man had felt almost like he had been tainted by something else, but Sage wasn't sure.

And why had Robyn seemed so uneasy just a few moments ago? Her whole body had gone rigid and she had glanced at all of them as if she was looking for something. But she had told Mariko that nothing was wrong…had she lied? No, she hadn't lied, only given a different, yet truthful, answer. What was she hiding? Didn't she realize that she didn't have to hide anything from them? Though he couldn't talk really…he was still having trouble sleeping…though the nightmares were lessening in the number of times they occurred.

"Are we all done?" Mariko asked them and Sage nodded as they all got up to leave, Mariko staying behind to pay the bill as she had promised to do. As they stood outside waiting on the elder twin, Sage noticed that Robyn had allowed the tension in her to ease away. What had had her so tense?

"Now what?" she asked somewhat eagerly.

"We go home and study some more," answered Cye, who grinned as she looked disappointed at the answer. Obviously she had been hoping to get out of studying for just a bit longer. She playfully pouted, crossing her arms but followed without complaint as they headed back to the Mouri residence.

Sage sighed almost inaudibly as he walked with the others, glancing down the street and alleyways every so often. Things had appeared to slow down a little for them; there hadn't been any threats in the past week and he was grateful. Perhaps they could even get through Graduation without any trouble occurring. Yes, that would be nice, he thought to himself.