4th Changing Series Episode

Whenever something is written in gray it means that the screen is fuzzy around the edges.

Whenever something is fuzzy but then comes into focus, (usually a memory) it is in dark green for the whole thing, including dialogue.

Dialogue is written in slate.

Background information is written in black.

Sage's Secrets

Narrator: In their first battle with Empress Katie, Ryo barely escaped with his life. What does this mean for the other warriors? Will Katie prove to be a great adversary in the war against the Dynasty? Just how strong is she?

        At Mia's house:  The five guys and Mia are all sitting around the breakfast table, eating french toast.  Everyone is really quiet.  Sage finished eating, whiped his mouth with a napkin and stood up.  Sage and Sai are dressed in suits, Kento is wearing a white t-shirt and boxers.  Rowen is wearing a white tank top and blue boxers.   Ryo is wearing a t-shirt with a shirt underneath and jeans.  Mia is wearing blue shorts, short white socks, and a yellow sweatshirt.

    "Thank you for the breakfast Mia, it was very good," Sage said.   He picked up his plate and walked into the kitchen, then you hear him walking up the stairs.  

    "What's wrong with Sage?" Mia asked. 

    "I don't know.  He's been acting weird lately though," Rowen said. 

    "Maybe because of the new enemy?" Sai inquired.

   "NO!  It's because of what he was going to tell us yesterday," Kento said forcefully.  "And I'm going to find out right now!" Kento stood up and began to walk up the stairs with Rowen, Sai and Ryo following him.  Kento slammed the door to their bedroom open.  Sage was sitting on his bed, meditating.  Sage had changed into a light green t-shirt and light blue pants.  He was wearing a gold crucifix.  He opened his eyes and turned twards them and they all walked in and sat on their beds (or mattresses in some people's cases).  

   "All right SAGE.  Are you going to tell us now.. about your honor?!" Kento asked.

    "Sure," Sage said flatly.

   "Well?" Ryo asked.

    "Ryo, I'm suprised that you think I have something to say."

    "What do you mean?"

    "Well, last night you said that I had a perfect life, right, so if I did, I wouldn't have to explain anything."

    "You heard me?  YOU WERE AWAKE!!??" Ryo yelled.

    "Yes."  Sage got up and walked out of the room.  Everyone stayed sitting.

    "You said his life was perfect?" Kento asked. 

    "Well it IS!"

    Rowen added, "Well, how do you know?"  Ryo just looked around at everyone. 

    Sage walked downstairs and began reading a book on the sofa. 

    "Sage!   Can you come here for a minute?!" Mia yelled from the kitchen.  "I need some help cleaning up."

    "Coming Mia!" Sage walked into the kitchen just as the four other guys were walking down the stairs and into the dining room. 

    "Alright, here's the deal, we corner him, tickle him and then we'll get our answers," Rowen said.

    "Is he even ticklish?" Kento asked. 

    "I don't know," Rowen said.

    In the kitchen:  Mia is doing the dishes and Sage is drying them. 

   "Sage, before I forget, someone called for you this morning when you were out."

    "Who was it?"

    "I forget, but he said he'd call back at ten.  Hey, look it's ten now!" Mia said looking at the clock on the wall.

    "He?" Sage asked.  "Was it my grandfather?" Sage thought to himself.  Then the phone rang.

    "I"LL GET IT!!" Kento yelled from the other room. "SAGE! IT'S FOR YOU!  IT'S YOUR DAD!" 

    "My dad?  Excuse me Mia." Sage put down the dish towel. 

    In the living room:  Kento is holding the phone, Sai and Rowen are each sitting at corners of the sofa.  Ryo is sitting on the floor, leaning against Rowen's legs, doing homework.  Kento, Sai and Rowen had changed their clothes.  Sai was wearing a light blue sweatshirt, Kento is wearing a tight orange t-shirt with white jeans, and Rowen is wearing yet another shirt with the collar up.  It's a red shirt and he's wearing dark blue jeans.  Sage came into the room and jumped over the sofa.  Kento handed him the phone.  Sage sat down on the sofa.

   "Hello?  Dad?  Hi.  Yeah?  No."  Sage's face went from a smile to an angry look.  "No.  Well- I- no.  I don't know.  Uh-huh. Ok, bye." Sage slammed the phone onto the reciever.  "YEAH WELL I DON"T WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN EITHER!!"  Sage stood up to leave but Rowen pulled him back down to the sofa.

    "All right, what's going on?" Rowen asked Sage.

    "That was my father.  He's back in town, now that I'm gone.  That's always the way it works!"   Sage tried to stand up again but Rowen and Sai pulled him back down. 

    "Why?" Sai asked.

    "Because he hates me.  He always has.  But I've gotten used to it.  Really.  So anyways, I should explain about the other day," Sage said solemmly. 

    Ryo opened his mouth to protest, but Rowen grabbed his sleeve.  "I know that you want to know about his father, but some things are best left unsaid," Rowen whispered to Ryo.  Sage turned his eyes toward Rowen, but obviously didn't hear him. 

    "Well, when I was thirteen, I won a kendo tournament, but the next year everything changed.  I entered the same tournament.  We were doing a very informal practice tournament.  I made it to the last round and I was up against someone named Shingo Kazamatsuri, a well known kendo practictioner.  The setting is a kendo (Japanese sword fighting) tournament, Sage and another person are wearing kendo gear and holding swords.  The announcer said, "And, begin."  Sage and Shingo began to fight.  Sage was obviously better than Shingo.  Sage was winning but Shingo threw something in Sage's left eye, his right eye wasn't affected because of his hair, but that affected his vision.   Sage became furious.  He knocked off Shingo's face protector and knocked him out.  The crowd all stood up and three people ran over to hold Sage back.  What happened was that because I punched him, he hit his head and was brought to the hospital, so... In the hospital room, you see Shingo sitting on the bed.  He looks up at Sage, looking very sad. 

    "Sage, you can't tell them, you just can't.  I'll be kicked out of kendo forever!  I told my parents what I did to you.  They hope that we can keep this all a secret from them.  I need kendo Sage!  I can't get kicked out... please."

    "And what do you think will happen to me!!  Huh?!"

    "They won't kick you out forever, just a few years, at least I think so."

    Sage turns around so he isn't looking at him.  "Alright.  Fine, I won't tell.  We never even had this conversation, ok?"

    "Thanks Sage!  Thanks a lot for taking the bla-," Shingo said but was cut off by the door opening.

    "Did you apologize?" Sage's grandfather asked him.

    "Yes, he did," Shingo said.         

    You see, later at Sage's house, his grandfather is yanking him through the house by the arm and the ear.   "YOU ARE A DISGRACE!  YOU CALL YOURSELF A DATE!" his grandfather yelled.  Sage was crying hard.  "I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO EMBARRASED TO BE YOUR GRANDFATHER!" 

    "But, I-"

    "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!"

    "No, I-"

    "SHUT UP!!!"   His grandfather pulled him down a staircase, through a door, into the basement and let go of his arm.  Sage began deeply sobbing. 

    "Grandfather, just let me explain, I-" Sage said in between sobs.  His grandfather grabbed his arm again.

    "SAGE, you have brought shame to your family!"

    "But-" Sage said, but his grandfather pushed him to the ground. 

    "You don't deserve the name Date!" his grandfather said hatefully.  Then he turned around walked up the stairs and shut the door.  There was a sharp click as the door was locked.

    There were a few rumors that Shingo had cheated, so I was confronted about it by the head of the tournament.  I wouldn't answer any of his questions, so he decided to only suspend me from all kendo tournaments for three years.  I haven't told anyone but you four about this, so I kept my promise to Shingo," Sage said, with a hard expression on his face.  

    "You actually kept that promise?" Kento asked.

   "Even more so, you made that promise?" Rowen asked.

    "Yes," Sage said.

    "Wow!" Kento said, then he breathed out a deep breath.  "Well, I can tell you one thing.. I would NEVER make a promise like that."

    "Yeah, that sure took a lot of guts," Sai said.

   "Uh, Sage, I'm sorry that I said your life was perfect," Ryo said.

    "So, what ever happened with you and your grandfather?" Rowen asked.

    "Well, he didn't talk to me for a month except to yell some more.  My father took the situation as proof that I was a bad seed and my mom just didn't know what to say for a long time.  Then, there's my sisters who treated me like an outcast, but that wasn't much of a change in their aditudes towards me."

    "That must have been pretty rough on you," Sai said. 

   "Well, it wasn't all bad. While I was in the basement, I discovered my armor.  I was meditating, and it appeared before me," Sage explained.   

    "Oh, so that's how y------" Rowen started to say.   Suddenly the doorbell rang and the door flew open.  A girl was standing in the doorway.  She was 5'7", 21 years old, had dark purple hair that was almost to her shoulders, and blue eyes.  She was wearing really long jeans and a blue shirt.

   "SAGEY!!"

    "Yayoi!?" Sage said, startled.  He stood up.

   "Sagey, I've missed you sooo much!"  She went over to him, and gave him a huge hug.  Sage looked like he was suffering from EXTEREME torture. 

    "Yayoi, I can't breath!" Sage tried to say.  She dropped him on the ground.  "So!!  Introduce me already!"

    "Oh, well, everybody, this is my sister Yoyoi," Sage said, sitting on the ground pointing to her. 

    "You call that an introduction!!"

    "Sorry.  This is Rowen, Ryo, Kento and Sai."

    "Hi!!!" Yayoi said. 

    Rowen squatted down next to Sage.  "No offence, but, she's your sister!?" Rowen whispered to him. 

   "Yes."

    "Oookaay."

    "Oh, Sagey, I came over to see how you were doing!  Dad just called you a while ago so I thought I'd come and make sure you didn't break the phone!  Ha ha ha!  Or make your friends scared of you!  Ha ha ha ha!" Yayoi laughed.

    Mia walked into the room as Sage was standing up. "Oh, Yayoi, this is Mia.  This is her house.  Mia, this is my sister Yayoi."

    "Sage, I thought that you were living with a woman, not a little girl?!" Yayoi semi-whispered to Sage.  Sage shot her a mean look.

   "What!!?" Yayoi said, acting suprised.  "Ok, fine, I'll stay out of your love life ok?"

    "It's nice to meet you.  Well, guys, I'm going out.  I'll be back for dinner," Mia said, but as soon as she opened the door, red see through stuff came flying in the door.  Mia and Yayoi started screaming.  Everybody was thrown back.  The guys slammed into the wall, Yayoi fell into Sage and Kento caught Mia and she fell into him.  The red stuff collected on the floor, to look like Sekhmet's poison.

   "It's poison!" Ryo said.  The poison formed into the shape of Dynasty soldiers.  "Quick!  Lets armor up!"  Sage put Yayoi on the floor, and Kento put Mia on the floor too (they were passed out). 

   "TO ARMS!" the guys yelled.  They all put their first armor on.  The ronins began to fight the red bodies, but every time that they got them down, they'd just reform. 

   "This isn't working!" Ryo said angrily. 

   "We have to figure out how they reform or else we'll be fighting them forever," Rowen said.

   "Maybe if we find who's giving them their orders," Sage said.

    The Ronin Warriors fought the gelly soldiers out the door and into the street.  Sage looked into the sky.   "Look, there!" he said.  Empress Katie and Warlady Sarah were floating in the air.  They floated down until they were six inches from the ground.  

    "Allow us to properly introduce ourselves!" Katie said.

    Sarah disappeared and flew across the screen, flaming orange.  She landed and posed. "I am Sarah, the leading warlady in the Dynasty!"

    Katie flew in front of the screen, flaming blue.  She spinns a little, closes her eyes, lands, poses and says, "I am Katie, the Empress of the Dynasty." She opens her eyes.

   "Alright, empress!  Lets fight!  But I can tell you one thing, YOU"RE NEVER GETTING MY ARMOR!" Rowen yelled.

    "We have NO interest in your armor.  Just your lives," Katie said.

   "That's right, we have no use for you.  You're fininshed," Sarah said.

    In the Dynasty: Emperor Kubi sat in his big chair.  There were three netherspirits projecting an image of the battle for Kubi.  "Wonderful, the Ronin Warriors fell for our plan.  This is perfect," Kubi said.

    In front of Mia's house:  

   "ARMOR OF WILDFIRE!"

    "ARMOR OF HALO!"

    "ARMOR OF HARDROCK!"

    "ARMOR OF TORRENT!"

    "ARMOR OF THE STRATA!"

    "TOU JIN!" the guys all yelled at the same time.  They put on their full armor.  

    "Alright girls, you want it, you've got it.  You're going down!" Ryo said.

    "I don't think so.  Well, when you're done here meet us in Yokohama.  We'll be waiting, but be warned, we won't wait forever," Katie said.  Katie and Sarah disappeared.

Narrator: What kind of trap are Warlady Sarah and Empress Katie setting for the Ronin Warriors in Yokohama? Will they fall into it?

To be continued...