Changing Series Episode Four

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 Ronin Warriors and Mia were all sitting around the breakfast table, eating French toast.  Everyone was surprisingly quiet.  Sage finished eating, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and stood up.  Sage and Sai were wearing khakis and dress shirts, Kento was wearing a white T-shirt and boxers, Rowen was wearing a blue T-shirt and jeans, and Ryo was wearing two T-shirts, and jeans.  Mia was wearing blue shorts, short white socks, and a yellow sweatshirt.

            “Thank you for breakfast Mia, it was very good,” Sage said.  He picked up his plate and walked into the kitchen, then 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 suggested.

            “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 Rowen and Sage’s bedroom open.  Sage was sitting on his bed, meditating.  Sage had changed into a light green T-shirt and light blue pants.  He opened his eyes and turned towards them as they all walked in and sat on the beds.

            “All right SAGE.  Are you going to tell us now… about your honor?” Kento asked.

            “Sure,” Sage responded flatly.

            “Well?” Ryo pressed.

            “Ryo, I’m surprised 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,” Sage responded coldly.

            “You heard me?  YOU WERE AWAKE?!” Ryo yelled.

            “Yes.”  Sage stood up and walked out of the room, everyone else remained stationary.

            “You said his life was perfect?” Kento asked.

            “Well it IS!” Ryo responded hotly.

            “How would you know?” Rowen responded.  Ryo just stared at his companions.

            Sage sat downstairs on the sofa, reading a book.  “Sage, can you come here for a minute!?” Mia shouted from the kitchen.  “I need some help cleaning up.”

            “Coming Mia!”  Sage walked into the kitchen just as the other four walked into the dining room.

            “Alright, here’s the plan, we corner him, tickle him, and then we’ll get our answers,” Sai said.

            “Is he even ticklish?” Kento asked with a glance at Rowen.

            “I don’t know,” Rowen said.

            In the kitchen Mia was doing dishes while Sage dried them.  “Oh Sage, before I forget, someone called for you this morning when you were out,” Mia said, pushing a lock of hair out of her eyes with soap covered hands.

            “Who was it?” Sage asked, looking up at her.

            “I forget… or maybe he didn’t leave a name, I don’t know, but he did say he’s 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 wondered.  Suddenly the phone rang.  Before Sage could put down his towel and answer it he heard Kento shout from the living room.

            “I’LL GET IT!!” Kento’s voice could be heard throughout the entire manor.  “SAGE!  IT’S FOR YOU!  IT’S YOUR DAD!”

            “My dad?  Excuse me Mia.”  Sage put down his dish towel.

            In the living room, Kento was holding the phone, and Sai and Rowen were each sitting at corners of the sofa.  Ryo was sitting cross-legged, leaning against Rowen’s legs and doing his homework.  Kento, and Sai had changed their clothes.  Sai was wearing a light blue sweatshirt, while Kento had donned a tight orange T-shirt and white jeans.  Sage came into the room and jumped over the sofa in between Rowen and Sai.  Kento handed him the phone and he sat down.

            “Hello?  Dad?  Hi.  Yeah?  No.” Sage’s expression turned from a smile to a look of anger.  “No.  Well – I – no.  I don’t know.  Uh-huh.  Okay, bye.”  Sage slammed the phone onto the receiver.  “YEAH WELL I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN EITHER!!”  Sage stood up to leave but Rowen grabbed his shirt and pulled him back down onto the sofa.

            “Alright, what’s going on?” Rowen asked Sage seriously.

            “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 anyway, I should explain about the other day,” Sage said solemnly.

            Ryo opened his mouth to protest the change in subject, but Rowen grabbed his sleeve and redirected his attention.  “I know that you want to know about his father, but some things are best left unsaid,” Rowen whispered to Ryo.  Sage turned his gaze to Rowen, but did not hear his words.

            “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 tournament.  I made it to the last round and I was up against someone named Shingo Kazamatsuri, a well known kendo practitioner.

             The setting is a kendo (traditional Japanese sword fighting) tournament.  Sage and Shingo are both wearing their kendo gear – hakama pants, kimono, and wooden protective implements, while holsing bamboo swords.  The announcer said, “And begin.”  Sage and Shingo began to fight.  Sage was obviously a better swordsman than Shingo.  Sage was winning, but then Shingo threw something in Sage’s left eyes, his right eye was not affected because of the protection of his hair, but his vision was still reduced.  Sage became furious.  He knocked off Shingo’s face protector and knocked him out.  The crowd gasped and stood up, while three people ran over to hold Sage back. 

            “What happened was that because I punched him, he hit his head and had to be brought to the hospital, so…

            In the hospital room, Shingo was sitting on the bed, his long black hair pulled back.  He looked up at Sage, clearly distraught.  “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 we can keep this a secret from the judges.  I need kendo Sage!  I can’t get kicked out… please,” Shingo said, his brown eyes pleading with Sage, who watched him indifferently.

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

            “They won’t kick you out forever, just for a few years, at least that’s what I think.”

            Sage turned away from Shingo.  “Alright.  Fine, I won’t tell.  We never even had this conversation, okay?”

            “Thanks Sage!  Thanks a lot for talking the bla-,” Shingo was cut off by the door opening.

            “Did you apologize?” Sage’s grandfather asked, his voice stern.

            “Yes, he did,” Shingo responded.

            Later, at  Sage’s house:  his grandfather was yanking him through the house by his arm, and his ear.  “YOU ARE A DISGRACE!  YOU CALL YOURSELF A DATE?!” his grandfather yelled.  Sage was crying hard.  “I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO EMBARRASSED 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 to sob deeply.

            “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 would not listen, he pushed Sage to the basement floor.

            “You don’t deserve the name Date!” his grandfather said hatefully.  Then he turned around walked up the stairs, and shut the door.  With a sharp click 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 a year.  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 angrily, his strong sense of justice making him sense how wrong that was.

            “Even more so, you made that promise?” Rowen said, astounded.

            “Yes,” Sage said.

            “Wow!” Kento responded, then he exhaled deeply.  “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 apologized, his head bowed.  Sage did not respond, he was still a little angry.

            “So, whatever happened with you and your grandfather?” Rowen asked with interest.

            “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 sister who treated me like an outcast, but that wasn’t much of a change in their attitudes towards me,” Sage said indifferently.

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

            “Well, it wasn’t all bad.  My grandmother is always nice to me, and 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, but was cut off when the doorbell rang and immediately after the door shot open.  A girl stood in the doorway.  She was about 5’7”, and twenty-one years old.  She had dark purple hair that nearly reached her shoulders, and blue eyes.  She was wearing very long jeans and a blue shirt.

            “SAGEY!”

            “Yayoi?!” Sage said, startled as he stood up.

            “Sagey, I’ve missed you sooo much!” she exclaimed.  She went over to him and gave him a huge hug.  Sage looked as if he was suffering from EXTREME torture.

            “Yayoi, I can’t breathe!” Sage tried to say, suffocated.  She dropped him and he fell to the floor.  “So!  Introduce me already!” she said, eyeing the people in the room.

            “Oh, well, everybody, this is my sister Yayoi,” Sage said, sitting on the ground and pointing to her.

            “You call that an introduction?!”

            “Sorry, this is Rowen, but you already met him, and they’re Ryo, Kento, and Sai.”

            “Hi!” Yayoi exclaimed.

            Kento squatted down next to Sage.  “No offense, but she’s your sister?!” Kento whispered to him.

            “Yes.”

            “Oookaay.”

            “Oh, Sage, I came over to see how you were doing!” she said, still bubbly.  “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 or you!  Ha ha ha!” Yayoi laughed.

            Mia walked into the room as Sage stood up.  “Oh Yayoi, this is Mia.  This is her house.  Mia, this is my sister Yayoi.”

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

            “What?!” Yayoi said with false surprise.  “Okay, fine, I’ll stay out of your love life okay?”

            “It’s nice to meet you Yayoi.  Well guys, I’m going out.  I’ll be back for dinner,” Mia said.  As she opened the door, red transparent material flew into the room from outside.  Mia and Yayoi started screaming, and everyone was thrown back.  The five guys slammed into the wall, while Yayoi fell into Sage, and Kento caught Mia as she flew backward into him, both girls were knocked unconscious.  The red substance collected on the floor, and became visible as Sekhmet’s poison.

            “It’s poison!” Ryo exclaimed.  The poison formed into the shape of Dynasty soldiers.  “Quick!  Let’s armor up!”  Sage and Kento put Yayoi and Mia on the floor.

            “TO ARMS!” the guys shouted.  They all donned their undergear.  The Ronins began to fight the red soldiers, but every time they beat them, they just reformed.

            “This isn’t working!” Ryo shouted angrily.

            “We have to figure out how they reform or else we’ll be fighting them forever,” Rowen said, much more calm than Ryo.

            “Maybe if we find who’s giving them their orders,” Sage suggested.

            The Ronin Warriors fought the jelly soldiers out the door and into the street.  Sage looked up at the sky.  “Look, there!” he said, getting the others’ attention.  Empress Katie and Warlady Sarah were floating in the air.  The lowered themselves until they were six inches from the ground.

            “Allow us to properly introduce ourselves!” Katie said.

            Sarah disappeared and flew by them, flaming orange.  She landed and posed.  “I am Sarah, the leading Warlady in the Dynasty!”

            Katie also streaked by, flaming blue.  She spun around a bit, closed her eyes, landed, posed, and said, “I am Katie, the Empress of the Dynasty.”  With that she opened her eyes.

            “Alright, empress!  Let’s fight!  But I can tell you one thing, YOU’RE NEVER GETTING MY ARMOR!” Rowen yelled, their theatrical antics unleashing his anger, and destroying his calm.

            Within the Dynasty, Emperor Kubi sat on his throne.  Three Netherspirits before him projected an image of the battle for Kubi.  “Wonderful, the Ronin Warriors fell for our plan.  This is perfect,” Kubi grinned.

            In front of Mia’s house the five Ronins were arming.  “ARMOR OF WILDFIRE!”

            “ARMOR OF HALO!”

            “ARMOR OF HARDROCK!”

            “ARMOR OF TORRENT!”

            “ARMOR OF STRATA!”

            “TOU JIN!” the five yelled in unison, and through bolts of silk their armor appeared upon them.

            “Alright girls, you want it, you’ve got it.  You’re going down!” Ryo shouted.

            “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 smiled evilly.  Then her and Sarah disappeared.

Narrator: What kind of trap are Warlady Sarah and Empress Katie setting up for the Ronin Warriors in Yokohama that has Kubi so excited?  Will they fall into it?  Will Yayoi’s presence risk Sage revealing his status as a Ronin Warrior?

TO BE CONTINUED…