Evil Remains
Episode 2: A Silent Enemy
Sarah and Katie ran as fast as their warrior legs could carry them. Katie held her crystal out before her, its power directing them. Suddenly the green light illuminated the most bizarre scene the sisters had ever seen. A man was covered in a sticky sludge while a yellow glow transferred from him to the sludge. Katie glanced sideways at Sarah before the sisters donned their mystical undergear.
“Stop!” Sarah cried, then felt suddenly idiotic, as she could not see a part of the sludge that resembled ears.
“Get them as well,” an evil voice whispered. “Take their energy and leave them hollow.”
Sarah looked wildly around. No one could have spoken. Katie remained firm in her stance, calculating how to attack, she had not heard the voice.
“Full armor you think?” Katie asked her, picturing how one might fight in hand-to-hand combat with what appeared to be sentient mud.
Sarah shrugged. “Armor of Glacier! Tou Ketsui!”
“Armor of Redoack! Tou Meiyo!” The sludge relinquished its hold on the man, his body dropping to the ground painfully. Sarah rushed over to him.
“He needs medical attention!” Sarah shouted.
“Well, we can’t exactly call an ambulance now can we?” Katie responded as the sludge began to slide toward her. The man had ceased breathing and appeared dead. As Katie raised her dagger Sarah powered her hands.
“Energy, the voice said it wanted energy,” Sarah whispered, her mind running through the various news broadcasts claiming that the victims’ life force had been sucked out. Sarah placed her hands on the man, willing her power, her energy into him. He suddenly began to breathe again.
“SPIRAL LEAF SHINE!” Katie shouted, jumping back as the sludge leapt for her. The power hit the sludge in midair. What it did next Katie was not expecting. The sludge absorbed the brilliant green energy, growing larger and more solid. “What the…!” Katie shouted as it began to morph before her eyes. Sarah jumped up and attacked from behind the sludge.
“ICE FROST BARRIER!” The power had barely escaped her scythe when the blob absorbed it all, expanding to become even larger. Katie and Sarah watched in terrified awe.
Kento and Sai sat in Kento’s living room, Chun Fa coloring on the floor. Suddenly a light blue glow rose from Sai’s pocket, followed by dark green, and violet. “Kento!” Sai shouted, drawing attention to the armor orb as he hastily dragged it from his pocket. Kento stared at the crystal in shock and then quickly rose to his feet. He ran up the stairs to his bedroom and then came down, crystal in hand. It glowed in the same colors as Sai’s, and then both abruptly stopped blinking.
“What happened?” Sai asked. “Is it supposed to stop so soon?”
“I don’t know man, but we better call the other guys,” Kento responded.
Ryo, Sage, Rowen, Kento, and Sai all sat in Kento’s living room. The five crystals were set in a pentagram on the coffee table, and the group stared at them. “Obviously we have a big problem here,” Ryo began, looking into the eyes of each warrior. Rowen rubbed his hands furiously through his electric blue hair, more out of irritation than concentration.
“We should be able to re-establish the connection,” Rowen said, frustrated. He stared harshly at the crystals, willing them to do something, anything.
“Yet we can’t,” Ryo responded, annoyed with Rowen’s continued belief that the crystals would solve their problem.
“Has anyone tried phoning Katie and Sarah yet?” Sage asked. The others looked up and simultaneously smacked their heads, how could they have not thought of that? Rowen however stayed unmoving and unblinking. Sai reached for the phone but stopped short when Rowen spoke again.
“Do you really think they’d be putting on their undergear in their house at eleven p.m.?” Rowen asked.
“Not really,” Sai admitted, lowering his hand.
“Unless they were putting it on just to train or something so they did it at night,” Kento suggested.
“Nah, they know it would alert us,” Ryo replied. “They would have warned us first.”
“Anyone have any bright ideas?” Kento asked. Everyone pondered for a moment. “Rowen, will you stop staring at those damn crystals?!” Kento exclaimed, frustrated. There was a fight and he was not helping, it was killing him.
Rowen jerked his eyes from the armor balls and glared at Kento. “Well Kento, I’m trying to do something constructive!” Rowen retorted.
“Oh yeah, because willing the crystals to glow is so constructive,” Kento replied rolling his eyes.
“Shut up Kento!” Rowen shouted, jumping up and at the same time tipping over the coffee table. The crystals fell to the ground and rolled away from each other.
“Oh real good Rowen,” Kento said angrily, bending down to retrieve his fallen orb. However, the crystals moved by themselves and formed an inverted pentagram, a five-pointed star. Each crystal blinked their respective color and then sent power to each other, outlining the star. The Ronins dropped to their knees to peer at the crystals. The star began to glow and briefly displayed Sarah and Katie watching the glowing sludge expand and morph. Then the light flickered and died.
“Well we can definitely rule out Kento’s theory now,” Sai said seriously.
“Okay guys, let’s go pack, looks like we’re taking a little ‘vacation’,” Sage said, glancing sideways at Rowen.
The sludge became more and more gruesome looking as it boiled and warped. Katie and Sarah looked at each other. What were they going to do? The thing had absorbed their attacks, what was left to do? “Finally!” a voice cackled. Sarah spun around searching for the source.
“Who said that?” she shouted stupidly.
“Said what?” Katie asked, annoyance in her voice. Katie picked up a stick and threw it at the sludge, but a magical force field formed around it and the stick ricocheted back at her. She jumped out of the way.
“Our true form. The one we have not been able to attain for so long, it is near!”
“ICE FROST…”
“Sarah what are you doing, it’ll just make it stronger!?” Katie shouted.
“BARRIER!” Sarah concluded, thrusting the violet power from her scythe. The sludge began to absorb the power and then suddenly exploded. Pieces of oozing sludge shot in all directions. Sarah wiped sludge off of her face and looked down. Some bigger pieces of sludge began to slide across the grass and then disappeared into the ground.
“What just happened?” Katie asked, pulling off her soiled helmet.
“I have no idea,” Sarah responded, her armor disappearing. “We have to get this guy some help.” She said, motioning to the unconscious man on the ground.
“Rowen, I’m sorry about earlier,” Kento said. The five male Ronin Warriors were all in the Tokyo Narita airport sitting on uncomfortable plastic chairs awaiting their flight. They had packed in record time and managed to secure five tickets on the next plane to America.
“It’s no big deal,” Rowen responded. “You were worried too…”
“But I mean you had a bigger reason to be upset, you know, with Sarah fighting and her being your girlfriend and all, I know you wanted to be there to help.”
“Sarah’s not, she and I we’re not…” Rowen began, his cheeks turning bright red.
“You’re not… you know… going out?” Ryo asked, tuning around in his chair to face them.
“No, it would be stupid, I mean I’m in Japan, and she’s in America, it would be ludicrous. Besides, we’re only in high school,” Rowen said quickly, a little too quickly because in that instant Sage’s eyes caught his.
“You two didn’t have a fight or anything did you?” Sage asked staring hard at Rowen.
“No,” Rowen stated. He hated Sage’s stare more than anything else, it felt as if he were seeing right through him and into his soul. “We just discussed our situation thoroughly and came up with a comfortable decision.”
“Rowen, this isn’t a math equation,” Sai said, stunned. “You can’t just put the variables in an equation and find the result.”
“You’re making no sense Rowen, Sarah’s really hot, she’s totally in to you, she’s a Ronin too, she’s fun, and funny, and you really like her, so what’s the problem?” Kento asked.
“It just would never work out,” Rowen responded angrily. “And us being Ronin Warriors would just make everything worse when we would eventually break up. It would ruin everything, so I’m just not going to start a relationship with her.”
Sage stared at his friend, his mouth open. Rowen tipped his blue haired head down and rested it in his hands, his eyes glued to the floor. Everyone shifted uncomfortably in their seats, Rowen clearly did not want to talk about his possible relationship with Sarah anymore. Sage turned away from the group, tearing his eyes from his best friend. He never really thought about it, but Rowen’s parents were divorced, which would explain his jaded view of relationships.
Just then as if on cue a voice called over the loudspeakers, “Flight 23 from Tokyo to New York City is now boarding.”
“Alright guys, time to go,” Sai said obviously, picking up his carry-on. The five lined up with their tickets and boarded the plane.
On the plane the five warriors were separated. Rowen seemed overjoyed that he had a window seat, and Sage naturally sat next to him. Sai and Kento sat two rows behind them, and a very upset Ryo, who must have read his ticket number fifty times before submitting to his fate had a seat two rows behind Sai, and next to the largest man on the plane. Ryo took his seat next to the man. Suddenly the man began to speak.
“Hello!” he bellowed.
“Hello,” Ryo replied.
“Oh me? I’m just on a plane!” the man shouted. Ryo looked at him strangely and then caught sight of the cell phone headset he was speaking into and sighed. “Yeah, there’s all these Asian people on here! Imagine that!”
“This is going to be a long ride,” Ryo sighed, shaking his head.
Rowen kept his eyes glued to the window, oblivious to everything going on around him. It was only once Sage had said his name for the fifth time that he finally turned around. “Yeah?” he asked, casting one last fleeting glance out of the window at the clouds they were going by.
“Are you alright?” Sage asked. Rowen groaned and nodded.
“You ask me that constantly,” Rowen responded. “And I’m fine.”
“It just freaks me out when you’re so quiet,” Sage responded catching Rowen’s eye. “Makes me think you’re going to go all introvert on us again.”
Rowen shook his head slightly and looked at the floor. “I just like the quiet sometimes,” he replied. “I got used to it when I was younger, and it’s tough to get out of the habit.”
“What are you thinking about?” Sage asked after Rowen had stopped speaking.
Rowen looked up at Sage again, and was caught in his penetrating stare. Rowen decided that it would be better to just tell him everything now, and not have to spend the whole plane ride being interrogated. “Sarah,” he said, looking out of the window again.
“What about her?”
“Just her, the way she talks, the way she walks, the way she looks, everything, and how nice it’ll be to see her again, even if it is for a battle.”
“Yet you don’t want a relationship?” Sage queried.
“No, I don’t think I’ll ever have a real relationship,” Rowen responded. “I just like to see her. It’s nice to be able to dream a little bit, wonder what things would be like, if I wasn’t Rowen Hashiba.”
Sage was confused, but then began to understand what he meant. “But if you never take a chance, then you’ll never know, maybe your dream could be true,” Sage said tentatively, peering at his blue-haired comrade.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Rowen mumbled, his eyes fixed on the sky.
“Genichirou,
for God’s sake, calm down!” Rowen’s mother shouted, facing him in the
living room.
“No
I won’t!” Genichirou shouted back, his pale eyes blazing wildly at his wife.
“You’re some whore, having an affair, yet I have to stay calm?!”
“Genichirou,
lower your voice, Rowen is in the next room!” she hissed.
“Well
at least he won’t have your influence in his life, seeing as you’re picking
up and running off. He’ll be
better off with just me, I’ll teach him what’s really important!”
Genichirou shouted back. “He
won’t be going around laughing like a hyena and acting half his age!”
“No,
you’d rather have him act twice his age, wouldn’t you?
Just so you can have a partner in your studies!”
“It’s
not as if you care, you’re leaving! You
have no right to criticize me!”
From
behind the corner a very young Rowen Hashiba watched his parents argue,
clutching a water glass in his hand.
“I
do have a right! He’s my son
too!”
“Yes,
a son you’re abandoning!” At
those words the glass slipped out of his hands and crashed to the floor,
shattering. The two quickly turned
the corner, where Rowen was staring at the glass shards in surprise.
“Rowen,
what were you doing?” his mother asked, bending down to pick up the larger
pieces of glass.
“Well…?”
his father demanded.
“I…
I couldn’t sleep,” the future Ronin said, staring at the floor.
“So
you decided to come out and spy on your parents huh?” Genichirou accused.
Rowen did not respond. “I
asked you a question!” Genichirou shouted, grabbing his shoulders tightly.
“Genichirou!”
she said harshly. Genichirou glared
at Rowen and released his hold on the child.
“Go
to bed Rowen,” his mother said, shooing him off in the direction of his room.
As he entered he turned and saw his parents glaring at each other, as he
shut the door he heard their arguing begin again.
Rowen opened his eyes sleepily, for a moment he was not sure where he was, then he remembered, he was on the plane. He looked to his right and saw Sage listening to mini-earphones. Rowen stretched and caught Sage’s attention, he switched off the CD player. “Looks like you dozed off for a while Ro,” Sage said.
“Yeah,” Rowen sighed. It had not been a pleasant dream though, it was a memory, a memory he never liked to think about.
Katie stood in front of the bathroom mirror, rubbing her face vigorously with a washcloth. Sarah walked in quietly, wearing pajama pants and a tank top. In her hand was the cordless phone. “I tried all five of them, with the exception of Rowen, and they’re all gone,” Sarah said.
“All what?” Katie asked as she dried her face.
“Apparently the five of them are on a trip together, one that does not include cell phones either, I tried all of them. Sage’s grandfather told me that Rowen had gone with Sage, but he was not sure where.”
“How could Sage’s grandfather not know where he went?” Katie asked.
“Apparently they left in a hurry,” Sarah sighed, stalking into the hallway and leaning against the wall.
Ryo held his hands against his ears, attempting to muffle the loud one-sided conversation going on next to him. The man must have called every person he knew since they got on the plane, and he was still talking.
“HEY, WHAT’S UP?!” the man shouted into the phone.
“NOTHING’S GOING ON HERE EITHER, I’M ON A PLANE!” Ryo leaned back in his chair, each word causing him immeasurable agony.
‘Talpa should have hired this guy,’ he thought wryly. Then he heard an Aussie voice calling his name. He looked up and saw Sai motioning at the empty seat next to him. Ryo practically jumped over the man next to him to get into that empty seat. As he settled into it, relief washed over him.
“We would have offered it to you sooner, but it was too much fun to see you tortured via cell phone,” Kento laughed.
“Oh thanks so much for your love and support Kento,” Ryo responded sourly. Kento shrugged and laughed.
“So, anything pressing on your mind?” Sai asked, grinning.
“Sure, what are Sage and Rowen doing?” Ryo asked, as Sai had a clear view of the pair.
“Well, they were talking earlier, but then Rowen turned away, and fell asleep -such a surprise coming from him - then Sage was listening to headphones, but now they’re talking again.”
“And this has been your Ronin update, every hour, on the hour, by our spying expert Sai Mouri!” Kento exclaimed, causing Sai to promptly whack him with a newspaper. “Where did you even get that?” Kento asked, staring at the paper.
“At the airport, it’s the New York Times, I thought it could be useful, but there’s nothing about Boston in here except a picture of it, and a footnote saying they’re having blackouts.”
“Well that’s helpful,” Ryo said, looking at the picture of Boston.
“I wonder what Sarah and Katie would have to say if they could see us now?” Kento mused.
“I’m thinking it would be, ‘Where the Hell are you?!’, but that’s just a guess,” Sai laughed.
“Maybe we should have called them,” Ryo said.
“Nah, I’m thinking it would be fun to surprise them, we’ll never know how much we’re missed until we show up unannounced,” Kento said. “That’s my motto anyway.”
“I didn’t know hard rocks had mottos Kento, how intriguing,” Sai said.
Kento took a moment to consider this statement, before promptly yanking the New York Times out of Sai’s hand and whacking him with it.