The Consequences of Fallibility

Part II - Discovery

Rowen dragged his feet as he walked up the steep stairs to his penthouse apartment.  He sighed as he unlocked the door and entered.  He pulled his shoes off and walked into the living room.  “About time you got home,” a smooth voice said.  The voice startled Rowen out of his drowsiness and he jumped into a defensive stance.  His cheeks flushed mildly as he saw that the voice belonged to Sage Date, who was sitting on the couch.

“How’d you get in?” he asked.

“I borrowed Mia’s spare key, thought we could talk,” he said. 

“Uh… sure, just let me change out of these clothes first,” Rowen replied.  He went into his bedroom, and came out in jeans, while holding one of his signature collar shirts in his hand.  He sat down and began unbuttoning the dress shirt.

“Hey…” Sage began, suddenly noticing the gash above his eye.  “What happened to you?”

“Oh, I forgot all about that,” Rowen said, rising from the couch to go dress the wound.  Sage however, had other plans.  He walked over to Rowen and put his hand over the wound.  Sage’s hand glowed and the wound was healed.  “Oh, I always forget that you can do that,” Rowen said as Sage sat down on the other couch again.

“So how’d it happen?”

“Let’s just call it a bar brawl shall we?” Rowen answered as he pulled off the dress shirt.  As he pulled off the T-shirt underneath Sage suddenly noticed something he had never seen before.  A scar was present on Rowen’s chest in the shape of an X. 

“What’s that?” Sage asked, concerned.

“What’s what?” Rowen said, then looked where Sage was looking.  “Oh, an old battle scar,” he replied.  Then he put on his other shirt.  Before Sage could inquire as to who inflicted it on him they heard a crash in the kitchen.  Rowen walked cautiously into the kitchen.  In the kitchen, Kayura caught her breath.  In her excitement to see Rowen take off his shirt she had knocked the staff into the teapot, pushing it off of the counter.  Now she hurriedly backed into the corner, she was still invisible, but after Rowen’s reaction on the street, she began to suspect that her reflection was visible.

“Who’s there?” Rowen asked loudly.  He bent down and picked up the teapot and then looked around the kitchen.  Sage stood behind him, looking around.  Sage used his intuitive sight to search for whatever knocked down the teapot.  He sensed an aura in the corner and turned his attention there.  Using his power of light he saw Kayura huddled in the corner with her staff, unsure of what to do.  Kayura’s gaze met his, and she mouthed “no” at him, with a quick side-glance at Rowen.  Sage looked over at Rowen who had begun to talk.

“I swear someone followed me around all day today,” he said, still inspecting the kitchen.  “I even heard some weird noises when I was out, but there was no one behind me.”

“You’re probably just paranoid,” Sage began, wondering what Kayura was doing in Rowen’s kitchen.  “You know, you’re probably still in the battle mindset.”

“Maybe, but I could have sworn that I saw Kayura’s reflection in one of the windows on the street, yet she was not behind me.” 

“Speaking of Kayura,” Sage started.  Behind him he could sense Kayura stiffen.  “That’s why I’m here, I wanted to talk to you about her.”  Rowen sighed loudly as he walked back into the living room and slumped on the couch.  From behind him Sage could sense Kayura teleport out of the room. 

“I figured that was why you were here,” Rowen said.

“Yeah, I just want to understand,” Sage said gently, sitting across from him.  “If you hate her so much, then I’m sure you must have a really good reason, so why don’t you just tell us what happened?”

“Why don’t you just ask Ryo?” Rowen responded, his eyes averted from Sage’s intense gaze. 

“I did ask Ryo, and he told us everything he knew, but there was a large chunk of time when Ryo was unconscious and you were fending off Kayura, and other times Ryo was distracted or didn’t remember exactly what happened.  Why won’t you tell me what happened?”

“I, I just don’t want to…” Rowen said.  “It’s hard to talk about what happened in the Dynasty, all of it actually, but it just seemed like when it was me and Kayura, that it was more personal.”

“Please, please talk to me about it, I think you really need to Rowen,” Sage said.  Without Sage’s awareness, Kayura had reappeared in the kitchen.  She perched herself atop one of the chairs, careful to use the staff’s power to hide her presence.  From her perch in the kitchen Kayura listened intently. 

“Okay,” Rowen said quietly, swallowing the lump in his throat, he did want to talk about it.  “The first time I saw Kayura, I was at Ama no Hashidate,” he began darkly.  She dragged me up to a cloud, but stayed in the shadows so I couldn’t make out her features.  I tried my Arrow Shock Wave on her, but it had no effect, and she kept taunting me, she told me how you and Sai and Kento were captured by the Dynasty.  Then she attacked me, and knocked me off the cloud, mentioning something about going after Ryo.  So I went to Mt. Fuji, just in time to see her introducing herself to Ryo.  That was when she pulled out your sword and Sai’s spear and she left.”

The next time I saw her was at the house.  This time I actually saw her face, and she showed us you guys in the Dynasty then said she was going to bring us in too.  We used Inferno and she left though.  We had some other small battles with her, but the major ones were when we got closer to the palace.”  Rowen paused as Sage listened silently.  “She showed up when we were fighting the Warlords, and used that gold dust to make the armor’s power go to Ryo to create Inferno.  Um, we beat her again though.  But the next time, the next time was when we got near the room where you three had been held.”

She drained the power out of Ryo’s armor.”  Rowen’s throat became dry as he thought of the battle which occurred.  “I… I um, blew a hole in the wall, so White Blaze could escape with Ryo.  She tried to stop me, but I fought her to protect Ryo.  My attacks were as useless as always, and I knew they were, and so, I was prepared to… to give up my life for Ryo’s.”  Rowen paused, and Sage looked into his eyes, and saw the deep blue pools to be faraway and filled with pain and anxiety over that battle.  “We went up against each other, my attack against hers, and of course her swords got the best of me, and I was falling, to what she assumed was my doom, but my armor saved me, good thing too,” he said with a nervous laugh.  “We began to fight each other in the air, and eventually ended up above the boat with White Blaze and Ryo on it.  She used her mega-attack again, so I did all I could do, I used my armor to shield Ryo.  She knocked me onto the boat and raised her swords again, and I just knew it was all over,” Rowen’s voice cracked as he spoke.

“That’s when Anubis showed up right?” Sage asked softly.  Rowen nodded.

“Um, after that we went back to fighting, and even though Ryo wanted to fight her, she seemed to keep attacking me.  She did hurt Ryo though, and I couldn’t bear to watch that.  I knew that our only hope was to reunite with you and the other two, so I did the only thing I thought could work, I attacked her head on, hoping to create a diversion for Ryo to get out, and knowing she would be able to easily fend me off, but I figured if I was captured they would take me to the others and Ryo could follow.  Um, you asked earlier where that scar came from, it was from what happened next.  I blew up the building we were in and jumped out at her.  She managed to get underneath me, and crossed her swords on my chest and blasted me.  I managed to create my power shield so I wouldn’t plummet to my death, but landed on a boat filled with soldiers.  They all attacked me at once, and the last thing I heard before I lost consciousness was her shrill voice laughing, just laughing, I won’t ever forget that sound, ever.”  Tears had formed in Rowen’s eyes.  “I really thought I was going to die, but of course, you know what happened next.  But now, every time I see her, I hear her voice, taunting me, and laughing at me, and I feel like I’m back in the Dynasty about to die again.”

“Rowen, I’m sorry,” Sage said gently moving to sit next to his friend.  Rowen buried his face in his hands while Sage put his arms around him, allowing Rowen to release his sorrow into him.

Sage stood in the empty dojo, anger churning within his usual serene self.  “KAYURA!” he shouted into the shadows of the dojo.  “KAYURA, GET DOWN HERE NOW!!”  In a quick burst of light the heiress of the Ancient’s staff appeared before Sage, still wearing the dark kimono she had on earlier.  She watched Sage nervously, noting the tension in his shoulders, and the fiery rage in his eyes.  “What were you doing in Rowen’s apartment today?” Sage said, forgetting all courtesy. 

Kayura averted her gaze from Sage’s eyes which seemed to bore directly into her.  “I…” she began uncertainly.  Sage however, was far too angry to wait for her to get her story together.  In one quick move he had backed Kayura into the wall.  He put his hand against the wall next to her shoulder and repeated his question with more force.

“What the HELL were you doing in Rowen’s apartment?!  Last time I checked you’re supposed to be protecting the Dynasty from demons, and unless a Warlord was planning on using that teapot as a weapon of mass destruction and you were there to stop him then you have some serious explaining to do!”

“Sage, calm down!” Kayura shouted, shoving the blonde warrior away from her.  “I was at Rowen’s today because… because I wanted to get to know him better!” she said.

Sage was immediately taken aback.  “Get to know him better?  You may have skipped this section in the “How to Be Human Handbook”, but when you want to ‘get to know someone better’ you take them out for tea, talk to them, not spy on them!”

“Well what should I have done!?  Every time I get near him he starts screaming at me!”

“Well you shouldn’t have invaded his privacy!” Sage retorted angrily.  Suddenly a thought crossed Sage’s mind.  “How long have you been doing this?” he asked.  She stared at the wall, afraid if they made eye to eye contact his stern gaze would force the truth out of her.  “How LONG Kayura?!” he shouted.

“Long enough,” she retorted, eyes still staring at the wall.

“Long enough for what?!” Sage asked, his fury peaking.

“Long enough to know he’s been lying to you,” she said calmly, turning to meet Sage’s piercing stare.  “When he dresses up, it isn’t for a science convention, meeting his father’s partners, or any of the other excuses he’s fed you.  He’s gone somewhere else entirely.”  With that she held out her arms and disappeared in a burst of light, leaving a perplexed Sage Date in her wake.