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"You guys ready?" Kento asked. It was after dark on Halloween Eve '89 and most everybody at Mia's house was dressed for trick-or-treating. Each was dressed in their own costumes from their favorites. Needless to say, the Ronins and Reva were the only ones dressed.
"Now, all of you be careful," Mia warned. "I don't want to find out later that you were out rolling yards."
All six nodded and hurried out to their cars. They all piled into one car and Cye drove.
"What did she mean by 'rolling yards'?" Reva asked, innocently. She looked around. The guys smiled at each other and turned to her. They all let her in on the secret.
***
"I wouldn't have let her go with those guys," Kala told Mia.
"I know. I should have known better." Mia shook her head. "Poor Reva."
"Poor Reva? I was thinking more along the lines of poor Ronins. From what I can tell, this is the perfect night to do anything. I wouldn't be surprised if Reva got arrested."
"Arrested? Why would...?"
"She gets carried away sometimes. If they come home without her, expect a phone call."
Kala walked off and left Mia thinking. She thought that the boys would do things like that and thought that with Reva, they might actually behave. What Kala just said didn't improve her disposition much. Anubis came in to the room and she rested her head on his shoulder.
"Something the matter?" he asked.
"Nothing so far. But when the guys come back without Reva, can you answer the phone?" Her blue eyes looked up to him.
"Sure. Something going to happen tonight?"
"Yeah. Something like that."
He just looked at her and could tell that she was worried. He supposed that it was about the people that just left and thought back. The Ronins were known to get a little out of hand before. He smiled down at her and wrapped both his arms around her.
"Okay, I'll be here."
The night went on with nothing happening, except for a few doorbells and kids. The girls answered the door while Mia and Anubis sat in front of the fireplace and watched TV. Most of them were already asleep when the front door slowly opened.
Shadows came in and made shuffling sounds. A clump of shadows moved against the wall, careful that they don't run into something. One of them grazed the edge of a chair and was about to jump out of the shadows. When nothing happened, they continued to make their way in the dark.
Suddenly, several shadows came from above and swooped down on them. Shouts, grunts, and moans were heard. There was a few seconds of struggling then silence. Another movement came from the direction of the den where Cale was lounging. The light flared up and the shadows disappeared, leaving the combatants exposed.
"What is going on here?" The voice came from above. Half of the people in the living room looked up while the rest struggled to keep consciousness.
Scattered on the floor and on the walls were the Ronins. The girls held them down. Kishin had her arm against Rowen's throat as she pinned him against the wall. Mira had Cye facing the wall with one arm twisted behind his back. Kala had done the same thing to Sage but buried his head on the floor. Royda held down two Ronins. She had one hand behind Ryo's neck, polishing the floor with his face, and had Kento in a headlock with the other. Everybody but her let go of the Ronins they held down when they heard the voice.
"Guys?" Mia appeared next to Anubis, the voice that stopped them.
"We thought they were intruders," Kala answered the first question.
"We were what?" Sage asked, rubbing his sore arm. "Let me tell you something, we've known her longer than you have."
"And that's suppose to mean what?" Kala retorted.
"Enough!" Anubis shouted. "We all need straight answers from all of you."
"I think you can let go of them now," Cale said. He had been the one that turned the light on. "Everybody else has."
Royda looked at him without letting either Ronin go. Ryo was struggling under all her weight while Kento struggled to breath. She slowly released Ryo and got up, then dropped Kento on the floor. Mia ran up to both boys.
"Are you okay?" she asked Ryo.
"Not after what she did," Kento answered, pointing behind him to Royda. He had turned a little blue but was okay now.
"Okay, now some answers." Anubis went over to Kento to help him up while Cale assisted Torrent. They all turned to Royda for the answers.
"I heard a car pull up." She crossed her arms and stared back at them. "I thought that it was rather late for children to be still out but I suppose that changes. I decided to investigate further since the lock was played with for a few seconds. The others followed me downstairs and we attacked when we saw the shadows."
"Why did you attack?" Kento asked. "Did we look like intruders to you?"
"Your costumes didn't help much," Kishin said, stepping in between Royda and Kento. She had already sensed anger within Royda and Kento wasn't helping.
"But we just..."
"Forget it, Kento," Cye said, surprising everybody. "Nobody got hurt so let's just all go back to bed, okay?"
Everybody nodded and started to go to their rooms. Royda watched them all and noticed one other loud mouth that wasn't there.
"Nobody leaves until somebody tells me where Reva is," she demanded.
The Ronins froze at what she said. They could fell her burning a hole through their heads. Finally, Cye slowly turned around to face her.
"Well, we went trick-or-treating as planned and..." Cye was interrupted but the phone.
"What's I tell you?" Kala whispered to Mia. "She's gotten in trouble again."
Mia looked at Kala and saw that she wasn't kidding. She quickly looked up to Anubis and he nodded, remembering what he had promised earlier. He picked it up as he continued to watch everybody.
Nobody said another word while Anubis talked to the person on the phone. They couldn't really tell what they were talking about since Anubis kept a straight face and just nodded and said yes or no. He slowly lowered the receiver back down.
The girls didn't even need to hear what the call was about. They could pretty much read what happened in Anubis' eyes: Reva had been arrested and needed to be bailed out. Kala started to laugh, Mira covered her face and shook her head, Kishin rolled her eyes, but Royda turned an angry glare at the Ronins.
Cye looked up from the floor and saw her looking at them. He had never seen that look on her face before. He thought it would shed its Royda cover then just lunge at all of them and kill them. He didn't have to hear what the news was about since all five of them were there when it happened.
"That was Inspector Ichiro," Anubis started. "He says that there's a girl in the precinct that would talk about anything but the things they want to hear. She wouldn't even say anything about the five boys she was with. Care to explain that?"
The Ronins avoided his look. They couldn't deny who it was the inspector was talking about. The only other thing that would have confirmed that would have been the Kansai accent.
"Let's go get her first," Mia suggested.
Mia rushed out of the room to get dressed while Anubis followed. Cale was left behind, looking from one group to the other. He could remember from the tidbits of memory he had that these girls were formidable fighters even when they were younger. The Ronins wouldn't stand a chance at their present condition against them. Royda had a look of murder in her eyes.
"Okay," Cale started. "Why don't we just stay where we are, huh? Nobody moves to anywhere until they all come back from the precinct."
Royda continued to glare at them while the rest of the girls finally noticed her. They knew that she didn't like Reva doing these things but she had never blamed somebody else before. The Ronins were in for the biggest grudge of their life.
They all heard the jeep pull away. As the engine died into the night, the house came down with a deafening silence. The others couldn't hear it but the girls could. Energy had slowly started to crackle around Royda like she was getting ready to attack. They looked at each other and knew they needed to calm her down.
"Royda?" Mira asked. "Can you turn around and face me?"
"I can hear you fine," Royda answered.
"But I really need you to turn around."
"What have you got to say that's so important that you can't tell me now?"
"Because if you don't turn around," Kala hissed behind her, "you're going to explode."
"What?!" Royda turned slightly then Mira and Kala got a hold of her. She found herself being pushed toward the kitchen door. Her head turned back around, trying to regain control.
"Don't dare it Royda," Kishin whispered to her. "You don't want them finding out about us now do you?" Their leader narrowed her eyes at her second-in-command.
"Hey, where are you going?" Cale came up behind Kishin. The girl turned to face him, a smile on her face.
"Sorry, we just need to talk to her in private." She patted his shoulder. "Remember, she's really not in the best of moods and you know how those go." Kishin smiled a final time before turning back to help push Royda. She whispered something to her ear and she somewhat cooperated. Cale just stared at them.
"What was that all about?" Ryo asked nobody in particular as he sat on the nearest couch.
"Women," Kento answered, "they're just a different race all together." He sat down on the floor and started to peel away at his costume.
You have no idea how true that is Hardrock, Cale said mentally. Especially with these girls. I wonder what you did to make her so mad?