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They had all been looking for
her ever since she disappeared a few days ago.
Some of
the Ronins had already accepted that Mia had died in that explosion
but still
continued to
look for her out of respect for Sage. The Ronin of Light really
felt a great
loss when he
or the others couldn't find her.
The house felt even bigger than
they first imagined. When Yuli had died
during one of
the attacks, Mia had withdrawn a little bit then. The house was
silent for a
long time
until Mia started to talk. Only then did the house come alive
again. After
all that, Mia
started to take more control of herself. She took it upon herself
to be able
to fight back
and not just stand there.
"Sage, we need to rest," suggested Ryo.
"Yeah, man," added Kento. "We've been at this for who knows how long."
Halo sat down silently, apart
from the rest of them. He didn't break out on
his usual
tirade about not caring for her enough. They all took that as
a sign that he
was doing
okay. Inside, Halo was an emotional war ready to explode.
Why did you do that? Sage asked
mentally. What happened that made you do
that? Or
did the Dynasty finally go through with their plan to kill us
all one by one?
You just
happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe that
explosion
was for me.
"Have you guys ever thought
of what could have caused that explosion?" Rowen
asked.
All of them turned to Rowen, asking how he could be so insensitive.
"Hey,
I'm just
asking! Don't tell me that hasn't crossed your mind before.
And has it ever
occurred to
you guys that there was no body or a trace of blood anywhere?"
The Ronins looked at each other.
They had all asked themselves that but
didn't really
want to confront it. They didn't want to think that Mia could
be in a much
worse place
than Hell. Their thoughts had turned to the Dynasty's plan on
using her as a
slave.
"Look Rowen," Cye
said. "I'm sure all of us have thought of those questions
before but
we choose to block them out. Do you know why? It's because Mia
meant a lot
to us and
we'd like to think that she is in a better place other than those
alternatives we had in
mind."
"Mia meant a lot to me
too but don't you want to find out what really
happened? The
whole thing was just too convenient. She was alone upstairs,
we were all
downstairs.
The explosion only happened in her room. There's got to be something
more
than that."
"Rowen, just shut up!!"
Sage shouted. "Don't you guys have any respect?!"
He ran out of
the house and stood at the front door, staring at the space that
would have
been Mia's
room. Tears streamed down his cheek's as he continued to stare.
He didn't
notice the rest
of his friends come out of the house.
They all stared at the side
of the house where the explosion occurred. Her
room was
gone and so was she. The house loomed over them, a foreboding
figure,
depicting all
they felt. A howling wind passed by, causing leaves to rustle
and make
sounds from
within the house. It sounded like laughter. Her laughter. Tears
came to
each Ronin's
eyes. They will miss her.
After a good few minutes, they
had all taken control of themselves and just
stood before
the house. Nothing was here anymore, it was time to move on.
All of them
had some
sort of bag beside them, all their momentos and belongings. They
had taken
Mia's laptop
with them but that was it. Everything else was the way it was
when they last
saw her.
She had smiled that last time.
They could almost see her blue eyes sparkle
at one of
Kento's corny jokes. They had told her good night and that was
the last
thing they said to
her. Because of that, they had to leave.
The decision was more for Sage
then anything else. The blond hardly talked
at all
anymore. They knew that Sage cared a little bit more about Mia
than they
did. To them,
she was a sister or a surrogate mother, but Sage wanted it to
be more than
that. They had
to leave or risk having each one of them go insane one at a time.
Ryo bowed to the house. He
picked up his backpack and turned but risked one
last look.
As he started to walk away, Cye and Kento bowed down at the same
time. They
both
picked up their stuff and backed out. It only left Sage and Rowen.
Rowen bowed and picked up his
things. Sage continued to look up at the house,
particularly a bedroom. Rowen walked up behind his best friend.
"Good-bye Mia," Sage said, scarcely above a whisper.
A hand came down on Sage's shoulder
but didn't notice it. Rowen said
something but he
didn't hear it. Sage was trying to remember what the house was
like before
all of this
happened. With that, he bowed down and turned to Rowen.
"Let's go," he told him.
They turned and caught up to
the other three and started to walk, forward to
a new
adventure.