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"Those two have been gone
awfully long," Rowen said, looking to where his
friends had disappeared to.
"They've done this before,"
answered Ryo. "Give them a few more minutes,
then we'll look for them."
"Okay, I'll be over here
taking a little nap." Rowen rested his head against
a tree and promptly fell asleep.
"I think I'll go do that,
too," Sage said as he moved to one side of White
Blaze.
"Well, since they're gone,
I might as well follow," Ryo told the tiger. "Cye
and Kento will wake us up when they come back. You stand watch
boy."
The tiger nodded. Ryo sat down
on the other side of White Blaze and rested
against his stomach. The three remaining Ronins were all asleep
now, peaceful to say the
least.
***
This Ronin isn't fighting back,
Kieran thought. The one called Torrent, but
what the other Ronin called Cye, was only dodging his attacks.
"What aren't you attacking?"
he asked. The Ronin stopped and jumped away
from him.
"Why?!" Cye asked,
exasperated. "Because you're a kid! I can't and won't do
it!"
"Well, I won't stop."
The boy jumped up and started to throw small shurikens
at him, hair flaring out.
"Hey!!" Cye quickly
ducked out of the way. One sharp edge of a throwing
star caught his cheek and left a sharp pain.
"I got more where that
came from." He landed and crouched down to a fighting
stance.
"Why are you doing this?"
Cye touched his cheek. "We haven't exactly done
anything to you."
"I'm giving you a chance
to fight back," the little boy said, ignoring what
was asked.
"Mama says to not continue a fight when the enemy doesn't
fight back, but
Papa says to make sure they don't fight back."
"Who are you doing to believe?"
"Both. I won't kill you
until you do fight back. I'll just annoy you." A
sinister smile crossed his angelic features.
***
Two figures stood in the clearing
they just made. The one with orange armor
looked down on the other, wondering how he was still able to stand
after all that.
The little boy was wearing an armor exactly like the Warlord of
Cruelty, except for a few
differences.
The cloth part of the armor was now all black instead of brown.
Red bordered
it when yellow did for the other. Instead of the kusarigama that
the Ronins knew all
too well from their experiences, the boy wielded a katana about
as tall as he was. He
also wore no helmet.
"This can't be happening," Kento whispered.
"Why not?" asked the boy.
"You're just a kid. Has
the Dynasty stooped so low that they're using
children for their attacks?"
"Papa told us to go against you. No Dynasty told us anything."
"Us?!" The boy came
at him again when Kento just had a revelation. He
barely dodged the attack when he thought about Cye. That's where
he was.
"Where are you going?"
"Cye!!" Kento turned
and ran back the way he came. He had this sinking
feeling that his best friend wasn't doing as well as he was.
When he got to the place where
he left him, Cye was nowhere. Crashing not
far away from there, Kento started to follow the sounds as the
boy was right behind
him. He quickly stopped when he saw the same boy standing over
the fallen Ronin, or
was it?
"What's going on...?"
Before he could finish, a pain went down his back and
he fell to his knees. The boy that stood over Cye turned to Kento
and he could see that
there was a difference in him. He wore the same armor but had
a green lining and also no
helmet. A bo was in his hands and poised to strike.
"About time you got here,"
the boy said to somebody behind Kento. Whoever it
was he talked to jumped down and stood next to him. Kento blinked
as both of them
stood between him and Cye.
"Oh boy."