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Korin doesn't hide her supprise, but takes Dais' offer and stands. She almost falls of her feet. She rubbs her eyes a bit and tries again to smile at him.

"Sorry," she says, "that thing hit me harder than I thought. Sure, let's get going, I'll be all right in a bit."

Korin literally falls on a box in front of the wearhouse. She sighs, tying her long hair back as best she can.

"They'll have all this on TV before long," she says, "we need to stay out of the spotlight."

She stands, her footing a little more sure this time.

"I'm not going to recover any farther without a lot of sleep," she says, "I'll be fine in combat, let's keep moving."

Batrias, in the waiting room and watching TV, sees someone interrupt a Japanese commercial with Timothy Dalton in it to announce a disaster in New York. Terrorists, the announcer says, have struck again. Then, the announcer, in a more panicked voice, mentions destruction in Tokyo. Explosions.

Batrias decides he knows where Rowen has disappeared to, and leaves the university at once.

Dais, from the corner of his eye, sees something colasce, a cloud of fog appearing from nowhere. Before long, Dais sees that it resembles a Netherspirit, one that has had too many bowls of rice in a previous life. "You could not be, Shikaisen?"

"No," the spirit replies, "You are thinking of someone else. I am Hinkansu. I will not permit your interference!"

Dais sighs deeply as he watches Korin challenge the random soldier who injures her. Kento has just woken up, and Korin herself is almost out of energy. Dais knows there is only one option left.

Hinkansu is the spirit commanding those soldiers. I remember how Badamon explained it to me. Talpa's soldiers had a piece of some great Netherspirit in them. When the soldiers die, the Netherspirit emerges. The problem Badamon always had was that soldiers got mixed up together and, when the Netherspirit tried to get out, it would intermingle with others and lose coherence. Not this time, though. It looks like they've figured it out.

Dais took in a deep breath and said, "I shall follow the will of Anubis and free the Ronin Warriors, even if it means my life."

In an instant, he saw his whole life before him. As a child, running around the rice fields as stoop-backed farmers alternately smiled at him and cursed him. As a young man, practicing with a wooden sword, being struck about the ribs. As a teenager, kissing a woman who fled the village the next week in shame. As a man, putting on the armor he'd used all his life. As a warlord, working for Talpa. As himself, fighting with Kayura against Talpa. Then...

He knew he didn't have time. He had to do this now, or he would miss his chance. As the spirit solidifies more before him, Dais jumps, grabs on, and lets all the energy he has run wild. He feels his body tearing itself to pieces, his armor's power consuming both him and the spirit.

He yells out, "Korin! I do this for you!!"

His body wracks itself with pain. He can feel his soul tearing loose from its moorings, barely clinging to the flesh that still was his. Then, the energy explodes, taking Dais and the spirit with it.

After a moment's silence, a gray orb with a purple symbol on it rolls along the floor.

Cye, still not sure if he is dreaming of large, gray whales or if he has, in fact, returned to reality, enters the room with the armored woman under one arm and lays her on the bed.

He says to Kento, "Let's stand outside. I need to figure this out."

Kento replies, "I know what you mean. That was a real head trip."

The two Ronins step outside the room where they have stashed Korin, leaving her alone.

Korin slept for a long time, tossing and turning in her sleep. After a while, her subarmor, cracked and dulled, took on a pure glow and began to mend itself. After the armor has healed itself, Korin slept peacefully for a long while.

She woke suddenly, jolting upright. Had it all been a dream? No, I couldn't be, not with the Armor of Spider in her hands. She curled her knees to her chest, thinking almost saddly. She had only just met Dais, but had come to think of him as a kindred soul. After all, he had been alive in her mother's time, to be a servent of Talpa and recieve that armor. And now he was gone, just like all of her family.

She buried her face in her knees.

Cye, looking away at nothing in particular, says, "What was that?"

Kento replies, shaking his head, "I don't know. Something had a hold of us, though what or why or...I can't say."

***

Sage taps his foot nervously, looking out the plane's passenger window.