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"Come on now, guys, it looks like Rowen's hurt," Kento interrupts the conversation.

"Yeah, I think they," Rowen says, panting, "Electrocuted me..."

"Kourin, didn't Ryo say he wanted to meet in that, whatever it was, airport in Washington State or something?" Sage asks.

(It''s co-posty between me and shade! heart )

Rowen takes a deep breath before replying. When he does, his voice his scratchy, the result of having screamed too much recently. He says, "Healers, I suppose. Seems like everyone around here knows how to heal this, that, or the other. Sage can do it, Korin can do it...I bet you anything that Cye could, too."

"Me?" Cye asks, incredulous.

"Yes, you," Rowen replies. "Powers of water and all that..."

"So, does this mean, what?" Kento scratched his head. "I''m confused again...."

She shakes her head. "I''ve been a healer since I was young. A very long time ago, despite how I sound or look when I shed my armor. Sage can heal because of his armor, Korin.... a blend of clan powers and to a degree, her heritage. As for me.... the soul element in my armor amplifies it, but the ability to Heal itsself is innate." Another dry chuckle. "Electrocution?"

"Yeah," Rowen rasps out. "You wouldn''t believe it, but the Japanese government believes we are terrorists, and they were trying to make me tell them where everyone else was, not that I would..."

"It''s been crazy." Sage interrupts. "I''ve half a mind to go back and blow them all to bits!"

"Nah," Rowen says, coughing. He puts a hand to his mouth and discovers, with mild indifference, that the hand has blood on it. "Guess you''d better get started."

"This may feel odd." She walked over, and placed a hand on Rowen''s chest, bowing her head slightly. A silvery light slowly halowe dher and her hand, and started to spread around Rowen, as to him, it felt as though gentile hands were giving him a careful check-up. He could almost feel his lungs clearing..... abruptly, a gigantic spark of electricity shot from him and into the ground. Her voice had taken on an ethereal quality. "I''m repairing your muscle structure from the damage the extra electricity dit to them. I''m going to fall on my nose for an hour in a bit, but you''ll be right as rain."

"Wait, fall on your nose?" Kento asks with a confused look.

"Nevermind," Rowen says, his voice still raspy, but stronger. At once he shouts, "Musou Tenku!" Quickly, his armor is upon him, and his eyes blaze fiercely, looking straight ahead. "I don''t know where that shadow creature went, but I''m pretty sure that Wisp-thing is still out there, and Batrias said something about it wanting to absorb me."

"I feel it, too." Sage declares, "But it''s hard to see. You only know where it is by finding an invisible wall."

"Should we attack?" Kento wonders aloud.

"I don''t know," Rowen admits at once. "Hey, lady, you can fight if need be, right?"

She withdrew her hand, and the silver glow faded as she turned. "If need be.... I can fight the fatigue off for maybe forty five minutes. It would be better if we got away." She drew a scimitar from her back, the blade etched in green with a serpentine eastern dragon imprint.

Then, suddenly, with a flash of light, Kale and Sehkmet appeared in front of the group. Kale''s red cloak blew in the slight breeze.

"I see that you have dispatched Holy, Nimbus," Kale said, "Very well. I did not anticipate he would prove to be so useless. I would not have recruited him-" Kale speaking faster than Sage could reply- "Yes, I asked him to join, and he agreed? Do you not find it strange, how the minds of men function?...Ah, yes, another warrior appearing out of nowhere to help the Ronins. I suppose I shouldn''t be surprised..."

Sehkmet says to the stranger, "Clear out of here, GIRL, before I am forced to something untoward to you!"

She stood streight, and slowly drew her other blade. "Sekmet." She looked at the other. "For your information, Kale, I promised an old friend I''d keep an eye on Nimbus." She took a fighting stance. "I see no reason to leave the very pleasant company of these gentilemen."

"I doubt that it matters," Kale replied, his hand rising. As he made the gesture, a concentration of shadows rose out of the ground.

Sage, at once knowing what it was and what he had to do, shouted, "Rei Zo Ken!"

Then, for the first time that any of the Ronins could remember, Kale displayed fear. However, he had already summoned the Torn Shadow, and it writhed in the slow agony of death as the Thunderbolt Cut, using its elemental opposite in power, struck it full-on.

"Now you''ve done it!" Kale said, drawing his sword. "That was a person, damn you! And you killed her! Yes, her!"

"Well, I really could care less," Sage says. "Only you think you hadn''t noticed that with your creature, whatever, was able to withstand Ryo''s Rage of Inferno, as well as Batrias''s Divine Vengeance. The reason we had such trouble with it was because I never used my attack. It only made sense, after all, that my attack would work against something you made, Kale."

Sehkmet, himself enraged, charged at the stranger, yelling, "You shall suffer first!"

She shook her head, crossing her blades, and while the others yell their powers as warcries.... she said it almost softly. "Spirit Body." She stood and waited, the top half of her mask opening to reveal silver eyes.

Sehkmet, charging into the stranger- no, through the stranger- thought that the Wisp had achieved its final evolutionary stage. It was, after all, supposed to be able to revert, if only partially, to its original form in its human self. He felt a shiver in his soul as he thought that he had charged a ghost. His mind tried to rally behind the fact that her green blade and the sound of her voice seemed real enough. His momentary confusion was replaced by the nagging worry in the back of his mind that Kayura might eventually discover what he was up to...but that feeling quickly passed, and Sekhmet was on the offensive again.

"Snake Fang Strike!" He yells.

"That again," Cye shakes his head. "Well, if you''re going to be repetitive..."

But, just then, something seems to grab Cye from behind, and he is pushed downward in his body, able to observe, but not able to do. The voice that speaks through him is not human, and sounds nothing like Cye''s. "Tenku. Tenku."

"I''m right here!" Rowen shouts, notching an arrow. He hesitates because he cannot be sure if the creature will flee Cye''s body, or armor, or is it both?- before the arrow hits. He keeps it pointed at Cye, hoping the creature notices.

She backfliped, and crossed her blades before her, parrying the sure-kill. She slid back several paces, but when the smoke cleared..... she was unharmed. "It will take more than that to hurt me."

"Hurt you?" Sehkmet sneers. "I have let my poison loose on your blade! You cannot tell me you will fight with a poisoned sword!"

"I have no compunctions about fighting with a poisoned blade. After all, the one I am fighting is the one who poisoned it, ne?" She took at offensive stance, and started to calmly advance.

"Besides, you fail to note one thing."

She started slowly moving the blades, charging a sure-kill of her own.

"My blades are unblemished from your attack, Snake Charmer."

Once again, instead of a war cry, a calm declaration.

"Heart's purest light."

A white light hit every Ronin as well as the stranger, refresahing and recharging al of them.

Korin slowly nodds, her armor fading to her silver subarmor. She clutches her shoulder, looking at each Ronin in turn.

"Yes, we best move quickly," she says, "how fast can we get out of the outskirts? After that, we can go normal and hit the road."

Sage says to the stranger, "It's best if we use convential means. Remember, the government probably has started to use their satellites to find out where we are, so something like what you're proposing will draw too much attention. What we have to do is slip under their radar and disappear."

In a flurry of green leaves, Sage dispels his armor. He quickly rips off part of his shirt, fashioning a sling for Korin's arm. "That should hold for now...though we probably should buy some clothes before we leave. We'll draw too much attention like this."

She took a step back, still with her facemask down. "P-perhaps I simply go home myself, and meet with all of you some other time, after some of this blows over or after you've had a change to go meet with this other person in America...." In her nervousness, her voice had slid slightly lighter, and had a distinctly musical quality.... just like the one Korin's mother had described once.....

Korin pauses, tilting her head like a cat,

"Praytell, leave us with a name if you so choose to leave," she said

: "And if I prefer remain anonymous?"

"Then I will think you someone who once befriended all Clans and tried to save my father."

She took another step back, at the edge of the trees now. "Perhaps in another life. I see them in dreams on occasion, and I know I remember my previous existances.".

"Even the name of your armor will work."

: "It.... has several names, depending on who you ask. Tamashii. The Armor of Soul." She started to fade into the shadows.

"You yourself said you had little time, and now your face is with ours. Come with us, you will be guarded well."

"I only live a little under an hour away-" "And when they find who you are, your house is forfit. We cannot return, and soon, you will not either."

She sighed. "Except I live at a tea house and the kindly old woman who took me in is not going to be happy when her dorr gets knocked in. My name's Asako, I may as well.... go with you all. Even if I would really prefer remain aloof from all of this."

"If your soul truly wanted to remian aloof you would not have aided us," she smiles slightly

She shook her head. "I made a promise to someone, that's why I came." Her facemask slid up and she removed her helmet, black hair spilling free. "That and the damned tin cans clonked me over the head earlier so I'm not inclined to side with their masters, ne?"

"No one is....you look as one of a clan lost long before my own."

"Nani?"

(a co-posty between me and Shade! heart )

"If you're going to steal a van, then there should be one back at the base, with a plate that reads "koneko". It belongs to someone who owes me a favor." She stumbled slightly, and cursed under her breath.

Sage considers this for a moment, "Konkeo...okay. Where is it?"

"I'm not sure. Hiro tends to park it on the edge nearest us, though, and unless he painted it again, the van should be green." She said this as she looked at Sage, her ears now peeking from her hair- pointed ears.

Sage takes a quick look around, surveying the area. He sees, at once, a green van. He dashes to it, checks the license plate and gives a thumbs-up. Rowen, Kento and Cye pile inside. Sage, in the driver's seat, fiddles with some wiring until the engine starts. "Okay, let's go then."

Asako shook her head as she found a seat in the minivan. "And here I thought wildfire would be the leader. Strange indeed." The clothes she was wearing consisted of a t-shirt and jeans- the t-shirt had the kanjii for compassion bleached out on it.

Kento leans forward as the van starts off, Korin sitting beside him. "Hey, lady, I don't mean to burst your bubble, but if anyone's strange around here, it's you, what with the cat-eyes and everything."

"Yeah, everyone looks like that cartoon, what-do-you-call-it..." Cye says.

"Inuyasha, wasn't it?" Rowen puts in. "They still show that on the oldies channel, or whatever."

**twitch** cat's eyes?" She seemed slightly offended. "Are grey eyes all that strange?"

"Well, I don't know about grey eyes," Kento says, smiling broadly. "But ears on top of your head certainly are."

She reached up and when she took her hands down, her ears looked normal. "What's wrong with my ears?" Her eyes were vertically sit, but there was a smirk in her voice. "I'm just as human as all of you- not some anime charachter."

"Well, anyway," Kento responds, "There's definitely something different with you."

"You know," Sage says, staring ahead at the road, "You haven't really told us anything about yourself. Who are you, anyway, Asako, you said?"

"Yeah, that's right." Cye says. "How do we know you're not working for them?"

"Ever heard of the ancient dreams book series? the one about the wars long ago, the one about the myths?"

"Uh..." Kento begins scratching his head again.

"Hey, you'll get dandruff everywhere!" Cye protests.

"Erm...sorry," Kento shrugs. "No, I haven't heard of it."

"Me either," Sage says. "What is it?"

It's a book series written from the perspective of someone who was there of the times before your armors were created. Back when there were several clans, and back when Kaylyn, Korin's mother, was alive." A pause as she considered them each in turn. "They were written by someone who was there. I am not exactly on your side, but I am distinctly not on the other side ofthis, is that enough for you?"

"Well, if you're not with them, it's okay, I guess," Sage says. "Come to think of it, I remember Batrias mentioning something about a book in Cantonese."

"I remember that, it was when all of this started," Rowen crosses his legs together. "You think that book might have something to do with all this?"

"Possibly." She shook her head then, almost looking dizzy.

"Not again!" Cye shouts, grabbing the woman's arm. "Everybody's passing out lately..."

"Tell me about it," Sage says, driving the van onto a highway. "There are many common threads here."

"I'm.... fine." She forced the word fine out as she sat streight, visibly fighting to remain conciius."

"You're not, obviously," Rowen says. "What is it? Surely getting
knocked over the head wouldn't cause that."

She closed her eyes, still visibly fighting unconciousness. "Remember when I healed you, Rowen?"

"Ah, that's what it is," Rowen says, frowning, "Well, next time, I'll just have to refuse, if this is what it costs."

"Asako?" Kento asks. "Something I wanted to know. I mean, why are the warlords fighting us, if they helped us beat Talpa all that time ago?"

She started to slump, eyes closing. "Be fine in an hour.... but.... something..... dark.... stirrs.... again...." She slid into unconciousness, leaning against whoever was seated next to her.

"Sage?" Cye asks.

"We don't have a choice," Sage responds to the unspoken question. "We have to keep going."