A voice shouted, "Rai Ko Zan!"

There was pain. A sense of flying. Then water. He could not breathe. Did he want to? In that moment, compressed in his memory as if by a great vice, he could not be sure. He remembered a promise, an alliance, and the need to find something out. What it was, he could not recall. In the time that had passed between the pain and the silence, Batrias Kenketsu had come to understand that he no longer belonged in the world, and that he had to do something about it.

***

Tonga.

The only island that mattered to Arrow. It was the island where she expected to find her strength, the strength she knew she had but couldn't access yet- or didn't know how to call upon. She sighed as she got off the boat. This, after not being able to compete in the Olympics, seemed like a waste of time. Her home had been in Guam, but, with America's waning interest in the island as a naval outpost and colony to boot, Arrow McKenzie knew in her heart that she no longer belonged there, even if her parents lived there. She belonged on Tonga, the island where savages still roamed free and a king ruled the land. She belonged where people could challenge her.

The first few steps made her feel uneasy. She bit her lip, thinking to get back on the boat, but her better sense kicked in and told her to go forward. The next step was easier, and the next one, easier still. Before she knew it, she was walking. The jungle came upon her quickly, surprising her. She looked about for mosquitoes and other biting things, even though she had taken 20 different shots before leaving. Her right arm was still bruised from one of them. She took off her t-shirt, revealing a tank top beneath. Tying the t-shirt around her waist, she considered her bruised arm, using it as a focal point. She had to remember that she was safe on the island, as long as she stayed alert.

She sighed again and kept walking. She didn't know what she was looking for. She knew only that she would find it. It had to be something that would give her greater strength, or the ability to use her strength wisely. That was what it all came down to, really- strength. The strength to fight, or the strength to run. Either way, the weak never amounted to anything, Arrow decided.

She heard a rustling and sent a mental wave instinctively its way, feeling light-headed as she did so. Someone grunted. After a moment, a middle-aged, bearded man stood up.

"Didn't think you'd find me- wait..." The man stopped when he saw Arrow. "What's going on here? How did you find me?"

"By accident," Arrow admitted. The man looked neither strong nor weak physically- someone in between. His eyes, though...they were the eyes she wanted to see in her reflection, the eyes of an unvanquished warrior. "If you hadn't made that noise, I wouldn't have found you."

"It was a frelling parrot, consarn it," The man said. "Damn thing didn't even say anything, just got up out of its tree and flew at my head. Don't know why, it just did. Consarn it all."

Arrow smiled. "Well, shall we introduce ourselves? I'm Arrow McKenzie, from Guam."

"And I," the man said, "Am Batrias Kenketsu, from Japan and elsewhere."

The jungle air, fresh on another day, suddenly seemed stale to Arrow. She looked at this aging, muscular man (she tried to compare herself with him) and held in a sigh. He had said his name like it was supposed to mean something, but Arrow had no idea who he was. She recognized the last name as Japanese- maybe- but the first name sounded like something out of those fantasy books she used to read. Robert Jordan, Sarah Ash, John Marco...she might have written one herself if she hadn't failed to get in the Olympics.

"All right, first things first," Arrow said, taking control of her emotions. She had to stay calm. "How did you get here?"

"Someone struck me, and I flew," Batrias said, his face serious. He looked like he was telling the truth, but Arrow remained skeptical.

"Okay, I came here in a boat, see," She said, somewhat annoyed, "And I've never heard of a person flying that far. It just doesn't make sense, does it? What did they do, load you in a gigantic slingshot and punch you in the face? Is that waht caused you to fly?"

"I'm neither an idiot or a child," Batrias replied, "So do not treat me like one. I faced the Armor of Nimbus and lost. I do not know why as yet...my memory of the event is still hazy. It feels like it happened a long time ago. But, I am not insane, though you may think otherwise."

"Okay, wait," Arrow put a hand to her forehead. The bangs of her dark hair fell over her fingers. "You're saying, that, what? An armor with some kind of, I don't know, mystical power or something, put you here?"

"That is what I am saying," Batrias said. He pulled something from one of his pockets and showed it to Arrow. It was a little white golf ball- maybe a crystal- with a red symbol etched into it. Etched? Maybe burned. "This is the Armor of Holy, my armor. It is stronger than the Armor of Nimbus, stronger by far, but it could not prevail. I have since been here, trying to figure out why. You see, I made a pact with someone, a bond of honor, and until I know the reason for my defeat, I am staying here."

Arrow heard the man, Batrias (crazy name) saying what she had been thinking all along. I have to know why I lost, I have to know why I couldn't do it, blah, blah, blah. Arrow let out the sigh. "All right, I get you know. I don't know anything about armors, or whatever, but I think I want to know. Can you tell me what you know?"

Batrias smiled ironically. "To tell you everything I know would take a lifetime. I will tell you the basics, and you can decide whether my brain has been infected with some pseudo-disease or whether I am simply living in a world you have never visited. Deal?"

"Yeah, okay," Arrow agreed.

Batrias paused for a moment, thinking of what he would say. A woman came to him from out of nowhere and wanted to know about the armors. A muscular woman. Well, okay, things were weird to begin with for Batrias, so they couldn't get much weirder, could they?

"What I am about to tell you is part legend and part fact," Batrias began, "The facts I have been witness to; the legends I have heard from others who say they have been there. Each legend I heard was a shard by itself, but, when I heard enough of them, the shards came together to reveal something I had no knowledge of previously.

"As I have said, there are armors with- I shall call them supernatural- powers. Wearing one of these armors makes a person a demon in battle, capable of doing things most men can only imagine. Some armors do different things, but, for the most part, they all grant unusually long life in addition to everything else. For many thousands of years, men, spirits, demons and others have fought each other to gain possession of these armors. What they do not know, and what I am about to share with you, is that the armors themselves are not the ultimate power.

"Somewhere deep in history, a man (whether from this planet or another, I do not know) constructed a suit of bio-enhancements to make the soldiers in his army stronger. He had studied human anatomy, and knew how to stimulate muscle activity, how to make muscles stronger without exerting them. At first, he only made arm-gauntlets, leg guards and shoulder pads. The increased effectiveness of his soldiers, however, lead him to continue his research and create more bio-enhancements for the body. He stopped only when he found that no other part of the anatomy could be enhanced. The first armor he created he kept for himself. At the time, he was not sure if the body would receive it well or not. He was not sure that it would cause muscles to tear apart like so many pieces of paper. So, he wore it himself into battle. He was surprised to find that could unleash energy attacks at his enemies if he wanted to. I have come understand that he was utilizing his chi, but, back then, the Blacksmith (for that is the only name I have known him by) had no concept of the latent energy with a body.

"Chi, to be brief, comes when the body burns calories after eating or drinking. Some of these calories are used, while others are not. The Blacksmith would become exhausted after using too many energy attacks, so he knew he had to use it sparingly. Moreover, he knew that some of his soldiers would not use their chi wisely, so he withheld from them his discoveries, lest his armies should be defeated utterly. I also think it would have taken him too much time to craft a full set of armor for each individual soldier, time which could have been used to fight battles.

"Eventually, the Blacksmith's army had no more battles to fight. The Blacksmith laid his armor to the side, wanting to have time to think about everything he'd done and seen. The armor, however, did not want to rest. It had absorbed, a little at a time, some of the chi used by the Blacksmith in battle, and had grown a kind of consciousness of its own. It influenced the Blacksmith, and, before long, his armies fought against themselves. In the confusion of that final battle, the Blacksmith's armor was lost, the Blacksmith himself missing or dead, and everything fallen to ruin.

"Some years later, an evil demon by the name of Talpa appeared in Japan with an ambition to conquer. He used chi attacks from a suit of armor as well, but, since he did not have a body and could not produce energy on his own, Talpa had to rely upon the armor alone. I should note here that the armor Talpa used and the armor the Blacksmith used were not one and the same. I believe, though I have not confirmed it for myself, that Talpa's armor was but another piece of the Blacksmith's armor, rather than the whole thing. In any case, Talpa was defeated, his armor split into nine parts, and his power disappeared from the Earth.

"It was during this period that I, as a child, received an armor from a man falling out of the sky. He fell like a shooting star, and he was, in fact, myself, falling from the future. The armor I received had nothing to do with the set of nine derived from Talpa's armor, and I now wonder where originally the Armor of Holy came from. I got it from myself, but where did the other me, the one I met, get it? Did he get it from another version of myself as well? I have yet to answer the question, and it may be another long while before I know completely. The Armor of Holy, though, was another shard of that original armor created by the Blacksmith. I suspect it could be divided into another set of its own, if anyone had the skill and the wish to do so. In a way, my armor, by itself, could have rivaled Talpa's, if I had known then how to properly use it.

"A few years ago, Talpa re-emerged, wanting his armor back. The trouble was that each armor had its own warrior wearing it now. Four of the warriors Talpa was able to make subservient, but the other five resisted. They are commonly known as the Ronin Warriors. During the fight with Talpa, one of the Ronins discovered that by combining his power with those of his friends, he could create a tenth armor, the Armor of Inferno. This armor had once been unconnected to anything else, capable of being called and banished at will. Someone, probably the Ancient One, had changed the rules. The Armor of Inferno could not be called unless the power of five out of the nine (it did not matter which five) came together. That armor, along with the Armor of Dark Inferno, were again shards of the Blacksmith's armor. If you have ever seen the Inferno in action, you will begin to understand the enormous power of the Blacksmith's armor.

"Talpa was eventually defeated, and his evil laid to rest. Now, however, another evil, by the name of Tusuki, wants the armors for herself. I do not know whether she wants to reconstruct the Original Armor or whether she is merely power hungry. I have sided with her allies, though they work against her, to find more of the armors, in hopes that the Blacksmith's armor remains disunited. I have a feeling that this may be the last conflict over the armors, the last time I will have to use the Armor of Holy in conflict."

Batrias took a moment to let his words settle in. Then, he said, "I have told you most of what I know. Are you satisfied?"

"Oh, boy..." Arrow said, rubbing her temples.

Arrow took a moment to let her mind process everything she'd heard. She wanted to believe this man Batrias was nuts, but her heart wouldn't let her do it. Something about him, maybe his seriousness...that had to be it...convinced her that he wasn't lying. His words had come out evenly, and he would have hesitated if he'd been telling lies, trying to think of what to say next. Except he hadn't paused, hadn't stopped to think, he'd just kept talking, and, if it was a story, it was one he'd practiced at some length. That also meant he wasn't insane because some motive had driven him to practice it and some motive had driven him to use it. Crazy people didn't have motives, not really- as Arrow knew all too well.

"All right then, say I believe you," Arrow said, "If it's true, why are you telling me this?"

"Because you asked," Batrias replied, a smile lighting on his aging face, "And because I've been alone or on this mission of mine for too long. For a while there, I forgot that there are people in the world, that they have emotions, and that I'm not the only one alive with any kind of rationality in my head. So, that's that. I got driven here in a battle, and you came here of your own will. I cannot believe it to be coincidence."

"Whoa, stop right there." Arrow's voice became firm, commanding. "The next thing you're going to say is that it was fate or God or whatever that brought us together, right? Well, that's donkey basketball, as far I'm concerned, total silliness. I don't know about God, but fate doesn't drive people's lives. They have choices- we have choices- and when you say it's not coincidence you take away the fact that I chose to come here. I didn't even tell you why. One of the wrestlers I used to admire, a guy by the name of Meng, came from Tonga, and I thought I could get rid of my own shortcomings here. It's not because I want anything to do with your damn mission or your damn Blacksmith and his consnagged armors, it's because I made a decision, and I directed where my life would go. Don't ever try to say otherwise, or I'll have you for breakfast, old man."

Batrias burst out laughing.

"You couldn't, no matter how strong you are," he said, amused. "And there's something you haven't picked up on."

"What's that, old man?" Arrow McKenzie asked.

"There are people manipulating events in this world for their own personal gain," Batrias said, "Some to gain the armors, some for other reasons. I am one of those, even though I've been on this island for some time now."

"You keep talking in circles, consarn it," Arrow sighed. "I can't decide whether you're making all this up or whether it's really true."

"The more unbelievable it sounds, usually, the truer it's going to be," Batrias replied. "You should keep that in mind at all times. Yes, I realize that many of the things I have told you sound preposterous, but I can give no more evidence...ah, no, I actually can."

Batrias stood up and showed Arrow the white crystal. Arrow shrugged as if to say, okay, so what? Then, the crystal shone with light. Arrow covered her eyes against the light, and, when she looked again, Batrias had- was it transformed? Yet the voice coming from the- person? thing?- was the same thing.

"This is the Armor of Holy, as I have told you," he said.

Arrow blinked her eyes, then rubbed at them to make sure she wasn't seeing things. A man she had been talking to- albeit a very weird man- had suddenly changed...or it was transformed?...into a suit of armor that made her think of space aliens. When she was sure her senses weren't deceived, she said, "Okay, wait. How did you do that?"

Batrias didn't answer. For a moment, he stared off into space. Arrow McKenzie was about to ask him what the matter was, until Batrias said, "I have alerted myself to him. I should have thought of that."

"Alerted? What?" Arrow asked, wanting to know what this weird guy was talking about.

Then, all of the sudden, a similar person, with the space alien armor (this time brown instead of white) just appeared out of nowhere. "This is like something out of a bad anime show..." Arrow said to herself.

"Batrias of Holy, at last," said the newcomer.

"Kale," Batrias said, "Have you secured the armors yet?"

"No, I haven't, which is starting to make Tusuki fairly upset," Kale replied. For some reason, Arrow thought of wolves when she looked at him. "But I didn't come here to tell you how we are doing. I've come here to ask you why you've been so inactive these past months. We made an agreement that you would help me in taking Tusuki down. You remember that, don't you?"

"I do," Batrias said.

"Then you will understand my frustration at you staying here on this smelly island while the rest of us have had our hands full trying to obey Tusuki and cross her machinations at every turn. Batrias, I'm going to ask you just once: are you going to help Sehkmet and I, or are you content with sitting here forever?"

"I've had a great deal of time to think about everything that's happening," Batrias shook his head slowly. Arrow thought he was trying to deny something he would sooner accept. "But the only conclusion I can come to is that Tusuki must be allowed to discover the armors for herself. That is why I have not helped you. She seeks the Original Armor, because she must realize that she won't be able to defeat the Ronin Warriors in the usual way. But, if she has the power of the Blacksmith, she'll be able to control their armors, cutting off the last of her resistance. She has taken into account that someone always tries to interfere with anyone trying to conquer the world, and usually the conqueror fails. She's made a foolproof plan, and it must be allowed to go forward."

"I didn't think you had such confidence in your abilities, Batrias of Holy," Kale remarked. "I, for one, would rather see her dead before she gains the Original Armor."

"But there will always be someone else who is going to try and get it," Batrias explained. "Someone who will be willing to take the effort to re-make the Original Armor. I don't know if I'll be around when it happens, so, I figure, let Tusuki play her game if she wishes. The further along she gets, the less chance there will be of it happening again."

"And just how do you propose to stop her if she gains that much power?" Kale asked.

"It's in the origin of my own armor," Batrias said, "I'm beginning to think it's not a part of the Blacksmith's armor, but something else entirely."