*************

            “About three years ago, a shadow befell the Ronin Warriors.  We don’t know much about it, but for some reason, they changed.  Somehow, they developed a hunger for power.  We don’t even understand their motives but I’m afraid they decided that they want to conquer this realm, the Nether Realm.  We can’t let that happen.  We aren’t accusing them of being evil, just confused.  They may not even know what they’re doing.  And we know this thing that has them so messed up didn’t get all of them.”

            “So it didn’t get my dad?”

            “No.  Nor Rekka.  But their refusal to help the other three seems to have made the turned Ronins think it necessary to do away with Tenku and Rekka.”

            “What?!”

            “Don’t worry.  Your father is safe here and though Rekka was injured, we have him safely hidden away until he can recover.”

            “Who’s “we”?”

            “Oh.  Well, “we” would be myself, Ulner, Zwiff, and our master.”

            “Master?”

            “The one whom we are loyal to, who we work for.”

            “Oh.  What does all this have to do with me?”

            “I’m getting to that.  It’s going to become necessary to fight the turned Ronins, no matter how hard we try to avoid it.  Tenku and Rekka can’t do it due to the connection between the yoroi.  If one Ronin were to harm another seriously, they will all feel the pain, including your father and Rekka.  We don’t want him injured further.  The turned ones also plan to use their families somehow, and though we aren’t sure in what way, we’re certain it’s not good.  We’re hoping that when you get your yoroi, which isn’t connected to the others, you’ll be able to help us save the Ronins’ families.”

            “What?”

            “But there’s a possibility you’ll have to fight Suiko or Korin or Kongo or maybe all of them.  We know you don’t want to hurt them or for them to know that it was you.  You probably wouldn’t want their families to think you would hurt their loved ones either.  So, Ulner will help you to disguise yourself when you go on missions and Zwiff will use the few spells he’s learned these past weeks to help make the task easier.”

            “Waitasec!  I never agreed to this.”

            “No…but I’m sure you will.  Tenku tells us that you’re very good friends with Kongo’s boy.”

            “Yeah.  So?”

            “We believe that Kongo’s family will be the first one they use for this mysterious plan of theirs.  I think there will be blood involved.”

            “What?!  No.  You’re wrong.  Kento would never hurt Judah or Ben or Lily or Tess or Rinfi.  How would you know anyway?”

            “When I meditate, I catch hints sometimes.  The blood was the hint I caught today.”

            “Ahhhh, man, this is all so weird.”

            “Lessa, are you going to help us?”

            “…you’re sure that they would be hurt if I didn’t?”

            “Positive.”

            “…okay… What would I have to do?”

            “I have the yoroi.  It’s called Black.  Here.”

            “…it’s so cold.  And what’s the kanji in there?”

            “I don’t really know.  I’ve never been able to see it through the black enough to tell.  Here, take this ring.”

            “What for?”

            “It’s from the master.  It will help you teleport from here to your realm and back, but don’t do it any more than absolutely necessary or you’ll get lost.”

            “Okay.  And when do I go get Ben and the others?”

            “In four days.  Until then, you’ll need to train with Ulner and Zwiff.  Your parents won’t be around much.”

            “Why?”

            “We have to put Tenku into hiding with Rekka so that the other Ronins won’t be able to track them through the yoroi.  Your mother wants to go with him.”

            “…oh.  Can I go now?”

            “Yes.  But come back every day after the evening meal so that we can discuss things, and plan if necessary.”

            “Okay.  Bye then.”

            “Until tomorrow, bearer of Black.”

            “…Yeah…tomorrow…”

***********************

            Ben slammed the phone down in its cradle so hard that Lily, who prided herself on not reacting to loud noises or surprises, winced.  The white-haired girl looked at her older brother through narrowed eyes.  “What’s wrong with you?”

            The young man dropped into a chair with a defeated and irritated look.  “Just called the last person I could think of who might know where Lessa is.”

            “And?”

            “Nothing.”

            “Ah.  So who was this person?”

            Ben slouched over the table, twining a fork through the spaghetti he and Lily had made themselves for lunch.  “Ray Kinyard, some guy she met at the zoo.”

            “Have you tried with people who know Ryo?” Lily shoved a forkful of the pasta into her mouth with one hand and toyed with a strand of her hair with the other.

            “No.  Dad and Cye and Sage are doing that.”  He sighed.  “How could this happen?”

            “How could her parents die?  How could she inherit Tenku?  How could she be Ryo’s favorite?  How could the sky be blue?  How could you be my brother?”

            “Ha, ha.  And don’t talk with your mouth full.”

            She rolled her eyes and swallowed.  “Don’t ask stupid questions and ya won’t get stupid answers.”

            “Point taken.  But still…she called me, Lil.  Of all the people to call, she called me.  And she’s my best friend.  I don’t want to lose her.”

            Now it was Lily’s turn to sigh.  “Look, bro.  Les is a tough girl.  And she’s probably got Uncle Ry with her to help and all that.  You aren’t gonna lose her.  Sage and Cye are almost certain they can track her and Ryo through the yoroi.  Course, we have yet to see results of that theory but…what I’m saying is that you don’t need to worry yourself sick over it.  I’m sure she’ll be back before ya know it.  Hey, idea!”

            “Oh really?” he drawled sarcastically, stretching his arms across the table and playing with his fork.

            Lily grabbed the fork away.  “Shut up.  Anyway, what exactly did she say to you on the phone?”

            Ben thought about it for a moment.  “I need paper.”  He stood up and went to get some.  When he came back, he sat down, shoved his spaghetti out of the way, and started writing words down.  Lily leaned over the table, trying to see what he wrote past his scribbling hand.  After a while, he sat back and read it aloud.  “I’m right where I’m supposed to be.  I’m gonna have to leave you for a while…Might bug you later somehow so be ready for something.  Don’t know where I’m going… And that’s it.”  He looked up with an expression somewhere between hopeful and lost.

            Lily made a cute face—Oops, she’d kill me if she heard that.—and then her jaw dropped.  “I can’t believe it—I just…oh gaaaaahhhhhd!”

            “What?” Ben had to hold himself back from jumping on her.

            “You people,” she laughed, gasping, “are soooo stupid.  How could you not think of that?”

            “Dammit, Lily, if you don’t tell me right now…” He blinked.  “Oh, I didn’t mean that!  I mean—”

            “Oh, please.  Rusty told me that you cussed at Lessa when she wouldn’t eat.  Don’t play innocent with me.”

            “Fine.  But you better tell me…”

            “She said she was right where she’s supposed to be, didn’t she?”

            “Yeah.  So?”

            “Ben!  Since forever, where does Lessa always end up going when things blow up in her face?”

            “…I don’t know.”

            The fifteen-year-old groaned.  “Okay, remember when you were in tenth grade and her boyfriend dumped her for that Cheerleader From Hell?  And she was so mad she skipped school?”

            “Yeah.  Even though she’d been planning on dumping him the next day.  Still, I thought she might bust his car with the tire iron.”

            “And where did she go when she skipped school?”

            “…oh my god!  Why didn’t I realize this before?  She—ah, jeez…”

            “So,” chirped his sister merrily.  “Do you feel stupid now?”

            “God, yes.  How could I have missed this?  …I gotta call Dad!”

            While her brother ran at breakneck speed for the phone, Lily leaned back in her chair, nodding smugly to herself.  “Yep,” she said, crossing her arms behind her head.  “I am a genius.”

            Across the room, with the phone pressed to his ear, Ben didn’t even bother to greet his father when Kento picked up.  “She meant she was at home, Dad!  ‘Right where she was supposed to be’.”

***********************

            Kento smacked himself on the forehead so hard he nearly stumbled.  Cye looked at him in bafflement and then shook his head, turning away from the man on the phone.  Sage simply raised an eyebrow in inquiry.

            The bearer of Kongo waited till he’d hung up the phone before answering the unspoken question.  “Ben just figured out where Lessa was when she called.  Well, er, actually Lily did but, still they figured it out and they thought they’d call me and tell me and—”

            “Kento!” interrupted Cye, exasperated with his friend’s babbling.  “Where was she?”

            “Home!”

            No sooner had the word left his lips than he and the other two men were rushing for the door.  As they went through the living/front room, grabbing coats from the rack by the door, they passed Rusty on the couch.  Sage’s son jumped to his feet, anxiety written in his features.  “What’s wrong?”

            “Nothing that we know of,” said his father.  “Just figured out where Lessa called from.”

            “I’m going with you.”

            “No, you’re not.  You’re staying here with your mother.”

            “What?!  Why?”

            Cye, struggling with a twisted sleeve, said, “The marks in that meadow gave evidence of Ryo putting up a struggle.  Lessa hit the ground hard enough to leave an obvious mark where she fell and there were footprints behind her, like someone snuck up on her.  That means someone out there is our enemy.  If that someone were to come here, and your mother was alone…” He trailed off.

            Rusty sighed.  “I get the idea.” He sat back down.  “But if you find her or anything, could you please call?”

            Sage smiled.  “Of course.  We’ll check in with you in an hour, okay?  And help your mother with the laundry.” He closed the door even as he finished that last sentence, leaving a futilely protesting teenager in his wake.  The roar of an engine racing away down the road tore the air a mere second and a half later.

            Maya called from the laundry room, “Rusty!  I heard your father, so get in here, kiddo!”

            Slumping his shoulders as all young men do when told to carry out an unwanted task, the copper-haired boy stood and trudged towards his mother’s voice.  “Yes, ma’am,” he grumbled, casting a glance back at the door as he went.  Please be there, Les…

***********************

            Sori refused to come out of the bathroom.  “That’s a freakin’ tiger, Ky!  You’re insane!”

            “It’s not a tiger.  She’s a mountain lion, a cougar, a puma.  And you’re a coward.”

            “…am not!”

            “Are too.  Come out already!”

            “…”

            “Bro, don’t make me use a coat hanger again!”

            “Don’t you dare unlock this door!” His voice sounded a little unnerved.

            “Why not?” Kyri had, in fact, already gotten a coat hanger and was straightening the wire hook.

            “Cuz…cuz…cuz I’m naked in here!”

            She laughed. “So?  I’m an artist, idiot.  I’ve sculpted naked people before.  Seeing my twin brother in his birthday suit isn’t going to traumatize me a great deal.”  She slipped the hanger wire into the door lock.

            “I hate you!” the boy shouted.

            “I love you,” she replied dryly.

            “Liar.”

            “Truth.” She started jiggling the wire.

            “…you’re a cold-hearted bitch.”

            “Icy as subarctic winters.”

            “I hate you,” he repeated, but sounded like he’d resigned himself to this unwelcome fate with a sigh.

            “Yeah, yeah, brother dear.” Kyri pulled the hanger out and opened the door.  Her twin stood inside, wielding a toilet plunger like a weapon.  She smirked at him.  “What’re ya gonna do?  Suction cup her to death?”

            “Shut up!” Sori swung the plunger at her, forcing her to duck.

            “God, you are such a baby.” His sister turned and walked away, laughing.

            “I am not!” he said forcefully.  Before he could think too much about what he was doing, he stepped out of the bathroom.  He had to force himself not to run right back in as a massive golden pillow on the floor down the hall turned into a stretching cougar.  “H-h-hello, Goldie,” Sori greeted the feline, still holding his plunger before him.  “Don’t eat me, okay?”

            Kyri howled with laughter from a doorway, rolling on the floor and clutching her stomach at the sight of her plunger-wielding brother having a standoff with a sleepy mountain lion.  “Ohhhhhhhh gaaaaaaaahhhhhhhd…”

            Sori spared her an angry glance, snapping his head back to keep his eyes on this Felidaeic threat.  Goldette was at their house because she’d shown up at the Date house the day before, somehow conveying her wish for Sage, who’d known about her for a couple months, to come back to Ryo’s with her.  There, she’d led the Warrior to the meadow where Lessa and Ryo had been practicing.  After he’d figured out that Ryo and Lessa were gone, and not of their own will, Sage had brought the big cat home with him.  Maya, however, had company coming over that evening.  Cye had volunteered his home as a place to keep Ryo’s companion and here she was.  Sori, already asleep that night when his father let the cougar in, had only become aware of her presence this afternoon—he liked to sleep in when given the chance—and he wasn’t exactly thrilled about it.

            Goldette yawned, stretched again, and padded past the eighteen-year-old without a care.  He dropped the plunger in relieved shock.  “Okay, so she’s not a bad big kitty,” he admitted.

            Kyri just howled.

***********************

            Tachiku threw the eggshells away and wiped her hands off on a dishtowel.  As she beat the six yolks with a wire whisk, she listened with only half her attention to the noise her children were making upstairs.  She knew Sori was trying to escape the cougar Cye had brought home the night before, but she also knew that Kyri had been a little nervous for a minute or two when she’d first discovered a mountain lion in the hallway.  But then, her daughter had always been a little less meek than her son, had always enjoyed teasing her brother as much as he liked teasing his sister.  Strange to think her little babies were going to college in a month.

            Mixing two cups of flour, half a cup of milk, and the eggs in a large bowl, Cye’s wife sighed and used a remote to change the channel on a small TV on a counter nearby.  She’d decided to make a cake for lack of much else to do, and the TV was just mindless, electronic company.  Cye was with the other remaining Ronins, trying to locate their missing friend and their orphaned niece.  Just as she finished putting the cake in the oven, set the timer, and was starting to clean up the mess she’d made, the doorbell rang.

            “I’LL GET IT!!!” hollered the twins’ voices, followed by the pounding of their footsteps on the stairs, through the rec room, down the hall and to the front door.  There was the usual brief squabble, ending in Kyri’s loud shouts of protest as she was pushed aside and Sori opened the door.

            Several seconds passed before Kyri screamed.  Tachiku dropped the towel she was holding and sprinted toward the sound, horror rising in her throat.  The terror in her daughter’s voice… Oh no, please, not my babies…

           The kitchen was on the east side of the house, the front door set a little more off center to the west, and in between was a sun room and a long hallway.  Tachiku found the door from the sunroom into the hall closed and she could not get it open.  There was no lock on that door!  Why wouldn’t it open?!

            Beyond the door, she could hear Sori shouting in anger and fear but Kyri’s voice no longer sounded.  A loud thud and then Sori screaming, rage and pain.  Tachiku rammed the door with her shoulder but to no avail.  God, of all the times to be living in a big house.  Turning, she ran back through the sunroom and the kitchen, into the room that had been set aside as Kyri’s art studio, through the small area where the stairs were, through the rec room, the hall, to the foyer.  She gasped and braked to a halt in the doorway.

            Sori was backing towards her, his unconscious twin wrapped in the crook of his arm, his other hand waving a potted vase Kyri had made last month threateningly at a figure…

            It was easily as tall as Sori, who was 5’11”, wearing an armor that reminded Tachiku of her husband’s yoroi, but it was blacker than any shade in Kyri’s studio supplies.  No, it reminded her more of Rekka than Suiko.  The face guard hid its visage, and even the eyes were shadowed so deeply that she couldn’t tell if there really even was a face in there.  There was no way to tell if this intruder was male or female and it held a gleaming black nunchuku in one hand.  The armored figure walked steadily toward Sori, and Tachiku found herself thinking it seemed as mindless as the TV in the kitchen.

            She stepped backwards as Sori nearly backed into her.  Her hands flew to her face as she noticed the reddened marks on Kyri’s throat, like someone had strangled her.  That monster in there had hurt her daughter!  And Sori, there was blood on Sori’s arm, though she couldn’t tell where it had come from.  Tachiku pulled on her son’s arm, trying to tug him back into the hallway.  Instead of going with her, he shoved Kyri into his mother’s arms and turned back to the dangerous invader in the foyer.

            “Mom, the back door,” he whispered.  “Get Kyri out.”

            “Sori, honey—”

            “Mom!  Go!”

            Tachiku turned and started back down the hall, dragging her daughter with her.  She was a small woman and her children had long since grown to be taller than her, so the act required some effort.  They had a mix of her blonde hair and Cye’s auburn, their father’s eyes and smile, her pert nose… Why was she thinking of such things right now?!  She came to the rec room and paused incredulously.  The door was closed.  No, not again!  It had been open when she’d come through before, hadn’t it?  She shoved at the door, twisting the handle vainly.  It wouldn’t open.

            She could hear furious snarls from beyond the door, angry protests in animal voice.  Goldette!  The cougar must be on the other side, trying to get through to them, to help.  Behind her, she heard Sori’s shouts of rage and the shattering of the pottery against something.  A yelp of pain, a clatter and a thud, then Sori shouting again, running down the hall towards her, yelling at her to get out.  Black looming up behind him, reaching for him.  Her own voice, screaming.

            There was a crash as the door splintered to pieces and fell away.  Goldette, the very picture of feline ferocity, charged through, bolting past the two women and slamming into the intruder.  The black figure stumbled back and then swung a fist at the puma.  She hit the wall, landed on the floor and came after the armored enemy again, roaring her objection.

            Sori staggered across the rec room to his mother and sister, breathing hard.  “Mom, let’s go,” he gasped, jolting the woman out of her horrified trance.  His hair was thoroughly mussed now, and the blood that had spattered across his arm, she could see, came from a cut on his brow at the hairline.  Tachiku could see the fear, almost panic, in her boy’s eyes, and she grabbed his arm firmly, pulling him with her.  He slung one of Kyri’s arms around his shoulders to help move her as they ran for the back door.  Thankfully, they encountered no more closed doors.

            Kyri’s studio was a moderately large, sunny room with a screen porch added on to it.  Sori swung his strangled sister up into his arms, Tachiku opening the porch door and holding it as the children passed through.  The sounds of battle from the hall had moved to the door of the stairwell and the rec room now.  Tachiku slammed the door shut and grabbed a chair to prop under the doorknob.  Goldette would have to find her own way out if it was necessary.

            Sori was already running into the woods that surrounded the back and east of the house, stumbling a little under the weight in his arms.  Tachiku dashed after him, calling, “Wait!” And as he stumbled over a rock, “Be careful!  Come on, hurry!” She caught up and grasped one of Kyri’s arms to help again.

            With a detonation of shattering glass and wood and ripping screen wire, the combatants exploded out of the house through the studio porch.  Goldette smashed into the ground with a thud that made Sori and his mother wince.  The attacker followed, stumbling a little, but regaining its footing just as swiftly as the cougar.  But instead of recommencing the battle, Goldette bolted towards the Mouris.  Braking harshly, she stood and looked at them, her huge eyes conveying her thoughts.

            Tachiku knew her son was hesitating, still nervous about the mountain lion, so she took the initiative, seizing his arm and pushing him toward the gold-furred cat.  He seemed to understand finally.  “Be careful with her,” he ordered, voice more serious than it had ever been in his life of jokes and mock whining.  He laid his sister’s unconscious body across Goldette’s back and the animal was off like a shot, quickly disappearing into the trees.  His mother and he followed as best they could, aware that, behind them, the attacker was closing the distance.  Goldette would come back as soon as she’d hidden Kyri.  She’d come back; they just had to keep running…

            Sori fell to the ground without a sound as the nunchuku collided with the side of his head.  A flurry of dead leaves flew up as he struck the ground, lazily drifting back to rest in a manner that mocked the horror of this deadly scene.  Tachiku, breathless, eyes wild and wide with panic and fear, stopped and tried to pick up her fallen child.  The black figure had thrown the weapon at Sori with precision and now was only a few meters away.  Cye’s wife screamed with a fury she’d never felt in all her forty-one years, grabbed up the nunchuku from where it lay beside her son and, standing over Sori, prepared to defend him as best an angry mother could.

            The black figure paused only two yards away, as if amused by this scene, but soon came on, steps calm and steady on the earth.

            Tachiku Elisabeth Onamitsu Mouri—proud wife, lover, and friend of the bearer of Suiko, Cye Mouri, mother of two, daughter of a Japanese chef and a French dancer, artist of cakes—watched the approach of this monster who had destroyed her home and terrorized her children with the hardest expression she’d ever worn.  She could still run, still get away, Sori would want her to… She glanced down at the auburn-blond teen, his hair falling across his face.  My baby…

            She wasn’t moving.