Tulpa had watched the entire fiasco from a viewportal. He turned to the man that was standing by him. The man smiled a little and said, "For two warriors, those girls need a lot of work."
"Do not under-estimate these two," Tulpa started. "These two are of the Second Sight."
"I don’t believe I have heard of that armor, Master."
"As you know we are in the Age of Armors. The Ronins and the Warlords have been around since my first invasion. The Second Sight was around for at least five hundred years before then, perhaps more."
"Why are you so uncertain, Master? You know all about all the armors in existence," the man replied from the shadows.
"Allow me to explain," said Tulpa. "Before my first invasion, I watched Earth very carefully. There was one magician named Yume-Sama: the Dream Master. He was possibly the most powerful being on that pitiful planet. I watched him very carefully, uncertain to make him friend or foe. After a few centuries, I had learned that he was indeed evil, but too strong-willed to join me. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an individual in the Second Sight armor, defeated Yume-Sama. According to legend, the Second Sight would appear again."
"But why was he called Dream Master?"
"Because, his most powerful magic art was the ability to enter minds and create hallucinations. I believe the Second Sight was Yume-Sama’s pupil, and somehow got away from him."
"But why are there two in the armor at the same time?"
"That is why I need you to capture them! Now go Yoshii and retrieve them for me."
Mirror found Image at the end of a small clearing overlooking a small stream. Her sketch pad was open and she was drawing furiously. Mirror pulled up a rock and sat next to her.
"So, how are you doing?"
"If he wasn’t so darn cute, I’d do more than slap him."
"Do I sense something else bothering you?"
"You really do live up to your saying."
"I try. Now you are upset because?"
"Well, for all those informed, there are a lot of things bothering me." Image started counting on her fingers. "There’s the Cyclops, the fact that we are somewhere in Japan for no apparent reason, the fact that we should be waking up on our first day of summer vacation, this whole Second Sight thing, and let’s not get into the fact of the whole mind-wipe thing."
"Can you elaborate at all?"
"Well gee, let’s see. Last night in our other life, we went to bed looking forward to our summer vacation before we started college. Both of us share this weird dream of some old guy, and he tells us that we are supposed to save the world and we don’t have a say in the matter. Then the next thing we know, we’re walking down the street in some city with no idea of who we are! Aren’t you ticked-off?"
"Yeah, but we’re here and we can’t get back so all we can do is go forward."
"I feel like we’re in a cross of the Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchkock, and the X-Files."
"Then maybe we should call the FBI, have Mulder and Scully investigate."
"For all I know, they’re real people in this world!"
"Let’s go with one problem at a time. And don’t go saying we were kidnapped by aliens."
"I finally rubbed of on you."
"Very funny, back to Sage."
"He no longer goes by the name Sage. He is now the Cyclops. And if he tries that again, he’s dead. It’s as simple as that. And if I ever forgive him, (that’s almost impossible by the way) I’ll marry him."
"That bad, huh?"
"Well, at least I can go back to the house."
"Slow burn has cooled off?"
"No, but I can at least look at the others. By the way, how does my drawing look?" Mirror looked down at the picture Image had been working on since she stormed out of the house. It was a pencil drawing of a center entrance colonial, on a steep hill with bushes. The backyard was showing a little, and there was an old broken swing set. The garage was oversized and the left side was open, showing the back door opening into the kitchen.
"That looks so familiar... I can’t place it though. I can remember, shoveling the driveway... it was a royal pain... and there’s a sun room in the back... Mom loves that room... the pine forest in back was so beautiful to look at, and we had the best sledding."
"Mirror, your forehead is glowing. Is that bad?"
"I don’t feel anything... except maybe... maybe... I can’t describe it. It’s like... I’m learning... or maybe reflecting... it’s hard to describe. Let’s go back to the house. Oh, by the way, I warned S--Cyclops about your slow burn."
"Too bad. C’mon, let’s go."
Sage was doing everything he could not to blush, even though he was doing a terrible job. He had no idea what he did to Image, and Mirror warned him about a slow burn, which he was slowly beginning to recognize. He was also given a stern talking to by Ryo, which he did not enjoy. It was bad enough that Image almost slapped off his cheek and Mirror had handed him his head, but having a stern talking to by Ryo wasn’t anything any of the Ronins wanted. Ryo could not stop talking about such a flirty nature can cause a world of trouble. If Sage didn’t know any better, it almost sounded like Ryo was talking from experience. But that couldn’t be because he had never gone on a date, let alone flirt with someone. It wasn’t exactly feasible.
To avoid seeing Images icy glare, Sage looked at everyone else while he ate. Cye was the only one who was eating normally, such as the case may be, considering everyone else at the table. Considering that it was Cye’s cooking, Kento had his face in his plate. Rowan was enviously staring at Cye, wondering why him. Image was next to Rowan, and Sage just skipped over her. Ryo and Mirror were eating fine, but couldn’t stop looking at each other, even though they tried not to. Could there be a pair of Sages in training? Sage thought humbly. How to get those two to be a bit more open about it. Hmm... Sage then remembered the stern harangues he got from both Ryo and Mirror, and thought better of it. Finally Mirror brought him out of thought.
"Uh, Image," she whispered.
"Yeah?"
"You know how earlier you said my forehead was glowing?"
"Yeah, so?"
"So, yours is glowing to."
"Oh. Nothing’s happening, I’m perfectly calm, it’s probably nothing."
"So, Image," Mirror said, trying to get everyone’s attention. "Is the nickname permanent?"
"Which part? Actually, let me answer that. Every one of them is permanent until he either apologizes sincerely or until I say otherwise."
"What nickname would that be?" asked Rowan.
"Apologize for what?" asked Cye.
"Hmmph?" choked Kento.
In response to Cye’s question, Ryo answered, "His flirty nature."
"But that still doesn’t explain the nickname," said Rowan.
"You don’t want to know," muttered Sage.
"Yes we do," gulped Kento.
"Please, don’t ask."
"Well, do you want the abridged edition, or the genuine article?" asked Image with an evil grin on her face. Sage put his head in his hands, hiding his face and wishing he was elsewhere.
"The whole thing, duh," said Mirror. Ryo tried to hide a smile that was breaking across his face.
"Okay, here it is. In our mind, he is a Stubborn... Bull-headed... Sex Crazed.... Testosterone Driven.... Blond-headed.... Cyclops. It’s Cyclops for short." Image and Mirror said the whole name in unison. Everyone turned to Sage, trying to repress the smiles coming across their faces. Sage peeked up just enough to see Mirror and Image reveling in it. Sage looked back down to the table, and listened to his used-to-be-friends laughing hysterically and agreeing completely.
"I’m.... going to go upstairs," Sage said. As he went upstairs, he heard Ryo saying to Image, "Don’t you think that was a bit much??"
"Nnnnaaaaaaahhhhhhhh," she giggled.
The next morning, everyone was downstairs except for three. It was about nine o’clock, and they expected Rowan to be another three hours. But, they didn’t know when the twins would come down. They wanted to have breakfast so they planned to wake up Rowan at the same time. Kento volunteered to wake up everyone. The others agreed on one condition, that he knocked when he woke up the twins. Kento started to go up the stairs. "Now remember to knock!!" called Ryo.
"I know, I know, I’m not stupid," Kento answered.
"We’re serious," said Sage. "Remember to knock." Kento walked up the stairs without responding. He didn’t want to respond, because he knew he wasn’t dumb. He would just go upstairs, wake up Rowan, knock on the door, and say to the door that breakfast was almost ready, then come back downstairs. Kento yawned as he got into Rowan’s room. He just woken up a few minutes before and was still kinda tired. He started to shake Rowan to wake him up. Rowan mumbled, then opened his eyes.
"Ugh, I must be having a nightmare," he yawned.
"Yeah, yeah, I gotta go wake up the twins. Be right back."
"Kento, make sure you knock," Rowan scrambled out of bed making sure Kento heard him. He knew he didn’t. Kento walked down the hall and stopped in front of Mirror and Images’ room....
From downstairs, the others heard Rowan’s call to knock; and knew Kento didn’t hear. They heard him walk down the hall, and they heard him say, "Hey, girls, time to wake u---" It was then followed by a blood curdling scream of two, and a slam of a door.
"That idiot," sighed Cye, knowing his friend well. They all ran upstairs to see Rowan run out of his room half-dressed and see Kento against the wall at the end of the hall holding his nose. The door opened a crack, and Mirror walked out wrapped up in a green robe. As soon as she saw the others at the end of the hall, she grew visibly angry.
"What is this?! See us day??!!" she cried.
"Mirror, it’s not like that," Ryo explained quickly. "We kept telling him to knock, I swear." From inside the room, they heard Image yell.
"It’s bad enough we have a Cyclops in this house, now we have a pervert!!!!"
"I didn’t see anything!! I didn’t see anything!! Just underwear!!" Kento cried in defense, still holding his nose. What he got from that response was an ice stare from Mirror.
Ryo walked over to Kento, picked him up, and said calmly, "If you don’t learn to knock, you’ll never taste Cye’s cooking again. It’s as simple as that." The door opened and Image came out fully dressed.
"Mon dieu, pourquoi nous? Nous n’avons jamais de chance!!"
"Car nous sommes dans une maison fou. Il y a des hommes avec les armures et un grand tigre blanc et un homme avec les cheveaux bleus!! Nous avons besoin d’aider. Façile."
"What did they just say?" asked Kento.
"They said, ‘my god why us? We never have any luck. ‘Cause we are in a madhouse. There are armored men and a big white tiger and a guy with blue hair. We need help, easy as that,." answered Rowan.
"Since when did you take French?" asked Image as Mirror went inside to get dressed.
"I didn’t," Rowan replied. "I took Latin."
"Eh, you shnoock. Now you know all the romance languages," Image retorted.
"Um," asked Cye, "What’s a shnoock?"
"I was wondering when someone was going to ask that," said Image. "One of the idiosyncrasies of a pair of girls who never swear or curse. We compensate by making up words of our own. Don’t worry, you’ll hear them soon enough. Some of the more obvious ones that you’ll be hearing like: budinsky, son a Huyman, life a halla, shlameal, ninny. Hm, what else. I think that’s all of them."
The door opened and Mirror came out fully dressed. "So, when’s breakfast, I’m hungry."
"Okay, come at me again," challenged Ryo. "And this time don’t be so enthusiastic!"
"What can I say?" replied Mirror. "Standard trait with me. Once I start doing something, I get very ambitious. You should have seen me during driver’s ed. I never had a lesson before and my mother told us to go up and down the hill we lived on so we could get the hang of what the car is like. No sooner have I backed up and gone forward a few times, but I ask her if I could park it in the garage. And let’s not get into when I crashed my mom’s car."
"You crashed your mother’s car??? How long were you grounded?"
"I wasn’t grounded. I blamed myself for not stopping when my mom told me to and she blamed herself for yelling at me afterward. Nothing was done about it but let’s just say that she didn’t get behind the wheel with us for about a year afterward."
"You’re exaggerating again, Mirror!" called Image from the other end of the yard where she was training with Cye. She charged Cye who, in turn, drove her to the ground again. She got onto her knees and pounded the ground with her fists.
Mirror rolled her eyes and said, "Not again."
"What’s wrong with her?" Ryo asked from behind Mirror startling her. She turned to face him and answered.
"Like me, the first few times she does something, she thinks she knows how to do it. Then the difference comes in. When she screws up like she just did, she gets mad at herself and she takes it a bit two far. Now then, where were we?"
"You were trying not to be enthusiastic." Mirror walked backward a few paces. She took a deep breath and starred at her target, Ryo. She started to charge him heading straight for his belly. Instead of Ryo blocking however, he was taken full force. They rolled on the ground with Ryo landing first. By the time they stopped rolling, Mirror was right on top of Ryo. She sat up and cheered, proud that she finally did the move.
"Aren’t you happy, Ryo?" she asked happily, not even realizing where he was. Ryo just groaned in response. Ryo rolled onto his side and continued to moan. "Ryo?" Mirror went over to check on him. He looked okay but she leaned over to make sure. Ryo quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her down. She landed on her back and Ryo was on top of her.
"You just fell for the oldest trick in the book, never underestimate an enemy." Ryo gloated over her.
"At least I got the move and can go onto the next one, right?"
"No, first you have to get me off of you."
"Oh, you want to play that way do you?" Mirror tried to shove Ryo off her but he wouldn’t budge so she then grabbed his arm and pulled him down and she rolled over to end up on top of him. "Now who has to move who?"
"Okay, okay, okay, we can learn the next move now."
Image only shook her head as she looked at Mirror on top of Ryo. She was going to have to have a long talk with Mirror on how to admit love when it was there. Image turned to Cye and started to charge again. And again, Cye tossed her to the ground. And again, Image started to curse herself. She was about to get up and try again when Cye walked over.
"Do you want to try something different?" he asked.
"No, I want to know why my sister can do this and I can’t."
"Been there," said Cye. "When I was younger, I was so jealous of my older sister, because she could do pottery and I couldn’t. I always thought it had something to do with me and I had the problem. But you know what she told me once? She said she was jealous of me because I could cook and she couldn’t. Now do you want to do something different?" Cye asked again.
Image closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. After a short pause she looked at Cye and said, "Let me try one more time, then we’ll do something different."
"Okay," sighed Cye. "Now this time when you come at me, focus on where you want to hit me." Image stayed on the ground as Cye walked back a fair distance. She slowly went through the entire move in her head and saw herself doing it successfully. She opened her eyes and charged and she performed the move, just as she pictured it. Cye looked up from the ground utterly dumfounded as to how he got there. Image jumped up and down with her hands in the air as if she had just won the Olympics. "I think you got the move down." Cye gasped.
A girl with pink hair watched through the viewportal with a smirk on her face. If these two were the ones Yoshii wanted so badly, she could have grabbed them any time she wanted. An Italian girl with blond hair came walking in. "What are you doing Rayn?" she asked the pink haired girl.
"Spying," the devilish grin on her face grew. She banished the viewportal and sat up in her bed. "Those two have no fighting skills whatsoever."
"That’s why Yoshii wants us to train them," the blond girl said matter-of-factly.
"Duh, Sunni, I know that."
"Where’s Rose?"
"She’s picking up the last of the information on those two." Rayn said as she pushed some of her hair out of her eyes. "So what did you find out?"
"Well," she started. "We started by going into their heads when they were asleep. Would you believe that they have no clear memories of their past? They don’t even know their own names. Aside from that, their kanjis showed up a few days ago. We still don’t know what they are yet, but we will. They haven’t shown their weapons yet either or their sure-kills. Heck, the Ronins haven’t even let them train in sub-armor. Other than that, they are like any other team in that world."
"Sunni, can I ask you something off the record?" Rayn hesitated.
"Yeah, what’s up?" Sunni sat down on her bed and looked up at Rayn.
"How come we got to go after these two?" Her purple eyes looked deep into Sunni’s black eyes searching for an answer in the craziness she watched through the viewportal. "I mean, my kanji is individuality and all that and one of the nasty side effects is that I think everyone should have a choice in the matter."
Sunni paused, deep in thought. "Well," she was interrupted when an Native American looking girl came in. She had green eyes that was a shock to see every time.
"I have some interesting news," she said. "Tomorrow the Ronins and the Second Sight will be taking a tour of Toyama."
"Excellent, this will be our next training session with the Second Sight," Sunni stated. "Rayn, take an ever so inconvenient chance to interrupt their tour."
"I’m doing this under protest," Rayn consented. Everyone should have a choice in how and what they do. Why did these two not have that option? And for that matter, why couldn’t she have the choice of not listening to orders she didn’t want to do? Normally, she enjoyed the tasks given to her but this time, she dreaded it and she couldn’t back out of it. Something didn’t feel right about this. As Rayn left the room, no one noticed, not even herself, the pink kanji glowing brightly on her forehead. Rayn started to get an idea of what to do with her dilemma but decided to wait until after she carried out this order.
Sunni looked at the girl that had entered before with the information with a concerned look on her face. "She might need back up considering her state of mind. Go after her, Rose."
"Understood." Rose walked out the door and went after Rayn.
