Chapter 5
Sept. 15., 10:00am
The first thing Rowen concluded about study hall was that it was boring. The second thing he just had proven to the point it became a scientific law, was how point-less it was to study when Cye and Kento were locked up in the same room together. And without a single teacher in sight; it was only worse. Granted, Ryo and he weren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing either. Risk isn’t what the teaching staff would call constructive. However, WWF vs. nWo Kento and Cye style was nowhere near what anyone, to the farthest stretch of the imagination, would call "constructive."
Rowen turns back to his game, doing his best to ignore them. Ryo was winning by the throw of the dice; he had captured the most ground and was pushing Rowen further back into his own territory. ‘Maybe if I focused on the southernmost front of Ryo’s. . .’ Rowen’s thought is cut off as the game board leaps a good two feet into the air as Kento bashes into the table.
"GUYS!" Rowen yelps in protest.
Ryo lets loose an angry nasal snarl, giving his two friends a look that would have vaporized steel.
Kento picks himself off the floor and starts advancing on Cye again.
"C’mon, guys! Knock it off! You get too much louder and Ms. Thaessi will come bust us like she’s the damn Gestapo!" Rowen hisses, planting himself between Cye and Kento. The elderly teacher is total hell on wheels: She hates kids and lives to make everyone’s life miserable. He often wondered why she was still a teacher, but he could be senority and a nice paycheck had something to do with it.
Rowen glances back at Ryo. He was already putting the game away, more than just a little hurriedly. Rowen abandons his efforts at peace and scours the floor for any missing pieces.
Then he sits down in his assigned seat and starts to study again, but it’s not anything for school: It’s sign language.
He had been put into the same Chemistry class as Rahne. After a week of unsuccessfully trying to tutor her in the math from the class, he had decided to learn sign language. There were just some things she’d never understand in lipspeak.
Rowen comes out of his book to the sound of rhythmic tapping; he looks up to see Ryo facing him from several seats ahead. ~ How is it coming? ~ He signs to Rowen, slowly and without complicated meanings.
Rowen takes a deep breath, all he could do was letters of the alphabet right now. He gives Ryo the universal hand sign for "Okay." Then he take a quick look back at his book. He fingerspells: ~ S.T.I.L.L - D.O.N. - G.E.T - A.L.O.T. ~
Ryo grins, and then says just loud enough to be heard. "It’ll come. It’s easier than it looks. Uh-oh!"
Rowen quickly looks down to his book, as Ryo whips around in his seat; both doing their best to look busy. Kento and Cye take no notice, and Kento throws his arm around Cye’s neck in a headlock, sticks his finger in his mouth, and then sticks it into Cye’s ear: A "wet willie." Cye yelps and struggles against his friend, trying to escape the revolting torture. Kento laughs and tightens his grip, enjoying Cye’s reaction.
Ryo glances up, grimaces and then sticks his nose back into his math.
The "Gestapo" is here.
____
After school, they meet in the gym. None of the others have sports practice today, so they get to watch Rahne work. She had fought for and had gotten Captain of the Freshmen Girls Gymnastics team.
"Where’s Kento and Cye?" Sage asks, eyeing the thin, pretty girls below.
"Detention." Rowen states, not quite able to keep the satisfaction out of his voice. He sits up a little straighter as Rahne launches herself into her blistering fast tumbling run. She ends the run in a straight-legged, aerial front splits, and then sticks the landing. The coach suddenly waves to get her attention and points to the uneven bars. Rahne nods in understanding and walks over to the uneven bars, and begins to instruct some of the girls.
"Ro’!? Are you listening to me!?"
"Huh? What’d you say, Ry’?" Rowen answers lamely, blinking.
Ryo grins and shakes his head, "Nothing important." He turns to watch his sister demonstrate some move on the uneven bars for a few moments. "You’ve got a helluva crush on her don’t you?"
Rowen puts his head down, embarrassment burning his face, "Is it that obvious?" He mumbles.
Before Ryo’s able to formulate a response, Kento and Cye come stumbling madly up the bleachers; excited but nervous looks on their faces.
Cye grabs Ryo’s shoulder, "You will not believe who’s out in the hall!"
The bleachers shake slightly as someone walks down them from the balcony. Both Cye and Kento scowl up at whoever it is.
Ryo mentally counts to five and then turns around. The normally loose, pale violet hair held back with a simple leather strand, but it’s the same black eyepatch. He’s dressed in faded jeans, hiking boots, and sweater. Dais meets Ryo’s eyes and walks casually down towards them.
Ryo turns back around to watch his sister. The bleachers shake step by step.
"Nice outfit." Ryo says dryly as Dais comes up behind him.
Dais raises his eyebrow, a little surprised. "Nice to see you too, Sanada."
They don’t respond, forcing themselves to watch Rahne practice, instead of their backs. Even though the warlords had reformed, it was still hard to trust them. If Kayura was with him, they’d be a little more open. He’d done so much to them during their war against Talpa. Even Rahne hadn’t escaped. What’s worse, the warlord knows that he’s walking on thin ice.
Finally, after a long silence, he asks, "How is she doing?"
Ryo lurches to his feet, spinning around to face the Warlord, grabbing the front of his shirt. "Don’t you even think about my sister, Dais! Or so help me. . .!"
Dais doesn’t allow himself to be intimidated, "I’m not here to fight you, Wildfire. I’m here to warn you." He waits until Ryo lets go, then continues. "One the factions that supported Talpa has broken off from our new Dynasty. They’ve begun hit and fade strikes against our outposts in the less inhabited regions of Netherworld."
Sage turns around and asks Dais, "Are they being led by a creep named Zanaton?"
Dais looks momentarily surprised, but then nods. "He’s one of the Generals. How do you know about him?"
Kento stands and watches Rahne check the adjustments on the Pommel Horse for the Boys’ Team. That creep made even one move towards Babes, he was going to find out that Hardrock had developed another notch on his temper scale.
Sage shrugs and forces a venomous look from his face, "He attacked Rahne with really vicious nightmares. And Mia physically."
"Are they all right?"
"Mia’s fine; but Rahney. . . err. . . Raina doesn’t talk about it." Cye follows Rahne’s movements as she jogs over to the balance beam, and simply jumps onto it.
Dais looks down at the darkly varnished wood of the bleacher he’s standing on, "I’m . . . sorry . . . for attacking her when we were enemies. Even then, I insisted she was harmless. I tried to apologize afterwards through a dream using just words, but I don’t think she understood."
Rowen sighs. She even fooled the Warlords, because she was so active. They’d never known just how defenseless she was.
"She’s deaf." Ryo whispers.
They fall into a tense silence. Kento starts to fidget with the cuffs of his uniform jacket, his stomach growling a little. Cye drums his fingers on his knee, not quite so glad to be free of detention anymore.
"Hey, Kento!" Rahne’s call is almost too faint to be heard. "Could I get your help!?"
Kento makes a comical face and practically throws himself down the stairs, happy for any excuse to leave. He’s not surprised to notice Cye’s following him down.
"Hi, Babes. The Funny Farm let us out early on good behavior." Kento throws an arm around her shoulders, admiring how well he chose that leotard she’s wearing.
"Careful, Kento. She gives Sage bruises for looking her over in that tight thing." Cye teases, unzipping his uniform jacket and then offers her his right arm.
Rahne gives them a totally unlady-like snort; favors him with a smile, entwining her left around his. "Only when he looks at me a certain way."
"Oh. I see how it is, Babes."
Only then does Kento notice how tense her shoulders feel, how afraid she looks under her usual tomboy armor. "Babes?"
"Guys, that guy up there . . .!" Rahne clutches Cye’s arm, her hands cold and damp with sweat; trying not to look over her shoulder. "He’s - !"
"We know, Babes. Just keep walking. What did you need?" Kento mouths to her, his arm tightening it’s grip around her shoulders just a bit.
She points with her free arm to the Volleyball net at the far end of the gym. "I need to take those down . . ."
Cye and Kento lift the poles out of their recessed holders in the gym floor and puts the net away. Rahne’s trembling slightly, still trying not to look behind her, her eyes bright with barely held back tears. Cye takes her hand and leads her out into the hall to get away from Dais’s presence.
Outside Rahne begins to cry. Cye gives her his hankie, and just rubs her shoulders. Kento comes out with her sweatpants slung over his shoulder. Rahne slows down long enough to put the sweatpants on over her leotard.
"Guys, what’s goin’ on!? All of you have had this big secret since I’ve got here! And now that guy shows up!" She leans on the wall and sinks down it into a sitting position, and hugs her knees. She pillows her head on her arms and knees, and fights to stop crying. Cye sits down next to her, feeling like crap. She looks back up at Kento and cries out, "I’m sick of pretending! What's going on?!"
Kento kneels beside her. "Babes, we can’t tell you. I’m sorry, but we can’t. Not yet."
Cye lightly pinches her chin, turns her head to face him, "You don’t have to worry about that guy. We’ll protect you, Rahney. Trust us."
Rahne trembles, but she accepts that they can’t tell. She whispers, "I wanna go home, Guys! Please! I wanna go home!"
Rahne puts her head back down, and starts to cry again. She sounds like a frightened child, and not the tomboy she normally is. The dreams and the stress are taking their toll. "Kento, she’s scared something terrible. I’m taking her home. Go tell Ryo and get her stuff." Cye orders, rubbing her shoulder.
Kento runs back in and across the gym, feeling more than just a little angry. He takes the bleachers two at a time all the way; by then too furious to feel out of breath.
"RYO! Cye and I’re taking Rahney home!" Kento bellows as he climbs, a snarl escaping with it. "Dais, You’ve really done it, pal! Rahney’s out in the hall with Cye - She’s scared half out of her freaking MIND! Stay away from her, I'm warning you!"
Kento immediately turns and takes off back down, grab Rahne’s things, makes an excuse to her coach and leaves.
He comes back out to see Cye holding Rahne tighter, her hands white-knuckling his arm, his hankie pressed tight to her mouth. Her face is red, her breathing too fast, and in gasps: Hyperventilating. ‘What the!?’ He thinks, totally bewildered. She had gone through huge climbs up to unimaginable altitudes without so much as feeling out of breath. He’d seen the pictures! What possibly could have upset her so much!?
Cye catches his look and nods down the hall: Cale and Sekhmet. "Cale looked right at her. I think she recognized him." He keeps his voice low so as not to be heard.
"God, Damn it!" Kento pounds the wall with his fist. They had almost gotten her semi-calm. He drops Rahne’s things and kneels beside his best friends.
Cye leans his head against hers, his forehead kanji glimmers lightly under his sandy brown bangs. Rahne shuts her eyes, attempts to take a slow, deep breath; but gasps halfway through. Cye takes the hankie away to press her head against his chest.
"Cye!" Kento hisses.
She takes another deep breath, this time the inhale only shakes. Her nose starts to bleed a little; Cye wipes the blood away before it can drip onto the leotard and stain it. His kanji glows brighter; his face a portrait of peace and calm.
"Cye! What the hell are you DOING!? Someone might see you . . .!"
Cye strokes her hair, ignoring Kento. Another deep breath. And another. And another. Until Rahne’s breathing calmly against Cye’s chest.
She looks up at Cye, her eye’s full of fear and shock. She’d never lost control like that before!! "What’s happening to me, Cye!?"
"I think we have to take our stress out of your life, Rahney . . ." Cye tells her, shrugging off his jacket, and draping it over her shoulders.
Mia and Yuli are already home when they pull in. They take Rahne to the living room, and make her lie down on the couch.
"Cye, what did you do?" Kento asks up in their room as they change out of their school uniforms.
Cye shrugs, "Nothing much. I tried a hunch of mine. Just let my power work, and it helped her get control again."
Excerpt from the Journal of Sanada Ryo:
"Kayura wanted a meeting to cool the hostilities. Apparently the Warlords were even less pleased with having to join us than we were.
We met at the Volcano.
Everyone stood there, facing each other.
We were all ready for a fight.
Sage and Cale took off soon after the meeting began. Everyone thought that they were going to kill each other. We could hear the sound of swords striking each other in a brutal fight, but we couldn’t tell where they were. But they came back, looking more like competitors than the mortal enemies they had been. Cale had a small nick on what little bit of his neck we could see.
I don’t know what Sage and Cale said or happened, but they seemed to have gained a mutual respect of each other now. And Sage wouldn’t tell me what happened.
I think they were the ones who kinda made all of us accept that ALL the Warlords had reformed.
Not that I expect Sekhmet to be anyone’s friend. He has the personality of a barracuda crossed with a cobra. And he’s more than a little "fruitloops" (if you go by how Rahne refers to people who are a little crazy).
Kento and Dais still eye each other warily, and I don’t expect Dais to stop taking advantage of Kento’s gullible nature. (Frankly, we all take advantage of him. I don’t think it can be helped.)
Kayura and Dais have offered to erect a shield to protect Rahne, Mia and Yuli from Zanaton’s attacks.
Now we have to see how long this respect and trust lasts before we’re back at each other’s throats . . ."