Shadows of Light: Chapter 12
Kento was walking through the corridors of the school with an oversized armload of books when he accidently tripped in a doorway. As he fell he dropped the books but rolled over his shoulder to prevent any injury to himself. As he was getting up he noticeded that a girl was watching him smiling. She was beautiful with long dark brown hair and dark green eyes and a short petite figure. Smiling and blushing at his clumsyness he quickly picked up his books and tried to pass her, But he was stopped dead in his tracks as she brushed against his arm. He was suddenly cold and felt that something was not right about this girl. Turning around he noted that she was gone. Curious about who she might be she decided to ask Sage since he seemed to have gotten the attention of at least most of the girls at the school already. With his memory of faces he should be able to tell if she was a student here or not.
He continued on to his third period class and broke into his trademark grin when he saw that the guys had their sparring uniforms on. "Looks like it is demonstration day in class right??"
"You got it Kento, here's your gear." Sage tossed a duffle bag at Kento, reminding him that he needed to talk to Sage and the others about what happened in the hall way. As he got changed his mind kept going over the meeting and the feeling that washed over him as he brushed arms with the girl. This was definately no ordinary girl. He over heard the guys talking about the demonstrations and found that they were debating wether or not they should use the moves that they have been holding back on from their battles with Talpa, Sarenbou,and Sun Devil when he piped in.
"Hey, Why not use the advanced techniques if we get paired up with each other. We can hold off on the moves if we are paired with some one else but why not be able to cut loose with each other when we can??" The guys looked at Kento in amazement as they had not heard a compromising idea like that out of him in a long time. Usually he was all or nothing in his thoughts. This idea was actually really good and so it was agreed upon. As Kento passed Sage he slipped Sage the note he had written saying that he needed to talk to him as soon as possible about a possible problem there in the school. Sage read the note and nodded as they walked out to the class.
Not all of the five were black belts in the martial arts but one could consider them all of that rank or better with all the training they had done with each other bringing them up to level with each other. However since they could not be formally tested for the belt ranks they just had stopped going to the dojos and kept practicing with each other advancing as a group. They lined up in front of the class and started the warmups and then assigned the various students to roll out the mats for demonstrations.
Sage and Jo Lin took on one mat for a demonstration center for basic weapons while Ryo and Cye took another mat for Katas leaving Kento and Rowen on the third mat for techniques and street confrontations. Looking at each other they balanced out their voices so that when the class was split up into the four groups, one on each mat and one practicing what they had learned or doing exercises.
By the end of the class most of the attention was at Kento and Rowen's mat simply because of the advanced moves that they were doing and the basic moves that they were teaching. Some of the slower students had some problems getting a hand or foot position right and that was when Rowen learned that Kento was an extremely patient instructor. When it came for a demonstration time Kento and Rowen knew that they could go full out with out doing alot of damage because they both knew how to fall properly and with the throws Rowen was the best person to be thrown as his balance in the air was the best.
About ten minutes before the end of class Sage had Jo Lin get the students to move the mats together as they promised a five on five sparring match to show the class what could be done in a multi-competitor match. The mats were settled and the guys stood in a circle after explaining to the class what they were going to do and bowed to each other. They each took a different sparring stance and then started in on each other. It was light sparring for them but they managed to add in a few of the arial manuvers and fun to watch kicks to make things interesting for the class.
Five minutes later they dismissed class to get changed back into their street clothes and the guys all grinned at each other as they all performed really well today despite a couple of them being sore from the weekend work out. As they did not all have lunch together they decided that they would discuss Kento's problem after school when Mia came to pick them up.
School continued into the afternoon and as the guys all got out of class then hurried out to find Mia waiting there in the Jeep. As the guys all climbed into the jeep they were all aware the Mia looked a little tired and wondered if she had been having more battles with the Ninja that they were not aware of. The ride was relatively quiet back to the mansion and they all got out and headed strait to the back of the mansion for practice. As good as gym was nothing beat getting into the subarmor and having unregulated fun.
As they started practicing what they had learned from Mia and from Anubis, Mia decided that she would skip practice today. She was feeling tired and these unannounced battles with the Ninja that she was fighting with out the knowledge of the other Ronins were taking it out of her. As she stood by the door and watched the guys practice at the stealth techniques that she had taught them all she jumped as a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders and swung her around and sat her into a chair. Massaging some of the stiffness away she recognised the only person that she did not see out there and the only one that could sneak up on her like that. She eased herself into the rhythm of his seeking, kneading, fingers and relaxed for the first time in days secure that nothing for the moment was going to attack. "Thank you Anubis, I really needed that."
Anubis smiled as he realized that she was finally starting to get over the last vestiges of the shock she had when she realized that it was him there, and that he had an idea about what had been causing her odd armor bits to show up. It was a good thing for the ronin as well as they neded some one stable around here to lean on as she took her time getting used to the armor and its myriad of abilities. She also knew that he would occationally send White Blaze to the school with her. Fortunately for her the school had gotten used to the sight of the White Tiger on the campus and now either petted him or at least steered clear of him when he looked like he was looking for Mia. Mia knew that Anubis worried about her and if she was wearing herself out by taking all these battles on by herself, but the last time they discussed the matter he ended up giving in to some rather basic arguments about her being the best person for the job and that the ronin still had a long way to go before they would have the requiset knowledge to deal with these shadows. It was later learned in another battle that the ronins had joined that Sage had a distinct disability when it came to battleing the Shadow Warriors.
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As the battle had progressed all the warriors were being badly beaten even with all of the new training that they had aquired they found that Mia had been right in one facet. They had been tested in the previous battles and now they were having their asses handed to them for it. Sage had tried to use his sure kill the "Thunder Bolt Cut" and as the light attack came down the group of the ninjas that would have been killed with the attack seemed to congeal and become one black hole that absorbed the attack. The ninja's did not fight better after but it was like they were able to evenly spread the injury through all of them and turn the light into the shadows. Mia was fairing better than the guys, but not by much when the Staff came flying down and was standing out of the earth started jangling in its harmonious way. The ninja's shrank from the staff in terror and dissappeared into the shadows where they had been waiting ot ambush the previously unguarded team as they all had walked through the park for a picnic lunch.
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"Tell me, Why is it that you have to follow me everywhere in one form or another?" Mia was referring that sometimes she would be able to feel his searching mind look for hers as he meditated and when she was found he was rest his search and be the fly on the wall in her mind. She could feel Anubis' stomach muscles working quickly in a silent chuckle. "Only you would feel me mind hopping. How else would I find you in your many battles if I did not follow you all about??" Anubis' point was valid and she knew it but she was also letting him know that she appreciated the worry even if she did not always see the need for it. He responded knowing that she would pick up that he understood.
If the guys all noticed one thing about Mia it was that she was quieter around them and endured some of their usual spats better. However they all knew that ninjas had a distinct tendancy to be people of the night and so they tried to give her some peace durring the day for what ever she needed to do.