Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Haze Chronicles ❯ Haze Chronicles 2: Cye: Heaven of Water ( Chapter 2 )

Haze Chronicles 2: Cye: Heaven of Water

Back in the Ronin Mansion (Haze was stunned that 5 teens, a 20-something woman, and a 10 year old could afford the place), Haze asked for volunteers.

"For what?" Kento asked, through a mouthful of Philly cheese steak sandwich.

Cye rolled his eyes. "Her story, dolt!"

"Heyyy---!"

"It really doesn't matter to me who goes first, just as long as I get at least one of you done tonight, before I go home."

The five Ronins looked at each other, trying to find out who was going to crack first. A decision seemed to be made between four of them. Ryo, Sage, Rowen, and Kento all looked at Cye.

"Huh?"

"There you go, Haze. Have at it. Good luck, Cye!" Ryo said cheerily as he and the other three flew from the room and up the stairs.

Haze rubbed her hands together and narrowed her eyes. "I'm going to make this as painfu---less as possible. Sit down and relax, Cye." She pulled a mini-tape recorder out of her pocket and put it on the table between them. She sat back in the chair.

Cye sat down with a groan, muttering something about the others getting a bath tonight. "What do you want to know?"

"Not so fast. Before we start, I just want to let you know that whatever you're about to tell me will never leave this house. It won't even leave the room, if that's what you want. This is all very confidential. I will only repeat things that you have given me permission to repeat. Okay?"

Cye looked at her, surprised. When they first met, he thought she was a joker, not capable of being truly serious. But when he looked at her, he knew she was very serious. He nodded. "That's fine."

"First thing's first. How'd you get the black eye?"

Cye was caught off guard by the question. "In a fight with another kid at school," he answered, recovering quickly. "Why?"

"I couldn't think of anything else to begin with. You wanna elaborate on your answer?"

He looked away from her. "Just some kid who thought he was cool jumped me. We fought; he hit me in the eye."

Haze leaned her elbow on the chair's arm and rested her head on three fingers. She looked at him levelly until he glanced back at her. She held his gaze.

"Cye, if you're going to do this, you have to tell me the truth. I already told you that this is confidential. Please don't lie to me."

To be caught in the lie so fast shocked Cye. His shock then turned to an overwhelming need to tell someone, *anyone* about what had happened. His resolve to keep it a secret collapsed under Haze's stare. Something sounding suspiciously (whew, say that 10 times fast) like a sob escaped Cye's throat.

"He wanted me."

Haze's thin dark brows furrowed. "You're talking in a sexual sort of way, right?"

"Yes." The story poured out of him. "We have gym together. I always caught him *looking* at me, like he wanted to say something to me. When we'd change in the locker room, he'd stare even harder. He even got bold enough to ask where I work out. He noticed my body! I always felt uncomfortable around him, but he never really bothered me. But then yesterday..." Cye's hands were white with the death grip he had on the arm of the chair. "He cornered me alone in the locker room. I thank whatever gods there are that we were both fully clothed, or I don't know what he would have done...He pinned my shoulders against the wall and told me to..to..." Cye choked on the words.

Haze a pretty good idea where this was going.

"'Get on your knees.' he said. I didn't think I heard him right, but then he said it again. 'You know you want to', he whispered in my ear. He was that close. He tried to force me down, but my pride wouldn't let me."

"That wasn't pride, that was your humanity."

Cye continued, as though she had never interrupted, but still hearing her. "I fought back, as hard as I could. I managed to get out into the hallway where he wouldn't be able to do anything with so many people around. He got angry, no, enraged, that I wasn't responding to him. That's when it really got violent. He hit me in the eye and it knocked me to the floor. He then sat on top of me, and pinned my legs down with his own, and grabbed my hands and pinned them to the floor above my head. He kept calling me 'faggot' and 'gay boy'. I think I snapped. I don't know how, but one of my arms got free and I clocked him in the nose. His blood dripped onto my shirt. That's when Kento jumped in. He kicked the guy in the jaw and knocked him out. That's when we made our getaway." Cye took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Feel better?" Haze asked, quietly.

He looked at her, really looked at her. Her whole body was tense, with what he guessed was anger. Even her eyes glittered angrily. He couldn't imagine why she'd be angry at something she had no control over. She wasn't in his place. He shook himself, physically and mentally. "I'm ok. Now. I needed to get that out."

Haze nodded. "Good, because I have a question. Did you like it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Did you enjoy it? The fact that he noticed you, that he wanted you to have sex with him. Did you like it?"

"What kind of question is that?! Of course not!"

"Keep yelling. I thought you wanted this confidential."

"No, I did not like it, any of it," he said, through clenched teeth.

"Okay. Just a simple question. Sorry if I upset you, but I had to ask. Do you want to continue, or do you wanna take a break?"

Cye looked at his watch. Four -thirty. Mia should be home soon with dinner. In response, his stomach growled. He glanced up sheepishly at Haze, who grinned, then burst out laughing when her stomach growled.

"That settles that. We wait until we eat, then I can get the rest." Her stomach rumbled again, which set off another fit of laughter.

Something else started rumbling. Only this time it wasn't internal organs. Kento came pounding down the steps, taking two at a time. He jumped the last four and breezed into the dining room where Mia had just started unpacking groceries.

Cye and Haze looked at each other. They both laughed when they heard an indignant Mia shout "Kento! Get out of the cherry pies! That's for after dinner!"

***

Haze had been fairly quiet during dinner. Mia kept glancing at the other woman, seemingly wondering when Haze was going to turn into a Dynasty soldier. She set her fork down.

"So, Haze. Mind if I ask you where that name came from?" Mia asked conversationally.

"Some of my old friends in school used to call me that. The name just stuck."

"Oh? Does it have any particular meaning?"

"Not really."

"Why did they call you that?"

Haze was wondering where Mia's questions were going. "I think cuz my favorite color is silver. And they always said that whenever I was around, things would get foggy."

"Things? What kind of things?"

"They kept complaining that they couldn't think straight, or see straight. Stuff like that."

"Some sort of weird power you had over them?"

Haze chuckled. "Yeah. Maybe I blinded them with my beauty."

That set off grins all around the table.

"You've always had this power over your friends?"

Haze was beginning to get irritated with this interrogation. "What? You think I was controlling their minds or something?"

"I don't know what to think. You come here, out of nowhere, claiming you're a journalist. You know about the Dynasty, the Ronins, and all the stuff that goes with it. Then you want to collect their life stories just so you have them? Sorry, but I don't really believe that."

"Mia! That's totally uncalled for! You don't even know who she is!" Cye said angrily.

She turned to him. "And you do? Do any of you know who she is? For all we know, she could be a Dynasty warlord!"

"If she was a Dynasty-bucket we would have known about it already! She wouldn't have waited long to show her true self," Cye returned. He was very angry with Mia for even considering Haze wasn't who she said she was.

A cough from across the table got everyone's attention.

"Please don't talk about me like I'm not in the room." It was a simple, quiet statement, but the emotion behind it was palpable. "I'll leave if you want me to. But I would never lie to you."

Mia nodded. "Good. Get out of my house."

Haze blinked.

The five Ronin Warriors' jaws dropped. Mia had never been so rude to anyone.

Suddenly, just before Haze's shock turned to all-out rage, a bright light filled the room. When the room returned to its normal darkness, Anubis stood behind Mia, a placating hand on her shoulder.

"Be aware Ronins. The time has come when your services may be needed again. Do not fight amongst yourselves." He looked directly at Haze. "You will also be needed." He disappeared as quickly as he had appeared.

"Well," Haze said, "I guess he proved it for you, no?"

Haze and Cye sat across from each other once again. This time, they were both more relaxed. After Anubis's appearance at dinner, Haze was more determined than ever to get the Ronin stories done quickly.

"Before we start, can I ask you a question?" Cye asked.

"Of course," she said sitting down in a chair, legs over one of its arms, back against the other.

"What's your real name?"

She laughed. "It's embarrassing. It's too weird." She looked over at Cye, who was staring back at her with sad eyes. She cracked. "Oh, all right. It's Kasen Celestra Genevieve. I know. It's a mouthful. People used to call me K.C. instead of Haze. You can see why I like Haze better."

"I think it's beautiful…"

"Huh. Don't flatter me." She shook her head. "Ok, so where were we?"

"Should I start at the beginning?"

She nodded. "That would be appropriate, no?"

**author's note: forget everything you know about Cye. It does not exist here.**

He grinned. "My name is Cye Mouri and my birthday is March 14 and I'm 17. I've got two brothers, Chen and Kenni, who are twins and 10 years old. My older sister is Sayaka and she's 19. I live, well, during the times when I'm not here, with both parents in a cottage near the beach. We were a pretty close family."

"Were?"

"When my grandmother died when I was 12, the whole family fell apart. She was basically the glue that held us all together."

Cye's voice grew wistful. "She used to always take us swimming when my parents were too busy or too tired. My father owns a restaurant and my mother is a waitress there. They rarely had time for us. It wasn't always like that, though."

"Oh? Care to elaborate?"

"Well, before the twins were born, my father was a great chef. He worked in one of the finest restaurants in town. He was head chef, so on his job alone the family would be supported. My mother worked as a secretary. She didn't have to, but she wanted us to have the best. When she found out that she was going to have twins, she quit. That was, I guess, the beginning of the end. Mother stayed home with us, while Father worked. Everything was going along pretty well until the restaurant my father worked in burned down. He was already planning to start his own restaurant, but he still needed funds. It put terrible stress on him and my mother to know that both of them were unemployed, and especially since she was near her time.

"My father made a split second decision to go and open a restaurant just on what he had saved. At first, it looked as if the restaurant was going to flourish, but then my mother went into labor and had a hard time. An emergency C-section was done. It got infected and she got sicker. Mother survived, but barely. All our extra money was spent on paying hospital bills."

"It must have been pretty hard on you, knowing that things were going badly."

"Well, I was only five or six, so it wasn't as if I understood everything. But I had the basics. Anyways, Mother couldn't raise the four of us alone, so she hired a nanny. I think the nanny, Mrs. Ki, and Sayaka got into a nasty fight. None of us really liked Ki. She was mean. Mother had gone to work in the restaurant, so she never saw what happened with Ki. I know for a fact that she hit the twins often enough...I'm sure they don't even remember...and I know she raised her hand to me, but I don't know if she hit Saka."

Cye shook himself, as if to free his mind of these memories. He continued.

"When Mother and Father came home from the restaurant one day, they found a note from Ki saying she quit. She left the four of us alone.

"It wasn't until three days later when we paid the landlord of our new cottage rent that we noticed Ki had stolen four thousand dollars from us. The landlord almost evicted us on the spot."

"Damn."

"Now Saka and I were even working at the restaurant. The twins were in preschool by that time, but us two were pulled from elementary to help. I missed third and fourth grade."

"So it was basically child labor. You were working 'cuz you didn't have to be paid."

Cye glanced at Haze. His brows furrowed. "I never thought of it that way before. But I think you're right. That takes us up until the time Grandmother died.

"After that, my parents cared about nothing but getting food on the table. I guess I can't really blame them. I didn't realize it then, but my whole life was about to change."

Haze thought she knew what was coming.

"I came home from school, which I was back in, grandmother made sure of that, with a perfect test score; I had never done that before. I showed Mother and Father the grade, but they didn't care. They both sighed, and my Mother said, 'That's nice dear. Why don't you go out to play while we get some rest?' I had never been so angry in my life. I stormed out of the house and towards the beach.

"I have never told anyone this before, but I seriously wanted to drown, right then and there." Cye plunged on, knowing that if he stopped, his emotions would get the better of him. "So I jumped into the cold, salty waters. I saw the sky disappear, and the water become my heaven. Just as I was about to black out from oxygen deprivation, I saw this, thing, this glowing blue thing at the bottom. I dove down, ignoring my burning lungs. When I reached it, I felt this surge of power shoot through my body. Then I felt nothing.

"When I woke up, I was home. I had miraculously made it back to shore." Cye leaned back against the couch he was sitting on and sighed. "I guess that's it."

"Well, it explains why you're such a good cook," Haze teased, trying to lighten the mood. It worked. Cye grinned, albeit halfheartedly. "I do have a few questions, though."

"Shoot."

"I'm assuming that the mysterious glow was your Torrent armor." At Cye's nod, she continued. "What happened after that?"

"Nothing really. I was tutored to catch up, and made it to fifth grade on time."

"Wow. You caught up on two years of missed school in one summer?"

"Yeah, it's kinda hard to believe. But I did manage to catch the last semester of fourth grade. I knew what was going on. I may not be as smart as Rowen, or even Sage, but I know enough to get me through."

"I can't wait to interview those two, but I'm doing Kento next. Speaking of which, he's your best friend, right?"

"Yeah. We've known each other since sixth grade. He's pulled my ass out of the fire plenty. He was the only one I told about the events of yesterday. Although, not as much detail was involved."

Haze smiled, showing white, even teeth. "I never got to thank you for sticking up for me at dinner tonight. I appreciate it. No one's ever concerned themselves with me like that before. Well, except for maybe Ayden, but he doesn't count."

"Maybe we should interview you after you're done with us?"

Haze shook her head vehemently. "You don't want to know about me."

Cye looked at her oddly, wondering what she had to hide.

"Oh shmack! I forgot to ask you something. Your brothers and sister; they're still around right?"

"My brothers still live at home, but my sister moved out the day she turned 18. We had grown apart a little since I became a Ronin. But I still have a bunch of good friends to lean on."

"Any of your family know you're a Ronin?"

"No. I don't know what would happen if I told them. My mother would freak and my father...well, I don't really know what he'd do. He'd probably ignore it like I never said anything and move on with his life. My brothers would be happy for me, and would follow me around waiting to see me do something. Saka would be upset with me for putting my life in danger like that, but she'd get over it, eventually."

A mysterious click from the vicinity of the coffee table startled both of them.

"Oops, ran out of tape." Haze said, sticking her tongue out at the offending machine. She flipped it over and hit "record" again. "You and Saka are close, then?"

"Oh, yes. We'd even get into trouble together."

"What kind of trouble? Real serious trouble, or just normal everyday kid stuff?"

"Just kid stuff," Cye said with a grin. Then he frowned. "Well, there was that one time...Nah, it's too embarrassing."

"Nonsense. Nothing's too embarrassing. I told you my name, didn't I?"

Cye nodded. "True." He ignored Haze's indignant "Hey!" He thought a little bit before starting. "I think it was a few days after I found Torrent. Saka and I were making sandcastles. I wouldn't go anywhere near the water though."

"Still a little freaked out?"

"Definitely. Anyways, the town bully came flying through on his bike and demolished Saka's castle. I saw him coming and moved out of the way. I never thought he'd hit Saka's castle. He headed straight for mine next, and I guess I was still angry at getting the brush-off from my parents. I ended up tackling him when he rode past. We fell to the ground, kicking and yelling at each other. Saka had gotten up to get our parents. He landed a punch to my side and I fell over. He kicked me in the head after that. I must have screamed pretty loud, 'cuz Saka came running back. She jumped on top of the other kid and pulled his hair, scratched, kicked, bit, whatever she could do to keep him off of me. I got up again, and seeing that he was about to smack my sister, I jumped in again. Saka told me later that I sounded like a wild man. 'With a primal yell, you hit him in the jaw.' Her exact words. After that, we both kinda beat him to a bloody mess. Swollen eyes and lips, a broken nose, numerous cuts and bruises...His parents were not pleased."

Haze snorted. "I can imagine. After that?"

"Saka and I were both reamed a new asshole."

She snorted again. "I can imagine that, too."

"That was the only really bad thing we did. Of course, it was worth it. He never bothered us or our friends again after that."

"If you can kick that much ass, why are you seen as the calm, easy going one, or even the weakest of the Ronins?"

He jerked his head around to look at her. "I am? Since when?"

"Well, you have to know that I'm not the only one to see the Ronins in action. Everybody I've listened to keeps calling you 'water boy'. 'That water boy is kinda weak, at least compared to the other ones.'"

"Where do you hear this?"

"Around town, legends, stuff like that. It's mainly children. They don't blow it off as easily as adults. Maybe it's just 'cuz you're not loud and obnoxious as, say, Kento. Or as you yourself said, as smart as Sage and Rowen. Or as stubborn as Ryo. I hate to say it, but you're the forgotten Ronin. People see the ones that stand out, not the ones that are standing behind them."

Cye hung his head. He had no idea that's what people thought. Maybe he could do something to be noticed...

"Oh, Christ, I shouldn't have said anything. Now I got you all upset. Don't go doing anything stupid, like fighting by yourself or some such nonsense. The Ronins need you as you, not some weirdo that fights all their battles for them."

She was right. He knew it deep down, but something kept pulling at him...

"And don't think, 'I'll show them who's weak.', then get yourself killed when you run reckless through a fight. You're a strong young man, Cye Mouri, don't ever lose sight of that."

Strong? Him? Wasn't she the one that just told him he was weak? That he was forgotten? And who was she to tell him what was stupid and what wasn't? What to think and what not to think?

Haze noticed a sudden and severe change pass over Cye's features. He went from hurt, to acceptance, to complete rage. She involuntarily sunk back into the chair.

He stood up and towered over her. He leaned down over the chair and put his hands on either side of Haze. She wasn't going to escape, not this time.

"Cye..."

He blinked, then shook his head. Sinking to the floor, he said, "Not this time?"

"Cye?"

He looked back up at Haze, who was staring at him in concern. He asked, "Who are you?"

TO BE CONTINUED...

ahhh yes. Who is haze indeed? That and many other questions will be asked in the next exciting chapter of the haze chronicles.