Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Haze Chronicles ❯ Haze Chronicles 4: Ryo: Erebus's Scarlet River ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Haze Chronicles 4: Ryo: Erebus's Scarlet River

Roughly 18 hours passed before their plane touched down in Ireland. Nobody wanted to do much of anything except kick back in their hotel. They had gotten two rooms, one for the guys and one for the girls.

"So, who's staying in which room?" Cye asked.

Rowen flopped down on one of the beds and promptly started to snore.

"Well, I guess the guys get this room, and Mia and I get the other," Haze said, suppressing a grin at Rowen's antics.

"There's sooooo not going to be enough room for all…six, no, seven of us, if we include WB over there," said Kento, counting on his fingers.

"Well, it's not like White Blaze takes up a lot of space," Ryo said.

"I can stay with Mia," Yuli said.

"Thanks," Ryo said, nodding at him.

"So, who else goes?" Sage asked.

Mia spoke up. "Not Kento; I've heard him snore. Not Cye, cuz he flops around too much. I always hear his bed squeaking no matter what time I get up."

Cye blushed and cast a sidelong glance at Kento, who was trying not to laugh.

"That leaves either Ryo or Sage," Mia finished.

"I am not sharing a bed with Rowen. He nearly gave me a concussion the last time we shared a bed. Talk about flopping around! He's dangerous!" Ryo said, shaking his head vehemently.

"So, what we've got is me, Mia, Yuli, and Ryo. Right?" Haze asked, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. <These people make everything so difficult!> she thought.

After a few more minutes of Kento complaining about how he does not snore that loud, and Cye saying he never hears any squeaking, Haze and her roommates went to their room.

"This isn't too private, what with our rooms being connected," Haze said.

"Oh well, can't have it both ways," Ryo said, chucking his backpack onto a bed.

"Mia, can I go to the pool?" Yuli asked.

"Not unless someone goes down to keep an eye on you."

"Awwwww, c'mon Mia!" Yuli whined.

"All right, but I'm not going in the pool."

"Yay!"

After they left, it was just Ryo and Haze.

"Since I've got you here, Ryo, can I interview you?"

"You don't quit, do you?"

Haze frowned slightly. "Well, we might as well do something to keep us busy. And you are the man of moment."

"True, but shouldn't we be discussing how to get Hazriel out of you?"

"I think that Hazriel knows what she's doing. She doesn't need any help. Not in getting her out me, anyways."

"You really want to interview me? Why not Sage or Rowen?"

"I'm not sharing a room with Sage or Rowen."

Ryo looked down bashfully. "Ummm…What are our sleeping arrangements, anyways?"

"Mia and I can share a bed, so you and Yuli can have the other one. And don't change the subject."

"Sorry, don't get snippy."

"I'm not snippy, I'm just frustrated. So, can I interview you or not?"

"I guess. You'll probably kill me in my sleep if I don't let you."

"Nonsense," she said, digging in her pack for the tape recorder. She placed it on a nightstand and hit "record."

"I just want you to know that everything you say here will not be repeated unless you give me permission. All of it is strictly confidential. Okay?"

Ryo nodded. "Where do you want me to start?"

Haze's mouth quirked. "At the beginning."

"Don't act smart," Ryo said, sitting on the bed.

Haze scrunched up her face, crossed her eyes, and stuck her tongue out. "Deerrrr, I'm okay now!"

Ryo looked at her sideways. "Do you want to do this or not?"

Haze became instantly somber, and sat across from him on the other bed.

* * * * *

"I'm Ryo Sanada, I'm 17 years old and I've got the armors of Wildfire and Inferno."

"You know, `inferno' means `hell' in Italian."

"Yeah, I know. Anyways, I'm an only child and both my parents are dead."

"Ouch. Why so cold? Don't you have any living relatives?"

"It's not that I'm cold, it's just that it doesn't hurt as much anymore. My grandma lives in Tokyo, but I rarely see her. She's, like, 102 years old or something, so I'd pretty much have to go to her. I don't even remember what room she's in at the home."

"Nice of you to keep in touch. I guess I shouldn't say anything since I don't see my family at all either. Of course, that's because they hate me." She shook her head. "As you were saying?"

Ryo stored that little bit of information away before continuing.

"My parents and I were very close. We had a summer house out in practically the middle of nowhere, or, rather, in the middle of Hokkaido. I was ten, and it was during vacation that they died."

"They died at the same time?"

"No, but close. We were having a grand old time when we heard some rustling in the woods in the back of the house. I went to check it out, and I saw this huge white cat stuck in a trap. I didn't think about what I was doing, I only wanted save it. So I walked up to him and pulled his foot out of the trap. My parents caught up to me, and tried to tell me to leave it alone. I'm glad I didn't though; he's still with me," Ryo said, putting a hand on White Blaze's head. "The guy that must've laid trap came running up just then, and he was threatening to shoot Blaze. I jumped in front of him, and the hunter came forward and threw me to the side. My dad ran to the hunter, and tried to stop him, but the gun went off, hitting my father in the head. He died instantly. I don't really remember much after that, just a lot of running around and screaming. Then we ended up at the hospital. At that time, I didn't know that he was dead, and I kept asking my mom and my grandma if he was gonna be okay. I asked nurses and doctors, but no one wanted to tell me. My mom was kind of in shock, she didn't say anything, not even to my grandma-"

"Ryo…"

"I even called my uncle, who lived out in Kyoto, if he knew what happened. He told me-"

"Ryo."

"-That he didn't know, and that he was waiting for a call from my mother."

"Ryo!"

"What!?" he snapped.

"I'm sorry."

With those simple words, coming from such a person as Haze, Ryo broke down. His head bowed and his shoulders shook with silent sobs.

Haze got up and sat next to him. "Let it go, Ryo," she said softly, and folded him into her arms. He cried freely into her neck and shoulder. She rocked him slowly for a little while before he pulled away.

"Better?" Haze asked gently.

He nodded. "I never took you for the mothering type," he said with a watery grin. "I haven't cried like that since…he died. Sorry for using your shoulder as a Kleenex."

"That's what I'm here for. Do you want to keep going, or should we take a break?"

"Let me regain my composure first."

Haze stood up to give him some privacy, but he pulled her back down.

"Thank you, Kasen."

She ignored the use of her real name, and said, "You're very welcome, Ryo, but you look like there's something else on your mind."

"How old are you?" he blurted.

Haze didn't seem shocked at all by the question. "I'm 24, why?"

"Just wondering."

"You don't have a crush on me, do you?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood.

Ryo blushed. "No! I mean, not that you aren't pretty, I mean, you're beautiful, I mean-"

Haze chuckled. "Don't worry about it, Ryo. My heart already belongs to somebody else."

Ryo looked surprised. "It does? Who? I mean-aghh, nothing's coming out right!"

Haze laughed again. "I said don't worry about it. You'll probably never meet him anyways. Are you ready to go on?"

He nodded slowly. "Kasen, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Shoot."

"Would it be okay, if, after this mess is done, we interviewed you?"

"I'll think about it. Now, though, we're working on you."

Ryo took a breath. "Okay. About three months or so after my father died, my mother ran the car off the road."

"Suicide?"

"No, she didn't die, but they took me away from her. I don't know if it's right to say this, but I was kind of glad they did. I mean, after all that happened, she really wasn't my mother anymore, you know? She had changed into someone else. Someone not as caring or loving as she used to be. I still loved her, of course, but things just weren't the same anymore. After that, I was shuttled from foster home to foster home. Some were all right, but most of them were abusive. Not," he added quickly, "sexually or even physically, but verbally."

"So what happened to White Blaze?"

"I don't know. After the hunter incident, I didn't see him again."

"I assume you found him somewhere."

"Well, yeah, but that wasn't till much later, almost when I was 14."

"Ahh. I see. So, what happened in the four between that?"

"Nothing. Well, I guess the foster home thing happened all the time."

"Must've been hard on you."

"Not really. After school, I rarely came home. I either loitered at the mall or wherever else I could find."

"I take it you didn't have a lot of friends."

Ryo snorted in disgust. "No one wanted to hang around with me. Of course, the feeling was mutual."

Haze chuckled.

"Anyways, my grandma finally came to get me one day when I was almost 15. She had been living at the summer home, and the social workers hadn't told her where I was. That's what she told me, anyways."

"You're implying that she didn't care?"

"No, it's not that. She wasn't altogether there, you know? She was a little addlebrained. If the social workers did tell her, she probably didn't remember. If they didn't, she probably forgot to ask."

"Hold on a sec. You never told me how your mother died."

"Oh. Ummm, I think she just completely lost it. She killed herself by jumping in front of the Shinkansen. After I was taken away from her, I never saw her again, so maybe that pushed her over the edge. I don't know. I don't have a lot of fond memories of those last few months. I remember her as the mother I knew before my father died. I think that's the way I'd like to keep it."

"Good for you. Go on."

"Well, I met White Blaze again. This time he wouldn't leave me alone. I didn't tell my grandma about it, either. She would probably either report him or have a heart attack."

"I get the feeling that you're not too fond of your grandma."

"Naw, it's just that we really don't get along very well, and she hardly remembers me half the time. I still love her though. She's my only flesh and blood." He sighed. "I guess that's it."

"What? Pssh, you haven't told me about how you got Wildfire!"

"You want to know?"

"Hell yes, that's the main reason for interviewing you guys."

"Hmm, it was right after I met White Blaze for the second time. He had run off with one of my shoes, so I chased him. I don't even know how we got there, but suddenly we were at the base of Mount Fuji. He was kind of sniffing around, like he was looking for something. He finally dropped my shoe into this little hole, and I knew that he wanted me to reach my hand in there and get it burned off. I was content to go home shoeless, but White Blaze insisted. So, I stuck my hand in there, and sure enough, it burned like a sonofabitch, but only for about a second. Then, it was like I was meant to be there, like the volcano knew who I was. I got warm all over, and I shoved my hand in deeper till I hit something smooth. I pulled my hand back out, and it was covered in molten lava. I kid you not. But for some reason, I wasn't scared, or surprised. The lava fell off by itself, and in my hand was Wildfire. I didn't even care about my shoe after that."

Haze laughed. "I guess not. Hey, could you describe what it's like to have the armors?"

"I can try. It's almost like having a second body. Like someone else is borrowing you for a little while. Your mind is still yours, but you're more like an observer in you own body. Hmm, I don't think it can be described. You'd have to experience it, and you don't have an armor."

"No, but I do have Hazriel. I may not know exactly, but I've got a pretty good idea."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about Hazriel."

Haze's eyes turned blue.

"Come now, Wildfire, how could you forget about me?"

Ryo jumped at Hazriel's voice. Hazriel chuckled.

"I think you all should start calling Haze by her real name. It gets confusing."

"How is it confusing? We don't talk to you."

Hazriel grinned. "That may be true, but whenever you say `Haze', I think you might be calling me."

Ryo snorted. "All right. We'll call Haze Kasen."

Hazriel nodded. "Good. Tell the others to do the same," she said, as her eyes turned green.

Kasen shook her head. "What'd the psycho have to say this time? She shuts me out when she talks to you guys."

Ryo smiled. "She wants us to call you by your real name. Could you tell her something for me?"

"What?"

"Tell her she can call us by our real names, too. My name's not `Wildfire'."

Kasen chuckled. "So, where were we before we were so rudely interrupted?"

"I think I was done."

"Nonsense. Hmm, let's see. Kento said you guys can switch weapons in a pinch."

Ryo's brows furrowed as he thought. "Yeah, I guess. Especially Sage and I. We've got practically the same weapon."

"Kento also told me that no one can use Rowen's bow."

"Nope. The first time I tried to use a bow, the string broke and hit me in the face."

"Ouch."

"Yeah."

"Isn't it kinda hard to break a bowstring?"

"Yeah, but I've seen Rowen do it. He was trying to explain how many pounds of pull you need. I didn't get. In my case, though, the string popped off the end of the bow. It hit me near my eye, and if Sage hadn't been there to heal me, I probably would've lost that eye."

"I don't even see a scar," Kasen said, peering closely at Ryo.

"Nope, Sage is that good."

"I can't see how Rowen's bow could lose its string."

"It wasn't Strata's bow; we were just playing around at an archery range. Yeah right, like Rowen would even let us breathe on the bow of Strata. You know, I keep thinking you're going to ask me how I got Inferno."

"No, I saw that for myself, and let me tell you, you don't know how many times I wanted to jump into a brawl and slap some sense into you guys."

Ryo pretty much ignored that last part. "You seem pretty unconcerned for someone who's possessed."

Kasen snorted. "It can be hell, it can be hell. Hazriel can shut me out in a minute. She doesn't seem to care about me, but I know she does, since she lives in the same body."

"Can I ask you something?"

"You seem to say that a lot, Ryo."

"So? Anyways, can I ask who your boyfriend is? Or is that something you don't want to talk about?"

Kasen sighed. "You saw my black book, right?" Ryo nodded. "Remember the man in the red coat? That's him."

"Uhh…Ayden, right? Didn't you say that he was a witch?"

"Sort of. He can do some pretty freaky shit when he puts his mind to it."

"Sounds like someone we could get along with."

Kasen grinned. "You probably could, but you'd have to get past the fact that he can be an asshole."