Chapter One

The Lost Armor
Chapter 1

    The sun sat slowly behind the far mountains as five figures laid on the grass off of the lake that stood like a mirror against the land.
   "I can't believe it's been almost year," Kento exclaimed as he played with a blade of grass.
    "It's been a long one too," Cye agreed.
    "Hey guys, want something to drink?" A girl around the same age asked, walking out of the cabin with drinks in hand and Mia behind her.
    "Sure, Sarah, what do you have?" Kento asked
    "Just some hot cocoa," Mia replied.
    "That sounds good," Rowen said taking a cup.
    "Yea, it's getting cold out here," Sage agreed.
    "What were you guys talking about?" Sarah asked sitting down next to them.
    "Oh, we were talking about how we couldn't believe it had been almost year already," Ryo answered.
    "Hey, guys, what are you doing?" A small figure asked as he rode a large white tiger out of the woods.
    "Yuli, you should have a coat on," Mia scolded.
    "I did, but I lost it on the way down," Yuli explained.
    "You're lucky you left one down here the other day," Mia said, leading Yuli toward the cabin.
    "Hey, Sarah, what were you doing a year ago?" Kento asked.
    "Hmm.. you know, exactly one year ago today, my life changed," Sarah answered.
    "What do you mean?" Rowen asked.
    "It was one year ago that I was given the chance to come to Japan as an exchange student....

Ding, Ding, Ding.....

    "Third floor women's lingerie," a voice echoed throughout the floor as students filed into their classes.
    "Hajimemasu (Time to start the class)," Kawakubo Sensei announced as she sat down at her desk.
    "Tattekudasai (Please stand)," one of the Japanese students recited.
    "Minna-san Ohayoogozaimasu (Good morning everyone)," Kawakubo Sensei greeted.
    "Sensei, Ohayoogozaimasu (Good morning Teacher)," the class replied.
    "Ni gatsu ni jiu... (2 month 2-0...),"
    "Mooichidoo (Please say that again)," Kawakubo stated, looking up from her schedule. The student looked to the sky and then walked over to his desk and flipped through a binder,
    "Ni gatsu hatsuka mokuyoobi desu. (2nd month 20th day, Thursday)," the first student corrected himself. "Shukudaio dashitekudasai. (I will collect the homework now)" After collecting the homework the student spoke up again, "Shussekio torimasu. (I will now take attendance)." The student then took the attendance, and then sat down.
    "All right. As you should know we have a quiz today...," the teacher said as the class groaned. "But, first I have an announcement. I've been given the message that I can send one of my students to Japan as an exchange student for three months. I figured I'd give the fourth year first choice," the teacher finished, "Anybody?"
    "If this happened last year I would definitely want to go, but it's my senior year. I don't want to miss anything," a girl replied. Everybody, but one person in the class agreed.
    "I'll go," the last person spoke up.
    "You would really want to go, Sarah?" the girl asked.
    "Sure, I might actually get a life while I'm there," Sarah replied.
    "What do you mean?" a boy asked.
    "Let's see, I get up go to school, go to work, and go home. That's not much of a life," Sarah answered.
    "Why don't you go out and do something?" another girl asked.
    "I don't know? I just don't," Sarah replied.
    "Well, If you really want to go. you need to ask your parents before I tell them you're going. All right?" the teacher said.
    "All right," Sarah replied.

That night at home, Sarah approached her mother with the news.
    "Well, I don't know. Three months is an awfully long time," her mother said hesitantly.
    "Come on Mom, it's an opportunity of a life time," Sarah pleaded.
    "I thought you were going with Sensei this summer?"
    "I just won't go, she said it wasn't too late to get a refund for what I've already paid,"
    "Well..... I better not get a call from Japan asking me to come get you,"
    "YES!! Thank you, Mom!"

... Attention..... Flight JAL number 09 has just arrived at gate 7...... Attention

Sarah walked off the the plane, her legs stiff from sitting for thirteen hours. She looked around, unsure of where to go. The crowd from the plane all seemed to head in one direction so she decided to follow them. After going through the initial customs she came to two different lines that were labeled, in Japanese. This was when she wished she had paid more attention during class. She looked at the people in the lines and picked the one with no Japanese people in it.

    Mia Koji stood in the airport terminal watching the clock on the wall, and the doors that separated customs from the rest of the airport. It had been a good ten minutes since the announcement of the flight had been broadcast over the intercom and Mia was wondering what was taking so long. Finally the doors opened and a herd of people walked, stiffly mind you, out. Mia peeked up over the crowd of people also waiting for passengers trying to find hers. After a few minutes, the herd started to thin out and it was then that Mia saw her. Out of the door came a fairly tall girl with dark brown hair that was pulled up into a pony tail. She carried large, medium, and small suitcases that were strapped together, a backpack, and another bag on her shoulder. Mia walked over to her and bowed politely.
    "Connichiwa, Atashi, Koji Mia." Mia spoke slowly.
    "Ah! Ano... Watashi wa Sarah Suttles," Sarah said, a bit unsure even though she had said the same thing too many times to count in class.
    "If you wish we may speak in English," Mia suggested, noting her discomfort.
    "That would be nice. For now that is," Sarah replied, tension leaving her features on her face.
    "So, are you ready to go?" Mia asked as she took the three bags from her.
    "As ready as I'll ever be," Sarah replied, taking a deep breath.

    The ride to the mansion was fairly long, but not boring. They talked about many things, and generally got to know each other better. When they passed a lake with a mansion in the background, Sarah mentioned how beautiful it was, but when Mia pulled up to that house, Sarah's mouth dropped.
   "Welcome home," Mia said, taking her things out of the jeep.
    "I thought houses in Japan were small?" Sarah asked, looking up at the house and around at its surroundings.
    "Well, this house has been passed down in my family for generations," Mia explained, heading into the house and up the stairs. "Wait till you see your room," Mia grinned and opened the door to her room. Sarah walked into the room still a bit shocked,
    "I love it."
    "Wait till you see the view," Mia said pulling open the curtains and opening the door to the balcony. Sarah walked out onto the balcony stunned beyond words.
   "Great, isn't it?" Mia asked, joining her out on the balcony.
    "Why didn't you take this room?" Sarah asked.
    "My room has almost the same view," Mia replied, "Oh, by the way. I mentioned that we have a cat."
    "Oh, yea, I love cats; we have two at home," Sarah exclaimed.
    "Well, this cat isn't exactly a house cat," Mia practically whispered, wringing her hands.
    "Oh, it's an outdoor cat?" Sarah asked, getting a bit suspicious.
    "Yea, kind of. Though he does sleep in the house a lot," Mia replied, still wringing her hands.
    "Mia??" Sarah asked, not sure what to think of her host anymore.
    "Well, you see...," Mia started, but before she could go any farther a loud noise was heard and a huge white tiger leaped up onto the balcony and into the room. Sarah backed away toward one of the walls, her mouth was saying something but her voice seemed to have ran away.
   "That's what I was trying to tell you. Sarah, meet White Blaze. White Blaze, this is Sarah," Mia sighed, walking over to the tiger. Sarah looked from Mia to the beast that stood before her.
    "You're not serious are you??" she asked in a soft whisper.
    "Yea, it is kind of hard to believe. He's not mine actually. He belongs to one of the guys that also lives here," Mia explained.
    "Guys?" Sarah asked, surprised that she hadn't mentioned them before.
    "Five boys, your age I believe," Mia explained nodding.
    "Five?! All my age????"
    "They all live a ways away from the city and are staying here while they go to school. You'll be going with them."
    "What do they look like?" Sarah asked, her interest piqued.
    "Well...," Mia started when a horn honked outside and White Blaze took off. "You can find out for yourself. That must be them now," Mia said, leading her out of the room. When they arrived at the door, White Blaze was standing over a young boy licking his face.
    "Hey, White Blaze get off of me," the boy said, trying to push the tiger off. Finally the tiger was pulled from the guy by Mia and Sarah.
   "Ryo, I'd like you to meet Sarah. Sarah, this is Ryo," Mia introduced while trying to restrain the tiger, with little success. Ryo wiped tiger drool on his pants and held out his hand,
    "Hi, it's nice to meet you," Sarah shook his hand.
    "Hey, Ryo, could you move. These books aren't light you know," a voice came from behind him. Ryo moved out of the way and allowed four more boys in, each carrying five to six very thick books. They carefully carried them into the living room and set them down. One boy ran into the kitchen, while the other three went back to the van for their books.
    "Why were they carrying all these books?" Sarah asked picking up one to look at.
    "These are Rowen's. All he thinks about is studying. I think he's doing an extra credit term paper for one of his classes. Though I don't know why, he already has perfect grades," Ryo explained.
    "I know someone like that too. Most people I know don't like her either," Sarah replied, setting the book down just as the other three came back in.
   "Is this Sarah?" the blond headed one asked, flipping his hair from his face. Sarah blushed and big sweat drops appeared on everybody's heads.
    "Sarah, I want you to meet Rowen, Sage, and Cye," Mia said pointing at each one, "The one in the kitchen is Kento."
    "Yea, our resident garbage disposal," Sage joked.
    "I heard that!" Kento yelled as he came out of the kitchen carrying a sandwich, "Hey, Cye, you gonna cook tonight?"
    "It's Rowen's turn," Cye stated.
    "It's pizza then," Ryo replied sourly.
    "I can't help it if I can't cook!" Rowen replied.
    "Cye, we want Sarah's first night here to be memorable, and I don't mean at the hospital," Kento complained, shoving the rest of the sandwich down. Sarah looked at Mia with a nervous glance.
    "Don't worry. It's not as bad as they make it seem," Mia said grinning.
    "All right, I'll cook. But only because it's Sarah's first night," Cye agreed.
    "Yes! When's supper?" Kento asked.
    "You're still hungry?" Sarah asked, blinking in surprise.
    "Like we said, he's the garbage disposal. Only stops eating long enough to sleep," Rowen said. Cye made his way into the kitchen to start supper. It was only an hour later that he announced it was ready. Everybody sat down at the table and dug in. They were very surprised to see how well Sarah ate with the chopsticks; she explained that she liked eating with them and ate anything she could with them. That got them into a contest to see who could pick up the most things. As predicted Sage won, but Sarah came in second, to everyone's surprise. It was then that she mentioned she learned how to use them four years ago. They continued with their meal and with asking Sarah many questions.
    "So, if we just started speaking in Japanese, you wouldn't have a clue what we were saying?" Kento asked.
    "Probably not," Sarah answered. Kento started rubbing his hands together and getting a look on his face that said he was up to something.
    "You're not going to play any tricks on her, Kento," Mia scolded. Kento's face fell as he stuffed his mouth with more food. Suddenly White Blaze tore out of the room and jumped out of a window.
    "What's with him?" Sarah asked, looking after the tiger. Everybody shrugged their shoulders and went out to see what was going on. Outside stood an army of armored soldiers. Mia yanked Sarah into the house.
    "WHAT'S GOING ON??!!!?" Sarah asked, freaking out.
    "There's something I haven't told you," Mia stated.
    "Really? And here I thought they were just a bunch of friendly ghosts," Sarah snapped, her voice edged with sarcasm.
    "I can only imagine how you feel...," Mia started and told her all about the Ronin Warriors. Outside the guys had already armored up and were fighting the soldiers.
    "Why are they here? We defeated Talpa a long time ago," Cye said, as he cut down a soldier with his yari.
    "We're here for the armor," a soldier spoke up his eyes glowing blood red.
    "You're never going to get the Inferno," Ryo yelled as they pulled back to regroup.
    "That is old news. We want the lost armor," the soldier replied.
    "The lost armor? What are you talking about?" Kento yelled, waving his fist in the air.
    "You are only foolish boys; you left the wearer alone unprotected," The soldier spoke and used his spear to point toward the house. Two screams emerged along with crashes and bangs.
    "Mia, Sarah!" Cye exclaimed as he ran for the house, Ryo following. Inside, two soldiers had a hold of Mia and Sarah. Cye and Ryo took quick care of the two.
    "Sarah, are you all right?" Cye asked, helping her up from the floor where she fell.
    "Yea, I'm all right," Sarah replied, a bit shaken. They walked outside to make sure everyone was okay.
    "Is everybody OK?" Sage asked, converting back to his sub armor.
    "Yea, and you?" Ryo asked.
    "Just after you left the soldiers disappeared," Rowen informed them.
    "Do you know what they wanted?" Mia asked.
    "They said something about a Lost Armor," Sage said.
    "Do you think you might be able to find something in your grandfathers records?" Rowen asked.
    "I'll try," Mia replied as she headed up to her den, "Why don't you guys call it a night? It's been a long day for all of you."
    "Mia's right. We all need some sleep," Cye agreed, looking over at Sarah's pale face, "Are you okay?"
    "Uhh.. yea.. I'm fine. Just a bit shaken up," Sarah replied. "I'll be fine after some sleep." They all took their armors off and headed up the stairs. Ryo started to head for his normal bedroom which was now hers. "Um, Ryo. That's my room," Sarah said, walking up to him.
    "Oh, yea, that's right. Sorry," Ryo said as he walked off in another direction. Sarah looked after him with a puzzled look on her face.
    "That was his and Sage's room. Mia made them change rooms so you could have that one," Cye explained from the door to his, Rowen, and Kento's room. Sarah just smiled and walked into the room and closed the door.

The moon was high in the sky and there was no cloud in sight. The light of the moon gave a ghastly glow to everything beyond the mansion. Sarah was on the balcony thinking about what had just happened to her. She noticed the lights on in the den just down the walk, so she headed down.
    "What are you still doing up?" Sarah asked walking through the door.
    "Oh, Sarah, I thought you would be asleep," Mia exclaimed, jumping a bit.
    "It's called jet lag. It sucks," Sarah said, walking over to where she could see the computer screen. "What are you doing?"
    "I'm looking through my grandfather's disks. He had a lot of info about the Ronins and we thought that it might have something about this lost armor," Mia replied.
    "Find anything?" Sarah asked.
    "Nope. There's the Wildfire, Torrent, Hardrock, Strata, Halo, and Inferno, but no lost armor," Mia replied.
    "Maybe it's in another legend," Sarah suggested.
    "That's a possibility, but that whole cabinet over there is full of disks with info on legends. It would take forever to look through them all," Mia said, rubbing her sore eyes.
    "Why don't you get some rest. In the morning, I'll help you look," Sarah said, pulling Mia from the computer.
    "Maybe you're right," Mia said, allowing her to leave the computer and follow Sarah out of the room.
    "I'll see you in the morning," Mia said as she headed into her room.
    "Night," Sarah replied as she headed into her own room.

    The next day was just as bright and happy as the day before had been, but with one small difference. The people out enjoying the serenity of the day were not concerned about it at all. They had other, darker things on their minds. Things that would not leave. Sarah, upon her word to Mia the night before, was helping up in the den.
    "How about this one?" Sarah asked, holding a set of disks.
    "No, that's his grade book for the past five years." Mia explained laughing.
    "Oh, I guess it would help if I could read it." Sarah said, a little embarrassed. They laughed the incident off and continued on their way. Kento yelled up to them to come down. They walked out of the house to find four people standing just beyond the woods.
    "Kayura, Dais, Sechmet, Kale. What are you doing here?" Mia asked.
    "Who are they?" Sarah whispered in Mia's ear.
    "Sarah, these are the warlords," Mia replied.
    "Do you know what's going on?" Ryo asked their former enemies.
    "She's the one," Kayura spoke out.
    "What are you talking about?" Sage asked.
    "The soldiers you encountered last night said they were looking for the lost armor," Kayura stated.
    "Yea, that's right," Rowen replied a bit sourly.
    "We know what the lost armor is," Kayura explained, walking closer to the surprised Ronins, "When the Ancient first = created the nine armors, a piece of each of the five Ronin armors separated itself from the armor," Kayura started
    "They then joined to form another armor," Sekhmet added.
    "The armor picked a wearer itself and that wearer created a virtue for it," Dais continued.
    "We believe that the armor has been passed down from that mortal to its descendants without any of them knowing about it," Kale finished.
    "Talpa found out about it when the nine armors were first combined, he did not live long enough to find it," Kayura stated.
    "Do you know where it is now?" Cye asked.
    "When we first arrived, no, but now we do. That girl is the wearer," Kayura answered, pointing at Sarah.
    "What!?" Sarah gasped, "Me?!"
    "Yes, you are the wearer of the lost armor," Kayura repeated.
    "Actually that makes sense. Last night the soldier said we had left the wearer unprotected. Then we heard Sarah and Mia scream. They know Sarah has the armor," Rowen stated.
    "Are you sure, Lady Kayura?" Mia asked.
    "We'll let the staff prove it," Kayura said, walking up to Sarah. Kayura held the staff above her head. Sarah covered her face, not knowing what to expect as the staff began to glow. Kayura focused all the light directly on Sarah. A brown mark appeared on her forehead. The mark then cleared up to reveal the virtue that connected her to the armor, the virtue of Honor. Sarah was then engulfed by the earth leaving only a mound where she was standing. The mound exploded and when the dust settled a warrior clad in armor stood in its place. The armor was similar to the Ronins, and was made just for her. It was an earthy brown, with twin katanas like Ryo's except they were placed over each shoulder, and on the helmet was the symbol of the armor, a gold circle with each of the five armor colors in it. The armor stayed for a minute then disappeared, letting Sarah fall to the ground. Mia was the first to her side followed by the others.
    "Is she going to be all right?" Cye asked.
    "She'll be fine. Torrent, take her somewhere to rest. Mia stay with her," Kale commanded. Cye took Sarah to the living room and returned outside.
    "Kayura, do you know who our new enemy is?" Ryo asked.
    "His name is Red Wing," Kayura answered.
    "He is more powerful then Talpa ever was," Sekhmet added.
    "He was banished from the Nether Realm just as Talpa took control. At first he was with Talpa, but then proved to be a traitor," Dais explained.
    "Talpa then banned him from the realm. He has stayed away until a few weeks ago when he somehow forced his way in," Kale finished.
    "We were not in the Nether Realm at the time and when we tried to return we found that we were unable to," Kayura said, "We found out that he was searching for the lost armor when we sensed the soldiers in other countries."
    "So, what do we do now?" Kento asked.
    "You have to teach her how to use the armor. If Red Wing gets a hold of it he will be able to control your armors as well. The lost armor, also known as the armor of the Earth is very powerful. You must guard it and protect its wearer." Kayura's voice echoed as she and the warlords disappeared.

Authors Notes

HI!! Well, I finally got around to revising and editing this thing! And thanks to my friend Ani for the help! THANKS!!! I plan on doing the others.... eventually.... Oi