I suppose there aren't too many people who, once they found a weird ball that turned into armor and might be part of a legend, would forget all about it for two and a half months. And probably once they remembered it, they'd go try to find out something about it.

Me, though... well...I'd only had it for a day, so it was kinda easy to forget about it, what with everything else that was going on. And once I remembered it, there wasn't much I could do to try and figure it out. I mean, yeah, once I found it again, I went to the library and looked up some legends, but that didn't help much. Japan has way too many legends about demons and samurai and justice, in various combinations, and none at all about balls that turn into armor (so far as I know). So that wasn't much help. I did write down everything I remembered about Grandfather's story, but nothing I ran into matched it and I was kinda wary about asking anyone else to help me with it. And, well, the more I thought about it, the more I doubted that finding the legend would do me much good. Sure, it'd tell me the story all over again, but it couldn't answer my questions about why I had it and what I was supposed to do with it. And as far as finding the other four, that was just out of my league. That was going to have to wait until I was at least old enough to drive. 

That was a logical assumption, right? That I wouldn't be needing to use the armor until I was grown. After all, the legend said the Warrior sought out men- you know, like adults?- to wear his magic armor, so it made sense that if any demons did invade, it wouldn't be until I was grown up.

Like making sense had anything to do with it...

I, um, did try doing some experiments on my own, but I didn't have a lot of time or opportunity to do that, and I think I kinda went about it the wrong way anyway. See, having the armor go away when I told it to gave me the idea that it was voice-activated, so whenever I got a chance to put it on, I tried giving it commands to see what it'd do. It was kinda frustrating that none of 'em worked, and eventually I basically ran out of test commands to give it. It did occur to me that maybe I was trying it in the wrong places- like maybe my bedroom wasn't exactly the right place to be telling it to fly- but since it was the middle of winter, getting outside while it was still light was kind of a challenge. Besides, there wasn't anywhere nearby that I could practice without the risk of being seen by someone, and I really didn't want to be seen. Even if no one recognized me, I didn't think getting attention would be wise. We really didn't need a media event. 

...Though actually, it might've made for good business at the restaurant for a while...but anyway.

As far as practicing in the house- well let me tell you, trying to experiment with magic armor when you live in a house with four curious siblings who're used to coming into your room pretty much any time they want to is reaaaallly hard on the nerves. The only time I really could do much was late at night, when everyone was asleep, and at that point I was usually asleep too, worn out from studying for five or six hours straight. Even when I was awake I was scared to do much, because I didn't want to make noise and wake someone, or everyone, up. I was also a little worried what would happen if the neighbors noticed bright orange light glowing through my windows. 

Ryo had it lucky, being off in the woods like he was!

So yeah, I didn't mess with it much. And like I said, I didn't think there was any rush. I had plenty of time to finish growing up, go off to university, get some privacy and do some serious research and experimenting. I did get into the habit of carrying it around with me- didn't feel quite right if I didn't- and I noticed the effect it had of making me faster and stronger, which I thought was excellent. But I didn't learn much more about it until I met Cye, which didn't happen until I was about to turn thirteen and wondering what high-schools to apply for.

It seemed like (another) amazing coincidence at the time... but these days I side with Rowen. There's no such animal as coincidence. There are, however, such things as miracles. Cye proved that the day I met him by giving me and my family one that we can't repay if we tried for a billion years...

But more about that later.