Kyren carefully made her way up the stairs, testing each step with her foot to make sure she didn’t stumble. She kept meaning to put some no-skid strips down on the worn industrial carpeting, but wasn’t sure they’d hold and in fact had been debating the notion of ripping the carpet out entirely. It reminded her entirely too much of the office, was harsh on skin, held stains and odors like she wouldn’t have believed, and was a boring shade of off-white-ish-gray. The only thing it had going for it was that it was easy to vacuum. But the wood underneath would be easier to manage; it could simply be swept, and with two cats shedding buckets, that was no minor advantage.

She reached the top, slightly breathless, and maneuvered the awkward laundry basket around the corner of the hall, wondering whatever had possessed her to get a rectangular basket instead of a simple round one-

“EEEYYYOOWWW!” The screech echoed through the quiet house; the basket of clean clothes landed with a thud on the hall floor and Kyren landed with a louder thud behind it. “Ow!” the woman hollered again, reaching for her right foot. Twisting her leg, she stared in disbelief at the bottom of her moccasin. A peculiar, sticklike …thing was poking out from the bottom of the sole; wrenching it loose, Kyren slipped off the soft leather shoe and regarded the small bloody spot on her sock with a scowl.

“What the devil?” she muttered, glancing at the thing that had skewered her arch. It was about pencil thick, four or five inches long, made of some sort of black metal, and resembled a staff. But most staffs she’d seen didn’t have spikes all over them, or knife-blades at one end, nor spiked maces at the other. More to the point, it wasn’t hers. Not that it wasn’t a rather interesting weapon, in its way, but definitely not part of her collection. So where-?

A metallic pinging caught her attention, and Kyren looked down in time to see a figure appear around the left edge of the upended laundry basket. Her eyes widened as she regarded what appeared to be a miniaturized suit of orange and black armor, topped by a helmet with horns sticking out of it. Horns… “I was closer than I realized,” she murmured ruefully. The figure halted a few feet away in a wary stance and the helmet angled back, revealing a pale oval beneath. A face.

Kyren stared at the face for a moment, reaching the inescapable conclusion that this was not some automated toy or sophisticated remote-controlled device. Whatever was under that metal was a living creature- a humanoid one- and it was scowling at her. Narrowed eyes shifted to the weapon in her hand, and a moment later a weird tingling began in her fingers. Startled again, the woman looked over- and squawked in shock as the weapon lit up with an orange glow. Suddenly numb fingers released the metal stick, which clattered to the floor near the figure’s feet; the figure lunged, snatched up the weapon, whirled it around, and pointed the end at her with a shout.

Kyren, prudently, ducked. Something bright flashed past her ear and banged against the wall on her right, and when she cautiously looked up, there was a cracked depression in the plaster, as though someone had punched their fist into it. “Why you little-!” she gasped indignantly, and whipped around to face the apparition. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, you- you- you overachieving action figure?!” she demanded in her best ‘outraged’ voice.

There was a momentary silence. The figure cocked its head in apparent puzzlement, and a moment later, slowly lowered the staff. Straightening up, it reached up a tiny armored hand and pulled the helmet off. With this encumbrance gone, Kyren was able to discern that the figure was a young-seeming male, his mussed black hair held back with a gold headband (helmet hair, she thought inanely), and his dark-blue eyes filled with uneasy confusion. “Overachieving what?” he returned in a small but clear voice.

Kyren decided she didn’t feel like repeating herself, especially not in light of the suspicion that was creeping through her mind. “What in the world are you and what are you doing in my house?” she asked in reply, drawing herself up with as much authority and dignity as her awkward position on the floor would allow. “And WHY did you stick that thing into my foot?”

“Uh…” The youth seemed at a loss suddenly, glancing down at the iron staff as though suspecting it of making mischief behind his back. “Well, you were about to step on me!”

“I beg your pardon,” Kyren returned, coldly and with a certain amount of sarcasm. “I didn’t see you over the laundry, and I had no reason to think anyone but me was here. Which brings me back to my first questions.”

The figure seemed to deflate suddenly. “I’m Kento,” was the dispirited answer. “Kento of Hardrock, and I didn’t mean- uh, I don’t know how I got here. My friends and I were fighting Talpa in the Nether Realm and he sent some supercharged Nether spirits after us and the next thing I knew, I was here. I was looking for the others, and I thought maybe you were Talpa in another form, or one of his goons.”

Kyren sat quite still for a moment, digesting that slew of disorganized information. Kento of Hardrock. Talpa. Nether Realm, spirits… Impossible, but there he was, and there was the result of the Iron Rock Crusher in the cracks on the wall. So. There was a miniaturized Ronin Warrior, weapon included, in her hall; what was she going to do about it?

“I guess that didn’t make a lot of sense,” Kento observed.

“More than you might think,” Kyren replied absently. “Look, let me get a little organized here and then we’ll see… ow,” she added inadvertently as she stood, and frowned down at her foot.

“Uh, sorry about your foot,” Kento said meekly.

Kyren righted the basket and shoved the clothes back into it. “A scratch,” she replied more mildly. “I’m glad I wasn’t barefoot, though.”

“Yyyeah- um, so, who’re you and where am I? You said this’s your house? And how come you speak American? Are you a- you’re not a demon, are you?”

Kyren paused, regarding the little figure with a mix of amusement, sympathy, and a touch of awe. He sounded so confused, and had every right to be. “No, I’m not a demon, I’m human-”

“You can’t be human!”

“Why not?”

“Well you’re- you’re-” Kento gestured vaguely.

“Too big? How d’you know you’re not too small? I’m assuming you’re not some breed of elf, of course… a leprechaun, perhaps? But no, they wear green,” the woman mused, unable to resist despite her sympathy. She owed him something for freaking her out like that, at the very least.

“I- but…aw, man. I’m human, and I’m from Earth; how can you be human, too?”

“This is Earth,” Kyren replied cheerfully, and stood up with the basket in her hands. “Let me just put this in the bedroom, ok?” she asked the slack-jawed boy, and walked down the hall without waiting for a reply. It looked like it might take him a while to get an answer together anyway.

When she rejoined Kento a few minutes later, Kyren noticed at once that he had banished his armor and weapon and was now in the colloquially-named ‘subarmor’ of white and orange. He was leaning against the wall near the bathroom door, and didn’t look up at her approach, staring instead at the basement steps opposite him. “Something wrong?” she asked, crouching down so he wouldn’t have to shout to make himself heard.

Kento pointed; Kyren looked to where her small, gray-black cat sat on the steps, regarding the Ronin with large green eyes. “Oh, that’s Rascal; she won’t do anything. She’s the biggest coward in catdom. I call her the scaredy-cat, when I’m not calling her a chicken with fur.”

Kento relaxed and managed a smile. “Glad to hear it. I was worried she’d think I was edible and try to test it out.” Then he grew serious again. “So- you said this is Earth?”

“This is Earth,” Kyren confirmed. “Third planet from Sol, neighbor to Mars and Venus. One dead moon, several holes in the ozone layer, potential target for the Greenhouse Effect…you’re presently in the U.S. -the state of Virginia, to be a bit more precise.”

“I’m in America?” Kento blinked up at her. “It sure wasn’t like this the last time I was here. New York,” he added at Kyren’s curious glance. “A couple years ago- visiting my uncle. I live in Japan.”

Kyren nodded. “I suspect,” she said slowly, “that Talpa’s sent you to an alternate Earth, a completely different dimension, figuring you would run into a lot of trouble here. Most people haven’t heard of you or your friends, to start with; and then there’s the height issue.”

“Ah, yeah,” Kento agreed wryly, glancing over at the motionless cat again. “I could see myself ending up in a cage, in some zoo or lab…but you, you have heard of us?”

Kyren paused. This was going to be tricky, and he probably wasn’t going to like it much. Plus, it didn’t seem likely to assist him in getting back to his own Earth. But he did deserve an explanation, and maybe he’d be glad to know there was a world where the Dynasty was nonexistent. “I have heard of the Ronin Warriors,” she said slowly. “And I know others who have, too- I met them on the Internet. So I know what you mean by Talpa and Nether Spirits and your armor and all. But I never expected to meet any of you. You see, on this Earth, you don’t, technically, exist.”

Kento frowned. “How could you know about us, if….oh, you mean, we’re like a legend? A myth? Maybe this is the future?”

“Uh, I wouldn’t say a legend or myth, no,” Kyren replied, almost apologetically. “It probably is somewhat in your future, though. The Dynasty showed up, in your personal timeline, in 1988-89, right?”

“Right…”

“And, that’s when people in this dimension’s Japan started learning about you. It didn’t happen here in America till about 1993. …I’m confusing you, aren’t I?”

“Majorly.” Kento sat down on the floor, draping his arms over his knees. “If we’re not a legend and we don’t exist, how could anyone hear of us?”

Kyren bit her lip for a moment. “Television,” she explained. “In 1989, a Japanese TV company- Sunrise/Bandai- began airing a show about you all. In 1993, it crossed the ocean and came to America- and other countries, too. It found a certain popularity, and as Internet use spread- well, you must know how people will make websites about things they enjoy.”

“Television?” Kento repeated, very slowly. “Websites…television…like a TV movie, or like- aw, no. Are you tryin’ to tell me they made a cartoon about us?”

For some obscure reason, Kyren felt her face turn red. “Well, anime. Yes.”

“Oh, an anime, what a relief,” the boy muttered ironically. “No wonder you said-” He stopped. “Action figures?” he asked a moment later, almost pleadingly.

“I’m afraid so. And manga.”

“Manga? Like, official or doujinshi?”

“Um, what’s the difference?”

“Doujinshi is unofficial, fan-based…fans who have the means to publish their stuff and get permission to,” Kento replied. “There’s usually a lot of parodies and off-track stories- stuff that never happened in the original version.”

“Oh. Well, both, then.”

“Ah.” Kento sighed and lapsed into silence for a moment or two. “Anime,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Now there’s a letdown. Bad enough people don’t remember us saving the world a couple times, but then you find out that you’re nothin’ but a cartoon creation- that’s not too good for the ego. Thanks a lot, you tin-plated bully…” He looked up with a sour smile. “Guess I shouldn’t complain, though; at least it means you know who I am! That is, if your…show is at all accurate.”

“That is a bit of a question,“ Kyren agreed, struck by the thought. “Well, my version says your five armors are aligned with virtues and elements, and the warlords’ four are aligned with negative…um, aspects- cruelty, corruption, deception and venom- and are season-oriented. The Ancient One- or has he got a name?”

“Yeah, but it’s more polite to give him his title,” Kento explained, plainly interested.

“He made- no, formed- the armors about a thousand- maybe a thousand and fifteen now- years ago. Talpa tried to invade Earth, and almost succeeded, but the Ancient One killed his physical form and drove him back into the Nether Realm. But Talpa left his armor behind to stink up the world with evil and make it easier for him to come back some day, so the Ancient divided it up and added the virtues to it. But then Talpa corrupted- now did he corrupt the armor, or the men who wore it?”

“As far as we know, he did both at once,” the boy replied, sitting up straight. “It’s hard to get the Ancient One to stick around long enough to answer questions. I mean,” he added, his face falling, “it was.”

“Then he’s- he did-” Kyren paused. “Die?”

“You know about that, too?”

“Well- let me give you the whole outline. When Talpa showed up, you all got scattered all over Japan and had to locate each other.”

“True. Boy, what fun that was,” the boy growled.

“Then after you got together again, you entered the part of the city that was under Dynasty control and had a run-in with Dais… and got separated again… and met up again… and ran into uber Anubis,” Kyren recited, noting the Ronin’s nods.

“Ugh, yeah.”

“I‘m leaving a lot of details out, of course.”

“Just as well.” Kento frowned. “Bad memories.”

“I can imagine. So then the Ancient talked to Anubis and pretty much persuaded him to switch sides. The other Warlords captured him, though, and the Ancient fought Talpa and used all his energy to make the connection to the castle. The rest of it was pretty much fighting. Fighting the Warlords, fighting Talpa, Talpa absorbing the armors, Anubis fighting with Ryo, Ryo fighting alone, a lull while the Ancient’s spirit explained some things, and finally Inferno. That was the end of the first season, the defeat of Talpa, and the series was originally intended to end there. But it was so popular that the producers changed their minds, changed the ending, and ran it for another season.” Kyren paused, taking a deep breath.

“Hmm. Just out of curiosity, what was the ending they changed?” Kento asked rather warily.

“That I don’t know and would hate to guess. Too many animes end like Fatal Fury.”

“Oh, you mean like when Sulia stabs herself to weaken Laocorn so Terry can free him from the Mars armor, and she dies, and then Laocorn sacrifices himself to save Andy and Mai from the Mars armor that’s all of a sudden acting on its own…?”

“Exactly like that.”

“Yeah, way to make a sacrifice meaningless.” Kento rolled his eyes. “Might just as well have killed Laocorn and kept Sulia alive instead. Anyway, so you’re saying it mighta been a self-sacrifice thing?”

“It might. But it wasn’t, so that worked out well,” Kyren asserted, smiling. “The second season started with a bunch of unsavory Dynasty-types trying to get their paws on the White Armor, Ryo’s wildfire swords breaking, the quest for the Fervor swords, and then some very ill-timed advice on the Ancient One’s part that ended in a lot of running around for Ryo and Rowen, and somewhat less activity for the rest of you.”

“Oh…that,” the small figure responded in disgust. “That was- yeah, very badly-timed advice. Talpa actually got one foot on Earth, in a manner of speaking-”

“The Tower of Pain.”

“Yep. And I guess you know what Ryo did.”

“That couldn’t have been a lot of fun,” Kyren reflected. “Interesting, though, don’t you think?”

“Interesting? What’s so interesting about combining yourself with an evil demon and telling your friends to hack you to pieces- and having them do it?” Kento inquired, an edge in his voice.

“Interesting because it’s just the opposite of what happened the first- ah, first time. Talpa absorbed you all and you told Ryo to ‘take his best shot’, to quote someone… but he wouldn’t do it. Then the second time, he went into Talpa’s armor himself and paralyzed him- and told you all to do exactly what he wouldn’t do the first time: destroy Talpa, no matter what it did to him.”

Kento’s eyes widened and one metal-covered hand drifted up to rub his cheek. “You know, I never thought about that,” he murmured. “I think when I get back, me and Ryo are just gonna have a liiitle talk about this.”

“Oh dear, have I gotten him into trouble?” Kyren asked, amused.

“You may have,” Kento agreed with a smile. “’Specially once I tell the others. …So that was it? Bang, chop Talpa up, Jewel of Life kicks in and we all go home?”

“Essentially! There were some OAV’s later, but it took them a while to get to the U.S., and even longer to get translated ones. The one about the Black Inferno was particularly action oriented, from all I hear.”

“Black Inferno?” Kento repeated, bewildered. “What, did the Warlords learn how to make a counter-Inferno?”

“That would make the most sense, so no, that’s not what they did,” Kyren explained, then paused. “Does that mean Kayura and the Warlords remained evil? In the series, they realized they were being used and abandoned Talpa…”

“We’re not really sure what went on with them,” Kento admitted. “They said they’d work on the side of good, but we haven’t seen or heard from ‘em since, and now that Talpa’s returned- the creep’s got more lives than a cat!”

“Ah.” Kyren rubbed her forehead, considering. “Well, I’m a little hazy on the Black Inferno, but the Kikoutei Densetsu story goes into the history of the Inferno armors, black and white. Apparently they both originated in Africa. The power of the Ancient’s armors allowed you guys to call up, if not exactly control, the White Armor, and some kid in Africa, Mukara, found and fell under the influence of the Black one. The armors sought each other out, meaning to destroy the other, or both of them, or the planet if necessary. The White Inferno was influencing the elemental armors, apparently, just like the Black was influencing the kid Mukara, so everyone really wanted to fight. But you all realized that all the fighting was accomplishing was more destruction, so you took control back and used your armors to wipe out both the Infernos…which destroyed the Ancient’s armors in the process.”

“Good grief,” was the somewhat bemused response from the orange-armored Ronin.

“Alongside all that was Hariel- an American invention. Seems he was the first wearer of Inferno, a demon who fought his own kind to help humans, so your armors called up his armor during the fight against Talpa. And maybe him as well, he was said to sort of haunt the Inferno.”

“Sheesh!” Kento shook his head. “Why do people need to make simple things so complicated? We combine our powers; we create the Inferno. Ryo’s the strongest, so he uses it best, and fire’s more effective against demons than water or air or rock. Though you won’t hear me saying that often.”

Kyren laughed. “There is a bit of a debate about that,” she agreed. “Who’s stronger- Hardrock or Wildfire.”

“Really? Cool!” Kento grinned. “Who knows, maybe I’ll win… Sounds like your series fits us pretty well, from what you’ve said so far. Have they got the elements and virtues right, too?”

“I feel like I’m taking a quiz,” Kyren remarked, smiling. “Why don’t you do some of the talking for a while?”

“Oh! Sure, no problem. Uh- well, ok, you got Hardrock right so you get an automatic A,” the boy replied with a twinkle, and Kyren laughed quietly. “In Japanese it’s Kongo, meaning diamond if you take it literally- the hardest rock there is. And my virtue’s gi-”

“Justice, only I thought that was something one wore to practice martial arts in.”

“Both. Kinda fitting, really.”

“I could make a pun about fitting,” Kyren observed. “But I won’t.”

“Thank you so much. Puns are obnoxious. …Right, so then Ryo’s got Wildfire, Rekka, and he’s jin.” Kento paused, shifting position to stretch his legs out before him. “That’s better. For armor, it’s pretty comfortable, right up until you get an itch,” he observed wryly.

“That would be maddening,” Kyren murmured. “So what exactly is jin? I’ve seen it as virtue, righteousness…”

“It’s….not easy to translate.” Kento scratched his head thoughtfully. “Virtuous works pretty well, righteous makes him sound kinda like self-righteous, which he isn’t… pure of heart… basically it’s goodness. Talpa’s the heart of evil; Ryo’s the heart of good.” The boy snorted good-naturedly. “Not to hear him tell it, though; ‘cording to him, he’s really just an ordinary person.”

“Ah, humility,” Kyren said wisely. “Refusing to think he’s better than anyone else, because that way lies arrogance…which is definitely not good.”

“No,” Kento agreed, more thoughtfully. “No, you’re right, there’s something to that. Anyway, so Ryo’s good… Sage is Korin-”

“Korin gets translated as Nimbus,” Kyren observed. “But in American, he’s called Sage of Halo. And originally his virtue was…oh yeah, rei. But when he got here, they gave him wisdom.”

“Rei?” Kento’s brow wrinkled in puzzlement. “Why would they give him courtesy?”

“Well, not so much as being courteous as in…putting other people ahead of oneself. Thinking of someone else, first, and tolerating some awkwardness or inconvenience- or perhaps worse- for their sake.”

“Oh. Well, yeah, he does that, sometimes, but we all do,” Kento shrugged. “At any rate, he’s wisdom, and that goes perfectly with his element, light.”

“And since when is ‘light’ an element?”

“Yeah. We’ve wondered that ourselves, sometimes. An element like earth, air, fire and water- a fifth would have been something in the line of physical, like physical versus spirit. Which mighta been a big help against the Nether Spirits! But light works a lot better against Kale’s darkness, and Talpa’s, and they’re a lot worse than Nether Spirits and Soldiers. So we figure the Ancient knew what he was doin’.”

“And why green?” Kyren persisted. “Why not white? Light is white…then the Inferno could have been yellow, since yellow flame is hotter than red flame, and then there wouldn’t be any of this Black vs. White Inferno business.”

Kento blinked, then broke up laughing. “You’ve got this all figured out, haven’t you!”

“Uh, well-” the woman blushed suddenly, grinning. “I guess I have. It just makes so much more sense, you know?”

“It does make some sense, but I think the Ancient made it green to represent growth. Sunlight makes things grow, so there’s green; darkness kills them and they turn ugly brown, like Kale’s armor.”

“Ohhh! I didn’t even think of that. It’s like…it’s like it’s a larger symbol for natural things, not the unnatural Dynasty forces…”

“Now you got it,” Kento agreed, smiling.

“Ok, I’ll give up on the Yellow Inferno...yellow was Anubis’, anyway. Though he woulda made a pretty good gray. But anyway, then there’s the blue two.”

“Rowen has air, Tenku as we’d say it. With the force of life.”

“And we call that Strata, for stratosphere-”

“That’s not quite right, though, he’s Ronin of all the air, not just one band of the atmosphere,” Kento protested. “That’s like calling me Kento of Slate.”

Kyren bit back an attack of the giggles. “For what it’s worth, I agree with you, but there just aren’t that many superlatives of air.”

“Super-?”

“Like how Ryo isn’t just ‘fire’, he’s Wildfire. And you’re not just an ordinary rock, you’re an especially hard rock. That sounded bad, didn’t it?” the woman added after a moment.

“Uh, no comment,” the Ronin answered, red suddenly tingeing his face. “But I think I see what you mean.”

“So just saying ‘wind’ or ‘air’ doesn’t cut it, and ‘atmosphere’ takes too long and sounds too dull. Rowen of atmosphere? Sounds like a weather reporter.”

Kento chuckled, his blush abating. “You have a point,” he agreed.

“Originally, Rowen was the one with Wisdom, but when they gave that to Sage, they gave Rowen Life. Some think that’s not much of a virtue, but it does counter the Dynasty’s penchant for destruction and death- and the Nether Spirits,” Kyren observed.

“That’s about how we look at it,” Kento agreed. “The Dynasty’s so hung up on death and destroying and sacrificing people, we kinda need a life force around.” He paused, grimacing, then went on: “And then there’s Cye, of Suiko, which is a really obscure water-related term. These days, it usually means polishing something, and I’m not sure, but that might come from the sea polishing stones and pieces of glass and stuff.” Kento paused. “Don’t hold me to that, ok?”

“Ok,” Kyren replied amiably. “We call it Torrent. And he’s shin- Trust, right?”

“Trust, or faith, or a lot of different things really. Mostly having to do with heart and feelings.”

“Ah, that’s right, they did translate it to Faith once. …Is it really his name?”

“Yeah, it- hey, how’d you- don’t tell me they know that, too!”

“I wondered if the names would be right or not,” Kyren mused. “Shu Rei-fan, that’s you, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Shin Mouri is Cye… Seiji Date is Sage…Touma Hashiba is Rowen… and Ryo’s Ryo. Sanada.”

“Man, this is gettin’ kinda creepy,” Kento declared, his smile fading. “I mean, getting our armor right is one thing, but knowin’ our real names? Weird!”

“I suppose what happens in one dimension overlaps into another in some way. Figures it would be accurate, since it’s a real thing. It’s just a lot more real to you than it is to us,” Kyren speculated, and for a moment, the woman and her tiny guest were silent.

“Wonder why Ryo’s the same on both sides?” Kento asked after a little while.

“I wonder that, too. Though they pronounce him differently in the OAV’s- they call him ‘Rio’, like Spanish for river.” Kyren snorted. “And they gave Rowen back the Wisdom and Sage the Courtesy, or Grace, they call it sometimes. I guess that’s a sign that those don’t accurately reflect your world.”

“Maybe so.” Kento shook his head distractedly. “Rio, huh?”

“I think they were trying to pronounce it Japanese style. Funny thing is, the rest of you all kept your English names- talk about discrepancies.”

“I dunno which is stranger,” the Ronin admitted, looking up with a rueful smile. “The similarities, or the differences.”

“It is odd, isn’t it?” Kyren agreed sympathetically, and decided a brief recess might be in order. The kid was looking overwhelmed. Stretching her arms over her head, she remarked, “Hmmm… I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling like I could eat something.”

“Hm? Oh! You know, now that you mention it…” Kento got to his feet eagerly, then quickly backed up as the cat- apparently as sensitive to the mention of food as their visitor- trotted up the basement stairs and meowed loudly. Kento retreated even further and Kyren heard him mutter something about White Blaze under his breath, though she didn’t quite get the gist of the comparison. “May I offer you a lift?” she asked diffidently, extending her hand, and was not terribly surprised when Kento promptly hopped into her palm.

“Thanks,” he said as she walked the few paces down the hall, moving slowly so as not to overbalance him. “At this size, there’s no such thing as a short distance. Or a small cat.”

Kyren nodded and placed her hand on the counter so he could scramble down. Then she opened the refrigerator and began rummaging.

A few minutes later, the cat was deep in a can of tuna and the humans were munching stacked sandwiches of ham, cheese and lettuce. Kento’s sandwich was more improvisation than actual, but he seemed to enjoy it immensely. Finding something for him to drink from had been a challenge, though, until Kyren unscrewed the lid from her bottle of water and filled it with soda for him. It looked more like a bowl in his hands than a cup, but as he said, it was a great deal better than trying to use an ordinary glass. For a while they ate in silence.

“You mentioned White Blaze,” Kyren said suddenly, her memory returning to the mention of the tiger; “is it true that he was part of the Mystic clan and sort of led the Ancient to Ryo?” Kento nearly choked and for a moment Kyren contemplated the practicality of trying to pat him on the back. Rather than make the experiment, though, she settled for steadying the water-top so he could take a few sips.

“What did you say?” the young Ronin finally asked when his coughing fit subsided.

“There’s a couple different theories on how Ryo got such a companion,” Kyren amplified. “Some say Blaze showed up now and again while Ryo was growing up- at significant years, I mis-remember which ones now. And that he- White Blaze- was the Ancient’s companion before that and sort of led the Ancient to Ryo, to train him for the armor.”

Kento stared for a moment, then shook his head. “ Someone’s meowing up the wrong tree,” he observed dryly. “Blaze isn’t human, and isn’t immortal, either. ’Sides, if the Ancient had trained Ryo, he would have known all about the armor and we wouldn’t have needed Mia to tell us anything. Not to mention not needing to go on those vision quests.”

“Good point, although, considering how quiet the Ancient was on the matter, I always figured it was just sword training and armor-summoning.”

“Yeah, but Ryo’s family was- is- a ninja clan. His grandparents and father left the clan, but Ryo still learned how to use swords. ’Cause they needed to be able to defend themselves in case someone took offense at their leaving,” Kento explained. “That’s probably why they picked such a remote area to live in, so they couldn’t be found too easy.”

“Ohhh. You know, I wondered if it was like that. Like here, the Mob- if you leave the Mob, you’re marked, because they can’t have former ‘family’ running around loose with all kinds of trade secrets.”

“Yeah, like that. And there’s a matter of honor, too. Some people take that a little too seriously, and anything that looks like betrayal is punished with death. Used to be, I mean; that doesn’t happen much anymore, but it was something for Ryo’s family to think about. And that might be why his father gave him White Blaze; you couldn’t ask for a better bodyguard.” Kento nibbled on a fragment of ham; it looked a significant chunk, in his small hand. “I never really asked him about it,” he mused. “He just said his father gave him the cub when he was young and they kinda grew up together. There was so much other weird stuff going on that the time that having a tiger around didn’t seem too major.”

“I see,” Kyren smiled. She took a sip of water, then asked, grinning, “And do you all really call Mia, ‘nasty’?”

Kento laughed. “Sometimes. We usually call her Mia, but when she gets into bossy mode, it’s Nasti. She’s really got two names, Mia Koji when she’s in France with her mother’s family, and Yagyu Nasutei in Japan, with her father’s folks.”

“I see,” Kyren repeated. “That must keep life interesting, if she travels much.”

“She does. She says that’s why she keeps us around, to take care of her house while she’s away.”

“Ah, now there’s a sensible plan. Five live-in housekeepers!” Kyren grinned as Kento rolled his eyes, then cocked her head questioningly. “But you all have two names…except Ryo.”

“Well, you could call them aliases,” Kento replied almost sheepishly. “So we don’t give away our real identities. Some of us, as you might guess, were feeling more imaginative than others. Sage and Ryo basically just changed their pronunciation.”

“Oh. Interesting. They used your …aliases in the American version, and your real names in the original-”

“They did? Aw, crap! That’s-”

“On TV,” Kyren reminded him. “I mean, on the DVDs.”

Kento blinked a few times. “On- oh, on TV. Right. I knew that.” He paused as Kyren giggled quietly. “I did, I just forgot for a second! …DVDs?”

“Oh, yes. There’s several versions, in fact. There’s individual DVDs, ten of them, that have the TV seasons on them. Eight each; four American version episodes on one side and the same four Japanese- with or without subtitles, as you prefer- on the other side.”

“Double-sided DVD’s?” Kento sounded impressed. “What won’t they think of next? So there’s forty episodes?”

“Well, thirty-nine. The last one only has three per side. No real extras, either- that was in the days before extras were so popular.”

“I’m surprised they got to DVD at all,” Kento stated, frowning slightly. “Isn’t that unusual?”

Kyren shook her head. “Everything goes to DVD, these days. Some just take a bit longer than others. …So there were the ten individual ones, and then there were two complete collection sets. One’s a bootleg and not entirely complete; it’s usually missing one of the OAVs, and sometimes the subtitles are messed up. The other one is a genuinely complete complete, it has everything. But it costs twice as much as the incomplete complete.”

“You’re making me dizzy,” Kento complained, putting down the piece of ham he’d been holding. Then he recoiled as the cat leapt up onto the stool beside the counter and regarded him with very interested eyes. “Uh, hello.”

“Down, you.” Kyren snapped her fingers twice and the cat promptly thudded back to the floor with a protesting meow. “She adores ham,” the woman explained, taking up a slice and pulling off pieces. She tossed them at the feline, who snapped them neatly out of the air and gulped them down. “I spoil her rotten, too.”

“Looks to me like you’ve trained her.” was Kento’s rather awed reply. “I’ve never seen a cat respond to snapping before.”

Kyren smiled. “Me, either- it was sheer happenstance, and I took advantage of it.” Silence fell in the kitchen, except for the rustling as Kyren wrapped up the food and put it back in the refrigerator.

“What was that you were saying about a missing OAV?” Kento asked after Kyren sat back down on her stool. “I mean, you mentioned the African one, but what was the other?”

“Well, the first question is whether there were two or three,” Kyren began. “The first was called Gaiden-”

“That mean New Legend,” Kento observed. “I thought legends were old, by definition…”

Kyren nodded. “It often gets translated as New Adventures. ‘Gaiden’ usually gets assigned to the first story, which is about Sage getting captured by a spirit-sorcerer and a mad scientist who want- of all things- to use his armor-”

“It’s always about the armor, isn’t it,” Kento sighed.

“Yep. In that one, they drugged Sage up and induced a bunch of nightmares; the Halo armor responded to that and killed a lot of people before the rest of you found him. They’d analyzed your armor, too, but they hadn’t completed the process, so hadn’t figured out the Inferno yet… conclusion inescapable. But in the process, a girl who was trying to help out- in revenge for her brother’s death- got killed and everyone was very sad. Luna, her name was- a New Yorker. She and Ryo kinda- well, she liked him a lot and he kinda liked her. So-”

“Luna,” Kento repeated. “Nope, never met her. It’s funny how many Lunas are out there, when you think about it. There’s one in Gravion- and there’s the cat in Sailor Moon-”

“Don’t tell me you watch that!” Kyren exclaimed.

“Uh, no. No, I don’t,” Kento said quickly. “So the first OAV is the New Legend?”

Kyren eyed him for a moment, then smiled. “Well, that’s where the confusion is. Does ‘new adventures’ refer just to the mad scientist one, or does it mean both that and the Black Inferno? And if it means both, why didn’t they title the first one ‘Shikaisen’ or something, after the evil spirit?”

“Maybe they thought it was too hard to pronounce…”

“Whereas Kikoutei Densetsu just rolls right off the tongue,” Kyren joked.

“Well, that’s a point,” Kento agreed, shaking his head. “So, Shikaisen, then Black Inferno…strike two…”

The woman laughed. “They all take place in sequence, of course, just like the show. So after the armor gets obliterated in Kikoutei, everyone kinda goes their own way, to live normal lives.”

Kento frowned. “Goes their own way? Not very likely, even if we did lose the armor,” he declared. “It’s not like we hang out just because we all have armor- we don’t need armor to be friends!”

“A lot of people feel that way about it. The rationalization is that being together made everyone’s memories harder to deal with, but I don’t buy that.”

“No way.” Kento shook his head positively. “Not after helpin’ each other deal with all the fallout from the Dynasty Wars.” The Ronin paused, his expression turning unusually pensive. “It helps, knowing there’s a bunch of buddies around who know exactly how freaked you’re feeling and why… We go off and do our own thing now and again- we’re not like connected at the shoulders or anything- but we always come back. We want to. And it’s not like we could tell anyone else about it, we’re all kinda isolated from our families now. So we keep each other going. We tried to split, we’d probably have nervous breakdowns before a month was out.”

Kyren nodded gravely. “Dividing would just make everything worse, quite aside from making you all very good individual targets for anything else that happened to come along.”

“That, too.” Kento grimaced. “So this…?”

“It’s called Message, by the way… Anyway, what happens is, some sort of otherworld mischief seems to be stirring; Rowen goes alone to check it out, sends Ryo a package, and then disappears. When Ryo gets the package, he gets everyone together and things get complicated. The otherworldly mischief is a restless three- or four-hundred year old spirit, Suzunagi, whose mother had visions of the Dynasty war and whose father took those visions and made them into a play. The daimyo of their village was angered at what he saw as an attempt to stir up rebellion, so he sent out his forces; the mother died saving her daughter from a fire, and the father was executed. So the girl blamed the armors, and the Ancient for letting them loose in the world. How she became a ghost, I don’t know, but apparently she was a very powerful one; she tried to stop the Ancient from sending the armors to you, and almost succeeded.”

“This sounds unnecessarily complicated,” Kento remarked as Kyren paused to drink some water.

“Truly. Well, fast forward a bit to the present day: the armors were destroyed, but that wasn’t enough for Suzunagi. After being a hate-filled ghost for a couple centuries, she wanted not so much peace as oblivion, but the only thing that could do that was the Inferno. And of course that was out of the question. Unless.”

“Ah, the unless,” the Ronin murmured wisely. “Unless?”

“Unless she persuaded you all to take up the new armors that she had created. But to do that, she first had to get you all to admit that you still had some of the old power left, and get rid of it to make way for the new. Getting you to admit it didn’t take much effort; you all knew quite well that the armor had left its mark on you and you could still do things ordinary people couldn’t. After so long, it obviously wasn’t going to go away. But persuading you to take new armor and agree that you had to be Ronins for the rest of your lives- that was trickier. So right after you all met up to discuss Rowen’s disappearance, she got to work. She’d already tricked Rowen into accepting the armor, by appealing to his compassion. You’d all sort of felt that; you still had your mental bonds and were having some unpleasant dreams about him trying to fight the armor off but being taken up by it.”

Kento was frowning. “Heavy-duty intense,” he remarked quietly.

Kyren nodded. “It was definitely character-driven, as they say, not action-adventure. …Anyway, she went after Cye next, then you, then Sage, and finally Ryo. Mostly, I think, because she needed Ryo’s loyalty to the rest of you to kick into overload.” She paused for a moment. “She was really brutal to Cye, emotionally- putting him in a vision where he had to choose: either he abandoned his reluctance to fight and took up the armor to help her, or she would sacrifice herself to give him the ‘normal’ life he wanted so much.”

A deep scowl crossed Kento’s face and he sat up very straight, his fists clenching. “Why, that- that witch!”

“Of course, he couldn’t have had a ‘normal’ life anyway,” Kyren pointed out. “Not with the Torrent power still strong inside him.”

“Maybe not, but-” Kento broke off and growled something in Japanese. “That was no choice,” he added grimly. “Cye would never let anyone be harmed for his sake.”

“No. She was pretty ruthless; he seemed to know what she was doing, but couldn’t understand why he was worth the effort.” Kyren paused, reflecting. “He finally realized it was simply the armor that made him special- that having used it, he could use hers. Otherwise she wouldn’t have bothered. And he didn’t want to be special because of his armor, he wanted to be special for just being Cye- yet he wanted to live a normal, ordinary life. Can’t have it both ways; you have to be either ordinary, or extra-ordinary. And he knew he’d never be ordinary, not with the Torrent power still inside him. He didn’t really have to choose, he just had to be honest with himself- no matter how little he liked it.”

Kento’s frown lightened somewhat. “There’s a point there, but it’s still a wicked thing to do to somebody!”

“Definitely. But that was Suzunagi; she was so wrapped up in her hate and despair, she didn’t care if she inflicted pain on anyone. In fact, she seemed to take some satisfaction from it. The kind of person who kicks a dog and feels better.”

The little Ronin muttered another curse in Japanese. “So she got Cye.”

“He accepted what he was, and didn’t fight her armor. You were next, and you had much the same reservation that Rowen had. He fought the new armor because he was afraid of what it might do. The old armor might not have been ideal, but you all knew and understood it, and you had some idea what was in store for you when you used to. With her new armor, you were basically starting at square one, and anything might happen. Rowen feared the change, feared that Suzunagi’s hate would have infected her armors the way Talpa’s evil infected his. You were less concerned about that, but you resisted because you were concerned about the new power. Kikoutei had been capable of destroying the Earth, if used right, and that was only five out of nine. There was no telling what this new stuff would do, but to destroy a ghost almost as powerful as the Ancient himself…”

Kento was nodding slowly. “Good points, both of them. Sometimes if it ain’t broke, you don’t need to upgrade it. And there mighta been any kinds of little side-effect things she wasn’t telling us about. Like maybe using her version of Inferno would wipe us out with her- and maybe half the planet too.”

“Exactly. But you decided that better the armor be used by the ones it had been made for than anyone else. And you had a much better chance of controlling it than some inexperienced random person. It was one of those ‘no one else can do it, and it has to be dealt with’ moments.”

“Oh, I hate those,” Kento growled. “Damn martyr complex…”

“Sage, on the other hand, had an easier time of it. She sent him a vision of the Halo armor and he stifled his immediate attack response and simply faced it down, controlling it instead of fighting it. He remembered that meeting force with force means greater destruction- you all learned that very well through the series, and again in Kikoutei.”

“I dunno about the OAV, but we sure learned it during the war.”

“Sage challenged her, realized she wanted to be destroyed and implied that he wasn’t going to cooperate, so she sent him another vision of her village being attacked and her parents dying. He felt sorry for her and took up the new armor willingly.”

Kento nodded slowly. “A healer’s heart,” he said simply. “He tries to control it by being logical and detached, but it doesn’t really work. So he shuts people out, so he won’t be tempted. But once you’re in there, you’re in, and he’ll do about anything for you.”

Kyren nodded again, and was silent for a moment. “So he let her in, and took the armor, and something happened- it made a powerful impression on her, that she didn’t have to trick or manipulate him. That he would do such a thing out of caring. It cracked open some of that hate and rage. Then Ryo turned up, and it was even easier for him. He’d talked with Mia, thought over all that had happened- still had the mind connection with the rest of you, so knew where you were and why- and went there resolved to help rather than fight blindly. And he practically ordered her to give him his new armor. He didn’t summon it, either- she helped him put it on, asking all the time if he was sure. Giving him a chance to back out, I guess.”

“Didn’t know him too well. When Ryo makes up his mind…”

Kyren smiled. “So he summoned the new version of Inferno, but used it to free you four instead of destroying Suzunagi. Not from the armor, but from whatever she’d used to keep you in stasis.”

“That’s our Ryo,” Kento agreed, a grim smile crossing his face. “Bet she wasn’t too happy.”

“No, she was not happy. She was ready to add you all to the graveyard of everyone who’d refused the armors’ power through history, but her mother’s spirit intervened. Pointed out that the dead had died for what they believed in and rested peacefully, without hate or despair, which was more than she could say of her daughter. Then she explained that when Suzunagi had made the armors, her mother had put her love into them, knowing the true bearers would receive them eventually.” Kyren paused. “I’m still not sure what that signifies, but it made another big impression on Suzunagi, who realized that instead of oblivion, what she really wanted was to be loved and find peace. The armors couldn’t give her that; she had to choose to let go of her hate and grief. So she did, to be with her mother again.”

“Hmmm.” Kento’s frown had turned thoughtful and he was quiet for a few moments. “And us?”

“And you were free, with new armors that had no taint of Talpa’s evil. My theory is that the love Suzunagi’s mother put into them countered any lingering evil that might have survived the transition. And there it ended.”

“Ended?” Kento snorted. “What kind of OAV is that? Going through all that to get new armor and then, oh, it’s the end before we actually do anything with it?”

“Another common complaint,” Kyren agreed wryly, and took another drink of water. “It’s a five-parter and it dives awful deep into flashbacks and memories- recycling a lot of old fight scenes. The new armor is hideously ugly, too, in my opinion. The sort of ceremonial stuff you’d stand around in as a court functionary, not something you’d actually go out to fight in. Surcoats, for pete’s sake…braided ribbons and fringes and embroidered designs…yick.”

Kento chuckled, but his eyes were still thoughtful. “There’s a big discrepancy there, anyway,” he observed. “The armor did come from Talpa, and it was evil, but the Ancient balanced it, made it neutral. So it’s up to us to decide how we use it. It’s what’s inside us that decides whether we use it for good or not, not something nasty lurking in the metal and fighting to get out.”

“Third strike, they’re out,” Kyren observed lightly. “And that takes care of the OAVs…” Shifting on the stool, she debated whether to mention some of the things she’d run into online, but decided, on balance, not to. The great majority of those involved self-admitted fan theories, so there was little point in debunking them. They’d pretty well established what was and what was not.

And there was no way she was going to mention shounen-ai, boy-love, or yaoi-slash. No way on Earth, this Earth or any other!

Kento continued to sit still for a few moments, his arms draped loosely around his knees and a thoughtful frown on his small, round face. His mouth twisted; he shook his head once, sharply, glanced around the kitchen, and then looked up at her. “Intense. I hope these OAVs of yours aren’t hanging around in our future. Particularly not that last one.”

“I hope not, too!” the woman agreed fervently. “But I think if they were going to happen, they would have done so in their correct time-line- not long after the Dynasty wars. You are a few years along now, right?”

“True.” Kento seemed to relax a bit, then stood up on the countertop. “At least now we know that we’re talking about the same thing.”

“Yes.” And what, the woman wondered, did one do when a Ronin Warrior abruptly turned up in one’s home? Particularly one that looked like he’d been treated to one of ‘Alice in Wonderland’s’ shrinking potions. But even without that little difficulty, there was the much more complicated problem of getting him back to his own dimension. Maybe if he’d turned up in Japan, he’d have a chance of finding a mystic, but…

“I’m wondering if the other guys got sent here, too, and ended up in different areas,” Kento remarked, looking up at her. “I don’t think so,” he added, touching his temple. “I can’t sense them. But since everything’s so much bigger here-” he paused as Kyren tried to stifle a smile. “-or whatever- maybe I just can’t reach them.”

“By ‘different areas’, you mean, maybe, different parts of the house?” Kyren asked curiously. That would be convenient- maybe. Kento frowned, thinking.

“Well, yeah…when Talpa scattered us before, we ended up all over Japan. So I hope we didn’t end up all over the U.S. this time! But since this house’s as big as any island, maybe…I mean, since the scale’s all messed up-” Kento stopped speaking with an exasperated sigh.

“Since everything else is bigger here, maybe the area you got scattered over is relatively smaller?” Kyren tried.

“Yeah! It’d feel like a similar distance to us, a couple hundred miles, but to you it’d only be a few dozen feet, probably.”

“There’s a certain sense in that,” the woman mused. “If you don’t look at it too closely. Sure, let’s look around the house. We can start up in the guest rooms; I rarely go in them, and I keep the doors shut, so the cats won’t get in.”

“So anyone in there- yeah, let’s look there first,” the boy agreed anxiously, and sprang into Kyren’s hand before she could place it on the counter.

“A word of advice,” Kyren suggested, after she recovered from her recoil. “Startling me is a good way to end up on the floor.”

“Huh? Oh! Uh, sorry. I kinda didn’t think for a minute.” Kento blushed; Kyren let the matter go and moved into the living room, heading for the second-story stairs.

A thorough search of the house revealed no further Ronin in any quiet corners. Kyren paused for a moment before entering her computer room, but either Kento didn’t notice the Ronin Warrior DVDs in the bookshelf, or declined to comment on them. Probably he was too busy looking for his friends to pay much attention to anything else. He even called out their names each time she took him into a room, straining to make his small voice heard in every corner, because, as he said, “It’ll reassure them that you’re not coming to squash them into pulp. As long as they don’t think it’s illusion, anyway.”

Forty minutes or so later, Kyren tramped back up the basement steps, feeling a subdued twinge of déjà vu. Only this time, instead of carrying a laundry basket… Kento sat dispiritedly in her palm, clearly trying hard to think of a different plan.

“Well, maybe we are all over the U.S.,” he muttered, so low she could hardly hear him. “Or worse, all over the world…”

Kyren could think of nothing encouraging to say. She had rather hoped to see the other four as well; from a fan’s standpoint, that was an unparalleled opportunity, even if no one would ever believe it. But having seen them, there would still be the problem of sending them home; it wasn’t as if she could turn them into collectibles, and they’d be miserable on this gigantic Earth anyway. They’d end up little better than prisoners, confined to the house for safety, unable to live normal lives, and acutely aware that their absence allowed Talpa to scourge their own Earth unchecked. And Kyren didn’t want five permanent mini-houseguests!

No; one way or another, the Ronin had to get home, and the real practical question was, would it be more difficult to send five than one, or not? Theoretically, sending five should take more power or energy or whatever than sending just one. Of course, that was another list of questions in itself… all of them virtually moot, since this Earth didn’t recognize magic or mystical powers…or demons… or Gates…or screens with Dynasty Soldiers jumping out of- ‘Say! I wonder if I could do anything with the computer. Put in a DVD and see if he could pass through the screen into- but then he’d go back in time, wouldn’t he? He said they’ve already fought those battles. Hmmm. And what if he got stuck in the DVD instead of actually getting back to his own Earth? I don’t think he’d like that!’

“I wonder if they ended up outside.”

Kyren looked down at Kento’s hopeful face and headed for the front door.

Twenty-five minutes later, Kyren re-opened the front door, closed it quietly behind her, and walked back to the kitchen, frowning a little. Fortunately, none of her neighbors had been out to see her wandering around their yards, nor come out to ask just what she was looking for. Unfortunately, though, there had still been no sign of the other Ronin. Clearly, this search was going to be more complicated than she’d thought, and she was beginning to have a lot of sympathy for Mia. Driving full-grown Ronin to various parts of Japan indicated by a mythic poem sounded a lot more desirable than searching the entire U.S. with a chibi-Ronin on the vague hope of maybe finding the others someday. Mia had at least had clues where to go, no job to attend, and no concerns that someone might think her insane. But it was starting to look like Ronin-searcher was going to be Kyren’s job description in the near future, unless-

“I don’t suppose you have a shokujo hanging around anywhere?” Kento asked with an attempt at a smile as she let him down on the countertop.

“A what?”

“The staff,” the boy explained, sitting down with a sigh. “The Ancient One’s staff.”

“Oh. I wish.” Kyren made a wry face and sat down on the stool. “Not that I’d know how to use it, but that never seemed to stop Mia or Yuli.” She paused, wondering whether to mention her DVD idea. It was dangerous, and Kento was reckless; if he tried it, he could end up trapped or worse. Even if it worked, it would probably screw up his personal timeline. And he’d probably want to try it, since the alternative was a tediously bleak one. There was the time problem, too- assuming time was the same between the dimensions, Talpa had already had several hours in which to run amok. He might even have merged the worlds already… In short, the longer the guys were gone, the bigger the mess they’d come back to.

‘No, that’s definitely not a good idea.’ Kyren frowned, absently stroking the cat that had just jumped into her lap. They’d just have to- what was that weird noise making her head ring? Not her head, she realized suddenly, sitting up straight. That- that was-!

Kento gasped suddenly, scrambling to his feet. “Do you- am I hearin’ things?!”

“Yes- no, I- it’s coming from-” Kyren turned towards the sound and her eyes went wide at the sight of a bright yellow glow suffusing the hallway. The cat sprang down and skittered into the dining room to crouch under a chair; Kento leapt down from the counter without waiting for help, landing with a loud clang and leaving a dent in the tiled floor.

“Kayura?” he called, running for the hall. “Lady Kayura-?”

“Hai, Kongo no Shu,” came a rippling woman’s voice in reply, and a spate of Japanese followed as Kento reached the brilliant pinpoint from which the light was radiating and paused.

“They’re okay,” he exclaimed as Kyren dropped to her knee beside him, shielding her eyes from the fierce light. “The guys, they’re all fine- I was the only one who got caught in the spell. Kayura and the Warlords were drawn off by Nether Spirits and went to deal with them- Talpa’s diversion. But the power he used to send me here caught her attention and she came back to see what was going on.”

“Back to the fight, then,” Kyren agreed, feeling rather inane. “But with better odds- that works for me.”

“Me, too,” the Ronin grinned, and lifting his hands, summoned the Hardrock armor. Kyren winced and closed her eyes at the blinding flash of orange mingling with the already brilliant yellow light. “Gotta go- thanks- hey. You never said your name.”

“Oh. I’m Kyren. Good luck, Kento- take care of yourself.”

“Thanks. Thanks for everything,” the boy’s voice replied, soft with gratitude. Kyren opened her eyes and looked down to see Hardrock, tetsubo in hand, smiling up at her in typical Kento fashion. “And I’m really sorry about your foot…”

“Oh, that’s all right. At least tomorrow I won’t think it was a dream,” Kyren replied forgivingly. Then she grinned. “Well, whatcha waiting for? To arms, you overachieving action figure!”

Kento laughed and rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “Right.” He lifted the iron staff in salute, then turned and plunged into the brilliance of the singing light. His orange-and-black armor wavered and was swallowed by the glow; the light began to fade and the sound of the chimes slowed to a distant jingle before dying completely. Kyren crouched in the hall for a moment longer as the last flicker of light faded away, then sighed almost regretfully and slowly stood up. A twinge of pain nibbled at the bottom of her foot and she smiled wryly. As she turned to go back into the kitchen, something made her pause and glance back. For a second, she would have sworn she heard Kento’s voice say, in a tone of disgust, “Anime-”

“Hey, at least it wasn’t Teletubbies,” she murmured to the silence, and went to coax the terrified cat out from whatever hiding place she’d taken refuge in, with the aid of a judiciously large piece of ham. “And then it’s back to the laundry- Ladies and Gentlemen, we now return you to your regularly scheduled life.” Kyren shook her head. “Man…no one is EVER gonna believe this one.”