“. . . is a menace! I told you he was too dangerous to be around the other children! He nearly killed my son!” It was Dulglad’s father. “It’s bad enough that you allow those half elves— but we don’t even know what he is!”
“Master Iga, that’s not exactly how it happened.” This was Bryan’s voice.
“Mr. Hunson!” snapped Dulglad’s father. “I do not recall asking for you to speak!”
“And yet that is why he is here in the first place,” came his father’s voice. “And on that note, from what Mr. Hunson and others has told me, it was your son who started this skirmish. So maybe you should use this incident to teach your son not to provoke a fight.”
His father’s voice continued. “Furthermore, you know Allison and Erik lost their mother and father to the Black Dragon’s forces. Fighting in the resistance, they died as heroes so that others would live. As I have reminded you, it is not up to you to select the students we admit to this school for training. Further, considering the evidence against your son, you know that he could be facing suspension for his actions in provoking Alec-Ryuu. However, I will be talking to Alec-Ryuu next. He will also have to face consequences for his actions.”
There was silence for a few moments, followed by angry footsteps, and the door was thrown open. Standing there was Master Iga, who shot Ryuu a dirty look. Then he motioned for Dulglad to follow him, and the pair swept away.
“Alec-Ryuu, would you come in here?” his father said.
Sighing, Ryuu climbed to his feet and walked inside.
Before him, his father sat at his ornate desk with his elbows resting on top and his fingers interlaced. His gaze was downcast, and his head was leaning against his fingers.
“Close the door behind you Alec-Ryuu.”
After doing what he was told, he walked forward to sit before his father. For a few moments, nothing but silence filled the room. Then his father finally raised his gaze to look at Ryuu.
“Well, I see you certainly are making an impression, Alec-Ryuu,” he finally said.
“But Dad, I didn’t—”
“I know you didn’t start that fight,” his father interrupted, “but the way you handled it is inexcusable.” He sat back in his chair. “I know that you’re only five, Alec-Ryuu, but you need to remember just how powerful you are compared to your classmates. You could have seriously hurt Dulglad, if not killed him.”
His father let the statement settle for a moment. Ryuu lowered his gaze in shame at the disappointment in his father’s voice.
Then his father continued. “I have something for you.” He indicated the holo book laying on his desk before him. “I first set it aside because I thought you might enjoy it. Now I just hope that it will inspire you to become better than you are.”
Then he turned to Bryan. “Mr. Hunson, I am hoping you will help my son learn to control his temper. Would you and your friends please look after him and find better ways to . . . vent it out?”
For a second Bryan was silent as he looked from Jun to Ryuu. Then he nodded. “Yes, Grandmaster Yamato.”
Smiling, his father waved his hand. “Thank you. Both of you are dismissed.”
After standing and picking up the book, Ryuu left with Bryan. They walked down the hall in silence. Then Bryan finally asked, “So . . . what’s the book?”
After glancing at him, Ryuu held it up and turned on the cover. Robin Hood.
*
He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn’t realize that the others had come back until he was poked hard on his shoulder. He jumped, fell off his rider, and looked up at Allison’s smiling face as he lay on the ground.
“Ryuu, this is space command,” said Aiolos. He leaned over and placed his hand over his mouth, giving his voice an echoing sound. “We’re calling your head back to your body.”
Ryuu laughed as he climbed to his feet and looked around at the rest of his friends. Each was carrying a bag with equipment for sky hockey. Bryan had also brought a bag for Ryuu, which he opened immediately. Inside his bag were two sets of medium and large rings; a single, larger ring; what looked like a small metal rod; and a pair of boots with red buttons on the inside of the heels.
Ryuu slipped the medium-sized rings onto his arms right on top of his biceps. The larger rings he pulled onto his legs, and they stopped just above his knees. He slipped on the largest ring, which went up to his waist. Seconds later, everything automatically shrank to fit snuggly. Finally, he slipped on another half ring around his neck and replaced his shoes with the boots. Then he turned at the sound of approaching engines. Dulglad and his friends were coming at them at top speed on their bikes.
Ryuu turned to look at his friends. He nodded. Each pressed the buttons on the rings, which expanded into full gear.
On Ryuu’s arms, the rings expanded down past his elbow and encased his entire hands, including his fingers. The rings on his legs expanded up and down, but stopped just above his ankles and below the ring around his waist. Then they melded with the boots and the waist ring. The one around his waist expanded up his chest. Then it encased his shoulders and the top sections of his arms. Like before, the ring on his neck expanded up his neck, but it stopped at his hairline and chin. Finally, there was a flash of light as the force field mask activated.
When the plates were finished expanding, the friends looked like they were partly encased by some sort of armor. All of the suits turned scarlet, but because Eric was the goalie, his armor, which was thicker, included a blue rectangular shield on one arm and a large goalie glove in the other. As the friends waited, their opponents dressed in a similar fashion; their gear turned a deep green.
Slowly, the two groups gathered and faced each other.
“Ready to lose?” Dulglad asked, a cocky smile on his face.
Ryuu smiled. “You wish,” he said.
Dulglad’s smile turned into a deep frown. Then he stepped away and gathered his team around him.
Ryuu gathered his own team, and as they formed a circle, he placed his hand in the center. One by one, his friends placed their hands on top of his. Pumping their hands, they called out their team name as one: “LOCKSLEY!” Then they clicked their heels together.
Their boots hummed as they shot into the air, hovering about twenty feet up. Then they started to set up for the game. Eric took some balls from his glove and tossed them to either side of him; they stopped about six feet apart. They hovered for a moment, then emitted beams of light that connected, forming a goal.
Allison and Aiolos tossed a couple more balls toward him, and they hovered about another twelve feet on either side of Eric. They emitted two beams of light that connected behind Eric’s goal and connected to the balls that Dulglad’s friends had set up on the other end, forming the playing field. The lines appeared with multiple flashes of light as force fields formed below them and made the walls. When the arena was set, Allison, Ryuu, and Aiolos moved up to the centerline with Melinda, Dulglad, and Bamber.
When the six of them met, they all held the short sticks in their hands and activated them. The sticks lengthened, forming hockey sticks that each player gripped with both hands, except for Eric and Kade, who had goalie sticks. Allison and Aiolos took their positions as Ryuu’s left and right wings as they faced off against Melinda and Bambar.
Bending his legs, Ryuu faced off against Dulglad and the two waited, eyes locked on each other, every now and then swatting each other’s stick. From above fell a puck, which was coming down between Ryuu’s and Dulglad’s sticks. On the rebound of the puck, which hit the field, Dulglad checked Ryuu hard, taking the puck.
Ryuu slid down the field a bit then rolled back onto his feet. I should have known they’d play dirty, he thought as he skated after his opponent.
Bryan skated up to intercept Dulglad, but he was hooked from behind by Melinda, and Dulglad whipped past him. Eric skated out, challenging him, but he was checked hard by Bamber. Then Melinda knocked the goal a foot to the right, and Dulglad scored. Ryuu g
ritted his teeth in frustration as beams of light where the puck had dropped from counted the score.
As the puck soared up to where the score was displayed, the rest of Ryuu’s team took their starting positions on the field. Dulglad’s team continued to pull off just about every dirty trick in the book, but without a referee, they weren’t called for it or forced to play fair. Soon it was 0–9.
After Dulglad scored another goal, Ryuu rolled back onto his feet, and his team gathered around him. Ryuu raised his visor and looked at his friends. They were just as angry as he was about the dirty way that Dulglad’s team was playing.
“This isn’t sky hockey; it’s a demolition derby,” Eric said behind him.
“I say we give these guys some major payback,” Allison said. She brandished a fist in the air.
Ryuu pointed at her. “I’m with you, Allison, but we’re doing it by the book. Agreed?”
All of his teammates nodded.
Dulglad and Ryuu faced off again, and this time when the puck dropped, Ryuu won the face-off. Allison checked Melinda and took the puck. She darted up the field, then drop passed the puck to Ryuu, who skated behind her. Switching positions, he dodged Babieca, skated behind their goal and then passed the puck to Aiolos.
“HONEY, I’M HOME!” he shouted. Then he fired a slap shot and scored just above Kade’s raised glove.
Cheering, they reformed the lines, and an agitated Dulglad faced off against Ryuu, who was grinning. Dulglad won the face-off this time, and Ryuu stole the puck by skating up and over him on the side of the boards, with Bryan in front of him skating up the field.
Over Bryan’s shoulder, Ryuu spied Melinda, Bambar, and Babieca coming at them, and Melina shouted, “He can’t check all three of us!”
As they collided, Bryan did check all three of them at once, and they slid in three different directions. Ryuu’s and Bryan’s sticks fell in perfect sync with each other as they shot for the goal. They stopped right in front of it, and Kade stared at Bryan. Then Ryuu scored right between Bryan’s and Kade’s legs.
After taking their positions, again Ryuu won the face-off by knocking the puck between Dulglad’s legs. He skated around him, passed to Allison, flipped over Babieca, and then swerved over and checked Melinda into the force field wall. After Allison received the puck, she juggled it into the air, fired a shot, and scored.
Team Locksley scored four more times in a matter of four minutes, and Dulglad’s team was clearly willing to resort to any means to try to stop them. As Ryuu was skating up the field dribbling the puck between his stick, he fired a slap shot just as he was dodging around Melinda, who spun around, bent over, and flipped checked him onto his back. He heard cries of outrage as he landed hard on his back. Quickly, he raised his head to see his shot score. Curling up, he leapt to his feet and turned to face Melinda.
Bryan skated up and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Alac—” Bryan started, but when Ryuu glared at him, he backed off.
Ryuu pushed off toward her, and she looked him dead in the eye.
“Go ahead,” she muttered at him.
He glared at her, then leaned forward. “Nine,” he muttered. Then he skated around her and took his position.
Dulglad took his position in front of Ryuu, a grin on his face. “Chicken,” he muttered, and Ryuu cocked a grin.
Ryuu won the face-off, but he sent the puck hurtling back toward Bryan, who got it. Allison, Aiolos, and Ryuu darted back. The four of them skated back around Eric and the goal before returning to make a formation, skating up the field. They passed the puck between each other to keep Dulglad’s team guessing. When Ryuu got the puck, the other three retreated and checked whoever was in his way.
It was just Ryuu and Kade now. Kade skated forward, challenging Ryuu as he progressed. Ryuu skated forward and faked a shot to Kade’s left. While Kade did a wall block, Ryuu back-handed at his right. The seconds seemed to last for hours as the puck sailed forward toward the goal and Kade’s glove raised. The puck missed the glove by millimeters. It sailed into the goal, and the buzzer sounded, ending the game.
Ryuu cheered, raising his hands into the air as the scoreboard flashed the score: 9–10. The rest of his team rushed forward, and they started skating in a tight circle, placing the heels of their sticks in the center.
“GOOOO LOCKLSLEY!” they shouted as one, bringing their sticks up and interlocking them as they slipped into a group hug.
When they broke apart, Ryuu turned to see that the field had dissolved after the balls had fallen to the earth. Dulglad glared at him briefly. Then he and his friends deactivated their sticks, jumped onto their bikes, and sped off.
Ryuu shook his head, knowing this latest round of the long line of clashes between the groups was far from over. In just a few hours, they would all meet again at the Academy to take their final exam.
Chapter 3
Samurai
After a quick picnic lunch, Ryuu and his friends sat near the gateway for hours, talking about what had happened in the game and their dramatic comeback. Ryuu and Allison were reenacting his final shot when Ryuu caught sight of her watch. He grabbed her wrist and turned it so that he could see it better.
“Oh, man, my mom is going to kill me!” Ryuu darted to his rider and grabbed his surfer. “Sorry, guys, I’ve got to get home. Mom will kill me if I’m late.”
He tossed the board forward and jumped on.
“Good luck!” Ryuu heard them call in the distance. He leaned as low as he could on his surfer, and the ground turned into one big, blurred mass.
Ryuu squinted his eyes, which stung from the rushing air that was blowing into his face. He slowed down when he soared over the village, and less than a second later, he spotted his home. Looking down, he could see his mother in the back yard, sitting on her knees with a teapot over a fire in front of her and a circle of cutting mats standing erect behind her. He zoomed above their front yard, deactivated the board, slipped off, and fell twenty feet to the ground, landing on bended knee.
The board folded up, and Ryuu lifted his hand and caught it. Then he darted up the stairs and into the house. His father wasn’t home. He must have left for school to prepare for tonight’s exam, Ryuu thought. Then he darted into his room, stripped off his shirt, and put on the clothes he would need for the test with his mother, which would be next.
As soon as he was dressed in his loose, baggy, traditional Hakama pants and his traditional Keikogi overlapping jacket, Ryuu rushed to the back door, slid it open, and walked out onto the lawn toward his mother. He sat on his knees next to her, with the teapot in front of them.
She was dressed like him, with her hair tied back. She had placed a katana sword on her hip, and her eyes were closed.
She said, “Right on time, Alac-Ryuu, although I thought I heard you in a little rush in the house.”
Ryuu smiled at her, lowering his gaze down to the sash that was folded neatly at his knees and the katana at his right side.
“You know what to do,” she said.
First he placed his hands on the sash and bowed to her. As he sat up, he picked up the sash with the same movement. Then he unfolded it and tied it over his eyes.
Next, he picked up the sword. He lifted it with both hands while he bowed his head, then he tucked it into the sash around his waist and waited.
After a moment, the water in the kettle began to whistle, and Ryuu lifted it from its holder and placed it gently on a clay coaster. He then took two cups and went through a traditional tea ceremony with his eyes covered. When he was finished, he handed one cup to his mother, picked up his own, and waved a hand over it. Then he drank.
When they were finished with their tea, Ryuu put the cup down, and his hand shot up and caught her shuto knife hand before it could make contact with his face.
“Good. Move onto the next stage,” she said.
Ryuu leaned forward and put his toes under him. Then he pushed himself onto his feet and walked around the small fire. He stoppe
d after a few steps and turned around on his heel, facing the way he’d come. He took a deep breath, then gripped his sword and drew it slowly.
Next, he gripped the sword with both hands and slashed the air at ten different spots around him. Each of his attacks he struck differently, using an upward, side, or downward slash. Before he faced the way he came, he sheathed his sword and stood straight as an arrow, waiting.
Without warning, he drew his sword, and there was a clash of steel on steel as his mother began her attack. He brought his sword down in a wide arch, and as he stepped back, keeping low, he listened to what was around him with his ears and with his feet. He turned slightly and parried another blow.
They exchanged a few more blows with each other. As he turned lightly to the left, he brandished his sword so fast he knew it must look like nothing more than a blur. After ducking and quickly turning, he spun around and parried another blow. Then he ran the blunt edge up to elbow level and pressed it against something. He twisted it a little to persuade his attacker to stop.
After a moment, he withdrew his sword, sheathed it, and stood straight, one hand on the sheath. He then felt his mother stand in front of him, and they bowed to each other. He stood straight as he felt and heard her move away from him. A moment later, he drew his sword in a flash and felt something impact on the blade. He shifted the sword and blocked again and again, each something impacted his sword blade.
After the last blow, he sheathed his sword and waited. Soon he felt her coming. She grabbed him around the neck, and he was forced to bend over. He grabbed her ankles and stood straight, which made her fall back against the ground, knocking the wind out of her. Still holding onto her, Ryuu twisted around, sat on her, and placed her leg in a lock until she patted the ground three times.
The Awakening Page 3
