The Power of Friendship

Kento slowly walked into his and Cye's room, being careful so he wouldn't wake Cye up. Everyone else was in bed now, and Kento was still surprised that none of the others had said much about his taking off earlier that day. They were concerned, yes, and had every good reason to be. But still Kento was afraid to tell them the whole story. He was also worried that Cye would end up telling them, and then Kento would be adding their blame as well as his.

Without bothering to change his clothes for bed, Kento crawled underneath the sheets. He looked toward Cye whose quiet breathing filled the room. A tear ran down his cheek. Cye, I'm so sorry.

Kento closed his eyes and slowly fell into an uneasy sleep.

Cye awoke during the night, hearing a startled cry of "NOOO!" He lifted his head the best he could without causing too much pain and looked in concern at Kento. Kento was tossing and turning, his blankets were kicked off in the process. He was shouting in his sleep, and Cye could see his pale sweaty face under the moon's light.

"Kento, wake up!" Cye called, hoping to wake his friend up. Kento continued to shout in his sleep, and Cye called his name out again. It didn't seem to be any use.

And then Ryo barged through the door, followed by Rowen, Sage, and a very concerned Mia. The light was flipped on by Sage, and everyone had to shield their eyes.

Ryo headed for Kento as Rowen turned to Cye. "What's wrong with him, Cye?!" he asked, even though he knew very well what was wrong. He was just surprised that Kento would be behaving this way.

Cye shook his head in apprehension. "I don't know! He woke me up screaming like that! He's having a nightmare!"

Ryo was shaking Kento as hard as he could. "Come on, Kento! Wake up, damn it!" He slapped Kento in the face several times before Kento let out a scream that almost tore everyone's heart out in fear and concern. And then Kento's eyes shot open and he gasped several times for air.

Ryo held him, feeling the big warrior shake with terror. The others stared in concern. Kento never acted this way before.

"Kento, calm down," Sage said quietly. "You're safe now. The dream's over."

Kento gasped. "It... it was so real! Oh man! I thought... I thought! Oh god! I thought I was going to die!"

Cye bit his lip. Never before had he seen his best friend behave in such a manner. What happed to the Kento who gave a 'who cares about my attitude?'

Mia came closer, her eyes filled with worry. "Kento, do you want to talk about it?"

Kento froze. He could feel their worry for him. How much longer was he going to act like this? This was getting out of control. But everytime he saw Cye's innocent face with all those injuries, the guilt came crashing down on him again. He deserved to have this nightmare. This was his punishment for hurting Cye.

He shook his head. "No, I can't remember much," he lied. "All I can tell you is that someone tried to kill me." That much was true. Kento had dreamed that it had been him who had been hit by that car, except for one thing. Talpa had been driving the car. He wasn't telling them that.

"Are you sure, Kento?" Rowen asked.

There was a moment of silence before Kento nodded his head. "Yes, I'm sure. That's all I remember."

Sage frowned. He had this feeling that Kento wasn't telling the whole truth. Why didn't he just say that he didn't want to talk about his dream? It might be too disturbing for him though. Well, there was always one way to get to the bottom of things.

"Are you going to be all right?" Ryo asked as he let go of Kento. Kento nodded meekly.

"Hai, I'll... I'll be fine. Just a crazy dream that's all."

"Must have been some crazy dream to make you scream like that," Rowen said as he headed for the door. "Well, if you're sure you're all right, then good-night, Kento. Cye."

"Good-night," Cye said with a smile.

"Night," Kento said lamely.

Ryo and Mia said good-night as well and left.

Sage gave Kento a very concerned look before he too said good-bye to them and left their room.

Cye looked at Kento. "Are you all right now?"

Kento sighed as he clutched his blanket, drawing it nearer. "I'm. Fine. Good-night, Cye."

Cye frowned. Kento seemed so distant. In fact he had been distant ever since he had come home from the hospital. He only wish he knew what was bugging Kento, although he was beginning to get an idea.

Kento laid in bed, flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling. The room was dark again, and Cye was already asleep. Kento's mind turned to Sage. He knew that Sage could tell that he was lying. He could only hope that Sage wouldn't tell the others. Kento wanted to do that on his own, when he felt ready.

With that last thought in his head, Kento closed his eyes and promptly fell asleep.

Sage sat in the woods, in deep meditation. Kento's dream disturbed him greatly, and his weird behavior had gone on for long enough.

Sage's mind and soul searched carefully. He focused on Kento. He was going to solve this once and for all. And then an image appeared to him. Sage saw one of Kento's memories. He could Kento staring hungrily at a seafood restaurant, and Cye looking on with fear. There was an argument, and then Kento said something that caused Cye to gasp with hurt, causing the young Ronin to run away, crying.

Sage followed Cye's presence. He watched in horror as Cye ran into the middle of the street, without looking....

Sage quickly moved to one of Kento's other memories. He focused on Hardrock's nightmare. He saw Kento running across the street, and then watched in horror as a car speeded for him, with Talpa behind the steering the wheel.

Sage's eyes shot open. He was back in the regular world. He drew his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around his knees. He could feel Kento's pain. Now he knew why Kento was acting so strangely. His eyes narrowed. It was time for some intervention.

Sage climbed to his feet and headed back for the mansion. He found Kento sitting outside on the porch. The Warrior of Wisdom joined him.

For a moment there was an awkward silence as neither of them really had the guts to speak. Finally Sage did.

"So where is everyone?" he asked.

Ryo took White Blaze to the vet," Kento answered. "Mia's inside cooking lunch. Rowen is still sleeping. And Cye and Yulie are in the living room."

Sage nodded and brushed his hair back. It fell back into place. He drew in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "I know about your fight with Cye," he said.

Kento stiffened. Sage felt that. He was expecting to Kento to snap off at him, but surprisingly Kento just nodded. "I knew I couldn't hide it from you."

Sage didn't smile. "You need to talk to him, Kento. It's not your fault that Cye was hit by that car. You guys just had an argument that's all. But that shouldn't keep you from being best friends. Everyone has their share of arguments. Even Rowen and me. No one's perfect, Kento. But if you keep on behaving this way, you're only hurting yourself more, including Cye and the rest of us."

Kento was silent. He thought about what Sage had said. It all made sense. He knew deep down that he shouldn't cause his friends so much pain. If anything, he was adding to them. That wasn't fair to them. Hadn't there been enough pain already?

Gradually he could feel a comfort seeping into him. Sage was healing his anguished mind. His body relaxed and he smiled for the first time in a week. It was a genuine smile.

Sage watched him with a smile on his own face. Kento turned to look at him. "I got some talking to do." And he rose up and went into the house.

Sage watched him go. "Good luck, Kento!"

It was later that afternoon, after lunch to be exact. Everyone was home, including Ryo and White Blaze. White Blaze was hiding in the corner of the living room, growling angrily and shooting dagger looks at Ryo. Ryo shuddered. If looks could kill, he'd be six feet under. He turned to Kento who had called everyone into the living room.

"So, Kento, why'd you call us out here for?" he asked.

"Yeah, Kento," Rowen said. "What's up?"

Kento drew in a deep breath. He gazed at Cye, Mia, Ryo, Sage, Rowen, Yulie, the four ex-Warlords, Kayura, and White Blaze. All of them sat quietly, waiting for him to speak. Even White Blaze had stopped growling, the memory of the vet a distant memory.

"OK, first of all, I know you guys were concerned about my behavior," he began. When they nodded in confirmation, he went on. "Well, the truth is, I've been blaming myself for Cye's accident."

Ryo sat up, his face full of shock. "Say what?"

"Kento, what are you talking about?" Rowen asked, arching his brows curiously.

"That day, before Cye got hurt, we we're walking past this seafood restaurant. I don't know why it happened, but I just felt so hungry for them. I didn't mean to. I tried to ignore it, but my greed was pushing me towards that restaurant. Cye had asked if I was going in there. We had an argument, and I said something very horrible to him. I told him that they were already dead. They wouldn't feel me eating them."

Cye looked away. He remembered that too. He could feel his friend's pain though. This was not the time to be angry. And Cye wasn't. He looked back at his friend.

"After Cye took off, I was about to go inside that place," Kento said, "but then I heard screeching tires, and a large thump." He swallowed. "That was Cye. Because of me, Cye ran into the road." His lip quivered and he looked down, hiding his face. "Because of ME!"

There was a long moment of silence. Cye's tears ran down his face. He had no idea Kento was this much hurt. He gazed around the room. Everyone looked very sad for the big warrior. He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and managed to smile at Sekhmet. He looked back at his best friend.

"Kento, I shouldn't have gotten so angry. It's just disturbs me that someone would want to hurt my friends. Being the bearer of Torrent connects me to them. I know you're blaming yourself about my accident, but I should have looked both ways before running into the street. You shouldn't blame yourself. I'm not blaming you, and I'm not blaming anyone else here, either. It's time to let the past go."

There was another moment of silence. Kento was thinking this all through. He looked into Cye's seablue eyes, a bit afraid. "You... you're not mad then?"

Cye smiled. "No, Kento."

Kento stepped closer. "Friends?" he asked hopefully.

Cye's smile widened. "Best Friends, Kento."

And then as the two clasped hands, everyone smiled in relief. Yes, Kento would be going back to his old self again.

Ryo watched the two with a smile on his face. It was good to see friends come through for one another. And Kento seemed to be much happier, which to him and to everyone else was a relief.

One year later, the Ronins and Mia were at the beach. Sage was suntanning, winking at many girls as he could, and ignoring killer glares from the guys. Rowen, Ryo, Mia, and Yulie were busy playing volleyball. Yulie was perched on top of Ryo's shoulders. And Kento and Cye were surfboarding.

"How's this?!" Kento shouted, as he looked over at Cye.

"Don't look away!" Cye warned. "You need to watch what you're doing before...."

Too late! A huge wave crashed into them, flinging them both off their boards. They broke through the surface of the water.

Kento spit out some water and then climbed back onto his board. Cye was laughing. "Well, that was fun!"

Kento smiled. "You're a good teacher, Cye," he said. "I didn't think surfing would be this easy. I only fell off once."

Cye smiled back. "Don't flatter me!" he said with a laugh. "Then again you're just too stubborn to quit, which is a good thing I might add."

Kento laughed. "Right, that's because I have such a hard head!"

Cye laughed again.

Kento smiled. "I'm glad we're pals, Cye. I'm glad we're best friends."

Cye smiled proudly. "Me too, Kento. Me too."

They caught sight of another wave coming. They looked at each other and nodded with a smirk on theirs faces.

"Ready, Kento?" Cye asked.

"Ready!" Kento replied.

And they went out to meet the huge wave. And as everyone caught sight of the wave, there could be seen two figures, surfing on the top, their laughter filling the beach. For Kento and Cye, their friendship had been proven. And Kento was never going to let anyone or anything take his friendship away from Cye or from any of others. Their friendship was just too great, and Kento was very glad that he had come through after all. This friendship was going to last a lifetime.