(Outdated) The King of Elements

Settle It In the Tournament

"There have been more sightings of Edge Walkers in Amita," Ichi had told Toney, who rested his head on his hands while listening to Ichi's report.

"Are we any closer to finding out who is releasing them?" Toney asked as he closed his eyes.

"No, but we do have some kind of evidence suggesting that whoever it is may not be an Amian."

Toney's eyes shot open. "Not Amian? You think that Michael has something to do with it? He's the only non-Amian here that I know of."

"No, no," Ichi said, clenching is hands behind his back, "From what was reported to me, before the sightings of the Edge Walkers, many people remember hearing a woman's voice singing. All of the males who had been interviewed were suspiciously allured by the song, while most of the women were not. We may be dealing with Sirens."

Toney let out a sigh as he clasped his hands in front of him, resting his elbows on his office desk. "Perfect. If what you're saying is true, then doesn't that mean the Sirens broke our treaty?"

"That's up to debate. If they have betrayed our treaty, which tribe they belong to. Both the Avian Sirens and the Sea Sirens hasn't shown any signs of rebellion, however, so even with this incriminating evidence, we are still at square one."

Toney cursed under his breath. "That doesn't give us much time to prepare for the Emblem of Valor tournaments either. That reminds me, do you have enough time for an after-school class next week?"

Ichi simply grinned as he pushed up his glasses. "When do I not?"

~~~~~~~~~~

"Did you hear about the Emblem of Valor tournament tomorrow?" Dre asked Kim as they were leaving McManus's class.

"A little. I had heard that your dad and Headmaster Gladestone are supposed to be competing in it. The city was ecstatic once they heard about this."

The elevator slowly stopped. "Really? I'd figured that they would promote it more if it's that popular," Dre said as they made their way through the foyer. A large white banner hung in front of the Tower of Flames windows above the entrance. They walked through, seeing the quad decorated with banners displaying younger versions of Toney and Raheem. Come see the rematch of the century! Team Gladestone vs. Team Wolf! Friday, October 19th @ 6:15!

"Well, make a liar out of me then."

They both went towards the statue of Reiax de Amita standing in the middle of a round fountain. Sitting on the rim of the fountain was Megumi, blowing into her noise-maker as she looked out at the decorations. "We've been flanked," she said with the noise-maker in between her teeth as they sat beside her. "I saw a few Journeymen finishing up after I got done with supper. Gotta say, I'm impressed with how dedicated they were with these decorations. They even put replicas of the Emblem of Valor medals around this fountain."

Both Dre and Kim looked down at their makeshift seat. Sure enough, there were gold medals outlined with blue, shimmering paint encrusted around the rim. The face of a fox was printed in the middle of the half-dollar sized medal. "I wonder what took them so long to put these up," Kim asked, looking wide-eyed at the emblems.

"Who knows," Megumi said as she crossed her legs and rested her hands on the cement rim. "Say, you guys wanna come over to my house? I'm sure daddy doesn't mind."

"Sure, I don't have anything planned," Dre had said.

"Me neither. It sounds like fun," Kim added.

"Cool."

Dre heard a couple speaking Spanish in the distance. He looked towards the Tower of Spirit and saw both Kamatsu and Katherine, chatting to themselves as they walked past the goblet with the man-sized tornado. Both looked almost foreign without their usual samurai garments. They looked almost normal.

Kamatsu stopped talking as his eye caught sight of Dre's group. "Oh, hey guys," he said, waving at them with a smile on his face. Kim and Megumi both waved back. Dre, however, couldn't find it in him to feign a happy expression after almost getting him and his team killed. "Are you three ready for this as well?" he asked, gesturing towards the banner hanging in front of the Tower of Spirit windows.

"Why are you talking to us?" Dre said before the girls had a chance to comment. "If I remember correctly, you almost got my team killed a week ago."

"You're seriously still on this, Basura?" he asked, bewildered. "Dios, mío, kid. We weren't in there to play grab-ass. We were in there to be in mortal danger. In case you haven't noticed, our power didn't awaken until we were face to face with death. If anything, you should be thanking me for-"

"Thanking you!?" Dre jumped to his feet. "Thanking you for almost getting us killed?"

"Thanking you for awakening your power sooner!" Kamatsu closed the distance between the two. Both Megumi and Kim stood beside Dre, ready to defuse the situation.

Before a fist had been thrown, however, Katherine stood in front of her brother, her arms crossed over her chest. "What?" Kamatsu said after a moment of looking at his sister.

"This is neither the time nor place to settle your little dilemma. If you want to do it legally, then do it at the Emblem of Valor tournament."

Kamatsu sighed, mulling over whether or not he should wait until then. "Fine." He looked past her, past Megumi and Kim, and straight into Dre's eyes. "We'll settle it then. Be prepared, Basura." He walked past them, casting a dark glare at Dre before leaving.

"Can you believe him?" Dre said, outraged.

"No lie. Trying to be friends with us after sincerely apologizing multiple times? Geez, what an ass," Megumi said.

"Yeah, I know right?" Kim said through a giggle.

Dre looked befuddled, but suddenly sobered uponce he realized that they were mocking him. "Whatever. Let's go find the restof the group so we can leave already."