Dark Waters

Chapter Three: First Skirmish

Chapter Three: First Skirmish

Rainier sighed as woke up in his room. He sat up from his hammock and rubbed the blue bandanna in his hand. It should have been his brother's, Leonardo, if he had been lost in that water accident ten years ago. During their thirteenth birthday, Yoshi Mizu had given them new training uniforms to celebrate the fact that they were no longer children. One remained, a blue one that the old man had made for Leonardo years ago. Rainier asked to have it, to have something in memory of his older brother.

<Get up, Raini!> A cheerful young voice spoke up in his mind. <Its time to train!!!>

“I know, Fearless.” Rain murmured. “You don't have to remind me.”

<Hey, you're the leader now, Raini.> the voice in his head began in a playful lecture. <Remember?>

Rainier closed his eyes to shut out the memories. “Yeah, I know.” He whispered. “Some leader, I have been...”

The voice became silent.

Rain actually was trying hard not to forget his lost brother. The whole family had changed because of the loss of his older brother. Their Grandfather, Master Yoshi had become sad, Mikey became spineless coward who would oftentimes look at him with fear, and Danny would become over protective of their youngest and often would fight with Rain when he'd try to get them to train, if he wasn't holed up in his workshop all day. Rainier tried being the leader but it just caused to get into more rifts with his brothers. Though, he had fun going outside with his new pal Kenny and beating up punks like the Red Basilisks, Rainier was depressed most of the time, pushing himself to the limits of his training and beyond as some sort of penance to a sin he knew he could never make up for.

And if it that hadn't been enough, they came across some weird ninjas who had some sort of magic sword and were using it on the river two nights ago. They got the sword but it did nothing to answer most of the questions that had been nagging them.

A knock on the door jolted him from his thoughts and Rain stuffed the bandanna under his pillow.

“Yeah?” he asked as he got up and opened the door.

A nervous Mikey stood in front of him. “Uh, Rain, uhm Master Yoshi says he's got something new to teach us... uh, you can join us later if you Don't wanna...” the orange clad teen stammered, not daring to look at him in the eyes.

Rain step forward but stopped when he saw the other teen flinch. “It's okay, Mikey. I'm up already.”

Mikey's face show immense relief and quickly scampered away towards the dojo.

Rain shook his shook as he watched his younger brother go. It still hurt to see that old fear of him still lurking in his brother's eyes.

<It'll be all right, Raini.> Leo's young voice whispered in his head.

“Easy for you to say, Fearless.” Rain sighed to himself, shaking his head as he made his way towards the dojo. “You're not here to see it everyday.”

***

At that moment, Kuraihi Natsu seethed as he sent Sullivan and Hank out of his sight. Those fools! How can they let those accursed children to ruin his plans? Incompetents! It was already bad enough that those things got their hands on the Sword of Tengu...

A slight movement among the shadows interrupted his thoughts. He smirked. At last, he thought, someone he can actually rely on not to fail.

“Approach.” He stated.