Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was time for Ranae to raise one of her own eyebrow.

" Come aboard? To do..what exactly?" Se inquired as her midns eye regarded him intently. So this is what her new friend looked like. His dream image was a bit fuzy around the edges due to her slight lack of strength, but she could see him reasonably clearly in her mind. He was handsome, and looked to be around his late thirties perhaps. She suspected he was much much older, older than her almost 200 years, which for her race was still quite young. Her dream self faltered for a moment and his image almost faded before her as her real body bagan to shake with violent coughs, muffles by her hand. This was one of her better fits thougha dn it didnt last long. SHe manages to sustain the connection between their minds and she thanked the lords he could only see her drea image and not her ghostly pale shadow-eyed frail body. She sighed as she thought and waited for him to answer her question.

Ranaes dream image regarded him soberly. It wasnt her bag to just sit back as a bunch of ruffians invaded an innocent ship. Ecspecially if she was on it. But Matsu ment well, at least she though he did. She cleared her throat and spoke again, her voice fading away o leave a sort of hoarse whisper.

" Alright..But if they give me any..problems..then I wont hesitate to take action."

She ment what she said, though she didnt even know if she had the strength and/or energy to defend herself. She waved that thought away. She was alright, just needed rest. It was what she told herself over and over.

It was almost time for the sun to set as the sunlight was diming . Many of the animals trudge through the forest on the coming darkness of the night. Rayne stood there in silence listening for any of the noises of the night as though there were birds humming tune into the night. Cool winds went from the forest to the village. Rayne wander through the dim-like village as he kept his guard up.

He looked around seeing that some people were going into the bar and some of them are retiring to the night. Rayne kept moving and decided to go to the bar just get some information about some of the elite swordsmen still exist.

Rayne started to approach a nearby forest , but as he started to approach the area five members of the of the Ten Kenkaku kei ( Heaven Swordsmen Group) were in the forest fighting other elite swordsman that seem to use to be on his side. Some of them were ex-Odah members and some of them were unfamilar.

It was quite cool during the night as the moon showed its pale-like face with a eerily glow of white light, As Rayne started to approach the area quickly and spotted both leaders of the group, Makura Ikasha and Ikura Sakuro. As they were fighting both of them looked into the corners of the shadow and said "Ah...once more we meet again Hitokiri Ten Hinote."

Rayne walked out of the shadows in a calm manner, yet he have a angry look on his face and said calmly" I've warned you leave the ex-Odah out of this and even if they have done horrible deeds in the past they might have changed." Ikura Sakuro said in a polite voice " Hmm...your idealistic ideas are none of the sort in any truth, yet I myself is opposite to you Iam a realist and I do not agree completely." As he said this most of the swordsmen stopped clashing their swords with eachother from both sides.

Rayne stood there and said " There is no reason to fight as I remember that both of you have dismissed the Ten Kenkaku kei, but I know why you have reassemble the group with old members and new me-" But before he could finish his sentence Makura interrupted and said " What is your point ? Are you here to lecture us or tell us what is our point ?" Rayne responded in a calm voice still having a manslayer glare " I'm not here to lecture us as I can see that you grow weary of my explanation and the reason is that you know there is a war coming, as I remember you wanted me the legendary Hitokiri Ten Hinote to come back so you can defeat me."

Both of the leaders stood there in silence. After few moments the long cold silence broken by Ikura Sakuro , a young leader who looked like eighteen, replied " Very well so you must know both of our reasons, yet I'll test my skills on you, the others can wait." Ikura gave a slight smirk and said once more " I'll finish you now with the Ten Shinkuu Hoi-ru Ken ( Heaven Vacuum Wheel of Blades), yet this is my secret technique besides the Ten Sutantsu ( Heaven Stance) and I'm the co- leader of this group.

Rayne stood there contemplating upon what have Ikura have just said. After a few moments Rayne said " Fine if it is a duel then I'll except your challenge." Ikura gave a small smile and responded " At last I can once more fight the Hitokiri to prove who is the better the swordsman." After this Ikura leaped into the air, spinning his whole entire body in a three hundred sixty degree turn with rapid speed. Ikura have already unsheathed his blade when he was in the air.

Rayne have notice the current of the wind was all directed towards him and realized that the winds itself have been sharpened by Ikura's technique so that it can cut like a katana. As the vacuum of sharpened winds were directed to him, Rayne leaped into the air knowing that it was impossible to block. When he dodged it, the sharp winds cut rocks in half as though they were made of sand and slashed through the trees,cutting them in half as well.

After a few moments Ikura was about to excute the same manuever of the Ten Shinkuu Hoi-ru Ken and Rayne notice that the technique requires fluid motion of rapid air movements. The technique maybe powerful and deadly, but there is one flaw and it is that the user have to stay in the same position when performing the technique. Rayne thought to himself and knows that Ikura have the upper hand ,since he could attack from the distance.

As he leaped into the air once more and notice the sharpened winds could only go in one direction, yet Ikura directed the vacuum into mulitple directions. First it came to the east, next northeast, and third was northwest. Rayne dodged most of them except for the third attack which caused a slight cut on his left arm, since he used the hilt of his katana to deflect the partial damage that could have been done to him.

"Very clever Ten Hinote, very clever indeed, but if you haven't glanced it off an object your muscles would have been severly damaged." Ikura said in a calm voice as he landed to the ground gracefully. Rayne stood there in silent and Ikura said once more " Thats enough I'll finish you ." As he said this he was prepared to leap in the air to excute the Ten Shinkuu Hoi-ru ken.As the rapid movements of the air formed the vacuum and was directed towards where Rayne was standing at. Suddenly as the vacuum slashed the image that seem to be Rayne, it faded away immediatly.Makura did not find it very astonishing, since he have known that the Hitokiri would pull a stunt like this.

Ikura was suddenly suprise that his attack did not hit Rayne and went into a defensive stance, but Rayne reappear from a blurry form and excuted the Shinku Ten Ken, which in turn burned and cut Ikura. The searing wave of flames cut Ikura as he fell to ground for a moment. As he fell to the ground the attack caused a wall of fire and many of the swordsman were in awe of Rayne's power. Rayne stood there with a slight cut at the same arm except in a different spot. He also got another cut that was on his chest.

Ikura stood up with burned marks in several different place which was at the leg and the arms. Ikura started to speak and said " How did you dodge my technique..how.." Rayne stood there and said calmly " I used a technique that allowed me to accelerate and utilize great speed allowing me to become a blur,which is the Tsuubun Daichi." Ikura showed an annoying glare for a few moments. After that he gave small smile and said " Again very clever , very clever indeed."

Rayne smiled and gave a small chuckle seeing that he have done something that Ikura did not notice what he have done. Ikura was not very well humored towards the Hitokiri's reaction and finally notice at the last minute that the blade that he was using was damaged. Ikura was shocked and decided to call it a draw seeing that the legendary Hitokiri Ten Hinote was alittle stronger than he was the last time that he have met him, but he knows he have not used his other secret technique which was the Ni Sou Me Shippu Ken ( Two-layer Eye of the Hurricane Blade),since he was not in his elite form.

Both of them decided to call it a draw and the Ten Kenkaku kei ( Heaven Swordsmen Group) retreated. Rayne healed himself with a minor healing spell. After healing himself, Rayne leaped into the shadows vanishing without a trace knowing that he have gotten alittle stronger than his enemies.

After another battle with the Ten Kenkaku kei, Rayne wander through the forest as he made his way through the area. He looked around wondering upon why the Ten Kenkai kei was fightning some mysterious swordsmen. This is strange indeed...very strange... He thought to himself as he kept moving through the area looking around seeing if anyone was nearby. He thought to himself about his enemies seeing that they've learned the Ten Shippu Kamae ( Heaven Hurricane Style) , which was a complex style and takes years of training as well as all his styles that he have invented.

As Rin was being dragged away, Kyo was in such a mess he did not even notice, however 5 of Rins cavalry body guard noticed and charged at the person holding Rin captive, and they somehow managed to keep the person busy so they could extracate Rin to a safer place, where they undid her ropes, one asked in a gruff voice,"Are you aliright madam?"

Above the din of the battle, Kyo heard his name being called. He looked up...and an arrow hit him in the side. He cursed but saw then archer get trampled by his own retreating cavalry. Kyo left his men to pillage the camp and ran to where he heard his name called. He saw Rin lying on the ground, surrounded by half a dozen cavaliers, he ran and knelt beside her, and put his hand under her head,"Rin...are you alright, speak to me..."