CHAPTER 37; RETURNING TO THE SOUND RYU

The following morning arrived very quickly. Ryu and the others prepared to leave Meena's cottage.

"I hope I have been of great help to you" Meena said.

Rokkan bowed slightly.

"I hope we meet again" he said politely.

"You should talk to the queen of the Sound ryu. I think she'll be surprised" Meena said with a laugh.

Ryu waved as they left for the Sound ryu. The journey to the Sound ryu was quite uneventful. They arrived at their destination without much trouble.

"I think we should go straight to the queen" Rokkan suggested.

"I agree" Ryu said.

So they went to the Palace of Melody to find the queen. As Meena had said, she was surprised to see them.

"How are you back so soon? Did you see Meena?" the queen asked.

"Yes, we did" Atlanta said seriously.

"And we defeated the Sun-Song Devil. Heh! It wasn't singing so nicely after we were done with it!" Nadia said proudly.

"I applaud you for your determination. As a reward, I will present you with a gift. It will help you along the way" the queen said as she removed a golden medallion from around her neck.

She presented it to Ryu.

"This is the Nova medallion. It can help you enter the Light Ryu" she said.

Ryu stared at the medallion. It was shaped like the sun and had sacred inscriptions on it. Inscriptions Ryu couldn't make out.

"Use it wisely" the queen said as she returned to her throne.

The companions left the Palace of Melody and returned to the Sound Temple. Michael and Rokkan went to purchase supplies. Nadia and Ken left to train with Ryu and Atlanta. As they were training, Ryu felt uneasy. There was a question he had always wanted to ask Atlanta but he just didn't know how to ask her without offending her. He hesitantly approached her while she was focusing deeply on mastering the recent techniques she had developed.

"Atlanta?" Ryu called.

Atlanta stopped training and stared at him enquiringly.

"Is anything the matter Ryu?" she asked him.

"Well…uh…there's something I've been meaning to ask you since we left the Dragon of Destiny in the Ryu of Destiny. I'll appreciate it if you are totally honest with me" Ryu said nervously.

"O-kay" Atlanta said hesitantly.

"First of all, your father, the king of the Fire Kingdom, he's not really dead is he?" Ryu asked.

Atlanta flinched.

"N-No Ryu, he's not, why do you ask?" Atlanta asked worriedly.

"You will have to reconcile with your father" Ryu advised.

"What?! What are you saying Ryu?!" Atlanta growled angrily.

"I care about you Atlanta, a lot. I don't want you to regret not forgiving him while you had the chance. Life is shorter than we can imagine" Ryu said as he stared at the sky.

"Is that all you want to say? You don't know anything about me to ask me to do such a thing!" Atlanta yelled.

"Secondly, you use a type of technique called Silent jutsu. What's that?" Ryu asked.

"Look Ryu, it's not everything about me you need to know" Atlanta said seriously.

"I'm only trying to help. I know things between you and your father have been…well…uh…complicated but you have responsibilities to your people, as the heiress to the Fire Kingdom" Ryu said.

"Look Ryu, I'd very much prefer it if you stayed out of my past and private life" Atlanta scolded Ryu.

"I'm not saying…" Ryu was about to say when Atlanta cut him off.

"Then don't say anything! My personal life has nothing to do with you!" Atlanta yelled.

Ryu scowled and clenched his fists.

"Fine! Why do you have to be such a dragon lady all the time!" Ryu yelled angrily himself.

"Dragon lady? Well Crystal is a Dragon Lady and she's pretty cool so thanks for the compliment" Atlanta sneered.

"Whatever! You know what?! I'm getting fed up of trying to understand you. The pain from your past is destroying any relationships you've been trying to build!" Ryu yelled.

"Nadia!" Atlanta called.

"What's up Atlanta?" Nadia called back from where she was training.

"Do you think I'm destroying my relationships with you guys?" Atlanta asked.

"Who said that?! That's crazy! You're pretty much the friendliest person in the group!" Nadia called back.

"I agree!" everyone else called out.

"See? You're the only one who seems to think that" Atlanta said with a smirk.

"That's an obvious lie! They're all probably scared of what they'll eat once we leave this ryu and we all know there ain't nothing more evil than an angry feminist cook!" Ryu yelled.

"What's your problem?!" Atlanta yelled.

"My problem is that you're too damn difficult to understand. Your heart is exactly like your handbag!" Ryu yelled.

"What has my handbag got to do with all this?!" Atlanta yelled.

"Puh-lease! Everyone knows that whatever goes into a ladies' handbag, never comes out!" Ryu yelled.

The next moment, he was flying across the courtyard and Atlanta was growling angrily with a clenched fist.

"That one came out pretty quickly" Rokkan said with a bored look on his face.

"You're hopeless" Michael sighed.

"He'll never change, will he?" Nadia sighed.

"Though what he was trying to do was pretty mature" Tanya added.

Ryu got up.

"You just proved my point. You're so unpredictable and I recall just yesterday you were saying 'You are Ryu'. I'm tired of trying to understand you. I quit!" Ryu yelled as he mimicked Atlanta.

"Says someone who once said 'I'll never give up!' That was way too easy" Nadia said.

"Oh just give him some time, he'll be back for more" Michael said with a sinister chuckle.

"For someone who claims to be his twin brother, you seem to be enjoying this a little too much" Rokkan said with a suspicious stare.

"But at least, we know now that there's definitely a spark between those two" Ken said with a laugh.

"If it's a spark, I'll be sure to punch it out!" Atlanta yelled.

"That's my style Atlanta!" Nadia cheered.

Ryu shivered.

"So cold" he said.

"Now that I think about it, Atlanta's quite scary" Ken said.

"Well, right now, I think Ryu agrees, don't you Ryu?" Michael asked.

"Shut up Michael! This is definitely not over Atlanta! I'll definitely be back so prepare yourself!" Ryu declared.

"Says the guy who not a moment ago said 'I quit!' Ryu's definitely a leaf in the wind isn't he?" Rokkan said with a bored expression on his face.

"Told ya so" Michael said with a satisfied expression on his face.

"You best believe that I'll be prepared Ryu!" Atlanta roared angrily.

Ryu turned away from her and smiled. An evil Ryuugan appeared temporarily in his eyes.

"Reverse Psychological trick number one, complete! That will give Atlanta something to think about for a while" he said with a smirk.

"I can hear you Ryu!" Atlanta growled angrily.

"Don't mind me, I'm just talking to myself" Ryu said with a mischievous laugh.

"You're the one who's difficult to understand" Michael said with an angry look on his face as he hooked Ryu by the collar and dragged him away from Atlanta.

"What's up Michael?" Ryu asked when they were quite a distance from Atlanta and the rest.

Michael suddenly burst into laughter.

"What was that about Ryu? First you call Atlanta a dragon lady and an evil feminist cook and then you compare her heart to a handbag, boy you're twisted!" Michael laughed.

Ryu couldn't help laughing too.

"Well, she is difficult to understand" he sighed.

"That's true. Do you remember our friend Pius from Crystal?" Michael asked.

"Yeah, the one who was dating Sharon, am I right?" Ryu said.

"After trying so hard for over eight years, he finally wrote a book entitled 'What manner of creatures are women that they're so difficult to understand?!' Some of the things you just said to Atlanta were in his book!" Michael laughed.

"You don't say. I'd definitely like to speak to Pius about Atlanta. She'll be the prime test subject!" Ryu laughed.

"Looks like my little bro is growing up!" Michael said with a grin.

"What the heck's that supposed to mean?!" Ryu exclaimed in surprise.

"Tell me, you like Atlanta don't you?" Michael asked.

"Well, I don't know about that just yet and even if I did, I'm definitely not telling you, Little Mikey" Ryu said with a smirk.

"Let's go buy some supplies and I'll be sure to force the truth out of you!" Michael said as he grabbed Ryu's head in a screwdriver lock-hold.

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

When evening arrived, the friends had gathered at the Sound Palace, specifically, in Tanya's classroom. They made plans to leave the following morning. Tanya decided to brush up on her training as Dragon Sage.

"So where do we go from here?" Nadia asked.

"Straight into the heart of Darkness, we move on to the Dark ryu. From there, we'll start searching for ways to find the Light ryu. Hopefully, we can seize the gem from Nemesis and end our quest" Rokkan said.

"You make it sound so simple" Ryu said.

Rokkan smirked.

"It's as simple as it sounds. That way, we can stop Nemesis before he releases Shekan. We can end all this" he said.

Ryu glanced at Atlanta and their eyes met. He turned away quickly. Ken nodded in agreement with Rokkan's plan. Tanya soon joined them.

"I guess this means we're leaving tomorrow" she said.

The others nodded.

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

The following day arrived swiftly and the companions went to see the queen of the Sound ryu one last time.

"I hear you are leaving today" she said.

"That's correct, your majesty" Tanya said politely.

"I believe you are doing the right thing. You really are worthy of this quest" the queen said.

"Tell me, were you really serious about being ageless?" Ryu asked.

"RYU!!!" the others yelled angrily.

The queen smiled.

"What do you think?" she said.

"Pardon his rudeness your majesty" Atlanta pleaded.

"I'll be sure to punch his lights out once we're out of here!" Nadia threatened.

"I hope you succeed. If you do, the Sound ryu will no longer need to be hidden in illusion. I hope we will meet again after the dilemma is over" the queen said.

The companions bade their final farewells to everyone they had met in the Sound ryu before finally summoning the dragons.

"We plan to go to the Dark ryu" Michael said.

"The Dark ryu is full of Dark and Shadow ninja as well as Dark mongerers and all sorts of abominable creatures created by Tristran himself. It is also the dwelling place of Nemesis. Please reconsider" Crystal said solemnly.

"No, we've made up our minds" Ryu said.

"How do we get out of a ryu that's cloaked in five folds of genjutsu?" Nadia asked.

"You close off all your senses so that you're not affected by the illusionary barriers. Basically, you sleep" Hurricane answered.

"Sleep? That's way too easy" Ken said.

"You were unconscious when we brought you here. To get out, you need to be unconscious. The closest thing to that is sleep but not just normal sleep. The kind of sleep, we dragons have been sleeping for centuries" Crystal said.

"What?! If we sleep for centuries, Shekan would have dominated this world by the time we wake up!" Ryu roared.

"You're so simple minded Ryu. Tanya can induce that kind of sleep. Once out of the barriers, we will awaken you" Tornado said.

"Ah, I see" Ryu chuckled nervously.

Atlanta glared at him. The companions mounted their dragons.

"Well I guess it's easy, we'll try" Atlanta said.

"But how exactly do we just go to sleep?" Ryu asked.

"Weren't you paying attention?! Tanya will play a sleep inducing tune, you moron!" Atlanta and Nadia yelled angrily.

"Oops, my bad!" Ryu laughed.

"Do it Tanya" Rokkan said calmly.

Tanya nodded and began to play a soft tune. Soon afterwards, the companions found themselves caught within a state of deep sleep.