Dark Clouds

Chapter 1

By Amazon

Amazon sat down heavily in the ragged couch that sat in the group's living

room. The four men also sat down, Thugs sitting on the floor, Yoshio taking

the other half of the torn-up couch, Kinjiro in the chair by the corner and

Seiji also on the floor, opposite Kenji. All of them looked about ready to

fall asleep.

Harry padded into the living room, tail wagging and happy to see his

master. "Hey, boy." Kinjiro greeted the German Shepherd, scratching behind

his ears, knowing that the dog loved it. Amazon grabbed the bag of loot off

the floor and carefully unpacked it, handing the items to either Seiji or

Thugs, who set them on the floor.

Yoshio looked at each stolen item, calculating it's worth, living up to his

now deceased mother and father's antique dealings. Amazon soon reached the

bottom of the bag. Her fingers reached into the corners of the sack and came

out holding the clear marbles. The five orbs glinted in the light that

flooded through the living room window.

"Guys? What about these?" Amazon asked, holding them up.

"Sell 'em." Seiji shrugged. "They aren't of any worth to us." The other

three agreed with him. Amazon looked at the orbs again. For an instant she

thought she saw them flash different colors. When she looked up she saw

different colors surrounding her friends.

Kenji was surrounded by a dark navy color, Seiji an emerald green, Kinjiro

orange and Yoshio blue, the color of the sea on a sunny day or a cloudless

sky. Then it was gone. She blinked a couple of times. She removed her

sunglasses, revealing ice blue depths, and rubbed them. She was too tired

and was beginning to see things. You need a good night's rest, Amazon. She

chastised herself.

She became aware that Yoshio was asking her a question. "Nani? (What?)" She

asked.

Yoshio sighed. "I was asking you if we should head out now to go pawn this

junk. The shop should be empty this time of night." He rubbed her arm. "Then

we can come back and get some sleep."

Kenji laughed. "Ol' man Tasuki (Taz-SKE) is always willing to wake up in

the middle of the night for goods." His face turned dark and he scowled. "He

always buys them dirt cheap and then sells them triple the price that he

bought them for."

"He's the only person that we can go to fence these stolen goods. And

you know it." Yoshio said.

"Guys, it's a little late to be arguing. We'll go and after that we'll get

some sleep." Amazon said, standing up. Kinjiro and Seiji packed the goods

into the bag, careful not to chip or damage them in any sort of way. Let's

hope that we get enough money to pay the bills and then for the groceries.

* * * * *

"Mmmmm interesting indeed." Yoshimu Tasuki gazed at the lot of stolen goods

placed before him. "You've done a fine job, as usual. This time, Yoshimu

thinks he will give you extra bonus." Amazon, Seiji and Kenji's eyes flew

open in surprise. "Old man Tasuki" as Kenji so lovingly referred to him as,

was known in the streets to be as stingy as Scrooge was. "For everything

here, I give you three-fifty."

Amazon's eyes nearly popped out of her head. Three hundred and fifty

dollars! (Tasuki insisted upon paying in the American dollars most of the

tourists used in his shop.) That would more than provide for the small

group! So someone up there is looking out for us, she thought.

Ten minutes later the gang walked out and let out a cheer. Amazon spread

the bills out in her hand and counted them again. It was so wonderful, not

having to worry about money for once! Oh, she knew it wouldn't last forever,

but she couldn't help but be excited.

For some reason she thought about those marbles. She kinda missed them,

what on earth for she couldn't explain. She shook off the thought and

continued to celebrate with her friends.

* * * * * * *

"Ohmigod! What happened?" Ryo said as he pushed open the door to their new

home. The Ronins filed in, shocked at the overturned table and knocked over

chairs. The thieves hadn't taken too much, the TV for instance, still

remained, But the VCR, vase and lamp by the phone was gone, and along with

it the good china and a valuable sword.

Everyone rushed to his or her respective rooms. Ryo found most of his room

(the one he shared with Yuli when he visited; he was at a friend’s house for

the night) all right; other than the slightly rumpled bed sheets and a

missing picture frame, the room was untouched. In his haste to see his

friend's rooms, he didn't notice his kanji orb was missing. Kento and Cye's

room was the worst, with a lot of Cye's statuary missing (luckily not his

computer) and Kento's game console and video games gone. And, atop that,

neither could find their orbs.

"Why would the thieves steal those? They probably just knocked them into

the bottomless pit of junk over there," Cye reassured him, but doubted even

his own words.

In Rowen and Sage's room, the thief had been neat. Sage's swords were gone,

along with the lamp on the nightstand. However, the most disturbing thing

left was a dagger buried deep in the oak side table. Sage moved to remove

it, but thought better in case they decided to call the police. He did;

however, notice some faded initials on the side, but at the angle it was

thrust in he couldn't read them without tampering with evidence.

A crude ending but I couldn't think of anything else.

Amazon