Fogotten Memories

 

 

    "Shin, when did you get back from Hagi?" Shu asked walking into the living room.  The day was just a normal one since they had moved back in with Nasuti.  Shu and Shin had started their restruant with a ton of sucess, Ryo had a best seller on the shelves, Seiji's back in the races, and Touma is on a vacation from training in the US.  Everything was great, untill Shin got a phone call from Hagi.  His mother had gotten worse.  Shin raced down as fast as he could, dropping everything on Shu.  But Shu didn't mind, he understood.  And it was only a few days after Shin arrived that his mother died.
   

"Just today, I was in the middle of taking some stuff up to my room." Shin replied moving some stuff off of the couch so Shu could sit down.  The funeral was the day after, the cremation that night.  The next couple of days was spent cleaning out the house and putting it up for sell.  They took the stuff that was left to them, and then split up the rest equaly.  Shin couldn't take the furnature, and his sister or brother in law didn't need it, so they sold it.  It was like that with a lot of the stuff.  Their old rooms were pretty much gutted, not changed since either of them left.  It was a sad time for everyone.  It was a week before Shin made it back to Tokyo.
   

"Do you need any help?" Shu offered looking at the mess before him.

 

"Nah, I'll get it, eventually." Shin replied flipping the page in the book he was in.  Shu looked over his shoulder and at the book.
   

"Is that you? You sure were a cute baby!" Shu smiled pointing to a pitcure.
   

"Yea, Mom like to make up photo albums for each of us.  This is all of me." Shin replied grinning a bit while looking at a picture of his mother holding him as a baby.  He flipped through several of the other pages of himself, training with his grandfather, swimming in the ocean.  He stopped when he came to a picture of him and his father.
   

"You look like him." Shu commented kneeling down behind the couch so he was even with Shin.
   

"Yea, I guess." Shin replied as he stroked the picture.
   

"I bet he was a nice man, he looks like it."
   

"He was." Shin took a deep breath, he had cried enough the past weekend, he didn't want to start again.  Shin turned the page to show a summer he had gone off to camp.
   

"Hey, isn't that, that camp out in the mountian.. oh what was it called?" Shu asked racking his brain
   

"Umm.. wasn't it that warriors camp?" Shin asked looking at the picture.
   

"Yea, that was it! I went there once, I think I was about five or so.  My mama wanted me to train on some other things other then my kunfu." Shu laughed.  Shin took the picture out of the book and flipped it over. On the back was the date and his age.
   

"Age six. That would make you five then." Shin thought.
   

"Hey, your right. Hmm..  Let me think.." Shu said sinking down to the ground behind the couch, " My roomates were...  Nah, couldn't be."
   

"What? Shin asked as he tried to remeber his own roomates
   

"Well, I was thinking I remebered this stuck up kid with blond hair and viloet eyes." Shu laughed, "I'm sure it was just a coinsidence"
   

"Wait a second. I think I remeber one of my roomates having blue hair and reading anytime he could." Shin commented, "Nah, couldn't be."
   

"Now how many people were to a hut, do you remeber?" Shu asked looking up at Shin.
   

"Five I beleive." Shin replied
   

"You wouldn't happen to have any pictures of your hut woudl you?" Shu asked getting back up on his knees.  Shin flipped through the album but couldn't find any.
   

"Hmm. and Mama has all my stuff stored somewhere.  I don't even want to try and find it." Shu commented.  Shin put the album away and stood up,
   

"Well, I might as well, get this stuff put up."
   

"I'll help ya." Shu said picking up a box and heading up stairs.  They took the remaining items up the stairs and into Shin's room.  By the time they finished it was time for supper and there where three other guys waiting for the cook to get it served.  Shin hurred up and stuck some premade stuff in the oven.  Once it was done he set it on the table. As he sat down he got five odd looks,
   

"What? I just got back, give me a break!" Shin exclaimed.  They all laughed and dug in.  Shin and Shu looked at each other through out the meal as if they were having a mental converstaion.  Seiji getting fed up with it spoke up.

   

"What is with you two? You act as if you have a secret."
   

"Well, Seiji, when you were, say, around six, you didn't happen to go to a warriors camp did you?" Shin asked leaning his chin on his folded hands.
   

"Hmm.. to think of it yea, I did. How did you know?" Seiji asked curiosity filling his viloet eyes.
   

"Hey, I think I went to that camp too." Touma spoke up, "I think I read 20,000 leags under the sea that summer"
   

"That might of been the summer I snuck in." Ryo quirped.
   

"You snuck in??" The others choresed.
   

"Well, sorta, I got in without paying..." Ryo said, not explaining further.
   

"Do you guys remeber any of your roommates?" Shu asked stuffing another forkfull in his mouth.
   

"Hmm.. Well, I do remeber this chubby kid that seemed to eat all the time." Seiji spoke up and then shook his head, "Nah, coudln't be."
   

"Do you think?" Touma asked, "The odds would be rather interesting ot figure out."
   

"Well, what about you Touma?" Seiji asked looking at the blue haired warrior, "Do you remeber any of your roomates?"
   

"Hmm.. well, I do remeber this really nice shy kid.. don't remeber his name or what he looks like though." Touma stated.
   

"This is just too weird, what about you Ryo?" Shin asked looking to their leader.
   

"Well, I may have an answer to this all." Ryo stated standing up and picking up his plate.
   

"What are you talking about?" Seiji asked.
   

"Come one, we're gonna go visit my Dad's cabin."  Ryo stated walking into the kitchen.
   

"Why?" Touma asked picking up his own plate and following.
   

"Cause I might just have a picture that will settle this all." Ryo said.  They all agreed and cleaned the table and hopped into Seiji's car.  They arrived at the cabin about an hour later, now that they knew how to get there from Nastui's and vise versa.  Ryo walked into the door and walked to the back of the cabin while the others mingled around the living room in the front.
   

"How do they keep this place clean when no one really lives here?" Shin asked looking around at the very fine layer of dust.
   

"We have a maid that comes in about once a month to dust and stuff." Ryo said comming back out holding a couple of photo albums.
   

"Whacha got there?" Shu asked taking one of the books.
   

"Well, I"m sure I have pictures of the camp in one of these." Ryo expalined.  The five sat down on the chairs and couches to looke through the albums.  There were sevreal pictures of Ryo as a kid and just a few of his mother.  Shin, Shu, and Touma were looking through one book while Ryo and Seiji looked at the other.  It wasn't till Ryo and Seiji near the end of their's did they find what they were looking for.
   

"I knew they were here" Ryo said carring the book to the table so they all could see.  The pictures contained in the book were of the camp that year.  There was of course fighting, and other activities, all with lables.
   

"Hey look at this!" Shu pointed to a pic of a water race, "Shin, isn't that you?"
   

"Hey, It is!!" Shin said pointing to the cap he was wearing, "My dad gave that to me just before I left for camp."
   

"The dolphin man." Ryo read the lable, "My dad loved making names for people."
   

"Hey, this looks like you, Touma" Seiji said pointing to a pic of a sparign match where there was a blue tuff of hair sticking out of a book in the background.  Ryo walked over to the counter and grabed a magnifiing glass and held if over the picter.
   

"20,000 Leages Under the Sea" He read.
   

"The book worm." Shu read laughing.
   

"I guess that is me then!" Touma laughed, "And there's Shu!"
   

"HEY!!! I remeber that!! Undefeated!!" Shu cheered.
   

"Hurcules" Shin read the lable, "It fits!"
   

"Why don't we see any pics of you Ryo?" Touma asked.
   

"Probably because I'm the one taking the pictures." Ryo explained, "That's how I got in free. As long as I took pictures to help promote the camp."
   

"Cool! Hey, This is my hut!" Shu exclaimed pointing ot a bunk, "That was my bed."
   

"And that was mine!" Shin said pointing to the one under it.
   

"Mind was next to shu's it would seem" Seiji pointed out.
   

"And mine was under Seiji's." Touma grinned.
   

"Mine was the loner in the corner." Ryo added.
   

"OH! Now I remeber you!" Shin exclaimed, "The one with the carmera all the time!!"
   

"Yea! Thta's right. Dont' remeber your face cause it was always behind the camera!" Shu laughed.
   

"Well, you can't have a wold famous photographer as a father and not be intrested in it at all." Ryo grinned.
   

"That's true." Seiji agreed.
   

"Hey, didn't you set up your camera at the end of the camp?" Shu asked looking at Ryo
   

"Hmm. now that you mention it, I think I did.  Took a picture of all of us that is." Ryo said walking back into the back of the cabin.
   

"I wonder why we never made the connection before?" Seiji wondered
   

"Who knows. Maybe, Kaosu had something to do with it." Touma suggested.
   

"Could be, or the armors." Shin added.
   

"Here it is." Ryo said comming back out with a picture frame.  He turned it around and in it was a pic of all of them.  Shu with his arm around Shin's neck giving the victory sign.  Shin a bit suprised at this also giving the victory sign.  Seiji looking pouty showing off his good side, Ryo grinning and looking sideways at the friends he had made, and Touma looking up at his book long enough to smile.
   

"That was a fun summer." Shin stated taking the picture and looking at it.
   

"Yea, Even though I missed a couple of races that summer" Seiji added.
   

"I guess we were always ment to be friends." Shin suggested.
   

"I guess so." Shu added grinning, "I vote we go out and celebrate!"
   

"Celebrate what?" Touma asked looking at shu like he was crazy.
   

"What else! LIFE!!" Shu cheered.  Everyone laughed and agreed, and even though they all had things to do the next day and work to go to, they partied till the sun rose.. and then called in.