Return of the Elementals

Chapter Two

We hadn't heard from Akira or Hatabou since the defeat of Ryuu all those months ago. Hatabou had kept a low profile since, wishing to conceal his identity as an elemental master of ice, to an understandable degree. Akira, however, was a different story. The light dragon had promised that we could visit him anytime, but it was hard to decipher how, since the temple had been demolished, and his shrine had been buried deep down into the belly.

As for the soldiers we'd encountered in the headquarters, like Torch and Needle, they'd been found strewn across Japan, after fleeing and scattering from the temple before its collapse and destruction during our battle with Ryuu. A good amount of them had been arrested, never to be seen again in public. One of the dogs, Hammer, had been adopted by Hatabou, and was in training to unlearn its violent, evil nature and instead transform into a lap dog and security dog. Since none of us had seen Hatabou since the fight, we had no idea how well that was going.

Work on completely removing the now demolished headquarters was underway, looking for a way to reuse a lot of the structure pieces. Rumors that had only spread like wildfire following the announcement was that they were also looking for a way to restore the site to what it once was: a temple for elementals and non-elementals to worship. Hopefully, if true, Akira would once again see the glory days of the temple.

As for the big bad boss, Ryuu, more had surfaced about him. While it was true he was engineered from the DNA of the dark dragon, whose name had surfaced as Hiryur, it was also true that he was partly engineered from scientists working for the Dragons. While Hiryur had gifted Ryuu his intelligence, wit and strength, the scientists had worked in Ryuu's foresight, elemental absorption, and ability to transform into a human. 

Hiryur had served as the former Dragons boss, up until Akira had sealed him and his demon army away into Hell. It was there Hiryur selected certain demon warriors, and had molded them into the shapes of humans, half were to become soldiers and brawn, and the other half was destined to be scientists, working to engineer a successor from a few scales.

Ryuu was dead. His body had evaporated into ash after the fight, the power of our combined elements shutting down his entire genetic coding. Without their leader, the Japanese branch of the Destruction Dragons had disbanded across Japan, not caring if they were caught. It was still possible that some were left on the large, but the efforts were more centered on removing the old temple.

As for us, we were finally starting to fade from the limelight, and our lives were starting to become normal again, or as normal as the lives of elemental NEETs could really be. People started to leave us alone, instead of flagging us down on the streets. We weren't begged for autographs, or asked for a few minutes of our time in exchange for answers to their questions. Reporters finally stopped stalking us like predators.

In the wake of the events, our parents seemed to have newfound respect for us. I mean, how often is it that your children end up being heroes and exposing a dangerous organization that's slipped free from the grasps of the government for years? Maybe it had proven to them that we weren't completely useless after all.

Our friends were bustles of questions, especially Iyami, who had more questions than we could really handle. Chibita didn't seem too curious about our involvement in the takedown, he'd actually been nice enough to clear our tab. "Hero's discount," he'd explained the first time we'd visited his oden stand following Ryuu's defeat.

Totoko had practically ignored us, but had come over once or twice more than usually. Dekapan and Dayon had taken up our wishes to train again, just in case we needed to fight more villains, which I felt was unlikely but at this point, it was better to be safe than sorry. Sure, it wasn't something completely insane, like when we were children, but it was manageable. 

Interviews circulated and we'd been tired out from constant media attention. Reporters trailed our every move, and we were watched by the eyes of the cameras. Any moment away from the attention was peace, and we usually resorted to staying inside. Not that I really cared about being forced to take shelter. I was fine with staying indoors regardless of whether we'd saved Tokyo or not.

Since the initial bringing down, it's been hectic, yes, but we've been managing. We even have a schedule of who trains on what day. I know, it's unlikely another mastermind villain is going to attack Japan so shortly after Ryuu's failed takeover, but one can never be too sure. Especially when our backsides were already previously wanted while we kept our elemental powers a secret.

And at the center of the attention as it swelled, we just hid away, unaware of the dangers about to come.

A/N: Hello! I'm really sorry these chapters aren't as long as an average one from the first fic, and updates aren't frequent, but I'm working on making them longer and working forward on coming up w plotting this fic out!