The mind, the soul

A/N: My first fanfic over here, hope I did not make any mistakes or D: you find the story boring or whatsoever :D

Oh points to take note, after the fight, I changed the scene, I mean the last fight (lmao)The great fight between Kazuma and Bernhardt ~ Refer to last episode 8D Okay so here goes. OOOOH and review please ;D tyvm :3

Disclaimer: I do not own Kaze no Stigma or their characters :

Right after the last battle [again, refer to last episode rofl], Kazuma was hurt from what Lapis said, the feelings and thoughts of Tsui Ling after she disappeared.

"She wished that you were dead too."

Her last thoughts for Kazuma. Sure, Kazuma knows that he had failed to protect her even though he promised. Then again, you could not blame him as he did not have any power and it's normal for her to want Kazuma to die as well. What pains Kazuma is that he could not even protect the one he loved, and Tsui Ling wanted him to die.

Kazuma then felt someone's hand on his shoulder. It was Ayano, his fiery friend from the Kannagi family, and also a skilled enjutsushi. Ayano, of course knew that Kazuma was hurt from what Lapis said, she comforted him. Kazuma then hugged Ayano.

Ayano had her arms on his back, comforting him in silence, and then she spoke up, "You know, that Lapis girl might be lying, Tsui Ling wouldn't want you to be dead," the red-headed princess spoke.

Kazuma let go of Ayano and puts his hands back into his pocket and answered, "Maybe she really wants to, I failed to protect her and... I also promised her to do that too..."

Ayano frowned and stared at the sky, and then she said, "You did not have your powers at that time, and it's not your fault too. Besides, if Tsui Ling loves you, she would not want you to be dead! Think, Kazuma, she loves you, doesn't she?"

Kazuma sighed and held Ayano's shoulder, "Look, didn't you realized how weird that after she died, I managed to gain my wind powers?"Kazuma paused for a while and looked up into the sky together with Ayano, "It sure is beautiful up there, right?"

Ayano did not reply, she continued to stare like she's being possessed by some kind of Youma already, which scares Kazuma.

"Ayano?" Kazuma questioned and began to worry for a second.

"Ah. Sorry, was spacing out, so what did you say?" Ayano asked like she just used up all her energy.

"Never mind, anyways, where's Ren?" Kazuma asked and looked around.

Ayano, again, stared at the sky and did not respond to him. Kazuma thought, really, what is she thinking about. Well, I guess this is a good time to provoke her?

"Hey, if you're gonna stare like that the whole time and not respond to me, I'm afraid that you're already possessed and if you don't wake up, I'm gonna carry you," Kazuma frowned a little, she didn't respond so he added, "Bridal-style."

Ayano still did not respond, Kazuma looked at her weirdly. "Err, hey, Ayano? I'd expect you to flare up or something but, nooo?"

"KAZUMA!" Ren ran over to Kazuma.

"Hey Ren, something's wrong with the princess over here," Kazuma frowned and continued to stared at Ayano.

"Hmm? Ayano?" Ren shook her a bit. No respond. "Ayano...?"

Ayano suddenly snapped and she fell to the ground, almost hit Ren but Ren managed to handle but found her a little too heavy for chibi little Ren.

"K-K-Kazuma! Please help me!"

Kazuma sighed and held onto her, she's asleep, or more like she fainted. Kazuma could not really tell.

"Ren, I think we need to head back to the Kannagi's, Ayano seems to be sick or something, she has been staring into the sky and then suddenly she passed out," Kazuma said and stood up to hold Ayano in his arms.

"Right!"

10 minutes later...

They reached the Kannagi's and reported to the head, Jugo Kannagi, Ayano's father.

"Jugo, Ayano-" Ren started off but he got cut off by Jugo.

"I know what happened to her, put her down first, Kazuma," Jugo lowered his eyes and poured a cup of tea for himself.

"Sooo, what on Earth happened to her? She suddenly passed out after staring at the sky for a few minutes," Kazuma explained, almost quite annoyed.

"This has happened before, not to worry, she'll be fine once we do this treatment," Jugo said, unwillingly to explain how and why did it happen in the first place. He looked at Kazuma and Ren's worried eyes and he added on, "Not to worry, I'll take care of her, meanwhile I've got a mission for the both of you."

"Father... Is it regarding Ayano?" Ren asked.

"I'm afraid it is, I'll explain the procedure to you two," Jugo then cleared his throat and drank a sip of his tea and continued, "You two need to go into her mind and retrieve her back, but once you make her upset or angry, I don't know the consequences, in the past, the leaders of our family went inside her mind, as I said it happened before and we needed to retrieve her back. It was an easy job for us, except finding her soul might be hard, especially now she has grown up and have her own sorts of different emotions and everything, would be harder to find her soul,"

"So we just need to find her soul without provoking her or anything?" Kazuma asked.

"Yes, so you and Ren would need to go inside her mind, now." Jugo continued, "and of course I would pay you, as usual, Kazuma."

"Yeah sure, thanks," Kazuma smirked and Ren laughed nervously.

"Okay when you are ready, go inside the portal beside me after I cast the spell, but be quick please, you only have 5 hours to find her soul and everything, if not, she would not even come back at all.

"Troublesome Ayano, look what she has gotten us into... and 5 hours should be sufficient; I guess," Kazuma muttered to Ren and Ren giggled nervously while Jugo cast the portal.

Kazuma and Ren stepped into the portal and a blast of wind passed by and they landed in the middle of Ayano's … mind. The whole background was filled with darkness, like someone REALLY did possess her.

Ren frowned, "The last time the leaders told us how her mind was really like, and it wasn't filled with darkness, I mean it wasn't in this color."

"Well, I guess that could change," Kazuma said and started walking the front. "Strange aura this is, though," Kazuma frowned and scanned everywhere, making sure they are out of danger and nothing strange pops out.

Suddenly, a strange figure came up to them, it looked like Ayano, but it isn't Ayano. She had black hair and she had a really dark aura.

"Ayano?" Kazuma strained his eyes just to see if it really was her, but then he sensed that really dark aura, so obviously not.

The black Ayano took out Enraiha, even Enraiha had the dark aura, it wasn't like the real Ayano's fire magic. Black Ayano looked ridiculously pale. Really, gothic Ayano doesn't suit especially when she's a FIRE magic user. Kazuma thought. The black Ayano went to charge towards Kazuma with Enraiha in her hands. She tried to slash him, but he dodged, of course. Ren helped Kazuma by trying to hit her with his magic, she dodged as well.

"Do not try to provoke her or make her angry,"

Jugo's words flashed into Kazuma's mind and immediately widen his eyes and shouted to Ren.

"Ren! Don't fight! Remember what Jugo said about not trying to provoke her?"

"B-But, she isn't real Ayano! She's just a replica of her!" Ren replied while trying to dodge black Ayano's Enraiha.

Replica... huh... Reminded me of Tsui Ling and Lapis... Kazuma thought and then stared at black Ayano while she tried to fight Ren. Ren was right, this isn't how Ayano fights.

"Sheesh, Ren, I've got to say you improved a lot, I didn't even realized that," Kazuma smirked and tried to attack black Ayano.

"Hehe, thanks. But actually, I've been into her mind before," Ren replied.

"... Well, that explains," Kazuma then went and tried to attack Ayano, but she kept on dodging and attacking.

"Hey Ren, this is Ayano's mind right?" Kazuma asked, a quite silly question.

"Yeah, why?" Ren asked, thinking he might be a little not alright. He's still trying to dodge black Ayano's attacks.

"Hmm, since this is her..." Kazuma said as he walked towards black Ayano.

"E-eh? What are you planning brother?" Ren asked, a little scared.

"I do not wish to attack her, but I do wish to have a little fun with her," Kazuma smirked at his dirty minded thoughts, well maybe dirty, or a plan.

"Kazuma! That's not Ayano! Watch out!" Ren shouted and went to use his purifying skills to keep his big brother safe from any attacks.

"Good job Ren, I'm impressed," Kazuma grinned at him as he managed to purify the black Ayano.

"Was that your plan or something?" Ren asked, a little too blur.

"You could say so, anyway, let's move on," Kazuma said and walked front.

"Hey! You could have asked me to purify her instead! You gave me a shock just now," Ren cried and ran to his brother.

"Well, I thought a little fun with "Ayano" and you would be quite interesting," Kazuma smirked without letting Ren see his face.

Ren sighed and followed his big brother till the next step.

Meanwhile, black Ayano, of course would not be defeated so easily, pretending to be dead while they head off to the next step. After they are out of sight, she stood up, and slowly made her way to them.

End of Chapter 1

A/N: How was it? D: I hope I didn't make any mistakes but I THINK that there are plenty of grammar mistakes ^_^; hope not , this chapter hasn't shown any of Ayano and Kazuma love, YET. :D

~Enjoy your day, will be flying to the next chapter :D