01
going nowhere

"Go fish."

Anna frowns at her, "You're cheating."

"I am not." Kali picks up a peanut from the tiny bowl Manta had placed on the table for them and tosses it into her mouth. "You just suck, Anna."

The blonde gives her a sharp look—is there any other kind? Anna does not seem to be in the mood to bite her head off today, which is a nice change in Kali's opinion, so she turns to Kali's brother to do her dirty work for her. The idiot can barely even stay awake.

"Yoh, tell Kali it's not polite to cheat."

Kali is actually a little surprised when he responds. He doesn't move, he doesn't even open his eyes all the way through, but he manages to croak something out. "Please don't drag me into this."

Anna exhales loudly through her nose—uh oh, not a good sign—and slaps her cards on the table. While she's getting ready to tell Yoh off, Kali sneaks a quick peek at her now exposed cards. Dammit, she's about to win.

"As your fiancée, I demand that you discipline your sister."

Kali resents that. First of all, Kali is not some kid that needs to be spanked because she's been naughty or something. Second, Yoh has never disciplined anyone in his life, not even himself, so Anna isn't making the point she thinks she is right now.

Yoh lazily turns his head towards his sister and says, "Kali, stop cheating."

"I wasn't." She puts her cards down as well. There's no use finishing this game—she's losing anyway. "Though I am slightly offended that you chose to defend your girlfriend instead of me. Offended, but not surprised. I can tell you're going to be a good, henpecked husband."

He smiles, at least until Anna informs him, "That wasn't a compliment, you idiot."

Kali stands up with a grunt. "I'm going to bed."

She's just about to go into her room when a single word from the ice queen makes her freeze.

"Stop," she says without even looking at her. "Have you made dinner yet?"

"It's Manta's turn." She says, which instantly prompts a cry of protest from the tiny teenager sitting next to Yoh trying to keep him from falling on him and crushing him. Kali know it's really her turn to cook tonight, but frankly she's had quite a hellish day and she just wants it to end as soon as possible.

"Manta always ruins the rice. You do it."

"Hey, don't do that." You'd think Kali would've already learned from all the other times she's talked back to Anna that she's just wasting her time and spit right now. "You can't just boss me around like that. I'm not Yoh. I don't follow orders from you."

For the first time tonight, Anna's tone changes. From her usual emotionless tone, it becomes an annoyed one. "Must you make this speech every night? Just go into the kitchen and make dinner for Pete's sake."

Kali suddenly finds herself engaging in an intense glaring match. She keeps her straight face on for as long as she can, but Anna's icy blue eyes are no match for her. She actually feels like she just died a little inside.

"Yes, your fucking majesty," she mutters under her breath as she marches into the kitchen.

Yoh comes in a moment later, hovering around her as she washes the rice. She clucks her tongue, which is a sign for him to stop watching her because it's distracting, and he just pats her head and sits himself atop the counter.

"What do you want?" she asks, not even trying to hide the annoyance in her voice.

"Why do you and Anna always have to be so mean to each other?" Kali is startled when a different voice answers. She looks down and sees Manta looking at her with his big, round eyes. It's a good thing she saw him before she can step on him…again.

She swats Yoh's hand when she sees him put his finger in the batter she prepared for the chicken. She shoos him away from her workstation, which doesn't amount to much because he only takes this as a sign to scoot a few inches to the right.

"Don't be silly. Anna and I get along great." Kali scoops up some flour with her hand and throws it at her brother's face, just because she loves to annoy him. He laughs and licks the flour off his lips.

"She's right, Manta." Yoh stays put despite wearing a face full of flour. "Anna and Kali are very good friends. They just don't like to admit it."

"What's Anna like when she doesn't like someone then?" the short boy wonders aloud.

Kali shakes her head, chuckling, because Manta obviously doesn't realize that there are just some things in this world that they are better off not knowing.

They finally leave her alone after about five minutes. They probably decided that watching her struggle with the gas tank is not the most exciting thing to watch. Heck, at this point even Kali would leave herself if she could.

"Need a little help?" She knows that voice so well that she doesn't even have to see him to know who it is.

She gives in. "Yes, if you could."

Kali jumps back a little when the stove produces fire as if by magic. She starts frying the chickens and all the while, she can still feel his eyes on her.

"Thanks," she says as if that was what he was waiting for. "I'll save you a piece."

She feels his presence fade and once again, she's left alone.

Tomorrow they go to the airport to head to Patch Village and Kali can't sleep a wink. That may or may not have anything to do with what's going on in the room right next to hers—all she knows is that she has to get out of this house.

On her way out, she runs into a certain Chinese shaman. She doesn't know what he's doing there, and right now, she could actually care less because the only thing she's concerned about right now is getting as far away from here as possible. When their shoulders brush against each other, he huffs and she huffs right back, only because the two of them have this thing where they take turns sniping at each other. Kali wouldn't really call it a friendship, but she wouldn't call it a rivalry either. It's something right in between, though it leans more towards the latter.

They first met when they were assigned to duel each other as one of their preliminary tests. He was her third and last one, and she can honestly say that she gave her all to defeat him because she had already suffered one loss and another one would eliminate her chances of getting into the tournament. Plus, at the time, he had already put her brother in the hospital once before and she wasn't too happy about that. The fact that Ren's spirit guardian, Bason, seems to be quite fond of Chi, Kali's spirit guardian, might have helped a little bit.

Ren has always resented her for defeating him. There are just so many factors in the whole thing that irritates him so, mainly that she's a girl and she's an Asakura. When he found out he had to fight Yoh for his next test, he almost went berserk. He nearly killed him, and Yoh, being the kind-hearted idiot he is, doesn't even hold a grudge.

Kali has walked a few blocks away from the house when Chi informs her that they're being followed. Of course, she already knew that—in this neighborhood, someone is always following you—so she just nods and hums. Chi isn't exactly what one would call the strongest ally. The only reason she can hold up in battles is because she's competent enough to make up for Chi's lackluster abilities. Unfortunately though, sometimes that isn't enough, and she often finds herself lying on the ground in defeat, and she would have already been killed several times before if not for Yoh or Horohoro, and occasionally Ryu, saving her ass.

Come to think of it, Ren came this close to killing her. If she hadn't taken advantage of that tiny moment of hesitation he had, which frankly she still doesn't understand, she would be haunting Yoh and Anna's house every single day. Though not right now, as they're busy with their own stuff at the moment. Kali feels a shudder coming on.

Kali has a powerful sense of other people or spirits' presence around her, which isn't uncommon for shamans, but to be completely honest, it isn't always effective. It makes it relatively hard for other people to sneak up on her though, even at this very moment. How long has Ren been following her, she wonders? Does he plan to slash her neck or impale her like he tried to before? It seems unlikely that Bason would allow that as that would mean upsetting Chi. Kali enjoys seeing him try though.

She turns around, ready to greet him with a big, smug smirk and a smart-ass remark, but there's nothing there. Just an empty, slightly foggy street. She's starting to feel a little freaked out.

She definitely felt something. What if that wasn't Ren? What if it was—

Kali turns back around to face the road and gasps loudly when she nearly crashes into a face with piercing, golden eyes.

"Shit," she says with a hand on her chest. "What is the matter with you?"

Ren doesn't reply. Instead, he turns his back on her and she catches a glimpse of an amused smirk. The crazy bastard is actually enjoying this.

"I've never seen that before." She jogs a few steps to catch up with him.

"What?" he says without as much as throwing her a look.

"A smile. On your face." She says cheekily. "Well, it was really more of a smirk, but it involved your mouth curving upward, so it's really not that different."

"How come you notice that but not that someone's sneaking up behind you?" Is he mocking her? It sounds like he is. "What kind of shaman are you?"

"One that kicked your ass." Kali doesn't even have to look at him to know that his smile, or whatever the hell that was, immediately dropped. She takes a chance and looks at him through the corner of my eyes, and she sees that murderous glint in his eyes—that same one he had when they first went up against each other.

Kali doesn't see him grabbing his weapon, and Bason is just floating behind him in ball form like usual, so she lets her guard down. Not completely however; this is Tao Ren after all.

He only grumbles something under his breath, which is fortunate for Kali because she is in no mood for any impromptu battles in the middle of the street. After a while, no words are said between them, and she actually enjoys the peaceful silence. Ren, on the other hand, doesn't think it's so peaceful.

"Stop following me." He says.

She didn't even realize she was following him. As far as she knows, she just happened to be walking alongside him. Wasn't he the one who followed her in the first place?

"You certainly have an ego on you." She scoffs as she flicks her bangs away from her eyes. "I'm not following you. I'm walking."

"Do you have to walk beside me?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." A melancholy smile makes its way across her face. "Something tells me we're going the same way."

"Which is?"

"Nowhere."

She doesn't look at him, but if her deductions are right, he's looking at her with a 'what-the-fuck' face. She kind of has that effect on people. "Face it, Ren. We're more or less in the same boat. Why do you think we're out in the cold streets at an hour like this instead of sleeping in the comfort of our own beds right before one of the most important days of our lives? We're pathetic."

"I beg your pardon?" he doesn't sound very pleased. She doesn't blame him.

"Everybody else is saying their goodbyes, talking to their loved ones for what may be the last time, resting and enjoying themselves while they still can, because a big-ass hell of a journey is right in front of us. And what are we doing? We're wandering the streets like idiots."

"What is this 'we' business?" he asks, annoyed. "If anyone's pathetic and if anyone looks like an idiot, it's you."

"I'm just saying, Ren," she shrugs mindlessly, "we're both alone. And the saddest part is, we like it that way."

She's just about to turn her head to look at his reaction, when suddenly a large, powerful force flings her into a very hard, very rigid lamppost. God, that hurt like hell. Did Bason do that to her?

Kali hasn't yet regained enough of her senses to process the situation, and of course, Chikushou arrives a step too late. Ren has the edge of his kwan dao pressed against her neck, and it would take just a simple flick of his wrist to slice through her skin and kill her. She actually wonders why he hasn't yet. With Ren's reputation, she should have been decapitated by now.

"It's so easy to catch you off guard." He says slowly and calmly in a manner that is borderline creepy. "How you managed to defeat me, I'll never understand."

She's too scared to move an inch and her body is still in incredible pain from having just been thrown at a fucking lamppost, but she tries not to let either of those show on her face. She wonders if she's succeeding. She must be, because Ren isn't laughing at how contemptible she is.

Chi can't even do anything, because their positions are far too crucial. One wrong move and Kali is dead. And as far as she remembers, dying before they board a flight to America to go to Patch Village is not on her to-do list.

"You hesitated." She takes a shot. She stares at him straight in the eye, giving him a look as icy as the one he's giving her. "Like you are now. I can see it. I can sense it."

She hears Chi yelp as if the female shaman had just asked for a death wish. Now that Kali thinks about it, she hasn't actually planned this through. The blade against her neck moves, and she squeezes her eyes shut, fearing the worst.

Much to Kali's surprise, she feels the cold sensation against her skin retract, and the force holding her up disappears so she falls to the ground with a loud thud. Chi rushes to her side, worriedly asking her if she's okay, but Kali ignores her, not only because she's pissed at her for not doing her job, but also because she's too preoccupied with not letting Ren get the last laugh.

The purple-haired shaman has already started to walk again. Kali stands up, dusts herself off and next to her, she feels Chi preparing to go into battle mode. Kali takes a short look at Ren's figure that keeps going farther and farther down the street before telling Chi to settle down. She decides not to counterattack. She's just not in the mood tonight. Besides, her body is still in shock from what happened and she's not even sure she has enough energy left to fight.

Kali puts her fingers on her neck and she feels a line from where the stupid kwan dao was pressing against earlier. Hopefully, it'll fade away soon or else Ren will have the satisfaction of seeing her with that mark he left her with. She turns around to head to the opposite direction Ren went. It's time to call it a night.

A/N:

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the newly revamped version of Oversoul, and this time I plan on making it stick. For real. I realize that I've changed this story so many times, and I realize that I've probably disappointed a lot of my readers since I failed to finish the first two versions, but this time I intend on finishing this. I am determined to.

To be honest, for a while there, I lost in touch with my fondness for Shaman King, but I've recently been sucked back in, and I'm so excited because I feel like I'm discovering the whole thing all over again. I had been away from it for so long that I forgot so many things about the manga and the anime, and I'm having a hell of a time re-reading and re-watching. Also, I am just as excited re-writing this story as I am re-discovering the series.

I hope everybody will be kind enough to forgive me for another revamp. I promise you that this will be the last one, and I plan to make this all worthwhile. Thank you so, so much to everyone who stuck by me and the story even during its long hiatus. I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am. And for those who aren't here anymore, well, I don't blame you guys. I was gone for a really long time and I can't even begin to tell you guys how sorry I am for leaving you hanging. As for my new readers, if any, I hope you guys like this new, improved version, and I hope you leave me some feedback as well. Thank you!