This is for DBZHobbit, who gave me this challenge.

Ketsi: I'll appear in here somewhere as Ketsi. I like to Mary-Sue. Now, Yoh. Tell us about this couple!

Yoh: Its….confused Ren and Faust.

Ketsi: Yeah. I thought that too.

Ren: O.O You're not…actually…serious about this?

Ketsi: serious face I'm sorry Ren. You'll just have to…deal with it.

Faust: Are you saying I'm not gorgeous?

Yoh: I'm not.

Ketsi: taunting I see another fan fiction, Yoh…you and Faust…

Yoh: squeak

Ketsi: Hmm. Can anyone else see a resemblance between Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas?

Ren: evil glare You say I'm like CATHERINE ZETA JONES?

Ketsi: Yes.

Ren: faints

Faust: bursts into tears She said I'm OLD!

Ketsi: waking up Ren Not that old.

Ren: Disclaimer time! Shaman King, would you believe it, doesn't belong to her.

Ketsi: If it did, I'd be able to at least buy my clothes back.

Yoh: Yeah…she was playing minesweeper online…against Sailor Mercury.

Ketsi: And the rest, they say, is history.

Yoh: She may be using Japanese names…most of the time…but you still have to imagine Ren/Len/Whatever with that British accent!

Ren: I resent you.

Ketsi: in hysterics piddling! He said piddling!

-'--'--'--'--'--'--'-

Ren's eyes flicked open. He looked at a nearby clock. 00.30. He ran his tongue across the roof of his dry mouth and gave a small 'hn'. He got out of the hotel bed and made his way towards the fridge to get a drink of milk.

As he finished off the bottle, he felt something was different.

Something was missing.

"Bason," Ren called.

Nothing.

"Bason!"

Still nothing.

Ren gritted his teeth. He felt a fleeting instant of panic.

"Bason, I command you to appear!"

Nothing happened. And it kept on not happening.

Ren shook.

"Bason…" he whispered.

For the first time in his life, Ren felt utterly alone.

-'--'--'--'--'--'--'-

Jun woke up to a sound she did not immediately recognise. She sat up and looked around.

She saw a shadow outside her room. "Ren?" she called.

The boy looked up and Jun was shocked to see his eyes sparkle with tears and his body shake with sobs.

The caring older sister part of her took over her as she ran to her brothers side. "Ren? Ren what's wrong?" She knelt next to him and took his hands. "Ren?"

"Bason…" Ren whispered, tears trickling down his cheeks. "He's not here. Bason has gone."

Jun was just as shocked as her little brother and hugged him close. Who would do such a thing? she thought to herself.

"Asakura," Ren whispered.

"You think he took Bason?"

Ren shook his head. "No. But I think he may be able to help me find him."

"Well," Jun said, trying to shake off the shock and changing her role to 'mother'. "We need to sort you out. You can't turn up on Yoh's doorstep at 3am looking like this." She used her sleeve to wipe away the tears trickling down Ren's face. "No matter what happened to you."

Ren gave a small smile. "As always - 'what will other people think'. You never change."

"What will other people think?" Jun asked, also smiling. "Do you want to turn up in fluffy pyjamas?"

Ren realised about his questionable attire and blushed. "Perhaps I should change."

-'--'--'--'--'--'--'-

It was, in fact, 7 in the morning before Ren finally arrived at the Asakura residence, and was told my Manta that he had missed Yoh, who had been sent out by Anna at around 5 and wasn't expected back for another hour.

"Um, but come in anyway," Manta said. "You can wait if you want."

Ren thought back to the last time he had met Anna and decided against it. "I'll come back later," he said. I'll probably end up doing housework, he thought.

-'--'--'--'--'--'--'-

The Chinese boy left and began walking through the town aimlessly. He paused next to the graveyard. Perhaps some of the spirits inside would know where Bason was.

"Bason, I -" Ren began to speak but stopped when he realised that there was no-one for him to talk to. He had always spoken his thoughts out loud to his guardian ghost, and he missed it terribly.

Ren's eyes stung.

"Spirits," he called. "Spirits. I need to talk."

There was no reply.

Ren sat down on one of the gravestones, his face pale.

"Am I no longer a Shaman?" Ren asked out loud, then a second later, mentally kicked himself in the head himself for thinking out loud.

The graveyard was too silent to him, but it let him hear something he had never heard before.

It was the sound of…he didn't know. The sound of sunlight shafting through leaves. The sound of sleeping nocturnal creatures.

His own heartbeat.

Wait - no. Two heartbeats. He turned on the gravestone to see someone behind him, watching him with electric blue eyes beneath blonde hair.

"Searching for spirits?" the shaman asked.

Ren nodded.

"Why not ask…ah." Faust's eyes widened a little as he realised. "No spirit."

"He has been taken," Ren replied. He turned away and stared across the graveyard. He had never had to ask for anyone's help apart from his sister's before, and felt ashamed and awkward. "Could you help me?"

Faust smiled at Ren's turned back. "I can. Meet me back here at dusk."

Ren looked at the older Shaman over his shoulder. "Thank you." He jumped off the gravestone and started to walk back to Yoh's house.

"I look forward to it."

-'--'--'--'--'--'--'-

As Ren wandered back to Yoh's house, he thought back to the graveyard. "Where were all the spirits?" He wondered, again out loud.

Ren sighed irritably as a passing woman gave him a strange look.

He had to get Bason back. For his own sanity.

-'--'--'--'--'--'--'-

"Oh, hi Ren," Yoh grinned as he walked in. "Manta said you were looking for me. What's up?"

"I need your help," Ren said. He was getting used to this whole 'asking for aid' thing.

Yoh raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Bason has - he - he's gone missing."

"What?" Yoh's mouth dropped open in shock. "He's missing?"

Ren nodded silently, the sadness obvious in his eyes, but he didn't have the strength to cover it up.

He didn't have the strength to stop the single tear trickle down his cheek.

-'--'--'--'--'--'--'-

No-one in or around the Asakura residence knew anything about the disappearance of Bason, so Ren left with no help, but he did leave with a very full stomach after Horo decided that eating away his troubles was the best option and forced him to do so.

Ren had spotted the time and realised he would be late for Faust if he didn't hurry.

As he turned the corner, he saw Faust standing at the entrance to the cemetery.

"You're nearly late," he said softly.

Ren caught his breath. "I'm sorry."

Faust gave a faint smile. "Well, No matter. Here. Let me introduce you to someone."

He gestured to a girl standing behind him, dressed in flowing black robes and examining her fingernails casually. She gave a winning smile and waved. "Hi there," she said, in a cheerful British accent. "I'm Ketsi. I'm a spirit hunter."

-'--'--'--'--'--'--'-

Ketsi: So….tell me what you think.

Ren: Cheerful British accent?

Ketsi: Yes. I'm born and bred British, baby!

Yoh: Oooh. Alliteration.