Chapter 1 - Kidnapped

When her eyes opened to the fathomless blackness of her surroundings, Shinji had to blink for a moment. This sure wasn't where she had fallen asleep, and when she thought of it, she actually couldn't remember falling asleep at all. She strained her memory trying to think of what had happened to land her here, wherever here was, but it hurt too much to think, so she gave up pretty quickly and groaned to the pain of her pounding skull. If she was a drinker, she would have brushed it off as a killer hangover, but she wasn't, and as she lifted her hand to the back of her head she noticed a very large and extremely sore lump. Clumsily, she stood up on wobbly legs and attempted to see a way out of the dark, but there was nothing to be seen. She waved a hand in front of her face experimentally, but even that was lost in the black. Surely her eyes should have adjusted by now? Unless she was somehow blind... Could a knock to the back of the head do that to someone?

"Is it dark in here, or am I going blind?" she asked aloud, not really expecting an answer and her voice echoed off the walls.

"You're inside a cave, idiot." A familiar voice answered, and Shinji squinted in the dark.

"Nindie?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm here." The voice replied, and Shinji felt the cold touch of death brush her arm. The presence of the ghost girl reassured her a little. Whatever had happened, she could get out of it with the spirit's help.

"What the hell happened? Because I definitely don't remember falling asleep in a place like this, and my head is killing me!" She asked.

A cool hand rested against the back of her head, soothing her headache and giving Shinji another reason to feel grateful for her friend's presence.

"Some big guy in one of those American football outfits knocked you out in the street and brought you here." Nindie explained.

"Well why the hell didn't you stop him! You're the spirit of rain for crying out loud!" Shinji yelled in frustration. Her head was killing her, it was dark, and this place wasn't exactly an advertisement for warmth and comfort. She was not in the best of moods.

Nindie hesitated for a moment, "There was a complication..."

"What kind of complication?"

There was an awkward pause, but before Nindie could reply an intense light burst into the dark space, and Shinji had to shield her eyes from the sudden brightness.

"Ah my eyes! Man this is sooo not helping my headache." She frowned, blinking into the light cautiously. Ah here eyes slowly stopped stinging and she moved her hands away she noticed that what her spirit friend had said was right. She was stuck inside a cave, and not a very big one at that. Nindie had moved beside her, the small, seemingly fragile girl glaring in front of her with deep blue eyes. But it was the figure across the small space that caught Shinji's attention, and she knew exactly who he was even after five hundred years. She couldn't help herself from bursting into laughter at the sight of him. "Oh my god Hao, you're a little kid!"

Hao glared at her, but it was true. This new reincarnation was shorter, Shinji noted with an amused grin, and younger, looking to be in the middle of his teen years, but his overall style was the same as ever. The same extremely long hair (though brown this time around as opposed to the black he had before), the same oversized poncho (just without the Native American flair), and even the giant plates he called earrings hung from his earlobes. The only differences were the strange block shoes ('someone's been to Lego land') and the weird trousers… If it wasn't for the eerily menacing aura he would have looked fairly harmless, if a little strange.

"Speak for yourself." Hao replied.

"I am not! I'm fifteen!" Shinji snapped back.

"You look ten." He smirked, already pleased to have struck a nerve so easily.

"Well... you look like a girl!"

"You don't."

"Ah what do you want anyway? Why are we here?" she asked, suddenly impatient for some answers.

"I brought you here." He replied simply, still smirking at her.

"And why is that?" she replied, trying to control her rising temper. Her glare made his smirk grow. He knew she was getting angry, the red colour in her eyes made it obvious.

"Because you have Nindie, and I will not let you ruin my chances of becoming shaman king again." Clearly Hao was not one to forgive and forget, though Shinji couldn't help but feel flattered that he still thought of her as a threat. It was unnecessary though, she could tell he had gotten a lot stronger since their last battle, and as much as she hated to admit it he might actually be too much for her to handle. Still, that didn't mean she would give him the satisfaction of rolling over and showing her throat like some weak minded puppy. Besides, it was fun to mess with him.

"Okay, so let me get this straight. You kidnapped us because Nindie is the spirit of rain, and given our history you think we're a threat to you becoming shaman king?"

"Correct."

"…Wait, I still don't get it. Could you run it by me again?" she had to fight to control her grin as his smirk died, only to be replaced with a dark frown.

"You are an idiot."

"And you are an asshole."

"I could kill you."

She knew it was a bad idea to push him further, but she couldn't help it.

"I'd like to see you try."

Before she even had time to blink he had grabbed her by the throat and slammed her hard against the cave wall, glaring at her with a dark flame burning in his eyes. Nindie moved to attack, to defend her friend, but Shinji caught her gaze and shook her head, and the ghost girl grudgingly held herself back. Shinji turned her attention back to Hao, meeting his gaze challengingly, and making him smirk.

"You know I could." he said, staring at her intently, "The only reason you are still alive is because I want you to be."

"That's not creepy and/or stalkerish at all." She replied, attempting a grin that ended up looking more like a grimace. His grip was uncomfortably tight, but she couldn't resist the insult.

Surprisingly, Hao didn't take the bait, and after a long hard stare he released her neck and stepped back.

"Make yourself comfortable. You'll be here for a very long time." And with that, he turned and left the cave, placing a barrier at the entrance, trapping her inside.