Chapter 2- Time to head back

(I will put Len's fun day in another story...i want to really concentrate on the Ceremony mostly, ok!!! :). )

Len's last two days free from a vast amount of responsibility had gone past really fast but he had to admit that he enjoyed them, the others had done their best to cheer him up but D-day was fast approaching. In just over an hour they were scheduled to to arrive at the airport to take a Tao jet to China, they were just waiting for the transport to take them there. Of course it was arranged by the Tao's so they were all associates of theirs.

Everyone was making sure that they had everything they might need because they didnt know how long they would be there for...and as usual they were waiting for someone, that someone just happened to be Yoh and Anna wasnt happy. "Hurry up Yoh, we're waiting!"

"I'm coming Anna..." Yoh entered the room with his bags at last and he didnt look where he put it and he almost dropped it on his best friend. Morty wasnt particularlly please about having bags dropped on him.

"Careful Yoh, i'm down here remember!" Several of the others laughed and Yoh look apologetically at his friend, Yoh's ghost sighed. "I'm sure he didnt mean to do it Morty"

"Dont worry aboout it Amidamaru"

There was a knock at the door, Len answered the door knowing that their transport was here to pick them up. Stood on the porch was a man dressed in a black suit, he was middle aged and he had spiked blonde hair and green eyes. "Good Morning Master Len, Lady June. Are you ready to leave?"

Len nodded and was about to pick up his bags but the man stopped him. "Allow me Master Len, and of course Lady June's as well" Everyone exited the house with their bags, Yoh locked up his home and they saw two Limo's parked outside the main gate.

As they approached the Limo's another man walked over to them dressed like the first man took Yoh's and Anna's bags from them. "Allow me Sir, Madam"

"Thank you, you dont have to"

The man just smiled his long red hair blowing slightly in the breeze, "Anything for the Shaman King and his Mistress...if the rest of you place your bags down we'll sort them out" They all did as the were told and as they did a third man approached the group and he too was dressed in a suit but he had short black hair and crimson eyes, he had an air of importance around him, like he was above the other men.

Len and June recognised him straight away and June smiled as a greeting. "Hello, Vincent"

The man known as Vincent smiled and bowed to the Tao's. "It's good to see as well Lady June, Master Len...if you both along with Master Yoh and Lady Anna would like to join me in the front Limo"

The four of them entered the first Limo with their guardian ghosts, Vincent turned to the others. "You all will be travelling in the second Limo" The remaining members of the gang entered the second limo. (Just to clarify, First Limo= Len, June, Anna, Yoh and Lee Pailong... second Limo= Trey, Morty, Lyserg, Rio, Pilika, Faust(he doesnt talk much, too busy with his Eliza) and their spirits (Tamoa not in it) and Jocco)

With everyone in their designated cars, they set off for the journey to the airport. It didnt take them long to get there and when they did a jet was waiting for them. As they exited the limo's some of the group stared in aw at the jet, and their bags were loaded into it.

"This is your jet Len? It's amazing!" Jocco was one of the only ones not to have seen the jet before just like Lyserg.

Trey scoffed at Jocco, "We've seen it before"

"That was the family jet...this is one of my personal jets" Len enjoyed showing off sometimes, it was one of the perks of being a Tao. They all entered the jet and they were in aw of it's design, it was differnt from the other jet...Len had it customised. It was designed with a Chinese theme and it had symbols on the wall and it was fully equiped with anything that he would need.

Rio whistled, "This very fancy Len...do you have one Miss June?" June nodded as she took a seat next to Lee and the others took their seats. Len, however, chose to sit by himself with Bason hovering close by as usual.

It took 3 and a half hours to get to their destination (It's a very fast jet and i want to get them all in China...well they are there now) As they exited the jet two more vehicles were waiting for them, it wasnt two limos because of where the Tao home was they wouldnt be appropraite for the journey so instead they had spacious off road vehicles. Vincent lead them all to their respective cars but one of the gang didnt enter his; it was Len.

Yoh was confused. "Hey Len arent you getting in?" Len ignored the brunette and turned to look at the driver of the car. "Take them to the mansion now"

"Yes sir" The driver started the car and the other car followed them as they took off for the Tao home.

"Master Len, why did you not go with them?" Bason was a little confused but he knew his Master had a reason.

Len smirked, "I need my space Bason and i want to arrive my own way" Len whistled the melody that summoned Hitaro to him and on que the horse spirit arrived at his side. The purple haired shaman jumped onto Hitaro's back sitting in the saddle. "Yaahh!"

Hitaro took off at high speed after the two cars that had a head start.

Meanwhile in Yoh's car he was wondering about Len's actions. "Why didnt he get in the car with us?"

"There could be many reasons Yoh" Amidamaru was right but which reason was it. "June?"

Len's older sibling smirked, she knew what her brother was doing...he liked to arrive in his own way. "He'll join us soon" Then as if on que, Yoh heard the distinct noise of hooves and the noise of a horse fast approaching. Yoh opened the sun roof and stood up looking out behind them, he noticed that the others had heard the noise as well and Jocco and Trey had done the same as him.

A trail od dust was fast approaching them...after a few more minutes a figure could be made out and they recognised it straight away; it was Len and Hitaro. The pair sped past the second car and rode along side the first one.

Yoh smirked at Len,"Hey Len what took you so long, i thought we'd have to go back for you!" Len smirked at the Shaman King, he had no idea how fast Hitaro really was...well he was about to prove to him.

"You want fast? Dont cry when you're eating my dust...Hitaro let's show them how fast you really are" Hitaro whined, he liked a challenge. "I'll see you there, dont make me wait all day"

And after saying that Len encouraged Hitaro to quicken his pace and soon he was pulling ahead of the car and soon he was pulling well ahead of the cars. Yoh was astonished at the horse's speed and soon they were out of sight. "Wow, that's fast!"

After an hour of driving they arrived at the entrance to the Tao family home and it was as they saw it last time well except for those who hadnt seen it before. "Wow Len lives here?!"

As they approached the building Yoh noticed that Len was sat apon a boulder with Hataro standing with him. As they exited their cars Yoh approached Len, who had a smirk on his face. "You were saying?"

Yoh held his hands up, "Alright, Hitaro's very fast ok..."

As several men took care of their bags several people were stood outside the doorway to the Tao home, The tallest man they recognised as En Tao; Len's Uncle and the shortest man was his Grandfather, the elegant woman before them was Len's and June's mother and stood with them were a few of their cousins. (All dressed in Chinese garb except for one cousin, dressed like a ninja...Dont know all of their names except for En so making them up, sorry...)

They all approached the Tao's waiting for them, Len's mother was the first to speak. "Ah welcome everyone to the Tao Family Home" She turned her attention to her two children. "It's good to see again my daughter and of course my Son"

"Hello Mother" Len sighed, his family had changed and they acted more like a real family but it was still weird to have his mother act like this when he was so used to her not, especially around his Uncle.

"Come and give you're mother a hug" Now this was embarrassing. But Len relented and along with June he gave his mother a hug.

"How was the flight my boy?" Len's grandfather was as short as Morty but he could make himself heard when he wanted to be. Yoh was the one to answer.

"It was great, Len's jet is very comfy"

He laughed and turned to his Grandson, "Nice of you to treat your friends Grandson" Len groaned at his Grandfather, he could be annoying when he wanted to be but not as annoying as another memeber of the family that was present.

A girl taller than Len and adorned in purple ninja outfit stepped out into view, she had green hair like June but not as long as hers. This girl had her hair tied in a short pony tail and she had brown eyes nothing compared to the golden orbs that belonged to Len, (I love Len's eyes)

"Why hello baby cousin, long time no see" Jocco and Trey sniggered at the girls comment and they recieved one of Len's glares, which silenced them. Len turned to the girl and reluctantly greeted her.

"It's nice to see you Ruby..." Len added a mumbled "Not"

En interupted the pair, he knew that they never got on. "Now let's get everyone settled in...Vincent i want you to show our guests to their rooms." Vincent nodded and stood at the bottom of the stairs into the mansion. "We'll have your bags sent to your rooms."

Vincent nodded and indicated for the gang to follow him into the mansion. "Of course Master En...if you would all like to follow me"

They all followed the man in the suit known as Vincent and they were all taken to their rooms...of course this being the Tao's home, June and Len already had a room to go to so they separated from the group and went to their rooms. The other were taken to a different corridor and given their own rooms next to each other and across from each other.

"Alright here are your rooms, i hope you enjoy your stay" Vincent smiled politely. "Dinners at 7.00pm in the dining hall, your are free to wander around until then... but some areas are restricted so please refrain from entering those areas."

And with that Vincent bowed to his guests and left to do his duties. Everyone spent several minutes exploreing their rooms but they soon got bored and all gathered in the hall. "So what now?"

Morty announced his idea. "How about we go and explore?" They all nodded, well almost all of them.

"Enjoy yourselves boys i'm going to my room"

"Yeah me too, see ya boys and Trey stay out of trouble" Both Anna and Pilika decided to let the boys enjoy their little exploring trip but they went to their rooms. The boys started to walk around and they began to explore Len's home.

They went into various rooms filled with scrolls, paintings and antiques from the Chinese dynasty, a lot of the paintings contained portraits of Tao family members and they even found one containing a picture of Len as a child and he was with another man that Len was almost a carbon copy of. They all noticed how happy Len looked in the painting but a few paintings from it the found another painting of an older Len and he looked so angry in it.

"He looks so different in this painting"

Yoh sighed as he nodded in agreement, "Yeah, i guess this was after his Father died..."

They all left and after 30 minutes of exploring, Yoh and Morty were getting hungry and they were about to announce to the others but they heard something that the others didnt seem to hear. It was coming from another corridor . "What was that?"

Yoh shrugged at his little friend, "Let's check it out Morty!"

Morty nodded, "Yeah, should we tell the others?" But when they looked ahead they noticed that they were gone. Not bothering to catch up and tell the others where they were going, the pair ventured towards the corridor that they heard the noise coming from. After a few minutes they reached a big red door that was sign posted 'Training room' carved into the door. They heard that noise again and it was coming from this room.

Yoh gingerly opened the door and peered inside to have a look and what he saw shocked him, they saw their young friend Len...he was training. In the middle of the room, Len stood in what appeared to be a fighting stance, he was shirtless and his weapon of choice was always his Kwan Do. But that wasnt what shocked them the most...it was who Len was training with.

Stood across from Len standing in the same way and also using the same weapon...it was Len!!

Morty gasped as he looked in the room as well "He's fighting himself?"

Yoh nodded, "I guess he's training himself...i think it's because of the ceremony..."

"Well, it's more along the lines of how he deals with things" Yoh and Morty turned around quickly to the owner of the voice, it was June. She stood near them, her arms crossed outside the training room. "What do you mean June?"

June sighed as she thought of her little brother, "He tends to keep things to himself...if it becomes too much then he beats it out of himself."

"Literally!"

June smiled a little and nodded, "In a sense Morty, You see Len deals with his feelings differently than you boys would..." Not being able to have a family like the others, Len had often kept his feelings to himself that their Uncle deemed weak and useless.

Morty and Yoh looked at June and they noticed the sad look on her face, "What do you mean?"

The green-haired Chinese Shaman studied the shortest of her brother's friends, "Morty when you are sad, what do you do?"

Morty didnt know where June was going with her question but he answered anywhere. "I'd normally talk to someone about it..."

"Who would you talk to?"

Morty thought for a few seconds and he had his answer. "My mum or my dad or my friends i guess, why?" The short boy thought about it...actually he was glad that he had his family with him to help him if he needed.

"For Len, he keeps it to himself...he cant talk to Mother or Father,he's been like that since Father died..." The two guests of the Tao home detected the grief in the Tao's voice, they guessed she took it hard as well but from what she said Len took it harder.

"He took it hard?"

June nodded again, "Very hard...Father was his only thing that was really good in his childhood. He told Father everything, his hopes and dreams..." June paused as she heard brother restart his training against himself. "But after he was killed, Len took the path of destruction under Uncle's ways...he built barriers around his heart, not even i could get past the strongest of them...he loves me as i love him, we were all we had but the connection that Len and our Father had can never be replaced..."

June smiled a little as she looked at the one that had helped her little brother so much, "But since he met you Yoh, he slowly letting the barriers go...and i thank you for that"

Me? What did i do?

Yoh was slightly confused, "Me?"

"You showed him something he never had in a long time that he'd forgotten...friendship. Even though you were once enemies you treated him as a friend. though he might not say it, i'm sure he thanks you for it"

Yoh took that in, he never realised that he had helped Len so much by just being himself. He looked in on Len and he wanted to help him again, he turned to the others, "I have an idea...Amidamaru?"

On que, Yoh's guardian ghost appeared at his charge's side, "Yes Yoh?"

Yoh smirked at his ghost, "Get ready we're going to do a little training" Now that was a miricle in itself, Yoh actually willingly volunteered to train!!! Now that was something else to be remembered.

The Asakura Shaman King along with his spirit entered the room leaving Morty and June.

Len sensed that someone had entered the room and he immediatly stopped his training session with himself. Yoh walked towards the Chinese Shaman with his usual canny smile.

"Hey Len, i thought you could use a new training partner"

What is he trying to do?

Len stood up from his fighting stance and with a wave of his hand the clone of himself vanished as though it was never there. The purple haired shaman noticed that Yoh had his weapon at the ready and Amidamaru was hovering with him. "What are you doing Yoh?"

Yoh took up position opposite his friend, "Lets just say a spirit told me that you needed help with relieving stress" Len knew that look from Yoh, he was hiding something and the Chinese Shaman saw something out of the corner of his eye.

There stood at the doorway of the training room was none other than his older sister smiling at him from her safe point across the room.

Len sighed as he stared at his sister, "How many times do i have to tell you to stop butting in my life June!!!!" Not that he really minded sometimes but now he just wanted to be left alone to his own devices as he had always done for most of his life under his Uncle's training.

"You would be lost without me little brother" She smirked at him because she knew her brother better than most. "It's my job to look after my little baby brother"

Len rolled his eyes he hated it when June refered to him as her baby brother, which he was but he just tolerated little brother. "Whatever"

"Well can we get started already!!"

The Chinese Shaman looked away from his sister to look at the one known as Yoh the Shaman King, standing in a fighting stance his weapon of choice at the ready. "Bason"

The chinese lord appeared to his Master as he was summoned, "I am ready Master Len" Len took his own battle stance with his weapon of choice. Yoh mimiced Len by calling his ghost to him.

"You ready Len?"

Len smirked, "Always"

They both summoned their furiokyo, "Amidimaru into the sword of light!"

"Bason into the Kwan Do" In flashes of light the two spirits fused with their shaman's weapons and the two stood ready to fight.