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Chapter Four: "Conversation"

Thoughts swirled around inside of the young Tao's mind. Never before in his life had he felt such a need to protect. The last time he felt this sort of pain in his chest causing him discomfort was when he had come home after the first round of the tournament and was face to face with his father once again. The fact that Jun was in danger seemed to shake his resolve, his ability to protect the people around him that he deeply cared for. Whether they knew it or not by the way that he acted and spoke often, he figured it'd get his emotions across enough when it came down to brass tacks and he was putting his life on the line for them. It was, without a shadow of a doubt, nerve-wracking. Just the fact that Yoh would so readily allow Lyserg to go did not sit right with him. There was no doubt that Lyserg was in some kind of danger, and they all let him... he let him go.

"Oi, Ren..."

The Tao was laying on a couch in the hotel that they had found when their spirits returned back to them. Although the blue haired shaman appeared to be trying to get his attention, Ren was out of it. His head was tilted over the side of the sofa arm and he seemed to just gaze out into space. It was rather uncharacteristic of him to say the least. After a few waves of his hand in front of the younger's face, Ren reacted almost violently. The hand shook and blurred its way back into his vision, causing surprising alarm to the Chinese boy's system. Ren grabbed the hand in front of him and pulled it towards him, raising his own opposite elbow to smash into the arm. The male let out a shriek as he was brought to the floor. Ren stood up from the couch and made sure to twist the arm behind his back.

All of this happened within a matter of a few seconds, and it seemed to be some sort of natural reaction to Ren. After a few seconds of staring down at the subdued back did he realize exactly what was going on.

"Ey, Ren! Ren! Relax! Chill out, it's just me!"

Blink, blink. …

"Horohoro..."

It took a few seconds for everything to register in his mind, but Ren let go of the other shaman's arm and stood up straight. He stared down at him and watched as Horohoro rubbed his arm, wondering if he knocked something out of place or something like that.

"What was that about? What's wrong with you?" Horohoro yelled as he massaged his elbow and adjusted himself as he got back up to his feet.

Ren didn't seem willing to give an answer at the moment considering his brain was still scattered elsewhere. He merely left his arms at his sides rather than crossed over his chest and showed considerable thought before speaking. His golden orbs didn't glance back up at the ice shaman just yet.

"I don't know, I just... You caught me by surprise."

Horohoro stared and silently began to wonder what was awry with Ren at the moment. They were often at each others throats in agitation since fighting was what they seemed to be able to do best. As much as Horohoro seemed to silently miss that in his friend, he just wasn't in it today. Something was definitely eating at him from the inside. In an attempt to try to find out what had Ren in a confused bundle of knots, Horohoro snapped his fingers in front of Ren's face and grabbed his attention.

"Hey, what's with you? You've been acting real strange..." Horohoro lead on for a bit, before the events of the day before came rushing back to him and it was made crystal clear. "You're worried about Lyserg aren't you?" the male asked with that insinuating gaze.

Usually when Horohoro was confused about something or asked a question, it was obvious that he was genuinely looking for an answer. The look on his face coupled with the way the question was asked, it was obvious that Horohoro was already dead set on the truth regardless of whatever Ren had to say. The Tao shot a glare toward the other and it suddenly seemed as if once again, they were standing worlds apart from each other. Horohoro's eyes held this harsh indifference that Ren felt it hard to place in his face. Ren could feel the black eyes reflecting off of his own sharp jaundice pair. He felt like he was caught in a mouse trap.

"What does it matter to you? He is our comrade isn't he?"

Ren was confused as to why he suddenly felt like he had to defend himself against Horohoro; as if it was some sort of defeat to admit by stating that he was worried over the current condition of someone in their group. There seemed to be something that offended Horohoro in some way with the way that his eyes seemed to scale Ren up and down as if scanning him, looking for something, or trying to analyze him.

"It seems to be more than that."

Ren's teeth began to ground themselves into each other with anger. "What does it matter to you?" he repeated, this time pausing in his breath after each word to further emphasize his point. Ren couldn't find it in his heart at the moment to be completely and utterly brazen with him. He simply did not want to concern himself with emotions that would leave him unsettled. When Horohoro took a while to finally answer him, Ren felt like he was on edge the whole time. Horohoro glanced down at the ground and began to scratch the area behind his head where his neck and skull connected, readjusting the way he was standing as if unsettled before speaking.

"We're your friends, Ren, but you never tell us how you feel. You're always so... distant, you know that? It's nerve-wracking to see you finally care about something," Horohoro seemed to speak honestly with a meek tone of voice toward his friend, and for the first time in what appeared to be a long time, Ren saw him that way.

He wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to say however, knowing that he had sincere intentions and was merely a bit worried. Ren merely turned to face the other direction, finding it much easier to think when he couldn't see Horohoro and his awkward mannerisms out of the side of his eyes. His arms crossed themselves over his bosom and he sighed out with his entire body appearing to shiver sightly.

"I don't like the thought of Lyserg by himself with that monster. Ever since he's joined our group I've been hard on him for what he did but at the same time trying to save him. I suppose I sent him mixed signals a lot..." Ren seemed to lament to himself more than to Horohoro, who merely stood behind him listening like any good friend would while he tried to gather his thoughts together.

Ren could still picture his face etched in dismay merely seconds before Hao arrived, still wondering what it was that he was thinking about, longing to see the brightness return to those beautiful green eyes. Lyserg had a difficult past much like he did, but he still had the strength to smile where it counted, and precious it was. Perhaps Ren wasn't so strong in some ways, seen by the fact that he wore that strict poker face and never allowed himself the frivolity of a grin. Finding someone else that was... he was eager, almost desperate to save it from being broken.

The Tao turned back toward Horohoro a second to finish what he was saying. Horohoro could tell that those yellow eyes seemed colder this time around. The fire inside of them seemed to have cooled down considerably.

"I want to go to where Hao is and save him. I don't care what Yoh said, Horohoro, and I don't care about what anyone else says. I don't like it and it's eating away at my conscience."

Horohoro wasn't sure what to say to his friend at the moment. Would he agree? Would he let him? Perhaps lie to Yoh about where he had gone? Or would he stop him? Force him not to go? Alert the others? Ren didn't seem to be ready nor willing to stand there and wait for some sort of answer, which was made obvious by the way that he immediately began to walk toward the corner of the room where his Kwan Dao sat untouched for what appeared to be forever. As he snatched it, he could feel the spirit inhabiting it awaken for a moment as if it had been sleeping and appear before him in a ghostly ember.

"I will go with you, no matter what, Bocchama."

Ren didn't answer, but it was obvious and unspoken that he approved. Bason always was right there with him no matter what the circumstance was. He could remember all of Bason's loyalty when he thought of him as a tool and merely abused him. Thinking about it just made him shiver. When he had been imprisoned by his father, he had to tell Bason too many times to count to get out before he was taken as well. Just the fact that his spirit had been begging and begging to not leave his side no matter what the cost seemed to be enough to prove everything he'd known about spirits upside down. There would be no turning back now. Although he'd always knew it of Bason, it felt better now to know that he was still behind him 110%, even now.

"I'm coming with you," Horohoro finally stuttered out, deciding on what he was going to do regarding the matter.

There didn't seem to be an immediate reaction from Ren's side as he began to adjust his black wrist bands as well as his oracle bell. Placing his Kwan Dao over his shoulder and stepping into his black kung fu slippers, he turned to glance at Horohoro with determination brimming over in those golden hues.

"Then you'd better hurry."