Jeanne ultimately paused after she listened to the inquiry Hao just asked her, "Where do we go after this?"
'I should be the one asking that question…' She surmises to herself, as her mind could not quickly produces any rational answer for that question.
"I know how you don't like things to be sprung up on you so I will give you some time to think about it." Hao's voice brought her out of her thoughts.
She nods her head at him and ventures over to where her "lapdogs" patiently waits for her.
Jeanne briefly peers over her shoulder to see Hao with a cup full of red wine.
'I just hope he doesn't drink himself silly.' She was praying prior to heading out with Marco and Lyserg.
"Hao, are you going to be alright?" Yoh nervously poses once he nears his twin brother.
"Yeah, I will be. I'm going straight back home once I finish this drink. Oh and congratulations baby bro, you're officially married before me." He teases his twin before he drinks another sip of the wine.
"Thank you. Just promise me you won't drink the whole thing and go straight home?" Yoh challenges his twin since he knows how he is when he consumes too many alcoholic beverages.
"I can do something completely better, I won't even finish it and go straight home. The parking lot isn't too far from here right? I will walk the rest of the way." Hao firmly asserts before he hops to his feet.
"Alright then, make sure you call me once you get home or Anna will have my head." Yoh advises.
Hao could not help but chuckle at how motherly Yoh was was whenever Anna was around. "I will baby brother."
He watches as his older twin brother departs out of the reception hall until his wife heads over to where he stands.
"Is it me or is Hao…sad?" She was asking her husband after observing Hao's behavior a couple of minutes ago.
"No…he is confused at the moment. I'm sure he will come around before morning time." Yoh answers his wife's question.
"I don't know about you but I am ready to get out of this dress…it is so uncomfortable in this thing." Anna complains, which causes a smile to appear on his face.
"If you say so…" Yoh responds with the same lazy smile on his face.
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Hao was enjoying the night air, as it seem to have a calming affect on him and his thoughts.
'I feel like flying…' He deems to himself since he remembers that the church was a little ways from the reception hall.
The brunette was closing his eyes, channeling his furyoku towards his feet, and causing a shift in the wind. He no longer felt the ground underneath his feet.
'It still works like a charm…' He was asserting to himself before flying upwards so no human beings can see him flying.
'The moon is the same from when I visited her…' Hao mentions to himself inwardly before he focuses on his destination.
Five years ago…
A then sixteen year old Jeanne was kneeling at the alter for her routine afternoon prayer, "God bless all the X-Laws and those who stand for peace. Allow them to come home to their loved ones and friends."
"I thought when one pray, they don't pray selfishly but instead for those who can't." A voice brings her out of her prayer.
The voice sounds awfully familiar to her, "I didn't pray for myself instead I pray for the sake of others."
She casually raise to her feet. The silver hair maiden personally wanted to see who could have accused her of such blasphemy against her belief.
The figure was concealed underneath a cloak, the color of camel beige without revealing their face, as they stood on the outside doors of the church.
"Who are you?" Jeanne politely asked in a friendly tone laced with curiosity since it started to peak.
"I'm a bit hurt that you don't even recognize me. However it is okay, I am sure that you will know sooner or later." The voice alleged once they saw her appeoach near them while they took a step back.
'So it is someone that I know…' She determinded as some of the clues were being presented to her.
"If you feel so strongly about the way that I pray, why not grace the church with your own unselfish prayer?" Jeanne boldly challenges the cloak figure.
She overheard him laugh, "Trust me my dear Jeanne, a sinner is not welcome on the presence of holy ground. Even you should know that much. Even as we speak, I don't like the vibe that I sense from this place."
'So they cannot stand being around holy items, huh?' She inferred to herself before that greatly narrowed her list of names down to one.
"I must admit, I'll have to give you some merit for standing on church ground now that I know who you are. This game makes sense to me now." She told the cloak figure as they walked backwards.
"Did I say I want this to be a game? I was just in the neighborhood and I decided to see what this church held for someone of its taste." The voice responds until the wroth iron gate catches their attention.
"Well then, what do you call this charade that you are putting on then…Asakura, Hao?" Jeanne calls out to the figure's name.
She hears the person in front of her laugh, "Always on your toes, leader of the X-Laws, Iron Maiden Jeanne."
"That is you alright! You are the only one who calls me by that name. And you were in the neighborhood? Hao, you are usually on the other side of the ocean in North or South America."
"Nothing gets by you then…besides I was bored and I had the urge to come and see you." He reveals to her with a small smile on his face.
"Can you take off your hood? I don't like talking to people, who have something covering their face." Jeanne wonders him before she feels his hand within hers.
"Hao…where are we going?" She swiftly poses while he guides her toward an unfamiliar location.
"You look bored in there. You were just literally begging to escape from that cathedral." Hao answers as he half lied to her.
"I will go along with your excuse today but we have less then three hours before Marco and the others will start to worry about me." Jeanne reminds him, which causes a smile to appear on his face.
He laughs at the memory when he notices that he was nearing his destination, "I swear she has more sides to her then a cube…that didn't make any type of sense."
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Jeanne rests her elbow on the car door's handle while she settles her chin against her palm, "Lady Jeanne, is there something wrong?"
She peeks over to see who asks her that question so she could give them the appropriate answer, 'It was Marco…'
"I am highly upset that I was unable to fully enjoy myself at Yoh and Anna's wedding and their reception because I was constantly being watched! Then on top of that, I feel like I am still a teenager with a curfew when I am twenty one years old!" Jeanne counters as she tries to not sound as if she was complaining.
Lyserg catches a glimpse of Marco to see if he was going to accept that as an answer, 'If you fall for that Marco…'
"If the lady doesn't mind me interjecting my own opinion of the situation, I believe that she was upset because she could not spend any time with Askura Hao." Lyserg added in before Marco could even respond to her statement.
Jeanne swiftly stares toward Lyserg with wide eyes, 'He is so going to get it!'
"Is this true, Lady Jeanne?" Marco was inquisitively inquiring before pushing his glasses back on the bridge of his nose since they were sliding down his nose.
She easily senses the tension in the limo among the X-Laws members while she displays to Lyserg a death stare.
"Driver can you stop right here…" Jeanne unexpectedly orders the driver of the limo eventually comes to a complete stop after he hears her request.
"Where are you going Lady Jeanne?" Marco challenges her as his voice hardens after her sudden act of defiance towards him.
"Anywhere but here…" She expresses with anger in her tone before she slams the car door shut behind her.
'He was right…they are like some lapdogs…' Jeanne deeems to herself while she gathers the tulle of her dress and stomps away in the opposite direction of the limo.
She hears the car doors open and the sound of Marco's voice was behind her, "See, this is why we can't leave you out of our sights…you act so recklessly on your own terms."
The Iron Maiden outrightly refused to halt and stuck her right arm out with her thumb up. She rather hitchhike instead of riding in the limo with her so call family.
"Lady Jeanne please put your arm down, hitchhiking is dangerous! You never know who might pick you up." Marco shouts to her while he slowly closes the distance between them.
"You know what..." She turns around while she still paces backward, "...since I can't live a life of being an adult then I will not comply with anything that you tell me! You know what, Hao gave you all the perfect nickname…" Lyserg pokes his head out of the car.
"What might that be?" He asked her since it was the only way he possibly could get her to get back in the car was to peacefully talk her out of it.
"Lapdogs…and after that move that Lyserg just did to me. I feel as if I can't trust any of you all so I am defying your orders."
'I can't believe that…' "As a adult you will learn that you have to face many a situations where you will have to keep your poise…"
"So you are saying that since I decided to blow up this one time that I am no longer poised? You know what Marco, forget you!" Jeanne was passionately speaking the truth to her blonde companion.
"What if I say you can have more freedom then?" Marco suggests to her as he tempts her with what she really wants.
She laughs at how weak Marco's negotiating skills is, "It won't matter. I was treated like this ever since I was a teenager so I think that the damage is done."
Jeanne defiantly turns back around while she proceeds on her own crusade and decides to pay no mind to what Marco says to her.
She instantly noticed a familiar black car that had pulled over on the sidewalk. The silver hair woman jogs faster than Marco once she finally recognizes the driver.
"Jeanne don't do this…" He warns her after he approaches the car.
Jeanne leans in on the driver side, nods her head, rounds to the passenger side and hops in without so much as a second thought.
He watches the driver rolls down the window, shots a bird and speeds off into traffic so he could not get a good read on the license plate.
"She is still within sight…we need to get to Jeanne-sama or I fear the worse." Marco advises after he rushes back to the limo and closes the door.
"I wonder what has gotten into Jeanne-sama?" Lucky pondered once they felt the limo pulled off and merged into traffic.
"It was Hao…he sunk his claws into her while we were at the party! I knew he couldn't be trusted alone with her." Lyserg says as his jealously was not as evident to the others.
"So then we must eliminate Askura Hao then," Marco was conveying in a commanding tone before feeling the limo shifting to another lane.
Jeanne leisurely places her seatbelt on and relaxes in the passenger seat, "I am so glad you showed up."
"It looks as if you were having a fight alongside the road. What happened?" Hao was asking after swerving in front of another car in order to get away from the X-Laws limousine.
"Well...we were on our way back to the hotel, Marco had asked me was there something wrong with me. I simply told him that they have been watching me for a long time and I was tired of it."
"Then Lyserg claimed that it was because of you that I acted as I did." Jeanne gave him the shortened version of what all occured a couple of minutes before he picked her up.
"So that's the reason why you were walking away from your head lapdog, Marco. I must say now that is so like your other side and I must admit, I'm quite proud of you Jeanne."
"It was…liberating!" She happily gushes before she relaxes in the passenger seat until she catches the sight of the limo in the right side mirror.
"Hao…I don't mean to talk about your driving but you know that they are closing in on us." Jeanne informs him while she looks at the side mirror again.
"Since you feel that way…" He was telling her before shifting into second gear, pressesing his foot on the gas and changing lanes…of course with his signal light on.
"Lyserg, can you use your dowsing?" Marco poses to him.
"I need something of hers to strengthen the search…" Lyserg discloses while he withdraws his family heirloom that his father gives to him.
"Morphine…we need to find Lady Jeanne." He speaks when a pink fairy with pink hair appeared before he spun the diamond pendant in a circle.
"Is Lyserg with them?" Hao wonders her.
"Yes he is…oh crap if I use my powers to try and block him then he will get a stronger read on us." Jeanne explained to Hao with a disheartened look on her face.
Hao look in his side mirror, adjusts it and says to her. "I figured…I just put something around the car so they won't find us. That third rate tracker could never find me because of this."
Lyserg diamond pendant stops in mid-air, "I can't track them…"
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Author's Note
07.08.16 Major editing revision