10
misery loves company
The helicopter ride to the arena, which is located on 'the desert island attached to Tokyo', is more or less uneventful. Yoh sleeps, Horohoro complains, Chocolove is awestruck at the view from his window, and Kali is wondering out loud why they were made to go through the trouble to go to America if they were going to hold the fights in Tokyo anyway, and none of the flustered Patch Priests are giving her any answers.
Kali actually finds the transport quite relaxing, despite the noise the blades of the helicopter makes. She's just about to say something to Ren when she sees him staring out the window, his body stiff as a rock.
"Ren? What's wrong?" she asks, alarmed by his sudden change in demeanor. He was all still and calm earlier—in other words, his usual self.
"Nothing." He hastily looks back to the front, trying to forget what he just saw. Kali notices his face is burning up, not out of anger, but rather…embarrassment? What exactly did he see? "If you look through the window, I'll kill you."
Yes, that doesn't sound suspicious at all. Kali, having never been one to be a stickler for rules or orders, tries to sneak a peek out the window, but Ren keeps getting in her way. He soon stays true to his word (almost) when he's finally had enough of her stubbornness and grabs her neck, threatening to throw her off the helicopter if she keeps it up.
Kali isn't listening though, because she finally sees what Ren saw. It's his father riding his big oversoul alongside the helicopter, carrying a large supportive banner for his son.
"Awww, that is so—"
Ren clasps his hand over her mouth before she can finish her sentence. He doesn't want to hear another peep out of her, and he doesn't want the others to see his daddy cheering on him, which is actually kind of cute on Ren's part, but Kali doesn't get to think about that for too long as she bites Ren's hand to get it away from her face.
The Chinese shaman curses, wiping off his hand on his pants. Kali laughs, even as he glares at her with his menacing golden eyes. Yoh laughs as well, having watched the whole scene take place.
"Since when did you two become such great friends?" his cheerful grin remains even as both Ren and Kali give him dirty looks. He's actually quite immune to death glares at this point, thanks to Anna.
"You call that being friends?" Chocolove asks incredulously.
"Yeah, can't you see it? They didn't used to be this close before." Yoh can tell that Kali's relationship with Ren is much similar to the one she has with Anna. Every time someone looks at them, they're always sniping at each other, but when it comes down to it, they actually do get along. In Kali and Ren's case, they just don't know it yet.
"If I weren't saving my strength right now, I would have slashed your neck already." Ren says under his breath, which only makes Yoh laugh again as he knows (or hopes) it's all in good humor.
"Can't you go one day without threatening to kill someone?" Kali asks.
"Or at least five minutes?" Horohoro adds.
It's a good thing Karim announces that they're about to touch down because it looks like Ren's getting ready to explode from being the butt of everyone's jokes. He can barely even keep himself from cutting off Chocolove's nose since listening to the sheer volume of the awfulness of his jokes is just pure torture. Horohoro and Ryu have to keep him away from the aspiring comedian just so Team 'The Ren' will still be in one piece once the fight starts.
Kali temporarily parts with her teammates to find the ladies' room so she can change into her battle clothes. It suddenly sinks into her that this is it. This is the official start of the Shaman Tournament. This is her first official battle. The outcome of this one fight is a deciding factor of her future. If they lose, then all the effort they put into everything they did to get here will be rendered completely useless.
It's scary to think how easy it is for her future to slip away like that, but she doesn't worry too much. With the highly competitive Ren on her team, she's certain that he will stop at nothing to win. That's one good thing about being on Team 'The Ren'. In fact, at the moment, that's the only good thing she can think of.
The clothes Keiko had sent her before she left for America are a little strange, at least that's what Kali thinks. Her sleeveless black top is a little tight and a bit too short that it reveals her navel—it's weird that her mother would allow her to wear something like this, but this was what she found in the package Tamao gave her. The baggy pants that come with it are a camouflage-print, which is actually a nice touch. But she's a little thinner now than when her mother last saw her, so Kali has to use a belt to hold it up. Fortunately she remembered to bring one, even though it's the same belt Hao had given her as a birthday present a few years ago. It has a golden star in the buckle, which at the time she thought was cute, but now it's a little off-putting since it has the same design as Hao's earrings. Hopefully no one will notice. It's not very eye-catching anyway.
She wears the black low-platform boots with rubber soles that she wore with her first battle outfit—which was just a basic sleeveless black bodysuit that her mother bought somewhere at a reasonable price—and the outfit actually looks quite nice all tied up together. She stuffs her street clothes into her backpack without even folding them, and fixes her ponytail before coming out.
A part of her actually expected Hao to be waiting for her outside since it just seems like something Hao would do, but nobody's there when she steps out of the cramped bathroom. She's relieved, but at the same time, a little disappointed. She thought Hao would at least send her his luck before she goes out into the arena—not that she would necessarily want that. Or need that, for that matter.
Kali finds the rest of her team just a few minutes before the fight starts. The boys have also changed into their respective battle outfits, and Kali thinks that all of them standing together like this makes them look very nice and chic.
They've already finished casing the joint, it seems. Chocolove is thoughtful enough to tell the only girl on their team to be careful since they can't be sure who exactly they're about to go up against. The board of contestants posted by the entrance only shows the name of the teams, but not the names of the participants.
"We're fighting someone called Tsuchi-Gumi." He reveals.
Kali feels all the color drain from her face. She knows that name. They're Hao's followers.
"Kali, are you okay?" Horohoro asks, putting a friendly hand on her shoulder. "You're looking a little pale."
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine." It probably wouldn't make any difference if she tells them she knows who they're going to fight because they're about to find out themselves soon enough anyway. The problem is, she doesn't know exactly who they are because she only recognizes the team name. Not that she's undermining herself or her team, but she sincerely hopes that it's someone easy.
The Patch Priest hosting the event boisterously introduces himself as Radim and proceeds to explain the rules. He isn't very polite about it as he crudely refers to the audience as 'little turds' quite repeatedly. Kali wishes he would hurry up because the incessant wait is really wracking her nerves.
The time finally comes for them to come out, and much to his teammates' embarrassment, Ren brings about much talk about his arrogant team name—and even worse, he doesn't care. He just stands there, smiling smugly.
"I think," Ren says to his team, "that we're fighting Hao's underlings."
"You're right." Kali tells him, though she doesn't say how she knows. She decides to take some pressure off herself by teasing him. "Don't look so scared, Ren."
Ren scoffs loudly. "Are you forgetting who you're talking to? Tao Ren doesn't get scared."
"Maybe not, but Tao Ren is definitely a huge ass." She turns to Horohoro to whisper something. "Can I stab him? Please?"
"Not in public." He whispers back. She nods in return.
"Guys, save the violence for the battlefield." Chocolove quips. "How are you guys so chill anyway? Look at all the people watching—it's making me nervous."
"And you call yourself a comedian?" Horohoro asks, raising a valid point. "I actually like it. It's kind of exciting."
Radim announces the entrance of the opposing team, Tsuchi-Gumi. Kali has a dark expression on; she's familiar with these people. And apparently so are the rest of her team.
"Them again?" Ren sounds pricked.
"You've met them before?" Kali asks, surprised.
"Yeah. They showed up while we were at Lilirara's." Horohoro reveals. "You don't remember because you passed out. They almost killed you, if we hadn't kicked their asses just in time."
"Wow, thanks for the information." Kali feels a little annoyed that she's only finding out about this now. But these guys don't look very intimidating—which is probably why they resorted to trying to hurt an unconscious person.
Chocolove is completely freaking out about having to fight Hao's men, and Horohoro is about to say something until Ren tells him to shut up.
"Don't say another word." He says, looking at him crossly. He doesn't seem very pleased with their assigned opponents. He must have been expecting better opponents, since he was quite eager to start fighting just a few moments ago. "Chocolove can take care of these bozos. I don't want to waste my time on his weaker henchmen. I only want to face those who are favored to win."
"What?" Chocolove can hardly believe what he's hearing. "Ren, you can't be serious!"
Kali hasn't seen their abilities personally, but Hao himself has told her that the Boz Brothers, as they call themselves, are on the weaker side. But surely Hao must have picked them for a reason. Curiously enough, the one in the middle wearing a sombrero and carrying an instrument has barely moved since they came out.
Kali is surprised that Ren isn't leaving her with Chocolove to fight them, but she doesn't protest. Chocolove is in need of a newbie hazing anyway (Horohoro attempted one a few days after they first met him, but it didn't quite go as planned). Plus, his jokes are indeed very annoying and it would be nice to have a break from them, even just for a little while. She turns around and together with Ren and Horohoro, they stand aside to let Chocolove do all the work.
They have yet to see Chocolove's abilities as a shaman, so this should be quite interesting.
The Boz Brothers have quieted down; they don't look very happy. "Do you know who we are?" one asks, and the other follows with another question, "Do you know who our boss is?"
Chocolove is in tears now. He can be sure of one thing now: his teammates are heartless.
The crowd starts to roar once Goldva gives the signal to start the fight. Kali stands between Ren and Horohoro with her hands in her pockets, finding the whole situation sort of thrilling.
The Boz Brothers, having been aggravated by Ren's blunt words, immediately launches an attack consisting of thousands of animal, bird and insect spirits called the Chimimoryo. It's hard to make out anything when the collision occurs, but after everything clears up, they see Chocolove still standing upright with his oversoul.
"I'm surprised," he says, "Hao's henchmen aren't very strong."
Seeing as how their first move failed, they launch another one, which they call Chimi Chimimoryo, the remix version. Kali thinks it's a ridiculous name, and it's apparent that she's not the only one.
"But a remix is always the same song." Chocolove seems to have regained his confidence now.
Mic the Jaguar easily crushes (and devours) the tiny spirits hurled at his shaman. Chocolove clucks his tongue, "That attack wasn't really useful. The strength and speed of Mic are enough to kill those kinds of spirits."
"Wow," Chi remarks, awed, "that's impressive."
"Your spirit is very easily stupefied, yes?" Ren sneers.
Kali frowns, but doesn't disagree with him. After all, Chi died when she was only a teenager—she hasn't seen very much.
"I am the black jaguar." They hadn't noticed that Chocolove has transformed.
The fight goes on for a while, and it's actually quite an intense one. Kali almost feels envious—she wants to be out there fighting too. Why does she have to do what Ren says anyway? Just because he's the leader? She clenches her gloved fists and puts one foot forward to enter the battlefield and help out her teammate.
But someone holding her elbow stops her from moving any further.
"Ren," she tries to shake his hand off, but he won't budge, "let me go."
"No. I told you, let Chocolove handle this." Ren reiterates, pulling her back into her previous position. "This is his chance to prove himself. If he doesn't defeat them, then I'll know it was a mistake to let him into the team."
"And then what? You're just going to kick him out?" she asks.
"That's the plan." He says simply.
Kali didn't realize Ren could be that cruel. Even though Chocolove is doing well so far, she'd hate to think of what will happen if he ends up exhausting himself too soon. She would tell Chi to merge with her so she can be prepared for what might come, but she might use up too much of her furyoku if she does. Right now, the only thing she can do is wait, and it's killing her. Horohoro wants to interfere as well, just for the sake of doing something, but he knows Ren won't let him either.
Chocolove, who has merged with Mic and transformed into a real black jaguar, attacks so fast that the people watching can't even see anything. He only stops when the Boz Brothers are lying on the ground, practically lifeless. Everything seems to be in Ren's team's favor now, but Kali senses it's not over yet.
"It seems things are going according to plan for that guy over there." Ren says, referring to Peyote who has barely moved at all, even after his teammates got knocked out.
The guy is an even more unbearable teammate than Ren. Rather than showing concern over his teammates' conditions, he kicks them and tells them to "stop being so useless and get up".
At first they struggle, saying that they can't fight anymore, but before anyone knows it, they're charging at Chocolove, miraculously having regained their strength. Chocolove is stunned—after his attack, they shouldn't even be able to stand right now.
Kali studies them as hard as she can. She has to think out of the box here as Hao and his followers always have new tricks up their sleeves. She was sure that the Boz Brothers were rendered unconscious by Chocolove's Shaft Oversoul, so they can't possibly be fighting like they are now. So what exactly is going on?
"Ren," Kali sounds panicked, "they're tougher than we thought—"
"Moron." Ren huffs. He has a smirk on his face again. He's always either smirking or frowning—there's practically no in between. "The Boz Brothers have been unconscious for a while. They can't trick my eyes. Their own teammate has turned them into his puppets and is controlling them."
That makes sense. Kali can see it now.
"Eres correcto!" the Mexican shaman says as he points at them. "I just said in Spanish that you are correct. You are very sharp; it's obvious you have learned from Yoh-sama."
"Yoh again?" Ren scoffs. "It seems your boss really likes Yoh."
If only he knew, Kali thought. The last man standing soon introduces himself as Peyote, and his spirits as Carlos and Juan who used to be in a mariachi band. Using the Boz Brothers as his mediums, he attacks Chocolove without warning, and the poor guy is harshly knocked off his feet.
"Dammit," Chocolove picks himself up. He's ready to make another attack. "What you're doing is inhumane!"
Unlike before, his attack is unsuccessful, much to the surprise of the spectators. Once again, he's thrown off his feet, but he's still quick to get back up. He purposely refrained from using his full power on the brothers earlier as he knew it would kill them, but now the fact that their bodies are nothing but mere playthings for Peyote, it burns Chocolove up. Even though they're the enemies, they should still be treated with some respect.
"Chocolove!" Horohoro cries.
Kali is just as horrified at this turn of events, but Ren, on the other hand, is still as stoic as ever despite seeing his teammate at a disadvantage. Kali hopes he knows what he's doing.
Whether or not Chocolove can handle this match by himself, Kali wants to fight with him. She didn't come all the way here, she didn't spend all that time training by herself at night (she thought about training with her brother, but Anna's harsh training regimen was just too extreme) just to stand aside and watch.
"Ren, I don't care what you say, I'm going in." She takes about only two steps forward when Ren whips out his kwan dao and uses it to block her way.
"Just stay put, you insolent little shit." He says crossly. He thought Horohoro would be hard to handle; at least the Ainu isn't questioning his orders.
"Chocolove!" Horohoro calls angry when it becomes apparent that his teammate isn't listening to him. "What are you doing?! Get rid of the Boz!"
"Shut up, Horohoro! I don't want to kill them!" Chocolove yells back in the midst of protecting himself from their near-fatal blows.
Kali looks around to see if Ren and Horohoro's eyes are as wide as hers—they are. It's been a while since they saw a shaman who's unwilling to kill. After Chocolove utters those words that take everybody's breaths away, he collapses on the hard ground, breathing heavily.
"You are even more of an idiot than I thought." For a minute there, Kali thought those words came from Ren's mouth, but they actually came from Peyote's.
Radim has already taken to running around and repeatedly telling everybody, "Chocolove has been defeated!"
But the shaman proves everyone wrong when he stands up once again and pulls out another oversoul, the Winds of Laughter. "In the end, there's only one thing I can do: make them laugh."
"Tell me he's not being serious right now." Horohoro says incredulously.
"Judging from what I've heard about you, nobody's gonna laugh at that joke of yours." Peyote unleashes his spirits, including his current mediums, the Boz Brothers.
Chocolove has a confident smirk on his face. "Bring it on."
He reveals the true nature of his oversoul, which he calls the Ayers Rock, which isn't as intimidating as it is…well, embarrassing. For his teammates, mostly. It's basically just him showing off his bellybutton, hence the name Ayers Rock (the world's bellybutton). Kali has never met anyone who could do actual tricks with his bellybutton. This is one for the books.
"That little…" Horohoro curses under his breath. "I knew he would screw up. That's it, I'm going to get those stupid, little dolls."
Ren sighs at yet another one of his teammate's impertinence. "Give it a rest, Horohoro. Look closely; his joke's not over yet."
Is that laughter they hear? Peyote's spirits and the Boz Brothers—they actually find it funny. They're laughing their asses off. Peyote's guard is starting to drop; he's too surprised that the Boz have managed to laugh while under his control. This whole thing, the situation, Chocolove and his pronounced bellybutton, it's just so preposterous.
"The winds of laughter blow away all evil." Chocolove says. "You cannot control other people's minds because you don't even care about them."
That appears to be a spirit of an old man standing behind him. Kali's seen dozens of ghosts but she still finds that rather chilling.
"Ah, I got too emotional and put in too much spirit power." Chocolove's voice is starting to trail off. He's starting to lose himself. "I'm not good enough yet, am I, gramps?"
"Ren, he's fainting. We need to—" when Kali turns to look at him, he's already gone. He's already made his way into the battlefield, ready to attack Peyote.
"We should've seen that coming." Horohoro says, to which Kali agrees. Of course Ren would want to take the glory at last minute. Horohoro and Kali remain by the sidelines, and they already get the feeling that this fight is going to end without either of them doing anything.
"You should know that this has nothing to do with your dolls. They're not the reason I'm going to kick your ass." Ren picks up the now unconscious Chocolove while he has Bason take care of their opponents. "It's because you looked down on my teammate, Chocolove."
"Is he defending him?" Kali wonders if her ears deceive her.
"We've known him for so long and he's never said anything like that about us." Horohoro gripes.
"Oh, who cares? It looks like we won this thing." Kali suddenly feels a jolt of adrenaline as Ren makes the one defining shot that ends the battle. Peyote's oversoul has exploded, effectively knocking him out when he crashes into a wall. No official announcements have been made yet, but—
"The winner is Team Ren!"
Horohoro's cry of victory is so loud that it actually makes Kali jump. Even though neither of them did anything, they are still the most ecstatic, with Ren still being as smug as always and Chocolove still unconscious.
"But you two still haven't done anything, have you?" Ren throws Chocolove away like a worthless candy wrapper, knowing Horohoro would catch him in time.
"It's him you must thank." Ren says. "His humor is terrible but he has a good soul."
Kali wasn't listening to anything. She was too excited to keep track on anything. She knows that she did nothing and she was basically just an extra in the background, but victory still tastes so sweet.
Well...at least that's what it tastes like on Ren's lips. She doesn't know what exactly came over when she grabbed Ren's face and planted her lips on his—hell, she didn't even realize she was doing it. She only realized halfway through that her hands are on his face and her lips are actually smushed against another person's lips—Tao freaking Ren's lips—and hundreds of shamans from all over the world are watching.
When she opens her eyes, Ren's eyes are just as wide as hers as he stares at her in utter shock, wondering what the fuck is wrong with her. She finally pulls away and her face fills with a furious blush. Ren is blushing too, but his eyes are still wide and his brows are still raised—he obviously hasn't processed the situation yet. Horohoro's face is red as well from having witnessed the whole thing, and soon enough he takes to pointing at them and teasing them. Kali tells him to shut it, and of course he doesn't listen and keeps going, so Ren socks him in the face.
"Hey, Ren, it seems your whole family is here." Horohoro says as he rubs his bloody nose, which looks broken.
They look to where he's pointing and they see Ren's family, sitting among an army of kyonshiis holding up banners for both Ren and Bason. It's already embarrassing enough to see that in the stands, but for his entire family to have seen what just transpired between their precious heir and Asakura Yoh's sister—Ren's face is as red as a tomato now.
"I…um…uh…" Kali laughs awkwardly before sprinting out of the arena like a gazelle being chased by a hyena.
She wonders how long it will be until she can look any of her friends in the eye again.
"You never told me you like him."
"Shut up, Chi. I don't." Kali says crossly. "It was just...I don't know what it was. It just happened. I didn't even know I was doing it. It was just so stupid and embarrassing and I never want to talk about it again, so just drop it, okay?"
"Okay," she croons, "but don't forget that every shaman that came to watch the first ever fight of the Shaman Tournament saw what you did—"
"Oh my God, I hate you." She groans loudly, making her spirit guardian laugh at her expense.
Kali knew her friends were going to want to celebrate their victory, so as soon as she got out of the arena, she ditched them, saying that she had to run a quick errand. As the young girl wandered around Tokyo, waiting for an appropriate amount of time to pass until she can show herself to her friends who she knows will never shut up about what happened, she realizes that it's been a while since she's been here. She's missed it.
Being somewhere so familiar should aid in making her forget about her troubles, but Chi won't stop snickering and making subtle jabs at the incident even though she was specifically told to drop it, so it's quite hard to relax. Eventually Kali finds herself inside a not very crowded supermarket, passing through the aisles, looking for something to buy just so she wouldn't come back empty-handed.
It isn't long until Kali becomes so annoyed with Chi's teasing that she feels like she's about to explode. She sends her off to get some alone time, and not to mention some much-needed peace and quiet. She tells her to go find Yoh and others so she knows where to go when she decides to head back. Whenever that is. Not long after she's left alone, she sets her sights on a random building and uses a few tricks she learned from her grandfather to leap through a few tree branches and a couple of open window sills to get to the rooftop.
"You know how that saying goes," comes a drawl from behind her, "misery loves company."
Kali smiles. She was expecting him to come around sooner or later. "I didn't realize I looked miserable."
"Well, you look like you need company." He grunts a little when he sits down beside her. "Oh, and congratulations, by the way."
She snorts, "For what? I didn't even do anything."
"Well, maybe Ren just didn't want you to get hurt." He suggests with a smile that almost makes him look like he's…teasing her.
"Please, I don't need anybody protecting me. Least of all Ren." She buries her face in her arms, feeling her cheeks burn up just remembering what happened between her and Ren earlier. "Please tell me you didn't see it. Please tell me you weren't watching."
Hao laughs. "I would, but then I would be lying."
"Goddammit," she keeps her face hidden to keep him from seeing her reddening cheeks, "just don't even bring it up, okay? I've had enough embarrassment for one day."
"Frankly, I think I'm a little jealous." He says with a slight chuckle, piquing Kali's curiosity. What on earth would he be jealous of?
"Why?" she asks, bringing her head up just slightly to give him a strange look. "Uh, never mind, don't answer that. I don't think I want to know."
"As you wish." He chuckles again. He's certainly very cheery today. "For someone who advanced to the next round, you sure don't look very happy."
"I'm…I don't know. I don't feel very different." She shrugs, finally taking her head out of her arms. She hopes the blush on her face has disappeared by now. "I take it you're not so thrilled either, seeing as we beat your people and all."
"Not at all. It was a great show—very good entertainment." Hao says. "They're not my people anymore anyway. Not the Boz, at least. They quit just now. They said they want to reinvent themselves."
"And you let them?" she asks. Kali is surprised that he's not the least bit upset.
"I don't see any reason why I shouldn't." He says, shrugging slightly. "They were never really of much use anyway."
Kali tilts her head, furrowing her brows at him. "That's a nice way to talk about the people who worshipped you."
"Kali, I found them." Chi floats over to her shaman, realizing a little late that Kali isn't alone. "Oh, Hao. Hi."
"Hello, Chi." He greets with a warm and friendly smile. Hao has always been nice to Chi, just as he's always been nice to Kali, and frankly that scares the crap out of her.
Kali stands up, absentmindedly holding onto Hao's shoulder for support. "I'm gonna take off now. Everybody's probably wondering where I am. I bet they're just sitting there with stupid grins on their faces, making fun of Ren, and waiting to make fun of me."
"Don't forget your milk." He picks up the plastic bag she left on the floor and gives it to her with a knowing smile. "Good luck."
"Are those the Boz Brothers?" Kali asks, squinting at the two figures coming out of the restaurant she's heading towards. "What are they doing here?"
"Long story short, when I found the guys, they were in there, saying stuff about how they've left Hao's team to pursue a career in music or something." She reveals. "They sounded really confident about it."
"Well, that sounds promising." She snorts.
Just as Kali's about to walk inside, her Oracle Bell rings, making her jump. She checks it, thinking that Team 'The Ren' has already been called to another fight so quickly, but it turns out it's someone else. She doesn't recognize either of the team names, so she comes in, hoping to find some answers. Instead she finds Ryu crying on the floor with his hair down. If even his hair gave up on him, then he must be really depressed.
"Lyserg…you really have left us." He says, sounding so morose that it actually hurts a little just looking at him.
Everybody was a little bummed when Lyserg left to join the X-Laws, but no one took it as hard as Ryu did. None of them really understood Ryu's fixation on the young, emerald-haired shaman, (and they were all too scared to comprehend it so they never really thought about it too much), but they let him mourn his departure, no matter how annoying his whining became. Ren came close to beating the shit out of him many times, but then Chocolove would butt in with an awful joke, and he'd end up on the receiving end of Ren's temper instead.
"Oh, Kali, there you are." Yoh says, causing everyone to turn their attention to the doe-eyed girl by the door. "Come on, it's a ten-minute walk to the stadium. Let's all go to cheer him on."
The walk to the stadium isn't exactly a jolly one. None of them are really very enthusiastic about coming to support a former ally, especially since they haven't seen or heard from him since he left three months ago. The only one who really got attached to him was Ryu—Ren and Kali never really got around to trusting him, Horohoro was more or less indifferent, and Yoh was just Yoh. But even Yoh looks a little tense while walking. Kali turns to look at her teammates but then she realizes that they're not behind them like she thought. They must have chosen not to come. She doesn't blame them.
They arrive just in time to see the fight start. Kali is startled to see the Iron Maiden holding Jeanne in the arena, placed right behind Marco and Lyserg. Everyone is bewildered to hear a voice come from inside, thinking it was just a useless iron chamber, probably brought for decoration. Kali however knows that Jeanne is inside, bleeding and suffering. Jeanne has reached the point that she can't even feel any pain anymore—physical pain, at least. Kali finds that just plain disturbing. She even feels a little uneasy just looking at the stupid box.
Lyserg has definitely changed a lot since he left. He shows no remorse, not even the slightest hesitation when he wraps the wire of his pendulum around his opponents, making them scream and bleed. Kali can't help but grimace a little at the sight. She should be used to this kind of thing by now, but it still makes her so uncomfortable. Seeing blood gush out like that, seeing someone whom she used to know attack someone so mercilessly—Kali feels like she's going to throw up.
She turns away to keep her stomach from churning any further, and as she looks behind her, she sees three familiar figures coming up behind them. Ren coolly walks towards them with that stupid smirk on his face again (that is, until his and Kali's eyes meet and they immediately look away—Kali almost forgot about what transpired between them), and Horohoro and Chocolove are panting by his sides.
"What took you guys so long?" she asks, keeping her eyes away from Ren at all costs.
"This idiot didn't want to run so we had to drag him here!" Horohoro explains loudly, angrily pointing his finger at Ren.
"The future of this boy never really interested me." Ren ignores him and proceeds to talk about the X-Law's newest member. "But this strength is incomparable to what we knew of him."
"This is the Lyserg you told me about?" Anna asks her fiancé. "It seems as if he's undergone some harsh training with the X-Laws."
By now, Kali has gotten used to her brother's laid-back attitude towards everything, even to something as appalling as this. Manta, on the other hand, still finds it hard to comprehend how something like this can be taken so lightly.
"Manta, don't worry." Yoh holds up his palm to keep his little friend from having a panic attack. "He made a choice and for now, he seems happy with it. If they bring him peace, then we should be happy for him."
That doesn't make Manta or Kali, for that matter, feel any better.
"Does it have to be done through murder?" she asks, forcing herself to watch the fight so her mind can take it in. That way, next time, maybe she won't feel as queasy when she sees something gruesome like this.
Kali can't help but flash back to the time Hao killed that boy that made fun of her. She still has nightmares about that incident, having been the first murder she ever witnessed, and that horrible image of an innocent human being burned to ashes still haunts her today.
"If he ever does such a thing," Yoh's expression has become darker now, "I will never forgive him."
None of them have ever heard something like that come out of his mouth before. Kali turns to him, concerned. "Yoh?"
"But I came here to encourage him." He continues, probably realizing how dark his words were earlier. "I believe in my friends."
"Idiot." Nobody is surprised when Ren speaks up to refute him. "This is the kind of reasoning that leads to self-destruction."
"You think so?" Yoh's mouth slowly turns back up into a hearty grin. "Well, I don't think so. Right, Anna?"
Anna hums a little. As she raises her head, there's a small smile across her face. "Yes."
"So, Ryu, stop crying." Yoh whips out a comb—where the heck did that come from? "If Lyserg is that important to you, we'll take care of him."
This definitely lifts Ryu's spirits up, as seen by his hairdo springing back up. Before they know it, Anna and Yoh are ever-so casually fixing up Ryu's hair, and Kali can't believe it but she'd rather watch the fight than this silly scene.
"Kali," Chi whispers, "guess who's watching?"
She looks to where her spirit guardian is looking, and she sees Hao with a pair of binoculars and a baguette watching them from his seat in the stands. He must have seen Kali looking because he waved at her direction, and she, flustered, could only look away and pretend she didn't see him. He's definitely going to drill her about that the next time they see each other.
When Lyserg, or rather Morphin, fails to kill their opponent, Jeanne and Marco talk about how Lyserg has disappointed them and that he must be punished, and Kali decides that she's just had about enough of this battle. She turns on the heel of her boot to leave. But then she hears the iron chamber opening and she realizes that this match is about to become much, much grislier.
Anna's hand immediately goes up to cover Yoh's eyes when Jeanne comes out of the iron maiden topless. Her not wearing anything to cover her upper body actually reminds Kali of Hao—but the thought quickly dissolves from her mind as so much blood has stained the floor of the arena thanks to Jeanne. Kali really doesn't understand how she can withstand all that. Plus, the fact that so many men in the audience are fixated on Jeanne is a little creepy (and not just because of her grand entrance) considering she's all of ten years old.
Kali doesn't know Jeanne very well, but she knows her enough to anticipate what's about to happen. Yet when it does happen—when she captures Anatel with her oversoul and murders him in plain sight—Kali still flinches, turning to her side with her eyes squeezed shut.
The only one who seems to notice her reaction is Ren, as he's the only one who isn't too busy gawking at the horror of the sight (or at Jeanne's beauty). He doesn't look at her with judgement or ridicule—he actually looks rather curious with his brows furrowed together. One would think that a shaman like herself, one who's went through so much shit with her friends just to be here, would be immune to these kinds of things by now.
"I don't have to be here, do I?" Kali asks to no one in particular. She doesn't even wait for someone to answer her when she turns around and hastily exits the stadium.
Kali half-expects someone to be following her, but when she turns around to check, no one is there but her spirit guardian. She soon finds herself a tree to rest under and Chi stares at her with visible worry the whole time.
"Don't look at me like that, Chi." She says. "I know I shouldn't be such a wimp, but…I don't know. It just takes me back to the time Hao killed that boy and well, I freak. Plus, seeing all that blood makes me queasy."
"Well, Kali, you're going to have to get used to it sooner or later." She tells her, actually managing not to sound too insensitive. "Blood and death come with the territory. It sucks, but you have to live with it."
"She's right, you know." Mikihisa jumps down from a tree branch and lands perfectly on his feet. His sudden appearance startles Kali, making her gasp loudly. "You have to learn to live with it."
"Jesus, dad, can't you just be normal for once?" Kali doesn't mind a little company, but Mikihisa isn't exactly on the list of people she wants to see right now. Her wounds and bite marks still haven't completely healed from when he last surprise-attacked her, and he hasn't really done anything to make it up to her since then. "What are you doing here, old man? I don't want to fight. I'm tired."
"Why? It's not like you did anything." Kali imagines him grinning cockily behind his mask as he says this. "If that's how all of your battles are going to be like, then I don't know why your brother and I even worried about you risking your life."
Kali doesn't reply, but she just rolls her eyes and sighs loudly to show her annoyance. When she looks back up, he's offering her a piece of taffy. The girl's eyes twinkle—it's been so long since she last had taffy.
"This always used to make you feel better." So he remembers.
"It still does." She eagerly takes it and unwraps it carefully, as if to savor the moment. "Is this your way of apologizing?"
"Have I done something to apologize for?" he sounds like he's really asking. If he is, then that's enough to convince Kali that she has a nutjob for a (adoptive) father. "Katsumi, I must say, the clothes your mother made looked very nice on you earlier today. It's a shame you didn't get to fight."
"Yeah, well, I have a pompous asshole for a team leader." Kali doesn't sound angry or anything—in fact, a small chuckle comes out just thinking of Ren's ego. "Eh, doesn't matter. There's always next time."
"Pompous asshole? Ah yes, that spiky-haired boy." He nods, rubbing the chin of his mask in thought. "You know, I didn't think he was your type."
"What?" she looks at him, confused, until she realizes what he's talking about. Kali immediately turns beet red. "Oh fu—shut up, dad."
She hears a faint chuckle come from him. She doesn't remember ever making him laugh before. "Seeing you out there in the middle of the arena made me realize how much I've missed while you and your brother were growing up. And I don't just mean that kiss—you've grown so much. And you know much more than I realized. You actually gave me a break—I was very worried about how I was going to tell you and Yoh about Hao."
"I might have grown, but as a shaman, I think I'm still in the same place I was two years ago, whereas everyone else is moving forward. Story of my life." Kali sighs, tossing the empty taffy wrapper over her shoulder. "I've been training by myself every night for two months straight and I don't feel any different. I just feel very tired and I'm pretty sure I'm certifiably sleep deprived."
"Oh, Katsumi. I know Yohmei and I like to give you a hard time, but it's only to give you the push you need. It may not be now or tomorrow or the day after, but someday you'll be a very powerful shaman. That much I'm sure of." He's never said anything comforting like this before. Kali has been seeking this kind of treatment from him practically all her life, and now that she's getting it, she kind of wishes that she weren't because it's just making her feel weird. "In the meantime, keep trying. Keep training, keep fighting, and it'll be worth it in the end. If you'd like, I can train you."
"No, thank you." Kali stands up and dusts the seat of her pants. "If your training methods are anything like that little stunt you pulled on me two months ago—I'm still getting treatment at the hospital for that, by the way—I don't think I'm going to live to make it to the end of this tournament."
"You know, Katsumi, a big part of being a strong shaman is having confidence in yourself." Kali feels another lecture coming on. Now this is the Mikihisa she knows. "If you don't believe in yourself or your spirit guardian, then what's the point in fighting? Just a little faith would make the biggest difference."
"Thanks for the life lesson, dad." She says dryly. She's heard all of this before from Yohmei and it's done virtually nothing to help her in the long run. "Anything else?"
"No, that's about it." He stretches his hand for a handshake, and she takes it. "But you should really get used to gruesomeness of the Shaman Fight. You're going to be around it for a long time."
"I know, I know."
"Turning away from the sight of blood like that—it makes you look weak."
"Hey, I'll have you know that Tamao and Manta weren't taking it too well either, and who the hell asked you?" she snaps at him, annoyed. "Let me guess. Now you're going to tell me that looking weak is going to make me weak. Just admit it, Mikihisa, you're unhappy because you've adopted a weak shaman into the family."
"I wouldn't call you weak." He says. Kali doesn't believe him. "You managed to defeat that spike head, didn't you? Tao Ren, was it?"
Kali heaves a loud sigh. "Yes, but that isn't exactly the best example. I actually just waited for him to run out of furyoku. I can't keep doing that to every opponent I face."
"How did you pass the preliminary rounds then?" he asks.
"I lost my first fight. My second opponent was just a little girl—Milly something. She was way too easy." She explains with a dismissive wave of the hand. "I guess you can say I just got lucky."
"I don't understand, Katsumi. You didn't used to look down on yourself like this." He raises a point. Lately, she has been beating herself up more than usual. "Did something happen?"
Kali begins to walk around, and Mikihisa follows every step she takes, albeit from a feet away. He always keeps his distance from her, and Kali appreciates that. They haven't really gone to the point where they can be within close proximity to each other. The closest she ever goes to him is when she hits him during battles to test her strength. "I don't really know. I guess everything that lead up to here—it's just made me feel so weak. I mean, I let myself get thrown against a lamppost, I fainted because of a stupid illusion, I almost died because the Great Spirit's power was too much for me, and you attacking me was just the fucking topping on the cake. Yoh even wanted me to drop out of the tournament because he was afraid I wouldn't be able to handle it—that certainly didn't make things any better."
"Well, if it helps," Chi sheepishly chimes in, "the first one was kind of my fault."
"That does kind of help, thank you." She tells her spirit guardian, and she really means it.
"Everybody has setbacks, Katsumi. Don't you remember how many times your brother ended up in the hospital after fighting other shamans?" he reminds her. She didn't know he knows about that. "It's natural. It's a process. A long one."
"Why are you doing this?" she asks. "Why are you being so nice to me after all these years?"
"Because I'm your father." He answers simply. "And by the way, it's impolite to call your parent by their first name. It's 'dad', not Mikihisa, young lady."
"Okay, I have a question, dad." She decides to throw the dog a bone. "Why did you raise me as an Asakura? I mean, you found Anna and Tamao too, but you didn't adopt them. Not officially at least…right?"
"Well, when we got you, both you and Yoh were just babies. It just made sense to raise you as siblings. Neither of you would know the difference anyway. Or at least we thought so. We were going to tell you when we felt that it was the right time—I guess we never really got around to it." This is the first time she's ever learning about this. Kali has never asked anyone in the family before because she wasn't sure she wanted to know. She didn't even ask Hao, even though she's sure that he has all the answers. "Besides, we didn't know anything about you. You didn't have a name and we had no idea where you were from. We just found you with a note indicating your date of birth and the words 'take good care of her'."
That certainly strikes her ear. Kali can't believe she never found out about this. "Wait, what do you mean you don't know? How did you find me then?"
"Well, to be technical, we didn't really find you." He tells her with a shrug. "You were at our doorstep. We don't know who left you there or why they did, but we didn't complain. You felt like an Asakura, Katsumi. So we went with our guts."
That's certainly very troubling. "So you virtually have no idea who I really am?"
"Of course I do. You're Asakura Katsumi." He states, which makes Kali feel a tiny bit better, to be completely honest. "There's something I want to know though. Exactly how long have you known you were adopted?"
"A very, very long time." She replies, being purposely vague. She's not quite ready to divulge everything quite yet, especially not to her father. "I took it rather well. And Yoh did too when I told him. We decided not to make a big deal of it, to just ignore it because…well, we liked being brother and sister too much to let a stupid word like 'adopted' get in the way."
"He told you all about it, didn't he?" he asks. "Hao, I mean."
"I'm not gonna lie to you, dad." Kali starts to walk away from him, and given from the absence of footsteps, he isn't following her. "He was there for me more than you ever were."
She eventually finds her way back to the front of the stadium just in time to see her teammates come out.
"Where have you been?" Horohoro asks her, to which she just smiles and shrugs. "Come on, let's go get some grub."
Kali is certainly up for that. She doesn't think she's eaten anything since this morning. "Oh, what are we eating?"
"Ren has a coupon for Chinese food." Chocolove says.
"Oh great," she says without the slightest trace of enthusiasm in her voice, "Chinese food again."
Ren's always making them eat Chinese food. At first, all three of them would protest and there'd be a lot of screaming and arguing (mostly between Horohoro and Ren; Chocolove and Kali just gave up somewhere in the middle of all the noise and ate the stupid wontons), then somewhere down the road they resorted to playing games to see who would pick the food. But that didn't last very long since somehow Ren always won. It wasn't long before Chocolove and Kali learned to stop fighting it—Horohoro is another story.
"That's what I said." Horohoro grumbles.
It's a rather lengthy walk from the arena to the restaurant, and no one's really talking. Kali assumes they're not in the mood, just plain hungry, or still traumatized from the last match they sat through. She knows she still is. She's just glad she didn't stick around until the end.
Horohoro and Chocolove seem too engrossed in their own thoughts to pay attention to anything else, so Kali seizes on the opportunity. She might not get another one again.
"Hey," she walks up to Ren's side, and he doesn't even turn his head to look at her. "Can we talk?"
"No."
Kali takes out the content of the plastic bag she's been carrying all day and presents Ren with a small milk carton. He gives her a long, perplexed look, and she has to resort to actually shoving it in his face for him to finally give in and take it.
"I'm sorry about that whole thing. You know…that thing that happened…between us…earlier."
The fact that Ren is showing her no response at all is only making this all the more difficult. She feels herself getting more and more flustered just looking at his emotionless face.
"It just happened." Kali continues. "Sorry if I embarrassed you or anything."
He stays quiet. She's not surprised, but frankly, the silence is killing her.
"Ren, please say something." She must be truly desperate as she doesn't recall ever saying 'please' to Ren before. Polite expressions like that are usually reserved for other people.
"Forget about it," he finally says, "I already have."
"Oh. Good." That certainly takes a weight off her shoulders. "I thought that was going to be some whole weird thing between us."
Kali, suddenly feeling a jolt of confidence, draws closer to him until her lips are right next to his ear. Ren's shoulders instantly tense up.
"Don't think I didn't notice."
"What?"
"You kissed back."
With a satisfied smirk, Kali leaves a blushing Ren behind.
"Hao-sama," the little girl calls as they watch the scene unfold from the top of a building, "Opacho has a question."
"What is it?" Hao hums curiously when he sees Kali whisper something into Ren's ear.
"Why we always follow Kali-chan?" she asks in her usual broken vocabulary, which Hao is actually quite fond of. "She not seem to like Hao-sama very much."
"I told you, Opacho." He smiles seeing a smirk form across Kali's face. "Kali is special."
"Special how?" she asks further.
"It's beyond words, really." He says thoughtfully. "She smiles yet she's sad. There are times when she acts strong when she's weak, and acts weak when she's strong. She looks simple but she's actually quite complicated. She seems kind-hearted but she's actually a demon inside."
"A demon?"
"That's right, Opacho," he grins, "and it's up to me to bring it out of her."
"You sure are taking very long time, Hao-sama."
"Well, Opacho, let me tell you something." Hao stands up as the show, as he calls Ren and Kali's interaction, has ended. "The mind is a funny thing. The heart…is even funnier."