Chapter 10 – Plotting
Hao had been out looking for Shinji for hours now, and he seemed no closer to finding her. Somehow it didn't occur to him that she might hide her mana from him. Clearly he had underestimated her, and it was infuriating. When he got her back he wouldn't let her out of his sight, he would tie her to his arm if he had to.
He suddenly felt a familiar presence appear behind him, and he turned to see an enraged spirit of rain furiously glaring at him.
"Where the hell is Shinji? What have you done with her?" Nindie spat, the rain surrounding them lashing out violently in response to her rage.
"It took you a while to get here." Hao pointed out with a smirk, unfazed by the rain or the water spirits anger.
"Do you think finding the two of you would be easy when you spirit away to America?!" She shrieked, "Now answer me, where is Shinji?"
"Somewhere in this forest, though I don't know exactly where." Watching in amusement as the spirit's fury seemed to escalate.
"You LOST HER?"
"She got herself lost actually."
"That's not the point! If you're going to kidnap someone, at least look after the stupid girl!"
"You aren't exactly doing the best job of looking after her yourself. You let her get captured. Twice."
"Oh screw you Hao! I'm going to find her myself." Nindie snapped, but just as she turned around to move away she stopped. Very suddenly, several miles away, she sensed something. She turned back to Hao then, and frowned at him, "You felt that too right?"
Hao nodded. It was Shinji, he could recognise her mana anywhere. No doubt the girl had gotten tired of wondering around in circles, and had finally given up her attempted escape. She was probably waiting for him to find her. He smirked at the thought. It would be easier to teleport to her now, but then, he felt like making the water shaman suffer a bit. It would take him about an hour to walk there, and in that time Shinji would get so bored and annoyed that when he found her she wouldn't even think of running off again. There was of course the issue of her hiding her mana again, but if that happened he could just teleport the instant he stopped sensing it. She wouldn't be able to get far.
Walking into the Xlaw camp at night was a strange thing, mostly because of the eerie kind of silence around the place. It didn't help that everything seemed so... artificial. Pristine white tents, all aligned perfectly side by side and illuminated in the dark by small white garden lamps that were pitched into the grass of a large meadow. A picnic table had been set up a little way in front of them, next to a travel barbecue. No campfire for roasting marshmallows on sticks for these people. Everything was so well organised that she wouldn't be surprised if Marco had a map that led them straight to patch village itself. She might not have been part of the tournament anymore, but she still knew what the second round entailed from past experience. She couldn't really imagine the Xlaws bumbling around randomly until they happened to come across the place, so they must have some kind of plan. Honestly, even though it was necessary, she was surprised to see them camping in the woods at all. They were always just so clean all the time; it didn't seem possible that they even knew how to rough it. Then again, she thought looking around; this hardly seemed like roughing it. No doubt they all had inflatable mattresses and duvets with plush soft pillows to sleep on too. Shinji couldn't help but feel a little jealous when she thought of her own bed for the last few days, the ground.
Marco spotted them before they saw him, and as he marched towards them he pulled his gun out of the holster strapped to his side and trained it on Shinji's head. He frowned at her behind his glasses as he stopped in front of them, but it was Lyserg her spoke to first.
"Lyserg, when you said you needed the bathroom I did not expect you to pick up stray dogs on the way back." He said disapprovingly.
Lyserg winced slightly, and fumbled to explain himself, "I didn't intend to find her. I just heard a noise and went to investigate. She was lost and I mistook her for one of Hao's followers, and then she told me that she's killed Hao before. Her name is-"
"Shinji Lemora. Yes I know." Marco interrupted.
"You've met before?" Lyserg asked, confusion written all over his face.
"Yeah, I told you that earlier but I guess you weren't listening. Your boss over here tried to shoot me about a year ago when I refused to join the xlaws." Shinji explained.
The boy looked horrified, "But I don't understand. We should all be on the same side, not fighting each other. Marco please I-"
"You are still so naive Lyserg, anyone who refuses to join us is our enemy. You should remember that." Marco replied coldly.
Lyserg looked sheepishly at the ground, like a child told off by their parent. Shinji rolled her eyes.
"You seem to have a habit of bullying kids, Marco." She said.
He glared sharply at her, "I should shoot you where you stand."
"That didn't work for you the last time, what makes you think it would now?" Shinji smirked, easing her body weight to one side and folding her arms with a smirk.
"You insulted our lady Jeanne-sama!" Marco cried in outrage.
"Ah she knows I'm just joking, you're the only one who gets offended. How is the old Jeanne in a box anyway?" She asked, purposely trying to piss off the blonde man and grinning widely.
"How dare you!"
"Marco, that is enough." A soft voice called. Shinji turned around and saw an iron maiden being pushed towards her by one of the larger X law members. "Shinji is our guest, and deserves our respect."
Shinji tried not to laugh as Marco bit back his next retort and bowed respectfully to the child in the metal box. Lyserg mimicked the action as it stopped in front of them and the random Xlaw was dismissed, walked away yawning.
"It is a pleasure to see you again, Shinji." Jeanne said, smiling at her as the face of the iron maiden swung open.
"Hiya Jeanne, still stuck in there I see." Shinji joked, looking up at the girl with the crimson eyes.
"We've been over this Shinji; I want to be in here." Jeanne answered, she was pretending to sound annoyed but they both knew she was smiling inside.
"Right right, anyways, how are you?"
"I am good; have you finally come to join us?"
"Sorry Jeanne, but you know me; I've never been one for matching outfits and all that."
"I suppose." The iron maiden answered a little sadly, but she didn't push on the matter. That was one thing Shinji liked about Jeanne, at least she knew what the word no meant, and didn't try to kill her for using it. Of course, she wasn't so sure the girl would have been quite so nice about it if she hadn't known about Shinji's past. She shrugged the thought aside. Jeanne respected her, and that was all that mattered; there was no point dwelling on what could have happened.
"Jeanne- sama," Lyserg said hesitantly, "Shinji told me earlier that Hao has been holding her captive."
"Is this true, Shinji?" Jeanne asked, sounding a little surprised.
"Yeah," the water shaman replied, "I couldn't attend my match for the tournament because of it, and now I'm disqualified. Apparently even after that he's not satisfied, he keeps insisting that I join him, even after I've refused a thousand times."
"And he hasn't tried to kill you?" Jeanne asked in confusion.
"Not really. He attacked me the first time I tried to escape, but he healed me up afterwards. I seriously don't get what goes through his head sometimes."
"Yes, it does seem rather uncharacteristic of him. I've never heard of someone who has directly opposed Hao as you have, and was allowed to live afterwards. Very strange." She thought silently for a moment, and then asked "Do you think he will come looking for you?"
"More than likely. Honestly I'm surprised he hasn't found me already, he's pretty good at that kind of thing." Shinji admitted.
"Then will you help us with something?" Jeanne asked hopefully.
"Like what?" Shinji asked sceptically, not liking where this conversation was going.
"Hao is evil, you know this as well as any of us. We want to finally put an end to him. I believe you might be just the person we need to lure him into a trap, and finally we can be free of him for good."
She didn't like the idea. It didn't seem right to trick him like that, even if he wasn't exactly poster boy for good behaviour. Besides, Jeanne was right what she said before, it was strange that Hao hadn't killed her. But he hadn't, despite what she had done to him in the past, which is something even the nicest of people would find hard to forgive. It didn't feel right to lead him into a trap with the intention of killing him after he hadn't killed her. Then again, Jeanne could probably force her co-operation quite easily. She only needed her as bait, and Shinji didn't have Nindie to fight with her. She was strong, but without her spirit ally she wasn't sure she could handle all of the Xlaws by herself. She would have to play this one carefully.
"I understand Jeanne, but I'm worried for you guys. Hao is just so strong, and without Nindie I don't know if I can defend you all if anything goes wrong." She wasn't telling a lie exactly, it was all true, she was just choosing which parts of the truth she was willing to tell.
"We are confident in our abilities. We just need the opportunity for our plan to succeed. Please Shinji. We will make it worth your while; there must be something we can do for you in return." Jeanne pressed.
That caught the water shaman's interest. "Anything?"
"Anything you want." The iron maiden encouraged.
"Can I have one hundred boxes of Maryland cookies?" Shinji asked excitedly.
"Cookies?" Lyserg blurted out in surprise.
"Of course! I love cookies, and Maryland cookies are the best!" she replied enthusiastically. She probably should have felt bad for selling Hao out for cookies, but she was confident he wouldn't be beaten, even if it was a trap. Besides, he could read her mind, so it wouldn't be difficult to warn him and still manage to get her cookies. Only out of fairness to him of course.
"Alright then, cookies it is." Jeanne said, and with one last excited smile, the face of the iron maiden closed. "Now I must prepare."
Wordlessly, Marco moved towards his leader, and wheeled her away to begin their plot. Lyserg stayed beside Shinji, wondering what was going through the water shamans head, and Shinji daydreamed happily about the free cookies she would soon receive.