"What did Xephon just say?" Anna asked Zahara curiously.

"What? Oh well, he just said he didn't need the workout thats all." Zahara was smiling, but Anna could tell that Xephon had said something else.

Just then the front door opened again and Yoh and the other shaman walked in looking bewildered.

"Anna you're not going to believe what we just saw!" Yoh began.

"Yeah Xephon was being chased by this Huge Lion!" Horo cut in waving his arms around frantically as he described what he had just seen.

As Horo was talking Zahara took in each of the shaman analysing the way they walked and how they spoke, trying to get an idea of their personalities. As she was doing this her mobile started beeping and everyone turned to look at her, Zahara blushed slightly and apologised and then pulled out her phone to answer the call.

"Yes? This is her... this better be good I'm with company. What do you mean he's quitting? He can't quit he still has to finish the investment, I'll be there as soon as I can." Zahara finished speaking and put the mobile back in her bag and then turned to face the rest of the group.

"I'm sorry I have to go now something's come up." Zahara turned to Anna and continued speaking ⌠Thank you for inviting me, it was good to see Xephon again, if he ever gets out of hand just give me a call." As Zahara finished speaking she collected her briefcase and left the house at a quick jog.

"Who exactly was that?" Ren addressed his question to Jun.

"Her name is Zahara she's Xephon's sister."

At this statement the whole group turned round to watch the tall figure disappear around a corner. Then they started muttering to themselves.

"That's the evil older sister?"

"She doesn't seem any worse than Anna."

"She sounded more polite."

"She was pretty."

"I wonder why Xephon thought so badly of her?"

At this statement Pilika cut in, "Well if you remember back about five minutes I think you were telling us you saw a Lion." The group of Shamans nodded at this but still looked confused.

Pilika sighed and realised that she would have to spell things out for them, ⌠How often do you see a Lion in Japan?" she asked them. The shaman though about this for a while before they replied that you never see a Lion in Japan.

"Then where do you think this one came from?" Pilika asked trying to get them to come to the conclusion themselves. Still there was silence and eventually Anna snapped.

"Oh for heaven"s sake Yoh use your brain! You were telling me yesterday that Xephon said his sister use to have a Lion chase him and now when both Xephon's sister and a Lion show up you have no idea! You had better win the shaman tournament because if you don't you'll be too stupid to do anything else! As of tomorrow Yoh you will wear the weighted shoes and armbands all day and I'm increasing the weight of each armband and shoe to 50lbs."

"But Anna that means I'll be carrying 200lbs!" Yoh cried out in shock at the amount of work he was going to be forced to do.

"Well get used to the idea! Did you know that Xephon's coat weighs 200lbs and your going to have to face him sooner or later in the tournament so your going to start working to beat him right now!"

As Anna continued to bark orders to Yoh the others decided that they should try and get away very quietly before Anna noticed them as well.

-
Xephon kept running, he didn't know how far or how long he had been running but all that mattered was that he stayed ahead of that damned pet his sister kept. Xephon eventually saw that he was coming up to the main part of town. He decided that it was probably a good thing that it was about midnight because he was sure that regular people weren't use to seeing Lions run down a main street after a teenager.

Xephon took a quick glance behind and noticed that Lion had disappeared. He stopped running and turned around fully making sure that he was right.

"Where the hell did it go? There's no way he would give up on me so easily."

"Master..." Weiss began staring behind Xephon his eyes widening.

"Not now Weiss I'm looking for my sisters stupid pet."

"Master I really think that you should-"

"Weiss what part of 'not now' did you not understand-!" Xephon stopped speaking as he felt warm breath on the back of his neck. Xephon didn't even turn round as he heard the following.

"Who are you calling a stupid pet, little brat?" Said a voice thick with a heavy german accent in its german words.

Xephon just sprinted as fast as he could down a side road to his left leaving Giftzahne behind and blinking for a few seconds before realising that his prey had gotten away, he roared and charged down same side road after Xephon.

Xephon was now running through the back alleys of town and the Lion was hot on his tail, Xephon was tired now, he wasn't sure how far he'd run but it was definitely more than 7 miles.

"Hey over here!"

Xephon looked up and saw Yoh waving at him from a side alley, without a moment hesitation Xephon dived in after Yoh as Giftzahne went charging past him.

Xephon just lay on the ground for a few seconds trying to catch his breath and then got back on his feet. He turned round to thank Yoh, then he realised that the figure in front of him was not the person he had come to know over the past few days. Although he looked identical to Yoh the stranger was wearing a grey poncho and brown trousers, he also had a dark aura surrounding him, which was far stronger than Yoh could ever hope have.

"You...are not Yoh." Xephon breathed out to the figure.

The brown haired boy in front of him laughed, "How perceptive of you, no I am not Yoh, my name is Hao, I suppose you could say I'm a relative of Yoh."

"Let me guess, you're the cliched evil twin?" Xephon asked darkly.

Hao smiled as he heard this, "Yes I suppose I am something like that."

"What do you want?" said Xephon with an edge to his voice.

"What makes you think I want something from you?" countered Hao.

"I really doubt that you called me over here just to talk." Xephon replied keeping the edge to his voice.

Hao smiled again at this statement before responding, "Very well, I do require something from you, I want you to join me and my followers so that I may become shaman king in the tournament."

Xephon merly stared at the Yoh look-alike.

"I would want to do this because..." Xephon let the words hang in the air.

"I can give you more power than you could ever dream of." responded Hao.

"I already have power, besides I was planning on winning the shaman tournament my self, I don't see why I should help the competition." said Xephon as he turned and started to walk back out of the alleyway. But before he had gone five paces was stopped by a towering wall of fire.

"I'm afraid I can't take no for an answer." Hao told the black haired shaman casually.

Xephon turned and stared at the Yoh look-alike in front of him, he was starting to get annoyed. "Drop the damn fire wall."

"Make me." Hao replied with a smirk. Xephon took six paces and then stood right in front Xephon and grasped the collar area of Hao's poncho and lifted him off the ground. Hao didn't struggle, he just laughed and the two of them vanished in a burst of flame.

-
Mia was having the best time of her life; the shopping mall in the town was better than she could have dreamed possible, it had virtually every clothes shop known to man/woman. Not only that it had her favourite fast food places and it had a cinema, Mia was in heaven. She'd visited five of the shops and had bought as many clothes as she could afford, the problem now was she hardly had any money left and was looking for something to eat but most of the stuff was too expensive.

Mia stooped walking suddenly as she noticed one of the huge shops was having a special closing down sale the poster on top of it read '80 OFF ALL ITEMS! EVERYTHING MUST GO!'

The place was full of teenage girls all around Mia's age pushing and screaming as they tried to get the clothes they wanted. Without any hesitation Mia charged in, she'd had experience in these type of matters; the trick was to be as ruthless as possible, don't let anyone get in your way and don't let yourself get distracted.

Despite Mia's small size she managed to shove her way through to where the clothes were on display and grabbed whatever she could find; she could look at them later first she had to get them. Abruptly she reached for a low cut black short sleeve shirt that had a silver lighting bolt on the front, as she did so another pair of hands grabbed the shirt as well. Instinctively Mia started tugging on the shirt hoping to pull it out of the other girl's hands, but to no success. Mia glanced over to see who the hands belonged to and saw a girl that looked slightly younger she was. The girl had red hair which was done up into two pigtails and had earrings designed to look like skulls.

The two girls stopped struggling for a minute and glared at each other.

"Let go it's mine!" Mia told the newcomer.

"No it's not!" replied the new girl.

"Yes it is!" Mia answered defiantly.

"I don't see your name on it!"

The two started struggling again for possession of the shirt and eventually the shirt ripped in half. Both girls stared at the shirt for a moment then at each and laughed.

Both girls managed to grab some clothes and then escape the shop without being trampled by the other customers.

They headed down towards the restaurants and fast food places and Mia started talking to the red head and learned that she was a shaman as well, she had just asked the red haired girl her name but before the girl could respond, two more girls came round the corner and started talking to the red head.

"Where has Macchi been?" asked a slim blond haired girl, she had a bored look in her eyes and was carrying some type of doll.

"Yeah Macchi where were you? I've been looking everywhere for you. Hao found what he wanted so we have to go meet up with him" The girl who said this was taller than the other two and had long blue hair that went down to her waist.

"Aww have we got to leave now Kanna? There are some really cool stores here besides we never get a chance to go shopping." Macchi asked the tall blue haired girl.

"Are you arguing with me Macchi?" Kanna asked the younger girl, as she said this Mia noticed a spirit that looked like a suit of armour hover above the blue haired girls head and look threateningly down at Macchi.

"You're a shaman!" Mia blurted out loudly. Several turned towards Mia to see why she was making so much noise and the girl named Kanna scowled at her as if seeing her for the first time.

"Who are you?" Kanna asked while glaring at Mia.

"Her names Mia." cut in Macchi hurriedly "We met in one the shops and I was sort of hoping that she could come with us." Macchi gave Kanna a pleading look.

Kanna shook her head at this and replied, ⌠No way Macchi, Hao's the one who picks who gets to join. Anyway I seriously doubt he'd be interested in her, I mean come on she's a weakling." Kanna pulled a cigarette out of her pocket and lit it, ignoring the glare she was getting from Mia.

"I'm no weakling!" Mia shouted in outrage, "Come on! I'll take you on right here!"

Kanna shook her head at this and looked at Mia with a faintly amused expression on her face, "You got guts kid I'll give you that, all right you can follow us but Hao still has the final word and he's not the generous type most of the time."

-
Xephon stumbled forward and then straighten up. Where the hell was he? A second ago he'd been in the middle of a town, now he appeared to be in some sort of grassy valley; there were no houses or buildings anywhere that he could see, the place seemed totally untouched by civilization.

"This is an interesting trinket."

Xephon turned round to see who had spoken and saw Hao a few feet away from him looking at something in his hands; it was a silver ring with a red wite jewel with a black onyx in the center.

Xephon looked down at his ring finger quickly, his amulet was gone!

"Give that back." Xephon threatened quietly.

Hao looked up apparently surprised "Oh have I made you angry?"

"Give it back." Xephon repeated and grasped the hilt of Eroberung.

"Are you going to fight me for it?" Hao said with a laugh, "All right then how about this then; if you beat me I'll give you your little trinket, but if I win you join me." As Hao said he tossed the ring to a smaller figure Xephon hadn't noticed. "Opacho will look after it while we fight and give it to the winner, now then do you agree to my terms?"

"No deal." Xephon muttered quietly, "I'm just going to kick you and your little friend's ass then take my amulet back."

Hao frowned at this but didn't have a chance to reply because Xephon chose that moment to attack.

"Teufel Abend."

Hao sighed as he saw the feathers of black light hurtle towards him and diverted them with a wave of his hand.

"I'm afraid you'll have to do better than that, especially if you want to beat me." as Hao finished speaking the ground between Hao and Xephon rumbled and split open, a geyser of lava erupted from the fissure and the Spirit Of Fire (SOF) rose slowly from the opening. When it stopped Hao leapt nimbly onto it's shoulder and looked down at Xephon, "Come on then what are you waiting for?"

Xephon looked up at the giant spirit in front of him and sensed the amount of power it had.

'Shit.' he thought. He raised his head to look at Hao and said in what he hoped was an unimpressed voice,

"Never heard of the phrase 'size doesn't matter' obviously. Its quality over quantity my friend."

"I think you find that I have both." Hao replied, he nodded his head and SOF left arm surged towards Xephon, who swerved to his left and brought his blade down on the spirits arm. The blade bounced off without doing any damage.

⌠Okay this is not good. Weiss, any advice would be welcome."

⌠Try using a different blade, you are fighting a spirit not a human."

Xephon shined his almost-grin and slammed his blade into the ground.

"Schwarzes Ritter Schwert." Xephon's blade detached from the hilt and formed a red blade of light from the hilt.

"Alber." Xephon held his sword pointing forward and to the ground. He then gestured for Hao to attack again.

Hao looked quizzically at Xephon for a moment, "I don't see why your getting so cocky, you haven't got a chance." The SOF right arm surged forward, Xephon stood his ground this time and at the last second pivoted on his right foot so that the spirits arm crashed into the ground right next to him, he brought his weapon down with all his force and the blade cut cleanly through the SOF arm leaving it lying on the ground. Xephon looked back Hao.

"You were saying?"

Hao looked mildly interested at this twist of invents, "Well done, even the X-laws would have a problem doing that, however," Hao snapped his fingers and the SOF arm reappeared in a burst of flame, "you still haven't got a chance." Hao told him with a smirk.

Xephon scowled at this but was unable to reply because the SOF started attacking and he was forced to concentrate on evading its attacks.

"Any more bright ideas Weiss?"

"You can't beat the spirit it's too strong, go directly for the source of its power."

"You want me to attack the shaman? Wouldn't that be what you call dishonourable?" Xephon answered with a tone of surprise.

"You haven't got a choice right now, besides I'm a bird. What do I know of honor?"

"Well said." Xephon looked up at Hao and realised he was too far away to attack.

'I'll just have to do something about then.' Xephon waited for the SOF to attack again and swerved to his right letting the spirits arm crash into the ground beside him again, this time though Xephon jumped onto the spirits hand and started sprinting up it's arm towards Hao.

Hao looked slightly surprised at this course of action but made no attempt to stop Xephon as he ran towards him. Just before Xephon reached Hao the black haired shaman leapt into the air.

"Scheitelhau!" Above Hao's head, Xephon brought his sword crashing down in a vertical decending slash; clearly attempting to slice his opponent in two.

Hao simply raised his arm and caught the red blade single handed with no apparent effort. Xephon's eyes widened in surprise, "Impossible."

"I think you'll find that word does not apply to me." Hao told the cold eyed shaman in front of him who was struggling to free his weapon from Hao's grasp. Hao chuckled to himself and raised his other hand and placed it on Xephon's chest and summoned a fireball, which sent Xephon flying through the air before he eventually landed on the ground creating a huge creator.

Hao jumped off the SOF shoulder and walked over to the still smoking creator. He cleared the smoke with a gesture of his hand and frowned as he saw that the creator contained only Xephon's weighted training coat.

At that moment Hao felt a cold breeze blow past him and smiled. Hao quickly turned round to see Xephon appear in front of him with a scowl on his face; his clothes and hair singed from the force of the fireball.

"You're still standing, that is impressive." Hao told Xephon offering a smile.

Xephon's scowl grew deeper and he reattached his sword's blade. Xephon raised his sword and pointed it at Hao with the flat of the blade pointed up.

"Tote Welt, Schwarzer Sarg!" Weiss's head on the hilt grew wings that spread out to reach out and wrap around Hao into the shape of a Sphere. Hao felt the energy coursing through him but it gave him no pain.

"Ekli-!"

Xephon was interrupted as Hao snapped his fingers from the inside and instantly the black orb shattered into a million pieces which slowly dissolved into nothing.

"Not bad but I've seen better." Hao told Xephon casually, he raised his right hand and summoned another fire ball, Xephon narrowed his eyes and swerved to his left barley evading the hot molten mass.

Hao raised an eyebrow at this. "So your faster without your coat, but how fast exactly?" Hao summoned another fireball, again Xephon evaded it and then turned to face Hao.

⌠I'm more than fast enough for you." he said.

Hao raised his other eyebrow at this and replied, "Really, you think so? We'll just have to test that then." Hao summoned another fireball but it was ten times larger than the others, abruptly it split into four more fireballs and those four split to make sixteen. The fires kept spreading until there were well over 60 fireballs facing Xephon. Hao allowed himself a small smirk at the look on Xephon's face, it was priceless. "I suggest that you start running." Hao advised the other shaman but Xephon simply stood his ground and raised his sword.

"Ochs." Xephon said as he held his sword up with the blade next to his head and pointing forward.

Hao shrugged "It's your funeral." and he launched all of his fireballs at once.

"Krumphau!" Xephon's arm moved in blurs moving left to right to left again, cutting most of the molten orbs. But there were too many and eventually he was thrown backwards by the force of the fireballs.

Hao smiled as he saw the shaman lying on the floor unconscious, he was about to order the SOF to pick him up when somehow Xephon struggled to his feet and raised his sword again.

Hao sighed, "Why don't you just give up? I've already told you you don't stand a chance. I've seen all your attacks before, they're not going to work against me so there's no point in you fighting, you've already lost."

When Xephon heard this he laughed cruelly, "You think you've seen everything I can do? Your not even close, you may be stronger than me but that doesn't make you invincible.... Hochste Kurzung....."

Xephon raised his sword strait into the air. From the blade's hilt Weiss grew up and out to the size were his wing grew out to at least the size of the SOF's arm. He then decended back into the sword were his wings grew to become a large black blade with the feathers turning into dagger like blades making two serrated edges.

"I've been working on a technique for someone just like you, it will destroy you."

Hao looked incredibly amused at this. "You really think so? Well than lets see this new attack of yours, tell you what I won't even move." as Hao finished speaking he raised both his arms leaving himself completely defenceless.

Xephon scowled and surged towards Hao his new blade raised.

"ZORNHAU!!!"

As Xephon said the word, he vanished and reappeared behind Hao.

"What the-"

Before Hao could finished his sentence, a sound resembleing a gun with a silencerwas heard and the ground under him split open as if something had cut it open. Afterwards, Hao's body started to turn black. When his entire body was completely covered, he seemed to explode outward into a tornado of black wind and feathers. The top of the tornado curved and bagan to take form as Weiss as he flew towards Xephon who had his blade out.

After Weiss re-connected to the sword, Xephon turned around to show his face was pale and he gasping for breath. He staggered forward and looked for Opacho, seeing him he slowly made his way over and held out his arm and at the same time panted "Give me my ring."

"No." Opacho replied in a defiant tone.

Xephon scowled as he looked at the young child in front of him, if that last attack hadn't completely wiped him out he wouldn't even have asked, he would have just knocked the kid out and taken it back, but at the moment he was having enough trouble just standing up.

"You heard your master, he said that if I beat him you were to give me my ring." Xephon panted angrily.

Opacho laughed at this and then told Xephon "Stranger is much mistaken if he believes that pitiful attack defeated master Hao."

"Quite right Opacho." said a sinister voice right behind Xephon, before he could turn round he was struck in back and was sent flying through the air before crashing back down to earth. He got up slowly using his weapon for support; he was having problems breathing now, his breathing was raspy and came in short bursts, he started coughing and saw that he was coughing up blood, that meant that at least one of his ribs had pierced his lungs. Haru managed to turn round and saw Hao walking towards him with a frown on his face, there was a single but long cut on his chest which was bleeding freely, apart from that the boy seemed unharmed.

"But I will hand it to you, that attack was something. You surrounded the real blade with your oversoul in the shape of another blade. With your speed you wounded me physically and then your oversoul blade attacked my spirit and infested it. Your spirit ally attacked my spirit directly, then spread out from my body with the furyoku you used to make it to kill my body. Very clever."

Xephon looked wide eyes at Hao.

"Thats some spirit you have, and your skills in german fencing are well beyond average. But you should really learn to stay down." Hao told Xephon darkly and he snapped his fingers. A large shadow appeared behind Xephon and he looked up to see the SOF towering over him. The last thing Xephon saw was it's giant fist hurtling towards him.

Alber-Fool's Guard

Scheitelhau-Scalp Cut

Ochs-Ox

Krumphau-Crooked Cut

Hochste Kurzung-Master Cut

Zornhau-Wrath Cut

Sie waren hier nie gefragt Zahara-You were never needed here Zahara.