Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King.

A/N: You must have finished the manga before continuing. May contain spoilers. You've been warned =p


Chapter 12

The Ren Team were sitting by Rue's bed. They immediately came to her once they found out she fainted in the forest.

"We shouldn't have let her out," Horohoro grumbled. He looked menacingly at Chocolove.

He was the one who forced us out, Ren agreed, but he sat unmoving from his spot – intently staring at Rue. He flinched when her eyes suddenly flew open.

"Rue!" Horohoro shouted, but was immediately slapped by Ren.

"Too loud," Ren said simply.

Horohoro did not have time to retaliate because Rue suddenly sat up.

Chocolove was at her side in an instant, offering a bowl of soup, "Rue, please eat. Faust said you passed out of hunger."

She silently took the bowl and asked, "Water?"

Ren and Horohoro whipped their heads at Chocolove.

I know! He screamed inwardly and ran outside to get water. I couldn't get the water because both my hands held the soup. None of them helped, either, he thought.

While Rue ate the soup, the other two silently watched – unsure of how to break the silence.

How to say it, Horohoro debated in his mind, Chocolove, she'll just ignore, Ren would just come out angry and commanding, and me, she'll probably hit. He cringed, already imagining the pain.

Hmm, convincing stubborn people, was Ren's line of thought at the moment.

But Rue decided to talk first, "Where's Yoh?"

"What?" Ren's left eyebrow twitched in annoyance. She's talking as if nothing happened!

"Ah, Ren!" Horohoro tried to appease Ren as he answered, "Rue, he's just outside."

"Oh," she answered, seemingly not affected by the growing tension in the room. She was about to stand up, but was pushed back to the bed.

It was Ren. "I'll call him," he said, irritation barely concealed in his tone.

He turned around to face Horohoro, "Stay, until he arrives," and with that he left the two.

Horohoro turned around to an innocently smiling Rue.

"He's fun to mess with."

Horohoro's note on the Asakura Family: Warning, you might lose your mind.


Yoh lazily slumped on the ground thinking about the Shaman Fight. Today Opacho came to tell him to rejoin.

Although it was something he really wanted, he could not overlook the agreement he made with the X-Laws. What they do may not be acceptable for him, but a promise is a promise. Though Anna has given him support in all of this – even picking up his oracle bell for him – he still needed to clear up some issues, like how to convince the X-Laws.

He was contemplating when a shadow loomed over his head.

"You're in a bad mood," Yoh noted.

"She's awake, and looking for you," Ren stated and walked away.

Rue, what did you do now? Yoh sighed at the thought; I guess at least she's back to before.

He slowly stood up and, with his hands on his pockets, walked back to the inn.


"Yoh, I saw my mother." Rue said after a few minutes of silence between them.

Horohoro, dragging Chocolove with him, immediately left mumbling something about Ren, as soon as Yoh arrived. But Yoh remained silent even after he sat beside Rue.

"So you really went in the Great Spirit," he replied.

"Yeah – I realized, I had come to terms with my pain. And I have you to thank for that," she said still not looking at him.

Yoh smiled and said, "you don't owe me anything."

"Yoh," she said seriously, now looking straight at him, "it's my turn to fulfill my end of the deal."

"We didn't have a deal."

"There is, for me."

She was about to continue, but Yoh stopped her by holding her hand, "Rue, it's enough that I know you've been living happily. I made a promise not for you to help me become the Shaman King, but because I know you deserved it."

"Yoh, I know," she sighed, "but let me do this because I want to help you succeed."

With a defeated sigh, he sat back to his chair, "so, I guess, you've heard about Opacho."

"If you mean about you coming back to the games, then, yes, I"ve heard about it from someone."

Yoh noted the emphasis at the end, but decided to let it pass, "anyway, just don't overexert your body, okay?" he patted her head in defeat, she gets so stubborn, at times.

She nodded happily.

"And stop teasing Ren all the time."

This time, Rue pouted as she looked away, "but he's fun to mess with."

He chuckled at her expression as he stood up, "I'm going to talk with the X-laws tomorrow morning."

X-Laws, alarms went off Rue's head, she leaned in to pull at Yoh's left hand, "can I come with you?"

He gently shook his head, "let me do this alone. Besides, you need to rest."

I can't win, she thought, "be careful, Yoh!" she said before releasing her hold on him. Good luck.


"What is she doing here?!" Horohoro shouted, pointing at Opacho.

"Opacho is waiting for someone," she answered calmly.

"Horohoro, don't get distracted. This is serious, we need to get stronger." Ren reprimanded.

"But, why does this little kid need to wait here?"

"Because she will be here soon. I want to meet her." The kid answered before sticking her tongue out to Horohoro.

"Hey, who do you mean?" Chocolove interrupted.

Just then, someone opened the door. "I knew you were training the moment I realized you weren't in the inn."

Everybody stopped and turned to look at the source of the voice.

Horohoro was the first to shout, "Rue!"

She didn't answer because she noticed the other shaman in the room. "Opacho?"

"Rue-sama. Hello!" she raised her hand in greeting, "how was your talk with Master Hao?"

"Uh, erm, fine – h-how did you know?" she said, obviously shocked.

"Because Opacho knows!" she answered energetically and bowed her head, "nice meeting you!" She left the house after that.

"Whaat?!" the three chorused, as they stood up angrily.

"Oh, right. Wait, wait calm down!" she lifted up her hands to calm her companions.

"Talk with Hao?" Horohoro shouted.

"Uhm – I went to see him," she said matter-of-factly.

Ren face-palmed.

Horohoro slammed his fist on the floor from where they were sitting, "Why?!"

"Rue," Chocolove cut in, unsure, "but he was the one who attacked you just the other day. The last thing you should do is come see him."

"Chocolove," she calmly said as she folded her arms across her chest, "don't you think killing in his terms is to burn the body and eat the soul? He wouldn't leave any chance for revival."

"So why did you go to him?" Ren asked.

She sat up straight as she answered, "I wanted to make sure of things."

"What?"

"Uhm," she looked away, "that's a little hard to explain."

They were about to complain, but she held out her hand.

"Why don't we start with this one?" she smiled as Pascal Avaf appeared beside her.

"Welcome back." He greeted.

"Ah! Hehe," she scratched her head, "Thank you. I'm back!"

She turned back to her stunned friends.

"Pascal Avaf and our side of the Asakura family, erm," she stopped, thinking about something, "you can call him a family friend." She said with a grin.

"I teamed with the Asakuras in the fight against Hao a thousand years ago."

"That's right!" Rue agreed.

"Just how much influence did your family have?" Horohoro demanded.

"At that time, the Asakura was only a gathering of shamans with Hao as their leader – making it a famous name during that era."

Pascal Avaf added, "it was unfortunate for Hao that the Asakuras united against him. Even if he was the strongest shaman of that time, he had no chance against that many numbers of skilled shamans."

"Counting also those shamans, like Pascal Avaf, who was not part of the Asakura clan, but still vowed to fight against Hao. For Avaf-san, he did even after his death," Rue said continuing the story.

"Wait, why didn't you tell us before?" Horohoro asked

"Yes, why didn't you sensei?" Chocolove added.

"That is – I only learned it recently as well." Rue answered, scratching her cheek.

"What a complicated family," Horohoro commented.

"Anyway, we believe that after a thousand years since that legendary fight between Hao and the Asakuras, this fight, right now, would be our chance to end Hao's malicious intentions." Pascal Avaf continued.

"Why would you think that?"

Rue just smiled.

"We will continue after your fight, when everybody's there." Pascal Avaf answered.

"Wha – why?"

"One step at a time, Horohoro," Rue said as she placed her hand on his shoulder, "Pascal Avaf, I'm taking this one!" she said pointing to Horohoro.

"I don't mind at all. I can focus on this two, now."

"Great! Horohoro you're with me now."

"Wait, right now?!" he said, shocked, he then turned to his teammates, "Guys, help me!"

"Idiot." Ren retorted.

"He-he, man, if you plead some more, I think Ren may want to trade places with you." Chocolove said with a smirk.

Chocolove was then thrown to the wall.

"Energetic fools. Horohoro, let's go!"

"H-hai!"

With that, the two disappeared into the forest.


"Alright, look, I brought you lunch since we'll probably be staying here long."

"Waa! Rue, food!" he was surprised to see the lunchbox she brought was sealed with a lock.

"Oh, this is part of your training. I have the key to this lunch box. You just have to get it."

"I have to battle you?"

"No, moron. I'm teaching you patience, so I need a different strategy for that."

"Okay," he uncertainly agreed.

Rue summoned Irkosu and casted an oversoul on her rings. She created a ball of fire as big as her fists.

"What's that?"

"That would be your training. Do you see these four old trees?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to set them up as the boundaries of your stage. You just have to go to it one by one and touch it. Make no mistake, touch it before moving on to the other. Also, you wouldn't be able to change the direction of your path once you've started."

"What happens if I don't do as you said?"

"The game restarts."

"Restarts?"

"Everytime you touch a tree, one of these," she gestured to the fire ball, "will come out. The 50th fireball to come out will contain your key. You have to get that. Be careful not to touch the other fireballs after you've started, or the game will restart – meaning you'll be back to a field with zero fireballs and repeat the process until you reach the 50th."

"Okay, so get the 50th fire ball, so I can eat?"

"Yes, but remember…"

"Yeh, yeh. Don't get hit by the fireballs, touch the trees in order."

"Yup. Now that you're all briefed and stuff. Let's start, the best way to teach you the rules is by doing the actual activity," she commented energetically.

"So this develops my patience, huh." Horohoro said as he went to the center of the field.

"All set up, start when you're ready. And, Oh, Horohoro, you don't know how a little patience saves you in this game."

"Huh?" He asked confused, but started, anyway.

He was at his 30th fireball when he noticed that some balls seemed to have faster speed than the others.

"Oh, I forgot, these fire balls have varying speeds. So continue carefully."

"What?! You tell me that now?" He shouted, which made one ball hit him on his right arm; he winced in pain, but the other fire balls disappeared at that instant.

"I told you, you need patience."

"Shut up! I was just distracted. Care to tell me other important stuff before I start?"

"Well, nothing comes to mind, right now. Maybe I'll remember something once you started again," she seemed to think about it.

"Rue," Horohoro said turning his back to her.

"What?" what's with the seriousness all of a sudden, Rue thought.

"Are you really okay?" she noted the concern in his voice.

She was not able to answer right away, thinking what he could mean, was it what happened the other day, or the talk with Hao? She smiled gratefully at him, nonetheless – though he couldn't see – "I'm really am alright, Horohoro. Thanks for worrying."

"Good." He started moving after that to continue his training.


The night before the match against Team Myooh, Ren slipped quietly outside the inn, but he saw Rue laid out on the grass with her eyes closed. He decided to sit a few steps behind her, from the looks of it, she might have fallen asleep there.

But she spoke, "What's wrong?" her eyes still closed.

"Why are you here?" he asked, not moving from his spot.

"I should ask you the same," Rue responded, "Are you anxious about the fight tomorrow?" this time she opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him.

"I'm anxious about a lot of things." Ren said not bothering to look at her, "you look exhausted."

Rue decided to sit up, her back facing Ren, "I didn't think training Horohoro on patience would be that much of a challenge. I sometimes believe, he'd rather die of hunger than be patient."

Ren did not respond, so Rue turned around to check on what's wrong. His head was down, so she couldn't see his face, "why don't you go rest now, Ren?" she asked too seriously.

Ren turned to face her, annoyance evident on his face. "Do you really want to know what's bothering me?" Ren almost shouted.

"Ren…" she tried to say calmly, but was cut off.

"Why won't you tell what happened – that fight with Hao, when you d-" Ren stopped to look away, "almost died, and then, your talk with Hao?"

"Ren, please…" she pleaded.

"Rue, tell me," he demanded.

She turned around and stood up, looking at him straight in the eyes, you stubborn brat.

He also stood up and held his ground, I won't budge, either.

"Tao Ren, go back to the inn, you have a fight tomorrow," she creased her forehead in frustration, it's not a request, realize it already.

"I can do what I want before that, it's my fight anyway," he answered defiantly, HA! Don't think calling out my name like that would defeat me.

Her balled fists twitched in irritation. She marched herself towards Ren, who was still determined to hold his ground. He steeled himself, ready for the slap to come, but it never did, instead he felt arms wrapping around him slowly.

"Thanks for worrying about me," she whispered suddenly, "after the fight tomorrow, I'll tell everything, so please," he felt his face heat up, "don't die, Ren."

He jumped at the sound of his name. He heaved a sigh as he slowly raised his arms to return the hug, "calling me by my name, don't go thinking that would make me follow what you want."

She chuckled before saying, "what, you'd actually prefer me calling you 'brat'?" she said as she hurriedly stepped back, "Good night, Ren," she grinned at him before walking away.

Blaming his loss for words and his racing heart, Ren looked back too late and found Rue already walking far away from him.

The day of the fight against Team Myooh, Yoh returns with the X-laws and Luchist. He has successfully reentered the shaman fight.

Horo-horo is looking dreamily at Maiden. Rue was serving the soup and poured it onto Horo-Horo, which also splashed onto Ren who was beside him. They both stood up and was about to shout at her. She looks at them pissed and said, "It slipped" with a scary dark voice. Both of them shrunk at her monstrous glare and apologized. Ren looks at Horo-Horo and orders him to clean up. Horo-Horo obediently does as told, while Rue returned to the kitchen muttering words.

"You look uneasy." Tamao commented when Rue came back to the kitchen.

"Tch."

"And irritable."

"Tamao, I'm not comfortable with them in here. Half of that room is our enemy." Rue said while she filled soup into bowls.

"Master Yoh said they're alright."

"He isn't always right, you know?" she said, more irritated.

"It's the maiden." Anna said from behind them, which surprised the two.

"What?" Rue asked, confused.

"That's bugging you."

She slumped her shoulders in defeat, nothing escapes Anna, after all "Call it intuition, but there's a feeling I can't settle when I see her," she said finally, "what are you doing here? You're not gonna help anyway." Directing her question at Anna.

"Come back in, Yoh's gonna say something." Anna said turning her back on the two.

After preparing everything, Rue quietly sat beside Chocolove. She cleverly anticipated Anna losing her temper at the various arguments and budding brawl and Yoh's inability to stop them all. She was able to dodge to a safe place by the wall and avoid the mess from Anna's attack.

Yoh announced that from Yohmei's divinations, he saw that Hao would win the shaman fight and become the shaman king. Of course, mostly everyone were surprised at this. Divinations are not that accurate or specific anyway, so how could they be sure. But logic would give away the answer, Hao had the most power in the competition, even without the divination, they should have realized this. So there should be no point in continuing the fight if the winner is so clear in their eyes, but the Asakuras, together with their new allies, has formed a plan to stop this.

"The last round of the shaman fight, Pascal Avaf will tell us about the terms and the setting of this fight."

Pascal Avaf materialized beside Chocolove and started to explain, "The venue would be this island, at the center of the forest, is a cave that leads to the underground. This is what they call the Throne of the King."

"I've heard rumors about that, but we've been back and forth in the island and found no cave, which seemed to be suspicious and all." Marco interrupted. Rue immediately glared at him. Marco, feeling the pressure of someone staring, turned around to see a pair of purple eyes on him. He readjusted his glasses to start a stare battle between them.

Yoh called Rue's attention to calm her, while Lyserg offered Marco some more tea.

With a sigh, Pascal Avaf continued, "That place only appears once in 500 years, and the shaman fight is then held every time it does. Furthermore, at the time when the entrance to the cave shows up, the 10 guardians – as their name suggests – sets up barriers around that place so as to preserve the area. At this point, only the chosen individuals are granted access to enter the forest within the guardian's domain."

"What will happen then?"

"The final round starts. Goldva, mediates and then, accompanies the winner to the throne of the king. This would be our last chance in stopping Hao. Once he gets in that cave, humanity will cease to exist."

An eerie silence overcame the room, as Pascal Avaf waited for their reaction.

"You might have guessed, but before this round ends, only four teams will advance to the finals," he continued, "these four teams are the only allowed individuals to enter this place."


Hello, hello!

As promised (although a bit late for some), here's the new chapter!

Re: last chapter

Hehehe...I was trying to split up the POVs during the start of the chapter (for that scene only, though). And there were those scenes that are jumbled in terms of order, which was intended, I guess I just wanted to emphasize the part that it was Hao who revived Rue (if it came out that way :p). And Rue's time in the great spirit would be coming out in a series of flashbacks scattered to different chapters :D

Still experimenting on things, so please bear with it. _

As always, I thank you so much for taking time to read this story and following the updates. I just feel so happy with all your support. XD

Luvya!