Chapter 21

In the previous chapter…

'Hao-sama!' Opacho hopped towards his master. Hao smiled at his faithful companion.

Suddenly, he felt as if his head was a little bit wet. He touched his forehead and saw blood. He heard someone calling out for his name before unconsciousness had decided to claim him.

The next day…

'Aniki! Help me!' Yoh cried as stream of tears ran down his cheek.

'As if I can!' Hao retorted.

'Yoh-dono…' Amidamaru was crying as well.

'Onii-chan, faster!' Pilica yelled desperately.

'Yoh, faster!' Anna yelled.

'I'm starving!' Yoh announced loudly.

'Me too!' Horohoro said.

'WHAT?!' Pilica and the Itako fumed. The two boys cringed in fear.

'They said they were TRYING!' Hao said to defend for his younger brother. The two girl's anger went down.

Yoh and his friends were at the garden doing their usual training. However, Anna had forced Hao to practice as well for god-knows-what reason. They have been running for a few hours before doing their push-ups. Lyserg and Chocolove had decided to train as well and they were now fighting against Lyserg's father. The patch tribe merely watched them train and they were surprised that Anna actually managed to coerce Hao to go and train out of his own will. As soon as Hao had regained his consciousness, Anna had forcefully dragged him to the garden with her beads. Despite Hao's pretty bad condition, she was having a very difficult time pulling the pyro shaman.

Finally, she sought for help and the Patch official all decided to lend a hand (because they don't want Anna to slap them) and had pulled him with a lot of difficulties although they managed to pull him out of the garden in the end. However, as soon as they released their hands from the beads, Hao immediately ran away and Anna had to chase him all around the house again. Finally, she managed to stop him from running by using Opacho as the bait. The plan had worked and Hao was now doing push-ups together with Yoh. He had finished the Itako's training with ease and hadn't even break a sweat. Not to mention he had been training for hours already.

'Hao, I want you to run 50 laps around this house in one hour NOW!' Anna suddenly said and Hao obliged.

'Onii-chan! Run 100 laps around this house in one hour NOW!' Pilica yelled at his brother.

'PILICA ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?! I'M NOT HAO!'

'GO NOW!' Pilica yelled more loudly this time.

Yoh and Ren stared at him with an apologetic look while Lyserg and Chocolove shook their head. Horohoro stood up and ran past the direction that Hao had just gone. Stream of tears ran down his cheeks.

'Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!' Ryu exclaimed in frustration.

He had been training for hours as well but his was more difficult as he had not trained at all yesterday. Faust was also losing his sanity as his training was doubled as well. He was laughing maniacally as he continued training. Those who were watching them had felt sympathy but they had not said it aloud as they couldn't win against Anna's legendary left hand slap. That morning, one of the member's of X-Law's had made a mistake by saying that Anna's training was torture and up till now, he had not regained his consciousness…

'Sigh…you can take a break from here.' Anna suddenly said after watching them train in frustration for so long.

Yoh fell on the floor and Ryu collapsed in exhaustion. Faust was back to normal and he fell silent.

'I'll continue training you three after Hao returned from his run.' Anna said.

Yoh swallowed his nervousness. He had a bad feeling about this…

'A-A-Anna, isn't it a little too far to make him train this much. I mean…he hadn't rested since he started training…' Yoh said nervously.

'He'll be fine. He's not like you.' Anna said bluntly and Yoh gave him a wounded look.

'An opponent like him is definitely worth to be trained with Yoh.' Ren said as he smirked. Anna wore a smug expression on her face.

'You won't be able to train with him though Ren, he'll be training with Yoh for the whole afternoon.' the Itako said.

'WHAT?!' Ren yelled.

Just then, Hao had arrived and ran pass them as if they hadn't existed. Yoh's eyes widened. He had finished running 1 lap in not more than 5 minutes?! What the heck?!

'I'm done.' Hao said.

'You're late by 15 seconds.' Anna said.

'Nope, in fact, I finished this in 59 minutes 15 seconds.' Hao shot back.

'WHAT?!' the others who were present exclaimed in unison.

'What made you think that way?' the itako asked.

'You have a stopwatch you can refer...' Hao said sarcastically and turned to the spirits of Funbari Onsen.

'Hmph. Fine. Now fight with Yoh.'

'Huh?!'

'Fight with Yoh. You can use your katana very well right?' Anna said and threw his katana at him.

'Fine.' He said as he caught his katana.

'Are you alright Yoh?' Hao asked. Yoh was trembling terribly.

'I-I-I'm fine.' Yoh stuttered. Hao sighed when he read his mind.

'I won't eat your soul like last time Yoh…'

'NO! DON'T EAT ME!' Yoh cried out as he dropped Harusame placed both of his hands around his abdomen.

'Sigh…this is going to be a long day…'

Clash!

Another Yoh appeared and attacked Hao from behind. Yoh's eyes widened as Hao dodged his attack without an oversoul. The other Yoh turned into Imari and the shadow of Yoh turned into Shigaraki. (They were Mikihisa's guardian ghost.)

'You know, playing tricks isn't nice Yoh.' Hao said as Yoh evaded one of his attack.

Hao ran towards Yoh and disappeared into thin air. Yoh looked at every direction for his brother. Suddenly, Hao reappeared behind him. He couldn't dodge his attack in time so he closed his eyes and braced himself for the attack. He reopened his eyes when he hadn't felt any pain. Ren had dodged his brother's attack.

'Ren!'

'You think I'm gonna let you fight him alone?' he said.

'Nipopo Punch!' Horohoro exclaimed and attacked Hao with his oversoul.

'Chuuka Zanmai!' Ren attacked as well.

Both of the attack that was inflicted had produced a lot of smoke. Nonetheless, as soon as the smoke had disappeared, Hao appeared unharmed. Chocolove and Lyserg went towards the place where the battle is taking place.

'Mind if we join you?' Lyserg asked.

'Nope.' Yoh replied.

'Not at all.' Hao added.

All of them teamed up and went against Hao. Although he had not oversouled, he had fought all of them without a lot of difficulties and had managed to dissolve their oversoul a few times. Soon, some of the patch official and members of X-Laws had joined in as well. However, all of them had teamed up with Yoh to defeat Hao.

It has been 4 hours since the battle started yet it had not come to an end. Most of them who participated in the fight have passed out leaving only Hao, all five elemental warriors, Marco, and Silva. Yoh and the others gasped for air as they stared at Yoh's twin brother. He was also panting heavily as well after the long fight. The fight was intense but up till now they couldn't defeat him. It was surprising that he was able to defeat them without using an oversoul. Plus, he was getting more and more fired up as he fought through the battles. Yoh was glad that this was a mere training.

'Already done for?!' Hao said as tightened his grip on his katana.

'H-h-how can you still stand unharmed after so long?!' Yoh said as he gasped for air.

'Not to mention you have not used oversoul at all.' Lyserg added as he panted.

'You're like a fighting machine!' Horohoro yelled frustrated while gasping for air.

'That is correct.'

His words had surprised all of them. He didn't bother and he charged forward. Yoh and the others charged as well. Both attacks collided and they stood with their backs facing each other. After a while, Marco collapsed with a thud sound and fainted. Silva, Ren, and Horohoro ran out of furyoku and therefore, they were counted as lost. Now only Chocolove, Lyserg, and Yoh were left to defeat Hao.

'It's no use. He's too powerful.' Lyserg finally said.

'One more attack inflicted by him and we're all done for.' Chocolove said.

'I have an idea, though I'm not sure if it's going to work.'

'We don't have a choice Yoh. If we don't try, we'll still lose.' Lyserg said.

'Alright, here's the plan…'

They whispered among each other while Hao stood there waiting for them to attack.

'Are you going to stand there forever?!' Hao told them.

They stopped whispering and turned to Hao. They stood there as Yoh dissolved his oversoul.

'You think this will work Lyserg?' Chocolove asked.

'Whether it is going to work or not, we'll still lose so it's no harm trying.' Lyserg told his friend.

'Ready guys?' Yoh asked. The two boys nodded.

'Amidamaru! Spirit ball mode!' Yoh exclaimed.

His spirit immediately obeyed and switched into spirit ball mode.

'Hyoui Gattai!'

Yoh then charged forward and attacked his brother. Their swords clashed as Lyserg and Chocolove stood there with their oversoul prepared for god-knows-what reason. Hao try to read his younger brother's mind to find out what plan he was up to. It didn't take him long to find out what they were trying to do though…

Suddenly, Lyserg's pendulum appeared from behind and attacked Hao. Hao dodged the attack but Yoh immediately attacked him causing his grip on the katana to loosen. Then, Chocolove appeared and swing his claws at him. This time, his released his grip on the katana. He fell on the floor and ran to grab his katana but Yoh had managed to beat him to it. As soon as Yoh caught a hold of his brother's sword, the three immediately turned to Hao and they attacked him in unison. The attack collided and the whole field became covered in smoke. Then, the smoke began to disappear and the scene is slowly increasing in clarity.

Finally, everything had become clear and Hao stood there still unharmed. However, he was protected by a barrier that was made up of…water?! Yoh, Lyserg, and Chocolove was unharmed as well and but their furyoku was already used up and so, Hao had won the battle.

'In the end, we lost.' Yoh said and heaved a sigh.

'and I thought we finally made it.' Chocolove said.

'You didn't lose. I did.' Hao said.

The three turned to him. They gave him a questioning look.

'My furyoku was already out when I used that barrier to defend myself.'

There were silence and dropped jaws.

'WHAT?!' all of the shaman and non-shaman that had been there exclaimed in unison.

'I can't believe it, you actually ran out of furyoku just by building up a barrier?!' Yoh asked his brother.

'Yes.' Hao replied nonchalantly.

'But I thought your furyoku was--'

'1,250,000. I know.' Hao finished.

After the fight had taken place, Yoh and his friends had gathered together in one of the room together with Hao. The others went back to their respective rooms to rest before going for lunch.

'Then, how come--'

'My furyoku hasn't recovered fully since the tournament ended and I had already used up a big batch of it yesterday.'

'Oh…' Yoh lowered his head.

'Don't need to feel guilty about yesterday's incident Yoh.'

'Ya. It's not like anyone knows that's gonna happen.' Horohoro told his friend.

'I know. Still…the tournament….'

Hao suddenly caught Yoh's hand tightly. His sudden actions frightened him out of his wits. The others stared at the twins dumbfounded. Their minds were filled with different kinds of scenes. Hao then held his little brother's hand onto his chest.

'I'm still alive Yoh…why still bother things like that when I'm still here?' Hao said softly.

Yoh blinked and tried to conceal his tears that threatened to flow down his cheeks. He felt really guilty when he thought of that incident. The others stared at him with concern written all over their faces. Hao read his mind and finally understood how difficult it had been for Yoh to forcefully kill him. He sighed for a moment before releasing his grip on the younger boy's hand.

'Can all of you leave this room for a moment and come back later?' Hao asked. His tone was different from the one he usually used in which they instantly understood and left the room without another word.