Chapter 25

Disclaimer : I Don't own Shaman King!

Italic stands for thought / dreams

'Italic with single quote stands telepathic voice'

[Stands for voice from the past]

-Stands for telephone-

Underline stands for letter

"Quote stands for dialogue"

Bold stands for emphasis

Bold italic stands for a dangerous tone

"I have important announcement!" Yoh smirked when he saw Anatel yelling from the Generial's Palace balcony from the Live News, "Revolt attacked us last night, they killed our General of Golden Justicers, Marco, and kidnapped our Princess Jeanne!".

The crowded start whispering, maybe in Anatel's opinion it's because they thought that Revolt really do it, but since Yoh had made sure Lucifer do their job, he know better than that, they are whispering about how obvious Anatel's lie is.

"We have to destroy them and take back our Princess!" Anatel yelled again, "Please be kind enough to support us as best as you can, whether it's to join our force or give support in term of money to strengthen our weaponry, we will be grateful to you!".

Yoh turned off the television, he then turned to the members of Revolt, "Well, he certainly is stupid for only strengthen his force now, we will win this fight for sure." He said when they looked confused.

"So, Leaders, the video, it's all true?" One of the members asked.

"Yes." Hao answered them, "It turned out that our real enemy here is Anatel and Jeanne is only manipulated by him, as you all can see in the video caught by hidden camera of Meene the spy, Anatel was the one who killed Marco and shot Meene who escaping with Jeanne".

"Then, do you think we have to get Jeanne from them to show Generial people that Anatel is telling lies?" Another member asked.

"There's no need for it." Yoh answered, "We actually received the video last night, and during the meantime between we received the video and Anatel make his announcement, I get the help from Lucifer to spread the video to all of the people on this continent, whether is in Felinial, Variolle or Generial, they had received the video. So they all know already that Anatel is lying to them, but since I told them to stay quiet until we, Revolt, make our movement, they pretend to believed him".

"So, where do you think Jeanne-sama is?" Ryu asked from the crowd, he was once a guard in Generial, so he must still have respect for Jeanne.

"Well, as you know, Meene is still healing in our healing quarters, and you know that Jeanne was being manipulated by Anatel, so do you still want to destroy her?" Hao asked seriously.

They fell silent for a moment, then Keiko speak, "If she was manipulated, then we can at least give her a second chance once this all end".

Hao smiled, "And as you all know that I was once in her possession and treated very badly by her, but I agreed with you mom." He said, "You all know that she had done bad things due to being deceived by Anatel, do you all agreed to give her a second chance?".

The crowd yelling their agreement, if Hao, who is the most badly treated victim of her wanting to give her a second chance, then they have nothing to say against it.

"Alright!" Yoh yelled against the crowd, "Now that we have agreement to let Jeanne have a second chance," he started, "Jeanne, come out and do what you have to do!".

The room fell silent as the door opened to show Jeanne standing wearing Revolt's front attacker's uniform, she walked until she got in front of Hao and Yoh, she bowed deeply to them, "I, Jeanne of Generial sincerely apologize for what I had done wrong to you all, and I will try to help Revolt as best as I can." She said sincerely, "Once I get back to Generial I will take back the order to enslaved Windies and Espers so that those who are still loyal to me will accept the new country that Revolt will formed later on, and I will make sure that Generial will rebuild Aerial perfectly like before we attacked long ago".

"As you can see from her uniform," Yoh stated in command as Jeanne straightened her back and facing the crowd, "Jeanne will be one of the front attackers".

"Can she fight?" Anna and Ren asked to the point.

"About that, we haven't seen by ourselves so I want some of you to come here to fight her to see her level." Hao answered, then Anna smirked, she come forward immediately, "Anna is specialized in using gun, we can see now how good Jeanne is using gun".

Yoh took out four paint gun from his pocket, "It will be troublesome if we use real gun, so use this to see how good she is, Anna is double gun user for short distance combat and Jeanne said that she is too using double gun so this is perfect." He said as he handed the two girls each two guns, "Anna, you will be the judge".

Hao and Yoh stepped back as Anna and Jeanne take a quite distant from each other, "We start at three count, three, two, one!" Hao exclaimed.

In a flash, Anna shot her guns, aiming at Jeanne's heart for 'instant kill' in real fight, but since paint gun is dangerous if used over shoulders, neck and above are off limits. Jeanne showed a surprisingly high speed and avoiding Anna's paint bullet and shot her own gun at Anna's arm direction.

Anna smirk again and dodge the bullet, they still using one gun, not both yet. The match then went on, the stage on the gathering hall, the one used for gathering people before the raid, covered in paints. Jeanne haven't used her Shadow element since Yoh had told her that the power of element only can be used on emergency and at the final battle only, 'Save your best weapon for last,' he said and, 'Deceive your allies to deceive your enemy'.

The match last for an half hour before Jeanne and Anna both get shot at their chests at the same time, "The result is?" Yoh asked as they pants for air.

"Surprisingly she is on my level, Leader, she is an A class fighter, both her skill and physical ability is high enough to match mine." Anna said in professional way, "It seems like we got a new great fighter in our group".

Yoh smiled, "Yes." He agreed, "Jeanne, how good is Anatel in fight?".

"Surprisingly really weak, a F class fighter, I can take care of him myself." Jeanne answered deadpanned, "But Golden Justicers originally formed by my Father in purpose of protecting me and our country, they are skilled fighter, the lowest is B class, not to mention that Anatel is our greatest strategist."

Yoh smirked, "But if you are our front attacker, then the Justicers will be fall back and we can will easily." He said confidently but confused when Jeanne shook her head.

"Anatel hide it very well but I witnessed his power myself coincidentally." Jeanne said seriously, "He is actually a level 2 Esper, but his power is none of the usual, he holds Kotodama, a power to use his words to make people listen to him." she explained as she facing the crowd, "If it's people that not meet with him continually, they won't be effected by his words since he is only Level 2, but Golden Justicers are always around him so it's highly possible that they all get effected by his words and they will kill even me if Anatel ordered them using his Kotodama".

Yoh touched his chin in thought, "I see, Lilirara." He called, "I called a meeting at 2 this afternoon, we will attacked in a week, please think of the best strategy to attack him." Lilirara nodded so he turned to Jeanne, "Jeanne, I need you to tell Lilirara, The Generals and Second in Commands about the base layout as best as you can so we can think of the best strategy to attack, I already know the layouts so you only need to tell them".

"No, you don't." Jeanne answered seriously, Yoh raised an eyebrow at that, "There are more about our base, the place where I placed Hao before is in underground and seemed to be the lowest, but there are more underground and hidden passage ways which will be used by Rulers of Generial if we ever get under attack." She then thought of something, "Do you have our bases location?" she asked.

Yoh nodded at Pirika, who nodded back and walked to on of the selves to get the printout of the Generial's base location, she unroll the printout and pasted it on the board behind Yoh.

Jeanne whistle out of the blue, "My, what kind of intelligent network you used to get this much information of us?" she asked with a shook of her head as she walked to the board, she then take a look at the bases and pointed a point near the Central base, "If you wanted to attacked the Central Base, make sure you attack this place first, there is an ordinary house looking here, on the ground level this is only normal empty building, but on the underground level is where we placed our weaponry, the best you can do to fight is get the advanced guns, the swords and lances from this secret base." She told him still in serious mode, "The weapon we used normally are nothing compared to the ones we keep here, the weapons like swords, guns and lances are all made from a special metal called Orihalcon, they are stronger than normal metal".

"I see, if we get our hand in those weapons, we have the advantage in this war." Hao commented, "But if that's the case, why in the world did Anatel wanted to get support financially to strengthen his fighting force?".

Jeanne looking away, "Because even if that cousin of mine is our country greatest strategist, ironically, he is also our country stupidest Ruler." She said in shame, "Even if he has told so many times by our deceased grandfather 6 years ago that we have that advantage in times of war, he never remember it, even when now that my Father is away to another continent for making peace treaty purpose and learning their culture, the real reason why I was the one given control is not because I'm in the bloodline and he is not, but because he is so stupid, he is great at making strategy but very stupid in Ruling a country".

Anna, Yoh and Hao looked at Jeanne, they blinked a few times before laughing very hard, joined by the others who near enough to hear Jeanne's words. Jeanne hid her reddened face in her palms, she was very embarrassed by revealing that information.

"Okay." Yoh said after he can control his laughter, "So he is really that stupid?".

Jeanne nodded, "He even didn't know our secret passage ways, what a downfall, but it's makes a great advantage for Revolt if we want to attacked him inside the Central base." She admitted.

"But really." Anna commented, "I'm a bit confused hearing you saying Generial as 'our country' here, joining us meaning you are currently not a part of Generial".

"That's right, do you realized just how confusing your words are in our ears when you told us that?" Ren added with a smirk, "It seems like you are still unused by being outside your safe Palace".

"That's not it." Yoh argued, "From the beginning her words are confusing, it's her way of choosing words that making people confused when they talked to her." He explained, "The first month I know her, I always having headache when talking to her".

Jeanne blushed even more hearing them, "Well, at least we can see your clumsy side now." Hao said to her, "Usually we only see your arrogant side".

Jeanne looked up, "It's all a facade, my real self is clumsy little girl who fall for a boy that saved her once, in the face of public and in my Father absent, I need to pull a mask that make me look confident and strict, in my enemy's eyes, it's arrogant and ruthless, it's Generial's Royal way of Ruling." She explained in embarrassment, "The Royal Family can only show our real self in our family only, in public, we all wearing a mask of Ruler".

Yoh chuckled, "Seeing the you like this, it's hard to not forget your past mistakes." He said, "Well, this is your second chance, do your best to defeat your cousin and return the freedom of those you had been wronged all this time".

Jeanne looked serious again, "I sure will, I won't fall to his trick again." She promised with determined eyes, "Oh." She took out something from his bag, "It's fortunate that I taken this with me when I escaped with Meene, here." She handed a memory card to Yoh, "Inside is all the information on Generial database, I always bring them to me in case I went to somewhere and need them".

Yoh accepted the memory card and doing something that make Jeanne take a step back because it's the first time she ever see Yoh wearing his predatory smile, but everyone else already used to the fact that Yoh sometimes wearing that smile when he get what he want.

"Scary." Jeanne commented softly, then blushed, "But very cool." Yoh doing comical expression by falling over while the others laughed again.

To be continued . . .

Froim : (Panting) Please review (Running again)