SailorStar9: After getting Chapter 18 out, this is Chapter 19 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?
Pairings: Tao Ren/Fem!OC, Yoh/Anna
Disclaimers: I own absolutely nothing, except this plot and pairing.
Chapter 19: The Dead Spirit of Tao
The next day...
"Looks like it'd be better if we went and get some lunch first." Jun remarked, waiting outside the spiritual artifacts store with Pai Long for Hui Ling to get her purchases.
"You're right." Pai Long agreed.
"So, I was right about the killing intent yesterday." Hui Ling noted, with an addition pouch of glyph runestones attached to her hip. "We'll need an open space for this and I know just where." with that, she led Jun and Pai Long off, leaving Soumei and Kyou to follow them.
On a wide plateau that doubled as Hui Ling's training grounds...
"There are two of them." Jun warned. "Be careful."
"Stand back, Tao Jun." Pai Long cautioned. "If you have something to say, let's here it." he shouted. "Kids?" he gaped when Soumei and Kyou jumped in front of him.
"You're members of the Tao Family, right?" Soumei demanded. "Gurai!" she summoned her Guardian Spirit from underground.
"Jackie!" Kyou followed suit.
"Jiang Shi?" Jun gasped.
"No," Pai Long corrected. "It seems like they're using Jiang Shi as mediums for their Oversouls."
"We won't forgive the Tao Family." Soumei swore and sent the two Guardian Spirits to attack the trio.
"World of Trees Wall!" Hui Ling acted, summoning huge interlocking wooden brunches from the ground to form a net-like wall for fend off the two Guardian Spirits' attacks. "Bakudō #30: Shitotsu Sansen!" her next binding spell pinned Jackie, who had leapt over the wall, against the stone cliff using three board stripes of light claws. "Bakudō #63: Sajō Sabaku!" Gurai was caught by the thick energy chain in midair and forced to the ground. "Who are you kids?" she released her root wall and looked at the two siblings.
"The Tao Family betrayed us." Soumei accused. "I'm gonna get revenge on them. Everyone in the Tao Family should just die."
"Hadō #54: Haien!" Hui Ling's purple flame blast took out the still bound Jackie. "Sprinkled on the bones of the beast!" she started her incantation. "Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring. Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm. The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle! Hadō #63: Raikōhō!" she blasted Gurai with a powerful lightning blast from her open palm.
"I see you have things taken care of, Hui." Ren smirked.
"Tao Ren!" Soumei and Kyou glared.
"I'll send to you hell as well." Soumei declared.
"Do you guys know what you're doing?" Ren demanded.
"Now, hold on, Ren." Yoh chided.
"You stay out of this." Ren retorted.
"Why are you two so angry, anyway?" Yoh asked.
"Listen to other people!" Ren snapped.
"What's wrong, Ren?" Yoh chided. "We should at least listen to their reasons, right?"
"That doesn't matter!" Ren barked.
"Bakudō #9: Geki!" already knowing Soumei and Kyou were too frustrated to listen to reason, Hui Ling's next binding spell paralyzed the two siblings.
"Enough!" Ginny cut in.
"Ginny..." Jun gasped.
"Nee-chan." both Soumei and Kyou returned to their sisters' side after Hui Ling's spell was released.
"Nee-chan?" Ren echoed.
"Wait a minute." Yoh voiced. "Why are they hostile towards the members of the Tao Family, then?"
"We have nothing to do with the Tao Family anymore." Ginny fired back. "We were betrayed. We lived to get everything we had to the restoration of the Tao Family. However, the Tao Family got confused. They broke their fangs fighting each other and threw away their pride. All because of you, Tao Ren! Even though you were the successor of the Family, because you renounced your responsibilities, everything we did was... we abandoned ourselves... lived in the shadows... everything we risked our lives for... everything! Thanks to your betrayal, it all became meaningless. I will never forgive you."
"Because of you," Soumei started. "My sister hasn't had a boyfriend in twenty-eight years!"
"It's too late for anything, even if she were to get married tomorrow." Kyou wept.
"No..." Ginny muttered.
"Give our big sister her youth back!" Soumei and Kyou demanded.
"Hit a sore spot, huh?" Hui Ling muttered, seeing Ginny's embarrassed face.
"We're in no hurry to finish them, since they're our next opponents." Ginny told her younger siblings.
"I'm getting something here." Chocolove checked his Oracle Bell. "Match opponent: Team Noroshi?"
"We are..." Soumei posed.
"Noroshi!" Kyou announced.
"The match is tomorrow" Ginny reminded. "I'm looking forward to it: since I entered this tournament for this moment. I'll expose you in front of everyone. You're pretty quiet." she snorted, receiving no response from Ren. "Are you feeling a slight sense of guilt?"
"I don't care about your grudge or anything." Ren snorted. "You're the one who will be defeated."
"How dare you speak to me like that?" Ginny glared.
Later that night...
"Young Master..." Bason voiced, Ren was standing on a nearby cliff.
"The stars will guide me." Ren assured. "No matter who my opponent is, I will win. I might overdo it a little tomorrow, prepare yourself."
"Young Mistress..." Bason turned, seeing Hui Ling walk up to the pair.
"Hui..." Ren started.
"You've already decided, haven't you?" Hui Ling took her place beside him.
"You already knew, then." Ren returned.
"Pretty much." Hui Ling admitted. "I already know I won't be able to stop you. Just..." she reached out and brushed a lock of hair from his forehead. "Don't overdo it too much tomorrow."
"Yeah, I promise." Ren took her outstretched hand to pull her close and kissed her.
The next day...
"Hey, Ren..." Horo Horo started, he and Chocolove had refrained from teasing the younger Shaman too much after Ren had returned back to their room late the previous night.
"You guys just need to watch." Ren stood firm, fastening the Bâo-Lèi Sword to his belt.
"Won't it be hard for you?" Chocolove protested. "I don't know the specific details, but what they say seems to be true."
"Nonsense." Ren snorted. "We're going."
In the desert battlefield...
"We will now hold the fight between Team Noroshi and Team the Ren." Kalim announced. "Time limit is infinite. You will lose when everyone on your team can no longer use their Oversouls."
"You two just stay over there." Ren stepped forward for the fight.
"He's right." Soumei agreed. "We only have business with him."
"This is good for you guys." Ren snorted. "The only spectators are people we know. This way, you guys won't get too embarrassed."
"You're just a traitor." Soumei glared.
"No, it seems that's not it." Ginny corrected. "He's such a cold-hearted person, he doesn't even realize he's betrayed us. To think that we entrusted him with our future, we were fools."
"Hurry up and start the match." Ren told Kalim.
"Ready, fight!" Kalim started the fight.
"What's that Ren thinking?" Ryu wondered, seeing Ren take on Yugai, Gurai and Jackie's attacks without retaliating. "He's only defending himself."
"Young Master!" Bason gasped, Ren was letting the three Jiang Shi's attacks rain on him.
"Be quiet." Ren scolded.
"But, at this rate..." Bason protested.
"This is all I can do." Ren argued. "In m current state, this is it."
"So, that's why you're..." Bason realized what Ren was thinking. "Then it's my, Bason's job to protect you." manifesting his 'Big Oversoul' form, he blocked out the attacks.
"I'm sorry." Ren whispered. "Bason."
"He's tough, but..." Soumei noted, Ren was still standing after the explosion that erupted after their attacks converged on Ren.
"It's only a matter of time." Kyou hissed.
"Step back." Ginny took the stage. "Why won't you attack?" she asked. "Are you giving your life to atone for you sins?"
"Don't talk nonsense." Ren retorted. "I'm going to become Shaman King. There's no way I'm going to die in a place like this."
"Then, why?" Ginny questioned.
"If you have time to talk nonsense, then come at me with all you've got already." Ren ordered. "I'll take it all."
"'I'll take it all'?" Ginny echoed and gasped when she saw Ren drop his guan dao and stretched out both arms. "Don't mock me!" she snapped, summoning Yugai.
"Is Ren going to lose on purpose?" Chocolove asked, worriedly as he and Horo Horo saw Ren take on Yugai's relentless attack head-on.
"Ren is taking all the pain in his opponent's heart with his body." Yoh explained. "Isn't that the best way he can take responsibility right now?"
"I..." Ren got back to his feet. "Must not lose."
"What?" Ginny demanded. "What can you do? You've even forgotten the pride of the Tao Family."
"To break the chain of hatred." Ren swore. "I swore that to myself, but I didn't think it was me who planted the hatred in you. I'm sorry. Right now, in my current condition, I don't know how to heal your bitterness. Wait until I become Shaman King. Then, I'll take my time and think about it."
"Stop making things so convenient for yourself." Soumei retorted. "That's..." she gasped when Ren brought out the Bâo-Lèi Sword.
"The treasured sword passed down from one generation to the next in the Tao Family." Ren raised the sword. "I swear upon this sword."
"He swore upon the pride of the Tao Family..." Ginny whispered. "Then, i''ll finish you off for real. Come, Tao Ren!" she summoned Yugai.
"That's fine with me." Ren accepted the challenge. "Let's go, Bason." he summoned Bason to the field.
"Our leader is pretty good in his own way." Horo Horo remarked, as he and Chocolove watched Bason pummel Yugai.
"You're right." Chocolove agreed.
"The fight isn't over yet." Ginny declared.
"Even though we all know what the outcome with me." Ren fired back.
"The winner, Team the Ren!" Kalim announced, after Bason took out Yugai after one final clash.
"Polish your Spirit of Sword." Ren instructed as he walked back to the group.
"Yeah, you don't have to tell me." Yoh answered.
"Idiot." Hui Ling chided, catching the barely conscious Ren before he fell over. "Then again, you won't be you if you weren't so stubborn-headed. It'll be so troublesome after we're married."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.