Pirika watched as Anna dragged her screaming brother away.

"Anna, have mercy! I just jogged around the whole Asakura compound backwards with a ten-pound weight on my leg! Please allow me to rest even for a short while!" yelled Horo Horo as his fingers clawed on the soil desperately.

"Join your friend Asakura in the forest right now," she said calmly. "He's doing vine exercises right now, and he told me that he wants company. You can't afford to make the shaman king lonely now, can you?"

"Let him be! Let him die in his loneliness! I promise to visit him in his funeral, just let me rest!" cried the servant.

"He'll be visiting your funeral if you don't behave," she threatened, glaring at him.

Horo Horo then noticed his little sister watching in the sidelines. "Pirika, have mercy on your big brother! Help me! Save me from this witch!"

She grinned. "Happy training! I know Ms. Anna can handle your trainings properly!" She still couldn't forget what the aloof itako told her some weeks ago.

"Your brother has the makings of a good fighter. You must be proud of him."

"In that case, if I don't survive and I can't return here anymore, promise me that you'll be a good girl!" Horo Horo was saying as he was being dragged away. "Take care of Kururu… and..and…remember to brush your teeth three times a day!"

"Bye!" said Pirika, waving at him. She used to be the one who drags her brother off like that, but ever since Anna came, she was relieved of that tedious job. Besides, Anna was pretty cool in her point of view, the way she never loses her cool and how she bosses the guys around, and gets away with it cleanly. She was the epitome of the girl that she wanted to be when she grows up. She couldn't wait till the day comes when she can order her brother around like that.

She then looked around. "I wonder where Kururu went. Did she and Master Oyamada elope or something?"

Her eyes widened when she heard a high-pitched scream coming from the front gates of the Asakura house. "Kururu!"

"Out of my way!" yelled Tao Ren as Kururu, shaking, blocked his way. He was doing an espionage on the house of the Asakura to find out how the skills of the heir to the shaman king title, Asakura Yoh, had improved since the day they heard from their spies that he was undergoing a special training under a certain Kyouyama Anna.

His overprotective sister, Tao Jun, forbade him to go to this place, but he still persisted to go. He was driven by the thought of defeating and shaming the future shaman king. This was his way of avenging the family Tao's honor, when an Asakura defeated a Tao centuries ago in getting the privilege to be bestowed the noble powers of a shaman king.

So even without the knowledge needed to make a successful spying on the family, he went on to the compound, relying on his impressive ability as a shaman in-training.

And now, this small shrimp would get in his way? He looked disdainfully at Kururu. "Pathetic." He picked it up while his other arm reached for the spear behind him. Weaklings must die, as the law of nature insists.

"Kururu!" cried a female voice. Startled, Ren quickly hid his spear and was about to escape had he only noticed a tree directly behind him. He slammed his face squarely on the trunk, making his head cloth drop down the ground.

"Hey, are you alright?" the voice asked.

He opened his eyes, and was stunned to see a worried face of a blue-haired girl peering down at him in concern.

"Why won't you talk? Are you mute?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips. She kneeled down directly in front of him, not taking her eyes off him.

Did she recognize me? Does she know that I'm an enemy? His heart was beating so quickly. Will she tell the others?

To his surprise, she reached out to touch the bump on his forehead. "You didn't see the tree behind you?"

His eyes widened upon feeling her feathery touch on his forehead. "D-Don't touch me!" he yelped.

"Wow, you can talk!" Her eyes twinkled. "I'm grateful that you found Kururu. I was looking for her all over the place! My name is Pirika. What's yours?"

"Get lost!" he snapped.

"Hmmm…nice meeting you, Mr. Lost. Or can I call you Get?"

He blinked. "N-No…it's Ren."

"You sure have a lot of names," she said, smiling sweetly. "I'll call you Ren then." She looked at the bump on his forehead again. "We better treat that." From her apron's pocket, she took out her handkerchief and a small jar of ointment.

"W-What are you planning to do?" he asked cautiously. "What are those for?" Will she poison me?

She showed her the jar. "Painkiller. I always have one handy, since my brother and Master Yoh are always training, and in the process, always injuring themselves." She took a fingerful of the ointment and rubbed it gently on his forehead. He winced, but when she smiled apologetically, strangely, he didn't feel the pain anymore.

 "So what are you doing here? Did you get lost?" asked Pirika when she finished treating his bruise.

He nodded slowly.

"I'll show you the way out of here then." Without warning, she reached out and grabbed his hand, then clasped it with hers. "This way, please."

He looked at her incredulously. Was she just toying with her, or she really does not know who he was?

He didn't know for sure. He found himself staring at his hand imprisoned by her creamy-skinned one. No, no one had held his hand like that before. It was only his sister, Jun, and at those times, he would reluctantly refuse her affection, just to maintain his reputation as unaffected and distant.

And now, this stranger was walking with him in the compound of his family's archenemy, talking to him as if they had known each other all their lives.

"There you go!" She showed him the welcome arc of the Asakura gates. "I hope you find your way home now."

Y-Yes."

"Good luck! Thanks again for finding Kururu for me!" she said as she waved goodbye to him happily. "Visit me again here, ok?"

He paused, then ran away.

"You two may rest for sixty seconds," Anna announced after four hours of Yoh and Horo Horo's vine jumping and vine swinging session. The two were about to sit down, but she glared at them. "You will rest standing."

"OK," agreed Yoh.

"Better than nothing," seconded Horo Horo wearily.

"Asakura-sensei has told me that I shall test how your performance has improved over the whole month that you had been training," she said, eyes on Yoh.  "I will now ask you two to spar, and I expect that you both give your best."

"But we're friends!" argued Horo Horo. "I won't hurt my Master Yoh! I mean, we had been friends ever since we were three years and four months old! We had shared our laughters and tears, our joys and pains, our triumphs and defeats-"

"I'll give you fifty more push-ups," said Anna under her heavy-lidded eyes.

"Well, there are times in life that a man must make sacrifices. This is one of those." Horo Horo patted the sweatdropping Yoh on the shoulder. "May the best man win."

"Amidamaru!" called Yoh. "Spirit ball mode!"

"Kururu!" called Horo Horo. "Spirit ball mode!"

Anna narrowed her eyes at the latter. "What do you think are you doing?"

Horo Horo blinked when he didn't see his main spirit. "W-Where's Kururu?"

His answer came when Pirika rushed towards the forest. "Onii-chan! I found Kururu already!"

He slapped his forehead. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot about it. I was looking for Kururu the whole morning. Where did you find her?"

"A boy found her," narrated Pirika. "A really quiet and strange boy, but really cute."

His forehead creased. "How old is he? Do I know him? Is he a fighter like me? Can he stand up to me?" His big-brother complex that he rarely shows in public was starting to reveal itself to Anna and Yoh.

"Onii-chan…" said Pirika, sweatdropping.

"Stop yakking!" snapped Anna. "Get your spirit already!"

"Right!"

Under Anna's watchful eyes, she observed the battle between Yoh and Horo Horo.

Yoh still has a long way to go, she thought as Horo Horo used his oversoul.

"W-What technique is that?" asked Yoh in astonishment.

Amidamaru frowned. "The way he uses his spirit is very different from our style."

"Correct," she said from the sidelines. "He does not merely fuse his main spirit into his body. He manifests the traits of the spirit itself. He becomes the extension of the spirit."

The avalanche crashed down on Yoh, but Horo Horo was able to save him just in time.

"T-That was awesome!" gushed Yoh. "H-How in the world did you do that?"

"Are you too stupid to even figure that out all by yourself?" snapped Anna. "I want you to go over the oversoul technique tonight. If you still haven't mastered it by tomorrow, I'll make Oyamada your sparring partner, since he's the only one whose abilities you can match up to."

Horo Horo snickered.

"If I were you, I won't smile so much," she snapped at the servant. "It's time for your 50 kilometer run."

"Y-Yes!" And the Ainu warrior headed outside for his routine jogging.

"Asakura," called Anna.

"Yes?"

"I'm expecting results tomorrow." She crossed her arms in front of her. "Do not disappoint me."

He grinned. "I'll do my best."

"Your bath is ready. That can relax your tight muscles." With that, she left already.

"Where have you been, Master Ren?" asked Li Pailong worriedly, following the young boy into the mansion. "Your sister has been looking for you."

"I went out to chase butterflies in the garden," he said sarcastically.

"Ren!" Jun went to her brother, not bothering to hide how upset she was. "Where have you been?"

"I checked on the Asakura compound awhile ago."

Her face turned pale. "What?! You know that it's the enemy's territory. Were you caught?"

"No," he said curtly. "The problem with you is you don't trust me enough."

"Wait, what's that cloth on your forehead?" asked Pailong.

He remembered about his bump only now. He quickly took off the handkerchief that the girl in the garden gave him. "None of your business."

Jun knelt down in front of him and kissed the bump gently, then hugged him tightly. "Don't ever make me worry that way again, ok?"

He felt a tug in his heart, and he nodded.

"What did you find out?" a voice boomed from behind.

Jun released her little brother and turned to the figure reverently. "Father."

Ren's fists clenched.

Yoh sighed when he couldn't open the door of his room. "It's locked. I wonder who did this."

"Master Yoh, I'm sorry. I did that." Tamao arrived, face bowed. "It was Ms. Anna's order. She said that you are not allowed to sleep in your room unless you have mastered the oversoul. I would have said no, but Madam Kino backed her order up."

He grinned. "No problem. I understand."

"You can sleep in my room," she offered eagerly.

He sweatdropped. "N-No thanks."

"I won't tell," she promised.

"You won't, but I'll still know anyway." Anna crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Asakura, get your butt out of the house and start training."

"Yes!" Yoh smiled apologetically at Tamao then headed out of the house.

"You are a sadist!" snapped Tamao.

"Thank you for the compliment," she said coolly. "Now if you will excuse me, I still have a lot more important things to do."

"Isn't Master Yoh going to sleep yet?" asked Pirika when she heard the voice of Yoh practicing by the garden.

"Anna will kill him if he doesn't get the technique right," explained Horo Horo as he prepared to sleep.

"Why don't you just teach it to him then?" she asked curiously.

"There are just some things that are better discovered all by yourself than learned." He glanced at his sister. "Ready for lights off?"

"Yup!"

"Good. Now you can start telling me about this cute boy you met awhile ago…"

"Onii-chan!"

"The only way I can approve of your suitor is for him to beat me in a shaman fight."

"But that is next to impossible!"

"Exactly."

"I still don't get the technique," whined Yoh as he sat down on the grass, exhausted.

"Maybe you should rest first, Master Yoh," said Amidamaru worriedly.

"No…I can't disappoint Anna." He stood up again and tried to rethink of what Horo Horo did to make the oversoul possible.

He blinked when he felt snow touch his skin.

Amidamaru looked up at the sky. "Huh? Snow in July?"

Anna looked up at the sky, disturbed. This was one of the signs that Kino has told her. Even the Earth feels the beginning of destruction.

She looked back at Yoh and Amidamaru standing on the garden below her window. You must learn, and learn fast, Yoh. A shaman king is needed by the world once again.

She then noticed a figure standing by the forest, looking at Yoh directly.

"It is beginning," said a voice cheerfully. "I have waited long enough." He hugged the hood of his black robe close to him. "Soon, Yoh Asakura, soon."

He then noticed that he was being watched. He looked up and saw a blond-haired girl looking at him directly.

He smiled and saluted, then retreated into the shadows of the dark forest.

tsuzuku