Anna: (looks around, narrows eyes) Hmph! This is his home I'm in right now, and he doesn't even have the gall to show up-especially after he invited me here! (notices blinking answering machine, presses button)

BlackTerriermon: (singing along with tune) Believe it or not, DC isn't at home; please leave a message at the beep…We must be out, or we'd be dead thanks to Anna-where could we be? Believe it or not, we're not home…! (Beep!)

Anna: (smashes machine with table leg) Now…where was I? Oh, yes-the author of this story doesn't own Shaman King, and when I'm through with him-and his insane partner-he'll be glad he doesn't.

                                                             Shaman King: The Rematch

                                                 Chapter V-Delivery Accepted…or Denied

"I am the one who will be the ruler of all the shamans and purify this world. And for that…I need your ghost." –Tao Ren, Another Shaman

"The way you treat ghosts like property ticks me off!" –Asakura Yoh, Shaman v.s. Shaman

Nightfall had come and gone once again for the training shaman, Yoh-and, once again, when morning came about, his fiancée, Anna, had him woken up via sleep paralysis.

"This is your last day to prepare before the rematch you accepted, so today will be very easy-after school today, you're doing double what you would normally do; and you'll get back before dinner, or you won't get any at all!"

After hearing that, Yoh got to his feet, ate breakfast as fast as he could, and got dressed in record time-just in time to have to carry Anna's bag as they headed down to school, and to catch up with Manta, as well.

"Excellent…Bason, my package-or, I should say, packages-have arrived!"

Ren smiled evilly as he simply looked at the number of packages that had shown up on their front doorstep very early in the morning, and the person who had them delivered was well paid for, naturally.

"Once the headphones boy runs into these opponents, it will take a miracle for him to survive, and should he survive this…tomorrow will be very, very interesting…"

In the next room, Jun paced, knowing precisely what was in those packages…and wondering if Yoh would be able to survive what was to come…

"I can't believe Anna had you do the Electric Chair, Yoh…well, actually, I can, but-during class?! I figured she would at least wait until during our lunch hour."

"That's not how Anna does things, Manta, and you know that just as well as I do. She'd probably have me run in place while I'm at the board answering a question!"

"Hmm. You have a point there."

During class, Yoh had fallen asleep, and after waking him up in a not-so-nice manner, Anna had her fiancé perform the Electric Chair for the second time-the first was, of course, when she had first enrolled herself into his class-in front of Manta, and everyone, yet again.

Now, Yoh was going through his normal routine, but at double what he would normally do it at; as Anna had warned him, he would have to be done before dinner, otherwise, he wouldn't get dinner at all. At the moment, he was running a planned route with Manta along so he wouldn't slack off, not knowing that his training schedule was about to be drastically altered.

Narrowing his eyes, Ren clenched his Kwan Dao spear tightly while pacing back and forth.

"…Now, you are all sure what your mission entails? Do you understand what you must do, and that you shouldn't come back until you've done so?"

Moments later, after being assured by the assassins that they would not fail, Ren smirked.

"Good. Now, go, and don't come back until he's dead-or without his samurai!"

Jun cleared her throat at that moment, looking at her brother with a flurry of emotions-the one that was sticking out, or being shown, was of great concern.

"If you're here to congratulate me on a plan that should not fail, no thanks are necessary; nor are apologies. We are family, after all. But, if you're here to persuade me to wait, should the assassins I sent after that shaman fail, then I suggest you leave. I have more important things to do."

The look of concern didn't fade away from Jun's face as Ren left the room, a determined, almost maniacal, look in his eyes.

Yoh gasped loudly after crossing back over the same lake he'd gone across for the past few days!

"Neat-you've done nearly everything Anna wants you to do, and it's not even time for the sun to set." Manta smiled lightly, definitely impressed by his best friend's progress.

"That's good…so, what's last to do for today?" Yoh responded, while trying to catch his breath.

"Well…let's see-you have to run 90 miles down the same track you've been on the past few days…WITHIN 10 MINUTES?!!"

Manta's eyes widened as big as saucer plates after reading that.

"How does she expect you to run 90 miles in just 10 minutes? That's nearly impossible for anyone to do!"

Looking around, Yoh replied calmly, "Well, when you have motivation like these guys around, it's not hard to do what Anna asks."

"Huh?" Blinking, Manta looked around as well…and nearly fainted when he noticed that the two of them were surrounded by an unknown number of assassin spirits!

"WHEN DID THESE GUYS GET HERE?!!"

"I think around the time you started reading Anna's list. Speaking of which, you should go find her, Manta."

"Find Anna?! What for?"

A light grin appearing on his face, Yoh said, "To let her know why I might be late for dinner."

With that said, Yoh pulled out his short bokuto and felt, rather than saw, Amidamaru appear behind him.

"Alright, Yoh. Just be careful. These guys look like they play for keeps." Manta cautioned as he headed off to find Anna.

Yoh responded with a light nod as he prepared himself for battle.

Manta had barely even made it to the crossroads when he gasped loudly and fell to the ground in shock.

"Anna?! What are you doing here?"

Looking down the path that Manta had come from, Anna narrowed her eyes before answering Manta's question.

"I was on my way out to get some food for dinner tonight in the hope that Yoh would actually be finished with his training in time. But, after being informed by one of the ghosts who haunt the track that Yoh had been ambushed by assassin spirits, I took it upon myself to come see what was going on."

Manta's eyes were once again the size of saucer plates as Anna passed him by and headed down the path he had been leaving.

"Ghosts haunt the track Yoh trains on, and you didn't tell either one of us about it?!"

"I thought you knew about it; Yoh already knew about it."

Shaking his head, Manta managed to catch up to Anna at that time.

"So, are you going to help Yoh out on this one, Anna?"

Looking over at where Yoh was surrounded by the assassin spirits, Anna closed her eyes and shook her head.

"There's nothing I can do for him right now. But, I do know this-Yoh hasn't come this far just to give up now. Which means only one thing-he will win in this challenge sent against him by Ren."

"I hope you're right about this."

"INTEGRATE!! AMIDAMARU!!"

Yoh kept his focus on the assassin spirits that hovered around him, yet they seemed to grow in number so quickly, that he couldn't figure out how many there were.

"Concentrate, Lord Yoh-instead of figuring out how many there are, we should defeat as many of them as possible. The less there are, the less we'll have to worry about."

"Right!"

After concentrating, Yoh instantly turned to his left, raising his bokuto to defend, blocking the first attack thrown his way, then after jumping back a few meters or so, preparing to counterattack.

"Alright…you guys want to defeat me-you'll have a hard time doing that!"

Not even waiting for any of them to make the first move this time, Yoh raised his weapon up and launched his attack!

"AMIDA-RYU SHOCK WAVE BUDDHA-GIRI!!"

The attack launched by Yoh-and Amidamaru-was a technique Amidamaru had developed which would take down 10,000 men during the era in which he'd lived in; the very air was used by the technique to hit the enemies far beyond his arm's reach in those days.

At this moment, however, the attack had taken down at least 50% of their foes, if not 60%. Despite that huge advantage, still, more assassin spirits appeared, and launched their own attacks at the one they had been ordered to destroy.

"Come on…don't let their numbers overwhelm you…!"

Anna clenched her beads tightly only moments after removing them from around her neck, with Manta observing alongside her.

"Are you planning on jumping in and helping Yoh out, Anna?"

Eying Manta for a moment, before refocusing her attention back to the battle, Anna nodded briefly.

"Only if it looks like he might lose this fight…then, I'll send them all to hell…!"

Manta facefaulted in surprise-and shock-after hearing that.

"All of them…? Even Yoh…?!"

KAWHAP!

Seconds later, Manta was blasted to the ground by one slap via Anna's right hand, yet this time, he wasn't knocked out.

"I don't plan on sending Yoh there-just the spirits who are trying to kill him!"

Getting to his feet, Manta tried to ignore the painful sting in his cheek while forcing himself not to be angry with Anna.

"Next time, you could tell me that, instead of knocking me down."

"I'll keep that in mind, Squirt."

Yoh was knocked down to the ground by numerous attacks sent his way, and one of the attacks had literally split his bokuto in two! Despite that, Yoh smirked as he got to his feet.

"Whichever one of you did that, I'll have to thank-now, I get the opportunity to use another attack to get rid of you guys!"

Instantly, after grabbing the weapons, Yoh got into the legendary battle stance that earned his spirit companion his title of "Fiend" 600 years ago.

"AMIDA-RYU HALO BLADE!!"

Seconds afterward, another 40% were defeated…yet, from the way other assassin spirits appeared, Yoh and Amidamaru knew this battle wasn't over with anytime soon.

"I don't get it! How can these guys just keep appearing after Yoh and Amidamaru keep getting rid of them?"

With a look of irritation on her face, Anna started headed forward while responding to Manta's question, not even waiting for him to keep up.

"This is only a hypothesis, but I'm sure I would be dead on-so to speak. The reason the assassin spirits are able to keep reappearing after Yoh defeats a significant number is because they're able to communicate with other assassin spirits, and to alert them of their mission. Once that's been done, anytime Yoh takes care of some of them, those others will show up, and attempt to tire him out."

"That's…a pretty good hypothesis, Anna." Manta admitted, looking over at where Yoh was getting back to his feet.

"Like I said-I'm sure I would be dead on in my hypothesis. Now…to get Yoh out of this predicament."

Yoh was able to get back to his feet, but not without having to duck another assault from the spirits.

"Everytime we get rid of these spirits, Amidamaru, more of them keep showing up! How…?"

"The spirits that originally ambushed you, Lord Yoh, have been communicating with other assassin spirits, so that once we've defeated any number of them, those other ones will appear. We have to hit them all in one concentrated shot."

"With one concentrated shot, huh? Alright."

Staring at the remainder of the assassin spirits, Yoh clenched his bokuto tightly in his hands-he'd had to discard the other one after it had been splintered to pieces by an attack-while launching one last attack.

"SHOCK WAVE BUDDHA-GIRI!!!"

Seconds later, the assassin spirits were taken care of, and gone from sight…until another wave of them appeared! A moment later, Yoh dropped to his knees, physically drained and exhausted; Amidamaru was forced to exorcise himself from Yoh's body at that instant.

"Well, Amidamaru…we tried."

Yoh was able to get back to his feet, knowing this may be the end, but if it was, he was going to go down fighting…just like Anna would probably want him to go.

"SOULS OF THE ASSASSIN SPIRITS!!"

Turning in shock, Yoh and Amidamaru saw Anna, in a deep trance, holding her prayer beads above her head the same way she'd held them to help Yoh face Bailong…but, in this case, it felt to Yoh and Manta like a very dark presence had made itself known at that time. Refocusing back on the spirits, Yoh realized that they were being pulled directly toward Anna-and the prayer beads that, instead of summoning a spirit from beyond, would send the remaining assassin spirits directly to hell.

"Nice job, Anna!"

Placing her beads back around her neck, the trance she had been under broken, Anna eyed her fiancé with either a look of irritation, or one of relief.

"I wasn't about to let your rival kill you in a cowardly manner, by sending assassin ghosts to do his dirty work, Yoh."

Yoh smiled while placing his bokuto away for the time being. Thanks to the three days, he felt like he was truly ready to face Ren once again.

"This time, it will end the same way it ended last time…I won't let Anna, or my friends, down!"

Placing his spear back into its briefcase, Ren had a look of confidence on his face.

"With the help of that girl, he was able to defeat all of the assassin spirits…perhaps he will be a formidable challenge tomorrow evening."

Focused on what was to occur the next day, Ren didn't notice that his sister was looking at him through the opened door, with the same look on her face that was there earlier.

"But, even if he is indeed ready, this rematch will end differently…not only will I claim your samurai spirit, but your trainer as well!"