Chapter 13

Yoh shivered heavily as the wind once again blew through the forest. It was cold, to say the least.

The October air had only gotten colder that night.

More than anything, Yoh wanted to sleep. He wanted to rest so badly.

...And yet, he couldn't.

He wasn't sleeping until he finished what he had come all this way for.

He bit back more tears. Ugh. He hated this--Yoh loved life; mostly because he loved being happy but... he hadn't been happy since they had left their parents, had he...? That and... He was hungry and tired--the two definitely not a good combination for a little kid like Yoh. He might be mature, yes; but he was still just a child.

Yoh just wanted to go home.

His eyes widened as he tripped; obviously not looking where he was going as he fell, katana flying as he fell in mud.

Yoh whimpered a little before pausing and laughing.

He could just imagine how he looked now, really.

...Maybe all of this wouldn't be too bad.

If he was successful, that it.

He slowly stood, whipping some of the mud from his pants as he stood, grabbing his katana as well as he peered ahead of him.

His eyes widened a little upon seeing a chapel.

...The brunet-haired boy had reached his destination.

-

Hao's fists clenched as he glared at Marco. "And how would you know if it's my little brother or not!" He demanded. Oh, he was furious now. This was not funny; no, it was a cruel joke, wasn't it? Marco had never seen Yoh before, anyways! How would he know if it was him!

He smirked in response to that, stepping closer to the younger boy. "He told us ourselves." He paused. Besides that, the X-Laws already knew what he looked like; even if hadn't known before.

Oh, it had been very, very easy to capture the boy, actually. It didn't take much to do it. It was if he hadn't even been very experienced with Shaman Fights to begin with.

Hao sent Marco a dry look. "...Right." Like he was supposed to believe that Yoh just went right out and told them who he was...? "And I suppose he went to you with open arms, too?" He asked in a sickenly sweet tone.

The other boy twitched at that, he was tempted to tell him not to be smart, but he knew Hao would merely retort with an even smarter comment. "All that matter is that we have him captured." He slowly turned. "You'll get the honors of seeing him executed, Asakura Hao."

The pyromaniac could only growl at that, his fists clenching in infuriation and frustration as he watched Marco leave.

-

HoroHoro and Ren ran throughout the forest of Izumo, Ren glaring at HoroHoro.

"Dammit!" He hissed.

HoroHoro twitched. "How could we not notice him leaving!"

Ren paused at that. No, the real question was; how could they not sense it? They should be able to sense a weaker shaman leaving! It was a part of having more furyoku than other shamans did!

...Unless...

Ren slowly shook his head. Yoh couldn't have gotten that much stronger just from a few weeks.

...Could he have?

Well, whatever.

He looked to HoroHoro, his pace only quickening. "Let's hurry up."

HoroHoro snorted. Most of this was Ren's fault, anyways! If they hadn't of waited for so long...

...It wasn't time to worry about that, was it...?

His pace quickened along with Ren, preparing his Oversoul upon nearing the church the X-Laws were staying at.

-

Yoh panted heavily as he prepared his Oversoul once more; sighing in relief.

It was a wonder on how he managed to get away from the X-Laws, exactly; he had been held captive by three of them; one of them had left to find their 'leader' but...

Yoh had barely used any of his power. How did he...?

He smiled. Amidamaru-san must be really, really strong!

Right, he knew his spirit partner was strong. But... this strong...?

He grinned widely at the thought. He felt... very grateful to have someone like him at his side; ready to protect him, to sacrifice anything to protect Yoh.

He looked at the two unconscious members before sneaking off, sighing. He felt even more tired but...

He could make it.

After all, the chapel couldn't be that big, could it?

He paused, looking at the new hallway of doors and groaning loudly. It was weird; in the back of the chapel--behind the door in the first room; it seemed like every hallways lead to another, which lead to another, and lead to another.

How would he find his brother in this mess...?

...Ok. So he was wrong. The chapel could be that big.

-

"Ow! Dammit!" HoroHoro used yet another attack on yet... another X-Law and he and Ren fought their way through the church.

Ren smirked. "And as holy as this group calls themselves, you'd think they would have the decency not to fight in a church." He said in a dry manner, using another Chuuka Zanmai; and knocking another X-Law to the ground.

HoroHoro sent him a look.

"I know, I know!" Ren scowled, his Oversoul disappearing--he had just defeated the last X-Law that had ambushed them. "No killing anyone." He rolled his eyes. What was with HoroHoro lately? Last time he talked to them about this; he was perfectly kind with killing some of the members.

...Especially Jeanne.

He twitched. "Where is that brat!" Ugh. They had been in this stupid place for three hours now, and there was no sign of him! He had to have come there, though! Where else would he have gone...?

A sigh. Ren was... slowly running out of furyoku.

He looked at the Ainu shaman. "You're arm..." HoroHoro was bleeding.

He arm was broken.

HoroHoro laughed nervously at that. "What? This!" He glared down at his arm, cringing ever-so-slightly. Damn this... he couldn't fight that well with just one arm! "I'm fine!" He laughed again.

The Chinese shaman twitched at that, smiling slightly. HoroHoro... really was something else.

He tore off a piece of his clothes--tieing it tightly around his wound. "Here..." His voice was uncharacteristically soft. "You'll have to deal with the pain until we get out of here." He looked up at him.

HoroHoro groaned at that. "...Fine." His tone was a wary one. He slowly reached down, grabbing his snowboard with his uninjured hand.

"Let's get this over with, and save the brat."

-

It had been four hours since he had first arrived at the chapel.

The brunet-haired boy panted heavily, falling as he tried to keep balance, whipping the sweat from his forehead; his Oversoul disappearing.

He had been walking for hours. Hours. There still wasn't any sign of Hao yet.

How many X-Laws had ambushed him at this point?

...He lost count.

Yoh winced, attempting to grab Harusame. O-Ow... He sniffed lightly. He was in a lot of pain from using so much furyoku at once.

"...Are you Yoh-kun?"

Yoh blinked at that, his brows furrowing as he prepared to grab Harusame. He stood, prearing to Oversoul when--

The boy froze at that, blinking. "I-I'm not going to hurt you, don't worry!"

He paused at that, blinking at the young emerald-haired boy; his katana slowly lowering. That was strange... He had the X-Laws uniform on and everything.

Lyserg looked at him, smiling slightly. "You're the one everyone's looking for, right...?"

Yoh looked down. "Y-Yeah..." This was weird. Why would an X-Law member act so friendly...? The one's he had come across were all out to kill him, but this one...

The boy slowly looked behind him before looking to Yoh; what he said next was said in a quiet, hushed voice.

"...Follow me. I'll take you to your brother."

-

He hadn't known what possessed him to help Yoh like he had.

Perhaps it was the mere fact that he felt sorry for the siblings--they were merely doing this to protect one another.

Perhaps he felt that what the group was doing was wrong.

...Or maybe it was for his own resolve.

He wanted to break free. As much as he loved Marco... he was tired of it. He wanted to be free; he wanted to be able to state his own opinions.

But... he didn't want to be alone.

A sigh.

I'm sorry. Jeanne-sama. Marco.

From the moment he led Yoh to his brother; he knew that there was no turning back from his decision.

-

"Onii-chan!"

Upon hearing that, Lyserg snapped out of his deep contemplation, sighing a little as he had looked down. It was... odd. All he had done is shown Yoh where Hao was being held captive. It was up to him to get him out of here.

This was all he could do.

Hao looked to Yoh in shock. He could hardly believe it... "Yoh...? What are you doing here?" How did Yoh even get this far! It was...

Yoh looked at Hao in disbelief "I came to save you!" What kind of question was that!

Well, whatever... He smiled slightly at his brother looking at the chains and frowning, contemplating on what Ren said about chains like this before.

...This was a spell.

He prepared to use his furyoku, putting his hands on the chains, Hao sending him an odd look. He knew how to release this alright--it was that the person chained up couldn't use furyoku to do this.

"Yoh. Wait."

Yoh stared up at his brother, blinking. "Huh? What is it...?"

He shook his head. "Don't use anymore furyoku."

"Eh!" Yoh looked at him in shock. "But if I don't use any, how am I going too--"

"You'll exhaust yourself." Anymore furyoku, and Yoh would end up too weak to even stand. His brother was far too young to do all this--to use so much shamanic powers in a short period of time.

Yoh looked down. "Onii-chan! I'm doing it anyways!"

"He's right, you know."

Yoh paused, slowly turning, frowning slowly.

Iron Maiden Jeanne slowly smiled. "We've been waiting for you, Asakura Yoh."

To Be Continued.

...This fic is... I can't explain it. I don't like how this chapter came out either. Knowing me, I'll want to go back and rewrite it, just to prevent it from being so stupid. e.e; Yeah... that's how I feel about this right now. But! I'm going to finish this anyways!

Review please. :D