Chapter 6: Found You/ Pain From The Past
"Those are my pancakes"
"I don't see your name on them"
"It's right here"
SMACK
"Ow!"
Ren and Horo's argument drifted outside to where Haru had been meditating since he woke up.
"Master perhaps it's time for you to get something to eat, I don't believe there will be any peace now that the others are awake" Zhou told his master quietly
Haru sighed and got up "unfortunately I think your right, I wonder if there's anything left?"
Haru opened the door and was greeted with one of the most bizarre sights he had ever seen.
Rio was in the kitchen wearing a frilly pink apron and was flipping pancakes. Horo and Ren were fighting each other and trying to stuff pancakes down the others throat. Jun and Pirika were arguing about something and were both having to yell in order to get heard. Anna was trying to make Yoh do his training inside oblivious of what was going on around them and Manta was running around the room with one of his oversized books on top of his head as a helmet. The spirits were trying to calm things down but just seemed to be making things worse.
Haru watched this for a few minutes before he saw Tamao sitting at the end of the table eating quietly. As she was the only who appeared to be sane he made his way over to her and sat down beside her.
"Is it always like this?" Haru asked still watching what was happening in front of him
"No today's pretty quiet" Tamao told him
"Haru looked at her, certain she was making a joke, when he realized she was being serious he said to her in amazement
"They do this everyday and they're still alive?"
"Yep, they're good friends really so they won't kill each other, otherwise it would have happened by now" Tamao told him simply
Haru sighed and then picked up his fork and speared five Pancakes that that were flying through the air towards Rens head, Haru put the pancakes on his plate and began to eat, rising his fork a few times to spear more pancakes out of the air.
When he was finished he left the kitchen and went to explore the house to see if there was anything he could do until things quietened down. He entered the main living room and noticed that there was laptop lying on the floor. It must belong to Manta Haru thought. I'm sure he won't mind if I take a look. Haru sat down, picked up the laptop and turned it on. Most of what was on there was a completely boring; school reports and revision notes for pop quizzes, but Haru saw a file marked "Shaman" and decided to open it.
It seemed as though Manta had compiled a database on everything there was to know on shaman, he spent a few minutes looking through it before Ren and Horo dragged their argument into the room. Haru tried to ignore them but they were making too much noise, eventually Haru gave up, switched off the laptop and put it back on the floor where he found it and tried to find some part of the house that wasn't occupied.
While Haru was walking around he turned a corner and someone ran into him and fell down. Haru looked down and saw it Pilika.
"You should watch where you're going" she told him
"You're the one that ran into me" Haru replied in a bored voice
"No I didn't"
"Then why are you the one on the floor?"
"Because…" Pilika thought for a moment and decided to change tack "Why where you wandering around here anyway?"
"I was looking for some peace and quiet"
Pilika laughed at him then saw he was serious, "Well you won't find any around here until Anna throws all the boys out to make them train, you'd be better off exploring the town for a little while"
"Thanks but I think I should do some training myself. Do you know anywhere that's usually deserted?"
"There's an old junk pile that normally empty this time day, it's on the edge of town so no one will mind if you make too much noise"
"Thank you, could you tell Yoh that I haven't forgotten about his lesson and that I'll see him around lunch"
"Sure" Pilika said shrugging and she walked off to find someone else to talk to.
Haru collected his coat and weapon headed outside. It wasn't particularly cold but there clouds in the sky that were threatening to rain.
It took Haru twenty minutes to reach the scrap heap that Pilika had told him about. Although scrap heap hardly described it, it looked as though there had been a massive battle fought out by cars and other metal appliances and no one had bothered to clean up afterwards, burnt out wrecks could be seen everywhere and there were huge towers of stacked cars that looked as if they really shouldn't be able to stand.
Perfect thought Haru, "All right Zhou lets get to work" Haru Pulled out his weapon and waited for Zhou to enter it and summoned his green Aura Blade, he ran his hand along the blade once and it turned black. Smiling to himself Haru turned to face one of the perilous leaning towers of wreckage and jumped at it swinging his sword so fast that you could only see a dark haze. Landing a few feet away from the tower in a crouching position he slowly stood and turned his head. As he did so the tower of wreckage that he had attacked crumpled into pieces and collapsed with a loud crash. Haru's smile grew wider as he continued to train; slowly increasing the speed and power of his attacks until half of the junk heap had changed into metal confetti. Haru decided to take a quick break and leaned against one of the remaining towers taking deep breaths to get his energy back, he was about to start training again when…
"Hah, I found you!"
Haru looked up to see a girl about his age standing on a heap of burnt out cars.
"Zhou do we know her?" he whispered quietly to his spirit
"I believe she was you last opponent in the preliminary matches master"
Haru groaned inwardly. He remembered that fight all to well; it has been one of the most annoying in his life.
FlashbackHaru had decided to get to the battle area early so that he could prepare ahead of time and concentrate on how to win the battle. It didn't really matter because he had won his other two easily, but Haru never fought unless he gave it his all.
When he had arrived at the designated area, (a park with a fountain and a few trees) he sat down and pulled out his weapon, concentrating his Furyoku into it. He summoned his Aura Blade and focused on it, the blade slowly began to change shape; becoming longer then wider before he allowed it to return to its original shape.
As he was doing this he saw another figure enter the park; it was a girl who appeared to be the same age him although she looked to be a head shorter, she had brown hair, which was fixed into a ponytail that reached down to her shoulders and was wearing tight kaki shorts and a green top, she also had a black bag slung over her shoulder. She saw Haru and made her way over.
"Hi there"
Haru ignored her and continued to focus on the blade of his weapon
"Watcha doing?" she asked him walking closer. She saw the blade changing shape and size, "Cool" she muttered "is it real?"
As she said this she reached out to touch the glowing green blade, which promptly vanished from sight.
"Hey what'd you do that for?" she asked disappointed
"To stop you hurting yourself, didn't your parents ever teach you not to touch things that don't belong to you?" Haru said, annoyed that his concentration had been broken.
"No not really" she answered in a carefree tone of voice, she sat down next to him and began talking to him for no reason at all, asking him what his names was and why he was here.
"My names Haru and I'm waiting for someone, it's suppose to be a private meeting" Haru said trying to hint to her that she should leave.
"Who are you waiting for?" she asked still sitting down
Haru frowned; the girl was starting to annoy him, but he dug out his oracle bell and read off the name.
"Mia Seng, now could you please leave"
"Um no I don't think I can" the girl replied
"Why not?" Haru's voice now had an icy edge to it
"Because your waiting for me" the girl answered simply
"What" Haru said with deadly calm
"I'm your opponent silly" Mia giggled as she said this, pulling out a memorial tablet and released her guardian spirit. It was women who appeared to be in her twenties and was wearing a striped leotard and had a carnival mask covering her face.
"Perfect a hyped up cheerleader" Haru muttered under his breath
The girl frowned and said "How did you know I was cheerleader?"
"Call it a hunch", Haru looked at his watch and sighed, there were still an hour until their match was due to start.
That hour had been the most agonizing in Haru's life. The girl had talked continuously, telling him about her life and family and how she had entered the tournament. When she asked him why he had entered the tournament he didn't bother replying, hoping that would take the hint and shut up. She stared at Haru for a few seconds, and then answered the question herself, talking in an irritating sing-song voice.
By the end of the hour Haru had heard all about her life; her parents, brothers, sisters and even the pet poodle she had.
Haru was nearly ready to strangle the girl to stop her from talking when his oracle bell had started beeping, signalling the beginning of the match.
"Ooh it's time to start" Mia told him. As she said this she opened her black bag and pulled out two rings that were only slightly larger than Haru's head.
She integrated with her spirit and began juggling the rings and then rolling them around her arms and legs before throwing them up and catching them in both hands and getting into what Haru assumed to be a fighting stance.
Haru sighed and stood up pulling out his memorial tablet and releasing Zhou, who came out slowly and formed himself in front of Haru with his back to Mia.
"Why did you not release me sooner master? Did I do something to offend you?"
"Not at all Zhou" Haru muttered darkly "I just thought I'd let you keep your sanity"
Zhou looked at his master quizzically for a moment but decided not to comment. He turned round and saw Mia for the first time.
"Is she our opponent?"
"Yes and I must say I'm looking forward to it" Haru replied giving Zhou a dark grin
The shaman Council representative appeared and told them to begin.
Haru instantly leapt forward and struck the girl with a spinning kick that knocked her off her feet she lay on the ground groaning for a few seconds.
"Hey no fair! I wasn't ready" she told Haru in a whining voice
Haru gritted his teeth and bit back the insult he had been about to use and reminded himself that this girl probably wasn't as strong as he was so he should take it easy on her.
The girl used Haru moment of indecision to attack and shouted,
"Razor Boomerang Attack!"
She threw both of the rings at Haru. The first one missed completely but the second was heading straight for his head. Haru waited till the last second and sidestepped so that the ring went spinning past him, but he wasn't fast enough and felt something hot on his cheek, he reached up to touch it and noticed that he was bleeding.
"Master be careful don't let them touch you" Zhou shouted in alarm
"Why thank you Zhou I never would have considered that, what ever would I do without you?" Haru told his spirit sarcastically.
Haru then heard something spinning to his left and threw himself to his right as one of the razor rings sped past him and another ripped through his coat.
"Hey your good, most people don't realise that they come back" the girl said in her cheery voice.
Haru uttered a curse and drew his weapon.
"Aura Blade!" he shouted and charged at her but she jumped back before he could get within range and threw her rings again. Haru kept running and deflected the rings with his sword knocking them to ground and tried attacking the girl again.
She retreated once more; performing a series of back flips that eventually landed her in a tree where she stopped to catch her breath. She then held out her hands and said,
"Return"
The rings rose up and went flying into their masters hands, the girl instead of throwing them again, ran towards Haru to attack; swinging her arms around her body creating a deadly wall of razor sharp steel.
Haru rushed to meet her but didn't use his sword, he waited until he was in range and aimed a diving tackle at her legs, feet first, knocking her over and stopping her attack.
However the girl didn't land face down as Haru had expected, instead she turned the fall into a roll and came back on her feet ready for a new attack.
"Your really fast" she told him
"You don't know the half of it"
Haru ran to attack again but the girl continued to retreat out of range of his attacks.
Damn it, Haru thought, my attacks are no good if I can't get close enough to use them.
"Why don't you change?" Zhou asked his master
Haru smiled, the thought hadn't occurred to him. He had only recently mastered the ability and it was still relatively new to him.
"All right let's try it" Haru dropped his defence and left himself wide open, waiting for Mia to attack.
"What are you doing?" She spoke in surprise
"I'm just proving how pathetic your attacks are, I bet you couldn't even hit me from here"
Mia scowled and took the bait, "I'll show you pathetic, Razor Boomerang Attack!"
She threw both of her deadly rings straight at Haru who just stood there waiting and at the last second vanished.
"Huh? Where'd you go?" she cried in confusion losing her concentration, which caused her rings to crash to the ground. She looked round frantically searching for her opponent and didn't notice a slight breeze that blew past her.
Mia suddenly realised that someone was standing behind her but before she could turn around was struck in the back of the head. She stumbled forward dizzily but didn't fall down.
"Shadow Strike!"
Mia felt another blow from behind, this time she was hit in the back and was sent flying forwards before crashing into a brick wall where she quickly lost consciousness.
Haru stepped forward to speak to the council representative who had been watching their battle.
"Congratulations you have won all three of your battles" The representative said this with just a hint of contempt in his voice
Haru stared at him for a moment before asking why he was acting the way he was
"You did not need to be so violent with the girl, you could have just left after you struck her. She had lost spirit control and was out of Furyoku"
"Really I hadn't noticed, I was too busy worrying about whether she would cut my arm off" was Haru reply, which barely disguised his anger.
The representative clearly didn't believe him, because he continued to talk in the in the same contemptuous voice.
Having cleared the preliminary rounds, your next challenge is to find Patch village where the finals are to take place. If you cannot find the village or do not arrive in time for your match you will be disqualified, additional information will be sent to your oracle bell in one weeks time"
Haru listened to this and then walked off without another word, he'd heard all needed and had no desire to stick around and talk with someone who clearly didn't like him.
End of Flashback"What do you want?" he asked Mia in a bored voice
Mia didn't answer immediately, she jumped down from the pile of scrap she had been standing on and walked towards him. Haru then noticed that she was holding her rings in one hand and tensed himself in case she attacked.
Mia walked right up to him and poked him in the chest at the same time saying,
"You big meanie, I want a rematch"
Haru was slightly taken aback he had expected her to just attack him and not bother with the verbal challenge.
"Why? You lost the first match so get over it. A rematch won't change the original result."
"But you cheated!"
"No I didn't" Haru replied determined not to loose his temper
"Yes you did you… Hey where are you going?"
"Sorry but I've got better things to do than look after a spoiled brat like you"
"Who are you calling a brat?" Haru didn't bother to reply and just kept walking
"Hey get back here!" Mai shouted and at the same time threw one of her rings, which missed Haru by inches. Haru stopped and turned to look at her
"What makes you think you'll do any better this time round?"
"You couldn't touch before you disappeared" Mia reminded him
"That was because you kept running away" Haru turned again and started walking again.
"Don't you walk away from me, I want my rematch!" as Mia said this she threw her second ring which flew straight towards Haru's back. Haru kept walking but at the last minute pivoted on his left foot, as he did so his coat went fly out behind him and was sliced clean off by the spinning ring.
Haru saw half his coat lying on the floor and looked towards Mia again and said simply,
"Your going to regret that"
Author: well that's another chapter done. I seem to be having the opposite of writers block at the moment, but i don't know how long this will last but for the moment i seem to be updating quite quickly. anyways as to my reviewers:
Nonesofar: I didn't know it was an arranged marriage but I was sure that Anna saved Yoh's life at some point and I thought that was the reason they were engaged. Anyway I like the ending of that chapter so I'm not going to change it.
Mikauzoran: Thanks I'm glad you liked it. It's good to know that people are enjoying my story and I am always glad to receive any reviews. The next chapter won't focus on anyone in particular, it might be a bit slow but I think you'll like it.
To everyone else reading my story please REVIEW you don't have to tell if I did anything wrong or right just tell me if you like it or not. I accept Anonymous REVIEWS.