Chapter 7: Who Is That?
Haru and Mia had been fighting for nearly twenty minutes and Mia was starting to get tired, Haru on the other hand showed no sign of relenting.
Damn I didn't think he was this good, Mia thought to herself as she tried desperately to block Haru's attacks.
"Mia we need to think of something or he's going to win" Kira told her master
"I know, I know but I can't do anything he's too fast"
"Perhaps we could try a more unorthodox approach?" Kira said, telepathically showing her master what she had in mind.
Mia grinned as she saw what her spirit was suggesting
"All right lets do it"
Mia parried Haru's attack and dropped to floor, she landed on her hands and was able to do a back flip that caught Haru on the chin and sent him reeling backwards. Haru rose slowly and gave a cold penetrating stare.
"Not bad kid I didn't expect you to last this long, but I'm done playing games, go home before I hurt you"
Mia fumed silently and thought to herself who does this guy think he is? And where doe he get off calling me a kid? I bet he's no older than me!
"We'll see who gets hurt!" she yelled and threw both her rings at Haru. They sailed towards him but he simply raised his sword and deflected them. He started to walk towards Mia but then stopped and turned as though remembering something.
"That's right they come back" Mia told him in her sing song voice as the two rings erupted from one of the remaining towers of scrap metal and hurtled towards Haru, who only just had time to drop to floor as they went flying over his head.
However the two rings had caused the metal tower to loose balance and it started to fall.
Mia watched as the towers collapsed on top of her opponent pinning him under tonnes of metal.
"Yesss! I got him!" Mia started celebrating, jumping around excitedly and performing various acrobatic flips, her hair dancing in the wind.
"That was quite clever" a voice remarked from behind her.
Mia was so excited she didn't bother to turn round to see who she was talking to.
"Yeah I know, he never saw it coming"
"It's a good thing for you he didn't" observed the voice
Mia calmed down a little as she realised that the voice was right. She had nearly been beaten and it was only luck that the tower had collapsed. When he gets out of there he's going to be real pissed off she thought to herself.
"Hey shouldn't he have gotten out there by now? She said to herself "I thought he was stronger than that"
"Maybe you beat him" the voice suggested
"You think so?" Mia replied in excitement
"No"
For the first time Mia wondered who she was talking to and started to turn round.
"Hey who are…"
"Sphere!"
Mia world became black and white and she saw that she was trapped in some type of bubble. Almost as soon as she realised this she began to feel excruciating pain coursing through her; it felt as though someone was stabbing white-hot daggers into every pore of her skin. She yelled but no sound came out and after a few seconds she blacked out.
Haru watched as she fell to the floor unconscious, steam was still coming off her body from the force of his attack. He relaxed and disengaged spirit control and Zhou formed in front of him.
"That was not necessary master"
"I know but she annoyed me"
"You could have killed her"
"I doubt it, she is far too stubborn to die that easily, besides I was using the Aura Blade and that can't kill remember?"
Haru walked off towards what remained of his coat and checked whether it was possible to have it repaired. He sighed in disgust and tossed the material over his shoulder where it landed on the ground with an unusually heavy sounding 'Thud' and began to walk away.
"You aren't just going to leave her" Zhou asked in surprise as master started leaving
"Why shouldn't I? She attacked me, there is no reason for me to help her. Besides the nearest hospital is 20 miles away"
"You could take her to Master Yoh's house" suggested Zhou
"Forget it, there's no reason why I should help her at all", with that said Haru turned and started to walk away from the unconscious girl.
"Your father wouldn't have left her" Zhou remarked with a note of disappointment in his voice
Haru stopped walking and grabbed the amulet around his neck as though it burned him. He turned slowly until he was facing his guardian spirit and Zhou saw the cold rage in his master's eyes and realised that he had gone too far.
"I'm sorry master I only meant…"
"Enough Zhou, I think it's time you had some rest" as Haru said this he drew the memorial tablet from his pocket and trapped Zhou inside. Haru looked down at the girl again and his anger faded.
FlashbackWe see a young Haru about five years old playing in the park with a man who appears to be in thirties. They are kicking a ball around and one of the child's kicks causes the ball to fly up into a tree and knocks out a bird nest that had been built in its branches.
The man goes over to look at the nest while the child picks up the ball and starts playing again.
"Come on dad I want to play some more"
"In a minute son I just want to check something"
Curious the boy walks over to see what his father is doing and sees that there is a wounded bird in the nest. The boys father is examining the bird and sees that one of the wings are broken. Delicately the man picks the bird up and walks over to a bench and sits down, he holds the bird in both hands and asoft light shines from them. The glow slowly fades and the bird is still for a moment but then jumps up and fly's away.
The young Haru who hadbeen watching all this walks up to his father and asks
"Why did you do that dad?"
The man looks down at his son and smiles
"Because I could, a shaman doesn't need any more reason that, remember Haru a shaman is meant to help all living things"
End of Flashback"You were a good man father" Haru whispered, he looked at the girl one more time and sighed. Walking over to her, he picked her up and slung her over his shoulder and started to walk back.
Yoh, Horo, Ren and the other shaman were up at the graveyard training for the tournament. Straw dummies had been set up for them to practice their attacks and there were various weights lying on the ground. Although none of them felt like using them because Anna had forced them all to wear weighted wristbands and shoes so that everything they did was 5 times more difficult then it normally was.
"Oh man why do we have to wear these stupid things" Horo moan indicating to the weighted wrist bands "My arms feel so heavy I can barely lift them, I'd like to see Anna try and do anything with these on"
"Mistress Anna is not competing in the tournament and therefore does not have to practice with these weights" Rio remarked to Haru in a scolding tone of voice. "Indeed you should be honoured that she is helping you to the train for the tournament"
"Would you two stop your whining, I'm trying to concentrate" Ren told them as he lay on the floor trying to do sit-ups
"Now where was I? Oh yeah 45,46,47"
"21,22,23" Horo muttered in Rens ear
"24,25,26" Ren continued not noticing that he had been tricked
"101,102,103" Horo muttered again trying not to laugh
"104,105… Hey wait a minute"
Horo burst out laughing and rolled on the floor clutching his side
"That's It!" Ren yelled "Bason!" as Ren said this he grabbed his Kwan-do and aimed at Horo's head. Horo ducked at the last second and Ren only managed to cut off a chunk of Horo's hair.
"My Hair! Right you are so dead, Koro into the snowboard!"
As the two of them started fighting Manta just watched them with his mouth open.
"Unbelievable, a minute ago they were too tired to move now look at them" he remarked to Yoh who had just finished his laps.
"Yeah they just needed some incentive I guess" Yoh replied in his usual carefree manner.
"I don't see how you guys can go on living, I mean the way Anna treats you, you should all have died from exhaustion. She just seems to spend her time thinking of new ways to torture you guys"
"Your being too hard on her Manta, Anna really cares about us that's why she'd making us do all this work so we won't get hurt in the tournament. Anyway I'm sure Anna does a lot more with her spare time then think of new ways of training."
Anna was watching TV in the main room, it was some type of soap opera and she was busy tutting to herself over the story.
"How can she be so naive he's just going to leave her again like last time, oh well I suppose she'll never learn"
Pilika, Jun and Tamao were playing some type of card game on the other side of the room, Tamao was winning which seemed to be really annoying Jun.
"How can you win four games in a row? Its not possible you've got to be cheating" Jun cried in exasperation at a very nervous Tamao.
"I'm not cheating, you just aren't playing very well" Tamao replied meekly
Pilika shook her head as she heard the two arguing, Jun had been in a bad mood ever since she had woke up this morning but wouldn't tell anyone why. She looked back at two girls and saw Tamao cowering under Jun's acid tongue. Looking for away to change the subject before things got out of hand Pilika said,
"What do think of Haru Jun?"
Jun stiffened at the mention of Haru's name and turned very slowly to face Pilika, who sensed that she'd just asked the wrong question.
"I don't like him" was all Jun would say. Pilika breathed a sigh of relief, certain that Jun had been about to explode. She settled herself more comfortably and looked at Tamao.
"What about you Tamao?"
"He's really cold, it's like he doesn't have any feelings" Tamao replied in her usual timid voice.
"Yeah I noticed that too, he doesn't seem to have a sense of humour he takes everything real seriously. He worse then Ren, at least he gets angry. Haru just doesn't seem to have any emotions. How about you Anna what do you think?" Pilika asked
"Actually I like him", the other girls sweat dropped anime styleat this statement.
"How can you like him? I didn't think you would be able to like anyone who would stand up to you" Jun asked in outrage
"Well he doesn't slack off and unlike you he's quiet. I don't understand why you hate him so much, so he hypnotized you, big deal get over it. He didn't do anything to you so why do you care. Oh abouthim standing up to me,I've got a surprise for Haru, which should be here sometime tomorrow " Anna replied in a cool voice.
"I don't trust him" Jun muttered.
After Jun had said this they heard the front door open and close.
Strange the boys shouldn't be back yet" Pilika said in a confused tone
"Not if they know what's good for them" Anna remarked icily
"I think its Haru" Tamao said quietly
Sure enough they heard Haru's voice drift down the corridor.
"Anna where do you keep your first aid kit?"
"Room on your left, top shelf" Anna replied not taking her eyes off the TV.
"Why does he need a first aid kit?" asked Pilika puzzled
"How should I know?" Jun snapped
Just then Haru walk past and Tamao noticed the he was holding an unconscious girl on his left shoulder and had the first aid kit in his right hand.
"Who is that?" she gasped in surprise
Pilika turned round and to see what Tamao was talking about and her eyes widened in shock. "Hey Haru why have you…" but Haru just kept walking so Pilika got up and went to head him off and was followed by Tamao, Anna and a reluctant Jun.
Pilika ran and got in front of Haru and blocked his path. He looked down at her and asked, "What do you want?"
"Why are you carrying that girl on your shoulder?"
"Because if I carried her in both hands I wouldn't be able to hold the first aid kit"
"That's not what I meant"
"I know, now could you please move"
"Not until you tell me who she is"
"Huh… her names Mia and she was my last opponent in the preliminary matches"
"But the preliminary matches finished a few days ago"
"She challenged me to a rematch"
"You mean you did all that to her?" Jun cried in outrage
"Yes"
"Why did you bring her here?" Anna asked Haru giving him an cold glare.
I've been asking myself that same question the whole way here Haru thought to himself but instead he replied, "I was feeling generous"
"Yeah right" muttered Jun
"What ever, could you move now?" Haru directed his question to Pilika who was still blocking his way.
"What are you going to do with her?" Tamao asked meekly
"Well lets see, I've got a first aid kit in my right hand so I think I'll lay her down on a bed and slit her throat" Haru replied without turning round"
"You can't do that!" Tamao said in shock
"Really Tamao, you need to learn that not everyone means what they say" Anna told the pink haired girl disapprovingly "Now as for you" she directed her remark at Haru
"Hand the girl over to us and we'll take care of her,"
"Why would you want to take care of her?"
"I don't but you have better things to do, like teaching my Yoh that new ability"
"Fine" Haru shrugged and gave Mia to Jun who staggered under her weight and then handed Mia's weapons to Pilika.
"Hey be careful I nearly dropped her!" Jun told the black haired boy
"Do I look like I care?"
"You cared enough to carry her all the way here" Pilika told him
Haru ignored this and turned to face Anna "So where is Yoh?"
"He's up training at the graveyard"
Without another word Haru turned and headed out the door leaving behind a very pissed off Jun and an annoyed Anna.
Author: Wow eight chapters alreday i didn't think i'd get this farwhen i first started. i'm afraid i have some bad news for my readers, i'll be going away on holiday soon and i won't be anywhere near a computer for about amonth. so don't expext anyquick updates once we reach August. to try and make up for this andi'll try and download 2 or 3 chapters before i leave but i don't know how goodthey'll be so when i come back i mayedit them.thats just giving you some advanced warning
Mikauzoran: Glad you liked the chapter, I wasn't too sure of how good the flashback was but i guess it was okay, I haven't decided yet if Mia will play a major role although she probably will.I have been working on two or three chapters at the moment although they're not finished it looks like Hao unfortunatly will notappearuntil chapter 10 and after that he will be far more involved but the focus will not revolve around him.