Author: Major apologies for the late update but the week has been pretty hectic and I've been getting tonnes of homework, I was practically praying for the weekend and when it came it went a little something like this: Author(me) on computer starting to write new chapter, little brothers comes in and demands that I get off computer, 10 seconds later after giving little brother a thorough beating to teach him a lesson I sit back down and start typing again, little brother who is now in a mangled heap on the floor slowly crawls away and informs parents. Parents then come and demand that I get off computer. After a brief argument in which my little brother comes back in and starts shouting, my parents decide to ban both me and my little brother from the computer for the rest of the day. After much grumbling I finally get off the computer and write out the story long hand which takes most of the day as I continually cross things out or make notes so that I can't read what I've written, but finally I feel that I've done as well as I can and start typing it up by this time it is midnight and I am struggling to stay awake so apologies for any bad spelling or missing words, if they are really bad I will edit the chapter at a later date. Anyway enough pointless information on with the new chapter!

Chapter 15: A Night Out

"Master are you feeling alright" asked Zhou as he looked down on his master suspiciously.

"IfeelabosuletlyfineZhou" Haru said this one big rush, as he said this he was tapping his foot on the floor and twirling a pencil around his fingers so fast that it was a grey blur.

Zhou was worried now he had known Haru for more than ten years and he had never acted like this before, "master I believe you are ill I think you should go lie down"

"No,ItoldyouIfeelperfectlyfineIjustneedtoworkoffsomeenergythat'sall,youcanstayhere" Haru told his spirit companion in another rush of words. When he finished speaking he got out of his chair grabbed his weapon and headed outside.

"Mari get a camera, I have a feeling that we're not going to want to forget this"

"Macchi could you round everyone up I want everyone to be there"

"Kanna do you know any good bar's?"

As the Mari and Macchi went about their respective tasks Mia had a quick chat with Kanna and found out that the best bar in town was about ten minutes away right next an arcade.

"Perfect, now we just have to get Haru there" Mia said eagerly as she spun round to the spot that Haru had been occupying moments ago, "Hey where'd he go?"

Kanna glanced over Mia's shoulder and then noticed that the exit door was swinging shut.

"I think he just left" Kanna told Mia, "You better go catch up with him or we'll lose him"

"Right" said Mia as she headed out after Haru

Haru went downstairs and headed for the hotels "Recreational facility" which was practically a built in dojo/gym. He had stumbled onto it last night while he was searching for his room and it seemed like a good place to work off his extra energy.

The room was large and one wall was covered in mirrors, the wall opposite this one was padded for some reason although Haru couldn't understand why. Along the other two walls were sets of weights and fitness machines (treadmills, rowing machines, step master etc.). The middle of the room was completely empty and the floor was covered in crash mats so Haru assumed that it was meant for sparring, Haru stepped into the middle of the room and took off his coat and then started stretching.

When he finished he straightened up, the stretching should have calmed him down but he still felt extremely energetic, he headed over to the weights and was about to pick one up…

"What are you doing?" it was Mia; she had finally tracked him down and seemed a little out of breath.

Haru head jerked up as he heard the voice but as he saw who it was immediately lost interest and went back to the weights, selecting a particularly large one and lifting it easily over his head, he frowned and replaced the weight he was using and selected a even larger one.

"Hello, I am talking to you" Mia spoke again

Haru sighed; he suddenly felt a lot less energetic, he turned round to face her, "What do you want?" he asked

"I did ask what you were doing" Mia reminded him

"It's called exercise you should try it some time" Haru replied, he put the weight down and rubbed his temples he was starting to feel light headed and was having problems thinking properly.

"But that's boring, come on all of us are going out for the day and your coming with us" Mia told Haru firmly.

Haru leaned against a wall and took a deep breath, he was really having problems concentrating now and his mind was slowly processing Mia's words, "Why do you want me to come? I thought you hated me" Haru replied

Mia was slightly taken back by this response but inwardly she was smiling; she could see that the drug was taking affect, "I never said I hated you, besides when was the last time you had any fun?" she said persuasively

Haru was silent for a while and Mia was surprised to hear him laugh, "What's so funny?" she asked

"The last time I had any fun was back in the junkyard when I gave you a royal beating" Haru told Mia and chuckled when he saw her blush.

Mia face was scarlet but she quickly worked the situation to her advantage, "Well that was ages ago, come on you need to get out more"

Haru shrugged his shoulders and replied "Why not" the light-headed feeling he was experiencing was making him, for lack of a better word, happy. He grabbed his coat and followed Mia outside.

They quickly made their made their way to the entrance of the hotel to find the lobby completely empty except for a sleeping hotel employee behind the front desk.

"Huh? Where is everybody I thought they'd be here by now" Mia said almost to herself, "I wonder if they've already left?"

"Why don't you ask him" Haru gestured at the sleeping man behind the front desk who was starting to drool, "He's obviously the observant type" Haru said his voice heavy with sarcasm but somewhat lighter than usual.

Mia stared at him for a few seconds; he really was acting different, not drunk but just… what had Macchi said? Oh yeah cheery.

"Hello anybody home?" Haru asked as he waved a hand in front of her face. Mia started, "Huh? What the? How did you get over here!" Mia exclaimed in surprise; a second ago he had been halfway across the room leaning against the front desk.

Haru's mouth formed into a small smile, "Like this" he said and at the same time he grabbed her hand and they both vanished in a gust of wind and reappeared back at the front desk.

Mia heart was beating fit to burst and she could feel the adrenaline coursing through her body, she'd never experienced something like that before; it was like they had run a mile in a few seconds but she wasn't at all tired.

"What was that?" she asked him breathlessly, she looked up at him waiting for an answer but she only saw him grin slightly, the rest of his face was obscured by his hair.

Haru suddenly brought his fist down on the front desk, startling Mia and waking up the sleeping employee who jerked up and started talking frantically

"I wasn't sleeping I was just resting my eyes, you can't prove anything…" the guy stopped talking when he heard Mia and Haru laughing at him, "Hey what's going on?" he asked suspiciously.

Haru was the first one to calm down and said, "Sorry to distract you from your busy schedule but we were wondering if anyone else had left the hotel?"

The employee scowled he didn't like being mocked by some punk who didn't seem to know the meaning of the word 'haircut' and was about to tell them to get lost but changed his mind suddenly, "Why yes actually I saw a group of people leave about 10 minutes ago"

"Aw man we missed them, come on I know where they're going" Mia said as she dragged Haru out of the hotel and down the road"

"Good riddance" the guy muttered before he went back to sleep.

"Come on your going!" Macchi told Peyote and she placed her hands on her hips as the guy didn't budge, "Did you hear me? Come on!"

"Who do you think your talking to?" Peyote replied in a dangerously calm voice; he was in a real bad mood ever since Kanna had had a little "chat" with him and while he might take that from Kanna there was no way he would take it from this sugar high squirt, "You are in no position to make me go anywhere and if you don't leave me alone right now you're going to find yourself in the pool with a new pair of cement shoes" this was a long speech for Peyote who normally answered questions in as few words as possible but he was in a bad mood, he got a feeling of satisfaction when he saw Macchi back off, although Hao would never let him carry out his threat there was no reason for Macchi to know that, especially since he was known to be completely ruthless in battle and injure both friend and foe.

"Having trouble with something Macchi?" it was Kanna; she had overheard the two arguing and had decided to help Macchi out.

"Yeah Peyote's being a real jerk he won't move" Macchi informed the older girl

Kanna raised an eyebrow at this, "Really? And here I was thinking Peyote liked a free beer…"

Peyote's head jerked up at this; Macchi hadn't mentioned anything about a free drink, "Where exactly are we going?"

Kanna smirked as she heard this, "Macchi go and round up some of the others, Peyote will meet you downstairs.

Macchi gave a mock salute and dashed off to find the rest of group, after a few minutes of wandering around she hears the dreaded music of the Boz and headed in their direction; they may be complete idiots but when it comes to having a good time or when you just wanted to see something crazy there was no one better than Zen and Ryo.

As Macchi got nearer the source of the noise she suddenly hears another voice

"Will you two ever shut up!" this was followed by an explosion which caused one of the walls to be vaporised, literally, and Macchi saw Zen and Ryo crumpled on the floor with anime spirals in their eyes, amazingly none of their equipment was broken. As Macchi looked away from the two crumpled 'musicians' she saw a rather angry looking Turbine who was standing about 10 feet away, his left arm was raised and was still glowing slightly from the force of his attack.

Turbine was normally a pretty calm guy but having to listen the Boz for more than 15 minutes will pretty much make anyone pissed off.

After making sure that Turbine had calmed down sufficiently so that he wouldn't try and blow her up when she started talking Macchi approached Turbine and told him that everyone was going down to a bar and then to make fun of Haru. Turbine was silent for a few minutes and then Macchi added that their might be free drinks, Turbine nodded his head at this and went to the hotel lobby to wait for everyone else.

Macchi then turned her attention to the Boz and after making they weren't dead started kicking them viciously in the ribs until they woke up. When they finally regained consciousness she told them that they were going out to get drunk and that they could pull any pranks they wanted on Haru. The Boz were delighted to hear this because Hao had banned them from playing any pranks ever since a very unfortunate event which consisted of: a scheming Zen and Ryo, a shotgun loaded with rubber bullets, a rubber chicken, a pile of white feathers, some oil, a lighter, a flash camera, an Extremely pissed off Hao, and a little later a medium/well done cooked Boz.

After Macchi had finished talking to the Boz convincing everyone else to come was a piece of cake as they were all bored out of their minds since their nothing for them to do at the hotel, the only person she hadn't managed to convince was Luca who was in the middle of some strange experiment and had threatened to give her a lecture on 'the danger of micro organisms' if she didn't leave him alone, since Luca's lectures were held in greater fear than the Boz's music Macchi decided to back off.

When Macchi finally made it back to the hotel lobby she saw that just everyone was waiting there, but she couldn't see Haru or Mia anywhere.

"Macchi have you Mia or Haru?" Kanna asked her red haired companion. Macchi shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

"Nope I ain't seen them anywhere" Macchi replied.

Kanna cursed silently, this was turning into one big headache, "I knew I should have gone with her, they've probably gotten lost"

"Kanna, Mia and Haru have already left" said Opacho as he approached Kanna from behind.

"Huh? How do you know that?" Kanna asked

Opacho gestured to the front desk where the same hotel employee from earlier was still sitting, only know he was wide and had a very scared look on his face, which was probably caused by the fact that Bill was towering over the guy and was doing his best to act intimidating, "Opacho asked that man" the child said simply

Kanna glanced over and noticed the guy Opacho was talking about, she also saw Bill, "And he just told you straight away did he?" Kanna asked slowly

"No he insulted Opacho so then Opacho had Bill ask and also told Bill to give him a lesson in manners" Opacho said with slight smile

Kanna laughed at this, she had seen Bill angry once and it was not a pretty sight and Bill looked really angry right now, Kanna almost felt sorry for the guy

Almost

"Come on it's this way" Mia told Haru as she proceeded to drag him around the city, Haru actually knew that they were lost because he had been through this part of the city the other night and knew that it went to the harbour, ordinarily he would said something to Mia along with a few choice insults, but right now he didn't really care, besides it was amusing watching the expression on her face every time they went around the corner and failed to find the bar.

"I know it's around here somewhere" Mia muttered to herself as they went down yet another street and groaned as she saw that it was completely deserted; it looked as though they had found their way into the industrial sector of the city.

"You don't think we might be lost do you?" Haru asked in an annoying smug voice

"We're not lost!" Mia told him angrily, how is it she thought to herself that even when he's drugged he still manages to annoy me?

"Of course not how stupid of me, so then you do know where we are?" Haru continued in the same smug tone.
Mia remained silent but continued walking until they came to a crossroad.
"Perhaps if we went left" Haru suggested, Mia immediately went right and Haru ended up staring at her back for a few seconds until he snapped out of it and went to catch up.
When they came to the next cross roads Haru again suggested that they go left and once again Mia completely ignored him and went in the opposite direction, she continued to do this for about 15 minutes until finally she came to a dead end.
"So are we done sight seeing?" Haru asked her amiably as he caught up with her, because if we are I sincerely hope you know the way out of here because now I'm lost as well"
Mia was getting angry now the whole purpose of this scheme had been to humiliate Haru but he had somehow reversed it so that she was the one who was humiliated.

"well, well, well what have we got here boys? Looks like a couple of lost tourists"

Haru and Mia turned round and saw that the way out of the alley was now blocked by a group of about seven thugs each of whom looked as though they had just come out of a punk rock concert.

"What do you want?" Mia asked knowing full well what the answer would be

"Well girl you and your boyfriend are trespassing on our turf so either you give $100 or we beat the crap out of you right boys?" as the leader finished speaking several members of the group pulled out various blunt instruments which included metal pipes, chains and a few knuckle dusters.

At the 'boyfriend' remark both Mia and Haru turned and looked at each other and then back at the gang.

"Him?" Mia said in disbelief, which quickly turned to anger

"Her?" Haru asked with a scowl, his newfound good humour quickly evaporating

"If you haven't got any money then we'll have to do this the hard way, personally I prefer it that way, all right lets get them" he told the group and the thugs rushed towards Haru and Mia.

Haru seeing the thugs come rushing towards just stood his ground and waited for them to come to him, although he didn't have his sword he had studied martial arts for 8 years and Zhou had been a great teacher, as the thugs got closer Haru shifted his stance and bent his legs slightly in order to lower his centre of gravity. Just before the first thug got in range Haru saw Mia rush past him. As she reached the thug she flipped onto her hands and did a type of cartwheel so that her feet connected with guys skull, as he went down he dropped the metal pipe he had been about to use and Mia quickly picked it up and then went to work on the rest of the gang.

As Haru watched Mia fighting he had to admit that she had improved since he had fought her; her reflexes seemed sharper since she was able to evade every attack easily and her attacks seemed more calculated then when he beaten, she no longer attacking at random but was waiting for an opening and then striking home viscously.

As Haru was watching he noticed that the first guy Mia had knocked down was getting slowly back to their feet, Haru saw the guy scowl at Mia who had just knocked three of the thugs off their feet, the guy then pulled out a length of chain and started to swing it around his head letting it pick up speed, Haru then noticed that the chain had a heavy weight attached at the end so that it resembled a manriki-gusari (look up on google if you don't know what this is). As the thug started to close in Mia Haru realized that she wouldn't see him until it was too late.

Mia was extremely pissed off, not only had she managed to get lost with what she considered to be one of the most annoying people on earth but these creeps had actually thought he was her boyfriend, as if! She had to teach them a lesson. So before Haru had gotten a move in she had charged the thugs; first knocking out the first one by flipping onto her hands and launching her feet at his head and the guy dropped like a stone, Mia paused for a moment to pick up a metal pipe and then went to take on the rest of the goons using a combination acrobatics, martial arts and plain old aggression.

Mia suddenly heard a noise from behind her and spun round to see a heavy chain moving in a collision course with her face, she didn't have any time to react and just shut eyes waiting for the impact…

"Hey let go!"

Mia opened her eyes and saw Haru standing next to her his arm wrapped around the chain about an inch from her head the thug was vainly trying to pull the chain back. Haru turned and saw Mia staring at him.

"What? Didn't think I'd let you have all the fun did you?" he said with a wry grin

Mia came out of her daze and replied, "not much left for you to have fun with"

"Look behind you" Haru told her

Mia turned round and saw that there were now at least twenty thugs standing in the alleyway, they had heard the fight and come to check it out and seemed pretty angry when they saw most of her friend lying on the ground unconscious.

"Bet you I can take out more than you" Mia said grinning at Haru

"Your on" as Haru said this he a felt tug on his arm and realised that the chain was still wrapped around it he looked at the thug who was yanking on the chain and he got a sudden sense of déjà vu, he grinned and gave the chain a sharp pull which caused the thug to come flying toward him and Haru landed a kick on the guy's oncoming face.

Haru looked up from his little one on one battle and saw that Mia had already taken down 6 of the thugs, damn I'm going to have to work fast he thought to himself. He took off his coat and launched himself at the goons avoiding blows easily and landing a few good ones of his own. As Haru was fighting he realised that he was starting to win their little contest; this was mainly because Mia was just trying to hit as many guys as she could reach, while she was taking down a lot of them they would just shake their heads and then get back up. Haru on the other had trained by a samurai and the samurai style of fighting was designed to kill your opponent in as few moves as possible, while Haru wasn't actually going as far as that he was making sure that his opponents stayed down.

10 minutes later all thugs were either running or were unconscious, Haru and Mia leaned against opposite walls each trying to catch their breath they had both worked up quite a sweat.

Haru wiped his wet hair out of his eyes and looked at Mia, "Now that was fun" he panted and smiled at her.

Mai looked at him and was about to reply but instead she just stared him; it was the first time she had gotten a good look at his face, normally his hair would cover his eyes and pretty much mask the top half of his face, but looking at him now he almost seemed to be a different person, with his hair pushed back she got a look at his eyes for the time and saw that they were a rich ice blue colour, she also noticed he looked really cute when he smiled.

"Your gonna pay for that!", the leader of the thugs had managed to get back to his feet and was shaking his fist at them.

"How exactly are we going to 'pay for it'? We just took down all your friends" Haru told the gang leader.

"Yeah and I just beat the crap out of you" Mia added

"You little brat, all right lets see what you think about this" the gang leader then pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket and aimed it at Mia, "Not so smug now are you"

Haru and Mia remained silent both of them staring at the gang leader abruptly Haru grinned, "You can't shoot us" he said in an amused tone

"Oh yeah who's gonna stop me, you?" the thug directed his remark to Mia who also smiling now and this unnerved the thug a bit.

"Nope, not us, him" Mia indicated behind the thug and the guy noticed that there was now a big shadow covering him, slowly he turned round and came face to midriff with what seemed like a brick wall, the guy craned his head to look straight up and took in the blue vest, the spiked shoulder pads and the red helmet, the guy and took an involuntarily step back.

"Hi there" Bill said in an emotionless tone, his hand reached out and covered the gang leaders gun and started to crush it, the thug gave a cry of surprise and was only just able to extract his hand before his fingers were broken.

Bill finished crushing the gun with one hand and dropped the scrap metal onto the floor at the thugs feet.

"You weren't planning on shooting those two were you?" a dangerous tone had entered Bills voice now and the Thug backed up a few more steps and he noticed that there were several more people behind the oversized football player and he noticed that they were all giving him a very nasty expression.

"No sir, not me" the thug responded in a cowering voice retreating a few steps more, but then Bill picked him up by his head and brought to eye level, "I don't like liars" he told the thug and then threw him against a wall, the guy hit the wall and then slid down it into a dumpster and the lid closed ontop of him.

"you guys ok?" it was Kanna she had appeared from behind Bill who was now leaning on the lid of the dumpster.

"we're fine but why did you guys leave without us?" Mia asked

"We didn't, that guy back at the hotel lied to you, apparently he didn't like your attitude" Kanna said this while staring at Haru, who just shrugged

"And I didn't like his work ethics so big deal, is he still there?" Haru asked

"actually he had this strange urge to leave as soon as he finished talking to Bill over there, he seems quite protective of you" Kanna informed them

Now it was Bills turn to shrug, "Hey, someone's gotta look out for the newbies"

"Hey where's everyone else?" Mia asked suddenly

"Oh we split up, we were all meant to look for you but I'm guessing most of them have already gotten to the bar, Macchi's promised nearly all of them a free drink, but she doesn't have any money so I don't know how she's gonna pay for them, incidentally what are you two doing all the way out here? This is miles away from where I told you to go"

"Mia thought it would be good to get some sight seeing in before we went isn't that right Mia?" Haru said with a cheerful grin

Mia mumbled something under her breath that was inaudible to others, "why are we just standing around here? Lets get to the bar and meet up with everyone else, come on lets go!"

Author: sorry for the late update again even though I finished it on the weekend my computer has been having problems connecting to the internet so I finally saved a copy and put it onto a friends computer and uploaded it that way.

Ok this was longer then I intended it to be so I decided to cut it off here, so sorry no Macro bashing this time if you were waiting for it, but definitely in the next chapter. I realise that I have been neglecting Yoh and company so I will try and bring them back in the next chapter as well.

Also I remind you that I do not have as much free time now so at most you'll be looking at one update per week, sorry but I just have too much work to do.

To my Reviewer(s)

Mikauzoran: glad you liked the last chapter, I will strive to make the make next just as good if not better, I'm enjoying Torn by Thorns you've managed to give it a few interesting plot twists.

devilicous-jo: glad you enjoyed the last chapter, I was stuck for a while trying to come up with side effects but then I saw my sister after she'd decided to have my dads coffee and it just seemed obvious from there.

Shackle: I totally agree school isn't a place to learn it's just hell with fluorescent lighting (although my cousin says the same thing about his office job) also about the extra sister comment, you'll be pleased to know that I've come up with another OC who at the beginning will be very strong but I'm not sure when they'll make their appearance

HAO-Addictive: as I have said before I no longer have a lot of time to update my story, but unless I say otherwise I am still working on it, don't worry come the holidays I'll have a lot more time to work on it, keep sending in those positive reviews though I like to know that people are enjoying my story

Zeke yoh asakura: It's good to hear from new reviewers thanks for the positive reviews, it really keeps me inspired and makes me want to work on the story.

Sweetlips: finally another new reviewer excellent, I'm glad that more people are taking the time to tell me what they think, it makes me feel that I'm doing something right (for once) anyway I hope you keep reviewing, I don't mind if they're anonymous.

CyberWarrior: and another new reviewer, finally I'm getting through to my readers, as to your request I think that you can tell by this chapter that I am intending some MiaXHaru romance so you don't have anything to worry about, I hope you keep reviewing!

To everyone else who has yet to do so Please REVIEW!