Chapter 16: What Happened?
BEEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
SMASH!
Haru's fist came down on the alarm clock cracking the casing and causing the ear-piecing wake up call to turn into a dull whine. Slowly Haru rolled over on his bed and opened one blood shot eye and looked around, it seemed that he was in his room although it could be have any other room in the hotel because they all looked the same. Looking over at the bedside clock Haru couldn't make out the time because he had inadvertently crushed the annoying machine, which had just given him the most colossal headache of his life.
What the hell happened? He thought to himself as he struggled out of bed, he got up and saw that he was only wearing a very battered pair of jeans. He tried to stand up but couldn't seem to keep his balance at the moment so he sat down on the bed with his head in his hands and waited for the headache to fade, he then tried to remember what he had been doing.
He thought back to last night but couldn't seem to come up anything, he went back further to around midday but his memory was still fogged, getting worried now he thought back to the morning and was relieved that he could remember that:
He had completed Hao's task and had given him the strange crystal and Hao had given him back his weapon and …Zhou!
"Zhou?" Haru enquired quickly as the thought struck him, he spoke a little too loudly and this caused his headache to come rushing back. Immediately the faithful spirit appeared in front of is master and bowed.
"What do require master?" Zhou asked as he straightened up and then looked down puzzled as he saw Haru cradling his head in hands, "Master are you alright?"
"Don't talk so loudly" Haru winced as he spoke, he'd never had a headache like this before
"My apologies master is this better?" Zhou enquired with a whisper
"Yes, thank you, Zhou what happened yesterday evening? I can't remember" Haru told his faithful companion.
"I do not know master" Zhou replied still keeping his voice barely above a whisper.
"Don't tell me you can't remember either" Haru said a despairing tone voice
"No master I don't know because you ordered me to remain here" Zhou looked uncertainly at his master unused to seeing this type of behaviour from Haru
"I did? Are you sure?" even as Haru asked this he cursed himself for saying it; Zhou was…had been, a man of honour and would never lie about anything, the mere suggestion that he was lying would put him in a sulking mood for days.
Sure enough Zhou face frowned and he replied in a voice that could best be judged as indignant, "I would not lie to you master"
"I know Zhou, I'm not feeling well at moment, don't take it personally. Would please tell me what happened before I ordered you to stay here? Oh and you can stop whispering now"
"You were eating and explaining how you had come to join the one you called Hao, you were acting very strangely and when I remarked upon this you said that you were fine and that I should remain behind while you left to train"
"What do you mean 'acting strangely'?" Haru queried
Zhou frowned for a moment before replying, "Master do you remember when you visited you cousins in France?"
Haru buried his face in his hands, "Please tell me I didn't act like Jenny"
Zhou's face twitched for a moment into a small smile and he hesitated before he replied, this moment of hesitation made Haru look up and Zhou was extremely amused by the uncertain look on his face.
"Zhou please tell me that I did not act like my hormone controlled, boy crazy cousin" Haru said slowly
Again Zhou hesitated in replying and a small smile worked its way onto his scarred face, Haru noticed this and just as Zhou was about to reply he said sharply
"On your Honour Zhou tell me truthfully"
Zhou's grin immediately vanished and was replaced by a small sigh, "No master you didn't, I was referring to your younger cousin John, however I cannot speak for events after that" again a small grin worked it's way onto Zhou's face
Haru visibly relaxed, ok one less thing to worry about, so I was just acting a little hyperactive, that's not too bad, he thought to himself wait a minute! "Zhou what do you mean by 'events after that'?"
Zhou didn't answer, instead he indicated to the mirror in the bathroom. Haru didn't like the look on his face but went over to the mirror none the less.
Haru took a deep breath and looked in the mirror; all in all it wasn't as bad as it could have been. What looked back at him was Haru but there had been a few changes; his hair was no longer pitch black but had bleached so that it was now blond. As he pushed his hair back he also saw that someone had shaved his eyebrows off and applied mascara to his face in a childish manner, there was also something that looked suspiciously like smudged lipstick on both of his cheeks. Haru slowly wiped off the lipstick off with one finger and held it under his nose; it smelled faintly of sugar, the lipstick on the other cheek smelt of roses; so there had been two girls. Haru sighed as he washed his face, although he didn't show it he was extremely pissed off, it normally took quite a lot to get him angry, like when Hao had stolen his parents amulet; it was the only thing he had to remember his parents by. His father had made it for his mother on their wedding anniversary, originally it had been gold heart which had been split in two and put on separate chains with half for Haru's father and the other for Haru's mother. After they had been killed it was only thing Zahra had been able to obtain from their bodies. When Haru had put the two halves on himself they had somehow become fused together and the shape of the amulet had changed from a heart to the yin-yang symbol. Since that day Haru had found the amulet to be a powerful spirit medium, somehow the amulet was able to store furyoku, which Haru could then call upon in battle or any other emergency. Thinking of his parents Haru's left hand unconsciously went to grab the amulet, which wasn't there…
Haru looked down quickly and sure enough his amulet was missing, the silver chain still hung around his neck but the amulet itself had gone. Rage instantly flooded through Haru but quickly faded when his headache returned with full force. He grasped the edge of the sink and just stood still for a few seconds. He had to think, he couldn't just go charging off. He'd done that last time and had ended up with a royal beating, no he would have to think, and that meant he had to find out what happened last night. As he thought this his headache proceeded to run rampant inside his skull and he was forced to sit down for a few minutes until it faded.
He could find out what happened later, firstly he had to get rid of his headache
As Haru left his room he proceeded to wander down the halls toward the kitchen to get some coffee. As he made his way down the hallway he heard two voices coming towards him and they were precisely the two people he did not want meet when he already had a headache.
"Man that was great party!" Ryo told his fellow musician
"Yeah I know, I got know idea how Macchi managed to pay for all those drinks I thought she was broke" Zen replied
"Hey don't complain, Hao even let us pull some pranks, I mean I thought he'd never get over that rubber chicken thing" Ryo immediately started laughing as he remember what Hao had looked like at the end of, Zen however winced as he remembered what Hao had done to them after their little prank.
"Yeah but I don't understand why they wouldn't let me use my first ideas they would have been so much cooler!" Zen said in frustration
Ryo laughed and shook his head at this, "Bro let me put it this way, having a flamethrower in a bar would not end well, trust me"
At this point the Boz came round the corner and almost walked into Haru, the Boz took in the bleached hair and the shaved eyebrows as well as the bloodshot eyes and they smirked slightly.
"Hey Haru how ya doing?" Ryo said in a louder voice than usual, Haru in response winced and put one hand on his temple.
"Could you please be quiet" Haru moaned as he rubbed his temples
"Ya you don't look to good" Zen told him in a loud voice; picking up on Ryo's idea.
"Well what do you expect? The kids got a hangover, he did have a drinking contest with Kanna" Ryo commented with a chuckle
"Hey that reminds me you owe me twenty bucks" Zen told Ryo
"No I don't, you bet that he wouldn't be conscious when he lost, he just kinda fell over it doesn't count" Ryo protested
Haru left the two 'musicians' to their argument and slowly made his way to the kitchen only to find Bill and ZanChin already there, both of them looked liked they had seen better days.
"Remind me never to do that again" ZanChin groaned from seat
"What he said" Bill replied and he poured the last of the coffee into his cup and drank it.
"Please tell me that's not the last of coffee" Haru moaned as he slowly made his way to the table.
Both of them looked at Haru and took in the bleached hair, "What happened to you?" Bill asked
"I don't know, is there any more coffee?" Haru said quietly
"Afraid not" Bill told him, "We sent Opacho off for more but I don't know when he'll get back.
"Perhaps Luca could help you he has a wide range of medicine" ZanChin offered.
Luca was in his room sitting at a desk on top of which was a whole series of beakers, vials and other fragile scientific equipment; every few minutes he would stir the contents of one vial before pouring it into another and then write down some notes in a large blue book, his movements were slow and controlled. A timer started beeping on the edge of the desk and Luca looked up and saw the time; he'd been up all night working on his experiment and he had almost come to the end. Leaning forward he carefully removed a vial that had been under a flame for about five hours, gripping it with a pair of tongs he got up slowly and walked over to the other side of the room where what looked like a large black cauldron was sitting on top of another table; it was full of a dark red liquid that looked quite a lot like blood except blood didn't give off blue smoke. As Luca approached the cauldron he held the vial over the mouth of the cauldron and very delicately started to tilt the vial so that only a drop of liquid would fall into the cauldron.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Distracted by the noise Luca ended up pouring the entire contents of the vial into the cauldron which promptly exploded and covered him in black smoke, Luca sighed and raised his eyes to the ceiling, "What did I do to deserve this?" and then added in a louder voice "The doors not locked"
Haru opened the door and stepped inside, "Did I interrupt something?"
"Yes as a matter of fact you did, you are now the second person to interrupt my experiment in under 48 hours and at both times I have been on the verge of completing the experiment, but no matter I am sure that you have much more pressing problems than my life's work" Luca said his voice heavy with sarcasm
Haru winced slightly as Luca raised his voice and said, "calm down, did you ever think of using one of those 'do not disturb signs' they do have them for a reason you know or you could move to another room that way people wouldn't be able to bother you"
Luca stared at him for a second, those ideas had not occurred to him although now he thought about it seemed to be a completely reasonable thing to do, he yawned and rubbed his eyes he was going to have to start getting some more sleep it had been nearly three days since he had last slept, that was probably why he wasn't thinking straight.
Luca then looked more closely at Haru and noticed that there was something different about him but he couldn't put his finger on it, "Did you cut your hair?" he asked
Haru shot him a glare that looked as if it could kill, "That's not funny" he said in a dead tone of voice.
Luca was taken back slightly and then suddenly realised what was different about Haru and it dawned on him what happened, "Ah let me guess you decided to go out with the rest of the group last night and got drunk and someone decided to have some amusement at your expense"
Haru walked over and sat down in a chair and put his head in his hands, "all I remember is waking up in my room this morning with the biggest headache of my life, I was told you had some medicine?"
Luca sighed and went over to his shelves, normally he would have given Haru a lecture about how people these days were always drinking too much and how it affected them later in life but he remembered that he was probably responsible for what happened to Haru last night and he felt guilty.
"Here you are" Luca told Haru as he set down some pills and a glass of water, "take those, they should take affect almost instantly"
Haru did as he was told and as soon as he swallowed the pills he felt a pervading coolness which started in his stomach and slowly made it's way up to his head where it just seemed to wipe the headache away, he sighed and leaned back in the chair, "Finally, that was the worst headache I have ever had"
"You should be more careful about how much you drink, going out with the Hanagumi was exactly the smartest idea" Luca told him semi sternly
Haru frowned, "did you say the Hanagumi? That's not right, why would I go anywhere with them?" Haru seemed to be talking to himself but he noticed something flicker across Luca's face for a second as he spoke, Haru wasn't sure but it looked like guilt.
"Luca, exactly what happened last night?" Haru asked the older man in an inquisitive voice
"I'm afraid I don't know, I spent last night here working on my experiment" again something that same expression flickered across Luca's face when he finished talking.
"You know something don't you Luca" It was statement not a question and Luca did not respond
Finally Luca said "I'm afraid I can't tell you" he sighed and went over to the bench where all of his scientific apparatus was standing.
"Can't or won't?" Haru replied
Luca seemed to shrink slightly when he heard this, if Hao had not forbidden him from revealing what he had done he would have told him in an instant, Luca was not proud of what he had done but he could not go against Hao, unless…
"As I have told you Haru I was not there so I do not know what occurred, however I do believe that Macchi and Mari were taking photos, they may have left them in their rooms I suppose you could go and check…" Luca stopped speaking as he turned round to face Haru and frowned in puzzlement when he saw that he was no longer there, he then notice his door was slowly closing on it's automatic arm and he smiled to himself.
"Aww man why does it have to be so hot out here?" Horo moaned to the others as they continued through the desert. They had been travelling for over a week and they were still not sure where Patch village was, getting side tracked by the Lily 5 every 10 minutes didn't exactly help their sense of direction.
"Would you stop moaning!" Ren shouted at Horo, "We're in the desert what did you think it was going to be like.. Hey Get Off Me!" Ren yelled as Horo started to hang onto him
"Carry me" Horo pleaded as he continued to hang on to the increasing angry Chinese shaman, "I can't walk anymore, OWW! Ren had just delivered a bone-jarring fist to Horo's face and he was now lying crumpled on the ground.
"Asakura do you have any idea where we're going?" Ren asked as he saw Yoh walking off in the distance.
"What a foolish thing to say! Of course master Yoh knows where he is going" Ryu said in outrage to Ren's question. However Yoh stopped walking and turned back to face them and rubbed the back of his head.
"Uh actually I have no idea where we are" He admitted with an embarrassed smile both Ren and Ryu sweat dropped.
"Man there has got to be some civilisation somewhere, I can't face camping in the desert again" Horo wailed
"But I thought you liked camping?" Choco asked with a confused look on his face.
"Yeah but we've run out food, I can't live without at least 20 candy bars, 30, Popsicles, 50 burgers and 30 gallons of cola"
"Hey your making it sound worse than it is" Yoh told the ice shaman, "I mean we're not really out of food, Faust could probably make us something again"
"I am not eating another cactus" Horo told the other shaman darkly
"I do not know what you are complaining about, in Deutschland my cooking was considered to be of the highest quality, Eliza adored cooking" Faust told the sulking shaman
"Yeah and look at what happened to her" Horo mumbled under his breath
Luckily for Horo Faust didn't hear this as he was too busy staring lovingly into the eyes of his wife Eliza.
Seriously man calm down I thought you were supposed to be 'cool' ha get it? Choco laughed as he beamed at the rest of the group but was quickly struck down as both Ren and Horo slammed a fist on top of his head.
"What did I tell you about trying to make jokes?" Ren hissed through his teeth.
"Um guys this isn't exactly helping us right now" Yoh told the group
"Master Yoh is right we need to concentrate on finding Patch village" Ryu replied.
The group sat down in a circle and started thinking, two hours later they were still there.
"Arrgh! This isn't working!" Horo said in frustration as he jumped up and grabbed his head.
"On the contrary Ainu I have just come up with a plan which is fool proof" Ren told Horo. The group all turned and stared at him waiting for explanation. Ren turned to Horo.
"Which way do you think Patch village is?" Ren asked Horo
"Huh? Why are you asking me?" Horo asked confused
"Just answer the question" Ren replied
"Um ok let me think" Horo spun round in a circle and then stopped pointed, "It's that way!" he exclaimed.
"Ok then we will go this way" and Ren started walking in the opposite direction.
"What but that's not what I said!" Horo shouted
"My point exactly" Ren responded, "As I said my plan is fool proof, now are the rest of you pathetic excuses for shaman coming?"
Before Ren had taken two more steps a bullet shot into the ground right in front of his foot, he looked around quickly for the attacker and saw Macchi and Mari approaching.
"Hiya!" Macchi said in her usual hyped up voice, "Guess who?"
"What are you doing here?" Ren growled, the gang had faced the Hanagumi before and had gotten their butts kicked, Ren was still quite sore about the whole thing
"Master Hao say Mari fight so Mari is here to fight" the blonde haired shaman replied
"Uh could you run that by me again" Yoh said in a confused voice
"Basically Hao thinks you guys are having it to easy" Macchi told the group, "So he wants us to teach you a lesson"
"Hey weren't there three of you last time?" Horo asked
Macchi frowned as she heard this, "Kanna couldn't make she had too much too drink, anyway we shouldn't have too much trouble with you guys" as she said this Macchi pulled out Jack and Mari put chuck on the ground. The two dolls immediately came to life and started walking towards the SK gang.
"Attack" the two girls said in unison.
Haru had found Macchi's room first and although it had been locked the room wasn't airtight so he had no problem getting in. He quickly examined her room, the first thing he noticed was his wallet lying on her dressing table, Haru picked it up and knew just from the weight of it that nearly all the money was gone, he looked inside anywhere and saw a few white moths come flying out. Needless to say this did not improve his mood. As he went over the room he found half a pack of photos in the draw of the bedside table.
They were innocent enough to start with, mainly pictures of the group sitting at various tables drinking beers or in Opacho case cartons of milk. There were a few photos which showed Turbine whipping Bill at pool. Looking at the pictures it appeared everyone had had quite a lot to drink; there was one photo which showed Kana surrounded by a mountain of empty beer bottles and after that a particularly amusing photo of the Boz getting kicked out of the bar by Kana while they had their musical equipment; obviously they had tried to perform one of their 'songs' and had been justly punished.
Then as Haru got halfway through the pack he noticed that the photos seemed to consist mainly of Hao with either Macchi or Mari lying ontop of him and looking as if they were practicing CPR among other things…
Haru rolled his eyes at this and flicked through those picture quickly those girls need a different hobby, he thought to himself, he was beginning to notice a pattern here, except for the group photos neither he nor Mia seemed to appear anywhere in the photo's.
Finally at the end of the pack in the last 5 photos Haru found what he was looking for, the photos showed what appeared to be Haru, unconscious and in various stages of a makeover as Haru went over the pictures his expression got darker and darker, then he heard someone chuckle, this was not a good thing because in Haru's current state of mind although he would not kill anybody he had no qualms whatsoever about crippling someone for life.
Haru turned round and too his shock saw Zhou leaning over his shoulder his frame shaking from the force of the laughs.
"I always wondered why you were camera shy master" the old warrior spirit said in between chuckles
"Zhou..." Haru said dangerously
"Calm down master, surely your not going to get embarrassed over this childish prank?"
"I'm not embarrassed, I'm angry" Haru replied darkly
"You are also embarrassed master, I've known you long to tell how you're feeling, do not allow this childish act to get to you, merely ignore it or better yet laugh at it, isn't there a saying which states, 'learning to laugh at yourself is a sign of maturity'
Upon hearing these words Haru took a deep breath and seemed to calm down somewhat. "I suppose your right old friend, I shouldn't let this get to me"
Zhou nodded approvingly.
"However no one is perfect…", Zhou started shaking his head "…and I think I have just remembered a better saying, ' don't get mad, get even' and that is exactly what I intend to do but first I need to check something" Haru placed the photos back and went over to another dresser and pulled out a purse.
"Master what are you doing?" Zhou asked in a puzzled tone
"Testing a theory" Haru replied he started searching the purse and found some red lipstick, he took off the cap and held it under his nose, sugar, I thought as much, then the other one was probably Mari, when I find those two… Haru allowed this train of thought to drift away as heard someone coming down the hall. He quickly replaced the purse and photos and slamming the drawers shut as he did so and quickly left the room. As Haru left one of the drawers below the one he had slammed slowly slid open in and inside you could see a brown envelope marked "Blackmail Photo's"
Once outside the room Haru turned round a corner and almost walked over Opacho who had been coming the opposite way.
"Haru should watch where he is going" the child remarked
"Opacho where are Mari and Macchi?" Haru replied
"Why does Haru wish to know?" Opacho asked nervously
"I think you know why Opacho and I also think that you know I am not in the mood for games so where are they" Haru repeated his question
"Come on guys we can take'em!" Horo shouted as he ran and attacked Macchi pumpkin headed doll.
"Yeah right in your dreams" Macchi replied, "Get him Jack!" the Pumpkin headed doll grew in size and pulled out two razor knives and proceeded to hack and slash at Horo and Rio and Yoh, while Chuck proceeded to shoot holes through Faust, Choco and Ren. The fight went on for about 20 minutes and although Yoh and the gang were managing to hold their own they were quickly running out of furyoku.
"Come on Mari Let's finish'em" Macchi told the Blonde haired doll master.
"Jack, Trick or Treat Attack" Macchi told the pumpkin headed doll
"Billy the Kid" Mari informed chuck.
The two dolls immediately ran forward; Jack produced two large bombs from behind his back and threw them at the SK gang creating a wall of smoke, while Chuck proceeded to fire bullets at an inhumanly fast rate.
When the smoke cleared the SK gang were still standing but they had all lost spirit control and were out of furyoku.
"Damn it" Ren said and proceeded to curse in Chinese.
"Aw man I can't believe this" Horo moaned
"My beloved Eliza" Faust said mournfully
"Yoh you really need to get stronger, that what Hao wants us to show you, otherwise you won't make it through the third round at patch village, oh yeah he also said that you gotta hurry up or you might not make it to Patch village in time, let's go Mari…Mari?" Macchi quickly looked round for her companion and saw that she had already started to leave.
"Hey! Wait for me!" Macchi shouted and sprinted along to catch up with her friend, the SK gang all sweat dropped.
"Mari, wait up slow down!" Macchi panted as she finally caught up with her friend, they were now walking through a stone canyon which was filled with various ledges and caves.
"Why are you in such a bad mood?" Macchi asked
"Mari had too much to drink" Mari replied
"Why didn't you do and see Luca then" Macchi said
Before Mari had a chance to reply there was a sudden explosion and both Mari and Macchi were blown off their feet and sent flying a good twenty meters before falling back to earth.
"Ouch" Macchi said as she struggled to get back up, "Who did that?"
"X-laws" Mari replied simply gesturing to one of the ledges where several of the X-laws were seen to be standing. The group consisted of Macro, Meene, Lyserg and Venstar. Venstar was currently in a crouching position and had his huge bazooka type weapon perched on his shoulder which was aimed directly at the two Hanagumi members.
"The followers of Hao shall face judgement" Macro proclaimed.
"Not these guys again" Macchi moaned silently, "When are you losers gonna realise you can't beat Hao?"
"Enough, Hao shall be wiped from the face of the earth, however first we must deal with his subordinates, you misguided shaman have one chance to redeem yourselves, join us or face the Iron Maidens judgement" Macro stated
"Um gee let met think about it" Macchi said in an sarcastic manner, she rested her chin on her hand and the said, "Nope I don't think so right Mari?"
"Mari will never betray Master Hao" Mari confirmed
"Then you shall come with us and face the Iron Maidens judgement" Macro
"Yeah like we're gonna go anywhere with you" Macchi replied
"Then you leave us no choice" Meene spoke for the first time, she then looked at Macro who nodded and said, "X-Laws attack!"
"Come and get it!" Macchi shouted as she and Mari went to attack.
5 minutes later both Macchi and Mari were lying face down in the sand.
"I can't feel my legs" Macchi groaned and then she passed out.
Macro moved away from the other X-Laws and strode over to the two fallen Hanagumi members, "Now you shall face judgement" he told them.
"You'll have to wait until I'm finished with them" a cold voice answered.
Macro spun round and saw Haru marching towards him complete with blond hair, grey trench coat and sheathed sword.
"Who are you?" Macro eyed Haru suspiciously, before Haru had a chance to reply, realisation dawned in Lyserg's eyes and he shouted, "Macro that's the one who attacked me a few days ago! He works for Hao!"
"So you are another of the devils followers" Macro said
"Call me what you want I don't care, but I have business with these two so I can't let you take them" Haru gestured over to the two unconscious girls.
"If you are a follower of Hao, then you shall soon be joining them", Macro informed Haru, "This is your one chance for redemption, forsake Hao and join us and you shall find salvation"
"So I either join you or die? Sorry but Hao has a better heath policy" Haru replied as he finished speaking he drew a metal katana from the sheath at his side and held it in an offensive position
Macro's eyes narrowed when he saw Haru getting ready to attack, "You believe that you are capable of taking on all of us by your self?" Macro gestured to the other X-Laws behind him who now had their weapons ready.
"No just you, Shadow Strike!" Haru slashed the air multiple times with his weapon, sending out arcs of black light which flew straight over Macro's head and into the canyon wall over the X-Laws heads. This in turn created a huge rockslide which buried the X-Laws behind Macro with boulders and debris.
Macro looked slightly shocked at this event and turned to face Haru.
"Now it's just you and me" Haru informed Macro as he removed his coat which fell to the floor with a heavy thud.
"I shall defeat you, I am an angel of the Iron Maiden, behold Michael!" Macro raised his gun and fired, sending his arch angle spirit Michael towards Haru, who just smirked.
"I'm going to enjoy this" Haru said as he saw the Michael zooming towards him, Haru made no move to evade the spirit and there was a huge explosion, when the smoke cleared Haru was nowhere to be seen.
Macro sighed and lowered his weapon, "One less evil in the world" he said to himself.
"Your aims a little off centre" Haru remarked casually behind him.
Marco whipped round to see Haru leaning against a boulder, arms folded and legs crossed.
"How did you…" Macro began
"I told you, your aims a off centre, your arm pulls to the left when you fire so it wasn't that difficult to evade" Haru informed the X-Law
"We'll see about that, Michael!" Macro raised his gun and fired again. Haru responded by flipping over the boulder he had been leaning against and using it as a shield to take the full brunt of the attack. Once again there was another explosion and the boulder was blown to smithereens, once again Haru was nowhere to be seen.
The wind suddenly picked up and Macro realised there was someone behind him, he threw himself to his right as Haru's katana sliced through the space he had been occupying a second ago.
"Your aim was better this time, you actually hit the target, but then you were aiming at a boulder" Haru grinned as he said this and leapt to attack again, "Shadow Strike!" the attack his Macro full on and sent him flying into the canyon wall.
Macro staggered back onto his feet and stared at Haru, "Impossible, I am one of the Iron Maidens…" He was cut off by Haru
"Yeah, yeah, you're a holy angel I get the idea, does anyone ever tell you that you talk too much? Your weakness is your spirit medium; firearms are only good at long range and in case you haven't noticed I tend to attack at close range so that medium is no good against me" Haru informed Macro.
In response to this Macro drew himself up and summoned Michael infront of him.
"Now you're getting the idea" Haru said in an amused tone and he jumped to attack the giant arch angle spirit.
"It was at this point that Macchi regained consciousness, she shook her head and struggled into a sitting position, "Uh what happened, Mari where are you ok?" Macchi quickly looked round for her companion and that was when she saw the fight between Haru and Macro; Haru was going one on one with the arch angle and was easily avoiding it's attacks although he wasn't attacking himself it was all to clear he was playing with Macro, "No way" Macchi breathed, then she added in a louder voice, "Get him Haru!"
Macro turned his head at this point and noticed Macchi for the first time since he started fighting, at this rate I won't be able to get any of them to the Iron Maiden, he thought to himself but I shall not let this fight be in vain, "Michael!" Macro bellowed and gestured towards Macchi and Mari. The angle spirit immediately stopped attacking Haru and rushed towards the Hanagumi members. Haru stared at it for a second before he realised what it was doing.
"Crap" he muttered and he sprinted over to stop the giant spirit
Macchi saw Michael heading straight for her and Mari and realised that they weren't going to get out of the way in time, "uh oh not good" as she tried to defend herself against the oncoming attack, however it never reached her, just as it Michael was in striking distance Haru intercepted it plunging his katana straight through the giant spirit causing Macro to loose spirit control.
Haru turned round slowly until he face Macro, He had a dark expression on his face, "Big mistake" he told Macro, "No you've lost spirit you can't defend yourself" Haru charged Macro kneeing him in the stomach and then delivering an elbow to the back of his head as he doubled over Haru did all this in less time than it took to blink, which was why Macchi was wondering what the hell had happened to Macro; who had been standing up one second and lying almost unconscious on the ground the next.
Haru bent down and picked up Macro and shoved him against a wall and then held his katana to Macro's throat.
"Consider this a warning" Haru said in a dangerous voice, "I don't like you, so if I see you again preaching about how superior you are I shall personally make sure you take the rest of your meals through a straw" Haru dropped Macro who slumped to the ground, "Oh yeah, give this back to Lyserg" Haru fished out the dowsing crystal from his pocket and threw at Macro who at that point lost conscious.
Haru turned away from Macro and headed towards Macchi and Mari who was just starting to regain consciousness. Haru still had a rather dark look on his face and Macchi noticed this.
"Hey Haru great job" she said nervously
Haru kept coming and if anything his expression got darker.
Macchi gulped, "Umm Mari I think we might be in trouble" the blonde haired shaman nodded in response.
Haru finally reached them, "Get up" he told them with a scowl. They complied and got to their feet. "Now you have exactly 30 seconds to explain why you did this" Haru gestured to his blond hair.
"Um what makes you think it was us" Macchi asked somewhat timidly; Haru could be really scary at times.
"One word Macchi; photo's" Haru replied
"Oh crap" Macchi said
"Mari is in trouble" Mari answered
"Did you think it would be funny?" Haru said in a menacing voice.
The two girls shook their heads and to their to their surprise Haru laughed.
"Really? I thought it was hilarious especially when you had him dancing on the tables" Haru continued to laugh as the two Hanagumi members stared at him in shock.
"Is Haru still drunk?" Mari asked in amazement
"Oh no Haru is very much sober and at this point is busy thinking of ways in which he will avenge himself" as Haru said this he seemed to flicker for a moment as though he was on a badly tuned television then Haru disappeared to be replaced by non other than Hao Asakura himself.
"Master Hao!" both girls said in shock.
"You couldn't tell? My illusion must have better than I thought" Hao said with an amused expression on his face.
"So you were the one who beat up Macro?" Macchi asked in a confused voice.
"Yes and I must say I enjoyed it immeasurably, it was refreshing rather like a morning walk, so then how is my brother doing?" Hao raised an eyebrow as he said this
"Well they put up a bit of fight but we still beat them pretty easily and they're miles away from where you wanted them to be" Macchi informed her leader.
"Hmm it's good thing I always have a plan B then" Hao said more to himself than the girls.
"Master Mari has a question" the doll master stated
"What is it Mari?" Hao asked genially
"Where is Mia? Mari could not find her this morning"
"Ah, I have sent Mari on a special mission, unfortunately you will not see her again until my brother reaches Patch village and the same goes for Haru, so you will not have to worry about him for awhile" Hao told them
"Master is Haru really that strong?" Macchi asked in an inquisitive tone
"My, my you girls are full of questions today, well lets just say that he has a lot of potential and leave it at that" Haru answered
Mari was about to ask another question but Hao silenced her with a kiss, "That's enough questions for today you two. We are leaving the hotel today so we need to go." Hao turned to leave
"Hey don't I get a kiss?" Macchi asked
Hao turned to face her and raised an eyebrow, "If you want someone to kiss why don't you and go look for Haru, it seems that you had no problems last night"
Macchi looked down as her face turned crimson, she didn't reply.
"You know Macchi I was most distraught when Opacho showed me some of you photo's I thought I was the only man for you, oh well" Hao let out a long theatrical sigh, that was when Macchi looked up and saw the amused expression on his face and realised that he was teasing her. She put her hands on her hips and gave him a look of indignation.
Hao laughed and then teleported them all back to the hotel.
Author: I'm not too sure about this chapter it seems to me that everyone is a bit OOC. This is meant to be a sort of transition chapter explaining how things got from one point to another. Anyway I hope you like it, in the next few chapters we'll see a lot more Yoh and the rest of the gang.
To My Reviewer(s)
Mikauzoran: Glad you liked the last chapter. I know what you mean by being buried by work, I have hardly any free time nowadays. The last chapter marked the start of a Haru x Mia relationship although I think it will take quite a few chapters before it is properly established hope you like how I did Hao at the end of this chapter. On another note that getitfido site is finally working and I managed to see the last few episodes of Shaman King at last. I didn't really like the way they portrayed Hao at the end; i.e. as a raving megalomaniac, is he like that in the manga? I hope not it kind of ruined my first impression of him.
Zeke yoh asakura: good to hear from you I always enjoy hearing from my readers, thanks for the review.
HAO-Addictive: I don't know about perfect but I enjoyed the writing the last chapter and I guess that's the main thing, I had a look at you "Impossible Is Nothing" story, it is really well written, you've Hao's character down quite well and Shido is an interesting character I can't wait for you next update!
Sweetlips: I agree with you about the anon. reviewer thing you get way more reviews that way. Glad you liked my story, I think it would great if you made your own story, I only started writing this for something to do but I have really grown to enjoy it. If you tell me when you post your story I'll be sure to review it for you, I know how depressing it is to start a story and think that no one likes it.
ciabatta: it's always good to get a new reviewer, glad your enjoying the story I hope you review in the future.
To the rest of my readers please REVIEW!