Chapter 18:
"Master are you sure about this?" Zhou asked as Miki walked away and just seemed to vanish into the heat of dessert.
"No Zhou I'm not. However I owe Miki, and I always pay my debts, this is the least I can do for him. Besides if I hadn't come up with a compromise he would have tried to prevent us from reaching Yoh so then we would have had to fight him. That is something I would rather avoid, especially after last time" Haru replied as he kept his eyes fixed on the spot where Miki had disappeared.
Zhou nodded gravely, although he had not been there at the time he knew that Miki was the one who had found Haru in the forest and contacted Zahra after their parents death and had therefore indirectly saved Haru's life, for Haru had refused to move from the spot where he had seen his mother die.
Zhou also remembered the last time they had fought Miki; it had been right before the preliminary battles of the shaman tournament. Haru and Zhou were in Asia at the time, seeking out different shaman techniques and anything else that could help them in the coming tournament, they had also been waiting for their invitation to said tournament. When the invitation had come Silva accompanied by Miki delivered it. Haru had accepted at once and was about to leave when Silva had told him that he needed to be tested before he could enter the tournament. Just before the test was about to start Miki had stepped in asking if he could be allowed to test Haru instead, both Silva and Haru had been surprised to say the least, but Silva had eventually agreed because time was running short and this would allow Silva to go and test another shaman that had not yet been invited to the tournament.
What came next was something that Zhou would prefer to forget;
Flashback
"The rules are simple. When the fight starts you'll have five minutes to land an attack. If you succeed, you'll enter the tournament; if you fail you won't, understand?" Miki asked Haru from behind his bird shaped mask.
"Perfectly, but why are you doing this? Don't I have to fight a proper Patch for it to be official?" Haru asked.
"Don't worry about it being official. I'm an old friend of the Patch. If I say you've passed, then you've passed regardless of whether you fought an actual Patch, and I'm doing this because I'm curious; both your parents were strong Shaman, and I want to see what you're capable of. Any more questions?" Miki replied.
"Yeah, when do we start?" Haru asked as Zhou entered his weapon and formed the green Aura Blade.
"So you mastered Oversoul; this should make things more interesting…the test starts now!" Miki's tone became stern as he uttered those words. He adopted a fighting stance and his two yamagami spirits appeared at his side.
Haru instantly charged forward and feinted an attack to Miki's side. Miki sidestepped the attack, but Haru had been expecting this and immediately attempted to sweep Miki's legs out from under him. However, Miki avoided the attack by jumping over Haru's legs and slamming his knee into Haru's face, which sent him sprawling across the ground.
"You're fast, but not fast enough I'm afraid; it will take more than simple tricks for you to pass this test." Miki commented as he watched Haru rise to his feet.
Haru scowled as he heard Miki. He quickly got back to his feet and this time approached more cautiously; Miki was obviously a lot stronger than he looked, so Haru wouldn't be able to just charge in.
"If you don't want a simple trick," Haru said as he edged closer, "will you settle for a distract-" Before Haru finished speaking, he lunged forward and attempted a strike to the ribs, but Miki deflected the blow with his wrist guards and then sent a right hook at Haru's head. Haru ducked under the blow, which gave him a free shot at Miki's midsection. Just as Haru was about to strike, Miki's free hand grasped Haru's sword arm, twisted round, and then flipped Haru over his shoulder, causing Haru to land on his back. Miki then jumped back a few feet as Haru regained his feet.
"If this is the best you can do, then I am disappointed. I expected much more." Miki commented offhandedly.
"Disappointment is part of life…" Haru told the older shaman as he took off his coat. It fell to the ground with a loud thud, "…but then so are surprises."
Haru darted forward with inhuman speed and lunged at Miki before he had time to react, but just as Haru's blade reached him Miki vanished into thin air and reappeared a few feet away. Haru darted forward once more only to have the same thing happen again.
"Are you swatting at a fly or trying to hit me?Do you needglasses or perhaps a haircut?" Miki suggested casually; he was obviously not taking the fight seriously and was just toying with Haru.
"This from someone who wears a chicken mask" Haru said with a scowl. He rushed towards Miki again and attempted to perform a combo of attacks but Miki easily evaded each strike, he leapt back a few feet as Haru caught his breath, Miki thenpretended to yawn.
"I already told you that speed won't be enough, compared to me your no faster than a tortoise, you're a shaman you have other skills at your disposal. If you want to pass this test you'll have to use them." Miki informed his opponent.
Haru stared at Miki for a moment and a small smile crept onto his face. He ran his hand over his blade, changing it from green to the blue Spirit Blade, and at the same time he said, "If you insist." Haru then vanished in a gust of wind, reappeared behind Miki, and plunged his weapon through Miki's back.
"Better, but I'm afraid it doesn't count." Haru whipped around and saw Miki standing a little way off to his left. He then looked back at the Miki he had attacked and saw it transform into one of Miki's yamagami spirits. Haru withdrew his sword from the spirit and it promptly returned to its master.
Haru went on the offensive again, but each time he was about to strike, Miki would vanish and then appear somewhere else at random.
"Aren't you even going to fight back!" Haru asked in irritation; he had never faced an opponent that was faster than him before, and as his entire fighting style was based on his usual speed advantage he was getting angry very quickly.
Miki looked at Haru with apparent surprise, "You want me to attack to you? You can't even keep up with me."
"Stop wasting time and fight!" Haru said with growing irritation.
"Oh yes, I'd forgotten about the time limit; let's see you have two minutes left. Is that enough for you or do you want to give up?" Miki replied casually, which further infuriated Haru.
"All right, if you wanted to piss me off, then mission accomplished." Haru lowered his head and focused on his weapon. The blade changed once more, darkening in colour until it was pitch black; blue lightening then began to crackle down it and Haru's amulet was enveloped in a faint red glow.
Miki watched this with interest and noted that Haru was using a lot more furyoku than before. "You'll have to do more than just increase the amount of furyoku you use. That might be enough for a single opponent but what if you're outnumbered?" As if to demonstrate his point, Miki's two yamagami spirits turned into clones of their master and all three adopted a fighting stance, and seemed ready to attack.
"If you're outnumbered, you even the odds." Haru said with a dark grin. He held his sword in front of him; the blue lightening that ran down the blade suddenly arced out both left and right in front of its wielder and formed six copies of Haru. Each of them was equipped with a deadly black blade and each looked at the Miki with the same dark grin. They raised their weapons and formed a line with the original Haru in the centre.
Miki seemed unimpressed at this display, "So you can duplicate yourself, but creating duplicates requires a lot of focus. How well can you keep that focus in a fight?" As Miki said this, his two clones disappeared and reappeared in front of the original Haru, both attempting a flying kick to the face.
"Sphere!" the two duplicates on either side of Haru raised their arms, and black orbs appeared around the two Miki clones, trapping them in mid-flight.
"I think you'll find that I can keep my focus just fine." Haru told the older shaman with a slight smirk on his face.
"I wouldn't get complacent if I were you. You only have about twenty seconds left." Miki informed Haru.
Haru narrowed his eyes as he heard this and suddenly four of the duplicates vanished in a gust of wind leaving the two that had trapped the Miki clones. Haru's four duplicates reappeared around Miki and they all closed in to attack. However, Miki managed to somehow evade or block every attack that was thrown at him and managed to scatter the duplicates with a spinning kick that knocked them all back by five feet.
Miki scanned the scene in front of him; two of the duplicates still had his yamagami spirits trapped, and the other four Haru duplicates were lying on the ground in front of him and they wouldn't be getting back up in a hurry. Miki sighed; he had hoped that Haru would do better than this. Miki took in the scene in front of him again and realised that something was wrong; while all of the duplicates were either busy or unable to move he couldn't see the original anywhere…
"Shadow Strike!" Miki twisted around and saw an arc of black light hurtling towards him, and he only just had time to leap into the air before it crashed into the spot he had been occupying a moment before.
"Big mistake." Haru appeared above Miki and managed a slash to his back before he could react. This was then followed up by a kick to the head, and it sent Miki crashing to the ground below. However, Miki managed to flip up and land on his feet in a crouching position. The attacks hadn't really hurt Miki that much; if anything it was only his pride that was injured. Miki chuckled to himself as he thought about what had just happened; he had lowered his guard for less than a second, but Haru had managed to take advantage of it. Maybe he would be able to help Yoh later.
End FlashbackAlthough they had passed the test it had been a close call and Haru realised that he was a long way off from becoming a serious competitor in the shaman tournament.
"He should be gone by now, I can't sense him" Haru muttered under his breath, Zhou looked up; he had gotten so lost in thought he had forgotten that his master was there.
Haru looked up at the sky and cursed silently; he had spent far too much time talking with Miki for it was now mid afternoon, and one of the things Haru did not want to do was spend the night in the desert. He pulled out the map Hao had given him and cursed again; Yoh and the others were at least five hours ahead of him, there was no way he could catch up to them before nightfall. Haru scanned the map looking for any landmark or settlement that could provide shelter. The only settlement was about fifty miles away and it was in the opposite direction from Yoh and the others. Haru sighed and examined the map one last time; it appeared that Yoh and the others were heading for a network of canyons called "Red River Canyons". Haru would have to keep going all night in order to catch up with them and needless to say he wasn't pleased, however as there wasn't anything he could about it he rolled up the map and started following the road infront of him. While he walking he was wondered if Luca had delivered Macchi and Mari their 'presents'.
Luca looked at the two packages that had been left with him, Haru hadn't told him what was in them, only that Macchi and Mari should be the ones to open them and that it was just to show that there were no 'hard feelings'.
Both packages were wrapped in blue paper and each one was addressed to either Macchi or Mari. Luca debated with himself for a while; he was not naive enough to think that the packages actually contained any type of gift but that they were probably rigged with a type of booby trap. Luca continued to stare at the packages while he thought. He was under no obligation to deliver them, he could just throw them in the trash, that was what he should do. However another part of himself wanted to see just what Haru had come up with; Luca had seen him mixing various chemicals rather haphazardly before he had handed Luca the 'presents'. This was the main reason why Luca hadn't tried to open them to see what they were; he'd experienced enough explosions in the past 72 hours thank you very much, however there was that part of him that was curios. There was also another part of him that was annoyed at Macchi for being the third person to interrupt his extremely volatile experiment just as it was about to near completion, because of this Luca had now gone almost four days without sleep and was understandably annoyed with the hyper red headed girl. Finally coming to a decision Luca picked up both packages and walked out of his room; he would leave the packages in each girls respective room and let them decide for themselves whether or not to open it. After coming to a decision and then carrying it through Luca headed back to his room for some much needed sleep.
Hao, accompanied by Macchi and Mari appeared in the hotel lobby in a burst of flames, luckily however the new hotel receptionist (the other one had quit after a rather unpleasant encounter with Bill) was asleep while pretending to read a paper and therefore didn't notice anything.
"Now then, I need you two to inform everyone to be ready to leave in one hour and they are to meet me on the roof, understood?" Hao instructed the two Hanagumi members. They nodded their heads but otherwise didn't reply. Hao grinned slightly; he could tell that they were curios about a great many things but they were wisely keeping quiet and not asking any questions just as he had told them, although the fact that both girls seemed exhausted to the point where they were almost asleep on their feet might have had something to do with their lack of questions.
"Good, now I have something to take care of, I will be back in one hour" and with that Hao disappeared in another burst of flames.
Macchi and Mari looked at each other for a second; both of them were hot and tired from their encounter with the X-Laws and they didn't feel like wandering around the hotel telling everyone the same thing over and over again.
"Hey Mari could you…" Macchi started to say
"No" the blonde puppet master replied almost as soon as Macchi started speaking.
"Aww, come on Mari I'm really tired" Macchi complained
"No" Mari repeated again in a more determined voice.
The two girls started glaring daggers at each other, but as both of them were on the point of exhaustion it seemed that glaring was the only thing they were going to do.
It was at this point that Opacho walked past, catching both girls attention. Macchi raised an eyebrow and shifted her eyes in Opacho's direction and Mari nodded.
"Opacho…" both girls said together.
Five minutes later, after promising to buy Opacho something in Patch village, both girls headed off to their respective rooms. Macchi reached her room first and fumbled with the key card before swiping it through the lock and opening the door. All Macchi wanted to do right now was lie down and go to sleep. However as she made her way over to her bed she noticed there was already something on there; it was roughly the size and shape of a cigar box and was wrapped in blue paper. Macchi walked over and picked it up with a puzzled look on her face. She examined the package for a moment wondering who could have left it for her and then turned it over and saw the words "To Mari" written on the other side. Macchi's eyes widened slightly in surprise; who would have brought something for Mari? They hadn't met anyone new here except for Haru and Mia. Haru didn't exactly strike Macchi as the gift giving type and Mia had never had a chance to go and buy anything since she had always been training.
Macchi shrugged her shoulders and picked up the package and started towards her door intending to take the package straight to Macchi, after all this was just what the blonde shaman needed, it might actually cheer her up, although maybe that was being a little to hopeful. In any case it should make her a little less depressed. Macchi opened her door and almost walked straight into Mari who had just been about to knock on her door, in her hands she held a package identical to Macchi's.
"Uh, swap?" Macchi suggested after a moment. Mari nodded and both girls exchanged packages, checking their names and then looking for any clue as to who could have sent them. Finding nothing both girls sat down on Macchi's bed still looking at their 'gifts' after a moment Mari put hers down.
"Huh? Aren't you gonna open it?" Macchi asked in confusion.
Mari shook her head, "Mari has a bad feeling about this" she said quietly.
"Aww come on, it's not like it's gonna explode or anything" Macchi tried to persuade her friend, however Mari remained adamant.
"Fine then, I'll still gonna open mine though" Macchi replied childishly, before Mari could protest Macchi had ripped off the paper, revealing an ordinary wooden box.
"See, nothing happened" Macchi told her friend in a taunting tone. She then lifted the lid of the box and there was a small explosion like that of cherry bomb and both Mari and Macchi were engulfed in brown cloud of smoke…
There was a flash of flame and Hao appeared near the village of Seminoa, he blinked his eyes a few times and then took in his surroundings. He appeared to be in a park in the middle of a grove of trees, they appeared to be Sakura trees and this surprised Hao slightly, although it was a pleasant surprise. He had found a great appreciation for these plants in his first life, especially when they were in bloom as they were now. Hao just sat for a few minutes under their leaves and enjoyed the peace and serenity they brought him.
Eventually Hao got up and wandered away from the trees; he had a task to accomplish. He walked on for about ten minutes until he found what he was looking for; a house, larger than the others surrounding it, the building was fenced off, some of the stonework resembled creatures only seen in nightmares and curtains were drawn across every window. Even though the building was in good condition it had a decidedly eerie feel to it. All in all it looked like your classic haunted house, although Hao doubted that any spirit would choose to reside there. As Hao approached the house the front door suddenly opened and a woman who appeared to be in her late twenty's stepped out. She had long dark hair and was wearing cultural Indian clothing, there were also painted markings on one side of her face.
"Who are you?" the woman asked darkly
"You don't recognise me? How disappointing; I would have thought that after watching your ancestors die at my hands so many times you'd recognise me at once" Hao said with a wry grin.
Recognition flashed in the woman's eyes and her face took on a shocked expression, "No it can't be… that was five hundred years ago"
"Actually Lilirara, it was five hundred years and five days ago" Hao informed Lilirara calmly. "I've come to take care of some loose ends"
"What do you mean?" Lilirara asked knowing full well what the answer would be.
"Must I spell everything out for you?" Hao sighed, "You have knowledge of the tournament five hundred years ago. Therefore, you are capable of informing shaman of how to reach Patch village. I have let you live this long so that my other half could discover how to proceed in the tournament, now that has happened I don't require you to tell anyone else the location of Patch village. So I am here to get rid of you." Hao said all of this slowly as if he were speaking to child and then summoned his SOF (spirit of fire), which then grabbed Lilirara in one giant hand and incinerated her before she even had a chance to scream.
The SOF vanished as quickly as it had arrived and Hao turned round without a word and made his way back to the Sakura grove. He had just under an hour until he had to return, until then he was going to relax. He made his way over to one of the blooming cherry blossom trees and sat under its braches enjoying the shade it gave him from the sun.
"It's good to see someone else enjoying these trees for a change"
Hao opened one eye and saw an elderly lady wrapped in a black shawl and grey dress hunched over in front of him. As he hadn't sensed anyone approach that meant she was human, but as she wasn't a threat Hao just ignored her.
"I remember back when I was about your age" the old lady continued unperturbed, "My mother planted these trees and I thought they were the most beautiful things in the world. Nowadays though most people don't seem to agree with me. They just think they're a nuisance and need to be gotten rid of." The old paused for a moment and looked around her before turning back to Hao.
"Your lucky you came when you did these beauties won't be around for much longer"
"Hao opened his eyes again and looked at the old woman, "What do you mean?" he asked in a inquisitive voice.
"These trees are going to be torn down in a few days to make room for a new highway, because apparently we don't have enough roads already" the old woman replied bitterly. "I told them they had no right; they can't just keep taking from the world or soon there'd be nothing left, they gotta stop somewhere and if they won't stop by themselves then I'd do it for them, but no one listens to an old timer like me anymore"
Hao looked at the old woman again, she had just voiced, almost word for word, his ideals as if they were her own, "Why do you care?" Hao asked keeping his voice neutral.
The woman looked at Hao for a moment as if determining how to answer, "Someone has to lad, otherwise soon there'll be nothing to care about. People these days are causing more damage than ever before and they don't even realise it. Someone has to tell them what they're doing and try and get them to stop.
"It won't make a difference" Hao said contemptuously, "Mankind can't change its ways, it will always destroy, it doesn't know anything else"
"If that's true lad, why did my mother plant these trees? She brought them all the way from Japan and back then that was no easy task I can tell you" the old woman replied.
"One exception does not make up for all of mankind's damage" Hao answered evenly
"No it doesn't, but it's a start and the first step is always small. People are beginning to learn, your proof of that yourself. Your only what 13-14?" the old woman asked.
Hao's familiar grin appeared on his face as he replied, "Not quite, I'm older than I look." He stood up and brushed himself off, "It was interesting talking with you but I'm afraid I have to go" he started to walk away and then turned back.
"Where is that construction crew you mentioned earlier?" he asked
The woman pointed to her left and answered, "About thirty miles that way, they're working their way here although it will take them a few days. Why do you ask?"
"I thought I'd pay them a visit" Hao replied as he wandered off.
Hao waited until he was out of sight and then summoned his SOF and took to the sky searching for the construction crew; sakura trees were one of his favourite plants and he wasn't about to let them get torn down just so humans could have another road to drive on.
Suddenly a loud mechanical noise disturbed his thoughts, Hao looked up and smiled; he'd found them. He could see black smoke in distance and made his way over, not bothering to try and hide himself or his giant spirit. Hao floated directly above the human workers and looked down. Bulldozers were tearing up the land and vegetation around them and men with chainsaws were cutting down the trees that were in way. The fallen trees were then dragged into a pile and carted off by a huge truck. There were even some humans with flamethrowers burning the land on either side of the road that was being built just to make sure that nothing would grow there again.
Hao's usual smile vanished from his face and his eyes seemed to blaze with fire; this is why humans must be eradicated, He thought to himself, they take from the land without any thought of giving in return, they steal and rape the earth leaving behind only a hollow shell of what used to exist, and for every human that tries to give something back a thousand more appear to destroy it again. They must be stopped soon, before it is too late, I cannot afford to fail again. As Hao was thinking this he floated down to the ground and then waved a hand at the construction crew.
They were instantly covered in a wave of fire, which stretched down the road they had made, killing anyone that got in its way. Many died immediately but some lingered behind for a few moments and their screams could be heard a mile away before eventually dieing out, leaving an eerie silence in its wake.
Hao stood, staring with malevolence at what the humans had done. They had uprooted many trees and much of the surrounding vegetation had been burned to ground before the bulldozers had ploughed through the earth. Hao sighed as he looked upon the devastation, this spot had once been as beautiful as the Sakura grove he had appeared in, now because of humans it was no more than a pile of dirt. Shaking his head Hao left the scene in his trademark pillar of fire.
An image of Haru walking through the desert appeared in the air. Watching the image were five female shamans; ranging from about six years old to around mid thirties.
At the front of the group was a teenage girl with green hair, she appeared to be in a high school uniform; plaid skirt and a brown blouse and white stockings. She was also wearing a rather large pair of glasses. The glasses were glowing with a blue aura, which extended to the image air of Haru walking through the desert.
"I can't believe our luck!" a blonde woman exclaimed, "We may have lost those other boys but now we don't need them! All we need to do is get that map off this boy and we'll be able to reach Patch village by ourselves!" the woman crowed proudly.
"That's assuming he will just handover the map" the green haired girl replied in a bored tone of voice.
"If he doesn't hand it over then we'll just take him out, he doesn't look that tough" a red headed woman answered as she oversouled her giant hammer. The other members of the group backed away quickly.
"Hey watch it you nearly hit me!" the small child of the group exclaimed.
"Yeah Sally calm down, you've got a major anger management problem!" a girl with light brown hair retorted. She was wearing a green skirt as well as a green shirt of varying shades.
Sally turned round to face the two girls and started brandishing her giant spirit hammer and the two girls quickly backed away even further.
"That's enough Sally, we don't need to waste anymore time. Lily do you know where that boy is?" the blonde woman enquired of the green haired schoolgirl.
"Yes he's about 20 miles to the east" Lily replied as she disengaged oversoul and her glasses lost their glowing blue aura.
"Perfect we'll catch up to him in no time and once we've got that map we'll be resting easy in Patch village" the blonde haired woman started to laugh and this attracted some strange looks from her comrades.
"Sheesh, talk about being over dramatic" the brown haired girl muttered to the small child.
"Yeah she's even starting to embarrass me, why does Sharona have to do that all the time?" the child replied.
Sharona heard this and her face turned red although it wasn't possible to tell if it was from anger or embarrassment.
"Enough talking! Into the van we don't need to waste anymore time!" Sharona shouted, and the group proceeded to get into a red SUV and then started driving away.
After a few minutes of driving Lily told Sharona, "East is the other way"
Haru looked up at the sky; the sun was low in the sky now and its last rays of light were glaring him the eye, acting as a constant reminder that he would have to keep moving all night, as the temperature dropped to below zero temperatures. Even now the heat of the dessert was quickly fading and Haru was glad that he'd had the foresight to have his coat fitted with a new thermal lining which would hopefully keep him warm over the course of night.
"Where's a bus stop when you need one?" Haru muttered under his breath. He'd been walking for hours and he hadn't seen any sign of civilisation apart from the paved road he'd been following; not a single car, bus, truck or even a motorbike. Haru had contemplated just stopping for a moment and sticking out his thumb in the classic hitchhiker pose, but he had quickly dismissed the thought; it wasn't as though someone would magically show up in the middle of nowhere just to give a hitchhiker a lift…right?
It was as Haru was thinking this that he heard the hum of a car engine. He turned round and saw a red SUV coming down the road behind him…
Sometime later…
"What's taking them so long?" Ren asked in annoyance as the SK group sat on the ground in front of the entrance to a maze of canyons, which towered before them like city skyscrapers.
"You gotta give them some time Ren it is a pretty big canyon" Yoh replied in his usual easygoing manner.
"Are we even sure this is the right way?" Ren continued in the same irritated tone
"Well according to the Seminoa's, we're meant to follow the valley of the red river, and this is the only place nearby that has a river" said Choco as he pulled out his notebook and flipped through the pages.
"In other words you have no idea" Ren replied
"Yoh!" Amidamaru descended to the groups level in spirit ball form followed closely by Kororo and Mick.
"Hey Amidamaru, did you find a way through?" Yoh asked cheerfully
Amidamaru shook his head ruefully, "I'm afraid not Yoh; the canyon twists and turns at every opportunity and appears to be a dead end".
"Aww man, this is so not cool!" Horo moaned as he kicked a rock by his foot.
"Actually I thought it was going to be…" Choco began but was immediately struck down by both Ren and Horo.
"What have I told you about making jokes" Ren said through gritted teeth.
"Yeah man take a hint" Horo muttered.
The sound of an engine could be heard in the distance and the group looked up to see a dust cloud creeping towards them in the distance, as it came closer it slowly took on the form of a large SUV.
"Not them again!" Horo moaned, "Why do they keep following us?"
The SUV pulled up alongside the group and window slid down to reveal Sharona of the Lily Five
"Hi there boys long time no see" Sharona said
"Not long enough" muttered Ren
"tsk, tsk, that not very polite, especially after we went to all this trouble to do you a favour" Sharona replied with a smug look on her face.
"Eh? What are you talking about?" Horo said suspiciously.
"We ran into someone in the desert who said he knew you guys, so we decided to help him out" Sharona answered.
"That's an interesting way of putting it" replied a bored voice.
Everyone looked around for the source of the voice and saw Haru leaning against the side of the SUV. The gang just stared at him for a second; it had been two months since they saw him and the change of hair colour meant they didn't recognise him straight away. After a few seconds though realization dawned in Yoh's eyes and he waved his hand.
"Hey Haru, good to see you" Yoh said in way of a greeting.
Haru nodded in response, "You guys are looking for Patch village right? Mind if I join you?" Haru asked.
Ren looked as though he was about to protest but before he could say anything Yoh butted in.
"Yeah sure, the more the merrier, right guys?" Yoh asked beaming at the others
Haru grinned slightly and started to make his way over only to be stopped when Ren pointed his Kwan-do at his throat.
"Wait just a minute, why should we let you join us? After all we already know where Patch village is, we don't need your help" Ren told Haru.
Haru raised an eyebrow at this, "if you already know where Patch village why were you just sitting there?"
Ren didn't lower his weapon but he glared at Haru and his spiked hair seemed to grow slightly.
Haru sighed and pulled something out from under his coat, "Tell you what if you let me join up I'll show you this map of Patch Village"
"What! How the hell did you get a map of Patch Village?" Horo practically yelled.
"Yes how did you come into possession of such a thing" Rio asked
"I'm well informed" Haru said cryptically, "So what do you say?"
Ren lowered his weapon and muttered "fine"
Author: Once again major apologies for the long time between updates, i just haven't been able to find time to work on this story. Hopefully I'll be able to work on this during the christmas holidays but I'm not promisisng anything.
IMPORTANT: for my next chapter would you like meto concentrate mainly on Yoh or Hao'sgroup or a little of both? I'm not sure which group to focus on, so send me your reviewsit will help me plan out my next chapter.
Also according to the new rules of the fanfiction website this will be the last time I respond to reviews in a story, after this I will be using the new "review response" feature to reply to reviews via email. If you are leaving ananonymous reviews and you want me to respond to it please include an email address so I can contact you.
To my Reviewer(s)
nat274: yeah I have a feeling that Hao fans might try something like that so I have tried to shift Hao back into his stereotypical role and if people don't like that then I'll just write him the way I want. Anyway thanks for the review I really appreciate it, sorry for taking so long to update.
ciabatta: Uh, thanks?
sweetlips: don't worry I completely understand, I've been practically burried in extra work for the past few months myself.I'm glad your enjoying the story and I'm sorry for the long time it took me to update.
Azure: thanks for the ideas butI already havesomething in mind for Haru's spirit control,it's not that different from what you suggested and you'll get to read about it hopefully next chapter or the one after that.
knux33: What did you think of the fight at the beginning? Too short? Too long? Either way let me know and I'll try and improve the next fight scene when I get around to writing it. Glad your enjoying my story and thanks for taking the time to review.
HAO-Addictive: first up sorry for not replying to you email, butI have been really busy. If you take a look at my profileI think you'll find what your looking for. Also sorry for not talking/typing to you in a while but I never seem have any spare time, hopefully once we get into late decemnber I'll have more free time.Anyway glad your enjoying the story, I can't wait for you to post your next story.
Shackle:I hope you took note of the what I did with Hao's character in this chapter. I've placed him back in his stereotypical 4KIDS role. Although he may break out of it now and again depending on whatI decide to do with the plot. Also Haru's hair will change back to black once he meets back up with Anna and Mia so that will be next chapter or the one after that.
Kenarina Asakura: did you change your pen name? I'm sure you used to call yourself "zeke yoh asakura". About reviewing your stories; asI have saidI do not have a lot of time and you have written quite a few stories. So in your next review if you pick one story you want meto look at I will try and write a decent review for it.
Mikauzoran: sorry for not reviewing your latest chapters, hopefullyI will get some time over the weekend. anyway thanks for you positive input it always helps. The last chapter was kind of uneventful andI have tried to remedy that in this chapter although it still isn't completely action packed. hope you like how iIdid Hao;even though I stuck in his stereotypical 4KIDS roleI tried to give him a reason for his actions. Haru and Mia should meet up next chapter, hopefully.I still haven't gotten around to writing it yet. As to what Mikihisa is plotting you'll just have to wait and see...
PLEASE REMEMBER TO REVIEW!