A.C.: I don't think it's healthy to get aboard a plane when experiencing a bout of cold... (And it so happens I got one in a 40c weather...) on a side note, I'm bastardizing Anna aren't I?

titangirl161- Poor Ren indeed =P but you know what they say about people hurting the ones they love

ChibiLaryla II- thanks

HikariTao- here's the new chapter =D

Kurai- thank you =)

WaterThrower777- lol, thanks

'Your kind...'

Anna's voice haunted him all through the day and well into the evening when one last ditch effort at sleep (and refusing to go where he and Hao met last night... because if he wanted to Hao could go and get him in his room anyways) failed and he went down stairs for milk. He grabbed a blue colored cup off the table,

'Tamao forgetting to put things back? Anna not noticing? Odd...'

It begin to rain as he opened the fridge for some ice, he glared down at the suspiciously innocent blue cup with the reflection of him glaring right back.

He scowled drinking the cool liquid...

Play with your own kind...'

Play with your kind...' in shock he spat the water out dropping the cup on the floor where it shattered with fragments of it impaling his feet.

Blood dripped on to the wooden floor

Your kind...'

"Anna you self centered bitch..." he swore before giving the ceiling a meaningful look, then he leapt out into the rain unaware of the presence occupying the living room.

"Good thing you have a brain..." Anna sat on the couch with her eyes unblinkingly glued to the immobile screen. She reached out and drained a cup of juice before flickering her eyes away towards the kitchen where the Chinese shaman had occupied just moments before. "Have fun Tao... your secrets won't be so safe you shall see soon enough."

Rain obscured his vision his wet locks slapping down on the sides of his face. He was soaked to the bone as anyone could plainly see, but he couldn't... he wouldn't ignore the threatening presence of the hostile aura at the edge of the town.

And Yoh would never notice anything less than a planet exploding before waking up.

Normally this wouldn't have bothered him, but normally... the usual shamans didn't have that much power. He shuddered... that bitch... he whispered

"Bason... stand..." he shuddered, "...stand by me now..." immediately as if he had been only waiting for a call Bason appeared though looking slightly different, he had a different air about him that commended respect.

The golden eyes seem to glow through the silver rain...

Green eyes joined it in a meticulous rhythm.

Ren jumped, soaring clear above the lethal stroke that had been dealt to the concrete which he had been on less than a second ago.

"Tut, tut." Tsked Ren smirking, "too slow." The acidic, green eyes glared back at him.

"Hiyaaa!!" with a fierce battle cry the one on the right launched arrows at him, and from the looks of it, the arrows were bonded with shikigami. The thought had cost him dearly; he grimaced as an arrow pierced through his left shoulder and out the other side.

'This is why... Anna had picked them... they were not the usual shaman...' his spear skewered the one who had dared to injure him.

'They are...' he tore out the arrow snapping it in two.

He quickly turned around blocking the blow from the other one with the body of the one that he had just killed.

Screams rang in his ears and he jumped up on to the top of a building for a breather, but the one was still following... green eyes battled with gold as they danced one that only they could understand.

'...Assassins...'

"BASON OVERSOUL!" the blade impacted on his left arm but quickly repelled. Ren panted, he shouldn't have had this much trouble getting rid of them. But why...?

Through his quickly fading eyesight he saw that the assassin was preparing to throw daggers at him.

Yoh...!'

Dimly he was aware that more had joined them, familiar presences, the ones that he had once fought with. Various yells reached his ears as daggers dug into his skin throwing him through the window.

The glass shattered melting into the rain where he was sure it had rained down on the others.

They hadn't recognized that it was he, at least... not yet.

He grunted in pain as the assassin jumped after him intent on burying the last dagger it held into his throat.

He hissed as he saw his would-be-murderer over him...

In that split second he had called on Bason and blew him clear out the brick walls, if the person had enough common sense he would have called upon his own spirit to cushion his impact.

Not that it mattered...

No...

One moment he was shaking free of the slivers of glass that delved deeper into his skin...

The next he had skewered the assassin like the other moments before.

He felt an aura erupt around him, and he let the corpse drop down to the wet concrete below.

In the deluge of rain, Yoh attacked.

Ren's mouth fell open as he slipped on the building walls just managing to get out of the way.

"GODDAMMIT YOU BASTARD! ARE YOU BLIND?!" his angry cry went unnoticed as Yoh attacked again, this time with Amidamaru in tow.

'Clang' he blocked the next blow with some difficulties, the only question was how long would he be able to last. Even as he fought he felt his body tiring, but he had pushed himself to the limits before, he knew he had far more to go.

'Either they did something to me...' Ren let out a sharp gasp as he felt himself pushed onto the uneven ledges. 'Yoh...'

"Who are you?" Ren grunted trying to push the other shaman off himself.

"Why'd you kill them?" Yoh had Ren in a strangling hold; his sword left forgotten a few feet away, Amidamaru looked worried. The said spirit was about to say something then stopped eyeing the other angry spirit wearily.

'Is he... being controlled?'

A small glimmer of non-existent light...

With a cry he threw Yoh off taking a defensive stance.

Like wise Yoh did the same, and they circled each other for a while looking for a weakness.

Ren shook slightly.

Yoh stiffened.

Soon they had leapt over human boundaries willing to take it to the sky...

With an expert stoke Ren had his spear crashing over Yoh's head only to have the other shaman block it.

Silence.

They descended near the others with Yoh's sword jutting out of Ren's stomach only... they still had not realized that it was him.

"Bocchama!" Amidamaru looked at the spirit a slight stunned look plastered on his face.

"...!?!?!!"

"Yoh, you bastard..." almost as if Ren was about to touch his face he held his hand up to the chocolate eyes, ripping off the beaded necklace on Yoh's neck at the last minute.

The round beads scattered on the floor... and so did blood...

A hazy look of recognition dawned upon Yoh's chocolate eyes. And with a strangled yelp Yoh let go of his sword watching Ren take it out without batting an eye.

"Ren... oh gods..." Ren looked at him, his eyes drooped slightly.

Faintly he felt the others gather around them, some in shock, most in horror, and one in anger.

Blood burst through his already weakened veins sending streams of the precious life liquid down the Chinese shaman's nose and mouth. With a free hand Ren clutched at his stomach wound feeling it bleed through his already blood stained fingers.

And then he fell, right into Yoh's arms.

Scarlet stained their clothing, mixing with rain and draining into the sewers. Ren his heart still beating, his veins still pulsing with blood... it would ultimately be his heart that would bring his untimely demise.

"REN!"

"BOCCHAMA!"

'Kisama...'

A sudden chill rang up everyone's arms save Ren who remained unconscious. The wind suddenly picked up spraying water everywhere reducing visibility. By the time they were able to see again... Ren was gone... and so was Bason

"REN!!!!"

::ende...::