A.C.: I'm almost finished I'm almost finished I'm almost finished... all those hits gone ㅠㅠ
Warnings: Character deaths, oocness, slashy-themes, various english mistakes, kinda sorta not really spoilers, random implications that don't mean a thing and oh, Hao. -runs-
Possession: Chapter 10- Break
"The balance is corrupt..." grumbled a small figure as he looked into the fires. Then he added,
"Worthless little grandson." Tao Ran allowed herself a small smile in spite of the bleak situation. The black flames were like dark mirrors, they often threw off inverse images of what could have been and not what was happening in the present. Pity, if only they had managed to have Ren longer in China they might have been able to teach him more about the black fires Tao En so possessively wielded.
But now looking at the figure of her son using the flames like a mere afterthought her heart bloomed with pride.
"Anna is very resourceful," mused Asakura Keiko, flicking her long hair over her shoulders.
"I must say you have an impeccable taste in fiancés... though this is probably the reason why we never bothered attaching one to Ren." Keiko shrugged, straining her eyes into the fire.
While Asakura's used the flames as a sort of a crystal ball they didn't know how to see the visions correctly. All that had been brought on by Hao and ended with him, the exact procedure unknown to all except him.
To put it simply, they tried too hard. One must have control over the malevolent fire, but their eyes must be clear enough to take in what is presented.
Jun blinked despairingly into the black fires, her green hair limp and almost touching the ground. Bason was a mere shadow at her feet.
"They are fools, all of them." Snorted Mikihisa,
The flames grew taller...
Like hands clawing towards the sky...
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Hao made a desperate grab for the beads surrounding his neck before collapsing onto his knees. He began coughing, retching up whitish clear liquid at each one. Glaring angrily at Anna he bid the flames to cover him, only... they did not come.
"Hao," he froze, sweat trickling down his throat as he wiped his mouth, he breathed into the perfume of his tormentor as he stood up and walked towards the blond itako. She looked pleased, she should be, she had tamed Hao the mighty.
For now at least, Ren swore angrily but it did not stop Anna from touching Hao. She tucked back the long locks and turned him around to face the others, almost like introducing him anew to the group. In fact, this Hao did not look much like Hao at all. His eyes, so pale when angered had darkened to a blackish brown. His hair was shorter though considerably longer than Anna's, and he had that blasted necklace on.
'Idiot...' something inside Horohoro whispered and he felt inclined to agree, until he realized that talking to yourself in the middle of a battle wasn't the smartest thing to do either.
"For your first task," the itako announced proudly, Amidamaru appeared a shadow of his former self with a tattered seal pasted over his forehead. "Feed the spirit of fire," she jerked her head slightly at the samurai spirit behind her. "Then you may go and terminate your little friends."
Hao raised his hands, and the spirit of fire appeared roaring in its magnificent glory. With one clawed swoop he held Amidamaru who was just beginning to wake up from the effects of possession... but too late as he was absorbed in the fiery abyss that made up the spirit of fire.
It was as if a part of them all had been purged away. Like a tye dye shirt thrown in a vat of bleach until drained of a color. Like with a snip of a blade, some piece of their paper hearts had been cut out.
"Anna how dare you..." hissed Hao, Yoh, his face twitching in the most unpleasant way. Anna merely pushed him forward, directing him like a puppet he really was. Hands twitching sporadically flames shot out towards what had once been his, Yoh's friends, all too quick before they had a chance to react.
The flames lanced towards them, and something within Horohoro snapped to rear its head for the first time in 500 years...
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It simply wasn't in Kyoyama Anna's books to dirty her hands over nothing. Even if oh say killing her rival of near 1000 bloody years and counting. But killing them all through Hao was good enough, and seeing how he was complete being fused with Yoh, well let's say it made revenge taste a little more sweeter than before.
To see the fruits of her labor blooming before her eyes,
To see that this time it would be her that came out on top.
Anna smiled.
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A ghastly howl, one that chilled their blood to the bone, what shocked them the most was the state of Horohoro and most of all, the faint outlines of a beast forming over his head. Horohoro jerked, almost as if the spirit was climbing out of his body or perhaps it was... the fire had dissipated, Anna looked displeased and they were alive. That was enough... for now..."Well Hao dear..." Anna purred, "Looks like you'll have to get your hands dirty this time..."
Hao glared back, just barely enough to show Anna that he still retained control over his free will.
"Fuck you,"
Anna responded mildly,
"But you already have." Throwing a haughty look towards Chocolove, Ryu, Horohoro and Ren she pointed at the blue haired Ainu who still seemed to be trapped in a phase of ascension.
"Horokeu, how nice of you to join us at last." Recognition and relief seeped into Ren's eyes,
"Horokeu... the wolf..."
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'Snap' they had vastly underestimated Hao/Yoh's ability to attack. Chocolove howled in pain as his wrist snapped and blistered before the Japanese shaman let him go. The dark eyes were unreadable as the darker shaman cradled his broken wrist towards the ground, his claws slightly tracing the quivering muscle.
They hadn't been able to summon any form of oversoul, or at least if they did they quickly became incapacitated due to the suffering atmosphere that Anna had put up. And so they improvised, 100 percent possession, a pitifully weak comparison to Hao's even when the odds were four against one.
And Ren didn't even have that
A feral howl and Horokeu ricocheted off of Hao leaving trails of crystalline ice all over the other shaman's arm.
"You alright Chocolove?" the ice shaman's voice was raspy, more animalistic. Chocolove nodded as ice encased his broken wrist in a protective cocoon. The effect was instantaneous, the American shaman sighed in relief as the coat of ice cooled the sporadic muscles seeping deeper into the broken bones.
"Bad dog," Anna commented idly from the sidelines, "dogs should obey their masters ne Hao?" Hao said nothing as somehow teleported in front of Horokeu and knocked him into a tree.
"HYYYAA-" Ryu's battle cry was cut short as a flaming fist slammed into his stomach. He exhaled and sputtered before kneeling on the floor hugging his middle. The ghoulish purple glow around him had dispersed leaving Hao's own crimson to shine over him.
Hao raised his hands, flames erupting from the tips as he brought it back down on Ryu's back.
What had started out as a scream withered away into a high pitched shriek. And from behind them Ren aimed his spear groundwards in midair,
"SUPER GOL...!" Hao had left Ryu's blistering form appearing before him in a blink of an eye, but that wasn't what scared Ren the most. His eyes pleading Hao, Yoh's hand reached out briefly to touch Ren's face... before slamming it in his neck and almost breaking it. Ren closed his eyes.
'You're forgiven'
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"I have a feeling that my little brother's fiancé just might try to kill me in the next week or so…"
"Oh? Shouldn't it be your holy duty to go and kill her or something?" Ren's voice contained bits of barely controlled venom as he wiggled away from Hao's grasp. Hao watched in amusement as Ren turned around indignantly.
"The same marks," he said suddenly tracing the markings on Ren's back.
Ren shivered feeling the smooth skin rubbing at the barely closed wound overlapping a larger scar. The vertical one he had gotten through the courtesy of Nichrome, the other... Ren shivered recalling the look in Yoh's eyes when he plunged the katana into his gut. He still had the prayer beads, he took it out every once in a while to sulk over them.
"I think you're confusing me someone else Hao."
"Perhaps you're right."
And gently Hao kissed him
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Hands poised delicately over the clear water, the tip of her middle finger barely touching the surface as a vibrant red and white koi nibbled on it creating ripples over its reflective surface.
One of the kois jumped out of the water, mouth agape, almost as to swallow the stars before diving back into the water. The silver droplets landed on the silk, leaving darker mottles on the precious cloth. Run observed all this in slow motion, how the water rolled, spun in air before landing on her.
Run laid on her back in indigo splashed white silk as she gazed up at the nights sky. It wouldn't matter if the rich silk got sullied in her actions, not when she had hundreds more like them. And the night's sky was oh so clear...
Her black hair spreading across behind her head like a shadowy halo, Hao couldn't help but admire the heavenly visage as he sat on the windowsill occasionally wondering about a gift worthy of the earthbound celestial. Remnants of last night's kiss still deeply imprinted in his mind he set his foot on the marbled and gold flooring and called out...
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Ren wheezed as he felt a rib or two break as he collided with the headstone. He rolled over and saw that the others were in a similar situation. Light footsteps fell around him; he didn't need to turn his head to get a look. The sound had been imprinted on his mind some centuries ago; he did not bother trying to yell out as he was lifted up by the neck.
Asakura Hao held the Chinese shaman by the pale column of his neck almost daring for the world to see, but his eyes were in a tormented chaos, all too aware of what Anna's next command would be.
"Hao..." she hissed all her malice, spite, jealousy, and anger weighing upon those few words. "Kill him!"
Hao choked, his hands spasming as he fought fiercely to get it back control. But the bonds that surrounded his neck held and his fingers grew more and more tighter around the thin neck. Ren grasped at Hao's gloved wrists though there was no strength behind it. Perhaps a plea... but Anna showed no signs of relenting as everyone of the gold eyed shaman's breath carried him towards his last.
"Ren..." whimpered Horokeu, digging his nails into the dirt and forcing his face up, "You can't..." he faltered as he pushed himself into an upright sitting position. "Ren..." he held his hands out barely managing to stand up as a ghostly reminder of a wolf guided his dislocated bones into their proper positions.
Chocolove managed to get his damaged but luckily unbroken hand from under him, the American shaman grasped at the Japanese shaman's ankles silently willing his soul free. And for a moment it seemed as though Hao had the upper hand...
Something wet dropped onto the red glove, and the ground below it.
Tears?
Anna looked furious, without hearing her he knew what words had been uttered. And yet as he wrought the life out of Ren he couldn't help but watch more like a third person, watch as the pieces fell in place and the events fold into a devastating end.
Hao watched with his jaws slack, mesmerized by the crystalline tears that traced their way down the bloodied cheeks of Tao Ren. His eyes were soft and glowing, almost understanding as few more squeezed out of the luminescent gold orbs. Hand fell limp by his side as he slowly murmured...
"Hao..."
"Boss don't do it," whimpered Ryu, clutching his stomach in silent agony.
"I think..." eyes became half lidded as he began to suffocate
Horokeu took off at a running start; ice bound to his wrists into a deadly dagger that was growing by the precious seconds it took to reach them.
"REN!"
"I can now say..." And the world began spiraling into a kaleidoscope of one...
"HAO KILL HIM! KILL HIM NOW!" Anna stood up from her seat eyes flashing as an aura of white shrieked obscenities at them, she held out her hand, her hands feeding the beaded necklace her own personal power as she did so.
"...That I love you..."
Hao's eyes widened, but Ren's eyes had already gone past the ability of being able to see...
'...With clarity...'
And Ren's neck gave away beneath the pressure of Hao's hands, the body already falling towards the ground...
'Let there be light'
"REEEEEN!"
A.C.: I'm just weird, I don't know why...