Chuck: Sorry I've been taking so long to post again. I've been getting big assignments in class lately, so I haven't been able to type. I hope this chapter is enjoyed by all. Please R&R! -

Chapter 9

Morning's Glow, Evening lights

Morning came soon, but the group was still weary. They ate quietly, when Horo Horo suddenly rubbed his hands down Ren's waist. "You know, you have love handles, Renny-chan."

"Kisama!" Ren punched Horo in the stomach.

Shizuka chewed quietly, then looked up to Marcus, who was now breathing into a paper bag. "Uh, Marcy? What are you doing?"

"She's coming! (exhales) She's coming! (exhales)"

Raijin sighed. "He's excited. I wish he'd be like that for me."

"What was that?"

"Uh, nothing Marcus!"

Ren looked to Kino. "Hey Kino-san, you never did tell us why Raijin called Yoh 'Hao'. Is it the same reason as Yulin?"

"No. Though Raijin is a reincarnation of one of Hao's followers, he's from 1000 years back. He only supported Hao until he went mad."

Chocolove looked up. "So why doesn't Yoh remember Marcus, Shizuka and Raijin from when he was little?"

"Well, Shizuka's mother was killed by Hao when she was 4, so they left soon afterward. Yoh became deeply depressed, so Yohmei cast a spell to erase all of his memories of them."

Yohmei nodded. "It was the only way he could go on with his life and training."

Soft foot steps were suddenly heard coming down the stairs.

Ryu looked away from the group, then smiled. "Danna!"

The tired Asakura looked up, and smiled. "Yo!"

Manta quickly hopped out of his chair. "Yoh-kun, you're alright."

Yoh grinned. "Yeah." He gave a long yawn then sat between Mikihisa and Ryu.

Amidamaru floated to him. "Yoh-dono, daijoubu?"

"Aa. Just a little dizzy."

Ami hugged his lord, then Chocolove giggled. "So, we heard Yulin got a little kissy with you last night." He suddenly received a punch to the cheek.

"Baka! You don't bring it up so soon!"

"Oh, Ren. You're so cute when you're upset." Horo cooed.

"Death to you all!"

Manta began to laugh at the scene, when he suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder. "Nani?" He turned to see Yoh.

"Manta, come with me. I have something to show you."

"Uh, okay."

The two stepped outside the hotel onto the small porch.

"What did you wanna show me, Yoh-kun?"

"Look."

Manta looked up, then stared in aw. The sun was just rising, making the village glow with golden light.

"Yoh-kun . . . this is beautiful."

The two sat down, then watched the sun slowly rise.

Manta stared at the village, then turned to Yoh. "The villages look great. Yoh-kun?"

Yoh sat with his eyes closed.

"Yoh-kun?"

"Can't you feel it?"

"Nani?"

"Close your eyes."

"Nande?"

Yoh crawled over, and covered Manta's eyes.

"Uh, Yoh-kun . . .'

"Shhh! Can you feel it? The trees, the plants, even the sky, their all waking up. "

"Eh?" Manta became quiet for a few moments, then sighed. "Gommen, Yoh-kun."

Yoh sighed, then smiled. "Daijoubu." He sat back down, then continued to watch as the dawn bloomed into morning

Manta looked up to Yoh shyly, hiding a faint blush. "Maybe . . . I could tell Yoh-kun now." He slowly turned to Yoh. "Yoh-kun?"

Yoh twitched his toes as they were bathed in warmth. "Aa?"

"Yoh-kun, there's something I wanna tell you, words left unspoken for a few months."

Yoh looked down at him.

"Well . . . ya see . . ."

"Manta, I . . ."

A familiar high pitched squeal was heard, then Horo Horo suddenly jumped beside Yoh. "This is a great setting, right Ren!?!"

The Tao stepped beside him. "Aa. You sure could say a lot of romantic things here."

Manta's face became beet red as Ryu popped his head out and sighed. "I should get Lyserg out here. It's the perfect setting."

Manta frowned, then suddenly jumped to his feet and slammed his foot into the floor. "Thanks for intruding guys!"

"No problem!" Horo laughed as the small teen stormed into the hotel.

Yoh looked back, his eyes becoming sad. "Manta . . ."

Later on, Shizuka followed her brother and Marcus, as the Koda obsessed priest posted posters for the night's event. "Guys?"

The two stopped and looked to her.

"Was I the only one who felt something weird about Yoh?"

Marcus tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know. When he came down this morning, he felt sorta different, then when I checked on him and Manta a little later on, his empathy was in full drive. He was saying he could feel the morning."

Raijin looked down. "I remember when he would do that back in the day. It was usually when he was getting King Hao's personality. Did he act like that for long?"

"Well, look on the porch."

The priests looked to their porch and saw Yoh sitting cross-legged, eyes closed.

Marcus grinned. "Aw, he's just sleeping."

"How do you know, Marcy?"

"Easy. If you listen quietly, you an hear a soft snore coming from him. Now let us pull our attention away from the obvious problem with Yoh, so we can put these posters up. The time of Koda approaches!"

Raijin blushed a little, then looked to him. "How many are there?"

"867!" -

I'm sorry I couldn't stop your brother."

Yulin sat by the bed stroking Hao's forehead. "You did enough." He then grinned. "I was able to accomplish one part of my plan."

"Nani?"

"When I kissed Hao's other half, I planted a special seed into his body. It will go slow at first, only effecting his senses, but as time goes on, it will bloom inside of him, giving him all of his old memories. Then, my brother and his reincarnation will have no effect on his mind. He will be his true self once more."

Hao suddenly went into a coughing fit.

"Hao-sama!" Opacho hopped onto the bed, and began patting his back. "Daijoubu?"

Hao became very silent, and his breathing softened.

Yulin cringed, then kissed the boy's cheek. "Don't worry, Hao-chan. I'll speed the process up tonight. He'll probably be at that concert. Everyone's guard will be down."

"Kikoeteru? 1000 no kotoba wo. Mienai. Kimi no senaka ni okuru yo.

Tsubasa ni kaete! Kikoeteru?"

As Koda Kumi sung, the group sat with the rest of the audience in the stadium seats.

Marcus practically drooled as he watched. "She's so wonderful!"

"She has a remarkable voice."

Yoh looked to P.M and grinned. "Yeah. It's no wonder why Marcus loves her so much."

Manta sat in Yoh's lap, mouthing the words. "This song practically represents Yoh and me. I wanna tell him my words so much, but they never seem to reach him." He looked up to Yoh, then sighed. "When will they reach you?"

An applause was heard, then Koda Kumi took a step forward. "Arigotou! I'm honored to preform for such a great audience, and I also wanna thank the mentally ill child who sent me this wonderful notebook of poems."

Marcus sighed dreamily. "She got my poems."

There was a sudden blast of smoke on the stage, then, once the smoke cleared, Yulin stood on the stage with a microphone. "Konbanwa, everybody!"

"Nani!?! Who are you!?!"

Yulin looked to Koda. "Oh, don't worry, mame. I'll only be a second." His eyes suddenly became starry as a spotlight was shone on him. "I just wanna let Hao know what's in my heart! Hao is the coolest! Opacho get the light!"

A spotlight suddenly shone on Yoh. "Eh?"

P.M cringed as Yulin did a girly wave to Yoh. "Kisama!"

Yulin returned to his normal pose, then sneered. "Oh, by the way, I plan to destroy you all once I bring Hao back, so if I were you lot, I'd panic right about now." The audience was silent, then Yulin frowned. "Panic!", and with that the whole stadium erupted into a riot.

Marcus struggled from the group of people that trampled him, when he suddenly saw Koda Kumi get shoved off the stage, then soon holding her ankle. The priest's eyes fired up, then, standing tall he pointed to Yulin. "ONWARD DUCKY!!!"

Yulin stood on the stage, watching in amusement, when a duck suddenly began pecking him and pulling his hair. "Hey, get off me, ya Daffy wanna-be!" He was suddenly tackled to he ground, and being punched by Marcus. "Nani!"

"You hurt Koda Kumi! Kisama!"

After a few moments of punching, Yulin frowned. "This is pathetic!" The fallen angel suddenly grabbed Marcus by the throat and held him up. "I remember you! You're that other priest from the temple."

Raijin pushed through the crowd, then cringed when he saw Yulin chocking him. "Marcus!" He quickly jumped from the stands and slammed into Yulin.

The demon stood up, and readied himself to shoot a blast of fire, when he looked to the crowd exiting the arena and spotted Yoh forcing his way through. "There you are." He suddenly shot through the crowed and grasped the collar of Yoh's shirt and threw him into the stands. He floated over to him and pressed him against the seat. "How are you tonight?"

Yoh cringed. "What do you want!?!"

"To speed things up." Yulin placed his hand on Yoh's chest, then a sort of window appeared, showing Yoh's heart, and in front of it, a strange pod.

Yoh looked down. "Nani!?! What is that?"

"You're life." Yulin smiled softly, then slowly slipped his hand threw the window and grasped the seed as Yoh began to gasp in pain. It began to grow, then split, revealing small leafs. Yoh began to cry in pain, then Yulin looked up with gentle eyes. "Daijoubu?"

"Yulin, please let go. I'm not Hao."

"Don't worry. The pain's just about over. "

Yoh's eyes became silver.

On another stand, Manta finally pushed by a women, then looked up and saw Yulin and Yoh. "Yoh-kun!" He hopped of the stand, taking a moment to get up, then he began to climb the empty one. When he reached the two, he punched Yulin in the head.

P.M shot up after the small boy, and caught him once he was thrown. "Manta! Daijoubu!?!"

"Hai." Manta rubbed his cheek, then frowned at Yulin.

The demon stared at him quietly while finishing his work, then suddenly received a hard kick to the gut, making him release the seed. He frowned seeing Yoh roll of the stands, then jump to his feet.

Manta shot to his side. "Yoh-kun, daijoubu?"

"Aa. Just dizzy again."

Yulin stood up, then cringed seeing the rest of the gang had finally made it through the panicing crowd.

Yoh drew Harasume, trying to hold his balance, then he noticed a tear making its way down Yulin's cheek. "Nani?"

"I'll be back!"

Opacho suddenly hopped up the stand and jumped into Yulin's arms, and with that the two faded away sadly.

Mikihisa smiled. "I think you guys did some damage."

Anna looked to Yoh's chest quietly. "P.M, you might wanna take care of that."

"I'll help."

Yoh began to tremble seeing Faust's hands glowing and his trademark crazy expression. "Uh, no Faust. P.M can do it."

Tamao slowly walked up stand, then picked up a small object. "Nani?" She quickly hopped back down then held it to the group. "It's from that thing in Yoh-sama."

Kino took it, then showed it to P.M.

P.M became wide-eyed, seeing small images from Hao's life playing like a movie on the leaf.

Manta suddenly took it and smashed his foot down on it. "Bad leaf! Go away!"

P.M looked to Yoh, then slid is hand into him. "I'll get it out quick."

He began to pull, when Yoh suddenly placed his hands over his. The angel's expression became soft. "Yoh, let go."

Yoh blinked, his eyes returning to normal, then moved his hands as the seed was fully pulled out.

Leyserg looked at it, then frowned. "Ugly little thing, isn't it?"

Amidamaru nodded, then floated into Yoh's arms.

Yoh smiled. "Sorry I keep being a tool."

"It's alright, Yoh-dono. Yoh can't help it."

Manta blushed as Yoh looked down at him. "Sankyuu, Manta. F you hadn't hit Yulin, I probably wouldn't have been able to free myself from Yulin."

"Uh, no problem Yoh-kun."

Kinoi smiled, then looked to the group. "Let's go to bed now."

The gang nodded, and began to walk back, when Marcus suddenly began to panic. "Where's Koda Kumi!?!"

Ren looked to him. "A few guys took her away, while you were fighting Yulin."

Tears built up in the priests eyes, then he fell to his knees. "Koda Kumi!!!!!!"

Shizuka sighed. "Maybe next year, Marcy," and with that the priest was dragged away.

Chuck: Poor, Marcus. Will he ever meet Koda Kumi? Hee hee hee. Stay tuned and see.