"Yoh, do you know why they are after me?" Cloud asked.
Yoh shook his head. "I haven't had the slightest clue. He had said that Hao had interfered with his plans. He must be scheming something big. We must tell Anna about this."
Cloud looked at the ground and sighed. "I don't understand what is going on."
Yoh gave her a smile. "It's alright. You'll be fine. We'll help you figure this out. For now, stay over at our house and don't go back to school tomorrow."
She looked at him. "Thanks. I need to go back to school tomorrow though. I left something at school that I really need."
"It might be dangerous. I don't think it's a good idea." Yoh pointed out. "Just get a new one."
Cloud hesitated. "It can't be replaced… It's something really important to me."
Yoh stared at her, waiting.
"It's… a picture of my family…" Cloud smiled.
"Oh…" Yoh grinned. "I'll go with you tomorrow."
"What?" She looked concerned. "Don't you have school tomorrow?"
Yoh scratched his head. "Yeah, well… it's okay. This is more important."
Cloud giggled. "Anna won't like that."
"Right…" Yoh became deep in thought as they reached the house.
Cloud stopped in front of the house and looked to the sky. Yoh joined her and they shared a couple minutes of tranquility. A shooting star shot by and Cloud's eyes grew wide. "Wow! A shooting star"
Yoh just smiled and gave her a quick glance. He saw that she had her eyes closed and her hands clasp together. "What are you doing?"
"Making a wish. Come on Yoh! Join me!" Cloud peeked one eye opened at him.
Yoh closed his eyes and when he opened them, he saw a couple more shooting stars. "It looks like the shaman tournament has begun."
"Oh…" She awed at the sight in the sky. "A tournament?"
"Yeah. Let's go tell Anna." Yoh walked down the walkway to his house.
They spent about two hours discussing the matters that had occurred that night before Cloud fell asleep. The next morning, Yoh joined Cloud on her way to school.
Cloud let out a large breath when she was outside of her school. She looked around, some people were watching her and whispering.
"Wow, you're school is pretty big." Yoh stated.
"Come on Yoh." She whispered and pulled his sleeve.
They ran into the school building and stopped outside her classroom. Cloud pulled the door open and the whole class stopped and watched her. "Eh, hi." she entered the room with Yoh following behind. She saw her schoolbag beside the teacher's desk and quickly rushed towards it. She opened her bag and saw that her picture was still there. Cloud let out a sigh of relief and smiled. She turned to see Yoh waving at the class and shook her head. "Let's go Yoh."
They began to walk towards to door, but suddenly, everyone surrounded them. "We can't let you leave." A girl informed.
Yoh and Cloud were surprised. "Uh why not?" Yoh asked. There was no answer. "Okay, forget I asked." He brought his sword out.
"Yoh! What are you doing?" Cloud's eyes widened.
"There are spirits in this room." He replied and at that moment, dark cloaked people entered the room.
A hooded person stepped forward. "Cloud Yuumi, you are to come with us."
She gave a panicked look towards Yoh, who appeared to be glaring.
"She isn't going anywhere with you." Yoh notified with his sword raised. "Told you it was a good idea that I came." he said to Cloud.
She gave a small chuckle and saw that more people had entered the room. Just great, she thought to herself.
"Hello Yoh Asakura. We meet again. Surely you remember who I am don't you? We were introduced last night." He paused. "The name is Ryo in case you've forgotten."
As he spoke, more cloaked people entered the room and circled them. Cloud grabbed a bit of Yoh's shirt and he inched forward.
"Attack." The word came out clear and slow.
They froze and everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Everyone charged towards them, Yoh readied his sword, a large force exploded around them, and everyone flew backwards.
"What just happened?" Yoh was blinking blankly totally confused.
"Who cares! Let's go!" Cloud grabbed Yoh's arm and they ran out of the room past everyone who were lying on the ground. They ran outside only to see a lot more cloaked people.
"It doesn't matter how hard you try to run, we'll always find you." The biggest cloaked man stepped in front of them. He removed his hood and sneered. "Hello Cloud, Yoh. Yashi is here for you."
Yoh jumped out and attacked, creating an opening for her to leave. "Go!" He shouted.
Cloud ran through and looked back to see him grin at her. She stopped and turned around. "Yoh!"
"After her!" Yashi called out and pointed.
"Keep going!" He ran towards her, turned around, and got ready to fight.
Some of the cloaked people were stopped by Yoh and some escaped past him and ran, actually flew, after Cloud.
She kept running. Every time she looked back, she saw them right behind her, so se stopped looking back and made many twists and turns, hoping to lose them. She lost count and stopped remembering which direction she came from because she could feel them right behind her. All the paths looked the same to her now, that was until she came to a clear opening that she had never seen when she lived in that city. She ran straight across the field and saw the trees straight ahead. Slipping through the branches and dodging through the trees, Cloud jumped over the roots and barely even had time to think. Everything was a blur in her eyes. She saw a person standing by a lake that was sparkling beautifully. Yoh, she assumed at the far distance since he was facing her. "Yoh!" She ran behind him and peeked over his shoulder. The cloaked figures stopped and brought out their weapons and spirits.
Cloud was breathing heavily and her legs ached so bad, but she noticed that 'this' person wasn't Yoh. He had longer hair than Yoh and his clothes was different than Yoh's. And there was no way that Yoh could've gotten there before her. Therefore, after thinking about it, she realized her mistake and froze.
The person turned around and grabbed her wrist, pulling her back in front of him. He smirked and looked at the cloaked figures. "So you want her eh?"
Cloud's eyes widened and she struggled to free herself from his grasp, but she couldn't get anywhere.
"Come and get her." He taunted and they sprung towards him. He lifted her off the floor by her wrist and she was caught off guard at how strong he was. He swung her towards the cloaked figures and she covered her head with her arms.
The cloaked people burst into flames and within seconds there was nothing left behind. Cloud flew through, hitting nothing but ashes. She landed on the floor with ashes falling around her. Cloud was breathing roughly and looking a bit shaken. She relaxed on the floor and closed her eyes, taking in deep breaths.
The person kneeled down beside her. "You must be of some importance if those shamans were after you."
Cloud sat up and stared right at him. "What did you do?"
"I saved you, so you better thank me." He stood up with the same smirk.
"I, um, thank you." She stood up and bowed. "What happened to them?"
"They died." He replied heartlessly.
"Why in the world did you do that?" Cloud looked exasperated. "You could have just knocked them unconscious or something."
"Their lives aren't worth much." He said and turned away from her, walking towards the lake.
She glared. "Every life is important."
"Hmph." He sat on a rock and rested his hand on his chin. "You called me Yoh, therefore I suppose you must have some relation with him."
"Yeah, I'm sorry." She apologized. "You really do look like him though."
He seemed to glower a bit, "Don't compare him to me. My brother and I are nothing alike."
"I… Why do you hate him?" Cloud hesitated.
He glared at her. "What reasons gives me not to?"
"Eh, he's really nice, funny, considerate, sincer-"
"Enough. It doesn't concern me how he is. It sickens me." He stared out into the water.
She bit her lip. "Did something happened?"
"You're really nosy aren't you?" He hopped off the rock then looked at her and smirked. "Surely you didn't miss out on the most important event in history, did you? Where Yoh Asakura defeated the infamous Hao Asakura?"
She looked uneasy and he leaned close to her face. "You're a pitiful human aren't you?" He put his hand under her chin and whispered. "I could kill you now, but I want to know why Yashi is after you." He stepped away from her and looked at her ever so evilly. "Forgive my manners. I am Hao Asakura."
"Cloud Yuumi." She informed and looked away from him.
"I'll keep that in mind." He started to leave her.
She looked around at her surroundings, not recognizing a single thing. Dread came to her, where am I? She asked herself. "Hey! Wait up!" Cloud ran after Hao, who didn't bother stopping and kept walking calmly. "Hey, do you know where we are? How do I get out of here?"
He turned his head and looked at her calmly, giving her the smirk that she already gotten use to. "Why don't you go figure that out yourself?"
She made a face. "I don't know how to get back."
"Well that's your problem isn't it?" He answered.
"Where are you going then? Maybe we are going to the same place."
"I highly doubt that. So I don't think it should concern you where I go." Hao finally stopped and looked at her. "Go find your way back on your own." A large flame enveloped him and he disappeared.
Cloud shrugged. "Oh well. Might as well." She randomly picked a direction to head towards and simply went. She found herself still beside the large lake and sat on the shore, taking a break. She had been wandering for about five hours, but she found herself back where she started. She ran her hand through her hair frustrated. What am I going to do? She asked herself then looked over at the water.
Staring out over the lake, she spotted a beautiful angel. Cloud marveled at the figure at the middle of the lake. She had beautiful long white hair, and her wings caught all of Cloud's interest. She felt as if she was trapped in time watching the beautiful elegant figure.
There was a sudden explosion and it jolted Cloud out of trance. She saw the explosion had occurred near the angelic figure. Chains wrapped around the angel and she struggled against it. Cloud turned to see that there were people trying to capture the angel from the other side of the shore. She jumped into the water and swam furiously towards the center of the lake. The angel was hovering above the water, trying to pull back against the chain. Cloud jumped up and grabbed the chain, pulling the person on the other side a bit forward. They were taken back a bit, but another person whipped a chain towards Cloud and it hit her arm, causing her to fall into the water.
Cloud winced as she fell deeper. There was a sword in the water that shimmered just right below her. Without hesitating, she swam lower and grabbed the handle. Pulling it, she headed back up to the surface and jumped out of the water, swinging the sword. It made contact with the chain and it snapped into two, causing the person to stumble backwards. Cloud reached out and grabbed the angel's hand, surprising the group of people and the angelic figure. She pulled her into the water and swam towards shore. They got out of the water to see the group of people standing there and watching them.
A man smiled at them and walked right up to them. "Hey little girl. You got some ability there. I'm quite amazed."
Cloud was dripping wet and she was still grasping the angel's hand and a bit worn out from the swimming. "What are you talking about?"
The man reached out and tried to grabbed the angel's arm, but it passed right through. Cloud's eyes widen and shifted to her own hand grabbing the angel's hand. "So you see, she's a spirit." The man grabbed her arm. "And you're human. Normal humans don't have the ability to make any physical contact with spirits. And even sometimes shamans don't have the ability to when spirits are in their regular forms."
Cloud dropped the angel's hand and brought her own hand to her face, examining it. The angel made a grab at her hand, but it passed right through. Cloud was confused and her expression showed that she was deep in thought.
"I believe that my master would like to take a good look at you. Come with me." He ordered and indicated with his head to his group to the spirit.
"Hey! I'm not going anywhere." She firmly stated and glared. "And she's not going with you either." She pulled her arm back and jumped back, grabbing the spirit's arm.
"It doesn't look like you have a choice." The man sneered and circled them.
She tensed. "I'm really getting tired of this." She lifted the sword up and dropped the spirit's hand.
"Wait, let me help you." The angel reached out to Cloud.
"How?"
"Just trust me. You know what to do."
Cloud reached out and felt strong pull between the both of them. "Spirit Unity!" Without knowing it, she had fused with the angel spirit.
In Cloud's point of view, the group of people were clearly shocked and surprised. "And to think I thought you were just a mere human. Turns out that you are a shaman after all." The man crackled and everyone began swinging their chains.
A large force exploded from Cloud and knocked everyone backwards before they had the chance to react. She ran past them and into the forest, disappearing from their sight.
The man stood up and brushed himself off. He could still hear the ringing in his ears. One of his members came up to him and the man ordered him. "Inform Master Yashi. I believe that we found the girl he was chasing. However, let me talk to him personally, I got some interesting information he would like to know that might interest him."
"Yes sir." The man bowed and got out his phone.
Cloud stopped and leaned against the trunk of a tree. The angel separated from her and Cloud's mouth was nearly hanging open. "What was that?"
"That was spirit unity, a technique that shamans could perform that allows the spirit to enter the shaman's body." The angel explained.
"I'm not a shaman though." Cloud pointed out.
The angel replied. "Perhaps you are, but you just aren't aware of it." She bowed. "Thank you for saving me. My name is Cho. I'll be at your service from now on."
"Wha- what?" She rubbed her face and answered awkwardly. "Um, you don't have to be at my service at all. Just… stay away from bad people." She smiled and bowed. "I guess I'll be going now. I need to get home." She started walking away from her.
Cho gave a gentle smile. "Wait. What's your name?"
She stopped and turned around looking cheerful. "Cloud Yuumi. Bye." Giving one last smile, she turned back around and jogged away.