-Thanks for the reviewz

Umm letz see… um main parings…

Most likely… YohxAnna, RenxPirika, JunxRyu, Lysergxjeanne, Haoxoc, Horohoroxtamao, Faustxeliza, um who am I missing? Wellz maybe they might change too… ill figure it out later P

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"Careful Cloud, you shouldn't run across the street like that!" Her mother cried out, but ten-year-old Cloud was already on the other side.

The little girl reached the lamp post and turned around waving at her parents.

"Cloud, you should look both ways before you cross and make sure there isn't any cars. Like this." Her father and mother both stepped off the sidewalk turning their heads. After they saw that there were no cars, they began walking towards her with a smile on their faces. "See… it's safe to cross now."

They were holding each others hands happily and making their way across the street when the unexpected happened….

...A car hit them. Cloud's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

Blood splattered all over the place and her parents dropped to the floor, nearly torn apart. Cloud dropped to her knees, shut her eyes tightly, grabbed her head with her hands, and screamed. As she sobbed uncontrollably, the engine of the car was fading away as it zoomed further.

Cloud jolted out of her dream and found herself sitting up on a bed she wasn't familiar with. Her heart was beating rapidly and she was breathing in a harsh rhythm. She shut her eyes and rubbed her forehead then pulled her knees against her chest to hug it. Cloud rested her head against her knees and took inhaled deeply to stop herself from crying. It's okay… it's okay… it's okay… She repeated over and over in her head.

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(If you remember, Cloud is a week ahead of Yoh and the others, so I need to catch them up first so they can be on the same time.)

"Horo Horo! Wake up Oni-chan!" Pirika jumped onto the sleeping Ainu shaman.

"Ugg!" Horo Horo peeked on eye open to see Pirika sitting on him, then glanced over to the window, only to see that it was still dark outside. He shut his eye and tried to turn over and pull the blanket over his head.

"Horo Horo! You have to get up!" Pirika ordered and shook him. "Anna says it's time to go."

"The sun hasn't even come up yet…" He grumbled and buried his face into his pillow.

"She wants to start early so it won't be hot. Come on, you don't want to be left behind do you?" Pirika stood up and put her hands on her hips.

Horo Horo ignored her and went on sleeping.

"Horo Horo…" She began tapping her foot impatiently. A couple more seconds past by and she shook her fist in anger. "WAKE-" Before she could punch him and send him flying, a foot kicked her brother to the other side of the room.

She looked to her side to see Ren standing beside her with a smirk on his face.

Horo Horo now jumped up crossly. "Ren! WHAT IS THAT FOR?"

He crossed his arms and glared. "You are taking forever to get up. We are leaving in ten minutes and everyone is waiting for you."

Horo Horo looked to the door to see Anna standing there also with her arms crossed and tapping her foot. "Speed it up Pokey." He sighed.

Yoh appeared behind her yawning and scratching his head. "Anna… It's so early…" He whined.

She glowered at him. "Don't complain Yoh, otherwise, I'll triple your training."

He gulped and gave Horo Horo a smile, who returned it with a sympathetic look.

So the group left twenty minutes later instead of ten because Yoh had fallen asleep standing up and as a consequence of that, Anna had punched him and knocked him out, accidentally.

They were trudging tiredly to Manta's uncle's private jet early that morning with Manta and Anna being the only two who were officially wide awake. Manta was excited and had thought up a direction to head towards, which he hoped was correct based on instinct. He told the pilot, who looked a bit groggy, to fly north and with Lyserg's dowsing ability, his pendulum indicated that there was a fair amount of shamans heading towards that direction. And that gave Manta some confidence.

During the flight, just about everyone, except Manta, was sleeping peacefully. It was a quiet time and Manta was happy for the silence, so he had the time to see if he could gather any information about Summer Spring on the net. Information about summer resorts, spas, and springs, and such attractions were the only result he received on after half an hour of search. Manta rubbed his ear. Of course there isn't going to be any information. What was I thinking? It is suppose to be a secret location. He decided to search for any information regarding Cloud and to his amazement several links popped up. The first one he clicked was an article regarding Cloud's actions the past few days. It read that the police force had received tips from people, who wished to remain anonymous, informing them that they had spotted Cloud at the scene of the crime, which was burning people's home. Luckily in the homes they accused her of burning, no one was harmed. Her schoolmates reported that her recent behavior showed signs of guilt and it aroused suspicion. Her sudden disappearance from school was said that it may indicate proof that she is fleeing from the crimes she committed. Many of her classmates had agreed that they believe that she is guilty of such crimes and stated that she was 'that' type of person. It was written that if she was spotted, then they were to report her immediately to have her questioned. Manta shook his head after he finished. After meeting her, he didn't think she could be like what the article accused her to be like.

He froze. Wait, didn't Cloud tell us that her classmates accuse her of killing their families? He read the article again. The article said that no one was hurt. Why would her classmates accuse her of doing something that horrible? Yup, he was pretty sure now that she was framed. He saved the article onto his laptop and decided to show it to Anna later on when she wakes up.

Going to the next link, he found another article, but it was dated six years ago. Curious, Manta read the title, 'Parents' bizarre change to attempt murder on child.' He gulped at the what he read. Oh no, a tragic past. He began to read the story, but stopped when he realized it had nothing to do with Cloud. He was relieved and went back to the links. He found another article which read, 'Daughter sees parents' deaths' and sweat dropped. They seem so negative. This time it reported that a little girl was about ten years old who was out with her parents. The little girl had ran across the street and made it safely, whereas her parents were crossing the sidewalk at a simple pace, but a car was reported that it suddenly appeared and hit them. The little girl had witness the event and was near hysterics. The driver had disappear and no one had a clear view of what the person looked like. It was declared a 'hit and run' incident. There was a picture at the bottom of the article and Manta examined it. Their names were not reported, but Manta wanted to be sure that it wasn't her. He was staring at the picture. There was a little girl, and boy and their parents. He leaned closer to the screen. The little girl was adorable and there was a resemblance to Cloud.

"No wonder the photo looked familiar to me."

The voice startled Manta and he jumped. He turned to see Lyserg looking at the screen over his shoulder. "Lyserg?"

"The picture that Yoh showed us. When I saw it, it seemed like someone showed it to me before." Lyserg furrowed his eyebrows. "Just now, this article just made me remember that I had seen it."

"When?" Manta's full attention was now on Lyserg.

"My father. He was a dowser. Her parents died and they couldn't find the culprit, so the police force decided to just leave it because they had no clue. They said it was an accident and just left the case, but my father believed otherwise. I think it was because they were shamans that my father was caught interested. Normally shamans wouldn't die because of an car accident, so I suppose he wanted to see what he could do about it. I guess the photo was on his desk, when I happened to see it. My father ushered me out of his office when he had saw that I was holding the photo in my hand. I had asked about it, but he said I didn't need to worry about it." Lyserg informed.

"Her parents are shamans?" Manta asked.

"Yeah. I believed that I heard my parents talking about her after her parents died. She had turned into a very emotionless doll." His eyes drifted off thinking about how he felt after his parents died.

"Who is that?" Manta pointed at the boy beside Cloud.

Lyserg glanced at the picture. "That's probably her brother. He had to work to take care of her and him. I think it was pretty tough for him."

"Yeah probably." He clicked a link under the picture and a picture of a turned over car, that was all battered up, appeared.

Seventeen-year-old boy dies in a car accident. Manta gazed up at Lyserg wide-eyed. How much worse can this get? A teenage boy was driving his little sister when they were crossing a bridge, the driver behind them witness a car made an attempt to push the car off into the drainage canal (or flood control canal). It was a success when the boy's car skid onto the sidewalk and hit the railing, and flipped into the air. It plummeted down over into the canal and slammed onto the rocky bottom upside down. Many civilians had climbed down to try to save the kids. They pulled out the unconscious teenaged boy and the little girl sitting inside out from the car. The little girl was crying when she saw her brother and had refused to answer any questions. Both were brought to the hospital to have them examined. About four hours later, the teenage boy died from severe head injuries and immense blood loss, but the girl was safe with only minor injuries.

Lyserg sighed. "So she lost everyone. Was she living with anyone when she came to Anna and Yoh?"

Manta shook his head. "No, I don't think so. She never mentioned anyone."

"How tragic. It's hard to tell what happened to her especially when she smiles so easily."

Both Lyserg and Manta turned their heads to see Yoh and Anna looking over their shoulders. Manta gave a surprised laugh. "Yoh, Anna. You guys woke up."

"We pretty much all did when we heard Lyserg talking. Everyone's awake except for baka over there." Ren said, indicating at Horo Horo who was slumped on Tamao's shoulder drooling. Tamao was blushing, but since she was a nice and shy person, she didn't push off Horo Horo.

A voice from the speaker above them sounded. "Manta, we will be landing shortly in about ten minutes."

Manta nodded to himself and started putting his laptop into his backpack. Everyone began getting their things ready, but Tamao couldn't because she was still Horo Horo's pillow.

"Horo Horo. Get up off her!" Pirika shouted in his ear, but her brother just tried digging his face deeper into her shoulder. This cause Tamao to blush even harder.

Ren put a hand on Pirika's shoulder. "Let me handle this." He said and she moved aside for him. He grabbed a clip and put it over his nose. After a couple seconds, Horo Horo began clawing at his nose, trying to get it off. Ren became irritated when he saw that Horo Horo had woke up and was still trying to get it off.

"Help I can't breath!" He shouted alarmed.

Ren gritted his teeth. "I can't believe that you are more stupid than I thought you were."

Pirika removed the clip and gave her brother an embarrassed stare. "You could have breathed through your mouth…"

He blushed. "I knew that. I was just testing you..."

"You're a pathetic pig." Ren crossed his arms.

Horo Horo stood up. "Well, you're a cow!"

"Hey! Where do strawberries play music?" Chocolove popped up beside Horo Horo. "At a jam session! Get it? HAHAHA!"

Both Horo Horo and Ren turned to Chocolove glaring and towering over him with fiery eyes. With one power punch, they sent him flying to the back of the plane.

Everyone hung their heads and sighed. Manta was relieved when they landed. Everyone got off the plane and waved to the pilot as he left. The sun was beginning to rise and everyone headed to town, to see if they could find anything.

"Okay, here's what we are going to do. Everyone split up and ask everyone to see if you can find any information on Summer Spring. Most likely we aren't, but try. Meet in the park later at 11 and we'll find a place to stay and get lunch. So do your best guys!" Manta instructed.

"Hey! I remember doing this for Dobie Village…" Ryu pouted. "It was tiring."

"Yeah, I'll agree…" Horo Horo added. "I can't believe we have to do this again."

"Don't complain guys. It's to find the next location. So you'll get something out of this." Manta assured.

"Oh and one more thing. If you spot any other shamans, just see what they do. Don't start a fight or make yourself known." Anna ordered. "It looks like this city is filled with humans so you won't want to draw attention to yourselves. Got that?"

"Hai Anna." They answered in unison.

"Tamao, Pirika, and Jun. You guys can come with me." Anna stated and they nodded.

So they all separated and began seeing if they could gather any information, but there was little luck. When they all met up again, the girls were all carrying shopping bags except for Anna, who had Tamao carry hers.

"You guys went shopping?" Horo Horo shouted accusingly. "That's not fair! We worked hard while you guys go shopping!"

Anna glared at Horo Horo and he gulped. "For your information, we aren't participating in this tournament. Only you guys are, so there's no need for us to work as hard as you do. We might as well enjoy the time we have now. Understand?"

Horo Horo nodded under her cold frightening glare. He made a mental note to himself, hoping he'll remember not to ever complain in front of Anna.

"Good. We'll go to lunch once everyone gets here." Anna sat down at a bench and closed her eyes.

When everyone had arrived, the group went out to eat Italian, after much argument between Horo Horo and Ren and Anna stepping in and deciding. They found a hotel to stay in and everyone went back on their search for the rest of the day until dinner. They hadn't spotted any shamans nor found any clues about their next location. So they rested for the night and the next morning headed north to the next city.

Owls flew past them and into the city before they reached it and they stopped.

"It looks like there are shamans in that city." Lyserg stated and watched as and owl landed before him. It was carrying the oracle bell around its leg and Lyserg removed it. It looked a bit different from the previous oracle bell, but it had the same abilities. He turned around to see that Yoh, Ren, Horo Horo, Ryu, Chocolove, Faust, and surprisingly Manta had also received one.

Manta was bewildered. "What? I get one?"

"How does the owls know who is participating anyways?" Ryu asked.

"These owls aren't just regular owls, they have the ability to sense who has the desire to be part of this tournament and it chooses whether you are worthy of participating." They turn to see Marco standing there with an owl on his arm. He was dressed casually and standing beside him was Jeanne, the ex-Iron Maiden.

"Marco! Jeanne!" Lyserg cried out surprised.

"Hello Lyserg." Jeanne gave him a smile.

"Wait, I don't understand." Manta cried out.

Marco pressed his lips and said. "It thinks you are worthy of being in this tournament."

"I don't have a partner though." Manta pointed out. "I can't even fight."

"Yes, you can." A light appeared from his backpack. "In case you've forgotten about me. I've been sleeping in you laptop for a while now. I actually enjoy it in there."

"Mosuke!" Manta cried out as the spirit visualized before him.

"Let's work together!" Mosuke grinned at him.

"Really? Alright!" Manta was clearly excited as he took the oracle bell from the owl. "This is cool."

"Hey! What happens when you tell an egg a joke?" Chocolove laughed. "It-"

"Wrong time." Anna punched his head and he melted towards the ground.

"…cracks…up…" He sprawled out on the ground with a knocked out expression.

Jeanne and Marco gave a startled look towards Anna and she just returned their gaze with a cold stare that sent chills down their backs.

Jeanne gave a small giggle. "Since we are all here, let's all go to town together."

Yoh and Lyserg nodded then smiled. "Sure."

With two more people along beside them, it was hard not for anyone to notice such a big group walking together into town. They still had no luck finding any information, but they spotted other shamans doing the same thing. All shamans avoided them, mainly because of the large group they were in. It was an advantage if you didn't want to be attacked. They were afraid that if they attacked then the huge group would jump in and they would be outnumbered.

For a couple days, they drifted north from city to city, and seeing more shamans along the way. This gave them reassurance, but they knew that this is going to be difficult to find. It wouldn't be easy at all.

Lyserg sat down on a bench as he watched Yoh complaining to Anna that he wanted a smoothie, but Anna was yelling at him, telling him that he needed to keep his diet so he could become stronger. Horo Horo and Ren were arguing about what to eat again and Chocolove was sprawled out on the floor, like always, after a not-so-funny joke. Manta was becoming more acquainted with Mosuke and training himself to be stronger. Faust and Eliza were somewhere and Pirika and Tamao were chatting away, just like Jun and Ryu, who seemed to be getting along better these days. Lyserg sighed. They were once again taking another break because they can't decide what they want to do. This was what caused them to go at such a slow pace.

Jeanne sat down beside him and Marco beside her. "Hey Lyserg."

"Hey…" He was resting his head on his hands with a bored expression.

"How have you been holding up after the X Laws?" Jeanne asked.

"I've been doing alright. Things have been better for me." He replied. "How about you?"

"Marco and I decided to become our own person. No more plans to restart the X Laws. I guess I wasn't really thinking straight back then." Jeanne smiled. "I know Hao is still alive and I am going to stop him. But don't worry, I won't be so selfish this time that I hurt innocent people."

Lyserg returned her smile. "You've changed Jeanne."

"It's a good thing, I suppose. I feel more free now." Her smile faded. "Are you still after Hao?"

Lyserg didn't reply and just closed his eyes.

"You are, aren't you?" She put a hand on his shoulder. "Revenge isn't a good thing Lyserg. Remember that you should forgive? Would your parents want that? You can stop him, but just don't have revenge at heart."

He turned and grinned. "You really have changed Jeanne."

Jeanne blushed, which surprised Lyserg and Marco. While they were pondering why she blushed, she got up and walked towards the trees. There was some odd feeling about this tournament, that it wasn't going to go as planned. She looked over to Anna, who was now hitting Yoh. She knew Anna felt a bit tense about this tournament too, she could feel it. It was an uneasy feeling. That's why she decided to join this tournament, so she could help out if something were to happen. She was still worried about Hao's plans, but it seemed as though he was suppose to be the least of her worries. There was something else going on. Something they don't expect.

Anna turned and caught Jeanne's gaze. Anna, you feel it too don't you? Jeanne finally broke it by smiling and giving Anna a wave. I wonder if we are going to be enough... I wonder what's happening... I wish I knew…