Chapter 9: Fight me

REN´S POV

That night, we go to have dinner back at our place. There, I find Manta and Tamao, who´ve come along with Anna. I also find that bizarre guy Yoh fought against in the preliminaries, Faust VIII.

"So, have you arranged your team yet?" I ask Yoh.

"Well, Anna said I´m gonna team up with Faust" He answers uncertainly.

"But what are we going to do about Lyserg??!" Ryu cries pathetically, so disgraceful.

"Oh, give it up, Ryu!" Mariana snaps "He´s not coming back. I´m dead sure he ran off to those X-laws guys"

"No way! Lyserg wouldn't live us that way!" God, this is getting boring.

"He probably didn't know how to tell us, so he just went off" Mariana goes on "And why wouldn't he? The X-laws mission is to exterminate Hao and Lyserg told us the very first day we met him that he´d entered the Tournament only to get his revenge against Hao. It´s only logical that he´d want to join an organization that fights to bring Hao down"

"Nooo, Lyserg" He says miserably.

"Well, then, what are you two going to do?" I ask Ryu and Horo.

"If Lyserg´s not returning, then I want to team up with the boss, Yoh" Ryu says.

"What?! No way! What am I going to do then?!" Horo protests.

"Calm down, you can be on our team, we can ask Kalim" Mariana replies coolly "Three will fight when the time comes, ok? I´m sure there´s no problem"

"If you say so…" Horo sighs.

"That´s the spirit. Now lets eat!"

After dinner, all the guys go to sleep, but I can´t be less tired, so I go outside. I climb to the roof and lie down to watch the sky and the Great Spirit. It´s quite cloudy, but at least, being May, it´s not cold at all.

"Figures I´d find you here" Mariana´s cheerful voice comes from nearby. She appears in my line of vision and she lies down next to me "Isn´t this exciting?"

"What is?" I look at her.

"Tomorrow, our first fight" She looks at me with a big smile.

"Yeah, it is amazing" I admit quietly "This is what I was waiting for"

"I bet you were" She laughs "Are you confident about it?"

"Of course" I respond shortly and she laughs more.

"Yeah, I think we´ll be ok" She pauses and then stands up quickly "I have a great idea"

"Mmm?" I ask distractedly.

"Lets train" She smirks openly.

"Now?" She nods "What do you have in mind?"

"Fight me" She takes out her boomerangs and Celandine appears at her side "That way we´ll get tired enough to sleep properly"

"You sure about this?" I look at her in the eye as I stand up as well.

She rolls her eyes "Yeah, I know you´re stronger than me, just try not to hurt me that much" She jokes.

"Alright, I´ll try my best" I smirk back, pulling out my Kwan Dao "Bason!"

"Yes master!" Quickly, I oversoul and see her do the same thing. Without wasting another second, I use my furyoku to impulse towards Mariana and initiate my attack. She just manages to block it, but the force of it makes her back away a couple of steps.

"Nice" She compliments lightly "See how you like this!" She runs fast and throws herself at me with both of her boomerangs crossed. I easily dodge it and aim a hit from below. That sends her flying over and then behind me, where she falls hardly.

"Fast, but not fast enough yet" I comment turning around to help her up, but find she´s already up "Determined, I see" I smirk calmly "I like that. And you can take hard blows. That´s very good"

"Shut up" She smirks too and hurls her left boomerang at me with great strength. I take this one with a strong oversoul and divert it with my Kwan Dao. She sprints over me just as I´m getting back my stance and assaults me from the left with her left boomerang. I just manage to jump and avoid the hit. Suddenly, I sense the other one coming back from behind and swiftly turn and send it flying upwards with a powerful hit.

I land gracefully and turn to see Mariana catching the boomerang "Fuck you! How on earth did you get away from that attack?!" She demands jokingly with a sulk.

"It´s called talent" I sneer "But I just barely did" I confess "You´ve gotten better. But I´m still quite ahead of you" Fastly, I dash to her and strike with all my strength. Just before the collision, I see her getting a defence posture to take a direct hit. Ok, this is over.

Just as I predicted, that hit takes her down. It actually pushes her so far, that she trips and falls off the building. Reacting quickly, I throw myself after her, use my furyoku to catch up with her fall, manage to take hold of her, put her on top of me so my body is under hers and facing up, and use my furyoku again to reduce the impact of the crash.

It still hurts though "Oh my god, Ren, are you ok?!" I hear her scream. With my eyes closed, I feel her turn around on top of me and grab me by my arms "Please, Ren, answer!"

"Master!" I hear Bason shout worriedly. Gee, what is the big deal?! It´s not as though I´m gonna die from this.

"Yeah, I´m fine" I mutter, opening my eyes and blinking a bit.

"Jesus, Ren! Why did you do that?!" She cries frantically.

"To aid you, of course, but I can see now how it´s obvious that I shouldn't have" I reply sarcastically "I´ll keep it in mind next time"

"No, no, don't say that" She says apologetically "Thank you so much, Ren. You´re the best"

"Yeah, you really were" Celandine speaks up "That was really great of you. Thanks"

"Yeah, ok, that´s enough" I silence them, slowly getting up "Lets go inside"

We enter the house and go up the stairs. I go to the bathroom to clean myself up a bit. "Hey, are you really ok?" I see Mariana through the mirror standing in the doorway.

"Yes, just a bit sore" I tell her emphatically "This is nothing, quit worrying needlessly, ok?"

"Yes, sorry" She looks away and I see her leave miserably.

I hurriedly get clean and with a sigh, I go to her room. I open the door as quietly as humanly possible, having in mind that she´s sharing the room with Anna, and signal for her to come over.

"What?" She whispers closing the door.

"I just forgot to congratulate you on your improvement" I whisper back.

"Yeah, ok, you can stop the scathing comments now" She frowns "You totally defeated me"

"Yes, I did" She scowls and looks away "But I used all my strength to do so. Does that cheer you up?"

She looks back at me and smirks "It does a little. Beware next time, I´ll win eventually"

"Keep dreaming" I depart to my room. I have no idea why I just did that, but I somehow I feel more content than before. And just as Mariana said, I fall asleep right away.

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next chapter is the ren´s first fight