The crowd was in total silence, everyone was speechless over the sacrifice of the X-III. But most of them probably wanted to know if Hao survived or not.

Of course everyone had heard about him. And I have to admit, even I was a little curious. No not alittle, alot.

Even the barrier around the ring was visible now and all you could see inside it was lots of dust.

" I don't like them but you have to give them credit…" Horohoro said, " I'd be surprised if even Hao could survive that."

I don't know why, but the last sentence actually felt strange to hear…

" That didn't kill him." we all turned to Yoh who was looking both angry and sad… looking down at the ground with tightened fists. " How much more will I have to endure? I'm sick and tired of being mad all the time!"

Alive? How would that even be possible?

While Yoh talked the dust began to disappear from the ring.

He got tears in his eyes, " How much longer will you play with people's souls…"

The dust began to fade away more and more, revealing Hao… actually looking pissed off but still smiling a crazy smile. His eyes didn't look too nice…

" Onmyoji Asakura Hao." Yoh continued.

I couldn't really focus on was he said, I was busy by wondering what the hell was going gone since Hao didn't seem hurt at all! Neither did Spirit of Fire even though it should be blown out.

Another really strange thing… Spirit of Fire isn't that fire-looking anymore. It looks more like a spirit of water.

Wait, wait… did he just say Asakura? As in Yoh's last name?

" Asakura? But that's your last name isn't it, Yoh?" Chocolove asked, looking confused as hell like everyone else. Everyone except Anna, Yoh seemed pretty pissed off.

" Hey, hey! Don't say it like that! That would mean that Yoh and Hao are related, wouldn't it? " Azami yelled.

" Well that would explain why they look alike. Still really weird though…" Akira mumbled, looking over at Yoh. How he is able to stay that calm is beyond me.

Of course there was one person who didn't even seem to try to stay calm. Horohoro grabbed Yoh by the shirt, " What the hell is this supposed to mean, Yoh! You knew about this all the time but kept it from us?"

" I found out about it… during our three month training period."

" And you've been holding it in all this time? Were you ever planning on telling us? I should have realized! Tell us, who is he to you!"

" Calm the hell down!" I yelled, standing up from my seat, " How is he supposed to tell us that he is related to a jerk like Hao?"

Yeah I was getting a little pissed. To be honest, it was mostly at Yoh I was mad, but that's how I stay calm with a person! Yelling at a person who is angry really helps a little.

" It's not like that." I stopped glaring daggers at Horohoro and looked back at Yoh, " I wasn't trying to hide it from you. I didn't want you to get involved in my family matter. Since you are all in the shaman fight you will have to fight him eventually. I didn't want to give you another thing to worry about . But I can't keep it in anymore… he's my-"

" Just an ancestor." Anna grabbed Horohoro by the ear, causing him to let go of Yoh's shirt.

" That's not really a 'just', is it?" Azami mumbled.

Anna ignored her, " From a thousand years ago. Now back off before you get hurt."

" What are you talking about? Yoh is my friend! I can't back off!" Horohoro answered with tears in his eyes from Anna's grab on his ear.

" That's the reason you should back off. Yoh needs to finish this by himself." Ren said, " Onmyoji are shamans that has very strong links to China. If Hao is one, then the man Lilirara showed us from 500 years ago was Hao too."

" Who is Lilirara?" Azami whispered in my ear, probably even more confused than before.

" I will tell you later. " But… is Hao really over a thousand years old? That's pretty wicked.

I mean, he is hitting on me! It's more than 100 years difference! That's just really wrong… and he looks really young. And he's alive! God this is such a pain…

All the voices in the crowd became silent, Hao spoke.

" Honestly, you and your silly justice is just a joke to me. Blowing yourself up is a pretty stupd tactic. But you did better than I expected. So you deserve a reward…"

The members of X-III came back to life.. well kind off. They were spirits. But why would he do that? Surely he wouldn't be nice! Then they would be alive for real..

I don't like what I see…

" Not all souls…" he said, " are created equally. For better or worse, strongwilled souls shine brighter and are much more powerful. X-III, your actions are foolish to me, but the fact that you are willing to give up your life shows great determination."

What is he on about…?

" Your radiant souls shall not be wasted. They will live in me forever and become a part of my strength."

Spirit of Fire gave out a load growl," It's a feast, eat Spirit of Fire." it took the souls, and devoured them one by one.

That was the end.. for X-III.

…..

I was sitting in the room that I, Anna, Tamao and Azami shared while the others were downstairs, probably talking about a very strange thing that Yoh told us.

After that match Yoh took everyone to a beach.. he felt like fishing or something like that I think. There he told us to sickest news that actually explained why Yoh and Hao where so alike in appearence.

They are brothers, twin brothers.

It is so damn weird! I can't believe it.. how could a guy like Yoh possibly be related as Hao? It doesn't even make any sense to me!

But if you just forget about that there is a much worse thing Yoh said… Hao's mana is at

1,250,000. Now how the hell are we supposed to beat that? We can't, that's the answer.

We will lose, he will win. Now what should I do?

This was the only way for me to remember, but now that I know that it is impossible, how could I possibly go on?

I might aswell just go home.. But it would feel so damn mean to just abandon everyone who continues.

I sat down on the floor.

Besides… what if I could talk Hao into NOT killing every dude he fights? Or make him tell me about me… that sounded really weird…but right now that's the only way to find out.

And no, I still won't become his stupid queen.

"Are you okay?" Sakuya appeared infront of me.

"It's nothing, just thinking." I said, looking down at the floor.

I could tell that she didn't buy it but she decided to drop the subject since I obviously didn't want to talk about it.

She didn't say anything but waited for me to start a conversation.

"What do you think, Sakuya?" she waited for me to continue, "About this whole Hao thing… like, what should we do now? We already know that we can't win..." I continued to look down at the floor.

She sighed, "You tell me. It is your decision, Tsukiko."

"I thought you would answer that."

There was another moment of silence in the room, we could hear the others talk from downstairs. Especially Horohoro who was yelling something... I could hear it clearly but could still not make out what the hell he was on about.

"Let's go down, shall we?" the ghost smiled at me.

I gave a small smile and walked downstairs together with her where Horohoro and Azami seemed to have some kind of fight over… something…

I sat down next to Yoh who was laughing over the weird fight.

Seriously, they were just yelling things at each other… well atleast Akira got his break from Azami.

Speaking of Akira, I didn't see him anywhere, Ren was nowhere to be seen either. I swear that they are haning right now, they are so much better friends that they show!

I was about to ask Yoh if he had seen them but was interrupted when my eyes spotted Azami and Horohoro a few inches from each others face…

Having a big staring contest.

It was impossible for me not to laugh, their faces were hilarious. Everyone in the room began to laugh, even Horohoro and Azami. I swear that even Anna was smiling a little.

Akira's POV:

Akward silence is far too akward most of the time…

I am sitting on a bench, in the middle of the village that was now empty since it was beginning to get late, together with Ren.

Why? I have no idea.

We aren't even talking to eachother!

You see… I was walking around a few minutes before, apparently Ren must have been doing the same thing… he came from the left and I from the right now we are sitting on the same bench. Staring into nothing while Bason and Makoto are talking lively as hell about when they were alive or something.

"Sooo…" Ren said nothing so I continued, "What's up?"

He looked at me as if I was stupid and that just killed my will to make him talk, " Fine, don't say anything." he obviously doesn't want to talk anyway.

There was another awkward silence until my cell phone gave a loud noise, it was Tsukiko's parents that were calling, not to my surprise.

" Hello?"

"Hi Akira! How are you?" Ayano said.

" I'm fine what about you?"

" I'm just fine! So may I talk to Tsukiko?"

" Actually, I'm out right now… with my pal Ren." yeah, I felt the need to mention him… I mean come on, he is sitting right next to me!

" Ren? Yeah, Tsukiko has told me about him! That cold guy, right?"

I looked over at Ren who was looking at the air with a really cold stare, " Yeah that would be him alright. "

" I knew it! So have you met Hao?"

Hao? How the hell does she know about Hao?

" H- Hao?"

Ren and I looked at each other Ren surprised at hearing me say that name in the phone and me really surprised over hearing Tsuki's mom say it.

" Yeah, Hao, Tsukiko's boyfriend?"

" Boyfriend?"

Ren must have heard it because both of us jumped up from the bench and yelled it out loud.

" Oh, you didn't know? Oops! You won't tell her I told you, will you?"

" Don't worry about it, I'll tell Tsuki you said hi, gotta go, bye!"

As I hung up Ren had already began to walk back to the place we stayed at. I ran up next to him, " Hey, Ren wait!" I grabbed his arm stopping him from walking. " There is no need to be so damn pissed!"

" Shut up." he snatched his arm away from my hand but I ran up infront of him.

" What are you gonna say? It was obviously nothing but a lie!"

" How the hell aren't you angry?" he deathglared me, " She has been lying for a while now, hasn't she?" wow Ren was really pissed for some reason, I honestly don't think it just is about Tsuki.

" What are you talking about? I really pissed of. I just have a great poker face. Besides, it was just a tiny lie, nothing real happened between her and Hao, now did it? "

Why does it feel like just empty words are leaving my mouth..?

Ren sighed and moved me out of the way, but he did seem a little less pissed.

He took a step beside me, "Let's get back then." he then began to walk again.

"Yeah…" I answered.

I'm not gonna lie, the fact that it looked like Ren was about to kill Tsuki a few seconds ago worried me, but what is worrying me right now is the fact that it seems like I'm not believing in what I'm saying anymore…

Sure, Ren is still pissed, but I'm sure that I am even more angry than him, but as I said, poker face.

Tsukiko's POV:

Things had calmed down between Horohoro and Azami when she won the staring contest and we were all just sitting down and chilled.

Ren and Akira finally arrived too, I told you that they were hanging out!

Oh right!

I walked up to Akira, " Hey, you wanted to talk, right?"

He looked at me… with such cold eyes, he smiled at me, "Hm? No, not now, later, okay?" he then just walked up the stairs in the house.

I looked over at Ren who sat down next to Horohoro who were busy talking with Azami to lay a comment about him being out late or something like that… I don't know how he's mind works.

No, even if Ren and Akira would have picked a fight with each other there is no way that Akira would get that angry.. or depressed. But Ren does seem a little mad too…

Makoto's POV:

Man, Akira really seems out of it. I'm not sure what it was about, but both he and Ren yelled out the word' boyfriend' when Akira was on the phone so I guess Tsuki was lying to her mom about Hao.

But why would he get that bothered by a lie? Sure she isn't like.. known for being a lier but still. And he didn't seem too angry when he heard about her lying about Hao.

The first thing he did when we got back was going to bed, something is obviously wrong with the kid.

I have already decided to be on my nice behavior towards him.

" Hey, Akira-kun? Are you okay?" he was lying with his back against me.

" I'm tired. Just go down with the others."

" Come on, I know that something is bothering you! Is it about Tsuki?"

" It's nothing, Makoto, really."

I sighed, "I will leave you alone then."

What could I do? If he don't wanna talk, I can't make him… well of coure I can but not when he is depressed! I mean seriously, I'm a ghost but I'm not that cold!

When I had made my way down to the others Tsuki looked at me, probably wanting me to tell her about Akira.

I gave a faint smile and flew over to Sakuya who were talking to Amidamaru and Manta.

While talking to them I couldn't help but worry about Akira, I mean he is an idiot most of the times that I love to annoy, so how fun is it when I'm not able to since he is sad?

AKIRA HAS A SAD FACE! But yeah, hello… what's up? :D

Believe it or not, but there is three reasons for this chapter being so damn late.

I'm a lazy meanie.

I had many homeworks and tests to do in school, it sucks.

I actually did one while I was lazy, but my computer got pissed of and threw it away… but yeah so I had to redo it. It worked out fine I think, pretty short but nice.

Well, I hope that you also thought it was a nice chapter and I will try to update as soon as I can but unfortunately I can't promise anything… but I WILL TRY!

Please review and goodbye!