Chapter IX
The Journey begins!
Author notes: Thank you for the reviews, I'm glad to see that others appreciate my ideas of continuing the anime story! And sorry for the wrong location at the beginning! I just changed the location with the one from the manga, because the one from the anime is a bit uncertain. I am somehow trying to introduce some elements from the manga, because I simply love it.
Oh, and sorry for the language mistakes, I am also trying to improve myself and somehow edit the chapter before posting it...he-he...
Enjoy my longest chapter so far! Sorry, but I first needed to partially establish some things, I don't like it when they don't logically connect and now the situation is a bit more explained (or at least in my head... )
The sun was already on top of the blue arcade of the sky. Rilury woke up having a neck ache, because the pillow she was sleeping on was too hard. And then she realized: it wasn't her pillow. The strange silence outside and the architectural style made her realize that it also wasn't her room.
As she was going down the stairs, thinking about a plausible explanation, she noticed Kalim sitting in the living room with everyone gathered around him, probably listening to what happened last night. Did he bring her here? But a Patch Tribe Officiant shouldn't interfere or even help the participants in any way. And now she realized, she was actually in the Shaman Tournament. But the glimpse of joy was suddenly swept by a frowning when remembering HOW she actually got in the tournament. And then full embarrassment when she realized WHAT she actually said… therefore it was defiantly time to leave as silent as a ninja from that place.
"Leaving so soon?" the voice of a blonde girl was heard behind her, as she just opened the window.
"I was thinking to at least spare your efforts of kicking out an uninvited person, he-he" Rilury said, awkwardly smiling.
"Your presence isn't unexpected. My fiancée saw you from the beginning when he brought you here."
"Who? Kalim?"
Anna had a light smirk and instead of answering, said:
"Don't you want to hear first what he at least has to say? You can stay more here if you want, as long as you cook dinner."
"Mm, okay, then one minute and I'll disappear immediately after I set the kitchen on fire" she jokingly said, and Anna had a light smile but Rilury was uncertain whether she made a good joke or was just plainly acting stupid in front of her.
She then headed to eavesdrop a bit before she could decide to enter the discussion.
" The point is," Kalim said, "that she would defiantly be a good helper when needed in the ultimate battle"
"What could make you think that we could trust her?" Ren asked being suspicious from the very beginning. Rilury was in the Tournament because of Hao, and Kalim was defiantly omitting some parts from the battle.
"One thing is clear. Even if she is acting impulsively and nearly killed me, she has a pure sincerity and now she is clearly our ally."
"If what you say it's true, then it must be a trap. That guy certainly has a plan and wouldn't stain his reputation for nothing. Even so, I think the rules of this preliminary round for the new shamans are stupid. Why can't only the winner participate in the tournament? If there were exactly like the last time, we could have figured out clearly his intentions and also, things would have been more interesting." He said, without his expression being changed.
"Ren!" Ryu said feeling offended by his arrogance. "How could you say that knowing that that beautiful lady could have gotten hurt, or even worse!" he said with the tears flowing from his eyes like the Niagara Falls.
"What you say is true" Kalim said to Ren, ignoring Ryu. "But, knowing what happened in the last Tournament, we offered everyone the chance to rebuild their team."
"So what you say is…" Ren said with an even more suspicious look.
"That's right. You defeated Luchist Lasso, didn't you? So The Red Star Team is incomplete."
"But you said that we can trust her!" Horohoro exploded not standing the tension of the discussion.
"Hm, I can't predict what her actions will be in the future. But considering her now, her power is actually quite formidable. As you know, a Nearly Death Experience increases a shaman furyoku. Rilury managed to damage somehow the Spirit of Fire, considering that Hao's currently furyoku level is 1,5 million."
Everyone was astonished and also a bit brought down. Excepting Yoh. He was actually impressed and his curiosity was woken up by Rilury's technique.
"But her furyoku isn't that great. She barely reaches 60.000" Yoh said enthusiastically wanting to continue. "This means her spirit's reiyoku (means spirit power/energy) is…"
"Beyond one million for sure." Kalim completed.
"This can't be possible!" Horohoro burst again."If the difference is so huge then she would have died by now!"
Rilury's eyes became blank. Die? There were so many things she was unconsciously doing. She clearly didn't have any idea what a being a shaman means.
"That's the puzzle. She actually manages to release small amounts of energy, and that explains why she can hardly control her attacks. But what is eluding me is actually how she can maintain a contact with such a powerful spirit, is the entity isn't even fully present?"
A silence left for thinking was surrounding the dinning table. That's when Rilury knew to interfere, because, judging from what she heard, it was clearly that Kalim hadn't mentioned that part when Rilury confessed everything. Maybe he first wanted to profit as much as possible from the fact that she doesn't yet know what to do, thing which actually bothered her. So she entered the room being with a strong imposing confidence.
"All right, so you seem to know much more about me than even myself. That is quite funny, but I am the one that plays with the lightning, you know? So yeah, before I'll decide whether to help you or not, first thing, I need to ask something…"
"What is it?" Kalim said, trying to hide the shock that she overheard everything they've said.
"What on earth means reiyoku and where the hell is my spirit?!"
Everybody crashed in shock of an amusing disappointment, even if the second question, although the serious tone was ruined by the first one, was actually quite important and nobody knew the answer.
"America! The land of the stars!" Rilury exclaimed more for herself, as she saw the vast continent from above the private jet of the Tao family. It seems like they headed right for the Patch Village after that day of gibbering and making futile plans to defeat the evil, thing which was nice, because she has never traveled over the Pacific Ocean before.
"I'm meeting Tom Cruise right away!" Anna jokingly said acting like a cool person and putting her sunglasses on.
"He-he, Johnny Depp is mine!" Rilury continued and also put her sunglasses on, embracing a star-like attitude, even if at first she used stars as a metaphorical way of saying those who achieved their dreams.
"What's with you? They are too old to for you to even think something like that!" Manta shouted and soon received a hit in the head by Anna.
"We were just joking…" Anna said on a disturbed tone.
"What kind of humor is that?!" Manta said for himself while crying in pain with a big red bump on his head.
A lot of people were already waiting in front of the Patch Village. Why would nobody enter? They seized a strong furyoku around the sealed gates, on which was just a poorly written sign "We are closed for maintenance. Thank you for your patience"
"What!? The Patch Tribe have always had a shitty organisation!" Horohoro shouted, thing which led them be recognized by Chocolove and Lyserg.
"Hey guys! Long time no see, eh?" greeted them Lyserg with a smile.
"No fishes, no sea!" greeted Chocolove with a lame joke as always, thing which made Ren and Horohoro beat him like in the good old days.
Lyserg's smile was shortly interrupted by a brief curious look when he saw Rilury confusingly watching the three guys beating for no reason.
"Oh, I suppose you're new in the Tournament?" Lyserg asked her.
"Um yeah, my name is Takahashi Rilury and I…"
"She's our new friend" Yoh completed her.
"A friend of Yoh is also a friend of mine" smiled Lyserg while making a slight reverence.
"Wait a second, that gesture…You're English right?" Rilury asked enthusiastically. "Great, we can both speak in your native language then!"
"Do you also come from England?" Lyserg asked in english happily.
"No, but my father does. And now I've found a good opportunity to practice my language skills again!" Rilury also responded happily.
"It's not time for blabbering, you guys!" interfered Horohoro. "Right now we have a serious problem! The Patch Village is closed and we yet don't know what to do!"
"What a good spirit of observation you have, Horohoro!" said ironically a familiar voice.
"Hao!" Lyserg and Rilury muttered simultaneously.
He was surrounded by his old followers, and even some new faces. Luchist was also there, alive, thing which made Tao Ren shocked.
"I thought I defeated that guy once and for good!" Ren said being quite angry, but maintaining the same tone of his voice.
"Oh, I thought of resurrecting some of my old companions, since The Red Star Team was initially incomplete."
"Wait, I thought…" said Rilury before stopping to say something that would make her look even more suspicious.
She thought he wanted her in his team. She would have never joined, of course, but the simple thought would have flattered her once in a while, especially after all that happened.
Hao suddenly smirked. Damn, she forgot that he could read thoughts! Sometimes she wished she could stick her head in the sand, just like an ostrich…
Before anybody could say something, a sandstorm came and the sky blackened itself. Then, from the centre of the cloud vortex, a bright circle appeared and out of it descended a blonde-haired woman wearing a Patch Tribe poncho, but only formally, as the dark-blue one-piece suit she usually wore could be seen under the fluttering cloth.
"My, my, looks like a lot of eager participants are willing to put their hands on the Great Spirit."
Everybody was wondering who that woman was, as they never seen her before.
"Is she a new Patch Member?" Chocolove asked curiously.
"No, she is actually my mother." Rilury said embarrassed, but also surprised as she hadn't being expecting her to be here.
"Alright, you pathetic people hungry for infinite power, as you can see, you came too early at this place, son stop sending us continuously complaints through the leaf spirits, they are quite annoying!" Akira said on an annoyed voice while landing on a cliff.
Everybody's reaction was of consternation and the crowd became agitated.
"You really take after her" Hao said with a smile.
Rilury, feeling annoyed, made a few steps near him.
"Oh just…
"Shut up!" Rilury's voice was covered by her mother's stronger one, thing which made her blush like a tomato.
"There was indeed a limited date on the oracle bell. And today is the day. After all, I didn't say you're not in time for the second preliminary round…" she said while smirking.
Glowing lines were defining themselves under the sand, shaping a huge circle containing ancient symbolic shapes. Everybody realized that they were actually standing on a portal that was starting to function. The dazzling light spread all over the area, teleporting everyone to a mysterious place…
Rilury was lying on the ground, when a leaf spirit came and played a recording of her mother's voice, thing which made her immediately wake up.
"Attention shamans! You are now in the Eden Garden, or more like paradise intermediate place between the spirits and the material world. This is the second preliminary round. The Garden is as vast as the Amazon, so the best chances are that you will find the person that was the closest standing next to you. Even if you find each other, I suggest you could work together in order to search for the nearest gate away point. But, from my point of view, you can just eliminate each other to give us less head aches.
All in all, the time you have is just of three days. This is the maximum time your material body can resist in this world."
Rilury stood up and wanted to leave as she couldn't stand hearing her mother's voice anymore.
"Not so fast, parasites! This round is made only to test YOUR strength of the spirit. In this world, you can't use your guardian spirit."
"What?!" Rilury asked herself. "Curse you mother, who left you in charge!?"
She then sat deceived on a rock.
The surroundings were although beautiful. The exotic plants were imposing with their huge multi-colored flowers amplified by the emerald green of the grass. It was like being in a tropical forest, only there was more space between the tall trees and the strange thing was there were no birds singing, even if the white sun made of spirit energy was spreading its light for all the living things which also didn't seem to make their presence noticed even by sounds.
Although everything seemed to be material, she sensed that it was all entirely made by spirits. They were all making oversouls with the earth, the only thing that actually seemed to be real. But was this soil made out of a once existing forest, which perished a long time ago? This thought saddened her.
It was clearly why they couldn't use their Guradian spirits. Every shaman was unconsciously making an oversoul with his own spirit, using his bodies, therefore maintaining the material state of the human flesh.
"But still, how am I going to find the needle in the hay all by myself?!" Rilury said out loudly in desolation.
"Hmm, maybe you could be my comrade" Hao said leaning on the trunk of a baobab, already having that superior look.
"You!"
"At first I thought you would be useless here, but considering that you figured the Eden's spirit system all by yourself, maybe you deserve a chance." He said purposely on an arrogant tone.
"It's because of you we both ended up here! If you hadn't annoyed me, I would be next to that innocent boy, Lyserg, and surely by this time we would have found a way out!"
"Hmph." Hao said with his expression changed. "That naïve boy? Oh well, then good luck finding a way out all by yourself!" he carelessly said and then started to walk away.
"Not so fast!" Rilury said and grabbed his arm. "It's your fault so therefore you are going to help me pass this round!" she added categorically.
Hao smirked. She then rapidly took her hand off his arms, suddenly realizing what she did, and removed her embarrassment with a determined look in her eyes.
"I guess it would be less boring if you'd come along"
"So we're officially partners! But only for those three days!" Rilury gladly said offering her hand for a formal handshake, to officialize the pact.
"Just like in the old days, huh?" Hao said on a calmly voice with a little tone of nostalgia.
Rilury blushed and suddenly retrieved her hand, turned her back and rapidly walked in front of him.
Only for three days…She didn't want to risk her entrance in the Shaman Tournament, and any help was welcomed. After all, maybe his intention of eradicating the humans was bad, but he was the only person she actually had the chance to get to know somehow. He might have been acting like a spoiled brat recently, but she couldn't stop considering him somehow…a friend.
And for now, she didn't have to think about the fate of the world. For now, all she had to do was to survive with him in a forest.
"Maybe it'll really be like in the old days" Rilury thought and a smile bloomed on her lips, while continuing to calmly walk ahead.