Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King.

A/N: You must have finished the manga before continuing. May contain spoilers. You've been warned =p

Chapter 17

He was about to look at her face when Rue pushed him away.

He stumbled to the ground. The next thing he saw was a big claw sticking out from Rue's body. She spat out blood and slumped holding onto the part of the claw in front of her as she was raised.

His mouth dropped, his vision started to get spin. No way… There's just no way! Right then, Ren saw Hao and the Spirit of Fire.

"Spirit of Fire is currently low on furyoku. Can you be a dear and feed him with your soul?" a smiling Hao said.

But Ren's eyes – he pushed – focused on Rue; her face was scrunched up in pain.

"Damn. Hao!" She shouted despite her struggle to breathe. I know pain, well, she thought, I just have to breathe. Breathe, dammit!

Her blood was everywhere – even on the ground. How could she still be alive losing all that blood, Ren shuddered at his own thoughts. He shook his head, but he still couldn't concentrate. His chest seem to be tightening, even though he's not hit.

"Master," he faintly heard his spirit call out. But that was enough to shake him out of shock. His fists started to shake violently. At the same time, his spinning vision was gone; but it turned to red – anger directed at Hao.

"R-Ren, run!" her voice was barely audible this time. His heart tightened even more. I'm going to save you, he thought, I'm going to protect you!

He activated his oversoul and charged towards Hao.

With a swipe of the spirit of fire's hand, he was thrown away.

"Are you that eager to die? She already told you to run, didn't she?"

"You're dreaming!" Ren attacked again, still conscious of Rue's state. She was still panting, her face clearly showing the pain she was going through.

This fueled Ren's hatred, wait, Master!, he didn't even mind Bason's warnings. He was thrown back again. "I'm not interested in you right now," Hao said, dismissing him. Ren's eyes widened as Rue's body was consumed by the fire on the spirit's hands.

Rue?

Ren could not move after that.

This must be a dream.

.

.

.

My promise…

"I thought you were low on furyoku." Rue's soul inquired; she wasn't fed to the Spirit of Fire, to her relief and astonishment.

"Even if it is so, I'm still out of their league." Hao said, with a cocky smile on his face.

"That's a bit childish, Hao," to her surprise, he just laughed at her comment. "So what's this about?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"I wonder," he answered, walking away, "a whim."

"A WHIM?!" she asked, incredulous, as she followed him. "Do you really enjoy tormenting people?"

"As you do," he answered simply, while she sighed in defeat. Oh, yeah, Ren.

She shook her head to focus, she had other things to talk about. "Hao," she turned serious, "why are you that concerned with Anna?"

She waited, but he just stared at her with an annoying smirk on his face.

I'm not jealous, okay! I'm just…

"You're looking out for her," he finished Rue's thoughts before responding to her question, "I see myself in her. We have the same abilities, after all. She'll become powerful if she truly wants to."

"But that was in the past. The old Anna and the old Hao. They may resemble each other, but their fates were different," she hesitated before continuing sadly, "because she had Yoh and you were alone."

"I will become one with Yoh, in the end. If she will become the Shaman King's wife, as she claimed, her power should back that up."

"Are you that lonely, Hao?" This earned her a death glare from Hao, but she didn't even flinch at the immense pressure on her soul. I hit the spot, didn't I?

"Are you hoping Anna to be the company you'd been looking for? Something I wasn't successful at doing," but her tone didn't seem to be a question.

"What are you still doing here, go back to them, don't expect I'll be reviving you," he stopped glaring at her, and she felt lighter.

"Because that'll be bad for your pride, won't it?" she smirked as she finished.

"This annoying part of you didn't appear until your third life. I didn't think that would be the effect of you losing your memories. Some things can be unexpected, after all." He said, not even looking at her.

But she still didn't leave. "Hao, the reason why this all started, I've always just guessed, but," she said, but continued in her mind, I've wanted to ask.

"Yeah, you were one of the reasons why I chose this path."

"I'm sorry. I was weak, then. I dwelled on my suffering too much that I neglected everything – even you, who saved me. I must have been a big burden for you," she said with a sad expression on her face. But it was immediately replaced with a small smile, "But I'm happy, I can see you're still concerned."

"Is that why you're relaxing right now?"

"Yeah, and the fact that if you use up my soul right now, I'll just be reborn."

"Why wouldn't I want that? You'll still be too late."

"No, me continuing to live or dying is irrelevant. Because we'll stop you, Hao. I know it. This time, I'm sure!" she declared triumphantly.

Hao looked at her dangerously, "Let's see if your precious elemental warriors could do that."

She sighed before continuing, "I'll take this as my leave, then." Rue floated away, but stopped to say, "Thank you, back then – for giving me a family, a life, for everything."

She walked forward, not turning back to look at Hao.

.

On the other side of the island, Yoh along with the others were at the inn. It was quiet; everybody was waiting for Ren to tell them what happened.

When the others felt Hao near them, they immediately ran to the place, but they only saw Ren beaten on the ground – crying and shouting. After he has been healed, he refused to talk.

"Rue." Anna stated.

Everybody turned to look at Ren, who turned his back to them.

Horohoro lost patience and grabbed at Ren's clothes. "You stupid head! Start talking! Wasn't Rue with you?"

"Horohoro…" Chocolove said silently trying to calm down the said man.

"Talk!"

"I'm sorry." Ren said softly.

Horohoro was shocked with the apology that his arms loosened and freed Ren.

"Why?" He started, his voice shaking. He looked around, but nobody could look at him directly except a worried Chocolove. "Why are you apologizing?!"

He pushed his hands forward to grab at Ren again, when Yoh interrupted, "Horohoro," the ice shaman stopped at the mention of his name, "why don't we give Ren some time?"

"Why are you so calm about this, Yoh?" he shouted again.

"I am not… calm." Yoh said between gritted teeth.

SMACK! SMACK!

Horohoro and Yoh nursed the bumps on their head as Anna spoke, "Be quiet you fools, let's hear the story from her."

Anna stepped aside revealing Rue's spirit.

"Hey guys." She said with a smile ignoring the bewildered stares thrown at her.

"RUE!"

She was bombarded with exclamations of 'What happened?' and 'You're a ghost!', but she sat near Anna despite the crowd.

"Hai, hai. Please settle down. Since I've worried everybody like this, at least let me explain to ease your mind."

"How can you ease our minds, if you're already a ghost?!" Horohoro shouted.

"Horohoro, please listen." He stopped as she looked at him seriously.

"In my past lifetime, with the help of Matamune and Yohken-nii, we've successfully stopped Hao, even with spirit of fire."

"Yohken-nii?" "Even with spirit of fire?!" the others simultaneously exclaimed.

"He was not that accustomed to controlling SOF, then. But this time is different. He's become a natural at controlling this monster of a spirit. However, since I am tied to him with this oath, he wanted to make sure I won't be there to stop him."

"Is that why he's been targeting you?"

"Yeah, but he couldn't kill me just yet, because he knows I'll resurrect once again – as long as he lives on."

"But how…"

"Yeah, it would be the perfect time, if I get reborn now, I would be too late."

"Is that why you're a ghost now?"

"Yeah, maybe. Anyway, that's what he thinks anyway."

She stopped to look at everybody, careful to not look at Ren directly – she can't get distracted now. She tried to fly around as she continued. "I think he's too late now. Because we'll stop him for sure, right?"

"Right!" Yoh answered with determination.

Their optimism chased out all the tension in the room, which made everybody – almost everybody – relax.

When the others were gone, Ren stayed on his spot, still not talking. Rue reentered the room and hugged him from behind, putting her head on his. "Before I forget, that's why you shouldn't blame yourself anymore, Ren."

Ren stiffened at the warmth her voice was giving him. He clenched his fists tightly, refusing to move, in his mind, no matter how close Rue is, he could not touch her anymore.

"I'm sorry, Ren. He just wanted to play with you, but it could've happened any day, with anyone – or no one at all. It was expected."

Ren was still unresponsive; Rue sighed, and called out to Ren's spirit.

"Lady Rue, we're sorry we couldn't protect you."

"But I didn't need it, silly. It was bound to happen. I knew of it ever since."

"But you were still in pain." Ren said so softly, Rue was thankful she was close, otherwise, she couldn't have heard it. He was really worried about her. it touched her heart hearing his concern.

"Ah, none of that matters, anymore, right? You have to focus, Ren. The final round is close by; you have to strengthen your soul." Rue faced him and tried to lecture him.

"Rue…"

"Focus, Ren. As for me, I can still be useful like this," she stopped, thinking deeply. Ren turned his face to check what stopped her, but she continued with a soft voice, "that damn Hao."

"What?" he said, pissed off. Great. Now even his name irks him.

"I'm starting to think he might really want us to win," she said with an irritated smile.

"What're you thinking?" he replied with suspicion. Whatever it was, it sounded like it was something he wouldn't like. Then again, it was Rue. Her ideas seem to always drive him crazy.

She just grinned at him as she responded, "in time, Ren."

That confirms it, "I wouldn't like it, I'm sure. You usually delay information like this because you know we'll not agree with your plans." He merely stated his observation, and not really asked her anything. But he looked at her waiting for a response – anything that could ease his mind.

"Hey! It's genius! You'd even praise me when you hear it," she exclaimed proudly.

"Tch, says the ghost," he answered looking away. He had to smile at her response; yeah, there's still revivification, he thought, It wouldn't hurt to be optimistic once.

With that, Rue smiled at him and invited him outside with the others.

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.

.

That evening, she was talking to Pascal Avaf, to discuss their next steps.

"Can you still push through with our plan?" he asked.

"Yes. I've already asked Jun-nee to help me with the soul-binding to the elemental spirits."

"The containers have been opened by the Gandharas. We're ready to start tomorrow."

"We still need to train them so they could last using the elemental spirits for longer times. Unlike other spirits, this takes a large amount of furyoku especially when they aren't used to it, yet."

"Ah! I think I might just have the answer for that."

The teacher spirit waited for her to continue, but she, instead disappeared outside. When she came back, she had Ryu, Faust, Jeanne, and Marco behind her.

"We need their help for this."