Author's Note: Yuuki~desu! Well, well, well... It seems like now you're going to find out Yin's identity. Tell me what you think about her! Enjoy! P.S. Thank you for reviewing, Yumi61! Please feel free to do so now, too!

FONT EXPLANATION:

"Characters Talking"

Main character thinking

Stressing something or time skips announcements

"Main character's spirit talking"

Chapter 7: The Family Matters

Previously...

"Yin." he snarled.

"En." I bit back with all the hate I felt for the man.

"If you've decided to return and beg for forgiveness, you are too late." he said smugly.

Knowing he was trying to get rise out of me, I remained calm, even managed to appear nonchalant. "Oh really? That's good then. I might have to reconsider my revenge if you showed you actually had enough human emotions to know what 'forgiveness' is."

En was obviously about to yell something in response but was interrupted by a very confused-sounding Ren. "Who the hell are you?!"

I ignored him, but En didn't seem very inclined to do so.

"Ho? So you hadn't told them about yourself?" he asked, pointedly looking in Ren's and then Jun's direction.

I grinned wolfishly, instantly spotting my chance to turn the tide. "No. And it seems like there was really no need to, seeing as they turned on you even without me being added to the mix."

Now, only to add the cherry on top.

"Tell me, En. How does it feel to know all your children decided to defy you, even be willing to go as far as kill you?"

His jaw clenched and his posture went stiff. "What are you implying?"

"Nothing much. Just that if I were you, I would seriously start doubting my way of doing things. You know, when your own family tries to take you down... It says something." I shrugged, closely watching his every move, looking for the opening I needed.

And just like that, I saw it. Violent fluctuation in his furyoku that enabled me to see his true form.

"YAMI! SHADOW COCOON!" I yelled, swiftly pocketing my deerhorn knives and untying the long silver sash I wore tied loosely around my waist.

Following my order down to the dot, Yami canceled my previous oversoul and merged with the sash. Its color turned into a midnight blue of my spirit's eyes, elongating and shooting through the fake form of En with ease, snaking around his true body.

Now to shatter the Daidouho... I took a big breath, pushing a great amount of furyoku into my oversouled sash, my own energy clashing with that of my opponent.

I stood my ground, sending steady waves of energy forth, slowly overpowering En's wavering one.

Probably feeling he was about to lose, En withdrew his furyoku, dispelling his giant human-like oversoul.

"A-An oversoul?!" stuttered Jun behind me. "B-But that would mean...!"

I didn't say anything even though I knew what was going through her head. I left that task to Ren.

"Yes. You're correct. Ever since we were young, he was always wearing that oversoul such that we wouldn't even notice it was an oversoul all along."

"Smart one, aren't you Rennie?" I joked, getting immense satisfaction from the death glare he threw me. "That man standing before us right now is the true Tao En."

They all turned to stare at the tall, robed man. His face bore the exact same characteristics as his oversoul, only he had longer beard and hair, which was pinned at the top of his head, looking like a spike. He was also much slimmer than his fake persona, wore traditional chinese robes and held a very old-looking jian in his right hand.

Seeing no point of keeping him tied up any longer, I tugged on the sash that was still wrapped around his torso, making it come back to me. I gingerly wrapped it back around my waist, mindful of the sharp deerhorn knives strapped to my left hip.

"I knew it had to be some kind of a trick!" huffed Horohoro, puffing his cheeks.

Ryu crossed his arms on his chest, looking as if he just got the closure he was expecting. "We got fooled even though I could not understand how such a big man could exist."

"He looks pretty normal without his oversoul." remarked Yoh off-handedly.

Looks are indeed deceiving. I agreed, not all impressed with En's appearance. I had seen it once before and there was no way I would let it throw me off this time.

"No, he's not normal!" barked Ren suddenly. "He has been using that oversoul for many years now! Such massive amount of furyoku is not normal! And he used it to lie to his children because he didn't even trust us!"

"Oh, please!" I sneered. "Don't tell me lack of trust from this bastard bothers you. If that is so, you obviously haven't learned anything."

He gave me an even more intense glare than before, but at least he stayed quiet.

"Don't think you've won just yet." spoke up En.

"You lost the moment you doubted yourself." I shot back.

His demeanor darkened, denial written all across his face. "I have not lost my way. I was just a little startled."

What bullshit.

He conveniently ignored the incredulous looks we gave him, his eyes glazing over in a way that suggested he was reminiscing. "Yes... I could never deceive myself..." Two steady streams of tears slid down his cheeks. "The sorrow of us humans calls forth mercy. If such a truth should be recognized... See for yourself." En pulled down his coat, upper shirt and skirt, revealing hundreds upon hundreds of mortuary tablets tied over his fighting clothes.

Out of the tablets flew numerous souls, completely filling the room. "They could share with you the truth. The souls of every member of the Tao dynasty for last 2000 years."

Well, damn. I didn't account for this.

"The ancestors of the Taos?!" exclaimed Horohoro.

"Look at all those souls!" breathed out dumbfounded Ryu, while all the others stared in silence.

Assuming the fighting stance with my deerhorn knives at the ready, I stood in front of the group, even before the Tao head opened his mouth again.

"My oversoul Daidouho is an oversoul forged from all these spirits. I shall do all I can within my power to fulfill their wishes, for their existence is my existence."

"Daidouho..." whispered Ren.

En wiped his tears with the back of his braced hand, his determined eyes flitting between me and the two chinese siblings to my right.

"Ren, Jun, Yin and Bason. As members of the Tao family you are well aware of what our family has been through."

Jun and Ren looked solemn for a second, until they both turned to stare at me, mouths hanging open.

Oh sweet What now? I considered face-palming myself, but quickly thought better of it as the knives in my hands glinted. I'll just ignore them. Yeah.

"Well, well, well. Now you consider me a family, father?" I snarled. "I wonder where that sense of belonging went during our torture sessions?"

Horrified gasps resounded behind me, but I couldn't bring myself to stop anymore. My memory-induced rage and hate mixing, I started seeing red. "For years, every single day, you cut me open. Always at the same hour, always in the same room and always with thirty-four well-placed cuts. Just because I was born a girl! AND NOW YOU DARE CALL ME A FAMILY MEMBER?!"

The bastard had the nerve to sigh dramatically as if he was tired of lecturing a stubborn kid. "I see there is no reasoning with you, Yin. Oversoul Daidouryu!"

I made my black oversouled deerhorn knives grow five times their size, meeting the dragon head-on. With a battle roar, I cleanly cut it from its head to tail, causing it to explode and for the souls to scatter.

My bloodlust grew as I caught sight of En, trying to oversoul his jian with a random Tao spirit he plucked from the air.

I ran in his direction, going for the killing blow. At the last moment, however, our blades met with a tell-tale ring.

We grappled for dominance for a while, my crossed knives against his single sword.

I watched as a single sweat drop rolled down from his forehead, clear sign of how much he had to exert himself just to keep me at bay. Scowling, I raised my left leg, which I wasn't using as main leverage, and kicked his own leg from under him.

The grip on his jian slackened and he staggered backwards, trying desperately not to fall.

I lowered myself to the ground and rushed after him, using the momentum of my trek to enhance the power of my next slash. With the knife held in my left hand, I got a clear cut across his stomach, making him hiss in pain even though the armor of mortuary tablets took most of the damage.

He toppled over, landing on the ground with his back. Bending forward, I used my other knife to cut his left leg down from his knee to his ankle.

The pain made him recover sooner as he kicked my collar bone with his unhurt leg, this time making me back away from him, gasping for breath.

He rolled to the right, grasping the hilt of the jian he let go of during the fall and used his free arm to push himself up.

With only one good leg, he was a bit wobbly, which hindered his usually good reaction time, giving me the opportunity to get to his back from the right. I slashed diagonally across his back, blood readily flowing down.

His knees buckled under him with the new excruciating sensation, this one worse than the others because there were no mortuary tablets to lessen the damage, seeing as their holder had fallen off after the stomach slash.

Having only now realized this fight wasn't going his way at all, En abruptly switched the jian from his right hand to his left, taking me by surprise a bit.

His try at the attack was, however, easy to parry because of the awkward position he was in and because it was hard to turn 180 degrees on one knee, being careful not to put weight on the hurt one at the same time. He was panting and shaking, the blood loss clearly getting to him.

I kicked his sword out of his hand, the fine weapon landing ten feet away from us with a clutter. Knowing he was still strong enough to break my bones with his bare hands, I stood out of his reach, but towering over him nonetheless.

He tried to lunge for my armed hand once, which earned him a deeply slit wrist. He quietly stared me in the eyes after that, his own golden orbs searching for something in mine.

"I-I see now." he panted heavily, his eyes slightly unfocused.

I, being familiar with the state he was in, knew he was hallucinating. And even though I knew I could amend this state right away by simply causing him more pain, I didn't really want to bring him back to reality.

No matter how much I detested him for torturing me, somewhere deep inside I felt I needed to be grateful to him in a way. By making me hate him, he spared me the mindless slavery Jun and Ren had to go through.

Geez. Hao would laugh at me for this sentiment.

Decision made, I was about to step away from the delusional man when the door burst open.