Shaman King Fan Fiction ❯ A Gift of Love ❯ Inyou no Chigiri (Pledge of the Taijitu) ( Chapter 42 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Jezebel Parks 
Anime/Manga: Shaman King Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Drama / Comedy / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 11.28.2006 | Updated On: 12.29.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 228 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Shaman King Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Drama / Comedy / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 11.28.2006 | Updated On: 12.29.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 228 | Status: Work In Progress
Some people tell me that last chapter didn’t affect them as much as the one before. It wasn’t really supposed to. If I made every chapter like that, people would get insensitive, and thus other events would not be as effective as they should be. Besides, we have to get Ren away from the whole “she’s dead boohoo” stage and move on to the “time to open up a can of whoop-ass” stage. –nods-
This chapter took me a while to write. I kept getting overwhelmed by the rituals. Just thinking about explaining them made my head spin. Even though I’ve been told I’m pretty decent at writing fight scenes, I don’t feel that they’re my forte, and I struggle with them. They’re not my favorite thing. Why I decided to write a fic with a lot of fighting in it is beyond me. And we still have about 3 ½ fights to go.
The thing I hate about the characters having actual birthdays is that some people mix them up, thus mixing me up. Then, instead of me being able to say “okay, the shaman fight was three years ago, so now Ren’s 16”, people go and say “oh, he was born in 1985, not ’86.” So then I’m like “What??” Correct me if I’m wrong, but in vol. 7, page 86, Character File No. 30, the date is “Feb 1999”, and his age is 14. It has that same date in his first profile, listing his age as 13. That would be like me saying, “Oh, and btw, Ren’s 17 now. Deal with it, beaches.” Gah. So confuzzled. Here I thought the story was taking place in 2002, and with the profile in vol. 7, it would be in 2001. Mess this. He’s 16. It’s 2002. Deal with it. (wow, that was rude)
<b>
Notes: A Taijitu is what people call a “yinyang”. “Yinyang” is the incorrect term for it. A Taijitu is the balance of Yin and Yang. Some people call it a “Tao” because it represents the central principal of Taoism, but that is also incorrect. And it’s not Taijutsu. This isn’t Naruto, people…
The hand seals and stages Ren uses are based on the Kuji-in system. Yes, a lot of them look similar to what you may see in Naruto, but know that they originated in that system first. I mixed the stages up in an order that I thought would be most befitting to the nature of the ritual.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that Ren still talks about Pin-Mei in the present tense. We’ll chalk it up to his optimism that she can be revived.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO
A Gift of Love – Chapter Forty-Two: Inyou no Chigiri (Pledge of the Taijitu)
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO
</b>
Ren stared at the blood on his hands, then looked at his shoulder, which was bleeding minimally. He wiped his hand over it, taking the blood into his hands.
<i>This should be enough.</i>
He was about to get down on one knee when Suo called from across the room.
“You better work quickly, Tao Ren. Once I complete my ritual, any hope you had of reviving Pin-Mei will be lost. Her soul is being used to complete Hua’s body. Once her soul is inside of Hua, there is no way of getting it back. There will be no way to resurrect her. Not that you would know how to anyway.” She laughed. “Just give up. I might even let you leave here alive if you choose to now. You can find someone else to carry on your family. Someone who has a decent furyoku level.”
Ren was staring at the floor, the new restriction hanging over his head.
“Pin-Mei was a bland, normal girl. A boring, imperfect copy of Hua, alike in almost every aspect sans fighting prowess and beauty. You can find so many more exciting people to love. It’s not hard. I’m sure even you, with your poor social skills, can manage it. How she ever fell for a murderer like you is beyond me, but the fact that you loved her back is even more perplexing. Honestly she--,”
“She is nothing like Hua.”
“What?”
Ren was still looking at the floor, his fists clenched.
“She isn’t a copy. She has her own personality. She likes purple, not navy blue. She hates the DaDao. She isn’t afraid of water. She’s not all that graceful; in fact she’s incredibly clumsy. Her voice sometimes cracks when she sings. She’s the worst morning person I’ve ever met. She likes milk, but she contaminates it with chocolate. She hates sleeping by herself. She’s so naïve and innocent that it’s clear you never let her out of the house. I’ve never heard her swear. Her ability to remember things is uncanny. She tries hard not to hate anyone, and she’s very forgiving. She cries over every little thing, whether she’s happy or sad. She’s obsessed with butterflies. And…”
<i>
“What do you want?”
She blushed. “Promise you won’t think I’m weird?”
“Of course.”
“Umm…I really want...”
</i>
“…she wants twins. A boy and a girl. And for whatever reason…” His head was dipped low so it could hide a small blush. “…she wants to name the boy after me, and wants him to be just like me. She knows that isn’t possible. Maybe she was joking. Maybe because she knows what it’s like to be treated like a copy. Either way…”
He lifted his flaring eyes again.
“I’m going to take her back. I’ll save her and then beat the ritual out of you. She WILL live again.
“On my way here, I decided that I would kill you quickly, just to end this so she and I could go back home. But now, after all that’s happened, I’ve decided that I’m going to do just the opposite. I’m going to make it as slow and painful as possible. I’m going to make you suffer for the ten minutes that she did. I’ll make you gasp for air until your last moment of life.”
A look of surprise flashed in her eyes, but then she gathered herself. “Oh you’ll revive her, will you? Well, you better hurry then, because as I said before, once my ritual has been performed, Pin-Mei’s soul will be lost to you forever. You won’t even be able to see her spirit.”
Ren gritted his teeth. She was right, he had to work fast. All the more reason not to waste any more time. He got down and put his palms a few inches off the ground on either side of him. He inhaled deeply, and then closed his eyes.
<i>Please let this work…</i>
He opened his eyes and slapped his palms together.
“Hé tong! CONTRACT!”
A circle of light about thirty feet in diameter traced itself around him. A Taijitu glowed inside of it, then faded. Ren quickly clasped his hands together, his fingers inside.
“Stage one! Awareness!”
Slowly, from the very outside of it and moving in circles toward the center, ancient Chinese characters glowed and appeared on the ground. Yoh and HoroHoro looked back at him. He was chanting the words as they lit up.
“This…is going to take a while, isn’t it?” HoroHoro said.
Yoh just smiled. “If it takes so long to prepare, it must really be something. It’ll be alright. Ren knows what he’s doing.”
They watched as the first outer circle was completed. It flashed and what seemed to be a wall of iridescent light rose to the ceiling. Ren separated his hands, and then spread them out in front of him, his thumb and index fingers touching.
“Stage two! Creation!”
Yoh and HoroHoro looked at each other.
“I wonder how many stages there are…” Yoh wondered aloud.
HoroHoro just folded his arms, disgruntled. “There better not be too many more. I mean, we don’t know how long Rong is going to hold out.” He looked over at her.
<b>
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO
</b>
Kai slammed Rong against the wall. She quickly recovered and sidestepped to avoid his thrust. His sword went into the wall, and she took the opportunity to wrap her chained whip around his wrists. She smirked as she yanked him closer to her, dropkicking him when he was close enough. As he hit the ground she retracted her chain and kept it in a ready position.
To her surprise, as he sat up, he was grinning. He wiped his mouth of the blood that had trickled out and licked his finger. He sighed.
“Still not as tasty as hers.”
Rong was confused, but then noticed he was looking past her at Pin-Mei. She gritted her teeth. “You sick bastard.”
She went after him as he pulled his sword from the wall. With a flick of the wrist, she wrapped her weapon around his.
“Gotcha twice,” she declared with another smirk.
He returned the gesture. “Not quite.”
“What?”
He gave a tremendous pull and she flew across the room. She landed fifty feet from him, her skin cut up from skidding on the stone floor. As she slowly stood, she unclipped her bracer to reveal a line of small vials. She took one, opened it with her teeth, and poured it on her wounds. She threw in behind her when it was empty and clipped her bracer back on.
Kai chuckled. “Fully equipped as usual. You Wei women never cease to amaze me.”
She wiped the blood from her mouth with her fist. “Thanks but I don’t need your empty compliments, Kai.”
“What happened to ‘Lord Kai’?”
She smiled at him. “My allegiance isn’t to you; it’s to Lady Pin-Mei and Lord Ren, so I really couldn’t give a shit about you even if I wanted to. I wish you a slow and painful death.”
“Oooh! That’s not what a good little servant should say. You need to be punished.”
“Awesome. You gonna tell me I’ve been a bad girl?”
He licked his blade. “Oh yes, and so much more.”
Rong looked at him with a disgusted face. “What is it with you and licking things? Creepazoid…”
He shook his head, as if to tell her she didn’t understand. “Don’t you have a favorite flavor?”
“Yeah, and it’s cinnamon – a SPICE. BLOOD and STEEL are NOT SPICES.”
He sighed. “You’ll never understand…”
She spun her whip with her right hand. “Sorry, but I really don’t give a crap.” She lashed it out at him.
Kai scoffed at her. “Silly girl. That won’t work on me again.”
He caught the chains with his bare hand and pulled her towards him again. When she was close enough, he wrapped it around her neck, tugging it tightly. She gagged, and some blood fell from her mouth. He scraped some off with his finger and tasted it. Rong cringed.
He wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Too salty.” His sword was suddenly at her throat. “Maybe it’ll taste better mixed with that boy’s…”
<b>
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO
</b>
“Stage Five! Energy!”
Suo frowned as she continued her own ritual on the opposite side of the room.
<i>He’s more than halfway through the nine stages, and I’m less than half done with mine!</i>
She stared into the fire.
<i>Pin-Mei’s soul hasn’t disappeared yet. What could be taking so long? Is it because Ma Ying’s soul is already in there?</i>
She looked up at Ren again, who had moved on to the sixth stage.
<i>If I don’t do something quick, he will finish before me, and it’ll be all over! We need a distraction…Perfect.</i> “Kyonshii!”
From the shadows of the room, hundreds of kyonshii appeared, some armed with guns, some knives, and some just their bare fists. Suo saw them out of the corners of her eyes and beamed.
Yoh and HoroHoro just stared at them.
“Oh…Shit…”
“Come on, HoroHoro! We have to get them!”
“But what about Ren? Won’t Rong be mad if we leave him here?”
“He should be fine, at least until we can clear some of these guys out.”
They raced until Kai and Rong could be seen clearly.
“Rong!” HoroHoro cried. “Nipopo Punch!”
Seeing the blast of ice heading toward him, Kai jumped out of the way, dropping Rong to the floor. It flew over her, hitting the already cold corpses behind her. The attacker rushed to stand near her, looking around for more enemies.
“You alright?”
She coughed and sat up, removing the chains from around her neck. “Yeah, but getting chocked by my own weapon hurt my pride a little bit.”
“You macho chicks and your pride…”
“Don’t make me choke you.”
Yoh turned and noticed their quarreling. “Hey, concentrate on fighting the kyonshi, not each other!”
Both glared, and then pointed at each other.
“Well if he wasn’t such a jerk!”
“If she would stop being so damn macho!”
They stopped and looked behind them, where one large kyonshi was preparing to attack. Both glared at it, and then attacked, quickly toppling it. They exchanged small smirks before running to attack other groups.
Kai looked out from behind a pillar. “Perfect. The fools are so occupied with the kyonshi that they won’t notice little old me…”
Remaining in the shadows, he crept closer to where Ren was still chanting, now up to stage eight: Power. Kai could see the eighth ring of characters being near completion. He had to act fast.
He touched a row of coins, a thick piece of leather strewn through their holes to hold them together. Untying the leather, he removed the biggest coins, gold 2001 and 2002 commemorative mints with the pictures of the snake and the horse carved into each respectively. He smiled at them.
“I’ve been waiting to try these one out.”
He stared at Ren, who still had his eyes closed, only about ten characters away from completing the eighth stage. After careful aiming, with a flick of his wrist, he sent the coin flying at him.
<b>
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO
</b><i>
Almost there…Just one more stage…</i>
As he was finishing the Power stage, his fingers clasped together with the middle fingers up and pressed together, Ren heard the faint whizzing of approaching projectiles.
<i>What?</i>
<b>SNAP!! CRACK!!</b>
“AAAAAGGHHHHH!!!!”
He fell to the floor, landing on his still-intertwined fingers. He screamed again. It hurt so much. His fingers hurt so much… What had happened? He sat up.
<i>Just one more stage…I can worry about this later. I’ll ignore the pain for now.</i>
But as he went to pull his hands apart, he found that he couldn’t. He looked at them. His heart sank.
His middle fingers were bent in ways they shouldn’t be. The rest of his fingers were bent as well. He couldn’t pull them apart.
“Milord! What is it?” Rong cried, running over after hearing his cries.
He stared up at her with wide eyes.
“My fingers…they’re broken…I…I can’t finish the ritual.”
This chapter took me a while to write. I kept getting overwhelmed by the rituals. Just thinking about explaining them made my head spin. Even though I’ve been told I’m pretty decent at writing fight scenes, I don’t feel that they’re my forte, and I struggle with them. They’re not my favorite thing. Why I decided to write a fic with a lot of fighting in it is beyond me. And we still have about 3 ½ fights to go.
The thing I hate about the characters having actual birthdays is that some people mix them up, thus mixing me up. Then, instead of me being able to say “okay, the shaman fight was three years ago, so now Ren’s 16”, people go and say “oh, he was born in 1985, not ’86.” So then I’m like “What??” Correct me if I’m wrong, but in vol. 7, page 86, Character File No. 30, the date is “Feb 1999”, and his age is 14. It has that same date in his first profile, listing his age as 13. That would be like me saying, “Oh, and btw, Ren’s 17 now. Deal with it, beaches.” Gah. So confuzzled. Here I thought the story was taking place in 2002, and with the profile in vol. 7, it would be in 2001. Mess this. He’s 16. It’s 2002. Deal with it. (wow, that was rude)
<b>
Notes: A Taijitu is what people call a “yinyang”. “Yinyang” is the incorrect term for it. A Taijitu is the balance of Yin and Yang. Some people call it a “Tao” because it represents the central principal of Taoism, but that is also incorrect. And it’s not Taijutsu. This isn’t Naruto, people…
The hand seals and stages Ren uses are based on the Kuji-in system. Yes, a lot of them look similar to what you may see in Naruto, but know that they originated in that system first. I mixed the stages up in an order that I thought would be most befitting to the nature of the ritual.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that Ren still talks about Pin-Mei in the present tense. We’ll chalk it up to his optimism that she can be revived.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO
A Gift of Love – Chapter Forty-Two: Inyou no Chigiri (Pledge of the Taijitu)
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO
</b>
Ren stared at the blood on his hands, then looked at his shoulder, which was bleeding minimally. He wiped his hand over it, taking the blood into his hands.
<i>This should be enough.</i>
He was about to get down on one knee when Suo called from across the room.
“You better work quickly, Tao Ren. Once I complete my ritual, any hope you had of reviving Pin-Mei will be lost. Her soul is being used to complete Hua’s body. Once her soul is inside of Hua, there is no way of getting it back. There will be no way to resurrect her. Not that you would know how to anyway.” She laughed. “Just give up. I might even let you leave here alive if you choose to now. You can find someone else to carry on your family. Someone who has a decent furyoku level.”
Ren was staring at the floor, the new restriction hanging over his head.
“Pin-Mei was a bland, normal girl. A boring, imperfect copy of Hua, alike in almost every aspect sans fighting prowess and beauty. You can find so many more exciting people to love. It’s not hard. I’m sure even you, with your poor social skills, can manage it. How she ever fell for a murderer like you is beyond me, but the fact that you loved her back is even more perplexing. Honestly she--,”
“She is nothing like Hua.”
“What?”
Ren was still looking at the floor, his fists clenched.
“She isn’t a copy. She has her own personality. She likes purple, not navy blue. She hates the DaDao. She isn’t afraid of water. She’s not all that graceful; in fact she’s incredibly clumsy. Her voice sometimes cracks when she sings. She’s the worst morning person I’ve ever met. She likes milk, but she contaminates it with chocolate. She hates sleeping by herself. She’s so naïve and innocent that it’s clear you never let her out of the house. I’ve never heard her swear. Her ability to remember things is uncanny. She tries hard not to hate anyone, and she’s very forgiving. She cries over every little thing, whether she’s happy or sad. She’s obsessed with butterflies. And…”
<i>
“What do you want?”
She blushed. “Promise you won’t think I’m weird?”
“Of course.”
“Umm…I really want...”
</i>
“…she wants twins. A boy and a girl. And for whatever reason…” His head was dipped low so it could hide a small blush. “…she wants to name the boy after me, and wants him to be just like me. She knows that isn’t possible. Maybe she was joking. Maybe because she knows what it’s like to be treated like a copy. Either way…”
He lifted his flaring eyes again.
“I’m going to take her back. I’ll save her and then beat the ritual out of you. She WILL live again.
“On my way here, I decided that I would kill you quickly, just to end this so she and I could go back home. But now, after all that’s happened, I’ve decided that I’m going to do just the opposite. I’m going to make it as slow and painful as possible. I’m going to make you suffer for the ten minutes that she did. I’ll make you gasp for air until your last moment of life.”
A look of surprise flashed in her eyes, but then she gathered herself. “Oh you’ll revive her, will you? Well, you better hurry then, because as I said before, once my ritual has been performed, Pin-Mei’s soul will be lost to you forever. You won’t even be able to see her spirit.”
Ren gritted his teeth. She was right, he had to work fast. All the more reason not to waste any more time. He got down and put his palms a few inches off the ground on either side of him. He inhaled deeply, and then closed his eyes.
<i>Please let this work…</i>
He opened his eyes and slapped his palms together.
“Hé tong! CONTRACT!”
A circle of light about thirty feet in diameter traced itself around him. A Taijitu glowed inside of it, then faded. Ren quickly clasped his hands together, his fingers inside.
“Stage one! Awareness!”
Slowly, from the very outside of it and moving in circles toward the center, ancient Chinese characters glowed and appeared on the ground. Yoh and HoroHoro looked back at him. He was chanting the words as they lit up.
“This…is going to take a while, isn’t it?” HoroHoro said.
Yoh just smiled. “If it takes so long to prepare, it must really be something. It’ll be alright. Ren knows what he’s doing.”
They watched as the first outer circle was completed. It flashed and what seemed to be a wall of iridescent light rose to the ceiling. Ren separated his hands, and then spread them out in front of him, his thumb and index fingers touching.
“Stage two! Creation!”
Yoh and HoroHoro looked at each other.
“I wonder how many stages there are…” Yoh wondered aloud.
HoroHoro just folded his arms, disgruntled. “There better not be too many more. I mean, we don’t know how long Rong is going to hold out.” He looked over at her.
<b>
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO
</b>
Kai slammed Rong against the wall. She quickly recovered and sidestepped to avoid his thrust. His sword went into the wall, and she took the opportunity to wrap her chained whip around his wrists. She smirked as she yanked him closer to her, dropkicking him when he was close enough. As he hit the ground she retracted her chain and kept it in a ready position.
To her surprise, as he sat up, he was grinning. He wiped his mouth of the blood that had trickled out and licked his finger. He sighed.
“Still not as tasty as hers.”
Rong was confused, but then noticed he was looking past her at Pin-Mei. She gritted her teeth. “You sick bastard.”
She went after him as he pulled his sword from the wall. With a flick of the wrist, she wrapped her weapon around his.
“Gotcha twice,” she declared with another smirk.
He returned the gesture. “Not quite.”
“What?”
He gave a tremendous pull and she flew across the room. She landed fifty feet from him, her skin cut up from skidding on the stone floor. As she slowly stood, she unclipped her bracer to reveal a line of small vials. She took one, opened it with her teeth, and poured it on her wounds. She threw in behind her when it was empty and clipped her bracer back on.
Kai chuckled. “Fully equipped as usual. You Wei women never cease to amaze me.”
She wiped the blood from her mouth with her fist. “Thanks but I don’t need your empty compliments, Kai.”
“What happened to ‘Lord Kai’?”
She smiled at him. “My allegiance isn’t to you; it’s to Lady Pin-Mei and Lord Ren, so I really couldn’t give a shit about you even if I wanted to. I wish you a slow and painful death.”
“Oooh! That’s not what a good little servant should say. You need to be punished.”
“Awesome. You gonna tell me I’ve been a bad girl?”
He licked his blade. “Oh yes, and so much more.”
Rong looked at him with a disgusted face. “What is it with you and licking things? Creepazoid…”
He shook his head, as if to tell her she didn’t understand. “Don’t you have a favorite flavor?”
“Yeah, and it’s cinnamon – a SPICE. BLOOD and STEEL are NOT SPICES.”
He sighed. “You’ll never understand…”
She spun her whip with her right hand. “Sorry, but I really don’t give a crap.” She lashed it out at him.
Kai scoffed at her. “Silly girl. That won’t work on me again.”
He caught the chains with his bare hand and pulled her towards him again. When she was close enough, he wrapped it around her neck, tugging it tightly. She gagged, and some blood fell from her mouth. He scraped some off with his finger and tasted it. Rong cringed.
He wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Too salty.” His sword was suddenly at her throat. “Maybe it’ll taste better mixed with that boy’s…”
<b>
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO
</b>
“Stage Five! Energy!”
Suo frowned as she continued her own ritual on the opposite side of the room.
<i>He’s more than halfway through the nine stages, and I’m less than half done with mine!</i>
She stared into the fire.
<i>Pin-Mei’s soul hasn’t disappeared yet. What could be taking so long? Is it because Ma Ying’s soul is already in there?</i>
She looked up at Ren again, who had moved on to the sixth stage.
<i>If I don’t do something quick, he will finish before me, and it’ll be all over! We need a distraction…Perfect.</i> “Kyonshii!”
From the shadows of the room, hundreds of kyonshii appeared, some armed with guns, some knives, and some just their bare fists. Suo saw them out of the corners of her eyes and beamed.
Yoh and HoroHoro just stared at them.
“Oh…Shit…”
“Come on, HoroHoro! We have to get them!”
“But what about Ren? Won’t Rong be mad if we leave him here?”
“He should be fine, at least until we can clear some of these guys out.”
They raced until Kai and Rong could be seen clearly.
“Rong!” HoroHoro cried. “Nipopo Punch!”
Seeing the blast of ice heading toward him, Kai jumped out of the way, dropping Rong to the floor. It flew over her, hitting the already cold corpses behind her. The attacker rushed to stand near her, looking around for more enemies.
“You alright?”
She coughed and sat up, removing the chains from around her neck. “Yeah, but getting chocked by my own weapon hurt my pride a little bit.”
“You macho chicks and your pride…”
“Don’t make me choke you.”
Yoh turned and noticed their quarreling. “Hey, concentrate on fighting the kyonshi, not each other!”
Both glared, and then pointed at each other.
“Well if he wasn’t such a jerk!”
“If she would stop being so damn macho!”
They stopped and looked behind them, where one large kyonshi was preparing to attack. Both glared at it, and then attacked, quickly toppling it. They exchanged small smirks before running to attack other groups.
Kai looked out from behind a pillar. “Perfect. The fools are so occupied with the kyonshi that they won’t notice little old me…”
Remaining in the shadows, he crept closer to where Ren was still chanting, now up to stage eight: Power. Kai could see the eighth ring of characters being near completion. He had to act fast.
He touched a row of coins, a thick piece of leather strewn through their holes to hold them together. Untying the leather, he removed the biggest coins, gold 2001 and 2002 commemorative mints with the pictures of the snake and the horse carved into each respectively. He smiled at them.
“I’ve been waiting to try these one out.”
He stared at Ren, who still had his eyes closed, only about ten characters away from completing the eighth stage. After careful aiming, with a flick of his wrist, he sent the coin flying at him.
<b>
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO
</b><i>
Almost there…Just one more stage…</i>
As he was finishing the Power stage, his fingers clasped together with the middle fingers up and pressed together, Ren heard the faint whizzing of approaching projectiles.
<i>What?</i>
<b>SNAP!! CRACK!!</b>
“AAAAAGGHHHHH!!!!”
He fell to the floor, landing on his still-intertwined fingers. He screamed again. It hurt so much. His fingers hurt so much… What had happened? He sat up.
<i>Just one more stage…I can worry about this later. I’ll ignore the pain for now.</i>
But as he went to pull his hands apart, he found that he couldn’t. He looked at them. His heart sank.
His middle fingers were bent in ways they shouldn’t be. The rest of his fingers were bent as well. He couldn’t pull them apart.
“Milord! What is it?” Rong cried, running over after hearing his cries.
He stared up at her with wide eyes.
“My fingers…they’re broken…I…I can’t finish the ritual.”