Young Writers Society

Skyra stayed perched where neither of the two fighting could see her so she wouldn't be a distraction. She winced every time a strike hit Shinryu. She growled low in her throat when the two faced off again. Come on, just end it. She thought looking around. There was sure to be back up for Alex any moment now and she would rather get out without any more fighting. She would without a second thought if she needed to. Even if it meant she didn't make it back, Kai had to. He was their leader.

(Again, sorry for the delay. But hey, I'm done for the semester so now I can start posting again!)


The two of them continued to exchange blows. Neither of them let up in their attacks. Minutes passed before they stood across from each other and took a moment to catch their breaths.

Alex smiled. "I'll hand it to you, Kai. I never expected this to be so much fun. How did you get so strong?"

"I trained hard to get to where I am," Shinryu said. "My friends are counting on me, and I can't let them down."

"Why don't you forget about them and join us?" Alex asked. "Your strength can be put to better use if you work for our leader. Plus, Jirran rewards his followers very well."

Shinryu shook his head. "I could never expect you to understand. The Ashaulten is more than just a group of Tsurekin and their masters. To me they're my family, and I'll be damned if I'm going to betray them!" At that instant, Shinryu's sword became engulfed in fire.

**It's fine. **

Skyra watched as she held the ledge biting her lower lip as she thought about what all the possibilities were. She couldn't beat Alex if she tried, she was no where near as strong as Kai was. She breathed in. Back up for Alex was a mile away at least. She growled lowly her eyes darting to the door.


**Sorry all I had**

(Just so you know, when they escape Richard is going to come with them.)


The fire on Shinryu's sword grew and grew until it seemed like the entire blade was one giant flame. Alex rushed up to attack him again, but one of the flames jumped off the sword and struck his arm, making him cry out a little in pain and jump back.

Alex looked at the burn mark on his arm and smiled. "Looks like you still have some tricks up your sleeves."

Shinryu frowned. "It's time to end this."

"I was hoping to keep this going a little longer, but if you insist..." The purple aura around Alex's body glowed more intense, until it looked like fire.

At the same time, the two fighters charged toward each other. The moment their weapons clashed it was like someone had detonated a bomb. An explosion that was half fire and half purple light erupted on the roof.


(When the dust settles, have it so Alex is down and Shinryu is still standing.)

Skyra flew back and barely managed to land on her feet. She covered her face as the dust started to go away. She jumped back up to her perch looking around. Shinryu slowly emerged from the dust. She waited and looked around for Alex. She saw him laying a few feet away covered in dust.

"Shinryu! We must go now!" She said jumping down on the ground and running over to him. He looked over at her and nodded.

"Alright, lets go." He replied.

"Not half bad." Richard said walking in.

"Thanks, we best get going." Shinryu said as the three of them walked out of the room and towards the mansion.

When they came to the front gate of the warehouse Skyra's ears picked up on the sound of sirens. The authorities must have been notified about the commotion going on at the docks. "The police are heading this way," she said.

Shinryu nodded. "Let's not stick around to answer questions." He and Richard took to the sky while Skyra took off at full speed down one of the back roads.


(All I could think of. If you can't think of anything to post after they make it back to the mansion, you could have one of them ask Ivy about Soul Possession.)

**OK,**

Skyra got back to the mansion at the same time as Richard and Shinryu. She followed them inside where Ivy and the others were sitting in the living room.

"Good." Ivy nodded. "I'm glad you all got back safely." Skyra nodded. She looked at Richard and Shinyru. How was she supposed to go back to normal? Looked back at Ivy.

"What is Soul Possesion? She asked.

Ivy's face became solemn when she heard Skyra's question. She said, "We'll talk about this later. Right now, I think you should take a few minutes to rest after your mission. Shigure and Ty are watching over Hiorimaru in one of the spare rooms, you should go check on them."

"Before we go, did you find out anything else on that stone Jiran took?" Shinryu asked.

"Again, we'll discuss this later. Go check on your companions."

Shinryu nodded and led the way. He and Richard reverted back to their normal selves before walking Skyra through the process as well. When Skylar and Tala were back to normal they continued on to Hiorimaru's room.


(I wanted most of the team to be in one place before Ivy started explaining everything.)

**Ok**

Skylar walked behind them Tala close at her side as they moved. When they got into the room Hiorimaru's room Shigure turned and looked at them.

"You all made it back." Ty smiled.

"Did you not think we could?" Skylar smiled back at him.

"No it was just taking a long time." He replied with a smile.


**All I have**

(I understand, filling out a post can be tough sometimes when you can't think of anything dialog-wise. When that happens, you can describe the surroundings a bit or describe what the other characters are doing, like how Ty is sitting in his chair, or how Shigure watches over her brother. Because using the same word, like smile(d), three times in a row is a no-no when it comes to creative writing.)


Kai looked down at Shigure's brother and asked, "So, how is he?"

"He's been through a lot," Shigure said, a little solemnly. "He'll be out for a few days, he just needs some rest." She looked up at Kai and said, "Thank you for helping me get my brother back. I couldn't have done it without all your help."

Kai patted her on the shoulder. "That's what family is for."

That earned him a small smile from Shigure. But the smile soon faded when she saw Richard and his phoenix Tsurekin, Revy. "Who are those two?"

**I know, I have my off days sometimes. Today isn't much better. **

"This is Richard and Revy." Kai said motioning towards the two. "They helped save your brother."

"Well thank you." Shigure replied a tad unsure about them as she looked at them. Skylar sat down on one of the chairs and Tala rested her head on her lap as she watched to see what Shigure's problem was. Something was bugging her and it could be that she was just a tad untrustworthy of Richard, Skylar would understand that. It was quiet for a few minutes and it started to bug Skylar because it wasn't a comfortable silence.

"So at least we all know we'll sleep well tonight." She said curling up in the chair and leaning her head against the back of it.

(I'm back on!!! Sorry for the wait. You probably already heard from Ayumi or Kamas that I haven't been able to get onto the site. For some reason whenever I tried getting onto the front page I'd get an error message. I figured out it had something to do with my college's connection, since all of you were still able to get onto the site, so I reported it to the tech guys. I'm a little disappointed that it took three weeks to fix the problem, but at least it's working again. Let's hope it stays like this for a while. )


A few minutes later Ivy and Sahara came into the room. She looked at Shigure's brother on the bed and asked, "How is he?"

"He's fine," Shigure said. "He just needs some rest."

Ivy nodded, then looked at everyone else. "Since most of you are here we can start talking."

"What exactly is Soul Possession?" Skylar asked.

Ivy closed her eyes for a moment. "Soul Possession is a technique Jirran discovered. Like Soul Fusion, the bodys of a Tsurekin and its master are fused into one. Unlike Soul Fusion, however, their minds remain separate."

Skylar thought back to her fight with Harry. During the fight his personality seemed to switch back and forth between Fang's and his own. "So, basically the body is controlled by whatever mind in present at that moment?"

Ivy nodded.

"But what's stopping the Tsurekin from taking over and doing whatever it wants?"

"Nothing," Ivy said. "That's one of the reasons why Soul Possession is dangerous. If the Tsurekin was a particularly dangerous one, then it can easily overpower its master's mind and turn him into a ruthless killing machine, regardless of the master's protest."

Skylar shivered slightly at the thought. She trusted Tala not to do something so terrible, but the thought that it was possible was scary enough.

"However, this is not the most dangerous aspect of Soul Possession," Ivy continued. "In order to perform Soul Fusion, one must be able to trust his or her Tsurekin completely and without question. However, with Soul Possession the master is forcing the change upon his Tsurekin. Because of this, Soul Possession becomes detrimental to mental stability of the master and his Tsurekin. And if this technique is used too much, then the bond between master and Tsurekin becomes damaged beyond repair."

"If this is true, then why would they want to use it in the first place?" Kai asked.

"Because it's easier than learning to use Soul Fusion. In the short term, Soul Possession is more powerful than Soul Fusion because it's forcing the Tsurekin's potential to surface. However, there's a limit to how strong one can become using that technique, and once that limit is hit the bond between master and Tsurekin becomes too damaged to ever go back. As for Soul Fusion, the potential for growth is limitless. Jirran failed to grasp all this, he was only concerned about finding the easiest and fastest way to get stronger. Now he is consumed by it."

"So none of them could ever perform Soul Fusion?" Skylar asked.

"Basically, it would weaken them for sure." Ivy replied. "They are doing more harm then good with Soul Posseion."

"Do they know that though? I mean if I knew I was harming Tala I would do whatever I could to stop it." Skylar said looking at the others.

"I understand, but they probably do know, only problem is they don't care." Richard replied.

"How could you not?!" Skylar didn't like this, Tala was the world to her and to think of harming her hurt, let alone doing it on purpose.

"It is sad, yes, but there are people who hurt their Tsurekin for their own gain," Ivy said. "Most of the people following Jirran do so either out of fear or for power. This is one of the reasons why we need to continue our fight against Tsurikansen."

"Absolutely," Kai said. "But first, there's the matter of that stone Jirran stole. Have you found out anything else about it?"

Ivy nodded. "As you know the stone is one of five of a group called the Stones of Ra. From what I can make out of the information I have, it seems each stone corresponds with one Tsurekin Lord. So by using them it may be possible to control them. However, if all five are collected and brought together, something special is supposed to happen."

"Like what?" Ty asked.

"I don't know. I think the only way we can find out is if we bring all five stones together ourselves. Of course, Jirran may be thinking the same thing, so we have to do it before he does."

"But how are we going to find them?" Skylar asked. "The only one we do know about is in Jirran's hands."

"I've sent messages to many of my colleagues while you were saving Shigure's brother. I already have some places in mind where the rest of the stones may be. They will go and look for us. All we can do is wait until they find something. In the mean time, we'll deal with Tsurikansen."

(Want to do a time jump to when they go back to school once we wrap this part of the story up?)

(((I'm out of a loss for what to write))))