So I've decided to take up a challenge that was sent to me by Warsameking involving a self-insert or OC who participates in the Shaman King Tournament in the year 2000. My answer to them is a self-insert who is distantly related to Yoh Asakura that participates in the tournament after discovering she is a shaman. Apart from a few appearances by recognizable characters, the majority of them will be original. Now without further ado, here's my take on one of my favorite series of all time and hopefully you'll enjoy it!

1st Star: The Mysterious Comet

My name is Shizu Rakugaki. I'm 13 years old, and I live in Tokyo with my mother and father. We're a poor family, but I managed to get into Shinra Private Academy on a special scholarship. Yet despite this, I don't have any friends at school and mostly keep to myself. But I don't mind as reading books and writing stories of my own take up most of my free-time.

For instance, I was in my room jotting down story ideas when a bright light flashed outside. It was a large comet, streaking across the sky in a blazing fury. Then just as quickly as it came, the comet vanished.

That was strange, I thought. There wasn't any news of a comet like that appearing tonight…

My first thought was to tell my parents, but figuring they were sleeping I decided not to. So I turned in for the night changing into my blue two-piece pajamas wearing a silver cross on a chain-link necklace. As I started to take it off, the sound of rustling paper caught my attention. On my desk stood a paper star folded origami-style, which then immediately fell down.

"Is that—?" I got out of bed and picked up the star.

It was made from notebook paper and had a single word written at its center.

"Hoshi," I muttered. "That was the name of my imaginary friend, at least according to Mom."

Putting the paper star on the windowsill where it belonged, I went back to bed and fell asleep with the cross still around my neck.

###

The next morning, I woke up at 7 AM as usual and changed into my school uniform which consisted of a plain white blouse with a red ribbon, a dark-green skirt, and black stockings. I then put the paper star in the breast-pocket of my blouse, went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth, combed my long sky-blue hair, put it into pigtails and adorned my head with a gray headband to match the silver cross. After that, I went into the kitchen where my mother, who had the same hair-color as me only it was straighter, was already making miso soup in a gray kimono which was leftover from her days as a catholic nun. My father was there too, reading the newspaper with his small round glasses on wearing a royal-blue yukata and had his long dark hair tied back into a ponytail.

"Morning, Shizu!" My mother said as she tasted the soup. "How are you feeling today?"

"Fine," I replied nervously. "Um, I saw a comet last night."

This caused my father to look up from the paper. "Really? How big was it?"

"Enough to light up the whole sky," I responded. "I'm surprised there wasn't any announcement for it on the news."

My father briefly flipped through the newspaper. "There's no mention of it in today's paper."

"That's because it wasn't an ordinary comet," my mother murmured.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing," my mother denied as she ladled a bowl of soup. "You should eat this and get going, or you'll be late for school."

Not wanting to question her further, I took the soup from my mother's hands and ate it quickly before heading to the front door where I put on a pair of old leather clogs. From there, I went outside with my school bag in tow down the street and took a bus to school. At Shinra, the students were filing in just as I showed up. So I went inside and passed by several classrooms. In one of them, I noticed a boy about my age with spiked black hair wearing headphones who was in the sitting position with no chair underneath him while a girl with medium-length dark-blonde hair watched.

She caught me staring and glared. "What're you looking at?"

"Oh, sorry," I apologized and walked away.

In my classroom, I saw a group of upperclassmen boys roughhousing a kid with short brown hair and cat-like eyes.

"Hey, leave him alone!" I abruptly shouted.

The three upperclassmen immediately stared at me.

"This has nothing to do with you, Pigtails," said the tallest boy, who had beady eyes.

Taken aback, I flinched.

"What's with the cross?" Another boy asked, pointing at my necklace. "Is your family Christian or something?"

"No, it was given to me by a Pastor who's a friend of my mother."

"Whatever," the third boy shrugged, leering at me with a mischievous grin. "I call dibs!"

As he reached for the necklace, the bell rang. Irked, the third boy stormed out of the classroom while the other two followed.

"Are you okay, Jin?" I said to the brown-haired boy as he straightened his uniform out.

"I'm fine," the brown-haired boy grumbled.

Then the teacher came in, forcing us to take our seats.

###

Later, I was sitting on the sidelines in gym class watching the volleyball game being played out when I felt small hands touch the back of my neck. I looked back and apart from Jin and a couple other students there was no one standing before me. So I turned back and thought nothing more of it. But then up in the bleachers something appeared. It looked like a person, but was transparent with small blue flames surrounding the body. Thinking I was seeing things, I rubbed my eyes. Yet the person was still there, and looked directly at me.

"Rakugaki!" Cried the coach. "Your team's next!"

"Coming!" I said, getting up.

For a while, I ignored the person and concentrated on the game. Afterwards, I left the gym without looking back and went straight to the locker-room.

To be continued…