Gone and Done
By: Chiharu-chan
Themes from 55themes on livejournal.
Fifty-five drabbles on Nichrome and Hao's gang.
Shaman King is copyrighted to Hiroyuki Takei, TV Tokyo, Shonen Jump, Fox Box, 4KIDS , et.
Theme One: Sports
"Macchi-chan, the ball."
Confused glances from the redhead, dull expressions from the blonde and sympatric looks from the blue-hair girl were received.
Nichrome paused as the ball rolled to his feet. He frowned, biting his lip and forbidding himself from letting his intentions go. "This is a camping site, not a playground."
"Someone has a stick up their ass." The redhead whistled casually.
The boy frowned harder.
"When a ball rolls towards you, the logical thing to do is to pick it up and return it." The tallest girl spoke up flatly, lighting another cigarette pointlessly.
Nichrome threw the ball back. It was caught by the blonde in one hand while the other held her doll.
"That was a waste of time." The redhead declared, turning around as her friends followed.
He watched as the girls head back to the other side of the camping ground before cautiously opening his mouth. "Hey. Can I play?"
They turned around.
"I mean. . ."
"Well? Hurry up."
Theme Two: School
Nichrome honored intelligence as something granted rather than gifted. He often tries to express a certain level of maturity, but that little peace of mind is often suppressed by his sense of pride. He doesn't like learning; being viewed as another uneducated child without the brain capacity of gathering and concluding the slightest information was a hit to his ego.
Nichrome never had much of schooling as a child. Education was well respected, but skills in combat were the essential to life.
The council of patch emphasized the importance of intellectual learning.
Asakura Hao didn't.
That's where it began.
Theme Three: House
Nichrome's father died young. His earliest memories were of coming home to an empty house. His mother worked at a low-paying, high-labored job while his brother did all he could to help their mother in supporting the family.
Their house was one of the less flattering ones in the small tribual town. There was no front yard and the ivies had claimed all there was to the remaining land they considered as the backyard. The fence was rusted and the porch was never clean.
He remembered that there was an everlasting smell of bleach in the air.
While those were the memories he wished to forget, Nichrome had learned at a young age that irony mocked him the most. Being one of the youngest and less useful members of the group, he had been the one ordered to laundry duty every week.
The feeling of water rushing through his hand, unable to be grasped. The sense of nauseating feeling of bitter, un-cleanness. The permanent smell of bleach.
He hated it. He hated to be reminded of it.
"Nichrome, take a break."
He turned around to face Chrome, standing behind him with a slight smile.
"I'll do the laundry for you."
He laughed. It was too somber.
Asakura Hao offered him the rare look of concern before repeating himself. "Nichrome, take a break. I'll send someone to the laundries instead."
Theme Four: Church
When asked, Nichrome would simply answer in six words.
"I do not believe in Christ."
He didn't want to be reminded of that little church on the hill, the lifelessly dull people, the old cabin, or the cheerful smile of the priest.
"The just shall be ruled by faith."
"Faith is useless. The words of foolish men are blaspheme." If he remembered correctly, it was his not-so-carefully chosen answer. It flew out of his mouth without hesitation.
Asakura Hao raised an eyebrow in amusement. "That's a nice analogy."
"It's not an analogy at all."
Theme Five: Store
"Pick up some pins for me." That was simply what Asakura had demanded. A simple request, yet disturbingly unreasonable.
"There's no convenient store for miles. We're in the middle of nowhere." Nichrome replied dully.
"I suppose it's not convenient, then."
"Fine, I'll go." Nichrome walked out of the tent and headed out the camping grounds aimlessly.
"Oi. I'll go with you."
He turned around.
Macchi grinned. "What? I need things too. Oh, don't be so surprised to see me doing manual labor."
Nichrome shook his head, chuckling inwardly as he muttered something under his breath.
"Mmm." Macchi tilted her head, blinking. "What's that?"
"Nothing. Let's go to the… Convenient store."
Theme Six: Restaurant
"Mari, pass the bread."
The blonde reached for the platter before handing it to the right of her.
"The soup is too bitter." Macchi.
"To drinks are too sour." Kanna.
"The fries are too oily." Mari.
"You can't cook." The hanagumi deducted.
Nichrome hated kitten duty.
Theme Seven: Dance Club
The first time he stumbled onto the lair of Satan was when he got lost on a mission. With him were Zen and Ryo. They wanted to go in, Nichrome didn't.
It took much preservation and dragging before the boy agreed to go in. To ask for directions, he reminded himself.
It ended in Ryo and Zen dragged Nichrome back to the camping site.
"Oh, you got him drunk." Hao frowned slightly.
"I didn't know that he'd get drunk so easily." The guitar twins replied.
"He's eight. How high do you think his alcohol content is?"
"You've mistaken, Hao-sama. They don't think."
"He's gonna have a hell of a hangover from this." Mari whistled.
"Pity."
"Who's gonna look after him?"
A look.
"I wonder why you always make us look after the kid." Kanna groaned.
Theme Eight: Dreams
"Mari had a dream about Chuck and dresses last night." Mari mumbled under her breath, pulling her leg closer as the warmth of the fire grew.
"I had a dream about how I could fly on my broom!" Macchi hummed happily, laying her head on her knee.
"I dreamt that you two were quite for once." Kanna spoke, pulling on the blanket in her lap.
"What is this, story time?" Zen snapped, but wavered as glares were sent his way.
"Those willing are allowed to dream." Luchist spoke up.
"Eh…"
"What about you, Nic?"
Nichrome looked up, through the fire as the girls waited expectedly. "I don't dream."
"Oh?"
He could never accomplish anything through a dream because, after all, dreams are to be left unachieved.
Theme Nine: Siblings
Nichrome's only brother died when he was eight. It was a cruel and unfair event that the rest of the council judges refused to describe in detail.
Yet, in his heart, Nichrome knew it couldn't possible be Chrome's fault.
Unlike his little brother, Chrome was patient, kind and understanding. He was everything Nichrome hated. He didn't realize, until Chrome's death, that the man was everything he wanted to be.
He didn't realize he already had so much hate built inside of him. It had already been there, gathering up over time and waiting to be discovered.
That day, he mastered oversoul.
Theme Ten: Loyalty
"Let it go."
Nichrome frowned, turning around to face Hao.
"You knew that you'd leave her someday."
The younger boy paused, pressing his lip inwardly. "I didn't want to."
"You only masked the truth from yourself."
"I didn't, I still don't want to leave her."
"You can give up on relying on Nyorai, or you can start depending on yourself."
It was the only choice.
Not exactly the feel-good fic of the year, but please read and review. X3