Disclaimer: Shaman King © Hiroyuki Takei. That goes for all the future chapters, okay?

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And they say that

A hero could save us,

I'm not gonna stand here and wait,

I'll hold to the wings of the eagles,

Watch as we all fly away.

—"Hero" by Nickelback

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"We won't be able to keep this a secret for much longer," the woman who went by the name of Kino Asakura said, breaking the silence of the room. "She needs to find out."

"No, she doesn't," a man around her age answered in a firm voice; his name was Danzo, and he was one of the elders of the Asakura family. "She is not ready to face this."

Kino raised an eyebrow. "And you know that how?" she inquired.

"She's sixteen," he replied. "Still too young. Still too foolish. She may be intelligent, but I am sure she is not capable of understanding something of this magnitude – at least not yet."

"Anna is anything but foolish," the woman snapped, defending her student. "You know it."

"Just because she seems more mature than the majority of kids her age, doesn't mean she is not foolish," he said.

"Anna is not a kid," she hissed angrily, not pleased at all with the way Danzo was talking about the girl. "She – "

"You need to start noticing her flaws, Kino," he cut her off. "She is far from perfect."

"I am not insinuating that she is perfect," she said, shaking her head. "I never did. But she is Anna, and I know her. She will understand." She paused for a moment, rolling her eyes, before continuing: "And even if, by some miracle, you turn out to be right, you cannot change the fact that this secret can't possibly be kept for much longer."

Danzo sighed. "It's been ten years, Kino. If she hasn't discovered it by herself yet…" he trailed off, leaving it to her to make connections and realize what he meant by that.

"Then it's bound to happen very soon," she repeated, stubbornly holding her ground. "My student is very smart, Danzo. Keeping a secret from her is basically impossible, and that's not necessarily because she can read minds. Somehow, she can feel it, can see right through you."

"Right," he mumbled sarcastically. "She hasn't seen through us until now, Kino. Nor has she sensed anything off." He shrugged innocently. "Maybe you're just overestimating her?"

"It is hard to sense something off when you have no clue what that something might be," the woman replied calmly. "Anna has been led into believing that her family has left her, and she has no reason to question that. If she had, though, I am completely sure that the truth would have been out by now."

"But it seems like you did a far too great job by playing with her mind the way you did," he added in an almost mocking tone. "Right?"

Kino glared at him. "That's not what this whole thing is about, Danzo, and you know it."

"Maybe it isn't," he said, shrugging. "But if she were as smart as you're trying to make me believe – "

"Enough is enough," Kino snapped, wanting to put an end to this conversation before she lost her temper and lunged for his throat. "I know you are a member of the council and, believe it or not, I respect that.

But this child has been put in my care. I have raised her, taken care of her and turned her into the woman she now is. If I decide it is time for her to find out, she will, regardless of what you – or any other person, for that matter – have to say about it." She paused for a second. "I have already called her here. And I will tell her everything."

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A/N: Hey guys! I'm baaack and so is Pieces of Me. Gosh, I've missed this story. Like, really. I didn't even realize it until I decided it was time for me to start re-writing it.

I surprised myself by both planning and writing a lot in advance, and I truly hope that, by doing this, I'll be able to update regularly (or, well, as regularly as possible). Anyway, as you have already noticed, this was just the prologue. The next chapter will be posted in a few days.

P.S: Just for you guys to know: things will be a hell of a lot different then they were in the first version of the story. Not only because I don't want to bore you guys by making you read the same thing twice, but also because it's better this way. Everything is more organized and mysterious and, well, it's like I initially planned for it to be. I hope you'll like it, too!

Now, please review! :)