Ashuri: this is story just popped right into my head, kinda of like OOA, but I spent a lot of time, in work, writing a bad rough copy and now I finally got around to perfecting it. Hmm I think its pretty good. Anyway... Hao, your still my disclaimer.
Hao: but I'm in this story! Why do I have to be the disclaimer?
Ashuri: cause I'm too lazy to go and drag Ren here from OOA. And Yoh's sleeping.
Hao: dammit. Fine. She does not own shaman king. Happy?
Ashuri: yes thank you.
Nijuushin Kossori ou.
Chapter one: Dreams, dreams, and voices.
Yoh...
The voice was as clear as a small bell, or that of gently falling spring rain.
Yoh...
It caused his very soul to lift up in joy and creating the sensation of flight.
Yoh...
"Yoh?"
It was so near, yet so distant.
Yoh...
"Yoh!"
Asakura Yoh snapped out of his daze, which didn't seem like a daze at all, it seemed like he had just forgotten himself, in fact he was no longer looking at his friend Manta, like he had been ten, fifteen minutes ago, he was looking at a wall, a wall which faced the direction that his room was in, where the voice was calling him.
He blinked and pushed his dark brown hair out of his eyes and turned to face his friend, who had come over to do homework. "Yoh are you paying attention?" "Huh, what?" Yoh said trying to pull his thoughts together. Manta sighed. "I knew you weren't paying attention." Yoh smiled sheepishly at Manta. "I'm sorry. I just can't concentrate." Which was only partly true. He couldn't concentrate on school work, but he could concentrate on the voice that called his name.
"Well you better start concentrating. What if Anna finds out that your slacking again?" Manta sais scribbling furiously on his paper. Anna was Yoh's no nonsense fiancee, and it would have been her dearest pleasure, er ambition to punish him and force more torture, er training on him. Yoh jumped, afraid of what Anna might do to him, if she caught him, and looked down at his paper. The numerical equation jumped off the page at him and in his minds eye they spelt DOOM. But fear of Anna forced him to try the equation and try to ignore the calling of his name.
Later on when Anna got home from whatever it was she was doing after school, she forced Yoh to make dinner, again, knowing far too well that his cooking skills were far below average. But somehow this time was different.
All the ingredients had been set up and he was staring at them like he would rather eat dirt, when the voice, which had been silent for a sort while, started again.
Yoh...
Called the voice glistening with calmness and very slight happiness. Yoh stopped gazing at the ingredients and closed his eyes listening. He used to question the voice, asking it things, but all it said was his name so he stopped and it just continues, following him everywhere, plaguing his dreams, calling him through long dark tunnels with no end. This time, still with the sensation of flight, he sub-consciously started to make dinner, oblivious to all the noise issuing from the sitting room, Anna was yelling at Manta for something.
When he was finished he was back to his normal self, with the voice silent and vaguely remembered making dinner, he still served it to Anna anyway, knowing she'd rather eat it then go hungry. After taking a bite she said, "Yoh." "I know it tastes horrible." he said gloomily not wanting to be reminded about him lacking in the cooking department. "Actually it tastes exceptionally well." Anna said and Manta nodded. "Really?" Yoh asked, and then tried it himself. This was not his usual slop. He was incredibly stunned.
"Well Yoh, it seems your skills in the kitchen have improved." said Anna though she sounded skeptical. "You didn't have someone else do it for you?" Yoh blinked. "Anna, there's no one else here." She still looked skeptical but ate the food anyway. After that, Anna forced Manta to clean up while Yoh had to go and do his run, plus another ten miles to make up for two days worth of slacking.
However he had no intention of running ten extra miles, so when he was out of Anna's line of sight, and far enough away, he settled himself down under a tree and decided to take a nap. He sighed contentedly as the evening sun beamed down on him. This was great, no Anna for the moment and peace and quiet. It wasn't long before he drifted off to sleep.
His dreams were once again filled with endless long tunnels. Yoh shunted forward in the pitch blackness, determined to find the end of this tunnel, ears full of the calling voice.
Yoh...
He was getting closer, he could feel it.
Yoh...
The voice echoed softly against the sides of his brain. He could feel it drawing him in, pulling him toward the end of endless darkness. It felt like he rounded a corner, considering he slammed into a wall, in order to know it was a corner, and he could see light at the end of the tunnel. Yoh picked up his pace, the calling growing steadily louder. He was ten paces away, five paces, he was right in front of it, he had entered it and it that light he could see nothing, however a lot of things seemed to be going on, Yoh could hear it.
It was a voice similar to that one that called him, but there seemed to be a lot of them, over lapping each other, one seemed different, it sounded amused while the others spoke monotonously.
"He's not strong enough yet." "Soon, soon." "Hmm, interesting." "It seem's he has found me." "He is starting to progress nicely." "Soon, we will be one." "I'm sorry, Yoh, and after you tried so hard to find me." "Time is a most difficult thing, time interrupts my plans." "He has to be stronger still." "You have to leave now, its not time yet."
The light blared and blinded Yoh. Stumbling forward he struggled to find his way to where ever it was he could go, the light seemed to go on and on and just when he thought he would like to curl up and sleep, which was weird cause he was already asleep, a hole opened up beneath him and he fell yelling.
He landed softly and more light blared, but this time it subsided and yielded an image. A badly blurred image with the voices muted.
It was a large room, with three people inside, one of them was a woman, and she held two twin boys on her lap. The air of the room was grim and since they were muted Yoh couldn't understand them, he did not possess the ability to read lips. One of the men, Yoh concluded that this was an older man, picked up one of the babies and placed him on a cushion. Yoh believed that he would chant some sort of charm, as that was the most logical thing to do.
He stared entranced, this all seemed familiar in a way, but he couldn't remember ever seeing something like this before, even when he racked his brain as far as it could go, he never found anything. As the supposed chanting continued, there was a burst of flame and a large Ren thing appeared holding the infant in its arms. Somehow they appeared to be addressing the people in the room, though Yoh knew very well that an infant that young couldn't speak.
The image froze and the voice which called to him spoke, "Yoh, you had to go and bee stubborn, didn't you?" The voice was still calm, however it sounded like it was coming from right behind him. "Time to go back to reality." It felt like arms went around his shoulders, but looking he saw nothing. "Relax." the voice said as though sensing Yoh's uncertainty and confusion. Yoh closed his eyes and leaned backwards. The voice repeated, "Relax."
He opened his eyes again and he was back underneath the tree which he had stopped under to nap. The sun had almost set and it just came to him that if he didn't get home now, Anna was going to kill him.
He was quite right. As soon as he entered the house, Anna started freaking out on him about being a lazy goof for nothing shaman and that he was having an affair, again. Throughout all this Manta excused himself and left. After Anna finished scolding him, she made him clean the sitting room before allowing him to go to bed.
Slowly and painfully, he wandered up to his room and crawled into his bed thanking it for its softness. Even though he had just woken up from his nap, Anna's torture had made him even more tired, however gripped his pillow underneath his chair with both hands and stared across the room. His mind wanted to think of what just happened in his last dream, rather then sleep. The voice, when it spoke in another tone, not the calm gentle one, seemed to remind Yoh of someone, someone he never met, kind of like that friend you met long ago and don't remember.
And that image...it certainly seemed familiar but why? He felt that maybe...he needed to hear what they were saying in order to figure out why it seemed familiar. He pondered over these things for a while, and sleep eventually. As he managed to get through the tunnels in his last dream, he no longer needed to dream of that, so this dream, or rather a memory. It happened long ago in Yoh's past, he was five.
Yoh stuck his head out from behind a rock, eyes traveling after his grandpa, who as looking for him. He wanted to skip training and play but knowing his grandpa, he would get mad call him lazy and beat him, possibly. As he turned to go and check in the opposite direction, Yoh backed up slowly into the foliage, and eventually took off, running, putting as much distance between him and his grandpa as possible.
If now no one found him, he could play for hours, listen to music and sleep, oh it would be great. When Yoh stopped running he was near the pond, his fave pace to catch an afternoon snooze. He stretched and wandered over to the pond. He sat down on his knees and looked at his reflection. His small features gazed up at him. Amidst his reflection he spotted something in the water.
"Ooh Gollywalypogs!" (Tadpoles). He stuck his hand in the water and tried to grab one, but yo no success, they all swam away. Yoh sat back on his heels and waited for them to return. When he looked back in the water, his wasn't the only face gazing back.
Yoh shrieked and scrambled away. Turning around, identical to him, except with slightly longer hair, a boy his age was staring at him. Yoh backed up some more and hid behind a rock. His deep brown eyes stared at the boy and identical deep brown eyes stared back. "Hello." The boy said, his filled with slight happiness and calmness, and the air around him full of power.
"Who are you?" Yoh asked tentatively. "Why do you look like me?" The boy smiled slightly. "Have you ever heard of the doppel ganger effect?" He asked. "Doppal what cha ma thing it?" Asked Yoh still hiding behind the rock. "Doppel ganger." The boy repeated. "A shadow self thought to accompany each person." The boy seemed a little too smart for his age, and if he had not been standing in front of Yoh, Yoh would not have believed a word he had said.
"So, you're my doppal what cha ma thing it?" Yoh asked taking a step out from behind the rock. "It certainly seems so." replied the boy. Yoh took a deep breath and went to stand right in front of the boy, which was kid of rude, but Yoh wanted to try and understand what this boy was talking about.
They really were identical. Yoh could almost say this kid was his twin, which was stupid because Yoh was an only child. The boy smile widened and for a moment it seemed like a older kid with waist length hair and Yoh's face was standing in front of him, instead of a five year old. Yoh blinked and a five year was standing in front of him. Yoh blinked a few more times and then opened his mouth the ask the boys name, but was interrupted by someone yelling his own name.
Oh great. His grandpa had found him. He sighed. There was no point in trying to run away and avoid his grandpa, as he knew where he was. He said goodbye to the boy and gloomily ran off, with the prospect of training weighing heavily on his mind. He ran with his head down lost in thought and suddenly he ran into something solid and fell to the ground.
"Ow." he said and looked up into his grandpa's face. "Lo grandpa." he said and Yohmei's face twisted into a look of deep displeasure. "Why did you break training Yoh? And why what were you doing by the pond?" "Never mind that!" Yoh said excitedly standing up. "Grandpa I have a doppal, doppal what cha ma thing it!" "What?" Yohmei asked, gazing at Yoh like he was trying to be stupid on purpose.
"I have a doppel, yeah, doppel thing, doppel, doppel, Doppel ganger!" "A Doppel ganger?" "Yeah! I have a twin!" Yoh said jumping up and down, like all his dreams had just come true. Away from the boy, it seemed quite exciting to have someone that looked like him. He expected his grandpa to look slightly interested, but certainly not angry and frightened. He grabbed Yoh's hand and started to drag him away.
"Don't you ever talk to this Doppel ganger again." Yohmei instructed. "But why?" "Cause he's dangerous." "How do you-" "Just stay away from him!" When they got back to the house, Yohmei wanted to start training, but Yoh didn't want to. Yohmei raised his arm as though to hit him.
"No Grandpa don't hit me!"
He yelled and sat bolt right up in bed, arm's flaying, tangled in his sheets and toppled off the bed. With his lower legs and feet still on the bed, Yoh stared up at the ceiling. What a bizarre dream. He thought. But at least he vaguely remembered it happing. He sighed, back sore from falling. For some reason they had western style beds, and it was a real inconvenience when one woke up from a nightmare or weird dream and fell sideways.
He tried to get back on the bed by grabbing the other side of it and hoisting himself up, without actually swinging his legs off the bed. It didn't work very well and he fell back to the floor. Yoh sighed and got up off the floor and climbed back into bed. Stupid bed. Stupid dream. Sitting in silence, he wondered where his doppel ganger was now.
"I'm right here."
A voice said. Yoh looked around but didn't see anyone. Maybe I'm paranoid. Yoh thought.
"Your not paranoid."
Yoh blinked. this was getting freaky. Maybe he could curl up, go to sleep and ignore it.
"You can try."
Yoh looked around again, looking for any sign of a person to place this disembodied voice too. Not that he didn't mind the voice, it just kind of unnerved him with it's seemingly ability to read minds. Yoh laid down and gazed slowly around the room once more before closing his eyes. Then it started.
Yoh...
It echoed gently, lulling him to sleep.
Yoh...
It sounded so peaceful and serene. Yoh wished he could be, but he wasn't.
Yoh...
He was slowly falling into sleep, not worrying about anything, letting the voice engulf him.
Ashuri: so did you like it? RXR please.
