Never Forgotten

A Shaman King Fanfiction By Marie-Claire

At a first glance, one would say that nothing was extraordinary about this particular classroom. The jocks, those burly guys with brains as small as their muscles were big hung out at the back, talking the nonsense stuff that all males with hormones are interested in. Near the front were the studious types, those grade conscious people who just loved to hang on to every word of their professor. At the center lounged the popular people, yes, those guys and gals who seemed to think that it was imperative that they be seen and adored by everyone around them.

Yup, it was definitely normal, all right.

But remember, that is what you would think at a first glance.

I never said that you'd get the same impression if you were someone who was particularly observant, and, well, had a teeny little bit of magic in you.

For if you had, the first thing you would have noticed was the carefully contained energy surrounding the boy sitting by the window, chin supported by his left hand, a blank expression on his face. You would have seen the glow of his dark red aura, shimmering brilliantly even as he tried to suppress its power. You would have seen the flicker of awareness behind the slightly sleepy looking dark eyes which struggled to stay focused on the teacher, betraying the image of careless unconcern that he tried to portray.

That boy, you see, is a Shaman.

Not just any shaman, at that. He is Asakura Yoh.

The Shaman King.

~ * ~

Asakura Yoh pushed back his dark chocolate-colored hair from his forehead, even as a slight frown appeared on his forehead. He tried to relax his tense muscles, for they were all screaming at him to get up and run, and get to the source of whatever was disturbing his emotions, before she got away from him again.

Again.

The word taunted at him, echoing over and over as his mind flashed back to the fateful day 5 years ago when his whole came crashing down on him.

' "Anna?" Yoh called, sliding the door open of the itako's room open. He had been already been to the kitchen and living room in search of her and had come empty. Now as he stepped into the threshold of his fiancée's room, he tried to suppress the vague feeling of disquiet and worry nagging at him.
"Anna?" He said, even though it was useless, since it was clear that nobody was in the room. Before turning to go, however, he spied a piece of crisp white paper folded once on top of her pillow with his name written in the neat handwriting of the itako.
Within seconds, he had finished reading what the itako had written in her letter, reading and re-reading over and over again, in hopes that he would find a sign, a clue that everything in the letter was a lie, that it was an uncharacteristic joke that she was playing on him.
He wouldn't believe it. He couldn't.
For the letter said that Kyouyama Anna, fiancée of the Shaman King Asakura Yoh, most powerful itako in the world, had left him.
She gave him no reason about why she had left. Her letter was cold and brief, telling him everything except all the things he really needed to know.
His fist crumpled the paper angrily, while the other slammed down forcefully on the wooden floor. Amidamaru, his main spirit, burst from the wall in alarm and could do nothing but stare as tears streamed down his young master's face. Suddenly, Yoh's aura exploded in red and black waves, bright enough to blind anyone who could have seen it, as the wave of energy rolled around the room.
Throughout the world, all powerful shamans raised wide eyes to the skies, wondering what could have happened to make their king react like that, and praying that it was nothing terrible.

He had tried searching for Anna, exhausting the resources of his family and following all clues about her whereabouts. But this was Anna Kyouyama that they were talking about. If she didn't want to be found, she wouldn't be found. Not by anyone. Not even by him.

He hadn't expected that she would actually leave him. During the days before she mysteriously disappeared, he had indeed noticed that she had been uncharacteristically affectionate, her manner softening, so that he had come to the conclusion that he was finally breaking through the barrier that the itako had erected around herself.

But he hadn't.

Now, as his eyes turned to the door of the room, and as his heart gave a lurch as his aura instinctively reached out for the person standing outside the door, reaching out and tangling with hers as it had always done, he vowed never to make the same mistake again.

He didn't know why she had returned after five years. He didn't know what her business was and if it was with him. Heck, he didn't even know why she had left! But that didn't matter. What mattered was that she was back, she was within his reach, and heaven help him, whatever happened, he would do everything in his power to chain her to his side if that was what it took so that she never left him again.

He wasn't about to let her go for the second time.