It's been a long time since I wrote anything. I just haven't been very motivated lately… ah well. So last night I was listening to music and I heard this song, and an idea struck me. And here it is: Shaman King's for a Day. It's been a while since I've done anything with SK, so I'm going to apologize in advance for any OOCness.

Rating for strong language and suggested themes in later scenes.

Disclaimer: Shaman King is property of Hiroyuki Takei, The song King's for a Day is property of Jake Mathews, the idea is mine.

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Shaman Kings for a Day

Chapter 1: Heaven and Hell

Yoh stared after red figure growing ever smaller and smaller on the horizon as Hao's guardian spirit retreated into the distance. The brunette boy dropped to his knees, equally as brown eyes seeming empty and lifeless. "Wh…why…?"

So your heaven's turned into hell

Above the clouds gathered, casting their dark shadows down upon the earth below, capturing the sunlight and hiding it away. It was when all the light had been completely hidden that there was a loud rumbling sound. The sky seemed to rip open, much like how the emotional wound had been created in the boy's heart, and heaven's tears poured down upon the earth, soaking the boy.

The young shaman sat there in the middle of the empty street looking after his young lover. His hands balled into fists at his sides, shaking with rage for his brother who'd taken her away and sadness for her willingness to go. He threw back his head violently, orange headphones clattering to the pavement behind him as he gazed up to the sky, shouting out over the thunder, "ANNA!"

I know that story well

Standing on the sidewalk, umbrella in hand, Manta looked towards his taller friend sadly, feeling bad for the shaman. Beside him, an equally concerned samurai ghost floated. The two looked at each other and the small boy sighed.

Slowly, he walked over towards Yoh, picking up the headphones and holding the umbrella over the other boy's head. "Come on, Yoh." He said softly. "Let's get inside before you get sick…" He murmured.

Yoh however, seemed unresponsive and unwilling to move from his place on the ground. His head had fallen forwards and once again his eyes were focused on the horizon, as if hoping to see or hear any sign of her returning back to him. As the minutes passed, nothing came.

There was the sound of a engine and rubber on pavement could be heard behind the boys. Manta reached down and pulled on his arm. "Come on, Yoh. There's a car coming. We have to get out of the way."

The headlights shone on the two boys as the vehicle got closer, but soon it was found to be not a car at all that they were hearing. It was a motorcycle. Manta turned to see who it was, raising the arm holding Yoh's headphones to shade his eyes from the blinding light.

Sitting atop that motorcycle was a very familiar white-and-purple-clad man. Manta smiled as he lowered his hand, the engine of the motorcycle killed. "Ryu!" He called with a warm grin.

Removing his helmet, the dark-haired man looked at the two of them with a curious expression. "What are you guys doing in the middle of the road? And what's with the chief?" He asked, seeing that it was only the smaller boy who acknowledged his presence.


I've been in your shoes
I've walked that mile

"Let's get Yoh inside first before we explain what's happened," Amidamaru said before taking possession of Yoh's body to move him, seeing as his shaman would not move on his own. From there the boy, moving much like a puppet, got to his feet and headed for the dry safety of the inside.

As he and Manta headed towards the inn, Ryu looked at the smaller boy. "So what did happen?" He asked.

Manta frowned slightly as he looked up at the much, much taller man. "Anna left with Hao."

Ryu's expression was one of shock. "What? Really? Why would she leave him? When did this happen?"

Manta sighed heavily, the creases in his brow indenting more so as he explained, "I don't know what happened for sure. When I got here, things were already looking really bad…"

Flashback

Manta whistled as he walked along the street, making his way to the Funbari Onsen to meet up with Yoh. While it was unlikely the other boy would be free of his fiancée's grasp, Manta decided he may as well help out for the day, more than likely cooking or cleaning while Yoh was worked to death training and Anna watched her shows.

Today, however, things were rather different. The first sign was the large red figure knelt in the street before the Onsen. Manta recognized this figure and his eyes were wide. Having short legs, he couldn't move as quickly as he wanted to as he ran to the entrance. "Yoh! Yoh!" She shouted, panic-stricken.

Rounding the corner, he stopped eyes wide as he saw Anna stepping out of the house with her things packed and carried behind her. But by the time the small boy had made it to ask someone what was gone, the fire spirit had gathered up the blonde and taken off, heading down the street.

Yoh pushed past his friend and made his way onto the street, chasing after the fire spirit, but it was much faster than him and was soon a dot on the horizon…

End Flashback

Manta looked at Ryu sadly. "…And that's what happened." He murmured.

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At least we had our chance
If it was all just a song and dance

It was almost a week later and Yoh had taken to locking himself up in his room. There the teen would sit and stare out the window. It was as though he was hoping and praying for Anna to appear outside, returning home to him. However, he knew it was just a dream, not likely to ever happen.

He sighed sadly, thinking about her glorious blonde hair how it neatly framed her pale face. Her dark eyes… How he wished to get lost in them again. But he knew that would be impossible.

"Yoh-dono?" Amidamaru called, slipping out of the memorial tablet that sat on a small table by the bed. "You've been up here sulking for nearly a week…" He began gently, not certain how exactly to approach his partner for this particular situation. "You should at least go downstairs and get yourself something to eat. You're not looking well."

"I don't feel well…" The boy replied sadly. "And I won't feel well…not without Anna…" Shoulders sagged and his head drooped before he collapsed onto his bed, gazing absently towards the wall space below the window.

Amidamaru sighed and floated down to the floor below and into the kitchen where he saw Manta standing on a wooden stool before the stove. "What are you doing?" He asked as he approached the smaller boy.

Manta jumped with a small surprised scream, not expecting the samurai spirit to be there all of a sudden. The ladle he had in his hand to stir a pot of soup he'd been making for Yoh went flying, clattering across the floor to the other side of the kitchen. He turned to look at the ghost. "Oh, Amidamaru….it's you..." He said, the relief clear in his voice as he hopped off the stool to get the ladle. "How's Yoh doing?" He asked.

The ghost sighed as he floated by the wall. "Not much better I'm afraid…" He murmured. "He just sits there and stares blankly all day long… He hasn't eaten anything and barely slept… At least I managed to take control of his body long enough to unlock the door so that other humans could get in."

Manta nodded, picking up the ladle. "That's good. I'm making him some soup, some thing I figured he'd be able to get down, seeing as he's probably hungry, depressed about Anna or not. Besides, it won't do him any good to starve himself to death."

Amidamaru nodded in agreement as a knock came on the door. "Who could that be?" He wondered. Manta shrugged, going back to his cooking. "Could you go see? I'm kinda busy at the moment." The smaller boy asked as he began to scoop up the soup with a ladle and pour it into the bowl.

The ghost nodded, floating out of the room and heading towards the outside. Poking his head out through the wall, he looked around, and was surprised to see a large group of shamans, mainly teenage boys, standing around by the doorway.

One of them, a boy with bright blue hair spiked up on his head, looked up and waved cheerfully to the samurai. "Hey! Amidamaru!" He called with a wide grin on his face.

Amidamaru smiled slightly, returning the wave as he floated down the group. "Come on in. I'm sure Yoh could use his friends at the moment." He said, to which all or at least most of the shamans who had come, agreed as the blue haired boy, Horohoro, opened up the front door and they let themselves into the house.

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"Is he dead?" Horohoro asked, poking Yoh lightly with a toe as he looked at the boy, who was in the same position the samurai ghost had left him in, gazing at the wall with empty eyes.

"Not dead…Just suffering from a broken heart," Faust replied. The pale faced man looked down at the younger boy with a strong feel of sympathy. The ghost of a nurse with long blonde hair wrapped her arms around the doctor's neck, hugging him softly in understanding. Smiling softly to her, the doctor stroked her beautiful locks. "…Eliza…" He murmured to her softly.

Listening to the two of them, Yoh grunted and rolled over, his forehead against the floor. He didn't want to be with these people right now. He just wanted to be left alone. For without Anna it just didn't seem right for the brunette boy to smile.

At least she made you smile
If only for a little while

Leaning against the wall by the door, Ren turned his golden eyes on him. "Get over her already. There's no point in moping about waiting for someone to come back if they're not going to." He said coldly.

"Ren, can't you be a little nicer?" Lyserg asked with a small frown on his face. "Yoh's having a hard time as it is and you're not helping."

Ren glared at the other boy. "She's decided she's better off without Yoh. And if that's the choice that makes her happy, why should Yoh waste his time moping about over losing her?" He asked.

Chocolove made his way over to the depressed shaman on the floor, "Hey, Yoh? Did you hear the one about-" But before the boy could finish his joke, Ren had poked him in the nose with his Kwan Dao. "Ow!"

"Enough, guys." Manta said as the small boy made his way over to his best friend. "Yoh? I made you some soup. You should eat something…" He said, setting the bowl down by him.

Yoh's eye moved to look at the bowl from out of the corner. He was hungry, very hungry. He'd eaten very little over the past week, as one could've guessed, too wound up in his sadness of losing Anna to eat. Sitting up, he took the bowl and forced a smile for his friend. "Thank you…Manta." He said softly, before he raised a spoonful to his mouth.

Manta looked at his friend, relieved that the tall boy had an appetite still. Yoh still is very sad, though…I wish there was something we could do for him… He thought.

Ryu, standing nearby looking at the group, couldn't stand the gloom over everything. "Okay, enough of this!" He exclaimed when Yoh had set his bowl down only after a few spoonfuls. He looked at the younger male and said, "Tonight we're all gonna have some fun and you're going to forget about Anna!" He said.

Yoh looked at him and sighed. "I doubt it'll work." He said, looking down at the bowl of soup, stirring it up with his spoon.

"Oh, it will, I promise you that." Ryu said with a small grin. He looked to Horohoro and Lyserg. "Come give me a hand." He said and turned, leaving the room. Curious as to what the older male planned to do, the two boys followed after him quickly.

After Ryu, Lyserg, and Horohoro had left, the others stayed to see what they could do to cheer up the other boy. However, nothing they did seemed to do much of anything to help the brunette shaman. After a long while of standing around humming and hawing over what to do, they finally just decided to leave him be to wallow in his misery for the time being. At least until Ryu came back with whatever it was that would cheer up Yoh.

Almost an hour had passed before the three returned with crates of full beer cans. Ryu grinned as he set the four cases he'd been carrying down on the coffee table in the living room, soon followed by the two cases that Horo and Lyzerg had each been carrying.

Manta was the first to speak after a long period of awkward silence where several young boys stood gathered around the stack of cases. "Ryu…how is this supposed to help to cheer up Yoh, exactly?" He asked.

Ryu looked at him as if the younger male had asked the simplest question on the planet, "This always cheers me up when I get rejected, like many other men. Imagine what it could do for Yoh. Besides, this isn't all for him. We're gonna have a party!" He exclaimed.

"But…we're all underage aside from most of the ghosts, you, and Faust…" Lyzerg said, perplexed.

"I won't tell if you won't." Horo said with a wicked grin as he opened up one of the crates, taking a can for himself. "Hey, Yoh! Come on down here!" He called, heading up the stairs with the can to fetch the other boy.

Standing off to the side, Manta frowned. "I have a bad feeling about this…" He murmured softly, accepting an offered can, though being the smallest of those present, it was more like it was forced on him than anything else.

"I don't think I'll have one." Ren said as he was also offered drink from the older shaman. Waving his hand dismissively, he headed towards the kitchen. "I'd rather my milk."