Besarki: I hate stories which have the title in the summary, but that line was just too cool! I couldn't not use it! Meh...right.

Anywho, I honestly don't know where this came from. I sat down to write the next chapter of Living For The Moment and, instead, I wrote this. I can't trust my fingers when I put them on the keyboard. They're unpredictable. I kinda really like this idea, though, so if anyone is interested, I'd love to continue it.

Pairings will be:
Hana/Anna III
Yoh/Anna

Implied pairings will be:
Ren/Jeanne

However, I'm horrible at cutesy, fluffy, cuddly stuff so don't be looking for lots of kissy happy makeout scenes, cause trust me, you won't find them here.

Asakura Anna vs. Patch Anna
Though they are both in the story, I will be referring to both of them as just Anna most of the time. Asakura Anna is absent for the first part so there won't be any confusion. Hana is the narrator and refers to Asakura Anna as Kaa-chan or Kaa-san anyway however, to prevent confusion, Patch Anna will be written as Anna III when Asakura Anna is also in the same chapter.

Also, I don't know much about Anna the 3rd so she'll be portrayed like Asakura Anna since that seems to be the way she's going to act. At least, that's what I got from Hana's Epoch.

This fic is very angsty, but humor will always be my forte so you'll see it shining through in many situations. Hee hee. You understand.

DISCLAIMER FOR ENTIRE STORY: I DO NOT OWN SHAMAN KING OR ANY RELATED ELEMENTS! ALL RIGHTS GO TO TAKEI HIROYUKI AND SHUEISHA!!!

I don't know if I'm going to have my song corner here like I did in LFTM. If I do I'll start within the next few chapters.

Hana

My name is Asakura Hana. I am a thirteen year-old boy living in an abandoned shack with my two friends, Tao Men and Anna III.

To say that my life has supremely sucked these past few years would be a vast understatement. Ever since Hao became Shaman King, well, we'll just say that it hasn't been a walk in the park. This is for many, many reasons.

Hao's followers are numbered in millions these days, and it seems that they've made it their goal to make life miserable for everyone who doesn't follow Hao heart and soul. Not that there are many of us non-followers to begin with. Those who oppose Asakura Hao are dealt with accordingly--usually meaning that they're killed on the spot unless Hao sees them as considerably useful, in which case they are taken prisoner.

Humans are as much dying breed as shamans. Hao's mind twisted even further when he became king so he left some humans alive to force them to live in fear. Their lives are even worse than ours and that's really saying something.

To be honest, though, even though Hao became Shaman King before I was born, my life hasn't always sucked. For my first few years, I was happy. I was really and truly happy. I lived in the Funbari Inn and Onsen with my mother, father, and a few of their friends. Life was nice for me. I had a comfy bed to sleep in at night, and I always had food to eat at mealtime. In truth, I wasn't even aware of the crisis with Hao at that time. My parents never mentioned it and Hao and his followers stayed far away from my hometown.

That all changed when my father went on a trip around my eighth birthday. Conditions deteriorated almost as soon as he left, almost as if he was the reason they were staying away.

Houses were burned down all around us, but, for a while, they left us alone.

And then that night happened.

They came in droves, flocking in and destroying everything. They set the inn on fire and loosed havoc on everything within the humble building. Blood spattered everywhere, mixing with the flying debris and broken windows and vases. The whole thing was a disaster.

I fought, but was quickly defeated. I don't think they knew that I was still alive because they didn't bother with me after that. Kaa-chan and the others weren't so lucky.

When I awoke, the fire had gone out, but the damage was overwhelming. I found that Ryu, Tamao, and Hana-gumi were all dead, and Kaa-san was gone. Those who had been staying in the inn were also killed. I was the only one left.

I left the En Inn after that. Even though I didn't have anything more than the clothes on my back and my spirit ally, Amidamaru I just knew that I had to go. I couldn't risk still being there if they came back.

In the first few days, I really just wanted to roll over and die. I saw the real horrors of Hao's Shaman Kingdom. I saw death, pain, and sorrow in everything. I saw the dying children on the streets--a lot of them even younger than me. I saw the weeping families who had been torn apart just as mine had. I saw just how lost everyone was. It was getting harder to breathe with all that going on around me. I felt like I was suffocating on everyone's despair.

Nothing was going my way. I was hungry and cold and I missed everyone. I really couldn't see any good in the situation no matter where I looked. Things were just...

I continued forward, but with everything that happened, it was hard to stay positive. Most of the time, I didn't. They took my mother away and I didn't know where the hell my father was. How was I honestly supposed to look at the bright side, especially when there wasn't one?

Amidamaru tried to comfort me, but I could tell that he was just as broken as I was. Neither of us could take much more of what was happening. We pushed on.

A few weeks later, I ran into Men, a kid I had met once was I was younger, but had sort of forgotten about. He was really little at the time, and I was surprised that he had managed to get this far without anyone other than his spirits. Though he was in the same boat as I was, and I felt pretty bad for him, it was really the best thing that had happened to me in a while.

Men had suffered a similar fate in China and was looking for familiar survivors in Japan since he apparently couldn't find any in his home country. Like me, Men's parents were supposedly still alive, but he didn't know where they were. Men and his two spirits, Shamash and Bason joined up with me and Amidamaru with next to no hesitation.

Men and I traveled together for the next two years. We ran into trouble more times than I can count, but we somehow managed to get out of it every time.

Men found the shack that we live in now abandoned in the woods.

When I was ten, Men and I were out on one of our expeditions when we met Anna. No, not my mother Anna, though apparently she was named after her.

Anna the third was a Patch girl who used to live in America. She crossed the ocean after her tribe was massacred by one of Hao's mercenary units. Anna was two years older than me and eight years older than Men, though she didn't really look it. I recognized her father's name when she told us, but her mother didn't sound familiar to me. Men didn't recognize either of them, but I can't say I was really surprised about that. Anna didn't like talking about the incident, though, so we really don't know much more about her family like, whether or not they were still alive. Men has tried to get more out of her, but I know how she feels so I haven't pushed her.

Really, she was an enigma to us. Regardless of that, though, we took her with us and headed forward.

For the next three years, Men, Anna, and I focused on just staying out of the line of fire. We weren't very strong due to our young age. Though it was kind of embarrassing, Anna took care of us most of the time because she was the only one that was really old enough to do much of anything. She always teased us about it and asked if we needed help cutting our food and such. One time, Men actually did. I admit that that was kind of funny.

I helped where I could, but, being only a preteen, there wasn't much I could do. I started chipping in a lot more when I turned thirteen. The two of us teased Men a lot, pretending to be like his mother and father. He didn't appreciate that.

The three of us made up an odd family unit, but, for the first time in years, I found some small shred of happiness. However, I still missed my family, both immediate and extended. My companions shared my feelings.

Up until now, we haven't had a real objective other than just staying alive, but now that we're a little older, we've all agreed that we'd like to put an end to Hao's Shaman Kingdom. Because he was the Shaman King, the Patch insisted that what had happened was irrevocable. Anna wasn't so sure about that, and neither were Men and I. We'd also like to find our parents. I'm sure they'd help us, and really...it would be great to see them again.

I suppose that I should be thankful that I'm still alive and that I have Men, Anna, and our spirits to act as a makeshift family. I know that I would have given up long ago had it not been for them.

My father once told me that everything happens for a reason. While I have to wonder what the reason could possibly be for all this, I'd like to say that I believe him.

After all, my father has never lied to me before. Even if he is a family-ditching bastard, I still love him and I forgive him because I know that there's no way in hell he planned for this.

I sighed as I stared out at the red sky. Who would wish this for the world? Even for Hao it seems a little extreme. Was this really the beautiful world he had planned for?

I shook my head disdainfully.

Behind me, I heard the curtain ruffle. I knew who it was without even looking.

"Hana," Anna beckoned in a quiet voice, so not to bother me, I imagined. I didn't like to be disturbed when I was thinking deeply like this, but she and I both knew that standing out in the open was dangerous. She could be annoying, but she meant well.

"I know, sorry." I sighed once more then turned around and walked into the little house, allowing the curtain to fall over the entrance behind me.

Besarki: Ahhhh! Chapter 1 is over. Like honestly, I had no plans to write this, then I sat down and BAM! Written. That said, the only plot I have for this story is what I thought of while I was writing this. Surprisingly, I really thought of quite a bit, though.

Bah. I don't have much to say since this wasn't a planned project. I'll be more talkative later. :D

Introduction has concluded. Actual interactions and what's going on in the present will appear and be revealed in chapter 2. Chapters will also be longer than this by a lot, by the way (I rarely post a chapter which is under 2000 words in the body of the chapter, not the body and author's notes). I don't normally write impulsively like this, either, and really, I just felt like getting it out. I wrote the first thing that came to mind without thinking it out so it's pretty short. Still, it was only an introduction and I'm sure you'd rather not be bored with some epically long intro, right? Right? Right...? Hehehe. That's all for now, Munchies!

The updating speed for this depends on how many reviews and PMs are left/sent. So, you can figure out what I'm gonna say now... :)

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