I hope the innuendo is visible in this. Not very good at this sort of thing, but then again, the relationship between Anna, Yoh, and Hao can be impossibly frustrating to write sometimes. For me anyways.
Also, please bear in mind that I have no idea how the series is suppose to end.
And Shaman King doesn't belong to me.
In the Aftermath, she would often find reasons to escape the stately gardens that decorated the facade of the Asakura household, when the uniform there was too much to take along with everything else. Her thoughts of what were to happen resounded there, a soft persistent hum of noise that emptied the mind of all thoughts except of its one single...relentless pitch. It was apt to draw madness from her.
And so she would insist on taking a walk in the trails of the mountainsides, early, each evening. No matter the weather. And she always, always wore her customary dress and headband, ignoring the newly established formality of day. The spirits would often catch sight of a passing red flash as she walked out of the courtyards. Always walked. Never ran. She never ran.
Except-
...Well, there were exceptions for everything.
The ever impending doom threaded its course through various towns, villages, cities...She couldn't ignore it, wouldn't. It did nothing to pretend, to cling to any false hope. She was ruthlessly adamant to staying realistic, if nothing else, in these years after.
She was never disillusioned, simply because she allowed no veils to hide the truth from her eyes, from her mind.
So she knew. And in a way, she knew that it would be today. Tonight. This evening.
In a way it didn't matter. Because Yoh was no longer here.
And in a way, a horribly distinct way, though she tried to ignore it, to push it away, it snaked its way back into her mind, stubborn like no other thought of hers ever was....in a way it did matter. Because Yoh wasn't here. Wasn't, won't be...
The walk outside was a sanctuary, in its own irony that she should find such a haven outside, unprotected. But she did not wish to be caged bird, ready to be taken away by its new owner.
Let that would be owner try to catch her instead.
Humanity would fall, sooner or later. And she was no philanthropist.
She remembered walking through busy marketplaces, streets stuffed to bursting with pedestrians and annoying salesmen. And she remembered never having to push her way through. She liked to pretend it was because of Yoh. But it wasn't.
She had allowed herself to pretend, to forget. But one did not simply step aside for Hao to walk by. Likely as not, they would follow him as well. And the steps taken in his shadow meant eternity.
That was the only time she had ignored the reality of things, the only time she had let her want of something cover the need. It had been her only mistake.
Today, she'd started on her daily evening time walk a little earlier than usual, so was able to reach the small drop in the mountainside early enough to view the sunset from a hill instead of feeling the last wave of sunlight flash overhead, herself still submersed in shadow.
It was autumn and the trees were alight with hues of orange, red, yellow-golden in color. A swirl of fallen leaves surrounded her propelled by a ghostly wind.
She took a step forward...
And the sun, as in the tide of farewell threw Heavenward its final tsunami of colors, in one last wave in all of its intensifying glory, the intermixing spectrum reached a blinding crescendo, and the almost tangible force of its beauty was a pressure against her, pushing her back, and she strained to keep her eyes open, to stand-
But there was something unexpected. A tiny spark of surprise distracted her, momentarily. Somehow.
As the last bits of fire and the soft, insane laugh of the self-proclaimed Shaman King enveloped her, Anna heard the equally soft but impossibly clear echo of sandal-encased feet walking up the trail, just behind her--carefree, light footfalls...
Perhaps there had been a veil after all.