A/N: Chapter 1 ! Yeah...I've got nothing more to say, except this
I still do not own the Shaman King characters, I own my own characters...like before, nothing has changed
Chapter one
"So...this is the gathering place?" I said with big eyes when we arrived at Yokocha American Air Base, there where lots of people who was all probably all shamans. It was incredible.
I had never seen so many shamans in one place and they all seemed so different, traveling in either groups or alone like myself. To my surprise there was also booths and food stalls lined up, reminding me of a marked. Ceres hadn't come out, I knew that she hated noisy places filled with people like this. She maybe didn't hate humans and shamans but I was one of the only once she trusted, it was after all a type of shaman who had once sealed her.
For me it was different, the lively and almost carnival atmosphere made me feel excited.
It was like I only first now understood that this was the start of the Shaman Tournament and I was actually part of it, I had done it.
I gave the bag on my back a tug and then ventured into the air base slash marked, looking around I only became more amazed. Someone had taken a real life elephant with them! Why, I wasn't sure but another had a big robot looking thing along with them.
The smells from the different snacks and food that was being sold, got mixed up in the air as it drifted into my nostrils. Making me just a bit hungry, I looked around for something I maybe would like but saw something even better. The familiar face of my favorite native American guy.
Changing my course I walked towards him and waved big as I shouted "Silva!" at first he couldn't find the source of what was yelling at him but then he saw me, his feathers was gone and so was his headband with the triangles. He smiled and waved back, although much more discrete then me.
"Long time no see Aya" he said when I reached the booth where I saw another native American man working, selling what looked like fried bananas with chocolate on sticks.
Silva had been the one testing me the first time too see if I was worthy and strong enough to enter the tournament, giving me the red Oracle Bell that was strapped on my arm after I had been able to break through his turtle shell shield and scratching his arm. He had also been the officiant who had witnessed my three fights, therefor he also knew what happened in the second round and had been the one stopping it.
"Sure is, what are you two doing? Selling dango?" I asked when I noticed the contents in the booth, the sign above it also gave a hint. Silva laughed sheepish but the other guy answered me straight
"Of course, we're earning money from the Shaman Fight" like it was the most normal thing to do, but then again. To other big events such as OL and such it was the exact same thing, you would just think it was different when it was an ancient and legendary fight between Shamans.
Guess it isn't I just thought to myself, then Silva laughed in the same sheepish tone before saying
"Ha ha ha, our Patch tribe isn't always doing well, so you should really buy some stuff, thank you!"
That made me chuckle, he sounded just like a commercial and it sounded so weird. I tried imagining him saying the same thing, fully dressed in his normal Indian clothing and all his animal spirits with him. It was pretty funny picture I got.
"Alright, alright let me see..." trailing off as I looked of what sort of dango I was in the mood for, but before I had a chance to figure it out a grumpy voice suddenly said "Move girl your in the way"
I looked up and saw a boy, probably my age with dark purple hair that was in a single spike that reminded me of tongari's and the rest hung over his eyes. His eyes where golden yellow colored and was right now looking pretty cold at me, he was wearing a long black-gray coat and a long yellow scarf tied around his neck.
I could feel Ceres getting angry, she didn't like people talking to me in the tone that this one just did. I didn't want to make a scene, so I stepped out of the way so he could get by and buy whatever he wanted. He looked up on Silva and I saw the recognition in his yellow eyes, he knew Silva.
"So you work here as well Silva" he said in a gruff voice, I began to wonder if that guy ever smiled or at least spoke pleasantly.
"Yes, our budget are low because of the tournament so we're earning money" Silva answered, not the least effected by the guy's more or less harsh tone.
"By overcharging people?" He said while looking at the different kind of dango they were selling, Silva smiled sheepish and said hesitating "Something like that...So, what would it be?"
It took a half minute for spiky boy to decide "A box of Goma dango"
So he is too salty and sweet stuff I thought, Goma was a type of dango that was both sweet and salty in taste, I looked and decided I wanted the green tea flavored type.
"Here you go Ren, what about you Aya? Have you decided" Silva said and turned to me, I nodded and said "Can I get some Chadango?" Silva nodded and gave me a napkin with three pins with three green dango's on each, usually I was more to the sweet stuff but right now Green tea was the stuff.
I took a bite of one and said smiling "This is pretty good" ….I looked over at the boy Ren, somehow we had said the exact same thing, the same time. What is the odds?
Trying to make things less awkward I said sheepish "Seems like we agree"
Ren gave me a side glance as he said "So it does", I knew that I maybe wasn't so experienced with people but this person was definitely not a people person.
"Hey Ren!" Both Ren and me turned to see who was calling, he probably knew who it was and I just did it out of curiosity. The voice belonged to a boy with dark brown hair and big orange headphones behind his ears, he had a goofy grin and had a long coat like Ren's just in green on and a backpack with a longer item wrapped in clothing sticking out. Beside him was two odd looking fellows, one much older then the rest. He had black hair that was in maybe the strangest hairstyle I had ever seen, it was split in two and pointed backwards. He had sideburns that was also pointy and so was his beard on the chin, his clothes sorta reminded me of Elvis.
He had a white suit on that revealed part of his chest, it had really big light purple collar and in his hand he carried a wooden sword. The other one had also weird hair, it was ice blue and kinda spiked but under the dark blue headband his hair was black? He was wearing a white jacket with blue patterns, dark blue shorts that reached his knees, on his back he carried something that had the form of peanut.
The guy with the headphones grinned goofy and said with his hands folded behind his head
"Hey, who's your new friend?" As clever as I were the first thing I did was look around, to see if there was someone close by that could be mistaken for the guy Ren's friend. Of course I found no one and had to conclude that he meant me, Ren had a different reaction.
"She is most certainly not my friend!" He snapped, as if what the brown haired guy had said was some kind of insult. The guy just grinned and spoke again with the same easy tone
"Ah come on Ren, don't be so rude" Then he opened his eyes and looked at me and said
"Hey, my name is Yoh and this is Amidamaru" a samurai with silver hair appeared beside Yoh, he looked pretty cool.
"I'm Horohoro!" The blue haired one said "and this is Kokoro, she's a Minutians spirit"
A small spirit came from behind his shoulder, it was so cute with black hair and big adoring eyes.
I had heard about from my mom, they where some sort of nature spirit.
"I've never met a Minutians before, she is really cute" I couldn't help saying the last thing, Kokoro was simply so cute. It made the little spirit blush and say some chirp sounds, adding to her cuteness.
"And I'm-!" the guy that had to be somewhere in his twenty's began "am Ryu of the Wooden sword and this is Tokageroh!" A weird, green skinned man emerged beside Ryu, he was really skinny and strangely enough had a chin beard that looked a lot like Ryu's. Also, he had a purple headband with a metal plate where a lizard was in craved...Now that I thought about it, didn't Tokageroh mean Lizard? "Nice to meet ya" I smiled and suddenly there was hearts in Ryu's eyes and in a heart beat he was over by me on one knee with a flower in his hand "Please be my Best Place!" he almost shouted. I sweat dropped anime style, looking at the others for help but Yoh was just grinning, Horohoro rolled his eyes and Ren looked...mad for some reason. I was on my own.
"Uhm Ryu...you're kinda...to old for me..."
Ryu froze in stone, the flower withered in the process. I felt Ceres stirring, I knew that if Ryu had in anyway touched me while saying that she would had come out and beat him away.
"Is he okay?" I asked, looking as he was still in stone. Yoh just chuckled and said "Yeah, he gets like every time he gets rejected" it sounded like it was something that happened frequently, that actually calmed me. "Simply pathetic" I heard Ren mumbling, referring to Ryu I guessed.
"Hey Ren, you haven't introduced yourself yet, come on dude" Horohoro said, Ren glared at him
"And why would I do that?" he asked with the same grumpy tone that he had spoken with the whole time. Yoh backed Horohoro up "Ah come on Ren, she seems nice"
Nice? He thought I was nice? That some how made me feel a little but happier, I didn't get many compliments so that was one, for that is. Maybe the fact that Ryu wanted to me to...become his Best Place could also count as a compliment?
"You should really learn how to treat a lady, my short tempered friend" That was Ryu who had apparently recovered from my 'Rejection' and now with Yoh and Horohoro was pressed Ren until he finally cracked.
"Alright, alright! If it will get you to shut up!" he snapped, sighing, turned to me and said gruff.
"My name is Ren Tao and this is my guardian spirit Bason" a really buff, Chinese warrior appeared just above him, making him seem more grant.
"Well its nice to meet you all" I said truly happy for bumping into these people, they seemed really nice. "So, who are you?" It was Ren speaking again, reminding me that I hadn't introduced myself yet. I had completely forgotten, a bit flustered I said "Sorry, my name is Aya and this-"
Ceres appeared on cue "is Ceres, my guardian spirit"
The surprise could clearly be seen on their faces, except Ren, he hid it better then the other.
I knew without looking that Ceres had already started to examined them, because that is was humans who had sealed her she did not trust them so fast.
"Oh! She is so beautiful!" Ryu exclaimed, earning a pair of rolling eyes from both Horohoro and Ren this time. He was about to do the same action he had done with me just a few minutes before, but Ceres of course stopped him by saying "Don't even think about it human" with a icy voice.
This time Ryu didn't turn into stone, he froze into a ice cube instead.
I sweat dropped anime style again, looking up at Ceres who had just had her arms crossed.
"Uhm Ceres? Could you maybe...defrost him? Or he'll get a cold" I said, almost scared by the effect her rejection had on Ryu.
Ceres just huffed, kinda like Ren but much more lady-like and blew a wind that melted the ice around Ryu before she went back into the memorial that was in my bag.
"Huh? What happened?" Asked a dripping wet Ryu.
The others just ignored him as Yoh asked "So hey Aya" catching my attention "Did you come alone?" I nodded, assuming that Ceres was counted in the 'alone' part.
"Well, why don't you come and sit with us?" he said, surprising not only me but also Ren.
"Really? I can?" I couldn't remember the last time anyone had invited me to anything, my family wasn't exactly that friendly and in school the kids kinda avoided me.
"Are you serious Yoh!" Ren snapped, Yoh looked at him with a innocent, questioning look.
"What do you mean Ren?" He asked, Ren sighed irritated before answering "She is another competitor Yoh"
I could kind of follow him, he was worried that I would either find their weaknesses and use them if I had to fight them or worse. That I would sabotage them, making them unable to compete in the tournament. Because of that I didn't yell up or anything, even if I said that I would never do anything to hurt them it wouldn't matter. I was a stranger and therefor my word didn't mean that much, so I stayed quite and let the guys decide among themselves.
"Don't be such a party pooper Ren" Horohoro said with a wide grin, Ryu joined him.
"Yeah shorty-pants, you will never make any more friends with that attitude"
Ren just snorted and said "I know its hard for you baboons to understand but of you haven't noticed that this is the Shaman fight, she is an enemy"
"HEY!" Both Ryu and Horohoro shouted, offended by Ren's baboons comment.
I felt myself shrinking, I also felt Ceres wanting to beat Ren up but I tried my hardest with my feelings to tell her that it was alright and they had to sort this out themselves.
"Come one Ren, you've gotta have some more faith in people, beside I think we can trust her"
When Yoh said that, I saw something in Ren's eyes swift. I wasn't sure what but afterwards he just sighed and said in his, for me, usually grumpy voice "Fine, she can come with us"
What? He gave in? I didn't get it, he seemed so stern in not letting me join them. Maybe he respected Yoh a lot? But I got the reason that the faith thing ran a little deeper.
"Yeah!" Horohoro exclaimed and raised his fist in the air, Ryu also cheered and so did Yoh he but he just grinned goofy.
I smiled wide and real, feeling truly grateful that he agreed I said "Thanks Ren", my smile still plastered on my face. He just snorted and mumbled something that sounded like
"I only did it to shut those idiots up" but it didn't matter for me, I was just happy that I maybe had the chance to make some friends.
"Then it settled, come on" Yoh said, Horohoro and Ryu followed hot in his heels, arguing about something that I didn't get the chance to hear. I was about to take a step to join them but then, but then his voice ranged through my head.
"No one will ever like you!"
"Who would ever be friends with someone as weak as you!"
"Why do you think everyone avoids you? Its because they know what are loser you are!"
"Are you coming or not?" Ren's harsh voice broke through and brought me out of the thoughts that had engulfed me, I looked up in surprise. He stood in front of me, hands in his pockets and looked like he was waiting for me. All memories of his thoughts were blocked, I nodded and hurried to catch the group of strange but also very nice people. Smiling the biggest and truest smile, I had shown in years.
A/N: Yeah! I had actually wrote the prologue and this chapter in his/and her point of view but I decided I liked the 'I' teller much better, plus I'm more used to it. So like before, please review or I will the the PLUSH TEDDY BEAR OF DOOM!^^ (Evil Chuckle)
