Disclaimer: Don't own, but if I did Hao would be the shaman king and Yoh would be his love slave.
Warnings: eventual yaoi between Hao and Yoh so that means twincest not to mention language and some really minor violence.
Chapter 1: Be Careful What You Wish For
Yoh Asakura looked down from his view point at the town below him. The brown eyed teen smiled as he gazed at it and the beautiful scenery surrounding it.
The town was bigger than it looked from what the map said, nestled as it was in a remote valley surrounded on all sides by a vast forest. To his left he could see a winding river just barely touching the side of the community. To his right, a small highway led out of the town, the only road connecting it to the outside world. All was peaceful in the valley; few people were outside at this hour of the morning. All in all, it looked alike a nice place to be.
'The perfect place to hide for awhile,' he thought to himself.
"It'll be nice to not have to run, at least for a time, right Amidamaru?"
The samurai spirit floating next to Yoh smiled at his master, and then frowned as a pained look crossed Yoh's face.
"Your wound?" he questioned worried. Yoh tried to smile but it came as more of a grimace. The pain passed and Yoh tried to reassure his companion.
"Its fine, it just stings sometimes," he said. The ghost looked doubtful and was going to say something but Yoh cut him off.
"Are we going or what?" The fourteen year old started down the nearly vertical path before them, an unhappy spirit trailing behind him.
Yoh ended up falling a few times, getting more dirt on his worn jeans and worrying his guardian. He kept laughing it off but Amidamaru wasn't fooled; Yoh needed help. But what could he do?
They made it to the bottom of the steep incline finally. There was about three yards of forest ahead of them that stopped abruptly and became someone's backyard.
"Let's camp by the river," said Yoh. Instead of going into town they stayed in the woods hidden and turned to where the river was. They came upon it in a few minutes and followed it downstream a ways. Amidamaru found a spot right by the river's edge and Yoh made camp. It didn't take long, all he had to do was dig a fire pit and make a stack of wood, set his backpack down and that was it.
"Want to go explore?" asked Yoh. Amidamaru smiled at his young master.
"Sure."
"Alright, let's go!" Before they went Yoh made sure to take his backpack. It held all his possessions which wasn't really a challenge. All Yoh had was a beat up wallet that contained the money he'd make at odd jobs, a pocket knife, a worn pair of sneakers, one change of clothes, and an old photograph. The only other thing Yoh owned was a locket that he never took off. (plus his katana which was always at his side)
The town was bigger than it looked. People were on their way to work. Yoh and Amidamaru wandered past the different stores of the downtown and passed the school. Yoh stopped after about fifteen minutes and had breakfast, courtesy of an apple tree growing in front of a small café, then continued on his way.
As they were walking down a random street trying to find the park he heard a voice shout from behind him. Curious he turned only to be tackled by someone. He landed on his back and cried out.
"Lord Yoh!" Amidamaru exclaimed but Yoh was a little occupied at the moment.
"Oh I didn't take you down that hard you big baby," said the girl currently sitting on top of him. She looked about Yoh's age with blond hair and dark eyes.
"Who are you?" Yoh asked in a strained voice, "And could you please get off of me?" The girl complied and even helped him up.
"Did you hit your head, Hao?" Yoh blinked at her.
"I think you've got me confused with someone else, miss," Yoh said. The girl looked at him for a moment then asked, "When did you get your hair cut?"
"I'm not-" Yoh started but the girl interrupted him.
"I'd better get you home, mom's been worried." She grabbed his arm ignoring his grunt of pain and started to drag him down the street.
"Alright miss, I have no idea who you are so…" Yoh broke free of her grasp and began running in the opposite direction.
"Hao! Where are you going?!" the girl yelled after him. He was halfway down the block when she tried to chase him. Yoh was too fast for her though and lost her in a matter of minutes.
"Who was that?" asked Amidamaru once the girl was out of sight.
"No idea," Yoh answered. He looked around him, they had ended up a few blocks from a church and just beyond that, a cemetery. Yoh could hear voices shouting from the graveyard. By the auras there were two shamans in there, both of them angry. He walked towards them curious, the closer he got the clearer the words became.
"-were so checking her out!"
"I was doing no such thing!"
Yoh stood just outside the gate of the cemetery. Two boys were yelling at each other, one had strange blue hair, the other short black hair with a spike sticking up from the center of it.
"Admit it, you think she's hotter than me!" screamed the blue haired one.
Yoh thought he was acting like a teenage girl.
"She's your sister!" the dark haired boy replied throwing his hands up.
'Wow, didn't see that one coming!' Yoh thought. He and Amidamaru exchanged surprised looks. Listening to these two was thoroughly entertaining.
"Are you saying she's not hot?!" the blue haired boy demanded.
"I'm not, ugh! I don't even know why I talk to you when you're like this. Look Horo, your sister is very attractive, but there's a slight problem. She's a girl! The only one I love it you!"
"Really?" the boy now identified as Horo asked. The other boy nodded.
"Oh Ren!" Horo yelled as he hugged the other boy, "I love you!"
Ren smirked, "I know."
Amidamaru's eyes widened as the two started passionately making out. Yoh just smiled at the cute moment and Amidamaru's discomfort.
"Uh, Master Yoh?" Amidamaru said.
"Hm?"
"Can we go now?"
"Okay, let's leave these two love birds to themselves." They turned away from the scene and walked in silence down the street. They passed a dentists office and a park.
"What now master Yoh?"
"I dunno,' Yoh shrugged. Secretly he felt tired and his back hurt like hell every time he moved but he didn't want to tell Amidamaru this as it would make the ghost even more worried about him.
'Small chance of that,' he thought wryly. Amidamaru had been worse than a mother hen for the past couple of days ever since he'd…Well, Amidamaru had always been on his case about his health; physical and mental. Yoh knew Amidamaru blamed himself for the life they had, even though it wasn't his fault at all. In his darkest moods Yoh was tempted to blame his spirit protector too, but he didn't. Amidamaru was the only one he had. He was his best friend, father figure, and big brother all rolled into one.
"Would you like to go back to the cemetery? I'm sure those boys have left by now," Yoh said.
"What about you?" Amidamaru asked. Yoh stretched flinching as his back protested to the movement. Amidamaru didn't notice.
"I'll be fine on my own for a little bit. You go ahead and hang out. Maybe there'll be some ghosts from your era there," Yoh encouraged smiling at the samurai. Amidamaru smiled softly back.
"You'll call for me if you run into trouble?"
"Yeah, yeah," Yoh waved him off, "I'll be okay." Amidamaru nodded and disappeared transporting himself back to the cemetery. Yoh immediately sat on the soft grass by the curb hissing. He wasn't sure how much longer he could have gone without giving away how much damage that girl had done to his back when she'd tackled him. That would be the first order of business then, washing off the fresh blood he could feel running down his back.
He stood slowly and turned to go to the river they'd camped by earlier, letting his thoughts drift. Inevitably his mind wandered back to that morning in the woods, the woman who'd attacked him. All the unanswered questions ran through his head. Why was this X-law group after him? He knew they were the ones who had murdered his parents; they were chasing him now too. He'd been lucky to find Amidamaru only a few days after his parents' death. He wouldn't have survived, literally, without the samurai to protect him.
But even after all this time he didn't know why they were after him. All he'd had time to think about was staying one step ahead of them. Up till now he'd done so with no casualties. But killing that woman had changed it. Now he was second guessing himself.
Killing anyone for any reason was wrong. Yet, after he'd killed her, after Amidamaru had gotten him back to their camp site, after the shock had worn off he'd realized something. She would never come after him again. She, at least, would never have another chance to hurt him. That was one less member of the X-laws to worry about. Plus, they had no qualms about killing him…
But killing was wrong; it went against everything he believed in. Every life was precious and as soon as that woman's soul left her body that was something the world had lost. What if she had a family? What if he'd orphaned a child just as he'd been? He could hardly stand putting someone through that.
It had been self defense though…
Hao wondered what his life would be like if it were less boring.
"Come on spirit of fire, lets try it again," he told the elemental that was his spirit ally. The fire spirit was about the size and shape of a human toddler. They were in the woods for some training, there was really nothing Hao would rather do. Off to their left was the river, he liked having water nearby just in case.
The little spirit chirped sort of dejectedly. Hao had long ago learned the language the junior pyro and took this to mean 'but I don't wanna.' He ignored his spirit's lack of enthusiasm.
"Come on," Hao said. Spirit of fire chirped once more then got to work.
Hao used his furioku to animate leaves which he sent after spirit of fire. The spirit struck back with a ferocity that belied his size. Smiling in satisfaction Hao doubled his efforts. The spirit slashed his way through the leaves, staying just ahead of the little creatures. Hao only half paid attention to the exercise, they'd done it a thousand times. What he really needed was someone stronger than he was to fight. Kicking Ren and Horo's butts just didn't do the trick.
Spirit of fire finished off the last of the leaf spirits and jumped into Hao's arms unexpectedly, nuzzling his cheek like a happy cat. Hao patted him on the head smiling.
"Good job," he praised the spirit. The spirit chirped happily. Suddenly he growled looking at something over Hao's shoulder. Hao turned around to see what was upsetting his friend. He couldn't sense anything but spirit of fire obviously could. He kept up his growling as Hao scanned the trees for the perceived threat. A twig snapped; Hao and the spirit of fire turned their heads to the branches of a tree to their right. Perched on a large branch was a man in a white uniform. His eyes were so wide as he stared at Hao the fire shaman thought they might fall out. Hao was about to ask the guy what the hell he was doing in the tree but the man went first. He pulled out a gun with shaking hands, the end was glowing with furioku. Hao took a half step back, then realized what he'd done. He took a step forward then another, a friendly smile (he hoped) on his face. The gun was pointed right at his chest.
"D-don't come any c-closer!" the man warned keeping the weapon on him.
"Alright," Hao complied. He knew he should have tried to get away from the man but he'd frozen. And it seemed like the man was afraid of something; spirit of fire maybe? He decided to try talking to him.
"There's really no need for that," he said nodding at the gun. The man gulped. Then a resolute look came to his face.
"I have no choice, even if I die…" Hao had no time to try to figure out what the hell the guy was talking about, he'd put both hands on the gun and fired. Hao ducked to the ground and rolled. The spirit of fire stayed with him, clinging to his shoulder. Hao barely had time to come back up before the man fired again. The shot went wild hitting the water behind them. Using every bit of speed his training had taught him Hao ran at the man managing to knock the gun out of his hand before he could react. The man jumped to the ground trying to retrieve the weapon but Hao followed. He kicked the gun away forcing the man to fight him hand to hand. Hao was pretty sure he could beat him in this area, he'd been taught self-defense by Ren.
The man blocked his first blow, returning one that made Hao's ears ring. All the time he was trying to keep his eyes on Hao and looking around wildly. Because of this Hao easily swept his legs out from under him. the man, instead of falling threw his weight backwards, doing a backflip and putting space between he and Hao. The man put his hands up in surrender. Warily, Hao lowered his own arms.
"I know I can't defeat you Asakura," the man said, "but there are others much stronger than I in our group. We have the power of Jean-sama behind us, and we will put an end to your evil!"
"What?" Hao asked not having a clue what the man was raving about. The man didn't answer but pulled another gun from his jacket and fired, hitting Hao straight in the chest with the blast. Hao fell to the ground, unconscious before he even hit.
An hour later Hao awoke suddenly. Why wasn't he dead? Where was the man? The last question made him leap to his feet ready to defend himself or dodge. Getting up so fast made his head throb painfully and he fell to his knees feeling nauseous. The spirit of fire appeared before him. Hao smiled weakly at the flame spirit who was managing to look worried.
"I'm fine," he answered the questioning chirp. The spirit chirped again as Hao stood shakily.
"What did he hit me with?" he wondered out loud looking down at himself. There seemed to be nothing wrong with his chest. So why did he feel like he'd just been hit by an eighteen wheel truck?
I did say I wanted someone stronger to fight he thought thinking back. The man had obviously been thinking more about escape than actually fighting and still managed to get some good hits in. Why had he just given up? Where was he now?
Hao looked around once again attempting to sense for any shaman in the area. Of course his sensing range wasn't really that big, but there was no one for at least fifty yards.
Slowly, he was still a little dizzy, Hao started back towards town. The spirit of fire jumped back on his shoulder.
Next time, Hao vowed as they made their way back to the house, he would not be beaten so easily.
Yay, chapter one! I might have to go back and look over what I've go written so far, I think there might be a few things I need to cover. But other than that, the next update should be soon. Thanks in advance for reviews!
