Disclaimer: 'Shaman King' © Hiroyuki Takei.
Chapter Two - Kyuu na Kyookoo (Sudden Panic)
Funbari Onsen. Jewel of the proprietress Itako, Kyouyama Anna-sama.
Kyouyama Anna-sama. A strong, beautiful shaman who lets nothing get in her way. Why, even her friends have the utmost respect for the shamanic beauty. Even her own friends refer to her as Anna-sama. Of course, they wish to live long enough to have children one day, so of course they have the utmost respect for her.
Which is why the weakest member of the onsen's staff awoke every morning before the alarm went off on his clock. A stretch of the arms, followed by a silent but long yawn, and then he sat up and looked around the room with a dopey gaze. Why did he have to be the one to do the morning cleaning every single day! He wondered if he had displeased Anna at some point, and then fell back on his pillow with another yawn before closing his eyes while drawing his knees up. Whatever he ate the night before, it wasn't agreeing with him now, and with the sharp cramps tormenting him, he could only think of himself. So he rolled over, curled up around his pillow, and fell back to sleep. After all, Ryu would be up too. He could handle the pointless chores Anna gave him every morning.
-
Anna entered the kitchen and looked around with a quirked eyebrow. Breakfast was made, as always, but something seemed off. She looked to the table, and then frowned when she saw Ryu leaning in one of the chairs, his head hanging back to stare with a glazed expression at the ceiling. "Ryu, what are you doing?" She watched emotionlessly as the young man jerked back into a state of consciousness, only to have the chair slide out from under him and send him crashing to the floor.
"Itaii..." Ryu grumbled pathetically while holding the back of his head, and then looked up to his employer nervously. "Sorry, Miss Anna. I was tired and..."
"Why were you tired?" she demanded with a quirked eyebrow. "You have the same schedule every day. Unless you've been making late night visits to Tamao again, there's no reason you should tired."
Ryu turned bright red at Anna's accusation. "We stopped that when Big Brother caught us!" he cried. "Manta didn't get up this morning. I thought he was ill, so I did his chores for him."
"Those chores are not for you, Ryu," she replied irritably. "You get him up in the morning if he doesn't on his own, and you cook."
"But Miss Anna," the brunette continued nervously. "He has had a lot of homework this past week. I thought..."
"You're paid to do your work. Not his," Anna snapped.
In the doorway, Amidamaru, Bason and Kororo were hovering with worried expressions. "Yoh-dono, Lady Anna seems very uptight this morning," the samurai whispered.
"Koro," Kororo replied with a quick nod.
Ren rolled his eyes while looking to the calender, and then smirked. "Hmph. Of course she is. Look what day it is."
Yoh and Horo looked to the calender confusedly, and then back to Ren. "What day is it?" the two older shamans asked in unison, causing the Tao to twitch in agitation.
"Look, you morons!" he almost shouted while pointing to one of the dates that was marked with the letters AP in bright red.
"AP?" Yoh asked dumbly. "What's AP? Apple Pie day?"
"Angler Party?" Horo guessed.
Ren stared at the two with utter disbelief. If he was the youngest of the three, why was he the only one who seemed to understand the significance of the date? "Anna's due, you idiots!" he snapped, and then pointed two boxes down. "As is Tamao in two days!"
Yoh stared with horrified eyes. "Anna's due? But... but how! We haven't even gone on a date!" He took a moment to think as his friends stared at him. "Oh my god! Tamao too!" This time his eyes went glassy and happy. "Tamao and Ryu are having a baby!" he cried in glee.
Ren and Horo's jaws dropped and didn't even notice the sound of a glass breaking in the kitchen after Yoh's cry.
"Yoh-dono," Amidamaru muttered in disbelief, then he and the other spirits disappeared before they ended up on the warpath that was drawing nearer.
"Ow!" Ryu cried as he was dragged out of the kitchen by the ear, and then looked to the others desperately.
"What is this about Tamao and Ryu having a baby?" she demanded angrily.
"Ren just told me and Horo!" Yoh cried nervously.
"I did not," Ren snapped, and then looked to Anna. "I was mentioning that you and Tamao were due soon, and that you girls would need to be treated well."
Horo's eye twitched. He remembered well the last time the girls were due. Anna nearly dislocated his face, and Tamao was simply insane. Had it really been a month since that terrible time? He shivered at the memories, and began mentally constructing an escape plan.
"Oh, so that's what he meant," Yoh laughed after Ryu finished explaining what Ren was pointing out, and then turned white. "But that means they're gonna send me to... to..."
"Aisle ten, Asakura," Ren sneered. "Won't it be fun?"
"Yoh, here's the list," Anna said while shoving a grocery list into the shiver shaman's hands. "And you had better get everything."
"Y-Yes, Anna," Yoh sobbed quietly, and then turned and walked off to find his sandals and wallet.
"You know, it wouldn't be that bad," Ryu said with a frown to Horo and Ren. "But that pharmacist seems to live in that aisle."
"The one that likes to lecture guys on the functions of a woman's body?" Horo asked with a frown.
"That's the one," Ryu and Ren replied together with a sigh.
"Ryu!"
"H-Hai, Miss Anna!" the eldest cried while standing at attention.
She quirked an eyebrow contemptuously, and then pointed a thumb towards the stairs. "Go get Manta up." She watched as he nodded quickly and rushed up the stairs, and then looked to Ren irritably. "Shouldn't you be doing something?"
"Nah," Ren replied with a grin. "I'm waiting for the fun to start."
"Fun?"
"You may scare the others, but you don't scare me," Ren scoffed.
Horo stared, and then covered his eyes. Sure. Maybe he and Ren weren't the best of friends. That didn't mean he wanted to see his partner decapitated by a girl's slap. He bit his lip, waiting for the sharp sound of hand against face, but it never came. And without any sound, he was suddenly curious to see what was happening.
Anna glared quietly at Ren, trying to read past his smirk. Looking for the tiniest sign of fear in the Tao. Of course, if it was there she would never find it, so finally her gaze softened. "And why is that?" she asked, barely giving a glance to Ryu when he came down the stairs.
"Because no matter how much of a terror you make yourself out to be, you're still just a woman losing blood," Ren replied with a smirk, and then headed towards the dining room. He knew all three of them were staring at him. Horo probably had the look of, 'He is my saviour!' while Ryu would be wondering if he had a death wish. And Anna would just be Anna, showing no emotion towards his belittlement. "Ryu, breakfast better be on the table."
"You could be a little ni..."
"You heard him," Anna interrupted, and then looked to Ryu with a dark gaze. That gaze was enough to make Horo's hope disappear in a burst of flames.
The brunette stared, his jaw hanging in disbelief. Now he had to take orders from Ren? And Tamao was going to turn into a carbon copy of Anna any day now. With a groan he decided that he would die this week., and then headed for the kitchen to fetch Ren his beloved milk.
"Yoh, why are you still here?" Anna demanded, knowing her fiancee was trying to sneak up the stairs without her noticing.
"I think I forgot my wallet upstairs," he laughed nervously. "I can't find it."
"Hey! I'll help you find it, Yoh!" Horo cried while grabbing his friend's hand, and then dragged him up the stairs in a blur.
"Hmph," was all Anna replied with before joining Ren in the dining room. She sat down and stared monotonously at the Tao for several minutes, waiting for Ryu to bring in their breakfasts. "You have a lot of nerve."
"It's your fiancee who always tells me to be honest," he said with a smug grin, and then looked up with a frown when they heard a shriek upstairs. "Sounds like Earl's tormenting Manta again."
"Sounds more like trouble," she replied with a frown, and then stood and walked out of the room.
-
Upstairs, Manta had just shut the bathroom door when he heard what could only have been Horo dashing by. He smiled while shaking his head, and then turned around and frowned. Somehow, everything seemed much smaller. Quickly blaming it on tired eyes, he walked over to the toilet and lifted the lid, but before he could do his business he realized that his boxers were unusually tight. "I couldn't have eaten that much," he thought confusedly, and then groaned when he felt sharp cramp.
Dammit! I can't wait!" he shrieked angrily in his head while doing an odd kind of dance before he finally got them down, and then sighed in relief, only to frown seconds later when he realized something was very wrong. He looked down, and then it dawned on him that the yukata he was wearing fit him too well, considering he had borrowed it from Tamao the night before. Its form was also one that only belonged on somebody like his mother. His eye twitching, he stumbled over to the mirror and looked at his reflection with panic filling him. He stared for several minutes, and then slowly opened the robe, only to inhale sharply with surprise at what he saw. Quickly he looked down to inspect himself, until finally the inevitable overloaded his brain. He thought he heard a shriek, but the sound was distant as he slumped to his knees, and then he stared at the floor with a light tremor.
"Th-this... Wh-what... I-I'm... It's..." He continued with the one-word phrases, his brain officially fried and preventing him from making sense, even to himself.
"Manta-dono, are you all right?" Amidamaru cried while appearing, followed by Bason and Tokagero.
Tokagero quirked an eyebrow as the blonde continued to ramble on, and then looked to Bason and Amidamaru. "He looks fine to me."
"Manta, are you harmed?" Bason asked while hovering next to him.
"Manta, what's wrong?" Yoh cried as the bathroom door was pulled open, and then he and Horo froze. "Uh..."
"Dude, who's the babe?" Horo hissed to Yoh confusedly.
"Yoh-dono, is he injured?" Amidamaru asked while looking to his master. "I can't get him to answer.
"Him?" Yoh asked dumbly. "Amidamaru, what are you talking about?"
Amidamaru quirked an eyebrow, noticing Yoh couldn't seem to move his gaze from Manta, and then looked to the other spirits.
"Geez. You'd think he was looking at a naked chick," Tokagero muttered to the samurai. "Hey! Yoh! You alive in there?"
"Uh..." Horo blinked, and then slapped one hand over his eyes while using his other hand to do the same to Yoh. "Yoh, don't stare!"
Manta looked up slowly, his brain seeming to be slowly reprogramming itself. "Yoh-kun... What... How..."
"Manta?" Yoh asked incredulously while pushing Horo's hand away from his face, and then groaned while covering his eyes again. "Manta... Is that you?"
"Of course it's me!" the blonde shrieked.
"Yoh-dono, is he hurt?" Amidamaru demanded irritably.
"He?" Horo demanded, and then looked at the samurai. "What are you, blind? Manta's a short little guy. This chick is too tall and too hot and too girl to be Manta!"
Amidamaru quirked an eyebrow, and then looked back. "Manta-dono looks the same to me. I would recognize his spirit anywhere."
"Same here," Tokagero and Bason agreed.
"Spirits can't see physical differences," Anna replied while walking up, and then pushed past the boys and looked down at Manta. "They only see the souls that inhabit bodies."
"But... Manta's a guy!" Yoh cried in confusion.
"And that is most definitely a chick," Horo added. "I mean, check out those bo..."
Anna smacked her fist back into Horo's face before he could finish, and then glared at the blonde. "Manta, cover yourself or they'll be on you like a pack of hyenas."
There was a moment of silence before Manta realized what she said, and then pulled the robe closed tightly while staring at the floor. "This is so wrong... I'm supposed to worry about being with girls. Not actually being one!"
Anna smirked. "Perhaps it is your punishment for sleeping in."
Quickly Manta looked up, and then growled while pointing angrily at her. "You did this to me, didn't you, you witch!"
"It's an interesting punishment, but I don't have that ability," the Itako replied cooly, and then looked back over her shoulder. "Ryu!"
"Hai, Miss Anna?" the elder shaman replied confusedly.
"Take Manta to my room. Make sure these boys don't get any sudden urges to experiment or have fun."
"Dude! That's Manta!" Horo yelled. "That's disgusting!"
"And that's why you two are drooling over her breasts?" Anna replied with a smirk. She knew the moment Horo caught himself it would be a long time before he stopped banging his head against a wall. And he did just that after a moment of silence.
Yoh stared as Horo banged his head against the door frame, and then smiled nervously while looking at Anna. "I found the wallet. I think I'll just be on my way."
"Good idea," she replied dangerously, and then ushered the boys out of the bathroom to let Ryu in.
Ren watched from the stairs as Ryu walked Manta to Anna's room, and then smirked faintly. "Hmph. Little Manta's a girl now, huh?"
Bason appeared next to him nervously. "Master, I hope you aren't planning on doing anything... Well, anything you might regret."
"Nope," the young Tao replied smugly. "Just thinking about having some fun."
"That fun had better not include an exchange of fluids," Anna warned while approaching the Tao.
"Dearest Anna," Ren said coyly, "would I ever do such a thing to a lady?"
The girl cocked an eyebrow suspiciously. "Perhaps not. You would do something, though."
"You shock me, Anna," the younger gasped. "Manta comes from good blood, whether or not he's human. Believe me. Now that he, or rather, she is presentable, I intend to treat her as well as I treat Tamao or Jun."
Anna continued to glare suspiciously at Ren until she heard the front door open, and then looked down the stairs and saw Tamao had returned with the seeds she had asked the girl go go out and buy earlier in the day. She gave Ren one more glance of warning, and then finally went downstairs. "Tamao, I need your help with something."
Ren watched as the two girls walked into the living room, and then rolled his eyes while looking back towards Anna's room, already devising his first plan of attack as his smirk returned.
—
What caused Manta's abrupt changes? What dastardly plans does Ren have up his sleeve? How will Horo escape the monthly wrath of Anna and Tamao? And will Yoh make it back safely from Aisle 10? Stay tuned to find out!