Chapter 1
Peace… For Now
Clear blue skies, and a warm gentle breeze; conditions Yoh Asakura found to be perfect for doing what he does best; chilling out. He had already set up a lounge chair in their yard and already brought out the lemons and sugar.
After making a nice cold batch of lemonade, he proceeded outside and sat down on the comfortable chair. 'I deserve a rest after a long day of work.' He thought to himself and then he took a sip of the luscious cold liquid.
"Perfect day huh?" Said Yoh.
"Quite relaxing." Came the reply from Yoh's spirit ally, a tall samurai who had long purple hair.
He floated next to Yoh who then said, "Its great having the time to relax after all those chores. Not to mention the weather, its totally perfect."
"I quite agree. I have rarely experienced a finer day than this." Said Amidamaru. "Though something seems quite odd."
"What do you mean?" Asked Yoh.
"Seems like a problem we'll have, though what it is, I'm most uncertain of."
"Oh, okay, well you should lighten up." Said Yoh as he slid back down to his chair.
"I wonder how Manta's doing?" He said. "Shopping with Anna must be torture."
Just then, he heard a voice behind him say, "You wouldn't know the half of it."
Yoh suddenly stood upright and slowly turned to see Anna Kyouyama standing there, hands on her hips, while Manta Oyamada was struggling to keep the groceries and shopping bags from falling, and it was very difficult for him, seeing as how he had a height problem.
"A-anna, I didn't expect you to be home so early." Said Yoh nervously.
"I leave you for a few hours and here I come home to see you lazing around like you've got nothing to do!" She said in a very angry tone. At that moment, Yoh started to feel scared.
"But I'm done with the…" He feebly muttered, but he didn't continue on, realizing he wouldn't be able to anyway.
"Really now? Well, have you cooked dinner yet?" She said in a stronger voice with one of her eyebrows raised.
Yoh hastily replied, "But I thought we were ordering pizza?"
Anna turned around and said, "That's before you started being lazy. Well you're not just cooking dinner, you're cleaning the whole house again, and not only that, you're sweeping the front yard too."
Then she addressed Amidamaru and told him, "You better not be encouraging him to be lazy!"
"Y-yes Anna." He said and after a few seconds, he disappeared.
"Now, go help shorty over here with the groceries." Said Anna as she motioned toward Anna, who was still trying to balance the bags, and then she finally went inside.
Yoh walked over to Manta and grabbed half of the shopping bags. Then he asked, "So, uh, how was shopping with Anna?"
Manta shot Yoh an icy glare, "It was a nightmare! I thought I would die because of all the groceries and stuff she bought!" The short boy growled and then continued, "In short it was horrible!"
"I'm sure it wasn't THAT bad," Said Yoh, "It could have been worse right?"
"Wrong!" Exclaimed Manta, "You won't believe what she made me do…"
"What?"
"Don't laugh okay?" Said Manta.
"Fine, now what is it.?"
Manta hesitated and then finally yelled it out, "She made me try out girl's clothes! Everyone in the shop was staring! You don't know how embarrassing that is!"
"Whoa, dude, that sucks." Sympathized Yoh.
When they finally got the groceries in, they went upstairs to Yoh's room before they started the grueling task of cleaning. Once inside, two ghosts appeared, Amidamaru and a black- haired blacksmith.
"Oh, hey Mosuke." Said both the boys.
"How was your day Manta?" Asked Mosuke.
"Don't ask," Answered Manta, "If you must know, it was horrible."
"Oh," Said Mosuke, "Sorry to hear."
Yoh walked over to his drawer and took out a shirt and said, "Well we better get started on cleaning, cause its gonna take all day."
"Right." Squeaked Manta.
Yoh changed his shirt and walked towards the door. Manta grabbed Yoh's shirt and pointed towards the ghosts, "Um, Yoh, what about them?"
"Right, well okay, you guys stay here for a while." Said Yoh.
"Alright then," Said the spirits.
Yoh and Manta went out of the room and grabbed the cleaning materials in the hall. "I think we should start in the kitchen." Suggested Yoh.
"Alright, whatever you say." Said Manta.
So they went down to the kitchen and started cleaning the house from there, making sure they leave everything spotless for Anna.
After a few painstaking hours, they were done. Yoh and Manta agreed that they should start with the yard first before cooking dinner, and so they took out some of the brooms and went to the yard.
As they were sweeping, Yoh sighed, wiped some of his sweat and said, "I wish Horohoro, Ren and Ryu were here. At least the cleaning wouldn't be as miserable."
"Yeah," Agreed Manta, "I'm sure they're having a lot of fun right about now."
"Well with Horohoro competing in snowboarding competitions, Ryu riding his bike all over the country, and Ren back in China, I'm just as sure as you are." Said Yoh.
"I wish they could have taken us with them or something." Said Manta, "What I wouldn't give for a nice fun day."
"Yeah," Said Yoh. "And the Shaman tournament wasn't as bad either."
And then he started remembering hat happened two years ago, from his fight with Silva, the graveyard duel against Faust, his battleagainst Tao Ren, the Tao Mansion, their trip to America to search for Patvh Village, the Shaman fights, all the way up to the eventual defeat of his brother, Hao Asakura.
"Haha, I'm hoping the star of destiny flies by right now." Said Manta.
"I hope so to." Said Yoh as he stared at the sky, even seeing a star pass by, but realized it was only his imagination.
"Have you heard from Lyserg yet?" Asked Manta.
"No, he hasn't been contacting me recently, "Said Yoh, "Maybe he's back in London."
"Maybe." Said Manta.
Behind them another voice came. It shouted, "Do I hear you talking? Huh?" It was Anna, and no way did she look happy.
"No." Said Yoh.
'We weren't talking." Said Manta.
"Yeah." Said Yoh, and both of them nodded.
"I better not hear you two talking." Warned Anna, "And hurry up, dinner's in an hour and you still have to cook it."
"Yes Anna." Chorused both Yoh and Manta.
As Anna went back in, Yoh and Manta quietly and very hurriedly swept all the dust and dirt they could see and started brushing them outside the gate.
When they finally finished, Manta started back in while Yoh looked up at the sky again.
"Yoh, aren't you coming?" Said Manta.
"Yeah, alright, you go ahead, I'll catch up." Said Yoh.
"Oh, okay, but hurry up, Anna's gonna kill us if we don't get dinner done already." Said Manta as he walked towards the house.
After a few moments, he realized he wouldn't see anything and started to walk back in.
But before he got in the gate, he heard someone say, "Please, you've got to help me..." And then he heard a thud.
