Welcome everyone to the first chapter of the Nantoka Naru! I will be responding to reviews, if any, at the end of the fic. I'm sorry if some characters are OOC(Out Of Character for those who don't know, not trying to make anyone look stupid), but I'm not that great at grasping characteristics.

Note that one year has now passed since the prologue.

I dedicate this chapter to Lost To Reality for being my first and only reviewer! (kudos to you!)

Summary: AU, Character Death. "Everything will work out" was his motto. But this important moral was thrown out the window as the most powerful shaman came back into his life. The elder Asakura, however, remember only three things: his family, his shamanic superiority over other shamans, and his loneliness.

Please do not disregard my spelling and grammar mistakes; I want to correct them since I've seen some with bad grammar mistakes and the sentence end up meaning another thing. I don't want to confuse my readers. If I got any important information wrong, please inform me of that as well; that includes the Japanese.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot line, though I wished I own Shaman King.

Blah blah narration

"Blah blah" dialogue/monologue

Blah blah thoughts

Nantoka Naru

Chapter One: Living the Carefree Life

Yoh sat under a tree in the cemetery, enjoying the floating clouds overhead. It's been a year since the incident in the Shaman Fight, and the feeling of regret still nagged at him for killing Hao, his older twin brother, even though it had to be done. But apart from that and Anna's insistence to continue his training, Yoh is pretty content with his resumed carefree life.

"Yoh-dono!" the dark-haired boy turned to see a transparent samurai coming his way, and flashed him one of his lazy smiles. "Hey Amidamaru, what's up?" He asked as the spirit approached.

"Anna-dono has ordered me to relate you this message as it was said: 'Yoh, get your butt to the convenient store right NOW. Buy a carton of milk and two cases of eggs and return before five or the training triples for the next month!'" Amidamaru finished.

Yoh frowned at the threatening message from his fiancée. "What time is it, Amidamaru?"

Amidamaru thought a while. "It was four-thirty when I left, Yoh-dono."

"Oh noes..." Yoh hurriedly got up and starts running in the direction of the store. "If I don't hurry, I'll experience the next ten levels of hell for a whole month!"

Amidamaru follow his master's wild run for his dear life and chuckled inwardly. Yoh-dono had been sad about Hao's death, and it's good that Anna-dono is keeping him busy and taking his mind off of things.


"Yoh-kun!" The familiar voice of Oyamada Manta sounded as Yoh was on his mad dash back to the Funbari Onsens after buying what he was told to.

Yoh flashed a grin at his best friend. "Hey Manta!" and kept dashing before rushing on. Amidamaru stayed behind to chat with Manta.

"What's up with him, Amidamaru?" Manta asked in confusion. "Is he doing Anna-san's training again?"

"Ah, it would seem so, but it is not so." Amidamaru answered. "Yoh-dono is, in fact, doing the shopping for Anna-dono that she had requested to be done before five, or else his training will be tripled for the next month if he does not complete the task before the allotted time." He explained to the short boy.

Manta sweatdropped. "I see… no wonder he's in a hurry." Then realization dawned on him. "But Amidamaru, it's already seven after five!"

The ghost looked at the small boy in a mock frown. "I guess Yoh-dono is going to experience the next ten levels of hell for a whole month then." He quoted his master.


Yoh returned to the inn to an angry fiancée. Anna is waiting by the counter, arms folded and right foot tapping, staring as Yoh entered. "You're late." She said two simple words that shouted 'DOOM' at Yoh.

"Ahahaha…." Yoh's bitter laugh drifted off as she saw Anna's face. "Sorry?" He tried.

"Sorry isn't going to cut it, Yoh. Your training will be four times the usual for the next month." She declared icily.

"Four!" Yoh exclaimed. "Amidamaru told me it was three!"

"I changed my mind." Replied the itako.

"But Anna…" Yoh whined.

"Five." She said simply. That immediately shut him up.

Anna pointed to the inn's kitchen. "Now go make dinner."

"Yes Anna…" Yoh trudged off grunting.

Anna raised an eyebrow. "You want to make it six?"

Yoh ran off to the kitchen hurriedly. "I mean, yes Anna-sama, the Oh so Beautiful Queen! It'd be my pleasure to serve you dinner." He especially emphasized 'beautiful' and 'queen'.

"That's better." Anna goes toward the living room to watch TV, ignoring the samurai spirit that just arrived in time to hear Anna say "Five."

"Poor Yoh-dono…" Amidamaru sighed.


The next day, in class, Manta entered and saw his friend collapsed on his on desk. It is normal for Yoh to sleep in class, but he's practically sprawled over the desk in exhaustion.

"Hey, Yoh-kun, so did you make it back in time?" Manta asked as he sat down in his desk next to his best friend.

Yoh lifted a tired head. "No, and on top of that, Anna increased it to five times, so I had to woke up earlier today and run two hundred and fifty kilometers." He slumped back down after that.

Manta sweatdropped. "Well, good thing it's Friday and there's no school tomorrow." He said sympathetically. Then he suddenly remember something. "Oh, and by the way, I'll be there tomorrow."

Yoh raised his exhausted head again. "Tomorrow?" He asked.

Manta shakes his head. "Yoh-kun, don't tell me you forgot. It's our monthly reunion at the Funbari Onsens, remember? Ren and Jun are coming over from China, Horo and Pilika from Hokkaido, Lyserg from London, Chocolove from New York, Faust and Eliza from wherever they had traveled to and Tamao from Izumo with Ryu whom had stalked her there."

Yoh's eyes widened. "Oh yeah, I completely forgot since I'm so tired from Anna's extreme training program. I wonder if Anna forgot too. I'll remind her later, during lunch or after the training, if I ever get done." After that, Yoh flopped back down on his desk and within five seconds, manta can hear his soft snoring, indicating his dormant mode.


Meanwhile, in the wilderness of Hokkaido…

Tamao and Ryu walks away from the forest and towards the bus stop, more than half and hour's walk away, that will take them to the train station. They had just visited Horo and talked about how the reunion would be.

"I'm sure the reunion would be fun. Don't you think, Ryu-san?" Tamao asked the tall gang leader happily.

Ryu stared like a lovesick fool at the girl's smile, Tokageroh floating nonchalantly beside him. "With you there, it'll be as fun as it can be my cute Tamao-chan."

Tamao laughed bitterly at the statement and quickly continued the subject before it got off topic. "Horo-kun and Pilika-chan sure seemed excited about it. Horo-kun kept saying how he'll fight Ren-kun and Yoh-sama to let them see how much he improved."

The tall man tilted his head upward smugly. "Well, no matter how much better they get, I will always be better. I'm even better than danna. I'll show you my awesome skills when we arrive at Funbari Onsens."

The pink-haired shaman chuckled at her boastful friend. "Sounds like it'll be a lot of fun. I can't wait for it either."

Ryu looked up at the night sky. "Ah, it's so good that the Shaman Tournament is over. We can all resume a peaceful time and go back to living the carefree life." The shy girl nodded in agreement, and then looked up curiously at her gang leader friend when he stopped.

"Ryu-san, what—"she was cut off when she saw his stare and she stared in the direction that Ryu is facing. There, sitting cross-legged on the bench that people sit in to wait for the bus, is an all too familiar face of a fifteen, now sixteen-year-old boy looking upward, gazing at the stars. The wind lifting his long, dark-colored hair into a dance, his poncho flapping to the rhythm.

(A/N: I actually felt like this is a good place to end it, but it's too short! It's only a bit more than 1000 words, and I usually want my chapters to be at least 2000 words.)


Hao took a whole year staying in the barren terrain that he woke up at in order to let himself heal completely. However, not remembering anything, Hao had actually not known where to start looking for the Asakuras. He only know that he had to go to Japan because Asakura is a Japanese last name. While contemplating this on the Spirit of Fire as they flew over the sea, the seemingly young shaman looks at the sky, admiring the twinkles that illuminate the dark sky.

Well, he thought in a seemingly logical way, if I'm going to start anywhere, why not decide a starting point? He eyed two small ships in the distance and fired two fireballs at the same time toward both. They hit on directly and Hao watched as the right one sank completely while the left one is still in the process of going down. North it is then. He then mentally gave his spirit an order to go northward. North to South, he's bound to come across someone from the family. (A/N: Did I mention seemingly logical?)

They landed in Hokkaido, far away from a city, on a deserted roadway. He can't attract too much attention if he's going to look for someone. He sent Spirit of Fire away and slowly walked toward the direction that he thinks might lead to a city, where he hopefully will find an Asakura. He is reluctant to enter the city full of people, and he doesn't know why; but he knows that if he wants to find those from his family, they won't be found wondering in the middle of nowhere.

It was a clear night, and the stars are really nice. Hao found himself having an affinity for these twinkling things, and decided that he would watch them for a while before going on to find a city. After all, he has plenty of time.

He quickly found a bench to the side of the road that he was following. Not bothering to care why there's a bench in the middle of nowhere, he sat down in it, crossed his legs, and looked up admiringly at the celestial beings.

A gust of wind came by as he admired the blinking lights in the night sky. The stars seem so alive as they twinkle and shine in the sky. The onmyouji feels that the bright beings are accompanying his lonely soul. They make him feel less lonely then he really is.

The thousand-year-old shaman was so intent at stargazing, that he did not even notice the two unfamiliar voices approaching and the sudden stop in footsteps and voices as they neared the bench he was sitting in.


"HAO!" The furious howl woke the long-haired shaman from his dream-like state.

Hao? That name sounded familiar…

He looked around to see who the name belonged to and, finding no one, he looked toward the source of the voice, a tall man with most of his hair jutting out toward the front wearing really bad-fashioned clothing, in the onmyouji's opinion, at least.

The man is holding a bokuto, a.k.a. a wooden sword, now raised in anticipation, and accompanied by a pink-haired girl. Hao's eyes widened at the sight of the girl. He felt an unknown rage build up inside him, a rage he is now familiar with every time he thinks about who he's looking for. Instead of responding to the accusing yell, he answered with a question.

"You're an Asakura, aren't you?" he asked the girl.

Now it's the girl's turn to widen her eyes, the question catching her off guard. "N-No…I'm just a shaman apprentice that had lived with them since I was four. I'm just their friends."

Living with them since four is the same as being part of the family. Okay, so I can find an Asakura in the middle of nowhere. At the mention of 'friends', anger flooded into Hao's eyes, but before he could say anything else, The tall man cuts in.

"Hao! What are you doing here? I thought, no, I know you're dead. We all saw you fade in that deadly explosion!" He exclaimed in anger.

Now Hao just looks confused, and when he talked, he surprised the both of them.

"When you say 'Hao', do you mean me?" He indicated himself with his right index finger.


When their enemy said that, Ryu doesn't know whether to feel surprised, angered, sarcastic, or confused. Surprised because Hao is denying his own identity, angered because he is playing dumb, sarcastic because there is no one else here, and confused because there was no reason for him to ask that question. He soon decided for it to be all of the above.

"No duh it's you, you devil. Who else?" Ryu can tell that Tamao is afraid, and walks a few steps forward.

He inwardly cringed at the word 'devil', but did not show it. "So my name's Hao?" The shaman asked, and the two friends looked at him like he's psycho, which is probably exactly what they were thinking at the time.

Ryu decides to make his way around it. "Why did you say that Tamao-chan is an Asakura, Hao?"

On hearing that, the confused expression turned to that of anger as the shaman made Spirit of Fire appear. "Because seeing her made me angry," a ball of fire appeared floating above his open palm, "and I only get that fury when I thought of the Asakuras. Now that she had clarified her identity, I will kill her."

He threw the ball at the shocked girl, and she blocked her face awaiting the burning impact. Her spirits, Ponchi and Conchi, had been left at home by her, since they are too annoying and she finds it impolite to bring those rude spirits while visiting others. She still, however, took her little bag, slang across his right shoulder and resting at her left hip, everywhere she went, out of habit. When she felt none of the anticipated burn of the fire, she opened her eyes to find that Ryu had knocked it away with his oversoul.

"Chicchiena." Hao said coldly, and with malice mentally ordered Spirit of Fire to smack him away, which the obedient spirit did. Ryu skidded a few feet, then stopped, lying on his side.

"Ryu-san!" Tamao exclaimed, then noticed that the attention's now on her. The shivering girl stood there, mind filled with fear and worry for her friend. Hao made another fire ball appear and shot it at the trembling young shaman.

This is really the end…Tamao closed her eyes. She doesn't want to see her doom coming at her. Again, she did not feel the blow, and risked opening one eye, and gasped as she opened both.

Ryu's oversoul is now a lot smaller than it was before, due to over exertion of energy in order to get to Tamao on time. He gave a weak but reassuring smile to Tamao. "Don't worry, Tamao-chan, I won't let that lame-excuse-for-a-God hurt you." He turned back, concentrating on the fire-using shaman. "But we have got to get to Izumo and Funbari Hill to warn the others, since he is after the Asakuras."

Tamao only nodded shakily as Hao took a few steps closer. She trembled in fear at the look of extreme, not hatred, but rage in the elder Asakura twin's eyes.

"You are not an Asakura, so if you had not interfered, I would not have bothered. But the girl is obviously like a part of the family now, and that I cannot forgive. So if you insist on protecting her with your insignificant furyoku, you two can die together." Hao said, and as he 'teleported' behind them, and inflamed them instantly, before they even had a chance to turn.

As the burning flame shot through her, Tamao cried when she saw her friend in flames. "Ryu-san, I'm sorry, it's all my fault…" She yelled, hoping her friend would hear her.

The silhouette of the gang leader smiled back at her. "It wasn't your fault, Tamao-chan; it was Hao's. Now smile that cute smile. My only regret is that I couldn't save you." The flames suddenly got larger as Ryu finished. They both felt their lives slipping away.

Tamao offered her dying friend a weak smile and closed her eyes in sadness as she grew tired.

"Kino-obaasan, Youmei-ojiisan, I'm sorry I couldn't warn you about him…" The pink-haired girl's whisper faded as she is no longer living. The flames disappeared as two scorched bodies are left. Not one feature of the two are left identifiable, except the faint tinge of pink in the smaller body, and the badly scorched clothing style and the abnormal hairdo of the tall one.

I have to tell everyone at Izumo to watch out for Hao…

The murderous shaman picked up this stray thought that emitted from the shaman apprentice before her death. The words seem to come into his mind, but the elder Asakura twin didn't understand that, and just shrugged it off as a light whisper.

Hao wondered why the girl would tell him where the Asakuras are when she's clearly worried about them. He nonchalantly erased them from existence, and the foolish man's spirit as well; he cannot have these pests' soul flying to warn the others, after all.

Hao cast one last look at the two before turning around and going back onto the Spirit of Fire. He had a strange urge to just go up to the city that he had intended to go and burn it to the ground; but he has a more important matter at hand.

"Izumo, eh…?" Southward it is.


The same day, near midnight, in the forest of Hokkaido…

Horo woke to the loud voice of his sister.

"Onii-chan, wake up!" Pilika yelled in an exasperated voice. Horo sleepily sat up. "Gosh, Pilika, you don't have to be that excited. It's not like the reunion party will be cancelled if we don't arrive one day early…" He was cut off by Pilika.

"No! Not that! This!" The blue-haired girl shoved a large piece of burnt cloth into her brother's hand; it is white on one side and purple on the other.

Horo looked up nonchalantly. "So?"

Pilika stamps irritatingly on the ground. "Don't you recognize that? It was burnt by a mysterious fire."

"Baka Pilika, people die of mysterious fire all the time. You don't have to relate every mysterious fire with Him. We all know he's dead." Horo is getting annoyed at his sister's overreaction.

She smacked him for calling her a baka, and was not any calmer than before. "But that is from Ryu-san's collar!"

Horohoro's eyes widened. "What are you trying to say?"

Her azure orbs grew from irritated to sad, now that it's getting through to her brother. "I went out of the forest to make sure that they didn't miss the last bus, but I saw the bus there, the occupants not present, and they were surrounding something. When I went and got a closer look, I saw…I saw two dead, scorched bodies…one of a young pink-haired girl, and one of a tall man in Elvis style." She was near tears. "I managed to get this befor people pushed me away…"

The elder Ainu quickly got dressed as he jumped off the bed. "We have to go check it out, Pilika! Come on!" As much as he hoped that it weren't them, the descriptions are too close for it to be anyone else: a girl with pink hair and a tall man with an Elvis hairdo and similar fashion-style.

To be continued…


Chicchiena – "so small", to indicate looking down on, or "pathetic".
Onii-chan – Big brother; it can also be said as "onii-san", "nii-chan", "aniki", and so on.
Baka – Stupid; idiot

Review Reply/ies:

Lost to Reality: Even though I said that I'll update anyways, you reviewed! I'm so happy :cries tears of joy: You are now offically my favorite user. I will go check out your stories when I get the chance. :glomps:

A/N: There! I killed off two semi-important characters in one chapter. I am so evil. More will come. Next stop: The Asakuras (next stop for Hao, but not in the next chapter)

Coming up next: The Long-awaited Reunion
"Did you get hurt somewhere?"——"Not us."——"Huh?"——"Ryu and Tamao won't be coming…ever again."

I still need to know who wants who to be alive and who to be dead. Still taking opinions, flames, praises, or just babbles. Please REVIEW.