Author's Note: Here is the eighth chapter. If anything is confusing you, feel free to ask me about it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King. Shaman King belongs to Hiroyuki Takei.
Chapter 8:
The frigid wind nipped at my red cheeks. Large, white snowflakes blew in clumps at my face. I had to look at the ground and shield my face with my arm to protect myself. The sky above was dark, the sun shielded by the thick, ominous clouds looming overhead.
My hair, damp from melted snowflakes, was draped into a loose ponytail at the nape of my neck, to keep it from whipped around in my face. It was hard to see. The snow blizzard raging around us turned anything 5 meters away from me into a blob of white.
We—Yoh, Horohoro, Ren, Lyserg, Ryu, and I—pushed through the harsh weather conditions, guided only by Lyserg's dowsing skills and the frozen, iced over river beside us. Snow-topped mountains sides towered over us on both sides, as if to leave no room to escape. It was as if they were closing in on us.
I shivered in my old, thin coat. It looked warm and balky, but in reality, it was none of that sort. The fabric was loosely knitted together, leaving small holes in the cloth for the cold wind of bite at my bare skin.
Sure, it had nice pockets and all (actually, all the clothes I bought did. It's good luck, I tell you), but it wasn't the best quality coat. It had no lining and the snow was seeping right through the cloth and onto my bare arms. The only thing I had under it was my sleeveless blouse and a bra (duh). But that didn't help much.
"Are you sure we're going the right way?" I asked, my teeth chattering. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to preserve some of the warmth.
Lyserg nodded. "Yes. I'm only an amateur at dowsing, but I can sense the strong aura's of shaman."
My body trembled in the bitter coldness. I rubbed my arms, but my attempts were in vain. It was just too cold out here.
I glanced at Yoh out of the corner of my eye. It wasn't fair! How were they able to stand this?
Seriously, they weren't even shivering. Okay, so maybe Horohoro was, but that was only because he was snowboarding and fell in the snow. So basically they were making me feel like a complete wimp, be it intentionally or not.
"At this rate, we'll freeze to death," Yoh mused, somehow managing to sound calm. He sighed.
I almost rolled my eyes. I think I was already freezing to death. I couldn't feel my toes in my sneakers, and my fingers could've been chopped off and I wouldn't have noticed. Yeah, that's how numb they were.
"God, remind me why I chose to follow you guys here," I grumbled through gritted teeth.
Yoh glanced worriedly at me. "You look cold. Are you okay?"
I wanted to scream "I am cold!", but because the Keiko they knew, or rather, thought they knew would never snap like that, I quickly swallowed back my words. Instead, I grinned at him reassuringly. At least, it made me feel better that Yoh would never be able to tell just how fake that grin was.
"I'm fine," I said, and then added, "I like chocolate." I hoped that was random enough to satisfy him.
Yoh chuckled. "When we get to the next town I could get some hot chocolate for you," he said, still unconvinced of my wellness.
I suppressed a frown. Damn him. He was supposed to bugger off after I said the chocolate statement, not console me further.
Inwardly, I sighed. Well, at least the chocolate statement was true.
But on the outside, my face only brightened. "Yay! Thank you, Yoh."
I hoped he couldn't tell how hard I was trying to put on the stupid façade while I was on my way to becoming a human ice cube. But that was probably a doomed hope, because the "Yay" part came out snippy and irritated, and the "Thank you, Yoh," part sounded more like I was forcing it through gritted teeth. Which, by the way, I was, but he wasn't supposed to know that.
I really, really needed to brush up on my acting skills. And, I needed to get out of this blizzard before all my energy was depleted. If that happened, then I would get drowsy, and that would be a complete disaster. When I'm really, really tired I have no clue what I'm saying, and I just might spill the beans on one of my secrets. It's kind of like I'm drunk on sleepiness.
Not good.
Yoh shot me a concerned look. "Are you sure you okay? You don't look so good."
And of course, to make matters worse, Yoh had to notice my sudden snarkiness that was actually (though unknown to him) my real attitude.
Maybe I could just dismiss it as the cold affecting me. At least that wouldn't be a lie. After all, it really was affecting me, just not the way he thought it was. It was making my façade slip, but he probably just thought it was making me irritable.
"I'm just cold," I muttered. I blew on my numb fingers, trying to regain some feel in them. It didn't work.
"Oh," Yoh said, looking strangely relieved. Probably because I've never allowed my façade to slip off of me that far, even when I was eight and staying at his temple thingy. That's right; I've been doing this fake Keiko thingy ever since I got out of the m---
I shook my head, dispersing the bad thought. Better go the safe way.
Anyway, I had been doing the façade thing ever since I met Yoh and a little while before that too. So Yoh had always known me as the fake, nonexistent Keiko. He had never met the real Keiko and for that I was grateful. There was nothing I was more uncomfortable with than people knowing the real me. Knowing who I really was meant knowing all my secrets. And people who knew my secrets could use them against me.
I guess Yoh didn't like the real me very much, since he looked so relieved when I seemingly became "myself" again. Why that bothered me so much I'll never know, but at least I had convinced him otherwise now.
Amidamaru appeared beside Yoh. "We best take precautions against the cold." He looked into the distance. "Or we might end up like that."
I blinked, befuddled. "Like what?" I asked. This time, my curiosity was legit. That was probably a good thing, seeing as my acting skills were epically failing me right now.
Amidamaru gestured in front of us.
My gaze followed his, and sure enough, I found myself staring at five human-shaped snow sculptures.
"They look kind of familiar," I said, staring at the sculptures.
Yoh's face contorted into a mixture of shock, horror, and recognition. I watched, slightly amused, as he ran up to the five figures and began to rub the snow off of one of the faces.
And there, under the snow was the face of Sharona, one of the Flower Five. Or whatever their name was.
Yoh yelped in surprise, jumping away from the figures.
The cold was definitely affecting me. I was having a hard time not blurting out my real thoughts. And what I was thinking right now was so not-fake-Keiko like, I didn't even want to know what Yoh's reaction would be.
Because right then and there I was totally thinking about stripping the frozen girls' clothes off and sowing them into a quilt, and then leaving them to die. Because, hey, I didn't know them and therefore did not care about them. They could jump off a cliff for all I cared. Or, they could just stay there in the cold and die like that. Either way, I didn't care.
But apparently Yoh did, because he insisted on de-freezing them.
And the whole time he and the others were uncovering the five, I stood in the back, unable to think about anything other than how much I wanted that dang quilt.
We sat in a small cave, protected from the blizzard raging outside by the strong, stone walls around us. A fire burned in the center of the circle we sat in, bringing warmth to the small refuge we had created.
The fire's light cast dark shadows on the walls behind us. When we first entered the cave I started giggling (typical fake-Keiko behavior) about how much Ryu's shadow looked like Dracula, due to his strange, new, Elvis hairstyle. Was he trying to be Elvis or Dracula? That dude should seriously make up his mind already.
I sat beside the fire, rubbing warmth into my numb hands. I had to admit that maybe it was a good idea to save the five girls. Not because it was saving lives or any of that crap, but because now we had settled down so they could recover, giving me the time to recover as well.
"Thank you, Lyserg-sama!" Milly cried, smiling brilliantly at the green-haired dowser.
I sighed. The stupid infatuation was starting to get rather annoying, with Lyserg lightly blushing and Ryu moping. But whatever, as long as I had my little fire to warm me up, I was happy.
"Why are you climbing the mountain I in that clothing?" Horohoro asked. I glanced up from the fire, his cold tone surprising me. I hadn't known Horohoro had a serious side to him. Well, everyone had their own quirks.
"That's because leader said it would be a waste of money," Elly defended, frowning.
"And you care about money when you're freezing to death?" I grumbled, shaking my head. "You're a worse tightwad than me."
"Shut up," Sharona said grumpily.
"Guess it can't be helped," Yoh interjected calmly.
I would have snorted. Yep, because there will always be stupid people in the world.
"This must be some kind of fate," he continued. "Let's go together!" He grinned.
My eyebrow twitched dangerously. Was he kidding? If this was fate, then it was a very cruel one. I was already stuck with a bunch of shaman idiot boys, and now I was stuck with five more idiot girls?
I knew I shouldn't have come.
Besides, if I wanted to, I bet I could've found Patch Village ten times faster without any of these stupid dimwits to drag along. If I was alone, then I could just be my evil self and kill anything in the way.
…Okay, so maybe I wasn't that evil, but let's pretend I was, so that I can make myself feel like an equal to Hao.
"With them?" Horohoro objected, glaring at Yoh.
"They are our enemies," Ren growled fiercely.
How stupid. Of course they were. Everyone in the shaman tournament were enemies. Because in the end, only one person's dream would come true, and the others would all be shattered. It was cruel, and yet as the same time that I found it disgusting, I found it appealing. That was my sadistic side, I guessed.
"If we bunch together, we'll be warm," Yoh reasoned, still calm.
That would have won me over, if not for the fact that I didn't want anyone touching me. I'd rather become an ice cube in the blizzard than huddle together with a bunch of dimwits.
Who knows, stupidity and naiveté just might be contagious.
"Well, if you insist on it, we will go with you," Sharona said, quite arrogantly if I may say so myself.
I was certainly not insisting on it, but apparently Yoh was, and Yoh always got his way. There was no point in arguing—the outcome was already clear in my mind.
Suddenly, Lyserg's pendulum shot out, nearly grazing Sharona's arm.
My gaze flickered over to Lyserg, who was glaring sharply outside the cavern, into the midst of the snow storm.
"What's wrong?" Ryu asked.
"This reaction…There's no doubt about it!" he yelled. He shot up from his seat and raced out into the blizzard.
"Lyserg!" Yoh cried, following him.
Quickly, Horohoro, Ren, and Ryu raced out as well, leaving only me and the Pansy Five. I think that was there name, wasn't it?
Well, Yoh and the others could certainly run after the angsty idiot, but I wasn't going back out into the cold until it was absolutely necessary.
I sighed and leant back against the wall, but soon found myself fidgeting. I was getting bored, and when I was bored, I did stupid things. And doing stupid things made me a stupid person, so I was trying to cut back on them. No matter how much fun acting stupidly was, I really did have to start concentrating on more important things like hiding from Hao.
But he didn't actually know me, or who I was, so that would be pretty easy. To him, I was just an ordinary little girl he wanted to kill. Not that him wanting to kill me would make me special, because after all, Hao wanted to kill everybody who wasn't himself.
Crazy guy.
All I would have to do was never use the stupid book he wanted so much. And it was rare that I used it anyway, so I guessed that problem was solved.
As long as he never knew I was in possession of it, I was safe.
But I was bored right now, and just thinking didn't quite cut it. So, I stood up and despite my earlier thoughts, I wandered out of the small haven.
To my surprise, the snow storm was completely gone. Not a single flake danced down from the dark clouds above, and judging from the long brown haired boy with his stupid groupies standing in front of Lyserg, I could guess that it had something to do with Hao's fantastic super powers.
Well, that's just peachy.
At the sight of Hao, I quickly retreated back into the cave. But I guess curiosity really did kill the cat, because I couldn't stop myself from cautiously peeking around the edge.
"Hao!" Lyserg growled, shooting his pendulum out.
I scoffed.
That was wise of him. Because a stupid crystal diamond with pointy edges could totally massacre Hao. Maybe it could give him a haircut (not that he needed one, I mean, I thought he looked hot the way he was), but that was probably all it was good for.
"The blizzard is avoiding them," Yoh observed.
Well, thank you, captain obvious. I think we can all see that.
"Is that possible?" Ryu questioned in disbelief.
Apparently it is, since you're seeing it right now. I rolled my eyes from my safe spot in the cave. What kind of idiots had I agreed to travel with?
"Are you saying that he can even control the weather?" Ren said through gritted teeth.
I pressed myself against the wall of the cave as I heard footsteps coming from behind me. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Sharona, Elly, and Sally rushed past me and emerged from the cave.
When they were past me, I peeked out from my spot again.
"That's Hao?" Sharona asked. She blushed. "Amazing! He's amazing!"
Oh. My. God. Pedophile alert. Pedophile alert.
And why was everyone admiring Hao like he was some sort of statue? When you talk about him he can totally hear you. He's close enough, and I don't think he's hearing-impaired, mind you.
He may be 1,000 years old and in his third life, but I don't think he's getting any stupider with age.
That's too bad, though, I wish he was.
"Looks like you won't make it to the Patch Village if you can't deal with this mountain," one of Hao's groupies commented.
"What?" Ren growled, enraged.
"I think you should turn back now and wait for the blizzard to stop," Hao advised.
"I agree!" I blurted loudly, accidentally sticking my head out of the shadows that hid me.
Heads turned towards me, and I gulped, realizing I probably should have covered my mouth. I have a big mouth, did you know that?
I was about to recoil into the shadows, when I realized that they had already seen me so there was no point. I cautiously stepped out from the cave and scampered over to hide behind Yoh.
Standing in front of Hao made me extremely nervous, even though I knew he didn't know I had the book. But still, I felt like he could see right through me, and I didn't like that one bit.
Which is exactly why I was hiding behind Yoh. If I hid behind his twin he would have to look at the mirror image of himself, and then he could get all egotistical about his appearance. Then he would forget all about me. Besides, I was sure looking at the other half of his soul was far more interesting than looking at some girl.
So basically, I was putting plan SDHWYS Plan into action, which stands for Super Distract Hao With Yoh Shield Plan, if you didn't already know that.
Nevertheless, Hao continued in his evil plan like I wasn't there. Good, if he pretended I wasn't there, I could pretend I wasn't there too. And then he could just forget I ever said anything.
Yep, that sounded just fine to me.
"You really should turn back, since you guys probably won't survive what I'm about to do," Hao said, smirking smugly.
I had a pretty cool comeback for that statement of his, but I didn't feel like dying, nor did I want to remind him of my presence, so, unlike last time, I kept my mouth shut.
You see, I wanted to tell him that there really was no need to add that 'probably' to his statement, because if you ask me, he could kill all of us on the spot right now, no questions asked. And there was also no need to tell us to run away, because he probably wasn't going to give us enough time to get far enough away, seeing as he said "what I'm about to do".
See, I told you. When I am bored, I act stupid. I think that's where I got the idea of how my façade acts.
"What are you going to do?" Yoh asked. So far, Yoh was being a very good shield. I will have to remember that for later uses.
A groupie that was totally copying Ryu's Dracula hair style started to explain. "Hao-sama is going to use the great power of nature to wipe out fake Shamans who fear the great Mother Nature by…"
Hao cut him off. "I need you to become stronger. I don't want to kill you right now."
I breathed a sigh of relief. That was good. I didn't want to die yet. And for a moment, when the Dracula dude mentioned 'fake shamans' I was a little concerned about whether I qualified for that or not. I mean, of course I feared Mother Nature (I wasn't stupid, but apparently being fearful of something very, very powerful made me a 'fake'), but the real reason I was scared was because I thought he meant, like, fake, as in personality fake. And if I didn't count as that then no one did.
But if he didn't want to kill Yoh right now, then I guessed he wasn't in one of his crazy, serial killer moods. And if he was being reasonable, I figured he could let me live too. Well, maybe not, but if he turned on me with his gigantor Lego spirit I would totally use Yoh as both my shield and hostage.
Just as Hao turned to leave, Lyserg decided to be a suicidal idiot.
"Don't ignore me, Hao!" he yelled, shooting his pendulum out.
Hao turned, smirking evilly. He extended his hand and the pendulum fell to the ground, without even touching Hao.
Lyserg was shocked.
Why, I did not know. Was it really such a surprise? And since when were pendulums considered efficient weapons?
Seriously, I think a pencil could work better.
Lyserg was blown back by a sudden gust of the blizzard, and soon the blizzard was raging all around us again.
I clung onto the back of Yoh's jacket after nearly getting blown away. I didn't want to become the next Dorothy in the Land of Oz, no really, I didn't.
"Wait for us, Hao-sama!" Sharona called, quite stupidly if you ask me. I guess Pedophile love is blind too. I mean, you have got to be blind not to see how evil Hao and his minions are.
Well, maybe not Opacho, but Opacho's got that afro, and you know what they say about afros. Afros are evil.
"Please take us with you!" Elly yelled.
I contemplated on grabbing that big, pointy icicle hanging from the wall beside me and stabbing the three cretins in the back, but they had already moved. What a shame.
Elly, Sharona, and Sally ran through the blizzard after Hao's group.
And then they were gone. Lost in the midst of the raging blizzard.
Wonderful. Two birds killed with one stone. Hao was gone, and so were three of the annoying girls.
Good riddance.
We were back inside the cave again, this time without the three most annoying of the Petunia Five. I'm not even going to bother to wonder if that's their real name anymore, since now they were reduced to two--Lily, and Milly.
Lyserg was lying on the ground, groaning in pain. That was something I did not understand. Why was he in so much pain when all he did was fall to the ground from a gust of wind? It wasn't like he was giving birth or anything.
"You aren't going with them?" Horohoro asked the two girls.
Milly's gaze dropped to the ground. "I…"
I almost rolled my eyes. How informative.
My gaze traveled down to Lyserg as he grunted and cracked an eye open. Aw darn it, I was hoping he died.
"Lyserg-sama!" Milly cried as he struggled to sit up.
"You should lie down, Lyserg," Yoh said, concerned.
Lyserg ignored him. Like I said, he was very good at following directions. Not.
"Can we defeat Hao like this?" Lyserg asked, his voice dripping of grief.
I stared dully at him. "No," I said, because that was the most obvious answer.
Lyserg looked down.
"What are you scared about?" Ren asked, smirking.
Absolutely nothing, aside from the fact that he was 1000 years old, a crazy pyromaniac murderer, could control all the elements and was positively the strongest shaman in the world. Yeah, because there's nothing invincible sounding about that.
But rants were for my head and were not meant to be spoken. Remember, I had to act like the Keiko they knew.
So I just pouted.
"You saw it too, didn't you?" Lyserg asked. "The snow didn't even worry Hao. On top of that, it was as if the blizzard feared Hao and opened a path for him. Hao made the snow obey him."
I decided it was time for a stupid Keiko remark. "If it makes you feel better, I can make a dog obey me," I offered, grinning widely.
Lyserg ignored me and continued in his grief speech of doom. "Even nature is on his side."
I pouted, annoyed at being ignored. Why did everyone ignore me? Hao did it, Ryu did it, Lyserg did it…Everyone did it! What did I do to them?
Seriously, even the wall ignored me. Once, I was walking down a hall in Yoh's house, and the wall was like, totally in my way. So, I told it to move, but it didn't even respond. It just, like, stood there. I even waited, but it didn't move. I got so mad that I kicked the rude wall, but then it retaliated and it hurt my foot. Yeah, it was totally the wall's fault that it was so hard I couldn't walk for, like, a whole week. Not my fault at all.
"Enough!" Horohoro yelled, breaking me out of my thoughts. "There's no way in hell nature would side with someone like him!"
I wondered if having the Spirit of Fire as his right hand Lego man counted against what he just said, but decided against it. They didn't know anything about Hao, so why should I be the one to tell them?
Horohoro continued. "There must be some kind of trick—
"Horohoro-kun controls snow," Lyserg began, cutting off Horohoro. "But you can't stop the blizzard."
What an angsty bastard.
"I know that Hao is amazing, but…" Yoh trailed off, not sure what to say.
"If Hao can even control the weather. We will be fighting nature itself," Lyserg said, continuing as if no one had ever said anything.
Hey, I feel better now. It seems to me like Lyserg just likes to ignore people so he can continue on his angsty way.
"Cut the crap!" Horohoro yelled, standing up.
"That's a baaaaad potty mouth," I muttered to myself, not boding well with the seriousness of the situation.
I hated serious situations. People seriously needed to lighten up a bit.
"There is no one that can control nature!" Horohoro continued, glaring.
I felt the need to add my own two cents in but decided not to. Besides, I didn't feel like being the one to break the uncomfortable silence Horohoro's comment seemed to have put everyone in.
End of Chapter 8.
Please Review.
Reviews make me very, very happy. I really want to know what you guys think about this story, and when I say that I don't mean I want strictly praises nor ten billion flames.
Also, I was wondering who you guys think Keiko should end up with. Tell me what you guys think about pairings.
If anyone has any ideas they would like to share about future chapters, I would be happy to hear them. Though I will not necessarily use them, I will take them into consideration, especially when I get stuck.
-Cookie Krisp
