Shaman king chapter 8
Settling into England and a detective on the case.
"That's about it, I am on a journey with my guardian cat Matamune we're going to different places on the road to become Shaman king." Yoh stated to Marion and Matilda the three kids were currently around a table with the delicious smell of breakfast in the air. Matilda's mother had finished making them breakfast and went upstairs to plan out her day happy that Matilda made friends. The smell of fluffy buttery pancakes, crisp bacon, and buttermilk toast with strawberry jam and other assorted jams. Yoh regaled his story to Marion and Matilda omitting certain parts from his story. There was no way he was going to tell them that he came out of Hell; it was bad enough that Matilda did not seem convinced about his story in the first place.
"So what does this Shaman king do? And why does it have to be a king? Sexist! I call sexist! I bet a queen could do the job much better," Matilda put her own two cents in scrunching her eyebrows in disbelief. As she pointed a syrup drenched fork in the direction of Yoh. She did not believe his tale that was just to incredible to believe, but she was a witch in training so there wasn't much room to talk.
"Well there's always been a king. It's just ancient history at least that's what I've heard from my family. I think a queen could do the job, but I am going to be Shaman king Because I have a dream to accomplish." Yoh stated with pride in his voice eating one of the pancakes. A soft smile of content spread across his face at the wonderful taste his infectious happiness; radiating around the table making Marion and Matilda both feel warmth in their heart.
'What is he?' Matilda questioned with a small blush on her cheeks at the warmth. This was totally new how could a boy be so positive. It didn't help that she saw boys her age be all childish and ignore her if she tried joining in on their games.
What? Matilda Matisse was a tomboy and an awesome one at that!
'Yoh is very strange.' Marion could not fathom how Yoh was so positive. Yeah she saw him very angry, a month ago and did all he could to protect her and her mother. She admitted it was kind of scary seeing Yoh so mad and with that huge sword, but here he was all happy and made her feel warm again.
"S-So what's your dream?" Matilda asked almost in a shy manner nibbling on a pancake with her amethyst eyes locking into his brown joyous ones. Matamune set next to his master at the table gazing up at him, he wanted to know what his master's dream was too.
"Easy! My dream is to just take it easy and be lazy when I become the Shaman king!" Yoh exclaimed gaining wide eyed expressions from Matilda, Marion, and Matamune. If everyone in the room wasn't affected by Yoh's bright charisma they would have believed he was joking.
"So you want to be king just to be lazy?" Matilda's eyebrows twitched in annoyance that sounded beyond stupid to her. "Alright then it is official! I Matilda Matisse will become Shaman queen so Yoh will not be lazy." She stood up on the chair pounding her chest with the fork not realizing it was still in her hand. A small hue of red could be seen dripping down her hand the sharp points of the fork dug into her palm.
"Matilda your bleeding." Marion stated not remotely sounding worried, while continuing to eat from her plate of food. She had been around the orange haired girl for a month, so she had become accustomed to accidents like this.
"Gee thank you captain obvious," Matilda sarcastically replied removing the fork from her hand as Yoh being the natural kind boy he was tried to ease Matilda's pain with tissues. He applied pressure on to the wound with Matilda wincing she was used to getting scrapped up, which is why she did not cry from the pain.
Her mother liked to call her accident prone.
When Yoh removed the bloody tissues from her palm, he placed his hands over her cut palm and channeled his furyoku into her body. His eyes taking on that familiar teal color, Matilda utterly astounded by the new color in his eyes and felt her cut close up with a whitish energy around her hand.
When Yoh removed his hands from Marion he gave her a warm smile. "Do you feel better?" He asked with Matilda nodding her head at the question and looked down at her freshly healed palm. She curled her fingers into her palm feeling no pain at all starting to believe in Yoh's story.
A few hours later after breakfast in the afternoon the trio were outside in Matilda's small backyard, which was guarded by a tall fence. There wasn't much in the yard aside from a frisbee, a football, and a soccer ball. The three kids were tossing a frisbee back and forth saying what they liked to do. Yoh's answer was to relax and take it easy with a small mumble of practicing the elements. Matilda answered that she enjoyed flying about on her broom and playing sports. Marion simply did not answer the question she had no specific hobby, unless it was taking care of Chuck.
Chuck was high maintenance she had to remove excess straws from his body, while sewing up any openings he had. Luckily, there were never many openings on Chuck. There was one private thing she enjoyed doing with Chuck, but did not want to think about it. She didn't have any of her needles or thread so that activity would have to be put on hold.
The three kids after playing frisbee went back inside the house. The night time sky beginning to come out and with that Matilda pulled Yoh and Marion into her room upstairs showing off her more unique personality in simple words. The room was not very well kept papers littered the floor with numbers on them, Matilda blushed in embarrassment at her pile of undone homework. The room was colored in a mix of orange and black the colors clashed together making Yoh momentarily think it was Halloween. Roaming his eyes across the room his eyeballs threatened to explode from what he saw in front of him.
"What is this? It can't be you have Soul-Bob music Matilda?" Yoh couldn't believe that a girl his own age liked Soul-Bob. This was the holy grail to Yoh better than anything in his young life. Matilda nodded her head showing her albums to Yoh and a few new tracks recently released from Soul-Bob. Yoh was so happy he hugged Matilda tightly going off into his own world, while listening to the wonderful music of Bob.
Matilda lightly blushed at the hug she did not get hugs from boys. So the experience was entirely new, she didn't even have the chance to hug him back, because he left her to listen to soul-Bob.
Marion was pulled once again by Matilda showing the witch some of her collective dolls in a dollhouse. The witch actually visibly expressed an emotion it looked like a smile. But Matilda highly doubted that, because Marion's cheeks did not rise in indication of a smile. The two girls began to play house for once Marion felt like she was a normal girl if possible. She even dressed Chuck up in a pink dress with a white hairband on the top of his head, Chuck did not say a word oddly enough used to this torture...
Later on in the middle of the night Marion couldn't get any rest it was a usual occurrence with the witch as of a month ago. She was constantly thinking back to her mother's death, she may not have said it openly, but it did hurt and trouble the young girl. She set up from the bed in a fresh pair of yellow flowery pajamas she did not pick them out Matilda did. In any case, Marion looked towards the wall where Chuck set pointing his gun at the sleeping Jack. Chuck did not trust the doll Jack at all he was to wild for his taste.
"I'll be back in the morning," Marion told the doll getting out of bed quietly exiting the room. She peered around checking her surroundings; it didn't matter that it was dark Marion could see fine in the darkness. She spent most of her time in the dark anyway, tip-toeing her way to the room beside her. She slowly opened the door hearing the door creak she knew it would alert the cat Matamune.
"It's only you again." Matamune yawned lazily opening one slitted eye at the top of the bed where his master slept. The guardian cat was curled up on top of his master's soft hair using it like a pillow. Marion nodded as she made her way over towards Yoh's bed and looked down at him watching his contented sleeping face. It was the first time she saw his face look like that, since they appeared here in England.
She gripped her fingers into her knuckles in what appeared to be anger, but was actually quite the contrary she was troubled. Marion silently got into the bed with Yoh hearing his soft breathing she couldn't help staying by his side at night. She placed her cold hand against his forehead liking the warmth he gave off. Yoh would probably never know it, but he made Marion feel at peace when ever she was around him. It may have looked weird to others and completely strange, but Marion rested her head beside his on the pillow just watching him sleep.
"Matamune, do you find Marion weird?" Marion asked the cat knowing he was still awake. The cat was always on guard around her she contributed it to wanting to protect his master.
"No I do not find you weird, yes you have the habit of speaking in third person and you sneak into my master's room to watch him sleep. Regardless, of your actions you have taken care of my master when he had nightmares." Matamune responded swishing one of his tails around lightly brushing through his master's hair.
It was the standard talk between them and soon after that Matamune fell back asleep. If the girl was a danger to his master than he would take the necessary precautions to protect him.
Marion watched Matamune go back to sleep and continued her observation of Yoh's sleeping face. For a brief moment she could feel the emotion of happiness when around Yoh. It made her feel human as she closed her eyes going to take a short one hour nap.
In the early afternoon the next day Yoh and Marion were getting a tour around Matilda's house with their tour guide Matilda swinging in hand a broomstick. The eight year old orange headed girl started at the living room showing them the modern sized living room, specifically what she liked about it anyway. Matilda pointed a finger towards a shelf where Chinese imported pristine teacups set.
The teacups were painted in a very familiar Yin and Yang swirl, at least to Yoh as he tilted his head at the color of the teacups something was off about them. He walked closer towards the cups and placed a hand underneath his chin contemplating the cups gathering the collective stares of everyone in the room.
"Is something wrong master Yoh?" Matamune questioned the shaman taking his place beside him with his twin tails wagging behind him. The ghostly feline stroked one of his whiskers wondering what his master was thinking so hard about.
"Hmm... these tea cups look very familiar. I could have sworn Okka-san talked about this pattern before," Yoh replied trying to recall exactly what his mother told him about that swirl pattern.
It was such a head-scratcher.
"Who is this Okka-san? Is that some kind of candy, anyway Yoh!" Matilda called out his name pointing the end of her broomstick at him and poked the back of his head with it. Yoh turned around at the sharp poke and looked at Matilda did she have the answer to his question?
With all eyes on her, Matilda retracted her broomstick to her side and puffed out her chest about to tell him about those teacups. She was so psyched about it nothing could possibly ruin this moment.
"They're from the Chinese Tao family, an ancient warrior clan said to have hungered and thirst for battle about 2,000 years ago. The Tao family used the art of Jiang Shi, in other words the art to control dead bodies." The voice of Matilda's mother spoke coming into the living room. Her wavy orange locks of hair cascaded down her back, wearing a black cloak over her body. Her violet eyes shining brightly with the rays of the sun pouring into the room.
"You stole my thunder!" Matilda overdramatically crumbled to her knees cradling her broomstick to her side. It was her only friend and companion who understood her. The sounds of laughter filled the room Yoh chuckling at the girl with Jack doing the same. Matilda's mother mildly laughing knowing she got the dramatic side from her side of the family. The only ones not laughing were Marion who still did not pick up on social interaction, while Matamune quietly stroked his whiskers in thought.
'The Tao family.' The guardian spirit stared at the teacups remembering one of the members from a long time ago on his journey with Hao. The Tao clan must have gone into hiding Matamune theorized.
"Now, now Matilda why don't you and your friends go outside and play be back around 6 P.M." Her mother patted her daughter's hair gently with a smile at seeing Matilda so happy. It had been a long time, since her daughter was this happy. Matilda excitedly grabbed Yoh and Marion dragging them outside by their arms quite the funny sight indeed. "She's going to have a nice journey with them." The woman quietly murmured to herself about to get ready for her day.
Matilda dragged Yoh and company down the streets taking a look at the note of surprise, on both Yoh and Marion's face. Matilda heard from whiskers the nickname she gave Matamune that Yoh had never been to other countries. Marion, on the other hand had never been anywhere outside of Italy so she was more surprised about the amount of people outside, rather than the actual structures of houses.
"Hey if your ever lost look at Big Ben you two! That way you'll find your way back home. At least that's what mother tells me," Matilda stopped directly beside a school gate where her school coincidentally was, and pointed her index finger at a large clock tower that seemed to be tilted at least to Yoh and Marion.
"Why does it look tilted?" Yoh asked keeping his head from tilting in the direction of the clock.
"That's because it is tilted about 40 years ago old Ben got bombed." Matilda murmured not liking how one of her favorite objects was permanently harmed. Marion was going to ask about the bombing, but at the somber expression on Yoh's face she kept quiet. No need in getting Yoh depressed over her curiosity.
Ten minutes passed on by before their tour of England was restarted, Matilda pointed out to the passing cars on the side of the road. She decided to play the old game punch buggy she heard about from other kids at her school. "Punch buggy red phones," she pointed to a red passing tour bus and punched Yoh lightly right in the shoulder.
"O-Ok, ok so i'm started to figure out the game. If we see a red bus or any other red car. it being my turn I get to punch either you or Marion in the shoulder..." Yoh wrecked his brain trying to memorize the rules of this new game. He didn't mind being the one who got punched by Matilda, her punches didn't hurt anyway, but had force behind it. He further did not mind the nickname she gave him, which was phones.
Guess where that hilarious nickname came from it was due to his orange headphones.
"N-No Yoh I believe the rules are we find an object in the area that goes with a color. When we spot it or the p-person spots it... We call out punch buggy like so..." Marion spoke up for the first time today with Yoh and Matilda looking at her. The young witch looked at the passing cars and spotted a black sedan. "Punch buggy black car," she called out not knowing what type of car it was, and lightly punched Yoh in the shoulder to show him her point.
For the next ten seconds Yoh and Matilda stood still with Marion gazing at them with no discernible expression on her face. Chuck who was in her arms without the gun he usually carried looked up at Marion. He was surprised that Marion spoke that much at all even Matamune was taken aback. Sure the cat had only spent one month with the girl and could actually count the number of words the girl spoke at all on his paws.
The number was only six times in total.
The silence went on for a full minute before Matilda nodded her head. "Yes mopey Mari is correct," she held up her hand in a high five manner out to Marion. The gesture was lost to Marion who only stared at the hand in front of her face. What was she suppose to do? Did she have to press her nose against Matilda's hand?
"This girl is to much! How socially stunted is she?!" Jack cackled in Marion's arms he did not expect after Celia died that he would be able to laugh this much. Socially awkward girl, weird boy with strange energy, a talking cat, and another doll who was absolutely quiet. Jack had to admire his new life as a doll was nothing more than a sitcom.
"Your doll is evil, I wonder if I can play with it?" Matilda asked the witch who gave her Jack without a moments hesitation. Marion honestly did not like Jack he was very annoying and it sounded like Matilda wanted it. Jack was left confused not expecting that and was further thrown for a loop when Matilda gave him a creepy smile. Jack did not like that smile at all and tried bringing out one of his knives from his ribs, but remembered that Marion took those out of him.
"We're going to have a lot of fun," Matilda sweetly told the doll managing to keep her smile from looking overly malicious. Jack went quiet at that not going to say another word for the time being. With Jack silenced Matilda continued their tour of England without any more hiccups along the way. Here and there the trio passed by a restaurant Matilda telling them what each restaurant had.
"What is fish and chips?" Matamune asked the orange headed girl while walking beside his master. The bipedal cat was quiet throughout most of the walk and only mumbled a few words when they passed by certain restaurants. He wanted to know if the restaurant actually served fish and chips that sounding very delectable to the cat. At the scent of cooked fish the composed cat lightly licked his lips wanting to taste it.
"I don't know what you mean. Fish and chips is just fish and chips. You get cooked fish and chips why are you hungry or something?" Matilda asked the cat not turning around to face him. When silence was the answer she received she turned around spotting that Matamune and Yoh had left her. "Great I guess that leaves us mopey Mari," Matilda turned to face Marion, but found her gone too. Matilda kept herself from screaming out of anger for five whole seconds, before finally screaming out her frustration attracting the attention of people nearby. Jack mildly chuckled at the girl's frustration oh this was going to be a fun day for the doll.
Meanwhile with Yoh and Marion they were chasing after Matamune into the fish and chips restaurant. The good thing was it was a quiet day with only a few customers inside and one such costumer had the pleasure of Matamune eating his food. The green haired boy was taken by surprise at the appearance of the cat digging into his food along with his entire family. What was strange was that the cat had on clothes.
"Papa and mama, why is there a cat eating my food? Papa do you have anything to do with this?" The green haired boy asked curiously watching the cat devour his fish and chips. His parents just watched the odd spectacle in front of them as Yoh and Marion called out Matamune's name the good part was, since Matamune was in the general vicinity they could be heard in English.
"Oh! Hello is this your cat?" The green haired boy asked pulling up Matamune into his arms feeling a strange energy flow into his body. The cat excitedly chewing on the strip of fish it seemed that the usual composed Matamune was still slave to his baser instincts.
Yoh and Marion turned in the direction of the new voice.
"Where are phones and mopey Mari?!" Matilda exclaimed anger clearly heard in her tone bursting into the fish and chips restaurant they were in. She had to coerce Jack into helping her and gave him a plastic spoon at the help. Jack despite being a sociopath in his old life was easily sated by a spoon. Matilda exploited that to her benefit and found out that Jack could sense other dark spirits in the area.
"U-Umm... how about we all start over?" A new voice spoke up it being a man's voice standing up at the table having the same green hair as his son.
"I am Liam Diethel it's a pleasure to meet you all, and this here next to me is my wife Jane Diethel and this is our son Lyserg Diethel." Liam told the children who set at the table with his family. His choice of clothing was a brown overcoat with a stuffed green tie inside of his coat. The clothing inspired from his greatest idol ever Sherlock Holmes. He even ordered for the kids fish and chips of their own to keep them around he had to admit there was a certain air around these three kids. He could feel it spark the detective side of him and he loved solving mysteries.
"W-What that's a boy?" Matilda gasped pointing a finger at the androgynous boy in question who set in front of her. Lyserg at least to her looked like a girl with the way his hair was parted down the back and his choice of clothing did not help either. The boy's clothing was a white collared shirt similar to his father's, but when eyes traveled lower he appeared to be wearing a long white dress skirt apparently his mother enjoyed dressing up her son.
"Y-Yes I-I'm a boy, umm... what is your name?" Lyserg shyly mumbled looking down at the table not used to talking to girls his own age especially one that dressed like a boy. He felt a gentle patting on his head it being his mother who smiled gently down at him. Lyserg smiled back at his mom happy to have his mother and father's love. Marion watched the emotion off of Lyserg's face absentmindedly snacking on the fish and chips.
"Weird..." Matilda mumbled to herself going to eat her food hearing the quiet snickers from Jack as she ate. At least the doll was being good for the most part with his spoon.
"What are you kids doing with this spirit? Are you kids trying to play being a detective with your own group name? I bet you kids are." Jane playfully rubbed through the locks of her son's hair keeping an eye on the kids. She could see spirits ever since she was a little girl and married Liam, because he could see them too.
Yoh and Marion shook their heads to the question at the same time. At this Liam pulled out a pipe from his pocket and placed the end of it in his mouth. He slowly began to piece the evidence and information about Yoh and Marion by the clothing they wore.
"Dad is about to solve the case," Lyserg clamped his hands together under the table to keep from shaking in excitement. His dad was the coolest detective in the world and could solve any case in the world.
Yoh began to wonder if the Diethel family thought he was some sort of mystery he only came here to get Matamune. So why did it feel like he was about to be interrogated or at the very least be solved like some sort of rubix cube? The shaman looked down into Matamune's eyes noticing how his slitted eyes regained there calm look. It appeared that Matamune was back together as he yawned stretching out his entire body.
"Master Yoh, what happened to me?" Matamune asked jumping on to the top of his master's head looking at the new faces in front of him, a small hiss escaping his lips at Liam he felt a spirit around the man. It didn't feel dangerous in any means of the word, however Matamune still kept his guard up. He already failed to protect his master once he would not fail a second time, his magatama bead necklace appearing around his neck.
Yoh was about to answer, but Liam had other plans on the manner.
"I have cracked the case! You lad hail from Japan with your traditional kimono about you. Your cheekbones and face give that away. I can tell by the expensive fabric that you have a wealthy family or well off in other words. Your friend here the blonde girl from her rigid stance and cheekbones. I can tell she is from Italy her Victorian clothing is another dead give away, though I must say I have never seen a little girl who puts me on edge," Liam told them where they came from with that minimal information of their clothing and cheekbones. Yoh was visibly impressed by it with stars shining in his eyes, Marion had no such expression and kept her arms crossed in a guarded manner.
Lyserg clapped at his father's brilliant deduction with Jane doing the same, Matilda finishing her meal thanked the Diethel family for their generosity.
"Hey I have a question could you tell me when the full moon is coming?" Yoh asked the detective guessing he would know about it. If the man could gather so little information about him and Marion than finding about the phases of moon must be easy. Liam's eyebrow slightly rose upwards at the boy's question it was a strange question, but one he could easily answer. Matamune wondered why his master wanted to know that he could have easily answered that question. His master was very impressed by the detective that was certain, but there had to be more to it than just that. Something smelled fishy and it wasn't the fish on the table speaking of what happened to him.
"That is a simple question to ask. The full moon will be out in about two weeks, specifically on the date of Wednesday November 21st. Why do you want to know?" Liam had to ask even Lyserg and Jane were intrigued by it. Marion cast her eyes on Yoh also interested and Matilda too, though she felt the answer would be incredibly stupid.
With all eyes on him Yoh put on a bright smile and rubbed the back of his head in a embarrassed manner. "I just wanted to know because on full moons the moon is so shiny! I just want to grab it and make it mine! It also makes me think about birds." He answered with everyone at the table wanting to face palm at the answer. Jack actually doing that smashing his plastic spoon into his face. The poor spoon broke and with that Jack started to sulk at the unfairness.
"T-That is umm..." Lyserg tried to form the proper words to describe something that odd.
"It's weird just weird phones." Matilda finished for Lyserg and watched the green haired boy nod his head not meeting her gaze. She wondered if the boy was painfully shy or something, because she saw how other boys were tougher her age. "Hey how old are you? I'm eight years old the name is Matilda." She offered her hand out to the shy boy in a handshake. Lyserg shyly extended his hand out to the girl and shook her hand softly finding Matilda's grip to be stronger than his.
"I'm Lyserg, also eight year olds."
"You already know phones and that is mopey Mari. She doesn't talk much," Matilda told him her nicknames for them with Yoh smiling at his cool nickname and Marion... well Marion seemed to scowl at the nickname, but there was no expression on her face. Jane and Liam watched Lyserg interact with the kids his age. It brought them joy to see their shy son interact with kids his own age.
The kids continued to talk to each other for the next two hours well mainly the talkative ones did, Marion kept to herself patting Chuck's head.
When it was time for them to part ways outside the restaurant, Lyserg held out his hand still shy towards Yoh wanting a handshake with the boy his age. Yoh grinned at the green haired boy and accepted the handshake.
"Let's be friends Lyserg."
"U-Uhh... I-Is that o-ok?"
"Of course it is Lyserg. Starting today we're friends and my name is Yoh Asakura not phones."
"I-I didn't think phones was your name give me some credit Yoh. I am going to be the greatest detective second to my father." Lyserg boldly stated ending the handshake afterwards feeling that strange power in his body. The English boy did not know what it was, but it was definitely strange yet at the same time invigorating.
"Okay, goodbye Lyserg and you too Liam and Jane," Yoh bowed his head to them before Matilda dragged him away with Marion in her other arm it was almost time for them to go home. Yoh waved goodbye to the Diethel family with Matamune still on top of his head. The cat's eyes continued to stare at Liam and for a moment he could make out the faint image of a pink pixie on Liam's shoulder.
"Hurry up! Get the lead out you two!" Matilda yelled at the two who were steadily being dragged by her. Marion gave Yoh a quiet look at the happy expression on his face. He certainly seemed to enjoy being dragged around by Matilda.
Matilda slammed on the brakes of her feet with Yoh and Marion; lurching forward their collars stretched painfully backwards. Yoh coughed out at the pain as Matilda let them go in front of her house. Marion glared at the reckless girl, while rubbing her sore throat at the pain. Dresses were not supposed to stretch that much, especially hers.
"Oh sorry," Matilda apologized at her rough actions a bit embarrassed by it. She was so used to running alone back to her house and kinda forgot she was dragging them by the collars. Marion sighed at the apology no need to get angry at Matilda for her brashness.
"It's fine Matilda, next time could you remember that we're here with you?" Yoh was not angry at the girl he found Matilda to be overexcitable. It reminded him of Tamao and how shy she was in comparison to Matilda. Thinking about Tamao for a moment he hoped she was doing alright. Setting those thoughts aside he watched Matilda opened the door and go inside of her house with Marion following behind.
Yoh, actually looked at the house his shamanic sixth sense tingling he felt a strange energy around the house. In better words to describe it the house seemed covered in a cloak like something was hiding here. He continued to stare at the modern sized house in appearance for a very brief second; he could have swore he saw moss on the top half of the house. Deciding on to not ponder on it any further he went inside of the house.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with Matilda and Yoh figuring out along with Marion how to figure out algebra in the living room. Apparently, Matilda went to a very prestigious private school in the nearby area. This led to a rather fascinating conversation between the three kids in the night.
"What is school?" Marion asked both Yoh and Matilda, the blonde witch had not gone to school. She was the town freak back in Italy, aside from being ostracized the only learning she got was from her father about money management, how to use a firearm, and the art of stealing. Typical life skills a child should know at her age at least that was what her father told her.
"You've never gone to school?! How come?" Matilda was surprised by that wishing she didn't have to go. The kids at her school were all stuck up no one dared to be different. So when Matilda decided to be that different individual her classmates snickered and called her nicknames. Thinking back to those kids at school made Matilda want to sneak out of school tomorrow.
"My father said that school was for chumps, and that a witch did not need to learn such things." Marion responded flatly her childhood wasn't pleasant, but she did not complain about it.
"If you didn't go to school, sorry for intruding, but what did you learn?" The voice of Matilda's mother asked who set in a chair watching the kids work.
"Do you have a gun?" Marion questioned the adult she could have used Chuck's gun, but preferred to only use it for emergencies. No need to waste bullets or jam the gun on accident. At that question the mother nodded to the question not going to retrieve it, which was hidden away upstairs in her room.
"My father thought it would be in my best interest to teach me in gang related manners." Marion summed it up for everyone in the room leaving out the details of her past. No need to tell them her life story it was sad and that was that.
"What about your mom?" Matilda innocently asked it was strange that only the father was around. Yeah her father divorced her own mom three years ago due to issues she was too young to understand, but still for a short time she did have a father. When Matilda asked that question a dark silence fell over Yoh and Marion with Yoh digging his fingers into his palms.
"Excuse me," Yoh bowed his head curtly leaving the living room to a quieter place. He still felt guilty about Celia's death that was a scar he felt would not heal yet. Matamune let his master grieve, as much as the cat wanted to tell Yoh it wasn't his fault, inadvertently they were to blame.
"Matilda!" Her mother was about to patronize her daughter for such a personal question it was very insensitive.
"My mother died a month ago in a accident, Yoh finds himself guilty because of it." Marion vaguely answered standing up to go after Yoh. He shouldn't have felt guilty about her mother's death than again she did not know the whole story between Yoh and her mother.
"Remind me Matilda, where did you find your friends at?" Her mother questioned with Matilda laughing awkwardly. She only told her mother that Yoh and Marion were homeless and ever since a month ago they had been taking care of the kids. Matilda still to this day was surprised that her mom was so cool about the two kids staying at the house.
"Mom you already know. I told you Yoh and Marion are homeless." Matilda answered quickly shaking her hands out in front of her mother in a don't interrogate me fashion. She was lucky her mother was so accepting of the kids and didn't delve any further pass that. When her mother left the living room Matilda sighed in relief thankfully that was over.
"Yoh, what has Marion told you before. Do not blame yourself." Marion scolded the young crying shaman as he punched his fist into a nearby wall. Yoh couldn't help blaming himself for the incident. Marion had enough of Yoh's crying and decided it was best to set him straight on one solid truth she always knew. "Yoh death is unavoidable we all die eventually. My mother accepted her death and that is that."
Yoh stopped crying at those words they didn't make him feel any better, but he guessed that Marion was trying her best to help him. Wiping away his tears with the sleeve of his torn kimono he faced Marion. The expression on her face was neutral like always.
"You don't hate me for what happened?" He actually wished she did hate him so he could pay up for his mistake.
"No Yoh, Marion does not hate you. Yoh is Marion's savior." She responded in monotone and walked towards him placing her cold hand on his forehead. At the cold touch Yoh shivered on the spot oddly enough feeling a tiny bit better.
'Thank you Marion.' Yoh thanked the girl quietly in his mind. Leave it to Marion to make him feel better.
"Master Yoh will you tell me why you wanted to know about the full moon? I could have easily answered your question, rather than that detective." Matamune almost sounded jealous, as he set on the bed with his arms crossed gazing at Yoh. The two were talking over the events of the day in the middle of the night.
"I had to know, because I am going to meet a friend of mine very soon." Yoh explained with a small smile on his face. At the word friend Matamune curled his ears upwards at that the only person he could consider Yoh's friend was Hao. However both twins were very different and had other goals in mind.
"Who is this friend master Yoh?" Matamune was suspicious about the friend in question not wanting his master to be hurt again. Yoh smiled at the question and rubbed one of Matamune's ears hearing the sounds of delighted purrs come from him.
"A phoenix! I am sure you two will be good friends," Yoh answered with his eyes changing into there green tint. Up above on the ceiling in the smallest corners of the room moss could be seen.
Matamune was about to tell his master that cats and birds did not get along well. In fact cats ate birds, but Matamune would wait to see this friend in person. The cat had letdown his master once he would not fail again.
Two hours later in the night Yoh and Matamune fast asleep, a certain pair of eyes could be seen above the ceiling. Those eyes looked devoid of emotion and were downright creepy.
'Soon... they will all be mine...'
Thus ends the first chapter in the Matilda arc. More of a relaxed chapter for the gang until everything hits the fan.
My apologies on the confusion with the Marco and Lilith part last chapter. Marco has Michael and Lilith as guardian ghost.
