Disclaimer: Although the severely warped and twisted imagination is my own, Shaman King and its characters are the property of Hiroyuki Takei. All original characters are also the property of their respective creators.
Resolution Part 4 -- Looking Back, Moving Forward
When it was all over it was almost like the whole thing was just some kind of crazy dream. For Crystal that would have been normal, but this time she knew it had been real. It took a little while to clear things up back home, especially in regard to Tyriel opting to remain a wolf spirit, but even that eventually drifted into the past. Crystal still had a lot of growing up to do and there was still so much she wanted to learn. For a long time she thought that would be enough. That would have been all well and good, but then this wouldn't be much of a story, now would it?
"I take it you didn't come here just to reminisce," Taki wasn't surprised to see Crystal visiting the waterfall. It was actually something she did with some regularity. Something about it being a spiritual hot spot and making her feel better. This time, however, she seemed to be in a fairly good mood already which was rather unusual. After all, there was another reason Crystal kept on coming back. This was the first place she had met Hao. Even if she refused to admit it to herself, it was kind of obvious that she missed him. Despite all the trouble he had caused back then it wasn't like Crystal had ever actually gotten over him. It was even harder for her because she didn't even realize why she felt so bad about it. The poor child really was pretty clueless when it came to matters of the heart.
"Actually," Crystal started, "I'm thinking of going on a trip." She might have been a bit older, but she hadn't really changed all that much over the years. And it was still fairly easy to see that she was up to something. "I was kind of hoping you wouldn't mind tagging along." She paused for several long seconds before continuing hesitantly, "I already talked about it with Cat and we're thinking of paying a visit to Funbari Onsen. I know it's been a long time now, but I kind of figured it might be nice to see some old friends."
"So," Taki considered this. "After all this time you're thinking of going to Japan again. I suppose I could use a vacation. This drought has been terrible lately."
It was unclear whether he was going to be there or not, but it seemed to Taki that this was something that Crystal really did want to do. And it would be good that Cat was going to be there too because she had a good chance of being able to knock some sense into Crystal while they were at it. She definitely needed it.
So, it turned out once they got there that Hao had apparently been living there for about a year or so. Apparently even though being the Shaman King should have technically been considered a full time job, the actual hours had left him with a desperate need to find his own entertainment. At the very least he actually seemed to be happy and perhaps somewhat less homicidal despite his initial protests.
In any case, Crystal was definitely happy to see him. Unfortunately with the way her mind works it scared the hell out of her when she realized that was actually true. Honestly, it was like she had gotten it into her head that by being happy she was somehow going to make a mess of things. Rest assured if Taki ever figured out who was responsible for giving Crystal an idea like that they were going to live to regret it whether they could see spirits or not. And if Crystal had done this to herself, then there were plenty of qualified individuals that would be able to help Taki thwart Crystal's misguided and self-destructive notions about the nature of reality. It was liable to make her angry, but she was being stupid so she deserved it.
Incidentally, it only took about a week to get through to both of them. They might have been stubborn and defensive about it, but they were also severely outnumbered. No one got killed for meddling so it's probably safe to say that in their own way Crystal and Hao must have been grateful to their tormentors. Just don't push your luck about it.
"I'm still curious as to why you didn't decide to bring Tyriel along with you," Hao certainly made for excellent company when it came to spending a pleasant afternoon at a cafe. This certainly wasn't going to be a dull topic for discussion.
Crystal shrugged over her cup of hot chocolate, "Ever since he turned himself into a wolf spirit he's gotten kind of difficult to track down when he's off playing in the hills with the rest of his pack. I guess they don't really mind that he's a spirit since that world isn't quite so invisible to them as it is to the vast majority of humans. I don't know. He seems happy enough even if the whole thing still seems kind of weird to me. I figured this was going to be a short visit so there wasn't much of a reason to bother him about it. Of course that was before I somehow ended up moving in. I definitely wasn't expecting that."
"Have you thought about going back for him?" Hao was perhaps a little too amused by this prospect.
"I guess I could," Crystal paused to take a nice long sip of hot chocolate to buy herself some time to think it over. She set the cup back down and continued, "Of course knowing him he probably already found out where I've been and is making his own plans to follow me here."
Crystal shuddered at the thought. She didn't want to hear what she knew Tyriel would have to say if and when he found out about her and Hao. Crystal already had a pretty good idea of what he would be likely to say and it was something along the lines of...
"I suppose it was inevitable that the Shaman King would come back to find himself a queen, isn't that right your majesty?"
It is unclear what precisely set Crystal off after that. It might have been the fact that Tyriel had chosen that precise moment to materialize next to the table at the cafe. Or it might have been the fact that he made a special point of winking at Hao once he had finished delivering the question. It might even have been the intolerable air of smugness that Tyriel was radiating over successfully capturing Crystal by surprise. Or it could have been some combination of these factors that sent Crystal chasing him out the door much to the confusion of the poor young waitress that was blissfully unaware of the large black wolf that had just bolted outside.
"Check please," Hao was unnecessarily calm about all of this.
Resolution -- End
Author's Notes: That's where it ends. There are some other side stories that kind of go along with this that were written in between chapters, but they don't actually fit anywhere into the main sequence. Depending on how well this is received I might think about posting some of them separately in the future, but for now I'm treating this as a trial run. I've been somewhat reluctant to make submissions because so many of my stories involve original characters, but I have some hope that it won't be too much of an issue.
