If Today Was Your Last Day

Chapter 14

Back to Square One

A/N:

I've been busy getting my life, and belongings, in order for college. It's been hectic and exciting in all the sense of those words.

The fact that I've been writing like fucking mad on an RP site I recently joined, Sekkai: Fractures, didn't help getting this chapter cranked out sooner. If you love dragons, writing, and making interesting plots with others in a highly original fashion, I highly recommend checking it out. It's not exactly great for procrastination, though. I'm there under the same username, so feel free to drop a PM or chat with me if you're interested. :D

On a slightly better note, I've finally planned out how I want to end this story. It's actually done, which may or may not be a good thing in the eyes of you guys. I'm relieved and sad; relieved that I'm finally drawing close to a long project that's taken up much of my past year and sad that it's going to end.

This also means I have narrowed down how many chapters are left after this one: three. This chapter is shorter than I had originally planned to make room for a certain scene I'm rather excited about. There's a whole lot for me to fit into these puppies and makes it a tantalizing challenge. I promise, however, those three will be the best things I've written. ;)

I do not own Hiroyuki Takei's Shaman King or any song performed or written by Nickelback.

ooOOooOOoo

"Opacho is happy to see Yoh-sama," said the little girl, smiling with all the righteous innocence of her youth.

Yoh didn't know how else to respond but say, "It's nice to see you, too, Opacho."

Anna's eyes turned a bit cold as she looked down at Opacho. The recognition was there, but she didn't seem to be able to recall who she was. "Who is she?"

"She was on Hao's te-," Yoh began.

"She was close to Hao," Kathleen cut him off. She turned around from the white dragon spirit she had been petting and began to walk back toward them. With a swift flourish of her hand, the glittering beast evaporated and returned to the small stone tablet sticking out of the pocket of her jeans. "Well, she was as close to him as anyone could have been."

"And how would you know that?" challenged Rachist angrily. His tall, dark frame dwarfed the short Irish woman as he approached her.

Anna barged into the conversation, her demons popping up behind her like protective gargoyles. "Would you two mind waiting until we got to somewhere safer? If you think the Patch haven't forgotten that the three of their prisoners have escaped, you're a fool."

"You're right," the doctor said after a moment's pause. "Even if all of us fight at once against them, we're no match. Those five new cronies have the Great Spirits as their guardians."

Rachist seemed to Yoh like he wanted to hit both of them. His fists were balled, but he seemed to let it go after glancing in the direction of her lower stomach. "Where do you suggest we go?" he asked of Anna.

"Anywhere safe. Do you have a base?"

His gaze turned colder. "Why should I take you there?"

She glared back. "If you're unprepared to take us there, why did you save us?"

He gritted his teeth. "That's a complicated subject."

"Would you mind?" Yoh asked carefully. The uncomfortable tension in the conversation was palpable. "Please? I'm your…" he had to force himself to say the odd word," master's brother. I don't think he wanted me to be killed by the Patch."

A pregnant silence filled the air for a time. "I have no problem bringing you and your fiancé. However, I dislike the idea of having strangers in our place," he huffed. "It's this one," Rachist jutted a thumb toward the doctor," that I don't trust. How do I know she won't try to kill me when I turn my back?"

"I'm a doctor," she said angrily. 'I wouldn't try to kill anyone."

"I don't know that," he repeated. "And my companions don't know that. Their safety comes first in my book, not yours."

"So you want to bloody leave me to fend for myself against those new Patch cronies?" she demanded cynically. "Those five have the Great Spirits. Even you wouldn't last against them."

An uncomfortable silence passed over the leader of the Gumi's. He hadn't realized that she had been referring to those particular spirits earlier. "They're using the Great Spirits?"

"That's not all, sparky!" she barked. "Not only do they have your master, the most powerful shaman this world has ever seen, they have the Great Spirit and man, is it pissed off."

The doctor deflated after the echoes of her harsh voice stopped ringing. In a more calm voice, she offered, "I could help you get him out of there."

"How could you?" Peyote asked, finally piping in. "You're just a shaman doctor."

She shrugged, not really denying the plain truth. "I've had my fair share of spelunking in the Patch's precious caverns during my free time. They're not the most watchful of folk. That is, until you get near the gate that leads into the Land of Stars."

"Clancy can help Opacho get Hao-sama away from Goldva?" the little girl asked.

She winked at little girl. "I'll try. But first, we need to get to somewhere safe."

Opacho brightened immensely. "Opacho will take Yoh-sama to camp. Clancy can come, too."

Rachist shoved his face into his palm. Being outmaneuvered by a four-year old was not high on his bucket list, nor did he feel that it was in her place to do so. "Opacho, I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

She looked up at the taller man with no concern in her eyes. "Opacho does not hear bad things."

Yoh wondered what she meant by that, but didn't dwell on it. The remaining members of Hao's former troupe were beginning to come closer. The way they looked at him was rather eerie. It was as if they were looking through his soul.

Peyote stepped forward from their ranks. He asked the girl, "You are sure?"

"Opacho does not say things Opacho does not mean," she said sweetly.

"Fine," Rakist eventually said, grudgingly. He beckoned to Yoh and Anna just as the archangel oversoul materialized behind him. It reached down one of its behemoth hands and "Come with me, you two come with me."

The doctor raised an eyebrow. "Excuse you."

Peyote stifled a laugh, witnessing his black-clad superior's face turn rather smug.

Rakist didn't turn around while he spoke. "Just because I've taken Opacho's advice doesn't mean I have to like it, nor must I comply like an innocent lamb. You've got your own means of transportation." His oversoul gently lifted him and his two passengers back up.

"Póg me hón," she hissed.

ooOOooOOoo

Yoh's eyes widened in shock when the doctor finished her recount of events. He stared across the circle they had made around the burning campfire. "He's the Shaman King?"

"Yes," she said, leaning back on the rock she we perched on. "He plans on taking the throne when they execute him."

They were all arranged around a large campfire in the dark depths of a forest. The sun had long set below the horizon. It had taken them the better part of an hour to get there; Rakist having forgotten where is was after months of abandonment. He had been surprised it was located so far away. Then again, he was also not surprised to know that Hao liked to teleport whenever he needed to. It was dark and secluded, virtually hidden by the protective barriers that had remained untouched after the fire shaman's loss of power.

The news of Hao's not-so-helpless situation both relieved and stunned him. He'd noticed the freaky weather, but hadn't connected it like the doctor had. It was what Hao had wanted all along and now that he was…better…Yoh didn't think he'd have to worry too much about what his twin would do.

"Hao-sama is king?" Opacho asked.

"He will be, soon, I suspect…" Her voice, however, did not posses the most positive tone Yoh had heard from her.

"What's wrong?" he asked tentatively.

She frowned miserably, only made worse by the dark shadows the fire's glow cast against her pale skin. "He told me to ask you to do something."

"Oh, good God," Yoh said immediately. "He wants me to be the one to kill him, doesn't he?"

"No."

He relaxed somewhat. "By all means, fire away."

Clancy paused, saying after a moment, "First of all, he doesn't know about this. I wiped his memory of what he asked me to tell you at his request. Otherwise, he didn't think it would work."

"Okay..." he said, trying to follow her.

She looked at him with a pained glint in her eyes. "When he kills you, he wants you to find his mother."

ooOOooOOoo

The rhythmic whirring and churning of the Great Spirit filled the Land of the Stars like white noise. It was both comforting and ridiculously annoying. Birds roosted in the surrounding forest abruptly squawked in surprise at a sudden cry of pain, leaping aloft in fear. The temperature skyrocketed to a blistering heat within a small, isolated area at the base of the Great Spirit.

"Shut UP!" Hao screamed at the swirling monolith before him. The raw sound did absolutely nothing in terms of what he wanted. It only made his own situation worse, his throat beginning to ache from the repeated yells.

Even the place they had so lovingly decided to move him was mocking with the sheer irony of it all. At the end of the long, winding path through the thick celestial forest, past the gates, and up the long flight of ancient stone stairs was the platform he had taken Yoh's soul. The throne reserved for the Shaman King sat dead center in the idyllic circle of sculpted columns.

He was the king, and this was his rightful throne, but they didn't know that yet. The Patch had reserved him this blessed spot for a far more sinister reason altogether. He hadn't known what had given them the idea for this type of torture, but he knew they had him pinned like a doll. They did, too, after the first experiment.

Damn them to the depths of Hell!

Hao's face was distorted in unconcealed agony, bent over, his mahogany hair falling about him like a veil. His wrists, legs, and hips were chained to the to the solid stone via a binding oversoul. The ex-shaman's dark brown eyes were nearly shut, trying to block out the light before him. He wanted out, he wanted the pain to go away, but most than anything else, he wanted to die.

However, they didn't seem to think that he needed that treatment just yet.

His head was pounding brutally with the worst headache he had ever experienced in his thousand years of life and death. It wasn't a normal headache at all, thought he desperately wished it were. They would pale in comparison to this beast.

It was all due to the Reishi. Any normal shaman wouldn't have flinched if they were sitting where he was. The last time he had been here, there had only the faint murmuring in the back of his mind. The difference between then and now was drastic; like fire and ice.

The Great Spirit hadn't been looking for him, or any king, last time. It was, now, and he was so close to it that it could almost touch him. It even bent slightly at the middle toward the platform, pulled by an unnatural attraction. Now that he was back, mentally unprepared for what could happen, it was a totally different story.

Hao felt faint and weak against the impossible onslaught of voices. His breathing had become ragged with pain and exhaustion from the length of time he had been exposed to the Great Spirit.

He had been unsure of the Reishi's ultimate disappearance after that rainy night. He hadn't wanted to admit it to himself, but it had never really left him. It had only become muddled. It had become easier to ignore, so he had done just that.

Hao gritted his teeth. The pain was crippling, debilitating, and inescapable. There was nowhere to run, no way to shield himself from it. Only blinding misery. What was more was that this pain wasn't even his biggest issue.

Shortly after Hao had been incarcerated with his former doctor, a sort of nagging began to build somewhere at the edge of his consciousness. It came from within him, from the black of negative emotions, growing in intensity and size.

He tried to make a barricade around himself from both attacks, ignoring it almost completely. The voices became overwhelming like a tidal wave, overtaking the protective bubble, completely encasing him. The more sinister nagging poked, prodded, became enraged, and utterly demanded to be unleashed.

Hao's eyes flashed open. He knew what it was; he knew what it would do. It had happened once before to him. Fear swelled within his stomach like a bad case of nausea. Not for his own safety, but, this time, for someone else.

A moment later, the internal struggle ceased for one heart-stopping second. Then, out of nowhere, the balance shifted slightly, and gave out.

ooOOooOOoo

He's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

What? Did you think I was going to keep that boy all nice, sentimental, and emotional for my own personal amusement forever?