Heeello, everybody!
I'm finally back with a chapter after ages and as always I apologize for the long wait. I kinda had some problems figuring out how to continue here...
Little announcement: I didn't really plan some scene of this chapter but thanks to a reviewer my brain started working and the idea just sounded... good. So yeah.
If someone likes Anna, please, don't take it personal or hate me for what Karura said (and I probably f-cked over the itako's character, sjdsg. Stupid me). I just hope my OC didn't become too Mary Sue or something, I'd probably jump out of the window if she did.
A huge thanks for the ones who reviews, reads, follows or favorites the story! I'm really glad you like the story up until now. :3
We'll meet again at the end of this chapter, I have to clarify some things probably.
(also... I hadn't checked properly the grammar because here's quite late already and I had to finish the chapter and add the notes at the end to update today. I apologize if something is off)
Now to the chapter!
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Warnings: mostly OC!centric, possible OOC, mistakes and stuff.
Lots of coarse language since our protagonist is rather... vocal sometimes (please bear with her, she'll get better... hopefully).
Rated T for language and some themes.
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Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King, but I do own part of the plot and my adorable OC (which will probably kill me in my sleep some day).
Two months incredibly flew by in the blink of an eye.
It was kind of fun and though at the same time: almost every day Lirirara, Yoichi and I would wake up early to train together, as to improve our teamwork. We also decided our main position in the team, me being the main attacker, Yoichi the defense and Lirirara the support; it's not like that those were the only role we'd play in a match, we'd switch according to the situation, but it's good to be organized as such.
By the way, we had our morning run all together - most of times meeting up with Yoh and the others too - before breakfast, then went to have breakfast with the whole group and after that we had training again. Much to Anna's displeasure, our teams (meaning, Yoh's, Ren's and mine) often had friendly matches among ourselves - that really should be a good thing for her point of view too, since she'd be able to see the "enemy"'s fighting style.
Rarely Ren and Faust would join, but whatever. I was honestly happy to be able to spend some time with my younger little brother.
After another shower and lunch, there was the bad part of the day - according to a certain someone.
Namely, me (and whoever wanted to come too, which was usually no one) going to see my older little brother Hao. Now, even if I said it over and over again, Yoichi simply wouldn't stop complaining nor Lirirara wouldn't stop glancing at me with worry and/or suspect.
Understandable, but... holy Spirit King, it was annoying!
So, basically we had fights everyday (for the first month, at least) before I left and of course I was - kind of - in a bad mood for the rest of the afternoon, which is exactly why I kept bitching all the way with Boris and Hao too. And here comes the most funny thing! After the nth time I came to their camp pissed as hell, my brother offered to fight - friendly - together to help me blowing off some steam (and probably to save himself and the others another migraine).
Turns out that that was the perfect thing to do: even if he basically wiped the floor, or the ground in this case, with my ass (no surprise there), it helped me a lot to improve my fighting style too. That, and for once Tsumizuki was more than happy to fight alongside with me and not against me; on more than one occasion I let her loose again, knowing that she'd be no threat to Hao nor the Spirit of Fire.
It was rejuvenating at last - something else I had to thank my brother for.
«You surely picked one hell of a spirit, nee-san.»
The light brown haired girl looked at Hao with a roasted fish half hanging from her mouth. «'i' 'ou 'ewwy 'ealife 'uft 'ow?»
«...Finish eating before you talk.» he commented, slightly annoyed by the display. The two were sitting under a tree at the camp's limit, watching the other members of Hao's group and their ghosts interact; the Boz began playing some songs while it was clear that Kanna didn't like it very much.
Karura just finished munching her snack, swallowed and wiped her mouth before speaking again.
«I said, did you really realize just now? It should have been crystal clear when you met her the first time.»
The girl grinned as he did the same, before turning her gaze back to her spirit was: incredibly, Tsumizuki was slightly changing too during the time they spent with the fire shaman's gang, Karura realized. The light blue haired ghost seemed... happier, more relaxed among them - probably because there were no samurais or whatever - but sometimes she played rough jokes on her fellow spirits.
The older Asakura liked to think that that was her way to show some kind of attachment, albeit a slightly twisted one.
«It seems that you too have a twisted bond with her.» Hao commented again, making his sister look at him again. «You two are a team, but you don't even trust each other that much on the battlefield. You often had lost control over her and had to force your will on her. And, you seem to want to look at her as a friend of sorts despite knowing that she'll just exploit the situation for her own desires.»
Karura kept silent, but in her mind there was the usual mess of thoughts and emotions running free.
One thing she did know, though: he was plain right. Ever since she read Shaman King for the first time and began to fantasize on that world, she'd have liked to have a friendly relationship with her hypothetical guardian spirit; yet, when she arrived there and trusted blindly her partner, only to be utterly betrayed.
Nonetheless, albeit she often threatened to send Tsumizuki back to Hell, the girl never really tried to.
She knew also why, but didn't want to say it out loud.
So, she simply shrugged and smiled as if it was nothing. «A she once said, I may just love lost causes after all~»
«Probably.» the younger boy smiled as usual too, not bothering to continue the conversation on her topic.
Instead, he turned his back to Karura for a moment and then plopped is shoulders and head on her lap, as if using her as a pillow; the girl looked taken aback for a second, blinking a few times before putting a hand on his head and stroking his long hair lightly.
«Comfortable?»
«Quite. I'm taking a nap now.»
She laughed a bit, keeping on with the strokes. «Good rest, oto-oto.»
When Hao woke up later he found Karura in the same position she had when he dozed off, her hand still on his head and her chest rising and lowering rhythmically. He inwardly smiled, seeing his usually hyper-active sister soundly asleep despite the uncomfortable position.
It was quite unusual for him to be able to relax, although only a bit, around someone and he found himself wondering how the girl managed to sneak her way to him like that. Probably he was just curious because of her straight-to-the-point behavior towards him - especially when she confronted him the first time and basically yelled at his face all her frustration - and saw the possibility that she'd bring him his twin brother too.
But it was curious indeed: he didn't feel any negative intention or thought towards him, even when she didn't use the technique to prevent him to see the majority of her thoughts. So, he said to himself, he might just accept her being near him to keep an eye on her and understand her motives better.
He also had his share of entertainment when she was there too, was it either when they sparred or when he taught her some techniques. Nostalgic as it might seem, Hao felt almost like he was back to his first life as an onmyouji.
And that wasn't necessarily too bad.
So the days went on, with mornings with a group and the afternoons with the other. Not everyone was happy, but whatever.
Then, there was this one time that Yoh did something (and I quote Anna) "unbelievably absurd and stupid", such as saying that he'd have liked to come with me to see Hao and his group; now, I know he meant well and probably wanted to know how Boris was faring in person, however this didn't prevent problems to surface.
My younger little brother clarified that his objective was merely talking with Hao and Karura together (without mentioning to the others, who were still oblivious of the fact, that the three of us were siblings), but apparently his fiancée was not going to listen to his reasons. More like, she was scared that Yoh would turn his back to her and the Asakuras and all the crap that was going on there.
She practically overwhelmed him with training sessions after the day he voiced his idea, morning and afternoon sessions alike, so he'd be too tired to even think about having social interaction when he was done with that. It irked me to no end, but I kept silent for the first week.
Having chats with Yoh became difficult as well, since the only moments when we could interact were morning runs. At one point I told him what I suspected Anna was doing (she justified her behavior saying that he had to become stronger if he wanted to stay in the tournament until the finals, but her true intention was clear as the sun) and he did sadly agree with me. He also promised that he'd find a solution and told me to not worry about him.
My answer?
Well...
«Yoh is coming with me today.»
It was a bit after lunch time when Karura said that in a firm voice, mainly speaking to the blonde itako; everyone was there though, so of course they heard as well. Anna lowered her cup of tea and glared at the older girl openly.
«He has to train this afternoon.»
«He can take a pause for once, or else he'll strain his body too much.»
The brown haired shaman noticed the tiredness in her brother's body and knew by firsthand experience that it wouldn't do him any good if he continued that way too long without being accustomed to it first. Apparently, the Asakura wife didn't care.
«No, he can't. Yoh will never become Shaman King like this.»
A vein on Karura's forehead bulged a bit. He'll never become Shaman King anyway and you know it, she wanted to say but still refrained from doing so. «You're making him weaker instead of stronger, in case you didn't notice. Of course he won't become Shaman King if he arrives to the match without the energy to even stand on his legs.»
It was Anna's turn to frown deeply. The other guys and girls simply stared between the two, not even daring to speak; they knew better than to mess with an angry Anna, but they also knew how scary a pissed off Karura might become. So, they simply stared - someone secretly curious, someone utterly amused, someone scared... someone even worried for the outcome.
The blonde stood from her seat, looking down to the girl seated at the other side of the table. «Are you implying that Yoh would lose a match because of my training method?»
«I want to clarify something, Anna. I'm not implying that he would lose.» No honorifics or whatever; Karura still looked unimpressed - maybe annoyed but definitely not impressed - by the other girl's antics. Then, she smiled smugly. «I'm saying that he definitely will lose because of this overly strict training schedule because you're being annoyingly childish and don't want Yoh to have his own ideas regarding Hao.»
That did the trick: now the itako was beyond pissed. «You're no one to talk to me like this, nor to decide for him!»
«Oh, is that so?» Karura said sarcastically. «You're not even related to him, yet act all bossy and bitchy if he doesn't follow your orders. You don't own him and even if he loves you-» she made a face at this point. «-it doesn't mean that you can treat him like a puppet.»
The older shaman stood from her seat, left the money for the food on the table and turned to her brother, smiling as if the tense atmosphere wasn't even there. «Well, Yoh! If you're done with lunch, shall we go before the Oni Empress tries to punish us with-»
The phrase hung in the air as a loud crashing noise filled the street: the group sitting at the outside tables of the cafè stared at the point where Karura once stood, only to see the blue and the red shikigamis with their arms still stretched; it was obvious who they attacked.
Yoichi immediately stood up, his chair screeching behind him, and ran towards the now damaged building in front of the cafè. Upon hearing his call out for her, Karura kicked aside a piece of debris that most likely fell on her after she collided with the wall and stood up; her lower lip was bleeding, they noticed.
«My~ That was a close call, right, master?» Tsumizuki appeared beside her in her full form while the shaman wiped the blood from her face with a serious frown; now, the spirit liked that expression the best because it meant that her 'little Karura' was way past her patience level. The former shinobi grinned widely.
«She seriously did it this time.» she muttered while wearing the wire bracers on both her forearms; Tsumizuki immediately fused with them, even without her shaman's command. Everyone saw, including a smugly smiling Anna and a worried Yoh. It was not going to end well for someone.
«Ohi, ohi, ohi! They're not going to really fight, right?» Horo Horo asked in a low but hurried tone.
Ren simply ignored him, focusing his attention to the two girls in front of each other in the street, while Ryu gulped and told him that he didn't even know. Surprisingly enough, Chocolove didn't try to crack a joke to relieve the atmosphere - he didn't want to be involved with the matter. Yoh, Yoichi and Lirirara looked carefully too, uncertain on what would happen later.
Then, it began.
At the same time, both Zenki and Goki rushed towards Karura with their axes already lifted in the air; she ran forward as well, eyeing them with the most attention. She evaded their first combined attack jumping on the left and ducked under Zenki's kick; she propped herself towards it only to be punched - hard - away by Goki. The two sprinted to her again, keeping the shaman away from their master and landing a few more hits.
Karura was struck on defense and evading - this didn't sound right to Anna, who was carefully watching her opponent's movements. She studied her attack patterns already and there was apparently nothing different from usual, but at the same time the itako felt something... off. As if Karura was waiting something.
Her suspects were confirmed a few moments later when she saw the girl she hated slam her right hand on the ground: countless strings erupted from below, drawing a spiderweb-like pattern on the street and in the air between the buildings. Anna clicked her tongue upon seeing her shikigamis struggling, trying to break free from the trap, while Karura jumped from thread to thread to get closer and closer with her oversoul.
The itako prepared herself and waited the other to approach her before using a certain technique - furyoku nullification - to disperse Karura's oversoul, catching her off guard for an instant; freed as well, Zenki and Goki dashed towards the brown haired female for the final strike.
Anna felt somehow ashamed: she had to use such an high-leveled technique against that traitor! Such a dishonor-
Pain bloomed on her face like a firework, stopping her thoughts abruptly: she realized the impact with the ground even before the one with the older Asakura's fist. She fell on her side, but when she tried to stand back up again something heavy collided with her chest, cutting the hair from her lungs for a moment.
«You shouldn't lower you guard, you know. If you relax too much you're going to die.» Karura said in a sarcastic monotone voice, but the other only smirked.
«Right back at you.»
The itako saw the two shikigamis behind her opponent, about to strike her in the back. The older female had noticed too but didn't move a bit; she grinned darkly, a bit sadistically too. The reason was soon revealed: black eyes widened as the ogres began to dissipate - Anna felt a strong spiritual pressure around the two of them and understood what just happened.
Brown orbs glimmered with satisfaction and mirth. «Whaaat? You didn't think you were the only one to know about furyoku nullification, did you? Hao helped me a bit with my training, thanks to you I had a f-ckton of stress on my shoulders and he gave me a hand to blow off the steam. He's a very, very good teacher and will be a nice brother and help Yoh too, if he asks him. You know, that's what family members are supposed to do: help and support each other.»
After her little speech, Karura stepped aside, leaving a slightly shocked Anna laying on the ground, and went straight to catch her brother in a hug, asking if now he was okay with leaving.
The boy went to his fiancée to check on her, being his kind usual self; seeing no noticeable wounds other than the red sign on her nose and the slight bleeding, he left her with Tamao and waved off to his friends, before he started following the older brunette to the woods.
«It. Felt. GREAT! Sweet hell, I've never been this happy lately. I must thank our brother for the tips and the lessons he gave me for the past month!»
I couldn't help but feeling hyped after the little show between me and Anna. Well, I was a bit roughed up but whatever: I freaking won against the Oni Empress! And now that I think of it... I didn't realize that what I said was a bit nasty to her due to her experience with onis and stuff when she was younger.
…scratch that, I don't care~ Mwahahahah!
So yeah, I probably lost it somewhere during the fight. I managed to make Yoh sweat drop too and if that wasn't a bad sign then I didn't know what was.
It took me several minutes to calm down a bit and regain my usual composure, then I was able to talk to Yoh normally. Point was, I couldn't think about what - totally absurd if you ask me, I always detained the championship of blabbering nonsense out of nowhere most of times.
Gratefulness took over me as Yoh started speaking. «You really looked like you were having fun with the duel.»
«Well, yes.» I snickered a bit to myself; no point in hiding it, right? «I don't really like Anna because, seriously, she almost exhausted you to keep you from doing something you wanted to do! I mean, it's just stupid! Annoying, unjust, stupid and more annoying! Did I say that it is annoying? Because it really is.»
«Yeah, yeah, I get it.» Yoh laughed openly, a smile plastering his lips even after the laughter died out. «Thank you, sis.»
I looked over him questioningly.
«You defended me back there, in the restaurant, I appreciate it. You were also sent flying because of that.»
Snort. «That actually hurt, even if Tsumi cushioned the impact. F-cking overly-strong shikigamis.» My right hand went to the left shoulder, which was still aching; that was also the main reason why I punched Anna straight in the face and then stepped on her chest. Low pain tolerance and slight vengefulness, remember?
"Slight?"
I ignored Tsumizuki's sarcasm right away.
«Well, what did you expect from Hao? He's strong, more than anyone.» Yoh commented matter-of-factly; I simply nodded.
«He tried to teach me a few tricks, but I barely caught some... like furyoku nullification: it cuts your furyoku off and so every technique or attack that involves it is canceled right away. It's pretty useful once you master it!»
«Woah, seriously there's such a convenient technique?!»
«Yep! Anna used it too during our fight, but... if I have to be honest, I think that I succeeded purely out of luck.» Admittedly, it had been the first time it actually worked out well; I tried countless time before against Kanna, Matilde and Marion but... well, let's say that id hadn't been nice at all.
Yoh hummed to himself. «... well, you still did it correctly! Isn't it something to be happy about?»
Seriously, bless this boy and his good nature.
«You're right, eheh~ I'll have to tell Hao too, I suppose he'll be satisfied enough knowing that his teachings brought some kind of result.»
That was honestly one of the best moments I shared with Yoh from what I can remember.
But...You know what they say about happy times?
They don't last long.
I realized that when I suddenly felt a (and I quote myself) f-cking God forsaken pain right from the six realms of hell in my head - like I had a thousand elephants dancing tip tap on my brain while the demon orchestra played the most screeching and unorganized tune ever. F-ck me when I whined about a simple migraine.
Good thing was I didn't have much time to concentrate on that: another surge of pain flowed from my left shoulder, neck and upper abdomen.
«KARURA!» Yoh's voice reached my ears, but I was more occupied in trying to understand.
I felt something leave my body, like multiple sharp knives, and stumbled forward on my knees. Then, it hit me.
A red, warm and sticky fluid was my shirt rapidly. The spirit guardian Imari stood beside me, her mouth still slightly opened, together with the spirit guardian Shigaraki.
«It took some time, but I managed finally.» The asshole's (no, not Marco; the other asshole) voice woke me up from my trance-like state and I noticed that Yoh was either shocked and angry at his - our - father for what he had just done.
«...s-shit...» My vision went suddenly black ever before I could insult Mikihisa with everything I had.
So much for a calm and happy day.
Cliffhanger, mwahahaha!
...sorry, ahehm. I'll leave you with the explanations now.
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- Hao
I hope that Hao didn't sound too much OOC. I tried to make him still... huh, suspicious of Karura but not too much. I mean, techically they've spent weeks together already and he somehow became accostumed to her presence and antics (she likes to annoy the hell out of Kanna mainly, but the others too sometimes). I also thought that he'd rather keep her busy with something useful when she began to bother everyone after seeing Anna's behaviour after Yoh's declarations, so yeah.
It's really difficult for me to show a somehow... softer side of him. Not that he'll cry out his brotherly love to the winds, but I wanted to give the idea that he's kind of warming up to Karura.
No pun intended.
- Relationship with Tsumizuki
Karura has currently a love/hate relationship with her ghost. She'd still like to befriend her, but also knows that she'll take advantage of her in the moment the girl lowers her guard. Being a headstrong, Karura refused and still refuses to find another spirit.
- Anna vs. Karura
As mentioned before, this was definitely not planned but a review gave me the idea. Yeah, I probably still suck at describing the fighting scenes, but I tried nonetheless: it just didn't sound right to write paragraphs of Zenki and Goki attacking while Karura evaded and vice-versa. It'd be boring, so I cut.
And as I said to The-Living-Shadow (and I quote from my message) "in raw combat ability I think Anna doesn't have much power, her ability lies in onmyoji techniques if I'm not mistaken; Karura, on the other hand, thanks to the Tamashimi's training (mainly Shiho's) has developed her good share of experience". So I figured that she'd fall flat on her back if she punched really hard - which is exactly what Karura did.
Of course, they'll be at war from this chapter on. No surprise here.
- Furyoku nullification technique
It's said on the wiki that it's an high-level skill and I know for sure that both Hao and Anna can perform it. Karura... well, she really managed out of luck and momentary concentration: she was definitely irked by Anna and determined to "kick her ass", so she focused a lot more than usual.
Yes, Karura is usually easily distracted.
- Karura dealing with Mikihisa's stalker tendencies
She attracts misfortune. There's not a single good experience she has that doesn't end with something tragic.
(Karura: And whose fault is that?!)
I strangely find easier to write those scenes and the dialogues than other passages, but well...
Why she didn't react while attacked by her father? See the last sentence of the previous explanation: she gets easily distracted, which - ironically - is the same thing she said to Anna earlier. I also think that Miki has somehow developed and mastered a ninja-stalker technique to go unnoticed by his children (besides from Hao).
Sum up these two things and you'll get how Karura didn't see the attack coming and is now dying/already dead. Again.
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Sooo, yeah. I feel like the explanations were longer than the chapter...
Till the next update, bye everyone!