25th Star: Reincarnation

"Hao?" I blinked. "But that's the same name as my ancestor, Hao Asakura."

This made Hatki look down at me sternly. "What did he look like?"

"I don't know," I said, shaking my head. "But that creature from the vision you showed us looked familiar."

"It was the same kind of spirit that long-haired kid summoned when we fell out of the Oversoul plane," Lou stated, causing Hatki's eyes to widen.

"How long was this boy's hair?" Hatki asked.

"Went down past his shoulders, at least," Lou answered, sitting up while holding his head. "And it was black."

"Any other distinct features that you can remember?"

"His face was narrow, his eyes were dark, and he wore a poncho that covered most of his body."

Sighing painfully, Hatki stated, "Then it must be Hao."

"But that's impossible!" Annabelle exclaimed, sitting upright. "How can a man that attacked your village five hundred years ago still be alive today?"

"There is…a certain ritual in Japan," Hatki explained. "Known as Taizan Fukun no Sai, it allows one to reincarnate after death while retaining the memories and abilities of one's past lives."

"How do you know about this ritual?" I demanded. "Because I've certainly never heard of it, and I'm from the Branch Family of the Asakuras."

"In my lifelong search to find the man responsible for destroying my village, I came to Japan to find my answers and met with the Asakura head Yohmei," Hatki explained. "He told me about his family ancestor, who was originally called Asaha Douji before he became Hao Asakura, and the ritual he used to stave off death to fulfill his ultimate goal which is to rid the world of humans for good. And what better way to accomplish that than the Shaman King Tournament?"

"So you're saying that my ancestor used Taizan Fukun no Sai to reincarnate as a member of the Patch five hundred years ago, and then as a young boy in the present?"

"It would seem so, as Yohmei confirmed my suspicion about the man from my ancestor's visions and warned me that Hao might return by the time the next Shaman King Tournament occurred."

"Then if that's the case, we should stop him," Lou responded, getting to his knees.

"No!" Hatki insisted. "I cannot let you go. If this new incarnation of Hao is using the same spirit he used to destroy my village, then there's no chance of stopping him."

"But given the number of Shamans that are participating in the tournament, surely one of them could stand up to Hao," I argued. "In fact, my cousin from the Main Family is currently involved."

"And what kind of spirit does he possess?"

Unable to answer Hatki, I regretted not asking Keiko about it when I was at the Asakura Family House. Meanwhile, Annabelle was surprised to find that Roger wasn't on her dress anymore and Lou couldn't seem to locate the Colt Lightning or the bullet necklace.

"I took the liberty of removing your Mediums while you were unconscious," Hatki said. "And I won't tell you where they are unless you'll promise to go home and forget about this Shaman King Tournament."

Quickly, I checked my inner jacket pockets and discovered my origami stars were gone too. So I sent a mental message out to them, while Lou and Annabelle glared at Hatki. In a matter of seconds, the Shikigami-possessed stars slip through the cracks of a closed door nearby and surrounded Hatki on all sides with their edges gleaming.

"Now I don't want to hurt you, Hatki," I said, standing up slowly. "But we need to get to the Patch Village, not just to fulfill our own goals but to stop my ancestor from accomplishing his goal which is way worse than ours."

"Yet you three are merely children," Hatki pointed out, touching the arrowhead.

Averting my gaze, I continued, "It doesn't matter. If we have the ability to stop Hao, then we should be allowed to do it. Otherwise, what happened to your village will happen to the whole world. This includes Cody, whom I'm guessing you care a great deal about. That's why you didn't answer her phone-call, right?"

Before Hatki could answer, a series of knocks came from the front door. This caused me to force Hoshi and the other Shikigami back into my jacket pockets, while Lou and Annabelle got to their feet. As Hatki went to see who it was, me and the others quickly sneaked to the closed door. Then just as Lou was about to open it, the front door opened.

"Hello, Hatki," a familiar voice said, prompting me to look back. "It's been a long time since we last met, hasn't it?"

Behind me, the long-haired boy stood on the other side of the front door smiling while Hatki was slowly backing away.

"Of course, you were known back then as Lakni, the only Seminoan Shaman who didn't get to participate in the Shaman King Tournament five hundred years ago," the long-haired boy clarified, not moving an inch. "Instead, you had to watch your wife Kitisci perish and run away along with the other survivors like scared animals in wake of an oncoming wildfire."

Just then, the upper-half of the fiery antlered creature appeared behind the boy reaching out towards Hatki who held up his arrowhead clasp which briefly glinted.

"Nice try, but your attempt at putting me in a Seminoa Vision won't work," the boy sneered. "My will is too strong to succumb to such hypnosis, and your pitiful attempt at reincarnation is nowhere near the same level of Mana as mine."

Then Lou managed opened the closed door shoving me and Annabelle inside. As he closed it, we heard the sound of roaring fire followed by a painful-sounding scream.

"Hatki!" I exclaimed. "We have to help him!"

"It's too late," Lou insisted, grabbing the Colt Lightning from a trunk Bill's ghost opened along with the bullet necklace while Annabelle grabbed the doll Roger. "We need to get out of here, before that kid fries us too."

"But wait," Annabelle abruptly said, reaching into the bottom of the trunk. "There's a map—

"Let's go!" Lou grabbed Annabelle by the waist, yanking her toward the back door.

So hastily I grabbed a folded piece of paper from the trunk, which I assumed was the map Annabelle was referring to, before Bill followed Lou and Annabelle out through the back door while I closed it behind us. We found ourselves running down a rocky slope towards a forest which faced the nearby mountains, just as Hatki's whole house was set ablaze with the antlered creature emerging from it which I saw after briefly looking back before Lou urged me to keep moving.

To be continued…