DISCLAIMER: I don't own Shaman King.

I rewrote Lilirara's stuff a little bit to benefit the story. Not too much is changed, but I didn't wanna make the 5 Seminoa warriors into 6 or something, but I still wanted to get the experience across. :P

Soooooo uber happy, I just got back from seeing I Am Number Four. Epic book and epic movie! *squeals* XD

Lilirara. What a weird name - but then again, Chocolove kinda is too. And BoroBoro XD Never really paid her any mind, but I think I remember what happens to her in the manga... Poor lady.

Gotta go, see y'all next week :D I'll have more time to write (hopefully) since it's vacation! But then again, I'm getting my teeth pulled... Oh well.

Thirty-Eight: Lilirara

"Seminoa?" Yoh breathed.

"Hold on a sec," HoroHoro said to Chocolove, his arms crossed. "What we have to find is Patch Village. Not the people of the Seminoa."

"Even if the warriors of the Seminoa participated in the Shaman Fight five hundred years ago?" Chocolove asked smugly.

Seminoa… I could just remember watching the Seminoa shamans in the first preliminary five hundred years ago. They had been strong, very strong, but I couldn't remember seeing them at Patch Village. I wondered…

Oh, I thought, fire flickering behind my eyes. It was him.

"What did you say?" Ryu asked Chocolove.

"That's right," Chocolove replied. "I heard that there was a legend left behind from that time. In other words, the legend of Patch Village."

"That's great!" HoroHoro exclaimed.

"Figure skate!" Chocolove punned. Immediately, he was just a lump of bruises on the ground that muttered, "At least be a little thankful for my information…"

"Thanks for the information," Ren said, though I didn't hear any sort of thankfulness in his voice.

"Stop it with those stupid jokes already!" HoroHoro yelled, holding up a fist.

Yoh laughed, but before anyone could say anything, a scream came from behind me, and I looked to see all five of the Lily Five running down the street in panic, yelling something along the lines of "I'm sorry!" Before too long, they disappeared around a corner.

"What was that about?" HoroHoro asked in confusion.

"Do you know them?" Chocolove asked, his voice shaky and thick. I looked back at him to see that his nose was bleeding, and he had a swollen lip as well as a black eye. "It looked like they came from the direction of Lilirara's house."

"Lilirara?" Yoh repeated.

"Yeah," Chocolove agreed. "She's a descendant of the Seminoa."

Chocolove then began to lead us to Lilirara's house. I had heard of Lilirara - after all, the Seminoa were another Native American tribe like the Patch - and I had heard rumors that she was the keeper of the Seminoa shamans' memories, a job that was passed down among the tribe's descendants. Beyond that, though, I didn't have too much of a clue. However, as we neared her house (which was rather grey and overlarge for just one person), I could feel several spirits in the air, and my skin tingled in dark forewarning.

"Is this the place?" Ren asked quietly.

"Yeah," Chocolove agreed, his face having returned to its normal appearance.

"It has a strange atmosphere," HoroHoro noted, his arms crossed.

"It's really gloomy," Ryu added.

Yeah, I thought pessimistically. Gloomy.

"Hello!" Yoh called, banging on the door with the knocker.

"He's so easygoing," the others chorused in defeat.

"Is anyone here?" Yoh called. When there was no answer (but I could feel that someone was in there), he turned his head back to us, his hand still on the knocker. "Looks like no one's home."

His balance suddenly shifted, and as he caught himself on the double doors, they creaked open, revealing a dark room lit by a single candle. A woman was just barely visible inside as she sat on what appeared to be a bed, holding a staff. Dark shapes hung from the rafters, and I could sense at least five spirits in the room.

The woman stood, and I could just barely make out her tanned skin, the tattoo on her face, and the candlelit shine of what appeared to be greasy hair. "Oh," she said, her voice not in a monotone but also not at all cheery, "participants of the Shaman Fight. Return to your homelands immediately."

"Homeland?" Yoh repeated.

"To Funbari Hill?" Ryu asked.

"To Hokkaido?" HoroHoro pondered.

"To New York?" said Chocolove.

Immediately, the latter three turned and began walking out the door, and, I'll admit it, I followed them.

"You guys are actually going to leave because she told you to?" Ren thundered. "You clowns!"

"Where should I go?" Yoh asked, and I heard his footsteps behind me. "Izumo? Funbari Hill?"

"Now five…" I heard Ren breathe.

As one, Yoh and the others turned around, and I had to stop short to follow their lead (damn them and their lack of fear of this woman; I had a terrible, terrible feeling about this). I ended up standing between HoroHoro and Yoh, in front of Ren and Ryu, while Chocolove was on Yoh's other side.

"Actually," Yoh began, "how did you know that we're shamans?"

"I am Lilirara," the woman explained. "A medicine woman who passes down the legends of the Seminoa. What good would I be if I couldn't even see that?"

I fought the urge to blink, hoping to the King of Spirits that Lilirara didn't have the ability to see at least part of who I really was.

"Medicine woman?" HoroHoro repeated.

"They're spiritual leaders who have lived on this continent since ancient times," Ren clarified. "She's also a shaman."

"Oh, you who have been invited by the Patch and are participating in the Shaman Fight," Lilirara went on. "You must not trust them."

The sudden need to defend my kin rose up inside me, but I forced myself to stay still. After all, I didn't look Patch, and if I started jumping to their defense - either through signing or telepathy or speech through Nix - well, that would raise some questions.

"Why?" Ren asked.

"Because they are trying to repeat the same mistake," said Lilirara.

"Mistake?" Yoh echoed.

Lilirara stared at us. "The Shaman Fight five hundred years ago ended in tragedy because of them. And yet, they are trying to hold another one. They can't be sane."

Liar, I thought, my fist tightening. It was all Hao, not the Patch.

"What happened in that tragedy?" Yoh asked.

Lilirara held out her staff, her voice strengthening. "If you want to know, it is my duty to tell you. That is why I was given the memories of the tribe. However," she said, "there are six of you, so turns will have to be taken, if it is your wish. Are your bodies ready to experience the tragedy from five hundred years ago?"

"What do you mean by 'ready'?" HoroHoro exclaimed. "And 'turns'?"

I stiffened, realizing what Lilirara was about to do. I would have turned and ran away if her eyes hadn't started to… swirl. "I am the medicine woman of the Seminoa," she said as her eyes connected with mine. "One who obeys the laws of the past. I will allow you to taste the tragedy of five hundred years ago just as it was. The pain, the grief, just as it was!"

"What's she going on about?" HoroHoro asked.

"I hate pain," Chocolove squeaked.

Eyes glowed on the dark figures on the rafters, revealing themselves to be tribal dolls, five in all, but I could look nowhere but Lilirara's eyes.

"Try it yourselves!" Lilirara said. "Because of numbers, one of you will go first."

The five dolls were suddenly rushing about, and I heard the others scream in pain before a spirit overtook me.

()()()()()()()()

Immediately, I threw a mental blanket over my memories, like I had done with Buramuro.

"…memory of the suffering that the warriors of the Seminoa received in the last Shaman Fight," I heard Lilirara say. Blackness was all around me, and I was floating in it, but I could also feel myself lying on a floor, like I was in two places at once. "You felt what they experienced through a vision."

"What did you do to Tori?" I heard HoroHoro yell, and I felt a hand shake my shoulder.

"The Seminoa technique allows a vision to be sent directly into you with just a touch from a spirit," Lilirara explained. "Your friend is about to relive the tragedy that the Seminoa warriors were put through."

"Let her go, Lilirara," I heard Yoh plead. "She never said that she wanted to do this."

"I can't," Lilirara explained as a scene flickered to life in front of me, like a movie screen. "She is already about to experience it. Besides, her eye contact was more than enough of an agreement. She can only come out of the vision once it is over, and since it had started, no one can enter with her."

In front of me, the odd screen showed five large, burly warriors walking along a sunlit path through what I recognized as the Rockies. With a feeling of dread, I knew what was about to happen.

A voice came from ahead of the Seminoa warriors, a voice that belonged to the Hao of five hundred years ago, a near mirror image of Silva today.

"Humans will eventually destroy this planet," Hao said, his voice deep like Silva's. "That is why we must annihilate them and create a world of our own. The true purpose of this fight is for the establishment of a Shaman Kingdom, to gather gifted shamans. You have the right to enter our Shaman Kingdom. Let us destroy the humans together."

"You bastard!" one of the warriors exclaimed. "How dare you deceive us… How dare you deceive all the shamans in the world!"

"For the establishment of a Shaman Kingdom?" another yelled.

"It was a mistake to try to make us join you," growled the third.

"We will not follow you!"

"We'll destroy your vision, right here, right now!" the five warriors declared as one, jumping at Hao with their weapons drawn.

Hao smirked, and with three small bursts of fire, three of the Seminoa were killed instantaneously.

"Such a waste," Hao said, his Patch robes billowing. "You should have followed me. You guys are such fools."

There was another burst of fire, and the fourth warrior died.

The last warrior was left sitting on the ground, sweating and panting, unable to defend himself as Hao walked up to him.

"Now, then, you're the only person still alive."

In response, the warrior held up two daggers, and I could feel his determination burning in my own heart.

"Don't be scared," Hao 'soothed.' "It's not like I'm mad. You still have time to change your mind. Are you sure you don't want to cooperate?"

"Of course!" the warrior spat. "We, the warriors of the Seminoa, will never…"

He trailed off as Spirit of Fire suddenly appeared, lifting Hao up in its giant palm. "Pathetic words from a small tribe in this universe," Hao said.

The warrior's breath caught in his throat, and I could feel it in my own.

"Pathetic."

There was one last blaze, and a pain I had never experienced before came over me - it wasn't like what happened when my mark was touched. This was dying pain, this was pain that didn't block me out completely from the rest of the world - it was a pain that was supposed to take me out of it. Even though I had died countless times before…

It was terrible.

()()()()()()()()

The scream that came out of my throat was raspy, like a whisper, and I bolted upright, my face almost colliding with Yoh's. Spurred by the panic that had come with what I had just endured, I gasped and clutched at Yoh's sweater, burying my face in his chest. I knew I would hate myself later for doing this - I'd faced far worse, after all, but never had I experienced the pain of death like that.

Yoh pattered my shoulder. "It's all right," he murmured. His body shifted, and I could tell that he was turning to look at someone. "Lilirara," he said, "I want to see what happened five hundred years ago."

"I will, too," Ren spoke up. "I'm not afraid of pain."

"I'll go, too," HoroHoro declared.

No, I thought, pulling away from Yoh and turning toward the others as Ryu and Chocolove agreed as well. I couldn't let them do this; I couldn't let them experience this dying pain when I could lead them to Patch Village.

But even as I decided this, I knew it was futile. There was no way I could tell them that I knew how to get to Patch Village; it was against my rules, and if I helped them, they would probably be forced out of the Shaman Fight, something I knew that they would not thank me for. So, instead of doing anything, I just about wilted down into an even more helpless sitting position on the floor.

"You all want to know, even though your friend has already shown just what it can do to you?" Lilirara asked.

"Especially because of that!" HoroHoro insisted.

"If one of us goes through something, we all do," Yoh said, standing up along with the others. "Besides, I want to see what happened."

Lilirara let out a sort of dark chuckle. "Fine, then. Are you ready?"

Yoh and the others nodded determinedly, and I stared at the floor as Lilirara had the five spirits enter their bodies. Yoh and the others screamed as this happened, and I put my forehead in my palm, squeezing my eyes shut. They were getting hurt because of me.

Lilirara spoke to them, explaining things in a biased way (though I knew she didn't have the entire story), but I wouldn't be able to repeat what she said. She had no clue what the Patch member's real name was, who he was; I knew the others would see it as Silva, would see it as Silva's ancestor. They wouldn't know truly that the tragedy was caused by Hao alone - they didn't even know that Hao could transmigrate.

It seemed to take forever, but finally, one by one with varying gasps of pain, they all woke up. After getting their bearings, they all sat up, each one of us in thought.

"And so," Lilirara said, "the memories of the Seminoa came to an end. Even now, mankind still exists because his plan to create a Shaman Kingdom was stopped. But, I was told that he left a message before he died. 'I am the future king. I shall be revived after one-hundred-eighty thousand moons.'"

There was a small collective gasp from the others, but I already knew this. I felt terrible inside for knowing al this and keeping it secret.

"Now you understand, right?" Lilirara asked seriously. "How fake the Shaman Fight is."

Even though I was feeling so terrible, I was about to get up and just about slap Lilirara for saying such a thing - I had aided Shaman Kings in the past, for goodness's sake - but Ren's voice stopped me.

"Just as I thought."

Startled, I turned to him, but HoroHoro spoke next: "Yeah, I definitely saw it before I was killed."

"What was that?" Chocolove asked.

"Spirit of Fire," Ryu explained gravely.

"That oversoul had to be it," Yoh said.

"…What are you talking about?" Lilirara asked.

"His body was that of an adult," HoroHoro said, his voice strained, "but there's no mistake. Why was Hao there?"

"Hao?" Lilirara repeated.

"Lilirara," Ren said, "the demon you speak of has already come back to life and is participating in the Shaman Fight."

Lilirara's eyes were horrified as she closed them. "Just as I thought…"

HoroHoro punched the floor, evoking an even greater sense of seriousness to the situation. "I don't understand this at all! Is he a Patch?"

I wanted to explain things so much - I wanted to tell them everything, to keep them from being so confused. All the answers they wanted, I held, plus more; guilt clawed desperately at my stomach, but I did nothing.

"Wait a minute," Ryu said. "This all happened five hundred years ago. Couldn't he have been his ancestor or something?"

"No," Ren said simply. "That man's furyoku was his. 'After one-hundred-eighty thousand moons.' That means five hundred years later."

"So the demon has come back to life…" Lilirara trailed off before she continued. "Now everything is clear, isn't it? Our legend is true. The demon will once again repeat that disaster."

Yoh stood up suddenly, catching my attention; when he spoke, his voice was more urgent than I was used to. "Lilirara, we have more reason to move forward now."

Ren hmphed. "It doesn't suit me to take the long way when there's a clue right in front of me."

"Please do it, Lilirara," Yoh requested. His eyes darted to mine for a moment. "Tori, you sit this one out, okay?"

Yoh meant well, but the words were like a punch in the gut. I nodded, unable to meet his eyes.

"You'll regret it," Lilirara said, holding out her staff.

The boys all stood, and I awkwardly shuffled back without standing to lean on the wall. Lilirara sent the spirits into the boys' bodies again, and I bit my lip and stared at the floor. They weren't out of it for more than three minutes, but it felt like forever before they all gasped and groaned back to wakefulness.

"Did you find anything?" HoroHoro asked, holding his arm.

"The sun was pretty low, wasn't it?" Chocolove grunted, a hand on his forehead.

"Yeah," Ren agreed, his voice a little raspy. "The sun was just above the mountain."

"Were we headed west?" Ryu wondered

"One more time, Lilirara!" Yoh pleaded, on his hands and knees.

My body jerked sharply at this.

'No,' Nix whispered urgently. 'It's just pain. It's not something they haven't endured before.'

I glued my eyes to the floor, but I couldn't block out the sounds of their yells of pain.

"There's no doubt about it," Ryu said when they woke up again. "They were heading west."

"I saw a river to the right…," Chocolove said weakly.

"I think they were headed towards the valley from the mountain," HoroHoro added.

"Please do it one more time, Lilirara," Yoh requested, his voice a little shaky but insistent.

"Stop," Lilirara said, and I looked up at this. "You can't take it anymore."

"Please!" Yoh said.

I clamped my hands over my ears as they screamed again, and I counted to exactly one-hundred-eighty before I pulled them away and looked up to see the boys all gasping on the ground. The five Seminoa spirits appeared in their full form above them, their faces hard-edged and solemn.

"We're a bit short on clues," HoroHoro grunted.

"Looks like we'll have to go again," Ryu said, sitting up.

I couldn't help it anymore - I stood, but before I could do anything, Lilirara asked, "Why are you doing this? Why do you not run from this fear? If you tasted the pain, it should have been more than enough!"

Yoh looked up. "That's why… Every time they show us their memory of the past, they feel the exact same pain as well." He took a breath. "Normally, one couldn't bear to repeat his own death."

"Especially when the reason is to make participants of the Shaman Fight back out," Ryu added.

"It's a rule!" Lilirara snapped, and the words struck me terribly.

"No," Ren argued. "It's not something they can bear because of some rule forced upon them."

"It seems like they have another reason," Chocolove added.

"Hey, you guys," Yoh said. "Why?"

One spirit, this with blue face paint, was silent for a moment before he held up a boomerang. "Taste our power!"

The other spirits pulled out their weapons, and the boys jumped to their feet.

"Why?" Lilirara asked the spirits, but before she could get an answer, the spirits yelled and charged at the boys, who oversouled to defend themselves. I watched, shell-shocked, as the boys ran out of the house, the spirits rushing after them, with Lilirara close behind.

Nix appeared and nudged me, urging me without words to leave then, while everyone was distracted. It was the logical thing to do - after all, time to get to Patch Village was beginning to run out - but hadn't we had this dilemma countless times before? Watching them all be hurt was something I never wanted to happen again, but I knew it wouldn't be the last time I saw it happen. They were my friends… and even though I was more of a secretive leech to them, I wasn't going to abandon them.

I rushed out the door and came out behind Lilirara in time to see the spirits ascending toward the heavens.

"Wait!" Lilirara called desperately. "Where are you going?"

"Lilirara," the lead spirit said, "there are no longer laws to restrain you. The past will no longer restrain you."

I stared at the woman, startled by the words, by how much they could apply to me, and how much they couldn't. I didn't even look up as the spirits continued.

"The valley of the red river."

"Pass through the black sandstorm."

"Head towards the blue cave."

"The Patch will be ahead of it."

"We will leave everything in your hands. Do not experience the same fate as we did."

There was a clatter, and I looked to see the Seminoa dolls fall to the ground. The aura of the Seminoa spirits had disappeared.

"It looks like they no longer have a reason to stay in this world," Amidamaru said as he appeared before wishing, "May you rest in peace."

"No…," Lilirara breathed. I saw her head tilt down. "Then what was my mission? Wasn't stopping shamans my mission?"

"Wasn't it the opposite?" Ryu asked.

"The opposite?"

"You were a guide for us," HoroHoro explained.

"Me?" Lilirara asked.

Yoh smiled. "Thanks, Lilirara. We can see our path now."

()()()()()()()()

It wasn't too long after when a bus could be seen coming from over the hill. I stood with the others on the sidewalk, still much more uncomfortable with Lilirara than the others appeared to be.

"Why were you all so determined to become the Shaman King?" Lilirara asked.

I glanced back as HoroHoro answered, "Because we have dreams."

"Something like that," Ryu added.

"…Can you tell me what they are?" Lilirara asked.

"My dream is to create a huge field of coltsfoot!" HoroHoro said gleefully.

"A Best Place!" Ryu exclaimed.

"A world filled with laughter!" Chocolove added.

Lilirara stared for a moment before she broke out in a good, hearty laugh that immediately made me like her a little better. "That's wonderful," she said with a small smile, which caught the others off-guard.

"I wonder how long it's been since I laughed," Lilirara said.

"I guess I'll tell you," Ren said after a moment, and I blinked as I looked at him. "My dream is to-"

The bus honked, and the boys called a hasty goodbye as we climbed aboard. The bus was pretty much empty, and we all went to sit near the back. I sat down beside the window, HoroHoro choosing to sit next to me. I stared out the window as the bus began to move, causing Lilirara to quickly be lost from view.

"…That wasn't easy for you, was it?" HoroHoro began awkwardly.

Nothing worse than the usual, I thought bitterly before I turned to see him looking at me with concern. Seeing this made me berate myself for being so pessimistic as I shook my head in response.

HoroHoro stared at me with an unreadable expression before he grinned and joked, "It wasn't all that easy for me, either."

I blinked, startled, but the reality of the situation put to this suddenly made me laugh.