Lyserg placed a shawl around the shoulders of the girl, who had just calmed down. He then handed her a cup of lavender tea. "Feeling any better?" he asked after she drank some of the liquid.

Thankfully, some colors rushed back into her pale cheeks. She smiled shyly and nodded.

Lyserg found himself smiling back at her. "I went through your clothes awhile ago, and found this." He handed her a silver locket designed like a rosary. In its crucifix was carved 'X Laws', and a name in elaborate script was 'Jeanne'.

"M-Mine…" she whispered, taking the locket from him. Her finger touched the X in the crucifix lightly.

"I'll call you Jeanne then," he said, smiling.

"Jeanne…" she echoed, nodding.

"I'm Lyserg. Lyserg Diethyl," he continued, holding out his hand. "While you haven't recollected your memories yet, I will call you Jeanne Diethyl. Will that be fine?"

"Jeanne Diethyl…"

"I'll be your big brother," he said, grinning.

"My brother…" She smiled shyly. "I…like you to be my big brother."

He nodded, then turned to the window outside. Lights flooded the merry streets of Izumo. "The town jamboree is starting." He turned to her again. "Want to walk outside with me? Let's check out the festivities."

She nodded eagerly. "That…would be very nice."

He offered his arm to her, and she took it shyly.

"Let's go, Jeanne."

"H-Hai."

Horo Horo sighed as Pirika handed him the clothes he was going to wear when he wrestles in the arena tonight - if you call the skimpy piece of trunks clothes.

"Thanks Pirika," he said wearily. "I can handle things from here."

"OK. Good luck!" She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and left the dressing room.

Sighing, he took off his own clothes, then remembered that he was intending to pray.

He solemnly bowed his head. "Kami-sama, if you're listening to me now, I'm begging you to look after me in my matches. Please don't let me break more than half of my rib cages, and I hope you don't let them give me too many black-eyes. They would be detrimental to my inborn handsomeness as a whole. And I wish that I don't spill much blood – blood banks are very expensive…"

Tamao Tamamura, clutching her silk robe, dove into the massive crowd building around the town plaza. Behind her were men in robes, running after her.

"Don't let her get away! If we don't catch the prophetess, we will have our heads for the king's lunch!" yelled one soldier.

"If I were you, I won't worry about the king. I'll worry about the prince. You do know that Prince Hao needs that girl's predictions in order to guide him in being the shaman king!"

Tamao could hear their voices, and she shut her eyes tightly. She didn't want to be caught – only Kami-sama knows what kind of punishment the Prince Hao Asakura could give to her after she dared to escape the kingdom.

She was tired of predicting already – she knew that with every prediction she gives, a day in her life was being deducted. Asakura Hao, on the other hand, was obsessed about the throne, and wanted a regular update on the activities of the stars and the spirits through her predictions.

She heard the footsteps getting near. She looked around and spotted a door left slightly ajar. Without second thought, she entered the door.

"…Kami-sama, if you still weren't irked by my demands, I still have one request. Please let me win. I don't know how I would do that because their muscles are big enough to bury me alive for eight lifetimes, but you are the one who started the word miracle, right?" Horo Horo pressed his hands together. "Please give me a miracle tonight."

Barely half a minute has passed when he heard the door open. Before he could react, a pink-haired girl ran into the room, panting.

Her head went up. "E-Excuse me, may I stay here for awhile-" Her eyes widened when she saw a completely naked blue-haired boy gaping at her. Colors flooded her cheeks.

She was about to open her mouth to scream when his scream filled the four corners of the dressing room.

Pirika looked at the coins on her palm, counting them for the nth time. She couldn't believe that she was down to her last money when all she bought was a can of soda pop. Now she has barely enough to buy a decent noodle soup!

I want to eat, she said wistfully. Maybe I should just buy the pieces of bread. It's more practical, and I can share them with onii-chan.

So off Pirika went to buy her Spanish rolls.

Why am I here? wondered Ren as he walked down the merrily-lit town plaza of Izumo.

Because you have nowhere else to go to, that's why, a voice replied in his mind.

Back in the Tao mansion, amidst the suffocating darkness and silence of its hollow emptiness, he realized that he wouldn't grow properly as a shaman unless he was tested in the outside world.

The dream of living outside the dark, brooding hallways of his mansion sounded so easy back then. It was only now that he realized that if he wanted to survive as a living person, he must rely on his abilities beyond the shamanic ones.

Right now, he didn't know where he would sleep tonight. He didn't remember to bring money for food, so he wouldn't be eating dinner tonight, that was for sure.

A Tao endures, he reminded himself. It was the motto of his clan.

However, he couldn't help but add sarcastically, But for how long?

He was accustomed to being served – what good was his family's twenty-eight helpers if their services are not enjoyed?

So now that he was alone in the world, with only himself to rely on for basic necessities he used to take for granted…

What would he do next?

Pirika was just about to bite on the large croissant when she slammed on to somebody. Her eyes quickly went to the bread, but her hand that was about to catch it was a second too late. She looked at the pastry, wide-eyed.

"Why are you not looking at where you're walking?" a boy snapped at her.

Her eyes welled up with tears. "My…food…Onii-chan's too…"

"Hey, are you listening to me?" yelled the boy with a pointed hair.

She turned to him, eyes burning. "You…wasted that wonderful croissant! That was bought with our last money!"

He paused, and seemed to notice the bread lying on the sidewalk only now. "It's just a cheap bread." Nothing that his clan feasts on at the breakfast table every morning.

"Didn't you hear me?!!" she screamed. "We bought that bread with our last money! The very last, in fact!"

"Tragic," he said sarcastically.

"I HATE YOU!!!" she screamed. "Someday, I hope that you get a taste of my situation. Let's see if you can still be sarcastic." With that, she stomped away.

Anna paced around the plaza back and forth restlessly. So far, Izumo, a place famous for its population of secret shaman practitioners, had not given her at least one possible shaman. Meaning, no husband prospect.

Her eyes went longingly to the mountains. She wanted to come back to her family there, but she didn't want to disappoint the elders who took care of her as if their own child.

By hook or by crook, I'll find my shaman king husband.

"Hi there!"

She blinked when she heard the familiar voice. It was the boy with the earphones from yesterday!

"Still alone?" he asked curiously.

"How many time do I have to say that it's none of your business?" she snapped.

"Yup, I'm not mistaken. You're that Anna, alright." He grinned. "So…have you found a bodyguard already?"

"I refuse to answer."

"Oh…" He nodded. "You didn't."

Her eyebrows shut up. How could he easily make her lose her calm? "What if I did?" she asked challengingly.

"I don't sense any spirit," he shrugged.

"So you are a shaman too…" she said. "Where's your spirit?"

"Oh?" He glanced over his shoulder, where Amidamaru was seated.

"He is your spirit?" she asked, shocked. She remembered what happened in the Izumo Market before. But why did he ask that spirit if he wants to go with me when the samurai is his spirit already?

"Amidamaru, greet Anna 'Good Evening'," asked the boy.

The spirit appeared beside his master, a freaked look on his face. "B-But she might try to capture me again!"

She narrowed her eyes at the samurai spirit. "If you are that scared of me, I might have thought wrong about your powers. Thank God I didn't capture you after all."

"Ssh!" said the girl panickedly, covering Horo Horo's mouth. "They might know I'm here!" she hissed.

His forehead creased. "Wersh whung?"

"Huh?" she asked blankly.

He pointed to her hand covering his mouth. She dropped her hand immediately.

Horo sighed. "OK, I was asking awhile ago what's wrong. Are you a fugitive of the law? An ax murderer? A thief?" His eyes widened. "A serial rapist?" he asked, voice barely above a whisper.

She rolled her eyes. "My name is Tamao. You have to help me. I'm hiding from Prince Hao."

"Prince Hao? You mean the Prince Hao whose face only a few are privileged to see?" asked Horo, fascinated.

"The very same," she said, nodding.

"Then I shouldn't involve myself with you." He started to push her out of the dressing room.

"W-Wait!" She tried to push back against his arms. "I-I can help you achieve what you want most!"

He paused. "Really?"

She nodded desperately. "What is it that you want?"

His eyes glittered. "Money. Lots of money."

She sighed. I knew it.

"My sister and I had it hard almost all our lives," he said defensively. "I want her to have a taste of luxury, you know. Even for just a short moment."

Tamao nodded. "I can help you, just please don't give me to the soldiers outside."

"Oh…alright." Horo shoved away the trunks. "Then I don't need to wrestle anymore, thank Kami-sama!" He put his shirt back on.

Tamao looked on, awed.

"What?" he asked, eyes narrowed.

"You…have such…lifeless muscles," she whispered, eyes on his biceps-less arms. "I wonder where you got the idea that you can wrestle."

His face turned crimson. "Shut up."

After he got dressed, he threw her a scarf. "Put that on your head." He gave her a pair of oversized rose-colored shades. "And this too."

"Won't I look like a clown?" she asked uncertainly.

"No problem," he shrugged. "You'll be a pretty clown then, hmm?"

She felt her cheeks turn pink. "L-Let's go." She turned her back on him quickly, but then realized something. "I just remembered something…what's your name?"

"Horo Horo."

"Oh. Horo is, like, your last name?"

"Shut up."

Anna looked at the can of Sprite that the boy was offering her.

"Well?" he prompted.

"Are you selling that to me?" she asked.

"No. This is for free." He sat down on the bench beside her. "You haven't eaten lunch yet, am I right?"

"So what? I've lived in the forest without food for three days several times already," she scoffed.

"So that's why your body proportion is like that," he muttered.

"What did you say?!!"

"N-Nothing!" He raised his hands in surrender.

She looked at him for a few more seconds, the wordlessly took the can from him. She didn't look at him as she opened the can and took a big gulp.

"Wait, I'll get you something to eat. The drink is too acidic." With that, he left.

She blinked. Where does he get all his money to buy food?

That she asked him when he returned. To this, he grinned. "Well, to be honest, that money is for my meal tonight. However, I realized that you need more food than I do, so I bought you these." He handed her a plate of takoyaki.

She bit on the food delicately. "Do you work?"

He blinked.

She sighed. Stupid question to ask to a lazy bum like him.

"No. I work when I feel like it," he shrugged.

"I pity your family," she said.

"Oh, but I do the household chores for them. They do the breadwinning and I do the house cleaning," he grinned. "A fair division of labor, if I say so myself."

"What can your father say about that?" she asked.

"Father?" He laughed. "My entire family passed away already, that's what my guardian told me. I now live with my guardian, Shilva and his friend, Karimu. Both are domestically-challenged."

She finished her drink and her food, then brought out a charm necklace she bought from two Indians awhile ago in the market place. They told her that this would be handy in capturing a spirit and ensuring that it will not escape from her. Sort of a chain. The farthest distance the spirit could get away would be a meter.

The boy looked at what she was holding. "Wow, that looks cool! Are the black tusks real?"

"How should I know?" she asked. "I didn't make them."

"Can I try it on?" He took the necklace from her suddenly and placed it around his neck.

"Don't-" Anna's eyes widened when she heard a –snap sound.

"Um…" The boy looked apologetic. "D-Did I just do something bad?"

"Take it off!" she snapped.

"Y-Yes!" He tried to remove the necklace, but to no avail. She pulled the necklace harder, but it wouldn't come undone.

"Oh no…" she whispered, then looked at the boy who was looking back at her.

"W-Why? What's wrong?" he asked helplessly.

Anna sighed and leaned back on the bench. "You're…stuck with me."

Lyserg smiled contentedly when he saw Jeanne's eyes twinkle. He bought her a white kimono from a store and she had just finished trying it on.

"You're really cute!" the vendor said as the girl twirled around the mirror. "And your eyes…"

Jeanne turned to him. "Lyserg-kun, can I wear this already? I would like to parade myself wearing this."

"No problem," he agreed.

Just then, a royal carriage passed by them. The crowd could only stare at the coach in awe, for the person inside it couldn't be seen, except for the silhouette of his head.

"That's the Prince Hao Asakura," said Lyserg when he saw Jeanne looking at the carriage in fear.

"Hao…" She dropped down on her knees, trembling. "I…don't like that name…"

"Jeanne?" He knelt beside her. "You're getting your pretty kimono dirty."

She snapped out of her daze. "Lyserg-kun…" Fresh tears were welling up in her eyes again.

He felt his heart break. "Come on, let's put that pretty smile back into your face." He turned to the ferris wheel. "Come, let's try the rides."

She nodded dumbly.

"So…she's still alive…"

"Master Hao?" Zinc, the priest, asked.

"Very well, I would find the prophetess first, then I'll deal with the Iron Maiden." The boy sighed. "Women. They are more trouble than they are actually worth."

The carriage rode on to the town jamboree.

tsuzuku