Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King. How can I? *sigh* I didn't even get to see it yet.. ~~~ *Sigh* My first Shaman King fanfic. please try to be nice.. I don't know much about Shaman King other than what my friends tell me and what I've read in Shonen Jump.(BTW, that doesn't belong to me either..) If you can help me improve my work, I'd greatly appreciate it. Please help me make my characters more IC. sorry if I really screwed up.. BTW, this is Manta's POV. Read and review, onegai. flame if you must.. Domou arigatou. -Dawn- chan ~~~

.The stars are the streetlights that guide humankind. Those who cannot interpret the movements of the stars lose their way and perish. Do you belong to the ignorant masses who ignore the stars? .

"I had the strangest dream last night.." I said, looking up towards my dark- haired friend. Yoh turned to me, still resting his head on his desk.

"Oh?"

"I can't remember what it was about exactly.. But it seems so familiar."

Yoh sat up. "Alright, then, share."

"It. It was as if." I climbed into my seat, trying to figure out how to explain it to him. Already I felt the details slipping away, until I could no longer remember what I was going to tell him. "Well. I don't remember. There was this voice. and they said something. about. shamans, and stuff. I remember that the voice." I wandered off in thought for a while, trying to remember what exactly it was that I had heard. "It was something about. about the stars."

"Uh-huh." He obviously wasn't interested. who could blame him? I'm not even sure what I'm talking about. My thoughts drifted to how little I knew about shamans and even about Yoh. "Manta. did you walk home through the cemetery again last night? Are you getting enough sleep?"

"Yeah," I replied. "You know what. forget it."

He turned his gaze to me. "Manta."

"You're right. I'm probably just into this shaman business way too much." I smiled at him. He looked at me. "Hey..."

"What?" I asked.

"How 'bout video games over at my house after school? You up for it?"

"I-"

My voice was cut out by a crisp and harsh tone. "I don't think so."

"Anna-sama..." Yoh said nervously. "I was just-"

"I know perfectly well what you were just doing. And you can forget about it."

Yoh sighed. "Gomen nasaii, Manta..."

I turned to Anna. "Don't you think that..." I silenced myself when I saw her glare. That was another one of the many problems. With Anna working Yoh so hard, we barely had anytime to talk to each other. Anna kept saying that the Shaman Fight was coming (A/N: Sorry about that, this starts off before. and it's not much like the anime, considering I didn't see it.) and that Yoh would end up killed if he didn't take things seriously soon. and that meant that we couldn't hang out anymore. not around her, at least.

.Would Yoh truly be the one to save the world? It's a wonder just to think so. The world strikes me as such a huge place. and yet so few new about what was yet to come.

This world is too polluted. don't you agree?

"Yeah, I. huh?" As I looked around me, I realized I was talking to no one. Was this voice coming from my head? And yet again. it seemed so familiar.

The classes went by slowly. I watched Yoh nap all through them and managed to miss the last train home again.

Once again I found myself walking through the cemetery. The stars twinkled. I lifted my gaze up to them and managed to trip over a root. As I lifted myself up, I saw no other than the silhouette of someone I knew at first light. The moonlight streamed onto him, and as if by slow motion, he turned to face me. Tao Ren.

"Have you ever noticed there are no stars in Tokyo?. The stars are the streeghtlights that guide humankind. Those who cannot interpret the movements of the stars lose their way and perish. Do you belong to the ignorant masses who ignore the stars?"

".What do you mean, no stars!? This is the best stargazing spot in town."

"Ha. you call can't call these true stars. I thought that you might understand. because you also." He was behind me now. and his soft whisper sent chills down my spine. .can see spirits."

"Yaah!" I sat up. Tao Ren was nowhere to be seen. I found myself in my bed. It was Tao Ren! He was the one I was dreaming about last night. but why? What in my subconscious could have brought back these memories? I did not know what to think. I was clueless. and I was afraid to return to my slumber. Those memories of Tao Ren troubled me greatly. especially his piercing eyes. They seemed to go right through the darkness and into my soul. But why? We have long not heard from him.

I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn't. Whenever I closed my eyes, the image of a short kid in a uniform and a frightening smirk devoured my thoughts.

When we first met, Ren said that the world was too polluted. He said he was the one to purify the world, as the Shaman King. But how could a mind that has the right ideas have such a wrong way of thinking? He could not even recognize his spirit as his friend.

But something made me feel as if I was missing something. There had to be more to Tao Ren than met the eye. and for some demented reason, I found myself yearning to discover what it was.

~~~ Dawn-chan: So. okay. how bad was it? I know that it's pretty bad, but rather than flame me, won't you please help me fix the story? I didn't mean to make it so dull and out of character. remember, it's my first Shaman King fanfic.please be kind. Arigatou~!