White Day

Disclaimer: Shaman King ain't mine. Toooo bad.

Author's note: I hope people don't hate Anna by now. She's one of my favorite characters. Oh...here's the next chapters.

Chapter 4- The Next Day

Yoh woke up as a stray ray of sun pushed through the blinds. Weariness overcame him and Yoh wished beyond anything that he could sleep in the whole day. Sweat covered his forehead as heat consumed him and his cheek throbbed. As he savored the last of the warmness and dark of his room, Yoh remembered the events that had happened the night before... After he had finished his 10 miles, he ate a riceball and then went to bed. He had felt too tired to notice anything around him. Amidamaru hadn't been there. Yoh at least could remember that. Yoh tried to roll over but his limbs wouldn't work. Swearing silently to himself, Yoh wrapped the blankets tighter around himself in an effort to keep comfortable in his current position.

Just when Yoh was about to go back to sleep, Anna burst in his room, yelling.

"Yoh! Get up! Your fight is in 3 hours and you need to warm-up! GET OUT OF BED NOWW!!!!

Reluctantly, Yoh kicked his blankets off his body. A wave of cold, morning air hit him, causing him to shiver. Yoh attempted to push himself up but his arms felt like sacks of wet sand.

"UP!!!"

"Yes Anna-chan..." Yoh cut himself off, surprised at the hoarseness of his own voice.

Anna looked away from him, her face getting red with frustration.

Using all of his strength, Yoh pushed himself to his feet, swayed for a second, then began to walk to the pile with his fighting clothes in it. As he picked them up to put them on, he looked towards Anna. She stood there, her attention back focused on his every move. In embarrassment, a blushy color appeared on Yoh's pale face. To hint at Anna that he needed privacy, Yoh cleared his throat. To his surprise, a sharp pain cut across his vocal cords, causing him to cough more. Instinctively, Yoh raised a clenched fist to his mouth. The pain grew until he couldn't breathe and his coughs became more violent, then stopped. Yoh opened his eyes and noticed his hand was covered in something sticky and red. Blood.

"You finished yet?" Anna said in a monotonous tone.

"Hai..." Yoh answered, rubbing the blood off on his sleep pants. He decided to refrain from telling Anna about the blood. She was probably stressed from last night. He had failed her. She was probably wondering if he would be able to win this next shaman fight. To be totally honest with himself, he wasn't so sure he could do it either. At any measure, there was no need to worry Anna over this.

"Excuse me, Yoh-kun. I'll leave you to change. After you're done, come downstairs to warm-up," Anna said, turning towards the hallway.

Slipping off his sleep pants and pulling on his jet-black fighting suit, Yoh sighed heavily.

"Yo..."

Yoh turned quickly around in response to the voice. Horo-horo stood watching him.

"Whoops...I didn't know you were changing. I just came in to ask what you were giving Anna for White Day?" Horo-horo said, scratching the back of his neck.

"White day? Where'd this question come up?" Yoh asked, pulling on his black shirt.

"I'm getting this really hot girl at school a box of chocolates. I was just wondering if your present matches the greatness of mine. Does it?"

Yoh secured his headphones, then picked up a stray piece of paper off the ground. "I haven't go her one yet. Could you run to the store and get a present as a favor for me? I have a shaman fight to go to today..." He trailed off, thinking about what present he should give Anna, "How far away is White Day?"

"Three days!!!" said Horo-horo optimistically.

"NANIII!??!" Yoh yelled. That was a mistake. He raised his hand quickly to cough into it. Warm blood flowed over his tongue.

Horo-horo looked surprised. "You okay?"

Quickly slipping his fist behind his back, Yoh smiled and pretended everything was fine, "It's nothing...I just yelled too loud....so..." Yoh thought quickly to find a diversion from the current topic and his bloody hand. Suddenly, something hit him. He wrote quickly on the piece of paper with a random pen lying on the ground (Yoh has a messy room!^_^).

Using his clean hand, Yoh handed the paper to Horo-horo. "Can you get this by three days? It's for Anna."

"CHAAAA!!!!" Horo-horo yelled, "K'S0!! My present isn't nearly as good as this. But okay, I'll get it for you." Horo-horo took the paper.

"Thanks."

Horo-horo turned to leave saying, "Good luck in the shaman fight. Just don't fight so hard. You look kinda pale. Anyways, I gotta get going. Ja ne!!!!"

Yoh waited until he was gone, then turned and cleaned his bloody hand on his blanket.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Amidamaru!!! Enough hiding, baka samurai!!! Yoh has to fight in just a little while!" Anna called. She regretted the fight she had with him yesterday. He hadn't appeared all night. Worried that Yoh might have to forfeit the tournament, Anna called louder.

"Keep it down..." Ren droned. He seemed anxious.

"Gomen nasai," Anna replied. The calling for Amidamaru stopped. A loud shriek was heard as Tamao entered the kitchen.

"NYAWWW!!! WHERE'S YOH-KUN!!!!!" Tamao shrieked in worry.

"He hasn't come down yet..." Anna answered.

"Oh dear. Did he look all right? He seemed kind of sick yesterday," Tamao worried aloud, "Maybe he should stay home from the shaman fight today."

Anna didn't know what to say. Yoh had seemed less active yesterday and he had had that coughing fit in the morning. This fight might be really hard for him and might make him even sicker. However, this shaman tournament was extremely important. If he couldn't win this, his reputation at the shaman tournament would go way down. He might not even get to fight anymore. Still, she loved him. Truly, she could have said it in front of God, she loved Yoh. She wanted him to be great. Many times, she didn't know how to deal with Yoh and her frustration at the same time. She had never loved someone as much as Yoh. Likewise, she had never wanted something to happen as much as Yoh winning the shaman tournament.

"I don't know," Anna murmured.

"YEEEKKKK!!!!" Tamao yelled, "Yoh-kun...You look so pale! You ARE sick!"

Yoh walked sluggishly into the kitchen, sweating and shaking violently. Grabbing an apple off the kitchen counter, he reassured Tamao by saying, "I'm fine! Don't worry."

Anna walked out of the room quickly. The pent-up guilt came out again. She wanted to cry. She wanted to lean on Yoh's shoulder and tell him how completely sorry she was. Her pride and the desire of Yoh winning were the only things in her way.

As Yoh ate his apple, he thought about his opponent in the next match. His opponent was called Keoshi. This guy supposedly owned multiple spirits. Each spirit wasn't all that powerful. But his power of ambush earned him a high ranking in the tournament. Considering, his present state, Yoh doubted he'd be able to dodge these ambushes. Quickly thinking up a strategy, Yoh decided to focus on attacking rather than defending.

Come to think of it, Where's Amidamaru? He has never been this late on the morning of a fight. Yoh thought. Throwing away his apple core, Yoh called out to Anna.

"Anna! Where do I warm up?"

Anna turned around abruptly, surprised that Yoh was calling to her. Focusing her mysterious eyes on her fiancée. "You don't have to warm-up. I'm sure you'll be okay in the fight." She was sure that a warm-up would do him in. The shaman fight would be hard enough.

"Okay, Anna-chan. Then, let's go." Yoh said happily, walking to the door.

"Hai..." Anna agreed. She followed Yoh.

"Hey..." Yoh asked, looking over his shoulder and stumbling in the process, "Where's Amidamaru?"

Anna's eyes got wide as she remembered the fight that had happened the night before. She looked away in shame.

"I don't know..."

Tanuki-san: Sorry this chapter took so much time to update. I was interrupted (kind of...not really...I just got lazy) Anyway, I hope you liked it and please review kindly! Arigato!!!! ~ja ne!!!