Disclaimer: Shaman King belongs to Hiroyuki Takei, not me.
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When one is with one's friends, the topics of conversation can sometimes be random. Such as with the Mankin friends. For some reason, they were discussing their birthdays. It was a nice conversation...that is, until HoroHoro turned to Anna. "Hey, Anna, when's your birthday?" he asked.
The blonde looked at the ground and mumbled something.
"What was that?" HoroHoro pressed.
"I don't know, okay?" she said.
"Don't know?" he laughed. "That's stupid. How forgetful are you? You're probably so forgetful you don't remember your own parents' names."
Anna's eyes were huge. She squeaked like a baby kitten whose tail was stepped on and bolted. On her way out, she smacked straight into Yoh.
"Anna?" he said, confused. She pushed past him and ran down the hall. "What was that about?"
"I don't know," Ren said. "HoroHoro asked her when her birthday was and she froze up."
Yoh winced. "Ooh. Bad move," he said. "Well, it could be worse. I mean, you could have asked her something like her parents' names."
"Um," HoroHoro stammered. "Let's suppose I did."
Yoh winced again. "Yup, she's going to kill you," he said. "Anna doesn't remember anything like that- not her birthday, not her parents' names, not her birthplace...nothing at all."
"Why?" Pilika asked.
"Anna was abandoned when she was very little. Her aunt dumped her at my grandmother's training school, and then vanished," Yoh explained. "Anna doesn't know anything about her childhood."
"Nothing?" Pilika repeated. "That's so sad."
Yoh plunked down on the floor and sighed. "I feel bad for her. She doesn't have anyone. No one at all."
"Yes, she does," HoroHoro said. "She has you."
"But it's not like having parents," Yoh said.
"You know, there is something you could do," Pilika said thoughtfully. "It's a little dangerous, though."
"What?" Yoh asked. "Tell me!"
"There's a chance for you to go back in time and see what Anna's life was like as a little girl," Pilika said. "It's risky, and you can't do anything that might change the future."
"I'll do it," Yoh said. "But first, I'm going to go talk to her."
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"Anna?"
Anna scowled and pulled her jacket on. There was no way he was going to dissuade her from going. She'd be back, but she just had to get away. She needed time for herself. She set the note down on her futon and slipped out the back door.
When Yoh finally went in her room, he realized instantly what had happened. But he picked up the note and read it anyway.
Yoh, I'm going up to Ozorean for a while. Make sure you keep up your training. I'll be back in a week or so.
Anna
Yoh smoothed the crumpled note. He knew why she was going to Ozorean. That was where she had been abandoned. An idea popped into his head. He grabbed a piece of paper from Anna's desk, scribbled a note, and stuffed it in an envelope. Then he went in search of Pilika.
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"Are you sure, Yoh?" Pilika said.
"Positive," he said. "Let 'er rip."
Pilika shrugged and went through the necessary spells. A glowing wormhole opened up and a pretty young woman stared at them.
"My name is Amarante. How can I help you?" she asked.
"I need to find a girl named Anna Kyoyama, back about...nine or ten years ago," Yoh said.
Amarante nodded. "Come with me," she said.
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"Annabelle!" The voice was that of a panicked mother. Yoh grinned. His own mother had had to use that tone with him often when he was growing up. The mother in this case was a young, pretty blonde woman with round blue eyes.
"Are you looking for someone?" Yoh asked her.
She sighed. "Yes. Anna, my daughter. She's almost three, and she loves to wander off," she said.
"I can help you look," Yoh offered.
"Oh, would you?" she exclaimed. "She might've gone down to the creek. It's in those woods."
Yoh nodded and headed off in the direction she indicated. So Anna's full name was Annabelle. He laughed softly. Annabelle.
"H'llo."
Yoh jumped in surprise. "Who said that?" he demanded.
"I did." Yoh looked up. "H'llo." A tiny little girl was perched on the limb of a fir tree, her short chubby legs swinging back and forth. Her blonde hair was caught up in two long pigtails on the top of her head. "I'm Anna," she beamed.
"Can you come down?" he asked.
"No," Anna said. "I can get up, but I can't get down."
Yoh held out his arms. "Come here, sweetheart," he coaxed. The toddler scooted off the branch into his waiting arms. "Your mommy is looking for you, Anna."
"Is she mad?" she asked, her dark eyes wide.
"More worried than mad," he reassured her.
Little Anna cuddled against his chest as he carried her back to the house, her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms around his neck. The house came into view through the trees.
"Anna?" the mother called. Anna wriggled in Yoh's arms. He set her down and she ran to her mother. "Annabelle Rose Kyoyama, you know better than to run away like that!" she scolded. "What if something happened to you?"
The toddler hung her head in shame. "I sorry, Kaa'san," she said. Her little apology earned her a kiss from her mother.
She set the little girl on her hip. "Thank you so much for finding my Anna," she said. "My name is Naomi. Naomi Kyoyama."
"Yoh Asakura," he told her.
"Asakura?" Naomi repeated. "Like the shaman Asakuras?"
"Yes," Yoh said. "I'm a shaman."
"He's nice, Kaa'san," Anna interrupted. "I like him."
Naomi looked her wayward daughter in the eyes. "And you, Annabelle Rose. You were very naughty today. Do you know what that means?"
Anna leaned towards her mother. "Ice cream?" she said hopefully.
"You can't go to the Akitas' house to spend the night," Naomi said, her tone final. Anna pouted.
"That means we need to find a babysitter for Rosebud," Naomi's husband said, coming out of the house.
"Tou'san!" Anna chirped, stretching towards him.
The man smiled and took his tiny daughter in his arms. "Were you bad today, Rosebud?" he asked.
Anna shook her head. "I very good," she said. "Anna is always good."
"I don't think so," her father said. "Anna was very bad, and now Kaa'san and Tou'san have to find a babysitter for her."
"I can watch her," Yoh offered.
"Really?" Naomi gasped. "That would be wonderful."
"And who is this stranger who's going to watch my Rosebud?" her husband asked, raising an eyebrow in skepticism.
"Yoh-san!" Anna said.
"Takashi, this Yoh Asakura. He found Anna," Naomi explained. "He's a shaman as well."
Takashi looked relieved. "Good," he said. "I suppose you can look after Anna. It's only for a couple of hours. Although she can be a handful."
Yoh laughed. "I believe it," he said.
Naomi took her daughter back. "I'm going to get her cleaned up," she said. "Takashi, why don't you take Yoh to meet the boys?"
"The boys?" Yoh asked, following Takashi into the house.
"We have two sons," Takashi explained. "Kanri and Kenji. They'll be spending the night at the Akitas' house, though. Kenji is Anna's twin, by the way."
"I didn't know she had a twin," Yoh said.
"He's older by nearly an hour, and he never forgets it," Takashi laughed. Two boys- one near ten, the other a toddler- were sitting in front of the TV, playing video . The older one, whom
Yoh guessed was Kanri, was egging the younger brother on playfully, while Kenji furrowed his brow in deep concentration as his small fingers tried to work the console.
"Boys," Takashi boomed. "It's almost time to go."
"Hai, Tou'san," Kanri said, reaching over obediently to switch off the television.
Kenji pointed to Yoh. "Who is that, Tou'san?" he asked.
"This is Yoh-san," Takashi introduced. "He's going to babysit little sister tonight."
"Anna stay home?" Kenji asked, his shoulders drooping. He looked like a boy version of Anna, with the same blonde hair and big dark eyes.
"Anna stays home," Takashi affirmed. "Get your things together, boys. As soon as Kaa'san comes downstairs we'll be leaving."
"I'm right here, Takashi," Naomi said. Anna was in her arms, her little face dejected.
"I wanna go too, Tou'san!" she wailed.
Takashi looked uncertainly at his wife, but Naomi was insistent. "Boys, say good night to little sister," she said.
Kanri and Kenji both kissed their sister, who then toddled over to her father. "Night, Tou'san," Anna said.
"Good night, Rosebud," Takashi said, hugging her tightly.
"Be good for Yoh-san," Naomi said. "I love you, Rosebud."
"Love you," Anna repeated, blowing her a kiss. Naomi handed her daughter to Yoh. He noticed a large angry scratch on the back of her hand.
"It's from our cat," Naomi explained, seeing his stare. "Devil."
"You have a cat named Devil?" Yoh repeated.
"Anna named him," Takashi said. "We have to get going, Naomi."
"I have all of the phone numbers on the kitchen counter," Naomi instructed. "Dinner's on the stove. Oh, and-"
"Naomi, they'll be fine," Takashi said, patting his wife's arm. "We'll be back between ten and eleven." They headed out the door, but at the last minute Takashi turned around.
"Please take good care of her for us," he said. And then they were gone.
It took a moment for Anna to realize she was left alone with an almost stranger. "Kaa'san?" she quavered. "Tou'san?"
Yoh bit his lip. He was hoping Anna wouldn't have separation anxiety. His mother said he'd had it so bad when he was two that she couldn't even go to work at the temple without him wailing for hours on end. Yoh patted Anna's little back. "Are you hungry?" he asked. "Let's go have dinner."
Just like the way she was when she was a teenager, the prospect of food cheered her up. Anna wriggled out of his arms and he set her down on the floor as she led him into the kitchen, babbling a mile a minute.
He could tell that this was the center of the household. Schoolbooks and crayons were heaped around, and the refrigerator was covered with scrawly drawings and A+ spelling tests. Yoh grinned at the picture of what he finally decided was a kitten with Anna's name scribbled in the corner.
A calendar was hung on one wall. A giant red circle on a date caught his eye and he paused to look at it. Anna noticed him staring.
"That's my birthday," she said proudly.
"Wow!" Yoh said, with the pleased tone one saves to humor a small child. "And how old will you be?" Anna held up a couple of fingers, glanced at them, and took away a finger. "Three years old? You're a big girl, aren't you?"
Anna nodded vigorously, her curly pigtails bouncing. Yoh checked the date. February fourteenth. Anna's birthday was Valentine's Day. The little girl tugged on his pants leg. "I really hungry, Yoh-san," she said, persistent. "Pick me up."
"I can't get your dinner and hold you at the same time, Anna-chan," he said.
"Hai, you can," she insisted. Anna stretched out her little arms to be held. "Please pick me up."
Yoh made the mistake of looking down at her. Anna's brown eyes were huge and sparkly. He grinned and scooped her up, settling her on his hip. "You're so manipulative," he laughed.
"Ma- man- mani-" Anna stammered. "What that?"
"You can get people to do whatever you want them to," he explained. Anna giggled. Yoh shifted her slightly. She's such a cute baby. Who knew my fiancée could be so adorable? he thought.
The little girl leaned her head on his chest. "I know you," she said softly. "You said I your fi- fiancée."
Yoh nearly dropped her. "How do you know that, Anna?" he asked.
The tiny girl sighed and played with the buttons on his shirt. "I can read," she said.
"You mean read a book?"
"No. Anna not in kindergarten yet," she giggled. "I read hearts. I read your heart." Anna's thin shoulders drooped. "That's why nobody plays with me. I different."
Yoh impulsively kissed the top of her head. "I'll play with you, Anna- chan," he said.
"You mean it?" Anna gasped. Her little face lit up like a firecracker. "Really?"
"Really," Yoh said.
Impulsively Anna flung her little arms around Yoh's neck. "I love you!" she said.
At first he was too surprised to do anything, but his arms tightened out of their own accord. For the millionth time, he wondered what happened to this sweet little girl that made her turn into the inscrutable ice princess she was.
Anna wouldn't let him put her down while he made dinner. She was less picky as a child and ate everything on her plate. By the time they had eaten and cleaned up- with more soapsuds going on Anna than on the dishes- it was her bedtime.
"Anna not sleepy!" she wailed.
"But it's eight o'clock," Yoh said. It was too late; he had already looked at her quivering lower lip and huge sparkly eyes. "Oh, all right. Just a few more minutes." Beaming, Anna picked upa big book and held it up to him. "Will you read to me?" she begged.
Yoh sat down on the couch and set the little girl on his knees. "What story do you want to hear?" he asked.
Anna turned the pages. "This one," she announced, snuggling against him. "Read this one, please."
Yoh read that story, and three more, before Anna started yawning. "Bedtime, Anna," he said.
"I not sleepy," she said stoutly.
"Yes, you are," he countered, sliding Anna off his lap.
Anna's face screwed up tightly in misery. "No, I not!" she wailed. Big tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Hm, that's a definite yes," Yoh decided, scooping up the little girl in his arms. "I used to be just like that when I was little."
"You were little?" she hiccupped.
"Just like you," Yoh said, carrying her upstairs. "Whenever I was really tired, I would just start screaming."
"I not screaming. I cry," Anna corrected.
"Oh, excuse me," he smiled. "Bedtime for you."
Anna's room looked like it belonged to a princess. Everything was soft blue and pastel pink- totally unlike grown up Anna. Dolls and stuffed animals were piled in the corners, while tiny dresses and even tinier shoes peeked out of the closet. Anna toddled on her own over to her dresser and pulled out her yukata. "Turn around," she ordered. "You're a boy." Laughing, Yoh obeyed the miniature tyrant. "Okay," she said. She kicked her shorts and tank top into a corner and clambered into her high American- style bed. Then she folded her hands and looked at him. "Now you have to brush my hair like Kaa'san does," Anna explained.
"Sure, Anna," Yoh said. He sat down behind her and took the little hairbrush she offered him. Anna's hair was very long, almost to her waist, and had the tiniest bit of a curl to it. Yoh took the elastics out and brushed her fine, silky hair until it crackled. "Is that good?"
She nodded, yawning sleepily, and slid under the covers. Yoh tucked them around her. "Now I need my blankie," she said. "It's lello."
"Yellow?" he guessed.
Anna nodded again and hugged the yellow blanket he handed her. "This is my lello baby blanket," she told him. "I love it."
"Do you love me?" Yoh asked.
"Yes," she said. Anna put a little arm around his neck and kissed him on the lips- an innocent baby's kiss. "Night night, Yoh."
"Good night, Anna," he said, kissing her soft cheek. "Sweet dreams." He got up and turned off the light, leaving the door open wide enough to let in the hallway light.
Now that Anna was in bed, he could wander around the house and find out about Anna's childhood. Almost every wall had a photograph of one of the children. There were pictures of Anna everywhere, her precocious grin and adorable poses lighting up the photographs. Her parents obviously loved her to distraction. So what happened to Anna?
The answer started to come when he saw a sudden blast of light outside the window. Then came the explosion- a sharp burst of noise. He heard a little shriek and felt someone tackle him from behind.
"Yoh, Yoh, I scared!" Anna said, her arms going around his knees.
Yoh patted her on the head absentmindedly. "It's all right," he said. "Nothing's wrong."
Anna was not convinced. She let go of him and wandered down the stairs. Her small fingers struggled with the lock of the front door, but she finally unfastened it and ran outside.
"Anna!" Yoh called. "Anna, come back!" He ran down the stairs, following her.
The girl was standing in the middle of the front yard, staring not at the flaming hunk of metal in the street, but at something lying at her feet. Yoh recognized the wreck as what was once a car. A sinking feeling tore in the pit of his stomach. "Anna, come here," he said. He came up behind her and knelt down. "What's wrong...oh, no."
Lying at Anna's feet was a severed hand . A left hand, clearly a woman's. A simple gold wedding band wound around the ring finger.
And a long scratch, like a scratch from the claw of a cat, tore across the back of the hand.
"Yoh," Anna said, her voice clear and questioning, "is that my kaa'san's hand?"
"Anna, close your eyes. Don't look anymore," Yoh said. He touched her back.
"They're dead," Anna said. "My kaa'san and my tou'san are dead."
Yoh's heart broke. He slid one arm under Anna's knees and the other under her shoulders and carried her into the house. Once inside the familiar surroundings and the warmth of the living room, Anna began to scream. It was horrible. Yoh could do nothing to comfort her. He had to set her down long enough to call for help, but as soon as he finished he ran to her. She was still screaming, her face pale and blue-tinged. Yoh hugged her. "Go on and cry, little one," he murmured, kissing her. "Cry as much as you can."
Suddenly Amarante materialized. "Your time is running out," she said. "Quickly, come with me."
"I can't leave her!" Yoh protested.
"You must. The portal is closing." Yoh set the sobbing little girl down on the couch and tucked her blanket around her.
"I have to go, baby," he said. "I promise you'll see me again."
Anna flung her arms around his neck. "I love you," she sobbed.
Yoh kissed her. "I love you too, Anna. Be a good girl and wait for me, okay?" He gave her one final kiss and stepped through the wormhole.
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Author's Notes:
OH MY GOSH THIS STORY IS TERRIBLE.
Why did the car blow up? Why did Anna's parents let a complete stranger who was a BOY babysit their child? Why did her mother's hand fall off? Questions for the ages. Lawlz, this is bad.
I wrote this in 2004...so I was sixteen? Maybe just turned seventeen. I had only started reading manga a few months beofre, so I was still pretty new to it. I read Shaman King in Shonen Jump...and loved it. And that's how this came around.
But seriously, awful.
