Disclaimer: Shaman King ain't mine... it's the creation of some weird Japanese dude by the name of Hiroyuki Takei that probably doesn't like Mexico at all n' that is why he hasn't sended us some new episodes of his serie!!! So, as a kind of vengeance (and because I love inflicting pain on characters) I'm publishing this story...

By the way, the song isn't mine either... it's Papercut by Linkin' Park, so all the parts that are sung really fast (rapped mostly) are in italics while the other lyrics will be normal (all the lyrics are in between diagonals )

Hope you enjoy it!

Nara Starr

---

/Why does it feel like night today?
Something in here's not right today
Why am I so uptight today?
Paranoia's all I got left/

That night, his torment came back more vividly than ever. He stared in mute horror at the destruction placed in front of him, the lifeless bodies of his friends scattered around him like clouds on the sky...

"What happened?"

Suddenly, a hand shot out of the disaster, grabbing him by the ankle and taking his breath away... slowly he looked down and stared at the blonde girl splattered with blood...

"Anna!!!"

He kneeled down and picked her up as she uselessly tried to stand up... her frail body was badly hurt and her skin was pallid... too pallid...

"Anna! Don't worry, you'll be all right... I'll help you... I'll..."

But his words where cut short by the look in here eyes... cold, full of hate and resentment... a smile crept across her face... a cruel smile he had never seen before on her..."

"It's no use Yoh... Anna is dead, everyone is dead... and guess who killed them?"

He looked at her for a second, not really understanding what she meant by that ...and then he stared into his hands, at the bloodstained Harusame that gleamed under the light of a red moon...

"NO!!!!!"

/I don't know what stressed me first
Or how the pressure was fed but
I know just what it feels like
To have a voice in the back of my head/

"NO!!!!!!!"

Yoh woke up, his body covered in sweat, the nightmare still in his head... slowly he stood up and walked up to the window, where the sleeping city of Funbari Gaoka greeted him under it's mantle of snow...

"Again that dream... I have to stop eating so much before bed..."

He pulled open the glass slide of the window and allowed the cold breeze to enter his room and cool off his mind... it had been a dream, an awful dream... that was it... He closed the window and stared at the silent city when something reflected on the window cached his eye... he stared at the face that loomed out of the darkness, a face he knew well, as it was the same as his...

/It's like a face that I hold inside
A face that awakes when I close my eyes
A face watches every time I lie
A face that laughs every time I fall
(And watches everything)/

"Hao!!!"

Yoh turned around, confusion and doubt in his eyes, but his room was empty. Somehow this comforted him, but it also made him uneasy...

"Geez, my mind is playing tricks to me..."

He walked up to his bed and was about to jump inside when he realized something... that his room WAS empty...

"Amidamaru?"

/So I know that when it's time to sink or swim
That the face inside is hearing me right underneath my skin/

Yoh turned around and stared at the corner of his room, where Harusame rested peacefully... a pair of cool eyes stared at him from there... eyes he knew, eyes he hated...

"Amidamaru?"

It all happened so suddenly, he barely noticed it. The shadow swept through the room and blasted into his body so hard, it knocked him unconscious.

/It's like I'm paranoid lookin' over my back
It's like a whirlwind inside of my head
It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within
It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin/

He found himself in a place that seemed strangely familiar, full of a rich darkness that slowly embraced him until he was unable to move. A familiar body moved up to him and stared at him calmly as he tried desperately to free himself from the mysterious force cast upon him.

"Hao! What the... get out of my body!"

His twin merely smiled and kneeling next to him, still staring directly into his eyes...

"Oh sure I will Yoh, but before I do that, there is a little something I want to prove..."

"What do you mean!? Let me go!"

"Well, you see... it all has to be with your dreams, do you remember your dreams lil' brother?"

He stopped fighting, fear rising in his eyes...

"Yes, I knew you would... I just want to show you the first part of the dream, to see the despair in your eyes as you are forced to kill your friends one by one, unable to stop yourself... what do you think?

He tried to say something, but the scenery had changed. He was once again in his room, pulling Harusame out of his scatter...

/I know I've got a face in me
Points out all my mistakes to me
You've got a face on the inside too and
Your paranoia's probably worse/

Slowly he opened the door and stepped outside, sword in hand... he tried to stop himself, to scream, to call someone, but it was impossible, he had no control over his body...

"Yes Yoh, it's no use. You see, I have been training since the shaman fight and I've discovered some very interesting powers I ignored I had... so now it's my turn to leave you without friends and keep your soul, as it should have been on the first place..."

He tried uselessly to move as his body advanced through the dark passages of his house, the sword gleaming under the light of a red moon...

"A... Amida... maru..."

Hao laughed, still looking at him with those piercing black eyes...

"No use, he was the first one to leave... wasn't he? Spirit of fire?"

Yoh froze as the darkness that embraced him slowly took the shape of the enormous red creature that his brother had as a spirit... he stared mutely at the creature, and then at the small figure that approached him in the darkness of the passageway...

"Yoh? Why are you up so late?"

"Manta"

/I don't know what set me off first but I know what I can't stand
Everybody acts like the fact of the matter is
I can't add up to what you can but/

The small boy walked up to his friend, but he stopped when he noticed the blue gleam of Harusame in his hand...

"Yoh? What's the matter with you?"

Slowly he stepped into the light, his eyes dark and strangely blank from any emotion... he walked up to him, his hand raised, the sword ready for the slash...

"Yoh! Wait!"

"NO! MANTA!"

Hao laughed as the sword was flunged down towards the small boy... the desperate screams of his younger twin behind him. Even though he was held captive by the spirit of fire, there was still enough strength in him to move his hand a bit, and just hit Manta with the hilt of the sword...


/Everybody has a face that they hold inside
A face that awakes when I close my eyes
A face watches every time they lie
A face that laughs every time they fall
(And watches everything)/

When Manta opened his eyes, he was lying on the floor, his head covered in blood. He turned to see Yoh as he stood in front of him, his eyes fixed upon his best friend... He raised Harusame and prepared for the attack...

"Yoh! Please! Stop!"

But, inside his head, Yoh was unable to do anything to help his little friend... he closed his eyes as he heard the sword come down and hit the flesh of the boy...

"Damn... failed again..."


/So you know that when it's time to sink or swim
That the face inside is watching you too right inside your skin/

Yoh opened his eyes and stared at the bloodstained Harusame and the empty space under the sword... he turned around and stared at the boy with blue hair, that slowly stood up and faced him, his left hand was bleeding from the cut that had been produced by the sword... Manta was right behind him, his eyes wide with fear and confusion...

"Horohoro!!!"

"Ah, right... the Ainu with the ice powers isn't he? Such insolence, he'll be the first to die..."

Horohoro stared at Yoh as he raised the sword and prepared to fight. He wasn't really sure what had happened just now, but he wasn't about to let Yoh kill him and Manta without a fight...

"Yoh... what is going on?..."

"Horohoro!!! Get out of here!!! Take Manta, warn the others!!! Please!!!"

Hao smirked

"He can't hear you brother, nobody can... and now, you will be forced to see your friends die..."

/It's like I'm paranoid lookin' over my back
It's like a whirlwind inside of my head
It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within
It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin/

Yoh dashed to him, the blank look still in his eyes. Quickly, Horohoro grabbed Manta and dodged the blow, while he pulled out the small carved wood piece his sister had given to him.

"Kororo!!!"

A thick wall made of pure ice surrounded Yoh, that stared at Horohoro as he dashed through the passageways with Manta in his arms...

Hao smiled

"Fool, do you really think ice can stop me? What about we show them what we are made of Yoh?"

"NO!!! STOP THIS!!! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!

/It's like I'm paranoid lookin' over my back
It's like a whirlwind inside of my head
It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within
It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin/

Slowly and steadily, the ice around Yoh melted until it was nothing but a puddle of steaming water at his feet... He walked through the corridors, following the drops of blood that where sprinkled here and there on the floor. He stopped in the corridor that was opened to the garden, where the snow shone brightly under the light of the moon. Suddenly a figure jumped up at him, but he just turned and slashed him with the sword...

"NO!!!"

"Useless humans..."

/(The face inside is right beneath thy skin)

The sun goes down
I feel the light betray me/

Horohoro fell to the floor, his chest and shoulder dripping with fresh blood. He managed to stand up and create a small possession, but he was too weak for a face-to-face attack...

Yoh stared at Horohoro from the grasp of the spirit of fire, his hands clenched in fists of rage and frustration. He didn't notice that Hao wasn't looking towards the fight... he had noticed something else moving behind him in the dark... he smiled, as the blue beaded rosary flew from behind him and tried to imprison him, just like it had been done a long, long time ago...

"Yes... right where I wanted you..."

/It's like I'm paranoid lookin' over my back
It's like a whirlwind inside of my head
It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within
It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin/

It al went so fast, he didn't really realized what had actually happened until the end. He felt his body turn, his hand wrapping around the rosary and pulling on it, as Haruzame sunk into the flesh of his opponent. He heard Hao laugh cruelly, as he slowly regained power over his limbs....

/It's like I'm paranoid lookin' over my back
It's like a whirlwind inside of my head/

He pulled on Harusame slowly and stared at the tinted metal of the sword as a figure slowly came into the light of the moon... Yoh raised his eyes and stared transfixed as Anna's body fell from the darkness on to the richness of the fallen snow, her black eyes wide with surprise, her hair thick with blood...

/It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within
It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within
It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within/

For what seemed like an eternity, no one did nothing... Manta came out of the shadows and stared at the scene in fixed horror as Yoh dropped the sword and ran into the bloody snow, where Anna's body laid unmoving... Horohoro stood up and walked up to him as he desperately tried to wake her up, tears shining in his pained eyes...

"Yoh... she's gone..."

"No...no..."

Somewhere inside his mind, he heard Hao's laughter once more...

/It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin/

"ANNA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

---

Nara: (smiles smugly as the boys finish reading the story) So? Whaddaya think?

Trunks: (O-O) Well, I have to be honest, It's much better that your last stories. You manage to touch the deepest part of the characters and we all know that killing your fiancée because they forced you to do it is really, really painful...

Nara: Thank you Trunks... Bakura?

Bakura: Cruel... totally massacred the image we have of Yoh as the nice twin ob the Asakura group... Although it wasn't his fault in the first place to have fallen for that trick, he will feel guilty for this till the end of his days... It's really good...

Nara: Thank you... Kaworu?

Kaworu: Nara, you know that I will never like this stories and the lack of heart that you have when writing them, so I think I'll reserve my comment, as I am sure you already know what it is...

Nara: (T-T) Yes... web, thank you I guess... Lyserg?

Lyserg: (looks at her rather annoyed) I didn't like it. You know perfectly well I HATE Hao and yet you make him kill Anna and hurt Horohoro and Manta in the process. And even worse he uses Yoh to achieve all of this... It's disappointing...

Nara: Aw come on! It's just a story! By the way, d'ya think Yoh will get mad if he reads this story?

Trunks: I know Hao will really like it... and that Anna will probably have no comments...

Lyserg: (glares at Trunks) Well I don't know what will the general reaction will be, but I really hope Yoh doesn't read this Nara... seriously

Nara: (T-T)

Well, that's my very first Shaman king fanfic... pretty cruel for a start huh? Comments, critiques and everything else to the review section please... and also I'd appreciate if you answered the question "what would Yoh think if he read this fanfic?" that has just been formulated here by... well... me...

Thanks for reading this!

Nara Starr