Koushirou: Hey there! I'm sorry about the wait, guys....but my main computer is crashing, so I have to my sister's computer until then.... --'
On The Way Down
Chapter Two
"We're back!" Yoh called as he walked through the door, Amidamaru, Manta and Mine behind him.
"It's about time!" Horo Horo said as they entered the living room. "I was starting to get worried about you..." he laughed, stopping when he noticed the extra person in the room. "Who's that?" he pointed to Mine who was sitting on the couch across from the one he was on. Next to her Yoh smiled.
"Do you always have to bring your opponents back home with you?" Anna asked as she entered the room. Yoh frowned,
"It wasn't me this time, Anna, it was Amidamaru..."Anna returned the frown,
"Sure, blame it on the ghost..." she rolled her eyes.
"It was! Right, Amidamaru!?" Mine's faced saddened, and she looked down, her bangs covering her eyes,
"If....if I'm troubling you...I suppose I could leave..." Amidamaru frowned, and Anna sighed.
"The only room we have left right now is the Attic, you can sleep up there..." Mine's head flew up, a grin on her face.
"Thank you so much!"
"It's not a problem, I needed someone to clean out the attic anyway..." at that, Anna left the room, leaving Mine sweat dropping.
Later... (I can't use my normal stuff right now because is mean to me....)
"Wow, Ryu!!" Manta exclaimed as he eyed the food that was on the table. "Why so much food?" Ryu smiled,
"For another victory, and our new beautiful guest!" he said proudly.
"Should have known..."Manta sighed as he shoved some rice in his mouth. Across from him Mine was putting rice into a bowl. He raised an eyebrow as she put two chopsticks in the center of it and set it next to her, where Amidamaru was. Both he and Manta blinked at her in surprise as she began to prepare her own food.
"What did you do that for?" Horo Horo asked, making everybody look in her direction. Mine didn't say anything, she only smiled lightly...
As they ate, Manta realized something,
"Hey, Mine...?" she looked up at him. "What's your reason for being a Shaman?" he asked. Next to her, Amidamaru looked up from the rice that he had been smiling at for the last fifteen minutes.
"Hmmmm..." Mine began after a few minutes, "that's a good question...." She set her chopsticks down. "Well...when I was a child, I could see and talk to ghosts. After a while, I could even feel their touch...but that wasn't enough for me..." she smiled sadly. "When my sister died, she was always there to comfort me when I was sad and lonely...but...but I could never hug her back...and that made me just as sad..."
"So...you became a Shaman just so you could hug ghosts?" Horo Horo asked, a smile on his face, and a mouth full of food. Mine laughed.
"I know...that sounds like a really dumb reason, but yeah, that's where it all started..." she grinned. "I was young!" she laughed, along with a few others. "My reasons for entering this tournament, however, are much different..." her face became serious.
"Oh?" Manta raised an eyebrow in interest.
"My main reason is to prove to my parents that I'm capable of doing it...but what actually motivated me was the incident on Funbari Hill..." she turned to Amidamaru, "Yoh is your partner right?" he nodded, and she became confused. She looked down for a moment, as if thinking, then back up to him, "But...why would you fight beside someone who destroyed your grave?" she asked innocently. Amidamaru blinked on surprise, as did Yoh.
"Lord Yoh isn't the one responsible for my grave being broken..." he explained.
"Oh..." Mine looked down. "I'm sorry....I guess I got angry with you for nothing..." she looked at Yoh sadly.
"It's okay...I understand..." he said as he smiled. She returned the smile for a moment, then turned back to Amidamaru with a confused expression.
"Then...if Yoh didn't break your grave....who did?" she asked. She watched in confusion as he slowly raised his hand. She was about to ask something when he pointed across the table. Her eyes slowly followed where his finger was pointing...until they landed on Ryu, who was looking quite pale and sweating nervously. "Oh....I see..." he gulped when she shot him a death glare, "It was you..." she pointed at him, "Wanna tell me why?" she ordered angrily. Ryu opened his mouth to say something, but shut it, then opened it again. He looked like a deer caught in headlights.
That was when Amidamaru suddenly burst out laughing, throwing Mine's death glare off. She turned to him, blushing slightly,
"What's so funny?!" she asked him,
"You." Amidamaru said simply.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" she asked, then stuck her lip out slightly. Amidamaru chuckled slightly,
"You worry about me too much, you always have..."
"So...you two have met before today?" Manta asked, they both nodded,
"Yeah....I guess you can say that..." Mine said, then turned back to Amidamaru, "And, no, I don't worry about you too much." Amidamaru rolled his eyes,
"Uh-huh..." he said sarcastically as he looked at the bowl of rice in front of him.
"I didn't put that there because I worry about you...I did it because I respect you." She looked away stubbornly.
'Dinner and a show...' Manta thought, smiling.
"Try and deny it, but you've always been like that, ever since you were a little girl that would sneak out of the house at midnight to talk to me about your day...or be late for school just because you had to stop by and say "hi" even knowing you school was in the other direction." He grinned, "Or that time you missed that party because you were holding an umbrella over my grave that day it was pouring..." Mine turned bright red,
"Okay! Okay!" she looked down, suddenly finding the table interesting. "You win..." she muttered. Amidamaru folded his arms and held his head up high, a smirk on his face.
His smirk turned into a smile after a while, but through the rest of the meal, Mine stayed the color of a tomato. She didn't say much either, but when she did, she tried to avoid looking at Amidamaru, which made him smile even more. He caught her looking at him once or twice, but she just squeaked slightly and turned back to her food. There was that one time that she stole a glance while he was staring at the rice, but he was well aware of the fact that she was looking at him. He gave her about thirty seconds, then he turned his head in her direction with an all knowing smirk. Yoh and Manta hid their laughs, unlike Horo Horo who couldn't control his snickers, when she growled in embarrassment and turned away again. It was obvious that Amidamaru was having fun, but dinner was over with a while after that and she disappeared to the attic. He wanted to follow her up there, but decided to wait until everybody else was asleep. It had been a long time since he had last seen her, and there were many questions on his mind.
Later....
It was well past midnight, and Mine had finally found her way to a nice flat spot on the roof, the only downfall: it was above Ryu's current room. She had given up on trying to relax and enjoy the silence of the cold night, seeing is how she couldn't hear it over Ryu's snoring. After straightening out her hoodie, she sat in the most comfortable, and warmest, way she could think of: with her knees against her chest. Looking up at the stars, she sighed and closed her eyes as she remembered a night six years before.
-Flashback-
She was running in the rain, it was just getting dark, and she was crying. It didn't take her very long before she was in the graveyard. Running up the hill, she stopped then fell in front of the grave she knew too well.
"Amidamaru-sama!" she cried out, "Amidamaru-sama, I'm scared!" she clenched her fists and cried for a moment, her head bowed down, "My big brother, he's...he's really sick!" thunder rolled across the sky, letting anyone in it's hearing range know that there was a bad storm coming. "He's so sick and I don't know what to do..." at that she began to cry harder as she remembered what a kid at her school had told her. 'Ghosts aren't real! And neither is that Amidamaru guy! You yourself said that you've never actually seen him before!' the boy's voice echoed through his head. "Amidamaru-sama..." she whispered, beginning to believe the boys words. 'Just because I've never actually seen you before...doesn't mean that your not there, right? Your real...right Amidamaru-sama?!' she thought frantically. "Amidamaru-sama, please...if your real...and you can hear me...please..." she was crying again. Thunder once again crackled across the sky, making her jump. With no immediate answer, she curled up in front of the grave, her tears mixing with the heavy rain that seemed to have lightened up a bit. She stopped crying when she noticed it. The fact that all around her, the rain was pouring, and yet, not so hard on her. She slowly looked up, and her eyes widened.
"Amidamaru-sama...?" the man that was crouched over her nodded. Her tears washed away with the rain, as did her sadness for the time. Her eyes lit up and she smiled, laughing with joy. The silver haired samurai also smiled, and for the first time spoke to her,
"You shouldn't be out her on a night like this...you could get sick if you're out here long enough..." he said with a warm smile...
-End Flashback-
Mine let another sigh slip past her lips, smiling sadly. She slowly opened her eyes....
To see Amidamaru hovering over her...
Koushirou: I'm so mean...-snickers-
Amidamaru: What?! Oo You can't end it there! That's so cruel!
Koushirou: I know... =)
Amidamaru: But it will be a while before you can update, we have to go back to Alegany tomorrow! :'(
Koushirou: yeah yeah yeah.... --' Come on, let's go pack...again...
Amidamaru: But!
Koushirou: Let's go!
Amidamaru: If you review, I promise I'll make her write the next chapter in a notebook so she can come back and post it for you! ;)
