"Amidamaru!"
The Guardian Ghost could not help but heed Anna's voice, as she was a spirit medium, but there was a raw edge of panic in her call that made him want to respond as well. Anna was forceful and high-handed, but that was because she only wanted the best for Yoh. Amidamaru didn't care for her brusque demeanor, and he hated it when she captured him with her abilities and spirit beads, but he didn't dislike Anna. To the contrary, he respected her.
He tried to ready himself. For Anna to have such a fearful tone in her voice, something bad must have happened.
Amidamaru materialized in front of her. His eyes widened in shock.
"Master Yoh!"
Yoh had collapsed on the ground. His limp shoulders and lolling head were supported across Anna's lap. Amidamaru, to his horror, realized that his friend's spirit wasn't there.
"This must have been some sort of new attack! I will go, and try to find him!" Amidamaru thinned as he started to float up toward the ceiling.
"Stop!" Anna commanded. Amidamaru froze.
"No, Amidamaru, please..."
There was a hint of tears rimming Anna's eyes.
"If we leave him like this, soulless, he will die. You must enter him, to keep him alive. I will go and find his spirit," Anna's explanation was given in a level voice. It was that very levelheadedness that made Amidamaru respect Anna, despite her difficult attitude.
He nodded. "I do not know how to enter him, except for Unity. And, he's not there for me to unite with," Amidamaru noted.
For an answer, Anna held up her necklace. Amidamaru sighed. Anna smiled slightly at Amidamaru's defeated air.
"Spirit of Amidamaru, great samurai warrior, Guardian Ghost of Yoh, hear my voice..." she began.
"I can hardly not hear it, as I'm right here," Amidamaru muttered sourly, having gone through the spirit capture routine before. He really hated it! Anna glared at him, but continued her spirit spell.
"...hear my voice and follow. See my beads and come. Let me be your guide from your world to ours..."
Amidamaru winced as her power dragged through the ether unceremoniously catching him, taking his freedom from him and trapping him in her beads. Anna's eyes widened in shock when Amidamaru winced, before she shook her head to finish her incantation.
"Now, Amidamaru, enter Yoh, fill the empty vessel before you and make it your dwelling! Amidamaru Possession!" Anna brought her beads down to Yoh's heart, forcing Amidamaru through the conduit she made, into the body of his shaman friend.
A great gasping breath, followed by a fit of coughing, told both Amidamaru and Anna that her plan had worked. Amidamaru struggled to sit up, strangely clumsy as his spirit tried to fit into a body not his own, without the spirit of a shaman to help him. Anna assisted him, until he was sitting upright unsteadily.
"Take a few minutes. It's going to be strange, without Yoh there," Anna suggested softly.
"P-P-Possession?!" Amidamaru finally gasped out. "That is an evil power of spirits!" he protested.
"When it is used to override the natural spirit of a body, yes, quite evil. But Yoh's spirit isn't there, so there's nothing evil about it!"
"And it's not something you did. I did. You had no choice!" Anna declared a hint of her bossiness coming through.
Amidamaru bowed his head, Yoh's head, agreeing again to the necessity of her plan. "What do you want me to do?"
"Uhm..." she looked indecisive.
"You're in the body of a shaman, but you aren't a shaman, so even if you were with me when I find Yoh, you couldn't do anything. And, you're not used to his body without him there, so you'd just slow me down. So, remain here. I'll return once I find Yoh's spirit."
"But, what should I do?"
Anna looked deeply into Yoh's eyes, easily able to see Amidamaru's spirit there. "Do you really want me to suggest something, Amidamaru?" she asked lightly. "There's housework, and training..."
"No, Lady Anna, I'm certain I can find some activity to keep myself busy!" Amidamaru capitulated quickly.
Anna smiled. "Good. Now I can go, find and capture Yoh's wandering spirit!" She slapped her spirit beads against the palm of her hand before settling them properly around her neck.
"Make certain you are here when I return!" she called a final warning over her shoulder as she walked away from the house.
----------
"I wonder what happened to Lord Yoh," Amidamaru's thoughts chased around in some variation of this worry for the hundredth time. He shook his head sharply, trying to banish his anxiety, so he could concentrate on the sound of flowing water from the fountain in the back garden, and the sensation of his breathing.
"Center, I must find my center..."
It had been centuries since he'd be able to perform his centering exercises properly. As a spirit, he couldn't bring his mind, spirit and body all together in harmony, so, though he still performed the exercises as best he could, the effect was only partial. He'd forgotten how distracting wearing a body could be!
Yet, when he finally achieved the harmony he sought, it was satisfyingly deeper than any his bodiless spirit exercises could bring. He wondered if the harmony found between mind, spirit and body would have longer lasting effects on him, once he returned to his spiritual ghost state.
It felt wonderful to be alive again. Just the simple, automatic action of breathing, filling his lungs with air, also filled him with an appreciation for the simple sensory pleasures of life again. What an unexpected result from Yoh's dilemma!
In Unity, Amidamaru resided in Yoh's body and shared his senses, but Yoh's spirit and his meshed and aligned. So, Yoh's spirit was also there, filtering the sensations, and functioning as one half of the will that directed their actions. Amidamaru's attention was normally focused tightly on whatever foe faced them, using his skills, honed from his samurai life hundreds of years ago, to keep Yoh alive and help defeat their enemy.
In Unity he had no luxury to enjoy the simple act of breathing. The scent of roses brought his wandering attention back. He took a leisurely stroll around the garden, touching the cool softness of leaves and petals while enjoying the familiar perfumes of many flowers again. He found gardening gloves and pruning shears and couldn't help but trim back a few of the bushes that were getting too wild. That he might have taken more mature flowers than necessary would be no problem, he reasoned, as they were past their peak bloom and would die soon anyway.
His stomach growled, a sensation Amidamaru had all but forgotten about.
"It is time for me to re-experience the simple pleasure of eating too!" Amidamaru joked aloud, regaining his feet from where he knelt as he tended to the last rosebush. Once inside, he spent a few minutes arranging the blooms he had taken in the vases he had discovered tucked away deep and forgotten in one of the cabinets and placing the finished arrangements in various rooms around the house. Finally he turned to the kitchen and the task of making something for himself to eat.
Manta knocked on the door frame to the kitchen some time later as Amidamaru finished putting the dishes he used away.
"Hey, Yoh, are you up for..." Manta's eyes widened as Amidamaru turned around.
"Aiee! Y-you aren't Yoh!"
"Manta. No, I'm not. But don't worry. It's me, Amidamaru," Amidamaru smiled, knowing that Manta was concerned. Manta was one of the few spiritually blessed humans, who was not a shaman or spirit medium, who could see him.
"A-Amidamaru?!" Manta sat down hard in shock. "B-But...! Where's... What happened to...?"
"What happened to Lord Yoh?" Amidamaru shook his head. "I don't know. Anna is searching for him now. She asked me to stay here until she returns." He reached a hand down to help Manta up.
"This is so weird," Manta replied as he accepted Amidamaru's assistance.
"For me too, but Anna does care for Yoh, very deeply. I'm certain she will find him and bring him back."
"You're right." Manta pondered for a moment. "So, you are...?"
"It feels to me as if I'm alive again," Amidamaru admitted. "I'm worried about Lord Yoh, of course, but still..." Amidamaru leaned his head back and breathed deep. "It is amazing to feel this way again!"
"Let's not waste it hanging around here then!" Manta suggested. "I'm surprised Anna didn't leave you with a list of chores to do!"
Amidamaru smiled, a bit surprised by that himself. Still, he wondered if Anna knew how he'd feel to suddenly be alive again, and decided to let him do as he wished instead. If so, it was a bit of sensitivity he was surprised she would allow to be noticed so openly.
"I did do some gardening. Some of the bushes were terribly overgrown."
"Aiee!" Manta shouted again. "You weren't left with chores and you did some anyway?! If I wasn't already sure you aren't Yoh, that would have definitely convinced me!" Manta smiled up at him. "C'mon, Amidamaru! Let's go have some fun!"
----------
Anna brought her spirit necklace down. She could feel it; she knew that Yoh "heard" her calling for him, but somehow, unlike any other spirit she'd tried to contact, he was resisting her call.
"It makes me wonder what you are up to, Yoh," Anna grumbled aloud.
"If you were attacked and forced out of your body by some spirit, you'd come running at a familiar voice."
"Fine. I shall just have to come to you!" Anna decided.
----------
Manta wondered yet again at the strange twist to the order of things today. He'd become used to weird things happening ever since he met Yoh Asakura and decided to help him on his path to the shaman tournament, but this had to be the weirdest occurrence yet.
Yoh's arms flailed, fighting to find and keep a balance, but it wasn't Yoh who moved them. It wasn't Yoh in that body now, it was Amidamaru. Manta had to keep reminding himself of that whenever he wasn't talking directly with him. Once face to face he knew it wasn't his friend, well, wasn't his shaman friend in there. Manta liked to think that Amidamaru was his friend too, even though he didn't share a special bond with the samurai ghost as Yoh did.
"This is a most excellent and challenging activity, Manta!" Amidamaru called out with a happy smile as he swept past on the rented roller skates he was beginning to master with enviable ease. "Thank you for thinking of it!"
Manta smiled. It was just like Amidamaru to make certain to thank him. Manta wasn't a shaman, but Amidamaru had always been kind to him anyway. It just seemed right to return the favor and bring Amidamaru here, to the roller skating rink, so he could learn something new. And it got them away from the house. It had only taken Amidamaru a few minutes to learn the basic skills of skating and he was now pushing himself discovering some of the more advanced techniques.
"I thought this would be an energetic enough activity that Anna couldn't complain about Yoh's training," Manta stated as he skated off toward the snack bar.
Amidamaru nodded vigorously. "It is an excellent workout for the legs, and for the arms too. I don't have to tell Anna that skating is also fun!"
Manta smiled, knowing that Anna would know it was just for fun.
"Let's rest for a bit and have ice cream sundaes. My treat!" Manta suggested.
"A rest would probably be good. I don't want Lord Yoh to feel stiff because I overworked him," Amidamaru agreed. "But, I ate already, I don't need..."
"One doesn't eat ice cream sundaes because one needs too," Manta interrupted. "One eats them because they are delicious!"
He grinned up at Amidamaru. Amidamaru's eyes sparkled as he grinned down at Manta.
----------
"What is Yoh thinking?!" Anna fumed as she ran. She'd finally seen Yoh, and she knew he'd seen her, and he ran! He ran away from her!
This wasn't some light-hearted game of hide and seek, this was dangerous!
"I'm going to twist him so tight in my beads when I catch him, he wouldn't be able to breathe if he needed to!" Anna promised herself.
A shiver ran up her spine and it suddenly seemed cool, as if the sun had gone behind a cloud. Anna looked up, noting that the sun was still full in the sky, with nary a cloud near.
"Oh, no!" Anna exclaimed aloud. "Yoh! This isn't funny anymore! There's a dark spirit nearby. Yoh!" Anna waved her beads in the air, mimicking the action of her power through the ether. "See my beads. Hear my voice. You have to return!"
Something dark and swift passed by Anna on her left side.
"Oh, no, you don't!" she growled, chasing after the malign spirit. "Yoh's mine! There's no way I'm going to let you hurt him -- that's for me to do after putting me through all this!"
Anna reached deep into her spirit medium disciplines so that she'd be able to capture Yoh, and banish this dark spirit simultaneously.
"Anna! Help me!" Yoh cried out doing his best to fight off the spirit that had an unholy interest in him.
"About time you realize you need my help!" Anna retorted.
----------
"C'mon Anna, just a little while longer, okay?" Yoh pleaded.
Anna glared at him, where he barely managed to float, as she had snared him in more loops of her spirit necklace than Yoh had ever seen. Each bead felt as if it had little clamps grabbing onto him too. It was the single most uncomfortable experience Yoh'd ever had.
"Well, you did manage to learn a new advanced shaman discipline, didn't you?"
Yoh nodded.
"Though you are really far too weak to try to spirit walk again. You have no skills fighting in spirit form!" Anna remonstrated.
"And you ran away from me! What was that all about?!" Anna demanded.
Yoh shifted uncomfortably in her beads. "I thought I could keep just enough ahead of you to avoid being caught until nightfall."
"Why? What's nightfall?" Anna asked suspiciously.
"Can I wait until nightfall to tell you? It's kinda embarrassing and I only want to have to explain it once. Since you caught me, can we go back slowly? And," Yoh squirmed again, "could you just loosen your beads a little?"
Anna sighed. "Okay, Yoh, you can wait to explain. And I'll go back slowly, but I'm not easing up on you at all! You ran away from me!" Anna exclaimed.
"Aw, c'mon, Anna! I promise I won't run. I'm sorry for running away from you already!"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"But these beads really hurt!"
"Whining doesn't become the future Shaman King, Yoh."
"Neither does being dragged around like a kite!"
"You put yourself in this situation."
"Please?!"
"No!"
----------
Anna strolled slowly up the walk, pulling Yoh behind her.
"An-na! Let -- me -- go!" Yoh demanded, squirming in the coils of her spirit necklace.
"No. I don't want you drifting away or giving me the slip again," Anna told him.
"I told you I wouldn't! Don't you trust me?!"
Anna just glared sourly at him. Amidamaru and Manta ran outside at their voices.
"Now, explain to me why you set your spirit free to wander."
"Oh, that."
"Yes, 'that'. Talk, now, or I'll..." Anna's hand tightened on her beads.
"I'll talk! Uhm... Well, do you know what today is?"
"Saturday. What has it to do with anything?"
"Well, yes, but today is a special day too. It's Amidamaru's birthday."
"It is?" Amidamaru blinked. "I've been dead so long I'd lost track. Such things as birthdays don't matter much in the spirit world."
"But it matters to me. I wanted to give something to you, or do something for you. It's really hard to find a birthday present for a ghost..."
"I see! So you thought to give Amidamaru a day to be alive again, in you!" Manta cried out.
"Well, uhm, yeah."
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?!" Anna yelled. "Your body could have died, if I hadn't found you in time and placed Amidamaru there! Some other wandering ghost could have possessed you instead of Amidamaru, or your spirit could have been destroyed by that evil spirit!"
"You could have tried explaining it to me," Anna dropped her head.
"I know how you and Amidamaru and Manta think of me, Yoh. That I'm too harsh and all work and I don't understand about leisure time. I do understand. But if I didn't push you, you'd make more and more time into 'leisure time'. Amidamaru is an excellent guardian ghost, but it is still you, your body, that must fight. All I want is to make certain that you are able to do whatever you and Amidamaru need in order to win," Anna explained softly.
"You could have just asked me. I would have -- I would have helped. I care for him too, you know."
"I was afraid you wouldn't let me. And then, if I'd told you and you didn't allow it, you'd stop me."
"You don't trust me."
"But, Anna, I do trust you," Yoh said quietly. "I knew you'd figure out what had happened and make sure my body was okay. And I knew you'd follow and find me and bring me back here." Yoh struggled in the control of the beads. "I didn't know how wretched it is to be trapped in your beads though!"
"Anna, I trust you." Yoh repeated simply. "I know I'm safe, and Amidamaru's safe, because you are here."
"Yoh, Lord Yoh... I..." Amidamaru stammered.
"Happy birthday, Amidamaru. I hope my gift -- fit well enough?"
"Very well, thank you. But," Amidamaru looked over to where the moon was rising in the sky, "my birthday is over. I should return the gift to you."
"You idiots," Anna dabbed at her eyes. "You two foolish idiots!"
"Really, do my beads hurt that much?"
"Not hurt precisely..." Amidamaru began.
"More like pinch," Yoh finished.
"Well, then, I suppose a Unity to undo this mess would be more comfortable for you two than a forced spirit merge. Of course, since the Shaman is now the spirit and the Ghost hasn't had anywhere enough training to act as the Shaman he's within, I shall have to help."
"Amidamaru, hold out your hands," Anna commanded, "palms up."
Amidamaru complied.
"Yoh," Anna began. Yoh floated over his own body's hands anticipating Anna's command.
"Very good, you've got the idea."
Anna grasped her spirit beads, still tangled around Yoh, and twisted them.
"Yoh, spirit form!"
Yoh's ghostly self writhed and glowed, finally shrinking down to a small spirit fire-ball floating in Amidamaru's hands.
"I'm pretty sure you two can take it from here," Anna noted wryly flipping her beads free from Yoh.
"Indeed we can, Lady Anna. Are you ready, Lord Yoh?"
"I am ready, Amidamaru," Yoh responded. His voice bubbled with mirth that their Unity ritual had been flipped, as normally he was the one who asked Amidamaru if he were ready.
"Then let us do this," Amidamaru suggested, bringing both cupped hands up bearing the spirit of Yoh up to his heart.
"Unity!"
The spiritual flare passed. Yoh was comforted at the feel of his spirit fitting properly into his body again.
"Amidamaru?"
"I am here, Yoh," Amidamaru replied.
"Are you okay? It wasn't painful just now?"
"I am fine, Yoh. Yours is not my body so passing from it wasn't painful."
Yoh sighed. "That was my only worry," he admitted.
"Did you have fun today?"
"Indeed I did. Today was a precious gift."
"What happened? What did you do today?"
"Many things, but let us not ignore Anna and Manta who are, no doubt, worried," Amidamaru suggested.
"You're right."
Yoh opened his eyes and smiled. Amidamaru manifested dramatically behind him until they allowed the Unity to ease.
"Are you two all right?!" Manta asked. "Yoh? Amidamaru?"
"I'm fine, Manta. I knew Anna would know how to set everything right again!" Yoh's stomach gurgled.
"What have you been doing today, Amidamaru? I'm starving!"
"Oh, that's right! Lord Yoh, please, follow me!" Amidamaru floated into the house, past the common rooms into the kitchen. There he directed Yoh in how to finish the simple meal he prepared earlier in the day. Anna and Manta watched with high amusement as Yoh, under Amidamaru's direction, finished making the dinner for them. It was not until they went into the dining room to eat that they noticed Amidamaru's other handiwork in the vase on the low table.
"Flowers?!" Manta exclaimed. Yoh listened while his Guardian Ghost explained that it had been so long since he had last been able to smell flowers that he wanted to work with them to enjoy every moment of their scent while not allowing his hands to be idle. Thus, he had trimmed back the rosebushes in the garden and gathered enough to make a few simple arrangements in a few of the rooms.
"This is really good, Yoh! Uhm, I mean, Amidamaru!" Manta praised after taking a bite of his meal.
"It sure is! I didn't know you can cook!" Yoh grinned.
"We have not had such leisure in Unity that I had been able to, Lord Yoh," Amidamaru replied, holding up his ghostly hands by way of an explanation.
Yoh laughed. "Yeah, I guess it would be kinda hard for you to cook on a regular basis."
"This is very good, Amidamaru," Anna said quietly. "Thank you."
Amidamaru smiled, and bowed slightly toward her. Manta cleared the table and set to cleaning the dishes in the kitchen. The routine of the household asserted itself and the day of Amidamaru's birthday, as with any normal day, wound down to a close. Anna found one last little surprise when she went to bed.
A single rose had been placed upon her pillow. She picked it up and breathed the scent in deep.
"Amidamaru," she called softly. There was no trace of her power in the summons, it was more an invitation. Amidamaru appeared anyway.
"Thank you," she said simply.
"I wanted to do something to thank you, Lady Anna. Your skills and quick action saved Lord Yoh today," Amidamaru explained.
"He's a foolhardy idiot, but," Anna looked up at Amidamaru and smiled, "his heart is in the right place. I'm glad you had a good day. Happy birthday, Amidamaru."
"Thank you, Lady Anna." Amidamaru drifted up toward the ceiling. "Sleep well and have pleasant dreams."
Amidamaru drifted through the quiet house, checking on Manta and Yoh as they too drifted off to sleep. He took up his accustomed post on the roof, watching all the approaches to the house. He reflected on his day, and his gift, and the shaman who had made it all possible.
"Thank you, Lord Yoh. Today was a gift I shall treasure always -- almost as much as I treasure the one who gave it."
- end -
----------------------
Author's notes -
Shaman King is just now being released in subtitled format in the US. It appears to be substantially different from the dubbed version, so even though I opted to use the original names, I have no idea if my treatment of the characters is true to the subtitled version of the show or not. Hopefully something like Yoh's gift is not completely against canon.
Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to email me also if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get!
stargarde (at) stargarde (dot) com