Carly-chan: Wow I'm so happy that people are actually reading and liking this story. Personally I don't like this story too much it's not my best. It turned out longer than I wanted it to and I hate the way I shove the time lapses in there. So my next fan fiction (which I have not decided on a name for yet) will be much better, I will start writing it once I'm finished with this one so if you'd please read it when I get it up here that'd be great! And now for my very favorite part of the fan fiction responding to reviews!
cutieangel1991: They are going fast? Really? wow.. I'm sorry being only 13 I don't have much experience with relationships, the only 2 I've seen went pretty fast but they weren't too great maybe it was because they were rushed into. So um maybe good relationships (which is what I'm trying to write a good relationship) have to be taken slowly.
Horohoro fan: yeah I'm sorry that the chapters were so long I really didn't do much chapter planning. I just sorta broke them up wherever I thought was good at the last minuteXIAH: I'm glad that you like it!
Uh just a note before I go onto the disclaimer I meant to put this in the first chapter but I guess I forgot . Um about that part where Heala and Mei are talking and Mei says all of these things about guys. I'm sorry for that I hope I didn't offend any male readers. Hmm do guys even read these fan fictions anyways? … uh.. I'll have to ponder that.
Disclaimer: Yay this is my 2nd favorite part! today's disclaimer will be done by my most prized character Catsuu. She is one of my genuine pure and sweet characters
Catsuu: Um. Carly what am I doing here again?
Me: Catsuu your gonna tell the readers that I don't own this beautiful anime
Catsuu: But you do own it Carly. You have all of those DVD's that you made your mother buy.
Me: No no Catsuu not like that.. I mean by the law how I don't own it.
Catsuu: Oh alright Catsuu smiles a big sweet smile My dear friend Carly does not own the legal right to the anime Shaman King even if she wishes that she does. However she does own the characters Heala, Mei and Sayo.
Me: Thank you Catsuu. See I finally found a name for my male shaman character!
Catsuu: Now that I have done this for Carly-chan will Carly-chan please help me find my brother Natsuu?
Alright now onto the story ..I know your probably thinking 'finally this freak takes forever!'
I did as he said and went to sleep, of course after having a talk with Heala and explaining to her that everything was ok because Ren took care of me. I had that dream again. I woke up after it and suddenly realization swept over me. The dream was also a premonition. Was I to die during my next fight? The words 'upon us sooner than we think' started to echo through my head. This made me realize that I really didn't have a lot of time, and actually I had less time than I thought. That morning I got word of who and my next opponent would be and where to fight him.
I was to fight a guy named Sayo at the cemetery just after sunset. I always loved cemeteries for their sense of peacefulness so I found it a bit ironic that I would be having a fight that may kill me there, especially since if I did die I'd already be at a cemetery. I waited until the morning before I got out of bed and then I went around the house doing my morning chores and such. When it was noon and I was sure that he'd be up I went to see Ren. I had to tell him that I had figured it out; he said that he wanted to know.
I left a note for Heala so that when she woke up she wouldn't be worried about where I might have gone to this time. I ran all the way to Ren's place and knocked on the door very quickly. I heard his grumbling on the other side of the door so I stopped knocking and stood there smiling with my arms down to my sides waiting for him. I couldn't tell why I was smiling, I wasn't happy, actually I was rather worried. Perhaps it was just a habit of mine to smile when someone was coming. I always wanted everyone to see a happier side of me so I hid behind that smile. Ren had opened the door and seemed happy to see me despite the fact that he was tired. I knew it was early so I felt a bit guilty for waking him up. Wait could I have woken him up? I didn't really think that Tao Ren was one to sleep in. Taking another glance at him I figured out why he was tired, he had been training. He doesn't have his shirt on.
"Ren!" I nearly whispered from lack of breath, I had forgotten how hard I had ran here. "I figured it out! I figured out what my premonition means!"
"Premonition?" he mumbled to himself, he seemed to remember then because the look in his eyes changed suddenly. "Well¼ go on and tell me what you found out."
Ren wanted to know what I had to say and he wanted to know a lot, although he'd never show it. I decided that I wouldn't toy with him this time, I wouldn't hide the information that he wanted until I absolutely had to tell him. "My fight will be tomorrow against someone named Sayo at the cemetery. But more importantly do you remember the part; 'Soon will come an ultimate pain for me but an even greater pain for you Tao Ren.' I am to die in this next fight, what it is trying to say is that it will cause me great physical pain to die of course but it will cause you emotional pain¼ the horrible pain of losing someone you care about." I explained. I hadn't been making eye contact with Ren while I told him this so when I looked up into his face I saw that he was very displeased with what I was telling him.
"You'll take me with you then. What time is the fight going to be?" Was he being protective of me?
"Alright¼ it's just after sunset¼ we should get there early though. If the sun sets at six-thirty¼ then we should meet there at six." I paused "Is that okay with you?" He nodded and so I said goodbye to him and let him get back to his training and went home to train myself. I trained all evening until it got late, Heala had told me not to stay out too late because tomorrow I couldn't be tired like I usually was.
In my sleep I had that dream again but I forced myself not to wake up, I needed the rest. When I had woke up in the morning I found that it was fairly early. "Again I wake up far too early this morning." I grumbled as I rolled out of my bed and went for an early morning stroll. "I'm just glad I slept well last night, If I hadn't I'd be so tired right now." I said happily to myself as I walked along the stream in the park area. I loved the park area at times like these, early in the morning, late at night or during the rain. It was always so quiet and peaceful and there were usually no people around. "What am I to do today until six o' clock?" I wondered aloud to myself. "Heala told me that if I trained before the match I might be too tired to fight properly during it. Well I guess I can't do that then… and I wouldn't want to bother Ren more, he's probably busy with something. What shall I do then? I suppose I could just sit out here for a while and then figure it out a little later."
So that was the decision I had come to and that was what I did. I wandered around the park for hours staring into the creek and talking to the animals, at one point I even went into the creek. After I decided to get out of the creek ,however, I realized that it was a bad idea to go in. My clothes were soaked through and the wind had started to blow sending coldness over me every time it came by. I tried to dry my clothes of the best I could by ringing them out, then I decided that I would dash through the park letting the wind that rushed by me dry my clothes as I went. Of course it was very cold as I did that but after a few dashes up and down the long trail I was completely dry.
Finally it was a time when normal people would be awake and I could go and get some breakfast. I went to a nice café that wasn't too far from where I was. "I'm in the mood for some breakfast cakes!" I chirped happily as I strolled down the long street towards the café. So I went into the café and sat at the counter and ordered an assortment of cakes and a cappuccino. (A/N: is it a bar or a counter at a café? I don't know so uh I hope you understand what I'm talking about) I sat through the morning rush and observed the people as they came by. At first I was thinking wicked thoughts, that they were rushing off to their jobs that would bring no good to the world, only harm and that I could lead them to their death for the crimes they had committed against nature, them and their cars. I realized I was glaring at them as they came by and quickly stopped. This would be my last day on this earth, or at least as a being that a normal person could see, I should try to be nicer shouldn't I? So I put on one of the fake smiles that I had developed and continued to observe the people in the café as the morning rush ended and the regular customers lounged around happily. I started to wonder if any of these people could have been like me. I don't mean being a shaman because I knew that couldn't be, if there were a shaman here in this café I would know about it. What I mean is what if someone here was like me in the way that they only had a limited time left to live and knew of it. But then again why would any normal person come to a café to spend the last of their lives. My thoughts were interrupted, however, when the woman behind the counter came over and started to talk to me.
"I've never seen you here before, you must not be one of the regular customers, besides none of the regular customers sit at the counter anyway." She said happily to me. I thought it was sort of stupid that she'd question my being a regular customer when she clearly knew that I wasn't. Then it hit me, this was the way that people started up conversations right?
"Oh yeah I don't really come here too much, especially at this time of day." I said to her with that mask of a smile on my face. It felt a bit strange to actually have a conversation with someone that didn't have hate behind it. It did feel strange but I can't say that it didn't feel a little bit good.
"So what brings you here today?" She questioned smiling.
"Oh well today is… sort of a… special day. I may never get to come back to this place, or anywhere around here for that matter." I replied. I felt a strange mixture of joy and regret from this conversation. The conversation I was having with this woman made me feel good, but also it made me regret never opening up and having conversations with normal people. It was kind of funny in a cruel way that on this last day of life for me I would realize the wrongs of what I have done for these past few years. I realize now that I was mistaken in treating people as something far lower than me but now on this very last day of my life really what could be done about it. Even if this was not my last day I couldn't change the past and since it is the last day I cannot reform myself and live a better, new life in days to come.
"Oh are you moving to someplace else?" She asked cheerfully.
"Well yes I suppose you could say that." Is what I answered, yes I was moving really, into the afterlife or to become one of the ghosts who haunts the cemetery. I had heard of ghosts who haunted the place of their death because they just couldn't accept the fact that they were dead, how fitting it seemed that my place of death would be a cemetery, a place that seemed to be a home for ghosts.
"Oh well I hope that you are happy in the place that you move to." It puzzled me how this human could be so kind and happy to someone who was a complete stranger. I had always hated humans because I thought that they were hateful beings who harmed the wilderness and didn't even mind it. I started to sense this woman's heart, I looked around inside of it and her heart wasn't tainted as I thought it might be, I thought perhaps she was like me, wearing the mask of a smile and kind words to hide her true inner pain, turmoil and hatred. But now I begin to realize that my hating them for being a seemingly hateful race would amount to nothing in the end, hate because of hate just creates more hate.
I couldn't take this anymore, this was all beginning to become too much for me. I was lost, it seemed as if all that I had believed for these last few years of my life was slowly becoming a lie. I told the woman that I had to leave now and bid her farewell. She told me to take care, I didn't think that there was much point in that as I knew I was to die tonight, if only she knew. Still it felt good that there seemed to be someone other than those I hold dear who showed that they cared for me.
As I left I decided that I would go home for at least a moment and then go from there, after all I'm pretty sure that I never told Heala that I'd interpreted my premonition yet. As I walked home I saw the large clock that was on the bank, it was about ten o' clock. That means there were eight hours until I was to meet Ren and eight and a half hours until the start of the battle that would end my life. I shouldn't of been in a hurry to meet my doom or the battle and the person who would bring it to me but I was. I suppose that it was nervousness and anticipation that made me want it to just happen soon. There was also the fact that I would be seeing Ren, how sad it would be though, our final goodbye. It pains me to think of it so I quicken my pace now and walk towards home.