Introduction

You probably thought that I'd never update this lunk'o'junk, eh? Well, you were wrong. In this chapter, we will explore each of the twin's different personalities and ruling ways. They are very different, and I really tried to show it in this chapter. I also tried to keep their personalities from being different from the manga, busometimes it's hard. Really hard. I have a quirky writing style, so don't mind it if you get lost in some of my paragraphs. It's my fault! O.o;;

Disclaimer

I don't own Shaman King.

Chapter Two - Growing Up

The twins grew up, as children soon do, and each learned important lessons on the way. Yoh absorbed everything that everyone told him, like an all-purpose sponge, with no discrimination and acceptance. Hao, however, was exposed to just as many opinions as his brother, but was very selective on what he took in. The result were two very different personalities.

When the historians taught them about their great ancestors and how the Asakuras came to reign, Yoh listened open-mouthed and wide-eyed, while Hao was working on blocking things out of his mind. Hao had a talent of forgetting things, or ignoring them, and he used that talent to it's fullest potential. For instance, when he had learned of his grandfather Yohmei Asakura's reign, he chose to remember when the generals had caused a riot and almost killed Yohmei, but conviently forgot that his grandfather was a harsh ruler, and enforced many unfair laws. In Hao's mind, everything was black and white, wrong and right. He was able to keep this seemingly ignorant view of the world without having any gray areas because he could make himself blind, deaf and dumb whenever a event arose that threatened to shatter his black and white paradise, and returned to normal when it was over. He believed his brother to be too easily led by those around him. He also held great disdain for humans in general, and it was a while before he finally learned of a word that described people like him: Misanthropist. A long and complicated word for such a basic and simple feeling, he thought, but then again, humans always had to make things a lot more complicated than they really were.

Too complicated indeed, Yoh thought as he looked out onto the kingdom. All he wanted was to sleep and live out his life, was that too much to ask? There was a time, he thought fondly, when you were a prince and you could just loaf around the palace all day, and no one had the power to tell you to do any work. These days everyone was always bringing you their problems, their questions, as if they thought that you could magically solve it for them. They thought that just because you had a crown on your head, you were somehow wiser than them, and had the ablilty to bless them in some way, to make their crops stop shriveling, or to keep their children from getting sick. It was common sense, Yoh thought, that if your crops are drying up, you should water them. In fact, most of the problems that the peasants complained to him about were not even problems. The complaints that were problems, like if someone's daughter could not get married because she was too ugly, he had little control over. Sometimes he almost thought that Hao was right about people, but whenever he just felt like giving up on them and joining Hao in his gloomy view of the world, he couldn't shake off the strange feeling that the kingdom was a peach rotting in the sun. If he was to join Hao and give up on the people entirely, then who was the help them? If both of their future rulers had given up, who was to stop the rot from reaching the core?

This would always make him feel guilty. He loved Hao as a brother dearly, but they would always be complete opposites. He would always think that Hao was too strict, too harsh in his methods as a king, and Hao would always think that he was too soft and naive. That was their relationship, and would stay that way as brothers, as princes, and maybe even as rulers.

Whenever Yoh looked at Hao, he would feel too frivolous. It was all from the time when they had taken a swim in the palace's private pool together. Yoh had glanced up when his brother was entering the steamy room, and saw his chest. Hao's body was marked up, with a giant roped scar from the time when he had tried to save a man in a knife fight, and many, many bruises from when he had rolled down a hill in an effort to save a egg that had fell out of a nest. Hao may hate humans, Yoh thought, but he values life much more. Yoh looked down at his own body through the clear, crystal blue water, the same as Hao's, but with no marks. He didn't even had a small cut. You did not come across many injuries going to lessons with the historian and walking in the garden. It was then that he realized how completely shallow he must seem to Hao, a man that would risk his life and did to save a baby bird. Hao, he had asked then, Does Mother and Father know that you risked your life for a peasant?

No, he had said, surprised, why would they? I didn't tell them, and I made the healers keep the secret. Mother and Father wouldn't understand, you know how they are. Mother would go crazy and start crying, saying how my life is so much more valuable than anyone else.

But it is, You had argued, you're a prince, and that man was just an ordinary person.

A prince's life gone from the world holds no more weight or value to the Lord as a normal man's life, Hao had replied.

Yes it does, You had said, just like if you had a bottle of water from the fountain of youth and a bottle of regular water. The bottles are exactly the same, the same size, the same volume, and the same weight, but if you had spilled the bottle from the fountain of youth, you sure would miss that more than if you had spilled the bottle of normal water.

Lives are not water, Hao had said quietly.

Hearing his brother's words, You had known not to push the matter any more. They had both floated there in the pool silently that day, both lost in their individual thoughts, soaking up the water and taking up room.

You had sensed that his father was a bit scared of Hao. Perhaps he thought that Hao was planning to overthrow him and take the throne by force. As much as their Father cared for them, it was a half-hearted love. Mikihisa had been on the throne too long, and that had filled his heart full of distrust. Perhaps Mikihisa, too, had sensed that Hao was special. Perhaps that was why he feared him. You knew that his brother had the strength and the determination to take the throne from his old Father, and the only reason he had not done it by now was because he could care less about ruling a kingdom. They were supposed to be twins, but You felt weak when he compared himself and his brother.

Okay. The end of Chapter Two. Whee. Yay. Okay, well, before you leave and go back to your life, remember to review. Let me show you a equation that I made up.

MORE REVIEWS equals FASTER UPDATES

Very simple. So what do you have to do now? listens to reply That's right, review! So why don't you go ahead and do it? O.o;;