Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King nor any of the characters presented in this piece of work.
Note:
Yay! The last chapter's finally here! And yep it's a lot longer than
my usual chapters. Enjoy!
Chapter 20
She hated crying. It was a sign of weakness, an emotion she refused to show anyone, even herself. But there she was, running around town with tears running down her masccara smeared face.
Her head spun as her feet carried her body to wherever they could take her. Anna's hand unconciously clutched tightly to the ring on the necklace given to her eariler that day. She didn't know where to go, she just had one destination, one goal, to find Yoh.
The park where Yoh first wrapped his arms around her came into view. The very same place she felt their heart beating in unison. The very place she where she first...fell in love.
'I love him damn it! And I want to be with him. It doesn't matter what happened.'
Anna slowed down her pace as she approached the small arched bridge. Stopping at the exact spot Yoh first wrapped his arms around her, she wrapped her arms across her chest as the memories came flooding in. Anna suddenly felt an incredible tightness around her chest. It hit her so hard her legs gave out and she landed on her knees on the snow covered bridge. With only Yoh in her mind, the blonde didn't realize she had been running around town searching for more than three hours. Anna finally found herself out of breath and aching all over.
'Argh... I can't get up. I can't even move from this spot. How can I be so weak?'
Anna scolded herself with a pound of her fist into the icy snow.
'And what's this feeling?'
Her hand clutched the front of her coat.
'I hate this feeling. Everything feels so...hopeless.'
Everything began to dim.
'No... I'm going to lose him...'
More tears managed to flow down her face right before she collapsed and everything turned to darkness.
Her head was throbbing but she could hear people conversing not far from her. Her eyes opened slowly. She blinked once, twice, and suddenly everything came into focus. Anna was staring at an unfamilar ceiling. Turning to her right, she could make out two figures, obviously a guy and a girl. They seemed to be in an argument about something that Anna couldn't quite make out from the distance. Frankly she didn't care at the moment. She was more concern about how she got there and who was responsible.
"Oh, you're awake!" The girl who still hid behind the shadow exclaimed happily.
The voice was slightly familiar. Anna thought hard on who it could be but only succeeded in causing her head to throb even more.
"Oh come on, she only fainted from exhaustion." The boy spoke and that's when it hit her. Anna couldn't help herself from letting out an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. The two figures finally came into view and no doubt, they were who she assummed to be.
"Anna, are you ok?" Jun asked, obviously concerned for the younger girl lying in bed with her hand pressed to her forehead.
"...getting there," she answered after shaking her head slowly from side to side hoping it could help. "How long was I out?"
"Nearly an hour." The younger brother joined in. "You were attracting quite an audience laying there on the bridge." Ren spoke without even looking at her. Anna looked at him, his arms were crossed and had a pissed off expression on his face.
Or maybe that's how he always looked, Anna began to wonder herself. She suddenly became angry. Who was he to express his disapproval of her actions? He wasn't her brother, he wasn't her anything. Her eyes grew menacing as she continued to stare angrily at him. Still, Ren refused to look her way. Finally fed up with being ignored, Anna turned the other way.
Jun took a seatt on the bed and placed her hand on Anna's shoulder. The blonde stiffen from her touch. She still wasn't use to any type of human physical contact.
"You really love him, don't you?" Anna's breath caught in her throat but she didn't reply. "He really loves you too." Jun said softly as if to reassure the still unmoved girl. "He said he's doing what's best for you."
Anna froze. 'What?'
"You know where he is?" Anna asked as she turned slowly back to the siblings. Jun looked to her brother. Anna caught the slightest shook of Ren's head and Jun turned to look sadly back at her. "You do know." She stated firmly, sure of it now more than ever.
'They must know. How else would they know where to find me. Yoh must have put them up to this.'
The thought put the tiniest smile on her face.
"I'm sorry, Anna." Jun shook her head slowly side to side. She evidently didn't want to keep Yoh's location a secret from her. "I promised him I wouldn't tell you."
Anna stared sadly into Jun's eyes. Her breathing grew more rapid by the seconds. "Do you know..." She wasn't in control of her body any longer. Her body shivered from fear of not seeing Yoh again and tears rolled freely from her puffy, tired eyes. "...how long I've waited from him? How long I had to live in misery, living without any meaning, living without... really living!" Her hands grabbed on to Jun's shoulder firmly. "Please, I don't want to lose the one meaningful person in my life. I literally don't think I can live without him." Anna was pleading now, and she didn't care just how pathetic she must looked to them right then.
Jun looked to her brother once more, her eyes also pleading for Anna. Ren stared back for a moment before letting out a sigh. There's no way he can say 'no' to those eyes.
"I'll drive you."
Yoh sat on a wheelchair staring out the window at the airport, his trademark smile no where in sight. Any minute now preparations in the private Tao jet would be done and he would be off to another country. The sulking brunet thought of his distination, Paris. Quite a strange place when you're trying to forget a loved one.
'No, not forget her. I never want to forget her.' Yoh brought his hand up to his mouth with two of fingers covering his lips and the others propped under his chin. 'But...it's so painful to think about her knowing I can't be with her.' His chest tighten, his heart ached. 'It's not fair, I love her so much...'
His whole body suddenly went limp. He didn't want to move, he didn't want to leave. At the moment, he could just dropped dead right there for all he cared.
"Master Asakura, the jet is ready," a man dressed in a gray suit informed him. Yoh took a deep breath.
'I'm doing this for her. I want her to be happy.'
He turned to the suited man and nodded, his face now plaster with his grin. "Lets go."
Anna found herself running again. She took off in a sprint as soon as she stepped out of Ren's red ferrari. He had gave her the exact direction while on their way to the airport. Her mind was racing as she ran repeating three words over and over under her breath.
"Please be there. Please be there. Please be there..."
After pushing many people along the way to the side, Anna finally reached the private part of the airport. She flashed a card Ren gave her to the security and they quickly let her through without questions. Her legs carried her to where Ren said Yoh should be boarding, which was just around the corner.
'No...'
Anna turned the corner to find it completely empty, not a single soul in sight. She ran to the door leading to the jet and tried to open it.
'Locked! Damn it!'
"Hello!" Anna began banging on the door. "Can anyone hear me! Please open the door! It's very important! Please! Please...?" With no reply and was no sign of anyone around, Anna slowly began to lose hope. She cried again and chuckled after a long while.
'I'm crying again. How is it that he's managed to make me cry more in these couple days than I ever did in my whole lifetime?' She wanted to laugh at the thought. Anna walked over and sat down on one of the chair set in a row. She wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there. Could have been a few minutes or hours, Anna was completely oblivious to the surrounding world. But then...
"Anna?..." Her head shot up instantly. There by the door sitting on a wheelchair was Yoh, with an equally confused expression on his face. The thought of him being just a dream crossed her mind. That she could have fallen asleep and be dreaming all this up. However, the thought didn't stop her from running towards the wheelchair-bounded boy and throwing her arms around him as soon as she reached him.
"Yoh!" Anna said, happy and out of breath. "You're real." She realized. Her voice was muffled as she buried her face in his hair.
"Anna...what are you doing here?" Yoh's arms slowly wrapped around Anna when she suddenly pulled back. He didn't even have a chance to react before Anna's right hand slapped him hard across the face and wrapped her arms around him again. Yoh's eyes were opened wide in shock. He wasn't sure what just happened, but then they began to register. He smiled.
"I deserved that." He said thoughtfully.
"Don't you ever leave me again." Anna commanded, her hug around him tightening.
"But, Anna..."
"I don't care what happened before. It wasn't your fault, I know. I just needed some time to think it over. You didn't...you didn't have to leave." She sobbed into the shoulder of his sweater.
"Anna, that's not why I left." He said painfully.
"What?" The blonde pulled back slowly to look Yoh in the eye. He looked at her tear drenched face. Yoh wanted to kick himself for being the cause of her sadness.
"You should be with Hao." He looked away as he spoke. "He can make you happy." Anna shook her head, not believing what he was saying.
"There's no way I can ever be happy living with that arrogant, egotistical brother of yours."
"But I saw you in the dream with him..."
"That's not me!" Anna yelled sternly. "Hao told me about the dream and that's not me."
"She looked just like..."
"I'm telling you it's not me!" She cut him off again. "I'm allergic to strawberries." Anna added to reassure him.
"You are?" Yoh was more confuse than ever. The girl in the dream was clearly Anna, or she looks just like her, only slightly older by a couple years and a shorter length hair. But since that's the future, Anna could have cut her hair by then.
"Yes, I've been allergic to them since I was born. I had to be hopitalize from eating them while I was younger. I don't want him. I don't want that future dream. Not if that future doesn't have you." Anna's eyes never left Yoh's. "You owe me Asakura Yoh."
"Huh?"
"You owe me a lifetime of happiness. Don't you dare abandon your responsibility." The blonde pulled out the necklace he gave her and held it up to their eye level. The ring on the necklace swung back and forth. "Remember what this symbolizes?" Yoh's eyes followed the swinging ring a few times before landing back on Anna's eyes.
"Love." He said with a smile. "It symbolizes...my crazy love for you." Yoh pulled Anna in and captured her lips with his. Both of their bodys immediately burst with a warmth. Anna's hands dug into Yoh's dark hair as his hands roamed her back. They soon broke the kiss concerned with where their heated passion would lead them. Yoh obviously wasn't physically ready for anything more intimate then just kissing. The two proceeded to staring at each other's eyes with their forehead and nose pressed together.
"I love you, Anna." He whispered for only her ears.
"I love you, Yoh." She said back to him in an even lower tone.
"You know you sound very sexy in that tone?" Yoh grinned at her. Anna hit him playfully on the shoulder and Yoh faked a wince in pain. The two laughed as they made to exist the airport.
"Hey look!" Anna pointed out the window. Yoh's eyes shifted towards the window. His smile broaded at the sight. Outside small, white flakes of snow started coming down as if reminding him not to forget the promise he made to Anna.
'Don't worry, I kept my promise. And hopefully I won't have to make that kind of promise again because I don't intend to ever leave her side.'
Hao sat on the bench outside his and Yoh's Japanese home watching the snow as they fell from the sky. They soon covered everything in sight leaving the city a beautiful sight to behold.
"Maybe Yoh had the right idea in changing the future for his own benefit. You still haven't won yet, brother. Everything's still up for grabs."
He got up to retreat to the house.
"Damn... I hate it when it snows..."
Fin
Author's final note: Yay! That concludes this story. I hope everyone enjoyed it and is satisfy. The next one will focus mostly on Hao and Anna, plus Yoh will be in there of course. But ummm it will still be a Yona pairing on that one and Hao has this other chick and you won't know until I actually type it up. Oh yeah, Ren and Pirika's relationship will develope in that one too. so look out for part 2: When It Rains!
I just want to thank everyone who reviewed, especially the ones who have reviewed since the beginning. Thanks for the continuous support!
