Disclaimer: If plagiarismbad and fanfictionsnot bad, then fanfictionsnot plagiarism.
Slight spoiler: this chapter includes the names of characters which have not appeared in the American Shonen Jump manga or graphic novels. No information about them, I just didn't want to confuse anyone.
Chapter 3: Resurrection?
Faust stopped in his tracks as he crossed the threshold of the Asakura household. There on the doorstep was a skull. A bullet-pierced skull that he would know anywhere. Eliza's skull.
He knelt down to pick it up, and revealed a note hidden beneath it. A single word was all that it contained, but it was enough. "Ascension," scrawled in spidery writing. Eliza's soul had been sent to heaven.
But wait! Eliza's soul had had been sent to heaven before, and Anna had brought her back. Faust cradled the skull in his arms and let the now-crumpled note get swept away by the breeze.
/Anna-sama will help. Eliza, my love, soon we will be reunited/
He bounded back towards the kitchen where Anna and Yoh were waiting for him.
/Yoh…/
Eliza would always be his first love, but after their encounter last night, Faust had realized his deepening feelings for Yoh. Of course, if Eliza were returned to him, he would not…no, could not be with Yoh. Eliza was his reason for life. Faust did not even know if he could continue to live with Eliza under the same roof as Yoh anymore.
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Anna stared at the skull before her. Recalling Eliza's soul from the spirit plane should be no difficult task. Of course, it would have been easier if her spiritual medium, her skeleton, had been complete. Nevertheless, Anna was an accomplished Itako. This was child's play for her.
She removed her prayer beads from their resting place around her neck and twirled them around her hands. With a sudden rattle of wooden beads, the process had begun.
"One I place for my father."
/Why would the kidnapper leave her skull/ Thoughts ran through Anna's mind as she recited the incantation from memory.
"Two I place for my mother."
/He must have studied us./
"Three I place for my brothers back home."
/Could he really not have known/
"Here I offer my flesh to aid you soul's release."
/Something is not right here./
"Hear my voice at world's end and arise. Hear the sound of my prayer beads and draw nigh."
As she began to slip into a trance, Anna suddenly realized that her suspicions were not unfounded. Something was amiss, and she knew what it was. Of course, by the time her mind processed this, it did her no good. She was enveloped by the rhythmic clatter of beads and entered a trance.
/Damn./
/I'd might as well try. After all, I might be wrong./ Her thought was not one of hope, but rather one of disappointment, but she still searched for Eliza on the spirit plane. It was a fruitless search.
So she waited. The trance could not be broken without channeling a spirit until her beads were disrupted.
First a minute passed. Then another.
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Yoh looked at his fiancé and realized that something was not right. It had never taken Anna this long to find a spirit before. His eyes moved to her hands, mechanically swaying the beads without conscious thought. She looked so calm. So focused and intent in her work.
/Ah, Anna. How I love you./
Yoh had a bad habit of falling for anyone who paid him attention and kindness. A very lonely childhood had not helped this. It seemed like he'd developed a crush on anyone who had crossed his path. Manta, Ryo, Liseru, Horohoro, Chocoai, Ren and Faust had all won his attention very easily. So easily, in fact, that they'd never even known it.
That was another of his faults. His outwardly calm demeanor often concealed very powerful emotions. They only showed themselves when built up to an unreasonable amount of pressure. And even then, Yoh could usually bottle them until an appropriate time presented itself. Once again, a lonely childhood and a deep set fear of rejection fuled this behavior.
/Why are emotions so hard to understand/ Yoh took a deep breath and opened his eyes from their current half-closed position. The rhythmic clatter of beads echoed throughout the room.
/I'd better do something or she'll yell at me later./
Yoh pushed himself off of the floor with his hands and rose to his feet. He walked over to Anna and paused to look over his shoulder at Faust, who looked back at him. The doctor's hope and anxiety were conveyed through big blue calf eyes. Yoh broke their gaze when he felt his face begin to flush, and Faust returned to staring intently at Eliza's skull. Clearly, he had not realized that anything was wrong.
"Faust…If Anna has not found Eliza by now, then she's not there." Yoh said sadly. Faust glanced up once more. This time with despair and disappointment on his face.
Yoh had never wanted to come between Eliza and Faust, and wanted only happiness for both of them. He would always have Anna. Faust had already lost Eliza twice now.
/Ah…/ Yoh's mind returned to the task at hand. He reached over and gently grasped the beads, preventing their movement before he could be sucked into their trance as he had come so close to being before.
At the cease of the beads' trance-inducing rhythm, Anna's eyes snapped open. She draped the beads back around her neck before turning to face Faust and Yoh.
"It's about time you did something." She half-snapped at Yoh. "Didn't you realize something was wrong?"
"Gomen, Anna." Yoh opened his mouth to say more, but was interrupted by Anna, who picked up Eliza's skull.
"Look at this." She said.
Author's Notes: Cliffhanger! All will be revealed next time. Well, not all. That would be bad. Oh yes. Deliciously bad. Anyway, ignore the libido. I have no idea if I got those upcoming names right. Like I said before, my DVDs are very crappily subbed. So if you know, let me know and I'll fix them. Sorry there's not more yummy yaoi, but hey, there has to be some plot, or else there wouldn't be any angst, and don't we all love angst? Until next time, this is SemeDesu. (I changed it cause I like this better. It means "I am dominant" in Japanese.)
P.S.: Yoh's romantic situation is taken from real life. I have this horrid habit of falling for anyone who's nice to me. Don't know why. Don't know how. I just thought it suited Yoh, so I added it in here.
