Here's chapter 13!
I made this chappie longer to balance out the last one, lol.
A part of this chapter is also sort of like a small side-story, but everything has a purpose in this fic, as you'll soon learn. It may seem very long to you, but it needs to be like that because of all the detail. It gets to be VERY involved.
To Moonbeam the Goddess of Night- Sorry, but no Anna here, Hehehe. She'll come in eventually, although she won't be one of the main characters in this fic.
Disclaimer- Blah Blah Blah Not Mine Blah Blah
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KIGALI
I trembled in the darkness. Its silence pressed against me, it suffocated me. It was a nightmare, I knew it was, but no matter how much I screamed, I still wouldn't wake up.
"WHY??? WHY HAVE YOU BROUGHT ME HERE???" I screamed at the darkness. He was watching. I knew he was. "WHO ARE YOU? SHOW YOURSELF NOW!" I demanded, my enraged voice contradicting my fears. My only response was laughing. The darkness laughed all around me. A maniac laugh, it was too much to bear.
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!!!!!!!" I cried in agony, my hands around my head. The laughter just kept going, echoing into the endless chasms of the darkness. Suddenly, I felt a deep, burning sensation in my skin. As deep as my soul. I screamed in pain and sat up in my bed, sweating profusely.
"KEY!" I looked through blurry eyes at the shape in front of me. I was shaking.
"Zo—Zoe?" I whispered. Zoe fluttered in distress. She turned into a snow fox and wrapped herself around my neck.
"It was just a nightmare. It's ok." My vision cleared and I saw I was in the infirmary.
"Zoe, how long have I been asleep???" I asked her, rubbing my eyes.
"Since the initiation." My memory swept back. The elders... the blue fire... the goblet...
"How long ago was that?" She hesitated.
"Three weeks..."
"What???" Had I really slept three full weeks?
"But it was supposed to happen." She assured. "The drink from the goblet contained an ingredient that knocks you out for a long time. It was a side effect, but good thing too, because the process is supposedly extremely painful if you're conscious."
"What process?" I asked suspiciously. Zoe sighed and pointed at my upper arm. I looked. And I wish I hadn't. There was a blue marking surrounding my arm once, like a snake. I yelped and pulled the rest of the covers off. Both my upper arms were marked and also my calves with the same swirly mark that enveloped the members in a snake-like ring. My stomach also had two markings, on both sides of my belly button, but these looked like small triangular-slashes. Zoe grabbed a mirror out of the side table.
"They wanted to confiscate the mirrors, but I managed to sneak one in." Said Zoe, holding the mirror for me to see. I yelped again. There were two blue slashes in either side of my collarbone, matching the ones in my stomach, and also two of them in each cheek. They all matched the markings Zoe and the Anka had. I looked at Zoe in annoyance.
"THIS is what that horrible drink was for?"
"Well, at least eating that grub taught you to handle that awful drink..." She said optimistically. I covered my head with the covers.
"Zoe! It's too early for optimism." I said in a muffled voice, "And grubs." I added. I faintly heard a knock in the door of the main infirmary hall, right outside my room. Loud arguing followed the knock.
"Uh-Oh. Sounds like Tabitha," She was right. Tabitha came into my room a few moments later.
"Kigali! How are you feeling Kiddo?" I pulled the covers back from my face and pointed at my face indignantly.
"What have you done with my face???"
"WOW! You look awesome!" Her attitude towards the problem took me by surprise.
"Huh?"
"Yeah! You know how many people would want those? They're the markings all the goddesses of water and ice have had before you. Call it tradition. Besides, they make you look beautiful AND cool at the same time! A hard thing to achieve, believe me." Something was fishy.
"Hey, umm... Tabitha? You came here for any special reason?"
"Well... yes. I have news. Four of them."
"Good or bad?"
"Depends on your view on the subject..." I groaned inwardly.
"What is it?"
"Ok, first of all, Nagini left today to go back to Volkan. She left me the sacred book of Gali. It's yours now." She handed me the old, yet strangely new book. I gave a squeak of excitement.
"Second of all, I got you a spare room at my house. You'll be staying with me." Ok, so far so good!
"Third of all, I'll start your training in a week. You'll feel better by then." Ok, I can handle that.
"And fourth..." She hesitated. Uh-Oh. "Fourth, I umm... made an agreement with a friend in the Ainu Tribe and managed to get you a fiancé..."
"A what?"
"A fiancé... a bethroned... an engagement partner... a future husband." She explained.
"WHAT?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Zoe and I screamed at the same time.
"NO! NO! NO! NO! Nonononononononono!!!!!!" I stomped my feet against the bedpost. Zoe howled. A pretty woman with blue hair stuck her head into the room.
"I suppose you told her?" She asked, amused.
"Yes, please come in, Yukimi. Like I said, she didn't take it too well." I was so mad I could burst.
"B—but why???" I asked indignantly.
"It was to protect you."
"How is giving my freedom away to someone protecting???" I yelled.
"As you might already know Kigali, in your past life, the Goddess' fall was because of her love to the God of Fire. She's the reason he became Shaman King five hundred years ago."
"I'm not the past goddess! I'm me! Kigali!"
"I know that, but souls that have lived before attract each other. I'm afraid you have no choice here, Kiddo." She smiled sadly. "Your mother was wild too, not as wild as you, but wild all the same. She was so wild that she wouldn't marry. Men came from villages far and near, asking for her hand in marriage, but she wouldn't take any of them. Until your father came and swept her off her feet, then he proposed to her and practically shipped her off to his big, American house.
"That's the way he did it. And story goes that he got bored of her once they got there and divorced her, but wouldn't let her come back here. She never forgave him. She looked out the window the rest of her life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. When she couldn't take it anymore, she made a run for the village and made it here after a life-risking struggle with your father.
"She died in this building, surrounded by all those she had left behind. I had warned her, but she had been dazed by love. I never got to ask her if she made the best with what she got or if she was sorry because she couldn't be all the things she had wanted to be. She was my sister and best friend. Kigali. You have inherited her wild spirit."
"That was an uplifting story. It will sure change my mind when it comes to marriage and abusive husbands." I said sarcastically, trying to hide the painful memories that story had brought.
"I agree. But I have chosen your fiancé with this story in mind. I have chosen someone who is the opposite of your father. Show him in, Yukimi." She did, and in walked none other than...
"Pilika??? I'm sorry Tabitha, but I don't lean that way." I crossed my arms. Tabitha slapped her forehead.
"Pilika just wanted to be here. Yukimi, show the real one in, please." Again, Yukimi opened the door and a boy with spiky, blue hair walked in. It was Pilika's brother.
"Kigali, this is your fiancé, HoroHoroUsui from the Ainu Tribe." I jumped up from my bed and pushed him aside on my run out the door. Tears fell from my eyes. I ran outside and sat down at the foot of a pine tree at the edge of the forest that marked the boundaries of the Kovu Village. I sunk my head in Zoe's soft seal fur and cried. I felt ashamed of myself. I had made a fool of myself in front of all those people. I wasn't EVER supposed to marry!
When Anna and I had been at Shallow Brook, many boys in the town nearby flirted with us, but we never took any of them seriously. We laughed at them. We promised each other never to let ANYONE steal our freedom away, for we had both agreed that freedom and friendship were the most important things in the world. The priorities, we called them. My power was my own. I would not give it away without a fight.
I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Hey." I looked up. It was HoroHoro.
"What is it..." I asked, worn out by the excitement of the day. He sat beside me
"Hey, come on, I won't be a bad fiancé. Promise." I turned away from him. "You know, I think you're the prettiest, coolest girl I've ever seen. I would be honored if you would be my fiancé."
"Your fiancé? YOUR fiancé? I'm sorry HoroHoro, but I don't want to be owned by someone."
"You don't want to marry? That's strange. Most girls won't quit thinking about it. Including my sister." He said, poking a leaf with a stick.
"I'm not most girls."
"Yeah, I've noticed... so then what do you want to be?" He asked. It was a simple question, but I thought about it for a bit before answering him.
"I... I want to be... like the waves on the sea... like the clouds in the wind... I want to be a bird so I can fly free and not be held back by anything at all. Oh... never mind, you probably wouldn't understand..." I sighed in defeat.
"Yeah I do. You want to be free. You don't want to be tamed by anyone; you just want to keep your wild spirit. I understand. And I admire that." He added, not looking at me in the eyes. I felt guilty. I had only thought about how I felt, and didn't even give HoroHoro's feelings a thought. But before I could apologize, he went on. "I know you don't want a fiancé. Neither do I, but if I DID want one, it would probably be you. Since we're stuck in this together, how about we make the best out of it. I might be your fiancé..." He said, giving me a small purple flower, "...but I can also be your friend." He smiled sincerely. I felt my heart warm. He was cute. And too nice. AND very hard to be mad at. "Besides, I would never take your freedom away. Promise." I couldn't help but smile.
"Ok. I believe you, but I just don't want to inherit my mother's place by the window..."
"You won't." He promised. "I won't allow it."
For the next week, HoroHoro and I were inseparable. We became fast friends despite the 'circumstances'. He was allowed to stay in the Kovu Village until my training started. We hung out 24-7 and Tabitha even let him stay over in her house with me. Probably to change my views on marriage, but hey! Whatever! He taught me how to snowboard and made me a tiny wooden sculpture of a winged wolf.
"For good luck." He said. He wasn't so bad. More than once I found myself thinking that if I had to marry someone, it would be him, but I usually caught myself before the thoughts got really serious. We were just friends. That's all. Just friends.
"Hey Key! Check that out!" I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at where he was pointing. We were both just chilling out in the forest a few miles away from the village, so I guess I was surprised to find a huge, hi-tech building in the middle of nowhere. We crept closer.
"It's abandoned." I concluded. "Wanna go inside?" He smiled.
"I thought you'd never ask." Kororo gave a whimper of displeasure. We crept into the building through a loose door (which Zoe had to tear out) and walked around. It seemed some sort of lab. It was definitely a huge room... it fact, it seemed as though this single room occupied the whole building. Everything was dusty and dim and the computers were mostly broken, but some were still running.
"Hey Kigali, can you manage computers?" HoroHoro called from across the room.
"Yeah, be right there." I said, examining a broken crystal case, which had been used for prototypes. A small sign on it said 'Genesis-3-2-5 Prototype hoverboard', with a picture of a flying-saucer looking kind of thing with a stick figure on top. I felt inside the case, but nothing was there, so I turned my attention to HoroHoro.
"Waz'up?" I asked him, looking over his shoulder at the glowing computer screen. He was going through some files.
"Check it out... this used to be a military base... and here's a list of the sergeants and colonels that have worked here..."
"Wait! Go back one!" He obeyed and went back to a name I found awfully familiar.
"Colonel Thomas Belaqua?"
"Yeah! Click on it." He did, and out popped a bunch of files on him... and his picture...
"Kigali... you ok?"
"HoroHoro! That's my dad! Look!" I pointed at several points in his resume. "Two daughters... wife's name... Tala... That's my mom! And... current establishment... Morocco, Africa..."
"WOW!" Exclaimed Kororo, floating beside Zoe.
"So your last name is Belaqua? Cool. Kigali Belaqua. It matches. But he looks nothing like you." I nodded.
"People say I look like my mom." I walked away to explore more of the lab as HoroHoro kept playing with the computer. I found a flashlight and opened a storage closet. There were piles of boxes higher than me stacked neatly on top of each other. I grabbed one from the middle of the pile, causing the rest of them to fall to the side, almost on top of a feline Zoe, who hissed and climbed on my shoulder.
"Whoops..." I examined the box I had pulled out. 'FRAGILE'... blah blah blah... number edition blah... and...
"Zoe! Look! First Edition Genesis 325 hoverboard!" She jumped from my shoulder and turned into her usual wolf form.
"Open it!!!" I opened forcefully the flaps of the box and dug through the little white corn chips until I toughed something hard. I grabbed it and triumphantly pulled out a brand-spanking-new hoverboard.
"OH WOW...!" I breathed. "It must be one of a kind!"
"Well, NOW it is." Replied Zoe, looking at the fallen boxes.
It was beautiful. It was shaped like a giant Frisbee, or like a flying saucer. Its bottom was slightly round and its top was flat, with a strap for one foot on it. It was gleaming silver and seemed to be made of a very light metal 'extremely durable' the booklet said. It seemed a bit big for me, but I could grow into it.
"Awesome!" I said, admiring it.
"Hey um... Key? Maybe you should read this." She pointed at the booklet. 'Warning... this piece of equipment is not a toy... blah blah... it is a standard piece of military equipment/weapon'. I laughed.
"Gimme a break!" I said, patting the hoverboard, and accidentally moving a sliding switch in the bottom of it. Sharp, curved knives slid out where the curved part and the flat part of the hoverboard met, making it look like a very dangerous flower with gleaming knives for petals.
"Oh... that's what they meant..." I said weakly, backing away from the board a bit.
"I bet they used them for transportation and if they needed to fight, they pressed the spikes button and whirled it at their enemies like a Frisbee..." mused Zoe as she slid the switch back into place. The blades slid into the hoverboard again, "How barbaric."
"How very pleasant." I added. I looked over the hoverboard and found a switch on the top part. "You step on it to turn it on..." I stepped on it, but nothing happened.
"Won't work Key. Look." She pointed at the booklet again. "You need some seriously powerful power to go here..." She pressed a small square in the bottom of the hoverboard and it slid out like a drawer. It was empty.
"Aw man!" I complained. "Can't we ju—" I was suddenly cut off by a loud alarm, like a fire drill, and then an unemotional, mechanical voice spoke.
"YOU HAVE ACTIVATED THE SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE. THE BASE WILL BE DESTROYED IN T-MINUS-10 SECONDS. HAVE A NICE DAY." I whirled around to find a very pale HoroHoro in the computer seat.
"YOU WEIRDO! YOU ACTIVATED THE SELF-DESTROY SEQUENCE!!!" I yelled at him.
"We can deactivate it! It says here that there is an 'ABORT' handle in the back of the lab! But we won't make it in time!"
"T-MINUS-6 SECONDS" I looked at the 'back of the lab' I was on the other side of the room. About 100 feet away. Too far away. Oh God! We were going to explode!!! Ok, take a deep breath and think. I grabbed the hoverboard.
"This thing is fast enough to take me there!"
"Key! It has no power!!!" HoroHoro yelled. I bit my lip. He was right. Power... power... seriously powerful power... My eyes fell on Zoe.
"THAT'S IT!!! Zoe, come here!!!" As soon as she was close enough, I reached for her and swiped a single, blue feather from one of her angel wings. She yelped in surprise.
"T-MINUS-4 SECONDS" I turned the hoverboard over and pressed the small square I had seen Zoe press. The drawer instantly swooshed out. I quickly placed the feather inside the drawer and pushed it back in. The response was immediate. The hoverboard glowed a sapphire blue and floated up a few feet, then it became its usual silver again, but it kept floating. YES! I jumped on it, thanking HoroHoro's snowboard lessons. Fly. It obeyed instantaneously, and swooshed to the other end of the lab before you could say:
"T-MINUS-1 SECONDS" As soon as we neared the handle, I unhooked my foot from the strap and practically flew across the room. I caught the handle and pulled down in the snitch of time.
"T-MINUS..." The mechanical voice paused for a moment. I held my breath. "SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ABORTED. HAVE A NICE DAY"
"OH YEAH!!!!!!!!!" I yelled. HoroHoro ran over to me and hi-fived me.
"All right! We make a pretty good team!"
"We? You didn't do anything but start the self-destruct sequence!" I said jokingly. He laughed and scratched the back of his neck.
"Oh yea... that..." Yes. We DID make a pretty good team. At times. Ok, Not this one, but I wasn't gonna tell him that any time soon. We hurried out of the base for obvious reasons, him in his snowboard and me on my new hoverboard.
HoroHoro left the next day for his village. He was to be trained to be the representative of the Ainu Tribe in the Shaman Tournament. When he left, I cried. But not in front of him, because Anna had taught me that it's OK to cry, but not in front of others, because it symbolizes weakness. If people see you cry, they walk all over you. So I just gave him a sad smile as he walked away, snowboard strapped to his back, Kororo floating by his side. The Northern Shaman.
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Yes, this IS a Hao/oc fic, but, as I said before, the story gets VERY involved, lol. I hope you guys aren't getting impatient, and if you are, sorry!
Next chapter- Six Years Later
