And yet another chapter! YAY! Thanks to all who reviewed! I really appreciate it!
Anyway, since no one got back to me on the disclaimer:
Disclaimer: I don't own shaman king... MAN I'm getting tired of writing that!
And so, on again with the story!
Anna didn't know what to do. She could leave the room, but that could result in meeting Hao, or she could stay in the room, and technically starve herself because food was no longer being brought to her. In any case, she would keep Yoh's necklace with her, in case he tried to contact her again.
Around lunchtime, she was so hungry that she didn't really care about meeting Hao, and tried to sneak around in search of food.
What she found was a large dining room, vaulted celings, stone fireplace, gold wallpaper, a long mahogany dining table, and Hao at the head of said table.
Conpemplations 2
"Good Afternoon, dear Anna!" He greeted enthusiastically. "I suspect you didn't come down to breakfast because you weren't feeling hungry?"
She put on the facade, "Of course, Master. What other reason could there be?"
"Well one would think you may not want to see someone who may be present at breakfast,"
"And who would I not want to see?" she countered.
"Hm..." Anna had played that one well, "Mari,... or Opacho maybe,"
Anna sighed inwardly, "Well you got me, Master. The way they treated me yesterday was appalling, I still haven't gotten over it and didn't want to meet them this morning,"
"Well have no fear, Anna, Mari and Opacho aren't invited to my breakfasts, just me... and you,"
"Well, aren't I lucky," she felt that sentence reek of sarcasm.
"I expect then, that you must be very hungry,... famished almost,"
"Oh yes, Master. Very hungry,"
"Well lunch is almost here, and how many times now has it been that I told you not to call me master?"
"Two, Master,"
"Well make it three,"
"Yes,...Hao,"
Len sat on the living room sofa. He was mulling over the events of this morning. It really was dramatic tension, as Trey had put it, that just as Yoh had spoken to Anna, Hao took that away.
He was so busy with his thoughts that he didn't hear or sense someone come in behind him.
Pilica had been walking down the hall in search of her "master" for the day. She found him in the living room, concentrating very hard on something. She sneaked in and sat down on the couch beside him. He still didn't see her.
"Len?" she ventured.
Len's head snapped up. "Don't sneak up on me like that, woman!"
"Awww, did I make the great Tao Len scared?"
"Of course not, it's just that... well sometimes people need to think,"
"You're thinking about Anna," Pilica said, somewhat downcast.
"If you must know, yes. I was kicked out of the shaman tournament by one of my best friend's brothers, and this said friend's fiancee saved my life from that said brother... It's a bit complicated to think about. I never leave a debt unpaid, and I suppose I owe Anna the most,"
"So you're going to help find her?"
"I'll try, but I'm afraid I won't do much good. This seems like an Asakura family matter, and I really don't want to get in the middle of an Asakura battle,"
"I agree. Who would want to be stuck in the middle of Yoh and Hao... not literally of course!"
"Ew! Pilica! I didn't need to see that!"
"I'm sorry! It just slipped out!"
"...You know, that is the fastest apology I've ever heard you give,"
"Whaddya mean?"
"Well, it usually takes 5-10 minutes for you to say sorry to your brother. And sometimes you're so stubborn you won't say sorry at all,"
"Well, that's just me, I guess,"
"Yeah, I guess so,"
"... Hey wait- you time how long it takes me to say sorry to my brother!"
"No! It's just a rough approximation!"
"... Well then, this is awkward,"
"..."
"You know, you can leave if you want," Len ventured.
"Whaddya mean?"
"I'm not going to ask you to do anything, so you technically don't have to be my slave for the day,"
"...really?"
"If you want to,... otherwise you could stay here and we'll pretend to be master and slave just to fool your brother,"
"...Run option two by me again,"
Below, Trey was grumbling to Tamora, who was cooking lunch.
"And why his slave! Is it not enough that he teases us already! She has to be his slave!"
"I'm sure it won't be that bad,"
"What do you mean! Of course it'll be bad! He'll be ordering her around left and right! I never thought an Ainu would ever have to stoop this low,"
"What was the original argument anyway?"
"... y'know, I don't remember,"
"Anyway, I'm sure Len won't do anything to her, he's not that bad to you, and you haven't seen the way he looks at her-" she shot her hands up to her mouth.
"Ahem, what was that last thing?"
"Nothing! Lunch is ready!" she immediately brought over a huge bowl of soup for Trey.
He immediately forgot what happened prior to the bowl of hot soup being put in front of him, and started eating madly.
Pilica walked in.
"Len asked me to get some lunch for him," she stated simply.
Trey stopped gorging and started to glare.
Tamora quickly brought two normal-sized bowls of soup and gave them to Pilica, and ushered her out of the kitchen.
"Ordering her left and right!" Trey shouted at Tamora, who cringed.
Down the hall, Pilica heard this shout. She smiled.
"Hey, Len!" she greeted in his bedroom, giving him the bowl of soup.
"Well! How'd it go!"
"Ha! You should have seen the look on his face! This's gonna be fun!"
Yoh sat staring at the transmitter. He wondered if he should try her now.
'No, she could be with Hao, and that'll just get her into more trouble,'
And so he still sat, staring at the transmitter, thinking about a girl who was not-so-far away.
The said girl was currently at the end of a long Mahogany table full of food.
'Trey would love it here,' she thought.
"Go ahead, eat up!" her captor waved from the end of the table.
They ate in silence for a few minutes. Each keeping to their own thoughts.
Hao broke the silence, "Anna, I came upon a certain artifact while in your room yesterday,"
"An artifact?" she pretended not to know.
"Yes, and I took the artifact in question, Yoh's necklace,"
"Yoh's... necklace, sire?"
"Yes, dear Anna, I found it in your grasp last night,"
"...Oh! That! It's not his! He gave it to me prior to the shaman tournament, he still has his. I was going to throw it away last night when I fell asleep,"
"Ah, well," he thought. 'There go all my plans for punishing her, Oh well, what can you do?'
TBC!
YAYNESS! THIS ONLY TOOK ME A LITTLE WHILE
I know this didn't really forward the plot, but I was intent on putting a little HxT and LxP in here.
animebookworm
