He gave the boy a plausible look, smirking silently. With a wick flick of his wrist, he made a motion for the boy to come up.

His dark eyes were blank, not a trace of fear. The four year old looked up, planting his view. "What do you want?"

"So, you're the product of her failure?" Bloody red eyes creaked, almost so deadly. "I knew her past would catch up with her soon: she just didn't believe me." He cast another look at the boy. "For that, she's deadly mistaken. Tell me: what is your name?"

The boy paused as soft amber hair of bangs brushed against his eyes. "Asakura. Asakura Hao."

"Well then, I shall be your new mentor. You are now in my possession." A deadly smile. "How do you like that?"

The boy fell quite. "I want to be strong... To destroy my brother, can you help me get stronger?"

"Of course." The sudden fade to darkness. "Of course."

Shaman King is copyrighted to Takei, Shounen Jump, TV Tokyo, 4KIDs entertainment, etc.

Worlds Apart

by: Chiharu

Chapter Four

If you're reading this chapter and had just begun to read Worlds Apart, I feel obligated to inform you that this is actually the second draft of the story. The original chapter was written around the summer of 2004 and needed much editing. A lot of time and effort has gone into the writing of this story, and to be honest, Worlds Apart is actually my favorite project to work on. As time went on, I began to reread the old chapters. Yes, it's hard to read something with so many grammar errors in it, ne? XD; Basically, I'll stop ranting to present you with the newly beta-ed version of Worlds Apart.

Chiharu, Jan 2006.

Nichrome shook his head, looking down at the map. This should have been the right place, but the only grand monument in front of them was a dump.

"Ano." The older boy grinned. "Are we lost?"

"No." The boy grunted, managing a glare. "We're not lost, I just... Don't know where we are exactly... That's different."

"Oh." Yoh smiled. "If you say so."

"I probably just misread this." Nichrome attempted to flip through the wide map, looking for points. "But... It says we're right here." He looked up again; the view of the dump was still in front of them.

"What are you looking for again?" Yoh leaned over the shorter boy, looking over him.

"The door to the Dimensional Realm." Nichrome replied, sighing. "But this just isn't right, we are at the right place, but there's nothing here."

"Maybe there's a password?" The younger Asakura twin suggested, smiling. "Like, 'Open Bob?'?"

Nichrome fought hidden urges to crack up, resting a semi-serious look at Yoh. "Don't start."

"Oh." Yoh frowned slightly. "Why not? It could happen."

He ignored him, looking back at the map.

"No, I'm serious; we should try it."

Silence.

"Um... Are you listening?"

Nichrome growled inwardly, trying his best to block the other boy out. It was getting quite annoying by the second.

"Er, please?"

Interstate 58, rout 90. Turn west, northeast, U turn... He sighed, slowly folding the map over, blocking all possible noises out.

"It isn't that bad, you know..."

He turned around, shaking his head. "Fine, do whatever you want; just be quite!"

Yoh grinned, taking in a big breath; ready for shout out amerceable magical words. "Op- oof"

A flash of light nearly blinded him. Nichrome looked up, blinking.

There was a girl sitting right on top of Yoh, glaring at the surrounding. Her blond bangs clashed onto her eyes, and her sandals tipping halfway off her foot. And under her, laid her new-found cushion: Yoh.

"Stupid Portal..." She mutter softly, getting up.

"Er..." Nichrome paused, staring at her. "You're sitting on my client."

"What?" The blond growled, flattening out her skirt.

Yoh slowly stood up, robbing his head. "Ow... I guess that's not the password, there's no way something as heavy as that can be a door-way."

"Excuse me?" The blonde girl turned toward Yoh, leveling a steady death glare.

"Er... That's not what I meant. See..." The Asakura raised his hands in defeat.

"You wouldn't happen to be transported from the hidden realm, would you?" Nichrome's clam voice spoke out.

Macchi hummed to herself, strolling down the elegant hallways of the shrine; grasping onto her portable CD player. She had settled for a pack of Capsule in her backpack during packing, but only because there was no other way to fit everything in.

Pilica agreed to let them stay overnight after the party, but only when she agreed not to get in trouble. She wasn't exactly worried about Hao; the guy didn't exactly look like the talkative type.

But Lyserg, he was another story. From the time he woke up, the boy refused to talk. Pilica was worried he might have been mentally damaged, but Manta knew enough not to ask. Macchi had shrugged it off at that point, but now she was beginning to feel a little bad about it.

She paused, leaning off on one of the many sidewalk pull-ways. The sunset was beautiful, kind of reminding her of home.

There was a small tug on the end of her skirt as Macchi looked down.

"Matilda-san, Miss Pilica is looking her you." The small girl spoke up, smiling. "Please follow me."

As Macchi followed the girl through the maze of the shrine, passing through the many doors to resting chamber, she had caught a small look at Lyserg, sitting next to the lake; but both she and the maid knew it was pointless to try and talk to him.

"So em... What's your name?" Macchi added, in one of her pointless attempts to start a conversation with the other girl.

"Millie!" The girl chipped in happily, turning around to walk backwards. "What's yours?"

"I'm Macchi." The red-head grinned. "I'm staying for the party, you?"

"Oh, I'm a maid here. The String Mistress took me in when I was four, she's really nice." Millie smiled. "We're here." She stopped at the main entrance to the garden.

Tables were standing in the middle on the grassy fields, filled with the tables of buffets. There were dozens of tables, lined up perfectly over the beautiful garden. Variety of flowers and roses were set up, laying elegantly for the garden party.

There were, of course, classic French lamps hovering over the garden. Exquisite radio boxes were set up, as beautiful violin music lit up in the background.

"Turn this way." Millie instructed, opening the elegant door to the grand hall.

The redhead walked in, awed by the view.

She had never seen anything as beautiful as this before. Golden exteriors designs covered the walls; harmonic angels were lined up on the side. Luscious curtains of ravishing red mixed into the background.

In the middle was Horohoro, running around and moving things in the last minute; Pilica hovering over him.

"No, no. Oni-chan! Put it over there, not there. This has to be perfect."

Macchi grinned. "Need help?"

"Yes, please!" The blue haired boy laid the last statue on the ground, collapsing on the floor. "Pilica is such a perfectionist!"

"I am not." Pilica laughed, flattening out her pink skirt. "Mistress told us to fix the scene at the last minute, if only someone could be more cooperating."

"Do you call moving ten tons of stuff un-cooperating!" Horohoro raised a hand into the air, still lying on the grounds.

Pilica giggled again, straightening herself up. "Well, the Tao have accepted their invitations at the last minute; so Mistress wants this to be perfect." She emphasized the note.

"Yeah, yeah." The boy rolled his eyes, getting up.

Macchi was about to speak up when Pilica cut her off, seemingly reading her mind. "Tao Ran is a personal friend of our mistress, they are indeed very close. But around this time of the year, she fell sick to a cold; her daughter was carefully enough not to let her go out."

She shook her head, continuing. "Her husband never attends anything if possible, and her daughter has taken up an very important information desk job at in the Central Office. The only one left to attend would be their younger son, but he was still studying overseas in America. But he had recently returned, and agreed to attend this party on behold of his mother."

"Only problem." Horohoro added, fussing with his wristband. "Tao Ren is a perfectionist. This is one of the few times Mistress ever met him, she want him to have a good impression of our Shrine. So that's why my little sister decided to taken on the job of torturing me at the last minute." He mock-cried.

"So, are a lot of people coming?" Macchi asked curiously.

"Yes, we have a much bigger guest list this year." Pilica nodded happily. "And they are only the people sent an invitation. We suspect that many more uninvited guests will come; like you and Asakura-san."

Macchi hasn't told them exactly why they were here yet; she didn't felt it was of much importance. But she had some idea that the String Mistress, all-knowing, knew.

The Shinigami looked up at the grand clock in the hall, smiling. "The guest should be pouring in any second now, we should get ready to greet them."

"We?" Horohoro raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, we." Pilica replied, literally dragging the boy out of the door and into the garden.

Macchi wanted to him, just the thought of being controlled by a younger sibling is already amusing. Of course, she could tell Pilica loved her brother enough to know what was good for him.

She shrugged, following them out the door.

"So, tell me again why I should help you?" Anna narrowed her eyes, walking past the wall.

"Eh..." Nichrome struggled to free himself, but the itako beads were too tight; grasping onto his wrist and slamming him against the metal walls of the dump.

As Yoh had learned in the last twenty minutes, it is very unfortunate for anyone to come across one Kyouyama Anna; let alone being rude enough to demand something from her.

Nichrome had failed in all categories.

He put up a good fight, of course. But the girl was simply too strong, it looked more like she was toying with him. The five-year age-difference didn't help on their side either.

"I think..." Yoh spoke up slowly, being still standing. "Could you please let him go?"

She turned around, giving him an amused look. The small demons stood behind her, sneering at him. "You are searching for the Ribbon Shrine, correct?"

"Eh... Yeah." He scratched his head. "Do you know where it is?"

Nichrome struggled more in the background, but kept his mouth shut.

The blonde girl had paused, looking down at the demons circling her feet; yelling something incoherent about not helping him. Putting aside the fact that she personally wanted to smack their heads against the wall, Kyouyama did enjoy going against her onis; watching them get mad.

"Sure, I'll help you."

The demons' jaws dropped.

A smile formed on Yoh's face, but was cut off by Anna.

"For a price." She added, jerking on her beads. Nichrome was released in the process, softly swearing to himself.

Yoh sighed. "There's always a price."

"Forget it." Nichrome cut in, grabbing the older boy's arm. "We don't need to mess around with her, we can find the entrance by ourselves."

"No." Anna sneered. "You can't, and you know it. Admit it, you need my help."

"I'm not a kid!" Nichrome fussed, a small vein seemingly popped in his brain. "I'm eleven years old, turning twelve. And for your information, I'm much more mature than you'll ever be."

"Its okay." Yoh whispered softly, holding the younger boy from attacking. "We get the point, you're smart."

"Right." Anna nodded slowly. "I'll show you how to get into the shrine, and you can get me into the guests' list. I have... A personal score to settle with the String Mistress."

As Pilica had foretold, the guest came pouring in; groups after each other. They were smiling, laughing, and certainly enjoying the party.

Macchi leaned up into one of hold in the hall, grinning. "They look like they're happy."

Pilica nodded, standing next to her. "I do hope so, this is very important to Mistress."

"Speaking of which." Macchi looked around. "Is the String Mistress going to show up any time soon? I was hoping she would give us enough credit to make an entrance at her own party."

"Oh, please don't feel that way." She blue haired girl clapped her hand. "Mistress is a very kind of person. She might be... Odd at sometimes, but we love her."

"Don't worry." Macchi grinned. "I was just joking. But seriously, have you see Asakura?"

"That boy we came with?" Pilica guessed, pressing a finger to her chin. "I've seen him around the shrine here and there. But, I don't want to rude and just walk up to him. He is quite handsome, ne?"

Macchi choked on her soda. "Him? Handsome? No way, more like rude. You have to know the guy to understand him."

"Does that mean you know him enough to?" The older girl teased.

The redhead shook her head. "I'm not attracted to him, really."

"Should I feel insulted?" A silent voice spoke up behind them. The girls sprung around to see Hao standing beside them.

"I should get going." Pilica declared, walking away and greeting more guests.

Macchi took the time to scan him through. Grey hooded jacket and jeans. At least he wouldn't stand out more than the ketchup lady. She didn't know if she should be embarrasses that he overheard them. Instead, she decided to change the conversation.

"So what do you think?"

"Think about what?" He turned about, blinking slightly.

"Your twin could be walking through that door any second now." Macchi frowned. "Should you feel some kind of emotion? Excited? Angry? Scared?"

"I never thought much about it." He replied casually, looking onto the red curtains. "I've never met him, never talked to him. Why should I make a big deal about meeting him just because he's my twin? I bet the next person who walks through that door had more history with me than we did."

Macchi knew he was just saying it for "figurative speech", but she couldn't help but turn around; waiting to see who would come in through the door next.

Sure enough, aside group had set their step into the hall, coming in from the garden. She had honestly thought it would be too much of a coincidence, but the world was still a weird place.

Macchi blinked, squinting her eyes. There was an oddly similar blonde girl, followed by a much younger boy. Then...

Either she had just eaten something bad, or the light was playing playing tricks on her eyes.

No, it couldn't be. The boy behind them almost looked like... No, that was an understatement. He had the exact same face, just shorter hair.

She could almost feel Hao straighten up beside her. She knew it was crazy, but she couldn't help but stare.

It seemed that they had noticed to two of them too, they had paused midway.

It felt like an eternity to Macchi, like they were frozen in time while everyone else could move. For what seemingly long enough, she finally moved.

"He... You.."

It was almost an eerie feeling, as a soft gust of wind blew past them.

"Behold!" A loud voice spoke up. "The entrance of the String Mistress."

They had cut their attention just in time, as Macchi looked up at the grand hall. An elegant staircase soon appeared as a beautiful blonde young women walk into the frame. Her white gown was attached to a small pedant around her neck, and emerald green eyes reflected back.

CRACK.

"YOU!"

Before anyone could speak up, Kyouyama Anna had suddenly jumped out from the crowd; using Furyoku to level her balance and aiming her beads at the String Mistress.

SWOOSH

Everyone in the crowd gasped, as they started rummaging.

A blonde man instant jumped in front of her, blocking Anna's attack. She narrowed her eyes, redirecting her beads and jerking the man aside.

"Move aside, I won't go easy on any of you!" Anna yelled, sending a blast of Furyoku at the young woman.

Before Macchi could comprehend anything, Hao had also launched himself at the String Mistress. The Spirit of Fire followed suit, in a flash of light, the entire hall caught on fire.

WOSH

The crowd broke, as everyone rushed out of the door, screaming and yelling. "AH!"

"Hey! Stop!" Macchi yelled. "What do you think you're doing!"

It seemed that everyone had ran out of the hall, afraid of getting in the mist of fire. It was burning everything down.

The String Mistress did not move, nor did she show any sign of concern when both Anna and Hao reached her at the top stair, leveling a sword against her neck.

WOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH. Everything was turning flaming red.

Anna looked up, glaring at Hao. "Move aside, this is my job!"

"No." The boy replied, grunting. "I've been waiting to destroy her ever since I was four!"

Nichrome looked like he was about to die, when he concentrated his Furyoku into the scorpion frame, leveling his shot arrow into the air. "Damn, stop moving!"

"Wait!" Yoh grabbed Nichrome's arm. "You can't attack any of them!"

Macchi had assumed he was the one in charge of the second part of relocating the other twin, despite his age different. She ran toward the boy, fussing.

"You can't attack Hao or Anna, it's too dangerous. Even if it's to save the String Mistress!" She yelled over the flame.

CRRRAAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKK

The smoke was getting much denser.

"The ceiling is going to collapse!" Yoh yelled back, grabbing Nichrome by the arm. "Get out of here!"

"Move, Woman!" Hao glared at Anna, pushing her aside. "I'm the one that's going to get her!"

Macchi frowned, trying to see through the smoke. "How come the String Mistress isn't moving at all!"

Anna and Hao bother noticed the same thing, realizing their hold.

Suddenly, there was an overwhelming flash of light.

"Nice."

Macchi looked around the hall; the fire had suddenly stopped as everything returned to its previous state.

The door to the hall once again, as the String Mistress entered. The real String Mistress.

"So, that was just an illusion?"

"Yes." Meene smiled. "That was pretty ingenious of me, ne?"

Pilica walked out from behind Meene. "Mistress Meene knew the two of you would pull something dramatic like this, so she created in illusion of herself to distract you."

"It was my idea too." Horohoro added.

"You-" Hao glared at them. "You knew why I was here all along, didn't you?"

"And me." Anna spoke up. "You let me go because you knew I was going to come back after you!"

"Yes." Meene nodded. "Denbat had informed me of it, he's quite the fortune teller." She pointed toward the priest, who had just walked in. "

"I do enjoy your ultimate efforts to kill me. It was quite an amusing show." She gave them three slow claps.

Macchi's jaw dropped open. This was the String Mistress? She looked no older than twenty years old!

"But it was pointless anyway." Pilica explained. "Mistress Meene is immortal, just as the rest of our shrine."

Macchi shifted uncomfortable in her seat. This was just too strange. First Hao and Anna try to attack Meene, and they she invites them for tea?

Meene sighed, settling down her cup. "Lyserg, you can come out too."

The green haired boy opened the curtains, entering into the room. He sighed, pulling a seat out.

Macchi could feel Hao's fist tightening up, she didn't know what he had against the String Mistress; but he was keen on destroying her no matter what it took, even if it meant burning down the entire shrine.

She didn't know if she wanted anything to do with him anymore.

"I just want you to understand." Lyserg spoke up in a soft voice. "That I know I've been overly unspoken for all the while."

"Let me tell you a story." Meene started.

"Maybe you might not know, but I was born in hell. I was raised as a single child, but my mother and father were soon summoned to the royal court."

A man named Yohmei was in charge of surrounding system, assigning spy into the mortal realm. He had sent my parents into the mortal world to assassinate a politically informed angel from Heaven. They managed to kill him, but were destroyed in the line of duty.

That was when I was taken in the care of Yohmei, raised up as his second daughter. I had soon become found of his daughter, Keiko; we were very close indeed. And in many ways, we were very similar; dreaming of becoming famous.

When we were both seven, we were introduced to another girl by the name of Wuruta Ran. That was where we had formed our gang, slowly climbing onto the latter of society. We were equally strong in terms of Shamanic Power; and managed to survive the years of training.

On Keiko's 16th birthday, she was assigned the job of hovering over the Mortal realm. Information was leaked about Heaven sending an angel to stop the pain inflected on floods and natural tragedy to the human race.

After that, we were separated; for I was introduced to Liam Diethyl. He had a job for me, and I was assigned to assist the previous String Mistress who was dying of old age. A year later, she past away. I was then crowned the new String Mistress by the Order of the Minastrate.

Because of previous failures, they didn't was to repeat the mistake; and high officials granted me immortality. Only, I was doomed with the job resting the faith of the human race.

That was when I was told by the officials that they need to punish Keiko for failing at her job. For falling in love with Mikihisa. They were casted away into the Mortal Realm. But when she feel pregnant, the twins were separated and leveled to Heaven and Hell."

She took a deep breath, turning to look at Macchi. "And the rest, I supposed, as they say, is history."

"My father was a premiering dowser, it was his job to relocate the person for the job, and found Meene-san." Lyserg added. "Now I now, the entire world is held together by such a breakable thread. The strings of the Ribbon Shrine."

"It is my job to hold together the faith of the world." Meene nodded. "But I want you boys to understand, the decision of your parents' faith was not made by me. Neither was Anna's suffocating past, I know you want to blame everything on me; I can understand, but you need to know the truth before you react."

The twins turned around, their eyes met.

Macchi could almost feel a surge of Furyoku coming from the two of them, they were equally strong Shamans. Much stronger than herself.

"And now that you are all gathered together." Meene slowly spoke up. "I know Macchi and Nichrome needs much more time until decision day."

"We need to get to the Osorezan Mountains." Nichrome replied.

"We do?" Macchi turned around, looking at the boy.

"Yes. It was in the last progress report I sent to the council."

"You sent a report without consulting me!" Macchi blew up. "You're just a little shrimp, how can you do something like that!"

"And some help you turned out to be." Nichrome declared. "Your client tried to burns us all down."

"And your tour guide almost killed us!" She pointed at Anna.

"At least I did it so we could get in, you act like your so much better just because you're older than me."

"By three years!" Macchi stuck her tongue out. "Ha."

"And somehow, I thought they were smarter than that." Anna rolled her eyes.

"This is no time to fight." Denbat spoke up. "The truth is that since you are heading North, we also need someone to deliver an important package to the town of Funbari."

Macchi and Nichrome paused from fighting, look up slowly. Despite their earlier quibbling, both were smart enough to know of Funbari and its importance to this case.

"Yes." Meene nodded, taking out a neatly rapped package. "If you deliver this for me, I shall grant each one of you a wish. Changes to your faith." She paused. "Its not everyday I grant pardons like this, I hope you understand."

"Why not." Macchi shrugged. "Since we're heading the same way, thanks to someone I had the misfortune of being stuck with." She turned to glare at Nichrome.

"Lyserg." She waved for the boy to come over. "Will you please assist them, I believe the Priest is also in need of a new assistant. My Shinigami turned out to be... Quite useless."

"Hey!" Horo yelled, grinning.

Lyserg bowed his head down. "Of course, Meene-san. I am flattered you would think this highly of me, its not like I have any other place to go to. My family is gone."

Macchi shook her head. "Of course not! We're all Shamans here, so death is always beyond the limit of eternity."

"Sooo." Yoh looked up. "Are we leaving soon?"

"Yes." Denbat explained. "You have my permission to stay here tonight, but understand that you need to start going very soon. But the truth is that in order to get into the next stage of your quest, you have to travel North. The Osorezan Mountains is a perfect place to go."

Meene handed the package to Macchi. "Please take of this, it's a important gift to a dear friend. You may open it when you reach her, but please take good care of it before you reach your designation."

"And this, is where your real journey starts."

Free Talk

Osorezan is the place where Yoh first met Anna. Just a little trivia for those who haven't gotten that far in the manga. :D Funbari is of course, the setting in the beginning of the anime and manga. I honestly have no clue about the geography of Japan, so I'm just going to take a guess and say they're going North.

So, review?

Chiharu