"You converse with ghosts, silly." The women smiled, leaning down to hug her child. "That's what you are, someone with the right and ability to contact spirits from above. You hold the right to do whatever you wish."
"Spirits?" Matilda tilted her head sideway in question.
"People who have passed away." Mattisse Avern raised in a finger, smiling brightly. Her caring and happy nature shown up a rise of her index finger. "People who have left something undone, that way, they do not go directly to the spirit world."
"Something undone?"
"Yes." Avern smiled, tucking her young daughter into bed. "Most of the times, when a shaman meet their rightful spirit, they manage to resolve whatever tragedy from above."
"What if they don't?" Came the bouncy reply.
Avern bit her lip. She knew it was a simple enough question. Matilda hasn't meant to bring up the superstitious resolution, but no shaman liked to mention it too much.
"Mommy?"
"They remain in debt and move to Espirit Valley, Macchi. They do not move on or part with a shaman. They just... Live in angst and pain until the time comes when they..."
"They what, mommy?"
"Until they destroy themselves."
Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King, it is owned by Takei, Shounen Jump, TV Tokyo, 4KIDs entertainment, and Fox Box, etc.
Worlds Apart
By: Kitori Chiharu
Chapter 6
"We chase the lie, until it leads to the truth." -Grisom, CSI Las Vegas.
Yes. I know I am in dire need of a beta-reader, but I really just want to edit all these files by myself. Because I do have a literature class I need to pass, and getting someone else to edit all my chapters for me isn't very healthy.
Macchi had instantly sat up upon hearing their location. Blinking slightly, she paused before tilting her head. "Espirit Valley?"
"Yep." Redseb shrugged, arms folded behind his head.
"Why, is something wrong?" Seyram silently looking at here new nee-chan.
"Eh..." The red head grinned slightly, scratching her head. "Nothing, just thought I heard of the name before."
"Oh, okay!"
Hao narrowed his eyes, but kept quiet nonetheless.
"Are you hungry, Nee-chan?" Seyram perked up, clapping her little hands together. "I can get you some soda or water. Or milk, Okaa-san boils the best milk and-"
"Come on, let's go." Redseb reached for his sister, pulling her out of the room. Yoh grinned as their footsteps faded into the background.
"Espirit Valley, eh?" The younger twin sighed, rubbing his head. "Well, this wasn't planned but... Since we're here already, let's check out that haunted house I've been hearing so much about."
"Don't be silly." Nichrome looked up, narrowing his eyes. "This place is perfectly safe, there's no such thing as superstition."
"Yeah, and the next thing you'll say is that there's no such things as ghosts." Macchi rolled her eyes. "Espirit Valley isn't just some made up story, you know. It's real, and the place is real. And since we're all Shamans here, there's no reason not to believe in lost spirits."
"So what are you implying?"
"Let's go check this place out."
It was a sunny and fresh day in the village. The people were friendly and laughter engulfing the busy street-markets. Macchi grabbed onto Hao's arm, pointing at the main field plaza. "Look over there, and there's a fountain! That's so pretty."
Yoh smiled, tagging along behind the redhead. He pulled on the orange headphones as soft melodic music blasting into his hearing range. He walked in between Nichrome and Lyserg; the green hair boy was also staring around the town-center.
"This place is actually pretty crowed." Nichrome comment, silently nudging toward Hao and Macchi.
Yoh shrugged, keeping his sight ahead. "It is. Why, what did you have in mind?"
"Espirit Valley." Nichrome looked down, hands tucked safely into the pockets of his jeans. "It isn't suppose to be like this, not from what I've heard. The valley is suppose to be filled with demons and lost spirits, the land itself was suppose to be a wasteland."
"You noticed too?" Lyserg caught up, walking on Nichrome's other side. "I thought I might have heard wrong, but there's definitely something wrong here."
"Whatever it is." The younger Asakura twin smiled assuringly. "I'm sure it's no big. Like Macchi said, it's not like any of us are afraid of ghosts. There shouldn't be a problem when we can all defend ourselves."
"You need to be on watch more." Nichrome replied, looking around cautiously. "Maybe they are fake people, you know? They might be created to just trick us."
"Seyram was real." Yoh looked up at the sky, realizing that they had suddenly stopped walking. "I could touch her flesh, even if it was ice cold. I had thought that it was because of the water, but her body is actually giving off some kind of furyoku."
"How can that be?" Lyserg's voice was now in a whisper. "None of the other villagers seemed to have noticed."
"Maybe they don't." Nichrome joined in. "If you think about it, why in the world was a little girl doing outside that early anyway? Morning swim? Not likely."
"Are you saying that someone was targeting Seyram?" The drowser paused, consider the question. "I've been to weirder places, and this village seems normal enough. I guess there's just some sort of bad vibe in the air."
"Bad vibe?" The patch boy raised an eyebrow.
"What are you doing?" Macchi's voice cut through their inner circle, causing the three boys to jerk around. "Come on, let's go. I heard there's a lake nearby, I want to see."
"Yes, master." Nichrome bowed down, rolling his eyes.
"Please have some tea." Pilica laid the china down in front of Ren, bowing before taking a step behind Meene's chair.
The string mistress smiled at Ren, sipping a little from her cup. She set it down onto the round and elegant table, looking around the room. The main hall was filled with countless guests dressed formally for the party, the real one. "So, how's Ran?"
"Mother is fine." The chinese boy grunted, taking a careless look from his watch. "She said a bunch of crap about how she wanted to be here, but you get the point. Old people these days are so annoying."
"Hey!" Horohoro snapped, standing beside Pilica. "Don't talk like that to-"
"Horokue." Meene waved it off, smiling slightly. "I see that your language hasn't got any better, Ren. That's okay though, I don't want to be the one to bore you here."
"You're already boring me." The boy replied flatly, eyes cutting through the formal greeting.
"Do you always have to be this rude?" Pilica was getting irritated as well. "This is the string mistress, please show at least some amount of respect-" Ren's glare cut her off.
"Pilica, Horokue." Meene smiled, looking toward the rest of the guest filling up. "Why don't you go and entertain more people?"
"Hai." The siblings nodded in unison, cautiously walking away. Horohoro sent a dirty look toward Ren on the way, but the chinese boy made no notion of caring.
"Okay, we're cutting through all this crap." Ren declared, crossing his arms together. "You are friends with my mother, but not me. I am suppose to respect you, but I don't feel like it. What's this big commotion everyone's been talking about?"
Meene gave him a sharp look, hand tracing onto the patterns of her teacup. "The Asakura Case."
"I've heard of it." Ren leaned back in his seat. "What else is there to know?"
"Did you know that their judgment day is coming up?" The blonde questioned. She didn't give Ren time to answer before going on. "The council wants as many updates as possible, but there have been inferences in the way. Nichrome said that he already sent a report up, but Goldva recently told me that she has not gotten any hint of their current location yet."
"Someone is cutting through their line of communication." Ren read her mind, straightening up a serious look. "Do you know what this means? Someone is purposely messing around with them."
"Of course I understand." Meene sighed, tugging at a strand of her hair. "But those kids would only get more worried knowing that they were being followed, I didn't want to spoil their fun."
"Mattise is a justice fairy, she's not suppose to be having any fun." The teen repeated. "Patch is a born member of the council, so he should understand the consequences of this as well. The Asakura Case hasn't been the most hard-handling one yet, but we all know that it was the potential of being so."
"That's why you're here." She smiled.
"Don't you think that this is an too open place to be telling me this?" Ren looked around the hall, filled with guests. "Anyone can just hear us and spill to the underworld."
"Everyone here was invited by me." Meene replied casually. "They are all trusted officials, so there is no point to be suspicious. Besides, this is also the nosiest place for anyone outside to hear, don't you think?"
"Fine." Ren closed his eyes. "You have wits, I'll give you that much praise. But how can you track the five of them down when the council can't?"
"Don't you mean six?" Meene smiled slowly.
"Mattise, Asakura, Asakura, Diethel, and Patch?"
"Kyouyama is there as well."
"Does anyone else get the feeling that we're not in town anymore?" Macchi shivered, looking around the deserted graveyard. The trees were brown, the leaves were dry, everything just reached the scene of death.
Yoh looked up at the manor in front of them, pushing through the gate. "Looks like this resort really wasn't fictional.
Nichrome paused, running a hand through his hair. He looked through the plate near the gate. "The Bismark manor, built in 1896, was owned by the wealthy family of a German group. They dueled on the saluter of non-shamans and were also the best hunters at the time."
"Near St. Valentines Day in 1876, a fire spread throughout the acres of land the manor was built on." Lyserg continued reading, frowning slightly. "Although everything within distance was destroyed, the building stayed perfect in place without a trace. The bodies of all the servants at the time, along with the master and his wife was recover. But they never found the remains of the Bismarks' young daughter, Kanna."
"This is freaky." Nichrome shivered. "Should we go in?"
"We might never get the chance to step foot into this place again." Yoh pointed out, pulling his headphone off. "And it's not like we're scared." He paused. "Right?"
"Of course not." Lyserg replied with a weak smile.
There was a moment of silence between the group.
"Fine." Macchi declared randomly. "If we go in, then we can't split up."
"We're not retarded." Hao replied, voice filled with a sense of amusement. He uncrossed his arms, getting up from his position with his back against the wall.
"Then lets go in." Walking into the yard, Yoh lead the group through the dessert of dead plants and decomposed waste. Hao kept silent while keeping a slow pace behind his twin; Nichrome, Lyserg, and Macchi followed behind grumbly.
It wasn't that any of them were scared, no. The situation itself was hard enough to believe and understand.
The door cracked open slightly, revealing the single light bulb in faint brightness in the middle of the room. Macchi felt a slight tickle of wind breeze past her leg, and suddenly knew this was a bad idea.
mmmMMMMM. The door slammed closed by itself, too typical.
Yoh observed the scene in front of him. There were spider webs hanging off everything, an notable amount of dust covered all the future, some fissures along the walls. Over all, the main hall had every potential hints of haunted house. He quickly turned toward Macchi, "do you still have-"
"No." The girl shook her head slowly, grasping onto Hao's arm. "I left all of my stuff back at the village. The flashlights are there as well."
"That's okay, master Yoh." Amidamaru, in pre-fused form, appeared in the air on top of Yoh. "I can guide." True to his promise, the spirit was giving off a soft, but firm hint of glowing aurora.
"Morphine." Lyserg whispered to the fairy sitting on his shoulder. The pixie smiled, leaping up into the air, sparkles and glitters of light following the slight movement of her wings. The light was slightly brighter, but not by much.
"That's enough." Hao spoke up, turning to observe the place once more. There was a stairway on the other end of the hall, leaning right against the walls. He nodded toward that direction, taking careful footsteps toward the wooden staircase.
The endings were brittle. They creaked, squeaked, and uneven equilibrium when step on. Macchi would feel her hand pulling along the sides of the stairway, keeping a close distance behind Hao.
"Where are we going?" Nichrome hissed slowly, looking around. They were now on the second floor, looking down into the bottom. The hall looked even more grand now.
"The library." Hao replied quickly, looking around.
"How do you they have a library?" Yoh blinked.
"We passed by a window on the way." The older twin shrugged. "It was close-curtain while all the other ones were open. I saw something structured in there: it's either books or someone moving."
"Scary." Macchi and Yoh chipped in unison.
"And... We're going in there why?" Nichrome replied.
"No particular reason." Hao shrugged. "Unless you're scared."
"We're not five-year old." Lyserg pointed out naturally. "Why would you think they'd be tempted with an-"
"I'm not scared!" Nichrome and Macchi yelled out, glaring at the brunette. Hao only shrugged in return, amused smirk on his face.
"Never mind." Lyserg sighed, rubbing his head. He followed the rest of the group toward the other end of the hall, making their way around the corner. Why in the world was he stuck with these people again?
"Sh.." Hao pointed to the wide door at the end of the hallway. The door was grand and elegant under the light of Morphine's illumination.
SSSSSSS The door squeaked as he pushed it open. Macchi blinked in disgust when some cow-webs fell on her hair, Yoh took off his headphones again, Nichrome cleared his throat slightly, and Lyserg remained quite.
"This place is pretty old." Hao walked in, slowly tracing his hand on the shelves, book after book.
"Now I know where they keep the world's dust." Nichrome declared, looking around. The room was utterly filled with dust, if nothing else. The room was filled with giant book shelves, and he could barely make out anything.
Hehee... Everyone froze as a chuckle ran though the hallway.
"Did you-"
"Yeah." Nichrome swallowed slowly, exchanged looks with the girl. Lyserg stayed in place, Hao looked around, and Yoh smiled.
"Where are you?" The head-phone boy spoke up.
"Are you blind?" The figure of a teenage girl in her teens appeared in front of them. Her long, blue hair trailed past her back, her arms cross, face in a slight frown, and the silent aurora of light given off, Macchi couldn't help but wonder-
"You're a ghost." Yoh declared good-naturally.
"No duh, Sherlock." The girl paused slightly. "And you're a shaman."
"Yep." Yoh grinned.
"Kanna Bismark?" Hao took a wild guess. "I thought your body was never recovered, then you didn't die."
"Everybody dies sometime or another, smart one." Kanna resorted, rolling her eyes.
"You're Kanna Bismark?" Nichrome blinked, trying to take in the fact that yes, there was the answer to an mystery years unsolved standing in front of them. "And you didn't die in the fire?"
"Oh, yeah." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. "I just hung around town and played Bingo with the old people and waited for myself to rot and die."
"Why are you still here, then?" Macchi blinked. From what she had learned, ghosts were allowed to wonder around after death. "Are you tied to this place or something?"
"You don't all have to be paranoid or something." Kanna smirked. "I've been around, but now I'm back." She straightened up. "Something happened to this place when I was gone, it's not anything to brag about either. The X-laws' been sending spies from their camp."
"The x-laws?" Lyserg blinked.
Nichrome narrowed his eyes. "Bounty Hunters. Most of them are from Heaven, but they work mainly for the underworld. You, being a mortal, probably wouldn't know this."
"But why could anyone from Heaven want to work for Hell?" The boy was confused, even Morphine sent him identical looks.
"Oh." Macchi clapped her hands together. "Didn't they get banned from Heaven a few years ago? I heard it was because they took any job given, and actually killed one of their members because they nearly messed up?"
"Yeah." Kanna nodded slowly. "The String Mistress, her parents were a part of the X-laws. They were killed on duty by another officer. Something went wrong, and a riot started in the mortal realm. They killed a bunch of people, and the X-laws were officially banned."
"Officially?" Yoh blinked.
"Well." Nichrome explained on. "They weren't welcomed in Heaven in the first place, but there was no law saying that they couldn't come up for stuff. But now that they're officially banned, none of the members were allowed to come up again. It was all in our history book, don't you read?"
"Nah." Yoh grinned. "I think I was asleep during history class."
"All year?" Kanna smirked.
"Probably."
"Back to subject." The blue hair girl declared. "This village has improved ever since I left. Now every-thing's grown and it looks... I don't know, normal almost."
"And is that wrong or something?" Nichrome cocked his head up.
"Yes." Kanna rolled her eyes. "This freaking village's been cursed since who knows how long. The fields would never grow, all that lives is wild grass. People were dying every year because of famine, plague, and all that jazz."
"So you're suggesting that something's up." Yoh nodded slowly. "Or maybe you're the one being paranoid."
"Paranoia is a state of mind." The ghost waved it off. "I have no problem with dealing with it, I'm dead. You don't have to believe me, but I'm telling the truth, and I rarely ever do that." Something told Macchi that she wasn't lying about that. "It's only a matter of time before the X-laws start filling in, so I thought 'might as well drop by'."
"What's your point?" Hao asked dully, looking around.
"My point is that you all should leave before something happens."
"Is that a threat?" Nichrome narrowed his eyes.
"The last time I checked: no. But I can make it into one if you want me to." Kanna declared darkly. Something told Macchi that they should stupid messing with her.
Ren looked up when the door to his room was slide opening violently. Entered, Horohoro with a tray of food in his arm. "Pilica wanted me to check if you were hungry, you didn't eat anything during the party."
The chinese boy waved it aside. "Take it away, I'm not hungry."
"You can do it by yourself, I'm not heading to the kitchen again." Horo declared, slamming the trey onto Ren's side-table. The purple-hair boy uncrossed his legs, staring intensely at the shinigami. "Or do you not know what a kitchen is?" Horo suggested. "Because know-it-alls like you never have any talents. I'm sure you've never seen the inside of a kitchen before."
"Your inferior intelligence amuses me." Ren smirked. "Lucky for you, I'm not in the mood for a vital comment war. Take it away, or I'll just dump it in the washroom."
"How can you waste such delicious food carefully prepared by our cook!" Horohoro tired to glare, he had a thing or two to pick with the other boy anyway. "I'll let you know that Lily-chan is the best cook in any realm, it's an insult to our shrine that you're wasting these precious deliquetes!"
"Then eat it yourself." Ren shrugged carelessly, returning back to his book.
"You-" The Ainu boy grabbed ahold of Ren's collar in an attempt to swing him around. He then found himself somehow pushed against the wall, totally not the situation he planned to be in.
"Listen, you Neanderthal. I'm a hundred to the power of ten times stronger than you, so don't be foolish enough to challenge me to anything." The chinese boy growled. "I'm in a good mood right now, but that can change."
"I'm sick of people like you!" Horo suddenly yelled out, despite of being in the suckers' situation right now. "Don't think that I haven't come across people with a holy complex like you."
"Why are we even fighting, then?"
"Because I don't like you." Horo declared.
"That's so weird." Macchi whispered, looking around. "It wasn't like this before." The sky was an un-breable shade of gray, all the trees and plants were gone, and there was an odd feeling in the air, like something was wrong.
Something was, indeed, wrong. When they took their first steps out of the mansion. They found the village mostly deserted. "This place was completely full a few hours ago!"
"Thank you for pointing out the obvious." Nichrome snorted.
"Do you sense it?" Yoh turned towards the older twin; Hao only nodded in return.
Lyserg closed his eyes as his pendent started glowing as well. Morphine, sitting on the boy's shoulder, frowned remarkably.
"Something... Is coming." Hao spoke up, staring at the sky. Swirls of grey emitted from above, sweeping throughout the village.
"And there's a remarkable amount of energy coming from..." Lyserg added as his pendent automatic swung up, pointing towards the forest. "Over there."
"I have a bad feeling about this." Macchi voiced.
"It's over there!" Lyserg suddenly sprinted towards dark fortress as Morphine followed behind loyally. The twins were the second to follow, chasing after the drowser. Macchi and Nichrome exchanged confused looks before following.
"No!" Redseb stormed pasted the crowd, only to be held back by the firm hands of villagers.
"Let it go, Redseb." The Wise Man spoke up. "Your sister is a lost cause."
"Stop this!" The boy yelled, attempting to desperately push his way through the crowd. "You can't just do this! Seyram doesn't deserve this!"
Seyram's frail body was set on the top of the monument, laid down. Her pale pink hair was now as of a gray color.
"Begin." The Wise ignored him, turning to the preachers. The men nodded, circling the pavement Seyram was chained to. Pulling down their hoods, the men revealed plates around their neck. Initials incised into the metal, X-laws.
"STOP IT!"
The men ignored him, beginning their chant of carnation.
"Why?" Redseb looked around at the villagers. "Why aren't any of you stopping them? Help me!"
The men shook their heads as the women looked down painfully.
"Your sister is the sacrifice of our village to the gods. Only then will they grant us peace and harmony; it is the best for our village." The Wise Man replied grimly. "You have to grasp the fact that this is for the best."
"But-"
"Hush, Child. Do not be selfish." One of the locals replied, pushing him behind. The clouds moved away as a bright sense of light shone through the sky. Blasts of beams fell upon Seyram's body, lighting up the pavement.
"It's beginning." The head man of the X-laws spoke up. Looking up at the sky, the men pointed their guns ups. "Jeanne-sama! Grant us the power of fluffing this summoning!"
A lactic, melodic voice sung in the air in return, filling up the forest.
Wssss.
"Now." They looked down at the body, only to see the latches of chains broken through. Eyes quickly scanned the area before spotting the new comers at the entrance to the forest. The teens stood, panting as the green hair boy held Seyram in his arms, pendent retracting.
"Fool!" The golden hair man yelled. "You have intercepted into the wishes of Jeanne-sama! The x-laws will not go easy on you!" On cue, all the men fired their guns into the hair.
Light.
Flashes of holy light nearly blinded Macchi's vision as figures of monumental proportions stood in front of her. Angels of metallic substance hovered the sky, broadcast her view.
Havoc. In fear of their life, the villagers quickly flooded out of the forest, running back into the main central. People swung past them in flashes of blur and color. Redseb was making his way towards them, his sister, in the mist of all this.
"Seyram!"
Lyserg carefully set the girl down, offering the boy a soft smile. "She should be okay, they haven't done anything yet."
BANG
"The fuck." Hao growled at him as the Angels surrounded them. The teens slowly retreated backwards until their backs were touching.
"Ah. Asakura Hao." The blonde man sneered at him, his glasses flashing in almost a demeaning manner. "Jeanne-sama predicted this; we meet again."
"Marco." The boy growled out under his breath. His breath slowed down as his voice suddenly lighted into a smooth flow.
"The X-laws won't let you get away this time." Marco replied slowly as his men surrounded them. "I've been counting down the days before I could skin you alive, Asakura."
TBC-----------
Pre-fused form is best describe in chibi-form for the anime, per se. I thought it was adorable.
Authoress' Corner
Ohhh, is that foreshadowing I see? And is the plot actually thickening? I do believe so. Now this story is almost halfway though. Pfff. It only took a year or so. XD
Lot of errors in this chapters, as always. I did proof read it a few times, but I doubt I was in the right mind to correct everything.
I wasn't sure what to do with the X-laws at first. Meene used to be a part of the X-laws and is now the String Mistress. Someone asked me since Meene and Denbat are immortal, doesn't that mean the X-laws would be old? (laughs) Just to clear it up; according to the story-line, yes, the X-laws are suppose to be old. But the group is still immortal, so yeah.
At the beginning, I wasn't sure how to let Hao embrace his situation because I wasn't sure if I should put the whole "X-law vs. Hao" situation in. Because then, Lyserg would have to turn on them, you know? I'm really not sure if I should do that right now.
Hopefully, the readers will like the progress in this chapter. I always wanted to write a bit of RenHoro, so that's how the plots are going. Should Lyserg leave the group for the x-laws, and ought Ren join them? You'll just have to find out by yourself.
Chiharu. 6.3.05
The next installment is planned for the end of June.