Alright! Here's the next chapter! I hope you like it, Anna comes in, we all know that isn't going to go well.
Kitsurumenokistune: Short, sweet and to the point. Thanks.
Mikauzoran: That's ok, and here is your wish.
Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King… curses.
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?"
Kari looked up to see a girl about her own height with blonde hair down to her chin, cold black eyes glaring at her with a maliciously serious face, topping it off with a bright red bandana wrapped around her forehead with two giant tails. The girl wore a plain black dress and had a peculiar necklace of deep blue beads, wrapped twice around her neck with a single red tail on her chest.
'This girl, whoever she is, is just trying to frighten me. From the looks of Yoh, she's probably good. Too bad for her, I don't scare that easily.' The Indian thought to herself.
"My name is Kari and Yoh invited me here." she replied, sitting up straight and tall.
"He did, did he?"
The girl rounded on Yoh, who cowered in fear, shrinking away from her glare. He stumbled to spit out words, trying to explain to this new girl, but failed miserably.
"A-Anna, s-she's just a-a friend. W-We just met, as a matter of fact. I j-just invited her over for dinner, you know, to b-be f-f-friendly." he actually managed to spit out.
"Well, you could have told me! A thousand laps! Now!" Anna pointed towards the door.
Kari, and everyone else, watched as Yoh got to his feet, a waterfall of tears falling onto his cheeks, as he slid open the door and disappeared, Anna following soon after. The black dressed girl slammed the door shut after them, leaving the Indian to stare at the door rather surprised and confused.
"What was that all about?" she turned to Horo.
"Anna is… a friend of Yoh's. She put herself in charge of his training for the Shaman Tournament to make sure he becomes the Shaman King." he replied, leaning back and sipping his tea, "It's too bad she's such a bitch. This is Yoh's house, but she stays here like she owns the place, making all of us do chores and errands while she sits around watching TV."
The western shaman narrowed her eyes, "Why don't you stand up to her?"
"Are you kidding?" Morty cried, throwing his arms in the air before slapping them over his mouth and calming down, "Anna's really scary, but what's worse is she's really powerful. She's an itako, a shaman medium. With that necklace around her neck, she can summon spirits, even from the other side!"
"Really?" Morty nodded, "Well, still, she should learn to be nicer to people."
"It is true," Ryu stepped back into the room, closing the door behind him, obviously hearing their conversation and continued, "But no one is 'Tough enough' to stand up to Miss Anna."
"I'd do it."
"You would!" All four of them shouted.
"I would," Kari sighed, bowing her head, "But I'm only a guest in Yoh's house. I have no place to interfere with his affairs."
"I'm sure he wouldn't mind," Horo jumped in quickly, "Us neither."
"I'm sorry. It's not my place. It's against my beliefs and I don't want to step in the middle of something Yoh needs to do by himself."
All of the boys looked down disappointed. 'Wow, this Anna must be really bad. They look like they were going to be handed the Shaman Crown on a sliver platter, only to have it taken away right from their finger tips. Is there anything I can do?' she thought to herself.
"Well…"
Instantly, all of their heads snapped up, eyes wide and permanently fixed on her. Len leaned forward and turned his head so that his ear was the closest thing toward her. Morty's eyes were wide and his hands clapped together hopefully while Ryu looked torn.
"I still can't ask Anna-san to leave," Kari started, their heads lowering a bit, "But," their heads snapped back up, "I am able to defend you and Yoh if she gives you any trouble. That is, to a limit, I suppose. It depends on what she says."
"That's good enough for us!" Trey cried, sitting down and smiling like a Cheshire cat while he punched his fist in the air.
Around the table, similar reactions were held, Morty jumped up and glomped Ryu while the Elvis man leaned over and wrapped one of his arms around Len. The Chinese shaman looked at him strangely, but didn't object while he was secretly smiling.
"So then," Ryu turned back to Kari, still smiling while clasping his hands, "Is there anything I can get you Miss Kari? Milk? Coffee? Tea? Perhaps a small snack before dinner?"
"Uh, no thanks Ryu-san. I'm fine." she replied, holding her hands in front of her.
"Alright then! I shall go get dinner started. Come Tokageroh, we must prepare the feast."
Ryu stood up and straightened his apron, waving for his thief guardian ghost to follow him. He slid open the door while Tokageroh just glided through, and disappeared out of sight. Kari just watched him go, staring at the door for a while, growing bored from the lack of well, anything.
In the room, Len was sipping his milk while Horo Horo sat daydreaming, Morty happily flipping through his giant encyclopedia. She tapped her index finger against the table just for fun whist her eyes wandered around the room, looking for anything interesting or eye-catching.
Unfortunately, the room was seemingly dull and Kari didn't want to impose on Ryu for something to do while he was busy preparing her meal. Over her shoulder, she could hear her ghost having a conversation with Len's guardian, Bason.
"So, you are a Japanese warrior?" Bason asked, genially engrossed.
"Not really," Aiko couldn't help but boast a bit, "I was born and raised in the western lands, but when a Japanese colony arrived at my village. I was brought back to Japan and trained in their unique arts and became one of their most prized fighters, until I died in an ambush."
"Most interesting." he replied, taking her hand in his, "But may I say, your beauty expands beyond death." he finished, kissing her hand.
"Oh, why thank you." Aiko blushed.
'I can't take anymore of this.' Kari thought dryly.
"Hey Morty?" she asked, the boy looking up, "Where's the little girl's room?"
He smiled, "Turn the right and down the hall, second door on the left, right?" the blonde turned to Len, who grunted.
"That's ok. I'm sure I can find it, as long as you don't mind me getting lost and looking around a bit?" Kari asked.
Morty shook his head and returned to his book. The Indian couldn't help but smile, biting her lip to try and hide it as she stood up. She carefully stepped around Morty and walked over to the door bringing out her hand when she heard Aiko speak up.
"Are you sure you don't want me to accompany you, Kari-dono?" she asked, a slight pleading tone in her voice.
"No," Kari replied, waving her hand, smirking all the while, "I'll be fine, and besides, it looks like you're busy."
The ghost narrowed her eyes, mouthing, 'You better not leave me here.'
The Indian shook her head, 'I'll be back for dinner.' then smirked, leaving the room.
Out in the hall, the house seemed even bigger than she first thought. Both directions looked endless, turning around the corners at the far end of the hallway. Kari still couldn't believe the structure of the house, it was an unusual style that she hadn't seen before, but strangely intriguing.
She followed Morty's instructions and found the bathroom easily. Sliding the door, she saw a very plain room with a sink, mirror and toilet. The shaman scratched her head, wondering where the tub or at least shower was.
Shrugging her shoulder, Kari did her business and washed her hands in the sink, examining herself in the mirror. Even she couldn't doubt that Anna-san was pretty, Kari thought of herself as ordinary, but the others probably thought of her as weird.
Her brown hair was down to her lower back and kept in a loose ponytail of a small strip of pelt, not to mention all her possessions were made of animal skin. She had never worn any make up, well, nothing besides the tradition face paint on holidays.
So, she didn't have Aiko's looks, it didn't really matter. Kari didn't feel like having people like Bason tailing her all day, trying any stupid pick up lines from a millennium ago. She let her shoulder slump and shook her head, that was definitely not on the list.
Sliding the bathroom door, she cautiously peered each way to see that no one was in the hallway. The shaman couldn't ignore that feeling in her chest telling her to look around, so she continued down the right side of the hallway instead of going back to the sitting room where Morty, Len and Horo were waiting.
A little ways further down the corridor, light and noise was coming out of one of the open white tissue doors. Inside Ryu was humming to himself as he clanged pans and was stirring some food frying on the stove while Tokageroh floated nearby.
The ghost was hovering in mid-air with his hands behind his head as he lazily turned around and paused, seeing Kari leaning over in the doorway. Ryu halted in his cooking and followed his ghost's gaze to the new shaman, blinking stupidly and watching him.
"Ah, Miss Kari! Is there anything I can do for you?" he asked politely, clasping his hands together again, a spatula in between his fingers.
"No." she replied quickly, standing on the balls of her feet and holding her hands behind her back, "I… was just looking around, that's all. I haven't seen a house like this and I was curious."
"Oh." was all he could say.
Ryu turned back to the stove and stirred the contents a bit as Kari rose up to her tiptoes, trying to see what was inside. He smiled and stepped aside, allowing her to see the magnificent stir-fry turning a light golden brown in the pan.
"Smells delicious," Kari said in awe, a little drool coming out of her mouth, "You know, a little olive oil will make it cook nice and even with a great flavor and no oily taste."
"Really?" He reached up and opened a cupboard door, pulling out a small glass bottle and twisting the cap, pouring some oil into the pan, "This much?"
"Yeah that should be good," she held her face over the pan, "It's almost done, so you're going to have to keep stirring it so it doesn't burn."
"Yes, of course!"
The Elvis man flipped the contents of the pan a few times and mixed the food quite nicely while a wonderful odor flew into the air. Kari could feel her stomach rumble in anticipation for having a real homemade meal in such a long time.
"Hey girl, how did you get so good at cooking?" Tokageroh asked in a raspy voice.
Kari narrowed her eyes and Ryu immediately looked mad. He turned to his ghost and waved the spatula at him threateningly.
"Don't call Miss Kari girl! She is a guest and we are to treat her as one!" he tsked.
"Oh sorry!" the thief replied sarcastically, "How did you get so good at cooking, Miss Kari?"
She ignored the sarcasm and stepped forward taking the spatula and whisked the food professionally so that it continued to cook, but didn't burn, "Back home, I always had to cook for myself. We didn't really have fast food or anything like that, and I was the one who had to cook for my large family. I know it's kinda stereotypical, but I was the only girl, so I was the one to cook, but if the boys were bad, they starved."
Ryu was a bit surprised, but smiled kindly, taking the spatula back in his hand, "An interesting lesson to learn, indeed."
"This seems great, but kinda small to be a meal, don'tcha think?" Kari looked up at him.
"There is a side salad also, I just haven't had time to start it yet." he admitted.
Taking a quick look at the main dish in the frying pan, "Well, why don't you let me keep a watch on that, while you do the salad?" she volunteered.
"No! I couldn't…"
"No, it's alright. I want to. Besides, you need the help and I have nothing better to do." she pleaded.
"I guess…" Ryu started.
"Great!"
Kari took the spatula from his hand and lightly pushed him out of the way of the stove so that she could cook. Ryu looked blankly at his ghost who shrugged, moving and floating over the girl's shoulder to see what she was doing to the food, making sure she didn't poison it.
The Elvis man blinked and shook his head, walking over to the counter where he pulled out a cutting board, a knife and a head of lettuce, preceding to chop it up into smaller pieces. Pulling a clay bowl from the cupboard, Ryu placed the lettuce inside and went on to cut up more veggies to put in the salad.
After a few minutes, Kari had added a few spices she found in the spice rack on the counter, stirring the last of it in and mixing it well, even more drool flowing down her chin.
"That's it. We gotta eat soon." Her eyes forming into hearts.
Ryu looked up and smiled, taking the salad bowl in his hands and walking over to the door, "I agree, you look like you are going to turn into one of our friends on the other side soon. Put it in that container and follow me to the dinning room, then you will be able to eat, my friend."
Kari energetically complied, turning off the heat on the stove and pouring the mix of rice, chicken, vegetables and spices into an insulated plate with high sides and placed the spatula inside. She picked it up, her eyes widening as she almost lost her grip, it was heavy! The shaman held it low, as far as her arms would allow it as she followed Ryu into a similar room like the one before, only a little different.
This room was quite larger, a giant black polished table in the center with even more cushions bordering it. Ryu placed the side dish on the middle of the table, motioning for Kari to do the same. She set the plate down and watched as he pulled out some bowls for everyone and placed them around the table, also bringing out no handled dark green cups and wooden chopsticks.
The female shaman gazed uneasily at the chopsticks, but the steaming food next to them made her worries disappear. Kari sat down on one of the cushions and watched as the shaman finished the final preparations for the meal, Morty and the rest wandering in through the open door.
"Hey, where were you Kari-chan? I was wondering if you got stuck in the toilet." Horo joked, sitting down.
"Nah, I was helping Ryu-kun with dinner." she replied, the Elvis man blushing from the nickname.
"Why did you do that? I'm sure he could do it himself." Len teased.
"Because I felt like being nice, obviously unlike some people." she sneered, glaring at him, "But I also love to cook, so I offered to help."
"So you made this?" Morty asked and she nodded, "Wow, smells delicious."
"I know." Kari wiped drool from her lips.
"Well, let us wait no further," Ryu announced, "Let's eat!"
Kari could feel her heart flutter as she reached forward to start serving herself food, when there was a loud sound of a slamming door echoing throughout the house. A loud feminine voice was heard as a loud rumble of male voices carried under it, the latter growing closer to the dinner room.
"Looks like the love birds are home." Horo Horo said, sighing deeply as the door slid open.
Muahahaha! I think I did another cliff hanger! I hope you liked it, and sorry it was so late, today was my second day of school, and on my first I already got a one page paper. Sure it wasn't that hard, but it kept me from typing. And is anyone else hungry from this chapter? I know I am... time to eat! Gah! Rambling! Anyway, please review! Je ne!