CHAPTER 1: Back to the Pacific

It was a long week after the tournament, the gang had arrived to Japan after what had happened and gone back to their own lives. Anna and Yoh had comeback to Funbari Inn and had a week – long vacation before going back to school. Manta also had skipped those classes when they arrived home and pays a visit to the Inn instead. Tamao goes to the Asakura temple with Kino, Yohmei and Mikihisa. Horo Horo and Pirika returned to Hokkaido, also Ren, Faust and Chocolove who returned to their hometown. Ryu and his gang still do what they want to do; to find their best of place.

It was a great afternoon and the wind breeze blows a chilly air. The whole house was gone quiet thru their return. Still its silence was different than before. Anew as the leaves of the plants outside the inn dance as the wind sings and hums. In the patio a boy lie in a supine position and humming through the wind. The boy with dark brown hair with his orange headphones tucked in his ears for hours was silently snoozing and dreaming. He held a carefree smile and sigh, he was happy, with his life… contented, peaceful with no anxiety… this may be life after the long hard sufferings of his historic life. He laughs for the thought. It been a while he just lie there and he was doing nothing. In a moment a girl with blonde hair, wearing long electric-blue beads in her neck and wrist with her short black dress entered in the patio, she's completely blank, emotionless, she walk towards him, still he hadn't notice her or just ignored her.

"Ahhhhh!" he yawned, "I wish every day is today!" he said dreamily.

"Well, you will be IN today but not tomorrow!" she said coldly to him and put away his headphone.

"Anna! Why are you here? Is dinner ready?" he said innocently.

"Dinner? It's only afternoon! And hey, did I told you that I am living in this house also?" she demanded to him, "Get up! You lazy bum…. And start your training!" she roared at him and kick him to get up.

"Training! It's been after the tournament and I had training!" he protested.

"So… You will not follow my order?" she said sharply, he was stunned.

"I…. of course I will obey you Anna – chan…" he replied nervously.

"Good." She said shortly and cross her arms. "Be back after three hours or more… three kilometers sprints, one thousand sit-ups and squats!" she told him coldly. "Then, go to the grocery and buy our food for dinner… I don't want to eat that was bought in the restaurant, you will cook dinner… is that clear?" she demanded a tone of don't-dare-disagree-or-you'll-pay and saw her left hand ready to slap his face. He gulp his throat 'I am home again, I bet!' he thought. Amidamaru materialized next to him, his spirit samurai warrior.

"Yoh-dono, I think master Manta had arrived." He informed him as they had heard some banging sounds in the gates. Anna scowled and made her way inside the house. Manta came to them with his miniature motorcycle. He wears a pleasant smile with his blonde hair swaying in the chilly breeze. He was not that tall, in fact he was more an elf than a human (Anna often calls him shorty) for he is a midget.

"Hey Yoh, what's up? What Anna had told you?" he asked. "I heard she was shouting and howling a while ago."

"Manta! She told me that I had to do my trainings." He said to his friend shortly. Manta didn't have a surprise of what he had told him. He had thought Anna would continue his trainings even the oracle bell rang the day they had returned to Japan and announce that Yoh is the proclaimed shaman king.

"Well then let's go, we don't want Anna to be mad." Yoh said and start his trainings.

"Good idea." His friend agreed.

While in the field nearby the Funbari Junior High School, Yoh was panting for the long meter running. He just grasps for breath and stops for a while and starts to run again.

"Yoh- Kun, you should rest for a while…It's been an hour your running for miles." Manta told him with concern. "Master – Manta is right, Yoh-dono, you are grasping for breath." Amidamaru agreed to Manta. Yoh stares at them and still grasping for breath, "I don't think so, Anna might sent some spirits to follow me.." he said under his breath and grasping for breath.

"You might be right but, she will understand." He said to Yoh.

"No. I don't want to Anna to know that even after the shaman fight I still hadn't improve my strength and skills." He demanded to the two.

"Well, if that's what you want Yoh-kun, but we should make it a little bit slower." He agreed.

"Ok. That may be arrange." He held a carefree smile.

As they walk they pass the Funbari Junior High School they caught up to its scenery, it's been a long time they hadn't gone thru there to study their lessons (for Manta only, Yoh always been sleeping during class hours.)

"When will you go back to school, huh, Yoh?" Manta asks his friend still looking to the school. "Maybe this coming Monday, I will be back, you know, I want to catch up to our lessons."

"Me? Maybe Monday also, I dunno, because you know, the oracle bell had rung and maybe I will have another trip to America for the coronation or whatever it is called. Hehehe." He responds.

"Oh! I nearly forgotten that matter, do you think we can also go there with you?" Manta said excitedly. Yoh gave him a grin. "Of course, the Great Spirits won't mind ne?"

They both laugh and continue walking.

"Yoh-dono, was your grandmother had arrange the date you will be crowned?" Amidamaru asked him.

"I don't know, obaasan hadn't told me about it, well it is better if we should just ask the Great Spirits to have just the message of the oracle bell as a proof that I am the new shaman king." He told them and was not as exhausted as before.

"But Yoh-dono, how would the shaman community know that you are the new shaman king, if it's only the message of the oracle bell as your proof, what if it has been deleted." The samurai asked.

"Yeah, that's a good one, how could they respect you and don't you want to be famous to all shamans?" Manta agreed to Amidamaru "the message would be deleted if someone who would break in to your house and delete it or worst stole it!"

"Who would have the interest to delete it or stole it to me?" he asked innocently.

Manta shook his head for his friend's a little bit of slow to catch up the whole point and say with his gritted teeth "Hello? Yoh? What was the shaman fight for? Of course many of the shamans who had joined the tournament are for POPULARITY! Don't you think if someone had known that you are the new shaman king they won't be envious! Of course they would do all they can to turn you down and… worst to become a new shaman king! Got it?"

Yoh became dumbfounded and hadn't spoke a single word for a minute or two and "Would you like to explain it again Manta?" you asked and looked puzzled. Manta put his hand to his forehead "You don't understand what I had said do you?" Manta asked him with a sweat drop. "Ok, for example, we had a get together or victory party for you're winning, and here comes that roguish Horo-Horo who had just entered you're room unnoticed for everybody was busy in the party and… had accidentally saw your oracle bell…." He told Yoh loosing his cool to his friend "Then… let's just say he had some interest with that oracle bell… and he accidentally deleted all the messages in the oracle bell… and then he had told you that he had deleted the message… then we are doomed!" Manta finishes and stares to Yoh and prayed in his mind that he had got the idea... Yoh became silent and grasp "But how could Horo-Horo would done to me such a mean thing?"

Manta and Amidamaru exchange looks. "It was only an example, Yoh-dono."

"Well, you two got a point there…" Yoh said grinning. Manta who was loosing his temper a while ago smiled to Amidamaru who gave him to a smile.

"But the Great Spirits had chosen me as the new shaman king so, if the message was deleted, it would not be a problem, I am the new shaman king, they would not launch a new shaman fight just I had deleted the message or someone had stolen the oracle bell. Ne?"

"Good point! But it is much better to have some 'legal' ceremony to know that you're the new shaman king to the public. Hehehe." Manta said brightly.

"I would live in luxury!" Yoh exclaimed dreamily while continuing to jog "Well, its only a few meters and we'll going to the grocery store to buy our dinner, Anna would be mad if we bought a cooked food, let's go."

"You should not say that in front of Anna, she will extremely mad at you." Manta said as he catches up his friend together with Amidamaru.

"What? The last one?" he asked not turning his back to him still jogging.

"No! The first one!"

It's about to dark as they had reached the grocery store to buy their dinner. As they had entered the store Yoh thinks of a good dish to eat for dinner, just a simple dish would do, for fast cooking time, Manta suggested him.

"How about eel with a special sauce?" Yoh asked him innocently.

"That will take a long preparation and cooking time, and it needs a special sauce, do you know how to do the sauce?" Manta asked him as he held a cabbage in his hand.

"Ryu can do the sauce, his an excellent cook!" Yoh replied to his friend and also seeks for a good vegetable in the trays.

"But Ryu was not in Funbari this time, he had gone to the North… you know… his best of place..."

"Oh! I had forgotten so no eel for tonight… how about ramen?" He demanded to Manta.

"That would be nice; it's easy to eat… besides Anna-chan likes noodles." Manta agreed.

Yoh and Manta had search for the ingredients for the ramen and paid it.

Before they had reach the house they had bump into a classmate and went to their classmate's house and copied some of their lectures and bade goodbye and soon they notice that it was been late 'Heavens! Anna would be mad to me!' and he gulped his throat for the thought.

For minutes they had reached home, there were no light, except for the lamp that was lit infront of the inn. As they draw the gates open they shivered in the loud shriek of the gates. They tip-toed in the patio were the lit lamp was lighting their way to see their own faces with a trembling smile. "Anna might be asleep" he said to Manta in a low soft voice, so soft that it was sound like a whisper. 'I wish…' he thought.

As he tried to open the door, the plastic bag that he still had in his hand rubbed to the wooden door and make some hissing sounds. "Here, let me get those." Manta insists to get the bags to loosen the noise. Then tried to open the wooden door again, and as he turn the knob clockwise he close his eyes gently and prayed that Anna would not emerge in the other side of the door and would yell at him for being late. The door spun open a crashing sound echoed through the hallways of the inn.

"A piece of wood." Manta said as he saw the wood that made the noise.

The trio sighs for entering the house alive.

"That scared me half to death!" Amidamaru exclaimed.

The two sighs again but still their heart keep on pumping.

"How could you scare half to death but you were dead all along?" Anna said with an icy tone and suddenly appeared in the hallway and walking towards them.

The three jumped and were stunned.

"AHHHHHHH!" Manta screams and went directly to the door and tried to open it.

"Will you keep it down shorty? Do you want to wake the neighbors in the middle of the night?" Anna said taking Manta's sleeve from his back side.

"Anna-chan, I'm sorry, you see we had met our classmate in Funbari Junior High and asked him some details to our lessons." Yoh said as his head towards the ground.

"Had you got dinner? I am starving here all along… If I hadn't cooked dinner for myself I swore I had eaten the futons in the bedroom!" Anna said with an angry tone.

"You had cooked dinner?" Yoh asked his fiancé

"Yes. So go along in the kitchen I had some for the both of you." She demanded and made her way back to the hallway "And don't disturb me, I will take a bath and go to sleep…" she said without turning to them and leading her way to the hotspring. The trio was left behind. "And Manta, since you're here go wash the dishes." She said as she disappeared out of sight.

"Yes Anna-chan!" he replied with teary eyes.

As they ate the last bite of the sushi Anna had made for dinner Manta asked a question that also puzzled Yoh. "Had you wonder that Anna had been doing this kind of stuff just nowadays? I mean she didn't do this" as he pointed the remaining sushi had in his hand

"Well, yeah she maybe had change." Yoh said dreamily. "Maybe she's shy to do these things earlier."

"SHY? How could that be?" Manta was puzzled.

"She's an itako, remember?"

"Then?"

"Itakos are emotionless and social inactive by nature, Manta."

"Ah, so she seems very tough before…" As he put his hand in his chin.

"Ahuh… Manta I'll help you wash the plates." Yoh insist.

"A…No you had been enough work today."

"You're sure?"

Manta nodded and clean up the dishes they used. And when he got it to the sink he noticed that it was more than a one bowl in the sink. Bowls, tea cups, and metal chopsticks that was there. "I think Anna-chan was way too hungry to use just one bowl."

"Why?" Yoh asked and saw the piles of bowls and tea cups and scattered metal chopsticks. "Anna would just use one bowl and a tea cup if she was hungry, she would not use other bowl for rice…"

"I thought that too." Manta said looking confused. Yoh also became confused 'what Anna would with those utensils… would Anna had invited somebody to have dinner? Who would be? Anna hadn't had friends except for his friends also, but they were not in Funbari this time, Manta had said.

It was late when Manta bade goodbye to Yoh and Amidamaru. Before going to his own room, Yoh had passed Anna's room, it was as quiet as she was 'she must be asleep' he thought... but still he was still bewildered about a while ago… 'why would she invite someone to eat dinner and hadn't told him about him' it still bothers to him, 'maybe she'll told me tomorrow, right, tomorrow, she might clear it to me.' And then he went straight to his room and fell asleep.