Chapter 9: Surprises Comes In Big Packages
"He'll never take what I've got!" Yoh thought while he was in his room laying in his soft futon, First his body.
Hao really wants to get his body and use it to build a new world for shamans. He had caused many damages in the world when he reincarnated and tried to get the Great Spirits in his own hands, he had killed many people, not just shamans but ordinary people, he was evil, no worst than him can do that. His worst fear had come back, he was still alive after the tournament, yes, and he may have feared him, only when he just appeared. He would take what he got, he may think it was for him, that he was his twin brother and everything he has was supposed to be his… including his life and soul. But it was not he had feared of, it was he would also take his friends to him, he treasured his moments with them; maybe he knew it was his weakness.
"Master Yoh? Are you awake?" Tamao knocks at the door. He looked at the clock, it was seven in the morning, he hadn't slept, he was awake the whole night, yet he didn't felt sleepy or tired.
"Err… Yeah… Tamao." He answered back to her.
"May I give you what you should wear for today Master Yoh?" Tamao then asked him.
He opened the door of his room and found Tamao blushing. "This is your clothes, Master Yoh." She said handling him a blue kimono.
"Oh! I need costume?" he asked her grinning, she nodded. "Thank you Tamao, Ohayo!"
"Hai! My pleasure, Master Yoh, Good Morning too." Still blushing and she left Yoh alone to change his clothes. He shut the door and pulled on his kimono (Amidamaru was really pleased about Yoh looks when wearing a kimono) and got out of the house.
Before heading outside the house he had heard Anna yelling on the top of her voice at Horo-Horo who had not yet woken up and he heard some banging sounds after. He doesn't know what to do so he thought to go outside and take some fresh air. He gently opened the door of the house to go outside but instead of light mild rays of light tumbled; a sea of bright lights came flashing to him. He found Goldova, the old chieftainess of the guardians of the shaman fight, she held a small smile to him and he answered back a smile too.
"Come, the Great spirits had just temporarily moved here in Japan." She said in her old voice.
"WOW!" His mouth fell, it was true, and the Great spirits was just outside their house. Big flashy lights like a waterfalls of endless lights was in their backyard. He couldn't believe it even he saw it in his own eyes! 'How wonderful!' he murmured with amazement to his mind.
All the guardians were there too. They were all here for the ceremony; he never thought that the ceremony will take them here in their country. Silva come near to him and patted his back, "Were here to do the rituals." He said shortly.
"How come the Great spirits had been here?" he asked him with wonder still watching the sea of lights.
"It's good that you don't have to go to America and do the rituals there, ne Yoh?" he replied with a smile. "The Great spirits's lights represent the hope of the world… to be given to you…"
"But, everyone will notice the Great spirits, you know, it's big and bright." He replied to him with questioning eyes.
"Only shamans can see them." He answered shortly as Yoh still watching the Great spirits with amazement.
"That was wonderful! The Great spirits were really wonderful." He said after a few seconds. The Great Spirits illuminates the whole temple with its endless bright lights.
"Congratulations, Yoh, you had been our new shaman king." Goldova said and offering her hand to him. He took her old hand and shakes to her a sign of thank you. "You had been our hero, you've stopped Hao taking the Great Spirits in his hands, we are grateful for risking your life to us." Yoh's heart skip a beat hearing the word 'hao' makes his heart explode with fear. She then turns to Amidamaru who was beside him and admiring the eye-flashing lights. "This was your spirit isn't it?" she again asked him, he gave her a small nod and a force smile, he cant utter a single word in his sudden fear that he might say something that should not reveal.
"Ahhh… Amidamaru… a brave samurai." She complimented Amidamaru who glance to them. Yes, his spirit was indeed a brave warrior who was always by his side but even Amidamaru's braveness and strength didn't stopped him.
"Yes I am, it was Yoh-dono who had been brave enough to face Hao." Amidamaru said with delight, he was proud for having a master like him, but he doesn't know that it was the other way around. Still Yoh was grinning like stupid to them praying that she might not asked him anymore about his brother.
"You had shown us all the power of a pure heart." Silva added "sacrificing your life for the world, we really owe you a lot."
"I was not the only one who gave my life to that battle, all the shamans in our side helped, including you." He finally said to the both but he doesn't sound like himself. "I was the one just faced him for he was my twin brother. Without that lot help he could not be defeated." He cannot say 'dead' for he had just talked to him personally just last night.
"Well, yeah you did have lot help but it was you who defeated and killed him." She added and smiled to him. That makes him more uncomfortable.
"Yoh-dono was really humble enough not to take all the credits." His spirits said.
"It was not humility…" he said to Amidamaru. "I was just telling the truth."
"Yoh-dono, I know you are strong enough to defeat him." Amidamaru muttered. Yoh spun around to him and muttered in a very low voice that they can only hear "You don't know what you're saying!" Amidamaru looked puzzled what his master had told him.
"You see we've just teleported here an hour before you set your foot infront of the Great Spirits." Silva told him while they were arguing at his back, he stretch his arms to point the Great Spirit. Yoh turned to Silva with amazement. 'Teleportation… that was cool… I remember when Anna opened the portal to Izumo…' he told his mind and completely forgot about his worries a while ago.
"You mastered the technique of teleporting to other places?" he asked Silva with astonishment.
"Well, yeah…. Kinda…" he answered with shyness.
"That was brilliant!" Amidamaru exclaimed with excitement.
"We, guardians had been learning that technique since we were young." Another guardian joined to them and Goldova left their conversation to talk to the other guardians. "We usually teleport into such near places only."
"Remember when the Chaos star passed the earth, I had been showing to you since then…" Silva added.
"Like you are popping around like ghost." Yoh said.
"That was teleporting, but that was just a simple teleport… remember I was here in Japan to look out for the shaman fight."
"So it was a bit different now…" Yoh concluded.
"Hai! Now is more complicated, if we haven't mastered the technique we are not here, besides there are many negative effects in teleporting the wrong way or method." Silva continued to explain to him who was listening intently.
'Negative effect? What was that?' he told his mind, 'opening a portal has negative effect too…' "What are the negative effects?"
"Can teleport in the wrong place… to other dimension…. And worst…" he said to him.
"Can drain your soul?" Yoh said to him fearfully.
"Huh! Drain your soul! That was rubbish! The worst effect teleporting can have is you will left behind your other half of your body, like your torso, and your upper body is in the other place! There are many incidents of that!" he corrected Yoh.
"Huh? Can left behind? That was odd!" he blurted out and scowled. "Did it happen to you?" he asked him playfully with eyes don't-deny-it!
Silva was uneasy and can't lie to him, "Well yes… but few times… but I told you everyone who learned the technique will go thru that mistake!" he defend himself to Yoh.
"What had you left behind?" Amidamaru suddenly saw some excitement in their conversation.
"That was something personal!" he replied with redness in his face. "No need to ask that!" and he spun around to them. The two laugh in his back.
"So much for that, the most important is we mastered the technique." He again spoke, "And got here in Japan."
"I wish I could do that." Yoh said who was teary-eyed and got back his cool.
"'Course you can do that, you are powerful!" He added, Yoh grinned.
"Err… you said earlier you practice teleporting here from America, why just lot of you stay and wait for the ritual?"
"Oh! You know, we have some jobs there and errands to make." Silva said and bushed again.
"What jobs? I don't remember you lot have jobs…" Yoh pauses and think for a while, "The patch village!" he yelled.
"Don't tell me you lot are still waiters and salesman in the village!"
"Err… not only in patch." He bushed again but now flushed a deeper shade of crimson in his face and his ears like flaming in shyness. He held out a roll of native accessories hanged on it.
"Oh! Obviously!" said Yoh who was fighting his urge to laugh.
"Would you care to buy just one to me?" Silva asked him. Yoh didn't know what to say to him he hadn't any single yen in his pocket. A few second later Goldova clapped her hands and took everyone's attention.
"Attention guardians! The procession will begin just a few minutes, please go to your designated place!" she shouted to instruct the guardians.
"See you later!" Silva wave goodbye to him.
"Go on!" she shouted again. He was still standing in his spot and don't know what he will do; everyone is busy in arranging the line. But he was happy tough he had escaped Silva's accessories.
"Yoh…" Goldova came to him again; would she instruct him what will he do in the procession? "Can I have a word?"
"Err… yes… why not?" said Yoh was looked innocent.
"Not here, I want to speak to you in private and not in this noise… over there…" she point out the woods. She wants some private conversation to him? About the ceremony?
"Alright then…" he agreed. "Can I have Amidamaru?"
"Yes you, may." And she led the way to the silent forest of their yard.
A few minutes later they arrived in the heart of the woods, the Great Spirits are very near not like a while ago it was far to them it was infront of them.
"Yoh…" she began… "The Great spirits had told me to give something important to you…"
"What was that?"
"Something important… that you should take it with responsibility and care."
Yoh was puzzled what was that important thing that he should take good care of it and with responsibility? The title shaman king?
She came nearer to the Great Spirit and gently touched it, her hand got thru the beaming light, and then she let it out and found something in her hand. She opened her palm and saw something shiny.
"Come…" she invite him.
"The Great Spirits had chosen you to take this, as a sign of responsibility." She held Yoh a golden oracle bell in his hand."
"An oracle bell?" he asked with astonishment, why would the Great Spirits give him an oracle bell while he had one? "But I had one? Remember?"
"No, that was different…this was the'd oro oraculum a golden oracle bell…"
"A golden oracle bell? What is the difference in my orange oracle bell?" He asked her and examines the bell carefully.
"Lot of differences, that oracle bell is a mode of communication to us, guardians… you can send important messages to the shaman community by that… just simply speak in the screen of the bell and it will automatically notify us, and we will also notify the others by their own oracle bell."
"What are the differences by that? It serves as a communicator like my old one?" he asked again to her.
"You cannot send us news by you old bell, it was just a notice for the schedule of the fight, remember?" she corrected him. Yoh let out a blush and a small 'yeah, I remember!' "Aside from that it does some other things that we don't know either… only the Great Spirits."
"Other things?" Amidamaru joined them.
"Yes, other things, that's why the Great Spirits wants to give it to you, please take it with care, I trust you… the new shaman king…"
Yoh gulped, what other things are the golden oracle bell do aside sending message to the guardians.
"And the Great Spirits can talk to you by that…" she said with her old voice, "that's all… there are no other things I will say to you… just in the ceremony…" she finally said and they all got back to the backyard where the guardians are completely ready for the procession.
He was again out of this world he doesn't know where he should be, in the front or at the back of the line. And then a strong hit of a large fan blow to him, it was his grandmother.
"What are you doing here!" she asked him with anger.
"Preparing for the ritual…" he snapped.
"You are not supposed to be here…" she let out a shriek.
"But you gave me the kimono!" he answered back at her.
"I gave you the kimono, but it doesn't mean you are allowed to go out!"
"But you didn't tell so!"
"It was understood! Now you ruined our surprise!" she let out a scream again.
"That's enough! It was all through." Mikihisa break their argument. Kino hit him with her fan.
"Yoh, listen, you need to relax… don't be nervous, even there are hundreds of shamans out there." Yohmei said to him. 'There are many shamans there?' he suddenly felt nervous, he was not used to it giving praise in hundreds of people. How could he be relax and be himself?
"Just smile!" his father added and gave him a big wide smile.
"This is not a press conference and a beauty contest! Just be yourself, grandson." She advised him. Amidamaru gave him a beaming look.
"THE PROCESSION WILL BEGIN!" Goldova yelled.
…To Be Continued….
A/N: another cliffhanger! Can Yoh be the new shaman king or hao has some plans under his sleeves? Find out on the next chapter….