Disclaimer : I don't own Shaman King.

Chapter 9

Manta'straining

Flash back

Manta become a shaman was rarely accident. Mosuke entered into Manta's body to save his best friend Amidamaru, Manta wanted to save Yoh so he asked Mosuke to do an oversoul with him. That was the first time Mosuke entered Manta's body.

The second time was at the Babylon gate where the X-laws tried to open the Babylon Gate that was to kill Hao and everyone else. Yoh came to Manta's rescue after he heard that the members of the X-laws captured Manta. Jeanne trapped Manta with her oversoul. Mosuke once again enter Manta's body to save Yoh from being killed.

The third time was the fighting with Hao. Everyone heated p when Hao took Yoh's soul away and they will rushing using all kinds of style to kill Hao but they will all be unsuccessful. Mosuke entered Manta's body the third time dashed to the front of the battle and told all his friends that Yoh was not dead and he was in every body's hearts. After saying so, Manta fainted and everyone was enlightened and joined forces to fight Hao.

When Mosuke agreed to be Manta's guardian spirit, Manta was so ecstatic that he would not sleep the whole night.

The next day, Yoh's father, Mikihisa came, wanted Manta to his disciple after Ryu had became his first disciple. So the tough training started for Manta. In the next six months, he grown a few centimeters taller and his friends were all shocked to see the taller Manta appearing at their sights. It was due to the strenuous training given by Mikihisa.

END OF FLASHBACK
Manta was training more on the speed of running when Mosuke joined his soul with him. Hao hoped that Manta would run like a bullet train and hit hard with the hammer as a oversoul to KO the shamans that would be fighting with his team. (A/N : Star team consists of Manta, Hao and Lyzeth, if you don't know)

Manta was training very hard with his guardian spirit, Mosuke and although, they did not reach the speed Hao wanted but was close to it. Their speed was to compare with the fastest animal on land, the cheetah. Hao was not pleased with Manta's results and therefore trained him even harder and longer each day to get the results done.

There was no improvement nor the standard fell after one week of harsh training with Hao. Hao was not very pleased with Manta's result and decided to have a hammering training instead.

As for the hammering training, Hao wanted Manta to knock down the hugest trees in 1 minute as fast as he would, but Manta would only knock down the 2 trees in 20 minutes and at the end of the process, Manta was drained out of energy, panting for his breath and looking very tired after just after knocking another four trees down.

Hao's face changed to blue then to purple then to red, he was fuming mad about it, when he saw the result. He really would not take it any more and told Manta to stop and returned to the Funbari Hot Springs Inn to rest and call it a day for his training.

Manta tried to cut the trees down with the hammer and found difficulties to cut them down. As there was no cutting edge on the hammer and therefore cutting them down was time consuming.

"Mosuke, can you sharpen the hammer so that it looked like an axe and cutting down down with ease?' Manta was asking Mosuke whether he would sharpen the hammer he used to hammer the new cast swords.

"I don't think that I can do that, Master Manta." Touching the cutting edge of the hammer and thinking of ways to so so, before answering Manta.

"What about making a new sword then combined with the hammer to cut them?" asked Mosuke as he would only make new swords.

"I think that's a good idea!" Manta hugged Mosuke as he had given him a great idea for solving the problem of cutting the trees with the hammer.

"That will be same thing what Yoh did with his sword and spiritual sword. Double medium that is what they called it." Manta was explaining to Mosuke the method that Yoh was using.

"I will go and make the sword when I am back in the house." Mosuke was anxious to make a good and fine sword for his master, as he was a sword smith.

Back in the house, Yoh saw Hao's unpleasant face and approached Hao for a talk. "Hao, did the result of Manta's training made you looked so unpleasant? You have been stressing him to hard from the training you gave him. I know that he is now one of your team mates but do not stressed him so hard, I don't know what he will do. You should not compare him with your ex-team mates. Did I say right?" asked Yoh looking at his brother face for an answer.

Hao was not surprised that Yoh would read his mind as they were twins. He nodded his head to get his approval and told Yoh "You are right about what I am thinking. I think you should go and talk to Manta as you guys are the best of friends."

"Sure, Bye, Hao." rushing to look for Manta before Yoh finished his sentence as the word Hao was heard like Yoh was shouting to his brother.

Manta was resting in the shade of canopy of trees. "Mosukeee, tellll me when Hao isss here. I taking a nap now..." without finishing the sentence Manta fell to the ground with a "tat" sound and was soundly asleep in the soft grass.

"Mantaaaa! Mantaaa! (Mossukkee! Mossukkee) Whereee arrrre yooouu?" Shouted Yoh and Amidamaru together.

Manta did not hear what Yoh and Amidamaru were shouting, as he was fast asleep. But Mosuke would hear his friend, Amidamaru and called Manta to wake up but he failed doing so. Mosuke shouted loud and on top of his voice hoping that Amidamaru would hear him. Amidamaru heard Mosuke's shouting and lead Yoh to Mosuke's voice of direction.

When Yoh saw Manta lying on the grass field, and spooned him up and carried him on his back. Manta was sleeping soundly through the whole route and therefore did not know he was carried home. Manta was sleeping in bed for several hours before he managed to open his eyes.

"You are finally awake! Did Hao's training drain you out?" Yoh asked Manta who was his opening his huge eyes to see the surrounding.

"You are awake, Master Manta, you killed me with worries. Now let's do the sword!" exclaimed Mosuke who was the happiest to see his master waking up and thrill to cast the new sword for his own master.

"Why am I here? I should be sleeping on the grass grounds." Manta was wondering why was he sleeping in his own bed when he should be sleeping in the grass field.

"I was the one that carried you back, you looked heavier than I thought." Yoh saids lazily looking at Manta for his reaction on what he had said.

"Of course, I am much heavier. I have grown taller since I started training with your father, Mikihisa, Yoh." when Manta saw Yoh looking at his face.

Turning to Mosuke, Manta said "Mosuke, let's go and cast the new sword." turning back to Yoh, Manta said "Please do not tell Hao about it. It's a secret between you and me,Yoh."

"Sure." Yoh nodding his head agreeing that he would not tell Hao about.

Mosuke and Manta was busy the next few days casting and making a good sword and were all not in the regular training grounds. Hao became worried and asked Yoh what had happened to Manta.

Yoh told his brother not to worry to much. He told Hao that Manta was having his secret training with Mosuke and did not review much more. He told him to be patient, it was the secret between him and Manta and he would that surprise soon in a few days time. As he had promised Manta that he would not let the cat out of the bag.

It had been a week since Manta had been casting the sword and was done with it. It was time to try out the weapon and the best place to try it was the forest of trees.

So they went to the forest in the late afternoon. They went to one of the tallest trees and Manta said "Mosuke in the hammer, hammer in the sword." a new weapon appeared and it looked like huge blade with handle of the hammer something like legendary heroes would carry on their backs.

Manta swing the sword into the tree, that one swing of the sword fell the tree as the tree dropped to the ground with great falling speed as it was very heavy.

"We have done it, Mosuke! The time was better than Hao's appointed time. We are really a genius. Now what left was running speed training. Now let's tell Yoh to assemble everyone here to see the surprise we had installed." Manta was thrilled by the result with their newest weapon on hands and ran back to Funbari Hot Springs Inn.

Back at the house, Manta went straight to Yoh and told him what had happened today and told him that asked everyone to gather tomorrow for the surprise. Manta then went out for his dinner at the dining area.

Everyone gathered at the dining area for dinner. Yoh notified everyone to go to the forest tomorrow so see the surprise Manta had installed for everyone, without the approval of Hao.

Everyone was wondering why Manta wanted every body to be there and Choco Love told everyone that Manta wanted to make everyone a sword and therefore gathered everyone in the forest. Of course, Yoh was kept his mouth shut all the time and refused to talk to any body that ask him the "Whys", the "What" and "Hows". As soon the surprise would be out tomorrow. (A/N: the persons who were pouring questions at Yoh were: Horo Horo, Choco Love, Faust VIII and Ryu.)

After many questions, Yoh was tired; weary of everyone's asking of inquiries, he ran off straight to his bed covering with his bedspread. His room was violently knocked as everyone had not got the answers from him and therefore declined to sleep. In the end, Hao was the one ordered every one of them to sleep or do one thousand of pushups before bedtime. Everyone did not want to do the pushups therefore they went to bed.

Everyone woke up early the next morning; they wanted to see what Manta was up to. They all arrived at the appointed time that Yoh told them. Manta and Mosuke were there sitting under the cool shade of the trees waiting for their arrival.

Manta saw everyone coming towards him; he got up from his sitting position to his standing position and greeted everyone saying, "So everyone is here, that's great." Smiling at them.

"Why did you want us to wake up so early, destroying my beauty sleep." Anna yawning away as she did not wake up so early after had pass the coaching to Hao.

"Actually in t

his week, I had been casting a new sword with Mosuke and achieved double medium in the process." Without further ado, Manta had Mosuke doing a oversoul in the hammer then the sword and a "new weapon" was formed, turning behind him, he cut down the tree with one swing and the tall tree fell and hit the ground heavily leaving a pit below it.

Eyes wide opened, eyes balls gorged out looking very surprised that Manta was able to do that. The sleepy Anna was too shocked to see Manta performing a double medium and was awakened by the sound of the falling tree.

Hao was the happiest out of all as he had achieved his goal on Manta. He said "Now, everyone, after you have seen a excellent show, you guys have to work hard to become the best Shaman. Now, let's go for your training." Turning to Manta, Hao said "Ok, now you have a new skill in your hands, performing it to perfection is now your job, forget the running training first, now I want you to cut the wood that you felled just to thin pieces like this." Taking out a toothpick in his pocket and show it to him."

"Yes Sir," Manta turned to the tree and started his training once more.

End of Chapter9
A/N : Finished with Manta's training… the next time would be Len.. there will be training and love for the next chap…. With Tamao… as I did not talked much the other time round… for the training and love…. So the next few chapters will be on indivirual training like this one…

Please review the story… hoped you have a happy reading.