Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King. Nor do I own any of the characters from the original manga. Hiroyuki Takei owns Shaman King. I own myself and all my characters. That including Sofia Faust and Hana Horutari, and her Hana's dad. I own the rights to this fanfic so Bleuh!

Author's Note: Words 'onegai' means please, 'hai' means yes, 'gomen nasai' means sorry, 'arigatou' means thank you, and 'so desu ka' means is that so. Get used to these translation paragraphs at the beginning. They'll be popping up a lot more often. Also—please review to tell me if you like what I'm doing or if you want my head on a pike.

Yoh lounged on the floor, half his body hidden underneath the table, while both him and Amidamaru watched a movie they managed to pick up on the way back home. Manta was at his own house, having taken the train on the way back.

Amidamaru had been unusually quiet ever since they'd left Funbari Hill. Yoh had asked him about it, but all the samurai would say was that seeing Hana had jogged a few memories.

And now as the movie progressed to where the teenagers in the haunted house started disappearing, Yoh noticed that Amidamaru wasn't looking. Not even paying attention to the screaming, let alone the magic of the people being shown inside a box called a TV.

Yoh sighed, feeling weird with Amidamaru being so quiet. So he picked up the remote and turned off the TV. The sudden lack of screaming seemed to snap the ghost out of his stroll in memory lane.

"Yoh-dono?"

"Amidamaru, are you sure you're okay?" Amidamaru smiled at his master's concern and nodded.

"Yes, I told you. I'm just... remembering." Yoh folded his arms and lied his head on them.

"Well, penny for your thoughts?" The teenager was trying to coax a conversation out of him. Amidamaru raised an eyebrow.

"Penny?" He was clueless. Yoh sweatdropped.

"Euh, it's an expression. It means how about sharing your thoughts."

"Oh, well." Amidamaru looked down lightly. "I was just thinking of how I first met Hana."

"How did you meet? You certainly didn't mention her before. Did you?"

"Well I died a few years after the last time I saw her, and six hundred years of time to think about my debt to Mosuke was certainly flying around my head. So… it is easy to forget certain things.…"

"Hmm… so then? How did you two meet?" Yoh pressed the matter, liking to get to know Amidamaru more and more.

The samurai paused, trying to remember the event. "Well we were both very young. I was about three years older than she was."

…

'Her father was a thief, trying to get into the garden of crops we were growing for the orphans.'

A bald man with whiskers on his cheek approached the garden, still quite a few meters off from it. His clothes were tattered and dirty, and he wasn't very big. Yet he was still a grown man, and his worst fear was of a small boy.

He'd heard stories of a demon child wielding a sword that protected the vegetables…. But he had no choice. He was hungry and had no money to buy his own vegetables.

An eleven-year-old version of Amidamaru hid behind a tree a meter or so off from the garden. He'd seen the man approaching and had immediately gotten ready.

Three thieves had already tried to steal from the garden today! Amidamaru was getting frustrated, wanting to go back to the abandoned temple where everyone else was and take a nap for once.

But he had his duty and stood by.

The man's eyes darted this way and that, hoping to make sure he saw no sign of movement. To his relief, there was nothing to tell him otherwise.

So before someone COULD come, the man sprinted for the garden, so close to grabbing some lettuce. But he was cut short.

Literally.

His head flew off, landing on the ground behind the body. The man's body stood for a second or so before collapsing in a heap with the head.

Amidamaru winced as a hefty amount of blood sprayed onto his clothing. He sighed, taking out a cloth stuffed into his clothing and wiping his face and Harusame off.

He looked down at the body with another sigh. 'Guess I'll have to clean this up... Don't want his blood tainting the soil.'

And he was about to kneel down and pick up the body, but--

"Otousan!" A voice cried. Amidamaru looked up and saw a young girl run towards him.

"E-eh?" He backed up a little, and saw the little girl stop in front of the body, her eyes starting to shine with tears. Her clothes were just as dirty as the thief's. Her brown hair frayed and knotted, she looked only a few years younger than him self.

He leaned forward. "O-otousan?" 'No... no he can't be. Onegai... Please don't let him be.'

The girl didn't answer him; instead she wrapped her arms around herself and whimpered mildly. Amidamaru took a step to her. The movement made the girl look up, her expression drawn with fright.

"No! No!" She backed up as he had come forward. His heart pained. It was true he was feared by those who thought of stealing from the garden. But those were grown men. Adults. He didn't want a girl near his age scared of him. He was supposed to be one that protected children like her. But now he had made her like him. An orphan. Amidamaru kept his eye contact with her. "L-Look, I'm putting away my sword." He showed her very slowly how he sheathed his sword back near his belt. He held up his hands to show no sign of danger. "There, see? I'm harmless to you. No weapons."

The girl glared at Amidamaru and instead of feeling safer and calming down, she pulled out a pan from her robes and ran to him. Amidamaru, severely caught off guard, was THWACKED to the ground by the girl.

A cooking pan to the head. The girl panted, gripping the pan fiercely. And she was about to hit him again, until a voice shouted out to them.

"Amidamaru! You can come back now, it's getting late!" A tall boy with rugged, black hair came into the garden. It certainly didn't take him long to notice the bleeding, decapitated body and Amidamaru in a heap with a little girl standing over him, holding a frying pan.

The fifteen-year-old version of Mosuke paused for a second to take in his surroundings, but soon came to a calm look and strolled forward. The girl gripped her pan and cautiously stepped back.

Mosuke stopped in front of the thief and kneeled down. He looked up at the girl saying, "Do you know this man?" The girl, surprised he wasn't angry, gave a slow nod.

"M-my otousan." She lowered her pan and bowed her head. Mosuke sighed and picked up the body, leaving the head for later.

"Would you like to help me bury him?" Another slow nod, though she didn't look him in the eye. Mosuke smiled and walked off, the girl following him.

A few hours later, Amidamaru woke up with his head throbbing with pain. He winced lightly, feeling something warm on his face and stiff around his head. He winced his eyes before shuttering them open.

He was in the abandoned temple, underneath the reminisce of a blanket with one of the orphans using his face as a pillow. He raised his arm, though it was hard thanks to the weakening of sleep. He traced his fingers along some cloth, wrapped around his forehead.

'Bandaging? Was I in a fight?' With some careful shifting and slow movement, Amidamaru was able to sit up. But of course it didn't go unpunished. His head pounded with the movement of his body and he winced once more.

He looked around and saw everyone was asleep. It was nighttime, and it must've been late for Mosuke to be asleep as well.

But there was one figure he noticed, leaning against the wall of the temple, shivering lightly. Amidamaru stood up, much to his head's complaint, and grabbed a blanket.

The girl noticed the sounds of his movement and looked up, the same scared look in her eyes that he had seen earlier that day. But he didn't stop walking, Amidamaru walked up right beside her, kneeled down and draped her in the blanket.

Though she still gave him a cautious stare, she accepted the blanket and held it over her.

"Couldn't sleep?" He asked, sitting down. She looked away and gave a nod. Amidamaru made an agreeing noise. "Yeah, most new orphans who come here take awhile to adjust before they actually get comfortable."

He saw that she was still looking away from him, and still down. So he tried to lighten the mood. "You know, you sure pack a wallop with that pan." Her eyes glanced over at him, watching him rub his head where he could feel a large goose egg. "I must've been out for--what-- 4 hours?"

She expression softened, but no smile. Amidamaru sighed. Usually the orphans he tried to cheer up would at least talk. But of course, he hadn't killed one of their parents. He hadn't made the orphans an orphan.

"I know you're mad at me for... well... killing your dad. But you've gotta understand I was just--"

"Protecting the garden." He looked up and saw the girl still looking away. But she was finally talking. "I know. Mo-Mosuke told me you have to make sure no one gets to the garden. 'Cause it's all for the orphans." She tightened her hold on the blanket. "I'm not mad at you for that."

Amidamaru rose an eyebrow. "But you ARE mad at me?"

"Hai."

"Well then why ARE you mad at me if it's not for killing your dad?" She turned to him, facing him. It was an odd face to see on an eight-year-old. So serious and calm.

"I'm mad because you didn't say sorry." Amidamaru drew his head back in confusion.

"You're mad because I didn't apologize?"

She nodded. Then her eyes began to shine. "M-my otousan said that when people say sorry, it's because they know what they did wrong and they feel guilty about doing it." She sniffled lightly. "If you didn't say sorry, you don't feel guilty."

Amidamaru blinked a few times, surprised at such wise things coming from a little girl. Then again, her life couldn't have been very well off. She must've had to be mature about certain things.

He bowed his head. She did have a good right to be mad. When answering, he chose his words carefully, making sure he wouldn't anger her further.

"You're right. I'm not sorry, nor do I feel guilty about killing your father." She clenched her fists. "However, I do feel guilty about putting you through more pain in your life. I can see that all I've done is made it harder. And that's the last thing I would ever want to do to a ch-- you."

Amidamaru got to his feet, closed his eyes and bowed deeply. "Gomen-nasai." He opened one eye to look at her and saw she was smiling a little.

"Arigatou Amidamaru-sama." He blushed at the superiority put to his name and sat back down.

" You know my name?" She nodded.

"Hai, Mosuke told me." He looked over his shoulder at Mosuke, and just for a second he thought he had seen the teenager looking at the both of them. But his eyes were closed.

"So desu ka? Well I think it's unfair you know my name and I don't know yours." The girl bowed her head, not bothering to get up.

"My name is Hana Horutari."

…

Amidamaru sighed, thinking fondly of his memories. When he glanced back over at Yoh, he'd found that his master had fallen asleep on his folded arms.

The samurai rolled his eyes with a shake of his head.