Chapter 19 is here and up for grabs. This was almost as tiring as the one before; but it was slightly more relaxing I guess. Here's the beginning of the turning point of the story. Please enjoy. Added Hao X Sumiko to the poll. Those who wish to vote for the two of them, please visit my website at my profile. Yoh and Anna reign supreme with 69 votes! Congratulation to this happy couple! However, scaing me out of my wits is Hao and Anna, who slipped last with just 60 votes! WOW! They're almost beating the happy couples with less than 10 votes! Third is Ren and Pirika with two, and surprising me out of my wits, Ren and Anna with one. Alright, since Sumiko is added to the story, please vote again at the end of this chapter. Sorry for the inconvenience, but thanks to all for voting! Here's chapter 19. Thanks.
CHAPTER 19
" Why are we here, sister?" the boy asked the girl as they crossed the sidewalk to make their way to Hao's apartment. The rain had more or less stopped; but there was a swirl of dark atmosphere that surrounded a particular house. And that obviously was of the owning of a particular suave-looking Asakura. And I'm not talking about Yoh, if you still have doubts.
" Kino was worried of Hao's cunning, and she thought he would try to steal Anna from Yoh." the girl said calmly, pulling out a lemon from inside her purse and began sucking it quietly.
" Oh yes," the boy said. " Of course."
They reached the apartment and stopped in their footsteps.
" Should we knock?" the boy asked.
" There will be no need." the girl said professionally, pulling out a dart from inside her pocket and flung it at the door of the house. No sooner had it reached less than a meter from the house; it burst into a gulf of flames and fried to a crisp on the spot. " Impressive." she muttered.
" Thank you." came the voice from the middle of the flames. " It's a gift." The flames disappeared and there stood Hao Asakura surrounded by a pile of ashes. He looked at the two of their solemn faces and scratched the back of his head. " That's weird." he said to himself. " That's the first time that act didn't get any applause or even a glare. . .not even a reproachful stare."
" Did out reaction anger you, sir?" the boy said.
" Not at all." Hao said, beaming, taking another step towards the both of them. " Now what can I do to help you? Not that I'm curious in any way why the two of you are attempting to attack my doors at this time of the night."
" Do you know who Kino is?" the girl said emotionlessly.
Hao raised his eyebrows. " Yes." he said.
" She wanted us to give you this letter." she said, handing it to him, in which he took it with a single hand. He looked at it for a minute before opening it. " Sorry to disturb you at this time of the night," he read out loud. " But I have an urgent message to send to you. In light of the certain difficult times that these two children of your same age have, I have decided to enlist them under your care. I will repay you for this someday. But for the meantime until I can make further arrangements, this will be the case for the time being. Sorry if this troubled you in any way. . .Kino."
Hao looked bewilderedly at the two of them in front of him before burning the letter in his hand. " What are your names?" he asked.
" We do not wish to disclose them, if you do not mind." the boy said flatly.
Hao blinked. " Say what?" he said.
" We do not have real names." the girl said. " We are mediums. . .and live under names which we were never officially appointed by. However, if forced to be known by them, he is by the name Ejio, and me by the name Sumiko."
" Ejio. . .and Sumiko. . ." Hao said, tasting the names on his tongue before sighing in defeat. " Well, I guess I could take care of the two of you until. . .further arrangements are made." he finished lamely. The two of them just stared back at him with dull eyes and he sighed. Damn these two are creepy. He thought, shivering. " Come on, follow me. I can show you to your rooms. I hope you don't mind sharing."
" Not at all." the boy said.
The girl just watched him leave before sighing. " They're all the same." she said before walking in after her brother. " Every single one of them is always the same. . ."
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Yoh scratched his head.
" Hurry up, I don't have all day." Anna snapped, slapping him on the back of his head. " It isn't that hard to decide; just choose which subject you want to take after the failed French. German, Higher Japanese, Chinese, Dutch. . .whatever you want. Just get something you know you wouldn't fail."
Yoh raised his eyebrows at her.
" . . .Or, you wouldn't fail as bad as French." she said.
" That's better." he said cheerfully, picking up the pamphlet once again. " Hey, what about Latin? That sounds pretty alright."
" That's the world's most dead language, Yoh." Anna said crankily, slapping him on the back of his head again before looking at the clock and groaning. " It's been two hours, Yoh." she said. " Why can't you make a suitable and confirmed decision?"
" Sorry." he muttered.
" Still, I can't believe you failed the subject." Anna muttered under her breath.
" What?" Yoh asked, looking up.
It was then when her eyes widened.
" Hold on," she said. " Did you check with the teacher about this?"
" Nope." Yoh said. " I trust my brother and Ren. Why?"
Anna frowned.
" I don't trust Hao." she said.
" Don't you trust Ren?" he said.
She smiled and sighed at that.
" Yeah." she said finally. " I guess I do."
" Then leave it." he said, getting back to the pamphlet.
She frowned, once again.
Somehow, she still wasn't sure.
Somehow.
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" What? You're a nanny?"
Hao glared at Ren. Him and Ren were sitting inside the coffeeshop once again. After paying for the damages that they inflicted in the shop, they were asked to sign an agreement to pay thrice on everything they destroyed; ranging from a dinner plate to a person's face. " I'm not a nanny, you unknowing moron," Hao said angrily. " I was just assigned by Kino to take care of them for a short while until she can find proper guardians for them."
" It's pretty odd that she would choose you to do it, don't you think?" Ren said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. " I mean, you're not as close to her as much as Yoh is, right?"
" Maybe Kino is afraid that Anna would scare the children." Hao said.
" They're our same age, you moron." Ren said, rolling his eyes. " And even if Kino is afraid Anna would pulverize the two kids you are taking care of, she would still trust Yoh over you. I think she has an ulterior motive."
" Really?" Hao muttered, taking a sip of coffee.
A couple walked past them, and Ren waited until they had sat down three tables away from them when Ren nodded his head. " Positively." he said darkly.
" Then do you think she knows about our plan?" Hao asked with raised eyebrows.
" I don't think so." Ren said, scratching his head. " She's not one to prod into other's affairs, isn't she?"
" If she isn't, then you just discriminated what you said previously." Hao said, lips twitching.
Silence.
" So what do you want to do about this?" Ren said sulkily.
" I don't know." Hao said, seriously this time. " If what you said is really true, then she couldn't have sent them here at a worse time. Not when we're just planning to begin."
Ren nodded before glaring at the coffee before him.
" Shall we continue?" he muttered.
Hao took one final sip of coffee before placing it down on the saucer again.
" Yeah." he said.
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" Hao's cunning, that's one thing we were told." Sumiko said calmly, looking at her brother serenely. He nodded and pulled out a bag of dice and started stacking them one atop of each other calmly. " That's the first thing that Kino told us." he said quietly. " The second thing that was known to us was that he is after Anna. That's something that we have to stop him from doing. I don't think that would be hard to do."
" Don't underestimate the enemy, Ejio." she said.
" Don't underestimate yourself, Sumiko." he answered flatly.
She nodded to herself and got to her feet as her brother lifted the dice to the fifth layer.
" Why do you like to stack things so much, Ejio?" she said.
" One, it helps me to think better, and two, I'm bored." he said flatly. " I have no friends."
" Neither do I." she answered.
" But you're beautiful." Ejio said. " You're pretty, and guys from all over want you to go out with them on dates. Girls like you because you're smart and cool. I'm just the kid tagging along with his sister who they try to ditch halfway while in the process of hoping to bag you."
" Look who's underestimating themselves now?" she said quietly, patting her brother's head. He said nothing. For a moment, a small act of love seemed to pass between the two before she sat down, and he started stacking the sixth layer of dice.
" Hao tried bringing Anna in." Ejio said, picking up another dice.
" Check." Sumiko said sullenly. " He also caused several troubles between her and Yoh."
" But there has been no concrete evidence of the fact that it was indeed him that caused it." he said, almost to himself, as he piled up another layer of dices above each other.
" You want to catch him in the act?" she said, taking out a lemon and sucked it quietly.
" Too risky." he said. " I want to stop him before he even starts."
" Too hard." she said, drying the lemon before starting on another. " I think we should check out on step of his profile before going onto the next. Start after he begins."
" You mean lay a trap?" he said to her sourly, piling up another layer; being the tenth." That's so unlike you."
" Doing what is not like me is what I do to be like me." she said.
" That's true." he said quietly, laying the thirteenth layer before he stopped. She drew the lemon out of her mouth; the two of them staring at the door for a second before looking at each other. In a second she had kept the lemon back into her pouch, and he hit down the layers of dice; it scattering on the floor everywhere. Just as they took out books; feigning to read, the sliding door opened and there stood Hao, a grin on his face.
" Afternoon!" he greeted. " I just stopped by to ask you if you two had any plans this afternoon."
They raised their eyebrows at each other before looking back at him.
" No." they both said.
" Good." Hao said. " Want to go out for a meal?"
They looked at each other before looking back at him.
" Alright." they said.
Hao beamed before noticing the dice scattered all across the floor.
" I'll clean it up later." Ejio said.
" Thanks." Hao said, rolling his eyes.
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Seika looked at his watch.
" It's two." he muttered to himself. " Looks like it's time for me to do for lunch." He removed the glasses from his eyes and was about to leave from his desk when he stopped and sat back down. He sighed. " I was expecting you to come to look for me sooner or later, Anna." he said.
She closed his office door behind her and removed the beads from her neck. " As expected from the great retired Seika." she said, managing a smirk on her face.
" I'm still a teacher, Anna." he said lightly.
" You used to be a shaman, sir." she said, making her way across his office until she was standing directly opposite away from him. She put her hand on his desk. " You should remember that rather clearly."
" I might." he said, lips twitching. " I suppose you're here to talk to me about Yoh's abysmal grades?" he added, slightly more shrewdly now.
" Yes," she said, gripping the beads in her hand more tightly now.
" It's not the end of the world," he said. " There's plenty more-"
His words were cut off by the snapping of her beads on his table. On her face was a forced smile; yet the strain marks near her mouth were a dead giveaway. He gulped as she placed her hand on the table. " Sensei, I want you to tell me the truth." she said, in mock sweetness. " The entire truth."
He gulped.
Students these days were getting more and more ferocious.
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" Hao? Hao? Hao?" Opacho asked into the receiver of the telephone.
Yoh grinned sheepishly. " You know, Opacho," he said, speaking to Hao's little friend on the other line. " By the way you were speaking previously, you sounded distinctly like a Chinese Santa Clause."
" Oh, it's Yoh." Opacho said glumly. " Do you know where's Hao?"
" Yeah, he asked me to call you to tell you where he was." Yoh said matter-of-factly. " He said he was eating lunch with a couple of friends, and told you not to worry."
" Oh." Opacho said gloomily. " I thought that would mean Ren and the others."
" Ren?" Yoh asked curiously. " Why Ren?"
" The two of them have been really close lately; I just assumed they would be out together again." Opacho said. Depression seemed to be swarming the poor little fella.
" Oh." Yoh said. " I see. See you around some time, Opacho."
" Goodbye." Opacho said, before hanging up.
Yoh put down the phone, a frown appearing between his eyes.
" Hao and Ren. . ." he muttered.
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" So where were you two brought up?" Hao asked curiously.
Him, Sumiko and Ejio were sitting in a nearby diner. Hao thought it was the perfect time to see whether they were really against him or not. This, to them, was the perfect time to act like they were on his side, and that they were just two ordinary children with unpromising pasts. They knew that Hao was not one that would be easily lied to. Plus, not to mention the fact that they were told that he could read minds at the flip of a dime did not exactly make it any much easier.
" In Tokyo." Ejio said plainly, eating his fifth chicken wing, and stacked it above many of the other chicken wing bones in a small pile before him. Hao raised his eyebrows.
" That's his pastime." Sumiko interrupted Hao before he even had time to say anything. " That's what he does to make up for the time when he's bored."
It also helps me to think better. Hao heard Ejio think.
Hao smirked to himself as he read that thought but hid it quickly as her food came. He raised his eyebrows as nothing but a stack of lemons came to the table and he looked at her once more.
" That's all my sister eats." Ejio said.
" I see." Hao said, scratching the back of his head. Honestly speaking, he was not sure if the two of them were experts or whether they were just plain weirdos whose parents abandoned them. Not that he blamed them at this point of time, anyway. The boy had white, wispy hair, looking old and young at the exact same time. He wore clothes of black beyond black; his eyes cold, dead, and emotionless. Sumiko had dark brown hair that went beyond her shoulders; her clothes like her brother of entire black, right down from her shirt to the very soles of her shoes. But she was beautiful. Hao was forced to admit that despite her frosty appearance, she was still very pretty.
" You didn't tell us anything about yourself." she said calmly, sucking on a lemon. " Did you have any relationships in the past?"
" Not really." he said cheerfully. " I'm swinging single and always will be."
Flirt. He heard Ejio think, and he looked up to meet his eyes, but he looked away.
" I guess that means you aren't chasing any women at the moment?" Sumiko said.
He smiled softly.
She phrased the question very well.
He was almost fooled by her at that moment; it was a two-sided question.
" No I'm not." he said, and Ejio looked up, frowning. " Why so interested? Are you in love with me or something?"
" Would you blame me if I was?" she said silently, and Hao, despite his suaveness and experience with women, was unable to conceal the blush that formed on his cheeks. He shook himself out of it as his bowl of spaghetti came. He frowned as he started to eat as he watched the two of them quietly. So far it was only Ejio's thoughts that he had been able to read; but Sumiko was like an empty void; making it much harder for him to read her mind.
" You sure you don't want some of this spaghetti, Sumiko?" Hao said, desperate to read one of her thoughts. " It must be awfully boring to eat the same food all the time."
" I'm alright." she said lightly.
" I've got a question for you, sir." Ejio said, stacking up the seventh chicken wing, followed quickly by the eighth. " I read about you disrupting the shaman king contest a few years back, and almost murdered your brother in the process. How is the relationship between the two of you now?"
Hao blinked. This certainly was unexpected.
He thought that they would at least ask three more questions before getting in for the big one.
" We're close now." Hao said, smiling.
" Really?" Ejio said, seeming offhandedly as he started to munch his way through another piece of chicken. " Because if it were me. . .I would get angry at him for taking the crown of Shaman King away from me."
" He didn't get crowned Shaman King." Hao said knowledgeably. " Nobody did."
" Still. . ." Ejio said persistently, finishing the wing and propped it above the pile before him. " If it was me. . .I would still be upset with him, despite whatever sort of nice character I had."
" Well, maybe I'm just more forgiving than you are." Hao said, forcing a grin.
" I guess." Ejio said nonchalantly.
Hao gritted his teeth. The two of them obviously had some sort of idea to what he was planning. The thing was, it was not easy to read their minds. Sumiko was almost near impossible, and Ejio, although less resistant than his sister; Hao was still only able to hear some of his thoughts. The only thing Hao knew from him was that Ejio liked to pile things when he was thinking, which at least let him know that Ejio's mind was racking furiously at the moment. He clenched his fist over the fork that was in his hand. So Kino really was suspicious of him. Maybe he could just give it up and tell the facts to the two of them. But would they understand at all? He didn't think so.
" Sumiko," he said, and she looked at him, eyebrows raised. " Which one of you is older, actually? You or your brother?"
" Me." she said. " But just by a few months."
" I see. . ." Hao said.
" Sir?" Ejio said, looking directly at Hao while nibbling on a chicken wing. Hao looked up to meet his eyes. " What are your relationships with Yoh's friends and loved ones like?"
" We're alright." Hao said. " Nothing beyond the normal. Why so curious to know?"
Sumiko bit her lip. So far he was not falling for any of their traps; showing he was more than what Kino warned them that he was. She sucked the lemon dry and placed it on the table gently. " We just wanted to know you better, that's all." she said quietly. " Is that something wrong?"
" N. . .No! No it's not!" Hao stuttered before mentally slapping himself. Hold on. . .I'm stuttering? The king of sex and the master of woman is looking at an orphan the same age as I am and I'm STUTTERING? " I think I need some fresh air." he said, smiling at the two of them. " Let me know if you need anything."
" And we won't hold back." Sumiko said.
He smiled.
" I'll be holding my breath." he said, before walking out the door.
Ejio watched him leave before stacking the tenth chicken wing on top of the many others. " I don't like him." he said flatly. " Everything he does is like an act. There's too much mystery in him."
" You think we should keep a closer watch on him?" she said vaguely.
" I think it's important that we do." he answered pensively.
" He didn't fall for any of our traps though." she said darkly. " All three of them, and he answered without quickening or slowing his pace. You would think he had done this before."
" I believe so." she said.
He placed the twelfth wing on top of the others.
" I'm going to have to spy on him tomorrow." he muttered to himself, chewing the fleshy meat off the thirteenth wing. " Worse comes to worse I would have to fight him if I get found out. With my shamanic abilities, I doubt I would lose to him in man-to-man combat."
" What's that you say?" Sumiko said lazily.
No turning back.
" Nothing." Ejio muttered, knocking down the thirteen stacked wings down to the table.
END CHAPTER 19
In reply to Exploded Toilet Bowl. . .I guess I wouldn't mind if you take several points of my ideas, but I do not like direct copying. Deal? Smiley face Sorry if I sounded harsh. And please put my name in your word of thanks for ideas! I would be really happy and would appreciate it if you do! Alright, in any case, good luck with your story! I'll be sure to read it if you wish me to. Please reply this in your next review to me. Smiles
Thanks to liftedshadows for the warning! I'll look out for my mistakes more furtively now!And people want Manta romance? Really? That'll be hard for me to write. Lolz.
Sorry if the chapter is too center on the two orphans. Apologize for that, but I had to introduce them properly. Not to mention having to make tension between Hao and the two of them. Do you like them? I hope you did; I had a lot of fun writing about them. SPOILER! Something will happen to Ejio soon enough. Most probably in the next chapter. Chapter 20 will be back on track with Yoh and the gang. Will Hao still succeed in whatever he's planning now with two professionals against him and on his back? Watch out for chapter 20! Plus, some released tension between Yoh and Anna in the next one soon!