Warning: this story is based on the weird ending of Funbari no Uta, if you haven't read it then we suggest you to send us an email and we'll send it to you
Disclaimer: see other story coz I'm too lazy to write it on
Beta: aLpha sKy, Lilaclullaby
'Runaway? Reject them? Pretend that they had never existed? Or maybe … I can accept them, like nothing had happened before '
The Real Truth
By: Lullaby of Darkness
Chapter 2
The Flashback
Suddenly, somebody knocked on the door, and the pair of spirits jumped. "Who's that?" asked Tamao with Konchi and Ponchi holding her legs, afraid if Anna came into the room and send them straight to hell because of what their master had done.
"It's me, Hana. My parents asked you to come downstairs," Hana said with an unnatural cold tone from behind the door. Tamao, in the following silence, could almost see him turning his back and walking toward his own room.
"Did I hear them said 'my parents'?" Konchi asked Tamao carefully.
"I think he really did. Don't worry about me, I'm okay." She gave them a fake smile and went downstairs.
"Why did you ask me to leave Hana in the first place?" Anna slammed the table furiously.
"Because I never thought that this thing would happen!"
"I don't want to know what did you think, I've had enough. I don't even believe you've thought at all." He just sighed and not retaliate, because no one would ever win arguing with the Itako.
The door opened, and Tamao came in with the frightened Konchi wrapped around her leg; Ponchi was busy packing Tamao's things. And Konchi didn't want Tamao to be killed by Anna, that's why he followed her, even though he knew that Anna could banish him as easily as she would a pesky fly.
"Konchi," Anna said suddenly with a killer glare, and Konchi release Tamao's leg and stand straight like a soldier, "we need to talk to Tamao, privately, without either you, Hana, or other spirits listening in." The spirit gulped, sweating and legs shivering, but still managed to maintain his ground.
"Can you get the other spirits out of this house for a while and make sure that Hana stays in his room?" she continued and didn't stop staring at the poor spirit.
"Hai, Anna-sama," he bowed once and disappeared from the view as fast as he could that it almost seemed as though he was glad to have an excuse to get as far away as possible from the Itako without seeming to betray his master.
"So, Tamao," Yoh said in a serious unusual tone, "do you mind tell us what happened?"
"I'm truly sorry, Yoh-sama, Anna-sama. That was the only thing I could do …," she said quietly.
It seemed that Anna couldn't, if not wouldn't, accept the poorly-said excuse. She stood up and yelled at the pale Tamao, "Is that all you have to say? Sorry? That's it?" The pink-haired maiden flinched. "Don't you realize how it broke my heart when that boy, my son, called you 'mom'?"
"I'm sorry Anna-sama, I truly am. Six years ago, when I was summoned to take care of Hana, I couldn't think of anything else. That child needed a parent, someone to protect him, at least someone he can call 'mom'," Tamako said as she started to cry again.
"But at least you should tell him the truth when you knew that we were coming. You knew that we're coming home, don't you? Or didn't my grandmother teach you good enough to feel a shaman's furyoku?" Yoh said. He spoke calmly, but to the miserable girl, his each and every words sounded like an accusal.
"No, of course not, Kino-sensei was the best teacher ever. I know, but..." She trailed off, choking, and couldn't quite say anything else beside series of identical muttered apology.
"You …!" Anna's hand was raised to slap Tamao, but Yoh stopped her quickly. She jerked away and glared with bloodshot eyes. "Why are you defending her? She lied to our son! She erased us from his life and convinced our son that she is his sole parent!"
"I know, I know. But please Anna, calm down… anger wouldn't solve anything right now… we can talk about this nicely" the Shaman King said.
"Yoh! I can't take it anymore! You're just too kind to everyone! That's why this girl here thinks that she got a chance. A chance to replace me as Hana's mother and as your wife," Anna said, pointing to Tamao.
"No, I never meant to-"
"Don't lie to me! I know what you are thinking right now, and I know what you were thinking about Yoh! I still can read people's mind!"
"ANNA!" Yoh shouted, his patience, for the second time, has reached the limit. Anna stopped dead. He had never yelled at her like that!
Tamao's pupils shrunk at the sight of Yoh's face. He looked like his twin brother, he really looked like Hao…
"Yoh …"
"Yoh-sama …"
"I know that you're upset and I really feel the same way, please understand the condition right now. Calm down… I'm begging you …," he said slowly while doing what he said to himself. "I'm really tired right now, and whatever the reason is, Tamao is the one who had taken care of our child for the past six years."
"Thanks for taking care of Hana, Tamao…," he smiled to her, "but since we're back already, you can go back to Izumo and live peacefully there. Ryu will take you there."
"Hai, Yoh-sama…" she stood up and bowed to both of them, leaving that room as soon as she could and went straightly to hers.
Tamao took a deep breath with her back against the safely closed door. The two spirits looked at her with concern. "Ponchi, Konchi, we're leaving right now. Back to Izumo." She forced a smile, but the spirits knew her too well to be fooled easily by their master. They nodded and helped her pack her things.
00
He looked at the window to make sure that the pink haired girl and her spirits had already left with Ryu. Yoh then turned his back and face his wife.
"Happy now? I don't think that Hana even know that she's going."
"So what do you expect? Having me thank her for keeping the secrets about us to Hana? For pretending to be the mother of my son? For burning all of our letters that we sent to them earlier?" she demanded, voice still angry and hoarse due to all the shouting and yelling.
Yoh didn't said anything. His face looked as disappointed as it can be, yet giving away hints of simmering anger.
"I know that she would do these things ever since that 'accident' happened," Anna broke the silence, her face was as red as the setting sun, and this time is because she was blushing.
Yoh really wanted to laugh, but he remembering that the situation wouldn't give permit to it, he turned his face to the window and sniggered.
Flashback
"Yoh-dono, that was…"
"Yeah, I think the time has come… Geez, I wonder what took the Great Spirit so long to give me the mission. Is it that hard to choose what kind of task that it would give to me?" He said, smiling to Amidamaru as he read the message in his oracle bell.
"Good thing you realize that the oracle bell is active again and told me, Amidamaru."
"No problem, Yoh-dono. But what about-"
"Don't worry about that thing, I'll tell Anna later. I need to figure out some way to tell her without making her angry all over. Don't you think so?" he chortled.
The samurai spirit smiled at his young master and nodded; " I think it's the best thing that you've ever thought of, Yoh-dono"
"You what?" Anna said incredulously, wanting to verify what he had said earlier, or what she had heard.
Yoh smiled at her, " I have to travel around the world to fulfill the task that the Great Spirit had given to me. Here, look at it yourself." He gave her the orange oracle bell and continued to eat his dinner like nothing had happened.
She read it carefully twice and looked at him with a disbelieving look.
"What? Is there any rice on my face or what? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Nothing. I just don't believe that you have to leave me alone with Hana for years," she said slowly.
"Anna…I want you to join me in this mission." He was trying to looked serious, even though that his face is still like a 10 years old boy, begging for his mom to buy him a car toy. He was 15.
She didn't say anything and gave him the oracle bell back, taking her chopstick in her lithe fingers and continue to eat.
Yoh looked disappointed and took a shrimp inside his mouth. " But it's okay if you don't want to. Maybe I can go by myself… Will you wait for me? I think it'll only take 10 years or more…" he smiled at he. Anna pretended to not hear him and continued her feast.
Without her noticing, Yoh was already behind her. He put his hands in her shoulder and bend to her ear, whispering quietly, 'if I find another girl on that trip, would you let me go and forget all about me, Anna?'
Anna quickly turned her head and face the Shaman King, Yoh smiled upon seeing Anna's expression and kiss her in the cheek. The Itako tried to hide her blush but it was too late.
"But if we both go, what about Hana?" she asked him in voice that was only a note above whisper, looking at her sleeping son. "We can't just leave him alone , but we can't take him with us either."
"I know! We could always ask Tamao and Ryu to take care of Hana while we're gone," he said in his carefree fashion to Anna. The new mother almost choked on her food when she heard him said that.
She looked at him as if he was insane. She stood up and walked briskly to Yoh, comparing his temperature with hers while the brown-haired Shaman King chortled.
"Are you out of your mind, Yoh?" Anna asked him when she finished 'checking' on him.
"What's wrong? Tamao loves children and Ryu can do all the cooking, even though Tamao's cooking skill is-" he stopped when she looked away and didn't want to listen to what he's talking about.
"You still haven't got through it, don't you?" he muttered with puppy eyes, waiting for her reply.
"You know it better than anyone in this world, don't you, Mr. Shaman King?" she said sarcastically as she strode out of that room.
He smiled and looked at the sleeping baby. 'Your mom hasn't changed a bit,' he thought and took him to his room.
Few months before (still the flashback)
"What? Married? But, but-"
"No more buts, you're going to marry Anna in 4 days from now and I expect you to come to Izumo as soon as you can with her. You can invite some of your friends too," the voice on the phone said and quickly hung up.
He sighed and walked heavily to the main room, thinking about what he should said to Anna when suddenly the Itako emerged from an opened door.
"Umm… Anna… hi," he smiled at her, not really caring about how suspicious or stupid he sounded.
"No need to said anything to me; Kino-sensei had sent me a letter about it 2 days ago. We'll take the first train tomorrow morning, so I think you should pack your things and ask the samurai spirit to inform your 'friends.'" She didn't even look at his blank confused stare.
'What? She received the letter 2 days ago and didn't tell me 'bout it? What kind of soon-to-be-wife is that!' he thought angrily when Anna walked upstairs to her room.
"I know what you're thinking, Asakura Yoh." She said from upstairs. Yoh gulped, he shouldn't think about 'that' kind of things when Anna's around or she might hear him and his crazy thought.
'Anna's going to kill me anytime by now' he cried in his mind.
"Don't worry about it, Yoh. You just have to do the groceries, cook dinner, do 500 push-ups, and run 10 laps with 50 kg weight around each of your wrists before you can eat dinner," he heard her again.
'Why wouldn't she just kill me right now,' Yoh sighed. He took the weight from the table and put it around his wrist. 'I should just pray for now that Kami-sama will help me survive until that day.' And as he dragged himself out of the house, Yoh thought again, 'Or maybe I should just pray that she'd kill me in an instant before I have to live with her and do this everyday for the rest of my life.'
00
"Where's that lucky guy? Oh, there he is, Yoh!" the Ainu shouted and waved his hand as he arrived at the Asakura main 'house' and saw the 'lucky guy' coming toward them, wearing a dark brown kimono that suited with his eyes and hair.
"hey ren, Boro-Boro," he smiled at the two Shamans who were smiling back at him, trying their best not to laugh because Yoh was wearing something that wasn't like Yoh at all.
"My name's Horo-Horo, Yoh. We haven't seen each other for a few months and you've forgotten our names already? What will Anna do to you if you ever forgot her name?" He teased.
Ren wasn't paying attention at the 'stupid people' and was looking at Pirika who was taking their luggage with Tamao. He didn't realize that Horo and Yoh have finished 'arguing' and were looking at him carefully.
"Are you having a fever, Ren? 'Cause your face look red and…" he put his hand on his forehead and put his other hand on Ren's.
"I'm okay. I'm just having a headache because this stupid Ainu won't stop talking about Hokkaido while we were on our way here," he said as he brushed Yoh's hand away and glared at Horo-Horo.
"For your information, I'm not stupid and it was Pirika who talked about Hokkaido while you were ogling at her like her stupid pet monkey."
"What did you say!" Ren snarled at the blue-haired boy with spear ready in his hands.
Horo quickly took his snowboard ,"Want to battle!"
Ren was ready with his spear and Horo with his snowboard when Yoh came in the middle and stop them from putting their spirits in the weapon; "Hey, hey, don't start fighting in my house or you'll destroy my wedding day. Do it at the desert if you have to."
They both considered if traveling to the desert would be worth it, then decided the other way round. Horo kept his snowboard away and whispered to Ren. Ren smirked at Yoh when he understood what Horo was going to do, while Yoh stared at his friends innocently.
Too late for Yoh when he realized what they were going to do. Ren and Horo had dragged him into his room, ignoring his flailing legs and hands, and took out some 'stuffs' from their bags.
"Hey, what are you-"
"Just shut up , Yoh! You won't regret it! I'm sure that you'll thank us later for what we did," Ren said as he covered Yoh's eyes with a piece of cloth that he brought before while Horo was busy tying Yoh's hand with a rope and making sure that no one was going to notice what they were going to do with the shaman king.
"What did I do to deserve this! Mmph—!" Ren stuffed an apple (I couldn't think anything else) to his mouth and almost sprained his jaws.
"Now, now, just be a good boy and stay here until…" an evil smirk appeared in Horo's face when he finished with Yoh's hand.
"Don't tell him, you'll spoil the surprise," Ren gave a mischievous look at his friend and looked at Yoh, who looked like he was being kidnapped by some crazy maniacs.
Ren leaned down and stared at the currently-blind Yoh and whispered slowly in his ear, "If you can behave and follow the game easily, I'll take the apple out of your mouth, understood?"
Yoh nodded slowly, he didn't know what else to do except following Ren and Horo's little 'game'. The two shaman smiled at their friend and took the apple from his mouth. He grimaced and tested his jaws this way and that to make sure it was unharmed.
"Don't worry Yoh, you won't regret this at all" Ren said to his brown-haired friend as he walked out the door. ("I think I already did," muttered Yoh under his breath.)
"Yeah, and I'm sure that you'll thank us. See you later, Yoh!" he closed the door and leave the helpless Yoh in the dark room alone.
00
"Have you seen Yoh-sama? Anna-sama and Kino-sensei are looking for him."
"I think Onii-san and Ren-kun dragged him to that room," answered the blue-haired girl politely and pointed to Yoh's room . She nodded and walked to the room that Pirika had told her
00
"Excuse me, Yoh-sama."
Tamao only heard someone struggling in the corner of Yoh's dark room. When she came closer to it, she saw Yoh tied up and his eyes covered, struggling to get himself untied.
'Yoh-sama? What's he doing there?'
Yoh sensed that someone was entering the room but he didn't know who it was. Then, he remembered his friends' weird behavior and about spoiling some surprise.
'It must be Anna, now I know what surprise that they want to give me. I think I should pretend that I didn't know anything, right?' he smiled to himself.
"Anna? Is that you?"
To be continued …
a/n : I think this chapter should end here. Even though I want to finish the flashback in chapter 2, my partner wouldn't let me because it's too long…
What do you think about this new chapter 2? Like it? Hate it? Prefer the old one? Leave your reviews and I'll reply each of you ( if I have time)
And please review the first chapter too, because I rewrote all the chapters….
thanks for reading
-DF-