Mikau: Hello everyone! Yet again I'm extremely sorry for taking so long. I feel badly about it, but I really can't help it with all the homework and Beauty and The Beast rehearsals. Yes, that's right I'm in Beauty and the Beast! I'm in ensemble! That means I get several different costumes and get to sing and dance and say any random lines that they give me. I don't have a major character, but I'm really happy to even be in the show. So many people got turned away, and since I'm only a Sophomore (they mainly cast Juniors and Seniors), I'm very, very lucky to be in the show at all. Anyway, on with the story…

Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King.

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IvyxHaoxValerie

When I woke up the next morning she was gone. There wasn't even a note. I got up out of bed and slipped on my shoes and shirt, not bothering to actually button the shirt. I crept into the kitchen and joined my twin for breakfast. He seemed to be the only one awake in the entire house.

I sat down across from Yoh and picked up a cup of coffee. My little brother smiled suggestively at me. "Sleep well Hao?"

"Better than I have in years." I smirked slightly, but didn't bother looking at him. I sipped my coffee quietly and ignored Yoh, as he waited for details. "Nothing happened."

"Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Of course not." Yoh peeled an orange, all the while giving me a look that plainly said, 'liar.'

"I'm serious. You're starting to inherit my pervertedness. Sure, we were both pretty drunk, and we shared a bed, but that doesn't mean I slept with her." I lightly reprimanded him.

"Hao, I've never known you to get in bed with a girl and NOT seduce her into sleeping with you." Yoh smiled knowingly at me. Suddenly a hint of puzzlement grazed my brother's eyes. "But Ivy doesn't drink."

"Well Valerie apparently does." I stole a piece of his orange while he wasn't looking.

"Huh?" My cute younger twin became even more confused. "What do you mean? I just said that she doesn't. She hates alcohol."

"Wait, which one are you talking about, Valerie or Ivy?" I set down my coffee cup and stared blankly at Yoh.

"It doesn't matter; they're the same pers—uhhh…" My brother looked like a deer caught in the headlights as he sat there staring at me with his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open.

An awkward silence hung in the air as we both sat looking at each other. I raised an eyebrow at him, and Yoh clearly looked scared to death of what I might say. I slowly opened my mouth to ask what he had meant, but was interrupted by an abrupt explosion.

"What the Hell!" I grabbed onto my glass to keep it from spilling as the whole house shook.

Yoh looked extremely relieved for the interruption, but I chose to ignore him. A panicked set of footsteps stumbled up the wooden basement stairs, and Valerie, dressed in a light green tank top and black capris, dashed hurriedly out of the underground laboratory. She hurried over to the sink and doused her left hand in cold water.

"Hey V." Yoh smiled happily at the girl at the sink.

Valerie looked over her shoulder quickly at the two of us at the table. "Good morning, Yoh."

"Chemical spill?" Yoh got up from the table and leaned up against the sink counter, standing right next to the girl.

"Yep. All over my hand." Valerie looked uninterestedly down her arm.

"Won't leave a scar will it?" Yoh hovered over her shoulder and looked curiously down at her hand.

"No it should be fine. I just have to run it under cold water for at least fifteen minutes. Thanks for your concern though." I looked her over, carefully taking in every detail of her tired face. She looked lovely in such a forlorn way.

While those two were still chitchatting, I walked up to the sink area and stood on the other side of Valerie from Yoh. I leaned up against the counter so that my back was facing it. "Hi Valerie." I gave her a grin that would have made other women drop dead.

Valerie just sighed tiredly and looked away from me, down into the sink. "Oh…you're still here Hao? I thought you would have left by now…Good morning, I suppose."

"Are you okay? You seem a little miffed…" I raised an eyebrow as I titled her chin up so that she had to look me in the eye. I leaned in to study her features more closely, and our faces were but a few scant inches from each other.

Yoh took the opportunity to sneak out of the room as to leave us alone.

"I'm not miffed…I'm just tired and lacking patience for everyone and everything living in this world." Her eyes became half-lidded and seemed to wander drowsily to my lips.

"Really? You seem miffed." I leaned in closer in hopes of stealing a kiss.

"I told you…" she slowed down her speech as she became more and more entranced with me.

"What?" I egged her on, and slid my arm around her waist, pulling her closer.

A cold splash of water hit me in the face. "I'm not that easy." Valerie smirked evilly, pulling away from me. Her eyes gleamed as I jerked away in surprise. A cute smile graced her lips, and I couldn't help but smile back.

That's when I noticed her eyes. "Hey, did you change your eye color?"

"Huh? No…not on purpose. Why, what color are they!" She panicked, picking up a small tin container and checking her reflection.

"Violet."

"Shoot! Stupid chemicals…" Valerie proceeded to curse in several different languages, one of which, I think, was Chinese. After a few curse words had escaped her lips, she turned towards me, turned off the kitchen sink, and put down the little tin cup. "Uhh…sorry…It's just that lately I've been having a lot of explosions, and the chemicals seem to be randomly changing my eye and hair colors…it's never done this to me before, but just lately I can't seem to keep the same physical characteristics for more than a few days…" Valerie dried off her hands and turned to go back down to the lab.

I caught her by the arm and stepped in front of her. "What colors are your hair and eyes naturally?" A still silence seemed to form between us as I awaited her answer. I had to know, but I had a feeling that she would lie to me. She was so much like Ivy…

"What colors would you like them to be?" She made it sound like I was ordering a pizza.

"Brown. Dark brown eyes and coffee brown hair." I gently cupped her cheek, trying yet again to kiss her to cheer her up. She seemed so depressed.

An ironic smile painted her sad lips. "That's what I thought you would say…Goodbye Hao." She broke away and rushed over to the basement steps as quickly as possible, but before descending the stairway, she paused, and without turning around, said, "I'll…see you…later?" She sounded, to my delight, hopeful. It was like she was asking me to come and see her again.

I smiled sadly and nodded, even if she couldn't see me. "But of course. I'd love to see you again, and sooner is better than later so…maybe as soon as tomorrow night?" I held my breath and waited to be rejected.

"At seven?" I could tell she was holding her breath too.

"I'll pick you up then." I was semi-shocked that she had even agreed.

"Be on time…Don't keep me waiting." Valerie cast a flirtatious smirk over her shoulder before disappearing down the stairwell.

"As you wish." I gave her a playful wink as I faded in a burst of flames.

A loud babble could be heard even in the hallway outside of the kitchen, and I was noisily greeted by all of my followers as I entered the room. Blocken sat atop Bill's shoulder pad and waved a Lego hand at me as I made my entrance. The Boz, Zen and Ryo, stopped playing awful music long enough to bid me good morning. Zan-Ching smiled in his twisted way and gave a 'Hello Master Hao.' Peyote set down his alcoholic beverage and sent an acknowledging nod my way. Turbine smiled underneath his turban and greeted me. Macchi ran up to me and hugged me tightly, screaming 'Hello Hao-sama! I missed you last night; where were you!' Kanna said a quick hello as she made sure all twelve of her children had breakfast and were behaving themselves. Bill smiled happily and bid me a "Nice day out isn't it Hao-sama?". Luca gave me a look that said, 'Where were you last night and what were you doing, young man?' Opacho rushed into the kitchen, grabbed a piece of toast, and started a conversation with Kanna's oldest, Azariel. He gave me a quick smile and a wave when he noticed my presence in the room.

By the time I reached my seat, all my original followers, plus a few new ones, had sufficiently greeted me except for one. Mari stepped in front of me and glared. "Yes, Mari?" I smiled cautiously at her.

"Where was Hao? He didn't come home last night, and Mari, Macchi, and Hoshi were worried. Hoshi came home on time, and was very scared when Hao wasn't home to check up on her." Her eyes were no more cheerful than usual, and her tone was as depressed as ever, so it was only natural that she made me feel ill at ease. I actually felt like I had done something wrong by not coming home.

"It was nothing Mari. Nothing happened; I just couldn't make it home, that's all. I'm sorry." I apologized, marking her cheek with a kiss.

"Hao should tell Hoshi that. She should still be up in her room. Hoshi was very drunk when she got home, so Mari thinks that she will have a huge hang-over." The blonde doll-master took her seat at the table across from Macchi, and didn't speak another word to me throughout all of the meal.

After awhile, the room thinned out, and soon all that was left eating were Mari, Macchi, Kanna, Opacho, Luca, and I. I tried to ignore Luca's stares; he always made me feel like I was some teenager in trouble with his parents. Opacho too sent curious glances my way, always interested to know what was happening in my personal life. Mari and Macchi traded scandalized and theorizing looks, while Kanna just sat and eat her French toast. I slowly played with my food, not hungry for a second breakfast, but hesitant to leave.

As my twin daughters made their way into the kitchen and took their respective seats, two more questioning pairs of eyes were focused on me. Finally Kanna broke the suspense and just right out asked, "So, how many last night?"

"How many what, Kanna?" I didn't let any inkling of comprehension into my voice as I retained a calm but confused look on my face.

"Drinks!" Macchi shouted at the same time that Mari screamed, "Women!"

I looked incredulously at the both of them, but then slid my blank stare back to Kanna. "Which one Kanna: women or drinks?"

"Both." Luca interrupted. "You have a problem Hao, and it's time that you admitted and confronted it." Trust him to sound like he was my father.

I let out a soft, but over-dramatic sigh. "Fine, if you must know…I really wasn't all that drunk last night. I only had five or six drinks. Also, I didn't sleep with anyone."

"Opacho thinks he's lying." The college student rolled his eyes at me.

"I agree!" Macchi seconded the motion.

"Mari also." Marion just had to put in her two cents.

Luca glared challengingly down at me from across the table. "If you weren't sharing a bed with some woman, then where did you sleep last night?"

I smiled back at him in my, oh so antagonizing, way. "Oh, I never said that I didn't share a bed with a woman. I just said that I didn't sleep with her…actually, her name is Valerie." My tone softened into a sort of longing, dreamy sound when I mentioned her name.

My change of voice didn't go unnoticed by almost everyone else in the room. Luca stared at me for a minute, contemplating what this meant, and when he understood, a sort of 'Ohhhhh…' look patronized his face followed by a soft smile, and a relieved sigh of, "Finally after sixteen years you're opening up again." The old priestly man picked up his plate and left the room without another word.

Opacho stared blankly at me, but then voiced, "Ivy would be happy for you." And left much like Luca.

"I thought that you looked happier today." Kanna picked up her empty dish and pulled the rest of the Hanagumi out of the room. Mari and Macchi looked completely scandalized and jealous.

"Dad? Like, what's going on? What are they all talking about?" Hoshi's eyes looked sad and confused. She was a smart girl, despite her acting like a blonde, and she didn't like to be kept out of the loop.

"Yeah, what are they talking about?" Thorn echoed her older twin.

"I…" I wasn't exactly sure of how to tell them. I had no idea how they would react. I hadn't really 'officially' been dating anyone for the past sixteen years of their lives, so how would they feel if I suddenly came out of the blue and said, 'I'm in love.' That would have been weird for any single parent.

Fortunately I was spared from the awkwardness by my faithful companion, Hane. He jumped up onto my lap and barked loudly. "He's in love with this Valerie girl, and he really wants to marry her! You girls will finally have a mother, and Hao can stop drinking and sleeping with prostitutes!" The little cocker spaniel jumped off my lap and rushed out of the room just as quickly as he had appeared.

The twins both looked at me with the same 'Oh. My. GOD.' expression. Thorn was the first to speak. "Prostitutes, Dad!"

I let out a huge sigh and laid my head down on the table. "Yes. Drinking and women ever since I lost Ivy…I really couldn't control it, but for a while it got better. Now it's pretty bad again…It's like a disease. I've tried to cut back on the women, and I have succeeded to some point, but my drinking has just gotten worse. I'm sorry but I just really can't help it." I looked up pitifully at my younger daughter. "I'm trying to stop."

"Daddy…" Thorn hugged me like a Teddy Bear and smiled her Ivy-like grin. That really didn't help things. "It's okay…I just wish you would have told us."

"He couldn't have told you." Hoshi snapped angrily at her sister. "You hardly understand the basic principles of love, so how could you understand such problems?"

"Why you little!" Thorn let go of me and drew her pistol, pointing it at Hoshi. "I'm not as incompetent as you think."

"Oh really? Chip! Into the sparrow feather!" Hoshi sprouted wings and got ready to swoop down and kick Thorn's butt.

"Isa! Into 'Jack'!" Thorn shouted and released a string of bullets onto her sister.

The girls fought for a while, neither one hitting the other, until I decided that they had caused enough damage to the kitchen. "Spirit of Fire!" My fire spirit grabbed both of the twins and held them tightly, breaking both oversouls. "Hoshi, Thorn! Stop it now. There's no need to fight." I glared evilly at them. It had been so long since such bloodlust had appeared in my eyes. I hadn't senselessly killed anyone in years.

"But she started it!" Hoshi complained.

The S.O.F. tightened his grip on her. She squealed in pain. "You were the one who started this, now apologize to your sister." Murder was evident in my eyes as I glared at my oldest.

She muttered a quick sorry to Thorn, and my spirit released both of my daughters. My eyes softened, and everyone went back to sitting quietly in their seats.

"Why do you seem so angry, Hoshi?" Thorn looked curiously at the older of the two.

"It's nothing." She pouted, still seething.

"It doesn't sound like nothing." My eyes pleaded for her to tell me what was wrong.

"Awe, Hell! If you just have to know, I'm mad at you!" She jumped to her feet and glared across the table at me. Her eyes glowed with flames.

"What did I do?" I thought back to earlier parts of the conversation, but could not find anything that I had done that would make her mad.

"What haven't you done?" Hoshi picked up a china cup and threw it at me. I just barely got my arms up in time to block my face. The cup shattered and left bloody streaks along with embedded pieces of glass all up and down my forearms.

"HOSHI!" Thorn screeched at her sister and tried to restrain her.

The blue-eyed demoness threw her younger twin easily up against a chair, knocking the latter out. Hoshi pick-pocketed Thorn's gun and pointed it at me.

"You bastard! You've been cheating on my mother for sixteen years with thousands of other women! You've been a horrible father to her children, and you just can't seem to take in enough alcohol!" The gun went off, and I just managed to dive out of the way.

"Hoshi, what are you doing?" My voice sounded strange even to my ears. It was cold and distant, yet sad and calm.

"I'm going to kill you, that's what I'm going to do!" The amount of rage and madness shone crystal clear in her eyes. It scared me because she looked exactly like I had when I had fought Yoh. She looked absolutely insane.

"Will that really solve anything?" I got slowly back up to my feet.

"It'll make me feel better! You took my mother away from me, so now you're going to pay!" Another gun shot rung loudly throughout the room, and I found myself again jumping out of the way to save my life. "It's your fault that she left Hao, and now you're going to pay! She left because she couldn't stay with us any longer, but it was your fault that she couldn't stay! It's all, your fault! You could have talked her out of it! You could have helped her! You could have made it so that she didn't have to go, but you didn't! You didn't even try to help her! You didn't even try to make her stay with us!" Hoshi took one step at a time towards where I lay on the ground. "You're the one who got her pregnant, and so I hold you responsible for her leaving because we were born!"

"You know that's not why she left. She had to go—"

"NO! She didn't have to do anything, and so, it's your fault that she left! It's your fault!" Soon she was on top of me with the gun pointed to my head.

"Maybe you're right; maybe you're wrong. Do us both a favor, and just pull the trigger. Maybe I'll see Ivy again when I'm a ghost." I closed my eyes and awaited death for the third time.

It didn't come. Only a light thud, and a small whispered 'Dad?' met my ears. I opened my eyes to find Hoshi lying unconscious on top of me, and Thorn standing over the both of us looking pale. "Dad?" She whispered again. "Are you okay! She was going to kill you so I had to. Please don't be mad!"

I got to my feet and carefully picked up Hoshi's body. "W-what happened?" I blinked several times in confusion.

"I shocked her to knock her unconscious, just like you showed me." Thorn explained. "I was careful to use just enough to stun her for a few hours. I didn't mean to hurt her."

A smile eased over my lips. "It's all right. She's just unconscious. Nothing to worry about. Hoshi should be awake in a few short hours, but until then you had better go out of the house. She might be a bit riled up when she wakes up." I hugged my youngest daughter protectively.

"Okay. Are you all right Dad?" Thorn was still quite shaken.

"I'll be fine, thanks to you." I handed her, her gun and watched as she walked slowly out of the room.

"If you say so…I'll be over at Hana's okay?"

"Okay…be careful." I couldn't help but give a fatherly warning. She smiled and waved it off saying that she was always careful. I smiled slowly and shook my head at my over-protective nature. Just as she was leaving, I noticed an emerald heart pendant choker hanging around her neck along with a small silver key on a simple silver chain.

'Ivy…'

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Mikau: Like I said before, I feel really badly for taking so long…I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, it was sort of a pain to find time to write. I've had so many projects and tests and everything else. I really do like the way this one turned out though. My only regret is that I didn't get to go over it and check for errors enough. I have to go get ready for my play today. I have to leave in thirty minutes, and I'm not ready. Today, I'm in a musical called 'Working' we did it over the summer, and now we're doing it yet again. My cousin is yelling at me to come upstairs and get my costumes together, so I really have to go. Thank you all for the reviews!

Thanks To: Hao-Addictive, IvyaLLurE13, hannah, Hemila-Rose, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, glitter galz, yo wuz up, Firebane5, DarkPisces33, MaiValentinefan, Knux33, Danny, Andrea Nefisto, Kara, ivyxhao 4eva, mEguMicHaN13, morgan000, ChibiAzn3, ChibiKitsune, megumi13, y0ur-w0rst-nightmARee, Kiva Kyoyama, Strawberry, and LisaTheHedgehog.

To IvyaLLurE13: Thank you for all the reviews! I appreciate it, but it might make my flamers mad that you review so much. They come up with the craziest comments about how I only get so many reviews because 'the few readers that I do have review too much.' Insane right? Well, I'm really happy that my fics changed your life. It really makes finding time to write worthwhile when you get comments like that. Thank you for telling me. About the picture of me: I'd love to, but my parents wouldn't like it. The only reason I'm aloud to post things on the internet is because I sort of promised them I wouldn't give out really personal info or photos of me. So sorry…it kills me to disappoint a fan, but my parents are just like that. I could describe myself in agonizing detail if it would help, but I really don't think I'm all that pretty…(thank you though.) I have shoulder length brown-ish red hair, and black-ish brown eyes. My nose is a pinch too big, my lips are too medium sized, my neck is too skinny, my chest is too big, my stomach isn't flat enough, my hips are too small, my thighs are too big, my calves (especially the left one) are all scared up, and I don't like my feet.

PLEASE REVIEW!