Disclaimer: I own nothing
This one isn't so great, I will caution you ahead of time. But you know what? I need to lay some groundwork, so you'll just have to bear with it.
Chapter 2
"Aaah, this is great" commented Yoh. "The guys" were lounging around one of Funbari Inn's very own hot-springs
"Hm, it's been a while" Ren commented in an offhanded manner
"Yes," Ryu agreed sombrely, "two years is two years too long, my friends." 'Ryu of the wooden sword' looked around the room; All 'the guys' were here, minus Lyserg; brought together by some strange whim of fate, just like old times.
"I mean, look at you all," Ryu addressed the occupants of the room, "you have all grown so much, even Faust looks healthier"
"Necromancery is bad for the health" Faust explained. It was wierd seeing him in a hot spring, let me tell you.
"That is not the point," Ryu insisted in a reflective tone, "the point is that I remember back when I could use Chocolate's head as a barstool, Ren's head as a coat hanger, and Horohoro's as a shoe brush."
Horohoro 'bristled' along with his two companions. The thing about Ryu was that he could insult you repeatedly without even realizing it.
"And don't even get me started on Manta, but now I…" he paused in surprise, "Actually, Manta hasn't grown at all! I can still use him for—"
"Shut up! Enough with—" Manta looked very flustered. Like some tiny, timid guy that was mad as hell, and ready to go on a warpath. Maybe he was.
"Now, now," Yoh interrupted, "Manta being short is nothing new," he negotiated with a voice only tinged with seriousness, "we were friends when he was short two years ago, and he'll probably be short for the rest of his life…"
"And I'm fine with that." he finished simply
Ren smirked, the others smiled in acceptance (Ryu apologetically) and Manta smiled back.
His shortness really tormented him sometimes. And if Yoh had taken off the pressure with a "cut it out, guys" or a "he'll just have a late growth spurt" then Manta would have been relieved. But the doubt that he would grow, and shortness he has now would remain—would plague his nights, maybe forever. But to admit the reality of—his personal demon—and accept it with a smile, revealing that it was no demon at all; to do that… he was not only relived, but he was happy, happy and free. His friends accepted his faults. They were his friends and looking at the accepting smiles, he had never known that so completely. Maybe that was corny, and maybe it was stupid, but those were his feelings and he'd loose a precious inch off his height before he'd give that up.
"So, uh…" Manta started, embarrassed at his near-rampage, "What's everyone been up to?"
"Well!" Horohoro began, puffing himself up, "I don't know about you guys, but I've been training like a mad-man! Hah, my furyoku count is probably five times—"
"More than it was before?" Ren finished sarcastically, "mine's increased tenfold. The gap between us just keeps getting bigger, 'boroboro'"
"It's Horohoro!"
(A/N: I do believe boroboro means "crap" in Japan)
And so, an age old argument started up once again. In a way, it kind of made Yoh feel nostalgic.
"What about you, Ryu?" the nostalgic boy asked, "you been training with 'tousan?"
"Indeed, from him I have learned many things. Somehow, no matter where I am on the wide open road, he'll show up and teach me" Ryu mused
"He's pretty fast, faster than the purple-hog." At this, Ryu dissolved into uncontrollable sobs of lamentation. For the purple-hog was gone, gone forever.
"Ah, whell…" Yoh patted him on the back and tried to change the subject, "Faust and Eliza train with me sometimes. Over two years, his furyoku capacity increased a bit but he's also opened up a medical clinic, which is great and um…"
Alas, Ryu's mind could not be taken off of his purple-hog. He lamented that he'd never see his "sweet baby girl" again which earned him some very disturbed looks.
Chocolove saw a person in troubled, sad times. And when he saw that, he had to make a joke. It was his law, his way. Wipe away tears with the power of laughter! He stood up bravely and opened his mouth—
But was stopped cold by the collective efforts of Ren and Horohoro, who had ignored their argument to ally against the greater foe: Chocolove's criminally bad jokes.
Horohoro struggled to find something to cheer up the crying Ryu, "Hey, it's not so bad. For training, I had to climb up several snowy mountains with a large rock strapped to my back, balancing a cup of water without letting if freeze! Sometimes I'd go up the mountain backwards, or have to construct a giant ice sculpture of Pirika…" he shivered in thought, "let me tell you, that girl didn't want her sculpture to look like her at all, she kept talking about how she was prettier and…" Horohoro stopped, and shuddered again. Pirika was scary sometimes.
Ryu had to admit that that sounded pretty bad, and bravely got over the loss of his purple-hog
"Not bad," Ren assented, "but with the assets of the Tao clan, I've trained solidly for two years with and against the greatest trainers money can buy, not to mention the greatest spirits in the Tao reservoir. I mastered several of the clan's highest techniques. Before coming here, I defeated the entire Tao army of spirits in one night." It was a long speech, and a little conceited, but impressive.
"Well," Chocolove took his turn, "I'm an expert comedian and—"
"Lies!" shouted Horohoro
"and," Chocolove continued regardless, "me and Mic have enough speed to let us train all over the place. Our hit-and-run techniques have gotten even more insane! Though I don't have a clan or anything to get techniques from..."
"Hm, well Yoh," Ren commented half-challengingly, "it seems like our team for the shaman fight has trained much more than yours"
Ryu pondered this but one point came to mind, "What about Master Yoh's training?"
Ren, Horohoro, and Chocolove stilled. 'Yoh's training' was the combined thought that flashed through their minds. In the end, they couldn't ignore his threat above any others.
To fight Faust was to face off with a demon, to fight Ryu was to face off with a dragon; but to fight Yoh was to grasp at the air.
"Haha, oh man," Yoh winced, "to look at the last two years is like looking into hell: it's been painful, inescapable, and it sucks the life right out of you. Training specials, training specials, training specials—" he lamented. A comical flow of tears fell down his eyes.
Manta nodded sagely in understanding
Yoh continued, much to everyone's interest: "Somehow, she decided that she'd underestimated my ability to survive, so… so she threw me into a desert and left me, to see what happened," he complained with tears begining to form, "and when I made it out, she figured that I could survive anything as long as it was from nature. So since then, I've been thrown into active volcanoes and told stop them from erupting, thrown into whirlpools and told not to drown, thrown into sandstorms, thrown into the grand canyon, thrown off of…"
Yoh continued in that manner for a solid two minuets of endless listing. If he'd learned one thing in the past two years, it was that Anna had a damn god throwing arm.
"There were good days," he assented, "when a twister would show up, and I just had to run through it, or when she'd just send me into some sort of almost-illegal combination of obstical courses, or be forced to train in the most extreme Asakura arts,or the days when I had to come back for tests at school and cram months of learning in a single night…"
Silence reigned. After a time, Chocolove spoke up, "so that's why I saw you falling through the grand canyon that day." He had seen the plummeting form of his friend there, but the image had only lasted long enough for Chocolove to catch the fact that Yoh was waving hello, before his form continued it's plummet and became only a distant dot.
"Haha, yeah. Getting stronger is kind of fun, sometimes, but I still don't get why Anna had to—"
"Yoh" demanded Ren, "just how did you get to all these places?"
Yoh looked surprised, "none of you guys know? I have another spirit…"
"You what?.!" Came the collective reply. (minus Faust and Manta)
Ignoring the incredulous looks, or perhaps not noticing them, Yoh expanded: "yeah, she and Amidamaru get along pretty well, too. I went to go explore the hole of Yomi after the Shaman Fight. It kind of seemed like there was something in there, so I ate a week's worth of ."
(A/N: the hole of Yomi. It's actually a cave, or a tunnel that sucks away the five senses, and even the ability to hear your own thoughts. Also called the tunnel of tartarous, or something)
Yes, Yoh had gone there on his own initiative, meagre though it was. He had a little more drive coming back from the Tournament, just in case. Just in case Hao survived. So he'd gone into the Yomi hole to train his furyoku, and look for something (just what: he didn't know).
"And?" Horohoro prompted impatiently.
"It's great! It looks like an old friend of mine was hanging out there, no wonder I hadn't seen her in—"
"What kind of spirit hangs out in a place like that?" Horohoro asked incredulously.
"Well, I think she got a little lost. But I beat off the Oni and so we made it out of there together! I'll introduce you guys later."
"You never said anything about Oni!" Horohoro blurted. He looked like he was going to have a heart attack. Chocolove and the other's shared in his sentiments. Would Yoh just tell a story from the start? It was like he was too lazy to even explain something properly!
"Well, it's a long story…"
Ren ignored what was being said. He had questions and realizations on his mind. 'The hole of Yomi: a tunnel of complete void. Is he saying… that he could explore and fight in that terrible tunnel without a spirit or a weapon two years ago? Just how strong is he by now? And what kind of spirit lets him traverse the globe like it was nothing?'. He'd share his thoughts with his team-mates later, they were going to need some kind of plan or incredible training of some sort.
"Master Yoh, so just who is this spirit?"
"I guess she drifts around, so maybe you never met her, but…"
"Enough, just tell-us-who-she-is!" Horohoro demanded, the suspense was killing him.
"Haha, relax!" Yoh became excited as he continued, "her name's Sora and she's the—"
SLAM!
"A-Anna-san?" Tamao blurted, she was sitting in one of Funbari Inn's very own hot-springs with Anna-san and Pirika-san (who had come with her brother)
"S-So that's what those things were for" Pirika realized, looking at the stack of bricks Anna-san had brought in with her. She had been too scared to ask what they'd been for before, but now she wondered… No, she'd better just let the thought trail off at that.
"So… as you were saying…" Pirika prompted. Yes, better to simply forget that anything ever happened. Bricks? What bricks? (A/N: I like that line)
"Yes, the hurricane caused us no problems. You can see that outside is fine." If Pirika wanted to try to forget, Anna seemed to have already forgotten. "Yoh threw up a high-level, "Asakura-style" furyuoku bubble for rebuffing the elements, it was good training" Anna conversed in a neutral tone.
It was odd, you could never really tell if she was being conversational or not… Pirika tried to ignore the sounds of concern coming from across the bamboo partition that separated her hot spring from the one 'the guys' were in.
"Did anything eventful happen?" Pirika again quired
"Tamao fell into acute hysteria last night"
At this, Tamao stopped nervously looking to the partition and asking if Yoh-sama was "sure he was alright" and instead opted to sit quietly in the hot spring and attempt to shrink out of existence. Her attempts were in vain.
"Sh-she did, did she? That's too bad" what do you do when you're frankly told that the person beside you had fallen into acute hysteria?
"Yes, Tamao's unassertive nature coupled with the shock of seeing Yoh in what she assumed was mortal danger (therefore giving her an overpowering need to be assertive) was enough to effectively fry her mid-to-high level thinking processes"
Pirika was very impressed at the professional psychoanalysis. "Well, I'm glad that Tamao-san is feeling—"
(A/N: psychoanalysis: a psychological analysis, of course!)
"She then proceeded to molest my fiancée"
Pirika's mouth hung open, now there was the mother of all conversation stoppers. What do you do when you're frankly told that the person beside you…
Tamao's head hung even lower, if it were possible
"Of course I was surprised," and indeed she had been for a change, "but she had only the best intentions"
That did it, Tamao sunk under the water in acute embarrassment
"I-I-I," Pirika struggled with a response, any response.
Seeing that she wouldn't get any coherent reply any time soon, Anna continued: "Though now isn't the time for gossip. Tamao, Pirika," she addressed the two, "The Shaman Fight will most likely start again, soon."
"What?.!" came a shocked duel-stereo response. Tamao even forgot her embarrassment momentarily in her surprise.
"Anna-san, how do you know?" asked Pirika quickly
"Yoh feels as if something big will arrive"
Pirika blinked, "Is… is it really okay to judge it only based on one person's 'feeling'?" she wasn't arguing, really. Anna-san's reasoning was usually solid, she just didn't understand.
"My Yoh's shamanic sense definitely can't be ignored." Anna stated factually, "All Shaman's have a connected to nature. If something is going to happen which will affect life around the world, and if a shaman's shamanic sense is high enough, they can feel that something will happen within their sub-consciousness" she lectured
Pirika's eyes widened in realization and understanding. Tamao (being trained by Yohmei) knew what was going on ever since she heard Yoh-sama had felt something big coming. At this point, the Shaman King Tournament really was the most likely thing it could be, as the identity of the next Shaman King, and the life-giving (and taking) power of the Great Spirit can easily affect all life on this planet.
"The bunch over there," Anna indicated the partition and the 'guy's side', "looks very strange, but they're all high level shamans (except Manta). Did you think they were all here by co-incidence?" Again, when Anna asked you a question, it never sounded like a question
"They've gone their own ways for most of two years, but those guys are friends down to the bone," Anna continued—a lesser woman would become exasperated at so much one-way conversation, "and, sub-consciously sensing something on the horizon, they've felt an urge to gather at the one place they can expect to find each other—to help each other with their problems, as I'm told friends sometimes do."
"Yet those friends will have to fight each other soon for the sake of 'Shaman King'" Tamao commented sadly. The irony was plain to her.
"Yet you let us stay?" Pirika asked
"As a shaman, Yoh needs to relax his body and soul every now and then. It's been a while since he's seen his friends together. Doing that is important for all of them."
"Ow…" Yoh shook off the pain, he'd just been hit by another brick.
Chocolove stared at the square, red mark on Yoh's head, "She got him right in the forehead… how did she do that, when she can't even see him?"
Manta shrugged, "It's Anna," he explained, as if that's all that needed to be explained, "she's like… the queen of inflicting pain onto Yoh, or something"
"I guess…" Yoh winced, "she didn't want me telling you about Sora. I'll still introduce you guys later though. And—hey!" he motioned his friends closer and continued in whispered tones, "Anna's going to try to make you guys do all the chores, so you'd better—"
SLAM!
"S-She threw another brick…"
"Brick, Tamao-san? What brick?" (A/N: such a great line...)
A/N: Just who is this "Sora"? Will Anna ever get tired of throwing bricks at Yoh? Just how does she hit him with bricks when she can't even see him? Will Tamao ever succeed in shrinking out of existence in embarrassment? Will Ryu ever change his hair? Will Manta ever get taller? Find out next time (no, not really) in "Hurricane Yoh: Second Stage!"
Oh, and review. That, too, of course
