A/N: Nyarg…why am I so bad at updating? It's been months since I last worked on this story! Ahh! Actually, I have this really bad habit of literally forgetting to update my fics, since I get so caught up in being a webmistress and stuff. And even when I do update, I forget to post the new chapters here. Go to http (colon) (slash) (slash) snow-angels (dot) net (slash) lost (slash) for more frequent updates. Yes, I'm a bad girl for advertising my own fanworks site... (sweatdrop) But anyway, if it ever seems like I'm taking to long to update, just leave a little review reminding me to update every now and then.
Chapter XIII: Of Surprises and Bets
"You're not a shaman?!" three feminine voices chorused, breaking the breezy silence of the desert. They'd just been informed that you were not, in fact a shaman, and they weren't taking it as well as you'd hoped.
"Umm...nope," you replied, giving them a shrug and an apologetic smile. Macchi rolled her eyes.
"What good is a Shaman Queen who isn't even a shaman?" she groaned angrily, scowling. You were about to ask what on earth a Shaman Queen was, but Mari prevented you.
"Mari doesn't know," the blonde said thoughtfully, though she looked as put out as her companion. Macchi huffed.
"That was a rhetorical question, Mari! Meaning you're not supposed to actually answer it!" the redhead almost shrieked out of frustration. Apparently the news of you being the next Shaman Queen was taking its toll on the Hana-gumi.
"Mari didn't know that!" Mari whined, hugging her doll defensively. Then she lowered her green eyes to the ground, tightening her grip on the ragged plaything even more. "Mari wanted to be Hao-sama's Shaman Queen..." Kanna sighed.
"Didn't we all..." she said quietly, dropping down to sit on the ground slightly dejectedly. She puffed on her cigarette for a moment, then looked up at you. "You really lucked out, Katsumi," she said cynically.
"Huh?" In waiting for Mari to answer yet another rhetorical question, you'd spaced out momentarily.
"Hao-sama has never been one to fall in love," Kanna informed you. "He's only told us about one other woman he's ever loved, and that was his wife from almost five-hundred years ago." You started a bit; Hao was more than five-hundred years old?! You decided to keep your mouth shut and just ask Hao himself when he got back.
"He was married?" you asked, trying to keep conversation going without sounding too dumb. Kanna laughed quietly, while Mari and Macchi sat down on the ground with her. Feeling like the odd one out, you sat down with them, forming a little circle with the three others.
"Sure was," Kanna said, taking her cigarette out of her mouth and tapping off some ashes into the ground. "Even had a kid, too." You squeaked, covering your mouth with your hand.
"W-What happened to his wife and child?" you asked nervously. This was just getting too wierd!
"They're long gone," the bluenette responded, putting the cigarette back into her mouth. "But he's got plenty of descendants. We see one running around here every once in a while."
"Really?" you asked.
"Yeah," Macchi said, sounding a little gossipy. "There's this one kid in Japan who thinks he's all that just because he's Hao-sama's other half...what's his name, again?"
"Asakura Yoh," Kanna said. "Jeez, Macchi, we've been assigned to kill him more than once; I think you should at least know his name by now."
"Mari hates that boy!" the blonde suddenly shouted. "The last time she saw him, he almost killed her, and then he tried to date her!"
"That's a lie," Macchi said offhandedly. "After he beat you, he said he liked you and that he wanted to fight you again some time."
"Asakura Yoh said he wanted to play with Mari, not that he wanted to fight her! Mari thinks what Asakura Yoh wanted to do to her is dirty!" The blonde continued fuming until Kanna cut in.
"That's enough, Mari," she said, instantly quieting her green-eyed companion. Then she looked to you.
"As I was saying before, you're really lucky to have melted away the cold exterior of Hao-sama's heart," Kanna said. "You've done something only one other person has ever done before." You blushed, looking down at your hands in your lap.
"Umm…Lucky me?" you asked nervously, punctuating with a giggle.
"Damn right," Kanna grunted. The other two girls sighed. "The way I see it, you'll be Shaman Queen in just a couple of months." Shaman Queen, Shaman Queen, Shaman Queen! What the hell was a Shaman Queen?!
"I-If you don't mind me asking, what's this 'Shaman Queen' everyone keeps talking about?" you asked innocently, hoping that at last you wouldn't be the only one out of the loop.
"Are you serious?!" Macchi shrieked girlishly, her powerful voice blowing back your hair and maid's dress. You nodded stiffly, eyes wide. Kanna's cigarette dropped right out of her gaping mouth upon slowly realizing that the future Shaman Queen didn't even know what a Shaman Queen was.
"See?!" Mari wailed, hugging her doll tightly. "Mari told you this girl won't make a good wife for Hao-sama!"
"Well, I might make a better one if someone would tell me what this 'Shaman Queen' thing is!" you yelled, jumping to your feet. A second later, eyes huge, you slapped a trembling hand over your mouth. These girls were most definitely not people to be screaming at. They could kill you in an instant!
"If you have to know," Macchi said agitatedly, rolling her blue eyes away from you. "The Shaman Queen's main purpose is to have the Shaman King's kids."
"Huh?!" you shrieked, your face turning the color of a cherry. You clasped your arms around your stomach, imagining the hideous bulge you'd have to deal with for months on end. And the mood swings and morning sickness and cravings for weird foods… You were so not ready to be pregnant!
"It's not just for kicks, you know," Kanna said, groping around in the dirt for her dropped cigarette. "You have to bear a large number of children to increase the chance that the Shaman King's genes will be carried on for at least the next 500 years."
"Why 500 years?" you asked, sitting back down.
"That's when the next Shaman Fight is,' Mari said matter-of-factly. By then, Kanna had given up her search for the lost cigarette, and was in the process of retrieving a new one from the carton she'd gotten from God-knows-where.
"Having a Shaman King in your family history really bodes well with the Great Spirit when the time comes to make the choice between you and all the other competing shamans," Kanna clarified. The cigarette carton had since been replaced by a canary-yellow lighter, and in a few moments, a fresh cloud of smoke hovered over the bluenette.
"But back to the Shaman Queen," you insisted. "What else does she do?" Kanna sighed.
"If she's a good enough shaman," she said. "And believes in her husband's cause enough, then the Great Spirit will grant her 500 years of immortality and youth, just like the Shaman King." Your mouth fell open and your eyes widened. 500 years of life and youth?! Even if it meant having to be pregnant for a while in the beginning, you wanted to live for 500 years! You couldn't wait to see everything the world had in store for the next five centuries!
"I wanna be the Shaman Queen!" you yelled enthusiastically, hopping to your feet once more. "I wanna live for 500 years! It'll be so cool!" The three girls stared at you for a moment, then burst out laughing. They tumbled over each other, pounding their fists on the ground and grasping their sides.
"Did you hear that, Mari?!" Macchi shrieked. "She says she's gonna be the Shaman Queen! And she's not even a shaman!"
"Mari heard!" the blonde laughed. "Mari heard! What a silly idea this girls has!" A vein appeared on your forehead.
"Why's this funny?!" you demanded, stomping your foot. "I'm gonna be the Shaman Queen! In fact, I'm gonna be the best Shaman Queen there ever was! Ever!" The girls paused for a moment, then started laughing even harder, tears streaming down their cheeks.
"Baka! You have to at least be a shaman first!" Kanna said, cackling. You pouted.
"Fine then!" you wailed. "Becoming a shaman'll be no problem! I'll bet you all that I can become one in a week! Maybe less!"
"You're on!" Kanna hooted, rolling on the ground, still in hysterics.
"You're gonna regret laughing when I'm your Shaman Queen! Just you wait!"
End Part XIII.
A/N: Yeah, I really need to stop watching Naruto before I try to write Mankin fics. Katsumi has way too much of an ego in this chapter. Of course, I know a lot of us quiet folks have these explosive moments… (Guilty!) Anyway, I'm actually going to start using that little 'Reply to Review' link, starting this chapter, instead of that big bulky paragraph I'm so fond of… (Loose translation of that last sentence: Anonymous reviewers should get accounts here to I can respond to you without breaking that stupid no-responding-to-reviewers-in-your-chapter rule. Or at least leave an email address so I can reach you. Responding to reviews has always been my favorite part of fanfiction.) Is it just me, or am I awfully full of myself in these Author's Notes?