Chapter 7

Posted Tuesday, December 5th, 2006

"Yoh! Wake up this instant!" Yelled Anna from the bottom of the stairs, it was a school day and Anna wanted to arrive early because she needed to use the library for a school project and she wanted Yoh to cook breakfast before she left. She didn't want to call Manta over because by the time he got to their home, she'd have to leave and that wouldn't do at all.

Yoh, meanwhile, was curled up in a tight ball, cocooned by his thick, warm, goose-down blankets. For the first time in what seemed like years, he had had a full nights rest. Not once had he woken up in the middle of the night screaming out his friends name because he'd had a nightmare that Hao was using Spirit of Fire on them. Instead, he had had a dream about a girl he had never seen before, upon waking up, all the facts left him and after several seconds all he could remember where a pair of calming brown eyes and that she had a nice soothing voice. She sounded very pleasant.

"YOH ASAKURA!" But that most certainly wasn't. Yoh immediately shot up in his bed.

"Coming Anna!" Shouted Yoh, hurriedly getting up and getting dressed in his school uniform with enough speed to shame an Olympic Gold Medalist sprinter. He loved Anna; he really did, with all of his heart even! But sometimes she could be so demanding, however the moments where she wasn't like that and was actually sweet made those little moments all the more valuable. Like the time she offered to cook supper for the two of them one night.

Anna, now content that Yoh was now awake and getting ready, returned to what she had been doing before deciding to wake Yoh up; reading a house-wife magazine.

Rushing downstairs, he hurried into the kitchen and started preparing what he would need for breakfast. Today was an omelette, good, simple, nutritious and not many ways to screw it up.

Once he was finished making enough for both of them, he set up the table and went to tell Anna it was ready.

They ate breakfast in relative silence, with Anna commenting only once about the quality of the food. When they finished Anna left Yoh top clean the table and headed for school.

After Anna left, Yoh relaxed around the kitchen, thinking about nothing in particular, as he was apt to do when Anna wasn't around ordering him to train.

He sat on the porch, facing the sun and put on the newest Bob CD. He was soon joined by his faithful Spirit Alley, Amidamaru. In silence, they watched the sun rise higher and higher into the sky.

It was one of those rare moments that Lord Yoh was actually thinking about things instead of falling asleep. Amidamaru didn't want to ruin the moment by speaking, instead opted to offer a silent companionship. If Lord Yoh had wanted to tell of what he was thinking, he would. A good samurai doesn't go asking his Lord needless questions.

"Amidamaru…" Said Yoh out of the blue, in a neutral tone of voice.

"Yes, Lord Yoh?" Answered the ever-faithful Spirit.

"Do you-do you think what I did was right? Do you think I'm a bad person?" Asked Yoh, in the same tone of voice.

"Of course not, Lord Yoh! You're the kindest person I've ever met! You stick up for people weaker than yourself; you give without asking anything in return! You helped made it possible for everyone, Shamans, humans, even Spirits, to continue working on their dreams!" Said Amidamaru and then thought about something for a second. "If you don't mind me asking, Lord Yoh, what brought about this sudden question?"

"I killed him Amidamaru. I actually killed him with my own hands!" Yelled Yoh

Amidamaru didn't need to ask who Lord Yoh was talking about. In all his short life span, Yoh had only ever willingly killed one person: Hao; his Enemy, his re-incarnated ancestor, his brother, his twin.

Amidamaru sighed.

"Lord Yoh. I cannot say what you did was either right or wrong. You saved most of the people alive today, even though they will forever remain ignorant of what you have done for them. On the other hand, you killed your own brother to achieve this. You committed a grave sin on behalf of your beliefs." Said the ghost after thinking it over for a little while.

"I'm just as bad as he is, Amidamaru."

"Why do you say that Lord Yoh?"

"I did exactly what he would have done. I killed the only person standing in my way! How different is that from what he has done?!" Yelled Yoh uncharacteristically.

"You did to save the world, Lord Yoh." Said the Spirit.

"So was Hao! Well, except for the whole 'kill-all-non-Shamans' thing. He was only trying to save us from destroying the planet!"

After that little outburst, it seemed that Yoh had lost all his energy.

"I think I'll go get ready for school Amidamaru."

With that, he left his Guardian Spirit and headed upstairs to change into his school uniform.

Ken stared wide-eyed as his Kaa-san, Hi-nee-sama (1), and new brother: Hi-ni-sama (2) ran around the kitchen in utter chaos. Kaa-san was muttering something about 'thunder-storms' and 'losing power' and 'alarm clock' in English while making breakfast for everyone, Hi-nee-sama was busy preparing his bag for the play-place while muttering something about 'music' and 'groceries' and other incomprehensible things in rapid French. Hi-ni-sama, on the other hand, was running around the house, picking up pieces of paper and other things and stuffing tem in a bag, muttering about 'school' and 'supplies' in Japanese, jumping out of the way of the women when they came his way.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to the little boy, his mother finally placed his food in front of him, along with a spoon which he promptly threw on the floor and began using his hands to put his food in his mouth: much simpler this way!

Akiko sighed to herself as she heard the spoon clang on the floor the moment she turned her back on her youngest. She picked it up and threw it into the sink to wash later and then she set the table while her daughter and Hiro finished with the last of their tasks for the morning.

Once they were done, they ate a rather quick breakfast, and got ready to leave, putting on their coats and turning poor Ken from a baby into a plushie because his coat was so thick, and got into Akikos' four-door with Akiko in the front, Hikari in shotgun, Hiro behind her and Ken in his baby seat behind his mother.

"Hi-Kun, when we get to the mall Kaa-san and Ken-kun are going to get some school stuff we need. You and I will head to the other stores to find stuff to decorate your room. Think of it as a 'welcome home' present! What do you think?" Said Hikari, turning around in her seat and facing the boy who was currently trying to save his hair from her younger brother, she giggled at the adorable site. "Maybe we could get you a hair cut too?"

Hao just gave her a blank look and then cringed as Ken tugged at his hair.

"Nah, I think you look better with long hair, even if it's longer than most girls' hair these days!" She giggled again and turned around in her seat and the rest of the ride was done in silence, well, except for Kens gurgling and Hiro struggling to free his hair. "You'd look funny with short hair!"

"Alright, Hika-chan, here's some money for you guys to spend and you're to meet me at the food court in one hour. After that we'll go shopping for some clothes for Hi-kun. Everyone understands?" Said Akiko as she handed her daughter several bills.

"Yes, Kaa-san, don't worry, we'll be alright and if anything goes wrong, we can always use Shigure-san and Kuro-neko-san to get help." Said Hikari as she put the bill into her black and silver wallet.

The night before, Hikari had been explaining to Hiro the basics of being a Shaman. What a Spirit was, the different kinds of Spirits, how to tell the difference between a Ghost and a poltergeist, how to deal with fixated Ghosts, all the basic stuff that a Shaman needed. She also explained that a ghost was basically a person or animal that had lived once then refuse to pass on, for various reasons. She cited Shigure as an example of a Ghost. A Spirit was an embodiment of something and cited the leaf spirits as an example of a spirit. Everything has a spirit, rocks, trees, each leaf, even the air itself.

Hiro just nodded as they slowly made their way around the mall, looking at various shops and stands, their first stops was the music store.

"Ne, Hi-kun, Kaa-san said that maybe if you were to hear something that's familiar to you, you might get back some of your memories. Let's listen to some of the more popular ones and see if we can find any triggers!" Stated Hikari as she snaked her way through the crowded store towards the back, where all the earphones and demo CDs were, leading Hiro by the hand so that they wouldn't get separated.

"It's as good a plan as any, I suppose." Replied the longhaired brunette, shivering slightly at the contact with her hands, Hikari had said that it wasn't unusual for shamans to feel a slight jolt when skin touched skin. It was an automatic reaction of their furyoku (3) when they meet a foreign furyoku, but it usually wears of eventually, as both furyoku get used to each other.

It had been several months since they first touched and he still felt the jolt, while he no longer reacted that way to Akiko and whatever reaction he had had to Ken small amount of furyoku had stopped after the fist time the young boy had jumped on his bed and poked him awake.

"Let's see, what's popular right now for people our age?" Muttered Hikari to herself. "Ugh! I think this is one example of where my total technology avoidance is coming back to haunt me. I suppose we'll just pick one at random."

For the next forty minutes, Hiro tired on earphone after earphone, but not one of the songs he heard reminded him of anything.

"Well, this is the last one here, might as well give it a shot. What kind of name is Soul Bob anyways? Ringo Awaya is much cooler."

The young boy shrugged silently and put on the earphones without a word. He personally found Ringo a little depressive and quite scary once he saw a picture of her on her newest CD, but that was just his opinion.

When Hikari pressed the play button and the low rumbling of Soul Bob washed over him, he felt a strange sensation, but he couldn't place a name on it. The harder he tried to concentrate on the feeling, the more it seemed to slip away. It was like trying to hold water in cupped hands; the waters would just slip between the fingers.

"Hi-kun? Hi-kun? Hikari to Hi-kun! Hi-kun, you're starting to scare me, Hi-kun!" Said Hikari, tugging at his shirt a worried look on her face.

As suddenly as he had snapped into hi quasi-meditation, he snapped out of it and took a wobbly step back.

"Ah, sorry for scaring you, Hika-chan, I won't do it again, I just got lost in thought for a minute. How about we get this CD, he seems pretty good." Said Hiro, picking up Soul Bobs' CD.

Hikari signed and resigned herself to listening to Soul Bob.

"Sure, Hi-kun." She looked around and spotted the poster rack. "Ne, how about we get a poster too? We have enough money to get both. We need something to decorate your room anyways!" She dragged the young boy to the posters before he could protest and together they flipped through them.

After buying the CD and a poster of Soul Bob to go along, the two teens slowly made their way through the crowd, snaking and skilfully dodging the occasional holiday shopper overloaded with gifts and the oblivious older teens as they chatted on their phone, paying more attention to the blinking lights of the storefront than what was two inches in front of them.

Once they arrived at the food-court, they realized that they had a problem or two, actually. One; the food court was large, very large, and second; it was almost completely filled to the brim.

They both stared in semi-horror at the huge mass in front of them and sighed. How where they going to find the slim Akiko and a toddler in this mess?

As if to solve their problem Tom, Hikaris' mothers' guardian ghost, appeared before them.

"This way, madam, sir. Mistress Yamato has already ordered food and is waiting for you with Master Ken. She asked me to look for you, because off all these people here."

"Thanks, Tom. Lead the way." Said Hikari, Hiro echoing her thanks and they followed the spirit to his new family. For some reason when he thought that, he got goose bumps.

On the way back to Akikos' home, Hiro reflected on the day he had spent. For lunch they had had 'fast food' from a place called Wacdonalds. It wasn't very good and didn't even compare to Akiko's cooking, but it was there, so they had to make do. They then spent roughly three hours trying on different types of clothes. They tried on short, but only a few, for gym at school, some t-shirts, slacks, dress shirts and jeans and many combinations of them. In they end, they all reached mutual decisions. Short were ok, but not great, same with t-shirts, slacks were a big no-no, button-down dress-shirts and jeans were the best, so that was mostly what they chose from. After clothes were done, they went for shoes.

At this point, Hiro shuddered at the memory and swore to himself he would never step inside a shoe store unless it was absolutely necessary, AKA; when both the running shoes they had bought for sports, normal shoes for school and winter books were all thread-bare and where held together with duct-tape and chewing gum.

Finally came the coats, a nice thick parka for the guaranteed harsh winter to come, and a windbreaker for when it would finally leave.

Hiro looked to his right at the sleeping Ken beside him and smiled slightly at the drool that was dripping down his chin and the focused his gaze on the front passenger window, where Hikari was dozing peacefully in her seat.

"You're not tired, Hi-kun?" Asked Akiko from her seat, looking at him in the rear-view mirror, as if to prove she was right, Hiro yawned just at that moment. "Why don't you just put your head down for a bit? I'll wake you when we get home."

"Alright…" He said sleepily, he leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes; the gentle swaying of the car rocked him to sleep.

(1) + (2) Hi-nee-sama is Hikari. Nee-sama literally means 'respected elder sister' and Hi (pronounced he, not like the greeting) is Hikaris' nickname, as well as Hiros', since they both start with Hi and it made it kinda cute.

(3) Also known to Official Manga readers only as 'mana'. I prefer to use furyoku because it's what they use for both animes (Japanese and English, quite shocking, actually) and I presume the Japanese Manga, but I don't know because I only know how to read 'fire' in Japanese.

Author's Note;

I'm sorry it took so long for me to update, but I've been up to my eyeballs in work with college. Since September, I've written over 30 pages of material. THIRTY! That's about as long as this fic actually is, sans AN. College has also drained a lot of my energy. Luckily, I only have 3 days of classes left, then I have a break, I might write another chapter in between now and January 1st, when I go back to school. If I get enough encouragement, I will defiantly write another chapter before then.

P.S. As an apology, I made this chapter longer than usual! Hope you enjoy, remember to review!