That voice Chapter 7: Last Night, a shaman king fanfic

Disclaimers: I don't own Shaman King so don't sue me. Just trying to write a fanfiction here so I'm borrowing the storyline of the series for a moment to alter it to my way of thinking, kinda a what if this could happen thing. May contain spoilers to those that haven't seen all of the anime series, read the manga or heard the drama cds. Though I haven't read the manga at the time that I'm wrote this so bare with me.

Chapter 7 – Last Night

Yoh looked up from his meditation. 'Yoh… do you ever feel this way, little brother?' It was that voice again.

"Hao?" Yoh could feel it, the overwhelming loneliness that was building up inside of him. The feelings were Hao's and it caused Yoh to remember a time when he felt that he was just as alone. Something had changed that. Someone had affected his life that much. Yoh closed his eyes and turned back to the task at hand. He cleared his mind of everything though a faint thought stayed in his mind. 'I want to go back... back to Anna.' And then Yoh's mind became completely blank.

Anna paced back and forth across the living room. 'What is wrong with Yoh?' She kept asking herself. In all the years that she had known Yoh, she had never once seen him cry like that before. Sure, there had many times when he cried from the pain of constant, life-threatening training from her or her death glares, but never had he broken down and cried on such a depressing scale. His feelings had been overwhelming for her and if she hadn't trained so hard with the Asakura's all those years ago to become the Itako that she was now. It would have been too much for her with his strong feelings. 'Could it be puberty?' She wondered and shook her head. 'He knows better.' Though there had been a few rare moments when Yoh had approached her and tried to do things such as take her hand or put his arm around her. She had reacted with the usual slap in the face and storm away from him with threats that if he ever tried that again that he would pay dearly, only for him to chase after her and apologize. She hated it all the more when he would apologize and she would push him away.

Afterwards, Yoh would treat it as if nothing had happened and they continued on with their normal lives. Yoh had never given up hope on Anna though. Every time she felt that she was pushing him away and that he would come to hate her. She always sensed the determination from him. He was trying to understand her and accept her through all the layers she had buried herself in from everyone else.

She began to have second thoughts about allowing him to put his head on her lap from the night before. She decided that if he tried it again. She would break his neck. 'No, that's a bit extreme. Breaking an arm isn't.' She smiled inwardly as that was decided. 'But first things first. What exactly did he mean by last night? I need to find out why Yoh's thoughts are so different now.' Anna glanced toward the door that leads to the room where Yoh was still suppose to be asleep in, but she could sense that he was beginning to stir. Her eyes narrowed. 'As if he was another person.'

Hao opened his eyes to see an empty space on the futon. 'She's gone.' He reached out and touched the spot to feel that it was cold. She had left the room earlier in the morning after Yoh's constant talking in his sleep had woken her, but she had not bothered to wake him since he was still recovering from the wound on his forehead and was acting delirious she assumed. He touched the delicate spot on his forehead. "I.. what was I doing?" He said out loud without realizing it. Then the memories came back. He was inside of Yoh's body and in the process of starting something left unfinished before Yoh had killed him. 'Anna.' He could sense her thoughts nearby and in deep thought.

"Yoh-dono!!!" Amidamaru appeared right in front of Yoh's face.

"Ah!!!!!" Hao screamed as the spirit materialized in front of him. His thoughts had been centered on Anna until the spirit had disturbed him. "A-Amidamaru." He said as his forehead began to throb. 'Useless human spirit..' Hao felt that one of the bad points of being in Yoh's body was experiencing various forms of pain that Yoh's body wasn't use to.

"Gomen, Yoh-dono. I was just so happy to see you awake." The samurai grinned and laughed lightly at his master as he wiped away a tear from the corner of his eye. "I had been so worried that you wouldn't wake up. How are you feeling?" Amidamaru would have felt the forehead of his master if he had been able to, but since he didn't own a body or couldn't feel much of anything anymore. He decided to just talk to his friend.

"A little better though my forehead is starting to bother me so can you keep it down." Amidamaru nodded briskly and hovered down beside his master.

"Yoh-dono, can I ask you something?" Hao felt his senses become sharp, as he wasn't able to read through the spirit's thoughts.

"What is it?" Hao felt a cold shiver run down his spine as he waited for the human spirit to speak.

"I'm worried about Anna-dono. She's been pacing in the living room all morning and I've been getting these odd vibes lately."

"Odd vibes?" Hao tried to read through the thoughts of the Itako that paced in the other room, but couldn't make much of her thoughts as a light throbbing pain began to form in his head.

"As if something is going to happen." The samurai's expression softened. "I feel as if something bad is going to happen soon."

Anna walked over to the table and sat down. 'It won't be much longer before the Shaman Fights begins again.' She began to shuffle through the various post cards that she had written out. 'I don't think I can do this on my own.' She flipped over each post card and began to put stamps on them. The post cards were addressed to various people such as Ren, Horo-horo, Ryu, Manta, and Lyserg. She planned to mail them out later when she had the opportunity to pass by a mailbox. 'Something isn't right with Yoh and somehow it's affecting me.' Anna paused as her hand came down to place the stamp on the post card addressed to Ren. "I don't know if it's safe to be around him."

"Around who?" Anna's eyes narrowed at the voice and she peered over to the open doorway to see Yoh standing there. Hao looked over at her and knew already that she was talking about him. Anna shrugged and closed her eyes. She hadn't realized she had said that out loud as she began to stack up the post cards and put them into a large envelope. Earlier she had wanted to speak with Amidamaru about it, but the spirit had been so intent in staying with his master. She had been left them alone to think about how she should deal with what had happened last night.

"It doesn't matter." She said as she began to stand with the envelope in her hand. She opened her eyes and began to walk toward the door leading into the hallway. Hao stuck out his right hand and blocked her from leaving. She continued to look straight ahead of her out into the hallway. He was having trouble reading her thoughts as his head continued to throb, but he couldn't completely remember what had happened the night before and wanted to find out why she was acting cold toward him again to the point of not wanting to even look at him. He could feel that feeling strongly in her.

"What happened?"

"What?" She finally turned to look at him with an icy stare.

"Last night." Hao tried to smile, but felt strained as she looked at him. He couldn't understand what was wrong with her and the pain in his head was getting worse. "I want to know what happened last night." She turned her head to stare straight ahead of her again.

"Remove your hand from in front of me, Yoh." It was a forceful command, but it was Hao that she was talking to. Not Yoh and Hao refused to give into her demands anymore. He wanted to know what had happened.

"Tell me." Hao took a step toward her and stood in front of her. "What happened last night?" Again the throbbing pain pounded in his head, but he refused to drop his calm expression to fight off the pain in his head. His eyes stayed on her. A serious expression, an expression that Anna had never seen on Yoh before.

'Who are you?' She silently asked as the other occurrence of last night played through her mind. Hao could barely make anything out of it. Something had happened the night before and it wasn't when he had put his head on her lap. He knew that much, but couldn't read anything else form her. The pain in his head was beginning to increase as each moment passed. "Let me go, Yoh."

"No!" That was the last straw. He couldn't take it anymore. His head felt like it was going to explode and she was calling him Yoh again. He just couldn't take it anymore, the pain was too much for him. Hao reached his out stretched hand around her and grabbed her left arm. Her right hand came through the air, but Hao knew that it would be coming. He had been hit by it once before and he was ready for it now. He raised his left hand to grab and catch her hand before it would be able to connect with his face. Instead his vision blurred and he missed grabbing a hold of her hand as it flew past his own hand as he tried to reach for it. The sound echoed throughout the hallway, the sound of her hand flying through the air and it connecting to his cheek. What she hadn't done last night. She was doing now. Hao stumbled back, but didn't release his grip on her as his back hit up against the frame of the doorway. He couldn't see anything in front of him as his vision continued to blur and his head continued to throb, but he felt the burning sting on his cheek.

"I said.." Her voice was more serious now. "To let my arm go." His grip tightened around her arm.

"Yoh!" She screamed out as his grip tightened around her arm. He was hurting her. 'Who the hell are you?!' Her heart screamed out and she shoved against him. Hao fell to the side into the hallway and his grip loosens on her arm. She took the opportunity to pull free and out of his reach. "I'm leaving." She stated flatly and started walking toward the front door.

"Wait!" Hao cried as he began to stand up, but all he could hear was the sound of her sandals as it echoed with each step until she disappeared out of the house. "Anna!" Hao cried after her, but she was long gone. His vision continued to blur and then slowly cleared. 'Why.. why did she leave me?' He couldn't almost believe it. She had walked out on him. 'Why did she leave you, Yoh?' She had walked out on Yoh. Hao had never thought it possible. Not the Anna that he had come to know, the one that stood beside Yoh through thick and thin. He had hoped that she would care for him in the way same way and it had seemed for a fraction of a moment she had. He wondered if he had dreamed it all up. For a moment, he had let his guard down again and had truly allowed himself to rest only for something to happen. Something had happened to break down everything that he had built with her and now she had left him. "She's like everyone else." Hao said out loud to no one in particular as the old familiar feeling of betrayal ran through his heart.

'No.' It was a voice that Hao was all too familiar with. He turned to look to the side with unsteady eyes to where a mirror hung in the hallway. Yoh stared back at him with a red palm print across his cheek. 'She's not like everyone else'.

"Yoh.."

'You haven't realized it yet, Hao? You've already spent a lot of time with her since I've been gone and still you haven't realize it.'

"What?" Hao glared at his reflection.

'Anna has never been like anyone else.' The image in the mirror seemed to take a life of its own and began to smile back at him. 'So don't treat her like anyone else.' Yoh grinning knowingly back at his older brother. Hao gritted his teeth together. Yoh knew Anna better than anyone else and Hao hated it that his brother was right. This caused Hao to calm down and relax his jaw as he realized it. It was his fault that Anna had left just now. It gave him cause to wonder if perhaps that history was repeating itself. Matamune had left in the same manner the first and only time that they had ever quarreled. It has caused him the first person that he had ever truly come to care for and now it was happening all over again.

"What have I done?" Hao said out loud as he lost sight of everything around him as his vision began to blur again.

'Its what you didn't do Hao that has caused this all.' Then the world went black on Hao and he couldn't see the reflection of his little brother anymore.

'Yoh.'

A/N: *ahem * I had thought that the scars that Yoh had on his body would have been bad, but I finally found an image that shows the scars on Yoh's chest/stomach area and it kinda reminds me of Kenshin's.. ^^; Sorry about the chapter before being a bit confusing. Probably cause of the references I made to the drama cds that cover Matamune's story that ties into the three of them (Yoh, Anna and Hao) in one way or another. Drama cds are cds that contain short stories to an anime series or sometimes they even follow along the manga's story to cover a certain part of the manga that wasn't in the anime. The cd is usually made up of a couple of songs, sometimes being the opening and ending songs to the anime series or even including vocal songs that are sung by some of the seiyuu/voice actors. There are two drama cds for Shaman King called Shaman King Osorezan Revoir ~Prologue to Shaman~ and Shaman King Osorezan Revoir ~Au Revoir~. They both cover the events of Yoh and Anna's first meeting along with her Oni incident. It also covers Yoh's meeting of Matamune, his first Hyoii Gattai and goodbye to Matamune. Very sad. ;; It took me awhile to write this since I've dedicated more of my time into making SK cosplay outfits for some upcoming cons and also working on my own SK website so if my chapters come out slowly. That's way. If you're interested in checking out my SK site, here ya go. //e is called Hoshi Gumi. Enjoy. XD