That voice Chapter 8: Appearances, 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. I've only begun to read the manga at the time that I wrote this so bare with me.

Chapter 8 – Appearances

Manta continued to stare at the card in his hand. He knew Yoh's handwriting, but this wasn't his handwriting. He had seen this handwriting a few times before, enough to be familiar with it. It was Anna's. He could hardly believe that Anna would send him an invitation to come back to Tokyo and had briefly mentioned that something was wrong with Yoh. Something was wrong with his best friend. He knew no other option than to return home to check on his friend.

A few issues remained that Manta needed to take care of, but he figured he could handle it and still be able to return to Tokyo. Yoh was more important to him as a friend than being able to perform his duties for his family. He had done what his family wanted him to do by going to Europe to handle a scandal matter that had come up. It was his family's entire fault for letting the company get out of hand and left it to their son to take care of. It was such a pain for him sometimes being a member of his family. That's why he enjoyed it so much when he was able to spend time with Yoh and his other friends. It was the place that he wanted to be at and he wondered if things would have been different if he had just stayed. If he hadn't come to Europe, his friend would be all right though he had no idea what was really going on.

Ren crushed the post card in his hand and tossed it to the side. "Bason!" The spirit appeared next to his young master.

"Yes bocchama?"

"Get my horse ready. I'm going to Tokyo." The spirit nodded and disappeared. Something was wrong with Yoh. He could hardly believe it and the fact that Anna had sent word meant that it was indeed serious. It was her way of asking for help though she hadn't quite worded it as such. It was all the explanation that he needed since it time for him to visit the hot springs.

Lyserg glanced past Morphine as she sat atop of his shoulder and looked out of the window of the airplane at the view of Tokyo, as it grew nearer. It has been awhile since he had last visited everyone. He spared a glance at the post card in his hand before looking back out the window. The card was an invitation to come to the hot springs. He had already planned to visit Jeanne at her church that was located in Tokyo and also to stop in to see the Lilly Five at their flower shop that just happened to be down the street from Jeanne's church. The invitation only gave him more reason to come sooner and he would be able to see everyone again.

He wondered about the invitation though no word had been given to him on what was really going on. He knew that if he went to Yoh's house. He would be sure to find everyone else there hanging out like usual. It would be good to see everyone again. He wanted to hear all about everyone's adventures since they had last all parted. He had a few tales to share and some things that he wanted to discuss with everyone. He was so lost in thought as to what to talk with everyone about that he didn't notice that the plane had landed. He finally stood up and was still lost in his own thoughts as the airplane began to unload its passengers into the Narita airport.

Horo-horo stood on the side of the road with his thumb sticking out. Another car sped toward him from down the street, but the driver didn't spare him a second glance as it passed him by. He half growled and half sighed as he slumped to the ground. He wished that Ryu could have been with him since he was better at this hitchhiking thing. No one seemed to want to stop for him and he was becoming frustrated. The only answer to that was to fill his belly with something to eat though he tried not to waste too much time. Yoh needed him.

He began to rummage around in his backpack for something to eat. He had pretty much eaten everything already, but that hadn't stopped him since he paused every couple of hundred yards to replenish his strength by eating everything he had. A couple of people had given him a ride. He had forgotten just how far Tokyo could be and suddenly wished that Ren were there to give him a ride on one of those airplanes that he owned. He was so lost in thought that he didn't hear the sound of horseshoes hitting the paved road or the golden eyes that peered from the horses back as it drew nearer.

Ryu zoomed down the road on his motorcycle. As he pulled closer to the hot springs, he could make out the figure of a certain unruly blonde hair girl standing by the front gate with her arms crossed over her chest. She could see out of the corner of her eye as he pulled to a stop a few feet away from her. He took off his shades and smiled.

"Yo." She stated coolly, but he knew better.

"Yo Anna-okami." He kicked the stand down on the bike and took off his helmet. He stood up and combed out his hair. After he finished readjusting himself, he glanced around. "Where's donna?"

"Give them a minute."

"Them?" She pointed down the street in the opposite direction that Ryu had driven in from. In the distance was a silhouette of a group of people that were heading their way. Before too long the group was drawing close to the front gates. Ren was half carrying, half dragging what appeared to be a body as he led his horse behind him. No doubt it was none other than Horohoro. No one commented on the hoof prints that appeared to be imprinted on the back of the Ainu's jacket or the reason why he was presently unconscious or why Ren and not the horse were carrying him. Lyserg and Manta were deep in discussion on how the weather was in Europe this time of year.

"Where's Yoh?" Ren asked once they were in hearing distance.

"We'll talk about this once we meet up with everyone. Follow me." She began to walk and everyone followed, but before they could get too far.

"Hey!!" Everyone stopped and turned to see Chocolove running down the lane. It was coming in the same direction that Ryu had come in and he was waving his hand.

"You're late." Anna stared at him coolly.

"Fish bait!" He appeared in a worm outfit and fish were jumping in the background as waves splashed. Ren threw the unconscious Horohoro at the New Yorker and knocked him out with one hit of Horohoro.

"Baka." Mumbled the Chinese golden-eyed boy as he grabbed the still unconscious Ainu and dragged him along. Ryu picked up Chocolove and carried him as Anna led the way.

Hao blinked and he knew where he was. He was inside of Yoh's mind again. How he got there, he didn't know. He assumed instantly that it was Yoh's doing. He barely paid attention to what his little brother was doing since he was in control of his twin's body. He believed that he had complete control of the body, but as he stood there. He realized how wrong he was. Yoh was up to no good, how he had been able to get Hao back into his mind, it left him baffled. He hadn't given his little brother much credit, but he was realizing Yoh was continuing to be a pain in his ass, a pain that he planned to rub and snub out once and for all. He grinned and shook his head.

"Damnit, you're always being such a pain in my ass Yoh." A soft chuckle filled the air and Yoh appeared a few feet away, grinning in return.

"It's more fun that way." Hao closed his eyes and sighed. He resisted the urge to bury his fist into Yoh's face for being smart with him. He wasn't allowed to be smart toward his older brother. It was the big brother's job to be a smart-ass and tease the younger brother he silently told himself. He opened his eyes and gazed mischievously at his twin.

Yoh reminded him of himself 1000 years ago. Even with all the comments that Yoh retorted with, he still continued to have an innocence that amused and irked Hao. It was a side of himself that he had once considered to be weak. It was a miracle unto itself that he was able to get rid of that weak side of himself and Yoh ended up having that part of him, a part that he just wanted to forget, but his little brother continued to interfere and remind him yet again. That no matter how much he tries, he can't have whatever he wants. He planned to prove him wrong and had almost succeeded in what he had set out to do. Anna had almost been his. He wondered how his little brother would take the news. Especially the news of what had happened that night, but he wasn't about to enlighten him any.

"You've been up to something." He looked around as if he would be able to find it just by looking. Yoh shrugged as if he hadn't been up to anything lately and hadn't been so emerged in his mental training. "It isn't nice of you to go and do that behind my back little brother." The humor in Yoh's eyes faded and lost all mirth in his expression. .

"Nice? It isn't nice of you to come and take over my body and then try to steal my fiancée."

"Tsk, tsk." Hao shook his head at his twin. "Such a tiny thing you speak of." His gaze came to settle on the younger one and pierced into his soul. "When your body has been mine to begin with."

"Hao!" Yoh materialized a katana out of nowhere that resembled Harusame.
"And even now you want to fight. Such a weak fool as always Yoh, but she will be mine." He grinned evilly, baring rows of white teeth.

"Hao!" Yoh gripped the sword tightly in his hands and aimed to bury the blade into the spirit of his older brother. It was known that if you kill the spirit mentally they would die. It seemed to be his only option left if he wanted to gain his body back. He had already destroyed Hao's body and was now left with no other choice than to destroy his mind as well.

"Yoh-kun!" A familiar voice filled the air and Yoh paused in the middle of his attack. Hao's grin broadened as he realized this was his opportunity and there was nothing that his twin could do about it

Everyone began to talk at once. Anna had explained that something was up with Yoh and shared with them on how he was acting though she didn't mention what had happened that night. Everyone had his or her own suspicious as to what was wrong with Yoh. She looked out the window and watched as the cars passed by. Everything that they mentioned she had already thought about and knew that it wasn't that. It was something else. Horohoro was now conscious enough to argue with Ren for trampling him earlier and that fact they needed to help their friend. Ryu was busily sending heart shaped bubbles toward Lyserg. Lyserg sweat dropped as he attempted to fend off the heart bubbles from getting him. Chocolove was attempting to tell jokes, but everyone was ignoring him. Faust was busy talking with his wife about if she had noticed a change in their little dark haired friend. The only other person that remained silent was Manta. He was watching her. She had enough of everyone's bickering. She wondered again if she had done the right thing to ask everyone for help because it was proving pointless. She suddenly stood up and slammed her hand on the table. Everyone stopped talking to look at her.

"I'm leaving. This isn't working." Horohoro tried to call her back as she walked out, but Ren pushed him for being such a heartless idiot and commented that is why he doesn't have a girlfriend causing the Ainu to break out into tears. Manta hopped down and went outside.

"Wait!" He ran after her, but she didn't stop though she did slow down so that he could catch up. "Let me go visit Yoh-kun." This stopped her and she turned to stare at him with half closed lids.

"Haven't you been listening?" She had mentioned earlier that it wasn't safe to be around Yoh and that he was stronger now then he ever was before. They needed to be careful and tread lightly with things regarding Yoh.

"But its Yoh-kun we're talking about. I don't believe that Yoh-kun would ever hurt me. I've already been hurt by him before so I don't think he could do anything to chase me away this time." She stared at him for a good two minutes causing a sweatdrop to appear on his forehead. He laughed nervously and smiled. "Its Yoh-kun after all. Everything will be okay." She turned back to look down the road.

"Do whatever you want." She began to walk, but he needed to go into the opposite direction.

"I'll come report back to you what I find!" He called after her and took off running into the opposite direction toward Yoh's house.

"Yoh-kun!" It was a familiar and friendly voice that Yoh knew all too well. It caused him to lose his concentration as he looked around franticly for his friend. Hao noticed the change in his behavior and used it to his advantage. "Yoh-kun!" He recognized the voice also. It belonged to Yoh's little friend, the human. He grinned as he ran his fingers through his hair, flicking some of his bangs off to the side with his fingers. He wasn't about to lose to his twin no matter what. It was his life to begin with and the fact that Yoh had interfered was problematic enough. While Yoh was distracted by the voice, he gained back control and his image began to fade.

"Don't worry Yoh. I'll take good care of him." Yoh advanced with his attack, jumping through the air and toward the image of his twin. He brought the sword down, but the blade swung through the air as Hao's image disappeared.

"Hao!" The sword disappeared and Yoh closed his eyes, quickly seating himself on the ground as he entered his meditation stance.

Manta continued to knock on the door, but no one was answering. He wasn't sure if Yoh was still there, but he opened the door anyways. Just inside he saw an unconscious figure lying on the ground. "Yoh-kun!" He ran over to his friend and tried his best to prop him against the wall. Yoh's eyes blinked and he looked at Manta. The short boy felt relieved as he watched his friend come to. "What happened Yoh-kun? Are you alright?" Yoh's gaze fell onto the boy and his pupils lost all color. He grabbed Manta around the collar of his shirt and picked him up off the ground.

"Where is she?!" Manta could clearly see that the cold eyes that stared into his own were not the eyes of his best friend. "Where is Anna!?!" He cried again, slamming Manta against the wall, choking the younger boy even more.

"S-she's not here.. she's scared Yoh." Manta found himself more frightened than he ever has been in his whole life. Even when Yoh had tried to end their friendship to protect him, it hadn't been like this. Yoh hadn't been so heartless or had tried to kill him, but the Yoh that was before him now, wasn't the friend that he knew. The heartless Shaman that was choking the life out of him was not his best friend. "She's scared of what you've become." The colored returned into Yoh's gaze as the grip that he had on Manta loosed, dropping the boy to the ground.

"Get out."

"Huh?" Manta didn't get the chance to stand or the time to recover or to ask any more questions.

"Get out!" He scrambled to his feet and ran out the door. He spared a glance back to see Yoh slump to the floor, but he couldn't see the trembling that began in Yoh's body as his own tears blinded him. Anna had been right. Yoh was no longer himself, no longer the carefree and cheerful friend that he knew. He needed to report to Anna what he had found out though he knew that she would know already. His visit hadn't proved anything and he hadn't been able to find out anything that Anna didn't know. It had only confirmed that Anna was right about this new Yoh.

Hao kneeled on the floor and looked down at his trembling hands. He couldn't control them as they continued to shake. He couldn't believe what he had done. No, not that fact that he had almost killed Manta, a human friend of Yoh's, but the fact that he had driven her away. Anna had left him.

'I told you so.'

"Shut up."

'You can't run from the truth.' Hao clenched his fists to stop the trembling and glared over to the mirror that held his twin's reflection. Yoh was smiling at him. 'Your life expired a long time ago. You don't have the right to continue on living because you don't know how. I'm going to take my life back Hao.' Hao punched the mirror, shattering it until a million pieces, as the glass scattered across the floor, but he didn't remove his fist from the mirror or the wall that he had punched his fist through.

"I was so alone.. always alone. No matter how many people were around me. I was still alone. And when they looked at me. There was fear in their eyes. Why couldn't they just look at me.. the way she did that night?" Blood began to drip from his fingers and knuckles. He could faintly feel the pain of what it was like to bleed like that, but it didn't even begin to hurt as much as he was hurting inside. "They all betrayed me.." He glared into the shattered remains of the mirror and still could see Yoh there. "They betrayed me Yoh!"

'Stop acting so strong all the time and show them that you are just like everyone else. Stop with these appearances of yours.'

"I'm not like everyone else. I'm strong and I'll create the Shaman Kingdom.."

'And what about Anna? Didn't you put the Shaman Kingdom on hold for her?' Hao grew silent. He had indeed put his dream on hold for a moment to spend some time with the Itako, but it had only been a moment in his lifetime that he had been able to show what he was truly feeling inside. He wanted the world to return to what it had once been, the mother nature that he remembered, where the rivers were clear enough to see the fish swim around in it, the animals ran freely and safe from human hands. The valleys were never ending with its grassy green fields and the mountains rose above all majestically unhampered by chemicals created by man. 'It was a long time ago.'

"What about you? She left you too." Hao withdrew his fist from the wall and watched as the rest of the mirror fell to the floor and shattered. "You are such a fool Yoh." He turned and started to walk out the door.

'Your wrong, you are because you don't know her. She's never left me. Start living your own life Hao.'

A/N: Sorry it took me so long to post and update with this chapter, but its cause I had finished writing the chapter. Then ff.net was acting up and I wasn't able to upload it. Then my cable modem messed up on me and I ended up losing a lot of stuff on my computer since I reloaded it in hopes that my computer was the problem and not the modem, but more importantly. I lost most of the fics that I had written. ;; Over 3000 words for this chapter had been written and now its gone. So I had to go back and rewrite this chapter. Sorry it took so long, but I wasn't sure if I covered everything correctly as I had originally intended. Ah well, please enjoy. Other chapters will come along slowly since I lost all that I had written and they were such passionate chapters… ;; I doubt I can write them again. I was kinda surprised to come back from a con and find out that a Japanese SK cosplayer had linked her site to mine! XD So yeah.. I'm excited about that, hehe. I've also begun work on a new section for my site, which will be a keeper's list. I also got a hold of several more doujinshis that I've been scanning.