Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King so please don't sue me. I will not be responsible for any sudden bursts of tears that this fic may cause or the up and down feelings that you may experience from reading this.
Chapter 6 – Death
"Hao."
He felt someone gently shaking him. His eyes were wide open, but his gaze lost in the distance. The shaking continued, but he didn't want to wake up from it, the dream. "Hao!" The gentle became violent and his arm was twisting. It was going to be ripped off! He suddenly snapped back to reality as his face grimaced in pain and she released the hold she had on his arm. "I figured that would wake you up baka."
He rubbed his shoulder, trying to work out the pain that she had just been inflected on him. At times like this she was a bit too harsh toward him, but he forgave her because after all. Hadn't she saved his life yet again at that time? It was suppose to be him that was saving her life yet in the end. She had saved his.
flashback
Anna felt herself stirring and the weight of something holding onto her. No one had touched her even after the onis had killed her parents, murdered by demons. Her family was now dead and nothing remained, nothing really mattered anymore. She just wanted to join her parents and let her pointless life come to an end.
"Anna." The word was more than enough to make her want to open her eyes because he was calling her.
She had forgotten about something for a moment, about that idiot Hao. He was always so lost without her. She was surprised that he was able to do the many things that he was able to and even more surprised that he even listened to a single thing she said. He always seemed to listen to her, smiling as if he didn't have a care in the world, as if life were that easy. He was such an idiot at times with his naive ways, but it was not too long ago that he had acted not so childlike.
It had been their first real kiss and the memory of it filled her body with warmth. It was his warmth that she was feeling as she shifted in the water. She opened her eyes and saw him, his pale face. Hao wasn't a pale guy, his skin was a golden tan that she had seen many times, but for some reason it was different this time. Then she realized it, the freezing water around them and just where they were at.
"Hao!" She cried out as her body seemed to take on a will of its own, the adrenalin pulsing through her veins as the sudden energy that she needed came from her small, weak, already fragile body.
She wrapped her arms tightly around him, refusing to let go as she dragged his heavy body out of the water. 'Baka!' She silently screamed, as he weighed a ton. 'Don't ever cook for him again..' She told herself. 'Or he'll just grow heavier.' She collapsed onto his chest, half lying on top of him and half on the ground, panting, trying to breathe through her own already frozen lungs. The energy that had been there for a moment seemed to disappear and she felt the cool air around her creeping in. She couldn't remember when it had been so cold before or when she had last been this close to him.
His pulse was dropping, his heartbeat becoming slower and dwindling. It wasn't a good sign. She couldn't remember how she had gotten there and since he was there with her, she assumed that he must have taken her there. She didn't know what he had been thinking or why he had done it.
Things seemed different as she leaned close to him. There just had to be something else that she could do, some way to bring life back into his diminishing body. He was getting colder by the second. Then it hit her. She had overhead foreigners talking about bringing dead people back to life by using their mouth. She had overhead the conversation and watched from around a corner as the foreigner had demonstrated on various people. It looked like a kiss! But the foreigner had gone on to explain that you are breathing air into the person's mouth and that is what brings them back to life.
Her face reddened as she remembered what had happened last time that the two of them had been so close together. He had kissed her and she didn't bother to reply with a slap. Instead she had punched him right in the eye, giving him a shiner that lasted for a few weeks. When everyone asked what had happened to him, he claimed to have fallen and hurt himself. If he had told the truth, she would have been punished for hitting him. He was an Asakura, a great Shaman after all and she a Kyouyama, a lowly common Shaman though she had been trained as an Itako. Her powers were not that strong at the time, but she still held much potential. They did not know that later on down the road in her other life to come that she would become an even more powerful Itako.
She swallowed hard and inched her face closer to his. She could feel his breath against her face as she moved even closer. Her eyes moved to his lips, they were blue now. 'Damn you, Asakura Hao. Damn you!' Her mind kept repeating as she closed her eyes and pressed her lips against his. This wasn't what the foreigner had been talking about, it wasn't even close and what happened next surprised even her.
Hao felt something burn deep inside of him. Yes, he remembered this feeling from before. It was when he had kissed her. At the time, she had claimed that she hadn't kissed him, but he knew better. He knew that she had kissed him back. This feeling was the same. The feeling melted away his worries and doubts. He just wanted to hold onto her and hope that this time he wouldn't get a black eye for it. His arms wouldn't listen though and he had to use every last bit of energy to open his eyes. He wanted to see her so he slowly willed his eyes to obey and they complied.
There she was, her eyes closed with her lips on his. 'Tennyo.' He thought. 'The Great Spirit has sent me a heavenly maiden for my own. I'll never let her go, never.' His arm reached out somehow and wrapped around her tiny waist. Her eyes widened, but she didn't push or try to get away from him. Instead she seemed to melt into the kiss more, becoming accustomed to the feel as one of his arms wrapped around her. The kiss came to an end as quickly as it begun and his hand fell back down to the ground as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
"Hao!" But there was no helping it. He had returned to being unconscious, but his heartbeat seemed to return to normal. She rested for a moment on top of him to keep them both warm and then dragged him until he was up against a tree. She dug through the roots of the tree and found the little hidden compartment that they had put there. Blankets lay inside the little cubby hole. She took them out and wrapped them around him. For another moment she sat down beside him, pushing a few strands of long dark bangs off out of his face, letting her fingers linger over the strands a little longer than someone usually would. She took an extra blanket and wrapped it around herself. She leaned forward and placed a light kiss on his lips.
"Don't die on me or I'll have to find someone else to marry." She didn't mean it as a threat since it was the only other option that she had left. If she didn't marry him, she would have no other place to go to than to find another husband, but who was more suitable to her than him. Maybe somehow it was her way of letting him know that she didn't want to marry anyone else so he just had to live. If not for anything else, than to just live for her.
She returned to the Asakura household and kneeled at the front gates, begging until they let her in. She calmly explained to them what had happened. A group of men were dispatched to fetch Hao's body. Doctors had arrived and waited on the house grounds as Hao was brought back. He was still alive.
Anna was thrown into her room and the door was locked behind her. She waited patiently for someone to come and tell her how Hao was doing. No one ever came.
Hao was taken to his room. His bed had been prepared for him. He continued to lay unconscious as the doctors arrived to check out his current condition. He had lost a lot of blood from the wound on his leg and if he hadn't gotten into the water causing the flow of blood to lessen. He would have bleed to death in due time. A sharp branch had punctured into the side of his thigh when he had fallen and the wound was going to leave a scar. He was developing a fever. The doctors worked hurriedly to try to break the fever before it would break him.
Day turned into night and night into day. Hao's fever continued to plague him and he remained asleep. The doctors contemplated the reason why his fever was not going down. They used many methods that were known to man. The fever should have broken by now. Hao would have normally regained consciousness. Instead he became delusional and writhed in bed as if lost in some nightmare. He didn't respond to the doctors or the servants that filled his room. The doctors sent for his grandfather and left the room.
The old man entered the room to see that his grandson was asleep on the bed. He walked over and stood beside the boy that lay before him. Hao's winced as if in pain. He placed his hand against Hao's forehead as if the gesture would brush away the pain.
"Don't worry, Hao. You are fine now."
"Anna.." The word came out ragged from Hao's dry mouth. His grandfather's eyes narrowed at the boy.
"That bitch will pay." His grandfather growled as he turned to leave the room.
"Anna!" Hao cried out again as doctors reentered the room. They tried their best to hold him down as he thrashed about as if lost in some dream, some feverish dream where he was fighting to save her life. His grandfather slipped from the room and went to Anna's room. He unlocked the door and opened it. Anna knelt a few feet away, clenching a set of beads in her hands and was chanting something, perhaps a prayer to the Great Spirit. A dagger landed on the ground beside her. She looked up from her chanting, startled. 'Was Hao dead?', she thought.
"You have until morning to take your own life or we shall take it for you. It is your fault that this has happened to Hao."
"W-what has happened to Hao?" Her voice barely was able to come out anymore. She was tired from the whole ordeal already and still weak from all the mental anguish that she was experiencing. Hao's grandfather could clearly see the concern on her distraught face.
'Yes.' He thought. 'I can use this against her.' He pointed an accusing finger at her and raised his voice.
"It's your fault that Hao has been taken from us!"
Her eyes widened and all color drained from her already pale face. His grandfather turned and stomped out of the room, shutting the door behind him and locking it. By morning he was sure that she would take her own life because now she believed that Asakura Hao was dead because of her.
end of flashback
Anna blinked and slowly opened her eyes.
"Ah, good morning." Hao was sitting down next to her and they were leaning up against a tree. She glanced around, not realizing where she was. "We're taking a break." He nodded to the scenery around them, but she was still lost in the dream. What had happened, she wondered as she touched a hand to her throat. She had been dreaming again, but this time of a dagger that laid by her side, a dagger that she wanted to use on herself.
"Hao?" She looked at him as he glanced back at her.
"What?" There were tears forming in her eyes. "What's wrong?" He placed a hand around her shoulder as he drew her near to him.
"I was dreaming that you were hurt because of me." He knew instantly what she was talking about. It was the past. She had been dreaming of her past life again.
"It's alright." He pulled her in between his legs and held her against him, holding on tightly as he closed his eyes. He wasn't sure of which event that she was talking about because they had been through many hard times together, but in the end they had been able to endure it until their deaths. "Don't think about it anymore." He whispered in her ear before planting a kiss on her ear lobe and beginning to nibble around the top. "Just think about the present.." He ran his tongue across her ear and trailed kisses down her jaw. "About us right now." He placed a kiss against her neck. "You'll never be able to hurt me again." He vowed and before she could question what he meant. He rested his hand against her cheek, turning her head so that he could capture her lips with his own, silencing her.
There were no words that needed to be said anymore as the two gave into their passion for one another. There were many things that he still wanted to tell her, but all in due time because everything at one time would be too much for her. He knew how delicate her mind could be. She had a fragile side to her that not everyone had seen, but he had seen it on many occasions. There were moments that she would show her strength, but she also had her weaknesses.
It brought to mind an incident that had happened during her current life when she had created onis with her mind. What he didn't know is what had caused it. He wasn't around to observe the events that followed, but his minions reported to him what had happened. Had it been the past trying to catch up with her at that time? Was it the thought of remembering that onis had slaughtered her birth parents? Or was she frightened more that she had learned that it had been the same onis that she had created with her mind had been the same ones that had killed her parents. The truth was a dangerous thing so he had to thread lightly or completely loss her. He held onto her tightly again.
"Hao, I can't breathe." She murmured against him since her lips were lingering against his skin.
"Sorry." He loosened his hold on her ever so slightly. He didn't want to let her go. He was afraid, the old feeling returning again. He was going to lose her again and he knew it, but it was a fate that he refused to accept no matter how many times it happened. He wanted her to realize her past so that nothing would be able to tear the two of them apart ever again.
She continued to place tiny kisses against his skin, loving the taste, the feel of him. He was always holding on so tightly to her that it scared her at times though she didn't voice her thoughts with him. She didn't want to upset him with her own doubts. She too felt afraid because she knew that when he held her like that. It gave her a bad feeling that something was going to happen. She didn't know what to expect. Her dreams were getting worse and the vague feeling remained with her, a feeling of separation, of being torn apart. Not just physically, but mentally as well.
Lately, she found herself thinking about the past, her past with her former fiancée, Yoh. She never could find the words to voice what she was feeling to Hao. She didn't want her old feelings to interfere with what she currently had, but she couldn't help it. She wondered how Yoh was doing. It was her decision that she would no longer talk to him. She didn't want anything to do with someone that had abandoned her. She no longer knew how he was doing.
She wanted to believe that she had moved on from Yoh. She was with Hao now. At times she wanted to ask him if he would go with her to see Yoh, but she would remember the promise that she had made with Hao. It had been her decision. She was the one who had told him that they would never speak of Yoh again. There were small things in the back of her mind that were beginning to bother her and she wanted to talk to someone about it. She wanted to share these thoughts with Hao, but he was being too protective of her.
She had the feeling that something was going to happen and she had no one, not even Yoh around to talk to about it with. The twins were the only ones that she had ever really shared a part of herself with and though she was trying to forget the other. She was beginning to remember what it was like to be with Yoh and how easy it was to talk to him. With Hao it wasn't the same, sure the two of them had talked countless times. Her telling him many private things and him telling her things that no one person would know about him, but there still remained a mystery between the two of them. Something unknown and she wasn't sure what it was.
Words weren't always needed to be exchanged between the two of them. Sometimes all it took was a glance or a gesture and it was if the two of them could read each other without saying a word. It proved to show how deep the bond was between the two of them and the silence was something that she appreciated. She not someone of a lot of words and the fact that the two of them fit so well together was proof enough that they were meant to be. That was all proof that she needed to be by his side and yet there was a nagging feeling that it was much more than that.
A/N: Ah, thank you everyone for reviewing and I'm glad that people are enjoying this fic. Yay!! More HaoXAnna fans! My work has been done here, hehehe. Don't think of Yoh that badly cause he has his reasons after all, they will be explained more toward the end of this fic when Yoh makes more of an appearance. I mean how can our beloved, innocent, sweet, kindhearted Yoh be that bad of a guy, right? Feel free to leave feedback either positive or negative, yell at me if ya want. If anyone has any ideas, you can always mention them to me. Mainly if you come up with something else TO.ne. I kinda have plenty of ideas for this fic cause the roller coaster just won't end here for Hao, Anna and Matamune. I have some good ideas in store for this fic so please do continue to read.