History's Flames Chapter 12: A New Twist to Everything, a shaman king fanfic

SHAMAN KING 300: DISASTER OF THE 500 YEARS

CHAPTER 12: "A NEW TWIST TO EVERYTHING"

"Hmm, the mood is different then what I expected."

The heads of the ones who where on the living room couches raised and turned to gaze at the long hair brunette and the others behind him. Hao stood at the door with a rather mused look on his face as he rested his body against the wall. "Might I hear from your own mouths what the trouble seems to be?" he asked, as he straightened up and placed his hands in his pant's pockets.

Jun stood up from the couch and walked over to her brother, stopping only a few feet away. "Ren," she began, staring down at the floor, "…the flowers haven't said a word to us for a while now…we are not sure what's going on…" she trailed off, her eyes slowly moving to Hao.

Hao raised a brow at the same time Annaka frowned and sighed, "Just as Anna-san had expected from those three," she said in a bothered but curt tone, "to lock themselves up in their past due to what happens in the present." She raised a hand to touch her forehead and thought before turning to Manta. "Oyamada, come with me." She ordered.

Before Manta could answer, Annaka grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the kitchen. Tamao looked worried as her eyes followed behind the two of them, "Poor Manta-kun," she softly whispered to herself.

"Manta has been dragged and ordered by Anna, and even when Anna's gone he's still ordered around by someone similar to her." Horo pitied.

Hao slightly chuckled at the comment an turned his attention to the others in the room, "Where are the flowers anyway?" he asked, the question mostly seeming to go to his mother.

"It'd be best if you don't disturb them or the others at the moment, Asaha. There are some…complications due to those flowers."

Opacho, who stood beside Hao, frowned and tugged at Hao's pants. "Hao-sama, Opacho thinks The Flowers are upset over "the man thing."

Horohoro frowned, not getting the conversation; the others seemed just as clueless except for Luchist who just nodded. Ren pushed his way past Horo and angled his body towards Asanoha "What kind of complications do you mean?" he asked.

BANG!

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!!!!!!!!

Everyone raised their brows knowingly. "Oh~" they all said in unison. Chocolove grimaced as the gun shots kept coming from upstairs, he turned to Horohoro. "Are you not worried of your sister being up there with Marion?" he asked worriedly, jumping at the sound of another gun shot.

Horo shook his head. "Pirika can defend herself with that cowardly spirit of hers." Kororo appeared beside him and nudged him, giving him a small frown.

Annaka frowned as she came into the living room, Manta following behind, "What a weird looking spirit," she said after looking into Horo's head for an image of Pirika's spirit, "all he is is a green ball with eyes."

Hao smiled, "I wouldn't expect Pirika to even have a spirit," he added, making Horo mad.

He bit into his peach, "Well she doesn't use him at all. They're just friends, basically."

The room began to shake as the shaman heard more gunshots from upstairs.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

"IT'S AN EARTHQUAKE!" Ryu shouted as he came running in the door, tripping over his own two feet, after picking himself up he ran over to the shaman yelling. "Why are you all sitting here like nothing is going on!?"

"It's only Marion's shooting, Ryu." Annaka said shaking her head. Why was she surrounded by idiots such as him?

Ryu sweat dropped and uncomfortably laughed. "Isn't that just as bad?" he asked, also taking a seat on a couch. "Earthquake, Marion. It's all the same as dangerous."

Faust sweat dropped as he came in, Eliza pushing his wheelchair from behind him. "That's a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think Ryu? Besides sooner or later the three flowers will be joining the Funbari Onsen staff as maids. I heard it from Manta-kun a while back." he lazingly said.

Before Ryu could answer, Jane interrupted him with a glare from her red eyes, "Where is my daughter?" she asked, her glare turning towards Hao.

Hao smirked, amused by the Patch's thoughts, "Yes Jane, she got to be annoying so I burned her to ashes. Now does that sound like me?" he asked innocently.

Jane gritted her teeth, "Yes Hao, it does."

Annaka bit into her apple and glared at the Patch, "Lay a finger on him, Jane, and I'll promise you someone will be burnt to ashes." She threatened.

Horo, Ryu, Chocolove, and Faust were on the edge of their seats, their eyes wide, readying themselves for a fight. Then the door busted open and in came the iron maiden, being pushed by Lyserg, who drenched in sweat.

Jane raised a brow, and the male shaman all sighed in disappointment. "Why are you pushing the iron maiden?" Asanoha asked, just as clueless as Jane.

Lyserg stepped in front of Marco, his hands in front of him. "Jane-sama, Asanoha-sama, please don't think of it like that. Pushing Jeanne-sama in the iron maiden has become an honor for me to do, so it really is no problem."

Jane looked at the green haired boy and examined him before becoming aware of something. "Why are thou shirtless, Lyserg?" she asked, noticing the boy's bare upper half.

Lyserg turned a bright red; "Ano…" the poor boy was clueless in how to explain the past scene. His shirt was all bloody from the wound from the scene before that he had to throw it away.

But the boy was saved by the ringing voice that came from the doorway. "So this is the famous Funbari Onsen?" it asked as it entered.

Eyes turned and viewed the strangers at the door, there stood Nianna, Nagehiko, Arisu, Wilhelmina, and Emmetto all of them calmly eyeing the inn.

Then in front of Nianna appeared an armored figure pointing its sword only centimeters away from her peach colored face. "Who are you?" a voice called from the stairs. Eyes turned to view Kanna as she came slowly down the stairs, her face cold. "I come to greet Lord Hao on his arrival and I see this Anna-sama imposter."

Nianna just stared at the sword that was so close to her, then she looked at Kanna. "Shouldn't you treat your costumers better?" she asked, a smirk appearing on her face.

Kanna glared at the girl, "This is no cosplay inn, so how about you high-tail your ass out of here?"

Nianna's eyes disappeared under her hair, "Why don't you bring it on, then?" she stated, fire practically burning behind her. Soraguimi and Nagehiko all stepped away from her in caution.

Ashcroft then felt a hand on his shoulder; he turned his head and saw Annaka beside him, glaring at him with her ruby eyes. "Enough." She ordered menacingly.

Ashcroft looked over at Kanna. Kanna looked at Annaka in anger. "But-"

Annaka turned her head and her eyes pierced through Kanna, "But what Kanna?" she asked, her tone clearly stating the German shaman needed a good excuse for her actions.

Kanna glared at Nianna, who smirked back. "Never mind," she mumbled calling Ashcroft back to her side. "Gomen, Lord Hao." She apologized, taking a bow in Hao's direction, not caring one bit of his blonde wife.

Annaka didn't seem to be bothered by this and simply turned to view Asanoha and Jane. "You two have been informed by Luchist about this, are I right?" she asked. Both Patch women nodded. "Good. Then it shouldn't be a problem, right? After all, we have a need for them here."

Wilhelmina pushed back a mess of red curls and stared at Annaka with her topaz eyes. "We won't be here long." She strictly told the blonde.

Hao stood up and calmly walked over to where his wife was. "If you wish to leave now I'm not going to stop you, so there is no reason for you three to stay."

"I have a reason." Annaka retorted, making Hao raise a brow at her remark. Annaka walked over to where Soraguimi stood and whispered extremely low that it seemed impossible for anyone to hear, yet somehow those three seemed to have heard it perfectly because their eyes grew three times normal size. "So you three will stay here." She finished menacingly, her eyes as cold as ever.

Everything was silent as everyone wondered what the blonde had whispered to the three shamans, but the silence was easily broken.

"I have no problem staying." Arisu piped up with a calm smile. "I'd rather have it that way." She added, walking over to where Lyserg was standing, only a few feet past Annaka and Hao. She stopped a foot away from Lyserg and smiled, "This way we can get to know each other better, Lyserg-kun," she softly whispered, causing Lyserg to blush.

"Ah…hai," was all he said, from above him Marco raised a brow in suspicion at the girl, then he looked at the iron maiden and wondered how Jeanne-sama was viewing this.

"Don't get too cozy to him, Arisu," Hao piped up, smirking. "He's Jeanne's."

Silence filled the room for who knows how long, everyone's mouth dropped open at the Asakura's words. Lyserg, who was now bright red, couldn't speak or defend himself one bit. Jeanne on the other hand was a different story.

The iron maiden began to shake violently, and the doors to it slammed open revealing a topless red Maiden, "ASAKURA HAO!" she yelled in uttermost rage, stepping out of the torture chamber with a dark and disturbed aura.

Shamash appeared behind her with two iron spikes in his small blue hands, throwing each one as Jeanne said each word, "You." –Throw- "Are." –Throw- "The uttermost." –Throw- "Evil." –Throw- "ON THIS PLANET!"

CRASH

CRASH!

Hao easily dodged each spike thrown at him, a smirk always planted on his face, suddenly he disappeared before everyone's eyes and reappeared behind Jeanne, grabbing her by the arm and shaking his head in disapproval. "And you say the truth will set you free, yet you don't bother to admit your feelings. Tell me the irony in that Jeanne." He flung her forward, practically throwing who at Lyserg, who caught her in his arms and fell back as he did.

"Itai~!" they both yelped as they came crashing down on the ground.

Hao smirked, as so did many of the other shamans who saw the two X-Laws on top of each other in that way. "That's more like it." Hao added.

Both the X-Laws blushed to the roots of their hair until a small flash almost blinded the both of them and they looked up to see Jun coming down the stairs with an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry but the scene was too cute to not take a picture of." She said cheerfully, cupping her cheek and giving an innocent grin.

"Why do you bother taking pictures when all you do is annoy everyone, Jun?" Ren brooded, glaring at his sister, arms crossed and Bason hovering behind him.

"But Ren, the scene was too cute to leave it without a picture, don't you think?" Jun replied aloud, enjoying the faint pink tints on the Lyserg and Jeanne's cheeks.

"Sure, it's just adorable." Wilhelmina sarcastically agreed, Arisu just blankly stared at the two X-Laws. The red head rolled her eyes and balanced herself on one arm as she watched her teammate awry make her way to the door.

"I'm going to go out to eat." She blankly announced, no one being able to describe the tone of her voice.

"Ano…there's plenty of food here you know. This inn may be old but there's no need for you to go out to eat." Tamao stated with a concerned look at the coal headed girl.

Arisu stopped dead in her tracks, Wilhelmina shook her head, and Emmetto slapped his forehead. "Baka." He insulted under his breathe, looking up to see Annaka staring dead at him.

Her gaze wasn't long, but also Emmetto wasn't an idiot. Her gaze practically saw right through him and his teammates, her red eyes burned through him like fire as if they said "I know." Emmetto looked away from the former queen's gaze and then his topaz eyes met a pair of skittish pink eyes. Those eyes were the ones that he wished to stare at for the longest time, but as soon as his golden eyes met her pink eyes, the rose instantly pulled her gaze away from Emmetto in shame for staring at him.

"Ano…" Tamao shyly began, her eyes still not wanting to meet his, "may I show you five to your rooms?" she politely finished, her arm stretched out and pointing in the direction of the stairs.

"What, you're not showing us the way to our rooms Tamao?" Horohoro joked as he took a bite of a peach he just stole from the kitchen.

Tamao smiled sweetly, "I'm sure the rest of you know the way to your rooms," she curtly replied.

Asanoha stood and placed a hand on Tamao and Manta's shoulder. "You'll show them to their rooms later, Tamao. Right now you will all head down to Shinra Private Academy to register yourselves into the school system."

Hao let out a groan, "Can I not enjoy a good day at home without having to meet up with humans?" he complained, yet he stood and began making his way out the door, then something popped into his head, and a mischievous grin appeared in his face, "Opacho, call the other two flowers and retrieve them. They will accompany the rest of us as well."

Opacho nodded and rapidly ran up the steps, following her precious Hao-sama's orders. Kanna's eyes widened and she began to protest Hao's command, "Lord Hao, you can't possibly-"

"You being his loyal follower, Bismark Kanna, you should know," Nianna stated completely aloof, "Asakura Hao takes everyone down with him." She added with a coy smile, earning a glare from the blue haired flower.

"Hai, Hao-sama?" the other two flowers asked coming down the stairs in now in their usual clothes, Pirika coming behind them looking a bit glum and worn out with Opacho in her arms.

Hao innocently smiled as the flowers came down the steps, "You two aren't avoiding school, either," he told them, "So you two will be coming along."

The two younger flowers froze in place, wide eyed, dumbfounded, and doubting what their ears had just heard from their master. "H-Hao-sama, you…y-you mean with…humans?" Macchi asked, phrasing the last word with fear and disgust. Hao nodded and Mari violently shook her head and held Chuck so tight that if he were alive she would be choking him, "Mari will do no such thing," she protested, "Hao-sama is being a jerk and playing a trick."

Hao closed his eyes and smirked, "It's not a joke, you will suffer along with me at school." He finished heading out the door with the most mischievous grin that could be planted on his face.

Chocolove, Horo, Ren, Tamao, Lyserg, Jeanne, Marco, Nianna, Nagehiko, Wilhelmina, and Emmetto all followed, leaving Macchi, Mari, and Arisu in the inn alone for a few seconds with Manta.

Arisu glanced over at Hanagumi's terrified faces of shock and gave a small smile, "You two might want to follow along." She curtly said then added, "Hao-Onichan is not one who you should disobey so easily."

Hanagumi nodded and ran to catch up with the others, Arisu just slowly strolling behind. Manta stood dumbfounded for a second and began to run after recovering, but a word the pixie girl said echoed in his head the whole time he ran to catch up to his much taller friends.

'Hao-Onichan…'

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Yoh ran fast through the town, every store and house that he past seemed like a blur to his eyes due to how fast he was able to run, his energy rose incredibly since Anna had arrived, now he didn't feel lonely in her memories. But of course, just because Anna was here didn't mean he didn't have something important to learn about, he still needed and wanted to find out about Anna's past.

The blurs that passed as he ran were just a bunch of colors of grey, black, white, all lifeless colors as if the town was waiting for its end. 'Yet everyone seems so happy.' Yoh noted in his head. The blurs continued to mask in its dim and dull colors until a strikingly bold orange color past his view. Yoh came to a stop and paused to look at the orange ink that caught his attention.

It was that girl from yesterday, the one that seemed so…artificial to the king, not like she didn't look normal but like if she was hiding something. Yoh noticed she was walking strangely, as if not wanting to be seen by anyone around her as she approached the school campus.

'Strange,' Yoh thought 'didn't I over sleep?' he wondered 'Then school should be over.' Boy did he have a bad feeling at the pit of his stomach again. The orange haired girl entered the double doors of the school and rapidly disappeared from Yoh's sight. This just wasn't normal, he wouldn't suspect anything if the girl didn't seem so mysterious and secretive but she was so…

Yoh sighed and ran pass the school gates and went right through the door, telling him he was now in his spirit form so no one could see him, unless he happened to run into Anna-chan or Cadm. He looked at the long hallways of this school, even though he'd been there once the building still amazed him.

Everything seemed perfectly in place, polished, dusted, you name it, it was amazing how this school made Shinra Private Academy look like a haunted house. What Yoh also noticed was that, besides him, there was no spirit or ghost around. What had happened to the souls of the students that had been killed by the oni yesterday?

"I fail to see the importance in you being partnered with her, Miss Shimizu." A voice echoed in the empty school, causing Yoh to become alert and reminded him of his task.

"Sensei," a young female voice said, probably through gritted teeth by the way the word came out, "it's orders from my boss so I suggest you just let me-"

"Listen here Miss Shimizu," the teacher ordered just as annoyed, "I don't know if you act this way because you are a seven-"

"Eight." The girl corrected.

Yoh followed the voices to a classroom only a few rooms down from where he was, he popped his head through the wall and saw the orange haired girl talking to the same teacher who gave Anna-chan her test to enter the school two days ago.

Yoh saw the teacher roll his eyes, "Eight year old genius, but I'll tell you your behavior is not suitable for a child of your brain capacity. When you took your entrance exam the way you took the phone right out of my hand so that the man at the front desk would describe Miss Kyoyama to you-"

Yoh blinked, she was the female who he heard on the other end of the line, then didn't that mean…

She knew something about Anna.

SLAM!

The orange haired girl slammed her fist into the table and glared at the teacher with her fierce grey eyes. "Listen Sensei," she began coldly, "I am an employee just as you are, but I get paid more than your sorry arse ever will. I need the money so you are going to do as my boss instructed and place me as Kyoyama's damn partner, understand!?" she blurted out.

Sensei slammed his hands on the table as well; the girl didn't even flinch at the cacophonous sound that rang through Yoh's ears. "Shimizu Shiori, you will treat me with respect. I am your elder and you are nothing but a mere…child…"

The teacher trailed off under the young girl's face which was now formed into a slight pout, tears coming down from her eyes, "I just wished to be friends with her," she mumbled under her breathe, loud enough for the sensei to hear, "you yell at me as if you were my father, but my father is dead along with my mother…Oyamada…I owe him my services so…" another tear ran down the girl's face and Sensei began to stutter.

"Ah! Shimizu-san I had n-no idea! I-I'll pair you up with Kyoyama-san then, seeing as you both are new it may be best that way."

Yoh gritted his teeth; Sensei gave up so easily just because she sprang into tears? He didn't like this girl one bit, what did she want with Anna? Yoh's eyes widened as a name came to mind, the name echoed in his head as he thought of it.

'Oyamada.' Another flashback came to him, one that connected the two together.

'Kyoyama, this is Tamurazaki, since you are not answering I suppose this means you have not arrived back to your home. Getting to the point I must inform you that Mr. Oyamada has sent someone to take care of your…business, she is of the problem's kind so they will be able to interact. But the point is Mr. Oyamada is requesting you NOT to rid the problem, instead we will bring it in for studying. Call back as soon as possible.'

Yoh slapped his forehead, boy did he feel dumb. He missed an important clue, maybe next time he should bring Lyserg along, he was good with these things. But now that he thought about it he had to get to Anna-chan fast if he wanted to get to Cadm's house to pack for the trip to Kyouto.

'Trip to Kyouto?' Yoh pushed his body off the wall and ran down the hallway and stopped right at the door, there beside the door was a poster saying:

Christmas trip to Kyouto! The whole school will go and so will you, all will be absolutely free unless one of your parents is a chaperone and wishes to pay for a different hotel….

Yoh didn't bother to read the rest, now he knew what all the fuss about, Anna-chan's school was taking a trip to Kyouto for Christmas. So that meant him and Anna would too, but that also meant something bad was going to happen.

And Yoh had a pretty good idea who would be the oni's next victim…

---

"Konnichiwa, Yoh-san, have you come to visit Anna?" Akiko sweetly asked as she came out the door to the Kyoyama residence, just in time to see Yoh coming through the gates.

Yoh grinned and waved a hand up to the older Kyoyama, "Hai, I came to check up on her. I heard what happened yesterday so…"

"Ah that." She replied a bit uneasy, "it's strange," she began to herself, "this town is supposed to be calm and quiet, a bit 'hidden from society', so to say. I wonder why all these deaths have happened…"

Yoh stayed silent for a bit, thinking of what to say, instead of some long and deep speech, he simply grinned and said "Everything will be alright."

Akiko smiled, "You seem more cheerful today…could it be…you've talked to your wife?" she asked, her smile turning into a gentle smirk, her green eyes filling up with hope.

Yoh grinned and nodded, "Hai, I did."

Akiko softly chuckled and began to walk towards the Kyoyama gates, "That would explain why your face has been lit as if it were a Christmas tree." She giggled.

The second to last words brought a question to the brunette's head, "Ah, Akiko-san!"

"Hai?"

"Ano…will Anna-chan be taking that trip to Kyouto tomorrow? I was just wondering…" he trailed off as the older blonde in front of him placed a finger on her lip and looked up to ponder up at the sky.

It took her a bit until she softly nodded, straightening her white dress that she wore over a pink sweater, "Yes, I believe she and Edward will be leaving early tomorrow morning. Are you planning on going as well?" she asked him, her green eyes anxiously looking towards the gates and the golden watch on her hand.

"If you have to go you can, Akiko-san," Yoh said noticing the woman's anxious movements, "I'll just let myself in to see Anna-chan, if you don't mind."

Akiko gave him a thankful/apologetic look, "Gomen but it's just…my husband will be arriving today and I should head on to retrieve him," she gave Yoh a warm welcoming smile, "but make yourself at home."

Yoh nodded as the blonde woman ran as fast as she could through the gates, turned the corner and disappeared from his sight. Then he turned and headed for the Kyoyama home. It didn't take him long to find Anna-chan's room, he was assigned the room beside hers when he spent the night before. He looked at the door and softly knocked. No answer. Yoh sighed and passed right through the door, once inside the room he saw Anna-chan lying on her bed, her bay eyes were a lifeless and dry dessert, it wasn't until Yoh called her name that the dessert was handed some water and turned into two precious cups of chocolate.

"Yoh-kun…" she slowly said, raising her head to see the brunette in front of her, then her eyes became dull, "why are you here?"

Yoh sat beside her futon and gave a small smile, "I wanted to make sure you were okay." He kindly stated.

Anna-chan frowned and glared at the window, "You should know by now I'm not safe to be around. Just cause you are a spirit doesn't mean I might not be able to hurt you," she softly protested, her sentence slowly trailing off.

Yoh looked at her and smiled, "I don't think anything will happen to me, Anna-chan!" he cheerfully tried to convince. "It'll all work out in the end."

The young blonde looked at him, "What makes you so sure?" she frowned, her eyes slowly transforming into a vicious glare, "You're too calm and act as if you know what'll happen to me."

Yoh laughed and gave a soft shrug, "Maybe, maybe not. Who knows?" he joked. The small girl continued to frown and went back to glaring out the window, Yoh noticed she was utterly gloomy, she hadn't smiled once since he got there.

'Maybe,' he thought, 'this is where it all begins. Her loosing her trust in everyone…but she's starting to lose her trust in herself first.' He looked at the seven year old blonde once more and sighed, 'Yep, this is where it all begins.'

"You're going aren't you?" the small girl's ringing voice asked, now looking dead at him with those blank eyes. Yoh blinked and opened his mouth, but the girl interrupted him, "I saw Cadm buying some stuff for a trip, so I was guessing maybe you two were tagging along with my school."

'She's a little too observant.' Yoh noted, scratching the back of his head, but he wasn't going to lie to the girl, heck he didn't like to be lied to when he was her age. "I guess we are."

"I see," was all she said, wrapping her arms around her small legs and resting her head on her knees, still looking out the window. Yoh watch her as she sighed a few times, her eyes never turning away from the window, but he flinched when she jerked her head up instantly and stood.

"Anna-chan?" Yoh asked as the small girl walked over to her window and placed her hands on its stool, her small brown eyes dilating, if possible, ten times their size. Then her body began shaking then and there.

Yoh opened his mouth to call her again but much to his surprise the small girl leaped from the window, falling perfectly and gracefully to her feet, then she ran, faster than Yoh had ever seen in his whole life. He got up and also jumped out the window, his feet landing with a thump on the smooth green under him, and ran after her, not knowing where he would be following her to.

But he was Asakura Yoh and if something troubled anyone he couldn't leave it like that, even if all this has happened before, and there was no way to change the outcome of this memory.

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MANTA'S P.O.V

Almost three weeks without Yoh-kun and Anna-san, the atmosphere felt different for me. Don't get me wrong, Hao and Annaka-san are good replacements but…they're not Yoh-kun and Anna.

We were now only a few blocks away from Shinra Private Academy; it took us longer than normal because Tamao, Hao, Annaka-san, and I had forgotten that we had to attend school right after applying the others into it.

I found it a bit strange. Ren and the others…all attending the same school as Yoh would've if he were still here…I wonder what Yoh would say to lighten the silent uncomfortable mood…

"Ah~, sure feels nice out today," Hao stretched, slinging his bag over his shoulder. He sounded a lot like Yoh when he smiled so carelessly. "Too bad we're going to have to spend it indoors," he added.

I looked up at the sky, it seemed we would have enough time to lie under a tree for a bit, after all we came extremely early to apply everyone else here.

"So it's good then," Hao said, probably responding to the things he heard in my head.

Horohoro, who walked behind me, made a remark, "Hey how about you let the rest of us in on the conversation, we can't all read minds you know."

I've always wondered if Horohoro had ever been jealous of Yoh or Hao. By Hao I meant now, him having a wife and being known as the most powerful shaman in the world before he used up all his furyoku to revive Anna the first time we went to Mu.

Hao frowned at the last part.

I felt kinda bad for Horo though, Kororo and he are a bit like Faust and Eliza, shaman to spirit love, as I decided to call it. Hopefully Hao or Annaka wouldn't tell Horohoro I sad that.

They both smirked.

Feeling an uncomfortable aura, I looked up at Tamao who walked directly beside me, her eyes staring at the ground as she took step by step. She had been acting strange since we'd stayed at Nianna's place the first night, I wonder how she got those burned marks on her wrist. Yea they haven't seemed to get any better, the looked like a recently new cremate amount of skin.

The troubled expression on her face could be that the burns were beginning to sting again, if they were then I could just ask my father for a doctor to check her after school. That could be reason one, the other reason could be the blonde boy behind us. Emmetto. Even though I and Tamao were walking in front of him and the rest of Nianna's group we could somehow feel the strong gaze on our backs. To be honest it even gave me the chills.

But it felt as if the other two, Wilhelmina and Arisu, were also staring, though Arisu doesn't scare me as much as Wilhelmina and Emmetto.

Something seemed different about those three, their golden eyes and pale visages scared me. It wasn't like if I haven't seen pale faces and golden eyes before, it's just that…all three of them have it, and they don't seem related at all.

I turned my head back to catch at least a glimpse of them and they were staring at us, but Arisu-san saw me and gave me a smile that matched The Iron Maiden's. I don't know much about Soraguimi but Arisu-san was a bit too open and a bit easy to figure out.

Here are the things I have guessed about her: she likes Lyserg, hates The Iron Maiden, has the energy of Matilda, acts like she's close to Hao, and…she can see the future.

I don't mean predict the future either; I really mean see the future, at least that's my theory. I came to me when we were back at Mu and Arisu-san made Ren mad. I specifically remember Arisu-san's eyes going blank and she counting out the seconds until Lyserg tied Ren with his pendulum. It's like one of those movies where a character can see the future and their eyes go blank, like far off into time. I noticed this with Arisu-san as well. [A/N: not many people guessed right about Arisu's shamanic power]

The rest of Soraguimi is fuzzy to me and as for Nianna-san and Nagehiko-san, they seem a bit locked up, Nagehiko-san mostly.

"Oi Oyamada, wake up." Annaka-san ordered me.

I raised my head and noticed we not only passed the school gates but also we were right in front of the door to the hallways. When did I doze off so quickly…?

Ren took a few steps in front of me, griming at the school in front of him as he crossed his arms, "Why do I have to be here?" he asked, his eyes pointing towards Hao and Annaka-san. "I have no need to be educated here, back at the Tao mansion I am educated to become the Tao throne."

Bason appeared beside him and nodded in agreement, "That's right Bocchima."

I felt a drop of sweat follow fall down my forehead. The way Bason acted with Ren was a bit funny not to mention strange.

Hao angled himself to look at everyone who was behind him, pushing back his hair, "As far as I'm concerned, none of you have to come to school."

If the others were as puzzled as I was they weren't very good at showing it. Everyone's face was blank except for Tamao's and most likely mine. The only thing anyone did was raise a brow.

Hao crossed his arms and smirked, "You are all educated differently because of the different cultures you were all raised in. For example," –he pointed to Ren- "Ren is educated on how to become a powerful shaman so that he may take over the Tao clan, how is a human school going to help with that?"

He did have a point. Ren doesn't have to things such as literature and world history, he needs to become a strong fighter in order to keep the strong Tao bloodline going. After all the Tao's specialty is their fighting abilities and good eyes of observation, using Chinese poisons or deadly weapons and powerful spirits to win fights or wars, nothing that this school can teach. I remember reading once of the Tao Te Ching were there was a scripture that said:

The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.

It is hidden but always present.
I don't know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.

Basically the Tao clan is very old so their methods of teaching could still be as they were for many generations before.

Next Hao pointed to Horohoro, "The Ainu education is different as well, mostly of survival and consists of a more…animist perspective, and you don't learn any of that here."

Not to mention the literature too. The Ainu language is significantly different from the Japanese language in its syntax, phonology, morphology, and vocabulary. Although there have been attempts to show that they are related, the vast majority of modern scholars reject that the relationship goes beyond contact, such as the mutual borrowing of words between Japanese and Ainu. In fact, no attempt to show a relationship with Ainu to any other language has gained wide acceptance, and Ainu is currently considered to be a language isolate.

Then it became Lyserg's turn to be exampled, "Little Lyserg has been home schooled up to this point. His family prefers to study along the line of using their dowsing techniques for criminology, not to mention Lyserg here prefers to learn from books rather than people other than his father."

Lyserg blushed and look towards the ground. My opinion is that since his parents' murder by Hao, could it be Lyserg skipped the books and went straight to a method that consisted of becoming stronger? It would explain why from what Yoh told me and Anna about Lyserg first looking for strong allies.

"Chocolove doesn't require much learning either," Hao went on, "in Africa they don't prepare you for life outside of Africa, and they mostly sing, dance, and tell myths and legends."

Not to mention every member of the community had a hand in contributing to the educational upbringing of the child. The high point of the African educational experience was the ritual passage ceremony from childhood to adulthood. There were no academic examinations necessary to graduate in the African educational system. But Chocolove's dream is to be a comedian, and a human school really can't improve his jokes.

Hao kept talking as he walked, with everyone else behind him, "Then we have little Stubborn-chan's education in the Catholic Church," –I saw The Iron Maiden frown at him- "personally I don't consider that much of an education, so maybe this school will do you good."

We had finally reached the principal's office. Boy I wonder about the look on Love-senpai's, the secretary, face when she saw Hao coming into the office so early because her eyes brows just shot up as soon as we entered.

"Asakura Yoh-san!" she blinked in what was probably surprise. Simpson Love-Senpai is a foreign one year graduate from this school, after almost going back to America she decided to stay and work as the school secretary since she didn't want to leave the school. "First time coming early to school I see," she smiled, Love-Senpai was the only one besides Anna who knew how many times Yoh had been absent to school, she turned to me and waved, "Ohayo Oyamada Manta-san!"

I raised a hand and greeted her back, feeling the blood rush to my head. Love-Senpai was cute, the only guy I knew who didn't agree with me was Yoh, but it seemed that Hao wasn't interested either.

Annaka walked over to the front desk and placed her hand on the desk, resting her body on one arm, "We have some friends, who are required to be transferred here, Love-Senpai, you will assist us in that…right?"

I have no idea what kind of look Annaka-san gave Love-Senpai at the moment, but judging by Love-Senpai's reaction it sure wasn't a very nice one.

She instantly back up a bit in her chair as her eyes grew and she began to stutter, "O-of c-course K-Kyoyama Anna-san!" Love-Senpai instantly jerked up out of her seat and basically ran to our principal's office.

Once she was inside the room Hao busted out laughing. "Someone is jealous," he laughed. All I saw was Annaka-san's face blush about three shades of red and she turned her back to Hao. I've always thought about the differences between Hao and Annaka-san's relationship and Yoh and Anna's relationship. If Yoh would've said that to Anna-san he would be in the spirit world long before his time, but all Hao does is make Annaka-san blush so easily, I wonder if eventually Yoh and Anna's relationship will be this good…

"Oi," Horohoro called from the door, "how long is this going to take? I really just want to back to the inn to eat."

Hao aimed his attention over to the door, and his expression worried me to be honest. "Looks like we may some difficulties…" he announced, then a strange grin appeared on his face, "Oi, Stubborn-Chan!" he called. The Iron Maiden popped her head in the room. "Why don't we start with you and Lyserg? To lighten the principal's mood a bit."

How would using Lyserg and The Iron Maiden help lighten up the principal's mood?

Maiden-san's face grimaced but calmed as Lyserg placed a hand on her shoulder, "We'll try our best!" he said with a smile that could possibly make any girl start hyperventilate immediately.

Ah I get where Hao is going with this now.

Love-Senpai came out of the office at that instant and looked at me, "Oyamada Manta-san, the principal says he will only take two at a time. So…"

I nodded "Eh…not a problem, it might take longer though…but I guess its fine."

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Yoh ran as fast as he could to catch up to the rapid seven year old that ran only a few feet in front of him. "Anna-chan, wait up!" he yelled now pushing himself to his limits to catch up with the blond speeding bullet.

'How can she run so fast?' Yoh asked himself until Anna-chan finally came to a stop at the bench right in front of the convenience store. "Anna…chan…what's…wrong?" he asked between his long breaths.

Anna-chan rose up her head and Yoh saw tears flooding down her face, "Did you not see him?" she asked through her faint sobs, "Did you not see him about to come into the house!?"

Yoh blinked, placed a hand on her shoulder, knelt down in front of the small girl and then he began to speak in a soft and kind matter, "Who, Anna-chan?" he asked.

Anna-chan didn't look him in the eyes, instead she looked down at her hands that were slowly forming into tight fists, and through her gritted teeth and sobs she said, "My father."

Yoh's eyes grew about an inch as he took this in, "You saw your father?" he asked. The blonde gave him a nod, and shook his hand off of her shoulder, then she took a few steps back and began to speak in a more calm tone.

"My father…hates me," she hesitated in saying. "He knows something is wrong with me." She looked at the palm of her hand and clenched it into a fist, "Not only him, my brother also knows this, but…"

Yoh placed his hand softly on her head and gently patted her. "He's not telling anyone so he must like you being his sister, Anna-chan," Yoh cheerfully concluded, giving her one of his famous grins. "Everything will work out in the end!"

Anna-chan took his hand off her head and grimed, "You're too laid back, Yoh-kun," she protested as nicely as she could, letting out a sigh, "Oi, why don't we shop a little? I have to buy some things anyway," she said now more cheerfully.

Yoh nodded and followed as the small girl walked in front of him. 'For right now she seems different than Anna. Anna hides all her feelings behind a grave and grim façade, Anna-chan hides hers through a cheerful one to prove that even with difficulties she can be happy and live a normal life. Though even if it's my Anna, or this little one, they are both far beyond normal.'

"It's that time of year again, huh?" Yoh asked, wanting to begin a conversation with the grim blonde before him. Anna-chan or not, Anna-chan was still Anna, and Yoh didn't have that hard of a time talking to Anna. All he ever did was say something and the conversation would just flow.

The small girl look at each passing store and nodded, "Decorations, gaudy and bright and sparkling lining Machiosore's streets, hai, Christmas really is tomorrow."

Yoh smiled. You see? It really was easy to start a conversation with her. He watched and followed the child's gaze to every store she eyed trying to see through her eyes but he found nothing. Then the child stopped and stared a particular store. "Yoh-kun lets go there," she pointed to the store to where her gaze was at.

Yoh turned to view the store and madly blushed, "Ano, how about I wait here?" he stuttered, yanking his head in the opposite direction from the store and beginning to walk towards a nearby bench. Anna-chan grabbed him and pulled him back, giving him a childish glare.

The jingle from the bell that hung from the door seemed to have startled the girl who worked at the store for she immediately jumped and said, "Ah! WELCOME!" the girl seemed even more surprised to see a small blonde, and an older boy, come into the store.

"Konichiwa," Anna-chan bowed, "I am heading to Kyouto tomorrow with my family and my sister asked me to buy some things for her, I was hoping you could help me?"

The girl nodded and smiled, "Of course," she replied paying no attention to Yoh. Maybe Yoh became his spirit self again so the girl couldn't see him, he was glad too, he didn't want anyone to see him in a "women's store".

While the two girls were busy, Yoh turned his attention to the sky outside, dozing off for who knows how long. Finally Anna-chan tugged at his pants, causing Yoh to finally wake up.

She handed him a brown paper bag, "Here," she said, placing the bag in his hands. Yoh stared at the bag, puzzled and curious, he peeked into it and immediately regretting it.

"Why are you handing this to me?!" Yoh exclaimed, face turning the deepest shade of red that could ever exist.

Anna-chan tried to hold back a smile but failed in doing so, to distract her self from smiling she turned away from Yoh and said, "They're for your wife. She's here isn't she? That's why you've been much more cheerful than usual."

Yoh uncomfortably laughed, "I don't see myself any happier than normal…"

"You have a shining light behind you that says it, you're grinning more than usual, and right now you're blushing madly, Yoh-kun." She added real quickly, "not to mention you seem to be happy even though I'm trying to get you to leave me alone."

Yoh blinked and bent down so that his eyes could meet up with the small girl's, "You want me to leave you alone?" he asked her meaningfully.

Anna-chan's long hair covered all of her face, so Yoh could not see her expression as she opened her mouth to say, "Hai. I am too much trouble for you to be around me. I am dangerous, even to spirits. So it's best for you to-"

"I'm not going anywhere."

Anna-chan frowned at Yoh's comment and Yoh frowned at the dejavu.

"I don't like seeing people this way so I'm planning on doing something about it, so…" –he got up and patted her on the head- "I'll be sticking around you for a while." He gave her a long grin as he went to the door, the small bells jingling as he opened it, "You're just going to have to get used to me!" he joked heading out the door with the small blond trailing right behind him.

From the corner of the store Anna watched as the two went out of the store, seeing how Yoh's cheerfulness brought him and Anna-chan closer together. "Idiot," Anna muttered under her breathe, "You don't know what you are getting yourself into."

She walked over to the counter where she saw the Machiosore paper laying across the smooth oak wood.

KYOYAMA RETURNS TO SOLVE THE RESENT DEATHS IN THE CITY!

Anna scoffed at the paper's words, "There's nothing so great about that man coming," she irritably commented in rage, "that man…he's the end of me." She swayed her hand once across the air, causing a faint wind blow to push the paper to the ground spreading it all out on the floor.

Then she departed from the store, looking around the place that was once her home, everything seemed just as se remembered it in those faint and old memories of her bloody childhood.

There was still that uncomfortable aura that came from her very faint presence; in her head she saw it all, the red snow, the blade, the lives that she took…everything.

"This whole city will be gone by New Years. Just as I destroyed it back then." She sighed before turning on her feet and heading back to Cadm's place.

"Are you sure you have everything for tomorrow?" Ohachiyo asked at his partner as he watched Cadm pack everything into large bags.

"It could be much easier if you would help out, but yes I have everything," Cadm replied, throwing himself on the suitcase in order to close it.

At that moment the door opened and Anna came into the room, she paused as she watched Cadm jump up and down on his suitcase with all of his weight while Ohachiyo laughed. She let out a sigh before walking over to the suitcase and pushing down on it once, it closed immediately under her touch.

Cadm, thinking he finally closed it, smiled triumphantly, "You see," he told his demon friend, "not that hard."

Anna rolled her eyes. Boy! Were men helpless! She smiled at seeing her uncle laugh happily, then her eyes grew serious.

'I'll do what I can until you give your life to save mine…and until Yoh hates me for what I did back then.'

"I want to meet her."

Yoh blinked as he blew on his hot chocolate, "Meet who?" he asked taking a sip of it and feeling it warm his whole body after one gulp.

"Anna-san."

The snow suddenly melted as the hot chocolate that left Yoh's mouth at that instant touched it. Yoh coughed for a bit before turning back to Anna-chan, who had gazed at him with a curious look.

"Why do you want to meet Anna?" he asked through all of his coughing, softly pounding on his chest.

"Just because," she responded in a childlike manner, gulping down her chocolate milk as if it were regular water. Yoh watched as after a few seconds Anna-chan's cup was empty.

"Wow you were really thirsty!" he exclaimed in shock as the girl threw her cup away. She frowned at Yoh's comment.

"Don't change the subject!" the young one protested punching Yoh softly on the arm, at least, she though she did it softly.

"Ow!" Yoh winced in pain, causing the rest of his warm drink to fall into the snow, "Dang it." He muttered, he stared at it as it melted the frozen water it touched.

Anna-chan stared at the hot chocolate and bent down, touching it with her tiny hands, and in one tiny little bit of blinding light, the liquid was back in the cup, still warm in temperature. "How'd you-?" Yoh began to ask, but was able to stop himself as he saw that the small girl look just as surprised as he was.

"Could it be part of my disability?" she quietly asked under her breath, not bothering to hand Yoh the cup, instead she left it on the snow and ran.

Yoh jerked himself up off the bench and called after her, "ANNA-CHAN!" he called starting to run until he realized his feet were gone; he was once again in his spirit form. "Dammit," he cursed, looking after the body of the small girl that was getting smaller with each passing second, "Anna-chan."

He wasn't going to just float there, no, instead he floated directly behind her, trying hard to both stay in the air and keep up with the small blonde. "Anna-chan!" he kept yelling, but the girl couldn't see or hear him.

'Why can't she see me?' Yoh asked desperately through his head, 'It's just like last time…with Shio Yui…'

Yui kicked her in her gut, Anna fell back once more, she hit a tree that was to her side, and she flinched in pain.

"Anna!" Yoh shouted, he got up and went to her ready to hold her in his arms.

He bent over to touch her, but…he couldn't.

He tried again.

Nothing.

"Anna!" he shouted once more.

But Anna seemed as if she didn't see or hear him. She looked on, her face completely blank.

Yoh shook that moment out of his head, 'It seems I turn into spirit form when I have to be helpless or when I have nothing to do or be seen for.' He gritted his teeth, 'Something is going to happen.'

Anna-chan kept on running, all Yoh could see of her was her back and those long rays of sunshine that came from her head and were flowing with the wind that passed by them as she scuttled on. The Kyoyama residence was only a few more yards ahead, but Yoh felt its presence…disturbing.

Spirits were floating around the house, watching something very closely with…fear?

They were close to the gates now only a few feet away, but just as Anna reached out to touch the gates…

SLAP!

The sound could be heard throughout the whole block, Yoh froze, as so did Anna-chan, her tiny thin hands now touching the rough metal of the silver gates. She was in the way, so Yoh could not see what was going on in the other side of those gates, so he decided to look through Anna-chan's thoughts instead, as he had done before.

Edward was on the ground, cupping one of his cheeks with his right hand, he looked up and glared at the man who had slapped him. From both Anna and Edward's thoughts of awe and hate he could tell…this man was Kyoyama Damasu.

"Obviously you did not inherit my side of the genes, Edward," the man retorted insultingly, "If you did you would have received my observation skills and you could also know that she is not human."

Edward began to rise, still cupping his cheek, "Your observation skills must be failing you, Father. Because Anna is every bit human, you can tell by just looking at her," he answered back coldly, his eyes trying to burn holes through the man's body, but failing to do such thing.

Kyoyama Damasu turned his back to his son and bent over to pick up a small yellow flower that lay on the green under his foot, he stayed in that position as he spoke, admiring the tiny yellow wine glass that glittered under the light that touched its petals. "Have you ever heard of a fox in disguise, Edward?" he asked, now rising up to stand.

"Iie. What about them?" the blonde boy asked, not ready for another lecture of his father.

"About five hundred years and more, many monks and humans believed that there existed other beings in this world, demons, so to say. They called them foxes in disguise, for foxes were known to be unique creatures as well. Do you see where I am going with this, My Son?"

"You think Anna is a demon?" Edward asked coldly, his fist tightening with his father's every word.

Anna grimaced at the theory, Yoh narrowed his eyes. So Anna had also been called a demon child as well, just as he once had.

Damasu's serious frown slowly lit with a smirk, "No…" he calmly said, "there is a tale that says there exists a queen…a queen of all demons."- He paused for a long moment, letting all the words he spoke soak into his eldest son- "It is said that all creatures and beings can reincarnate, am I right? Now what chance is there that Anna could be that reincarnation?"

"None." Edward retorted deafeningly, "I told you before, Anna is human. She is no different than me or you, so stop this shit." He pushed his father out of the way and began making his way inside the house before Damasu's voice stopped him dead in his tracks.

"What did you see in Anna to draw that painting in the convenience store, Edward?"

Edward stopped dead in his tracks, Damasu smirked, "Nothing that concerns you, you have your opinion and I have my facts. I have nothing more to say." with that said he walked back into the large house.

Damasu smiled and instantly crushed the tulip in his hand then let it gently flow to the ground before walking back inside the house himself.

Yoh looked at Anna, who stared at the door where both her father and brother had gone back inside to. She clenched the bar of the gate in her tiny hands, "What do you want me to say, papa?" she monotoned, "Do you want me to be different so you can be right? Do you want me to hate those who are not like me? Do you want me to hate…humans?"

The brunette listened to the blonde's cries, knowing there was nothing he could do for her, because all of this was in the past, and he couldn't change that one bit.

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"M-Manta-kun?"

Manta looked up from the Manjien to look at the flustered pink haired in front of him. Tamao didn't look at him but instead she looked down at her hands, a sort of nervous look on her face.

"Are they still looking over here?" she asked, pointing towards Soraguimi who (only Arisu and Emmetto) now wore the Shinra Private Academy school uniforms. Manta looked over at them and met with the topaz eyes of the coal haired pixie. She smiled cheerfully and Manta sweat dropped.

"He…he…looks like it Tamao," he replied nervously, feeling uncomfortable under the gaze of their bisque eyes.

They were all waiting for class to begin and for some to change into their school uniforms; Hao and Annaka left…somewhere, and the only ones who were left to change were Marion, Matilda, and Jeanne, who was changing at that moment.

"Hao-sama is cruel in making us come to a school with…humans," Macchi whined, shivering at the last word that left her lips.

Marion nodded, "Mari thinks this is unfair, Kanna-chan isn't coming to this wretched human school."

Kanna opened her eyes, she straightened up and pushed back some of her long blue hair, then she took out the tooth pick that now replaces her usual cigarette. "I can't help my age so suck it up."

"But doesn't Hao-sama know how much we'll suffer here?" the orange haired shaman softly asked, her eyes beginning to grow watery.

Manta seriously couldn't take it anymore, he let out a long sigh, "He knows," he softly blurted out.

"Nani?" the flowers all asked, their eyes all turning to the small, their small mouths dropping at his bold comment. Not bold because he's doing the exact opposite of what Annaka told him to do but because he was contradicting The Flowers' opinions on their master.

'But Anna-san said that I have to help them so…' Manta sighed once more. It seemed that what Anna says is more important than what Annaka-san would say, so at least that gave him a little courage. "Hao knows how you three would feel being here; don't forget he can still read your mind. But…" –he opened his Manjien and pulled out three slips of paper, and handed them to the three flowers- "I believe if Yoh were here then he would let you go back to where you wish so I got these tickets for you three to go wherever you wish to go back to, I guess you could say Anna made me do it." He finished sheepishly.

The three girls were stunned, they stared long and hard at the human boy who was handing them their tickets to freedom. Marion clutched Chuck to her chest, Kanna looked to the floor, "Lord Hao…does he approve of this? Is he really willing to…grant us our freedom?"

"Hao's no idiot." Ren stated as he leaned his back to the small lockers behind him, his hands placed inside the pockets of the school uniform he wore. "Manta must have thought of this while Hao was around here. Most likely Hao knows, and seeing as he hasn't protested…you have your freedom."

The three girls considered this and hesitated, two of them started shaking as they thought of what would come if Hao didn't approve of their freedom from their eternal loyalty to him. But it was the eldest of the three who spit out her toothpick and walked up to the short human. "Lord Hao respects Anna-sama's decisions. And if Anna-sama's orders are for you to do this…then we will do this with loyalty to her decision," Kanna said hesitantly, making an excuse for her action in taking the train ticket out of Manta's hands.

As she took her ticket, Matilda stood up off the floor and, while shaking, she walked over to Manta and gently slipped the ticket out of hand, Marion doing the same but much more bluntly.

Finally when the three members of Hanagumi had their tickets in hand, they lowered their heads, uncertain of what to do now. "To be free from Hao-sama…we've always been with him…ever since he saved us…" tears began to form in the orange flower's eyes, from those lavender petals came the raindrops that came from a impendent storm in her and the others' hearts.

"Mari…feels confused…and sad."

"I see nothing to cry about," the ringing voice in the wind answered to all of them. All eyes turned to view the source of the voice who they knew was obviously Nianna. All but Manta and Tamao were amazed at how well the uniform fit her, her Anna-length mid-night-black hair contrasted but yet blended in with the green and white clothing of the school. Of course Manta and Tamao weren't shocked at how she looked, she looked exactly like Anna and Annaka did…perfect.

But it seemed as if the mid-night girl did not realize anyone's gaze on her, her gaze was on Hanagumi who watched her with uncertain eyes. "You three have your freedom so go." She simply stated, shrugging her shoulders as if the whole thing was obvious. "Of course…you have always had your freedom," she added, cocking her head to one side, "Yes, you have. After the shaman fight Asakura never said you had to stay with him did he?"

Kanna glared at the Anna-look-alike, "Anna-sama assigned us places to live in," she coldly retorted, anger bubbling up inside of her. This fake was mocking her loyalty to Hao-sama, if she didn't know what punishment would lie ahead for killing Nianna she would have already struck the fake queen dead.

While everyone else seemed cool about the whole situation, as always, it was Manta and Tamao who would worry. The two of them turned to face one another with uneasy worry, both were nervous of Hanagumi's well known temper, and both remembering that Marion had Chuck in her hands…

There was an aura of tension in the school as our shamans viewed the two girls, but like Anna, Nianna remained neutral to the feeling in the room. The black haired girl crossed her arms in front of her and grimed her face, causing Manta to shiver at the close resemblance of Anna and Nianna.

"Am I not Anna?" she asked in an impossibly innocent but menacing tone.

Ren, Chocolove, Lyserg and Horo's mouths all dropped in shock at her words, Manta and Tamao ran a few steps backwards before both yelling, "EHH?!" in unison, Wilhelmina, Arisu, and Emmetto's topaz eyes dilated greatly.

Matilda suddenly had a tight grip on her broom, "You are not Anna-sama." She protested trying to keep her cool; it was rare moments such as this when she would feel like loathing somebody so much. "Anna-sama is Yoh-sama's wife, The Shaman Queen, someone who Hao-sama respects and trusts very dearly," her plum eyes shaking in anger.

Marion's body was shaking as well, if Chuck was alive he would be choked in less than a second by his master's tight grip, "Mari," she began, her green eyes blaring holes right through Nianna, "You belong to no one, you are no queen, and Hao-sama doesn't respect or trust you."

-Kanna pulled back her arm, forming her hand into a tight ball-"You…are nothing like the girl Lord Hao respects!" in her rage, Kanna threw her fist back and then threw it forward towards Nianna with all the force that she could make into that one physical attack.

Her fist hit something hard, but it wasn't Nianna's face or any part of her body, it was…thin air.

She looked up to where her fist stopped in mid-punch, Emmetto was standing directly in front of where her fist stopped, but he was a few inches away from her balled hand.

"It's not right to hit a child if it's not yours," he bluntly stated, "If you're going to fight with some dignity fight with your elders to prove your strength."

The blue haired shaman scoffed, "Elder? Ha! How old do you think I am?

Ren eyed the situation closely, observing a possible enemy, when his eyes wandered to the two female members of Soraguimi. He watched as Wilhelmina watched bluntly no emotion showing as her long wine curls slowly began to fall around her face. Then he saw the pixie girl wince and his gaze landed on her, his suspicion rose as he saw the thin girl smirk, her eyes producing acknowledgement.

The blonde boy's serious face turned into an amused face, he crossed his arms and his eyes hinted something hidden behind all that gold in them. "You act as if you were a child of five."

"WHY YOU!!" Kanna began to bring her arm back to punch the boy until she found out she couldn't. 'What the hell? I...can't move' her eyes landed on Emmetto who smirked at her in triumph. 'The bastard. What the hell is he? I can't…feel my body.'

Matilda and Marion both looked worryingly at their teammate, "Kanna-chan?" Macchi asked, a slight tremble in her voice. "Kanna-chan!?"

Suddenly Kanna could no longer hear them, she could only see them as they mouth words to her, her body was numb and her senses were…numbing.

"STOP IT!" Tamao unintently yelled. Manta looked up at the girl beside him; Tamao quickly covered her mouth as she realized that she had just yelled. Everyone else was equally surprised.

Emmetto just stared at the girl, amazed by her sudden outburst, he closed his eyes and in a split second Kanna fell to the ground, feeling as if all her blood had rushed back to her in one shot.

Chocolove and Lyserg both went over to help her stand without falling back down, Nianna took one last look at the three members of Hanagumi before saying, "You should go."

Wilhelmina watched boredly as the three flowers made their way out the door, "If they knew what we are they would know better," she stated, pushing back a mess of red curls.

Arisu shook her head, "Iie, according to all of them there's no such thing as us, they wouldn't know what to expect." –She looked over at two of the shamans that watched Hanagumi leave- "Well, two of them might…but soon they'll all know."

---

The darkness that he saw wasn't scary; it was more peaceful than anything really, he was just sound asleep, his body leaning on a tree, the wind blowing back his long brunette hair.

He wasn't really asleep, just having his eyes closed to find peace within his own mind. Beside him Annaka watched him, her now oversouled brown eyes staring at him in awe at how he could sleep almost anywhere.

Even though they were still on school campus, Annaka found herself at ease by just sitting beneath the sakura tree. She two wanted to close her eyes to rest so she began to slowly close her eye lids before she saw a figure walking a few yards away.

The blonde's eyes grew a tremendous amount before she shook her head. 'It can't be…' she tried to convince herself 'he's…'

She looked up once more and sure enough the boy was still there.

The boy had smooth tan skin that was completely flawless, long perfectly straight coal black hair down to his back and mid-night colored eyes. He wore the Shinra Private Academy uniform but, unlike Hao, his shirt was buttoned up half-way.

The boy stared long and hard at the clouds, his eyes having a certain warmth to them as he harmonized himself in nature's fluffy white pillows in the sky. 'The sky never seems to stay the same…just like she said…'

The image from the boy's thoughts filled Annaka's head, she internally gasped at the familiar image in her head, the picture of the girl…the girl with the blank eyes. She immediately stood, unable to realize until now that Hao had a hold of her hand. She didn't want to wake Hao up, but still… "NAGEHIKO!" she called out, pleading he wouldn't run away.

Nagehiko winced at the sound of his name; he turned to the source from which his name came from. His eyes grew as he suddenly realized that he was standing in front of both Asakura's without his cloak. He quickly turned and ran to the double doors, away from the sight of the blonde.

Annaka looked at him as he left, she couldn't go after him, if Hao were to wake up he would be equally surprised to know the same as she. "You can't be alive," she whispered in monotone to herself, "How is it you can be alive…Patch Priest Nagehiko?"

From the corner of the school building a certain Chinese shaman looked at the two Asakuras and the boy that ran away. A smile formed on the lips of her pale face, she twirled one of her red curls around with her index finger as she became amused with the scene.

"You were right," said the red head, her golden eyes now speaking to the blonde Asakura, "you do remember us. Even that damn Patch that saved you and, possibly, you remember her too? How could you not? You two are connected, are you not?"

She leaned on the wall of the school building as she watched Annaka sit back down to the blades of green below the tree. Then, her eyes landed on the resting brunette and her topaz eyes turned cold, "I'll make you remember, I'll make you remember all of us…Hao-sama."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Asakura Hao sat on a large boulder that was not alone, the vale he was at had many boulders bigger than the one he sat on, but that didn't matter. He was looking at the beauty off all Mother Nature that Kami-sama had given to the earth, the greatest beauty. But that also didn't matter either.

What mattered was that at that instant he knew someone was watching him, and that that someone was coming in the name of another, of that damn Patch Maiden.

The boy behind him believed he was being extremely quiet in sneaking behind his enemy, but boy was he wrong. Hao knew very well that he was there.

The boy brought out his weapon as he became closer with each step that he took. In his hands was a long Kusarigama(a traditional Japanese weapon that consists of kama, the Japanese equivalent of a sickle, on a metal chain with a heavy iron weight at the end) that instead of a kama it had a hard preserved and enormous bear claw. Its patterns were gold with black and long black streaks of rectangular shapes at the bottom.

He was well prepared to finish with Asakura Hao for good, for there had been many that wished to kill him as much as he did.

He was only feet away now and in the blink of a human eye, he jumped into the air and brought back his clawed kusarigama, getting ready to slice the body of enemy with his grand oversoul. "O.S ougon no kyokusei no mou!" he shouted as his spirit came into contact with his medium.

As his body was coming closer into contact he shouted one more phrase, "DIE ASAKURA HAO!"

With his back turned to the boy, Hao smirked.

Before the boy could react, his oversoul armor got trapped in something. No. something trapped his oversoul…blue beads.

In an instant his oversoul was gone, causing the boy to come crashing to the ground.

Hao sat up from the boulder and stood, his body shadowing over the boy's body, Hao smiled, "Impressive," he said with humor, "normally one doesn't come so close to me as you did. But should you really be trying to kill your fellow Patch, Patch Priest Nagehiko?"

Nagehiko grimaced and growled at Hao's words, "You're a fake, Asakura Hao. You became a Patch due to your ability to reincarnate into whatever family you wished, and as a result…you stole the S.O.F."

"Proves I'm strong enough to be a Patch, does it not?" Hao challenged, his eyes becoming amused by the boy's temper.

Nagehiko immediately stood and pointed his kusarigama to Hao's face, his coal dark eyes having the word "loathe" written all over them, "I'll personally kill you,"

Hao raised a brow, "Really?"

The grip on the black haired Patch's kusarigama tightened, but before he could injure the brunette, something got a hold of his weapon, yanking it out of his hand promptly.

The boy turned to view his stolen kusarigama and saw the thief. It was a girl, girls around his age with chocolate hair a bit pass her shoulders, she wore a windmill printed orange kimono with a tight koshi-obi of a darker orange tied around her waist, a thin strip of light blue ribbon tied in a bow over it.

Her eyes were hidden behind her hair, but the bottom of her visage seemed flawless. In her hand was Nagehiko's kusarigama, wrapped and tied up by a light blue beaded rosary necklace. Hao smiled as Nagehiko stared at the strange girl who managed to take his weapon with such ease, "Tell you what Nagehiko, we'll play a little game."

The coal haired boy glared at Hao, "How old do you think I am, Asakura?"

The Asakura smirked, "We'll make it a bet then." –he walked over to the brunette girl and took Nagehiko's weapon from her- "You'll have a shaman fight with one of my followers, a test of strength so to say, if you beat my follower you can kill me, but if my follower wins…" Hao's eyes became completely amused by his own proposal as he spoke the remaining of the rules, "then I get to decide your fate."

Nagehiko grimaced and froze in place as those words echoed in his head, 'I get to decide your fate…' he balled his hands into fists, his eyes blaring deep holes through Hao's body. "Deal." He agreed, "So which one of you do I fight?"

Behind the trees appeared four cloaked figures none of their eyes showing, due to either their hair or cloak hoods covering their eyes. The smallest of all of them turned her cloaked head towards Hao. "Hao-Onichan~" she softly spoke in a voice that seemed familiar to Nagehiko.

Hao nodded, understanding the girl's unspoken comment by simply reading her mind, "Don't worry, I know." Hao looked at the other three that stood in their cloaks hidden beneath the shady trees, "You all can just watch," he informed them before turning to the brunette girl in the orange kimono, "Annai, you'll fight him," Hao loudly announced to everyone.

"!"

The tallest of the cloaked figures winced and jerked a step forward, causing two locks of red curls to come out of the shadows of her cloak, "Hao-sama! But she's-"

"That just makes it more interesting does it not?" Hao grinned completely aloof, "After all…the shaman fight is only for entertainment, because the Shaman King…will be me."

Hao tossed him his weapon, Nagehiko catching it with ease and already preparing himself in stance. The Asakura-Patch grinned at seeing the boy's determination, he turned to his own determined follower, "Don't disappoint me, okay?" he playfully ordered.

The girl he called Annai didn't speak, but simply nodded her head, her eyes still hidden from anyone's view.

Hao took his time to walk back to where the most loyal of his followers stood, beneath the shadows of the sakura trees.

"Hao-sama," a male voice called from under the cloak, "out of all the people you choose her…why?"

the smallest follower with the cloak turned to the cloaked figure from which the male voice came, "You underestimate Annai," she calmly informed.

Hao nodded his head, his red haori becoming a shade darker as he entered the cooler side of the forest, "Annai hasn't talked since the day she was abandon by her clan, she's been in just the same amount of pain as the rest of you. But don't worry this fight won't take long," –he looked down at the small cloaked girl- "right?"

The young cloaked girl nodded her head, "Right~" she cheerfully agreed.

Nagehiko spread his legs out and bent over slightly, clutching his kusarigama with both of his smooth tan hands, "I'll have you meet my spirit before anything," he told the girl.

There was gush of yellow smoke as a huge, impossibly giant white bear appearing behind the dark haired boy, a gold and black armor around his head and the rest of its body. It growled at the chocolate haired girl, showing off its fierce white teeth.

"Impressive, huh?" Nagehiko smirked as his spirit roared in a grand and powerful voice. But yet Annai didn't budge, she simply stood as she was before, the bottom half of her smooth peach-colored skin was grim.

Nagehiko grimed, "You…you're making fun of me," he growled under his breath, "Girl or no girl, I will not go easy on you. O.S. ougon no tsume!"

The grand bear dissolved into a golden haze, rapidly entering his kusarigama and becoming a grand armor over Nagehiko's body, his weapon now becoming bright and blinding.

He launched himself in the air, hovering above the ground and coming down just as he was over Annai.

Annai didn't move until heard Nagehiko only a few feet above her, then she quickly jumped back, causing Nagehiko to come down crashing to the ground.

Dust flew deluged everywhere causing a deep mist of brown to surround them, Nagehiko stood, a grand crater surrounding him from where he landed.

*pant* *pant* the dark haired Patch gazed up at the girl as he took in the deep breaths that left him during the collision against the ground.

Annai was only a few feet away from the crater, standing as if she didn't see the enormous hole that took up massive amounts of land. She just stood there completely neutral to everything that was going on around her, then Nagehiko saw her smirk…

'Kisama, she's making fun of me again,' the boy pushed himself up and stood up tall, grabbing his kusarigama that laid on the rocks beside him. His oversoul had been destroyed once.

"I will not…be made a fool of…BY A GIRL!" he slammed his weapon to the ground and the claw at the end of it grew, casting him into the summit of the azure.

He swung his kusarigama once towards Annai's body, then twice, and again, missing her body every time as she dodged the bladed claw by an inch.

"He sure is putting up a fight," the small cloaked girl stated, "how worthless his effort will be in the end," she shrugged.

The cloaked male crossed his arms in front of him, "It's bad enough for him that Hao-sama chose a girl for him to fight, but to beaten by her…it ruins his ego as a Patch."

One of the cloaked followers of Asakura Hao glanced up from the hood of his cloak, allowing you to see his observant green eyes that watched the move of both shaman fighters on the field.

Another, who leaned against a tree, watched as well, but her face was the only thing being covered. You could see and her long red koshi-obi that stopped and inch above her pink mini-kimono, her small smooth pale hands were visible through her wide cuff sleeves. And you could also see her waist-long pink hair that came out from under her cloak hood.

Those two were the only two out of the five main followers of Asakura Hao that quietly observed the fight, the others made comments as Nagehiko's oversoul was destroyed 1…2…3…7 times.

The eighth time Nagehiko swung his kusarigama once more at Annai's body and missed again, as he began falling forward, something wrapped itself around his body, crushing his oversoul to pieces and pulling him to the ground.

Nagehiko blinked at the foreign object around him, it was a blue beaded rosary necklace, it had been thrown and wrapped around him while he tried to strike.

The one who was holding it was the one who threw it, Annai.

She stood in front of his body that lay on the ground, tied up by her blue beads, her chest was moving up and down as she took deep breaths.

She didn't look at him; she just had her head lowered so that the upper half of her face could still not be seen. What could she possibly be hiding?

Nagehiko grunted and clenched his teeth, this girl was beating him with such discreet that it bothered him. He had to free himself; if he could just beat this girl then he could kill Asakura Hao, just like his childhood friend had been praying for all her life.

He checked Annai's grasp, she seemed to have a tight grip on the necklace, one that could not be loosen so easily.

But the one thing many of Hao's allies did not know was that this fifteen year old Patch was chosen among many of the Patch tribe boy because of his cunning intelligence.

He looked to his sides, there seemed to be no rocks for him to hurt himself…perfect.

Before anyone could react, Nagehiko jolted to right and rolled over, yanking Annai up into the air, causing her to come crashing down to the grass.

What Nagehiko didn't calculate was Annai's grip to be so forceful. As she came crashing to the grass the necklace yanked Nagehiko up and lured him on top of Annai.

From the impact, the girl let go of the beads and they fell off, releasing Nagehiko's body.

As he felt the beads loosen around him, the Patch gently pushed his body up and realized he was practically on top of her.

He was about to push himself up, until curiosity caught him tight.

Annai's hair was now barley on her face, it only covered her eyes, but Nagehiko could see the smooth peach colored skin that the Japanese girl had.

Without noticing himself, he brought a hand up and tamely pushed the last remains of Annai's chocolate hair away from her eyes.

The girl gasped at feeling his hand touch her face, but the noise was so soft that you could barely tell.

Then it was Nagehiko's turn to gasp…

Annai was absolutely stunning that it blew his breath away, her eyes were a light chocolate brown whit tints of amber in them, and now that he saw her entire visage he could not see why this girl would join someone as vile as Asakura Hao.

But something seemed strange about her though, she looked dead at him but he couldn't see anything in her eyes, they were glassy and it was as if she was seeing right through him or…

Couldn't see him at all…

From the shade of the forest, Hao smirked in satisfaction of the boy's acknowledgement, "Looks like he found out," he coolly announced to his allies behind him.

The five allies viewed there master in curiosity, he seemed completely amused at the fact of which he had just spoke. But they didn't know that Hao was amused of something else.

They could hear Nagehiko's thoughts as he realized the allurement of his fellow ally. Hao could hear every thought that the two were thinking at the time. He could hear as Nagehiko realized that the heat was rushing to his head and that his heart beat began accelerating it felt like a deep and long adrenaline rush.

Hao smirked and immediately knew that he had gotten to his fellow Patch, all he needed now was for Annai to feel the heat and pulse coming from Nagehiko's hand and-

"HOW DISTURBING!" SLAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The blow from Annai's slap had knocked Nagehiko off of her and made him thunder into a nearby boulder, not only making a dent in the boulder but also making many cracks that split the boulder in two. [A/N: that is one heck of a brutal slap…who does it remind you of?? Well that's relevant to the plot of the story so pay attention]

Hao scoffed and made his way past Annai, who did not stand but instead sat up and blankly stared in the direction Hao was heading, and stopped a few feet away from Nagehiko.

Nagehiko was bleeding through his back, his blood splattered through the boulder behind him from the impact, his spirit floated as a ball beside him, snarling at Hao as he approached.

Hao knelt down to Nagehiko's level, the five cloaked allies now behind him. "Looks like you lost," Hao acknowledged with a satisfied grin, "I told you didn't I? The Shaman King will be me, that means not even you can stop me."

Nagehiko weakly glared at Hao, but it seemed it hurt to even do that. Hao shook his head, "If could you couldn't beat one of my followers, much less you could beat me." He stood up and looked down at the boy, not only physically but also belittling him literally. "Well looks like I now have to decide your fate."

The Patch's eyes grew as the conditions of the bet came into his head, he could practically feel the goosebumps from the thought of his own death.

Hao raised his hand and collided his two fingers together with a snap; Nagehiko shut his eyes, ready to meet his so called fate. But he jerked them open when he realized he felt no pain.

Not the pain he expected, but his body felt free from all the pain that previously came from the injuries he endured. He looked up and stared at Asakura in disbelief his mouth dropped open.

"A good shaman shouldn't go to waste," Hao calmly explained, ignoring the looks of disbelief he also received from his allies, "I'd rather you just simply join me and follow me as I become Shaman King."

Nagehiko's teeth clamped together in rage, "Over my dead body will I join you, you bastard!" he shouted out in annoyance of the Asakura belittling him.

Hao narrowed his eyes, "That can be arranged, my fellow Patch." –Nagehiko winced- "but I'd rather not arrange it, your burnt body could pollute the earth I am trying to save."

The boy's brows raised in confusion of Hao's words.

Hao smiled, "Believe it or not but you are ignorant. You are blind in seeing the danger humans are to this world, they are just as ignorant maybe even worse, that's why they must be destroyed." –Nagehiko narrowed his eyes- "You have seen the many shaman that follow me, am I right? You and that stubborn Joan D'Arc have killed many of them thinking it'll stop me, but you do not realize that you become as bad as humans."

"Humans have no effect on us shamans," the coal haired Patch protested.

Hao arched a perfect brown brow at this statement, "Really? Then tell me, Nagehiko, why is the Shaman Fight hidden from the eyes of humans?"

"!"

"Exactly, even the Great Spirit sees the danger that these humans are to all living organisms." Hao's eyes now pointed to the cloaked figures behind him, "They are living witnesses to what menace humans really are."

The five cloaked figures dropped down their cloaks, revealing their faces, known faces throughout the whole Shaman Fight contestants.

Nagehiko's eyes blinked in acceptance and acknowledgement, Hao suddenly realized he had truly conquered the boy now and turned around to walk back to his hidden shelter, a satisfied smile on his face.

The others began to follow behind, only one of the five waiting on Nagehiko, a petite girl who was pixie-like and seemed to have a graceful gait, her hair was a deep black that was cropped to her shoulders but spiked out, making it appeared shorter. She seemed the same as Nagehiko but knowing her well and close Nagehiko knew that the girl was not but nine years old.

She extended her hand out to him, a sort of sisterly look in her amber eyes, "Come along, Nagehiko-kun, I know you shall not disappoint Hao-Onichan."

Nagehiko nodded and the girl dropped her hand and ran up to catch up to the ones who were ahead, stopping to the side of a boy with green hair.

Nagehiko hesitated in following, knowing the consequences of joining the enemy, but he knew that in a way Hao's words were true. 'Gomen, Joan-Onee-san.' He ran after them, his polar spirit following right behind.

As he ran he ignored the sound of his oracle bell that displayed the names of Asakura Hao's six followers one by one.

Ming Wilhelmina…Leiko Emmetto…Asakura Annai…Patch Priestess Arisu… Diethyl Lysander… and…

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Hao opened his eyes as the bell began to ring. The school yard was already full of Shinra Academy students entering campus and heading towards their homerooms.

Annaka looked down at her husband, "We should go," she said dusting off her green skirt as she stood up.

"Right."

----

"Damn kids, always causing trouble wherever they walk, they're so noisy too. Why did I ever choose this career anyway?" a male teacher asked as he walked down the hallway to go to his assigned homeroom.

The teacher had recently received notifications saying that he would have many new students today entering in his class. "Almost three weeks after school starts too," he complained, "don't these kids ever hear of entering school on time?"

"Mr. Tamaki-Sensei?" someone asked.

Tamaki-Sensei turned around and nearly dropped his text books and records to the ground when he saw who had called him.

It was a tall muscular man, with long sandy brown hair. The man wore a black suit and around his neck was a strange necklace with a pattern of a bead, then a claw, then a bead, and so on. "My name is Jackson, I have a request to ask of you," he told the teacher with not a very personable attitude.

Tamaki-Sensei winced at the man's mien, he rapidly gave in to the request, "Anything! Just don't hurt me!"

Jackson's expression didn't change, instead he took a few steps forward and said, "It's regarding a student in your class…he is written as Asakura Yoh."

----

"Manta-kun, do you think this was a good idea?"

Manta looked up at Tamao, who, until now, had been walking silently beside him. Manta raised his brows in curiosity to what the girl was talking about, "What do you mean, Tamao?" he blinked.

Tamao looked behind them, her worried pink eyes pointing to all the shamans who walk behind them, "Do you think it was a good idea to allow them to enroll at this school?" she asked worriedly.

Manta followed her eyes to their friends, "I don't see why not."

Tamao brought her hand up to her mouth, "It's just…Yoh-sama is kind and gentle, but if what if…any of them ruin his appearance or cause problem to Yoh-sama?"

Beside her, Nianna looked at the girl with suspicious eyes, "I doubt any of these guys will do anything to your precious Yoh-sama…or should I say Anna-san's precious Yoh-sama," she said with a smirk.

Tamao frowned and looked down as she continued to walk.

"Kisama, I still don't see why I have to bother coming to such a low class school," Ren complained as he and the others walked down the hall to their designated room.

"But Bocchima, this is one of the most high class schools in the district!" Bason informed his aloof master.

Ren crossed his arms, "Shut up!" he yelled, "Anyone that isn't familiar with the heir of the Tao throne does not deserve to teach the heir! I should not have to come to such a place."

Horohoro rolled his eyes at his hotheaded friend; he walked with his arms crossed coolly behind his head, just strolling by beside Ren. "We can't act fast enough if anything happens and we're back at our home town, which is why we have to stay in this shit of a place with the 2nd Ice Queen."

Chocolove was too busy looking around his surroundings to be involved in the conversation of his teammates; he was practically somewhere else the whole while he and everyone else walked.

Lyserg had better things to say though, "I've never been at a school before, I've always been home schooled…it seems kind of nice," he smiled, admiring the structures of the well built school.

Jeanne walked along side of Lyserg, also venerating the thought of studying somewhere else other than what they have been known to study at. "It does seem quite nice," she agreed, turning to Lyserg to give him one of her illuminant smiles.

Lyserg smiled back and then involuntarily he looked at The Maiden in her school uniform, noticing how short the skirt was, he instantly pulled away, embarrassed by his acts.

Ren looked at the two and ignored them, sooner or later those two would be married…or at least that was his opinionated fact. He looked back at the two members of Soraguimi that walked behind everyone else.

The pixie girl seemed as cheerful as ever, having a sort of musical movement to her steps and the blond haired boy just walking and starring at a certain pink haired girl that walked in front along Manta.

Ren glowered at the two strangers, they still didn't know much about the team of shamans and yet they had been asked to help out, at least that's what everyone thought. But the great Tao Ren knew better, the real reason the strangers were here was probably to be under their observation incase they were some threat to Yoh.

One thing was for sure, they'd have Tao Ren observing their every movement and action.

----

"Asakura Yoh."

"Hai, Sensei?" Hao responded dimly.

"Please define caul."

Hao sighed; this was just too easy, "Well, to be 'born in the caul' simply means a child is born with the amniotic sac or membranes still intact around the body. The sac has two membranes of fetal origin which separate the amniotic fluid and fetus from the maternal uterine wall. When a baby is born in the caul, the sac balloons out at birth, covering the baby's face and body as he or she emerges from the mother. The caul is harmless and a child born in this way is known as a caulbearer."

The teacher blinked at the Asakura's answer, he shook his head and said, "Um…yes…that's correct," he stuttered.

Hao smiled in amusement at the teacher's awe; surely Yoh could not be so dumb as to not know what a caul is.

As Tamaki-Sensei continued with his lesson, Hao decided to delve himself into reading the thoughts of the people in the room. The closest to him was Manta so he decided to start there.

'Hao's knowledge must be coming from previous years; I wonder if anyone else knows what a caul is? Could it be of some importance?'

Hmm. Too boring. He moved on to the next closest…Lyserg.

'Dear Grandfather, I have something of importance to ask you. It seems something has come up, something strange, I require assistance for this. I have not returned home because I have been occupied in something. But the point of this letter is to ask you of an ancestor from five hundred years ago, I require a name and his connection to Asakura Hao. Also I desire connections to a girl from that time with possibly silver hair, red eyes…'

Hao frowned in boredom, Annaka had prohibited they talk to Lyserg and Jeanne of their ancestors, Hao found it best that way as well, seeing that his memory was a blur and was just now coming back into bits and pieces.

He gazed over at Horohoro, Kororo was on his shoulder hugging him tightly, Horohoro was in a daze because of it.

Chocolove was asleep, drooling on his desk, dreaming about some big stage performance of his, and how that was much better than being locked up in jail.

Hao did not have to enter Ren's mind to know what he was thinking of, most likely either how great he was or he was thinking of the strangers that they had brought back with them from America.

That's when he decided to listen to their thoughts. He turned his head to view the three strangers, well the ones who were strangers to those who were not him and Annaka.

He found out that he once again he could not read the heads of two of them and he knew why too.

So he decided to listen to the fake queen's head instead, to see what people made of dirt and elemental powers thought of. To his surprise, the girl's thoughts were somehow relevant to his dreams, at least to that boy he had seen in his dreams.

The fake Anna was angry at Nagehiko for not appearing as she had ordered him to, she was planning a horrible punishment for when she found him. If you looked close enough you could practically see the flames in her dark eyes, fury burning up inside.

But Hao had learned something very interesting from listening to that girl's thoughts, it turns out that-

"Asakura Yoh, could you please explain to us your opinion in the rise of our technology?" Tamaki-Sensei asked, making Hao realize where he still was.

Just when the teacher thought that he had finally had caught "Yoh" not paying attention, Hao spoke his mind.

"It's an apocalypse," he said in a voice so dark and deep that everyone in the room got chills from the coldness of his voice, "as technology increases nature is destroyed and so is everything that is meant to be perfect and beautiful in this world will eventually perish under the creations human come up with."

Everyone eyed him with careful eyes, Annaka stared at him with blank horror for saying something "un-Yoh-like". Hao didn't get the signal from her or any of the other shamans in the room; he just opened his eyes and looked right at Tamaki-Sensei, "Do you not agree with my theory, Sensei?"

The teacher blinked, looking at Hao for a full, impassive moment before his the corners of his mouth turned downwards and grimed. "Certainly not." the man said, a frown appearing on his lips now.

Hao cocked a brow, feeling small bubbles forming slowly inside him, "Then you are an idiot just like the rest of those humans who'd rather kill the earth in order to increase their knowledge of what is already dead."

There was a gasp from some of the girls as they stared at Hao in awe, none of them had ever thought that "Asakura Yoh" could possibly be this way. Manta shivered in his seat and looked over at his other friends.

None of them seem too happy in what was taking place at the moment.

The teacher glared at Hao with rage, to call a teacher an idiot was like saying that lions were vegetarians, it just didn't fit. "You think you know more than me, Asakura Yoh?" he asked in a belittling tone.

Hao smirked and closed his eyes, propping his arm up on the table and resting his head on his hand, "A thousand years more, I bet." –Tamaki-Sensei grimaced- "But not only me," he continued, "I bet Kyoyama could surpass your knowledge as well as I can."

All eyes turned to Annaka, she just glared at her husband menacingly, 'Hao, no.'

Sensei began to laugh, "Haha! Asakura, you really believe you're smarter than I? Hahaha! To think that Asakura Yoh believes this! As I recall, Asakura, ever since Kyoyama-san has arrived your grades have dropped tremendously, and you expect me to accept that you are more intellectual than I?"

Those bubbles inside of Hao bursted, this man, this human, thought himself to have a higher intelligence than him. Not only that but he was also suggesting something private between Yoh and Anna to the class. He truly wanted to burn this man right on the spot.

"Kisama…" Hao growled under his breath.

"What was that?" the teacher said, smiling tauntingly at him. "Repeat it and you're out of here, Asakura."

A hot ripple of anger filled his veins as he took a strong step towards the man, flames started to emert from his fingers, burning holes in the piece of paper he held in one hand. "Please, sir." he said forcefully, straining to keep his voice as polite as possible. "I'd rather not know how much stupidity humans have, killing every damn thing in their way just to increase intelligence that isn't going to belong to them."

"You think you know what's better for the world Asakura Yoh?" the teacher asked, grinning broadly. "I know more than you ever could, so sit down and listen to my theory of the future inventions I am planning to bring about."

Hao's eyes were mulitiuos, and already students aside him were cowering in fear.

Annaka, from her seat, glared at Hao warningly. "Don't do it," she muttered under her breath. 'You are Asakura Yoh right now, try to act like it!'

"You know Sensei," Hao snarled, "They say a person who was born in a caul has a special ability, a sort of sixth sense, so to say. And they possess things no normal human can do."

"Your point, Asakura?" the teacher asked, the smile totally erased from his face now; it was replaced by a horrid look.

"I was born in a caul." He menacingly growled

Manta let out an involuntary shiver; let most of the others in the class. It was not usual to see Hao lose his temper; his eyes were in dangerous slits, his hands blazing with fire, and it was then when Hao seemed to turn back into what he was before...The Greatest Threat to Humans.

"Dang it," Annaka muttered, jumping to her feet. She got in front of Hao and slammed her hands down on his metal desk, forming two dents in his desk. "Enough, Asakura," she ordered, her eyes forming flames that could possibly melt her brown contacts right off.

Hao tightened, but he didn't calm down, "Move out of the way," he hissed, Annaka noticing the flames around him becoming hotter.

Annaka turned to Tamaki-Sensei, "Sensei, OUT!" she ordered, "And take everyone with you."

"But-"

"NOW!"

Everyone did as they were told and scurried out of there like an army of ants. Annaka turned back to Hao as soon as everyone was out, he was still filled with rage at Sensei's words, suddenly anger was taking Annaka over as well without any clue why. Then, before she could notice, she did something she had never done before…

SLAP!

Hao cupped his red cheek with his hand, and stared at Annaka in horror and disbelief, Annaka…had just slapped him.

Annaka stared into his eyes, revealing a small hint of terror as he stared into hers with incredibility.

Annaka looked at the hand she had slapped her husband with and noticed the pain from it even hurt her, her hand was bright red and suddenly she felt her pulse through it.

With that same hand she placed it over her mouth, suddenly becoming weak at the knees, then she fell to her knees and coughed up blood.

________________________________________________________________________

I KNOW.I ALL HATE ME FOR TAKING SO LONG TO UPLOAD THE CHAPTER WELL TO MAKE UP FOR IT I MADE THIS CHAPTER 42 PAGES LONG! 11 PAGES MORE THAN NORMAL.

I KNOW I HAVE TO EXPLAIN MYSELF FOR NOT WRITING. WELL…I'VE BEEN TRYING TO IMPROVE MY WRITING FOR A WHILE SO I REWROTETHIS CHAPTER LIKE 5 TIMES TO MAKE IT SUITABLE FOR YOU GUYS. ALSO I THINK I'M DISEASE PRONE BUT THAT WON'T STOP ME ^-^

NO TIME FOR REVIEW RESPONSES RIGHT NOW BUT PLEASE LEAVE YOUR REVIEWS.

BTW Hpcs2 - Suprema Onmyoji Isah THANK YOU FOR THOSE SCANS, I'LL HELP WHEN I WRITE FUNBARI NO UTA ^-^

OH & Night-glider SORRY IT WASN'T THAT MUCH YOHxANNA THIS TIME BUT I'LL MAKE IT UP FOR YOU ON THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!

AND TO ANYONE WHO CARES, CHECK MY PROFILE SOON BECAUSE I'LL HAVE SOME PICS OF THIS STORY SHOWING YOU THE NEW CHARACTERS SO Y'ALL GET A VISUAL

R&R!!!

Crystel Hidalgo/YohAnna4eva