History's Flames

by CrysNaima

Formally Shaman King Manga 300: The Disaster of 500 years Semi-sequal to my Shaman King Manga 286. The past ALWAYS comes to haunt you, will Anna's past stop her and Yoh's strong relationship? And how does Hao's past effect them?

15. Hoshi no Kissu I

Shaman King 300: Disaster of 500 Years;

Chapter 15: Hoshi no Kissu I

Annaka's P.O.V.

The carriage was silent, although I was not the only one inside, three other people sat in the carriage with me, all four of us silent, letting only the wheels make the noises as they would often hit a rock here and there.

I let out a silent sigh, why was I here, on my way to some noisome and important ceremony? If there was any way to atone for my sins it would be to keep me locked up in my quarters such as they have been doing for the past 16 years of my life. The tedium was something I had gotten used to and now for the first time in my life I was being taken to a place that would be permeated with solace, the one thing I was never taught to deal with.

In all my life I could barely remember ever smiling, why? I was taught to be proper, stern, and emotionless, the destiny of my attitude and character was meant to be a neutral one, and at the moment, that was how I've been the past 16 years.

My gaze turned to the person who had given me my character, who formed me into what I was, my elder sister Joan, known as Joan D'Arc to humans, but to our tribe she was known as the Patch Priestess Joan. I haven't seen her in a few months, due to this being a great time for our tribe, but yet she is just as I last saw her. Silver hair that was barely an inch far off the ground, beautiful and radiant pale skin, deep ruby eyes, and a mien that made her appear much older than her true age, 18.

She looked over at me, her red eyes gazing at me in hidden concern, but she said nothing, because she knew that I was already inside her head. But at this very moment I was not, I was just blocking the gush of a river that were the thoughts of those around me, if I could help it I wouldn't invade the privacy of her head. Try as I may…I still knew.

Nee-san was irritated at letting her enemy go, one named Asakura Hao, who reincarnated from 500 years ago into our tribe. She had planned for her close friend, Nagehiko, to ambush him, but when he had returned from his ambush he was covered in scars and was almost half dead. This caused Nee-san to loathe Asakura even more than before, but she was quite suspicious of Nagehiko being alive, saying that if he lost to Hao than he should've been a burnt corpse.

This puzzle was what was filling my Nee-san's head to its limit. "Annaka," she called me, her voice its usual blank tone, her eyes staring right at me, her face not changing even the least bit of its mien, "art thou not worried of these events?" she asked me, "For long have we incarcerated thee in thou's desolate chamber," she reminded me.

I turned to look out the rectangular whole in the carriage, seeing my reflection in the glass that was placed upon it, upon seeing my roseate eyes I turned away from my duplicate in the glass, "The only thing that worries me," I began, "is me walking around with these wine orbs of mine, what will people say to such thing?"

She looked at my eyes, her mouth forming into a thin line, "You still blame me for it, don't you?" I didn't answer, because she already knew my answer.

Yes I did blame her for the bloody color of my eyes, if she wouldn't have done what she did then my eyes could be matching the smooth shining amber color of my hair. But I did have it coming…

I denied the ways of being Shaman Queen, I asked if I could live normally, when they denied then I ordered them to uncrown me queen; our tribe leader, Big Chief, was not please by this, he came into the king's thrown room, my room, yelling and cursing me from the top of his lungs. My way of responding was unforgivable, I attacked him, that was when I first realized my shamanic powers, and Nee-san came from behind and chanted a song, it took away my emotions, my childish attitude, and the color of my eyes, giving me this vile color of blood to remind me of my sin.

"I had no choice, Annaka," she said for the 72nd time in my life, "You were about to kill Big Chief, I had to do something…"

"So you rob me of my emotions?" I dully asked her, glaring at her, much to her dismay.

She opened her mouth to say something, but shut it as she felt Marcel fall on her lap, his body still in its deep slumber.

Marcel was a young child my sister found one day on one of her long trips, she doing some business in Italy when she found him, his house had been burnt down along with all of his family, only he was alive. She took him in, seeing as she was never going to have kids of her own. Though I found Marcel's appearance quite amusing, although he was a boy there was really no way of telling, unless you unclothed him to check. He had strange blonde hair that had two straight locks of hair in the front and then the rest would spike up in the back, his face had its feminine and boyish features here and there and the shining blue of his eyes didn't help his situation much. Nee-san would always dress him as a page, a large white shirt tied at the waist, and brown tights for the lower half of his body, plus brown leather shoes that Nee-san took from Nagehiko.

I continued my research of the outside world that I could see out the window, the place was truly amazing, it does not surprise me much, seeing as this hidden island was formed through me. I was getting bored of seeing nothing but the beautiful miles of green that spread throughout the island, but my view was caught when Ultimo decided to lift his head in my way to look out the window himself.

"Wow! Joou-sama, Joan-chan look! The place is all one color!" he excitedly informed us, his eyes glowing from the view.

Nee-san frowned at him, "What did I tell thee to call us by from now on?" she questioned him.

In an eighth of a second, Ultimo processed that question in his head, in another eighth of a second he gave her a response, "Joan, and Annaka-san," he responded quickly.

Ultimo had always amused me, that was basically his purpose to begin with, Nee-san made him so that I could have company in my solitary room, and he would always entertain me with fictional stories, though part of me pitied him. Ultimo was the first of his kind, the first ever robot boy in the sixteenth century, Nee-san made him to have the body of a thirteen year old and he would forever have that body. Whenever I would call him "Ultimo-nii-san," he would always shake his head and say, "You can't call me that, Joou-sama, there will be a day when you'll be older than me and it wouldn't be proper to call me that."

I would've cared less, but he begged me not to call him that, especially in front of Nee-san. But I wish that when Nee-san made Ultimo she could've made him look a bit more normal, if you had a good look at him you'd know what I mean. He had large unruly red hair, pale skin, and green eyes with a red center, I had gotten used to it because it seemed Nee-san liked boys with girlish appearances the best…

Right now we were all wearing our tribe's Patch Priests uniforms [minus Marcel], we use them to go out into public, but apparently we were wearing the men's uniforms. Nee-san prefers men clothing because it's less revealing than the Patch Priestesses women's clothing, I prefer the women's because it gives me more liberty to move around in.

"Hey we're here aren't we?!" Ultimo exclaimed in question, did I forget to mention that he acts like a child? "I can hear Arrison-chan's violin playing, we're hear aren't we?"

I moved his head out of the way so I could see out the window, and there I saw that we really were where we were supposed to be at, the carriage stopped with a bump, causing Marcel to roll off Nee-san's lap and fall onto the ground. "Itai…" he softly muttered as he stood from the ground, rubbing his back slowly.

Nee-san turned to Ultimo and I, "Put your hoods on," she ordered sternly, rising from her seat and opening the door, Ultimo put on his hood, following my example. We all got off the carriage and watched as it left, then we all entered the Patch café.

As we walked inside the place I heard so many noises in my head, arguing, cursing, thinking, planning, everything, so to avoid massive headaches, I just shut down all the thoughts, not allowing any but my own to enter. But even though in my head there was silence I began to hear a different sound, an instrumental sound, I forward to the center of the place and saw a small girl, with black hair that came down to her shoulder blades, she was a little dark in skin color but not enough to make her blend into night's cloak, but her eyes combined perfectly with the cloudless blue sky that we had today. In her hands she held a violin, which took up all the sound in the café and silenced everyone as she began playing "Granuaile's Dance" to entertain America's visitors.

"That's Arrison," Ultimo whispered, in a low voice, knowing that only I was able to hear him, "she is one of the two priestesses that were chosen to teach the future Ten Official's task in organizing the fight that will determine next Shaman King, because of that she is going to have to always attentively watch the Shaman Fight with Big Chief. Even though she's only 12 years old her height makes everyone think she's much older, but she and the other priestess are burden with that very important mission. Arrison-chan has the shamanic power to know how to use any instrument by just touching it, it could be a musical instrument or a war instrument, it wouldn't matter."

"That seems a power too dangerous for such a young girl," I added in my own opinion.

Ultimo just gave a boyish grin and shrugged, "Joan taught her well enough how to control it." My little robot boy contain a large database file as his memory, he contained all the information on the Patch, the Shaman Fight, and all the Shaman Fight participants, by just looking at them he could tell you all about them, this was a robotic talent the Big Chief enjoyed using.

I was about to turn to look at my sister until I heard the music slow down, at first I thought it was over but it was only the beat changing, soon enough I heard a second violin join in, I looked up and thought I was seeing double, but realized that it wasn't the same girl. This girl looked very similar to Arrison, except she had more of a hyper looking attitude, but her hair was also different, it was cropped and spiked outward at its ends and her skin tone was just a barely noticeable shade lighter than Arrison.

Ultimo looked to the source of the second instrument and smiled, his hood almost slipping off his head, "Ah! That's Arisu-chan! She's Arrison's younger twin!"

I stared at the girl, not helping but to notice that she had a bit more of a radiant beauty than her sister, but of course it was possible that only I would notice such things, "She's the other priestess?" I asked him, raising a brow, wondering how Big Chief would allow such an energetic looking girl to be one to teach the future Ten Officials.

He nodded, "Yes, though she has a much better shamanic power…"

I felt my brows rise as I got his answer from his thoughts, "She can see the future?"

He nodded once more, "Besides you, they are the only members of the tribe with a shamanic power…well unless you count…'him.'"

I knew exactly who 'him' was, and really didn't want to meet him today, or any day for that matter; though I always wondered…what kind of chaos would two Reishi-skilled shamans do?

"Joan-sama," Marcel called in his soft voice as we were entering into the worker's area. We were greeted by nine Patch Officials as we walked in, my mind wondering where the tenth official was at.

Nee-san looked down at Marcel, who was now tugging at her skirt, "What is it, Marcel?" she asked when she finished greeting everyone.

Marcel's tiny finger pointed out the big rectangular hole in the wall that allowed to workers to see their customers; I looked over and saw that his finger was pointing towards a table with a green haired boy, in clothing similar to Marcel's the only difference was that the green haired boy's shirt was a royal blue, and his tights were grey.

I raised a brow as I eyed the boy, Ultimo appeared right beside of me, his elbows resting on the counter, his head resting on his palms, "Lysander Diethyl," he said curtly, then he went on with the information, "Age 18, British, family died when he was 16, humans burned his house down with his family inside, he is the last of his family but he changed his last name so he could let go of his past. His spirit is a poppy spirit, a pink fairy named Morphine, she was a gift from Joan when she revived him two years ago."

Something hit Ultimo hard on the head, I turned and saw that Nee-san's spirit, Shamash, had hit him in the head with a large hammer, Nee-san glared at Ultimo, "Do not speak of that again," she ordered in a grave tone. She turned to me, her eyes now with hidden worry, "Forget what he said," she told me, before she turned around and left.

I let out a long sigh, I was becoming very bored, I was thinking of entering this Diethyl boy's head to entertain myself until I saw spinning figure out of the corner of my eye. I turned and saw Arisu spinning with a plate in her hands, she was so graceful and impossibly beautiful when she ran, to me she did not appear to be the child that she was. Her hair was blown off her face exposing the perfect features of her visage, why was it that there were some people that possessed certain beauty that could stun anyone? What got me the most was that this girl had a twin, and though they looked much alike, it was this energetic one with the look?

I was so lost in my own question that I didn't see when the plate slipped from Arisu's fingers. I only heard the whoosh of the air whistling past the crystal, and mine and Ultimo's eyes flickered up in time to see the plate shatter into ten thousand diamond shards against the hard wooden floor. All eyes fell on the girl's back, Arrison looked at her younger copy and extended a hand out to touch her, "Arisu?" she called questionably.

Then Arisu was facing us, twisting in a move so fast it didn't exist, I looked at her eyes, her eyes were halfway here and halfway somewhere else, wide, staring, filling her thin face till it seemed to overflow it. It was like looking out of a grave from the outside, I was so shocked by the girl's action that it never occurred to me to search her mind for an answer.

The pixie-like girl looked out the rectangular whole, then she turned around and in one quick movement, I giant blur of white appeared and caused her to disappear, I blinked, as so did everyone of the Patch Officials. Arrison let out a sigh, "She did it again…" she muttered under her breath. I jerked my head over to the long haired twin, she looked at the ground.

"Did what again?" I asked, the tone of my voice seemed a little too sharp, possibly making it seem as if she didn't have a choice but to answer.

Arrison raised her head up at me, for the first time I saw an emotion on her face other than just a blank stare, I saw worry in her eyes, those blue eyes stared at me for a moment, then the went down to the ground, "I don't know really how to explain this…" she said, 'To say the truth I don't know what's going on…'

"She's been having reoccurring visions, she's been seeing the same one for some time now," a voice said. Arrison raised her head in shock at Nagehiko, who just seemed to ignore her look and went on, "her visions have been disturbing her and every once in a while she goes off to see if they have occurred."

I was amazed at how much this boy knew, he knew tons more than Arrison on her own sister, something that really didn't seem right; my head turned to the girl, and curiosity took over me. I have never been around people so much so I never knew about the problems that others had other than mine or Nee-san's, but by entering Arrison's head I found out a lot.

The twins were very distant from one another; it seemed that when their abilities were discovered they were separated, Arrison was sent to Ireland to learn to control her ability with the Official that lived there. Although the Official in Ireland knew plenty to help Arrison, she didn't want help, she wanted to cope on her own, in the end the only thing the Official was able to teach her to use right was musical instruments because after her first try using a weapon, she killed a few people, leading her never to touch a weapon ever again. When she returned to the tribe she found out that they never made Arisu move to another place, Arisu was told to stay with the tribe seeing as her ability wasn't as dangerous as Arrison's. That caused the biggest separation between her and her twin, she thought that Arisu's life had been easy and she believed that to be unfair, so she never became interested in her sister because of that.

Nagehiko seemed to know all of this, because his next comment made me aware of it, "Some elder sister you turned out to be, Arrison," he scoffed softly under his breath, but yet the girl heard it; she jerked her head and in less than a minute she grabbed the closest thing to her (which turned out to be a v-shaped, stainless steel, French knife) and threw it at him, the knife stuck to the wall, exactly 1.2 inches to the left of his face.

"I dare you to say it again," she threatened, grabbing another knife by its bolster, and getting it ready for another launch.

It was the first time that I actually took a notice to the girl's accent and realized that it did sound a bit more Irish, her pronunciation was peculiar but it was there.

"That's enough out of both of thee!!" Nee-san interfered, snapping her fingers and in one quick move the metal blade of the knife in Arrison's hand melted into a pool of silver.

I wasn't impressed, to be honest, Shamash was able to make any torture chamber appear with just a small use of metal, so with Nee-san's mechanical genius they could practically control metal to their liking. This was the first time, however, that Ultimo had seen such a thing.

And fear stroke through him like lightning strikes through the sky on a stormy day, he hid under the counter, shaking his metal butt off. Nee-san looked at him and sighed, she had frightened her own creation. She turned to me, and handed me a bag of clothing, 'Take Ultimo out for a walk, I'll give you time to get to know the island a bit more, just go out the back door got it?'

I nodded and took the bag, then I grabbed Ultimo by the neck of his uniform, I took a step forward until Nee-san had to give me one more instruction, 'One more thing, don't kill anybody…'

I looked at her as if she was crazy, she just turned her face away from my view, I let out a sigh, not knowing why she was telling me this in the first place, "Fine," I said before dragging Ultimo into another room and throwing his bag of clothes in his face.

"That's mean, joou-sama," he whined, I just turned my back on him and went into another room and began vacating my uniform, I looked at the clothing Nee-san gave me. There was a short above mid-thigh black leathered dress fringed an inch towards the bottom, tall brown moccasins that were also fringed at the top, and to cover me up was a shining brown cloak made of fine material. I placed my arms through the sleeves of the cloak and pinned the sides of it with what seemed to be an oval shaped silver pin.

When I came out Ultimo was already dress, he looked at me with his childish eyes, I just put my old clothes on the ground, "Let's go, Nee-san ordered me to take you for a walk," I explained.

He crossed his arms and gave me a frown, "I'm not an animal," he protested.

"Either way," I walked on, "I want to look around." I headed out the back door, and the minute I came out I could sense so many high levels of furyoku and it bothered me, all these people were going to try to become Shaman King or die trying, it was like a large pointless war to get an unknown power.

"Oh, I see!" the redheaded robot said, peeking around me to look at the many shamans that stood all over the place as we walked by every one, "We're going to spy on all of your suitors, right?!"

I felt a vein pop on my temple, "My suitors?" I repeated through gritted teeth, clenching my hands into fits, "Don't ever call them that!" I ordered, punching him on the top of his head.

"Itai!" he whined, covering his head with both of his tiny hands, "But Joou-sama, whoever wins will become your husband so it's right to call them your…"

The look on my face silenced him, I could basically feel a dark purple aura forming around me as my temper reached its limits, "You have till the count of ten, Ultimo," I informed him, "1…"

The robot redhead got up off the floor his eyes wide and scared, he swirled around and ran, but no matter how long or far he would travel I would easily catch up. "2…10!" I shouted running after him.

I have always been locked up in the same room as the Great Spirit, I never knew what it was like to run for a long time, but Nee-san would always come into my room telling me how tried she was by running all around a place just to search for her enemy. As a child I would run around Great Spirit in circles, or run up and down the stairs as a child, but this island was much more alive than I'd ever expected.

I kept waiting to feel winded, but my breath came effortlessly. I waited for the burn to begin in my muscles, but my strength only seemed to increase as I grew accustomed to my stride. After only a few minutes, possibly only two, I had already caught sight of my mechanical friend, he looked back and his green eyes grew wide, his red pupils dilating in fear.

I smirked, and he turned his head back to look ahead, then before I knew it, he was gone.

I stopped dead in tracks, my feet planted in the dirt, I looked around but I didn't see him anywhere. Then I heard a thud and looked forward to see him on the other side of a river. I raised a brow at him, "Coward," I muttered under my breath.

Call me crazy but I was going to go after him, I took two quick backward strides, and then ran back those two steps, feeling a firm flat stone under my shoes before I exerted the adequate pressure to send my body wheeling up into the air. Before I knew it an entire second had passed and I was already on the other side of the river, but a landed twice as far away as Ultimo did, how do I know that? I heard his invisible voice far away from my current position.

"Joou-sama!" he shouted in worry, and I heard him coming my way.

I tried to move but I could feel my foot starting to fall asleep, I sighed, it must've been the impact of my landing. Irritably, I shook my left foot, trying to awaken it from its pointless slumber, but when I did I realized that I was standing on an elevated muddy hill, my right sole gave way and I crashed down to the ground. A sudden sharp pain went through my leg, it stung my leg as if a snake had bitten it or as if a carriage made of stone had run over it.

I heard Ultimo's footsteps approaching me, followed by his childish screams of worry, "Joou-sama!" he yelled, his eyes landed on my leg and his eyes grew, "Ah! Joou-sama! You're hurt! What should I do?! What should I do?!" the idiot began running in circles as if he were a while maniac on the lose, then he realized running in circles wasn't going to help me and he began making his way over to me.

"Stay there!" I ordered. "Don't you dare come over here!" the last thing I needed was a robot's helpless pity.

"B-But Joou-sama-" he protested before I cut him off.

"I can manage!" I shouted, "If you want to help then run back and get Nee-san," he hesitated, "NOW!" I shouted at him.

When I saw him out of my sight I tried standing up, but the effort was useless and I came collapsing back down to the mire, clutching my right leg tighter than I had before. My leg was either two things, broken or sprained, nothing I couldn't heal right up. Part of me began to wonder why I ordered Ultimo to leave in the first place. He already knew of my ability to heal myself and anyone I wished so why did I…?

Oh right, Ultimo was too panicky when it came to these things, he would give me a long lecture later on how I shouldn't do dangerous things. The idiot acted as if he was still older than me, although I became older than him 3 years ago.

I shook my head, I could think of my overprotective brother-like robot some other time, right now I just had to heal my dang leg.

I place my other hand on my leg and was about to flood it in furyoku to replace my damaged bones, but then there was a large snarl heard only a few feet away from me. There was a harsh breath that escaped the mouth of something, and I felt that breath hit me as if the wind was blowing in my face. Large footsteps were heard echoing throughout the forest, there was a much different, rough, throaty growl about two feet in front of me then I heard a high musical voice speak, its words directed at me.

"You kept me waiting a long time," the musical voice spoke.

I looked up and the first thing I saw were two large, hairy, white legs, with enormous paws. I looked higher up and saw a large, and I mean large, polar bear wearing a golden armor on its knees, chest, back, and around its head as well. My brows shot up, but my face didn't make any other movements. The sunlight was hitting the armor in a perfect position, so perfect that it could've blinded anyone else if they looked at it. There was movement on the bear's back and as I blinked I saw a small body come down. The figure stood and I instantly recognized her face features, it was the young pixie-like girl I had saw only moments ago, Arisu.

"Nani?" I asked, responding to her question, heaven knows why I responded to her in Japanese, was it because of her clothing that wasn't the same as I had seen it before?

Arisu winced at the sound of my voice, I raised a brow, opening my head to allow myself to listen to the girl's thoughts, 'Her voice…' she awed inside her head, 'it's like her voice rings and shimmers like a bell…' Her face suddenly became more curious, and she came more closer to me, bending down to my level. As she did this, the light that reflected out of the giant bear's armor shone right into my face; it didn't affect me much, but I could see the girl squinting through the light at my face, her eyes widened and I heard her gasp.

"How strange," she whispered to herself, "my vision never showed you being so pretty…" she zoned out for a minute then added some random comment, "But it's quite chilly, even more so for you, don't you think?" she added with a gentle smile, then she looked at my leg, noticing that both my hands were tightly grasping it. "Oh? Did you hurt yourself?" she asked, tilting her head to get a good view of my leg.

"I'm not hurt," I protested…and lied, trying to force myself to stand up, in the end I did, but not without feeling a sharp stab of pain in my right leg, yet I tried to hold it in.

"My oni-chan would be impressed by your spirit," Arisu said, with a gentle pixie smile on her face. "Pretending that you are capable when you're not…but I'm curious…who exactly are you?" she asked

"That's my personal secret." I snapped, although I didn't mean to.

But my temper didn't seem to affect her much, she just tilted her head, her thoughts going on and on about how gorgeous she found me, "I see," the girl responded, 'that's the only thing I can see.' The pixie girl mentally analyzed. 'I can't see your future, your actions, anything.'

I stayed silent, letting her ponder in her own thoughts, then she turned to me and smiled, "Come with me," she happily told me, 'Onii-chan might like you…'

I didn't bother to fill my heads with trivial things as to who her Onii-chan was, as far as Ultimo informed me Arisu only had her twin…oh shoot Ultimo! I forgot he went to go call Nee-san! I was about to turn to the pixie-like girl and protest, telling her I had to head back or something, but a large paw grabbed me and placed me on its owners large back.

Being seated on the bear's back I realized I sensed a large amount of reiryoku escaping from it, meaning this bear wasn't alive, it was a spirit. Furyoku practically filled its armor to the touch, it was amazing that such a young child could have such a high level of furyoku to oversoul this large bear.

Arisu jumped up and climbed the bear's armor, then she seated herself in front of me, the large bear began to move and headed in the opposite way I came, "Where are we going?" I asked, figuring it was the most normal thing to ask in this sort of situation.

She turned her back to look at me, giving me a smile that literally let out a rainbow went the sun hit her perfectly white teeth, "You'll see," she said before turning to the large body of white fluff, "Let's go, Hoshi."

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Ultimo ran as fast as he could, he would've have flown, if he wasn't trying to appear as human as possible. Of course, when you considered at how fast he was running, one thing you couldn't call him was human. He was trying his best to find Joan the fastest he could, but the truth was that he wasn't watching where he was going, he stopped when he realized this and looked around, the land was unfamiliar to him. "Oh non…" he said in his sad childish French, "how in the world did I get lost? Joou-sama is going to really undo my circuts…" he let out a sigh and slowly began walking.

"Are you lost Kawaiko-chan?" a voice asked from behind him.

Curiously he turned around and saw that suddenly he was surrounded, by weird looking people with a piece of paper hanging from their hats. There was an opening amongst the strange looking men, and in that opening Ultimo saw a girl passing by the men.

The girl was gorgeous. She wore a black Chinese ruqun with its cuffs and sleeves on the upper garment tighter than usual ruquns, the clothing had a collar that went diagonally over the other half, its long skirt was grey and was held in place by a jade ornament tied on a braid, and on top of it all was a dark purple waist skirt held together by a grey sash.

In her hands were many slips of paper held together in her hand as if they were forming a fan. The slips of paper hid the lower half of the girl's face, but you could see a pair of green eyes, that matched her hair. Her hair was another thing, it was piled up in a bun at the back with two locks of hair on each side of her face, there were two large oval clips that dug into the sides of her head, her eyes smiled at him.

"Well are you Kawaiko-chan?" she said, her voice stating her young age. All Ultimo could do was nod, this girl…she was…

The green haired Chinese girl lowered her fan-like paper talismans and looked Ultimo in the eyes, she raised a brow as she looked at all his features, "You're…beautiful…" she awed. The robot boy blushed, but he kept his face completely blank. The girl cupped his cheek with her small hand and moved his head from left to right, examining every aspect of his face, when she finished she smiled, "You do seem worthy of my presence," she informed him, "You're an interesting toy," she added.

'Toy?!' he was about to open his mouth in protest but she placed a finger on his cold lips, "Don't try to prove me wrong," she told him, "I know a toy when I see one, you're no human…nor shaman…have you lost someone?"

Ultimo nodded, "Oui, I lost my mistress. She got injured and I went to go find help so-"

She raised her hand to tell him to stop, she smirked and her eyes pointed to a carriage behind her, "I'll help you, my oni-chan won't mind one bit."

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If normal people were walking on foot it would've taken them at least an hour to reach where this girl was taking me, but it took this giant bear only a couple of minutes to reach the place, it literally pranced its way to our location, jumping over trees and people.

We reached a small part in the woods, well it seemed small while we were in mid air, Hoshi came slamming down to the ground, but the only noise made was a soft thump on the ground. After that he began walking normally, I saw Arisu reach behind her to grab her hood and place it over her head, I did the same, if Nee-san saw me like this I'd have to put up with a lecture later.

We passed many people, no scratch that, we passed many shamans. I could feel their furyoku as we passed by them, 78000, 400, 46232… I could not only feel their furyoku as I passed by them, but I could also here their thoughts, much to my dismay.

I felt a bit off, uncomfortable was the word, I was someone who invaded people's privacy by accident, I pitied myself sometimes. But these lowlife shamans were the reason to much of my botherations, if they didn't participate in this worthless fight then I wouldn't have ever been locked up for 16 years, I wouldn't have been robbed of my emotions, I could've been considered normal. But this happens to an unlucky blonde Patch girl every 500 years, how did the heck did they put up with it, with all this!?

I'll give you an example of what I have to put with. A few feet ahead in distance there was a group of men, well they seemed to be around the age of 19 to 23, they stood in a corner looking at all the women and ladies that would pass by. This would be the thoughts of one of them:

'All these women are nothing but medlar fruit, and I will be the poperin pear that shall accompany them all in there lonely tree.'

Another one would say, 'When I become Shaman King all these women will no longer fall on their faces, as they did when they were kids, but instead they will fall on their backs for me!'

Must I continue? I was lucky to have the ability to block these noisome and disturbing voices.

We passed these loathe-able men and made our way forward, in time I saw Arisu jump down from Hoshi's large back, I looked down and saw her run forward towards a large boulder, her spirit following right behind her, still carrying me with him. I was surprised at how graceful the girl could run, I was certain that I ran nothing like that, people would pass her and greet her, a woman with beautiful sandy brown hair stopped in front of her and Arisu just twirled around her, the woman turned around and gave her a smile, "Konnichiwa, pequeña Arisu," the woman said with a thick Spanish accent.

Arisu smiled, "Konnichiwa Savana, have you seen Nii-sama?" she asked, jumping up and down.

Savana looked up thoughtfully, "Tu hermano?" she asked thoughtfully, then she realized something, "Oh! You mean El Señor! Yes he is over at the big rock!" she pointed a bit further up ahead.

Arisu grinned thankfully, "Arigatou Savana!" she twirling around once more then she stopped as something occurred to her, "Ano…Savana?"

"Si?"

Arisu turned around worriedly, her blue eyes troubled, "Please, be careful," she said before turning around and pulling me and the spirit along with her. We got to the boulder and stopped, then I heard

Arisu's loud-high pitch voice call out a name, "Hao-Nii-sama!!!"

My eyes widened under my hood. I heard a chuckle amongst the trees, then I heard a smooth amazingly perfect voice, "Where'd you run off to, Ari?" he asked, "Oh, you brought a friend?"

"A friend?" someone hissed, a woman.

"Yup, I did! And she's really pretty," Arisu added, emphasizing on the word "really".

I heard laughter, "Really?"

I pulled myself to the highest part of "Hoshi's" body, trying to get a better view of what was going on behind that rock. I saw the pixie girl wrapping her arms around her head, frowning at someone in front of her, "You're not going to cheat, Hao-Nii-sama! She's hurt and you're going to heal her."

"Just bring her, Arisu," a dull male voice ordered, "I can smell her from here, so it's possible she's listening."

"Fine!"

I braced myself for the girl's next actions, "HOSHI!" she called, causing the bear to leap over the boulder, the pain in my leg increased as we came crashing down to the ground, my leg hit hard against the golden armor, but I was able to keep myself from screaming in pain. I saw the bear's large jaw reach behind me, he grabbed me with his jaw and pulled me my clothing, bringing me down to the ground softer than I expected.

I looked up, glad to still feeling my hood on my head, my eyes grew at seeing the people that sat there in front of me. They were…like nothing I've ever seen before….were all shamans good looking or just the ones I meet?

There was a wine haired colored girl, her hair was a beautiful mess of red curls, her eyes match the color of the trees that surrounded her, and her figure could possibly make any man weak in the knees, her eyes showed me she was Chinese and her mien seemed as if it could kill you, but yet it seemed to match her well enough. 'Hmm, is it possible she could be that pretty?' I heard her ask in her head. Funny,

I was wondering the same thing about her.

There was also a boy with some unruly dirty blonde hair, his eyes were a greenish-blue, the blue dominating the green, he was shirtless, his skin a pale-like color, and wore some Native America-like brown leather pants with fringes on the sides, I looked and noticed that he was tall and lean, his arms were muscular alright, but he had a few faint scars. His mien matched him perfectly as well, it was a blank one, one that seemed dull and bored, his thoughts on the other hand were very much alive, 'I smell leather under the fineness of her cloak, her heartbeat is normal so there is no fear or shock…' hmm a man of instinct, eh? I guess if you would ever find a wild man, he would be the man you would want to find, my guess was that he was raised this way…

The one girl that caught my eye the most was a very pale girl with long waist-length pink hair that matched the color of her deep eyes. The only think that I found strange was that although she seemed my age, her face showed signs of yearly knowledge, possibly things that I've known, her face a stern, stern and angered, but that didn't contrast against her. She wore a thin light pink hakama the long waist skirt that went over it was a red. She was stunning, and I was in shock.

But I froze when I saw the man who sat above the rest one that giant rock in front, he was…handsome. My heart stopped with just one look at him, his skin seemed perfect not a flaw or a scratch, his long brown hair shone brightly with the sunlight it projected, his eyes matched his hair in color, but those eyes showed something I've never seen before in a man, they were gentle but at the same hard, warm but seemed to get cool with time, that pair of eyes showed more oxymorons than I could even think of. He was wearing a faint grey hakama, but even the color seemed to go with his peculiar appearance.

But as I stared at this man the wind wanted me dead, it blew a large gush of wind in my direction, and before I could or even thought of stopping it, it blew my hood right off my head, my long hair blew out from under my cloak and now hung from the sides of my face, the wind had revealed my face while the one thing that used to hide it now hung from my shoulders.

There reactions to my visage were like nothing I expected…

The wined hair Chinese girl dropped her mouth into a small "o", her eyes kept on examining me up and down to make sure I was real.

The unruly haired blond widened his eyes, his shoulder relaxing, for thought that I had something to hid, but my face made him try to restraint a whistle.

The pink haired girl was another story, at first her eyes widened, the they narrowed into a deadly expression one that made me believe that at any moment she would jump out and eat me alive. In her hands she had been working with clay, it was a smooth vase, but when her eyes narrowed themselves at me, she crushed the vase in her hand, the clay piece was now mush.

I turned to look at Arisu, who gave me that stunning smile that I still found unbelievable for a child to behold, "Told you you're pretty," she said in a low voice under her breath, part of me wanted to believe that I wasn't supposed to hear that, but yet I did.

The pixie girl began twirling towards the group of stunning shamans on the rock, then she stopped when she was directly in front of the brunette, "Hao-Nii-sama," she said in a singsong voice, pulling on the arm of the brunette, "well?"

Asakura Hao, who'd never once looked at me before, turned his head to view me, he squinted through the sunlight at my face, and then his eyes widened. He swallowed, and I heard his heart accelerate, something I didn't hear the blonde's heart do. He was both dazzled and dazzling, he was dazzled by me, and dazzling me.

I was a little worried that my heart would fail me, but I knew my face wouldn't, I owned no other emotion other than the one that was already on my face. And through his eyes I could see that my face was still stern.

Asakura Hao stared at me for what seem like ages but it was only for about five seconds before he blinked and turned his face away from mine, and I was glad he did, I was stunned by the way he looked at me with those eyes. I saw him shake his head real fast, to fast for anyone else to notice, my gaze wandered over to Arisu, who just looked at me and smiled.

What was this girl's purpose in bringing me here?

I was about to enter her mind till I saw Asakura jump from the boulder and walk over to me, he bended down, his eyes now at the level of mine, his lips curves into a lazy smile, "And you are?" he asked kindly.

"That's my business," I snapped. Handsome or not, this was the man Nee-san loathed with a passion, the man she would fight till her death.

He chuckled, seeming amuse of my attitude, this irritated me a bit. "I enjoy your compliment," he said, his smile turning into a smirk, "would you at least tell me who your Nee-san is? You know the one that hates me with a passion."

My brows shot up as I remembered what Ultimo told me about Asakura Hao, about his Reishi. My lips purse themselves together into a smirk, "I'd rather keep my thoughts to myself, thank you," I coolly snapped.

He chuckled once more, and I used this time to instinctively block my head from his ability. Hao turned to Arisu and smiled at her, "You were right Ari," he mused, "I am impressed by her spirit," he turned to me and brought his lips closer to my ear, "I'm also impressed in the way you are able to block your thoughts from me, but I'll keep that to myself."

He pulled his face away slowly than he looked at my leg, "You hurt yourself? That seems pretty stupid." I glared at him, and he just smiled back, "Where does it hurt?" he asked pulling down the moccasin on my leg. My blood suddenly heated up as he touch my leg, his fingers gently pocking random spots on my leg, he touched the place where I had injured myself, a sharp pain went through my leg and I jumped slightly in pain. He raised a brow, "I'm guessing that's the spot," he said.

"You have the audacity to touch me so intimately," I mocked, "and a stranger at that." Part of me was a little flattered at the way a tint of pink came about his cheeks as I said this.

His hand paused it its position. "How can you think of such things when you have an injury?"

"That would be my problem, not yours."

"Right, right." He chuckled. "You're not very nice."

"No, I'm not," I admitted. That much he had guessed right. I wasn't nice, I've never been nice since that say, I couldn't even smile or be grateful even if my life depended on it.

He smiled once more before going back to his work, and soon I felt my leg bone come back together, it was a strange feeling, due to me never having to heal myself before. In just seconds my leg no longer had that sharp pain that had become troublesome and bothersome. He stood up and looked at me once more, "Get some fluids and rest immediately," he instructed. "I'll be back to check on you later."

He turned around and stopped in front of the redhead and pink haired girls, "Get her to a room," he ordered, "I have some errands I have to attend to." He snapped his fingers and disappeared under a large flame of fire.

"My pleasure Hao-sama," the redhead said.

The pink haired glared at me, "It wont be my pleasure," I heard her mutter under her breath.

-----------------

I opened my eyes and gazed up at the ceiling that was over me, when did I fall asleep? I sat up and look at my surroundings, I was in a normal washitsu room may of wood and paper, fusumas separating this room from all others, under my use to be lying body was a futon on top of the tatami flooring. When did I fall asleep?

I stood up and dusted off my clothing, using my hand to straighten them out, my tall moccasins were over by the door, I took a few steps and saw my cloak neatly folded beside my moccasins.

As I placed all of this back on me I heard voices, and it was the first time I realized that one of the doors was not a fusuma but a shoji, my feet moved closer to where the light passed right through the thin papered door, and the voices grew louder as I got closer.

One of the voices, as far as I could tell, belonged to Asakura Hao, the other sounded that of a girl, my age possibly, but I couldn't tell, all I could hear was their conversation.

"According to Ari she brought a pretty girl today," the girl said, starting a whole new conversation with the brunette.

"She told you about that, huh?" I heard Hao respond, with a bit of humor.

"That's all she talks about today, well is she pretty?"

There was a long pause as he thought of how to respond, I wanted to so badly see his expression, but when I tried to look through the mind of the girl all I saw was black, a world of darkness and nothing more, something I never encountered before. But as went inside her head I could do something else. I felt Asakura's tension and hesitation as he tried to find a way to answer, I could hear his heart accelerating as he thought of his answer. But how in the world could I do this when I was who knows how many feet away? I couldn't see him through the girl's head but I could feel and hear everything else. The thought occurred to me, it was possible that…this girl was blind.

"I think…that pretty is too much of an understatement," he responded to her, a bit of seriousness hear in his tone.

"What does she look like?"

"She looks like a combination between you and…my mother…"

I raised a brow. His mother better be pretty if he is going to compare me to her. Though part of me felt a little…flattered, when it came to me he found pretty being an understatement…not something I've heard before. Though part of me felt a bit…sorry, for anyone to be compared to me at all is…uncalled for. I've never thought myself to be considered greater than pretty. As a child I use to look at myself in the mirror and my first reaction was an unthinkable pleasure, I would look at my flawless face, whose peach color would usually pass as a fruit burning in a part of golden locks of hair that greatly resembled the sun. then my reaction would turn to horror. Who was she? I would ask constantly to myself, knowing that normal people didn't look like me. Normal people didn't have as flawless of skin, or hair that reflected and stole the color of the sun, normal people didn't have crimson eyes that I did. Normal people didn't look like me. So to here someone say that, hmmp I was surprised.

"Your mother…that can't be good," the girl analyzed.

Hao laughed, "Why do you say that?"

There was another pause, but this one wasn't as long as the first one, "Because if she looks like your mother than you wouldn't try to start a relationship with her. You'll be too caught up in the past, and your rage will come to you once more."

"………"

"Well?"

"What do you want me to say?" he asked in a now irritated tone of voice.

"You're not even going to try are you?"

"I don't know."

"Coward."

"H-"

"Hao-Nii-sama!"

I blinked, I recognized that high pitch musical voice, I slightly opened the shoji about an inch, making sure I could at least see something. To my left I could see Hao facing in my direction, and the girl that I heard before had her back to me, all I could see was a windmill printed orange yukata and some short inch-passed-shoulder length hair that matched Asakura's. Then to my right I could see Arisu running up towards where they sat, "Hao-Nii-sama," she called gasping for breath as she came, "Savana is-is, I saw her go into an alley and-and-"

"She's dead." I jerked my head over to the brown haired girl, she had her head lowered as she spoke, "Her spirit just left this world."

I watched Asakura Hao's expression as this was said to him, he looked up and saw that Arisu was looking at him with patientless eyes. "Another one, huh?" he said as this pondered him.

I blinked, another one? How many people have been killed? Were they all Asakura Hao's allies? Or just this one?

"Is that all you can say!?" the pixie shouted, her blue eyes wide with sudden anger. "Do you know how many of our allies have died now, Nii-sama?!"

"Yes I do," he responded calmly, his face matching his tone perfectly as he responded, "What do you expect me to do? In your vision you never saw who killed her, or where they killed her. You just saw her dead in an alley, how many alleys do you think there are around here, Ari?" a smirk crept up his face as he closed his eyes, "But if it pleases you, then I could simply set all the alleys on fire, that way we'll know they're dead," –He opened an eye- "Would you rather me do that?" he asked, raising a perfect brown brow.

I raised my own brow; did he really believe that was reasonable?

"B-but-"

"A good girl knows when to be silent, Ari," the brown haired girl told her in a grave tone, "now's a good time to be silent." The pixie pouted childishly and looked down at her hands, in her tiny hands I could see her messing around with something shiny, something that seemed to be made of gold, barely the size of her hand, she fumbled around with it for a while until I saw her hand suddenly release it. I blinked as I saw the object fall to the ground, the shining object fell as if it were a déjà vu in my head. I looked up and saw those same blank and lost eyes, but this time I took no time to hesitate and enter the girl's head, so I could now see the same vision as her.

was a dark room, with only a large candle that lit the center of the room, in the middle of the room was a table made of rock and on that rock was a boy with unruly red hair, his stomach was opened but you couldn't see blood, all you could see were wire, many, many wires. His previously green, red pupiled, eyes were now dark, without any light, grey. I watched as many hands reached into the wires and began pulling them out, handful by handful until…

My eye widened as I pulled myself out of Arisu's thoughts, that boy on that table was…Ultimo. I pushed myself up off the floor, and before I even had time to think of what I was doing, I slammed the shōji door open and ran out, running down the rōka in the opposite direction from where the other three sat, I didn't care at all if they saw me running at some unnormally, unnatural speed, as heck if I cared, if I didn't find him soon, then it would be possible that Ultimo will be 'deprogrammed'.

I just ran, not caring if I knew where I was or not, I had to find him.

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Hao's P.O.V.

I sat on the rōka along with one of my closest allies, a brown haired descendant of mine named Annai. But her prettiness was not the reason she was one of my closest allies, the reason was that she was an Asakura, the only Asakura ever to side with me, in a way she was my descendent and I considered her an extremely close cousin. The reason she joined me was considered ironic in my head, you see Annai is blind, she was born blind and because of that the Asakura disowned her, seeing as they didn't know what to do with her. I found her in an alley about to be raped by a group of drunken samurai. That angered me, just a bunch of useless humans doing more harm in this world. I heard her story through her head and realized she was my bloodline, and after that the samurai turned to pile of ashes. I thought her how to use her shaman sense to live and now she was practically one of the strongest of those who follow me.

"According to Ari she brought a pretty girl today," Annai began, changing our previously unimportant conversation. 'As I remember she couldn't shut her mouth about it.' I smiled as I looked at the sky, twilight hadn't broken out yet, the sun was still out, spreading its light through the cold earth. Humor hit me as I thought of the relationship between Annai and Arisu, it was uncanny really, a hyper and over energetic pixie, and an serious and stern stone, nothing in common besides their family-like relationship with me, and Arisu found this enough to come close with Annai.

"She told you about that, huh?" I asked with a hint of humor in my voice. Of course she would hear it from Ari.

"That's all she talks about today, well is she pretty?" 'She better be your type.' I sighed, Annai and Ari have both always wished for me to find someone for myself, saying that I always looked so lonely. I wouldn't think of such thing though, I had a wife in my previous life, that's how I was able to have descendents, but it was just a part of my plan, I didn't love her, I didn't care of her as long as she gave me descendents to carry on my strong shamanic bloodline. Yet Annai pushed me with insults when I told her of this, heartless, manipulating fool, I believed was what she called me. I was interrupted by another one of her thoughts, 'You're surrounded by stunning girls that would kill themselves to have you, you're just too ignorant of love! Now answer me, Hao!'

I tried hard not to let a smile creep up my face, but it was difficult, if I didn't answer her I knew she would kick me, and you just couldn't avoid one of Annai's kicks, they could make you land in a pool of your own blood, ask the man that is in love with her. 'HAO!'

I winced at the growl of rage she sent into my head, I sighed and thought of the girl from today, she was definitely my age, or at least maybe a year younger, but I remembered the strange reaction I had. With just one look my breath caught –her beauty was just that unexpected. Her smooth skin looked tanned to a deep gold that was almost as rich a color as her long blonde hair, but what really caught my eye was her eyes, it was as if you were staring into the force of a burning flame, a flame that instantly caused your heart to increase the pounding of it in your chest. That girl…she was stunning.

I looked at Annai whose face was turned in my direction, 'Well?' her head asked in a grave, menacing tone.

"I think…that pretty is too much of an understatement," I admitted.

"What does she look like?" she asked dully.

Of course she would ask that. But a comparison was nothing hard for me to think of.

"She looks like a combination between you and…my mother…"

I knew it wasn't fair for me to just describe the girl like that, but if I went into detail she would notice my interest in the girl and all hell would break loose for me.

"Your mother…that can't be good," was her response.

I laughed, "Why do you say that?"

She paused, thinking of a reasonable response for me, "Because if she looks like your mother than you wouldn't try to start a relationship with her. You'll be too caught up in the past, and your rage will come to you once more."

This was possibly the only person who knew well my feelings towards my mother, and she had a large point in her examination, the crimsoned eyes goddess looked like my mother, the skin tone and the hair, and her aura all felt similar, but there was a part of her that reminded me of Annai, her coldness towards men, her emotionless mien. It would be possible for that combination to help me see past the similarities but I highly doubted that. And that really bugged me.

"Well?"

"What do you want me to say?" I snapped back, irritated in my own selfish conclusion of my future with the girl.

There was a sigh, 'That's just like you Hao,' "You're not even going to try are you?"

Was I?

"I don't know." I replied, and I instinctively knew what was coming next…

"Coward."

I despised her insults, as soon as I was going to get involved in a childish game of name calling I heard Ari running down the rōka, her face was shocked and worried, and her eyes were wide. I was used to seeing that face a lot, it meant someone had died, another one of my followers was seen dead through the futuristic eyes of Ari.

"Hao-Nii-sama!" 'She's dead. I saw it, the alley, blood, ripped clothes…' "Hao-Nii-sama," she called once more, gasping for her breath as she came, "Savana is-is, I saw her go into an alley and-and-"

"She's dead." I turned to Annai, not surprised much by her interpretation of Ari's usual ritual, but there was another way she knew this fact, "Her spirit just left this world." Yes, I thought my descendant how to use her sixth shaman sense, leading her to become the strongest itako of this time, I'll admit I'm proud of my own work.

I raised my head to look at Ari, the girl seemed as if she would jump off a mountain if I didn't answer her soon, "Another one, huh?" was all I said, it really didn't matter to me, if they were easily killed by other shamans than that meant they weren't strong enough, and here the strong prey on the weak.

"Is that all you can say!?" she shouted at me, her blue eyes wide with sudden anger. "Do you know how many of our allies have died now, Nii-sama?!"

"Yes I do," I responded calmly, of course I did, "What do you expect me to do? In your vision you never saw who killed her, or where they killed her. You just saw her dead in an alley, how many alleys do you think there are around here, Ari?" I closed my eyes, a smirk creeping up my face, a new thought coming to me, "But if it pleases you, then I could simply set all the alleys on fire, that way we'll know they're dead," –I opened an eye- "Would you rather me do that?" I asked her, raising a brow.

I knew that wasn't reasonable, for all we knew the murders could already be far from the alley, no one could be stupid enough to stay at the place where they murdered someone.

Arisu had that childish look of protest on her face, "B-but-"

"A good girl knows when to be silent, Ari," Annai interrupted in her speak-one-more-word-and-you're-dead-tone, "now's a good time to be silent."

Ari pouted childishly, and I sighed, thirteen years of age or not, Arisu was still a child, I watched her fumble around with a piece of Hoshi's golden armor for a while until I saw her hand suddenly release it.

The giant greave came falling to the wooden floors of the rōka, knowing that she wouldn't purposely drop it, because she was polishing it before, I looked at her knowing what to expect. Before I even looked at her, her vision came to me, invading the privacy of my head, I was used to this, seeing as I couldn't block any thought or images from my head as soon as a person would have them. I expected another vision involving one of my followers but I got something puzzling instead.

A dark room with only a large candle that lit the center of the room, in the middle of the room was a table made of rock and on that rock was a boy with unruly red hair, his stomach was opened but you couldn't see blood, all you could see were wire, many, many wires. His previously green, red pupiled, eyes were now dark, without any light, grey. I watched as many hands reached into the wires and began pulling them out, handful by handful until…

I blinked, I have never seen a boy like that before, and I'm positive Ari has never either. She gave me a strange look on her face, one that practically said, What the hell? I was pondering of this myself when we all heard a door slid open. I jerked my head towards the door, hearing no thoughts coming from the room, as I turned I just saw a brown blur with golden strands. I blinked and checked my vision making sure that the sun wasn't getting to my head.

I saw Ari take a peek inside the room, "Hao-Nii-sama, she's gone," she told me in a shocked voice. I was pretty shocked myself, that girl had such an amazing speed, nothing like I've seen before. Annai raised her head up, not bothering to turn towards either of us as she spoke.

"That girl…there was a long feeling of worry in her…"

I raised a brow, worry? She was in the living location of the great Asakura Hao, what shaman wouldn't be worried. Annai titled her head to her left, her blank eyes staring off into my direction. "Will you not go after her?" she asked dully.

I laid on my back, crossing my arms behind my head, "No, I see no reason why," I really didn't, the girl left due to her own free will, though there was a part of me that seemed…disappointed? Hmm, this was entirely new to me, I'll have to check my temperature later. And possibly make some medicine to cure my future headache as Ari's accusing voice came into my head.

'You are blind, Hao-Nii-sama. Can't you see where you're heading? Can't you see where you already are? It's more inevitable than the sun rising in the east. See what I see-"

I lifted my head when I heard her accusations stop and a new image appeared in my head, another one of Ari's visions…

The girl was running, at an incredible speed, she didn't even seem the least bit tired, but either way she stopped. She looked at her surroundings, seeming lost, five shadows emerged behind her, and she turned around to see five men looking at her with hungry eyes…

"NO!" I roared, a volley of snarls erupting from my throat, I jerked myself up. Ari and Annai both jumped at my sudden out burst, Ari blinked and looked at me with a quire expression.

I jolted to my feet and grabbed Ari by the shoulders, shaking her like crazy, "Show me a better view of where she is!" I demanded her; she stared at me, her blue eyes wide in shock.

Not even I understood my sudden change of mood, but for some strange reason I couldn't stand to see this, could not bear it. I tried to banish it from my mind, tried to see something else within Ari's mind, anything else, all to no avail. Ari's bleak vision filled my head and I writhed internally with the agony it caused, my grip on the small girl's shoulder tightening, but she didn't protest.

That girl…what was this feeling I was having because of that girl? Did…I love her? No, I didn't think so…at least, not yet. I barely even knew the girl, but her attitude, her way of being, her voice, her visage, her eyes, I could see myself loving that girl with those bright crimsoned eyes, it would be like falling effortlessly. But my head denied that option while my body was hurting the sister-like figure in my hands; I was still searching her head for an answer, but found nothing.

Behind me Annai cleared her throat, I turned to her and saw a spirit whispering in her ear, she turned nodded and dully turned her head in my direction, 'Seven miles east of here, dark side of the closest mountain, third alley to your left…they're the same ones that murdered Savana, so if you don't get there in time…'

Oh, I was ready to get there in time, "Spirit of Fire!"

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Annaka's P.O.V.

I ran and kept running, I was sure I was out of Asakura Hao's territory, but that didn't matter to me, I had to get back to the Patch café, I had to get to Nee-san, I had to find Ultimo. My speed increased even more as I thought of this, I dodged trees, jump over bushes, stepped over rocks, and yet I kept moving at the same speed. As I ran I couldn't help but to notice my speed, all the things I passed were a huge colorful blur, and the things that were a mile away from me I would pass in about a second. So this was part of my abilities as a Shaman Queen…

My feet came to a stop, dust flying all over the place as I did. I looked where I was, seeing hardly any familiar landmarks or things around me. Everything was quiet, so I took the opportunity to open the shield around my head, stretching it out so I could at least try to find Nee-san's thoughts. Instead I found others…

'Ooo, look over there, there seems to be a little blonde sweet over there…'

'Looks like I found a sweet meldar fruit to fit my taste, and I have the poperin pear to go with it…'

It was the hentais from before, and this time there were five of them. I would've run but that's exactly what they wanted me to do, according to their perverted heads they liked to chase down their prey, feeling the adrenaline of the hunt. I wasn't going to run, but I began walking, away from them, they followed.

'Look at her, she's quivering in her cloak…'

'Soon she'll be on her back for me…'

I shook my head, their images were so repulsive, it disgusted me to great limits. I really felt like biting their heads off, burn them to ashes, slicing them in half, anything to end their pathetic lives. But… 'Please, don't kill anyone…' I made that dang promise to Nee-san…

"Oi, blondie, no worries, we just wish to chat with you!" one of the five low-lives shouted at me.

"Oh yes, we just want to get to know you better!" 'You and your body, haha…'

My hands balled up into fists, trying to control myself from snapping my fingers and having the earth swallow them as a whole.

"Come on don't be like that! We're not going to hurt y-"

Before he could even finish his lie I turned around and rapidly went over to one of them and kicked him in the face. If there was one thing I could stand it was man that lied. The man fell backwards onto the ground, blood streaming down from his nose, hey at least I didn't kill him, trust me I could've kick him much harder.

The other four men looked at me in amazement, their eyes wide, some of them quivering in fear. Good, they should be scared.

'How'd she get all the way here so fast?!' one of them coward, looking into my eyes with fear.

'Her eyes…they scream DANGEROUS!'

'I barely even blinked when she came over here!'

'Brave, this one. Maybe better…more fight in her. That makes her way better than that sandy blonde girl we did a while ago…' My eyes grew vicious as he began to imagine my pleas, the way I would beg, and he compared it to the girl he did before. And my eyes became wide as I recognized the face in his thoughts. Sandy blonde hair, tan oily skin, her hair full of humidity, hazel eyes…it was that Savana women…

One of the hentais smirked at seeing my eyes widening, 'Good, she's shaking in fear now…'

Ha, yeah right, I wouldn't shake at anything besides seeing his ugly face when I wake up.

The four of them began moving slowly towards me, trying to create a moment of suspense-the same dang suspense that aroused him when he did this. He waited for me to scream or to run, but he was disappointed, no way was I planning on doing any of the two, and I definitely wasn't going to let them touch even a strand of my hair. They were going realize what the real meaning of pain was before they did anything, they would suffer and writhe with agony, and they would beg to be dead as soon as I would begin my torture.

They came closer and closer, but just as soon as they reached five feet to me I heard a sound, a long screech, its sound coming this way, then before I could even blink a carriage came this way, it did a circle around me, causing the five hentais to come crashing to the ground, then it stopped about ten feet away from me, just to my left.

The hentais were on the floor, dust blocking their view from me, I turned my gaze to the carriage and noticed it shaking, then I heard a familiar voice full of joy, "Annaka-joou-sama!!" I saw two things in about two seconds, the side of the carriage crashed open, pieces and flanks of wood flying out everywhere, and then I saw the reason it crashed open, Ultimo flew out of the carriage along with the pieces of wood. He yelled my name one more time and when I blinked I felt him throw himself at me, wrapping his arms around my neck, his head rested on my shoulder, and a huge boyish grin planted on his face.

He looked like a little boy who had just found his mother…

I blinked, and pushed him back by his shoulders, "Ultimo?" I dumbly ask, still trying to get over the shock of his sudden appearance, "What the heck are you doing here?! You're supposed to be with Nee-san!" I shouted in anger.

"You little brat!" one of the men shouted, a few splinters of wood stuck in the skin of his face. He stood up and flexed his hands making his way over to us as his companions stood up. "I'm going to rip you head of and then finish our business with your good-looking friend in your arms."

I watch them come this way, but I didn't quiver, neither than Ultimo, he knew better than to be scared of other shamans when I was already irritated enough to kill someone. I heard their plans of attacking us and I expected every move, what I didn't expect was a spear launch itself out the carriage and into the chest of one the men. I felt Ultimo winced as he hung from where I held him by the shoulders. My attention turned to the carriage and I heard someone tsk from the inside.

"What the hell do you guys think you're doing?!" someone asked, a male, and he sounded annoyed, violently annoyed.

"Who are you?!" the four alive hentais shouted out in fear, shaking in their attire.

"It doesn't matter who I am," the male voice in the carriage answered, I heard wood creak as someone stood from their seat inside, foot steps were heard and I saw the face of the owner of the spear.

He was Chinese with long dark purple hair down to his hip, on the top of his head you could see three spiky locks of hair neatly clipped up by a golden clip. He wore black, high class Chinese yuanlingshan, the sleeves of the yuanlingshan were mostly curved with a narrow sleeve cuff, it has round collar and side slits, this man's yuanlingshan had side panels at the side slits to conceal the undergarments, the collar was secured with a button, and a crossed-collar golden undergarment was worn underneath. The colors he wore were consisted mostly of black and gold, a little purple here and there.

His golden eyes violently gazed at the men that tried to come at me, the golden orbs narrowing at the sight of the men, 'That disgusting smell,' I heard him think, 'they smell of liquor and sex, what a waste of bodies…' "It doesn't matter who I am," he repeated taking a large step off the carriage, "but your actions bother me, surely your mothers regret having such weak and disgusting shamans as yourselves. So why not do your sorry mothers a favor and leave, now."

Really couldn't have said it better myself…

Three of the men began to quiver, thinking that it would be best to run, one of them looked annoyed, talk of a man's mother and you've hit a soar spot. "You bastard! How dare you talk of my mother?! You have a hell of a mouth you piece of shit!"

The purple haired male's glare became darker, more deadly and hungry for the men's blood to spill, "I'm getting impatient," he hissed, "Leave now…unless you want to die."

One of the hentais brought out a club, "Hey, hey, hey, what's with this pointy haired freak? Do you have any idea who we are?"

Ultimo was now shivering, one second you saw the purple haired Chinese standing there, just glaring at the men, then you see him in front of a dead body with a black and gold spear in his hand. I blinked, when did he move? He was really fast, but Nee-san told me that most Chinese were skilled in martial arts, and martial arts involved speed, plenty of it.

So basically it was two down, three to go.

The golden eye male turned to the second dead body, "I don't care who the hell you guys are. I do care that you are a bunch of worthless walking men who think with their dicks, you prey on women as if they were food, and I do not stand for such thing," he turned to the other three, that were very much alive, "I promise you three something," he said, his eyes glowing in anger, "I, Tao Rem, will definitely not let you live."

I raised a brow. Tao Rem? My gaze turned to Ultimo, he didn't look at me, but he gave me an answer right away. 'Tao Rem, heir and current head of the Tao clan, Chinese, age 18. He is a particularly impatient person with a very short temper, and isn't afraid to hurt the source of the anger. His family, the Taos, are a group of Chinese assassins and a powerful shamanic clan, his spirit is a recently dead Chinese warrior named Bason, who served the Taos for most of his life and who will now serve them even in death.'

I nodded to show him I heard exactly as he told me, a Chinese assassin with a soft spot for the treating of women, eh? I turned my gaze back to the fight and saw that now there were only two men left, and both of them were cowering behind one another as Tao Rem approached them, giant spear in hand.

I would've kept looking if I didn't hear a very familiar chuckle float through the air, followed by a voice, "I'm impressed by your temper, Tao Rem," the voice said.

The two hentais looked at each other, eyes wide, "That voice…" one of them said aloud, "it-it belongs to…"

He couldn't finish, neither could the other, Tao Rem's spear stroke right through both of their chests and they fell lifeless to the ground as soon as he pulled his spear out. Tao Rem turned his head towards the direction of the wind, "Who the hell are you?" he asked, no fear detected in his tone or his thoughts.

There were footsteps, hard and loud stomping footsteps that filled the air, then before my very eyes a saw a huge flame of fire burst out of nowhere, burning none of the trees it surrounded but bringing out a large red figure from its flames. My stomach suddenly fell like coughing something up, that large red figure…I recognized it…I could recognize it anywhere…it was…The Spirit of Fire. And in its hand appeared the man that had taken my breath away only who knows how long ago, Asakura Hao.

Tao Rem stiffened then got into a fighting stance, holding his spear out incase he needed to use it, "Asakura Hao," he hissed, "come to fight me have you?"

Asakura Hao smirked, amused of the Tao's immediate anger by just one look of him. "No, I was just taking a stroll and I've seem to have found something of mine," he said, his eyes shifting their movement over to me.

I pulled my gaze away from his, not wanting to look into those strange warm eyes, instead I looked down at Ultimo and I saw him staring at the carriage, his eyes practically glued to it. I gazed up at the carriage and I heard a small giggle, seeing a shadow like figure move from inside. Tao Rem turned his gaze on the carriage, as so did Asakura Hao.

In time I saw two feet finally coming out of the shadow caused by the carriage, I looked at the face as it emerged from the carriage, the face of a girl, a green haired girl. "Onii-sama," the girl said starring at the older Tao, "put down your spear, he doesn't seem to be here to fight you."

Tao Rem turned to the younger girl, glaring his eyes at her, "Are you giving me orders, Ju?" he hissed, obviously not enjoying this turn of masculinity events.

Ju narrowed her eyes, 'I am a head as well, Rem…' she got off the carriage and went to her elder brother's side, then her green eyes gazed up and Asakura Hao. "You can take whatever you want and leave, I honestly don't want my brother to die yet," she said aloud.

The three spikes on Tao Rem's head stood and increased in size, he was irritated, "What did you say?!" he shouted in rage.

Asakura Hao laughed out loud, seeming amused, "Women are able to make us men so weak," he informed causing the male Tao to turn red with rage, "Though I'm not after what you're thinking, Tao Ju, I'm not here to take you," he added.

I blinked, did I miss something? I looked down at Ultimo, his green eyes were gazing at me, I raised a brow at him and he immediately responded me, 'Tao Ju, age 14, second head of the Tao clan, she's a Taoist specialized in zombies, taught by her deceased mother. Her two greatest zombies are named Kyo and Shu, who were both given surgery again and again for them to become beautiful enough for Ju. Another thing to know is that Tao Ju is that seeing as she is one of the heads she needs so find a strong shamanic husband, the suitors have to fight against her and win, but no one has beaten her yet, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have an eye for someone. She has her eyes set on Asakura Hao.'

A silver spoon girl who finally wanted something that she can't have…ah, the irony. I looked at this so called Tao Ju, her face was made into a frown, then I noticed that she was looking straight at Asakura's eyes, and those eyes were staring at me. Tao Ju's gaze turned over to me and I'm guessing that it was the first time she actually looked at me because her eyebrows shot up as soon as she took the first look at me. 'This girl…'

I blocked her thoughts out of my mind before she could finish thinking anything about me, then I caught Tao Rem also looking at me, his golden eyes piercing through me. 'I've never seen such a woman…dang rapists! I can see why they would go after her…'

A vein appeared on my temple what was it with these dang people?! I swear! My gaze turned upward at Asakura Hao, he was now sitting with his legs crossed, his chin resting on the palm of his hand, and his body still on the palm of The Spirit of Fire. He was listening to the thoughts of the two Taos, becoming amused at their compliments, he stood up and his view turned to me, he gave me a smile and then turned to the Taos. "If you don't mind now, I'll be taking what I came for," –He snapped his fingers and before I could blink I saw fire surround both me and Ultimo, it swallowed us whole then when I could see something we appeared to be up high. Ultimo was grabbing my arm tightly, scared as a lost five year old, and to my left stood Asakura Hao, his back turned to me, his eyes still facing the Taos.– "Not to worry, we'll see each other soon, it's not long until the tournament will begin…"

With that said we disappeared from their sight.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

WOW I ACTUALLY WROTE THIS CHAPTER FASTER THAN I THOUGHT! HAHA I'M PROUD OF MYSELF! THOUGH I DON'T KNOW IF I MADE IT TO Y'ALL'S LIKING…

OH WELL ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST HAHA!

BTW I FORGOT TO ASK YOU GUYS SOMETHING, HOW'D Y'ALL LIKE MY EXPLINATION OF Yoh's FUNGA FU FU THING IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER? HAHA I GOT THE IDEA FROM MANKIN-TRAD, WE WERE DISCUSSING WHY Yoh DOES THE "FUNGA FU FU" THING & NO ONE KNEW THE ANSWER, SO I MADE ONE UP HAHA.

OKAY BACK TO THIS CHAPTER, I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THIS ARC, IT TOOK ME A LOT OF NIGHTS TO PLAN IT, BUT I ENJOYED IT.

OKAY SO I BET YOU ARE ALL WONDERING "WHY IS SORAGUIMI IN THIS CHAPTER?!!!!" ALL WILL BE EXPLAINED IN TIME I PROMISE.

ANOTHER THING, THIS TIME ABOUT Ultimo [I LUFF Ultimo~~~], OKAY I BET YOU GUYS ARE ALL, "ROBOTS DIDN'T EXIST IN THIS TIME PERIOD WTHECK?!" WELL I'M SURE Y'ALL READ KZB CHAPTER 296, I HAVE TO SAY THAT CHAPTER REALLY HELPED ME ON HOW TO FIT Ultimo IN THIS STORY.

NOW HEHE HOW MANY OF YOU WERE SHOCKED TO SEE THE TAOS, EH? COME ON NOW BE HONEST…

WELL THIS STORY WAS INTERESTING TO WRITE, I LOVE 1 PERSON P.O.V.S THEY DECRIBE THE CHARACTER'S FEELINGS MUCH MORE, BUT I'LL ONLY WRITE IN Hao OR Annaka P.O.V. SOMETIMES IN 3RD PERSON SO Y'ALL CAN SEE WHAT IS GOING ON WHILE Hao & Annaka ARE AWAY.

ONE MORE QUESTION…HOW MANY OF YOU LIKE LIME?? I'M CURIOUS BECAUSE I NOTICE STORIES GET MORE REVIEWS IF YOU ADD LIME…I WONT ADD ANY UNLESS

ALL OF YOU WANT ME TO, BUT I'M CURIOUS…

ONE MORE THING, ABOUT THE PERVERTED COMMENTS MADE BY THE HENTAIS, SURELY YOU GUYS HAVE READ ROMEO & JULIET RIGHT? IF NOT JUST ASK ME AND I'LL EXPLAIN THE WHOLE MELDAR FRUIT AND POPERIN PEAR THING

TIME TO REPLY TO MY REVIEWERS!!!!!!!!!!!

complicatedmind21- Haha yeah I know, but it'll clear itself up later, thanks for your review!

shaman king yolie- Thanks so much! hope you also enjoyed this chapter.

RuneKunaiV- I'm sure you've read others, mine can't really be that great hehe, thank you for the review either way!

Elpatolocosisi- Well I can't say now, but after the Arc there will be a whole Anna/Yoh chapter explaining all those things, but its going to be tough, but your question will be answered in that chapter. Thanks for reviewing.

Majrocks- Nah, thank you for reviewing, hope you enjoyed this chapter as well! I'll try my best!

Nightglider- *bow repeatedly* Gomenasen!!!!!!!!! I'll make it up to you! After the arc there will be a chapter with ONLY Yoh and Anna, I promise! Gomenasen!!!!!!

- Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

PLEASE REMEMBER TO READ AND REVIEW!

--Crystel Hidalgo/YohAnna4eva