Chapter: 11

Kept Apart

My Breath Away

Moving through life was always much more fun when you did it with the person that was close to your heart. The only hard part was keeping yourself from tripping up and confessing that which dwells deep in your heart.

Life sometimes could be unfair when you were scared of love.

Tokyo

Oyamada Manta slowly opened his eyes, and snapped up into a sitting position.

For a moment, he was confused as to where he was until his surrounding became familiar to the setting of his room. His familiar bed and the familiar sheets that kept his body warm at night were all there. His night stand, and the dirty clothes that littered his room, and his half opened closet. He still could not shake the odd feeling of confusion that he was feeling, as well as the wonderment of where his friend Asakura Yoh was. Kicking off his bed sheets, he quickly bounced out of his bed and headed over to his bedroom door, and grasped the cold handle, opening it and looking down the familiar hallways of his home.

There was an anxious feeling in his chest as he headed down stairs, and went into the kitchen, just to find things in perfect normality. His mother was there, cooking breakfast, gently humming a tune to herself. He stood there, looking in disbelief as she turned and noticed him, smiling sweetly at him like she did every morning before the huge incident happened "Good morning Manta, are you ready for breakfast already?" she asked.

He shook his head. "I'm going to go change,"

His mother gave him a concerned look, "Well, hurry so you can eat some breakfast before you leave for school" He simply nodded his head, and forced a smile for her and rushed back upstairs and to his room.

"There's something wrong…what's going on? What happened to Izumo and that world with vampires and witches-what happened to Yoh?" Manta muttered vehemently under his breath as he proceeded to change his clothes, trying his hardest to find a clue of what could have happened. However, he did not find anything, as he placed on his shoes, he could not help but feel that it had all been some sort of twisted dream he had. "It couldn't have been…it couldn't be just a dream," Manta mumbled to himself, distraught and shattered that it might have been just a dream.

"Manta!" His mother called to him and Manta snapped out of his thoughts. He grabbed his backpack and headed down stairs.

He sat down and ate breakfast as quickly as he could, and then ran outside, trying to see if maybe out here in the world he would be able to find a clue! Anything that would lead him back to the reality he knew existed. The reality that no other human would ever believe, he needed to know that it was real. Something deep inside him needed to believe that it was real! That it all had been real. The vampires, the ghosts, the witches, and all the magic had to be real!

But as Manta kept running, and made it to where Yoh had kept residence before, a sense of dread gripped him, it felt like no one had lived in it for years. He rushed forward, knocked the door, even looked through the windows, but there was nothing. No trace of anyone ever having lived there, there was only dust and spider threads that signify just how much lack of life there had been there.

As if, it had been for years.

School, Manta thought, School is a safe haven.

The school must have Yoh's records on file, and the teacher would call his name and Yoh would be there on the desk, snoozing before class even started. With that thought and that hope built in his chest, Manta ran again. He tried to keep that hope alive, but as he ran into school, and through the halls, another sense of dread filled him, and as he went to his classroom and opened the door-someone else was sitting in the desk that was supposed to be Yoh's.

Manta felt his heart sink for like the fifth time that day, and he walked over to his desk sitting there. The anxiousness would not leave him as he looked up every time the door opened, and he kept hoping that he would see Yoh walk in through the door, with a goofy grin on his face and make everything he had been through a reality.

Finally, the teacher walked in, "Good morning class let us continue our lecture on the widespread of culture" Manta turned to look at everyone opening their geography books. He felt confused, 'wasn't that the lecture she was going to give on the day that Anna appeared to take Yoh?' Manta wondered to himself 'Impossible,' he thought and his eyes panicked as he pulled out his book, and his agenda of assignments. Yes, it was written there, on Monday, they were going to have a lecture on culture and how it has helped shaped globalization.

He bit into his lower lip and looked at the other students. Finally, he got the courage enough to tap the girl beside him. She turned to look at him with a curious look, her long black hair falling over her shoulder. "Yes?" She asked, with a friendly smile.

"What date is it?" he asked her, sheepishly.

She gave him an odd look. "It's February twenty-one," She said, confirming his suspicions. Manta had not wanted to hear that. He nodded his head though, and sheepishly smiled at her.

"Thanks. I don't really have a head for dates." He looked at her apologetically and she simply smiled at him before turning back to her book, and turning back to the lecture the teacher had started giving.

'What's going on!' Manta's mind screamed to him 'All of that, Izumo, Yoh, and everyone else, it couldn't have all been a dream, could it!'

Manta felt defeated when he left school that day.

When he got home, he diligently did his homework despite the distraught state of his mind, and then he sunk into his bed. If it was a dream, he wanted to fall asleep and go back to it! He wanted to be a part of that world, he felt like he belonged there a lot more than he did here. He was not only missing that world, but his best friend as well. Yoh had been the first and only friend he had ever had since people never wanted to be his friend, his short stature always making them look at him as if he was some sort of freak. It was not fair!

Life sucked so much.

Sighing, Manta closed his eyes, trying hard to go back to the land of Izumo that he had left behind. What had happened anyways? All he could remember was just being there, watching things happen and then it was as if his mind went blank on him. Everything from that world melted and disappeared from his eyes.

Had Yoh fought his brother? If so, was one of them dead right now? On the other hand, had some sort of peace agreement kept the two twins from having to fight each other to the death? Manta really wished it were the latter, so Yoh would never have to kill his twin, and Yoh would never have to die either. No one would have to suffer. Manta continued trying to remember all that had happened, all that he had spoken with Yoh, but all of it seemed like a far of dream that was impossible to have ever had happened.

Tuesday was the same, and he followed the same routine.

Wednesday, changed nothing, and the anxiousness that had built in his chest was getting even heavier to deal with. Manta would look up at the night sky and wish again, that at least, everything he had gone through was real. He could no longer live in a world where he was the only one that knew of the magic that existed in the world.

Thursday, his parents told him that they were getting worried about him. "We rarely see you doing anything these days" His father had said, "Don't you even have any friends that you could hang out with?"

"No" Manta shook his head, "No one wants to be my friend"

"Now dear, that isn't true, you just haven't given them a chance" His mother tried to sooth. He wanted to tell her that it was them that had not given him a chance. That day he left home to go to the library and check out a book on ghosts, vampires, witches, and any other supernatural being that there was in the world. As he read them, and he could not help but to think that it was fake, the imagination of humans could never capture the beauty of these beings that they had painted as monsters.

On Friday, Manta gave up and decided to accept that everything had been a dream he had. That Yoh never existed, and that in his desire to have friends he had created Yoh. He tried to convince himself that there was no magic, and that nothing in the world, such as Ghost, vampires, or witches existed. It proved to be a lot easier said than done, but he hoped that if he repeated it enough, he would soon start to believe it himself.

On Saturday, Manta refused to get out of bed.

On Sunday, he decided that things will have to be different. For Monday, he was going to be prepared to face school as he had always faced it before Yoh had come into his life. Everything was soon going to fall into routine and he would no longer care.

Just Outside Of Tokyo

Hao silently watched as Yoh slept.

It had been a week now since the two of them left Izumo and both started a path together. They had travel desserts, and finally they had made it to a place Hao had never been to before-but Yoh seemed to recognize. Hao did not know the name of the place yet, but the deep forests were cool and the dark night was a pleasant to watch the stars. Yet, Hao could not keep his eyes away from his slumbering twin brother, and the way his precious little mouth curved in a small pout while he slept. Or even look away from that lovely face. The way he rarely moved made, him want to reach out and wake him up just so he could watch him move.

Hao lightly scoffed to himself, keeping his hands to himself as he watched the light flames of their campfire danced on the skin of his younger brother. "He's such a distraction, I should have never brought him with me," he muttered, mainly to himself. Opacho smiled at him, but said nothing as she kept herself mostly transfixed into the flames. Hao silently sighed, and tried once more to tare his gaze away from his twin, but was only successful for a moment. "Opacho, has anything of interest happened with Jeanne and Marcos?"

Opacho turned to look at him and then closed her eyes, "They are still just floundering around with no real purpose, are we going to have to execute them soon, my lord?" she asked, curiosity perking her voice. Hao lightly shrugged, his eyes once more straying to the precious face of his younger twin brother.

"Not yet" he said his tone a little hard. He would never forgive anyone if they ever hurt Yoh. "But I guess other than that, we can finally at least find something to do so Yoh can have fun,"

"Yes!" the little girl squealed in delight. Hao chuckled silently to himself.

In just the week he had spent with his twin, he had learned two very important and interesting things. One, Yoh did not mind where he was or where he went as long as he could get a nice long nap out of it. Two, Yoh was obsessed with oranges-not that he would eat them, he just was obsessed with them, and it was something he did not quite understand of the younger.

But knowing those two things was enough.

Yoh was an easygoing person, always very optimistic without a worry in the world. Yoh had this belief that as long as you did not worry about things, things would just happen and change on their own. It was something he felt he needed to change in his twin. If he kept believing things would just happen, he was going to have his whole life based on that fate, without him trying to fight fate at all.

Hao sighed, and then looked back at the sky as it lighted itself with the light of the sun and knew morning was fast approaching. Yoh finally moved and seemed to stir as he woke up with the sun-something that was an odd habit when it came to being a vampire. Not that Hao cared much about sleeping all the time, he enjoyed staying up and watching his twin sleep. Still, the question remained of what they should do for entertainment today. "Good morning" Hao greeted when his twin turned to look at him, and smiled brightly. Yoh didn't fail to smile back at him.

"Morning" He muttered, and then yawned. "What time is it?"

"It's six in the morning" Hao commented, and stood up, putting off the flames of their little campfire. "We should get moving again"

Yoh slowly nodded, "Where to this time?"

"I don't know…" Hao said, "Do you have any ideas?"

Yoh nodded his head.

Strange city Tokyo

It was Monday morning and Manta got ready for school, as he had been for the past week. As soon as he was done dressing he rushed down stairs to get some breakfast, his mother was right there, happily humming and smiled when she saw him. "You seem to be in a better mood Manta" She commented as she placed before him a plate of pancakes.

"Yeah, well it's a new day" Manta said.

His mother nodded, "That it is."

Manta finished his breakfast and ran out the door for school. He could not wait to learn about the industrial revolution on how the economy worked. No one talked to him or even commented about him as he made his way to his class, and went straight to his seat to study up before the lecture even begun. The class like always started to get filled with students, and before they knew it people started to talk about how the teacher was strangely late today.

"Why would that be?"

"She's never late"

"Yeah, that's true. She never is! She never even misses!"

The class was riled up, and everyone went silent when the doors opened. There was a sense of relief when the teacher walked inside, but people began to murmur to one another when two boys followed behind her. Both looked like twins, but one had short hair and the other one had long hair. The short haired one looked calm to be there and the long haired one looked completely curious as to what was going on, and of the people around him.

"Good morning class, before we start lecture, I would like to introduce you to two new class mates you'll be having from now on" The teacher smiled sweetly "Please welcome, Asakura Hao, and Yoh"

Oyamada Manta was in utter shock.

But life is mostly fun, depending on what you make of it.

And this is where you start to wonder, if you tell him or not. And where you'd be the next morning when you wake up.

I know, A little shortie chapter.

But something to get me going again.

Hopefully i can update soon again. See you around!