He had been watching her long before she entered the glade where she assumed she would find him.

Truth to be told, there hadn't been a day ever since their last encounter when a thought or two from either of them slipped to the other… though it was hardly any kind of thought that description would suggest. It was simply hard for each of them not to think of the other, for reasons that were clear as daylight – a not-so-idle interest and a calculative suspicion.

His eyes, all-seeing as they were (or as he liked to think they were), sparkled with mischievous glee upon seeing the look of irritated anger passed through Anna's face as she obviously realized that he had told her that this would happen, that she would seek him out on her own. Of course, that was no irrational conclusion to the current state of affairs. Hao could very well understand why her pride was suffering by the fact that she had to submit to his logic as easily as he understood everything else about this girl. All but one thing – the glass wall he couldn't pass when attempting to search her thoughts. Like her face, the girl's mind was either a perfect blank or a heavily protected fortress that shut him out without difficulty.

Right now, however, no amount of self-control could hide her mood from her face, the anger that she was deliberately seeking him out, albeit grudgingly and with nothing but demands and questions as her intention, but nevertheless willingly seeking out his presence, his knowledge, him. After all, he had said that he would be there for her whenever she would need help, had he not? It was time to hold him to that word and get some answers out of him – or beat them out of him, whichever worked better in the end.

Most of the people she knew… no, all of the people who had even a vague idea of who Hao was would have viewed this way of thinking not as foolhardy – they would have screamed out that it was downright insane to think she could do something like this.

But no one would have dared to question her sanity – not itako no Anna, who always did as she pleased and hardly ever listened to anyone. They would have debated whether she had lost her mind in the attempt to plot Hao´s demise… or if she had seen a better chance of winning by throwing her lot with Hao.

Anna stopped in the middle of the clearing, long after sunset. The summer's warm weather allowed her to leave her heavier clothes at their temporary home and once again wear her trademark black clothes, though this time the bandana was missing. Thus she blended into the night almost ideally. Sharp eyes scanned the surroundings for a moment before narrowing slightly.

Something in her sighed angrily – the bastard was going to be way too smug for his own good, surely – but she beat it down. "Hao. I know you're there, so come out." She said out loud without an introduction, her eyes never resting on a single spot. For all she knew, he could appear out of thin air.

And, naturally, her expectations weren't too high. A burst of flames erupted behind her and Anna whipped the hair out of her face just in time to see the light settle to an acceptable level and a familiar figure to appear, sitting comfortably in a giant fiery palm of spiritual energy. To an outsider, this sight would surely have seemed downright strange, as no part of his clothing or skin was even slightly singed by the fiery energy surrounding him. This time, however, another little figure was humbly sitting at his side – the African child that followed him, thoroughly sexless to her eyes, but cleanly clad and certainly not malnourished or ill-treated.

However, her attention settled on the figure of Hao, who surveyed her with an almost kind, but clearly triumphant smile, which irritated her even more than the proud smirk he had given her when he had declared her worthy of being the Shaman King's wife.

"My, what a pleasant surprise." He said in a velvety voice, his smile widening for a fraction of a second. "Anna. What brings you to me today? Do you have my answer, or do you simply grace me with your company for no other reason than a whim?"

"Shut up." Anna snapped, irritated. He knew damned well why she was there and she wasn't buying the "be nice" act one bit. "I came because of Yoh."

Opacho, sitting quietly at Hao´s side, was scandalized. No one spoke that way to Hao-sama and lived! Yet Hao-sama was still smiling at the blonde girl... perhaps he wanted to mock her before killing her? But no. Hao-sama had forgiven her even hurting him with her slap. Or appeared to, anyway. Perhaps Hao-sama liked the girl? Opacho couldn´t imagine any other reason for letting this insult go unnoticed. But even if she, Opacho, had done something like that, punishment wouldn´t avoid her. The girl, Anna, had to be really special to be given this kind of treatment.

"Naturally you did. I suppose you wish to give me another lecture on how he will never help me and become the Shaman King for sure." The smile was really getting on Anna's nerves, even as it morphed to something darker as a gleam passed through Hao´s eyes. "And I suppose you know by now how useless it is to even suggest that he has a chance to resist destiny?"

Anna frowned. "I don't believe in that kind of destiny. I came because I have a few things I need to make clear. You have the answers I seek."

"Of course." Hao said, off-handedly, the dark glint never leaving his eyes. "And you will have them, free of charge. Never doubt my respect for you, Anna." He explained when she raised an eyebrow. "I would rather have you with me than against me."

"The very fact that you yet live is cause enough for me to be against you." Anna said, in her usual cool manner, "But your honesty is… appreciated." She paused for a moment, unsure if she should have stated such a near-compliment at all. As he showed no more smugness than before, however – less, perhaps – she proceeded. "I understand that you and Yoh are twins. I can comprehend that you are closely blood-related and that twins usually share similar traits, even personality, or, in this case, power. I want to know if there is anything more to your relation to Yoh. Even for twins…" she swallowed emptily, but knew it was true, "even for twins, I see too many… far…"

"Too many similarities?" Hao inquired, watching her struggle to admit such a thing was true with mild interest.

The crease on Anna's brow deepened. "Not in goals. Only in general personality."

"I understand your meaning." Hao said with a curt nod. And, to Anna's complete astonishment, he awarded her with a full smile, as if congratulating her on her own cleverness. However, it wasn't that which unnerved her. It was that, for a moment, she could see her fiancé's face in him, as if a veil had been lifted from her eyes and her vision had been cleared. The veil fell back when her eyes found the star-shaped emblem on his earring, the closest thing to his face able to bring her back to reality. "And I believe you would have comprehended it on your own, had you bothered to give it more thought. But you didn't really want to give it more thought, did you, Anna? The conclusion could perhaps be too much even for you to bear."

"So I am right." Anna whispered, almost to herself, with wide eyes that never moved from his face. She blinked a couple of times, attempting to return her thinking to normal, to no avail, of course.

Hao´s expression softened slightly upon seeing her shock. He had pushed her a bit too far, perhaps. "It could be considered to be something loosely resembling what human doctors identify as memory loss." He saw that a part of her was listening, but the rest was trying to fight off the shock. "Reincarnation is, after all, a process not to be taken lightly, and if the soul itself is the one initiating the process, a high level of power is required even for the first step. However, that two bodies were available when I needed only one was not part of my original intent. Thus I didn't consider the implications of placing myself into a womb carrying two children instead of just one. It was a miscalculation on my part." He summarized, as if dismissing the thought and having no wish to return to it. "In the end, it didn't matter. I had full consciousness of one healthy body, with all of my original powers, even strengthened by the repeated… infusion, you might say, of the Asakura blood. That part of it passed into an entity separate from me was not that important at that point."

Anna recovered. "So you're implying that while you were both born from the same mother, you are two different beings, only that you accidentally passed some of your power into Yoh?" her consciousness didn't even have time to consider the fact that she was having a normal, almost polite (for her standards) conversation with Asakura Hao.

The fire shaman sighed slightly and shook his head. "Anna, Anna, if only it were that simple." There was something strange about the way he said her name, something… remarkable. The two syllables held no fear, no anger, no negative emotion. His voice said them simply, but with a quiet respect, though by no means did he defer to her. It was, in a way, highly irritating, but also completely soothing. "Had things gone according to plan, as they had five centuries previously, my brother would have never existed… and you would be surprised to find far more of him in me than you are now seeing. Or perhaps you see it in reverse, really."

The itako understood – her shrewdness took over her thinking – and the concept fell into place at last. Yoh was a part of Hao put into a separate body, an aspect of his personality that had perhaps lain dormant for many a year, and, given the chance to surface, the subconscious self of Hao severed ties with it rather than to bother to suppress it for another lifetime. Thus he was Hao… and yet he was not. After all, Yoh had no memory of any such "previous life" and certainly harbored no secret feelings of hatred for humankind. Thus the former "part" of Hao was now a different being entirely, with no attachment to his former self. He might stem from Hao… but he wasn't Hao.

Hao, the only Hao, was in front of her, attempting to convince her to see things from his point of view – that as the "creator" of Yoh, he had a right to "destroy" him as well and reforge the soul of the original Asakura Hao in its complexity.

"You are a fool." Anna's dress and hair were swept to the right by a sudden breeze, but she felt no chill. Not even when Hao gave her a questioning look. "You yourself created your nemesis."

For the first time, the child at the shaman's side stirred. "Hao-sama, what does that word mean?" a bell like voice chimed in and Anna was able to guess that it was probably a girl, though she couldn't tell for sure.

And a soft laugh came from Hao as he glanced at his companion. "Opacho, Anna is suggesting that Yoh will be able to defeat me." Opacho, as the child was apparently called, glanced at Anna, then back at Hao, apparently unable to envision such a thing. "Your confidence in him is admirable, despite being misplaced. But I suppose I expected such an answer from you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" the itako folded her arms and practiced one of her numerous glares, to no avail.

Hao smiled pleasantly. "That I am fortunate that nothing can shatter the faith you have. That you are more than perfectly suited to being the wife of the Shaman King. And that I repeat my offer to you once more – you have seen that I am efficient when it comes to the goal I had set out to fulfill. With your help, I would be a step closer to achieving it."

"Never."

"It wouldn't be betrayal in the way you understand it." His expression of confidence didn't fade for a even second. "You still don't understand the crucial thing, Anna. The longer Yoh lives as a separate entity, the more of his true self he will discover. I speak of personality traits as well as power. He will come to do things - he himself might not understand why he feels the desire to do so, other than that it feels natural to him."

Anna gritted her teeth. "You speak of him as if he weren't even human, as if he were beneath your notice, even. Choose words more carefully, Hao."

"Yes, I have felt the power of your fists already, Anna. I wouldn't want to relive that experience, though I confess it brings back memories." Seeing her surprise, Hao continued, "I have a theory about you, Anna. I have known one person in my first lifetime, one who had a warrior's heart like you, but was born into the body of a woman, thus wasn't acknowledged as much as she deserved. It was a woman I respected greatly, for her strength as much as for her giving birth to me."

"Your mother?" the itako didn't hide her surprise. Then again, it made sense. Even the infamous Hao hadn't been infamous for all his life. He had been a child, once, then a famous but feared monk. And, in the end, all of his desire to create the perfect shaman world probably had a root in those early years of his life, when people feared what they couldn't understand.

Anna knew it from experience that shamans didn't always benefit from their powers.

The perfect shaman world would be a world where no one feared shamans, where no one hated them… where no one looked at you with terror only because you had means of connecting with the supernatural.

And, as suddenly as he brought it up, Hao dismissed the thought. "But back to important matters. I will answer another question for you, one which you didn't pose because you don't want to even consider the question, much less the answer. Why do I take such interest in you? After all, useless as most of Yoh´s companions are, some of them have potential and would perhaps be more willing to cooperate than you. Well," the "I-know-something-you-don't" smile was back on his face, as if it had never vanished before, "apart from your obvious qualities, there is one other thing. You are Yoh´s fiancée."

"Your point being?" Impatience returned to Anna – she was looking forward to ending this discussion. She had the answer she needed and didn't need any more smart-mouth advice from Hao.

"Have you never considered what it would mean if I were to succeed in getting Yoh to aid me?" Hao inquired idly, though his eyes were serious. "Certainly you remember that I told you that, as far as I'm concerned, Yoh is part of me. Consider the implications of being engaged to a piece of a puzzle that is about to be rejoined. Logically, the attachment that binds you to Yoh binds you to me as well."

And there, Anna froze. Truthfully, she hadn't considered anything like that. After all, she hadn't even known that Hao would be interested in such things as a fiancée, an engagement, an arranged but not unwelcome marriage in any other way than a means of getting to Yoh. But she caught up with his thoughts and what such a thing would imply. But the Asakura family in its entireness stood against that. And she had one more card to play, one more statement to make.

"Yoh will become the Shaman King." She said flatly, looking Hao in the eye again. "He will, because he doesn't believe he has to save the world by doing so. His mind his open and he doesn't know the restrictions your way of thinking does. I can never believe in you the way I believe in him, simply because you are unable to understand this."

"Perhaps it is you who is thinking in a box, Anna." Hao said softly, not even having the decency to change his expression and wipe that irritating smile off his face when Anna scolded him. "Perhaps you are so used to the restrictions of the material world that you can neither imagine nor realize just how much can be changed if there is the will to do so. And humans? Their power lies in destruction, not in creation. Only nature creates, and shamans are one with nature."

Blond eyebrows shot up. "Shamans can destroy as well. You are a prime example of that."

"We could debate my methods and goals till the end of the world." Hao said with a sign that showed slight weariness. Clearly, he had debated with himself at length about all these issues long before he – as the Asakura family claimed – lost his mind. Before he decided that extermination was the only acceptable course of action. "The bottom line is that the King of Spirits allowed me and my ideas to progress. Even if by some miracle, you would succeed in destroying me again, it is a simple matter for me to return again in time for the next tournament. I can wait. It is the planet that cannot. It's high time for my world to come into existence."

"I despise you more and more by the minute."

"And I grow to like you more with every word you say." Again, Yoh´s smile appeared, looking thoroughly natural and unnatural at the same time when spread across Hao´s features.

Anna frowned and proceeded to walk away, as she had done at their previous meeting. "We will meet again."

"I can hardly wait." The irritatingly pleasant voice called after her casually. There was the familiar crack of fire and then, the glade was silent, undisturbed once more.

On the way home, Anna debated with herself whether to be angry or irritated, or both, damn the decisions. Certainly Hao liked to toy with her and it gave him great pleasure to see her furious, something that was indisputable proof of his insanity alone. Because she didn't enjoy such impertinence when one was speaking to the future Shaman Queen. She didn't appreciate being dealt with as an equal. She didn't like being viewed as just Anna, not the frightening trainer of Yoh. Well… it was a change, certainly, but that didn't mean it was pleasant to be looked upon as if there was nothing else expected of her other than being herself. Perhaps if it had been Yoh that had looked upon her that way… but this was Hao, which was a different category entirely.

But she quickly realized just how easily the positions could have been reversed, just how easily Yoh could have been Hao and Hao could have been Yoh, had the spirit that invaded those two bodies made a different choice. It was a disturbing thought, more unnatural than her fusion techniques, as it was permanent. And she wondered if it was truly only the absence of memories that kept her fiancé from becoming the same as Hao, simply the second half of a broken soul.

On the way back to his followers, Hao saw Opacho´s curiosity about Anna clearly and answered bits and pieces about her here and there, when he felt like it. But it had been a foreign concept, claiming her as his fiancée, really. Not that Anna was by any means repulsive or inadequate for the role – he could hardly imagine another woman in the role of the wife of the Shaman King, after all, but placing himself at her side in such a binding fashion was truly strange to him.

Throughout all of his life, he had been alone. Allies had turned on him; people close to him had died. Few shared his dream, but some saw the light and came to him. And then this girl came along, with a coldness that he himself might have succumbed to, had he not gained a new goal in his life, certainly broken, like he had been, her will focused on a goal not so different from his own – a simple life. A life without fear, without regret. An existence where there was harmony, peace, serenity. Hao wasn't an idealist. He knew there were sacrifices to be made, that there would be uprisings, petty squabbles. But if a firm rule was what was required, then he would provide it, for he could.

And Anna, the shrew, the only companion of Yoh that pretended that her goals were her only focus and fought for her own selfishness as well as the good of the world, believing Yoh to be worthy of being Shaman King, Anna, who never wavered in her faith… Anna, he realized, he could imagine a future with, even if it would be based on selfishness – from his side, because she brought back memories of his mother; from hers, because Yoh would no longer be a factor after his plan was carried out and her goal, above all else, was the crown. But then would come the ordinary world, day-to-day life, and neither was used to existing in it on their own. And perhaps together, they stood a chance against the world neither had ever known.

If a normal life was ever destined for either of them