Besarki: If I could draw, I would draw a back-view of Hana looking up at a huge stained glass window with all the shamans depicted in it. Yoh and Anna would be closest to the middle and the biggest and most prominent figures. Seems like it'd be a little Kingdom Hearts-y, but I bet it would look cool. HINT HINT! Someone go draw that. DO IT! ANYONE WHO'S UP FOR A CHALLENGE!
I wish I could draw. All I can draw are dragons and kitsunes, and they're not even that good. Bah. I'm working on a haetae right now, but it looks more like an oversized couch with fangs than a fire-eating dog. Grr.
Anonymous Review Reply-age:
anonymous: *Duct tapes your mouth and stuffs you in a box* anonymous didn't say anything! In fact, he/she didn't even ask the question I was hoping no one would ask! Sigh. Kidding. The answer to your question is yes. Can't have Hao followers without Hao, eh? In fact...
Reviewer101:Your dedication to reading fanfics is astounding. I bow down to you. And the movie was Castaway. Surprised no one said anything. WILSOOOOOOOOOOON!
If I didn't reply to your review, it means I hate you. HAHAHAHA! Just kidding! Just kidding! I really only replied last time if you asked a question or something like that.
Aye! Look! It's...yeah, I really don't have much of anything more to say here. Actually, lie.
What would you do if I told you that this story was almost over? Would you get all pumped and excited? Would you be sad? Would you call me a liar? If you called me a liar, then you'd be right! This story is only just now reaching the half way point. :D My fics are epically long. The turn around is the Yoh chapter, which, I'll just go ahead and warn you again, will take a while to write. Maybe...five days. I don't know. I'm so bad at writing guys. And I have to write-- *Gets punched in the face before spoiling anything*
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Que si me muero sea de amor
Y si me enamoro sea de vos
Y que de tu voz sea este corazon
Todos los dias
A Dios le pido
~A Dios le pido, Juanes
(I actually wasn't supposed to capitalize the beginnings of those phrases, but I'm an English native and not capitalizing it seems odd to me. Don't kill the fanfictioner!)
Spain
"So, you do not know any Spanish?"
"I can say taco."
"I don't think that counts."
"Oh."
Matamune sighed and shook his head.
We'd arrived in Spain earlier this morning to the sounds of musicians and people dancing in the street. I asked Kaa-san if it was a holiday, but she didn't seem to know. Neither did Matamune, strangely enough. Ultimately, I figured that maybe this was just a crazy city or something, but the dancing continued all over Spain. There was this weird market where people were trading dogs for chickens (AN: Apparently, there are markets like this in Madrid. I saw a video about it in Spanish class. Destinos. It was a Spanish soap opera, but it was so corny that all anyone did was laugh) and a bunch of weird people like this lunatic that kept trying to get us to buy lottery tickets. What the heck were we supposed to do with Spanish lottery tickets?
"I don't get Europeans," I griped as we headed down the cobblestone street.
"What's not to understand about them?" Matamune asked, nervously eyeing a speckled dog that just so happened to be staring directly at him.
"Look at these guys. They're all so different." So different from us was what I really meant. I knew, even then, that Asians were more dedicated to their work than Europeans, and especially Americans, but to be dancing in the squares? I thought this kind of thing only happened on TV. "And they keep staring at me!"
"You are Japanese and you have dark blond hair. That's not something people see often," Kaa-san pointed out. Ha! Like I didn't know that. I had an hour long conversation with someone once about my hair color. Honestly, though, compared to Tamao's pink and the Usui's blue, I don't see anything all that unusual about mine.
"So? That guy has silver hair," I argued, pointing to a very not-so-Spanish-looking man.
"He probably dyed it."
"Yeah, and I could have dyed mine." I crossed my arms and smirked, thinking I had won. I hadn't.
"You're seven," She disagreed. "Seven-year-olds don't dye their hair."
"Nuh uh. Daichi dipped his head in a green paint bucket once because he wanted his hair to be his favorite color." Odd that I'd have a flashback of my kindergarten class now of all times.
"...?"
"Then Hikari came over and threw a truck at me. My classmates were so mean!" I fumed, suddenly remembering that. I'd been sitting in the corner, minding my own business when I saw the paint incident. Naturally, I laughed. Hikari was mad so she started throwing stuff. I told the teacher, but she ignored me. 'I'm sure it's nothing, Hana.'
Man, am I ever happy to be out of that mess.
"Don't be too happy. You're going back as soon as we find Yoh." There she goes reading my mind again! At least, now I know that she actually is.
"Aww, why?! Come on, Kaa-san! Everyone's so mean."
"I know. I went through school, too."
Big deal. "Yeah, but you were so scary that everyone steered clear."
She smirked. "Well, there you go. Just put on a scary face."
I made the most vicious, angry face I could muster. Kaa-san stopped to stare at me for a minute then took off again at full speed, probably hoping I wouldn't see that smile on her face. And here, I thought she was supposed to have a really good poker face. What was going here?
I shook my head and ran after her.
---0---0---0---0---0---
"It must be a holiday," I figured, clapping my hands together and feeling proud of myself for figuring it out. "It's the middle of the day and that school is completely deserted!" I looked pointedly at the Spanish schoolhouse. There wasn't a soul in sight. Even the spirits were absent.
"That is because it is time for their daily siesta," Matamune corrected, never even sparing a glance in my direction. I threw him a weird look.
"They have daily parties?" I asked. Wasn't dancing in the streets enough?
He shook his head in a way that made him look scolding. "That is a fiesta. A siesta is a nap. In Spanish-speaking countries, the locals take a break in the middle of the day in order to recharge their energy via an afternoon nap." Though he said this calmly and without much emphasis, I could tell that he was just waiting for my reaction. He didn't have to wait long.
In that instant, a huge smile broke out across my face. They got to leave school to take a nap?! How cool! "No way!" I exclaimed, ecstatic. "Kaa-san, after we find Tou-san, let's move to Spain!"
"You want to change countries just to take a nap?" She asked peculiarly.
"Who do you think I am? Tou-san? No, I just want to get out of school!"
My mother sighed and rolled her golden-amber eyes. "I should have known."
I merely grinned. Tou-san would back me, and so would Matamune. It would be the three of us against Kaa-san and Naka, but Naka couldn't talk so he didn't count! Ha!
...Though, when you were a demon, not having a voice didn't matter all that much, huh?
I sighed and strolled on down the street. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an old woman whack a pickpocket with her purse and then scream apparently derogatory terms at him. This scene would have struck me as funny if I hadn't seen in a million times already in Tokyo.
I wave of sudden homesickness washed over me then. I hadn't realized just how much I missed Funbari Hill and everyone that lived there, even my hopelessly rude classmates. Even though we were nearly in poverty back in Japan, I don't really think I could leave it for good. So much for moving to Spain.
My eyes trailed up to the skies above me. There was a cloud that looked like a dragon. It was just the head, but it looked pretty realistic, for a cloud, anyway. The mouth was open and horns branched from the back of its head. There was even a little slot missing for the eye.
Because I was busy watching the clouds, I wasn't watching where I was going. Just as the cloud started to mutate into something else, I suddenly crashed into something and fell back to the earth.
"Ow!" I yelled, scrunching my eyes. Several seconds passed before I finally opened my eyes.
There were three people standing before me: Kaa-san, Matamune and a black-haired man with a funny hat and a pointy mustache. The man looked at me strangely for a moment, and then grinned.
"HOLA!" He yelled, and the color immediately drained from my face.
Oh god, not another one.
"TACO!" I yelled. It was the first thing that came to mind, but it succeeded in confusing the stranger long enough for me to grab Kaa-san's hand and run as far away from the Spanish man as humanly possible. Once was enough. Once was more than enough.
---0---0---0---0---0---
Running is nice, but when you lose your path, what is there left to run for, huh...Hana?
Besarki: And so we have another filler chapter, but this one has a sort of mysterious ending AND it's insanely short. INSANELY. In other words, it was another time take-up. Also, if you haven't picked up on it already, the title was a pun of the sorts. Bajo means short in Spanish. This chapter was short. Therefore, chapter bajo--short chapter.
MUHAHAHA! I doubt that anyone will argue with this being one of the most boring so far (quite possibly THE most boring). Originally, there was an entire Yoh-Anna conversation in here, but I took it out a quarter of the way through, and just threw that last line in as a cliffhanger. Note that the text effects on that sentence was an underline and italics. Yoh is bold and italics, Anna is just italics, so then who has the underline? Guess. You'll get it. Surefire. -.-
ARGH! I WANNA GET TO AMERICA SO DAMN BAD! YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT I HAVE PLANNED FOR THERE! OH, YOU'LL LOVE IT! Actually, I have very little planned once we reach America. There are two major events, one right at the beginning and one at the end, but in between, I got nothing. I really have to go think this over.
The Italians love you to death, the Spanish teach you to dance, and...we're going to Portugal next. What are the Portuguese known for?
By the way, there is only one person reading this from Spain, and I'm gonna go ahead and apologize for failing three years of Spanish. I honestly just wrote my novel every period. If it wasn't for my friend, I would have literally failed. So, lo siento...para (or is it por?)...screw it. I'm sorry for not knowing much about Spain. Gomen, lo siento, I'm sorry.
The name Daichi apparently means "Great Intellect" You know me, gotta make a joke out of everything.
And I think I promised this last chapter, so here you are! MY AWESOME-TASTIC CHART OF AWESOMENESS (Note sarcasm)
Everything I Need to Know, I Learned From Shaman King
1. Working your ass off so you can be a bum for the rest of your life is totally logical.
2. In Japan, it's custom to carry a container of soy sauce around with you--just in case.
3. When in doubt, dump a bucket of water on your head. (You probably don't get this one. In episode 18, Tamao comments on how Anna worries about Yoh the most. The screen immediately jumps over to Anna who is dumping a bucket of water on her head, clearly indicating that she is very upset. I had to poke fun at that.)
4. Some people are so totally awesome that they can defy the laws of everything and survive seven days without water.
5. Japanese is a more sexist language than Spanish.
6. It's totally cool to change the names of vital characters when translating anime from Japanese to English.
7. Occasionally, your groin makes noises when you are hungry.
8. Locking yourself in torture devices is all the rage.
9. Chinese warhorses are f****** huge.
10. Happy senior couples commonly impale each other with their canes.
11. Sharona actually ends in ly.
12. Watch out for Italians. Even the little girls are crazy psychopaths.
13. By screaming and flipping out, some people magically gain the ability to levitate.
14. People claiming to be justice are crazy. Avoid them at ALL costs.
16. The fact that some Chinese people have oversouls called wang and long is not funny at all. DO NOT LAUGH.
17. Never trust German doctors. They're all secretly planning to steal your soul and vital organs and sell them on ebay. Either that or use them to revive their lost love.
18. Shamans are so cool that they can completely ignore the time-space continuum. (Don't understand this one either? In vol 13, it is March, 2001. In vol 14, it is June 2001 (note that it's the same battle and it's apparently three months long). In vol 15, it is July, 2001. In vol 16, it's somehow back to January, 2001. That was one hell of a typo.)
19. If someone can see spirits, then he must be a good person. Disregard the fact that he has killed millions, attempted to kill you, attempted to kill your friends, attempted to kill his friends, hit on your fiancee, verbally SPAT in your face on multiple occasions, and many, many other outlandish things, and go give him a BIG hug!
20. Did you notice that there was no 15?
DON'T TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY! IT'S A JOKE! This list was written PRIOR to KZB 27. Some of this, like the soul part, was incorrect, but it sounds funnier with it. If you can't take a parody, then you're not a true fan. Did that last question look familiar? I stole it from an email I got. The one about knowing how you live in 2007. The list favors the anime because there's more to make fun of in the anime (and because the 4Kids dub was PAINFUL). Don't misunderstand. I LOVE Shaman King, but there are some things that are just too much to pass up.
Next chapter shouldn't be so pointless, at least, I hope it won't. And because this one was so excruciatingly boring, expect the next one sooner than usual. Guess that's all I have to say. LUEGO MUNCHIES!