I'd always delved into the fictional world as an escape from my parents. Watching as much anime as I can, playing as many video games as I could. All this on top of studying to be placed into the exchange program at my school. As a sophomore in high school, I had the chance to be… but my parents told me no, stating that Japan was full of crime, traffickers and the like. So I gave up my spot to my best friend at the time.
Around that same day I gave up my spot, I saw a cat.
"It's staring at me? I wonder if its tame. Here, kitty…" I clicked my tongue, making the stereotypical 'here kitty' noise. It stared at me still, before licking its front paw and running it over its ear. Thinking it couldn't hear me, I started to walk towards it slowly. Trying to show that I wasn't a threat. The cat peered at me, before getting up and starting to walk away. Like a dummy, I followed.
The cat seemed to be leading me somewhere, as I followed it through a few alleyways until I finally came to a stop behind it, looking out at a somewhat-familiar landscape. Across the way was the theatre that Yoh, Anna, Manta and Amidamaru went to watch Lee Pyron's movie when Tao Jun attacked them with the Jiang Shi of Lee Pyron. That meant I was in the general area of Funbari Hill, wasn't I? Glancing about, I noticed there was barely anyone here. So, I decided to take a look around the area to see what I could find.
I didn't expect the cat to walk beside me, nor the fact that the people I did come across ignoring it like it wasn't even there. As I walked about, I found myself on a pathway I'd never seen before. Well, in person, that is. I'd seen it in both the anime and manga. It was the pathway to the cemetery, which was where I saw it. Wooden Sword Ryu and his gang, being taken out by Yoh…
Who had integrated Amidamaru into his body.
This was the world of Shaman King, a world I had only read about until today.
"Do you like it?" The cat spoke. I should've been afraid, but knowing that this was a different reality from my own… It made it less scary than it should've been for a first experience. As the cat waited for my answer, it started to lick its paw and run it over its ear. Washing itself, in a way.
"Like… what?" I asked, looking to the cat. It looked up at me, looking as if it was smiling before getting up and hopping onto the wall near the gate.
"Being here." The cat let its tail sway back and forth. "I know it'll be a change, but you wanted to go on that exchange trip, didn't you? This is one way that you can live out your dream without your parents interfering."
"And I'm being told this… by a talking cat of all things?" I inclined my head while looking up at her.
"A cat's ghost, you silly." The cat's tail continued to sway as it spoke. "I'm surprised you haven't caught on yet. You're smart, but forgetting about me? I didn't expect it."
"...Forget about you?" It was then that the cat lifted its head just a little to show a pink collar with a small silver bell on it. The collar it– no, she had when she passed two years ago. On the right side of the bell, in faded permanent marker and in my clumsy 5-year-old handwriting, was her name. Snowbean. The cat that lead me here, the cat that showed me to the Funbari Hill Cemetery was Snowbean.
"...Snowbean….?" My voice cracked as I spoke, and she seemed to smile again before jumping off the wall and landing on her feet near me. Blue eyes stared up at me, and I rubbed my face. This was something I hadn't expected. "...Does this mean…?"
"That you'll be entering the Shaman King tournament due to start sometime this year? Yes." Snowbean nodded. "I've been here for about three people months, so it might be due in this week's time for you. Human time is still nonsense."
I looked up to the hill again, to see it empty. People didn't usually go this way to get in and out…. There were other routes to it, I guess. The Shaman Tournament… I was to enter it? Had Snowbean calculated this in her little cat head? Or was it because I talked about wishing I could be a part of the Shaman Tournament myself when she was alive? Either way, as I was now, I couldn't exactly be a part of such a tournament.
I would have to find a way to train, and get stronger for the tournament itself.
"But first, let's get you someplace safe. I know just the place, too!" Snowbean started to walk, and I followed after her.
I would find myself embroiled in the Shaman Tournament, whether I wanted to or not.