Shaman King Fan Fiction / Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Collision ❯ The First Meeting ( Prologue )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: Shaman King, Bleach, and all related characters/weapons/attacks belong to Hiroyuki Takei and Tite Kubo respectively with the exception of Yoh's zanpakuto, which is mine.



Nine-year-old Yoh Asakura sure had an interesting life. He was the heir apparent to the Asakura Clan, the most prestigious and well known shamanic family in Japan, maybe in the entire world. He had been marked for shamanic training since his birth. And yet, we find him walking the streets of Karakura Town, sent by his Ojii-san to find the source of a pulse of spiritual power radiating from the city. Oh, joy! He'd much rather just sit back in a nice graveyard, look at the stars and chat with all the spirits. Maybe even listen to a song or two by Bob.
Yoh sighed as he looked out into the falling rain. He was about three blocks from Kurosaki Clinic, where all the major spiritual power was coming from. Yoh shifted under his small black umbrella, not quite used to being away from a company of family guards or his Ojii. The family thought it would be easier for an innocent-looking nine-year-old boy to persuade the source of the spiritual pulse to train as a shaman. He sighed again. He had more important things to do...like figure out if the old family legend about Shinigami were true or not. Now that was interesting.
About a week before, Yoh had found an old family tome that recorded the history of the Asakura family. Some of the pages dating back around 1,000 years had been ripped out, but before that were chapters talking about an alliance between shamans and shinigami. Shinigami, to Yoh, were kinda like shamans on the other side. Or at least that's the way that the tome made it sound. About a week before, Yoh had found an old family tome that recorded the history of the Asakura family. Some of the pages dating back around 1,000 years had been ripped out, but before that were chapters talking about an alliance between shamans and shinigami. Shinigami, to Yoh, were kinda like shamans on the other side. Or at least that's the way that the tome made it sound. Nowadays, shamans dismissed the shinigami as a myth, but Yoh wasn't so sure about that.
Yoh came out of his thoughts to find himself in front of Kurosaki Clinic. Yoh, the ideal slacker attitude in place, entired the Clinic and followed his sixth sense to where it would take him.
He came upon the source of the spiritual pulse and was inwardly shocked at what he found. Before him sat a boy, no older than himself, with bright orange hair. The boy appeared to be crying. Yoh didn't let his shock show though and just gave the crying boy his signiture laid-back smile.
"Yo!" He said to the nameless boy, raising a hand in greeting.
The orange-headed boy looked up startled and managed to whimper out, "S-she's d-d-dead...and-d it-it's all m-my fault!" before he started to sob even louder.
Yoh smiled again and spoke to the orange-head gently. "Hey, now. There's no need to cry. My name's Yoh Asakura. What's yours?"
"I-ichigo. Icigo Kurosaki." Orange-head,er, Ichigo, seemed more stable now so Yoh decided to find out what was wrong. "Who's dead? And why is it your fault?" Ichigo just stared a second before bursting out into tears again.
"M-my m-mom...s-she d-died...be-because of m-me!" he wailed.
Yoh patted Ichigo's back brotherly and said his trade mark line. "It'll all work out in the end. You'll see."
Ichigo smiled a little at that and the two talked for a bit before Yoh made a decision.
"Hey, Ichigo, you want to trade e-mail addresses or something like that so that we can keep in touch?" Yoh wasn't about to drop the whole "become a shaman" thing on his new friend right after his mother died. 'Ojii-san will just have to be content with me keeping an eye on Ichigo for now,' he thought while scrawling his home address and e-mail down on a piece of scratch paper. Ichigo did the same and the two boys said their good-byes.

About an hour later, Yoh can be found walking to the Karakura Cemetary, all the while the picture of laid-back with his headphones blaring a Bob song and the rain pounding down on his umbrella. 'Now to think about those Shinigami.'
'Matamune doesn't even believe me about the Shinigami being real; so they must have broken the alliance before a thousand years ago.' He mentally sighs at the task at hand; in order to prove the Shinigami were real he needed solid evidence. Yoh was so lost in thought that he didn't see the black-clad figure behind him.
"Yoh Asakura." A voice, deep and masculine cut through the silence, causing Yoh to stiffen. "You shouldn't meddle with things that you have no business meddling with. Now, I must kill you." Yoh whirled, catching the flash of a steel blade before all he saw was darkness.

Two and a half weeks later...
"Yoh...Yoh...YOH! WAKE UP, Slacker!" A voice roared in Yoh's ear. Yoh dizzily opened his eyes to see himself spread-eagle under a tree with Matamune glaring down at him. Some distant part of his mind remembered that he was in Karakura Cemetary.
"Where have you been?" Matamune asked as his tail twitched slightly. The 1,000 year old spirit cat was aggrivated and that usually meant something was really not right. Quickly Yoh recounted what he remembered from the time he arrived in Karakura to the present. When he was done, Matamune just stared at him a moment before telling him slowly.
"So, you have no idea of where you've been for the last two and a half months?"
At this Yoh froze. "What?" he yelled incredulously. "Nearly three weeks?!"
With that Yoh Asakura did the only thing he could do at the moment: he fainted.