Shaman King Fan Fiction ❯ Hoshi ga Hoshii desu ❯ the bridge ( Chapter 8 )

H o s h i - g a - H o s h i i - d e s u

"I want the stars"

by Lucathia

-chapter 8: the bridge-

Once Hoshi left the boxy building, he stretched and turned towards his spirit, Hoshisuke.

"Gomen, Hoshisuke. That was boring ne? Well, let's stay away from this boxy building for as long as we can." The cat-spirit purred and nudged Hoshi's legs.

Hoshi smiled widely and knelt down to scratch the spirit behind its ears.

"Let's go home now."

Hoshi felt much freer outside the building. For one, he wasn't confined into a small space filled with people. In the classroom, he sometimes felt like he was suffocating. Each one of the humans around him breathed the same air he breathed. In effect, they had to compete with each other for air, since oxygen was limited.

Why did humans like to jail themselves like that? It was as if humans liked to torture themselves.

Hoshi blinked.

Wasn't he human too?

Hoshi stopped in the middle of the bridge and stepped towards the railing. Hoshisuke hovered by Hoshi's side, wondering why Hoshi stopped. The seemingly young boy peered over the railing. The sun was already setting, splaying rays of red, orange, and purple over him and his surroundings. He gazed at his own wavering reflection in the water as his reflection gazed back at him.

He certainly didn't look any different from the humans he had met in the past year. He waved at his reflection and watched his reflection wave back at him. Although he didn't look any different physically, he felt that he was different in some sort of bizarre way. There was something about him that set him apart from normal humans. And he couldn't remember what that something was.

Hoshisuke meowed softly next to Hoshi.

Hoshi gave a small smile. Well, he did know one thing that set him apart from the norm. He could see Hoshisuke and he could also merge with him. Hoshisuke was his spirit, and that wasn't something that just anyone could say.

Hoshi, somewhat content with the conclusion he came up with, gazed down at his reflection in the water once again. This time he noticed Hoshisuke's reflection by his side. It was strange that spirits had reflections. Maybe...maybe Hoshisuke had a reflection because Hoshi imagined the spirit's reflection to be there.

He saw Hoshisuke's reflection turn to the side. Hoshi then glanced towards the building behind him. It seemed as if someone was following them.

-

When Manta started wondering about the possibility of Yoh, Hao, and Hoshi being triplets, Manta got the image of the three of them standing together. The first, Yoh, would be lazily slouching and listening to his music. He would see Manta and eagerly wave at him. The second, Hao, would be wearing his poncho and grinning maniacally. He would raise his head and look down at Manta. The third, Hoshi, with his hair tied up, would be staring impassively past Manta. He would smile, but the smile wouldn't be for Manta.

Suddenly, the image of Hoshi merged with Hao's. The Hoshi in Manta's mind reached towards his ponytail and untied it. Hoshi closed his eyes and let his hair cascade down. When Hoshi opened his eyes, those eyes were narrowed. An exact image of Hao.

Then...the image of Hoshi disintegrated with Hao's and instead, merged with Yoh's. Hoshi didn't remove his hair tie. His hair still tied up, Hoshi knelt towards the side and gave a wide smile. A wide smile that reminded Manta of Yoh.

Twins. Triplets. Twins. Triplets. Tri...

Manta banged his head on his book to clear the conflicting ideas from his head. Immediately, he glanced at Hoshi to see if Hoshi had noticed him because of the loud banging. He was following Hoshi right now and he didn't want to be discovered. Hoshi was still staring at the water, so Manta was safe for the time being.

Manta was hidden behind the corner of the building. He constantly sneaked glances around the corner just to make sure that Hoshi was still standing there on the bridge. Hoshi had already been standing there for an hour, doing absolutely nothing. Manta was already getting tired from standing there and observing Hoshi.

Suddenly, Manta was hit with a sense of déjà vu...the scene was way too familiar.

Hadn't he done the exact same thing—follow Yoh-kun—when he first met Yoh-kun?

He remembered trailing the new student after school. He had wanted to prove the new student's real identity. Manta had claimed that there were spirits and that the spirits were connected with that laid-back boy. Nobody had believed him, so Manta had decided to follow Yoh-kun. Yoh-kun had just stood there, leaning his elbows against the railing for three hours! Yoh-kun had been humming some sort of tune, his head gazing up at the endless sky. He had seem so relaxed, so worriless. Manta had been wondering how long the new student was going to stand there, because he was getting tired and impatient!

What was happening to Manta now was exactly the same as what had happened before. The spitting image of Yoh-kun was standing by the same railing and Manta was standing behind the same building, trying to be inconspicuous. No wait...it wasn't exactly the same.

This new student wasn't humming some tune and gazing up at the endless sky. He wasn't relaxed nor was he worriless.

Unlike when he had followed Yoh-kun, this new student was looking down, not up.

Hoshi didn't emit the same peace and calm that Yoh-kun had emitted, despite the somewhat warm smiles he gave.

The smiles were warm...but they didn't reach his eyes.

Manta, finally noticing the difference between this new student and Yoh-kun, sneaked another glance at the new student.

And noticed that the new student wasn't standing there anymore.

-

Hoshi noticed that it was Oyamada Manta who was peering at him around the corner. Why was that short boy so interested in him? When Hoshi felt that the short boy's eyes weren't focused on him entirely, Hoshi and his spirit left the bridge quietly.

He didn't want Manta to follow him around. The short boy seemed to know his past, and Hoshi wasn't ready for his past yet. He wanted his peaceful days to last a bit longer.

Still, he felt intrigued that Manta had called him "Yoh-kun."

Could it be...that "Yoh" was his name?

Hm...that was a new thought, since he always felt that he was more the type to have a name starting with an "H" than with a "Y".

-to be continued-

next chapter: the graveyard

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