Shaman King Fan Fiction ❯ Hurricane Yoh! ❯ Chapter 5: Nightly Musings ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman king, any characters, or even the background story, but I own the story I write here, of course.

Anna woke up quite late, she noted, as the neon numbers “1:12” flashing silently on the alarm clock she had confiscated from Yoh testified. It really was the only sensible thing to do, confiscating the clock… Because really, if Yoh could sleep through an earthquake, (it was slightly unsettling that he had managed that) what hope did a lowly alarm clock stand? Only Anna herself could get Yoh awake satisfactorily early enough for training (early for Anna means: too early for normal people, which is another way of saying: an inventive form of torture for Yoh…). In an uncharacteristic surge of concern, Anna had set the clock slow by an hour, so that theoretically, Anna would wake up later than necessary and in turn, wake up Yoh later than necessary.

AN: (later than necessary for Anna means that this concern was brought about when Yoh sleep-walked on the way to school… and got hit by a truck, a car, and a herd of buffalo(…?). It wasn't much of a concern for Anna at the time, it was actually quite good training, really. However, Anna didn't like the idea of being late for class or slowing the traffic with a make-shift speed-bump. It was important to respect the law, after all.)

But that piece of info aside, Anna was having a serious issue as she stared up at the ceiling. As she became more awake, so too, did her memories of the events prior to being knocked unconscious. Yoh… I need to scold him, still. The Baka. Me and Tamao…

Anna paused in that train of thought. Well this is new, it seems like I want to kill Tamao, how odd. Has an emotion been planted somehow? No… no, I really do hate Tamao. Hum, I never thought I'd see the day… Oh right, she was touching…

Tamao! I will bind her spirit to a gas-station toilet! Now, for those of you lucky souls that have never seen a gas-station toilet… Just assume that it's really, really bad. Also, for those of you even luckier souls that have seen a good gas-station toilet… Rest assured that all good gas-station toilets eventually become bad gas-station toilets. (scary!) (oh, and I henceforth dub that “Joseph's first law of evil-inevitability”)

Before she could rip the bed sheets off and go “man-thief” (Tamao! We're very disappointed in you! ) hunting, she saw red in the corner of her eye, stopping her short out of sheer surprise

AN: (yes, Anna was surprised. No, no, it's not OOC as long as her outwards appearance holds less feeling than a blank wall)(how can less felling than a blank wall be possible? It's explained in… well… the Explanation-corner, of course)

A red bandana.

He wouldn't dare… Slowly, she reached up to touch where her bandana should be. Sure, she had been asleep, but Yoh valued his life too much to remove any article of clothing from Anna's being. And sure enough, her own bandana was still in place.

Then who's was this? She stared at it for a time, as if forcing it to explain itself but the bandana remained impassive, shimmering innocently in the moonlight.

She considered just leaving it there and returning to the task of binding pink-haired, two-faced, promiscuous (if you don't know what this means, you definitely aren't going to hear it from me) tramp of a guest that she used to refer as simply Tamao. But no, she was an Kyoyama Anna, and she was better than that. Now that she regained her cool (Ice-Princess Anna returns!), it was easy to see that Tamao had completely lost it back then. The sight of a Yoh she deemed “close to death” had driven her into hysterics that could most probably qualify for partial insanity.

And Anna had gone berserk. That was troubling; she would have to deal with whatever caused her to loose control before trying to call any more spirits from heaven or hell. That would put a dent in the training schedule.

It's getting harder, and harder to deal with Yoh. She let loose a sigh, and flopped back onto the bed. My “gift” is supposed to be worth this? Because of that, I can't let Yoh too close... I have to reach the point where I'm strong enough to get close before... these emotions that I can't crush break loose. I need to distance myself for a while… A visit to the Asakura compound, perhaps. A frown. I don't want to leave Yoh with her. The afore mentioned “her” being Tamao. She couldn't blame Tamao for her semi-sane actions of desperation, but the years had been good to Tamao's… physique. And Anna's more feminine instincts (yes, she has those, too) were screaming for drastic action.

Previously mentioned feminine instincts were promptly squashed by Anna and no-one but she… and probably Yoh would ever know they were even there.

To be unecessarily honest, she would probably only get worse if she visited the Asakura compound without Yoh.

I can use the 108 beads, but I am a “gifted” so it isto be expected, after all. I have the power for the beads, but I've never lacked in power. It was true; Anna's itako powers were exceptionally advanced. Truly, she could be called “gifted” with a strength in her art matched by none throughout recorded history.

That was exactly what kept her away from Yoh.

She simply had too much power to control.

Anna needed to be independent, to be perpetually cold and unfeeling during a ritual. For itakos are spirit mediums. Without an iron-clad control of her own emotions, Anna could easily lose control of her own powers.

The demons of hell were always thirsting for a breath of fresh air.

And they were damn perceptive as well. They knew her by name now and every time she banished some miserable specter, they would make promises of everything a mortal could want. And when that failed, which it always did they would gather; throwing any and all forms of insults and fearsome images they could muster.

Anna was quite popular in hell.

She was the only itako alive with such a naturally large amount of power that it would remain so difficult to control.

She had more, and more trouble shaking the demon-crafted images away recently. And finally, she lost it. A flinching of fear had almost cost her everything. Only two had escaped, but they headed straight for Yoh.

She didn't want to think about that day, she hated that day. She hated herself that day. It wasn't normal for her to feel like that, but...

It... it was all her fault And in the end, she was a monster, and dangerous.

So they were right, they were all right. It was so horrifyingly (even for Anna) close. And unbidden, those very voices, voices that she had left far behind her, never once looking back, the ones she hadn't heard in so very long... they came back.

And for what seemed like hours, Anna could do nothing but lie there and listen to the proclamations of what she was, and what she had always been. “A monster, a danger, and a mistake of her parents and of nature itself”. The voices became stronger and more plentiful, more sinister and wounding than any demon of hell. She knew the words by heart, but this time… it was hard, so hard… not to agree with them.

“Yoh” it was soft, and pleading. The number of times Anna Kyoyama begged for anything could be counted on one hand and from number two onwards, they were all just for Yoh.

“Please… please! Yoh!” But it was soft, far too soft and shaken to even reach through a paper wall.

But she felt his presence anyway, from the… bandana?

She snatched it and held it close. And suddenly, the voices had nothing left to say. It feels… just like Yoh. This… and she laughed. A small, tired, and relived laugh. The voices were wrong, all wrong and they knew it. You really were tired then, Yoh?... Advanced furyoku materialization, where did you even learn that? I suppose… because you have no money to buy something with, you wove me a bandana… out of furyoku? What… what a stupid reason to tire yourself out every night behind my back. You've been doing this for a week or so, then to get the furyoku to this density.

And for the first time, she noticed the note lying on the bed sheets. Are you going to explain how you found out which date it was?... I don't belive it. Only Yoh could do something impossible like finding the right date, and then say just: “happy birthday Anna!” and sign his name. Oh, there's writing on the back, too… “phew, I just made it in time. The clock said 11:58 Ann-chan”

You… were even late for something like that. Two minuets more, and I wouldn't have accepted your stupid present. How horribly lazy...

And then, something occurred to her.

“Baka-Yoh, the clock is an hour slow”

But she didn't let go.

Explination Corner

How can Anna's face have less feeling than a blank wall? That one's easy. What many people fail to realize is exactly how amazing a blank wall can be. For instance, on a nice, blank wall, you can imagine things upon it, or plan things to put on it, or perhaps even remember all the good times that that wall has shared with you. Additionally, if you feel a strong emotion when looking at a blank wall, you will, miraculously, stand a chance of transposing your feelings onto the wall. However, if you were to look long and hard at Anna's face, you could not possibly imagine anything with it, you would also get slapped. This inability to imagine anything is because unlike a wall, Anna's face can only go through three basic functions (to common knowledge): Nothing, Smirk, and Anger. Also, unlike a wall, if you were to say, win a million dollars when standing besides Anna's face you could not honestly say that you have shared a good time with Anna. And if you feel a strong emotion when looking onto Anna's face, you will be slapped, not really giving you the time necessary to transpose your feelings onto her face.

Author's Corner (this one never stops being funny)

That one… was so difficult to do. Seriously. I'm not really satisfied, but meh, oh well. I may make this an "alternate, more dramatic" parallel if people think it sucks too much and go on with something much less... well... dramatic, really

Oh, also… something occurred to me….

Now, there's the Explanation Corner (which, actually, seems to not show signs of becoming un-useful any time soon), the Review-response corner (which wasn't used today. But it remains undeniable that it does exist), and finally this, the Author's Corner (yay, me!). And now, even though it seems that absolutely none of my readers really like Physics at all, I would venture to say that everyone that decides to read this far can (hopefully) be confident in their addition of 1-digit numbers. Therefore, hopefully we can all agree that, if you add all the corners that I've created, you will count three corners (1+1+1 equals 3). Now, I was just thinking on this and I thought that hey, this fanfic was conceived and plotted by my mind.

That creates a bit of a problem

Because really, what kind of person has three corners in their mind? An insane person, it would seem to most. And, especially as a fan fiction writer, who am I to judge the perceptions of the public?

In addition, it would also seem that my work (the creation of my mind) confuses pretty much everyone. And really, what is more confusing than the mind of a madman?

So there. I have, using the infallible (cannot lie) laws of science, proven that beyond the question of a doubt, I myself am in fact, insane.

Having said that, we must also assume that any reader(you) that can understand the explanation of a certifiably insane person(me) without, by this time, experiencing the unmistakable feeling of your mind twisting to the point where you become a human vegetable (incapable of thought) must also, therefore, be insane.

The advice I (insane person) would give you would be to therefore, seek professional help.

Thank you (also quite insane person or human vegetable) for your time.