Shaman King Fan Fiction ❯ Jump ❯ Jump ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Shaman King belongs to Hiroyuki Takei, not me.

“Anna, how long have we been engaged?”

She turned a page calmly. “Five years,” she said.

Yoh raked his fingers nervously through his dark, silky hair. “Um…Anna…do you think we'll ever…you know…”

Anna rested her chin on her hand and looked up. “No, I don't know,” she said. “Why don't you just tell me?”

Yoh plunked down on the floor beside her. “Do you think we should start being boyfriend and girlfriend?”

Anna turned a page so sharply it crackled.

“We don't have to be, you know, deep or anything, but it might be nice…” Yoh said. He sighed. “You're mad, aren't you?”

Anna turned a page.

“You're mad. I knew it was a bad idea.” Yoh pulled himself up and sighed. “Forget it, okay?”

He was almost out the door when he heard Anna say quietly, “Do you really want someone like me to be your girlfriend?”

“What?” Yoh sputtered. He sat down next to her again. She didn't look up. Another page turned. “Anna, what's wrong? Why do you think I wouldn't want you to be my girlfriend?”

Anna looked up, her dark eyes quiet and aching. “I've never-”

“Hey, everyone, we're back!” HoroHoro hollered, slamming the door behind him. “We've got food!”

“Provided you didn't eat all of it on the way here,” Ren groused. “No one can trust you.”

“You should see him at home,” Pilika giggled.

“Hey, give me that!”

“Oh, HoroHoro-san,” Tamao sighed.

Yoh glanced up. “Anna, can we talk later?” he asked.

The book slammed shut. “Sure. Fine. I don't mind,” Anna said. She snatched up her book and fled.

“Anna-”

“Hey, Yoh, c'mon!” HoroHoro called, bursting into the room.

“But Anna-” Yoh tried to protest.

“Anna can wait. C'mon, we've got food!” HoroHoro coaxed, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him into the kitchen.

There was too much chaos going on for Yoh to think clearly. By the time he remembered Anna, the shadows outside had grown long and dark. He glanced guiltily at the clock.

“Hey, where're you going, Yoh?” Pilika asked.

“I have to go talk to Anna,” he said. “I think she's unhappy-”

“Hey, who cares?” HoroHoro shrugged.

“We're having too much fun to worry about Anna,” Pilika shrugged.

“She's probably enjoying herself by working up new training programs for you,” Ren said.

Even Tamao added in her opinions. “Yoh-san, Anna doesn't like to have fun with us. She's better off alone.”

“I'm better off alone, am I?”

Anna stood in the middle of the doorway, her eyes red-rimmed. “I'm better off alone?” she repeated.

“Anna, we-”

She shook off Ren's hand. “Don't worry about me. I'm too much of a downer, aren't I?” Her voice was clipped and cold as she spun on her heel and ran out.

“Anna!” Yoh shouted. He took off after her.

The back door was left open; she didn't even bother with getting her shoes. She had left only a second earlier, but he'd already lost her.

Yoh sank against the doorframe. “Anna…”

-----

“Where's your little shadow, Asakura?”

Yoh blinked. “My shadow?”

“Yeah, the cute little blonde girl that follows you like a lost puppy,” Kashino reminded him. “Where is she?”

“I don't know,” Yoh stammered. “Does she really follow me around like a puppy?”

“Big eyes and everything,” Kashino nodded. “Haven't you ever noticed?”

He sighed. “No,” he admitted. “I never have.”

The bell rang. Second block- time for chemistry. Anna shared that class with him; their seats were next to each other and everything. Maybe then he'd get a chance to talk to her…she hadn't come back to the house until early in the morning, around one o'clock. She was bedraggled and tired and her eyes were red-rimmed, yet she wouldn't even look at him. Yoh sighed and maneuvered towards the chem lab.

“Yoh!” Pilika raced up to him, dodging people in the hallway. “Have you seen Anna?”

“No, I haven't,” he said. “What's wrong?”

“She's on the fourth floor, on the ledge,” Pilika said. “She's up there and she won't come down.”

Yoh's knuckles whitened as he gripped his schoolbooks. “Is she going to-”

“I think so,” Pilika whispered.

The books fell to the floor with a crack of binding and a fluttering of paper.

*****

Yoh burst into the fourth-story art studio. He could see Anna outside, sitting calmly on the ledge as if she was in the middle of the park. “Anna?” he whispered.

She turned around, her blonde hair whipping in the violent wind. Her dark, long lashed eyes blinked once, twice, as she regarded him solemnly. Then she stood, without even bothering to brace herself or cling to the wall, and walked heel-to-toe along the side of the building.

Yoh took a deep breath, attempting vainly to calm his nerves. “Calm down, Asakura,” he counseled himself. “Be calm.”

He leaned out of the window, resting his chin on his hands and compelling himself to stare at the street below and not at his Anna, sitting on a fourth story ledge. “Can I talk to you, Anna?” he asked, forcing his voice to come out relaxed and gentle. It was hard. Below him he could watch the other students and teachers beginning to gather. Cars were already piling up as the police tried to clear the pavement…in case a body fell.

“You may speak,” Anna said, as if she was an English queen, and not a teenage girl with death on her mind. “I might listen, and I might not.”

“As you wish,” Yoh shrugged. He was beginning to sound a bit stiff himself. No, no, Asakura, be normal. Normal? How can you act normal when your fiancée is about to jump? “I want to apologize for what was said last night. They didn't mean it.”

“Really, Yoh?” Anna said coolly. “They didn't mean it.” She drew her legs up against her chest and stared at the sky. “They didn't mean it, just like everyone else didn't mean it. Ren and Pilika and HoroHoro and Tamao…they're just more Marikos and Noshis.”

“Who are they?” Yoh asked.

“People,” Anna said. “People whose lives obviously matter much more than my life.”

“Anna-”

“Mariko married her childhood sweetheart and lives happily in Tokyo with her husband and three children. Noshi is a prominent shaman in a northern region of Korea,” Anna recited. She drew a mouthful of spit and hacked. The drop fell to the pavement and vanished. “Mariko and Noshi have everything. And here I am. Hm, isn't life ironic? Everyone loves Mariko and Noshi, don't they?” She spat again.

“Do you want to explain?” Yoh asked gently.

“No.”

“Then may I ask you a question?”

Anna raised and lowered one shoulder. Her bare arms in her short sleeved shirt were blue with cold. “If you like.”

“What has made you so unhappy?” Yoh asked softly. “Why are you an ice princess?”

“Oh, I don't know,” Anna said, her voice studiously calm. “Maybe because I was so frightening in my own family's eyes that they abandoned me. Maybe because I grew lost in the crowds at the training hall. Maybe because every time I tried to love someone, I only got burned.” Bitterness was dripping from her voice. “Oh, I don't know, that might have something to do with it.”

There were four cop cars below. The traffic jam was spreading to four blocks. “Why don't you tell me?” Yoh asked. “Even if all I you did was tell me, I would be able to listen. I can't guarantee I'll understand, but I'll listen to you.”

“Yes, and then what?” Anna snapped. “You can't fix it. You can't make it better. No one can! I'll always be the way I am now.” She stood recklessly, her slim legs swaying in the wind. “And if I had to choose between spending sixteen years or seventy years like this, I'd much rather get it all done right now.”

“Anna, don't!” Yoh pleaded. “Please don't. I know how you feel.”

“Come on, Yoh, don't spout all that shrink garbage with me,” Anna snapped. Her small palms pressed against the rough grit of the gray bricks. “You don't know one iota of how I feel. No one does. I'm never going to matter. It'll always be Mariko and Noshi who get the glory and the honor and the l-l-love.” She dashed her knuckles at her dry, dry eyes. Anna leaned back, pressing the back of her head against the wall so she could look up at the soft gray sky. “Guess how many times I've heard the phrase `I love you'? I can't even count them.”

“Isn't that a good thing?” Yoh ventured.

She turned her head slightly, her hair still caught in the texture of the bricks. “I can't count them because I've never heard it,” she whispered hoarsely. “No one has ever loved me.”

Yoh leaned out the window. “Oh, no, Anna-” he said earnestly.

“And guess what?” Anna barreled on. “No one ever will. It's Mariko and Noshi, Yoh. Mariko and Noshi will always win, no matter what.”

“Who were they?” Yoh demanded. “Who are these people you keep talking about?”

She was silent for a long moment. When Anna began to talk, her voice was quiet and cold and oddly detached. “Mariko Imizawa was another student. She hazed me constantly. When she left the school, she didn't leave me any goodbye gifts, except for my scars.”

“And Noshi?” Yoh urged.

“Noshi tried to rape me, ever since I was nine years old,” Anna said, her voice still detached. It was like she was speaking from another world. “He came pretty close a couple of times, too.”

Tears burned behind his eyes. “Why didn't you tell me?” Yoh whispered. “Why didn't you-”

“It's the Marikos and the Noshis, Yoh,” Anna said. “They'll always win. Always.”

“No, they won't,” Yoh said. “I promise they won't. Not if I'm around to be with you.”

She finally looked at him, her eyes red. Her skirt fluttered in the wind, baring her slim pale legs- and the white crisscrossed scars that somehow he'd never noticed before. Yoh smiled at her. Anna's eyes began to soften.

Then he held out his hand.

But below them, a driver was getting impatient. He had things to do, people to see. He didn't have time for a suicidal teenage girl. Impatience gave him callousness. So he leaned out of his car window and shouted at Anna.

“Come on and jump!” he screamed. “Come on, you idiot! Get it over with!”

Anna snatched her hand away from Yoh's. Her breathing came hard and fast as the rest of the crowd picked up the chant.

“Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump!”

“Jump…jump…” Anna murmured. She closed her eyes and let one small foot dangle over the edge. If she was to shift her weight from the foot still on the ledge to the dangling leg, it would be over in seconds. She would fall from the fourth story and be crushed into the pavement.

Yoh couldn't lie anymore. Anna was about to commit suicide.

“Jump…jump…jump…” Anna chanted dreamily.

“Anna, wait!” Yoh pleaded. “Listen to me, just one last time.” He climbed out on the ledge, clinging to the windowframe to keep himself from falling. “Anna, I love you!” he shouted desperately. “I really do, Anna!”

She turned her head and stared at him dazedly. “Don't lie, Yoh,” she said mechanically. “It's wrong to tell a lie.”

“No, Anna, I love you!” he insisted. “I always have. From the time you were a spitfire ten-year-old all the way till now. And I'll love you even further.”

Anna blinked as light started to return to her dull eyes. “Do you mean it?” she whispered.

“Anna, if you jump…” Yoh said. He reached over and wrapped his warm, callused hand around her tiny cold one. “If you jump, I'll have to jump too, because I can't live without you. I love you, Anna.”

“Yoh, why didn't you ever say anything before?” Anna whispered. Her icy fingers wrapped around his.

“I didn't know if you wanted to hear it,” he answered.

Her other hand curled around his. “You love me?” she whispered brokenly.

“I always have,” he whispered back, holding tight to her hand. “Please don't kill yourself, Anna.”

Anna closed her eyes tightly. Her long silky hair blew back in the wind and brushed against his cheek. “I'll come down now, Yoh,” she said in a tiny voice.

Yoh lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. “I'll take care of you, sweetheart,” he said. He began to inch his way back to the open window, carefully guiding Anna's steps. Cautiously he stepped backwards into the room, and held out his arms to Anna. She slipped her arms around his neck and let his arms curl around her legs. That's when her knees buckled and Anna fell into Yoh's embrace.

“Yoh!” Anna sobbed into his neck. Her arms were tight in a death-grip. “Yoh, I was so scared!”

“I know, baby,” he murmured into her hair as they fell to the ground. Anna's shaking body was cradled in his arms. “I know. Sh, don't cry. Don't cry, I'm here now.” Yoh kissed her tenderly on the lips. “Don't cry, baby. I won't let you go. You're not going to fall anymore.” Anna sobbed into his chest, her bony shoulders shaking. Yoh pressed his hand against her jutting, trembling shoulder blades. “I won't ever let you go.”

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