Shaman King Fan Fiction ❯ Let Me Know You ❯ Chapter Three ( Chapter 3 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Shaman King belongs to Hiroyuki Takei, not me

Fifty years later. . .

The old woman smiled. Her rose colored hair was only faintly edged in white, and her rose colored eyes were as soft as ever. “Is there anything else you would like?” she asked.

Her husband smiled faintly. “I'm fine, Tamao,” he said. He patted her hand absentmindedly.

Tamao retreated into the kitchen, her thoughts wistful. It reminded her of the Bible story of Rachel and Leah, it did. How Jacob served seven years for Rachel, but only received Leah.

Fifty years ago, it was. Fifty years.

She had spent fifty years as the wife of a man who loved her, but not with the deep love a wife needed.

The one she truly loved had waited forty-six years for her, before old age and years of hard work took his life.

“Kaa'san?” Yuki poked her head in the door. “Can I help you?”

“Oh, ne,” Tamao smiled at her daughter-in-law. “I'm all right here. Go pay attention to your babies.”

Yuki nodded and retreated from the kitchen. The grandchildren were one of the lights in Tamao's life. Three children- although they were young adults by now, truly. The oldest, Keiko, was fourteen, and the youngest, Kenshin, was eleven. But the middle child…now he was the family enigma.

“I don't understand it,” Yuki had said. “He looks nothing like me or like my husband. He looks like. . . like Yoh. . . but with that blond hair…”

Yoh had smiled at his newborn grandson, the old smile that used to come so easily to him as a boy. “Name him Hana,” he had said to Yuki. “His name will be Hana.”

Hana.

Yoh and Anna.

Truly, he hadn't forgotten her.

-----

“We went to the river today, Grandfather,” Kenshin said.

Yoh nodded marginally. “Did you have fun?”

“Hai,” Keiko said. “But Hana wandered off again.” She poked her wayward younger brother in the ribs.

Hana shrugged. “I saw someone down there. I followed her all the way down to the water's edge, and then she disappeared,” he said. “I think she was a ghost.”

“Who, dear?” Yuki asked.

“Like the ghost would tell our Hana her name!” Keiko snorted.

“She did!” Hana objected. “Her name is Kyoyama Anna.”

Silence reigned for a long moment.

Yuki finally grabbed her son by the arm and dragged him into the next room. “Hana!” she said. “I don't want you to ever say that name again. Never!”

“Why, Kaa'san?” Hana asked, terribly confused.

“Promise you will never say that name again, Hana Asakura!” Yuki hissed. “Promise that you will never go down to the river again! Promise!”

“I- I promise,” Hana stuttered. “But…but why?”

Yuki's eyes softened. “I'll tell you someday, Hana,” she said. “But not now.” She left her son and returned to the rest of her family.

Hana's eyebrows lowered. “If Kaa'san won't tell me,” he said, “then I'll make the ghost girl tell.”

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