[Shaman King] Hoshi ga Hoshii desu * chapter 32: their whereabouts part 1

[lucathia]

Title: Hoshi - ga - Hoshii - desu
Chapter: 32/45

Author: lucathia_rykatu
Email: rykatu@yahoo.com
Series: Shaman King
Rating: PG
Genre: General
Feedback: will be highly appreciated
Spoilers: end of anime
Disclaimer: Shaman King belongs to its rightful owners (which does not include me!)
Archive: livejournal / fanfiction.net

Summary: "I want the stars" -- An amnesic Hao only remembers that the word "Hoshi" is special to him. Found unconscious in America, Hao takes on the name of Hoshi and eventually returns to Japan. This is his story after the anime.

-----chapter 32: their whereabouts part 1-----

Though he didn’t know it, Manta was entirely correct to say that Hao must have traveled a lot to gather so many followers. And travel he did. The former pyromaniac had traveled to Italia, France, England, America...name any place and he probably went there before. Since the number of shamans in the world was far less than the number of normal humans, Hao had to search high and low for the select few who were willing to join his cause. And to do that, Hao traveled.

Hoshi realized that little fact during his walk with Macchi toward her current residence. Hoshi had made an off-hand comment about the color of Macchi’s hair, which somehow led to where she came from.

“I used to live in England, you know,” said Macchi. “Until Hao-sama came and took me away.”

Hoshi blinked. What did that have to do with the color of her hair? Nevertheless, Hoshi stopped thinking about her strange orange hair and instead concentrated on what she said. Besides, she probably dyed her hair just so that it’d be the same color as her favorite food.

“I didn’t know that I went to England before,” remarked Hoshi. That might be the reason why he knew his English so well.

“Oh yes, Hao-sama came to England. You took me and then went to Germany for Kanna and then to Italy for Mari.”

Were those the names of the other two girls he saw in his dream?

Macchi giggled a bit. “Now that I think about it, the first time we gathered together was so awkward!”

Hoshi raised his eyebrows.

Macchi spun around a bit on the sidewalk, swinging her broom as if it were a dance partner. “I mean, I only spoke English, Kanna only spoke German, and Mari only spoke Italian. We couldn’t communicate at all!”

But, we had Hao-sama as our translator, so all was good.

Hoshi shook his head, amused at Macchi’s words and thoughts.

“Of course, not being able to say what we wanted to each other directly was very inefficient.”

I mean, come on! I had to ask Hao-sama to tell Mari that I was going to the bathroom!

Hoshi sweatdropped.

Thankfully, Macchi didn’t expand on that particular thought.

“We all ended up learning Japanese, since that’s Hao-sama’s native language.”

Macchi grinned as she twirled her broom and continued her slow advancement towards her residence. Hoshi followed after her, deep in thought.

He was a bit amazed that the former him was that influential and that goal driven. People even started learning Japanese because of him. They gathered together because of him. Currently, he couldn’t even picture himself going to so many different countries and gathering so many people who didn’t even speak the same language. All that work for the cause of creating a world consisting solely of shamans! He hadn’t really met any shamans who were worthy of having a world for themselves. The store clerk had just been a weak, impatient shaman. The boy at the graveyard, Tao Ren, had been brash and obnoxious. The short boy he met at the cram school hadn’t exactly been a shaman. And now...Macchi. She ate too much kabocha for her own good. He was sure that those small pumpkins were going to plague his dreams. Or nightmares more like it.

A world of only shamans sounded almost obscure when all he had as examples of shamans were the store clerk, the boy at the graveyard, and the kabochi-loving Macchi. Why would he ever want to create a world for those and only those people?

As he followed Macchi, Hoshi glanced up at the almost hidden moon set against the bright Shibuya night sky. A group of teenagers walked past him, their laughter slowly fading into the background as Hoshi’s mind settled on one thought.

A new world, was it?

If not a world of only shamans, then what would he want for a new world?

His eyes glazed over. His steps slowed down.

Swaying grass. Tall, sturdy trees. A boy resting against the tree’s thick trunk. A transparent tabby cat curled up next to the boy. A younger boy pouting and pulling on the first boy’s hands, urging him to get up and play. A gentle woman opening the door and calling the two boys in for dinner. The sun setting, leaving room for the stars and the moon to shine in its place. The two boys lying on their backs, gazing up at the stars and pointing out different constellations. The woman kneeling next to them, watching them identify the stars. The young boy and the woman’s laughter ringing softly into the night...

Hoshi smiled sadly.

If he really were to create a new world, it would be a world in which Sora and Tsuki would both be happy.

He had a feeling that Sora would only be happy if she were to be accepted back into her family. Tsuki would probably be happy knowing that he had a larger family. He’d even have a new cousin to play with.

They’d be happier without him in their lives.

There wasn’t any room for him...the murderer.

“Ne, Hoshi-sama, what are you blanking out for?”

Macchi turned to look at him, her left arm on her hip and her right arm holding her broom to rest against her shoulder. Hoshi had indeed blanked out and was now quite far behind the orange-haired girl.

Hoshi’s smile became wry as he hastened his steps to catch up with Macchi.

“Just thinking.”

Macchi rolled her eyes. “I can tell that! But, it’s no fair that you always know what I’m thinking and I never know what you’re thinking!”

Hoshi shrugged as he caught up to her. “It’s not that great being able to hear what you’re thinking. I have a hard time tuning out your thoughts. They’re so loud.”

“Hey! I’m not loud,” protested Macchi.

“Whatever.”

What do you mean by ‘whatever?’ My thoughts are LOUD? Then I’ll be loud for you! Take this! LISTEN TO ME! KABOCHA IS DELICIOUS AND HOSHI-SAMA IS MEAN!

Hoshi winced. He had to say something to get Macchi’s mind off of his previous comment.

“The plane tickets must have been expensive,” said Hoshi off track.

“Plane tickets? What plane tickets?” asked Macchi.

She finally stopped screaming at him in her mind, though her questions were intriguing.

“How else would I have gotten around?” answered Hoshi, his heart skipping a beat. Was he missing out on something? What else had he forgotten? It must have been something important.

Macchi’s answer was exasperated. After all, the answer was so obvious to her.

“On the Spirit of Fire of course!”

Spirit of Fire.

Hoshi’s eyes widened.

It all clicked then.

The peaceful images flew out of his mind at an alarming speed. In their place appeared the giant red spirit with rippling energy traveling through its entire body.

Back in America when Hoshi had just woken up in Sora and Tsuki’s home, he had felt that he was missing something. It was something that had accompanied him for a long time. When Tsuki had almost fallen off the tree, he had called for the Spirit of...and he couldn’t finish his call. The name of what he had been trying to call had eluded him. Instead, only Hoshisuke had been by his side to help him. Then, his last dream about Sora’s older son had ended up with a flaming arm disrupting his view.

It was the Spirit of Fire.

Hoshi felt that he gained a piece of himself back. It was the Spirit of Fire that he had been missing all this time, right? His past seemed to be slowly coming together again.

Should he feel happy about that?

It was strange...hearing about the Spirit of Fire stirred something in him, but he couldn’t really identify what that feeling was. It wasn’t happiness though.

“Where is it now?” whispered Hoshi quietly. Here he was again, asking something that he already knew part of the answer to. Something must have happened, or else the Spirit of Fire would still be with him.

Macchi immediately sobered. “Eto...Hoshi-sama...you don’t know?”

Hoshi shook his head.

“Well, I’m not exactly sure either...because that was around the time you disappeared. We all thought you had,” she gulped, “died and so we didn’t really care much about the Spirit of Fire.”

Hoshi frowned.

Macchi continued on quickly. “But, Kanna guessed that since the Spirit of Fire used to be part of the Great Spirits before becoming Hao-sama’s spirit, it most likely merged back with the Great Spirits. So the Spirit of Fire, the Spirit of Water, the Spirit of Earth, the Spirit of Thunder, and the Spirit of Wind are finally back together.”

Macchi whispered the next words.

“A complete Great Spirits.”

Even though Hoshi wasn’t quite sure what a complete Great Spirits signified, he still knew that it was something astounding. He stopped walking.

Macchi fidgeted when she found out that Hoshi had stopped following her. Hoshi wasn’t speaking either.

Suddenly, she opened her mouth. “Ne, Hoshi-sama, what’s your spirit now?”

Hoshi paused for a moment. It seemed that both of them were skilled at throwing things out of the blue. Either that, or both of them were good at changing the subject.

“You do have a spirit, right?”

He absentmindedly called out Hoshisuke. The small tabby cat materialized next to Hoshi, blinking its blue eyes at the orange-haired girl.

“Meow?”

Macchi squealed. Hoshi swore that Macchi squealed.

“Oh my gosh! It’s soooo cute! So orange too!”

The orange-haired girl covered her mouth with her gloved hand, quickly turning her head away.

Hoshi narrowed his eyes as he studied the orange-haired girl.

Was she...shaking?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Hoshi-sama should merge with him! Oh my gosh...I can picture it...Hoshi-sama with cat ears and a tail. I think I’m going to faint or die laughing!

Hoshi sighed.

She WAS shaking. Shaking with laughter.

He shook his head.

Laughing in one’s own mind was the first sign towards insanity.

-----to be continued-----

Next chapter: their whereabouts part 2