[Shaman King] Hoshi ga Hoshii desu * chapter 36: his earrings

[lucathia]

Title: Hoshi - ga - Hoshii - desu
Chapter: 36/45

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 36: his earrings-----

Just as Yoh suspected, even Tsuki was late to school. When Yoh finally arrived in front of Tsuki’s elementary school with Tsuki in tow, the schoolyard was already empty with not a kid in sight.

They quickly passed through the empty schoolyard, entering the building and heading towards the little boy’s classroom. Yoh pulled Tsuki past the entrance, not giving Tsuki a chance to stop and change into indoor shoes. They finally appeared at the door of Tsuki’s classroom, breathless and sweaty, with Yoh pulling the door open quite violently...

Twenty pairs of eyes swiveled around to face them.

Nineteen pairs of those eyes belonged to short little kids, some who were snickering at them, some who were gaping at them, and some who were giggling at them.

One pair of those eyes belonged to the teacher, a female teacher, who had her arms crossed and her feet tapping.

“Um...hi?” gulped Yoh.

The eyes continued staring. Yoh actually felt relieved when the teacher’s stare turned towards the list in her hands.

“Asakura Tsuki, is it?”

Tsuki nodded.

“Ten minutes late. On the first day of school!”

Tsuki looked flushed, his face pinkish as he suddenly found staring at his feet very interesting.

“I’m sorry,” murmured Tsuki.

The teacher shook her head, looking at Yoh instead.

“You’re his brother, aren’t you?” Yoh immediately uttered to the side, actually,” though the teacher just continued as if she hadn’t heard him. “How irresponsible!”

“Sorry, we sort of got side-tracked along the way.”

As the teacher continued lecturing, Yoh slipped his hands out of Tsuki’s and tried to inch his way out of the classroom. At Tsuki’s alarmed look, Yoh mouthed, “I’ll meet you after school!” before finally dashing down the corridor and out of the building.

He kind of felt sorry for leaving his little cousin in the room full of twenty pairs of staring eyes, but he had his own classes to attend.

And he was very, very late.

While taking his little cousin to school wasn’t that bad a job, Yoh didn’t really feel like doing it again if it meant he had to face the wrath of that teacher and endure the stares of the other nineteen pairs of eyes. They better find Hoshi quick and give his job of taking Tsuki to school back to him.

Yoh grinned at that thought as he made his way towards his school. His hands were closed around the pieces of Hoshi’s old earrings. He couldn’t wait until school ended for the day so he could start fixing the earrings.

-----0-----

She glanced at the clock irritably, though her face revealed none of her inner feelings. On the outside, she appeared impassive and uncaring, but her eyes kept darting towards the clock. She paid very little attention to the homeroom teacher talking about what they were going to do for the rest of the school year. It wasn’t all that important anyway.

The problem was, where the heck was he?

She glanced at the clock again, her irritation rising.

Yoh was late, late by twenty minutes already.

Was he even going to come at all?

He told her that he was going to meet her at school though.

He was so going to get a scolding from her.

Now that the Shaman Fight was over for more than a year already, there was no reason for Yoh to miss school. Or be late. Yoh’s oracle bell had been left hanging in his room, silent and untouched for the past year.

Her ears twitched slightly as she heard loud, pounding footsteps approach the door. She glanced towards the door as it opened, revealing her fiancée grinning sheepishly in the doorway.

“Sorry I’m late!”

Asakura Yoh closed the door hurriedly and sat down in the empty seat next to her without waiting for the teacher to say anything. Their homeroom teacher, long used to Yoh’s antics, rolled his eyes, quickly muttering a useless reprimand, before continuing whatever he was talking about before.

Her fiancée leaned over to her desk.

“Sorry Anna! I got side-tracked while taking Tsuki to school.”

She didn’t say anything in reply, opting to ignore him until later. Knowing he was ignored, Yoh looked around for Manta instead. He spotted him and gave him a wave.

Anna was fine with ignoring Yoh for now.

But what exactly did he mean by “side-tracked”?

-----0-----

It didn’t take long for Anna to find out what Yoh meant. When they picked up Tsuki on their way back to Funbari Onsens, Yoh had stopped at a store to buy some paint. Tsuki had helped Yoh select the paint, leaving Anna to wonder what the two boys were up to that she didn’t know about.

When they finally returned to the inn, the two cousins had immediately rushed to Yoh’s room to begin their project.

She didn’t even get a chance to scold Yoh!

She followed them but didn’t enter the room. She stood with her back against Yoh’s door as she tried to figure out what the two boys were doing.

“Yoh-niisan, can I help?” piped the eager voice of Tsuki.

“Sure. It’ll be a present from both of us. Hoshi’s earrings will be even better than before.”

Anna closed her eyes.

So that was what they were doing. They were fixing Hoshi’s broken earrings. That was what they had been side-tracked by this morning.

She opened her eyes when she heard the phone ring.

And ring.

And ring.

Why wasn’t anyone picking the phone up?

She grimaced when she noticed that Yoh hadn’t come out of his room to answer the phone. It was obvious that he had no intention to answer it. He probably didn’t even hear it.

What about Sora then? What was she doing?

The phone continued ringing.

Irritated, Anna nonetheless made her way over to the phone. Somehow, she always ended up being the person who answered the phone.

“Moshi moshi, this is Funbari Onsens,” she said in her business-like voice.

“Anna-danna!” exclaimed a male voice.

“Ryu?”

“I called to tell you that it’ll take me another one and a half years to graduate from the culinary academy. I’m so sorry to that it’s going to take this long to graduate.”

Anna’s eye twitched.

“So you know yourself that you’ve taken too long? No worries. I’ve already replaced you.”

“What! Anna-danna, how can you be so cruel to me! I’m attending this place because I want to help y-”

“Just kidding.”

“-ou. Oh. I knew that.”

Nobody seemed to enjoy her dry jokes. But at least Ryu didn’t dwell on it long.

“There’s something else I wanted to tell you. My old gang, Muscle Punch, Blue Chateau, and Ball Boy said that they met someone who looked like Yoh-danna in the streets...”

Anna raised her eyebrow. They met Ha-Hoshi? In the streets?

“...they bumped into him actually. They asked for an apology from him, but got kicked instead. That’s not like something that Yoh-danna would do, so I’ve been thinking...”

Anna felt her throat dry up.

“Is Hao back?”

She couldn’t speak. He kicked them? Why did he kick them? Had Hoshi regained his memory? Had he reverted back to the old Hao?

Anna clutched the phone tightly as she gazed furtively towards the direction of Yoh’s room.

Yoh and Tsuki were both so oblivious, happily fixing earrings for a person who probably wouldn’t even appreciate it.

“Anna-danna?”

That’s right, Ryu was still on the line. She shouldn’t get distracted like this.

“...don’t worry about that for now. Just do your best and come back to us quickly.”

She felt a sudden need to know whether or not it was safe to let Hoshi into Yoh’s life. She would let no one hurt her Yoh. If Hoshi had once again returned to being the boy who had knowingly burned his father’s face and who had delightedly fed his Spirit of Fire human souls, then she would personally make sure that Hoshi stayed out of Yoh’s life.

To do that, she would have to find Hoshi before Yoh or any of the others found him.

It was time for her to ask Tamao for some help.

-----0-----

Tamamura Tamao shyly took the plate from Sora as she helped the older woman around the kitchen. Since Anna-sama had asked her to stay at Funbari Onsens, she had called in sick at her school back in Izumo. Maybe she should have transferred over after all. Then, she could help around the inn more.

And see more of Yoh-sama as well.

She blushed.

When Sora glanced her way, Tamao started drying the plate more quickly. She hurriedly blurted, “I...I could have helped take Tsuki to school!”

Sora smiled, even though she didn’t think that was what Tamao had been thinking about. “That’s so kind of you! I’m sure Yoh would like that too so he won’t be late to school. But really, Tsuki is still more comfortable with Yoh right now. Maybe you can play with Tsuki later so he’ll get to know you? I’m sure he’ll like you.”

Tamao nodded.

She really did want the young Asakura to like her. If she ever transferred over, she would be going to the same elementary school as him. It would be even more convenient to walk with him to school.

She quickly added the benefits of transferring over.

She would be able to help around the inn.

She would be able to help Sora walk Tsuki to school.

She would be able to see Yoh-sama more.

She blushed more.

“Tamao, can I have a word with you?”

The sharp voice broke Tamao out of her thoughts.

“Anna-sama...a word? Of course.”

She quickly dried the plate in her hands and placed them in the rack. She then followed Anna-sama into the corridor.

What did she want to talk about? Was whatever Anna-sama was going to say next the reason she had instructed her to stay behind as Yohmei-sama and the others went back to Izumo? Tamao didn’t have to wonder for long.

“Tamao, can you predict Hoshi’s whereabouts for tomorrow?”

Tamao gulped.

Anna-sama wanted her to use her ouija board to predict where Hoshi would be tomorrow? Anna-sama wanted her, Tamamura Tamao who was a mere student, to predict the future whereabouts of Hoshi?

It was a difficult task, and one that she was afraid she would totally mess up.

She nodded, despite her nervousness.

“I can try.”

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

Notes:
moshi moshi: greeting used to start phone conversations
-danna: master

Next chapter: his whereabouts