[Shaman King] Hoshi ga Hoshii desu * chapter 40: his choice

[lucathia]

Title: Hoshi - ga - Hoshii - desu
Chapter: 40/45

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 40: his choice-----

When he walked to the exit of the station, Yoh was instantly greeted with glowing neon lights. He blinked, wincing from the bright lights that decorated the buildings.

He could barely imagine Hoshi wandering around in a place like this. Hoshi was more of an outdoor, nature type of person, and this desecration of nature must really irk him. But the young man staying at Funbari Onsens had said that Hoshi came here. Yoh had no choice but to believe him.

He was about to leave the station when he caught sight of someone in the crowd.

Were his eyes playing tricks on him?

-----0-----

He had lain in the grass the entire night before and hadn’t been bothered by the cold. But, somehow after Kyoyama Anna barged into his peace, he suddenly felt very cold. Even though no one was around, various voices that weren’t his own began crowding his mind, vying for his attention.

That’s something that I can’t answer for you.

Everyone has different opinions, and they can change.

Hoshi didn’t want to pay attention to those voices. He folded his arms behind his head as he tried to count the tiny dots of wavering light.

Once you trust, you have no need of the power anymore.

Why don’t you try to stop doubting everyone?

Disturbed, he retracted his hands. When he discovered that he had lost count, he turned to his side.

Now that you know my name, we aren’t strangers anymore!

You should cut your hair or else they’ll think you’re a girl!

He closed his eyes, feeling the soft grass below him, soft grass that was softer than any mattress he had ever slept on. He turned again, this time searching for the moon among the stars. He easily spotted the bright yet pale moon.

If he goes straight to graduate school...

...he wouldn’t be able to experience a childhood!

He watched the moon, mesmerized. The moon hung in the dark sky among the infinite sea of stars. It was the child of the night sky, same as the tiny, twinkling stars.

Hoshi, would you like to take on my name?

Be sure to come later...I need you there.

He sat up with a jolt.

...I need you there.

They needed him.

They needed him, the boy who was lost about his own identity.

They needed him, the boy who was confused about what to think.

They needed him, the boy who had foolishly ran away from home.

They needed him, the boy who was both a son and a brother.

They needed him.

And he needed them in return.

Go back to your damn duties!

Hoshi shook his head at that last thought. Did it matter that he was somewhat psycho, after all, he could hear other people’s thoughts, that he was a murderer, and that he used to think that every human deserved to die?

Probably not.

Even the person he had killed had come to his dreams three times to push him along the right track. It was only in the third dream that the other Hoshi had become impatient enough to clearly tell him what was on his mind.

He pushed himself off the ground and brushed off the blades of loose grass.

Kyoyama was such an optimistic at the core.

Try to trust, was it?

Was it really okay to forget the past? Was it really okay to let them embrace him, one who was unworthy of their love?

Try to trust...

It was worth a shot.

-----0-----

Hoshi turned towards the direction Anna left in and stared. How long had he taken to sort through his thoughts? How far had Anna walked already? He was suddenly seized with a thought. It was the only thought on his mind now.

He didn’t have any money.

0.o

No money meant no train ticket.

He stopped staring and ran. He ran as fast as he could. If he didn’t catch up with her, he was going to be stranded in Shibuya forever! His stomach grumbled. His body was protesting for not being fed for the entire day and still having to do strenuous work.

When he heard the “mew” next to him, he felt like smacking himself for forgetting about his shamanic powers, but he refrained from doing so or else he would have wasted precious time.

“Hoshisuke! Hyou Gattai!”

He held Hoshisuke, who was in spirit ball mode, and let him merge into his body. He glowed an unearthly orange as a pair of twitching ears appeared on his head and a long tail curled behind him.

Thanks to Hoshisuke’s athletic abilities, he was able to dash through Shibuya at an abnormal speed. He wasn’t worried about people seeing him with cat ears. After all, only shamans would see them.

If he had paused to think, he would have remembered that he still had Manta’s credit cards, so he wouldn’t be stranded technically...but he was too caught up in the moment to think correctly.

And so he ran.

-----0-----

“...look.” Kalim pointed at the dashing, orange figure.

Silva blinked as he put down one of their crafts.

“Are my eyes playing tricks on me?”

Kalim shook his head.

“Am I dreaming then?”

Kalim instantly pulled on Silva’s cheeks.

“Ouch!”

Silva rubbed his cheeks, his eyes wide with disbelief.

“So I really am seeing Hao...I mean Hoshi...dashing through the crowded streets with a pair of cat ears and a cat tail?”

Kalim nodded.

Silva couldn’t help it any longer.

He burst out laughing.

Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to come out at night to sell their crafts after all. And he could finally see why Goldva-sama had believed that the former Hao had changed. After seeing THAT scene, Silva had no choice but to believe the same.

Maybe, he could finally place his complete trust in the Great Spirits’ will, as he should have from the start.

-----0-----

Yoh didn’t expect to see her here in Shibuya.

“A-Anna? What are you doing here?”

She, apparently, was equally as surprised to see him in Shibuya.

“Yoh, the question is, what are YOU doing here?”

Neither of them answered the other’s question.

After a long pause in which they tried to stare each other down searching for the answer, Anna finally spoke again.

“She told you.”

It was a statement, not a question.

“What?”

Exasperated, Anna stated again, this time more forcibly, “She told you!”

Yoh felt confused.

“Who told me what?”

Anna blinked, immediately realizing that she had made a wrong assumption. She hastily muttered, “Never mind what I said.”

Yoh, wasn’t that unobservant as to miss that Anna was hiding something. Did she know that Hoshi was here in Shibuya? Was that why she was here? If so, why hadn’t she told him?

“You never answered my first question,” murmured Anna.

Yoh, knowing that he wouldn’t ever be able to force an answer out of Anna, decided to let her have her way once again, although he didn’t know how she was going to react to his words.

“This young man came to our inn. He saw me and thought that I was really familiar. When I was telling him his room number, he finally remembered why I looked familiar. It was because he had met Hoshi. On his way to Shibuya. That’s why I’m here.”

Anna didn’t say anything during Yoh’s little explanation, but her eyes suddenly widened.

“Who’s taking care of the inn then?”

Yoh blinked. She hadn’t said anything about Hoshi or asked anything about the young man. Rather, she wanted to know about the state of her inn? That was...so like his Anna.

“Who’s taking care of the inn?” repeated Anna urgently.

“Hey, don’t worry. Tamao is.”

Anna calmed down, or at least she calmed down enough to pull Yoh back into the station.

“Er...Anna? I just got here.”

“Have you finished the earrings?” asked Anna.

“Um...no, but what does that have to do with anyth-”

“The train will be departing in one minute. Repeat, the train will be departing in one minute. Please stay clear of the doors when they close.”

Yoh was flabbergasted when Anna searched through his pockets and pulled out his ticket. She inserted it into the slot for him. The gate opened, and she pushed him through it. She then proceeded to insert her own ticket into the slot.

It all happened so quickly that Yoh didn’t have enough time to protest further. Somehow, he ended up back on the train, on the return trip home.

He had come to Shibuya to find his brother! What was he doing sitting down in one of the compartments, well on his way back to Funbari? He stood up, about to jump through the closing doors.

Anna pulled him back.

“Yoh, he’ll come. On his own.”

Yoh reluctantly sat back down.

He was surprised when a warm hand slid into his, but soon after he relaxed and leaned closer to his Anna.

“Don’t worry,” she murmured.

Yoh closed his eyes, letting his fiancée’s rare, soothing words wash over him.

“Just finish the earrings okay? You know you want to be able to give them to him as a gift when he comes back.”

Yoh nodded, instantly noting that Anna had said “when” and not “if.”

-----0-----

It was too bad that Hoshi didn’t know how much Anna trusted him to come to his senses, or at least how much she trusted her own words to have affected him. He could have saved himself from running to the station on an empty stomach.

When he got there, the train had already departed.

And the blond-haired girl was no where in sight.

Was he really stranded in Shibuya then? Or was he supposed to walk that entire distance by foot?

If this was Kyoyama’s idea of “it being all up to him,” he didn’t like it one bit.

His stomach growled LOUDLY in protest.

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

Next chapter: a warm homecoming