[Shaman King] Hoshi ga Hoshii desu * chapter 41: a warm homecoming

[lucathia]

Title: Hoshi - ga - Hoshii - desu
Chapter: 41/45

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 41: a warm homecoming-----

When Manta headed over to Funbari Onsens for dinner that night after his long cram school session, he was unprepared for the scene he met.

Sitting at the dinner table as if it was nothing out of the ordinary was none other than Asakura Hoshi, the once pyromaniac freak who had lost his memory, turned out to be a genius, and ran away from home.

“Hoshi?” exclaimed Manta out of shock.

The boy didn’t pause in his eating, only holding up a hand in greeting.

Manta suddenly noticed that there was a stack of plates at least a foot high next to Hoshi.

Sora was busily refilling Hoshi’s bowl. Manta turned to her, wondering why she wasn’t freaking out like he was.

“Oh, hi, Oyamada-san,” greeted Sora. “Would you like some dinner too?”

Manta nodded numbly, pulling out a chair and sitting down without realizing what he was doing.

Sora quickly grabbed a bowl for him and filled it up. She almost dropped it when a bundle of energy darted past her, spinning her to the side.

“Oh my gosh! Hoshi-niichan!” Tsuki’s young voice rang throughout the room as he threw himself at the older boy. Hoshi quickly dropped his chopsticks, in case he killed himself with them.

“Hello to you too,” murmured Hoshi, quickly swallowing.

“Why did you leave? Where did you go? Why didn’t you tell us anything?” asked Tsuki all at once.

“Well, I went to Shibuya...it was a very interesting place. I’m not sure why I went and why I didn’t tell you anything. Maybe it’s because I’m very stupid?” said Hoshi wryly.

Tsuki laughed, his happiness radiating throughout the room. “You’re silly, Hoshi-niichan? How can you be stupid?”

Hoshi chuckled along with Tsuki.

“Okay, maybe I’m not stupid then. I’m silly.”

Manta, still shocked, brought his chopsticks to his mouth. He couldn’t believe his eyes. For one, Hoshi was sitting in Funbari Onsens at the dinner table after his disappearing act. They had search high and low for him, and he just appeared like that, on his own? And two, he was laughing and joking as if nothing had happened.

What the heck?

-----0-----

When Anna and Yoh finally opened the door to Funbari Onsens, they were greeted by one Tamamura Tamao.

“Welcome to Funba—oh! Yoh-sama and Anna-sama! W-welcome back!” Tamao smiled shyly, her eyes darting away from them.

“Hi, Tamao,” greeted Yoh.

His greeting brought a blush to the pink-haired girl.

“Ano...” ventured Tamao, unsure if she should continue her words.

Anna raised her eyebrow, indicating for Tamao to go on.

The shy girl held one hand against herself, her eyes lowered, as she pointed towards the direction of the dining room for employees.

“He’s back.”

Anna and Yoh didn’t wait for Tamao to say anything else. They immediately dashed to the dining room.

Though they knew Tamao would never lie to them, they could hardly believe their eyes when they saw Hoshi sitting at the dinner table, happily eating dinner with Sora, Tsuki, and Manta. For Anna, it was hard to believe, because hadn’t she just talked to him in Shibuya? How in the world did he get here faster than her?

Tsuki was the first to spot them, his already dancing eyes lighting up even more.

“Yoh-niisan! Meet Hoshi-niichan!”

Hoshi, who had been deep in conversation with Sora, turned around, his eyes briefly crossing Anna’s before locking on with Yoh’s.

He smiled.

And Yoh felt himself being flooded with relief.

-----0-----

“Explain.” That was the first word Anna said when they joined the dinner table.

Hoshi raised an eyebrow.

“Explain what?”

Anna rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so daft. Explain. How in the world did you get here before us?”

“No thanks to you, obviously.”

Anna frowned at his insult, but she just jabbed her food with her chopsticks as she glared at him to continue.

“Well, if you really want to know, I was going to run here-”

Yoh suddenly cut in. “Wait, you ran all the way here from Shibuya?”

Hoshi laughed, causing Yoh to smile sheepishly in return.

“No, but I was seriously contemplating doing so. I mean...I ran all the way to the station, only to find that you had left already,” at this point, Hoshi returned Anna’s glare before smiling again, “and I had no money left on me. I really didn’t have much choice...it was either run here, find some way to get some money, or try to find someone to take me here. I took the third choice.”

Tsuki giggled. “Yay! A story.”

Hoshi shook his head. “Not a very flattering story.”

“So who took you here then?” asked Manta. “And wait, you have no money left? You mean you spent all that I had in my wallet?”

Hoshi continued his story to answer Manta’s first question. “Well, a few days ago I met Macchi at this restaurant. I really didn’t want to go back there, but seeing that I had no choice, I went anyway. I asked her if she could take me here, but she didn’t really have a way to do that. Then she asked me why I wanted to come here...and I said...”

“What did you say?” asked Tsuki eagerly.

Hoshi didn’t blush, but he did try to hide his face with his hands.

“...I said that I wanted to go to school...and that I wanted...to come home.”

There was a brief silence before Tsuki hugged Hoshi. Sora’s smile widened as well.

“Aw, so you did miss me, Hoshi-niichan! But eww, why would you ever want to go to school?”

Hoshi laughed as he tried prying Tsuki off of his right hand so that he could continue eating.

“Yeah, I’m just silly like that, remember? Anyway, Macchi laughed her head off before telling me that she’d ask around the restaurant to see if anyone could drive me here. She finally grabbed hold of some waiter that I don’t know the name of and he drove me here. His driving was crazy. I thought that I was going to fall out of the car.”

Hoshi shook his head.

“Oh Manta, to answer your second question...”

Hoshi rummaged through his pocket before throwing Manta’s empty wallet on the table.

“Sorry about that.”

Hoshi then continued eating.

Manta almost cried when he held up the flat wallet. So that was the true reason why Hoshi was back!

He was...

Out of money.

-----0-----

That night, while Tamao was drying the dishes with Sora, she shyly asked Sora why she wasn’t surprised at Hoshi’s sudden appearance.

Sora smiled before replying.

“I believed in him.”

She had doubted before, but his nephews and his friends had convinced her otherwise. That was when she decided to throw out reason, to follow her feelings instead. She was glad that she did so. Explanations and plans for the future, including contacting her parents, would come later, but for now, it was enough that Hoshi was home.

They continued washing dishes contently without another word.

-----0-----

Meanwhile, Hoshi led Tsuki to bed, for the little boy had finally exhausted his overabundance of energy due to Hoshi’s return. When Hoshi finished tucking Tsuki in, he got up and stood next to Tsuki’s bed, lingering there, gazing at his adopted little brother. Tsuki’s face, usually adorned with a wide smile and shining eyes and sometimes even with a frown and sad, droopy eyes, was now smoothed into an expression of peace. Hoshi wondered how Tsuki was able to show emotion so easily. With Tsuki, Hoshi knew he didn’t have to know his thoughts to know what was on the little boy’s mind.

Hoshi blinked.

Tsuki must trust him a lot to be able to feel so comfortable around him.

Could he, in return, trust Tsuki and Sora as much as they trusted him?

He glanced at Tsuki one last time before turning around to leave the room. When he slid open the door to the hallway, he was unsurprised to find Yoh, who he had been mistaken for countless times, leaning against the wall, standing there, waiting for him.

“He’s asleep?” asked Yoh.

Hoshi nodded.

“Oh...so early. I was hoping that we could give you something together,” said Yoh as he watched Hoshi close the door behind him.

“Ano...” Yoh continued, a bit uncertain now that Hoshi’s full attention was on him. Sometimes, he felt as if he knew his brother through and through, most likely due to the fact that at one point, they had been the same person. At other times, he felt as if he didn’t know his brother at all. Like right now...it was as if a stranger stood before him. Tsuki was whom Hoshi would call his brother. They understood each other and were able to joke around with each other so easily. If Tsuki was Hoshi’s brother, then, what was he?

Yoh was relieved though. He was happy...no, not just happy, but ecstatic to know that Hoshi was truly able to smile. Hao hadn’t been able to do that. Mischievous smiles, yes, mocking smiles, yes, even torturous smiles too. But he had never seen a genuine, happy smile on the other’s face until now.

Yoh quickly got over his apprehension.

“Um, could you come to my room for a bit? I want to show you what we’ve been working on.”

“Sure.”

Together, they headed towards Yoh’s room. On the way, Yoh asked Hoshi about his stay in America and Hoshi recounted his peaceful nature-watching with Tsuki under the blue skies and the glimmering nights. Yoh pictured the peacefulness of the countryside with Hoshi and Tsuki laying amidst the tall grasses. He wished he could have been there too.

They arrived at Yoh’s room before they knew it. Yoh didn’t bother to turn on the lights, letting the moonlight from the slits of his window fall into his room. He also made sure that Hoshi’s back was turned to him before he started rummaging through his desk.

While waiting, Hoshi glanced around the parts of the room that he could see in the dark without turning around. The room was pretty bare, though that didn’t immediately signify orderliness. The white walls were plastered with a few scattered posters of some guy singer that he didn’t recognize and the ground was littered with orange peels and empty bags of potato chips.

Beep. Beep.

Hoshi’s ears twitched.

“What’s that noise?”

Yoh absentmindedly replied, “What noise?”

Beep. Beep. Beeeeep.

Hoshi’s eyes trailed around the room, his ears telling him that the noise was coming from the right.

Beep. Beep.

When he approached the corner of the room, he wondered how he could have missed seeing the bright orange device that was glowing and beeping. He grabbed it and held it out for Yoh to see, forgetting about Yoh’s orders to “not turn around.”

“This.”

Yoh glanced up.

His eyes widened.

He shoved his drawer shut and closed the distance between him and Hoshi in what felt like a millisecond.

Hoshi backed up, wondering what Yoh was doing.

“Wha-”

Not noticing Hoshi’s confusion, Yoh stared at the beeping orange device in Hoshi’s hand.

“The Oracle Bell...is ringing?”

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

Next chapter: calling all shamans