lucathia

Title: Hoshi - ga - Hoshii - desu
Chapter: 42/45

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 42: calling all shamans-----

The old woman known as Goldva-sama to all of Patch Village stood in front of the assembled crowd. She put up a hand to stop their murmuring.

“The Great Spirits have spoken.”

The murmuring began again, but stopped when Goldva-sama continued.

“It is time.”

-----0-----

He tapped his pencil against his mouth, thinking about what to write next. Occasionally, he jotted down a few words as they came to him. Holding the thin novel open in his left hand, the green-haired boy quickly wrote down the next line in his English essay.

“Marlow’s journey represents that as he goes deeper into the jungle, he is stripped of the conceptions laid upon him by civilization and he begins to realize things about society and himself...”

He put the book down, grabbing his notes instead. He flipped through them, searching them for the things that he had jotted down while reading. He felt his eyes burn as they darted over his tiny handwriting. Blinking hardly and then closing his eyes, the English boy leaned backwards against his swiveling chair, letting his arm drop to his side. He then opened his eyes and glanced out of his window at the bright blue sky.

While he enjoyed mysteries, that was one novel that he did not find amusing, despite the enormous mystery that lay underneath the story. A book about a man journeying farther and farther away from humanity and discovering the evil that lay within...it reminded him strangely of himself and the X-Laws. It reminded him that without their fancy costumes and their so-called justice, the X-Laws were just as despicable as Hao had been.

In the end, they were all the same.

He sighed.

Why was he thinking about this again? That was all in the past. Now, he was just a normal boy going to school in London, reading disturbing books about man’s morality in English class.

Something pink fluttered next to him, coming to rest on his shoulders.

He stopped staring out the window, giving his spirit a smile.

“Okay, okay Morphine! I’ll get back to my essay.”

Lyserg Diethel picked up his pencil and resumed brainstorming.

His Oracle Bell was stashed away in his drawer, untouched for the past year.

When it began ringing, he dropped his pencil in surprise.

-----0-----

A tall man picked up a beaten doll with dirty blond hair, a stitched-up face, bulging eyes, thick boots, a deadly gun in one hand, and a strange electronic device strapped to its other arm. He raised his eyebrow as he addressed the girl in the spaghetti-strapped black dress who had her back to him.

“This doll is kinda weird...but I think my little sister might like it.”

The girl whirled around, her black ribbons whipping around with her. She fixed her expressionless face on the man.

“Chuck is Mari’s. How dare this strange man touch Mari’s doll. There are plenty of other dolls in Mari’s store. Yet he picked up Mari’s favorite. Mari should kick him out of the store for daring to touch Chuck.”

The man sweatdropped, hastily putting down the freakish doll.

The blond-haired girl snatched Chuck away from the man and shoved a doll with curly blond hair, frilly ribbons, and a puffy, light blue dress into the man’s hand.

“Mari thinks Mari’s customer’s sister will like Dorothy better.”

The man blinked, looking at the raggedy doll in his hand.

“Uh...I guess so.”

“Mari is never wrong.”

The man quickly paid the girl and left the store, not wanting to deal with the girl who was even stranger than the weird doll she held in her hands. He was never going to step into that store again.

Marion Phauna held Chuck out in front of her.

“Mari wonders if that man hurt Chuck.”

If the tall man had still been in the store, he would have ran out screaming at the sight he would have seen.

The so-called doll shook its head.

“Good. Mari is glad.”

The girl was about to put Chuck down when she noticed something strange about the Oracle Bell that was strapped to Chuck.

“Look at that, Mari’s Oracle Bell is glowing.”

-----0-----

The dark-skinned, wide-lipped boy grinned wildly. He tugged on his suit, letting the spot light warm him.

“And now for the last joke!”

He held out his hand, a large, squishy yellow star appearing out of nowhere.

“Hoshi ga hoshii desu! Pun intended.”

The small crowd cheered, and Chocolove grinned. He threw out star-shaped confetti.

There was a loud “beeeep,” and the audience hushed, waiting for Chocolove’s next joke.

He blinked. That beep wasn’t part of his show! Shrugging his concern off, Chocolove continued grinning.

“Please leave a message after the beep! Bye! See you next time!”

Usually, he stayed behind to bask in the praise that people gave him, but this time he hurried backstage. The beeping was getting louder.

He rummaged through the boxes, finally pulling out his Oracle Bell.

-----0-----

The man held the glowing women’s hand dearly, his eyes staring into hers. Both of them gave off an air of happiness and love. The man’s purple-glossed lips were turned upwards in a loving smile. The woman’s eyes were shinning with compassion. The lone glass of wine stood forgotten on their table.

“Eliza,” whispered the man.

“Faust,” replied the woman.

“Eliza...”

“Faust...”

Beep.

“Eliza...”

“Faust...”

“Eliza...”

Beep. Beep.

“Faust...do you hear that?”

“Eliza? Of course I hear your lovely voice.”

He pulled her into a hug.

“Oh, Faust...” whispered the woman.

“Eliza...”

“Faust...”

“Eliza...”

When the restaurant manager tried to throw the strange couple out of the restaurant, he didn’t even manage to stop them from saying “Eliza” and “Faust” over and over. Giving up, he locked the couple inside of the restaurant for the night.

-----0-----

“Hey, pass the cinnamon, will ya?” asked a girl wearing an apron.

He reached out with his long arms, easily reaching the top shelf. He grabbed the cinnamon and handed it to his fellow student.

“Thanks!” The girl smiled brightly, proceeding to sprinkle the cinnamon over her apple pie.

His heart soared at the sight of the girl’s smile. She was too cute for her own good! Ryu watched, entranced, as the girl wiped the white flour from her forehead with the back of her hand, only to smudge more flour over herself. She giggled when Ryu offered her a napkin.

Coming to the culinary academy was heaven.

He stared at her, his heart quickening when she turned her eyes on him. Was she...Did she feel the same way about him as he felt about her?

“Ryu-san, eto...I smell something funny.”

Ryu’s heart fell as he sniffed the air.

“Hm...I do too.”

He glanced around, noticing (in alarm), that smoke was coming out of his oven. He quickly turned it off, hastily throwing his oven mittens on and pulling his oven open. He coughed when the black smoke drifted out threateningly. Damn, he shouldn’t have let his attention wander. Now, he made a fool of himself in front of her again.

He was moping as he dumped his fried apple pie into the trash when he heard the beeps from his Oracle Bell.

-----0-----

He slid out from underneath the car, the wrench in his right hand as he wiped the sweat from his face. His clothes were splattered with oil, and his glasses weren’t in any better condition. He wandered over to his cluttered desk, picking up a tissue to wipe his glasses clean.

The door opened in a slight crack, an innocent eye peeping from behind.

“Are you done?”

The man sighed as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

“I thought I told you not to come here. It’s too dirty here.”

The girl pushed the door open, revealing her white petticoat dress with black lacing. She smiled widely, despite the man’s stern expression.

“I wanted to bring you lunch, Marco.”

“It’s not necessary, Jeanne-sama.”

“But, you’ve always been taking care of me. This is the least I could do for you.”

Unable to argue with the girl, Marco placed his wrench with his other tools and began eating lunch with Jeanne.

When two, loud beeps resonated throughout the garage, both held up their Oracle Bells in wonder.

-----0-----

Shamans from all over the world who had participated in the Shaman Fight stopped in their daily activities to stare at their Oracle Bells. Tao Ren dropped his black kitten when Horo Horo ran into his room, waving his beeping Oracle Bell in front of his face. Ren grabbed his own Oracle Bell, which had started beeping too, yet Horo Horo continued waving his Oracle Bell in front of the Chinese boy. Ren, who was now pissed, yelled, “Kisama! I’m not deaf!”

Kanna Bismarche dropped her fork in the middle of eating, hastily mumbling, “Igottago” to the handsome German man who sat across from her. Macchi dropped another pitcher of water, this time splattering it over some unknown customer. Opacho tugged on her caretaker's arm, telling her adopted mother that she needed to confirm something. Peyote, who was singing “A Dios Le Pido,” broke one of his guitar strings. Zen and Ryo from BoZ paused in their wild singing, staring with their jaws on the floor, before continuing singing as if nothing had happened. Zang Ching, who was feeding his panda Shion Shion, accidentally snapped the bamboo in his hands in half. Bigguy Bill, who was playing football with his team, threw the football too hard and knocked down his own teammate. Pino and Zria skidded to a stop on the frozen lake, Cadimahide soon running into them. Anatel dropped his chisel from evacuating the pyramid. With a questioning look, Seyrarm held out her ringing Oracle Bell to her brother Redseb, who was surprised that Seyrarm was even able to look “questioning.”

All in all, shamans over the entire world were confused.

Was the Shaman Fight resuming? They hadn’t heard anything about it for the past year. They assumed that the Shaman Fight had ended without a Shaman King being chosen.

How wrong all of them were.

Ren cursed as he read what was on the screen. “Important announcement. Press B to scroll.”

“Where the heck is B?” screamed some other shaman on the other side of the world.

After finding the B button, they scrolled through the long text, finally reaching the bottom of it before disbelief rang through the air.

“Whaaaat?” they screamed in unison...or almost in unison.

At Funbari Onsens, the only Shaman Fight participant there who still had his Oracle Bell had uttered a similar exclamation of surprise. Hoshi blinked at Yoh’s incredulous face.

“What’s wrong?”

Yoh shook his head, unable to speak.

Hoshi plucked the Oracle Bell, as Yoh had called it, out of Yoh’s hand, turning it towards himself so that he could read what was on it.

Slowly, he read the black text that appeared on the screen word by word as he scrolled through it by pressing the B button.

“The.”

“Shaman.”

“King.”

“Has.”

“Been.”

“Chosen.”

He raised his eyebrow, wondering what all the fuss was about, before taking Yoh’s hand and giving the Oracle Bell back to him.

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