[Shaman King] Learning Nihongo * chapter 1: background

[lucathia]

Title: Learning Nihongo
Chapters: 1/?

Author:lucathia_rykatu
Series: Shaman King
Characters: Ren, Jun
Genre: General
Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King
Archive: livejournal / ffnet

Summary: A prequel to the anime and manga.  Before Ren came to Japan, he had to learn Japanese first.

A/N: All Chinese is written in han yu pin yin and all Japanese is written in romanji. To differentiate between the two for ppl who do not know the languages, Chinese is italicized while Japanese is underlined. Fic inspired by my Japanese class.

-----chapter 1: Background-----

The young boy lived in a cold and large room that overlooked a misty hill. His bed was the size of a normal sized swimming pool, rather large for a one person bed. Today at five o'clock in the morning, the sun barely shone its rays over the horizon. The boy turned his back towards the few rays that peeked through the mist and through his wavy curtains. He concentrated on sleeping, but the sun's rays bothered him. Finally, he sat up and cracked open one golden eye. It was going to be another long day in front of him.

He quickly ran his hands through his purple hair. His hair didn't require much combing though, since it naturally stood up in one perfect spike. He had tried combing it down before, but he soon discovered that feat was impossible to do. He shrugged. He rather liked it the way it was now.

He walked over towards his overly large walk in closest and pulled open the door. He went inside, his eyes skimming over the multitudes of different outfits. His eyes landed on a comfortable outfit for training, a yellow top made of smooth silk and a pair of loose, black pants held up by a black cord. He slipped off his current shirt, revealing a large, glistening tattoo on his back. The boy scowled at the thought of that tattoo and quickly slid on his yellow top. He tied the black cords together into a fine knot, the pants' sides gently pooling above his feet.

"Wo men zou ba (let us go now)," commanded the boy to the space to his right. A Chinese warrior appeared and bowed to his master.

"Shi de, Lian shao ye (Yes, young master Ren)," replied the obedient spirit.

The young master smirked at his spirit's obedience as he left his room. He had been brought up with the desire to cleanse the world of unnecessary people. Infused with hatred by his giant of a father, Tao En, he had no choice in his future but to follow his father's every command. In return for being an obedient son, Ren was revered as the boy who would carry on the Tao family's legacy. He would one day lead the Tao family in all its glory, the way his father was doing now.

Che. He had little desire to lead the family.

It was still early in the morning. He had no need to meet his father until breakfast. Until then, Ren decided to train in the Tao's family vast training room. He ventured towards the lower levels of the tower and into a room full of machinery. A few jiangshi (zombies/kyounshi) were training on the treadmills. His eyes looked past them and landed on the weights in the corner. Giving a satisfied nod, Ren walked towards the weights. He would do some weightlifting today.

After an hour of lifting weights, Ren wasn't tired yet and was barely sweating. However, it was now breakfast time and he couldn't afford to be late for that, no matter how boring it was.

Entering the massive dining room, Ren gave a curt nod toward his mother and his sister, Tao Jun. His grandfather was absent, probably still in one of the many levels of the tower overseeing the jiangshi. Ren's father wasn't there either, but Ren felt his father's approaching presence as the double doors swung open.

When Ren's father stood in the doorway, nothing could be seen of the other room, for Tao En's massive figure stretched from one side of the door to the other. He walked with thuds as he approached the long table. When he sat down, he took the space of one entire side of the table. After giving a nod similar to Ren's, Tao En started eating.

Picking up his chopsticks, Ren reached for some tofu. Ever since he was small, Ren had wondered how his father could be such a giant when his son and daughter were only normal sized humans. Everyone else was normal sized as well…his mother and his grandfather, for example. There was no reason why his father would be a giant among a family of normal humans.

Ren quietly ate his porridge. When he finished drinking three bottles of milk, he pushed back his chair and stood up. "Wo chi wan le (I finished eating)," announced the boy emotionlessly as he moved to leave the room. Usually, when he finished eating, he left immediately to go outside to practice merging with his spirit. Today, however, his father had other plans for him.

"Liu xia lai (Stay)," commanded the towering figure.

Ren paused in his tracks.

His father's voice boomed over the breakfast table. "Dao Lian he Dao Run, wo qing le yi wei hao lao shi lai jiao ni men ri wen (Tao Ren and Tao Jun, I found a good teacher to teach you two Japanese)."

Ren's eyes widened slightly. Why did he have to waste his time learning Japanese? He needed to spend his precious time practicing with his spirit and not learning some useless language!

En, if he knew what was going on in his son's mind, chose to ignore it. He continued. "Ni men de lao shi hui zai yi ge xiao shi ho gen ni men peng mian (Your teacher will meet you in one hour)."

"Ni xian zai ke yi zou le (You may leave now)."

----------

Ren glumly sat in the large, empty room, waiting for his so called Japanese teacher to come. Irritated, Ren folded his arms and closed his eyes. He started drifting towards unconsciousness until he heard the creak of the door.

He opened one eye slightly. It was only his older sister. He slowly closed his eye again as he impatiently waited for the teacher.

He felt his sister walk past him to lean against the wall. Damn. What was taking that teacher so long just to get here? How dare some stupid teacher make him wait in his room? He couldn't afford to waste his time sitting in here when he could have been training outside…

"OHAYOU!" screamed a voice next to his ear.

Ren's eyes shot open as the extremely loud voice knocked his head to the side. He's eyes narrowed as he glared at the extremely hyper person.

"Aiya…lao shi hai zhen ke ai (Ah, the teacher is so cute)," exclaimed Jun.

Ren frowned as he stared at the little boy's smiling face. This little boy was going to be his Japanese teacher? What the heck! Like he would accept being taught by someone who was younger than him! The humiliation! But…when did this boy get into the room? Ren didn't hear the door open. He didn't hear any footsteps either. This boy…he couldn't underestimate him.

The little boy continued smiling.

"Ore-sama no namae wa Sensei da. Yoroshiku! (My honorable self's name is Teacher. Pleased to meet you!)."

Ren scowled. "Ni shuo she me (What did you say?)?"

Jun laid her hand against her cheek. "Lao shi bu hui shuo zhong wen ma? (Teacher, don't you know how to speak Chinese?)"

The little boy, dressed in a sleeveless, light blue top with intricate buttons and a pair of loose, navy blue pants, was affronted that his soon-to-be student doubted his abilities. He angrily blew his black, wispy hair away from his eyes, revealing two, dark piercing eyes underneath.

"Of course I know how to speak Chinese! I also know Japanese, English, Spanish, French, Vietnamese, German, Italian, Korean, Tagalog…" the boy who called himself Sensei continued rambling on with his list of languages.

Jun blinked and turned to her brother Ren. "Ta xian zai shuo de shi shen me yu yan? (What language is he speaking right now?)"

Ren shrugged.

He was tired of his teacher already. And the lessons hadn't even started yet. Little did Ren know that even more tiring and more embarrassing events were to come.

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