Shaman King : Beginning

Be strong, my son!
1.Hao’s secret

Hao was sitting on his throne, he was so bored! The young god had enough of watching his younger brother how he tried to save the world. “Sooner or later you’ll see that you can’t change a thing!”  he leaned back into his stone chair, resignedly he massaged his temples. “It’s like they had nothing better to do! Since the Shaman Fight they try such a shit, they prefer to sacrifice their child instead of the world!” he shacked his head annoyed.   “All of this can’t be the truth? All of them have a job and a life. And what does my beloved Yoh do? He plays the tramp!” Suddenly he stood up of his throne, something shiny was in his eyes. “That’s it! I will take a look what the others do.” Hao closed his eyes and concentrated. The first guy he got was Lyserg. The boy was sitting at a hall of the university he studied. He looked as bored as Hao did a few moments ago. “Boring!” The god said and started to think of someone else. “Boring….also boring…..Boring….More than boring!!!!” “Boring, boring, boring! All of them are working or studying. That’s so boring!” he yelled annoyed. Hao looked around; he wasn’t in the mood to watch his nephew. The boy was like a beast, he doesn’t feel like watching him so often. “Can I watch someone else then them?” the bored god watched into endless sky of his society. He sighed bored and sat back, he crossed his legs and started to think of the other guys he knew of his past life.  “What are you doing here?” Hao had just to concentrate a wink of time and suddenly he appeared on a white flower field in the mountains. “What’s going on?” he winks. “Oh, it’s night, that has to be a dream.” He strolled through the soft green grass, he enjoyed the feeling on his blank feed, he smiled and thought about his first life again. “What are you doing here?” Hao frightened and turned back. His hope, that he hadn’t turned red in front of her, was false. His cheeks turned into a soft pink after the woman noticed him. “T-that’s a dream, isn’t it?” She asked, Hao nodded, just for a moment he wasn’t able to say anything. “Y-yes that’s a dream.” Shortly he was himself again. “Ok, and what are you doing here? Is the world in danger?” Hao winked again. “Eh what?” “Well that’s their job isn’t it? In the most religions you dream of a god or an angel and get  a prophecy.” “Well, I was just bored you see, the others were even more boring, so I ended up here.” This true words of this lightly red cheeked god let her be surprised. “Oh I see.” The wind blow over the grass. Hao and the girl looked left and right, both of them felt uncomfortable. Both tried to think about a topic they could talk about, but everyone just thought about this strange behaviour, they were worst enemies in the past. “Why don’t we sit down and drink some coffee?”  the girl asked and promptly an elegant table appeared and a pot of coffee on it. She sat down and also Hao did. He sipped on his dream coffee and eyed the young girl up. Now she was as old as him, 15. He was 15 since 2 years from now and he knew that he will be forever and ever of his spirit life. Her hair was still the same size as it was, it had the colour of moonlight, her face start to become more womanly and her cherry coloured eyes glittered full of wisdom. Altogether, she wasn’t a little girl anymore. “Is everything ok?” Her question let the boy blink. “Oh, I’m sorry; I just realized that my time stopped, Jeanne.” Now it was her turn to blink, a nice warm feeling went over her cheeks. “It wasn’t my plan to embarrass you, excuse me please.” He sipped on his coffee and noticed that this new American flavour wasn’t something he would prefer. “It’s fine, Hao. It’s not your fault.” She nipped on her coffee and licked over her lips when she put the cup back on the table. And again, Hao turned red. Horrible! He thought and looked to the black-brown broth that turned in one direction and here and there a few bubbles appeared and disappeared. “I can’t believe that this is just a dream.” He tried to distract himself from her. He was still a man!
“I can. When it’s a dream, you can do everything you want, and get everything you want. In the real life you have to work for a single piece of bread.” She sighed heavily and looked up to the clear blue sky. A few fluffy clouds crossed her view. “Ah come on Jeanne, can we talk about something else? I always see the worst things in the world. Can’t we talk about something nice in this dream?” She based her head on her hand and looked at Hao’s eyes. “Did you have a topic you want to talk about, Hao?” she asked politely and he pondered. “So, actually I just think about how annoying my little brother tries to save the world. He is still like a kid.” Jeanne nodded. “You are so right; he always was a little careless. He always thought that everything will work out just fine. But this wasn’t only a bad attitude.”
“Yes but he should start to grow up, look for a job and finally look after his child.” Finally Jeanne nodded, too. “You are right with that point. A little responsibility would be just fine. Where is he right now?” Hao felt glad, finally they found a topic they could talk over: Yoh.
His brother was a good way to talk about and after a while they sat on the grass, laughing next to each other and tattle about the scallywag. “He is like my last dad you know? First he wants a family, and prepares everything that it’s fine for them and is super happy about the baby. And when it’s born he disappeared with a stupid excuse: It’s just for his best!” Jeanne giggled and nodded. “That really is a varmint!”  She wanted to say something else but her body softly faded away. “Jeanne..” both looked afraid. “C-can’t we meet again tomorrow night?” suddenly he asked before her body disappeared. “If you want so?” he saw her soft smile before the dream thought him out of it. He looked around, now it was even worse in his society.  Bored and alone he sat down on his throne and waited for the next night in America.

And so weeks, and even months passed by. Both met each other several times and talked about this and that.  More and more they felt they felt attracted to each other. This friendship was something special no one ever thought this could happen. And this was how the summer passed away and fall came along. And then, something happened none of them had thought something like this could happen. Hao had just entered Jeanne’s dream when it broke together. He froze, but when he saw her he went to the girl. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know.” She admitted and looked to the horizon. A black night sky appeared above them. Under them was now a white dessert, like they went to a state in the Middle East. Thousands of stars sparkled above them, but there were six who sparkled more than the others.  They had different colours, and then something strange happened. The colourful stars start to move and flew through the sky till they circled around them.  Jeanne stepped nearer to Hao. He grope her hand to help her when it’s needed. But the stars just circle around, not coming nearer to them. Something else happened, the stars start to circle more and more, becoming faster and faster till the lights became a silver light colour, it surrounded them and Hao had to hold Jeanne because they start to whirl around till they float in the air.  Hao was the first one who noticed that they stopped after a while. The man opened his eyes a little, but the light was too much and he and also Jeanne needed some time till they could look into the brightened light around them. “Are you alright?” he asked worried. Jeanne nodded.
“I guess.” She said and looked around. “Where are we?” They were still in a desert country. In front of them was a town, a fire blazed over it and humans screamed for help.  When Hao looked closer he noticed that the homes of the people were built in a simple way. “We are in the past I guess. But not in the time I ever lived, not even my first one. It looks even older.” Jeanne looked surprised. “In the past? But why?” Hao shrugged and looked back to the scenery. Between the screaming people was one who laughed. He laughed louder and ringing that everything around him started to shake. But the man wasn’t alone; a huge guardian spirit was next to him. This was the first time Hao noticed that a lot of people had spirits, and the human who hadn’t looked afraid to the one who was next to the laughing guy. “Does this mean…?”
“Yes it does!” Hao and Jeanne frightened terribly. Seven shape-like-beings appeared behind them. The bodies were nebulous, not full human, not full animal not even male or female, not a spirit or a living being. They were something between. The bodies sparkled in the same colours as the stars did before. Red, blue, orange, grey, yellow, purple and the one who spoke was silver white. “Once, when human started to settle down, all of them were the same. No one was blind and no mind was closed. All of them could see spirits, gods and ghosts.” The white man stepped forward; the others watched him closely but were still standing behind like the white one was superordinate.
“However, they were humans who wanted more and more. And one of them started to reach for the stars.” They hover through the air till they were on the great place with the man. His face was covered, so Jeanne and Hao couldn’t see much of him.  He got attacked by six warriors, together with their guardian ghosts. But no one had a little chance against the enemy. “Doesn’t this moment remind you of someone?” Jeanne asked when she still watched the scenery. Hao accepted that it also remembered him on the fight two years ago. “Him, who was striving for power, started a pact with the devils from the stars. And they tested him! And then they would come back in 2000 years to see how it developed. They wanted to see if the seed grew up to a strong giant tree, the tree of life! They sent two stars; both of them gave birth to a seed. One of them was planted to the ground and started to grow into a brightly light, the souls all around the world, started to travel to this light and became one with it till the day of rebirth started for them. They gave the second seed to the man. This one transformed into a giant and powerful guardian ghost no one can win against.”  Hao and Jeanne watched the white man but it was hard to understand.  “Why don’t I know anything about that?”  Hao was more than confused. When he and his opponent’s empty eyes crossed he felt how his soul got occupied. “Because I wanted it!” His voice let the ground shiver, Hao felt his body shaking like lightning went through it, he felt hot and cold at the same time, then his lungs got choked. But the soul talked like nothing happened. He stopped forcing the younger god to watch him, and looked away. Hao’s heart was pounding like crazy; this guy occupied him in just a wink. He hadn’t noticed Jeanne’s worried view, he was still shivering. “All of this started a year ago.” The scenery stopped and broke together. In the next part they saw mirrors, and on them were different memories of different human. “We met each other to challenge him. But even with all of our forces we couldn’t even scratch him! And what was even worse, no one was able to escape his evil plan.”
“What was his plan?” Jeanne asked when she watched the spheres were humans and spirits lived together. “His plan was to get both giant spirit seeds. But the one he already owned let him become greedy! He started to think about how he could reach his ultimate goal and then he decided to become the only one who should be able to see ghosts and what’s even worse, to use them. When this happened, everyone would see him as a god. The people who were able to fight challenged him, but he always won. And he took the power to see and feel their spirits, the people became depressed and a lot of them killed themselves because of this empty feeling in their hearts. Also we fought him, but we were too weak...! but before he could take our precious guardian ghosts from us, we were able to escape.
Somehow we managed to travel to a place that later would be known as the country who get eaten by the ocean. We still were so depressed, but then we saw one of the Soulseeds powerful light managed to break through the stormy clouds we became new hope. The humans who lived there honoured him as the king about death and giver of life.” Once again the scenery passed by and they appeared in a perfect built city. The buildings were made of white marble, the windows sparkled in different colours and water pipes brought water from the ocean into the centre.  The six warriors followed a group of twelve; they talked gentle to each other. The group followed a boarded street made of sandstone till they arrived on a throne in front of the lightened king. But it was empty. The throne stands in the middle of a star; this star was made from 12 edges that also had a chair on it. Hao realised, that the 12 people would own this chairs. The humans stood behind the chairs when they start to sing, meanwhile they lead the six in the middle of the star. The languages were not the same, all of them sound different from each other. But also like the voice of a god. A golden string of light surrounded the six, then the orange one talked now. “They gave us a powerful weapon, but just us six. “The weapons were simple items, but this things suit our guardian ghosts perfectly and they became very powerful. “But it wasn’t enough. They also gave us a powerful spirit” The blue one looked back to the giant light. “The training was hard, and we had to find a lot of allies all around the world. And then it was the day of the fight.” The moment broke together again, the same city was destroyed, flames burned over the buildings and let them gleam in a scary orange. Screams of fighting people got through their ears. They were still on the same place as before, but it was also half destroyed. Corpse and violators were lying on the ground when the seven fought between them. The enemy attacked them without a single break. “It was horrible, we had no chance. And in the end we decided the only thing what was left for us. We had to ban him with our own souls!”The purple one started to talk. “We ripped our souls; we knew we would die here. So it was better to kill us this way than get killed by him. Then we banned him into six stone tables; all of them, together with one of the guardian ghosts of the great king. In the end, we were standing in his middle, where nothing existed.” The moment destroyed for the last time and they appeared in the middle of Hao’s society, but it was different from today.
Now the spirits stand behind Hao and Jeanne, so that could watch the talking warriors. “He will return? How can you be so sure about that?!” the orange one shouted.  The white one couldn’t stand his friends sights. “The seal wouldn’t hold forever, I guess.”
“You aren’t sure, you say?” the blue noted and the white one nodded as an answer. “And what will be your plan?” the purple stepped closer, his voice was not angry at all, but a little nervous. The white looked to his feet. “We are as good as dead.”
“Of course we are! What do you think? We destroyed parts of our body and soul.”  The red one was beside him with rage; he turned away and started to sob. “I- I will never see them again! And that’s your fault!” The white one stepped behind him, he softly laid his hand on his friends shoulder. “I’m so sorry for your wife and your child. But imagine, if we hadn’t done that, your newborn would live in an unhappy place. It was our duty to fight this battle, and to win it. For the future of our families. We, we started to save the world, we also have to do it right now”
“He is right.” The purple was also laying his hand on his shoulder. “I will follow you, no matter what.” Also the blue one did. The yellow grinned. “You guys! I always was on your side!” The orange one snorted. “Idiots!” he also put his hand on his friends shoulder and arm. The grey one wiped the tears of her eyes and stepped to her friends. “And you? Will you help us, too?” The red one turned to his friends. “To save my family!” He laid his hand on his old friends’ one. In the next moment a throne appeared in the middle of them. “It is yours.” The purple one fixed his eyes. “You were always our leader. And now it is your duty also.” He knelt before him and the others followed his doing. “I swear you, for now and all times our world has to go through we will always fight till the end!” The vision disappeared and Hao and Jeanne found themselves back at the desert. Far away the wind waved some sand in the air. The two shamans looked back to the spirits. “Why did you show us this?”
“Destiny has lead you to this night, to destroy the evil being who clings on his revenge!” Hao and Jeanne looked to each other and turned red. “Now end it off! This was a mistake!” Jeanne’s voice sounds annoyed.  The ghost fixed her: “It’s not like it happened for the first time.” He said and the topic was over for him. Then they started to disappear. “The one who will lead them together has to be born and has to survive!” the grey one turned into the spirit of wind. “This was the promise I gave to my guardian ghost when he became the keeper of the wind tablet.” The spirit disappeared. “In this year, we trained our body and our minds. The new warriors also have to do this before the seed of darkness awakes.” The blue spirit turned to the spirit of rain and dispelled like Spirit of wind did. “They have to fight together in this battle. But they need to solve the riddle on the tablets to own the sealed spirits. If not, they will die!” the yellow one became Spirit of Thunder and disappeared. “Our thinking souls slept for 6000 years now, but soon they will reincarnate. Like we could, they will be able to use their elements without spiritual power, just because they are these elements!”
The orange one turned to Spirit of Earth, but before he disappeared he said: “We learned to be a part of nature, and they will be it!”
He disappeared. “To destroy the evil being and to become one with Mother Nature, we divided our soul to the memory, the vessel and to the heart.“ The purple one disappeared; he hadn’t become any spiritual being. Only the white one was still there, he looked to his friends yearning. “Our time is over, now it’s your turn to carve my friends’ way!” For the last time he looked towards them, then he turned to the Great Spirit himself and disappeared.  Hao and Jeanne stayed back, all alone. “This was really strange.” Hao shook his head. Then they fixed at each other for some long minutes. “M-maybe we shouldn’t see each other anymore.” She started to talk, but it was more painful than just the words in her mind.
Hao tried to smile. “Yes, you are right.”
They couldn’t look at each other when the dream started to fall apart and both disappeared.