Chapter Text
He can hear another heart beating and Hao's not fully formed consciousness recognizes there's two of them. Are they both him? Is the other a part of him? Or is the other a completely different entity unlucky enough to be born at the same time as him.
He can figure out these answers when he's born and safely tucked away thanks to Spirit of Fire. For now he simply has to wait. His third life is soon upon him and he can feel that this time will finally be the time he is successful.
Finally the time comes for him to escape and begin his third life properly. The moment he's born is confusing. One minute he's taking his first breath of his third life and the next it seems he's taken his last. Spirit of Fire doesn't come fast enough and the only thought he can register is kill Hao.
A few minutes pass that he can't account for and then he seems to be opening his tiny baby eyes that can't see anything unless it's directly in his face. He feels himself being jostled as he's passed from one set of arms to another and hears a name whispered
“Yoh.”
The entire situation seems to wash over him with clarity. He did die, but since his soul was still so young so new in this lifetime and the other baby had yet to take its first breath his consciousness had simply floated into it. That at least confirmed the other was tied to him at least partly.
His family must have felt completely confident they had killed the correct baby. Maybe Spirit of Fire had shown up for the briefest moment giving them all the confirmation they needed. He doesn't dare call Spirit of Fire now. He doesn't want to tip his hand. This is the path of no resistance. His family won't try to stop someone they already believe to be dead.
He's Hao in mind, spirit, and power, but he must live as this other. He's Yoh now because being himself will bring his family down on him. They can't kill him now. They were only successful because they struck at the precise moment he was vulnerable. Now though he could end them all and escape.
Maybe he should do that. Launch a sneak attack and end them before they can stop him, but the arms that are holding him feel so warm and he feels at peace. He doesn't need to just fool his family. He needs to fool the Patch and anyone else who may have an inkling that he's back. It's better to hide and claim what's his without any interference.
“I love you, Yoh,” a voice whispers.
“You're perfect,” another voice agrees.
Yoh. Just one kanji short of Hao's own name. It's ironic to think that is the name his surrogate parents picked out and what has transpired on this day.
Here's to his life as Yoh until he can once again be Hao. Until he's sitting on the throne crowned as the Shaman King. It seems fate may have finally blessed him, and he will finally get to see his mother again after searching for so long.
To think his family trying to kill him would hand him the perfect opportunity to finally obtain all he's ever wanted.
His hair is getting long and he mourns the fact as Keiko takes scissors to it and shortens his hair. He's worn his hair long in every life time, but he doesn't dare ask her to stop. Both Keiko and Mikihisa have long hair and would let him if he asks, but it would put him one step closer to who he truly is. They too likely want to distance themselves from what happened that night, from the life snuffed out before it could truly live.
“What's wrong?” Keiko asks, noticing the pensive expression on his face in the mirror.
“It gets in my face,” Hao lies because he can't tell her the truth.
Keiko gives him a soft smile and easily brushes his hair back into a pony tail. Because it's short it doesn't hang nicely but sticks out every which way.
Hao twists his face up in front of the mirror. “I look like a pineapple.”
Keiko laughs tugging the band free from his tresses. “Do you want it shorter?”
“No,” Hao says vehemently protectively placing his hands over his hair.
“I'll find you a headband when I go into town next,” Keiko says as a way of placating him.
Hao stays silent and Keiko must take that as a concession because she starts sweeping up the hair on the floor and sending Hao on his way.
He walks past Mikihisa's music room which is just where Mikihisa keeps his records and his guitar. He spots a pair of orange headphones laying next to a record player. Normally, he wouldn't spare them a second thought or walk into the room but something seems to be calling to him. He closes the distance and unhooks them from the record player. He nestles them behind his ears. Their over sized but something about them feels comforting.
They also hold his hair out of his face which wasn't really a problem but now he also doesn't have to pretend to like whatever headband Keiko comes back with.
The entire look is very much not Hao, but it feels appropriate for Yoh so he keeps the headphones on.
He's been working on cultivating a lazy attitude in training so everyone will just leave him alone and not expect greatness out of him. He doesn't want to accidentally show his hand after all or raise suspicions. The headphones seem to cement this persona.
He walks back to his room and begins a silent countdown until someone notices what he's done. He has to find his joy somewhere and 'innocently' messing with his family is his only way.
It's an hour later when he hears Mikihisa walk into his music room. Then his thoughts begin to wash over Hao as he looks everywhere for the headphones and grows more frustrated because he knows exactly where he left them, but inexplicably they aren't there.
“Ponchi, Conchi,” Mikihisa calls as if those spirits are the only explanation.
They don't respond to his summons which leaves Mikihisa more frustrated.
Hao takes that as his cue to innocently walk past the open door to the music room with the headphones proudly tucked behind his ears.
“Yoh,” Mikihisa stops him, and Hao turns his most charming smile on him.
“Don't I look so cool,” he gushes like any normal four year old would. “And it keeps my hair out of my face.”
I guess it's alright. I can always buy a new pair. Plus Keiko did mention he seemed sad after his haircut.
“Yeah, you do,” Mikihisa agrees, reaching out to ruffle his hair.
Hao stands there and takes the abuse, but he makes sure Mikihisa is watching when he fixes his hair. He can't wait until he's old enough that they stop doing that.
Yohmei is in charge of his training that he starts at age four. As an onmyoji, and a not very good one in Hao's opinion, his spirit of choices are shikigami. This is of course what he trains Hao in. Shikigami are important for an onmyoji but even Hao learned to summon and control other familiars. This will get him no where in the Shaman Fight that will happen in his lifetime. Good thing that what Yohmei teaches him doesn't matter, so Hao can content himself with wasting his time here instead of worrying about being strong enough in the future.
Despite the fact that this is beneath him, Hao still makes a show of struggling with the technique. Yoh isn't ambitious. Ambitious is what has gotten him killed in other lives. Ambition is also what will make his family take note and pay attention to him more. Better to make them think he's weak and has no shamanic potential.
Yohmei sighs at his continued lack of progress over the months of training.
Thank goodness Hao no longer exists in this lifetime otherwise Yoh would have no chance against him.
His other half, this Yoh who never got to exist, would have only ever been a tool for his family. His sole purpose in life would have been to defeat Hao. He doesn't know which outcome would have been better for the other. Not existing, or living as a tool for a battle he had no choice in.
“This is dumb,” Hao says instead, crossing his arms, “When am I ever going to use this anyway?”
“You're right,” Yohmei says, aggravated. “I guess you don't have what it takes to be Shaman King even if you wanted too.”
“Shaman King?” Hao says back, playing dumb. He needs someone to plant it in his head. He's not supposed to know after all.
“Humanity has lost it's way once again and someone must lead them back to the right path. That is the Shaman King. The being able to commune with the Great Spirit who creates and rules all. Able to shape the world in their image.”
“So I train hard now and then I don't have to do anything once I become the Shaman King. Alright,” Hao states, watching the way Yohmei is ready to scold him for his ignorance. The words die on his tongue though as Hao calls a shikigami forth.
“I guess I just needed the right motivation,” Hao says dismissing the spirit.
A lazy genius. The most insufferable kind.
“So that's all, right? I can go back?”
“Again,” Yohmei says.
Hao rolls his eyes internally and makes a big show of focusing. The shikigami pops and fizzles coming out misshapen before disappearing almost immediately. Hao pants pretending he's used up all his furyoku.
“Fine,” Yohmei relents, “That's it for today. It was good progress but we'll have to work on increasing your stamina and furyoku.”
“Boring,” Hao states, walking back towards the house and throwing his hands behind his head“I want to do something way cooler. Shikigami are lame.”
“You will learn the basics first, otherwise you will never have what it takes.”
Hao rolls his eyes only because Yohmei can't see him. God he hopes the comet comes soon because he doesn't know how much more of this he can take.
This is the first lifetime that Hao has ever had to go to school and he absolutely hates it. The kids are loud both in the classroom and in his mind. He either already knows what the teacher is trying to teach them, or if he doesn't then it's pointless because if he hasn't needed it before he doesn't need it now. Still he has to play dumb regarding the things he already knows which is the worst and is giving him a headache.
The kids are at least weary of him. They know what his family is capable of which means he doesn't have to waste his time pretending to make friends with disgusting snot-nosed humans. He can sit in his exile like he always has content knowing that in a few years when he's Shaman King they won't exist anymore in his world.
Put glue on his chair one more time Tadamoto, but we'll see who has the last laugh. We'll see who gets to live to adulthood. Hao can weather this like he's weathered everything in the past 1000 years.
The headphones have grown on him over the year and have proved to be useful at school. He simply slips them on over his ears and the world becomes muffled and quieter. It also deters the other kids because it's a lot less fun to say mean things if the other kid can't hear you, or at least doesn't indicate they can hear you.
He's ruminating on all the different hells he wants to send his classmates to in the Great Spirits when he becomes Shaman King when the teacher calls his name out. Hao let's out a sigh and he walks up to the board to write the kana he's been dictated. He purposefully flips the direction of it so it faces the wrong way.
His classmates laugh even though he can hear five of them that aren't sure why they're laughing because it looks correct to them. His teacher on the other hand looks like she's fighting off a migraine.
Every single time. Every single time it's perfectly incorrect which means he knows it and is doing this on purpose.
“Is it wrong?” he asks the teacher voice all quiet like he's embarrassed because the kids are laughing.
“Like this,” the teacher corrects drawing the same character but facing the correct way now.
Hao makes a show of staring at it before stating quietly, “They look the same.”
His teacher can't decided if Hao is still screwing around or legitimately has dyslexia. Hao's not sure what dyslexia is because it didn't exist in his past two lifetimes, but he also recognizes it could pose a problem for him later on in life. It could cause his family to get suspicious when he can suddenly write normally instead of throwing them off the scent more.
“Oh I see it now,” Hao says, etching the kana on the board and making sure to point it the correct way.
He goes back to his seat as his classmates continue to laugh and whisper how dumb he is. They wouldn't be laughing if they knew he could write circles around them in kanji
He's seven when Mikihisa walks in with a pink haired girl he introduces as Tamao. She's going to be living with them and training with Mikihisa. Her heart and mind are a continuous cascade of tears and fears as she practically trembles where she stands. A stiff breeze could knock her over.
Keiko picks up Tamao easily and it's only after the briefest hesitation that Tamao latches on like she's a lifeline. Hao understands what's happening all to well. Another child discarded for her powers.
Tamao buries her face and refuses to meet anyone gaze until later when Keiko coaxes her out with a warm home cooked meal. How Keiko is able to never let go of Tamao and make dinner at the same time still amazes Hao. Once the food is set on the table Tamao sits quietly at her own spot where she slowly eats the food in front of her while always watching her surroundings.
“You don't have to worry,” Hao says, “No one will hurt you here.”
“I know,” Tamao says softly and Hao looks at her intrigued. Could she have some form of clairvoyance? It's not impossible but it is incredibly rare.
She ducks her head down under his gaze and mumbles as she pushes two fingers together, “That's what they told me at least.”
Hao nods and passes her more rice and she takes it. They sit in silence until Keiko leaves and it's just them.
“They don't like you,” Tamao whispers. A look into her mind reveals she's talking about the spirits that whisper visions to her and not in fact his family. Hao simply raises an eyebrow as her cue to continue.
“They say your full of lies.”
The spirits are perceptive and this could be a problem if Tamao gains credibility. He doesn't want to squash her talent. It's truly remarkable, but he hasn't been playing the long con for seven years for nothing.
“Spirits are fickle,” Hao answers, “They get their feelings hurt easily.”
“Oh,” Tamao states as if he's just told her its the same reason the sky is blue or the grass is green.
He pushes away from the table and Tamao stays seated contemplating everything. He leaves her because Keiko is still getting her room ready and he doesn't really want an audience for what he's going to do next.
Ponchi and Conchi are easy to find. If there's trouble they are usually at the heart of it. The two spirits disgust Hao and he would banish them if he could, but right now they serve a purpose.
“Yoh,” they call with sly grins floating towards his personal space. One glare is all it takes to send them back a distance.
“It's your imbeciles lucky day. You're going to get a shaman to serve.”
“Lame,” Conchi says.
Ponchi blows a raspberry. “We don't wanna work with you.”
“Not me,” Hao says fighting off a migraine, “Tamao. She has the gift of divination and for whatever reason that is beyond me you two nitwits are capable of it.”
“Boring,” Ponchi yawns.
“We are loyal Asakura spirits. We deserve better prestige in who we serve,” Conchi explains floating lazily.
“Last I checked loyal spirits didn't get to pick what they will and won't do and who they will and won't serve,” Hao's eyebrow twitches.
He receives two simultaneous raspberries in response.
“We don't have to listen to you. You're not the head of the family, and you won't be for a looooong time.”
“Newsflash,” Hao reaches out and grabs both spirits, eyes burning,” I brought this entire family into existence and if that gets out I will personally feed both of you to my spirit and watch you burn in hell. Hell is not a nice place and you both would be dead in minutes.”
Both of the spirits gulp.
“What do you want us to do, Boss?” Conchi asks, terror in his voice.
“Don't let Tamao reveal the truth about me. Pull just enough pranks to make them question her divination skills.”
“Permission to pull pranks?” Ponchi asks eyes wide and full of stars.
“Within reason,” Hao amends, “I don't want to squash her talent.”
Ponchi and Conchi both salute him. “We won't let you down, Boss.”
“Of course you won't,” Hao answers, “Your lives are on the line.”
“And one last thing,” Hao stops the spirits, “Show some tact and decency. You're disgusting and she's four.”
The spirits look at him confused.
“Pants. Now.”
The both materialize a pair of diapers before disappearing.
Hao whispers a silent apology to Tamao. Once he's Shaman King he'll find some way to make it all up to her. He'll personally foster her talents if he needs too.