Shaman King Fan Fiction ❯ Barricades In Time ❯ Aisugumi ( Chapter 1 )

CHAPTER ONE: AISUGUMI

 

The clouds were beginning to roll in, covering the starry sky; there was going to be a storm tonight. Horo was looking out the window of his room into the darkening sky. Thunder began to rumble through the sky and there were flashes of lightning in the distance. Rain began tapping on the window but Horo was paying no attention, he was more concerned about the tournament match tomorrow.

 

His team would be fighting the winner of the match, but that wasn't what was worrying him. There was a new team fighting in the tournament tomorrow. Horo didn't know very much about them but they were fighting against a very powerful team: Raikougumi.

 

For some reason he felt worried about the nameless team, but he wasn't sure why. It felt as though he knew them as old friends.

 

But that's impossible, he thought, I've never even met those people before, why do I care what happens to them, it's none of my concern.

 

“It's getting late; you should probably get some sleep if you want to wake up in time for the tournament tomorrow.”

 

Horo was startled by the sound of a familiar voice; he turned around to see Yoh standing in the doorway. He was wearing his pajamas and it looked like he was about to fall asleep right there in the middle of the hallway. Horo looked across the room at the clock beside his bed; he had trouble seeing the numbers from across the room. He squinted his eyes so he could see the numbers, but it didn't help very much.

 

“It's one o'clock.” Yoh said from the doorway, noticing that Horo was having trouble reading the numbers.

 

“Wow, it is getting pretty late.” Horo wasn't even aware of how long he had been sitting in the darkness of his room looking out the window.

 

Yoh yawned and then nodded in agreement.

 

“Well I'm gonna go to bed, you should probably get some sleep too. I'll see you in the morning, `Night.” Yoh disappeared from the doorway and walked down the hall towards his room.

 

“'Night.” Horo replied as Yoh lazily walked down the hall.

 

Horo yawned and walked over to his bed not realizing how tired he really was. He changed into his nightshirt, pulled on a pair of plaid pajama pants and crawled into bed. He dragged the covers up far over his head and listened to the rain outside. The thunder had died down but the rain was even heavier than before. Horo listened to the rain outside tapping on his window and slowly it put him to sleep.

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Horo found himself walking in a dark forest, ankle deep in snow. He studied his surroundings and noticed that this forest seemed strangely familiar, like he had been there before. He kept walking through the lines of trees until he came upon a frozen puddle. The image in the ice caught his eye and he knelt down to get a closer look.

 

It was his reflection, but it was different, he was younger, only about 6 years old by the looks of it. He took another look at his surroundings.

 

Now he remembered where he was, he was back in his home village, or at least the forest near his village.

 

Horo got up off the cold, snowy ground and started walking in the direction he thought his village was. He hadn't been in that forest in so long he couldn't remember his way around too well.

 

He could hear the snow underneath his feet crunch when he stepped, he always loved that sound. Horo cringed as he felt a snowflake fall down the back of his neck; he stopped walking and looked up and saw that it had started to snow.

 

While he was paused he heard footsteps; they sounded like they were coming from behind him. He turned around and saw someone standing several feet behind him. It looked like they had been following him, judging by the trail of footprints.

 

The person following him was a girl who looked no older than he was, she had deep blue hair but most of it was covered by a red hat. Horo recognized her, but he couldn't remember how. She looked so familiar and he was sure that he had seen her before, but where?

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“Horo….HORO ………. HOROHORO WAKE UP!”

 

Horo opened his eyes and pulled himself up from under the blankets so that he was sitting up in his bed. He looked around the room still half asleep and saw Ren standing beside his bed. He looked pretty mad.

 

“Do you know what time it is? I've been trying to wake you up for ten minutes.”

 

How long was I asleep? Where's that clock? Horo looked over the edge of his bed and saw his clock face down on the floor. How the heck did it get down there? He reached down over the edge of his bed and picked up the clock.

 

“12:45! The match starts in 15 minutes!”

 

Horo flung the blankets off his bed but got tangled in the sheets and fell to the floor, flat on his face.

 

“Everyone left for the stadium about a half an hour ago; they just left you sleeping and figured you'd come on your own. But now that you're awake I guess I'll go too, seeing as we're fighting against the winning team I may as well see what we're up against.”

And with that Ren left the room leaving Horo to get ready to go and of course get up off the floor (which he was still face down on.)

 

Horo got himself untangled from the blankets and got up off the floor. He only had 10 minutes now to get to the stadium in time for the match and it took at least 20 minutes to get there walking. He grabbed his shorts from off the floor and tried to pull them on, but once again he fell face down on the hard wooden floor.

 

Once he was up, he grabbed his jacket and ran out the door, if he was going to make it in time he was going to have to run the whole way there.

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By the time Horo got to the stadium he was completely out of breath. He managed to make it up to the stands and collapsed in a seat next to his friends.

 

“Hey Horo, what took you so long?” Yoh said with his usual grin.

 

“I… made it… with… 2 minutes to spare…” He managed to say between deep breaths.

 

The stadium was loud with conversation; a lot of people were discussing the up coming fight. No one thought to highly of the unknown team, but then again, no one knew who the new team was.

 

Down in the battle arena a man from the patch tribe walked out into the center of the floor. The man raised his hand in the air, wanting everyone's attention.

 

“ALRIGHT, EVERYONE SHUT UP!” The announcer had without doubt gotten everyone's attention.

 

“WELCOME EVERYONE TO THE PATCH STADIUM, AS MOST OF YOU ALREADY KNOW, I AM ONE OF THE PATCH ORGANIZERS, MY NAME IS RADIM. TODAYS MATCH WILL BE BETWEEN THE WELL KNOWN TEAM: RAIKOUGUMI…”

 

The members of the Raikougumi stepped out onto the fighting platform.

 

Everyone in the stadium was cheering; after all, Raikougumi was a very powerful team, even more powerful than some of Hao's teams, not including Hoshigumi of course. (A/N: No one's as powerful as Hoshigumi XD)

 

“AND THE NEWBIE TEAM: AISUGUMI!”

 

The Aisugumi members moved out to the side of the fighting platform and everyone in the stands gave slight cheers so as not to be rude.

 

Aisugumi…

 

That team name made Horo think… Aisugumi… as in ice team.

 

Horo looked down into the stadium and saw the three-man team standing near the edge of the circular fighting field.

 

One member of the team in particular caught Horo's eye; it was a girl no older than him, who had dark blue hair and was wearing a red hat… just like the girl in his dream.

 

 

 

_______CHAPTER ONE END_____________________________________________________________________