Pika318: All those who read the manga should know that there is actually no real ending and worse of all, it did not mention the fight between Yoh and Hao. Those who watched the anime would have seen the fight between Yoh and Hao but some of you may still be dissatisfied with the ending.
In my version, Yoh would still win. So those people who are expecting that Hao should win, don't read this.
Now, on with my version of the ending. But first, to those people who have not read the manga or watched the anime, let me tell you the actual events that will lead to my ending. There will be spoilers so those who do not like spoiler, don't read it either.
After the preliminary rounds of the shaman fight, only four teams are left to fight each other to decide the shaman king in the place where the Great Spirit resides, which is actually underwater with a oxygen barrier surrounding it. The four teams are Funbari Hot Springs, The Ren, X – Laws, and Star Group (Hoshigumi). Since only one person can be shaman king, all of them will be fighting as individuals and not as a team. However, after much discussion before this fight, the Funbari Hot Springs, The Ren, X – Laws, Luchist and Opacho decided to withdraw and let Hao become Shaman King by default.
In order to be shaman king, the priests would have to take 5 hours to call out the Great Spirit and the chosen shaman has to be in coma for 10 hours before he can be shaman king. Yoh's plan is that in these 15 hours, they would defeat all the 10 priests, get to Hao, and stop him.
In the manga, we never knew if they got past the 10 priests, so I should assume that they do. Also, unlike the manga, in my ending, Hao would not be in a coma of any sort so that he can fight Yoh and I can make of the fight in the anime. The people left from the 11 people before should be Yoh, Ren, Horo Horo, Lyserg, Chocolove, Ryu and Opacho. If I explained what happened to the other four, there will be too much spoilers.
So these 7 people confront Hao, who is more than ready to face them. Actually, the most important people here are Yoh, Ren, Horo Horo, Chocolove and Lyserg. After much training and a trip to hell and back, they are able to effectively control the five elements, essential to beating Hao, as he can control the five elements as well. Yoh is earth, Ren is lightning, Horo Horo is water, Chocolove is wind, leaving Lyserg with fire, which is actually very ironic.
Now to continue. These are now spoilers to the anime with some changes. All of them, except Opacho, attacks Hao, but he beats them off easily and rendering them unable to move for the moment, except Yoh. Now he and Yoh fight. Yoh uses his strongest attacks and tries his best, but he is still losing badly to Hao. After some time, Hao kicks Yoh into a nearby pillar and Yoh is unable to move now. Hao walks up to Yoh, pulls him up by his hair and thrusts his hand into Yoh's chest. Yoh screams and all of his friends panic. Hao pulls his hand out and drops Yoh's lifeless body. Hao had taken his soul. He absorbs Yoh's soul into himself. All of Yoh's friends, overcome by anger, gets up and fights Hao, but they are still losing. Okay, enough spoilers, now my version will start from here.
"All of you calm down, you would never be able to defeat Hao this way if you are only guided by anger!" Pascal Avef shouted before knocking all of them down to help them come to their senses.
"Look, I know all of you are angry that your best friend had just been killed. But would Yoh be happy if you continue fighting like this? Remember how he fights, with calmness? Why don't you learn from him?" Pascal Avef said, shocking all of them. "Breathe, calm down!"
"Okay, I'm calm." Ren said.
"But what do we do now?" asked Horo Horo, glancing at Hao, who is currently standing some distance away. He wasn't attacking them. He was mocking them.
"All of you would have to work as a team. I have a plan, do you want to hear it?" Pascal Avef asked.
Everyone nodded.
"Ok, I get the plan. Now is everyone ready?" Chocolove said, seeing that nobody else was talking.
Everyone else nodded again.
"Let's go!" Horo Horo shouted.
Ren jumped forward, shooting a blot of lightning at Hao. He evaded it easily, right into the position they wanted him to be.
"Lyserg, now!"
Lyserg went into action, shooting out long tendrils, extensions of his oversoul at Hao quickly, binding him and restricting his movement.
'Now's the chance!' All of them thought.
'Goodbye… Yoh.'
All of them unleashed their strongest attacks. The attacks closed in rapidly on Hao.
Hao smirked. 'Weaklings, all of them.'
He broke Lyserg's oversoul and avoided all their attacks at the last minute.
"Do you really think that such a straightforward plan would stop me?" Hao taunted.
"It..didn't work. Now what do we do?" Lyserg asked in despair.
All of them were starting to lose hope. Yoh, the person that they have place so much faith in, was killed by Hao. The plan which they had hoped will stop Hao, had failed.
"All of you can't give up now! We can try again!" Pascal Avef said.
"It's no use, can't you see the look in their eyes, they have given up already. Why don't I just kill them now and spare them of their misery." Hao sneered.
Just as he was about to do just that, he paused as he felt a sharp and deep pain inside him. Something was happening to his soul.
'It can't be… My soul is rejecting Yoh's!' Hao thought.
Yoh's friends watched Hao in surprise and on instinct, turned around to face Yoh's body. Yoh, to their utmost disbelief, was getting up.
"Yoh, he alive again… Thank god." Ren said.
"Yoh, you idiot!" Horo Horo shouted before exhaustion overcame him and he almost fainted.
"All of you did a great job. Go take a rest now, I'll take over from here." Yoh said calmly.
"Why do you still exist? Our souls should have…" Hao said before he was interrupted by Yoh's long ranged attack from his oversoul, white swan.
Nothing is said as Yoh continues to attack Hao. Hao, caught off guard, starts to go on the defensive, occasionally knocking Yoh away, but Yoh never gave up, no matter how many times his oversoul broke. Hao starts to weaken as he slowly got overcome by anger, hate and confusion. Finally, Yoh breaks Hao's oversoul one last time and Hao, who had used up all of his furykyo (is this how you spell it?), falls against a pillar. (really can't describe fighting)
Yoh, who was still able to maintain a weak oversoul, steps up to Hao.
'This is it, we're finally able to stop Hao.'
'Just kill him, Yoh. You're doing all the shamans a favour.'
'Do it, Yoh.'
'Bring justice on him, Yoh.
'Hurry, master Yoh.'
'Hao – sama…'
To all of his friends shock, Yoh just paused and broke whatever was left of his oversoul and even put his mediums down.
I had a very good master a thousand years ago…"Yoh, what are you thinking!" all of them shouted at the same time.
Hao stared in shock and confusion as well.
"Why are you letting me off? After all I done… are you pitying me?"
Really? What's he like…"I'm not pitying you Hao. I never wanted to kill you. Right now, the Hao in front of me is not the great Buddhist monk who wanted to kill off all the humans, he's also not the Hao that betrayed the Patch and took the Spirit of Fire. The Hao in front of me now is my twin brother, Asakura Hao. Why would I want to kill my own brother?" Yoh smiled.
My master is actually very kind, but it is because of this kindness that he is easily devoured by darkness.
"I am not your brother! You're not even supposed to exist!"
"But I do exist. I'm standing in front of you. I lived all 15 years of my life. But I was brought up differently from you. From the time we were born, we were already different people. Hao is Hao and I'm me. We were never the same person in the first place."
"Why then, after all I done, do you try so hard to change me?"
"Because…" Yoh paused for a moment. "You wanted to be changed, Hao."
He continued more confidently, " If you had planned from the beginning to get rid of all the humans, you could have got rid of me when I was still weak because I'm going to be an obstacle. Why did you let me grow stronger until a point that I was capable of defeating you? Because you want to be saved, you want to be stopped, and you couldn't bear to kill your own brother."
When I helped the Asakura family kill my master 500 years ago, I felt really guilty.
"Also, Hao, you could have stopped a long time ago. But Oji – san (Yohmei) tried to kill you and you had no choice but to escape. If he had not tried to do so, you and I could have lived a normal life. But because he did and you were never given a chance to change, you were forced to continue walking down the path that you had taken a long time ago."
"It's too late…"
"Hao, why don't you give up now. It's not too late. All of us can still forgive you, as long as you are willing to change."
Yoh-sama is kind too, so I think Yoh-sama is the only person who can save my master.
All of Yoh's friends almost opened their mouth to protest that Hao did not deserve forgiveness of any kind, but because of their respect for Yoh, they kept their mouths shut. The protests can come after everything was over.
Only Yoh-sama can save Hao-sama from his insane dream.
"That's why I always think that you're too naïve, Yoh." Hao said as he stood up shakily. He reached into his pocket and everyone present saw something glinting as it was drawn. It was a knife.
"Yoh, look out!" all of them shouted worriedly.
Yoh's eyes widened in shock.
Blood started dripping onto the stone floor.
But the blood did not belong to Yoh.
Hao had stabbed himself.
What did you say just now, Matamune? I didn't catch the last part.
"Hao…" Yoh was stunned by what he had just seen, his brother was trying to kill himself.
It's nothing…"What…WHAT THE HELL !"
"Don't worry Yoh… I won't die so quickly." Said Hao gently, giving a weak smile. "You're really naïve. Just because you are able to forgive me, it doesn't mean that everyone else will. Your friends… they were so eager to see me die. And you could find it in your heart to forgive me, all of them were protesting silently in their hearts. I can hear them."
"The Great Spirit has already accepted me. I'm going to make my wish and become shaman king… Then I'll step out of your life… Everybody's life…permanently."
Before Yoh could say or do anything to stop Hao, Hao staggered into the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit opened up to welcome Hao, and closed up after that. Yoh snatched up Harusame and charged at the Great Spirit but was deflected by a barrier. Nobody else could enter after a shaman was accepted.
Yoh continued slamming the barrier.
It didn't work, he can't break it, he never would be able to.
"Master Yoh, it's no use. Don't kill yourself because of him." Ryu said as he grabbed onto Yoh's arm. " It's not worth it!"
"Let me go! I have to help him!"
'It's too late, Yoh. The best we can do now is return and wait." Ren said.
"SHUT UP!"
thump…thump… Stop it! Are you trying to get yourself killed! YOH! He's not worth it!
Meanwhile, inside the Great Spirit, Hao was telling it about his wish.
What is your wish, future Shaman King?
My wish is….
All of them returned to the place where the submarine was. The others were already there waiting for them. Anna and Manta had followed them here, with help from the Egyptian from Hao's minions. The dead Patch Village priests, Faust, Marco and Luchist, have been revived, courtesy of a certain Buddhist team.
"Have we failed?" Silva asked. "The Great Spirit seemed to have accepted a shaman."
"We didn't fail." Horo Horo stated. After some persuasion by the others, bit by bit, what happened during the fight were told to the others.
Anna said nothing and went up to Yoh, who was silent.
Nobody saw Yoh so upset before, heck, they never saw him upset in the first place.
"You don't have to keep it all in, Yoh."
I'll pay for your coffee, since I'm your older brother… Next time, let's have a bath together… I think Hao just came here to save me… You're still too weak… You're not scared of me? … Of course not… For the first time, we're finally fighting together as brothers, remember this moment…
It's over, it's all over…too late, I failed…I failed Matamune
I failed Hao.
"I know."
Once everyone had reached the surface to the beach, they were greeted by the worried faces of Yoh's and Ren's family. They too, were told of what happened underwater. Mikihasa mourned over the deaths of the two children in his care.
Keiko looked at her only son, she wanted both of them to survive even though the elder one may be twisted in the mind. But this can never be true. She went up to Yoh.
"Yoh, I know it's painful. I'm your mother after all. As well as Hao's." she unexpectedly pulled him into a hug.
Yoh, suddenly overcome by emotion of the sudden affection, broke the dam. He started crying. For everyone who died during the shaman fight. For everyone Hao killed and most importantly, for Hao, the brother he couldn't save.
There are two ways to stop Hao, one it to destroy his soul completely…I don't like it, I'll take the other option.
Well, you could convince him to change his mindset about humans…
I'll do just that.
Maybe Yoh-sama is the only person that can save Hao-sama
I think you can succeed.
But I failed…It was a few days after that incident. The Patch Village were holding a closing ceremony of the Shaman Fight and honouring those that had died during the span of the Shaman Fight.
"We honour those that have fought bravely for their own dreams and purposes and we pray that they are able to join the Great Spirit and do not become earthbound spirits. Let's have a moment of silence for them."
Everyone bowed their heads in respect. Those with traditional clothes wore them, to mark the importance of the occasion.
After that, everyone started gathering in groups, to talk about the past, as well as to forgive.
"Luchist, I just thought of something. Why don't we restart the car company?" Marco asked.
"That's a great idea! What do we name it?"
"X – Laws. We can take care of Jeanne – sama as well, seeing that we done so for so long."
"Lyserg, do you want to join us? We can't have you living by yourself." Jeanne asked the dowser, knowing that he would want to."
"I'll be honoured to, Jeanne – sama."
"Call me Jeanne. We are about the same age after all."
"Thank you, Jeanne."
"Opacho wants to come too!"
"That's fine with me." Jeanne said, patting the little boy on the head.
"I wonder what Hao wished for though." Marco said.
"It doesn't matter. What matters is that everything is over and the humans are still alive." Jeanne replied.
"I don't really like you, but if you really want to help, call me young master from now on." Ren told the chinese shaman who was working under Hao.
"Thank you…Umm. Young master!"
"Hey! You guys are the Hanagumi, right?"
"Yeah." Kanna said.
"It's a bit sudden. But do you want to help in my resturant? We are short of people."
The Hanagumi looked shocked at the sudden offer, but accepted happily. They had no place to go after all.
"Yoh, where have you been?"
"I was busy, sorry Anna."
"There's no need to apologise, Yoh. I just wanted to know." She sighed in relief when she saw that Yoh was more cheerful.
Ryu was jumping up and down in elation. Anna had just asked him to be the chef for her inn.
"The helicopters would be coming soon to bring all of you to mainland Tokyo," the announcement said.
"So, Yoh. Are you going back to Funbari Inn, or do you want to stay with us in Izumo for a while. We had never eaten together as a family."
"Anna, what do you think? I want to go back to Izumo. How about you?"
"I'll go wherever you want to go," was Anna's short reply.
It was a few hours after everyone left the island. The island was cleaned up to the best of everyone's ability a few hours ago. The only thing that is left was the memorial tablet for the shamans who had passed away. Underneath all the neatly printed names was a messy craving, done by someone who was in a hurry.
It read, "To my beloved brother, Asakura Hao." Underneath the craving was a white flower, pure and innocent.
A person walked up to the tablet and a gloved hand picked up the flower. The glove had a star on it.
"Shall we go now, shaman king – sama?"
There was no verbal response, only a nod. The figure turned around and left the island.
What do you wish for, future shaman king?
What do I wish for?
You have a wound, are you alright?
It doesn't matter. My wish is…
For a world where no one is lonely.
Pika318: For non – manga readers, Matamune is Hao's first friend, Yoh's first friend, Hao's ONLY friend, the Asakura Pet cat as I like to call him.
Matamune was a stray cat that Hao found a thousand years ago, and because Hao left a large amount of Furykyo in Matamune, so even when Matamune died and became a spirit, he can still use oversoul. A shaman cat basically. Matamune left/moved on only when he sacrificed all his Furykyo to help Yoh save Anna.(Damn sad)
The person who told Yoh that he had two options is an ancestor of 500 years ago ie. The one who killed Hao with Matamune.
Most of the words mentioned in bold italics are said in the Manga. Makes you want to read it, no?