Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King. Yeah…
Notes: I'm not too sure about the whole 'furyoku' thing, so correct me if I'm using the wrong term please… Thanks. Also, I apologize in advance for this story's crappiness, but I like it. I guess that's all that matters right? Oh and there's some Haost if you squint… like a lot. XD
START!!1:D
Hao sat, reading the same pages over and over, mulling every word, every part, every necessary step. Every little detail was committed to memory. It seemed logical enough, it could be done… Especially in this day and age, when it seemed anything was possible. Hao put down his book, even though he was only halfway through it. He had suddenly gotten an idea. Time to pay a visit to his little brother's place then…
Hao opened the basement door roughly, storming down the stairs, but he gradually slowed his pace and took notice of his surroundings. It was as if he had walked into a whole new house. Contrary to the rest of the building, the basement was dark and dreary, and he could smell a sharp chemical tang. Most unpleasant, really, but for some reason or another, he found he liked it. While his brother had cheerily assured him that the doctor was down here, the sheer emptiness of the place made him feel as if Yoh had lied. But wait, on the farthest wall… Yes, the doctor was indeed in. Faust was bent and muttering over his work, seemingly oblivious to his presence.
"What do you want Hao? It's not often you come all the way here…"
Well, scratch the oblivious part.
"I need you to do something for me…"
Faust still didn't face him, turned to his work which he was now methodically putting away.
"Oh?"
It appeared that Faust wasn't going to agree to anything until he knew what it was. He smirked. Faust was smarter than most of the people he had met over the years… Truly a rare thing, cool intellect… But he digressed. If he paused for too long, he would seem weak. And for some reason, he would hate that. Especially in front of Faust…
"Make me invisible."
There. A blunt statement.
Faust made no movement.
"It can be done, and with the technological advances we've had since then…"
Any other person would have stared at him like a lunatic. 'Invisible? A thing of fiction.' But Faust thought differently. Good for him. After all, no one else would be able to do this, and he didn't want to have to kill the doctor, did he? But Faust continued speaking. To himself or not, Hao couldn't tell.
"It can be done without technology… Furyoku… Yes, that's it! I'll just… inject… then… Yes…" Hao could only catch fragments of Faust's mutterings. But it sounded simple, even more so than was described in the book. Now all he needed was an answer…
"Will you do it?"
"Why?" Faust didn't turn around.
Hao frowned. No one talked to him like that! As he was about to say so, he was cut off by Faust.
"Not 'why should I' but 'why should you'?"
"I suppose I could tell you…" Hao drawled, crossing his arms to show nonchalance, didn't want Faust thinking he was special, now did he? "Well here's the facts. I want to be invisible, be able to wreak mayhem, kill my enemies more creatively… Steal anything… Then go back to being me. The end."
"Ah… And you think there won't be consequences for this? You think you will just go back to your 'normal life'?" Faust laughed and said no more.
But he turned around with a quick and violent jerk.
"I'll do it." Faust's eyes gleamed with something that Hao didn't like. It was the sort of look Hao imagined he himself wore every so often. How different it felt to have it directed at him!
"What did you mean 'consequences'?"
Faust just smiled a smile that stopped before his eyes, which were filled with a hint of some morbid fascination. The same was reflected in Hao's eyes, and he could practically feel it. He hated feeling uncomfortable, but that's all that had happened since he came down here! Faust held his hand out and beckoned Hao closer.
"Shall we?"
Though it was the last thing he wanted to do at the time, Hao felt himself walk forward. And so the process began.
The next evening, after Faust had made all the tests and observations he needed to, Hao returned. He threw the door open as usual, expecting Faust to be turned away from him again, but he was surprised to see he wasn't. Faust was standing there, a syringe in each hand. The hanging light bulb above him was swaying a little from the door slam, so it gave him a rather deranged look.
"Well, it's finished, now all I need to do is give you these…"
Hao stared at him warily.
"What's in them?"
Faust grinned creepily, heightening his derangement factor a few notches.
"This one," He held up his right hand, which held a vial of a greenish glowing liquid. "Is a bit of Furyoku-infused morphine. For the pain, and for the cellular changes that need to be done." He held up the left hand vial. It was filled with a clear liquid that like a black hole, seemed to give way to nothingness. "This, Hao, is the solution that will make you invisible."
"Wonderful, Faust… I shall have to find some way to repay you for this. You didn't keep me waiting… Like a certain few disappointments did…" Hao's tone suddenly went harsh. "That is, if this goes well."
Faust looked unconcerned.
"It will." He stated, with an air of finality. "Now just sit here and let me do this." Faust gestured toward a wooden chair that rather looked like a stripped down electric one. Complete with odd burn marks and bloodstains… But Hao took only a passing glance at this, too impatient and anxious to care about much else but yelling at Faust to hurry up. Faust held the morphine filled syringe up to the light, getting rid of the air with an oddly eager look to his face. Then, with surprisingly little ceremony, he stuck the needle in Hao's arm.
Hao didn't flinch at the initial pain, but he did when he felt the feeling started to leave his body. He felt a bit sick and dizzy, but the feeling passed just as quickly as the pain did. It felt slightly…good…in an odd way. Faust stared at Hao for a second, before rummaging through his pockets for a much larger needle. Hao's eye's widened almost imperceptibly.
"What's that for?"
Faust turned to look at him slowly.
"Me." He then practically stabbed himself in the arm, the needle going in almost too far. Faust paid no notice and emptied the syringe's entire contents into his bloodstream with a relieved sigh.
"Is that even safe?" Hao asked incredulously.
Faust gave no answer, but proceeded to ready the second of Hao's syringes.
"Don't worry about this Hao. I made sure that the dose would be perfect. You'll have twenty-four hours before this wears off."
Hao glared at him.
"I thought you said-"
Faust cut him off stiffly.
"I never said anything. You said you wanted to be invisible, then be able to go back to being you. Would you rather this be permanent?" Faust glared down at him. "Besides, I made more, it's not like this is a one time thing… And you can go for increasingly longer time periods if you want."
Hao relaxed.
"Fine. But just do it already."
He probably shouldn't have rushed the doctor while he was still annoyed with him, Hao noted, as the second needle was callously stuck into his arm. He had the feeling that if he hadn't been given a painkiller beforehand, even he would have cried out in pain. He glared at Faust in aggravation. But he said nothing, did nothing more. After all, this wasn't the time, and he could always get him back later.
Faust peered at him, expression blank, careful to keep any signs of his 'patient's' condition a secret. An admirable thing to do, but not to him. He didn't need anything to be sugar-coated, to keep him in the dark like this. Hao would have spoken his mind had Faust's eyes not flickered down to his hand, that unnerving glitter present again. Hao followed his gaze to his hand, absently noting a dull burning sensation, not unlike stepping into hot water creeping across it. The sensation gradually spread upwards along him arm, up to his shoulder and into his neck. He could feel his face, his eyes burning like the rest of him. Faust checked a watch he had in his pocket and wrote something down. But what he wrote, Hao could only guess.
Then Hao noticed something. In the same speed and direction the burning feeling had traveled, he noticed that he was slowly fading, finally becoming invisible. He raised his hands to his face, turning it and marveling in the way he could see through himself. Yes, yes! He had set out to achieve something, only just last night, and already it was realized! He smirked slightly. He bet that his brother didn't know what he had, what power he had, right in the palm of his hand! And for some reason that made him angry. Yoh didn't deserve this. Perhaps he could convince the doctor to join his cause. He was going to be the victor anyway, so why not enjoy the benefits now? And, in the off chance he couldn't convince Faust, he would just take him by force. Yes, that would do nicely… Maybe he'd do this the hard way on purpose, throw some amusement of his own into the equation. And so he sat there, fading away gradually, laughing at his newfound plan.
He only barley registered the doctor's voice, telling him something that was likely important. It seemed he was warning him of things that could make him visible, like rain, dirt on his feet, and other random things. Though it seemed that although his blood wasn't invisible, it would change as soon as it gained contact with air. That was a decided improvement on the book, for it was the exact opposite within it. These points covered, Hao was about to tune Faust out again, when he handed Hao something unable to be seen, yet had a solid weight to it.
"What's this?" He asked, attempting to pick it up and investigate, but finding it was harder than it seemed, when he couldn't see the object in question or his hands.
"It is something that will help you while you are out. It is merely a spare bag I had, treated much the same way you were. Anything put inside will not be seen either. After all, a floating object running around town would attract unwanted attention, nein?" Obviously Faust had made assumptions, and even if they were correct, that still irritated him.
"Thanks," he growled out, "but next time you make such…conclusions, you will be punished severely."
"Oh? And what 'conclusions' do you think I've made? Unless of course, you're… admitting something?"
Faust's turning his question around at him only succeeded in enraging Hao further, but he had to admit, the doctor was a rather good opponent.
"Ah, touché."
Faust merely turned and walked away, pausing in the doorway.
"I'll see you in twenty-four hours then?"
'That's right, I'm still his little 'experiment'…'
"Yes, fine, it's not like I'll have anything better to do…" And hearing that, Faust nodded his assent and left Hao to the night and sweet, sweet freedom.
Hao followed Faust's lead up the steps, taking them two at a time as he grinned, already formulating a plot to terrorize the entire area. His first step into the light caused him to squint, but he gradually regained his vision, not being able to close his eyes was another thing to add to the list of drawbacks… Ah. But there was his brother, sitting before a bowl of oranges. Hmm…
One minute, Yoh was sitting there enjoying an orange, the next he was staring at something he could hardly believe. An orange had risen from its bowl, stopping to hover a few feet off the table. Yoh blinked. Then he blinked again.
"It's… a floating… orange."
Suddenly, and without warning two other oranges leapt from their respective places and did an odd little circular dance through the air, as if they were being juggled. But if it were a ghost, wouldn't he be able to see them? How odd… Yoh, still unnerved, nonetheless reached out for one. All of a sudden they both vanished, one after the other, into a point of nothingness. Yoh blinked. O…kay…
"Hey, where did my oranges go?" Yoh pouted, staring at the remaining two sullenly, as if they could pity him.
Hao laughed silently as his eyes closed in mirth, noticing offhand that he could still see. He wandered through the halls, looking for his next victim. And what luck! There he was! His brothers own miniature follower to his own Opacho. He still was clueless about Opacho's gender… But he digressed. He stalked up to the unsuspecting Manta and grabbed him, lifting him bodily into the air, despite his futile struggles. But all too soon he remembered that Faust, of all people, just absolutely adored Manta, so it would be in his best interest to let him alone. Frowning, he dropped Manta none too gently onto the floor and glided away.
To the kitchen then! He heard someone bustling around in there. Ah! Tamao! He grinned evilly.
Tamao was doing the dishes with a content little smile on her face. Doing things like this helped clear her mind. But what was that? The cabinet door opposite her had opened spontaneously. She hastened over to close it, but it closed itself before she could reach it. She stared at it quizzically for a few seconds, before shrugging it off as a fallen dish pushing it open and the open window's draft pushing it closed. As improbable as it sounded, she was happy to let it at that. She shuddered to think about other, unpleasant explanations. But there! Again it opened! This time, she merely stared at it, her mind uncomprehending. Then it slammed shut again, causing her to jump. The cabinets in front of her now began slamming open and shut in earnest, making her flinch again, dropping the plate she was holding to the floor with a shattering crash. She covered her ears and hoped it would go away, but it showed no signs of stopping. That is, until Ryu decided to make an appearance to discover what all the fuss was about. Then all the furious cabinet motion ceased abruptly.
Hao glared at Ryu, knowing that Faust had a soft spot for him as well. For some reason that made him angry. Actually, it made him angry for reasons he didn't want to acknowledge, let alone accept. So he ran from the room as quietly as he could, violently reaching out and pushing Ryu over. Only too late did he realize it would give him an excuse to see the doctor, should he be injured. He slapped his forehead in annoyance at himself, startling Manta again with the sound.
He cursed silently as he ran from the house, as assuredly now they would begin searching for their assailant. He was actually running away! From his brother's home, of all places. But there was nothing for it. It was either leave, or suffer the defeat of being found. After all, the world was at his disposal! Nothing could stop him now! With a renewed spring in his step, he gladly rushed out into the surrounding area, to better terrorize its inhabitants.
A little less than twenty-four hours later, Hao appeared, or rather, not appeared at Faust's door. He opened it with a little trepidation, for who knows what tests Faust might put him through. He was still mostly invisible, so he thought he might be able to sneak up on Faust. But alas, such was not to be.
"Have a nice time?"
"Oh, very." He responded truthfully, surprising himself.
Faust gave a pleased little hum that actually managed to sound slightly condescending, as if he meant: 'I knew you would.' Hao was slightly miffed, but calmed down as he realized that it was just the way Faust was. He was learning, albeit slowly.
"You may stay here for the night, while your invisibility wears off. It wouldn't do for anyone to see you like this, now would it?" He laughed, but it echoed cold and dead in the room. "You can take my bed if you like, it's not as if I ever use it…" Hao was tempted to ask if that meant he never slept, but didn't want to sound stupid in front of him. He probably slept on the floor or a couch anyway. Heh. Or maybe he slept hanging from the ceiling like a bat. It would hardly surprise him. So he just shrugged and made his way over to the tiny little bed in the corner. No wonder Faust never slept on it, it was hardly big enough for him!
"Yes, it is a tad small isn't it…" Faust commented, on seeing Hao's expression.
"How do you keep doing that?" Hao asked, angrily.
"Doing what?" Faust asked with an innocent smile.
"Never mind…" It would take more than he had in him to admit the doctor creeped him out. But there was something else too… And he decided to sleep on it, and think about it in the morning.
The next morning he demanded to be made invisible again. No, he never just asked politely. It gave him a better feeling of hegemony to demand things from people. And so he did. But all Faust did was roll his eyes and shuffle to comply. This time the process went faster, and Faust merely commented:
"Another twenty-four hours this time…"
But that was fine for Hao, he wouldn't waste any time staying on Funbari Hill again. But as soon as the process was through, he got down from the chair as quietly as possible and crept towards the unsuspecting doctor's back. Faust could feel his warm breath on his neck, could feel his hands along his throat, squeezing lightly at first, then increasingly harder. Faust's only reaction was to put down his work and stand, his hands on his desk, as if it didn't matter.
This only enraged Hao further, and he viciously flung the doctor to the floor, not caring if he did permanent damage. After all, Faust had some more of the chemicals mixed up already, right? He wasn't needed anymore. But then again, he couldn't very well join his cause if he were dead or maimed could he? He turned to look at Faust, a little shocked to see that he was just lying there, unmoving, eyes staring glassily unblinking at the ceiling. Shit! What if he were dead? But no. He sat up, putting a hand to his head.
"That was quite uncalled for, Hao." He glared directly into Hao's eyes, quite unnerving him, as he was still invisible, or so he hoped… A quick glance into the mirror confirmed that yes, he was still unable to be seen. Then how…? But he'd rather not know, all things considered.
"You are one sick guy Faust." And with that he turned to leave.
The weeks ran by, with Hao periodically visiting Faust for a reapplication of that miraculous substance that rendered him invisible. But this time… This time was different. Whereas before Hao had been calm and rational about it, this time he was practically crazed with the need for his wonder drug. He rifled through Faust's cabinet, eventually finding that which he sought. Unfortunately however, in his haste to get the needle once more in his vein, he was unable to steady his hand enough to administer the correct dose.
All at once though, a gloved had shot out of the darkness and grabbed his wrist, fairly crushing it in its anger.
"You would do well to drop that, Hao. Was what I gave you not enough?"
You have no idea… Hao thought to himself, wishing he could speak his mind.
"I told you there would be consequences…did I not? You should have turned back then!" Faust's grip on his wrist grew more painful, and with a twisting motion, he forced Hao to drop the syringe he was holding, to have it shatter upon hitting the floor. "Now look what you did. Ruined a perfectly good dose of my perfect creation. Tsk." He shook his head, his terrible grip never faltering, as he dragged the stumbling boy towards the wooden chair that he had used before. Only this time he made use of the arm and leg restraints that were present.
As much as Hao struggled and writhed, he could not free himself. Faust laughed darkly and walked back up the stairs, leaving Hao in pitch black.
"Are you just going to leave me here?" He shouted frantically, but to mo answer, Faust had really left. He waited. And waited.
After what seemed like hours, Hao opened his eyes as he heard a footstep on the stair, despite how light it was.
"Faust? Is that you?"
No answer.
But then:
"And now you'll get yours, Hao!"
The lights flickered on, and Hao had a sickening realization that the tables had turned far past what he'd ever thought they could. Faust was standing before him… Or so he thought. But there was nothing there.
In an instant, several bloody lines appeared on his skin, crisscrossing in a pattern he would have called elegant had they been on anyone else. He stared at them in shock, wondering at the slight pain they caused. Then numerous more cuts appeared and he began to panic as they traced their way up to his neck.
"Hey, Faust, no hard feelings right? No need to kill me…"
Faust chuckled, and it was the most evil sign of mirth Hao had ever heard.
"Ah, but I want you to suffer much more than that… Death is such a sweet release, and besides, you could always come back…" Hao felt soft fingers trailing their way along his skin, followed closely by a line of red.
Hao hated begging, but that invisible blade was drawing ever closer to his throat, and the lifeblood that pulsed there.
"Please, stop it!"
Faust gave another little giggle in delight.
"What's this? The 'almighty' Hao, reduced to a sniveling little boy, pleading for his life? I already told you I wasn't going to kill you. What's a little pain?"
"Obviously, too much. Now let me go, this isn't funny." Hao said, hardened a little by Faust's words.
"Think it's 'funny' do you?" Faust growled. "Well, let's see how funny you find this!"
And with that little warning he pressed a scalpel (or so Hao thought) to his neck, gradually increasing the pressure until the blood began to flow steadily and Hao had a hard time breathing, let alone trying to shout in pain.
He saw blackness and stars flash before his eyes before the pressure finally abated, leaving him breathless and dazed. And then, more, deeper, cuts decided to make an appearance along all of his limbs almost simultaneously, and he finally cried out in pain. And then, then, at the crescendo of all of this, a searing pain in his chest, just missing his heart by less than an inch was the final straw, more than he could take.
"Fuck! What'd you do? Ram the whole thing into me or something?"
"Why yes, that's exactly what I did." Faust's honey-sweet tone just added insult to the injury. "How'd you guess?" He added, twisting the blade so as to cause the most excruciating pain possible. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must be off!" And with that Faust left Hao to bleed.
As soon as he heard the door close at the top of the stairs, Hao let out a sigh of relief he hadn't realized he was holding. He wished desperately to pull out the scalpel currently residing in his chest, but was fearful it would damage his heart- not that he could get free anyway…
Hao was left to think on things, endlessly, until someone would come and rescue him. Absently, he wondered what Faust would do about the bloodstains. Although he had been careful not to get any on himself, for that would surely make him at least somewhat visible, there was still quite a lot of blood on this chair now. And likely a pool of blood on the floor as well.
He pondered on how many others had sat in this chair, to be tortured and debased in such an awful manner. And how many more had died in this chair before Faust acquired it? He, the great Hao, shuddered to think. It wasn't quite as easy to detach yourself from something when it was happening to you…
How many had Faust killed? More than him, surely. And for different reasons, of course. At least he didn't love torturing his victims. Their deaths were quick, although not painless. Heh. What did he care anyway. Now he had no desire for this…this downright insane man to join his cause. Though that would be interesting, having someone following him that had the power…no, the gall to stand up to him. Unlike those spineless beings he called minions. Hmph. Whatever, he'd rather have them than Faust. But that's not true… his subconscious let him know. He viciously quelled the thought before it led to things he'd rather not think about.
He had been sitting there placidly for well over an hour he surmised, before he finally decided to renew his struggles, extremely surprised to find himself no longer restrained. Well that just sucked. Had he sat there the whole time able to escape? And if not, how was he released now? But what did it matter. He was free. And frankly, he couldn't stand being invisible ever again.
END