#fractured duality

Chibi Alt Jeanne, Alt Ren and Bason

(Post Ending - Shaman King “Fractured Duality”)

My entry to https://skpetals.carrd.co/ Festivals Event!

For more FD content, see the Master Post here. ✨

More info below the cut 👇

This fanfic test is canon in FD. Though the writing may vary when published.

Antagonist dynamic test.

Protagonist(s) motivation test.

Spoilers for FD Vol 3 Chapter 9 “The Emptiness Machine”

Characters: Hana, Manta, Alt Hao/Zeke, Yoh

Word count: 4000 words (2 scenes in 1)

Continued from here.

What happened next…? (Part Seven)

“Wow. You’ve really been through a lot, huh?”

“You don’t even know the half of it.”

The fair haired boy picked up a thin slate from the cobbled river’s edge and forcefully skipped it hard across the water. Before the stone had come to a halt the young teen had already skipped a second pebble along the water’s surface. His perfect precision and smooth aim was notable as the second stone followed the exact same path as the first, almost making it to the other side.

The short one perched on the large boulder beside him watched on at the impressive display. His large wide eyes seemed to perfectly reflect the sparkling river as the pseudo moonlight flooded the space surrounding the pair.

“It’s sorta becoming “normal” around here to meet people from other worlds but… I never thought I’d meet someone from, you know… the future”. softly chuckled Manta.

“Hah! I’m not from the “future”.” spat Asakura Hana. “I’m from the present. It’s all of you that are stuck in some weird time loop or something. This is Hell.”

Manta flinched slightly at the boy’s harsh words.

“Yeah… so you keep reminding me…” he muttered, sadly.

Hana sighed angrily. He picked up a handful of stones and threw them all aimlessly into the water with some force.

“If I ever see my stupid “God-uncle” again, I’m going to kick him even harder than I did last time.” angrily snapped the teen.

“Last time?” mumbled Manta.

“Well, I don’t meet the criteria for the “God” part - but perhaps I can assist with your violent impulses reserved for members of our complex cross-dimensional family.”

Hana did not bother to turn around to face their unwanted intruder. Manta, on the other hand, almost fell backwards from his elevated seat when the familiar voice behind him broke the night’s still atmosphere.

The boy let out a sarcastic laugh as he confidently turned to confront his uncle’s illusion and pulled a disgusted grimace.

“You? Don’t make me puke. You’re not my family. You’re not even real!” he snarled, angrily.

Asakura Hao observed the pair in front of him in silence for a moment. He then locked his deep dark eyes on the familiar face of his friend who was gazing desperately back at him.

“Good to see you Manta. I trust you are keeping well?” he politely greeted with a kind smile.

“H-Hao… I - I - I’m fine. But - but - are you alright?” stammered the small human in reply.

Hao’s eyes flickered slightly as an invisible wave of intense fear swirled in the air and crashed all around him. He paused for a moment, but then he smiled softly.

“No need to be afraid.” he began, reassuringly, “I am simply here to assist with a certain little… issue.”

There was a subtle notable change in the kind black eyes of the long-haired shaman as he fixated his intense glare on the putrid expression of the other. The creases in his face deepened as a scowl formed on his friendly features.

“Hey, I have an idea! Why don’t you go fuck yourself?” harshly remarked the sharped tongued shaman.

Momentarily taken aback, Hao paused once again. But after a moment - he let out an extended amused laugh at the teen’s humorous choice of words.

“How charming!” he mused happily with a closed eyed grin. “This is going to be fun!”

“Fun?” breathed Hana, blinking.

The fire shaman calmly approached the large rock to join his bewildered small friend. He was mindful to not sit uncomfortably on his new draped attire as he swished it out from under him as he happily perched himself beside Manta. Not wasting any time, he swiftly swung an outstretched arm out by his side - conjuring a strong wind that swooped Hana off his feet and threw him into the open clearing before them. The sudden unexpected force caused the boy to almost fall flat on his front as he tried to keep himself upright. Before Hana could react, he was alarmed to find himself surrounded by a wall of tall hot burning flames.

“What the - ?”

“Yoh hated this training exercise as a child. So there’s a good chance you will hate it too.” delightfully mused the copy of the Shaman King.

“What are you doing?!” angrily yelled the boy.

“Though we called it the “Fire Ring of Hell” because touching the flames would result in him spending another night in Hell. Motivating him to stay in the circle for as long as possible. However… since that technically never actually happened, I am not entirely sure what will occur if you get scorched in this realm, Hana. Best case scenario: you’ll just find yourself in another commune but - I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see and find out together!”

Finishing his explanation, Hao began to laugh happily.

“Uh…” mumbled Manta.

“Fuck this! I’m not playing your stupid game! Let me out - NOW!” loudly demanded the teen.

Hao sighed deeply with a soft smile, his eyes began to examine the scene in front of him, satisfied with his work.

“So, you’re an oni user thanks to my God self’s little gift, mm?” he gleefully continued.

“I said - LET ME OUT!!” screamed Hana.

“It’s nice to know I have something in common with my nephew.”

“I am not your nephew!”

“I also have my own demons lurking on the inside.” chuckled the one pulling all the strings.

“Yeah no shit!” came the disgruntled response.

“You should try getting along with them better. I can promise you the results are… very satisfying.” he continued with a devilish smirk.

“Arghhh!! Shut up you asshole! I don’t care!!”

Unmoved by his trainee’s reluctant attitude and angry words, Hao slowly brought his left arm out from beneath his poncho.

“Yoh’s longest endurance record was 8 hours.” firmly stated Hao. He candidly observed his oracle pager as he spoke.

“What?” breathed Hana, his eyes wide.

“Eventually he realised there was a method that could get this over with much faster.” he continued as he absentmindedly tapped the pager’s screen. A little beep sounded out from the small device as he did so.

“What are you…?”

“Let’s see if you can do better than your father.”

Asakura Hao waved his hand. A small gruesome shikigami emerged out of the ground within the circle and instantly leapt towards the startled shaman. Hana demonstrated his lightning fast ability to conjure his demonic blade from thin air and he vanquished it immediately.

“Wait - wait a sec - are you saying that because I’m already in Hell, touching the fire might actually… kill me? As in, for good?” babbled Hana, now shooting an alarmed stare at the inter-dimensional variant of his uncle sitting calmly on the other side of his fiery prison.

Hao let out another amused chortle in response.

“Who knows?! That’s the fun part!” he replied cheerfully.

“Uh… Hao?” muttered the worried human by his side. “Wouldn’t that… um, break the King’s deal?”

Hao smirked. He turned his head slightly towards his small friend. Manta gulped as an unfamiliar demonic glint appeared in Hao’s eye.

“The deal was I must train him. I don’t recall the King saying I cannot kill him.” he coldly replied.

Manta’s blood ran cold and his face turned a ghostly white as Hao began to let out an uncharacteristic twisted laugh at his own words. Without hesitation, Manta leapt to the ground and began to sprint towards the urban Patch buildings in the distance. Hao watched him go for a moment, but then he shrugged his shoulders - turning his attention back to scene he had created in front of him.

Asakura Hana continued his desperate pursuit to keep himself within his confinement as the monsters surrounding him relentlessly set upon him one by one. He didn’t spare a moment to observe the calm and amused expression of the one watching him.

Hao brought his hands to his face in an effort to make his voice carry louder to his trainee.

“You’re doing a great job Hana!” he delightfully called.

“Fuck you!”

“Just another 7 hours and 50 minutes to go and you can officially say you’re better than your father at something!” he joked with a grin.

“Stop talking about my Dad! That fake bastard is NOT MY FATHER!”

The pulsating anger surging from deep within him radiated to the end of his weapon as Hana skilfully swung his blade in quick succession, slaying several of the small beasts with ease.

“Impressive!” chimed Hao, “Channeling your anger like that boosts your strength, but unfortunately, the draw back is - ”

Hao cut off his words as his inter-dimensional nephew found himself flat on his back as one of his monsters successfully pinned him to floor. A flick of Hana’s hair found itself singed by the fire’s burning heat directly behind him. Hao flinched, pulling an exaggerated wince at the close call,

“ - you lose your focus.” he completed.

“Arghhhh!!!” screamed Hana as he leapt to his feet and furiously continued his aggressive onslaught against the demonic mob.

Hao watched on in silence for a few minutes, carefully observing the teen’s technique.

“I can feel your furyoku levels building Hana,” came his voiced instruction once more, “but you don’t actually need that much to fight these things. Don’t over do it. We don’t want you killing yourself by mistake again, do we?”

Surprised by his fake uncle’s familiarity of his personal circumstances, Hana momentarily looked towards his trainer,

“What?” he breathed with wide eyes.

His lapse of focus allowed one of the monsters to leap onto his back. He immediately spun himself around and impaled it within moments.

“Concentrate.” quipped his trainer.

“I AM FUCKING CONCENTRATING! I don’t want to DIE!”

Hao chuckled softly. He briefly looked down to his pager once more before elevating himself from his seat. He calmly approached his make-shift training ground and fixated his eyes on the events happening within.

“It’s interesting isn’t it?” he mused after a moment of contemplated thought, “When we consider how our birth given nature plays a role in our behaviour and natural instincts combined with the nurturing experience from our care givers.”

His words were returned by an agitated grunt from the one trapped within the flames.

“You may only be a single minded individual,” he continued, “but your core is shaped by two people in the same way all of us are.”

“What are you on about now?!” came the loud angered response of his reluctant listener,

“Your core nature is made up by your mother’s rage, which shines through in your aggressive fighting style.” went on Hao, he began to calmly walk around the ring, keeping his eyes on the one within it, “But somewhere under there is your father’s calm nature. Bringing those two qualities together would ensure you become the shaman you are meant to be.”

“I AM NOTHING LIKE MY FATHER! STOP - TALKING - ABOUT - MY DAD!!!!”

“Perhaps that’s something I cannot help you with.” chuckled the King’s identical counterpart. “I can fine tune your natural skills, boost your furyoku, shape, strengthen and mould your oversoul, teach you new techniques, unlock your inner potential - make you powerful enough to have a shot at surviving this fake tournament and the one occurring in the real world. I can only assume that is my forced responsibility in this very inconvenient shared task.”

“You know listening to your bullshit would be a lot easier if I wasn’t FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE!!”

“However… all this anger, this putrid hatred towards your father - knowing myself as well as I do - I imagine must be Yoh’s nurturing task to remedy.”

The fire shaman stopped walking and turned towards the centre of the circle, crossing his arms beneath his poncho as he did so,

“I don’t know about you - but I think it’s obvious who has gotten off with the easier role in this little arrangement!” he laughed, throwing his head back in a closed-eyed amused manner.

Hana swung his impressive blade in a crescent motion once more, killing each one of the monsters surrounding him instantly. He sighed loudly and angrily.

“You know what - fuck this! Fuck you! Fuck that demon inside you - and fuck that fake copy of my Dad! I’ll take my chances! FUCK ALL OF THIS!”

Asakura Hana dematerialised his oversoul and leapt towards the fire. He tightly closed his eyes and clenched his fists as he braced himself for the searing pain.

When nothing happened as he stood within the flickering flames, he hesitantly opened his eyes. He flinched a bit as he came face-to-face with a pair of all-black amused irises. He watched in a stunned silence as his odd trainer casually lifted his hand and spread his fingers within the flicks of the fire. Hao then swiftly took care of a shikigami leaping towards him with a simple flick of his fingers.

“What?” breathed Hana, stunned.

The shikigami horde disappeared.

“The fire… did… nothing?”

A delighted yet devilish knowing smile spread across the fire shaman’s face.

“You bastard - you tricked me! What - what was the point of all that?!” angrily babbled the teen.

Hao’s eyes then drifted back down to his blood red pager.

“14 minutes and 21 seconds. A lot faster than I expected. I’m impressed.”

Amazed by his fake uncle’s words of approval and genuine tone, Asakura Hana found himself lost for words. He watched in a stunned silence as his trainer tapped the screen of the small device to observe his trainee’s furyoku numbers.

“Good.” muttered Hao with nod of his head. Without looking back at the bewildered face of the oni-wielding shaman, he calmly began to walk away from him.

Keeping his eyes fixated on the back profile of his strange trainer, the young teen felt an unfamiliar sense of overpowering pride begin to spread within his chest. A cautious small smile appeared on his face.

“Same time and place tomorrow, Hana. Don’t make me come find you!” called the amused voice of Asakura Hao as he began to follow along the river’s edge and make his way towards the rural side of the Village.

At that moment, the silent air was disturbed by the arrival of yet another illusionary being. Asakura Yoh watched with wide eyes as the red burning flames surrounding Hana burnt out and faded away, giving him a clear view of his brother on the opposite side making his exit from the scene. His eyes momentarily scanned the boy up and down, before his frantic gaze fixated back on his twin casually walking away in the distance.

“Hao! Wait!” he called, desperately.

When his words fell on deaf ears, Yoh’s shoulders dropped. Unable to hide his disappointment, he slowly looked back towards the frozen profile of his inter-dimensional son.

“So… uh, the “Fire Ring of Hell”, huh?” muttered Yoh. “How long did you - ?“

“Shut up!” snapped the boy, hastily stomping away and making his way back towards the nearby Patch buildings.

Manta hurriedly appeared by Yoh’s side, gasping for breath.

“He - he - wasn’t really going to die if he - ?“

“Of course not.” interrupted Yoh, solemnly, “Hao never did anything to hurt me. He never would have allowed any harm come to Hana, either.”

A short silence grew between the two friends.

“Yoh… he’s… not the same person now. You can’t be sure about that.”

“You don’t know him like I do.” snapped back Yoh, “I know he’s still here, Manta.”

Manta sighed heavily, he recalled the earlier harrowing expression he saw on his good friend’s face.

“But…” hesitantly began the small human, “…Zeke…is here too, Yoh. You can’t just… ignore that.”

“You think I’m ignoring that?!” loudly cried Yoh, “It’s all I can think about!”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to - !” babbled his short best friend - though he cut off his words as he watched Yoh slump to the ground, defeated.

“I’m the one who should be sorry.” sadly muttered Yoh, bringing his knees up to rest against. “I’m the one who got us all into this mess in the first place. This is all my fault. I can’t believe I didn’t see it…” Yoh locked his eyes on his friend as he sat himself beside him, “He was possessed by a demon Manta! For days!” he stressed, screwing his eyes tightly closed, “I screwed up. I let him down. And now…” he trailed off, lowering his head, “I’m losing him all over again…”

Manta sighed sadly, he placed a reassuring hand on Yoh’s knee,

“Yoh…” he whispered, eyes glistening.

Another solemn silence grew.

“Anna and Tamao think this whole thing was a trap…” whispered Yoh, lifting his head slightly. His eyes showed an unfamiliar glint of anger and genuine pain. “Orchestrated by the Gods… to force me and Hao to train the King’s champion. All this time… I truly believed this world was a gift for me and my brother. I should have known it was too good to be true. I am so naïve…”

Manta thought about it for a moment before responding,

“If that means that you and Hao are the reason I have a life in this world, then… I just want you both to know how grateful I am.”

Surprised by his friend’s comforting declaration, Yoh sat up straight and met the genuine expression of the one sat beside him,

“What?” he breathed, astonished.

Manta smiled.

“The past few days travelling with you and meeting all of you guys has been the most incredible experience of my entire life.” he continued, “And… being here by your side feels right. From the bottom of my heart Yoh… Thank you.”

Yoh’s eyes glazed over in response. He paused for a moment as he absorbed Manta’s gentle words,

“Manta…” he choked out.

A determined expression appeared on the kind human’s face.

“Hao said this was my destiny. And I still believe him.” he declared, firmly, “I know things look bad right now, but at the very least… we are all here together. I know I’m not a shaman. But being your best friend means everything to me. I am here for you, Yoh. Every step of the way. Until the very end.”

A greatful smile appeared on the face of the samurai shaman. He immediately threw his arms around his friend, squeezing him tightly.

“Thank you Manta. You have no idea how much that means to me.”

The friends remained there in one another’s tight embrace for a little while,

“There’s got to be a way we can fix this.” sighed Manta as the friends let go of one another, “I mean… isn’t Zeke just another version of Hao? How bad can he be?”

Yoh froze for a moment. Then he sighed deeply.

“Manta...” he said, cautiously, “I hate to tell you this but… there’s an awful lot you don’t know about my brother.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve heard the stories about the King from the others. My brother was on a dark path like that once too. I was lucky. I had a chance to see a new path before it was too late. It was all thanks to Hao - the same one that you know in this world. He was the one who opened my eyes to the good that existed in my real brother.”

“Oh…” sadly muttered Manta.

Another foreboding silence grew as a flicker of hatred appeared in Yoh’s eye,

“Zeke is nothing like Hao.” he spat, coldly, “He’s a cancer. A virus. I am not so sure I…”

“It’s like you said.” interrupted Manta, his earlier determined tone unshaken, “Hao is still here. I believe you. I have faith we can figure this out, Yoh. We’ll do it together.”

Blinking at Manta’s choice of words, the unwavering confidence radiating from his friend began to take effect on him once more,

“What would I do without you?”

The best friend duo shared a short peaceful unspoken exchange. Then, Manta’s mind fell back on another urgent issue,

“Looks like Hao did a good job training Hana today but uh, I guess it doesn’t count unless you train him too, eh?” he said with a slight smile.

“Don’t remind me…” sadly replied Yoh, “If he won’t listen to me, we might not even get a chance to save Hao. Because we won’t even exist…”

“He seems like a good kid, you know.”

“Good kid?!” he loudly repeated, “In the last 24 hours, he broke into a Patch store, practically tried to kill me, and has told me to “fuck off” at least half a dozen times.”

Manta laughed.

“You might have met your match, then. And… it’s kinda funny, when you think about it.”

“Oh yeah. It’s hilarious.” Yoh replied, his tone laced with thick sarcasm, “Turns out the shaman I have to train hates my guts because to him I’m his good-for-nothing “dead beat” fake teenage father from an alternate universe. And if I fail it will literally be the end of our world as we know it. Yeah… very funny.”

There was a pause. But after a moment, the pair began to snicker a little bit.

“Okay. Maybe it is a little bit funny…” softly chucked Yoh.

Yoh quickly caught himself. He felt an acute twinge of guilt in his heart for laughing under his worrying circumstances.

Seeing the sudden change in Yoh’s expression, Manta sighed sadly once more,

“Hao wouldn’t want you to be sad, Yoh. It’s okay…”

Yoh let out a frustrated breath of air from his lungs as his frantic anxious thoughts immediately returned to his mind,

“I can’t stop thinking about how he went above and beyond to help me find all of you again. And now… he’s…”

“Yoh…”

“Fake memories or not,” he hastily went on, “I remember everything we did together growing up in our new life. He trained me to win the Shaman Fight. We were supposed to be a team in this. And now… we’re not even on the same side anymore. It’s breaking my heart…”

Mulling over Yoh’s worried words, a thought occurred to his human companion once again,

“If Hao was the one who trained you, then - surely that means he prepared you for anything.”

Astonished by his friend’s unmovable positive outlook, Yoh remained transfixed on Manta’s voice of reason, curious to hear more,

“What?”

“Well - think about it. The other guys… they all had to fight Hao in their world, right?”

Yoh laughed a bit,

“Technically… I fought him my old world too. Hah…”

“Well,” stated Manta, “Perhaps that’s the missing piece from this world, Yoh. It sounds to me like that this your destiny. And who better to prepare you for fighting Hao… than Hao?”

Yoh blinked.

“Huh. I never thought of it like that before…” muttered Yoh, looking away from Manta’s determined eyes for a moment as he spoke.

A toothy smile spread across the short human’s face.

“Hey - I’m your best friend for a reason!” he chuckled, happily.

Manta watched as a grin slowly appeared on Yoh’s lips. A new hopeful expression appeared on his face as he locked himself back on his best friend’s kind face,

“Manta. You’re right. You’re absolutely right! I can do this! I will bring him back to me again!” Yoh leapt to his feet. He looked towards the direction he last saw his twin. “He has always had faith in me. I just have to hold onto my faith in him, too!”

“That’s great Yoh!” cheerfully replied Manta as he too climbed to his feet. “But uh - we still have one teeny tiny problem…”

“What’s that?” blinked Yoh, looking back down at the shorter one stood beside him.

Manta raised an eyebrow in response.

🏳️‍🌈 @skpetals Pride Event 🏳️‍🌈

Alt Hao x Tamao x Zeke

“Real love is accepting someone for who they are, no matter what the circumstances may be.”

…..even if those circumstances are… your significant other is two variants of the same person in one being.

My bisexual polyamorous trio. They are my Pride and joy. As a bisexual person in a hetero marriage, it’s hard to see yourself represented in media. I feel as though I created them with my heart. They mean the world to me. See additional note here.

Watch video on TikTok here.✨ (Tumblr video player kept messing up the audio for some reason so had to hyperlink instead)

My contribution to the Asakura Twins birthday celebrations. This is also my entry to the @skpetals Birthday Brothers Balloons event.

It's been amazing to see so many creators come out and show their love for my favourite fictional twins!!

I had planned to get back to the FD comic and complete part two this week. Unfortunately, real life had other ideas, so baking cupcakes with my husband and my children for each one of my TWELVE twin variant fictional children and filming a silly TikTok was all I could manage. 🥺

May 12th proves itself once again to be one of my favourite days of the year. I am guaranteed to smile more today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FD HAO, FD YOH, CANON HAO, CANON YOH, THE KING, GOD YOH, ALT HAO, ALT YOH, ZEKE, 2001 YOH, ALT HAO/ZEKE AND "NEW" HAO!!!!

I love each and every one of you 🥹🥹🥹

I’ve had a few new followers recently!! Hi👋 Thank you so much! It’s amazing to see the flame for the fandom has still not been extinguished on Tumblr! 🔥

I’ve been busy recently participating in @skpetals’s steady stream of sk-related events and having a great time! 🌸 To join in and be part of a bubbling and alive Shaman King community, check out their Carrd:

🌸🌸🌸🌸SKPetals.Carrd.co 🌸🌸🌸🌸

I have been trying hard to get back to FD. Like last year, my goal is to update my comic for the twins birthday. I’ll be doubling up this year and aiming to post part two for the Petals Birthday Brothers Balloons event (See Below)

For all the latest FD content see the Master post here✨

Hi! This is my first fanart posted here and I'm pretty nervous, but ever since I read @hao-and-yoh's fic I couldn't get this scene out of my head. @hao-and-yoh - I hope you like it :3

“You’re real to me.”

Alt Hao/Zeke Content✨

Enter “Alt” Universe here.

Read “Fractured Duality” here.

Read “Making Your Heart Stop” Mini Ep here.

Read “From The Inside” Mini Ep here.

Read “What Happens Next…?” Post Series End here.

Read @ivycorp’s amazing NSFW Alt Hao/Zeke fic here.

Read @ivycorp’s OTHER incredible NSFW Alt Hao/Zeke fic here.

See @rynidraws NSFW Alt HaoxZeke piece here.

Read/See Alt Hao’s Character Profile here.

Read/See Zeke’s Character Profile here.

See Post Ending Profiles Alt Hao&Zeke (skcollab) here.

Watch Zeke’s Antagonist AMV here.

See “The Demon and the Illusion” full art piece here.

See NSFW “The Demon and the Illusion” on DA here.

See NSFW “Galaxy Pin Up” full art piece on DA here.

Read “Our Own World” NSFW Mini Ep here.

Read Part One of “An Ideal World” NSFW fic here.

Listen to “The Demon and The Illusion” audiobook here