Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Twilight Sky ❯ Hearing Voices ( Chapter 5 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Twilight Sky
Chapter 5



Ryo-




Ryo slowly came back to himself and feeling terribly cold and knowing that he was being held in strong arms; holding him as securely as a mother held her infant. Well...at least that was what Ryo thought it would feel like. He hadn't been held by his mother in so long...

There was a steady, gentle rocking that let Ryo know he was being carried and then a voice spoke, "Is he going to be all right?" The voice wasn't Anubis', as Ryo had thought, and it seemed to rough; grating on his ears painfully. It was familiar, but until Ryo managed to open his eyes, he didn't know that it was Xiu's voice. His vision was blurry, but Xiu's slightly curly hair and broad face were distinctive enough to let Ryo match the voice with its owner.

"I'm not sure." Seiji replied in his softer, gentler voice. Ryo let his eyes roll towards Seiji's voice and he could make out Seiji's bright hair.

Ryo thought, at the back of his throbbing mind, how nice it was that Seiji and Xiu seemed to have patched up whatever had happened between them. 'They don't think I can hear them.' Ryo noticed. 'Vampire.' Ryo's thoughts changed directions remarkably quickly, running away from Seiji and Xiu's conversation to the dark eyed man who had bit him. 'He's a real vampire. My mind wasn't playing tricks on me. He actually drank my blood.'

"He's had a terrible trauma...well...not trauma exactly." Seiji said, keeping his voice as low as possible.

Ryo relaxed into Xiu's arms and let his eyes close again when he felt Seiji touched his forehead with his hard, callused fingers.

"It's more like just trauma. You'd think he'd have been terrified, but I don't think so. It was more like..."

"Surprise?" Xiu suggested. "I'm probably wrong and all, but I don't think Ryo was fighting that weird guy. I hate to admit this, 'cause it sounds kind of weird since Ryo...you know...all that stuff that happened to him, but I think Ryo was kinda getting into it with that guy."

'Is he right?' Ryo wondered, trying to keep up with their conversation, but having a hard time because of the splitting headache that was pounding on the inside of his head. 'I wasn't fighting and Anubis said he'd stop if I told him to. I didn't say anything.' Ryo shied away from that thought. 'It did feel kind of good. Not the touching, really, but something about Anubis just felt right. He felt safe.'

Seiji didn't sound happy with Xiu's reasoning. "Don't be absurd!" Seiji said, probably more harshly than he had meant to. "Ryo's confused and hurt, he probably doesn't know what he wants right now. He's lost the last of his family, been raped, and now has to put up with some stalker or whatever that pervert was following him around. That rotting fuck was obviously taking advantage of Ryo. I want to talk to Ryo about what was going on, but just look at his throat..."

Ryo felt Xiu stop walking and then felt Seiji's hard fingers pulling down the collar of his shirt enough to look at his throat. The cool air on the wound made Ryo involuntarily flinch, but Xiu just held him a little tighter and muttered something that was meant to be comforting, but Ryo couldn't quite hear it, he was to busy trying to ignore the pain in his head and now in his throat.

Seiji chuckled. "He isn't one of your little sisters, Xiu. You don't have to cuddle him."

"I can't help it." Xiu's chest, against Ryo's head, rumbled with his laugher. "Ryo's almost as cuddly as you are. He's little and cute as a button, if I didn't have you, I might go for him."

Ryo definitely heard that!

"You say that like you think I'd let you live after abandoning me. Anyway, about his throat. This isn't just any old hickey."

"Damn, looks like that guy was trying to eat him, literally. I guess you're right; that's no love bite."

Ryo felt a flash of pain and groaned.

"Stop poking him, cut it out, Sei-chan!" Xiu said sharply. "You're hurting him!"

Seiji was quiet for what seemed like a long time. "Let's get him home."

"Mine house is closer than yours." Xiu volunteered.

"I don't think that would be a good idea, Xiu. You're papa isn't likely to have changed his opinion of me in the past few days, now is he?"

"No, probably not."

Ryo couldn't keep himself awake anymore. It felt like he was drifting into a hole inside himself, but there were other voices there. Xiu and Seiji's voices followed him down, though he couldn't make out what they were saying anymore. There was also a voice that was getting stronger. The deep, strong voice Ryo knew he'd never be able to forget.

"It's my business!" Anubis snarled. "You have no right..."

"I have every right!" A stranger's voice thundered angrily. "Do you forget where you came from!? Who brought you here and raised you up beyond the animal that you were?!"

"I am NOT an animal!"

-Smack!- Ryo could almost feel the pain when the stranger hit Anubis. "And remember WHY you are no longer an animal, hiding in the dark forests from your father's people who would carve your heart out and then suffering the masses of humanity in the cities out of fear of your mother's people who would visit an equally lethal fate upon you. WE are your family, Anubis. WE love you, WE protect you, and WE are the only ones you can count on! Do not ever dare to put us in danger again. Do you understand?" This last was asked with softly spoken fury.

After a long, tense moment, Anubis replied, with equal fury, "Yes, Rajura. I understand."

At this point, even these voices faded and Ryo sunk deep into the pit within himself. He went, for the first time in his life, passed the fire that lived inside him, and it let him drift passed without trying to stop him. When he stopped, Ryo found himself in a place of comfort and warmth and, not very surprisingly, Ryo found a large white tiger waiting for him with nothing but love in its large eyes. Ryo hurried to the tiger and hugged it tightly.

"I'm so tired, Yaku-chan. Everything's happening to fast. I just want to rest for a while and think for a bit. Just a little while. Then I'll go back and I'll be all right."




The next morning-
Xiu-




Seiji complained to Xiu on the phone the next morning, "I have to admit it bothers me, just a little, that that guy and his friend vanished into thin air. It's just not possible, but we both saw it happen."

"Yeah." Xiu said, keeping his eyes on the stairway, just in case his papa decided to come up from the restaurant early. "I suppose all that pink armor and the fact that Mr. One-Eye seemed real pissed off didn't help much, huh? You think he's going to come after Ryo?"

"I know he will. I did something I shouldn't have, Xiu." Seiji sounded guilty and Xiu could practically see him grimace.

"You?" Xiu made his voice sound teasing, though he knew Seiji was serious from his tone. Seiji usually needed a bit of teasing so he wouldn't take himself so seriously and Xiu was very good at that. "Don't tell me YOU make a mistake. Oh, the horror!"

"Xiu," Seiji said sternly. "This is serious. I...I sort of ripped Ryo's mind a little."

Xiu had no idea what to say.

"Are you listening?" Seiji asked, sounding nervous after Xiu's long silence.

"You...you ripped his mind? What do you mean you ripped his mind a little?! What did you do, Sei-chan?" Xiu couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew that Seiji believed in all that Wicca stuff and that he took it very seriously. He knew Seiji thought he could enter other people's minds and other weird stuff, but Seiji had always told him that he'd never hurt anyone. It was strictly against Seiji's faith to hurt another living creature. Ripping another person's mind sounded very bad.

"I knew Ryo was in trouble, so I went into his mind. I didn't really mean to, but I knew someone else was all ready in there..."

"Wait a minute!" Xiu put a hand to his temple and started to rub it to stave off the threatening headache. "Someone was all ready in Ryo's head? Are you sure about this?"

Seiji was quiet for a while, like he was thinking about what he should say. "I need to see you, Xiu. Can you come over?"

"What, right now?" Xiu knew he was expected downstairs soon. Papa had to go to the bank and run some errands so Xiu was the server. He couldn't leave without a damned good reason.

"It's important."

'Papa's gonna pitch a fit.' But he said, "I'll be there in about twenty minutes."

"Thanks."



Xiu snuck out, not for the first time in his life, when his papa was looking the other way. It wasn't to hard in the busy restaurant, when his papa was carrying large platters of food from the kitchen to one of the many tables. Xiu's mama was, as usual, working her self to exhaustion in the kitchen, so she'd never noticed he'd even left the house until his papa went looking for him and then started yelling for him.

'I'm going to hate myself in the morning.' Xiu knew, thinking about the worry he was going to cause everyone by just vanishing.

Just when Xiu made it out of the front door, he found himself face to face with his young sister, Lai. Lai was the baby of the family and she was Xiu's little darling. He doted on her and, even he had to admit, spoiled her terribly whenever he got the chance.

"Where you going?" Lai asked, looking up at him with her rag doll in one hand. "Don't you work today?" Lai was only five, but she was very smart.

"Ummm...I have to go visit someone." Xiu said, bending down so he could look in her eyes. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Who?"

Xiu groaned inwardly. "Look, what are you doing out here alone, anyway? You know mama doesn't like you wandering the streets."

"But, da ge (big brother), I'm not alone. I've got my Shiro." She proudly held up her doll as evidence and Xiu tried not to smile. "Besides, I'm a big girl and I can take care of myself."

"Sure you can." Xiu pulled his tiny sister into a hug. He was always amazed at how tiny she was. Xiu was like the rest of his family, big and robust. Even his other little brothers and sisters were big, not fat, but solid like their mama and papa. Lai was so small. She'd been born premature and had had never seemed to loose her under-grown looks. "But you go out back to play in the garden, sweetie. The day's wearing on and you know when the traffic gets going, it's going to make your asthma worse."

Lai nodded. "I will, da ge. But who are you going to visit? Are you going to see Seiji?" Lai grinned at Xiu and he just had to look away from the starry look in her eyes. Lai had a terrible crush on Seiji even since he'd given her a jade colored bracelet for her birthday. "Can I come?"

"Sorry, but I'm not going to see Seiji." Xiu smiled, though he cringed from telling a lie on the inside. It just felt awful lying to sweet little Lai. "Ryo got hurt yesterday and I want to go see if he's feeling better."

"Ryo?" Lai frowned as she thought, a strangely serious expression on such a little girl, then she brightened. "Your friend from dinner the other day? His granma died?"

"Yeah, that's Ryo." Lai didn't know that Ryo lived with Seiji now and she would be sure to tell their mama and papa exactly what he told her. That way, she wouldn't be lying, Xiu's mama and papa wouldn't worry about where he was, and Xiu wasn't exactly lying. Sure, his papa would be angry when Xiu got home, but that would be after the fact and Xiu would be sure to apologize. He just had to get away from the restaurant before his papa could catch him. "Will you do me a favor? I need you to tell mama that I went to see Ryo. I'll explain when I get home, all right?"

Lai nodded and gave Xiu another hug. "Tell Ryo I hope he feels better. Come home before night time, Xiu. I want you to read me a bedtime story. 'K?"

"Okay."

With that, Lai went inside and Xiu took off running as fast as he could.





Ryo looked better than he had a few days ago, Xiu had to admit. Looking down at Ryo's still sleeping form on the bed, Xiu didn't like the way Ryo looked. "He's awful pale, still, isn't he?"

Seiji hadn't sat down since entering Ryo's new bedroom. It was as bare as it had been before Ryo had even come into their lives with nothing in it but a pile of clothes, Ryo's bed, and a tiger sleeping beside Ryo's bed. Xiu's eyes kept drifting to the tiger, also. He'd seen it the other day at the funeral, but he almost couldn't believe it.

"Ryo hasn't woken up since we found him yesterday." Seiji said, his arms wrapped around himself. "Look at his throat. That's been worrying me."

"What? Isn't it healing?" Xiu asked as he pulled down the bandage Seiji had taped to the wound on Ryo's throat. Xiu stopped when he saw what was under the bandage. "Did your mom look at this?"

The wound, gaping and raw only yesterday, was nearly gone. There was a small slit in Ryo's throat, a bit of pink around the wound, but that was all that was left from the savage attack. "This can't be right."

Seiji shook his head, looking guilty. "I...I don't know what to do, Xiu. I don't know what Ryo wants me to do and I don't want to go over his head without asking him. I don't even think mom could help Ryo. He's healing perfectly fine, except that he isn't waking up. His breathing and heart rate are both normal. His temperature is 98.6 and his eyes are dilating normally. There's nothing wrong with him." Seiji gave a frustrated sigh before slumping down on the bed, next to Ryo but on the opposite side than Xiu was sitting on. "He isn't sick. He isn't hurt. The only thing I can think of is that he's in trauma because of the attack. My mom can't do anything about that. If Ryo doesn't wake up soon, I'm going to have to tell mom what happened." He didn't sound at all eager about that idea and Xiu could easily understand why.

"I can see that conversation. 'Mom, we need to get Ryo to a hospital. Why? Oh, he was attacked by a vampire last yesterday, in broad daylight while holding a crucifix, and he won't wake up. The vampire? Don't worry about him, mom. He vanished with a guy in pink armor and antlers on his helmet.' Oh, yeah. That's going to go over real well."

Seiji's head sunk at Xiu's words. "But I can't do anything else. I've tried everything." Seiji gestured around the room and it was only then that Xiu saw the room wasn't exactly empty. There were half burned candles of various colors and the room smelled strongly of herbs Seiji used in his healing. Several of Seiji's books, old, leather bound books as well as newer store bought books with bright colors on the cover, were left open all over the floor.

"You've tried everything, huh?" Xiu had never seen Seiji so stumped before, not when it came to his magic. Xiu looked down at Ryo's peaceful face. "I don't think I'd worry to much if I were you, Seiji. He looks all right."

"Looks can deceive. This isn't healthy for anyone. He's been asleep for more than twelve hours. I HATE not knowing what's going on!" Seiji kicked out, sending the pile of books flying and Xiu jumped, startled at Seiji unusual outburst. For a moment, Seiji looked around as if looking for something else to kick before realizing what he'd done. "Awww, damn." Seiji hunched over, with his face in his hands and his elbows resting on his knees.

Xiu waited.

He knew better than to try and interrupt Seiji's bad mood swings. Since Seiji kept himself under such tight control in public, his private life was riddled with bouts of irrational temper, depression, crying fits, and hysterical laughter. It was as if, since Seiji HAD to control himself in public, he COULDN'T control himself in private. Xiu didn't mind, really. He was just glad that Seiji could let go of his emotions of sometime.

Eventually, Seiji got down onto his knees and started picking up the books he'd scattered all over the floor.

Xiu took a moment to admire Seiji's backside before getting down to help him pick up the books. "Feeling better now that you've attacked the evil books?"

"Don't make me hurt you." Seiji grumbled, apparently not completely over his bad mood. Then, Seiji looked down at the books in his arms and blushed. "Er...don't tell Touma about this, all right? You know how sensitive he gets about books."

"Your secret is safe with me. Now, what are we going to do?" Once they'd re-stacked Seiji's pile of books, Xiu and Seiji sat on the floor next to Ryo's bed and Xiu put his arm around Seiji's shoulders. One of the things that Xiu loved about Seiji was the way Seiji fit so perfectly into his arms. "We can't let Ryo just lay there. I really think we should go find your mom, now, and tell her what's going on."

Seiji shook his head. "She's going to have me locked up if I tell her I saw a vampire attacking Ryo." He scowled darkly. "Insanity can be inherited, you know."

"Don't talk like that!" Xiu snapped. "You are not going to go nuts! I don't care what your dad did, you wouldn't do anything like that." Xiu didn't like it when Seiji started thinking about his dad. The man had been locked away in an asylum for years now and Xiu had never even met him, thankfully. Seiji always got depressed and then managed to convince himself that he was going to start hurting people, too.

Seiji paled and looked away. "What if I do start loosing it, Xiu?"

"What?"

Seiji swallowed hard. "They told me that dad started hearing voices before things got bad. They told him to do things and, in the end, he started listening to them. That's why he hurt mom. What if I start hearing voices?"

There was something in Seiji's voice that made Xiu look at him a little closer. Seiji was scared.

"I mean, I don't want to hurt anyone, especially not you, and if I hurt you like dad hurt mom...I don't want you to end up in a wheelchair, too."

Xiu held Seiji a little tighter. "Seiji, is there something you want to tell me?" Xiu knew he wasn't the smartest of guys, but with a family the size of a small herd, Xiu had learned how to read people pretty well long ago.

Seiji closed his eyes. "Tell me first, what would you do if I was hearing things?"

"I'll love you."

"Don't." Seiji pulled away from Xiu slightly. "If I start losing my mind, I don't want you to love me. Don't you see? Mom loved dad even when she knew he was sick and when he was going to therapy. She loved him when he started doing strange things. She loved him when he tried to kill her." Seiji sniffed back a tear. "Damn it, the stupid woman still loves that ass hole!"

"Sei-chan..."

"Don't interrupt! My mom's miserable because she can't be with the man she loves. She's never going to fall in love again; she won't let herself. She loves my dad and just my dad. He's never going to leave the asylum, the doctors have all ready told us that, so she's never going to have him back and she's going to die all alone. I don't want that to happen to you. If I start going like my dad, I want you to get away from me. You get as far away from me as you can."

They shared a long, meaningful look. Then Xiu shook his head. "It's shit to want what you can't have, isn't it?"

"I'm serious!"

"Me, too. Put yourself in my shoes or your mom's. Would you leave me if I suddenly developed a weird rash?"

Seiji rolled his eyes. "What has that got to do about anything?"

"Well, it could be some horrible plague and it might, possibility, in a one-in-a-million chance, kill you. Aren't you worried?"

"It's not the same thing."

"It's exactly the same, to me. Now, tell me what has this all got to do with Ryo. I came over hear because you said you did something bad and that you knew someone was in Ryo's head. What's going on?" Xiu wanted to get Seiji's mind off this particular subject as quickly as possible and the best way to distract Seiji was to get him worried about someone.

Seiji turned around to face the still sleeping Ryo and pulled out the crucifix that was clutched in Ryo's hand. "He won't let go of this, for a good reason. I put a little spell on it." He looked guilty. "I didn't ask Ryo's permission and I really should have. He told me the sister who took care of him at the shelter gave it to him, so it's very important to him and he never takes it off. I wanted to give Ryo a gift, to cheer him up about loosing his granma, but he's so proud he won't take anything. Anyway, I put a little spell on it to keep him safe. It's just supposed to let me know when he's in trouble so I can help him."

Xiu frowned, still not understanding. "I don't get it. What's that got to do with Ryo having people in his head? Did the spell mess up?"

"I don't know." Seiji turned around again and sat. "When I was talking to you yesterday about your papa, well, a voice very clearly said that I had to help Ryo. I didn't try to do anything, but I was sucked into Ryo's mind. That vampire guy was in Ryo's head and I could hear other voices, but I couldn't see anyone. It was very, very weird. I was hearing a voice in my head telling me to protect Ryo and these other voices, but I couldn't quite make out what they were saying." Seiji started shaking. "I don't know why that happened, Xiu. It wasn't supposed to be like that, the spell was only supposed to give me a feeling of danger when Ryo was in trouble, not pull me into his mind."

"You said you ripped his mind over the phone." Xiu reminded him, curious about how someone's mind could get ripped.

Seiji looked away guiltily. "The human mind isn't built to be a battle arena. That guy and I fought in Ryo's mind. I drove him off, but Ryo didn't handle it well."

Xiu hesitated before answering. He wanted to say something that would reassure Seiji, but wasn't quite sure what he should say. "I don't understand your spells; you know that. But maybe you should undo what you did to Ryo's crucifix. About the voices, well, I don't think you're sick like your dad is."

Seiji looked surprised at that. "How can you say that? I wasn't imagining it and people don't ordinarily hear voices unless they're nuts."

"Yeah, but the voices that crazy people hear don't usually have anything to do with reality. You did save Ryo's life. He was in a great deal of danger and he needed you. Whatever this voice is, I don't know, but it wasn't just your mind playing tricks on you. It was real." Even as he said it, Xiu wasn't sure he could believe it himself. Maybe all this magic of Seiji's was doing something to him or maybe Seiji was one of those psychic people who can tell the future and stuff. Xiu didn't know, but he did know logic when he saw it.

A voice told Seiji that Ryo was in danger.

Ryo was in danger.

Seiji saved Ryo.

Therefore, the voice in Seiji's head knew what was going on outside of Seiji's head. 'Maybe I should talk to Dr. Date about this. She's a doctor and should know what's going on.' But then he'd have the trouble of concocting a lie to tell her about who he was asking for. He couldn't just come out and say that her son was hearing voices and seeing visions, now could he?

Something rough and wet ran against the back of Xiu's hand and he looked down in surprise only to find the large white tiger licking his hand. He let out an exclamation of surprised and practically jumped into Seiji's arms. "Sei-chan, I've been meaning to ask you about this tiger." He said, keeping his eyes on the animal who now looked like it was laughing at him.

Seiji did laugh and for that, Xiu was willing to be embarrassed. He loved hearing Seiji laugh. "That's Ryo's friend, Byakuen. He came here with Ryo."

When Byakuen jumped up to put his front paws on the bed at Ryo's side, looking like he was examining Ryo before starting to lick his cheek, Xiu forced himself to relax. "Umm, I hate to sound like an idiot, but at the funeral, I saw Byakuen. My mama couldn't see him, though. Any reason why?"

Seiji shook his head. "Now that you mention it, I don't think my mom or my grandfather mentioned anything about us having a tiger in the house, either. I didn't even think it was odd, to tell you the truth." He reached up to stroke Byakuen's back. "He won't hurt us, though. When I first saw him, I knew there was something odd about him, and I meant to ask Ryo about him, but I never seemed to get around to it. I keep forgetting."

"That's not like you." Xiu commented, still uneasy about being so close to the large tiger.

"I know. It's almost like someone's stopping me from asking."

At that moment, Byakuen turned his great head to look down at them and he started to purr.

"Uhhhhh." Ryo moaned and tossed his head as he started waking up and both Seiji and Xiu let out sighs of relief, their attention taken away from the mysterious tiger.





To be continued...