Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ Shades of Time ❯ When The Past Haunts ( Chapter 17 )

 

<i>Gods, Rei, get away from me! I don't want to hurt you!</i>

 

Hakkai came awake to someone shaking his shoulder and calling his name. He shook off the grogginess of sleep but the unease of the dream remained. He opened his eyes and looked at Goku, who was hovering above him, looking worried.

 

“You okay, Hakkai?”

 

Hakkai sat up, putting a shaking hand to his forehead. “Yes. I'm fine, Goku. Why do you ask?”

 

Goku shrugged. “Couldn't wake you up for a minute. Sounded like a nightmare. Anyway, Anya said it was almost time for lunch.”

 

“Thank you. I'll be down in a few minutes. Do you know where Rei is? I need to ask her something.”

 

Goku shrugged again. “Anya said she was talkin' to the dead. I like Rei. She smells familiar.”

 

Hakkai laughed. “That's because she probably smells like food since we've been at the market all morning.”

 

“That too,” Goku said, bounding out of the room.

 

“Talking to the dead?” Hakkai mused aloud. He supposed it wasn't unusual, she had said that she could see ghosts. Logically, talking to them would only be a step further from that.

 

He stood up and wandered around the room for a minute, picking up his headband from the small table by the window he happened to glance out of it. He stopped in mid step and turned back to the window, looking out again, not really sure he was seeing what he thought he was. Rei was standing near the edge of the forest talking to someone. The only odd things were, the someone happened to be a youkai and they happened to be transparent.

 

***

 

“He's watching us,” the youkai said.

 

“Who is?” Rei asked, looking around.

 

“Your new man.”

 

“That isn't funny, Ming,” she said, glaring at him.

 

“Of course it's funny, sweetheart. You have to move on eventually, cause I don't think a resurrect spell exists that will bring me back to a solid form. Besides, you'd be good for eachother.”

 

“He's leaving in two weeks. As soon as the snow melts and the way is clear through the mountains he'll be gone.”

 

“Well, you'd better get moving then, hadn't you?”

 

“Ming! Stop that!”

 

“Not happening. Know the story on this one?” he asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to Kanan. “She hasn't said a word since they got here. Serious baggage there. The other one they brought with them at least smiles and talks.”

 

Rei shrugged. “Probably because you're a youkai. As I understand it, she was violated by several.”

 

Ming turned his head to look at Kanan again. “Damn. Rough treatment, kid. So, she's your new boyfriend's former squeeze? Why's she still hanging around then? Doesn't know she's dead?”

 

“I wouldn't say that exactly. He killed a thousand youkai to rescue her after she'd been handed over as a sacrifice and she killed herself after he got to her.”

 

“Okay, let me get this straight,” Ming said, turning completely around to look at Kanan. “Your man killed a thousand youkai to save you and you had the gall to kill yourself in front of him? That was just mean.”

 

On those words Kanan turned and dashed away, it didn't take a genius to know she was crying. Or whatever the ghost equivalent of that was.

 

“That was brilliant. You made her cry,” Rei said, shaking her head.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I'll go after her in a minute. Well, at least I know why you and the converted demon boy will work well together now.”

 

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

 

“Really? You don't see the parallels? Little Mrs. hunted down everyone even remotely responsible for my untimely demise and not only killed them but peeled the skin off of their bones while they were still alive and conscious, woke them up when they passed out from the pain, filleted them, beheaded the main two culprits and staked their heads outside their families homes. Do I really need to go on?”

 

“No. That's quite enough. Just go find her before she wanders off too far and gets stuck somewhere or gods forbid someone unscrupulous grabs her up and uses her for something awful.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I'm going. Make sure you talk to those guys about their abilities. I don't think <i>any</i> of them know their own potential and they'll need to know. Better yet, show them what you do and they'll get curious on their own. You'll need the armor tonight anyway. Lock everything and everyone who isn't a fighter up before sunset.”

 

“Do you know how many and what?”

 

“I don't know how many but I do know that they're those weird modified versions of jiang shi.”

 

“Great! Just what I need,” Rei said, turning away from the ghost of her husband and heading back toward the inn. “Go find her, Ming.”

 

“Swear to the gods the woman thinks she can boss me around even after I'm dead. Yeesh!”

 

Ming shook his head and looked up to where Hakkai was still staring out the window. He waved and then wandered off to find wherever Kanan had gone. He found her perched on a large rock near the riverbank, face in her hands, still crying. Oh, hell, he thought. Remembering what Rei had said about why she was leery of youkai, he made an effort to keep at least a couple of good stride's worth of distance between them.

 

“Look, kid, I'm sorry about what I said back there. It just kind of surprised me is all. Guess I'm used to Rei,” he said thoughtfully. “She would have killed off half of them herself. But I suppose not everyone is as strong as she is.”

 

“No. No, they aren't,” Kanan said, lifting her tear stained face from her hands. “Why can't he see me? Hear me? She can see and hear you.”

 

“Yeah, I know. Can I sit?”

 

She waved at the space next to her on the rock. He sat next to her and looked at her profile for a moment before speaking again.

 

“I have a theory on that from Rei's dad. She can't see or hear him either, pisses both of them off to no end. I think it's because he killed himself in front of her too.”

 

She looked around at him, startled by the statement. “He did?”

 

“Yeah. Tore himself open on his own claws. That had to be a bad way to go. Anyway, I think that when you deep six yourself in front of someone who loves you that something in the Universe decrees that you're done. You don't get a second chance to talk to them or anything else. It's like you gave up that right by your actions. Sucks, but that's how it is.”

 

“That means I'll never be able to talk to him again.”

 

“Sorry, kid. But in case you haven't noticed, you're dead and he isn't.”