Shaman King Fan Fiction ❯ Ivy, Shaman Runaway ❯ You Can’t Save Me ( Chapter 51 )

 

You Can't Save Me

My eyes slowly fluttered open. I had a horrible headache. It felt like my skull was being crushed by an elephant. My vision was a little blurry, and it hurt to move. Regardless, I sat up in my bed, groaning the entire time. “Oh god what happened?”

 

“Master is up!!” An excited squeak trumpeted from beside me.

 

I looked down and found Opacho curled up in the covers beside me. “Opacho? What are you doing here?” I mumbled.

 

Opacho ignored me, “Luca! Luca!! Wake up, lazy!!! Master Hao is conscious!” Luca sat asleep in a chair next to my bed.

 

“Hmm?” The old man grumbled and moaned as Opacho shook him awake. “Oh!! Master! How do you feel?!”

 

“I have a horrible headache, but other than that I'm fine. Why do you ask? Never mind—why are the two of you in my tent?! And where's Ivy?!”

 

They turned their gazes away from me. It was never a good thing when they couldn't look at me. “No…oh god no…” I mumbled under my breath.

 

“Master, maybe I should take a look at your head. Are you sure you feel okay?” Luca avoided the questions, and reached to feel the lump on the back of my head.

 

“WHERE is Ivy?!” I slapped away his hands and yelled frantically.

 

“Because when I looked at that lump before it was a pretty good size, and something like that could be serious—“

 

“—LUCA!!” I lunged out of bed, grabbed Luca by the throat, and started to strangle him. “Where is she?”

 

“Master!” Opacho cried, afraid of what I might do to Luca that I would regret later when I had regained my sanity. “She's gone! Ivy is gone!” Opacho wailed.

 

I instantly let go of Luca, dropping him to the floor. My heart refused to beat. My eyes refused to cry. My mind refused to work to contemplate what had been said to me. I fell back over onto my bed and just laid there with my eyes tightly shut. I willed the world to go away. I willed God to just let me die, but my prayers fell on deaf ears, and blood still flowed through my veins.

 

“Master?” Luca kneeled by my bedside and looked at me anxiously.

 

“What? Can't you see I'm dead?” I didn't open my eyes to look at him.

 

“You're not dead yet, but you will be if you don't get up and try to get over her. You need to eat something.” Luca stated decidedly. He would keep me alive, no matter if I liked it or not.

 

“What's the use of eating if I'll never see Ivy again? She'll never love me. She never has. You were right, Luca. You were right…” I sat up, and started to pull my clothes on.

 

“I was wrong.” Luca corrected me.

 

“What?” I looked back at him with a look of utter confusion on my face. “But she left…she doesn't love me…just like you said.”

 

“She left a note.” Opacho told me as if it explained everything.

 

Luca handed me a piece of paper tied to a ring case. I slowly opened the case and sure enough inside was the engagement ring I had given Ivy. I smiled sadly at the gorgeous ring. I unfolded the piece of paper and could tell that Ivy had definitely not written this letter. It was like Ivy's handwriting, but Ivy would have never written something so sloppily.

 

Usually Ivy liked to be very neat and legible. All her upper case letters had to be the same height, and the lower case letters had to all be exactly half the height of the upper case ones. All the `i' s were dotted uniformly, and the `t's were crossed exactly the same.

 

This letter was hastily written, and it looked like her hand had been shaking terribly. The writing was smeared, and there were blotches all over the page. `As if she had been crying…'

 

“Are you sure this is from Ivy?” I raised an eyebrow at Luca.

 

“Positive.” Luca nodded.

 

I sighed and read the letter:

 

Hao, it's me, Ivy. Listen, you've probably noticed that I'm gone by now. Do you really love me, or do you only lust after me? You say that I'm the only one who can satisfy you, but are you serious? I can't tell. What I can tell is that you probably do love me, or did at one point. I have no idea how much this will hurt you, but all I can say is `Don't hurt yourself over this.' Find some other girl. Any one of the Hanagumi would be happy to be yours. You could have any girl, so go get one. Hell, get two! That way if one decides to run away you'll always have the other one. Heck, get a harem! You should forget all about me in no time. Have fun. I'm going back to Yoh, the man I love. Please don't come after me. I think the both of us are getting sick of me running away and you having to chase me down. I…I couldn't stay. I can't marry you. It just wasn't meant to be. I don't expect you to understand, but just know that I can't love you. I have no idea who you really are. Are you the kind Master that helped me control my powers, or are you that sleazy pervert that I had to always worry about raping me? Are you sane? Are you that pyromaniac murderer that everyone says you are? Are you the romantic sweet guy I fell in love with, or are you a cold, heartless demon? Do you want to save the world, or do you want to destroy it? Like I said, I don't know; do you even know who you are? I could never live with you, not knowing which you you wanted to be each day. I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…I didn't want to leave you this way, but you would have never let me go if I had just asked. I hope you don't wake up with too bad a headache…I know how it feels to get knocked out cold by getting hit over the head. I'm sorry, and I hope that you can forgive me. I don't blame you for what you did, but I can't forget about it. I'll say it again: I'm sorry. Please don't come after me. It will be easier on the both of us if we never see each other again. Love, Ivy.

 

I didn't even bother trying to hide my tears. “She doesn't blame me, yet she wants to forget about me. She says it will be easier if we never see each other again, but she knows I only live to see her. I know she hates me, yet she signs `love'. She even left lipstick marks on the bottom under her signature. Oh Ivy…” I was openly crying now, and was surprised to find myself in the embraces of both Luca and Opacho.

 

“Poor Master…” Opacho mumbled as he snuggled up against me.

 

“You've never had trouble in love before have you Hao?” Luca asked, dropping the `Master' part of my name, speaking to me like the lovesick teenager I was.

 

“No.” I choked and continued to sob.

 

“If it makes you feel any better, she was pretty choked up when she left last night.” Luca offered.

 

“What?! How do you know?!” I said in an accusing tone.

 

“Don't kill us for this, but Opacho and I ran into her as she was leaving. We couldn't stop her, but she gave me that box and the letter to give to you, and she said—“

 

“She said she was sorry.” Opacho cut Luca off.

 

Luca glared at the boy, but continued, “She said she was sorry. She was crying her eyes out, and looked really upset. I could tell that she really didn't want to leave, and she expressed great concern over that whack to the head she gave you.”

 

“She was worried about you!” Opacho restated what Luca had already alluded to.

 

“I think she does love you after all.” Luca summed up.

 

“Master should go after her, and he should sweep her off of her feet and kiss her, and tell her how much she means to him and hold her close and tell her he loves her!” Opacho cried enthusiastically.

 

“I think you're both delusional. She'll never love me.” I sighed as I lie down on my bed again. “Luca, can you get me about a pint of Vodka and a bunch of painkillers? Or if you can't find painkillers, some sleeping pills will work fine too.”

 

“But Master, you can't take pills with alcohol; that's dangerous!” Luca chuckled at my ridiculousness.

 

“I know.” I smiled widely up at him with the most insane look on my face.

 

“Hao!” Luca dropped all respectful terms with me as he slapped me across the face. “Stop this instant, young man!” He roared.

 

“What are you? My father?!” I challenged childishly.

 

“No. Your father had no control over you. Now give me all sharp objects, poisons, pills, guns, ropes, heavy objects, and anything that can hold water right now.” He commanded.

 

“What the Hell?! There will be nothing left in this room!” I yelled.

 

“Exactly. You don't even get safety scissors until I say so.” Luca looked down at me like I was a three year old.

 

“Why don't you just put me in a padded room?” I mumbled under my breath.

 

“Good idea. I'll look into it.” Luca patted me on the head.

 

“OMFG!! You're joking!!” I whined, outraged that my followers were doing this to me. `Well at least I still have that concealed dagger in my pants leg.' I thought.

 

“Actually, I am joking, but you're no longer aloud to go anywhere without someone. You'll be under constant supervision, Hao. It's for your own safety. You'll be sleeping in Opacho's room from now on. Opacho, hand me my medical supply bag.” Luca instructed.

 

I slumped down in my desk chair as Luca fished in his bag for something. He pulled out a vile full of some silvery green liquid, handed it to Opacho, and whispered something in my smallest companion's ear.

 

They both slowly approached me, trying not to make any sudden moves. I looked at them suspiciously. “What's that?”

 

“NOW!!” Luca yelled as he pounced on me.

 

“WHAT THE—“ I started, but was interrupted by Opacho pouring the liquid into my mouth. I gagged and choked, but they had gotten me to swallow it. It tasted like rotten fish heads mixed with something that had died a long time ago. “What the hell did you guys do?” I glared at them, ready to kill.

 

“Sorry Master Hao, but the liquid that Opacho poured in Master's mouth will nullify his Shamanic powers for three days.” Opacho apologized, not feeling the least bit sorry for what he had done.

 

“You. What.” I tried to summon a fireball to burn them with, but found I was powerless. “Are you telling me that I'm…I'm…”

 

“As powerful as a regular human being.” Luca looked pleased at his little potion.

 

“You bastard!” I lunged at him, but he caught me by my wrists and restrained me.

 

Opacho snuck up beside me while I was dealing with Luca and stole my dagger. “Hao will not be needing any weapons. What he needs is…energy chains!” I could feel my wrists get heavier as Luca's grip on me tightened. “Master Hao will not be going anywhere until Luca and Opacho say so.” Opacho chuckled.

 

All I could do was look on in horror as I was stripped of my weapons and powers, and my own invention was turned against me. “I hate you both.” I growled.

 

“You'll thank us someday Hao.” Luca assured me.

 

“I'm so sure.” I mumbled back as I got back in bed and pulled the covers over my head. I fell asleep until a few hours later.