Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Can't You Hear Me? ❯ Chapter 5: Ako-ai, Hinato Otchai (Hello Again, Friend Of Old) ( Chapter 5 )

Ako-ai, Hinato Otchai (Hello Again, Friend Of Old)

Drof: In my Makai language!! `Ako-ai' means literally, `One I once knew', so it's translated to `Friend of old', or `Old friend'. Hinato otchai is a phrase that means `Greetings once more', also `Hello again'. See?

Karasu: There's three different ways you could put it…

Drof: Three that I know…That most people would understand. This one's in the Common-Spoken Tongue, the universal Makai-language. Karasu could probably explain it better than me, but he won't, since we have to start the fic.

Disclaimer: Ford owns nothing, except the OCs and her Makai language.

Drof: Mostly, it's an OC chappie.

***

Chapter 5: Ako-ai, Hinato Otchai (Hello Again, Friend Of Old)

"Heya!" the karaisune called. She was about five feet tall, with waist-length copper hair, the bangs of which covered her right eye. Both her eyes were large, round, and orange, with cat-pupils.

"Hey," the other demon returned. She was short, not even five feet, with long reddish-brown hair and ice-blue bangs. Her eyes were glacier-blue, and currently fixed on a distant castle. She had large fox ears on top of her head, reddish-brown with cream tips. Her three fox tails were the same.

"This'll be a great haul, dont'cha think?" the karaisune asked.

"Yeah…" the other said. She was obviously distracted.

"Somethin' wrong?" another demon asked. He was as tall as the karaisune, with forest-green wolf ears, tail, and short hair the same color, only with silver tips. His eyes were green flecked with gold, and looked rather wolfish. His voice was rough and good-natured.

"I'm fine," the kitsune said. "Really. It's just…."

"What?" the karaisune asked.

"I have this bad feeling…It's probably nothing. Just nerves," the kitsune said. The wolf demon looked at her oddly.

"Hey, dun' worry," he said, "ya'll be fine."

"I'm sure," the fox said.

"Well, let's go!" the karaisune said. "No use waiting around. We ain't gonna get anything done that way!"

"Well," the wolf said, "it's settled! To the castle we go!"

***

<Stop it!> The Voice cried. <Stop reminding me!!> BHS had a sudden image of someone bent over, clutching at their head. <Stop it!! Who are you? What are you doing to me?! Stop!>

"What's wrong?" BHS asked. She was scared, and rightfully so. There was a hysterical voice yelling at someone in her head. Most people would be scared.

<Quit it!> The Voice yelled. <I don't want to remember!! I put a block on those memories…I stopped them!! They're not real! That didn't happen! Stop…Stop!> The Voice had become teary, as if it were about to cry.

"What is it?" BSH asked again.

<Nothing that concerns you,> The Voice said curtly. <Nothing at all. Nothing that happened. Nothing.>

"It was something!" BHS said. "And I wanna know what."

<You don't need to know!> The Voice snapped. <A human couldn't understand, anyway!>

"What…what are you talking about?" BHS said. "Who isn't human?"

<You'd be surprised how many people aren't,> The Voice said. <But it doesn't matter.>

"Okay…" BHS said doubtfully.

***

"Can't take that, can ye?" Kiiyra murmured. She was sitting up, her eyes glowing softly, spilling orange light into the darkness like two lamps on a low setting. "Can't take the memories! Can't take what ye did! I'll greet ye, aye, and ye'll see it. Ye'll see what ye did."

"Oh, aye, ye'll see."

***

<She's coming…But she can't…She's not real…She's not real…None of it was real…Kiiyra…Iko….They didn't exist!> The Voice cried. <They weren't real!>

"Stop yelling about it, then!" BHS said.

<You don't understand!> The Voice said. <She's not very far! She'll be here soon! But she doesn't exist!>

"Who?"

<Kiiyra…Strayfox…I don't know her!! She might be real but I don't know her!> The Voice said fiercely.

"What's that?" BHS asked, pointing to something. It seemed to be two floating orange lamps, with slits down the centers. Then BHS noted that they were set in a dark shape that might have been someone's face.

"Ako-ai, hinato otchai," the person said.

"Kiiyra…" BHS heard herself whisper, only it wasn't her voice at all, but The Voice, speaking through her. "No…

"Aye, it's me," the person said. "I'm back. I'm not dead, not like poor Iko."

"It wasn't real!" The Voice said.

"She thinks of ye as `The Voice'," Kiiyra said. "She thinks she's goin' insane. She thinks ye're not real. Ye haven't told her?"

"Shut up! Just shut up! You're not real…Go away!"

"I'm real!" Kiiyra cried. "I was real enough back then! And Iko*! Iko was real! Now he's dead, and it's all because of ye!! I barely survived! Do ye know what they did to him?!" Kiiyra's voice was full of pain as she continued.

*Iko-Ee-koh.*

"They tortured him. They chained him up and whipped him, rubbed salt in his wounds. They cut off his tail and wore it like a necklace. They cut his ears to ribbons, bit them! They broke his bones and his spirit. Ye should have seen what they did to his face…Acid, ye see.

"And do ye know," she continued, unaware that her speech was changing from Japanese to a guttural, growling language, "that up `til the very end, `e `ad faith that ye would come! He thought ye'd save him! But ye didn't! Ye left us! Ye left us to die! And he did! Finally, after three years in that forsaken dungeon, he realized ye weren't coming! Ye killed him!"

"I didn't….I had no clue!" her voice was teary and frightened. "I didn't know…I thought they'd let you go! I asked that you be released! I didn't know they didn't listen…You're not real…Iko wasn't real…"

"He was real enough to be yer friend," Kiiyra growled. "He was real enough when he was screamin' at their tortures. He was real enough when he bled, and when he screamed and cried and begged again and again to be killed, for the pain to end. He was real enough when they cut him, when they whipped him! He was real enough when they touched him…When they raped him! He was real!" By then Kiiyra's voice was also teary, but she was angry, rather than frightened.

"That hurt him most of all…" she said. "After the first time they did it to him, he cried for so long…He just lay in me arms and cried and bled. He screamed, too, screamed loud when they were doin' it. Ye know how easy it was to hurt him! And they managed to take away everything…They took all he had left! They took his pride, his dignity, and when ye get right down to it, when did he ever have anything else?! And ye just let it happen!"

"No…" the girl shook her head. "No! I didn't! I swear…"

"And now, this is what ye're reduced to," Kiiyra said. "Controlling some poor little human girl, still a child, by any standards. I almost feel sorry. See, I have to kill ye, and she'll die too."

"You can't kill me!" The Voice cried. "You're not real!"

"Stop saying that! Stop making excuses! Stop trying to protect yerself from what ye don't like!!" Kiiyra yelled. "Ye're such a coward!! Face the truth! Ye betrayed me and Iko and left us to die!!"
"No…" The Voice whispered, voice trembling. "It….It's true, isn't it? I really did…"

"Yes, ye did," Kiiyra said quietly. "Ye left us."

"And Iko's really dead?"

"He's dead," Kiiyra confirmed. "He has been for a while."

The girl sat down heavily. She put her hands over her face, and for a moment no one said anything.

"I'm sorry," The Voice said finally. "I'm so sorry…..I..What can I say to you? After all that…And poor Iko…They…." She broke off, trying not to cry. She swallowed hard, and looked at Kiiyra with eyes that had turned glacier-blue.

"It was….It didn't hurt," Kiiyra said, helplessly, that hatred leaving her eyes in the face of the awful grief the other felt. "Near the end…All the pain just went away."

"Before that…"

"He was in agony," Kiiyra said. "I couldn't heal him…." She turned to the demon in the girl's body, her eyes full of helpless pain. "He was sufferin'…An' I couldn't do a damn thing about it!" She looked down at her claws, seemingly fascinated by them.

"Me claws are broke…" she said. "But still sharp." In a flash, she was behind the girl, pulling her head back, one claw pressed against the pulsing vein in her neck. "Still sharp enough to cut a human's flesh. Still sharp enough to get me revenge! And Iko's, too…"

"What would killing me do?" the girl asked. "How would it help you? Will killing me make your wounds go away? Will it take away the memories? If I die, will Iko come back to life?"

"It's make me feel better," Kiiyra said. "I'll have gotten me revenge. I can die in peace."

"Do you really want to die?"

"After what I been through?" Kiiyra asked. "Yes, I do. I've been through hell and back, and I'm tired. I want to rest. I don't want to have to live anymore. I shouldn't have lived, but I did. Ever since we were taked into that dungeon, we were livin' on borrowed time! Iko's time ran out, and now, I can finally let me own do the same…"

"I can take away the memories," the girl said. "I can make it so they never happened, in your mind. I can make it so you'll never remember."

"I ain't gonna run," Kiiyra said, eyes flashing. "I ain't a coward like yerself."

"Aren't you?" the girl asked. "You ran from the dungeon. You ran from me. You ran from your past."

"Ye ran!" Kiiyra said furiously. "Ye ran, and ye never looked back! I know what ye're like…Ye might've had a few qualms, but they went away quick, aye?"

"You're just like me, Kiiyra," the girl said. "You ran too. You're not any different from me, and you know it. There's no use pretending. You can't act high and mighty! You can try, but you can't pull it off! You can't lie to yourself, Kiiyra. You never could. So don't do it now! Admit that you ran…You're just like me!"

"I may have ran," Kiiyra said, "but I am not like ye! I am nothing like ye!!"

"We're more alike than you'd think," the girl said. "In more ways than you'd think."

"Shut up!" Kiiyra yelled.

"So, are you going to kill me?" the girl asked. "This body can't fight you. Kill me, get your revenge."

"I will!" Kiiyra said. She started to press her claw down, but couldn't. For a long time, she just stood there, bent over the girl, ready to slit her throat. Finally, she gave a disgusted sigh, and moved away. "I can't kill ye," she said. "May I be damned for it, but I can't kill ye!" She started to stalk away, and then turned and said over her shoulder, "Ye have to live with yerself, instead. That's punishment enough, methinks."

The girl found herself trembling, as Kiiyra walked away.

"What the hell was that?" the girl demanded, once more in BHS's voice.

<Someone I knew a long time ago…> The Voice answered.

"Don't do that again!" BHS said.

<Don't do what?>

"Take over my body! It's mine!" BHS shivered. "That was creepy…"

<Go to sleep.>

"Fine, fine…" BHS muttered, laying down again. It took her a while to get to sleep, but eventually, she did.

***

Passing by the karaisune's room, Genkai heard her muttering in a low voice in some strange language. She was going to ask, but thought better of it. She stored this away, marking exactly the demon's words, for later consideration.

***

Drof: DONE!! HA!!! Who saw this one coming? Freaky, eh? REVIEW, OR THOU SHALT FEEL THE WRATH OF RIDDICK'S TEACUP!! Oh, and TAB…See, I watched this movie, Chronicles of Riddick, and in it, Riddick killed this guy with a teacup…So that's where the teacup thing comes from…