Break
Some wounds just won't heal. Others leave a lasting mark.
The physical wounds were superficial, even the gash above her temple had healed. The Yuki-gumi, others as well, had to question why she would not wake. He had some idea, but as she was, he couldn't get into her mind. Her ice colored eyes were closed as though she were sleeping here in her room, her pale blue hair was splayed on the pillows while the rest of her body, from the shoulders down, was covered by the heavy blanket to protect her now vulnerable body from the cool winter air which seeped through a crack in the window.
Ice was her affinity. Under any other circumstances she was as safe in the cold air as a normal person would be in the spring. Being comatose was a whole other story.
He sat on the edge of her bed, watching her and waiting for her eyes to open, thinking of ways to wake her. An idea came to him, though he'd never tried it before and was hesitant to do otherwise. If he knew her as well as he thought he did, she was likely hiding within herself, as she did wherever certain subjects were brought up. In this case, though, she was hiding her soul in a solitary corner of her mind, unable to wake up and likely not wanting to.
Days after she'd been brought back to their compound injured and unconcious he'd taken to watching her for a few moments before stalking off in a rage. The shaman who had somehow managed to put her in this state had been dealt with by the members of her team, Rei and Kira quickly enough, his soul having been frozen and shattered by a barely concious Hina.
What he wanted to do to wake her was dangerous, not that he hadn't dealt with danger before, but if he did not do it right he would not only fail in waking her, but could trap his own soul in her mind for the rest of their lives. Which was why he studied cases of astral projection and took in every detail he could, summerizing and adding theories of his own.
Weeks had passed with no change in her condition, but with no sign of it getting worse. With one deep sigh he leaned foward and pressed his forehead against hers.
The transition was smoother than he'd expected and he soon found himself standing on a clear field of ice. The air was cold as the arctic, but he paid no mind as he looked around him.
"Where are you?" he muttered to the wind. A faint cry sounded around him and he looked around himself, trying to find the source who would certainly be there. "Show me the way."
A sharp clatter, like glass falling to the ground, sounded to his right. Without hesitating he walked calmly in that general direction, following the faint sound of a child crying. With every step the sound grew louder until it sounded as though she were right beside him when she was nowere in sight. Still he continued, his pace increasing until he was jogging through the faint fog that had begun to cloud the surroundings.
"Hina. Why are you crying?" he asked himself just as she came into view. She was sitting with her back to him, and even at his distance he knew it was her childhood self he saw, her hair fell to her waist and the clothes she wore were pooled around her hips and covering her legs which sat folded beneth her. He knew then what she was reliving. A pain that no child should bear.
Carefully he leaned foward and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Let's go. You need to wake up." he said in a neutral tone. She said nothing but the sobbing stopped and he waited as her breathing settled into silence.
"...broken....." she muttered almost mutely. He knelt down to look into her eyes, knowing he would see nothing but despair and hopelessness. It seemed the only way to take her home was to fix what needed it.
"What is?" he asked. She made no motion or sound to suggest she knew he was there and for a moment he thought she didn't know, but her lips moved after a few minutes of silence.
"It's broken." she repeated. A chill made him look up over her shoulder and that's when he noticed a mirror of clear ice.
A broken mirror. He smirked in a mix of amusement and annoyance.
"Nothing that can't be fixed, Hina." he said, standing up.
She said nothing and made no motion, but her reflection now stood next to his, her long blue hair covering her front while the dress was knotted around her midsection, as though someone had tried to force the dress off and succeded only in tangling it. She looked at him with dark eyes, eyes filled with hate, sadness and fear.
Hate for the man who'd hurt her.
Sadness for herself.
And fear of all men because of one's cruelty.
"Fixed?" The reflection said mockingly, her darkest thoughts manifesting in this eight year old form. "There's nothing to fix, and especially not by you."
His eyes narrowed in annoyance. He knew she sometimes let these thought surface without meaning to, that she'd sealed away a cruel, unfeeling and almost demonic part of her soul into the reccesses of her mind. The girl next to him was her fear, the child in the mirror, her hate.
"And why not? I have done nothing to harm you. Not the way he did." he replied.
"You've done nothing at all. You never help!" the reflection accused. The sad empathy he felt for the child of ice he met six years ago resurfaced for only a second before he smirked at the broken mirror.
"You need my help to stand on your own two feet?" His eyes flicked to the child at his feet when she flinced reflexively. "I thought you were strong, but maybe I overestimated you, Hina."
The reflection scowled and attempted to reach a hand out, presumably to strangle him, but was unable to do so because of the restrictions of the ice mirror.
".......ak......" his dark eyes flicked to the kneeling child next to his feet again. "You always said I was weak...." she muttered almost to herself.
"I only said you were weaker than me." he said, not understanding why she was saying something like that.
"Liar! You called us weak because we could not fight our own nightmares! You've done nothing but make us feel pathetic and useless!" the reflection shouted.
He knew now she was only messing with his mind, trying to make him doubt himself. He knew far better than that.
"I found you sitting in the snow when there shouldn't have been any. It was midsummer when we met. I knew then and there you were something special; to be able to create snow and ice from the smallest of water particals and manipulating it into something useful is something no average shaman can do. I praised your skills, and chastised you for your disobedience where others would have been killed. The crystal I gave you was a temporary seal to keep most of your furyoku inside of you were it couldn't accidentaly kill someone." he remided her carefully.
"You only wanted one thing from me! My body! Your saying that everything you did was to help or protect me?" her anger shouted at him, "Bullshit! You never listened when I told you I wanted no one to touch me! I-"
"You have to come out of your shell sometime, my dear." he chastised calmly. "I'm only trying to show you that there are men out there who value things besides sex. Power, drive, and loyalty. Those are what I value in you."
"You can't save us." the fear spoke in a slightly louder voice now, though she was still huddled in on herself. "No matter how much you 'value' us, you can't give us what we need."
"That being...?" he asked, his temper starting to surface, making the surrounding air just a bit warmer.
He received no answer. The mirror and the child next to him faded out of site, leaving him on the foggy ice alone.
Alone, huh?
That was the one word he absolutely hated. He knew how it was to be alone and it bothered him that he was feeling something so...weak. The scenery began to darken, and a forboding feeling permeated the air, tainting it with sorrow and disgust.
He walked foward, not knowing where he was going, what he was doing or when he would reach his destination. His feet carried him over the cold, frozen tundra, never stopping; he walked for what seemed like ages, thinking only of how to wake her up and get out of this cold dimension that made up her universe.
His dark eyes searched the surroundings, finding no other sign of life. That was a given, she was not called the ice queen for nothing. Everything about her reminded him of the arctics, winter, anything to do with the cold.
He had met her in southern Japan, in a small town in Shimane prfecture. She was alone, obviously. Cast out because she was different. Her mother had married a human in the hopes that it would at least stop some of the bullying, instead it only got worse, to the point were Hina nor her mother would leave the building. But that in and of itself was dangerous. Hina's stepfather was a very controlling person, demanding nothing less than absolute complience. The child only got some of the brutality while her mother suffered in silence. After her mother's apparent suicide, her stepfather decided to make her 'useful' in ways no human should be forced to be.
Unable to handle the pain and constant fear, she'd run away and hid in the mountain range, where she met her spirit partner, Arctica, an arctic fox who was both loyal and cunning, almost cruel to all but her master and himself. She never once left her mistress's side unless asked otherwise and rarely spoke. It was that same week, in the middle of July that he met her. Her hair was long and dirty, as were her clothes, her eyes trusted no one but her spirit ally. He'd only managed to win her over with the promise of keeping her safe from men and swearing to help her control her then unmanageable furyoku.
Safe....
He stopped suddenly, the answer slapping him in the face harder than Anna's left handed slap. The promise he made for her and her alone.
"Hina, I'll help you. I won't let any other man touch you. I give you my word as your master. Come home with me." he said holding his hand out the same way he did then. The wind kicked up, blowing his long brown hair into his eyes, though he did not move as he watched the snowflakes shape themselves into a teenage girl roughly his height. Her hair was shorter now cut to shape her face in layers, her outfit was an icy teal long-sleeved dress that fell to her knees with a clear mesh extending from under the skirt to her ankles, brushing against snow white boots, her eyes met his with a guarded expression.
"Ready to go home, my dear?" he asked with a smirk. She nodded but didn't take his hand, she never did. Any contact was always initiated by him, and even then it was only for a second before she pushed him away.
"Hao-sama...." she wanted to ask him why he was here but simply shut her mouth and let herself reconnect with her physical body. It was a rather odd feeling, like surfacing from underneath icy waters. The faint sounds of voices were muffled, the blankets covering her felt heavier than they normally would have and it felt a bit painful to breath. After letting her senses adjust she quickly became aware of why it was hard to breath and why the blankets were heavy. Opening her eyes she glanced at the faintly stirring form of her master before pushing him off the bed where he landed on his backside next to Rei's feet with a very irritated groan.
"I hate the transition." he muttered to himself before standing up and glaring at Hina, who was now sitting up and looking at him with a blank face.
"It's about freakin' time ya woke up!" the ever-pshycotic Rei shouted excitedly. Kira, quiet as was her norm, only sat on the edge of the bed to give their team leader a once over before giving Hao a small nod to say that she had mostly recovered. With one last look to both of them she pulled a still hyped up Rei out of the room and shut the door. The two occupants were quiet for several minutes before Hao spoke up.
"Did you have to push me off the bed so hard?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head where it'd hit the floor.
"Yup. I don't like being touched." she answered stiffly before pulling the covers over herself and laying on her side.
With a relieved sigh he waked toward the door so that she could get some rest while she recovered when he heard a faint whisper.
"Thanks, Hao-sama."