If you haven't watched Yona of the Dawn, I recommend it.

Hallucinations

Hak didn't know what to do.

He'd been noticing the man for some time now; he'd been at the castle for a year at the very least. The orange-haired individual had been walking calmly throughout the palace grounds daily, secure and confident without seeming to care that the guards walked mere meters from him.

And that was even more puzzling. The guards did not see the man. In fact, it seemed that only Hak could see him, and that in and of itself was concerning. The Thunder Beast had casually questioned some of his soldiers at one point and they had claimed to see nothing. Hak would know if they were pulling his leg.

The entire situation was bizarre.

The man hadn't noticed that Hak was staring at him. Both men were in one of the palace gardens, Hak in the middle of doing a routine patrol to make sure that the guards were staying attentive. The strange man was examining the weapons the guards were carrying with far too much interest.

Hak narrowed his eyes. At first, before he has suspected that he was going insane from being around the princess so much, he had thought that someone—possibly Princess Yona, it certainly fit her odd sense of humor—had been conspiring to make him think that he was mad. After subtle investigations, however, Hak had determined that that was not the case.

It bugged him. The man was a mystery, an enigma, and there was very little Hak could do to figure him out.

Hak blinked. The man was gone.

He looked around, his eyes scanning his surroundings with practiced ease while he identified several locations in which the man could have hidden. Before he could begin his search, however, a flash of orange near the half-hidden gardening shed caught Hak's attention. Without hesitation, Hak strode over to the small building, his grip tight on his hsu quandao.

Hak put a hand on the doorknob, hesitated for half a second to make sure that no one was nearby, and then threw open the door, ready for any kind of attack.

He saw none coming when his eyes landed on the only other occupant of the room. The orange-haired man was seated on a crate filled with gardening supplies, leaning against the back wall with a difficult-to-read expression. His posture was tense yet unthreatening and his weapon—a katana—was resting next to him in its sheath, within reach but not so much so as to be a reason for Hak to worry about an immediate attack.

"I knew it," the man said shortly. "Close the door. Please," he added, almost as an afterthought.

When Hak showed no intention of taking his hands off his weapon for even a second, the man sighed. "Look, you can either close this door and we can talk easily or you can leave it open and we can have an incredibly awkward staring contest and hope that no one walks by and notices. Considering the fact that you've been glaring at me for half a minute now, I think I'm going to win since you haven't blinked in that entire time, which gives me an advantage." Still, Hak displayed no desire to lower his guard.

"Who are you?" Hak's voice was hard, his body language demanding an answer.

"You're going to cramp if you keep up that position for too long."

"I am not. Who are you?"

"I'm going to close the door."

"Don't move."

"I swear I'm not going to attack you." Hak's expression indicated just how much he believed those words and the man rolled his eyes. "What do you want me to do, pinkie swear? Promise on my life? That wouldn't mean anything. Just let me close the door."

In one smooth motion, Hak pulled the door shut, his eyes never leaving the other man. "Happy? Now tell me your name."

The orange-haired man raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you do that in the first place?"

"Name."

"Ichigo Kurosaki." His expression cleared. "Would it help if I said I come in peace?"

"No."

"Didn't think so. Well, I tried. Care to tell me your name? And relax, will you? If I wanted to kill you I would have done so already."

The words were said so casually, without a hint of an implied threat or pride. Hak knew that the only way to say those words so confidently yet so easily was to be fully sure that one was capable of following through with them. This man, whoever he was, firmly believed he could kill Hak. Either that, or he was the best bluffer Hak had ever seen.

And Hak knew that the man had occasionally watched him practice, so the Thunder Beast doubted that he was being underestimated. The realization prompted Hak to finally lower his weapon and assume a (slightly) more relaxed stance.

He smirked as he fully processed Ichigo's words. He couldn't help it. "Your name means 'Strawberry'?"

"It means 'One Who Protects', dammit! It's not written as 'Strawberry'!"

"Oh really," Hak said, his tone indicating exactly what he thought of that. "Are you sure, Strawberry?"

The man—Ichigo—grit his teeth. "If you're going to call me something, call me Ichigo. Not Strawberry. Or I'll hit you."

"That sounds interesting."

"It's not." Ichigo's expression was back to a scowl; a countenance that Hak was coming to realize was his default look. "Can I call you Hak? Or Son Hak?"

"Son Hak. I am a general, not some vagabond."

"Whatever you say, Son Hak. Whatever you say."

"You never told me why you're here. Or what you've been doing here this entire time. Or why I appear to be the only person in the entire castle that is capable of seeing you."

"You might be going insane," Ichigo said mildly.

"I'm not."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

The two mock-glared at one another for a moment longer before Ichigo sighed and leaned back, breaking eye contact as he did so. "Well, to be fair, you never asked before this, so the time thing is a bit unfair. And I didn't think you could see me until a week ago."

"You know now. I want answers, kid."

Ichigo didn't react to being called a kid besides a slight, irritated twitch of his eyebrow. "Yeah, yeah. I got that part. Hm. I don't know the best way to phrase this and if I do tell you, you really will think you're insane."

"It won't be any different than what some others believe."

"Fine. Simply put, I'm dead."

Hak blinked, his expression blank for a full second as he processed the simple statement. "You're a ghost?" He raised an eyebrow. "That's stupid. I was expecting something more interesting."

Ichigo clearly had not been expecting that reaction and it took him a moment to formulate a response. "Uh, sure. Whatever you want to think. But I don't know why you can see me; you must have some inherent Reiryoku, more than most people, which would allow you to see me. Have you seen ghosts before?"

"No."

"How long have you been seeing me for?"

"That's quite the forward question. Are you sure you should be asking something like that?"

Ichigo twitched, his face going red for a second before he regained his composure. "N-not like that! I mean, how long have you been able to notice me walking around this castle?"

"About a year."

"Huh. So you've been able to see me practically this whole time." The orange-haired teen snapped his fingers. "That's it! You must be the strange energy I sensed when I first got to this world. My Reiatsu must've affected you when I landed, and that's why you're able to see me!"

"I don't know what any of that means."

"You're special. You can leave it at that."

"Should I take that as a compliment?"

"Do whatever you want with it. Now, you've probably realized this by now, but I'm not here to hurt anyone. Hell, I really can't, being dead and all."

"I've seen you move things," Hak pointed out. Ichigo winced.

"Ah, right. Technically, I'm not supposed to be able to do anything. But I get curious."

"Can't you just walk through walls if you're a ghost?" Hak drawled.

For some reason, Hak felt himself becoming at ease around Ichigo. Ichigo had an aura of protectiveness, but not in a friend-oriented kind of way; it was more of a fellow soldier connection. Ichigo looked as though he had seen war before, and though Hak had never done so himself he knew what it looked like in other people thanks to his upbringing. There was something about Ichigo, a kind of presence, which exuded loyalty. Hak's instincts, honed over years of practice and grueling training, were telling him to trust this man.

Hak really hoped that Ichigo wasn't some kind of hallucination, because if they were this realistic, Hak didn't think he would be able to pretend that he wasn't insane for very long, and there was a slight chance he'd lose his position as general because of poor mental health.

"I can," Ichigo said stiffly, "it just feels really weird and I'm not used to it."

"You're a pretty terrible ghost. What have you been doing the past year? Examining this place and its people?"

Ichigo's expression became more serious. "Yeah. I didn't know what was going on when I first got here so I was doing as much exploring and research as I could. The libraries here really helped with that. I was looking at your guards to check out their weapons."

"You have your own sword," Hak pointed out. Ichigo glanced at it, a pain flashing in his eyes that Hak couldn't interpret.

"Yeah, I do. I try not to use it, though."

"Are you a pacifist?"

Ichigo let out a bark of harsh laughter. "Man, the shit I could've avoided by being a pacifist . . . no, I'm not one. I wouldn't carry a sword if I was."

Hak could think of a few reasons to carry a sword even if one didn't have the intention of using it. Intimidation, for one, though it was a tactic that invited trouble for the inexperienced. "Fine, then. Just try not to get in the way of anything."

Ichigo smirked, just for a moment. "I'm a ghost, remember? It would be difficult for me to get in the way."

Over time, Hak teased out a few more details about Ichigo's life. The redhead was sparse on the facts front, but Hak was an expert at banter. Ichigo was almost eighteen years old and had fought in at least one war in that time. He wasn't from Kouka, or any other kingdom. He didn't always use words that Hak recognized, either.

Ichigo was trying to find a way back to his own home, which Hak didn't really understand because Ichigo had admitted that he was dead. But Ichigo had vehemently denied any accusations of trying to get to the afterlife.

"Next!" Hak called, and the line of soldiers lessened by one. The unfortunate victim—ah, the soldier—approached Hak with careful caution. Hak could see right away that he held his sword too tightly.

Ichigo was in the library again, perusing through the history books. He liked to prod Hak with questions, but the general really didn't have that many answers. Besides, he had better things to do than refresh his knowledge of the past.

Hak parried the soldier's strike and took one hand off his hsu quandao to strike the man's wrist. The soldier cried out and his sword impaled itself in the dirt between his too-far-apart feet.

"Work on your stance," Hak said, returning to a resting position. "And mind your grip strength."

"Yes sir." The soldier bowed and went off to one side, where previously defeated soldiers worked on their techniques under the supervision of senior guardsmen. Hak looked at the line.

"Next!"

Ichigo was behaving oddly and had been ever since they had discovered the scope of the situation in the castle. Hak had been spending enough time around the teen—really, it was the other way around, since Ichigo seemed determined to stick around Hak because the Thunder Beast was the only person capable of interacting with him—to get a handle on Ichigo's odd personality.

Ichigo had a loyalty within him not unlike that which Hak felt for King Il. Ichigo never revealed anything concrete about where he had come from or the people he had known but he clearly felt a deep connection with his past. He respected strength and, not including the occasional playful mocking, he respected Hak. After spending more than a year poking around the castle he had found out quite a bit about Hak and his reputation and the reasoning behind his title of "Thunder Beast."

He even found amusement in Princess Yona's antics, offering dry commentary when Hak was watching over events. Ichigo recognized when Hak had to work, however, and he seemed to know exactly when to stop speaking and give Hak his space.

Ichigo didn't even seem to care that most of their conversations were one-sided, since Hak usually couldn't communicate out loud without looking insane. Ichigo was perfectly content with silence.

None of that was apparent now. Ichigo was running alongside him, his normal scowling face replaced with one that was eerily blank. His left eye glinted gold on black in the moonlight and Hak could see his hand twitching every few seconds towards the hilt of the katana sheathed across his back.

And his voice . . . there was an odd quality to it, almost chilling. It sounded inhuman. And he kept saying things that Hak couldn't understand: Reiatsu, souls, fate, spirit ribbons—none of it made sense.

"Quiet!" Hak all but roared when Ichigo grew to be too distracting. Hack tightened his grip on his weapon. He knew that striking at Ichigo was pointless; his weapon passed right through the ghost. The first few times Hak had tried it, Ichigo had mocked him for days. But Hak didn't have the time to focus on Ichigo. Something in his gut was twisting, an instinctual sense that something terrible had happened. He had overheard the guards less than a minute before and though he had taken care of them in moments he still felt as though he wouldn't make it in time.

And then he saw Princess Yona—distinctive even in the night because of her red hair—crouched down, about to be executed by a traitorous soldier.

Anger streamed through Hak's veins and he reached almost superhuman speeds, intervening just in time to deflect the strike and send the offending soldier flying along with all of his nearby compatriots.

Traitors.

"I knew Lord Soo-won was here tonight, so I was trying to stay out of your way," said Hak, his eyes shadowed by his hair as he finished the motions of his strike. The wind created from his abrupt arrival brushed against his face, stirring his hair. "The guards who were supposed to be on watch are all gathered here. There are people I don't recognize, too." The anger was still there, pulsing in tandem with Hak's heartbeat as he rested his Hsu Quandao over his shoulder. He slowly straightened, every muscle in his body thrumming with tension. "What's going on here?" He lifted his head, making eye contact with the man that looked entirely too calm for the scene around him. "Huh, Lord Soo-won?"

"H—Hak?"

Ichigo snapped his gaze to Princess Yona at the same time Hak did, the sudden motion catching Hak's attention. The ghost had a hand on his katana, but uncertainty raged across his features.

Ichigo wasn't the priority here. Hak cleared his expression and crouched next to the princess.

"I'm sorry for leaving your side, Princess Yona."

"Hak . . . " Yona's eyes were watery and she leaned in closer to Hak, her face almost desperate but not quite. "Hak, are you on my side?"

The question caught Hak by surprise and he knew his eyes had widened, but he soon smiled, almost gently, even as his heart ripped in two.

"The king told me to protect you. No matter what happens," he continued, standing up with a challenge to the traitors surrounding him, "I will protect you!"

The warrior noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that Ichigo was standing still. There was something around him, some kind of dark aura that urged Hak to stay away.

As long as Ichigo didn't get any closer to Princess Yona while he was like this, Hak was fine with that.

Belatedly, Hak realized that one of the men standing behind Lord Soo-won had been addressing him. He only caught the last few words: "the new master of Hiryuu Castle."

"Who's the master of what, now?" Hak asked, his anger increasing in tandem with the dread that lined his stomach. The feeling was odd; it was something he rarely felt anymore. Nevertheless, he kept speaking, making connections and conclusions he really didn't want to. "I have a bad feeling about this, but I must ask. Lord Soo-won, where is King Il?"

Lord Soo-won's voice was chilling. "I just sent him to hell."

Unchecked rage filled Hak and he only tramped down on it by slamming the end of his weapon into the ground, partially shattering the stone. He knew the anger was blazing in his eyes and body but he did nothing to stop it. Lord Soo-won was going to far with this; what was he thinking?

Taking a breath and closing his eyes for a moment, Hak pulled himself together. Mostly.

"Are you drunk?" He asked. He looked at Lord Soo-won once more, his calm expression coming apart at the seams to reveal the fury beneath. His warning was clear. "That's going too far, even for a joke."

"Ask Princess Yona. She confirmed the king's death with her own eyes."

Hak snapped. He couldn't stop himself. With a roar of anger he launched himself at Soo-won who still had that damnably calm expression on his face. The blade of his hsu quandao pressed against Soo-won's sword, the shaft bending from the force of Hak's first attack.

"Tell the truth!" Hak ordered, part of him still wanting to think that Soo-won's words were a lie.

"I'm not lying."

"Soo-won!" A plea. A worthless plea, but one Hak felt compelled to make. "You're telling me you killed your king?"

"There are more soldiers coming," Ichigo said, teeth gritted from some internal battle. Hak tried to ignore the words but he knew he should listen. His anger hadn't crystallized yet; it was still clouding his brain and Hak knew it.

He pressed his attack on Soo-won, successfully pushing the other back. "You killed our kind king?! Soo-won, why? Are you trying to usurp the throne?" Hak reconsidered the moment he said the words, recalling the past he had with Soo-won. "No, you're not the type to fixate yourself on that kind of thing. Did you turn your sword on our kind king, who detested weapons? Your pride allowed that?!"

Soo-won finally showed a reaction to Hak's words. "Kindness? This kingdom has no need for a weak king!" He adjusted his sword and attacked as he spoke. Hak fended off his strikes, easily settling into the rhythm of the fight as his anger finally settled into an icy fury, lending him a strength and clarity surpassing anything he could normally have.

Hak's expression darkened further and he attacked Soo-won once again, successfully drawing blood with a cut on Soo-won's shoulder that forced the man to step back while clutching the wound. Even with the injury, Soo-won continued the fight after a second's hesitation.

Hak charged in again, fully prepared to deliver a deathblow, when he was interrupted by the annoying assistant saying, "That's enough!"

He paused, tension thrumming through him. Following Soo-won's gaze, Hak turned and saw a traitorous soldier holding a sword to a terrified Yona's throat. In that instant of hesitation, no fewer than six soldiers positioned their blades at Hak's throat.

"Lay down your weapon, Thunder Beast," one of them ordered. With no other option—besides the half-formed plans that Hak was running through in his mind, discarding one after one—Hak did so.

The betrayal he felt seemed to increase as the adrenaline of his most recent fight ebbed. "Soo-won." The lord glanced at him, his eyes empty and cold. "Was the Soo-won I saw an illusion? I thought I could entrust you with the princess."

"Fool," said the assistant. "You may be one of the five generals, but you are still young."

Hak grit his teeth. "What?"

"At this rate," the man continued, "the Kingdom of Kouka will fall into ruin before long. For you and Princess Yona, who have indulged in peace at Castle Hiryuu, there is no way to imagine Lord Soo-won's feelings—"

"Quiet, Kye-sook," interrupted Soo-won, his words making the servant draw back in apology.

"What does that mean?" Hak asked, the calm he displayed a complete façade to hide the anger that still crawled beneath his skin.

"The Soo-won you knew never existed." Hak's childhood friend began to walk forward, bringing his sword to bear. "Should anyone get in my way, I will cut him down, no matter who he is." He brought the blade down close enough to Hak's face to cut a few hairs.

A sudden arrow disturbed the tension of the atmosphere and provided the break Hak needed to make his escape as he kicked up his weapon, disabled the nearby soldiers, grabbed a shocked Princess Yona, and ran. Ichigo ran interference, making guards stumble and creating disarray that gave Hak time to get some distance.

As Hak followed Min-soo, he realized that Ichigo had caught up to him. The ghost's expression was back to normal, without any sign of his earlier conflict.

"Soldiers are following from all sides," the ghost said. "You're going to have to hide and come up with a better plan than running around."

And then Min-soo insisted on sacrificing himself—because Hak knew he wouldn't "catch up"—which only added to Hak's bitterness as he cleared the castle gates and headed for the mountains, Princess Yona in tow.

Even with Ichigo assuring him that, for the moment, they were not being followed, Hak got the feeling that there was far more danger looming on the horizon.

"Hak, you need to wake up. You can't die here; Yona's counting on you. Can you really let her down like this?"

It was dark. The only thing Hak was aware of was the voice, one that he had been hearing for so long.

Maybe he actually was insane. The thought was amusing, and had Hak been able to smile, he would have.

"Pull yourself together." Ichigo sounded somewhat irritated. His words reached Hak's ears easily, but the warrior's brain just couldn't decipher exactly what they meant. "Sure, you got shot with an arrow, poisoned, cut on the chest, injured in several other places, fell off a cliff, and broke several ribs, but all your brave words and actions won't mean anything if you just lie down and die so easily. Aren't you supposed to be the Thunder Beast?"

The words were starting to come together. Thunder Beast . . . yes, that was him. And Yona . . . Yona! Where—!

"Calm down." Now there was boredom in Ichigo's tone, and Hak could almost picture the man picking at his nails. "Yona's alive. Worried about you, but alive. You're really lucky, you know, to have survived that fall."

Hak knew that much; the drug that had been in his system had done nothing to stem the pain that had flooded his body in the first few moments when he had landed and before unconsciousness had overcome him.

The last thing he remembered was Yona's heartbeat; it had been weak, but it had been there.

"Well? Are you going to wake up or not? Yona's waiting."

Hak felt the odd heaviness that had rested on his shoulders lift slightly, and he grasped for consciousness, leaving the darkness behind.

"You really care for her, don't you?" Ichigo asked from his position of leaning against a tree while Hak practiced his attacks with his hsu quandao.

"Hmph."

"I'm talking about Yona, and you know it. I can see it in your eyes sometimes. Hell, when she tried to stop you from leaving your village without her it was plain as day. I'm surprised she didn't notice it."

"The princess can be remarkably single-minded when she needs to be," Hak grunted while executing a spinning move that would have easily severed several men in half. He had long since given up on trying to make Ichigo say Princess Yona's title. "If she does not want to notice something, she will not. I am her tool; it's not my place to get so close to her."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Hak. But you do care for her, and it goes beyond simply guarding her life at King Il's request."

Hak finished his practice, closing his eyes and letting out a deep breath as he let his body relax. It was no use denying it; Ichigo had been with him too long for that. "Yes. I care for Princess Yona."

The ghost made a thoughtful noise. "Then you're a man of impressive character."

"Oh?" Hak raised an eyebrow, his stance challenging. "And what makes you say that?"

Ichigo waved a hand. "You're agreeing to stay this close to Yona when it causes you so much emotional pain. Your loyalty is incredible. Hell, you're dragging her into situations that are incredibly dangerous but you're doing it only because she wants to stay with you."

"Princess Yona is just looking for the four dragon warriors."

Ichigo smirked. Hak's stiff tone indicated that any more discussion on that topic would not be welcome. "Fine, fine. But what are you going to do if you can't protect Yona?"

Hak stilled. "I would never allow something like that to happen."

"That's the thing; usually, no one would allow those situations to happen. They just do." There was bitterness in Ichigo's tone that Hak chose not to comment on.

"I would save her."

"If you couldn't?"

"I would still save her."

"You have that much faith in your abilities, huh? I hope they don't let you down, then." Ichigo's muttered comment only barely reached Hak's ears; the warrior wasn't sure if Ichigo had intended for him to hear it. "Anyway," Ichigo continued, speaking normally, "these four dragon warriors that the priest talked about—are they real?"

"I don't know," Hak said shortly.

"Yona thinks they are."

"I know."

"You trust her."

"I do." Ichigo opened his mouth to say something and Hak spoke over the words he knew Ichigo had been about to say. "Just not in combat situations."

"She's training hard with that bow. She stays up every night to practice with it. You can't say she's not determined."

Hak bowed his head, an uncomfortable pain twisting his stomach. Briefly, he recalled King Il and his peaceful ideals and his desire for his daughter to grow up sheltered, without need of a weapon.

Now Hak was training Princess Yona to use a bow, and to use it well enough to be able to kill someone.

With the pain and guilt, however, came pride. Seeing Princess Yona becoming strong was a novel experience for Hak and he couldn't help enjoying it. Though Princess Yona's desire to protect him—a desire Hak had never expected nor wanted to hear—was not the same. It was Hak's duty to protect her; that role should never be reversed because that would mean that Hak could no longer fulfill his role as Princess Yona's protector and he would fail the late King Il once again.

He couldn't do that.

"I know," Hak said quietly. Ichigo's eyes narrowed.

"You don't want her to fight." Hak's silence was enough of an answer, and Ichigo sighed. "You won't be able to stop her; she has a warrior's spirit and determination. If the situation presents itself, she will want to prove her worth, whether it be in combat or something else."

Hak closed his eyes in a rare display of the emotional pain he felt. "I know."

Princess Yona's voice interrupted any further conversation, making Hak start in surprise. Judging by Ichigo's calm expression, however, the orange-haired man had heard her coming and chosen not to warn Hak. "Hak? Who are you talking to?"

Hak turned to face the other redhead in his life, resting his weapon over his shoulder and dismissing his conversation with Ichigo as he did so. "Myself, Princess Yona. The voices in my head tend to get restless if I'm not doing anything . . . exciting."

The smirk on Hak's face and his tone were nothing short of suggestive and Yona's face flushed. "H—Hak!" She protested.

"Tease her all you want," Ichigo commented dryly, watching the exchange with an amused expression, "but you won't be able to hide them forever."

"He's so . . . naïve."

Hak couldn't help agreeing with Ichigo's assessment of Kija, the White Dragon (or, in Hak's humble opinion, the White Snake, because "White Dragon" sounded way too impressive for the goody two-shoes standing nearby). The white-haired man all but worshipped the ground Yona walked on and he had only grown to respect Hak after the latter had demonstrated his fighting prowess in a skirmish with bandits.

Hak felt extreme contempt for the White Snake—especially after the sheltered little brat had tried to pay him to leave Yona—but at the same time he was interested in the idea of fighting him. That arm gave Kija impressive combat ability, and Hak had never battled anything like it at the castle. It would certainly be an interesting experience.

"We need to talk," Ichigo said, his expression—the typical scowl—even more serious than usual. It was the middle of the night, and everyone save Hak (who was on watch) was asleep.

"Hm? About what? Your strange attachment to me? Because I have been waiting for you to admit it for several weeks now."

Ichigo's eyebrow twitched. "Not about that, idiot. I'm talking about that night."

Hak's expression shifted to something far darker. He still dreamed of that night, when his entire life and Yona's had changed because of Soo-won's actions. "What about it?"

"You remember how I acted?" Ichigo, for the first time since Hak could remember, looked genuinely uncomfortable. Hak rolled his eyes.

"Of course I do. You were caught up in yourself and had a weird thing going on with your eyes, though I had more important things to focus on. Why?"

Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I figured I should explain that. And why I occasionally . . . don't act right."

That was an understatement. Four times, Hak had interacted with an Ichigo that was practically the complete opposite of the one Hak had first come to know. The odd Ichigo would grin all the time, mock Hak with the sole intention of provoking him, and was blunt to the point of rudeness.

The third and fourth times had occurred when Hak was talking with Ichigo in the night and the orange-haired man had suddenly clutched his head and turned away from Hak, only to face the warrior once more with gold and black eyes and a grinning visage. The resulting battles never woke the other travelers for reasons that Hak didn't understand, though more than once he had caught sight of a strange orange shimmer around the impromptu battlefield.

"An explanation wouldn't be the worst thing to come out of your mouth," Hak replied, his tone deceptively calm.

"I have another . . . me . . . in my head."

"Really."

"You've seen him yourself, so there's no reason to look so disbelieving!"

"Your other half is a lot more willing to destroy things and interact with the physical world," noted Hak. Ichigo winced.

"Yeah. He likes destruction and fighting. But he has his moments."

Hak blinked. "Is he a danger to Princess Yona?"

"What? No! I think." He paused for a moment, closing his eyes and appearing to concentrate. "Yeah, he's not."

Hak relaxed against the tree he'd been leaning against. "Then as long as your other half doesn't attack me again without warning, I don't see why I should care."

Ichigo twitched. "You're very nonchalant about this."

"I don't see why I wouldn't be."

Ichigo sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Hak suppressed a triumphant smirk while feeling satisfied that he had caught the ghost by surprise. It was getting harder and harder to do so, so every moment was a victory.

Hak stared.

Ichigo stared.

Shin-Ah stared back.

There was an odd silence in the clearing, one that settled over the usual sounds of the forest and the distant sounds of the other members of the travelling party preparing for dinner.

"You . . . you can see me?" Ichigo asked, finally blinking and stopping his examination of Shin-Ah.

The blue-haired dragon warrior nodded, his body language completely unreadable. Ichigo glanced at Hak.

"Could it be because of his eyes? I bet it's his eyes." Ichigo resumed his examination, getting uncomfortably close to a still-unmoving Shin-Ah. "Hey, take off your mask."

Hak sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose while he wondered what he had done to deserve this.

"Oh no," Ichigo said, staring at the Green Dragon in abject horror. "No, not another one. Please, not another one."

Oh-so-subtly, Hak glanced at Ichigo and rose a questioning eyebrow while listening with half an ear as Kija ranted to Jae-Ha about his utter lack of caring over his heritage. Or, more specifically, his being the Green Dragon.

"He's another Yumichika," Ichigo whispered, his face drawn in resignation as Jae-Ha leaned towards Kija, waving emphatically yet keeping a sly grin on his face the entire time. Hak knew he was intentionally antagonizing Kija out of boredom, but that was Hak's job and he didn't appreciate having it taken away. However, this was the first person Ichigo had ever named.

"Yumichika?" Hak repeated too quietly for anyone else to hear. Ichigo winced.

"An old friend of mine. He had his quirks."

"Quirks" was an understatement for Jea-Ha. "I don't like him," Hak conceded under his breath. "Especially after he hit on me."

Ichigo made a very undignified noise that sounded suspiciously like smothered laughter. "I remember that. You completely panicked!"

"I did not."

"You definitely did."

The pair watched Jae-Ha for another minute, both stewing in their own emotions.

"Hak?"

"What is it, Princess Yona?"

"Um . . . why are you glaring at Jae-Ha?"

Hak started. "Glaring? I wasn't glaring."

Yona set her jaw, demonstrating surprising persistence. "Yes, you were. For almost three minutes. Are you mad at him about something?"

"Well, Princess," Jae-Ha said smoothly, sliding next to Yona and casually putting an arm around her as he effortlessly evaded Kija's attempts to drag him back into the argument, "Hak here is jealous of my smooth-talking abilities. It's only natural, after all; I am unrivalled when it comes to my skill with the ladies."

Yona blushed. "J—Jae-Ha!"

"Wait," Ichigo said, forestalling Hak, who had been about to force Jae-Ha away from Princess Yona as roughly as possible. He was smirking, and their was a mischievous light in his eyes that Hak had only seen once before, when Ichigo had thrown a branch at an unsuspecting Kija and caused the White Snake to fall onto an ant hill. The resulting squeals had been music to Hak's ears.

The ghost walked up to Jae-Ha, leaned down right in front of him—and it looked strange to Hak, because in that moment he could see through Ichigo—and oh-so-casually flicked the Green Dragon's forehead.

"Eh?" Jae-Ha's gaze snapped from the princess to Hak, who had assumed an innocent expression that only made him look more suspicious. In the process, Jea-Ha let go of princess Yona. "What are you trying to do, Hak?!"

"Relax," Hak said. "I didn't touch you."

"You're the only other one here!"

"Not true." Hak jerked a thumb in Shin-Ah's direction. The Blue Dragon had been standing off to one side so quietly that he had slipped from everyone's minds except Hak's. "Ask him. He's my witness." Kija's protests at being overlooked were (unsurprisingly) ignored.

Jae-Ha looked at Shin-Ah, a silent challenge in his eyes. Agonizingly slowly, Shin-Ah nodded in silent confirmation of Hak's words.

"Oh, come on!" Jae-Ha cried. "Hak, now you've got Shin-Ah lying for you! That's just not fair!"

"Don't be rude!" snapped Yona. "Shin-Ah would never lie!"

As the group—minus Shin-Ah—descended into argument, Hak flashed Ichigo a quick thumbs-up. Ichigo returned it with a brief grin.

There was a new dragon. Zeno was different than the other three: for one, he referred to himself in the third person and had a rather unpredictable temperament. His confrontation with Yona once they'd made it back to the Priest's house was a sobering reminder of exactly what they were supposed to do, and an equally uncomfortable reminder about Soo-Won's actions. Hak still wasn't sure exactly what he felt about Soo-Won. Rage, certainly. A desire for vengeance for the pain he'd inflicted upon Yona. But their history wasn't one so easily discarded, no matter how flippantly Soo-Won had talked about it on that night.

Hak, Shin-Ah, and Ichigo had found space away from the others by the river. Hak had found a branch suited for sitting on while Shin-Ah had disappeared into the canopy a few trees over. Ichigo sat cross-legged on the opposite bank, eyes closed with his katana laid across his lap.

"Hey, Strawberry," Hak called. Ichigo cracked open an eye. He'd given up on Hak's nickname, which Hak had only continued as revenge for Ichigo's casual address of the princess.

"What?"

"What are you doing?"

"Meditating."

"Why?"

"Because it's necessary." How cryptic. "What are you doing?"

"Keeping watch."

"With Shin-Ah right there?"

"A soldier must always keep his skills sharp," Hak droned. Ichigo snorted and closed his eyes again. For a few minutes, the only sounds were the wind in the trees, the rustling of animals in the underbrush, and the roll of the river's current splashing against the rocks. Then, quite suddenly, there were footsteps. Hak opened his eyes to see Zeno standing almost directly beneath him. "Yo," Hak greeted. Zeno glanced up.

"Ah, Hak! Zeno wanted to ask you something."

Hak dropped down to Zeno's level, since holding a conversation from such uneven heights would be more work than it was worth. "What is it?"

"Why do you and Shin-Ah act as though there's someone else in our group?"

Hak choked.

A/N Since the anime isn't all that far into the plot yet, I figured I'd stop here. I may come back and add stuff later, but I'm not sure. It's a pretty niche story.

Until next time,

-RoR

Please review.