14
being human
Ren has always been aloof, to say the least; he's been like that since day one. Kali has since learned to ignore it, but now that there's been quite a major change in their relationship, she feels the need to do something about it. This particular evening, Ren seems even more detached than usual. She hasn't the slightest idea where to begin, but she tries to get to the bottom of it.
"Ren," she says, "you've been acting weird all day. What's wrong?"
"Nothing." His eyebrow seems to twitch briefly, but other than that, there's no visible reaction.
"Come on." But Kali is persistent. "I know there's something. You've barely said a word since we got here. Usually you would have pissed me off by now. And you didn't get anything for us to eat and…well, I'm kind of hungry."
Buying food didn't even occur to Ren. He usually bought something Chinese for them to share, but today, he's just been so distracted that he forgot. "I said it's nothing."
This is getting quite challenging. "Just tell me. I want to know. I want to help."
"You wouldn't understand." At least she managed to bring about a different response this time.
"Try me." Kali is beginning to realize this is more serious than she thought.
"I said no, Kali. Stop it." He dismisses once again, this time using a firmer tone.
This is really starting to get on her nerves. "For god's sakes, just tell me. I'm going to figure it out sooner or later anyway."
"I doubt that." He says with a small scoff.
It takes Kali a lot of strength not to glare at him for that since she realizes this is no time to bicker with Ren. "You've told me about everything else—the abuse you had to put up with from your father, the horrible things you've witnessed as a child, the dresses Jun made you wear—why can't you tell me this?"
"It's complicated." He brings his gaze down, looking almost somber. "If I told you, you'd hate me."
"Ren. You've done so many things to piss me off that I've actually lost count. I probably should hate you, but I'm sitting right here with you, aren't I?" Just knowing that Ren is actually afraid of her hating him makes Kali feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy inside. She puts her hand on top of his reassuringly, "I won't hate you."
Ren moves his own hand away. "No."
It's midnight, Kali is tired and hungry, and the last of her patience with Ren has just run out. "Fine. But just so you know, you are so freaking frustrating." She stands up to leave. "I'm going to bed. Don't stay up too late."
To be perfectly honest, Kali was hoping Ren would follow suit. That's usually what happens in these situations, isn't it? The guy would change his mind and come after her, and as they walk back home, he'll clean about what's been bothering him all day. But instead she has to walk back to the hotel alone with only the light of the stars to keep her company. It turns out movies only set you up to knock you back down.
Kali would like to think of herself as the kind of girl who doesn't get nervous walking alone at night, but lately she's just been so used to having company—Ren's company, specifically—that she actually feels, dare she say it, scared. It doesn't help that she had told Chi to get lost a few moments earlier to ensure her and Ren's privacy. Kali virtually has nothing to protect herself with if she has to. She'd usually be more confident of her combat skills, but given everything that's been happening, and the fact that she's been feeling sluggish from all the Chinese food she's been eating lately, it's hard to feel safe right now.
But that doesn't stop her from raising her leg and kicking the first shadowy finger she runs into right in the gut. As he keels over, groaning, Kali realizes she's made her way back to the front of the the hotel. She looks down at the perpetrator to get a look at his sorry face.
"Oh, Yoh," she says upon recognizing the poor sap, "what are you doing up?"
He gets up with his sister's help, though he expects the pain of the blow he just took to stick around for a while. "Getting beaten up by a fourteen-year-old apparently."
"Wouldn't be the first time." She dusts him off as a way of apologizing. "Seriously, what are you doing up so late? You're usually snoring your ass off at this hour."
"Anna wants rice cakes."
"Again?" she clucks her tongue. "At this rate, every store in Patch Village is going to run out of rice cakes."
"Then she's just going to make me fly to Tokyo every time she's hungry." He gripes with a loud whine. "Why can't she just crave hotdogs instead?"
"That's what you get for knocking up your girlfriend." Kali pats his back and sends him on his way.
"Hey, I haven't been seeing much of you lately." He remarks. Kali freezes; she has been neglecting him lately in favor of Ren. But Yoh's been so busy taking care of his pregnant wife-to-be that Kali was hoping he wouldn't notice. "What have you been up to?"
She shrugs. "Nothing special."
"Well, what are you doing up? It's late."
"Just took a walk." She shrugs again.
"Alone?"
"Yeah. G`night." Kali rushes inside before he can ask any more questions.
Kali has, by no doubt, kept secrets from Yoh before, but not telling him about what's been going on between her and Ren makes her feel a little guilty. She isn't even sure how he would react to a piece of information like this. It's not exactly little—Ren is one of his closest friends (most of the time) and she's his little sister. Yoh is a very laid-back guy, but he can be surprisingly uptight when it comes to boys and his sister. Kali has seen him sucker-punch more than a few boys just because they looked at her funny.
Kali has snuck out of her bedroom and snuck back in without waking anybody so many times now that she's getting the hang of it. Sure, the late-night snacking is making her sides pudgy and her dark circles are noticeably darker from staying up so late, but it's all worth it just to spend some time with Ren. Even if he does spend about 80% of said time making her angry.
There's something she never thought she'd say.
Less than two hours in, Kali wakes up to somebody shaking her. It's dark and her sight is blurry, but she is still able to make out the pointy-headed figured standing by her bed. She had just been awoken from a very nice slumber so she is really not in any mood for this.
"Ren?" she props herself up on one elbow. "What the hell…?"
"Get up." He doesn't even bother to ask nicely. Before she knows it, he's grabbed hold of her arm and is dragging her out of the room.
"Ren, what is the matter with you?" Kali yanks her arm away from him. She is not pleased, to say the least. While rubbing one eye, she demands some answers. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"You wanted to talk, so we're going to talk." Ren sits down on the first step of the staircase leading downstairs to the lobby and then gestures the girl to do the same.
"Oh God, you really hate me, don't you? You could have talked to me at any time of the day, but no, you just had to do it while I was actually on my way to a good night's sleep." She realizes that she may be talking loud enough to wake other people up, but hell, if she can't sleep, then she doesn't see why they should either.
Ren just blinks at her, frowning, as if wanting to know if she's done complaining yet. "Sit."
Sighing loudly, Kali gives in and sits down on the same step. "Alright, what is it? What is so important that you had to wake me up at two in the freaking morning?"
"There's a reason why I've been acting…strange today."
"Oh, you don't say?" Her voice drips of sarcasm; she can tell Ren doesn't care for it. "Just tell me. And don't you dare beat around the bush again, because I swear, I will kill you. In case you haven't noticed yet, I like sleeping."
"Even more than me?"
There he goes again with that smug smirk of his. Kali supposes it's only fair that a boy who's such a pro at pissing her off also knows how to push all her right buttons.
"Why do you say stuff like that?" she whines, knowing she's defeated.
He gives her a quick kiss on the lips, as if that makes this whole thing any better. Okay, so maybe it does, but just a little. Frankly, she's still getting used to all of this. She never would have imagined in her whole life that Tao Ren would actually give her pecks on the lips as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Kali can't help but notice that he won't look her in the eye. "In order to get into the Shaman Fight and earn your oracle bell, you have to go through a test in which you battle a Patch Priest."
"Yes, Ren, I'm aware of that." She didn't mean for that to come out so sarcastically. "In case you didn't know, I went through all that shit too."
"All they asked for was one single hit. Just one." He swallows a lump in his throat. "I didn't care very much for that. I hit him more than once. I attacked him relentlessly, and by the end of it, he gave me a damn lecture before finally telling me that I passed."
Then comes short pause. Frankly, it's more than Kali can bear.
"And then I killed him." He finally gets it off his chest. "I told him I didn't need his pity. I left him there, lying lifelessly on the ground, and I didn't show even a hint of remorse. Because that's who I was. I didn't have any regard for any life besides mine."
By the time he's finished talking, Kali knows what she's going to tell him. She's just not sure what's the best way to come out with it.
"I know." That seems good enough.
"What?" he finally looks at her.
"I know," she says again, "I know that you killed Chrom."
Kali had almost forgotten about this whole thing. But now that it's been brought to light again, she can't help but have those same terrible feelings she had for Ren when she first learned of what happened.
"You see, Chrom was supposed to be my officiant too. But there was a delay and everything, and I got assigned a new guy. Naturally, they didn't tell me anything, but I was curious, so I did some digging. And that's when I found out about you."
She wishes this weren't all true. She wishes that she hadn't first learned Ren's name through an embittered conversation between two Patch Priests mourning the loss of their friend. Hell, if she were wishing for things, she would wish that she and Ren hadn't met by trying to kill each other.
Back then, Kali was so convinced that Ren was a guy to stay away from. Death surrounded him; it followed him everywhere, it was practically his shadow. And all she ever got from the bastard were insults and bloody cuts and bruises. And yet, here she is, sitting on a dark staircase with him after midnight, functioning as his confidante.
It's funny how things change.
Ren doesn't know what to say. What she said obviously didn't make him feel any better. Kali puts her hand on the back of his neck, intending to merely give him a few gentle, reassuring strokes, but as soon as he felt her touch, he practically collapses on her shoulder.
Even after all these weeks, Kali is still not used to Ren being so close. Sure, it's fun when she's the one who initiates something intimate, but when he makes the first move, it feels so…strange, to say the least. Kali has never seen Ren be so vulnerable before either. This whole situation is just so new to her.
"Ren." She puts her hand on his cheek and she half-expects him to push it away. But he doesn't. He lets her cup his face. "I think the best thing for you, for both of us, to do right now, is to just sleep it off. Okay? Just sleep on it. And if you don't feel better in the morning, we'll talk again. I promise."
Ren rises from her shoulder. He doesn't look very pleased with her admittedly lame advice. Then again, when does he ever look pleased about anything?
"You just want to get rid of me and go to sleep." He sounds disappointed that she doesn't have more to offer him. But Kali swears that if she believes there's anything more she can do, she would do it.
"No." She laughs a little. "I just…I really don't know what to do. I'm new at this too, you know? This whole…thing between us. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."
"It's fine." He stands up, and stretches his hand out for her. "Go back to sleep."
Kali tugs on his arm when he turns around to leave. "Hey."
It just isn't right to end the evening on that note. When she grabs his face and gives him a kiss—a soft, tender one, much unlike all the other ones they've ever shared—she can tell he wasn't expecting it. She wasn't quite expecting herself either to suddenly become so bold at a such a fragile moment like this, but right now, she thinks it's the best way to show him that she cares.
"Good night." Kali could swear that she sees the beginning of a smirk forming itself on Ren's face as he goes back into his room. Well, at least she managed to make him feel a little better.
Kali woke up understandably late today. And God help her, the first thing she does when she wakes up is not take a shower, or eat breakfast, or even change out of her tank top and pajamas. The first thing she does is look for Ren.
Now, Kali is not exactly a very persnickety person, but she likes to keep up a regular routine after she wakes up. She takes a nice, hot shower, spends ample time getting her ponytail just right, goes to the diner to get breakfast and then afterwards, does whatever it is she feels like doing that day. But the fact that Tao Ren has actually made her give up all that tells her that she's in this whole thing with him pretty deep.
Which means she's in big trouble.
"Kali," Chi suddenly appears before her shaman, "someone's looking for you."
She was just on her way to her and Ren's usual rendezvous spot to see if he's there. She already checked the diner, where he's usually drinking milk, and the back of the hotel, where he's usually training—he's in neither of those places. She figures he must have gone to the one place that no one else will know to find him. No one else but Kali.
"Ren?" she asks the spirit. Chi shakes her head.
Kali has a bad feeling about this.
"Just getting up?" Hao says, approaching her. "Rough night last night, huh?"
"That's none of your business." If Kali had enough guts, she would've already shoved him out of her way. But unfortunately, she doesn't, so she just walks around him.
"Hold on," he grabs her wrist, "I want to talk. It's been a while since we've had a nice, heartfelt conversation. Hasn't it?"
"Last I recall, a conversation consists of two people willing to talk. This is not a conversation."
"Of course not. We haven't started yet." He's still holding on to her wrist. Hao really needs a lesson or two about social boundaries. Kali has reason to believe that this borders on assault. "Don't worry; I'll make this short. I wouldn't want to keep your Ren waiting."
It simply terrifies her how much Hao knows about her when she doesn't tell him anything. It makes her wonder how he learns so much information regarding her and her friends—does he send one of his henchmen to follow them around? Or perhaps he does the stalking himself? Considering how he keeps popping up at the most random times, she wouldn't put the latter past him.
"What do you want, Hao?" she says through gritted teeth.
"Opacho noticed something interesting during my clash with those pesky X-Laws." Only when he tilts his head towards the ground does Kali finally realize that Opacho is also present. She doesn't tend to notice things at her feet—which is why she steps on Manta so often. "What was his name? Venstar, was it? Anyway, when he threw that annoying grenade, Opacho couldn't help but notice that you looked quite worried. As if you were scared that something had happened to me."
"Are you crazy?" Kali doesn't know why she would do such a thing. She would be glad to see this creep die. And even if she had done that, it's not like it entirely by her own will—after all, she doesn't control everything her face does.
"You might not realize it, Kali, but I think you've actually grown quite attached to me. To our little meetings. To our little conversations, our tête-à-têtes." His smile leans a little towards the side of his face. "But now it occurs to me that you have someone else to do all that with. Forgive me for feeling a little replaced."
She scoffs at his face. "That would imply that you actually hold some kind of importance to me. Well, let me tell you something, Hao. Nothing can be further from the truth. As far as I'm concerned, you're just a piece of dirt to me. And that's an insult to dirt everywhere."
Kali manages to wrest away from his hold. It takes about pretty much all the strength she can possibly muster right now in her grumpy, half-asleep state.
"Why do you insist on being hostile?" she can practically hear Hao smirking when she tries to walk away. "Why do you keep pushing me away? We both know I can give you what you want—everything you want."
Kali stops and turns around with the most annoyed face she has ever worn her whole life. "And you know what I want?"
"Yes." He replies right away. No hesitation. No change in tone. Nothing.
"Okay, I'll bite." She might as well indulge him. She's already wasted enough time on him—one more minute probably won't make much of a difference. "What do I want?"
Whenever Hao walks towards her, it always feels like time slows down. His steps seem so slow and torturous and she just dreads every little step he takes as he gets closer and closer.
"Power." He finally answers, but not without unnecessarily brushing her hair from her face. In Kali's haste to go find Ren, she didn't even put her disheveled hair in a ponytail today. "Strength. Superiority. Supremacy."
Kali doesn't know what that last word means. She'll take her chances. "Over what?"
"Over our brother."
Kali feels like she just threw up a little in her mouth. It never really sunk into her, or perhaps she never chose to dwell on the fact that yes, she and Hao do share a brother, which technically makes them siblings, albeit through adoption. That makes everything he does to her—every damn minute he spends shamelessly crossing the line of social boundaries—all the more disturbing.
Clearing her throat, she decides to play along, despite how ridiculous his claim is. "Is that right?"
"Indeed it is. You see, as it turns out, you and your little boyfriend are more alike than either of you thought."
It's weird hearing someone call him that. Kali doesn't even call him that. Ren doesn't even call himself that. "What, you mean Ren?"
"Yes, Tao Ren." He has another smirk on his face. Doesn't he ever run out of those? "You witnessed what transpired between me and him. I offered him a chance to obtain all the power he wants, all the power he thinks he needs, all the information necessary in order to get maybe just a tiny bit closer to the power that I possess, and a hell of a lot more than the power Yoh will ever possess. Basically, I gave him the same offer I give you from time to time. And much like you, he refused. And he wasn't very nice about it either."
"Is there a point to this?" Kali is starting to get a little uncomfortable. Well, even more so. This monster hiding behind an angelic face makes everyone uncomfortable without even blinking.
"You two are very stubborn. Not only that, but you both think very poorly of yourselves, especially when you compare yourselves to Yoh. And you know what? You're both right. What you two don't understand is—Yoh is a part of me. He's my…other half. My twin. My baby brother. He shares my power. A portion of it anyway. And if he just so much as tried, he could turn out to be just as substantial as his older brother."
"I feel like you're just using this conversation to brag about yourself." She's not surprised. Hao loves talking about himself.
"Ah, so we are having a conversation." Kali swears that one of these days, she's going to lose it and slap that smirk right off his stupid face.
"Get. To. The. Fucking. Point." She would say please, but she's not in a very polite mood right now.
"You and Ren want the same thing: you both want to surpass Yoh in terms of strength. But as much as you'd like to believe that, and as much as you train and practice and work yourself to death—that's never going to happen without my help." His whole hand is on the side of her face and his thumb is tracing circles on her cheek in a very unsettling way. "You've both seen what I can do. You've seen what my people can do. So what's holding the two of you back, one might ask. It's simple. For Ren, it's his pride. The boy's got too much of it."
Kali knew that already. And she's actually come to love that about Ren. Go figure. "You're one to talk about having too much pride."
"And you, dear sister—"
"We agreed we would never use that word." She immediately cuts him off. "It's the one thing I ever asked from you."
"You're right. I apologize; my mistake." He doesn't look very sorry. It's terrifying how easily he can crawl under her skin like this, without even trying. "Dear Kali—is that better?—as for you, the thing that's holding you back is your conscience. You would never ditch Yoh for anything—no, that would be wrong. He's always been there for you, he's always stuck up for you, and to leave him would just be going against everything you two have been through together. You know it's morally wrong. You feel obligated to stay with him. But if things were different—if he wasn't your brother—"
"You're wrong." She finally gathers enough guts to push his hand away from her face. "It's not my conscience. It's not about that—though I fail to see what you would know about that seeing as you don't have one. It's loyalty. To my family. To my friends. It's about integrity. Standing up for what I believe in. And you, you heartless bastard, you go against absolutely everything I believe in. Joining you would mean me sinking to the lowest point I could possibly go and there's not one damn force in this world that would make me do that. Have I made myself clear?"
"I see Ren's rubbing off on you." Kali is so vivid at his nonchalance that she, in what she believes to be an act of anger, grabs his arm so tightly that her nails could probably dig holes in his gloves.
Worst part of all? He's still smirking—he likes it.
"I am serious, Hao." She still has not let go of him. "I am not going to join you. I am never going to join you. I am not interested in what you have to offer me. Not even a tiny bit. I don't care what you say, I don't care what you do; it's just not going to happen. It's been nearly ten damn years, Hao, have you seriously not gotten the message yet? Stop talking to me, stop following me, stop harassing me! I am sick of seeing your face. I am tired of hearing your voice and pretending to be interested in what you're talking about and having to hear the same things over and over again. I'm sick of you always being in my head, especially since I don't ever recall you being invited in there. And I can't take any more of me entertaining you, pretending to be civil with you. I don't want anything to do with you, Hao. So I'm only going to say this once more, and then after that, never again: no. I will not join you."
Well, Kali sure picked a good day to finally tell off Hao. She always imagined the day this would come—though she must admit that she pictured herself looking a little more dolled up and lot less like something the cat dragged in.
"Hao-sama!" Opacho suddenly cries out. She had been silent during her entire meltdown. Chi was as well, though judging by the alarmed look on her face, she was not expecting her shaman to chastise Hao like that. "You're burning!"
Hao and Kali look to where the little kid is pointing. They both look quite surprised to see smoke coming from his glove—specifically the part that she's grabbing. Kali removes her hand from his arm and sees tiny flames where she was touching. She looks terrified. Hao looks quite fascinated.
Unlike any other normal person, Hao doesn't panic. He never panics. He, completely unfettered, takes his burning glove off, shakes the flames off and blows on it after the small fire is put out.
"What was that?" the girl is completely stupefied. Where did that fire come from? Why didn't she feel it? People can usually feel when they touch fire…don't they?
"If you really want to know, I can sit you down and tell you all about it." Well, that was a cheap shot. Someone's getting sloppy.
"I would say goodbye to you, Hao, but I don't see why I should share anything 'good' with you." Kali turns around, determined to leave and to never associate herself with this cold-blooded fiend ever again.
"I notice you didn't deny it." She doesn't fall for his trap. She doesn't stop. She keeps walking. She's not about to play putty in his hands again. "About your inferiority complex regarding our brother."
Kali almost wishes Hao could see her roll her eyes, just so he would know that she doesn't give a tiny rat's ass about what he says. "Why don't you go fuck yourself, brother."
"Hey." Kali smiles for the first time today when she sees a purple pointed head at the bottom of the hill. She calls that bottom of the hill her and Ren's place. He doesn't like her calling it that; he says it sounds stupid. "Hi, stranger."
The muddy slope on the hill has always been a little tricky, but Kali has never slipped down and bruised herself in numerous places before, just like she did now. This is just not her day. She probably would not have ended up lying in mud and aching in her limbs if Chi had been there to do something to cushion her fall. Lately, she's been very busy acting as Anna's lackey. As if Anna didn't already have enough people running around doing stuff for her.
Kali looks at Ren and he looks right back. And that's all he does—he just looks. And, oh yes, he's also smirking.
"Well, thank you for letting that happen." She stands herself up, choosing to ignore the dirty, sticky, muddy mess all over her back.
When she sits beside him on the ground, he gets a closer look and realizes that she looks like complete and utter shit. She hasn't bathed, she hasn't brushed her teeth, and on top of that all, she just went through an involuntary mudslide.
"You couldn't have at least showered first?"
Kali rolls her eyes as dramatically as possible. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize that I needed to do that before I present myself to the royal Tao heir. Next time, send me a list of rules and regulations."
"I will." He says, right after kissing her on the cheek.
From what Kali has deduced so far, she's come to the conclusion that Ren gives her sweet pecks on the cheek whenever he's finished pissing her off at just the perfect amount—where she mad enough to sulk and say a couple of mean words here and there, but not too mad that she won't get swayed by something cute, like, say, a kiss on the cheek.
Kali can't help but wonder when she became such a softie.
"I've been looking for you all morning." She tries to make herself comfortable on the rough and dirty ground; she gets the feeling that she's going to be here for a while. Without even thinking, she start fiddling with his fingers, which are just sitting on his lap. They look so lonely. Maybe her digits can provide them some company. "How are you feeling? Any better?"
"Not in the least." Ren says.
She suddenly remembers what happened the last time she touched someone—just a few minutes ago when she was holding Hao's wrist—and she quickly retracts her hand. Whatever it was that happened back there, she doesn't want a repeat of it. She doesn't understand what exactly transpired, but anyone can probably tell you right off the bat that fire is bad.
Much to Kali's surprise, as well as her (hidden) delight, Ren takes the hand she took back and puts it back to its original position: right on top of his. Ren has very subtle, very brief, very few moments of vulnerability. She usually tries to be aware and as helpful as possible when she catches them, but with Ren, it's hard to tell anything. She's not the best reader of people, so imagine the hell she goes through trying to figure out such a tightly wound closed book like Tao Ren.
"You want to talk about it?" she sounds excessively sweet. Ren probably doesn't go for that saccharine crap, but what the hell. She'll give whatever she can dish out.
"I'm kind of done talking about it."
"Since when?"
"Since last night." He says. "You asked me a question, you got your answers, and the discussion is over. If I feel the need to pursue the subject any further, I'll let you know."
"Stop it."
He looks somewhat startled. Kali is kind of surprised herself—she didn't even know she could speak in such a firm, kind of scary tone.
"Excuse me?"
"Cut it out with all this tough, stoic guy shit. Listen to me, Ren, if this thing between you and me is going to work—if you want it to work, then I'm going to need a lot more than that to work on. I need you to let me in, because this is how it works now. We talk to each other, we confide in each other—it isn't all about pissing each other off and then making out for a couple of hours." She tries her very hardest not to blush at that last part, or else she won't appear as assertive as she's trying to be. "Now, are you going to say anything, or should I just go back to the hotel by myself, get into the shower and never come out?"
Ren leans back. Kali thinks she just heard him sigh. "I don't know why it's haunting me now. It's been over a year, and I've been fine since then, but then suddenly I'm getting all these nightmares. Flashbacks. Hallucinations. You should see the mess I made in the bathroom—turned the whole room upside down. I was convinced I was losing my mind and clearly, I didn't handle it very well."
"Maybe you grew a conscience." She rests her hand on his neck, moving her fingers in a way she can only hope he finds soothing.
"Maybe." She notices he kind of leans into her touch, so she assumes he's enjoying this.
"That may sound like such a terrible thing to you, but it's great to me. It actually makes me feel a little closer to you." Kali is suddenly feeling a little bold. She scoots closer towards him and puts her chin on his shoulder. She feels him twitch a little when her breath lands on his neck, but other than that, he has no other visceral reaction. "A conscience makes you human, you know. And I know, I know, we're not humans, not really, but…for the most part, we kind of are. It's kind of unfair, really. We already have these frightening abilities to communicate with the dead and we still have to deal with this pain-in-the-ass thing called being human."
"I was never very fond of humans." This statement makes her take her chin off his shoulder so she can take a good look at his face. "They disgust me. Even if I wasn't taught to be repulsed by them from a very young age, I would probably still feel the same way about them. They're simply just…"
"They're horrible, I know. I never particularly liked them either." She never thought she'd say this out loud to anyone other than Yoh. Well, as long as she's at it…
"Wanna hear a little secret? Asakura Yoh—my embracer-of-anything-and-everything-under-the-sun brother, the dude who believes there's good in everyone, the infamous all-loving hero—he used to hate humans. More than I do. More than you do too, probably."
He gives her a very wary look. She doesn't blame him. She knows how crazy this sounds. She wouldn't believe it either if she hadn't been there to witness it.
"I know it's hard to believe, but…shamans everywhere have a tragic story to tell, and we're no exceptions. Sure, we're laid-back and all-smiles now, but back then, it wasn't that easy to act the way we do now." She shrugs a little, but she can't really look Ren in the eye as she speaks. "Humans…they're mean. They've always been mean to me, and Yoh always stuck up for me. They were mean to Yoh too, but his bullies were bigger and older, and he wouldn't let his baby sister defend him. Not that I would have even had the first clue where to start."
He stays silent, waiting for her to continue. She clears her throat before she does.
"I tolerated them though. I tried to be nice. I tried to be patient. I was a relatively well-behaved little girl. But as for Yoh, well…he came close to creating those little onis several times. More times than I can count. I never did that—almost create an oni. I guess I just wasn't as angry as Yoh was." Kali always thought she had this all figured out in her head, but now that she's saying it out loud, it's much harder than she thought. "It's really hard to believe, isn't it? That…idiot, with the headphones around his neck and that stupid toothy grin…he wanted to kill every single human being on this planet because he believed the world would be a better place without them. And mind you, I was five, and I didn't know better, so I just went along with him. But even if I did know better, I probably would've agreed with him anyway."
As she stares at Ren's hand sitting on top of hers, she feels herself crack a smile. "But…somewhere down the road, things started to change. He started smiling more, he started cracking stupid jokes which I always thought were funny because, well, let's face it, I was young and stupid—and he just…he changed. He became the person you know now. I can't really explain it myself. Yoh never told me anything specific. He just said that he realized that people are capable of being good. That every person has some good in them, and sometimes you just have to dig in really deep to find it and then pull really hard to bring it out. I was too young to think for myself so I just went along with whatever he believed in. But as I grew older, I started to see more things and meet new people and I began to think that maybe my big brother wasn't always right after all."
"What are you trying to say to me?" Kali was wondering how long it would take before Ren points out that she, like always, has strayed from the original point.
"I think people are capable of change." She sums it up quite nicely. "But you know, to be honest, I'm not even all that sure that Yoh doesn't hate humans anymore. Maybe not as much as before, but…things like that just don't go away that easily, does it? But he's definitely a better person now than when we were kids. And the same goes for you. I'm unsure about a lot of things about you, but one thing I'm very certain about is that you are a better person now than when I first met you."
Ren doesn't look like she made him feel any better. So Kali decides to take a page out of his book and kisses his cheek. His expression doesn't indicate any surprise, but she feels his shoulders hunch up a little once she got very close to his face.
"Listen to me," she says, her lips right next to his ear, "I've known what you did for a long time. Even before we formally met. But I never, in any way, let that cloud the way I see you, the way I perceive you."
"That's a lie." He leans away from her. "You hated my guts."
"That's a little dramatic. Okay, so maybe we got off to a rocky start, but in my defense, by the time we met, the only things I knew about you were that you killed a Patch Priest and put my brother in the hospital. And then you tried to kill me. So forgive me if I didn't have the most wonderful impression of you back then. But, we're here now, and none of that changes how I feel about you. Don't ask me to elaborate on that last part, because that's a whole `nother conversation, but the bottom line is…I know what you are—were capable of, but still, I'm sitting with you right here instead of doing some other shit. You somehow won me over. Even though I still see you as a huge prick. A huge, lovable prick."
"Is that supposed to console me?" Ren looks quite displeased.
She offers him one of her nicest smiles. "You're not a murderer, Ren. What you did isn't who you are. Your past does not define you."
He twists his lips for a second, as if trying to figure out what to make of all this. Eventually, he turns to her and asks, "Do you know why you slipped?"
"Why?" she asks.
"Because you're not yourself. Not yet. Your hair's not tied up." He produces a rubber band from his pants pocket.
Kali's brows knit together. This is the second time he's done something like this. "Do you just, like, carry these around or something?"
"I keep them handy in case any of my equipment break. A habit I picked up from Jun." He stands up and drags Kali's elbow along with him. She yelps in pain—that hurt more than it should have.
"Ow! Easy there!" Once he's forced her up, she takes a look at her elbow and sees blood. But it doesn't look like something Ren could have done. It looks like a big, nasty scrape that she got from slipping on the slope earlier. "Oh, geez. You know, I'm really starting to get tired of seeing my blood spill all the time."
"Everybody is." Ren got some of her blood on his hand. He casually wipes it off on his pants. "I'll walk you to the hospital. But I won't wait while they patch you up."
"Go to the hospital for this? Oh please, Ren, this is nothing I can't handle." She dismisses with a small wave. "I'll be fine. Just take me some place where they have food. I haven't eaten a thing all day, and it's your fault, you jerk."
"Fine. We'll stop for Chinese food."
"Oh, for the love of…" she slaps herself on the forehead for even bringing it up. "There are other food in the world, you know."
"I know."
"So can't we try out those other places?"
"Are you gonna pay?"
"No…"
"Then I get to choose where we eat."
"You suck. And you know what? I checked the other day—because of all the food you keep feeding me at the most ungodliest of hours, I gained four pounds. Four. Whole. Pounds."
"That's not my problem."
"Did you really just say that to me? Ren, I swear to God…!"
They've gone too far down the road (literally speaking) that Hao can no longer hear the rest of their bickering. Not that it matters very much—even something that once deemed so fascinating like the blossoming romance between two shamans who are both too alike and too different for their own good, can reach its limit on the 'interesting' meter.
Hao can predict what will happen to them in the long run anyway. In fact, not only can he predict it—he can control it. With a little twisting here and a few shrewd and subtle tactics there, everything can and everything will go just as the self-proclaimed future Shaman King had planned.
He may have run into a few setbacks recently, but they're nothing he can't handle.
"What we do now, Hao-sama?"
Hao takes his eyes off the burned portion of his glove to give Opacho a response. "For now, Opacho, we wait."
She doesn't look too happy to hear that. Either Opacho has actually grown attached to Kali, or she's just very excited about what's to come soon. Hao is pretty excited himself, but he didn't spend five hundred years in hell and a thousand years on this damned earth without learning to have a little patience. He has learned a long time ago that things will fall into place sooner or later.
"Don't look so sad." He pats her head. "It won't be long before we see her again."
"Opacho no understand, Hao-sama." She looks up at him with those big, wide, innocent eyes and it almost breaks Hao's heart. If he still has one, anyway.
"This burn mark you see here, Opacho—this is called progress." He shows her the glove on his hand. Normally, he wouldn't be this pleased about his property being damaged, but he's far too delighted about the new development in his little plan to really care. "Trust me, Opacho. Just wait. She'll come to us. Eventually."
"Promise?"
He gives a very warm, reassuring smile. "I promise."
A/N: Sorry this took so long;;;