17. 阿弥陀丸の思い出し

Amidamaru's Memories

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Yoh demanded.

Ren calmly knelt on the floor and set the small black obelisk before him. "Oh, I know exactly what I'm doing." He placed the box of candy before it and intoned, "I pay tribute to you, O faithful guardian of my true friend Yoh Asakura, O stalwart defender of goodness and light, O implacable foe of darkness and evil - I call upon you, mighty Amidamaru!"

As he watched Ren, Yoh's anger subsided, replaced by bemusement. He blinked blankly at his friend. "Um … Ren, what was that all about?"

Ren shrugged. "Was it a bit over-dramatic?"

"Yes," Yoh confirmed. "I mean, all that over a box of gummy bears?"

A fine mist began to issue forth from Amidamaru's mortuary tablet. It wafted between the two boys, growing steadier and stronger every second. Soon, it materialized into the ethereal form of a well-built samurai.

"Ren Tao-sama!" he spoke, immediately genuflecting and settling into a deep bow. "I sincerely thank you for your offering, but such a gesture is both unexpected and unnecessary. Any friend of Yoh-dono is a friend of mine. What service do you require of me?" Amidamaru took a second to look around. What he saw immediately roused him from his bow. "Ren-sama, it appears we are no longer within the familiar walls of the En Inn. And it occurs to me that I have been left to my own devices now for several days. This is most unusual! Anna-sama demands training every day without fail."

"Yeah, about that …" Ren said awkwardly. "I think you and Yoh have some catching up to do. But if you don't mind, Amidamaru, Yoh would like your assistance in recalling any … tender moments you may have witnessed between him and Anna."

"Hmmm!" Amidamaru muttered. "A most unusual request. I was anticipating something rather more martial. Nonetheless, I shall strive to fulfill your request. Yoh-dono!" Amidamaru turned now to face Yoh for the first time in what seemed like ages. "Ahh, it brings me great joy and honor to serve you, as always -" The samurai broke off as he digested Yoh's haggard appearance. "Good heavens, Yoh-dono, to what do you owe your bedraggled state? You look like a shadow of your usual self. Surely you didn't do anything as rash as charging into battle alone?"

"No," said Yoh. "I'm just hungover. I had too much to drink last night."

"What?!" Amidamaru spluttered in disbelieving shock. "Yoh-dono, I would not dare to deny that, in my days amongst the living, I partook of alcohol occasionally. But never did I allow myself to descend into the depths of inebriation! Yoh-dono, this is most unlike you. I sense now that something tragic must have driven you to seek refuge at the bottom of a bottle."

Yoh squirmed from his seat on the edge of the bed. "You could say that."

"Well?" the samurai coaxed. "What happened?"

"I …" Yoh found that as time went on, it became harder and harder to say. Certainly all the time he had spent talking and thinking about it hadn't made it any easier to admit. "Amidamaru, I left Anna."

"Yes," Amidamaru said, sounding slightly deflated. "I surmised as much from the lack of daily training. Anna-sama can be somewhat … forthright at times, but I do confess I will miss her company."

"Amidamaru," Ren cut in, "forgive me for saying so, but you seem to be taking this news awfully well."

"But of course!" Amidamaru acknowledged. "We must take this setback in stride. Besides, I have unshakable faith in Anna-sama's judgment. She must have allowed you to depart without her for reasons beyond my understanding." He smiled serenely at Yoh, whose face conspicuously remained downtrodden.

"Do not despair, Yoh-dono! Together we shall expeditiously accomplish whatever is necessary. As you are so fond of saying, 'everything will work out.' Our current adventure will be no exception. Let us make haste! The sooner we depart, the sooner we will return to En Inn triumphant! Surely you wish to return to your fiancee posthaste, Yoh-dono …"

Yoh and Ren exchanged looks. They realized what was going on. Yoh was the first to speak.

"Amidamaru, I don't think I was clear. I didn't leave Anna behind at the Inn. I left her. We broke up."

"Ah. Naturally. Forgive my misunderstanding."

A single beat of silence ensued as Amidamaru fully processed what he had been told. It was quickly broken - no, annihilated.

"WHAT?!"

The samurai bored his wide-eyed, horrified gaze directly into Yoh's forehead. His topknot and sheathed swords were still shaking from the sheer force of his yell.

"Ow, my ears," Ren said to no one in particular.

"It's true, Amidamaru," Yoh confessed. "And it gets worse. I kinda, sorta cheated on -"

"Yoh," Ren interrupted pressingly, "let's not overwhelm our samurai buddy, yeah?"

Amidamaru, fortunately, seemed not to have heard the last bit. He was still recovering from his shock. "I - Yoh-dono, as I hope you already know, nothing is more important to a samurai such as myself than honor and respect for one's master. I will not jeopardize those traits by inquiring about the circumstances that prompted you to leave your fiancee, and nor will I question whether it was judicious to do so."

Yoh was accustomed to Amidamaru's somewhat lofty, archaic speech, but that didn't necessarily improve his comprehension of it. "What?"

"He's saying he won't pry, Yoh. He respects you enough to believe that you made the right choice by leaving Anna."

"Thank you, Ren-sama."

"Oh." Yoh shook his head. "Amidamaru, I'm comfortable telling you anything and everything. Like I keep trying to tell you, we're friends."

"Y - Yes," Amidamaru said, visibly touched. "I mean, yes, Yoh-dono. But I must confess to a spot of confusion," he went on. "Why does Ren-sama want me to recount romantic moments between you and Anna-sama if you are no longer together? Forgive my ignorance, but that seems rather self-flagellating."

"Because," Ren said quickly, saving himself the need to translate for Yoh's benefit, "there's still hope for them to get back together. I'm trying to convince him that Anna just … speaks a different love language than he does."

"Ah!" The samurai's eyes perked up. "All is not lost! Hope remains for your reunion! But of course I will plumb the depths of my memory for Anna-sama's most nurturing moments." He closed his eyes as he descended into the vaults of his memory. For several moments the three sat in silence, occasionally punctuated by Yoh and Ren exchanging quizzical glances.

Abruptly, Amidamaru's eyes opened. "Yoh-dono! I am ready! Let us integrate!"

There was reluctance in Yoh's eyes - and a mean headache right behind them - as he looked at his spirit companion. "Do I have to, Amidamaru? I might throw up."

"You'll be fine, Yoh," Ren cajoled. "You can lie down right afterwards and take a nap. Amidamaru just has something he wants to show you."

"Correct, Ren-sama!" Amidamaru looked energized at the prospect of helping Yoh see the light. "Let us waste no more time, Yoh-dono!"

Languidly, Yoh reached out with his hand and his mind, allowing Amidamaru to meld with him. In Yoh's weakened state, it was all he could do to get into a comfortable position on the bed before the last of his energy left him and he collapsed into a deep sleep …

The black stones in the En Inn's backyard rock garden did a wonderful job of absorbing the afternoon sun's summer heat. Yoh stood on the grass, his back to the rock garden's edge, close enough to feel trapped heat emanating from the stones. He was sweating copiously despite his white tank top and athletic shorts. Before him stood a young woman with one hand on her hip and the other tightly gripping a stopwatch. Her black dress must have been sweltering, but she showed no sign of discomfort. The ghostly figure of an intimidating samurai hovered just behind her.

"Anna, can we take a break? It's gotta be a hundred degrees out."

The young woman shook her head sternly. "Does the heat bother you? Because I bet it feels a whole lot better than getting your ass handed to you in a Shaman Fight." She mashed a button on the stopwatch and waved her free hand vaguely towards Yoh. "Get ready."

"But I'm exhausted! I've already done this, like, fifty times today."

"Get. Ready." Anna's hand readied itself into slapping position.

"All right, all right," Yoh said. He locked eyes with Amidamaru, who drifted over to Yoh's side.

"Three, two, one," Anna counted down. "Integrate!"

Yoh did his best to empty his mind and allow Amidamaru in. He felt his presence surge up his arm and into his chest cavity. Yoh's body immediately felt more agile. He gracefully eased into a ready combat stance, with Harusame drawn and poised to strike.

A soft beep! drifted through the still, stifling air.

"Five point six three." Anna looked up from her stopwatch. She stalked up to Yoh and started counting as she did. "One. Two. Three. Three-and-a-half. Bang." She poked him, none too gently, in the forehead, dislodging a drop of sweat. "Too slow. How's it feel to be dead?"

Yoh sighed. "Pretty hot and sweaty." He released Amidamaru from the bonds of their integration. His form reemerged just behind Yoh.

"Yoh-dono! We are improving. Our integration is smoother and less taxing than before."

"But not any faster," Anna pointed out. "Again, Yoh."

"Anna-sama! I beg you to reconsider," Amidamaru interceded. "I sense within Yoh-dono waning spiritual power. Yoh-dono's mana grows perilously low. Depleting his reserves could send him into unconsciousness or worse!"

Anna stoically looked at Amidamaru's alarmed expression and Yoh's sweat-drenched figure. She almost looked like Amidamaru's words were swaying her. Then she shook her head and held the stopwatch aloft before her like a talisman. "Again, Yoh."

"Y - Yes, Anna-sama," Amidamaru said resignedly. He gave Yoh an apologetic look.

"Three," Anna called out. She heard the unsteadiness in her voice, frowned, and cleared her throat. "Two," she said, more resolutely. "One. Integrate!"

Yoh pushed his exhaustion aside and freed his mind. Amidamaru diffused through the palm of Yoh's hand and swept up his arm, racing towards his chest. Yoh frowned - somehow the lightness he associated with integrating wasn't coming. His body felt lethargic and leaden. His consciousness began to flicker. Every movement took his undivided attention. Left foot forward. Right foot forward. Hold Harusame in ready position. Topple to the ground.

Yoh hadn't told his body to do that last bit. But it happened anyway.

Amidamaru, forced out of his host, rematerialized just above Yoh. "Yoh-dono!"

Anna made a skeptical face. Her eyes narrowed at Yoh's figure lying on the ground. "He's faking, Amidamaru. This is a guy who dips the thermometer into the onsen to say he has a fever and needs to stay home from school." She advanced on his figure. "Yoh, get up."

Amidamaru looked on in horror as Anna gave Yoh's body a swift kick in the rump.

"All right, you want to play like that? Try to lie down while I'm -"

Anna froze with her hands wrapped around one of Yoh's wrists.

"Jesus, Yoh, you're burning up!" She dropped Yoh's wrist and put her palm on Yoh's forehead. It was clammy and alarmingly warm. Without hesitation, she grabbed Yoh's ankles and started to drag his body out of the sun. Yoh was deceptively heavy for someone so outwardly diminutive, and she groaned and grunted all the way to the shade of the En Inn. Amidamaru did all he could, hovering over his fallen master with desperate eyes.

Anna laid Yoh's body on a wayward cushion and purposefully strode into the kitchen. She whipped a dish towel off the countertop and wrenched the freezer door open. An exasperated noise echoed off the walls as Anna wrestled with the ice cube tray, trying in vain to extract some cubes into the towel.

Anna let out an almost inhuman scream and started furiously banging the tray against the countertop. At last a few cubes skittered out. She wrapped them in the dish towel and sprinted back towards Yoh's figure. Anna applied her makeshift cold compress to Yoh's forehead.

"Oh, Yoh," she said softly, "I hope you're all right …"

Anna started to run her fingers through Yoh's matted hair. She did her best to disentangle his hairdo and bring it closer to its usual appearance. Suddenly, she sprang to her feet. "God, I'm such an idiot," she said to no one in particular.

Making sure the dish towel would stay in place without her hand holding it there, Anna then returned to the kitchen, hoping she was mistaken. But she soon gave a dismayed yelp when she saw, on the countertop beside the sink, what she had only just remembered.

"How could you forget to give Yoh his water bottle?"

It wasn't Amidamaru chiding Anna - it was herself.

She furiously snatched it off the countertop and nearly hurled it into the wall. "How could you be so stupid?"

Amidamaru cleared his throat diplomatically. "Ahem. If I may, Anna-sama, sometimes love makes us do stupid things."

Anna rounded on the spirit. "Love?! I - Don't be ridiculous." She strode past Amidamaru and back out to where Yoh was still lying.

The samurai followed her. "Anna-sama," he said to Anna, who was now kneeling at Yoh's side, "I hesitate to say this, but -"

"Then don't!" Anna shrieked. "What do you know of love, anyway?"

Amidamaru flinched. "I know nothing, Anna-sama. But that is precisely my point."

Anna hadn't been expecting that. She hesitated. "All right. Go on."

"Anna-sama, I, like Yoh-dono, was to have an arranged marriage. Such is the tradition for all samurai. Unlike Yoh-dono, however, I never had the opportunity to meet the one whom I was to marry before my … untimely end. It is all water under the proverbial bridge now, of course. And I have had far more time to ponder the matter than any mortal - perhaps this is just wishful thinking on my part.

"But I cannot help but wonder," Amidamaru continued, "had I met this woman, and had we fallen in love, might I have prolonged my stay on the side of the living? I beg you not to misjudge me, Anna-sama. But aside from being all too short, my life was a vengeful and loveless one. Had I something - someone - to live for, perhaps I would have found a way to live a longer, happier life."

With thoughtful eyes, Anna watched Amidamaru speak, then fall silent. She licked her lips to reply. "But you had Mosuke," she pointed out. "Was he not enough to live for? In fact," she said, with bitterness seeping into her voice now, "you could even argue that your feelings for Mosuke made you weaker. All you had to do in order to live was kill him. But you couldn't bring yourself to, could you? And you died protecting him. Love crippled you."

Amidamaru was so affronted that he found himself addressing Anna as if she were clashing swords with him in a duel. "You are sorely mistaken! Love gave my miserable life meaning. It gave a man in a hopeless situation reason to hope. Who are you to withhold that from Yoh-dono?!"

"Who am I?" Anna blustered, her fury rising to match Amidamaru's. "His future wife, that's who!"

"You dare reserve that title for yourself? Pray tell, what have you done for Yoh-dono to even begin to deserve claiming him as your future husband?"

"I'm saving his life!" Anna roared. "You don't know Yoh like I do. That lazy slacker backpedaled his way into the Shaman Fight. I need to whip him into shape so he doesn't return to me in a coffin! There is no margin for error - and no time to spare on thoughts of love! Love will soften him, and a soft Yoh is a dead Yoh."

"Anna-sama," Amidamaru said, in a more tempered tone than before, "perhaps that is the way you operate. As for myself, I thrive on love. The bond I share with Yoh-dono is far stronger than any oath I ever had to swear to a nobleman in life. It gives me abilities well beyond those I enjoyed while I drew breath."

Amidamaru paused to look earnestly into Anna's eyes. "Anna-sama, can you find it within yourself to trust that Yoh-dono and I both require something more than training to perform our best? Perhaps our full potential will blossom forth if you let yourself fall in love with Yoh-dono."

Anna broke her gaze away from Amidamaru abruptly. She appeared now to be looking down at Yoh. Amidamaru chanced a glance at her bowed head and caught a glimpse of her watery eyes.

"Amidamaru," she said without looking up, "I already am in love with him." Anna sniffled loudly and began to tremble. "I knew he was the one from the day he stood up to my oni. Everything I've seen from that day on has only confirmed what I already knew: I wanted him to marry me someday."

Amidamaru was moved by Anna's unusually emotional speech. "Yoh-dono deserves to know that you feel for him so."

"I - I can't lose him!" Anna yelled through a nose stuffed up with tears. "He's all I have. And I won't let him get complacent. I need to cure him of his laziness by making him work hard for my love. So that he doesn't get himself killed."

Amidamaru looked pensive. "That is fair enough, Anna-sama. Though I would urge caution. One must always ensure that the cure is not worse than the disease."

Anna nodded vaguely, letting Amidamaru's advice rattle around in her head as she turned her attention to the fallen Yoh. "I'm sorry, Yoh. I hope one day you understand why I am the way I am."

Amidamaru looked on in shock as she leaned over Yoh to deposit a long, tender kiss directly on his lips.

"I love you more than life itself, Yoh," she whispered, her tears rolling down her cheeks and onto Yoh's.

"Please forgive me."

The dish towel slid off Yoh's forehead and unfurled. The ice cubes within slid into the crook of his armpit. The sudden surge of cold made Yoh stir. His eyelids remained shut, but he rolled square onto his back and stretched his arms above his head. Anna quickly turned around and wiped her tears onto the hem of her dress before he could see them.

Yoh slowly opened his eyes and looked around. "H - huh? Where am I? Anna? Is that you?"

Anna turned around and glared at Yoh. "Don't scare me like that, Yoh."

"Sorry," Yoh said bashfully, but his easy grin melted into alarm. "Anna, were you crying?"

"I - Of course, you idiot! I thought I had killed you!"

"Well, you won't get rid of me that easy," Yoh said, the grin back on his face. Maybe his brain was still a little foggy from the heat exhaustion, but he did something he would never have dared to do normally.

He drew up to Anna's right side and threw his left arm around her shoulder.

Anna looked stunned. She jerked away reflexively and almost drew back to slap him, but Amidamaru's words still rang in her ears. "Hey," she said instead, taking Yoh's free hand and intertwining her fingers with his. "You did all right with the training today. Under six seconds is a big improvement," she said.

Yoh was still struggling to process this unexpected turn when Anna leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

"Go get some rest, you dummy. I'll call you when dinner is ready."

Yoh positively took flight as he soaked up Anna's affection. But she wasn't done.

"Oh, one more thing, Yoh."

He turned around.

"Don't let this get to your head. You still let me start your training without your water bottle! What's wrong with you, idiot?"

Yoh looked like he was about to apologize, but then he saw Anna's kindly wink.

"Sorry, Anna," he said, "I won't let you do it again."

Amidamaru floated over to Anna's side. Together they watched Yoh bound up the stairs, two at a time, to his room.

"Well, I don't plan on making this a habit," she said once she heard the door slide shut. "Hope you're happy, Amidamaru."

"Not half as happy as Yoh-dono is right now, Anna-sama," he said.

"You're probably right. So what are you gonna do now, Amidamaru? Blab to Yoh about how I secretly love him?"

Amidamaru shook his head. "You made clear the logic behind your decision to be reserved with Yoh-dono. To an extent, I agree with you. Yoh-dono is perhaps less enthusiastic to complete his training than he must be to prevail. In short, your secret is safe with me.

"Besides," he continued, blushing almost imperceptibly, "I would not dare to violate his privacy at this moment."

"Why?" Anna asked.

"Um, well, Anna-sama, it is nothing," he stammered, his blush growing more pronounced. "I simply remember being Yoh-dono's age and, were I in his position, having just been kissed by the woman he loves, I certainly would feel the urge to, er, you know …"

Anna caught on to what Amidamaru was implying just in time to interrupt him. "Eww! Amidamaru, please! Yoh wouldn't do that."

Amidamaru merely gave Anna a skeptical look.

"All right, that does it!" she snapped, stalking towards the stairs.

"No, Anna-sama, I beg of you, stop!"

"Yoh! YOH! I'm coming in!"

"Wha - no, wait, I -"

Slam!

Yoh came to his senses with a jolt. Amidamaru spilled out beside him, just off the edge of the bed.

"Well?" Ren asked pointedly. "Do you see now, Yoh?"

To be continued in chapter 18