I tried to research buses in Japan in the 80s but all I found were the bonnet buses that ended their service in the 70s. However, for this fic, they'll still be used.
There, all caught up to what I have on AO3 as of this morning.
Keiko finished pulling a white T-shirt over Hao's head. The infant pouted but let himself be dressed. Yoh was lying in the crib, waving his little, stubby arms around. He was already dressed in a similar manner.
They had gone another month without any accident. Celebrating three months of age, Keiko needed to seriously start thinking about getting them clothes for the approaching winter. Yes, it was still August. Yes, Keiko had some clothes for them, but the winter would come sooner that year (what a perk to have a family member who could divine the future) and she needed to be prepared.
Looking at Mikihisa's empty futon, she sighed. Her husband hadn't been home in two weeks now, claiming that he had urgent training to attend to. After their argument, Mikihisa started disappearing into the mountains for longer periods of time, but this was the first time that he'd been away for so long, and while Keiko knew that he was able to take care of himself, she was beginning to worry. She was mostly worried that he would give up on his children.
Nevertheless, she dressed up both Hao and Yoh in light summer clothes, and set them down in the pram, fed and rested, to go into the city.
Yoh was given his kitty pacifier. Surprisingly, he hadn't lost this one yet, he seemed rather fond of cats. Both twins stayed silent as she took her purse and rode out with them to the bus stop near the lighthouse. She knew that there would be a bus coming soon. Otherwise, she would never dare to go out in such a heat.
The babies were starting to look around curiously. At three months, their vision improved significantly and they were now able to see further and recognize bright colours. Yoh always smiled and reached out with his hands when Keiko presented him with a swan plushie that she got from a friend. Yoh loved it, and Hao didn't seem interested in it. He didn't seem to be interested in any of the toys Keiko had for them. She needed to find one for him today, she had put that on her mental shopping list and she was determined to browse the toy shop until Hao would choose.
She arrived at the bus stop with plenty of time to spare. Yoh looked around himself, and, bored, spit out his pacifier. Keiko smiled.
"Now now, Yoh, it's not nice to just spit out your pacifier like that. We don't have a spare with us," she chastised him in a light tone, which made Yoh smile at her. He was mastering the social cues. He could recognize the tone of his parents' voices and would act accordingly, disturbed when their tones were confused or angry, or happy when Keiko or Mikihisa spoke in soft, warm tones.
Now, the infant smiled and outstretched his hands to try and take the pacifier again. It was obvious that it was fun for him. Hao turned his head to look at his brother, but then turned it to the other side and rolled his eyes. He couldn't wait until Yoh was at least old enough to stand and speak.
An unfamiliar rattling was soon picked up by his ears. Hao stiffened. A faint memory from this life resurfaced, and he was fairly sure that it was one of those devilish machines that the humans called cars. Hao had been quick to associate cars with enormous noise and pollution to the environment. Another proof that he had to get rid of all humanity. They would poison the planet sooner or later. When he became the shaman king, all of this would change.
Now, Keiko stood up from the bench, seeing a bright coloured bonnet bus approaching. In this modern era, most of these buses had already been retired, but there were some places where they could be found, such as Izumo. Watching as it approached, Hao remembered this sound.
He was a month old. Strong arms held him gently. But suddenly, a loud sound came from the road where a machine like this was driving down the street.
The same rattling now approached him and Hao huffed. He would not let such a strange metal invention scare him. He was Hao Asakura, he was not afraid of such silly things… except as the rattling grew louder, he noticed that the corners of his eyes were filling up with tears.
Hao blinked. What a stupid baby body, afraid of a bus.
The rattling turned at the lighthouse and came to the bus stop, where it came to a halt. Hao looked at Keiko, his usually narrowed eyes wide and big. She noticed his expression and stroked the few hair on his head lovingly.
"It's alright, darling," she cooed. "It's not going to hurt you."
Hao narrowed his eyes again in a typical "are you sure?" look, but Keiko was too busy to notice him now. She was asking the driver if he could help her carry the pram into the bus, and soon, Yoh was the one looking around with wide eyes as the pram was lifted into the air. From this angle, Hao could see a big blue blur. That must've been the ocean. The view disappeared as soon as the pram was put back in a horizontal position, and all he could see was the dull beige ceiling of the bus.
He felt strange being inside of the strange metal creature. He felt unsafe . Whenever he was going somewhere, he was the one in control. He was the one who controlled his oversoul that transported him from one place to another, he was the one who got to choose where to go. Right now, though, his safety and fate were in another person's hands, and a human at that. Hao didn't like that at all. Unsure, he sought out Keiko. She and Yoh were the only fixed things in his life at that very moment, and he felt safe with them.
Keiko sat down but she watched her twins, noting that Yoh didn't seem to be too bothered by the fact that he couldn't control anything in his life. He was happy as long as Keiko was there, smiling at him.
With a tug, the bus started moving, and the rattle returned as the engine began to work again. Keiko maintained a steely grip on the pram even if the brake was on. She wouldn't want to risk it.
Now, Yoh did look around himself with wide eyes, unsure of what was happening. This was all new to him, but as long as he had his mother in his line of vision, he wouldn't cry. Keiko always made it better.
Hao felt uneasy the whole ride. Why couldn't he just take the Spirit of Fire and go by himself the way back? He knew where the Asakura house stood. It would be no problem at all.
Thinking about his plans, he only noticed the pram being lifted from its position when they arrived into the centre of Izumo.
"Thank you," Keiko thanked the driver who was kind enough to help her out again, and she set out, pushing the pram in front of herself.
"See, this is Izumo," she told her sons, who appeared to be listening closely. "I grew up here. Then I moved to Tokyo, where I met your father. But something about this city has always been magical to me."
How sappy, Hao thought, yet decided not to share his thoughts through the telepathy link he shared with her. She could rant about how she liked Izumo as much as she wanted. He didn't care.
"... I hope you'll grow to love it as much as I do," Keiko finished quietly, falling silent. Hao blinked. He didn't realize that her little speech had ended already. As the mother she was, she has taken upon herself to tell her sons everything about life, and had picked up a habit of telling them about everything these past few weeks. Yoh always seemed happy about whatever she was telling, but Hao stayed indifferent. He already knew everything there was to know about life. Well, maybe except for those annoying inventions that humans had come up with in the last four centuries, but he had no need for any of them. He could get by well enough by himself. From his time as a Patch, he remembered how to hand-made stuff. He could easily make anything he needed or oversoul it into existence.
The door of a shop opened, and Keiko came in. From his spot in the pram, Hao couldn't see where they were, only that they were in a crowded place. People's thoughts and wishes invaded his mind, but Hao suppressed those feelings as he tried to make out their destination. The ceiling was grey, full of vents and cables, though Hao didn't know what they were yet.
"Oooh, such cute twins!" someone said, a woman's voice. Keiko looked to the side and politely thanked the mysterious woman. She stuck her face into the pram in an attempt to see them properly. Hao scowled and narrowed his eyes. Yoh, who couldn't see his mother anymore, started wailing. An annoyed sigh of a shop worker could be heard - they were probably tired of screaming children.
Gods, what did I do to deserve this? their thoughts made their way over to Hao, and he inwardly chuckled. Serves them right. He'd wish for Yoh to cry a little longer just to annoy them, but Keiko was on high alert and was already working to calm her younger son down.
"Shh, it's alright, Yoh," she whispered, and soon enough, he calmed down. When she was sure Yoh was calm enough, she gave him the pacifier again and pushed the pram into the children's section.
They were at a clothes shop, Hao now knew. He saw a person lifting up a blouse to check if it would look nice on them, and he was able to deduce it. He saw stands of clothes now, racked by their size and type. But Keiko didn't stop in any of the women's clothing. She was confidently going to the children's section where she stopped, pulling the pram to a side, and started studying the available clothing.
Given that Yoh started crying whenever she was out of his sight, Keiko didn't have many opportunities to go see other clothes, and, for the millionth time that day, she wished that Mikihisa would be there with her. But he was gone, and she was alone for this. She sighed and pulled out a cute T-shirt with a shark print. She showed it to her sons.
"This one is cute, don't you think?" she said. It was a rhetorical question, she wasn't expecting an answer.
Too childish, Hao complained. Keiko bit her lip and looked at the T-shirt again.
"Fine then, this one will be Yoh's," she said and put it into her shopping bag. If Hao didn't like it, too bad. She was sure that Yoh would love it.
In the end, she got some long trousers for them, sweatpants, and some more romper suits. Yoh got the shark T-shirt, another striped one that Hao liked as well, and an orange sweatshirt. Hao got the same one in red, and also a dark blue T-shirt with stars. True, those stars did have smiley faces on them, but Hao felt a connection to it, and, despite the apparent childishness of the clothing, he agreed that it was indeed a cute one.
Not even half an hour later, Yoh was getting impatient. He started kicking his little feet out, wanting to be free of the pram's confines. Hao sighed, and Keiko was quick to reassure him that they would soon go.
She pulled the pram towards the cash desk, and a simple package of two pacifiers caught her attention. Yoh would probably need another one soon, so she didn't hesitate to include those in her purchase.
They exited the clothes shop after Keiko said goodbye to some money in her wallet, and went for another shop. However, Yoh decided that famine had struck in the middle of the journey there and Keiko was forced to find the nearest bench and take him out for nursing. Shielding herself from view, she looked at Hao. Her older child didn't seem to be hungry yet, but she asked him to be sure.
Not hungry, Hao replied. He sounded tired. No wonder; infants spent a lot of their time sleeping, and he and Yoh were breaking records in the amount of time not asleep. The mother assumed that Yoh would probably fall asleep within some time after nursing, but she needed Hao to be awake. How else could she find a toy that he would like?
She quickened her pace on the way to the toy shop. Yoh indeed fell asleep with the pram's soft rocking back and forth as Keiko pushed it on the way there, and going by Hao's yawns, the older twin would soon be in the dreamland too.
Keiko entered the shop. She had a hard time fitting the two-seat pram into the door, however, she wasn't about to let her kids stay outside. For yet another time, she regretted going on this trip alone, without Mikihisa.
Gods know where he is, she thought bitterly. It was to no avail, of course. Thinking such negative thoughts wouldn't get her anywhere, so she focused on the task before her.
Once inside, she made her way to the plushies. She could see that Hao was barely awake by now, barely registering where they were. She pulled him out from the pram and into her arms.
"Which one do you like?" she asked, making sure to have him face the shelf. There were lots of plush animals of different types; soft, velvety whales, fluffy dogs, and cats, some of them looked like foxes or raccoons, and other plushies that were just as cute as the ones shown in the first row.
Hao yawned before his eyes focused on the display. He let his eyes slide from one plush animal to another, finally settling on a cat plushie. A yellowish-brown cat plushie with stripes. As much as he tried to despise him after his second life ended, Hao couldn't bring himself to truly hate Matamune.
He had refused the kitty pacifier a few months ago. First, the memory of the Oni-Goroshi was still fresh in his mind, and second… he wasn't about to lower himself to accept a pathetic pacifier meant for children.
But, now that he had this cute kitten plushie in front of his eyes, he felt a soft tug on his heart. Despite everything that happened, he couldn't help but miss Matamune.
Hao raised his hand to point at it, but he was weak, and his hand fell back to his side.
The yellow cat , he said telepathically instead, and Keiko understood. Reaching out for the plushie, she held it in front of his nose.
"This one? You like this one?" she asked and Hao managed a weak nod, despite his eyelids becoming heavy to the point he was struggling to be awake. Keiko smiled and set him carefully back into the pram, where the boy could finally fall asleep next to his brother.
Keiko selected a few other items and went to pay. Instead of waiting for another bus that wouldn't come for some hours, she decided to go home by herself, pushing the pram in front of her, two sleeping babies inside. It was a beautiful day and everything was calm, perfect conditions for a walk. Loaded with shopping bags, she set out towards home.
When rounding the corner to the Asakura compound, Keiko looked down into the pram to check up on her boys. In his sleep, Hao had managed to curl his little fingers around the cat toy's paws, and he was smiling in his sleep.
Keiko smiled. It was indeed a nice day for a walk.