Chapter Four

The voices

"I think he's gone. For the moment." Said Yoh with a small voice.

"Hao?" Whispered Anna as she finished combing her golden hair.

Yoh nodded and put away his toothbrush. He followed her outside the bathroom, into the corridor that connected their bedrooms.

"What do we do now? Do you think he's after revenge?" She said worriedly, leaning into the warm paperwall.

"Nah, I'm afraid he has bigger plans than us. He must be the one responsible for Amidamaru's missing. I don't know what he wants, but I'd rather not wait here to find out."

"What do you wanna do, then?"

"Hmmmm…" Yoh nodges his head to the side and looked at the ceiling as if he could find the answer there. "I dunno. Maybe you could… ahm… do some kind of exorcising?"

"He destroyed the 1080 beads, Yoh." Anna crossed her arms. "It would not work, unless you're hiding a few hundred-thousand dead souls somewhere in your room."

"Ha~ that's true." Yoh laughed embarrassingly, then he slid his door open. Anna couldn't help but have a quick look inside, and was surprised to see perfect tidiness. "I just feel worried for Amidamaru. What could he want with him possibly?" He stepped inside, Anna halted at the doorstep.

"Should we have a call, to Izumo?" She asked. Yoh took a deep sigh, and nodded.

-xxx-

Althought the morning was chilly, cold wind biting hard into the nose of by-passers, the streets of Tokyo were already full of life and noise. People rushed to their workplaces, and schools like every other morning, habitually, without even thinking. It was like they weren't even there, walking around with blind eyes, and dull minds.

Hao liked mornings very much. It was just the perfect time of the day, nightlife already over, but no one awake and aware yet enough to cause trouble. If he could he would stay awake the whole night just to have a moment of peace like this. Luckily, now that he was a ghost, he could do it.

He walked-floated from one rooftop to the next, following the sun until it rose. Then he wandered around, looking for those tiny few patches of green, which surrounded old shrines in the jungle of concrete and metal. Hao remembered how things looked back in his days, everything was totally different now. He sat down on a thick and high tree branch, as he examined the people passing by beyond the old shrine. Was he different too? This new and greedy world certainly required a Hao more resolute than he used to be.

A small boy walked beneath him, with very slow, unsure steps. He kept both his hands on his ears. Then he looked up in front of him, and froze.

"Ha-ha! Found him!" Shouted the other kids, but the boy was already running towards the other direction. He was much younger than his chasers, it took no time for them to catch up.

"Alright." They grabbed him by the hair and pushed to the ground. "C'mon ya bastard!" And dragged him behind the shrine where no one would see. Or so they thought.

"Still not convinced to apologize for your little mischief, eh?" Walked another one out of the shadows. Hao made a sarcastic smile, seems like nothing has changed after all. "Oh well, if you leave me no choice…"

"Leave me alone…!" The boy shouted and managed to free himself. But just as he started running, he fell to his knees.

"No. I don't wanna do it!" He grabbed his head and shut his eyes close as if in pain.

"Whoa, what's goin' on, boss? Is he out of his mind or wha'?"

Boss took a while to snap out of shock, then cleared his throat.

"Better put this poor soul out of his misery. Boys, go!"

"Well said."

They heard an otherworldy voice, and the little bandits froze solid in terror. The tiny rocks scattered in grass started floating, they could feel the air heat up and weigh heavily on them. It was as if time itself stopped flowing as it should. Then in a split second, the air blasted them to the ground. They were so shocked they even forgot to scream, the sound of bones cracking filled the secluded pathway.

The boy stood up on his shake legs, and looked at the others with wide eyes. Then he shook his head and made a relieved half-smile. Seems like the voices left in fear as well.

"Wh-hat… are you…?" He looked at Hao's blurry figure.

But it disappeared just as fast as it came.