Observer

By: Aviantei

[Twelve Shots of Summer: Another D8 8/12]

[Parameters: "Hapless" + "On the Clock"]

She was an old soul. He had somewhat realized it before, but she was a different type of old soul than he was. She had not completed the cycle of life, death, and rebirth in this world, as he had, but in other places before she'd arrived there, born into a family that would cause her tragedy and in time have her arrive at his side.

It was something he could see now, after his ascension to the position of Shaman King. His own soul had become intertwined with the Great Spirit itself, and that brought a substantial amount of wisdom and knowledge with it. He could now see the different gradients of souls—those who had completed their purification in their respective communes and had entered out into the world anew, those who were clean slates in the purest possible sense, newborn with nothing having ever existed before their shape in this moment, save the pieces of the parents that had allowed their life to form. It wasn't as if he was seeing colors or shapes that indicated this, but the quality of their spirit changed over time—not degrading or improving, but slight enough changes to make it clear how many times the cycle of life had greeted them.

In Hao's case, his soul had its own distinct form: that of over a thousand years of lived experience, faint imprints that indicated his three different living bodies across this time, the rest of his mana the evidence of his time spent training amongst the different variations of hell.

In Aviantei's case, there similarities between them: her soul also bared the scars and marks of someone who had trained in the afterlife with relentless persistence, though the total time was much less than his. Still, she'd had just the one body—in this world.

Under the evidence of her life in this time, there were layers. Hao had assumed there were different worlds beyond this one, and the Great Spirit affirmed that this was true. Aviantei's soul was a native from one of these other places, and it had made its way here into the woman that Hao now spent much of his free time with. She didn't remember, of course, and Hao hadn't mentioned it to her, either, because it didn't matter much, but he was still fascinated by it, the way each place seemed to have its own distinct signature, and those compounded into the different pieces that resonated inside her. Hao didn't care enough to see if it was possible to excavate any memories of who Aviantei had once been, he cared much more for who she was now, but it was still appealing to see how many facets had come together to create the woman he could now say with certainty that he'd fallen for.

Of course, it wasn't as if Aviantei was the only person with a multilayered soul in the world (the Tao and Diethel boys, for one, had some layers that were the slightest bit similar to those Aviantei had, but there hadn't been much need to examine theirs in great detail, either), but hers was his favorite, the sight of her in his awareness enough to capture his attention as he lounged around in the Shaman King's commune, noting the faintest ways the shape of her soul had changed over the years.

There was a faint vibration, a rumble that Hao had come to recognize from the Great Spirit. To say it had a singular will, seeing as it was an amalgamation of all life on the planet, wouldn't be correct. Still, Hao could understand its unique voice, much in the same way he recognized the voices of the elements. At the moment, the message was clear: Shouldn't you be doing work?

"Now, now, don't be like that," Hao said, though there was no real need to speak out loud. Considering that he could no longer use his ability to read minds, he preferred not to make others do the same. "We both know that I can't do anything until we've completed the Flower of Maize, and that's still some time away. Poor me, subjected to such boredom. I must past the time somehow, don't you think?"

The Great Spirit made another noise that was bets described as a disbelieving snort. It, being such a powerful entity, didn't seem have the time for his dramatics, which was just unfortunate. Hao didn't bother to argue, though, instead settling back down to observe Aviantei once more, making sure that everything was going smoothly.

One would think that, being the unified representation of all past life on the planet, the Great Spirit would extend a little more sympathy to an expectant father.

[Author's Notes]

Going way later in the timeline on this one. The prompts are also very loose. But I wanted to do have some doting Hao since I didn't get the chance to do much of that in the main timeline (lol). Reincarnation mechanics are a lot of fun to play around with, in my opinion.

Thanks to She Who Loves Pineapples and IRunWithWolves18 for the review and the follow! You're appreciated as always~.

Next week's prompts will be "Substitute" and "Appreciated in Absence." Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[07.24.2021]