Onward with the story....
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Chapter 3
She could not sleep. There were many things that bothered her mind. The camp, her new charge…she wondered whether she could make a good chaperon. She did not know whether the children's parents were willing to allow her to do so. She was a youkai after all and humans did not accept youkais easily. Cho Hakkai was different. He was a youkai returned as people's hero. Togenkyo's townfolks cheered for him when he and the other Sanzo-ikkous came back after defeating Gyumao's henchmen. Yaone followed him unwillingly, not because she was his captive, rather it's because she had nobody to depend on. Her immediate family moved away, thinking that she was dead. Lirin-sama's dead. And so were Kougaiji-sama and Dokugakuji. She was the only survivor. It was easy for Hakkai to start his work as a schoolteacher for Genjo Sanzo, an influential priest had recommended him. But it was not easy for Yaone to build a new life. No humans wanted to accept a youkai as their healer and they did not trust youkais completely to prescribe medicine to them. Youkais, though were able to live in Togenkyo, were in a small number. Working as a shopkeeper was the only option for her. She left the Sanzo-ikkou secretly a few months to a new town which had a larger populations of youkais, only to find that Hakkai and Goyjo moved there also. Goku stayed with Sanzo and visited Hakkai and Goyjo once a while.
Yaone shifted uneasily on the bed. It's not because of the bed that she could not sleep properly. Maybe a little wine could help her to sleep. And what better ways to drink wine than to drink it on the roof and watch the nigh stars glittering at clear sky. Taking her bottle of wine, Yaone climbed up to the roof. There she sat down and sipped a small cup of wine.
Yaone sighed at the thought of Cho Hakkai. She really could not describe him completely. A mysterious guy. Handsome one who always smiles. Often pretended to be clueless and dumb but proved to be a man of talents and skills, who knew what was going on and what he had to do. She had underestimated him many times, as a friend and as an enemy. She thought she left him without a clue, but he managed to track her. When she asked him why he was here in a new place, in a new town, he laughed dopily and told her that the authorities sent him here He told her that he wanted to teach youkai children. But drunkard Goyjo accidentaly told her that she was the main reason he moved here. And now, Yaone wondered what she often felt about the brunette schoolteacher. Did she feel the same feelings that she had towards Kougaiji-sama? Was it different? Yes, it was different. The feelings she had for Kougaiji-sama was different than the feelings she had for Hakkai. Yes, Kougaiji-sama once saved her from Hyakugan-Moh and took her as his pharmacist. Kougaiji-sama did not love her at the first sight. If he did, he would have easily added her as a member of his harem. And she respected him for his leadership and fighting skills, and stayed loyal to him because of his issue with his freezed mom. But she sometimes afraid to see him in his anger and loathed to see him, especially when she informed him bad news regarding the Sanzo-ikkou and his sister.
Hakkai was so different than Kougaiji-sama. He was gentle, would not get angry and lose his temper easily. His kindness and politeness had made her unknowingly wanting to see him, even in fights. When she left him to search a new life, did she not think about him often? Was it love? To want to see that person again and again? To see him smile? But…she could not help removing the uncomfortable feelings that the 'love' she had for Hakkai might go unrequited. Especially when it involved Kana. Although Goyjo mentioned that Kana was his sister, she could not help but to suspect that there were something more to it than brother-sister relationship. Almost all the pictures painted by Hakkai were either pictures of the famous Sanzo-ikkou or Kana and him. None of her.
Yaone-chan, Yaone-chan, poor you thought Yaone grimly, as she gulped the whole cup of wine and then to pour another cup again..
"One shouldn't drink all the wine alone. Especially when the night sky is full of stars," came a clear man's voice. Yaone turned and looked down. The habitual smilling face appeared at the roof edge suddenly and his hand waved innocently at her, "I can smell wine from here." Hakkai must had come and checked on her.
"I could share if you have your own cup," she said dryly. He climbed up carefully and handed her his cup. "Nice wine," he commented after sipping it. "It's monkey wine with something added in it, isn't it?" he asked after squating beside her.
Yaone nodded. "It's monkey wine mixed with fermented scorpion poison," she explained. "Don't worry. It's not poisonous. It just numb the mind."
Hakkai chuckled, "Your knowledge on poison is really useful, isn't it."
A pregnant moment of silence settled between the two of them. Yaone sighed as she rested her chin on her palm, watching the stars. "My father once told me that each stars in the sky resemble a person on earth. When a star moved away or disappeared, it only meant that he left his friends or died." As she pointed to a lonely bright star, she said, "That's me there." Moving her finger slightly towards to another star, "And that's you, Hakkai-san."
"Really?" Hakkai inquired politely, pretending to be interested, looking at the stars she had pointed. "What made you say that?"
Yaone gave a bitter laugh. "That sole star used to have three stars always beside her. Now, they had moved away from her. Just like how Kougaiji-sama, Lirin-sama and Dokugakuji left me," she said before finishing her cup. "And your star is surrounded by four stars; Sanzo, Goku, Goyjo and Kana."
He made a quiet revelation, "Kana's dead."
Yaone was stunned. She looked upon his face long, searching for any signs of lies. She knew that he was capable of jokes. But not this time. The smile mask was no longer on his face. Instead, she could clearly see grief, pain and regret smoldering his face slowly.
Slowly it dawned on her. "The pictures…you painted them because you missed her," she said slowly.
He nodded slowly, "Yes, sometimes when I looked hard, I could see her image in front of me. That's why I draw them, to remember her."
Her heart felt a tug of envy when she remembered images of those beautiful pictures and portraits of Kana. It was so carefully painted as if the artist had truly loved the object of his art. Yet Yaone chosed to push it aside, telling to herself that Kana was gone and that she need not worry about it anymore. Worry that someone would take away Hakkai from her.
"How did she died?" she slowly asked. She knew it was wrong for her to ask, yet she could not resist wanting to know what happened to that woman that it affected Hakkai so badly.
"Hyakugan-Moh. My villagers sold her to Hyakugan-Moh as an appeasing sacrifice. She was raped before I could do anything to save her. When I got to her, she commited suicide in front of me," he said, voice breaking. His face twisted abnormally, like as if he was going to cry.
She kept quiet. She could not tell him that she also was sold to Hyakugan-Moh by her father, except that time she narrowly escaped with the help of Kougaiji-sama. It would break his heart to know someone and not Kana managed to get freed from Hyakugan-Moh. Instead, she rubbed his back gently and offered to pour wine into his cup.
He drank a few cups of wine before breaking down to cry. Taking pity on him, Yaone hugged Hakkai and rocked him with a soothing lullaby. Very soon his crying subsided as he slept a dreamless sleep on Yaone's bossom, courtesy of her drugged wine.
After a while, Yaone laid Hakkai gently on the floor, cushioning his head on a pillow and covering him with the sleeping blanket that she took from the room. As she lied down on the bare floor, beside him and watched him sleep, she began to ponder about Kana, Hakkai's emotions and hers. Soon the drug also took effect on her as she slowly drifted to sleep.
*TBC*
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Pls ignore the grammar. I do.
And don't forget to criticize my fic. Heck, I welcome flames,
as I don't really like where this story is going to.