Wall
Tamamura Tamao may see everyone's future but her own.
It is a trick that she does not despise but could live without at the same time, one that has both its uses and its despairs, for she has seen danger and warned of it; she has seen deaths and yet has been unable to avert many of them. It makes her wonder why whatever spirits have gifted her bother, if even she sees herself as too weak to correct her own visions.
As a result, when she is near still water, or shiny metal, or a mirror, she half-holds her breath, and tries, more than anything, not to think of ghosts.
There are many in her past that still come sometimes, during the night, which is why she prefers to sit outside in her short robe and count the infinite distance of the stars. Stars are pure, uninterested in human affairs; gods in their own right. She would drown herself in their light before letting the specters back in, for she is even more afraid to see the past.
Tamamura Tamao conquers that fear only for the name of Asakura.
She wishes at first that he would not keep such strange company (the frighteningly tall man with the impossible hairstyle, the Ainu with his impossible appetite, the clever little one – well, perhaps Oyamada Manta is not so bad, the one with the hair like a needle and the tiger-eyes who looks upon her and sees nothing, nothing, nothing.) But then she realizes that they are loud enough in body and strong enough in spirit to scare even the most persistent of her mind-fears out of her.
Not that Yoh could not do that before with a touch oh a hand on her shoulder, a flash of a smile as he told her, time and again, "everything will work out fine." But now Yoh is growing into his future title of Shaman King – she has no doubt that he will rise above the others, in time, even without the scry to help – and he has less time for her, though his smiles are still impartial and his eyes are always kind when they meet hers.
For that little, she strains every fiber of her spirit over the sacred bowl, screams to danger and harm to show themselves to her. They have done so once, and they will do so again; 'tall one and small one' not dead but still out there, somewhere, waiting to strike with claw and fire, and perhaps, even worse foes of all sizes lurking in the shadows.
She loses her balance, and a little water spills, with an 'oh!' she reaches out, as though she would scoop it back in with her fingers, but pauses as the glassy surface flickers.
She Sees, but it is not what she expects.
He is happy, there, his face bathed in a light far more clear than the sun's, and she forgets that she is kneeling in a kitchen seeing things in spilled liquid, as it is, too caught up in watching him smile.
It is different, that smile. It seems to be for one, not many, but the smudge of shadow at the edge of the picture where he looks is faint and featureless, yielding neither face nor a hint as to whom it might be.
Could it...?
There is a creak through the floorboards and her vision vanishes, as though it had never been, which in a way is true. She leaps up.
"Yoh-sama—"
"Yoh."
He is smiling, just like he had just a bare space of seconds ago, only this time it is the real thing. And it is not for her, but for the third person that has entered the genkan. She remembers that Kyouyama Anna had decided to stay in today, stops in her tracks. Turns away. Retreats. Maybe their confused eyes follow her, but for once she doesn't care that she's in the center of their attention. She doesn't want to be, and all for such a stupid, silly thing.
The water, devoid of the golden image, ripples with her tears.
A/N: Aren't you guys surprised to see me back here? D Somebody shoot me before I depress the characters any further. But, yes, I got a foot back in the Mankin fandom and can write some. Poor Tamao. But when in comes down to her and Anna...no contest.
bOw-doWn-tO-KeiKO – Yes, Ren got reincarnated as a kittycat. Hee. And...I accidentally used the dub name for that place, dammit. blizzard blue – I still wander around the Mankin fandom on occasion, and have more stories tucked away and waiting to be written – thank you! Unintentional Nightmare – Yuurei is a bit of a cutesy story, ne? Mahojin – I didn't want to have Ren die and Horo angsting all the way, so, kitty to the rescue! And thanks for the story Yes, Ren, do what? love-chibis-kyuubi – Don't cry! Oo; And thank you! Psycho Rooster – Oh, yesss, we shall write more RenHoroRen, shan't we, Preciousss? Don't break your head waiting for it, though...or the wall...
See you guys next update! ) –waves-