Amidamaru sat back in the bed dejectedly. The whole thing had been a test, a ploy to see whether the voodoo had been lying or not. Amidamaru hated setting anyone up, even the person who had caused him so much pain and suffering, but... he had to be sure. He thought he had acted the part out quite well.
But it had lost him everything.
The only person he really cared for – Yoh – was probably never going to speak to him again. And what for? So that he knew whether some stupid voodoo was lying to him or not? Why did he care so much when it would have been easy to just send Anna down there to exorcise him?
Well, at least now he was sure that Katsumi had been telling the truth, maybe not the whole truth, but it was true enough that the voodoo had been sexually harassed by an abusive father. Amidamaru felt like a user. Was it fair to set up someone who had already been through hell? It seemed like Katsumi really loved him.
The least he could do was to apologise to Katsumi. The samurai felt it was owed to the voodoo, especially after the intensity of their interchanges.
After Yoh had slammed out of the room, Katsumi had apologised to Amidamaru and floated off down to the basement, where he now sat in his corner with a dreamy smile and a slightly unfocused look in his eyes, as though he wasn't quite sure where he was, but there was nowhere on earth he would rather be.
Now Amidamaru sat alone on his bed, staring at the ceiling and wondering whether Yoh would ever look at him again. He had betrayed his best friend, his master, his shaman. Yoh was the only life he knew, the only way he had managed to survive his recent ordeals, the only reason he had almost recovered from his mental breakdown. And now... what? Would there just be a blankness? A void where Yoh was once in his arms? A dip in the sheets of the bed where the young shaman's body had once rested?
Amidamaru's head hung, ashamed. He did not deserve to sleep in the bed, beds were for humans.
Everyone knew dogs slept on the floor.
---
Yoh sat in the dining room with Ren, Manta, Horo Horo and Bason, scowling into his drink. He felt betrayed; he had really believed that Amidamaru loved him. Who would have thought that the samurai could be so cold hearted?
He could hardly tell anyone here. Manta would just smirk in a superior way and say "I told you so", referring back to the beginning when he had insisted that Amidamaru was evil. Horo Horo might listen, but everything with the Ainu went straight out of the other ear.
Ren would understand, and Ren would probably be sympathetic. But would the Tao ever look at Yoh again after the shaman admitted he was gay and dating his guardian ghost? Ren had sneered enough when Yoh had said Amidamaru was his friend, what would he do when Yoh said Amidamaru was his lover? It had taken Yoh long enough to become friends with Ren anyway, he wasn't going to throw that away. And Bason? Yoh didn't really know Bason well enough – the Chinese warrior usually stayed out of sight, following a Tao tradition: spirits should be not seen and not heard unless fighting.
At that moment there was a creak as the door swung open, revealing a forlorn looking Amidamaru, who wandered disjointedly towards the kitchen. The samurai froze when he saw Yoh. Yoh gave Amidamaru his dirtiest look and the warrior backed out of the room, blinking the moistness out of his eyes.
"What was all that about?" Manta asked, confused. Horo Horo looked just as confused as the short boy, but there was something else in Ren's eyes. He looked calculating, as though he could see something that the others could not.
"There's something I should know about, isn't there?" The Chinese shaman whispered, pulling Yoh aside from the others. Bason followed behind his master, but at a slight shake of the head from Ren, floated back to the table again.
Yoh stared at Ren for a moment.
"You already know, don't you?" He said at last. "You're such a suspicious bastard that you've already worked it out!"
"Bits of it." Ren admitted. "But there are still quite a few gaping holes that I need you to fill in."
"He's betrayed me." Yoh confessed, feeling quite relieved that Ren seemed to understand and had not disowned Yoh's friendship as soon as he found out the other shaman was a queer. "I feel so used, Ren, I really thought he loved me."
Ren studied Yoh's face closely.
"I'll go and have a word with Amidamaru."
---
Ren met up with Yoh again in the garden, where Yoh was sitting on the decking, watching the clouds.
"I spoke with Amidamaru." The Tao said, and Yoh perked up slightly, watching as the other shaman sat down next to him. "It was quite pitiful, really."
Yoh nodded, aware of how aloof the other could be at times, but it seemed that Ren was serious.
"The first thing I saw when I walked in the room was the blanket on the floor. He was lying underneath it. I asked him what he was doing and the answer was quite saddening." Ren sighed. "He told me that dogs sleep on the floor."
Yoh's heart gave a twang. Was it – could it be possible that he was wrong, that Amidamaru had not betrayed him? It certainly sounded as though he was upset... but... it could all be an act...
"I talked to him about you," Ren continued, "And he told me that he would gladly take his own life a thousand times over if he thought it would repay half the debt he feels is owed to you."
Yoh swallowed, but his resolve hardened at the thought of what Amidamaru had been doing with the voodoo and what else had he done before? The young shaman shook his head, trying to clear away the sudden images that swamped him.
"I promised Amidamaru that I would take your response back to him." Ren told Yoh. "What am I to say to him?"
Yoh hesitated. What could he say that could possibly convey his feelings to his samurai? He was so confused, so mixed up... he thought that he hated Amidamaru, but whenever he tried to imagine his revenge he would get caught up in what the young warrior had been through, back in the cell, and he would realise that he really did love the swordsman.
"Tell him..." the image of the samurai kissing the voodoo sped across Yoh's vision as though played on a movie screen. "Tell him to go fuck himself. I don't want anything to do with him anymore."
Ren nodded sadly.
"As you wish."
---
Katsumi sat in the basement, staring happily at the ceiling. It had been nice, to have a samurai as fit as Amidamaru wave him goodbye from earth, but it was time for him to leave. He did not think he could apologise to Amidamaru; it would surely break the samurai's heart. The young swordsman seemed to really love him.
It had been interesting, being alive. It hadn't been the best experience, of course, what with his father possessing him for all of his adult life, and now he was ready to see what it was like on the other side.
A blinding golden light filled the basement.
---
Amidamaru wandered sadly down to the basement. Yoh's reaction when they had bumped into each other in the dining room had not inspired confidence, neither had the interchange with Ren. Now he was set to break Katsumi's heart. He sighed heavily, leaning on the banister for support as his side wound gave a painful twinge.
He opened the door of the basement, which he didn't even bother to keep locked. Katsumi was there, sitting by the wall. Or, at least, someone who looked a lot like Katsumi, even down to the scar through the eye, but there were subtle differences. There was a sneer playing about the mouth and the eyes were narrow.
"Ah, Amidamaru." The voodoo spat. "We meet again."
Amidamaru swallowed. He knew he was face to face with the very person who had raped him.
"What have you done with him?" The samurai asked at last. The figure in front of him laughed coldly.
"If you are meaning my son, you need not worry. He has merely departed for the spirit world. He was always such a weak, pathetic little thing. I was sometimes ashamed to admit he was my son! I loathed having to inhabit his body, you know. We looked so alike in life, it was almost poetic. I seemed to have picked up little, shall we say, characteristics from him, I've possessed him for so long." One hand indicated the scar across the voodoo's eye.
"You possessed him?" Amidamaru asked in disbelief. Everything was becoming clear – Katsumi had been taking the blame for his father's actions, it had not been him that had tortured Amidamaru, but his father.
"Of course," The voodoo said idly, watching the samurai as though bored. "You have a much stronger will than he ever had and I must say," the smirking form moved fluidly closer to Amidamaru. "you fascinate me."
Amidamaru, almost in a panic, drew one sword and swung it impulsively at the voodoo, who laughed as he dodged out of the way.
"You cannot hurt me!" He gloated. "You are painfully slow. In an instant I could be right here!"
The sinister man was suddenly right by Amidamaru's side. One cold hand was flung upwards to grab Amidamaru's chin, while the other was dragged up the samurai's inner thigh to his crotch. The voodoo thrust his tongue in the young swordsman's mouth, and laughed as the samurai jerked away.
"Delicious." He sneered and Amidamaru's jaw clenched as he again swung his blade. The voodoo jumped back, laughing as the metal sliced the air in front of him.
He reappeared by Amidamaru's side again and grabbed a fistful of the samurai's long silvery hair, wrenching it backwards so far that the warrior squinted, his head pulled back and his neck exposed. With his spare hand, the voodoo began tracing elaborate patterns of red scratches across Amidamaru's throat.
"Beautiful." Was the word he breathed. Amidamaru swung his katana for a third time, but this time the voodoo did not dodge. Instead the blade passed straight through him.
"Fool!" He laughed coldly. "You cannot hurt me, as I have already said!"
"But you are solid!" Amidamaru gasped as the voodoo let go of his hair and he was able to straighten up. The man in front of him ignored this.
"I hear you gave my son the opportunity to slit your throat."
"Only because I was quite sure that he wouldn't." Amidamaru protested. The voodoo grinned, but there was no humour in that smile.
"Be sure that I will not slit your throat either." He hissed, before lunging at the samurai.
---
Yoh had heard the sounds of the fight in the cellar and his first thought was for Amidamaru – what if he's hurt? Or worse? How could I ever forgive myself, he was so upset...
Yoh sprinted down the corridor. Why had he been so stupid? He had been given the opportunity to forgive the samurai, to make it up, but his own arrogance had stepped in and prevented him from doing so. It might now be too late...
He flung the basement door open, and a horrible sight greeted his eyes.
The voodoo was crouched down, Amidamaru's limp body draped across the floor next to him. The samurai's unconscious head was cradled in one hand and his neck bent across the voodoo's knee. The sinister man had bitten into the swordsman's throat and was even now drinking his blood.
"You're a vampire?" Yoh gasped in surprise. The figure in front of him looked up, a trickle of Amidamaru's blood running from his chin. His shirt was soaked with blood and he smirked, revealing one sharp, reddened, gore stained canine.
"You didn't realise?" The voodoo sneered, leaping away and standing upright. Amidamaru's head fell to the floor with a dull thud and lolled to one side. "I gave you so many clues and still you were ignorant?" The voodoo rolled his eyes. "Then you are as fool as the samurai was."
"Don't insult him!" Yoh snapped angrily, biting back the tears. He would not let his enemy see a weakness, even if he had injured Amidamaru so much that there would be no hope of recovery. "Not after everything else you've done!"
"Ah, my boy," There was what might have been called a sigh from the vampire. "You see, the more I drink the more solid I become and the stronger I become. And that is something I have wanted for ten long years."
"Why Amidamaru?" Yoh demanded. There was another sick grin from the figure in front of him, whose red-gold hair was whipping round his face in a cool breeze.
"Because he was strong willed and I can never resist a challenge." There was a derisive half-chuckle. "I wanted to see if I could break him. And I could."
"Then destroying you will be a pleasure!" Yoh snarled, grabbing Amidamaru's sword from where it had fallen from the warrior's limp grasp and swiping wildly at the vampire. Who laughed.
"You are not nearly as good as the samurai was. And even he could not hit me." He mocked. Yoh snarled again, knowing it was true. Without integrating or bonding somehow with Amidamaru, he could not hope to be anywhere near as skilled with a katana as he was in the shaman fights.
There was a hiss from the air behind him and he looked round to see the voodoo lunging at his neck. It was only Yoh's quickness that saved his life. Like lightning, he flung his head to one side, inhaling in pain as the vampire's teeth sunk in to his shoulder.
Every time I drink I become stronger. Was that what he had said? Was it possible to turn the vampire's greatest strength against him?
Yoh rested his hand on the vampire's head, making it seem like he was trying to push the other man away. Instead he gripped the sword, waiting as the voodoo feasted on his blood, waiting as he slowly became more solid. Then, at last, the time came. One thought flitted across Yoh's mind.
For you, Amidamaru.
The young shaman swung Amidamaru's sword round. The vampire was taken by surprise, and was now solid. Nothing could stop the blow, powered by Yoh's love for Amidamaru, and the symbol of hatred, the person who had hurt the samurai so much, was flung against the wall, cut almost in two, unconscious.
Yoh stared at the figure, chest heaving, before suddenly coming to his senses and rushing over to his samurai. He stroked the matted hair gently, silently apologising. Was it too late to forgive him? Would he ever be able to make up with the samurai, to confess that he still loved him?
Amidamaru's eyes flickered; his lips moved.
"I'm sorry Yoh..." He gasped hoarsely. "Forgive me..."
"Of course I forgive you..." The shaman cradled the swordsman's head in his lap, two tiny droplets falling from his eyes to splash on the warrior's cheeks. "But why were you so foolish?"
"It wasn't him... there are two of them... father and son... he was the son... he wasn't lying... the one that... hurt me... he's the father..." Amidamaru could not get more than a few syllables out in one breath. Yoh clasped his injured shoulder as it flared in pain.
Slowly, the shaman stood up and offered one hand to Amidamaru, who took it and used it to lever himself to a standing position, leaning heavily on Yoh.
"I've realised something." Amidamaru rasped, "it is one thing that this man has taught me. Life has no rules and honour is dead, you must do what you can to survive, and you must seize any opportunity that presents itself." The samurai paused. ""If you want me, Yoh... I am still willing to be yours. To follow your every command, to go with you to hell and back if I have to... Yoh, I want you to be my master..."
"Of course, Amidamaru... anything..." Yoh breathed. There was a pause as Amidamaru tried to swallow, his torn, bloody throat grating painfully as he spoke.
Then both embraced, clutching each other tightly, as though they would never let go, as though they would protect each other come what may. Yoh buried his head into Amidamaru's wiry, sinewy chest, while the samurai bent his head down over the shaman. All of their past arguments were suddenly unimportant, as though they had never existed. Their tears were no longer of suffering or sadness, anger or anguish, but of happiness.
"I missed you." Amidamaru sobbed. Yoh snuggled deeper into the samurai, pressing his cheek to the skin. He could hear the warrior's heartbeat, as regular as it was weak, but growing steadily stronger with every passing second. The samurai's powers of recovery certainly were admirable.
"It's my fault, Ami-chan." The young shaman insisted. "I was only so angry because I love you. I should have forgiven you sooner."
"You were right to hate me." Amidamaru said softly. "I betrayed your trust, to someone who everyone thought had raped me. You had a reason to be angry."
Both shaman and samurai stood, wrapped tightly in each other's arms, in some state of euphoria, both just relieved that they could put their anger behind them and once again unite as one.