I hope you all like this chapter!
Angelwings- thank you for reviewing and I'm very happy you liked it...sorry about the OC thing...heh heh...I like to make my own characters!
This chapter is dedicated to you! Angelwings
Standard disclaimers apply
Chapter Sixteen
(Keiko)
Walking into Genkai's dojo I called out for Yukina but she didn't come, I knew that they had a girl named Reiko staying with them because she was injured but I didn't know how bad.
"YUKINA! Get me a paper bag!" I heard Genkai yell from somewhere in the house so I followed her voice and found disaster area. A girl with white hair was collapsed on a bed with Yukina and Genkai standing over her as Hiei watched from the nearest windowsill.
"Is this a bad time?" I asked and they turned to look at me.
"No, actually it's the perfect time," Genkai informed me. "Can you and Yukina go to Reiko's place and get her glasses? They should be in the drawer of her nightstand, my guess is that without her glasses she's nearly blind."
"Sure, I don't mind, do you need anything else while I'm out?" I questioned.
"Some more bandages, antiseptics and pain relievers," Genkai added on to the list. "Reiko doesn't heal normally so we have to take the long route with her."
"Ok," I made a mental note and smiled at Yukina. "Let's go!" With a small bow to Genkai Yukina followed me out to the car and sat down in the passenger seat. "Is something wrong? You seem kind of quite Yukina."
"I don't know, it's just I'm not sure how to act around Reiko. We were friends when she was Hikari but is Hikari the same person as Reiko? I don't know and she's too ill to really understand what I mean or to answer any questions." Yukina sighed, "I'm so confused."
"Well when you look at it like that of course it's confusing," I told her as I navigated the streets. "What you need to think of is that when Reiko was on the run fearing for her life at every turn you were there for her as a friend. Maybe the person that you knew as Hikari isn't exactly who Reiko is but the thing is, is that Hikari is Reiko therefore the main parts are the same. Now which way to her house?"
"Down this road." Yukina pointed to the street and I pulled onto it, "That one's hers." Turning into the drive I unbuckled as did Yukina and we went into the house. Easily Yukina led us to Reiko's room where we found her glasses right where Genkai had told us they would be. Out of curiosity I put them on and was surprised at how bad Reiko's vision was, everything was magnified like a hundred times and almost instantly I began to develop a headache.
"Reiko's sight is awful!" I handed the glasses to Yukina who slipped them into her pocket. "Poor thing, she's almost blind!"
"She always said she had the same vision as a bat." Yukina relayed to me, "Why don't we grab some of her things so that she can feel more at home at Genkai's?"
"Sounds like a plan to me, what do you think she would want?" I looked around the pretty much Spartan house.
"Some clothes, her set of keys, her deck of playing cards, a few books…and whatever else I come up with." Yukina ticked the things off on her fingers as she listed them. We went over to her closet and opened it to find the smallest collection of clothes I have ever seen in my life. There was three pairs of jeans, two blue one black; seven tops of which five were black and there rest were dark colors; one pair of sneakers; two sweatshirts and one vest. Reaching out I pulled out a pair of jeans and found that they had been worn so much that there were rips and tears everywhere and it wasn't like they were made that way. Her shirts were all stained and the colors were off from what they were originally and the sweatshirts had holes in the cuffs.
"Wow…I say we skip bringing her, her wardrobe there is nothing wearable in here." I closed the door as Yukina agreed and we turned to the bookshelf in the corner where it was the opposite of her closet. The books were almost falling off the shelves due to the shear amount of them all.
"How are we to know which ones she likes?" Yukina wondered staring at the daunting challenge.
"Go for the ones that have creased spines and earmarked pages," I suggested because that was the usual way to know if someone liked the book. In the end after a lot of debate we settled on a few Julie Garwood books, some Christine Feehan, Les Miserable by Victor Hugo, The Phantom of the Opera and the graphic novel series called FAKE. After dumping those in the car we went back in and hunted down her set of keys and a deck of card and picked up on the way a small journal that we thought might be her diary and a hat that Yukina said was her favorite. In the store we picked up what Genkai wanted along with a few extra items for Reiko like some of her favorite foods, a couple magazines and thing of flowers.
"Thanks for helping Keiko," Yukina said on our way back to Genkai's. "I feel much better after talking to you."
"Good, I'm glad I was able to help." I smiled at her as we pulled into the compound and commenced hauling everything to the house. Once everything was in we went into Reiko's room and found her sitting up listening to what Genkai was saying.
"Reiko, you had a panic attack, which resulted in you hyperventilating. When you hyperventilate if you breathe into a brown paper lunch bag it regulates your breathing. Do you understand?"
"Yes," Reiko answered her gaze fixed on the opposite wall and not on Genkai.
"Do you know what triggered the attack?" Genkai prompted.
"Yes," Reiko responded but she didn't elaborate.
"Could you tell me?" Genkai was losing her patience and fast.
"What do you want with me? What do you want to know? If it has to do with Spirit World I'm not going to tell you anything. Why don't you just let me die? Life has no value anymore." Reiko didn't remove her eyes from the spot she was staring at.
"I don't want anything from you, I know all I need to know. The reason you are here is because Koenma wants you to get better and he thought you would heal better if you were here," Genkai informed her.
"Koenma's an asshole," Reiko stated. "All he wants me for is his precious missions." Hiei who was standing in the shadows snorted his approval.
"That may be, I don't know, all I know is that I am supposed to make sure you get better and Hiei is your protector until you are able to fend for yourself." Genkai folded her arms and stared at her, "So what caused the attack?"
"Hiei," Reiko revealed as she closed her eyes and bowed her head.
"Why are you scared of him? He hasn't done anything to you."
"I know that! He's the one who saved me from that hellhole! It's not like I can control it! All my brain computes is that he is a guy and I start flipping out! Do you think I like it?" Reiko snapped at her as she tensed up, yet still she made no eye contact whatsoever.
"I'm not accusing you of doing it on purpose, I'm trying to understand," Genkai returned in about the same tone.
"None of you could possibly understand." Reiko covered her face with her hands, "Just go away, leave me alone." Genkai stood up and left as we quietly came in and set her stuff down; we put her glasses next to her and left also closing the door behind us softly.
"Do think she'll be ok?" Yukina asked Genkai hesitantly.
"I don't know there are many factors involved in this than we know and it's not like we can go in her mind and fix the damage. She has a huge barrier around her psyche and to break through it with force would most probably kill her." Genkai shook her head, "She needs time, and she needs someone who she can talk to and who'll understand what's going on in her mind."
I hope you enjoyed! R&R
