-Bows a million times- PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! Dx This was supposed to be posted a long time ago, like two weeks, but computer lab regulations at the Japanese camp I was at slowed the writing process down A LOT. Sorry...-gets shot-
Notes: Hope you like the baby's name xD
Disclaimer: I do not own the anime/manga Shaman King. The story and its characters were created by Hiroyuki Takei. All original characters made specifically for this fanfiction and any tie-in/spinoff pieces were created by Jezebel Parks.
A Gift of Love – Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Milky Charm of a Chandelier
Though the spirit never appeared in Tao Castle again, the effect it had had on the young scion was apparent.
He never fully regained his pure personality. While he was kind and helpful, he was, at times, harsh and cold to those around him, with the exception of his parents. Lien rarely received such treatment, but it wasn't unheard of.
A few months later, after the last Tao child was born, the family visited their friends in Japan. It was there that they all saw how the young Ren was beginning to follow in the more benign footsteps of his father.
"Sit down and let us see him!"
"Yeah! Come on, Auntie Pin-Mei! Sit!"
Pin-Mei smiled and calmly sat in the chair Seta brought for her. The Usui siblings surrounded her, their parents behind them, as Pin-Mei looked to the baby leaning against her shoulder. Ren soon came to stand beside her, the twins in tow. The baby reached its tiny hand out to him, but Pin-Mei turned her child so that he sat on her lap facing its hosts. It looked at them curiously with large amber eyes.
"He looks nothing like either of you," HoroHoro observed, bending down so he was at the tot's level. The baby smacked him on the nose. He sighed. "Just as violent as his father, though."
Ren patted the baby's head gently. "Good boy. Keep it up." He turned his attention to the baby's victim. "Jun has green hair, so it's not that far fetched for him to have it."
"I get it," Rong said. She bent down and waved at the baby. "Hey there, cutie. And what's your name?"
Pin-Mei broke into a nervous smile. "Well...His name is...um..."
"I picked it," Ren interrupted. "That was the deal. She could have one more child if I got to name it."
Rong stood. "This should be grand. You probably gave him something sophisticated or patriotic, like after a great warrior or emperor or something, right?"
He gave a prideful smirk. "His name is Níu-Năi."
Her eyes widened. "Níu...Năi? You named him Níu-Năi?"
"What is it, Rong?" HoroHoro asked, eager to know the meaning of the boy's name. "Is he named after the most powerful warrior? The most benevolent emperor?" He heard some stifled laughter from behind him, and turned to see Seta and Xue rolling on the ground in a fit of giggles. "What is it?"
"Níu-Năi means 'milk', HoHo," Rong said stiffly.
The Ainu looked at his friend as if he had three heads. "You named your son 'Milk'? What kind of sick bastard are you?" He looked at Pin-Mei. "And how could you let him do it? This is your son! He only gets one name and you let this jerk name him after his favorite drink?"
"It was either that or San," the mother replied calmly as she waved her hands in front of her son's face.
HoroHoro was still fuming. "Couldn't you have come up with some masculine form of Pin-Mei or something? She did the same for you with Lien!"
"There isn't one," she said, playing with her son, seemingly ignoring the rest of the conversation. "Plus, Ren wouldn't go that far." She gently shook the baby's tiny hands. "He's not that type of man, no he isn't!"
Ren gave an annoyed sigh. "Besides, what do you care about what I name my children anyway? I could have given him a very inappropriate name, but I didn't."
"And 'Milk' is appropriate?"
"Well, he's not lactose intolerant."
The moment he said it, he secretly bit his tongue. He had forgotten that his other son was within earshot.
The boy turned and began walking away. "Come on, Lien."
His sister nervously looked back and forth between her brother and father, ultimately choosing to follow her twin across the yard. "Okay..."
The baby reached out to them, upset. "Bwabwa! Sasa!" When they kept going, he started whimpering, then crying. As his cries radiated throughout the yard, a girl, seemingly ten, ran up to them, a bottle in her hands.
"Here, Milady," she said softly.
Pin-Mei nodded and took it from her and gave it to her son. The infant instantly calmed down, closing its eyes as it relaxed. His mother sighed.
"Thank you for that, Huan," she said. "It would have taken a while for me to go and get him one."
HoroHoro blinked. "You could have just breastfed him."
Ren glared at him menacingly. "My wife doesn't give free shows."
Xue, in another giggling fit, turned to see Yoh, Anna, and Hana walking toward them. Her eyes lit up. "Hana!"
The adults watched as Xue bolted up to the Asakura heir and pounced on him, sending them both to the ground. She purred as she nuzzled against him.
"I haven't seen you in so long, Hana!"
The boy sighed. "It's been less than a week."
"I know! That's a lot of hours!"
Yoh laughed as he and Anna made their way over to the Tao and Usui families. "She sure gets attached easily," he said.
HoroHoro sighed. "Yeah. Reminds me of her mother."
Rong glared at him. "The hell is that supposed to mean?"
He stuck his tongue out at her. "You were the one who begged me have sex with you before I left."
"What?"
"I need you, Horokeu. Please! I'll never fall in love again, Horokeu! Only you, Horokeu! You're so big, Horokeu! Faster Horokeu faster!"
Some knuckles cracked. Without warning, Rong punched him clear across the yard, her face beet red. Their son stared as she stomped after him to continue beating him, then looked up at Pin-Mei, who was trying to stifle her laughter.
"Auntie Pin-Mei, what are they talking about?"
She froze. She looked up at Ren, who said nothing, then blushed as she turned back to the curious boy.
"Well…um…that is…um…when a man and a women love each other very much, they-,"
"Pin-Mei, he's much too young for 'the talk'," Ren interjected. "Don't worry; I'm sure he'll get it when Rong and HoroHoro feel he's ready…surely before you did."
She pretended to pout. "You're still so mean to me sometimes."
"You like it and you know it."
He was right.
Yoh looked at the small girl standing next to Pin-Mei. Her dark brown hair was kept back in a bun, sans a few pieces in the front on either side of her head. She wore black servant attire made of cotton; a long dress with long sleeves and an apron.
"I haven't seen this girl before. Who is she?"
Pin-Mei smiled faintly and turned to her. "This is Qiao Huan," she said slowly. The girl smiled and curtsied.
The moment the surname left Pin-Mei's lips, Rong's eyes widened and she glared at the child. Still, she said nothing.
"Funny story, really," Pin-Mei went on, a fake chuckle trying to shield her discomfort. "We found her on our doorstep during a rainstorm...We were puzzled as to how she navigated through the mountains, especially with how slippery they must have been at the time. But honestly, how could we just throw her back out into the eye of the storm?"
"So now I serve the Tao family in order to thank them for saving my life," Huan said.
The death glare of the former Wei warrior had only intensified as the details surrounding the sudden appearance of Huan had come to light. She smirked and went to go stand in front of the girl.
"So, tell me, Huan, where is your Wei maidservant?" she asked with faux curiosity.
The girl looked shocked for a moment, but quickly gathered herself. "But I was told that the Wei family only served the Fan family."
Rong gave her a haunting smile. "We came to serve the Fan family because Suo had, at one time, had her own maidservant. Of course she was killed through that woman's insanity…But if you are from the Qiao family, Huan, where is your maidservant? Hm?"
"I was never assigned one,"
"Impossible. Junbao is a few years older than you and would have been the perfect age to serve you."
The girl quivered.
"Why aren't you at the Qiao family castle right now? Why did they cast you out?"
"I…I don't know!"
"Maybe they sensed something about you as you grew up. Maybe their reasoning was perfectly logical. Maybe…Just maybe you're here to harm my former lady."
The girl's eyes filled with tears. "Lady Pin-Mei…I…I'm going to get the baby lord's blanket and…other things…" She shifted away from Rong and ran back from whence she had come. Her attacker still had a look of murderous intent in her eyes as she turned to the Tao mother.
"I don't trust the little bitch," she said. "It's too much of a coincidence."
Pin-Mei looked at the ground sadly. Ren snapped his head away. "At least someone finally sees things my way." He looked down at her. "You're too trusting, Pin-Mei. Too trusting, and too soft-hearted. That girl appeared out of nowhere in some of the most severe weather conditions, and you ignore that small part of you that knows she's just a wolf in sheep's clothing and let her take care of the only children you have. Do you want something that happened twelve years ago to happen to them? Do you want them to suffer like you did? Like we all did that night?"
She just bowed her head. "I'm sorry…I just kept thinking that if something had ever happened, and Lien had ever wound up in a situation like Huan's, that I would want someone to take care of her. That's why I wanted to take her in."
Ren looked like he was about to unleash some more heated words upon her when Yoh got between them.
"It really could just be a weird coincidence," he said. "I mean, couldn't there be another Qiao family somewhere in China? There's nothing that says that she has to be related to Suo."
Ren glared at him, his nose only inches away from Yoh's. "Of course it's easy for you to say something like that. You just had to watch the nightmare. I had to live it."
He slipped past him and over to where his children were going through fighting forms. Yoh looked back at the two remaining Taos. Pin-Mei's eyes told him that she was obviously troubled by the whole situation.
"It's tearing us apart," she whispered. "We're constantly fighting about her, about getting rid of her or just killing her. Now we sometimes get into fights about the smallest and most trivial things. I don't know what to do…I'm worried that it will come down to a "Me or her" situation."
"Who would you pick?" HoroHoro asked.
"Ren, of course," she replied quickly. "But I would still feel bad about doing away with Huan. There's nothing more I hate than having someone else's fate in my hands."
"Then you never should have had children," Anna said sharply. "Until they leave the nest, their lives will always be in your hands."
Yoh glanced at her as if to say that she was being harsh, but Pin-Mei gave a sad smile. "I suppose you're right." Her gaze trailed over to Ren and the twins, each holding a Kwan Dao. Everyone else looked as well.
HoroHoro's mouth dropped. "Woah, where'd he get those? And when?"
"They're those extendable ones," Pin-Mei said softly. "You know Ren; he's naked without it." She smiled. "Even though 'Little Ren' is still cold to most, he's immersed in learning everything that his father wants to teach him. I…I think it makes Ren happy to know that he's able to pass his abilities down to his children…even if Lien does it only to earn her the approval of the two of them."
Rong looked at her. "What about your abilities? Will you be passing down your fan fighting techniques to Lien?"
Her former mistress shook her head. "No. I intend to let the Fan family fighting style die when I do so that it will never have the chance of falling into evil hands ever again. I won't allow anyone else to be hurt by it."
"Don't be so overly dramatic," Anna said sighing. "You could just simply say that you don't want to teach her."
"Yeah…Sorry."
"Okay, now go through the third form." Ren and Lien nodded. Their father led them into a clear part of the yard, allowing Pin-Mei and the others to marvel at their skills.
Before they could start, Huan ran up to them. "Lady Lien, I have something for you." When Lien turned to her, Huan smiled and held up a simple charm with a bell and a small piece of metal engraved with kanji attached to a red tassel. She tied it to the hilt of the blade as she spoke. "It's for good luck," she reasoned. She smiled. "Do your best, Milady."
Lien gave her a small smile. She knew that her father didn't trust this girl, but knew that she nonetheless had to be polite and accept the gift. "Thank you." Her voice was slightly shaky.
"Lien, get over here," Ren commanded. His daughter shuffled over to him, knowing that to disobey him was the same as begging for the wrath of a god. He pointed to a space on the ground near his son. "Do the form."
She nodded and joined her brother, who was already on the ground on one knee, signifying that he was ready. She knelt down about ten feet away from him, her Kwan Dao on the ground to her right.
I can do this…Papa…Niisama…I'll make you proud of me.
The twins grabbed their weapons and jumped up, their legs spread. Their blades were waved about as they took various battle poses and thrusted at imaginary enemies. They soon moved on to more flowing, acrobatic movements while the adults watched from about thirty feet away.
"Ren's abilities are quite impressive," Rong observed. "It would seem that he finds doing such complicated movements boring." She gave a shaky smile as she saw Lien almost drop her weapon.
HoroHoro mimicked her. "At least she tries hard."
Beside them, Ren nodded. "She struggles, but she doesn't give in. She does it until she gets it right."
Pin-Mei looked up at him. There was a near unnoticeable smile on his face. Since that fateful night only a few months before, he had begun treating Lien more like a daughter he cherished instead of a child that he was hardly ever warm to. He would carry her to bed if she fell asleep elsewhere when he used to wake her up and make her walk by herself. When she hurt herself, he wouldn't wait for Pin-Mei or a female servant to patch her up, but would do it himself. When she was upset, he was more empathetic and willing to hold her. He made more of an effort to fake a laugh at her childish sense of humor.
Pin-Mei remembered feeling a little sad at the fact that she and Lien weren't together as often as before, but she found solace in her two sons, who were constantly at her side; one for obvious reasons, the other simply because he wanted to be.
Her train of thought was lost as Níu-Năi whimpered and then started wailing. She tried to calm him by rocking him and cooing, but nothing seemed to work. Defeated, she produced a pacifier whose base resembled the face of a cow, and stuck it in his mouth. His cries hadn't phased the two performers, who were near the end of their routine. Lien nearly sighed with relief as she twirled her weapon around her body.
Just one more move.
She threw the Kwan Dao high up into the air as Ren did the same. Xue and Seta clapped their hands in wide-eyed amazement as the adults looked up as well.
The elder Ren squinted his eyes. The charm on Lien's weapon seemed to glow as if sunlight was hitting it. He looked around and noticed that the sun was currently hidden behind a cloud. He frowned and looked back at his daughter, biting the inside of his lip in an attempt to figure out what was going on.
As her brother's blade somersaulted in the air and began to gracefully fall back into his hands, hers seemed to freeze for a moment. It suddenly turned vertically with its blade pointing at the ground, then shot down toward the small girl.
If the moment had been caught in a single frame, it would have shown a mother, her youngest child in her arms, trying to run to her daughter, but being pushed back by her husband, who was desperately trying to run and save the girl. The brother seemed to be concentrating on catching his weapon as his sister stood with her eyes wide and her hand still raised. With her father too far away to reach her in time and her brother, the only one close enough to save her, seemingly oblivious to the danger she was it, it seemed that little Lien was doomed.
I can't move...I'm going to die...! As the blade approached her, she shut her eyes.
She heard the sound of clanging of steel and felt a faint wind above her head. Lien opened her eyes as she looked up to find that her Kwan Dao had been deterred by the swift actions of her brother. He had caught the opposing blade with his own and then bucked it into the air. With a small leap, he caught it, then slammed both weapons into the ground, breathing heavily.
He slowly looked up at the spectators. His eyes focused on his father, waiting for his reaction. After a few moment, Ren subtly nodded at his son, signifying approval of his actions. The boy looked down and closed his eyes as Pin-Mei handed Níu-Năi to Rong and dashed over to Lien. She hugged her, then cradled her daughter's face in her hands.
"You have no idea how scared I was," she whispered. "Coming close to losing you again so soon...it's enough to kill me."
"Lien."
Pin-Mei turned to see Lien's savior coming up behind her. She smiled and hugged him as well.
"Ren, I can't thank you enough-,"
Her son slipped from her grasp. Instead, he walked over to Lien and slapped her across the face. The girl stumbled back a few steps, holding her left cheek, her eyes wide and fixed on her brother.
"You fool. I told you that you shouldn't learn the Kwan Dao. Someone like you will only end up killing themselves with something like that in their grasp." He looked down at her with scornful yellow eyes. "It's only because Father has developed a soft spot for you that he allowed you to train with us. If you continue this charade, you'll hurt yourself. What's worse, you'll hold me back more than you already have."
"Ren!" Pin-Mei cried as she came up behind him. She grabbed his wrist. "Don't hit your sister and don't talk like that towards her!" But her words were ignored as he shook her off.
"Promise me that you'll never touch a Kwan Dao again," he said firmly.
Lien looked frightened, but despite her quivering legs, tried to stand tall. "No. I...I like it so I'm gonna keep learning it."
His eyes narrowed and he shoved her to the ground. He snapped his fingers and his Kwan Dao sailed over to him. He grasped it and then pointed the blade at his sister. She flinched.
"See? You're too afraid to wield a weapon like this. You cower in fear even when I, your brother, point it at you." He nudged it closer to her.
"Ren, that's enough," his father's voice came from across the yard.
His son glanced at him, the dropped his tool and fell to his knees in front of Lien. He leaned forward to rest his forehead on her shoulder. She looked at him quizzically.
"Niisama, what are you doing?"
His voice came as a whisper. "I'm sorry I got angry. I was just scared. I don't want anything to happen to you. Just please...give up the Kwan Dao. I don't want to have to worry about you anymore."
Lien looked at the ground sadly. She knew that the only reason she had wanted to learn it was in order to gain respect from her father and brother. If one was telling her to give it up, there wasn't much she could do.
"...Okay, Niisama..."
A few days later, when the Tao family had returned home, the near-tragic incident had the adults on edge.
"Ren, put Houraiken away!"
"Get the hell out of my way, Pin-Mei! I'm ending this tonight! I'm not giving that little bitch any more chances to hurt our children!"
She grasped his wrist before he could pass her, then put her other hand on the fist that was tightly clenching the Tao family heirloom. "It could have just been a mistake! She was too far away to have anything to do with the accident!"
His eyes flashed angrily. "The charm on Lien's Kwan Dao flashed despite the fact that the sun was behind a patch of clouds," he said fiercely. "Huan gave Lien that charm, and, despite the fact that Lien is sometimes clumsy while doing her forms, she never messed up that badly, especially at the ending toss! The only logical explanation is that Huan cursed the charm before giving it to her, and caused the weapon to go haywire and try to kill her. I don't know about you, but I won't allow my daughter to be endangered like that again. She'd be dead by now if Ren hadn't been there to save her."
"But we don't know for sure if that's what caused it! It could just be a big-"
"ENOUGH! I'm so goddamn sick of you trying to find the good in people in situations like this!" Ren yelled. His voice went slightly high as he attempted to imitate her voice. "'I'm sure she didn't mean to kill our daughter, honest! I'm sure she's really a good person! Oh Ren you're such a villain for trying to protect our children from a cold-blooded killer! How could you?'"
As he went on, Pin-Mei's hands loosened until they had retracted in order come below her mouth. Tears slowly began filling her eyes. Ren scoffed at her.
"That's right, cry! Make me out to be the bad guy! I'm the cold-blooded one in this situation, aren't I? Shame on me!"
She shook her head furiously, then tried to reach out to him. "No...That's not it...Ren, just please..."
He slapped her hand away. "I'm done with this, Pin-Mei," he said in a low voice. "You were better when you were more obedient and didn't try to stop me from protecting my children. Stop this nonsense. I won't stand for it." He looked at his left hand, the one that held Houraiken, then briskly walked away, leaving her in the middle of the hall.
What the hell is wrong with her? he thought. Here I am, trying to protect the family, and she just decided that I'm picking on an innocent child that she herself regrets bringing into this house. Just when I thought I knew everything there is to know about her...
The noise of straining metal stopped him. At first, he was just listening, trying to figure out what it was. Then he turned and his eyes zeroed in on the chandelier that hung over his wife. The bolts keeping it attached to the ceiling were breaking. He looked at the ceiling and then at Pin-Mei, who was staring at the ground in anguish. As the last of the bolts came undone, he started sprinting toward her.
Calling out to her would only cause panic, so he kept silent. The entire fixture of light fell from above as he lunged and captured her in his arms, sending them both to floor. He positioned his body over hers as the magnificent display of gold and light crashed to the floor only a few meters behind them. Glass shattered and flew about the room, whizzing by Ren's body and cutting it as Pin-Mei stared up at him, bewildered.
She didn't know if what she was seeing was real. Her head had hit the floor, and, unbeknownst to either of them, was bleeding a little. The pain it had caused in addition to the cloudy feeling she was experiencing was making her doubt the happenings around her. But when Ren went to sit up and a collection of glass rolled off his back, she knew that it was all too impossible to deny.
He sat there, looking down at her and breathing heavily, a few cuts on his face where the glass had reached him. She reached up to touch his wounds, allowing the blood to decorate her fingertips. She brought them down again so she, even with her current cloudy vision, could see them. He could see the pain in her eyes as she realized that her fingers were covered in blood.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "This is my fault."
He looked off to the side. "It's alright. Don't beat yourself up over it."
"If I hadn't-"
"I said don't beat yourself up over it."
She stopped, then looked down at herself. "You're right...I'm sorry."
There was a long pause. Hurried footsteps of servants could be heard from down the hall. No doubt coming in order to investigate the commotion. Finally, Ren sighed.
"I'm going to wait on Huan," he said.
Pin-Mei looked up at him, surprised.
"I'll wait until I can, without a doubt, say that she's out to hurt us. And at that time, I'll decide whether or not I'll kill her or simply throw her off a cliff."
She sat up and clutched him. "Thank you."
He sighed again. "You're so troublesome, you know that?"
She smiled. "Yes. I apologize."
One last sigh. "Let's just go to bed, alright?" She nodded against his chest.
As they settled in under the blankets, she refused to let him go.
"I promise I'm not going anywhere," he said in a tired voice.
"Last time you said that, I didn't see you for a month,"
"I mean it this time, alright?"
After a moment, she nodded, a few tears falling on his chest. "Just...let's not fight anymore, okay? I...I don't want anything to come out of it."
He punched her lightly. "After all we've been through, you think I'd give up on you so easily? Foolish woman."
"...Ren?"
He looked down at her. "Wha-?"
She kissed him. "I love you."
He smirked, slightly amazed that she was able to catch him off guard.
"I love you too."
As she nuzzled against his chest, Ren looked out of the corner of his eye at the light seeping in from under the door to their room. He saw the shadows of someone walking away.