Chapter 5

Posted April 30, 2006

Akiko smiled as she went about the last of her rounds when she saw Hikari, with Hiro in his wheelchair, she also noticed that Shigure was trotting beside them; which was odd because Hikari knew better than to let her Inugami spirit wander the halls of the hospital. Normal people couldn't see Spirits, but people that were…off…in the head could which had caused a few problems when she entered the mental ward for the first time with Tom; after that she had taken to carrying him in his tablet and had taught Hikari to do the same, wherever she went, and was planning on teaching Ken the same once he was old enough.

Akiko turned to intercept the young teens, hands on her hips and a frown on her normally pretty face. She was about to scold her daughter when she noticed that there was an anxious expression on her daughters face.

"Kaa-san, I need to talk to you. Now; in private. I found out something about Hi-kun that might interest you. It's very important."

Akiko nodded without saying a word and led them to her office; once she got there she closed the door behind them and turned to face her daughter and her patient.

"Kaa-san, I think that Hi-kun might be a Shaman." She said immediately as soon as the door had closed. Akiko blinked. A Shaman? If Hiro was a shaman, then where was Spirit?

"How did you figure that out?" She asked curiously. If he was indeed a Shaman, then they would have…problems…if any of the staff were to find out. Who knows how they would react? They might even ship him off to the mental institute the next town over!

"Well, when we were walking outside, he said that he saw the leaf spirits. I asked him if he could see Shigure and he said he could!" Her daughter exclaimed, pointing to her loyal Inugami that was curled up by the door, eyeing Hiro with his smouldering blue eyes.

"Calm down, Hika-chan." Akiko said to her daughter and then she turned to the boy in the wheel-chair. "Is this true, can you really see Shigure? Show me, please."

Hiro nodded yes and pointed to the Inugami by door.

"I see. You CAN see spirits." Said Akiko, sitting down at her cluttered desk

"Is that…a bad thing?" Asked a concerned Hiro.

"Not necessarily. It just complicates matters. Now; listen very carefully Hiro, it's very important that you do. Whatever you do, you must not reveal that you're a Shaman to someone who doesn't already know about Spirits, not unless you are 100 sure how they'll react to it." Said Akiko sternly.

"Why?" Asked a very confused Hiro.

"Because, quite frankly, most people are terrified of what they don't understand and terrified people can do stupid things they wouldn't normally do. I know this may sound harsh, but it's the truth. I hope you understand; it's for the protection of everyone." Said Akiko sadly.

"I…understand. Thank you for your time." Said Hiro distantly, lost deep in thought on what had just been said to him.

Hikari saw the saddened look on Hiros' face and quickly thought of a plan to cheer him up.

"Ne, Hi-kun, want to go out to the patio and play some card games? I play them with my little brother when something bothering us; it helps me at least. We could play Go Fish? I could teach you Black Jack if you want. We won't be able to play it though; well, we could, but it's better if you play with more people. What do you say, Hi-kun?" Asked a very worried Hikari as she wheeled Hiro out of the office; leaving her mother alone and Shigure silently following them.

"Sure. That would be fun, Hi-chan. Why did she say that, though? What happened to make her think that way?"

"Well, it's not exactly what happened to her per say, but what happened to the family and how she was brought up. Kaa-san actually grew up at the Yamato compound with the rest of the Yamato clan. My Grandfather is head of our family and my uncle, Kaa-sans' older brother, is the heir.

"Long ago, people knew of the existence of Shamans as well as Spirits, although they couldn't see them, and Shamans were well respected and my family grew to be quite powerful. There were stronger clans in Japan –did I mention that my family originates in Japan? – Such as the Asakuras', the Ishikawas' so on and so forth. However, soon, people began fearing Spirits and Shamans. Many Shaman were killed because of it, several clans were totally annihilated; my family only survived because they had moved into the mountains. Ever since then, our family has only rarely revealed our abilities to Outsiders. I, for one, think it's time to change that, but Oji-chan would most likely disagree. He's very conservative, he is. I would probably get, well, it's better not to say what'll happen." Stated Hikari as she took her time to reach her destination; it felt good to talk about her abilities for once.

"How come?" Asked a curious Hiro.

"Er…Well, that's a complicated matter it would be better if I told you later. Let's talk about something else, alright?" Stuttered Hikari nervously.

Hiro remained silent until they reached the patio. Since autumn was on the way, the glass doors leading outside were closed, so as not to let the heat out. Once they arrived there, Hikari picked out a pack of playing cards and taught Hiro the finer points of Go Fish and Blackjack.

So it continued like that for several weeks, Hikari would go to school in the morning and Hiro would stay at the hospital, but he was being tutored by Tom, Akiko's ghost, so he would have something to occupy his time – he was a surprisingly quick learner, but Akiko concluded that he already knew the information from his past life - until Hikari would arrive, at which point they would both, often with Shigure - sometimes the cat Spirit would accompany her, but he had taken a liking to young Ken so it wasn't that often – trailing behind, and they would go to the patio and play cards or do Hikaris' homework. For some odd reason, Hiro was amazingly good with World History. On weekends Hikari would sometimes bring Ken along with her and he took an immediate liking to the long-haired boy, a liking which Hiro returned, after all, who could resist her cute little ototo?

This went on until the beginning of December when the doctors decided that Hiro was healthy enough to begin his physiotherapy, but this was done while Hikari was at school, so all that was lost was an hour or so of Hiros' tutoring a day so it wasn't a big loss.

Sometime near the end of the second week of December, after Akiko and Hikari had finished setting up the table and getting Ken in his chair – with surprisingly little struggle this time round – when she decide to voice an idea that had been bugging her for most of the day.

"Hika-chan, you've become good friends with Hiro-kun, right?" Asked Akiko, as she passed the salad to her daughter.

"Yeah, why do you ask Kaa-san?"

"Well, I know that your Christmas Holidays are coming up soon, next week, right?"

"Yeah, as soon as my exams are done; I think my last exam is next Monday, it's in the morning." Said Hikari, silently wondering where all this was leading too.

"Well, this morning the doctor told me that Hiro-kun is starting to walk properly again and since he has no medical reason to stay, apart from his amnesia, but there's currently nothing that we can do now but wait, the doctor wanted to know if we were interested in letting Hiro-kun stay with us until he gets his memories back. He already knows us and we know that he's Japanese like us." Said Akiko, using her chopsticks to pick it a steamed carrot and popped into her mouth.

Hikari was silent for a moment, thinking it over for a minute.

"Kaa-san…what about-" Started Hikari, but was interrupted by her mothers comment.

"I received word from your Oji-san that it was over, so we have no need to worry about that anymore; as for the rest, we'll deal with it as it comes."

Hikari nodded in understanding.

"Then, Kaa-san, I'd be happy if Hi-kun would stay with us!"

SFT; I'm sorry that it took a while for my new chapter to come out, but I had run into a huge writers block that just wouldn't go away. It was quite odd, actually, I KNEW what I wanted to write; I just didn't know HOW to write it! It was like swimming in molasses! I'm better now, so I hope to get back on my regular schedule, unless something comes up, like I get a job, or I go to college.

Speaking of which; I GOT ACCEPTED INTO COLLEGE! This September I'll be going to Algonquin College in Ottawa Ontario to take a two year course in Professional Writing. Wish me luck!

Thank you; syaoranz gurl, Andrea Nefisto, MaiValentinefan and Ayume Yamashira! Thank you all! Please remember to Read and Review!

P.S; I'm too tired to look over my fic right now to spot for errors, so if you see any, please tell me? Especially if you see Hao instead of Hiro (you have NO IDEA how many times I ended up putting Hao or almost putting it in), I'd really appreciate it!

Disclaimer; if I owned it, do you think I'd be writing fanfiction?