The Taste of Crimson
Chapter Six
Disclaimer: Saiyuki and all associated characters were created by Minekura Kazuya. I am making no money from this and am merely using the characters and setting for storytelling purposes.
Author's Note: The scene with Gojyo's powers is something I've had written out and planned since early August. In the Shunrei story, the manga and anime version conflict slightly in one scene. In this case, I'm going with the anime (watches as all of her Author's Note readers drop dead from shock). In the anime, Hakkai grabs Gojyo's shoulder while he's having a flashback of his mother, and Gojyo snarls "Don't touch me!" at him. I also go with the anime in the Shunrei story in regards to the color of Gojyo's pubic hair (he implies it's red while in the manga, Goku claims it's black. Red appeals more to my sense of aesthetics), but that really has nothing to do with this chapter at all.
Dokugaku watched anxiously as Yaone treated the little girl's injuries. The instant they'd seen him with the soaked, unconscious child, Yaone had grabbed her medical supplies and Kougaiji had started a fire.
He often wondered how he, who had murdered his own mentally ill mother before abandoning a traumatized child, had ended up with such kind, caring people. He hated working for Gyokumen Koushu, hated what her revival attempts were doing to most of the youkai, and hated the fact that being her on side made him an enemy to his own little brother. Despite all of that, though, he wouldn't change anything about his life if it meant having different companions. Kougaiji, Yaone, and Lirin were as much his family as Gojyo.
Lirin's voice suddenly broke him out of his musings. "Hey, Yaone, is she gonna be okay?" she asked, crouching beside the younger girl and peering at her intently.
"I believe so, Lady Lirin," the healer replied distractedly as she worked on her small patient. She had been stripped out of her wet clothes and bundled in the warm blanket Yaone kept with her other supplies. "She has cracked ribs and multiple bruises, most of them likely sustained from hitting rocks and other debris in the river. If she was human, I don't think she would have survived."
Lirin blinked and looked at the child's round ears. Then she gently lifted a lock of blood-red hair and glanced at Dokugaku. "Is she a halfie like your brother, Doku?"
"Yep, and half-breeds are tough little brats, so she'll be fine," the swordsman said, ruffling Lirin's hair. The words were meant to reassure himself as much as the youkai girl. Half-breeds were tough like he'd said, and she'd probably heal, but he didn't know if she'd be fine. At least one of the bruises, the one on her cheek, was older than the rest of her injuries and had been made by an adult's hand. He had seen enough bruises like that on another cute little redhead to recognize them.
"Hee…." Lirin grinned up at him, then looked over at Kougaiji. "Can we keep her, big brother? She's a lot more littler than me, so I'd get to boss her around an' take care of her an' stuff!"
The youkai prince frowned, coming over to them with a cup of the medicated tea Yaone had asked him to brew. "I don't think it would be a good idea to take her back to Houtou Castle, Lirin."
"Awww…." Lirin's shoulder's slumped with dejection.
Yaone took the cup of tea from Kougaiji with a murmured "thank you" and lifted her patient up into a half-sitting position. She tipped small amounts of tea into the unconscious child's mouth, careful to keep each portion small enough that her body would automatically swallow it.
"We can't just leave her here, either," Dokugaku said with a frown of his own as he considered their options. "And I doubt there are any humans around who would take kindly to an injured child left on their doorstep by a group of youkai."
"Oh, I know!" Lirin exclaimed, leaping to her feet in excitement. "We could take her to Baldy Sanzo!"
"Mr. Hakkai's healing ability would certainly be helpful, but I don't think that would be a very good idea, Lady Lirin," Yaone said, most of her attention still focused on the child.
"Why not?" Lirin asked, pouting.
"There are assassins after them," Kougaiji reminded her.
"Oh yeah." She plopped to the ground, sitting cross-legged with her arms across her chest.
"She'll likely be awake by morning, Lord Kougaiji. It would be best to keep her here until then," Yaone suggested, settling the girl back down.
"Very well. We'll stay here for the night and figure out what's best for her in the morning."
Gojyo blinked and squinted at his cards, trying to make the eight aces and two Queens of Spades in both of his left hands turn back into four aces and a queen in what he was sure was the only left hand he had.
The squinting helped with the double vision, but didn't do anything one way or the other for the increasing pain in his head. The bones of his skull ached and there was a weird feeling of pressure. He didn't think that was a very good sign, but there was no point in worrying the monkey about it.
"Four of a kind," he said around his cigarette, showing his cards.
"Awww, man! You're cheating, aren't you?" Goku accused, throwing down a pair of twos, a pair of sevens, and a king.
Gojyo snorted in disgust. "Like I'd really have to cheat against the likes of you."
"Oh, goodie, sleeping beauty has finally woken his lazy ass up," Sanzo said dryly from the mouth of the cave. Gojyo glanced at him as he shuffled the deck and shuddered, immediately squinting his eyes again. As much as he loved pissing the monk off, the world definitely did not need two of him. And speaking of pissing Sanzo off….
Gojyo smirked and blew him a kiss. "I always knew you thought I was sexy."
Sanzo twitched and ground his teeth. "I'd hit you with the fan for that, but I don't want to contribute to any possible brain damage. You're dumb enough as it is."
"Bastard," the redhead growled.
"Now, now, children, it's been a rough night," Hakkai said, ducking into the cave with an armload of wood. He flashed a relieved smile at Gojyo. "Let's all try to behave, shall we?"
Gojyo watched him as he put the wood down and tended to the fire. Two Hakkais wasn't bad. It meant two best friends and two guys to cook and clean up after him. On the other hand, it also meant twice as much nagging. He shuddered at that thought. Squinting again was definitely a good idea.
Hakkai frowned and knelt in front of him. "Stop squinting and tell me how many fingers I'm holding up," he ordered, holding up three fingers.
"Three," Gojyo immediately answered.
"Uh-huh… and how many fingers are you actually seeing?"
"Three on that hand and three on that hand," Gojyo reluctantly admitted, pointing a little to the left of Hakkai's raised hand, then to the right of it.
He choked back a scream as the brunet youkai suddenly grabbed the sides of his head, the pain and pressure increasing to nearly unbearable levels as the man's chi flowed through him. Then everything faded to a vague, throbbing ache, and his vision was normal again.
"Better now?" Hakkai asked, absently petting Gojyo's blood-matted hair.
The half-breed grinned. "Yeah. Thanks, Mom," he said flippantly.
Hakkai stiffened, his eyes narrowing. Then he stood up, visibly forcing himself to look cheerful. "Well, that's a relief."
Gojyo blinked at him in confusion. "What is it? Did I say something wrong?"
"It's nothing, Gojyo. It's just a bit stuffy in here. I'm going out for some air." He gave a smile that was probably meant to be reassuring before heading back out.
"Wait, Hakkai!" Gojyo cursed and got to his feet, suddenly realizing what had upset his friend. He glanced over at Sanzo. "And you think I'm the dumb one?"
"You are dumb," Sanzo said, lighting a Marlboro. "Hakkai's just being stupidly oversensitive."
"Tch." Gojyo started to run his hand through his hair, then jerked it back. "Iiiewwghk, I really need a shower," he muttered before following after Hakkai.
The other man hadn't gone far and was sitting on a log, staring up at the stars. Gojyo sat beside him, lighting a cigarette and quietly smoking for several moments while he gathered his thoughts. "There are a couple of things we need to talk about. First of all, I don't need you making excuses for me."
"Retsuko had the right to know what she'd done to upset you," Hakkai murmured, still looking up at the sky.
"I was pissed at her for loving her stepkid. She sure as hell wasn't the one in the wrong," Gojyo said angrily, though it wasn't Hakkai he was really angry at. "And all she really needed to know is that while I'm generally an easy-going, friendly kind of guy, I can be a prickly asshole when it comes to certain things. That would have explained everything without making me look pathetic."
"Surviving severe child abuse doesn't make you pathetic," Hakkai said quietly, finally looking at him.
"Oh yes, please excuse poor Gojyo's occasional bouts of jackassery. He's like that sometimes because his mommy didn't love him enough," Gojyo said mockingly. "In fact, his mommy loved him about as much as a case of crabs. Well, probably less, actually, since society generally doesn't guilt people into keeping crotch bugs. By golly, Hakkai, you're right. That doesn't make me sound pathetic at all. What was I thinking?"
"I didn't say anything like that, and you know it." Hakkai's voice was neutral. Gojyo suspected the careful tone was masking pity rather than anger, but he pretended otherwise. He couldn't stand pity.
"Well, duh, you're not that crude," he said, waving his cigarette dismissively before taking another drag. "You said something about Mom not being amicable toward me."
Hakkai looked away and sighed. "What else did you think we needed to talk about?"
Gojyo exhaled a stream of smoke before answering. "I may not be one of the great thinkers of the world, but I'm not as dumb as Sanzo likes to think. I'm fully aware of the fact that Mom was insane. I also know how normal mothers act. They take care of their kids and fuss over them. I was comparing you to moms in general, not my screwed up one in particular."
"I know that," Hakkai said softly. He sighed again. "I don't think it would have bothered me at any other time. But you had nightmares two nights in a row about her, and then there was everything that happened tonight…."
"Two nights in a row?" Even if Hakkai somehow knew about the fucked up nightmares he'd been having before Goku pulled him out of them, there had been a night between them and the one involving the woman from the inn.
Hakkai nodded. "Right before your bout of sleep-walking, you were mumbling about her."
"Ah. Don't remember that one."
They sat in silence for a couple of minutes after that, Gojyo finishing his cigarette and lighting a new one. "She was a great woman, you know. Before the insanity," he said, lost in thought. "She pretty much went insane from the moment I came into her life, so I didn't experience her greatness firsthand. Villagers like to gossip, though, especially when they don't realize there's a little child of taboo nearby, hiding from the other kids.
"Sha Yumeka was a young, beautiful woman. She was kind and compassionate, and she was a schoolteacher. She had a well-behaved little boy and a wonderful husband. A really, really wonderful husband. Everyone adored him, and he volunteered a lot of his time to helping a group of people driven from their hometown by a nasty clan of youkai.
"Thirteen months after they showed up, a group from that clan came after them while my dad was there visiting the young lady he'd fallen in love with. Or lust, more likely. Actually, I don't even know if she was young. She could have been middle-aged, I guess. Probably not all old and wrinkly though.
"Anyway, when Mom and some of the other villagers got there, most of the humans had been slaughtered and a good portion of the youkai as well. Dad had apparently lost it and gone all out on the bastards. They found him half-dead, curled protectively around a month old baby with red hair and eyes. He handed me over to Mom, said I was his, and made her promise to take care of me before he went and died the rest of the way.
"All in one night, she gained the burden of taking care of her husband's half-breed bastard and lost almost everything important in her life. She lost the man she loved more than life itself right after finding out he'd cheated on her and then she lost the respect and support of the entire village before losing her job and her sanity."
Hakkai frowned. "The village turned against her before she went insane?"
"Yeah. Dad was even more loved than Mom. If he cheated on her, they figured it must have been her fault. They apparently didn't even consider the idea that he was just a horny bastard who couldn't keep it in his pants when he saw a nice piece of ass."
He stopped to take a hit of nicotine, Hakkai waiting patiently for him to continue. He felt bad for pouring out all of his crap on the other man, but after what had happened with Retsuko and Kyoko, he felt the need to talk. Hakkai was the only one who would really listen and understand.
"The asshole villagers left her to care for a five-year-old and an infant all by herself, with no one to comfort her other than her son. I think she tried to love me at first. When I was really little, the fact that I looked like an off-colored, human version of Dad wasn't as obvious, and sometimes she would pat me on the head and stuff. She still cried every time she looked at me, though, and she'd occasionally have screaming fits where she'd start hitting me. Those got a lot more frequent as I got older."
He paused again for another long drag of his cigarette. "If not for those early signs of affection, I probably would have eventually learned to just close my heart."
"If that had happened, you'd be a very different person," Hakkai pointed out.
"Maybe," Gojyo agreed. "But is who I am really all that great?"
"Yes!" Hakkai said fiercely.
Gojyo blinked at him, startled by his vehemence. "You're crazy, you know that, right?"
"Perhaps I am, but does that make me wrong?" Hakkai challenged.
Gojyo closed his eyes, smiling slightly. "Who knows?" He finished his cigarette and tossed away the butt. "Come on, let's go back to the cave."
As she slowly swam toward consciousness, the first thing Kyoko became aware of was pain. Her eyes fluttered open, focusing on the concerned face of a pretty youkai woman. Fear surged through her, and she scrambled to her feet despite the pain, screaming in terror.
"Wait, you shouldn't be moving around like that!" the woman called out in alarm just as a male voice roared, "What's going on? Where's the danger?"
Kyoko stared at the source of the voice, a tall man with a sword, before her attention was caught and held by a flash of red.
"I don't sense anyone else around. I think she's just scared of us." The man who spoke had long red hair, reddish-purple eyes, and youkai markings that included three curved lines on his left cheek. He smiled reassuringly at her. "You don't have to worry about us. We won't hurt you."
The man with the red hair and eyes and the two curved scars on his left cheek waves at her, smiling brightly. "You don't have to worry about us, princess," he says warmly. "We wouldn't even think of hurting the mother of such a cute little lady."
Their words were only vaguely similar, as was their appearance, but it was enough. With a strangled sob, Kyoko threw herself at the man, ignoring the pain the sudden movement caused.
Caught off guard, he stumbled backwards, falling on his rear with the little girl in his lap. She buried her head against his chest, breathing in his scent. He smelled of fire and sun-warmed earth rather than rain and cigarettes, but it was a good, calming smell.
"It seems you have an admirer, Kou," the swordsman said with a deep chuckle.
Kyoko turned to look at him, squeaking in alarm when the face of a teenage girl suddenly appeared in her line of sight. The older girl was squatting in front of her, grinning hugely.
"Hi, I'm Lirin! That's my big brother you're sitting on, but I'll share him with you today, since you're hurt. What's your name?"
"K-Kyoko," she stuttered nervously, a little bit of her fear dissipating. She felt safe with the redheaded man, and the youkai girl seemed friendly.
"Well, as much as it pleases me that you've learned to share, Lirin, big brother wants to get up off the ground," Kougaiji said dryly.
"I'll take the child, Lord Kougaiji," Yaone offered, slowly approaching them in an attempt to keep from frightening the girl.
Kougaiji frowned as Kyoko whimpered and clung tighter to him. He held up a hand to stop the healer. "Why are you comfortable with me but scared of Yaone?"
"You look a little like my friend," she said quietly. She glanced apprehensively at Yaone. "An' she's a youkai lady."
"Was the person who hurt you a youkai lady?" Dokugaku asked gently, kneeling down to look her in the eyes.
She nodded, watching him warily. Something about him seemed oddly familiar, but she couldn't place it. "Mo… my stepmommy hit me."
"Shit!" Dokugaku swore harshly. He closed his eyes, feeling sick. Why did fate always send him redheads with abusive stepmothers? He hadn't been able to save Gojyo from his mother, not really, and there was nothing he could do to protect Kou from the twisted whims of Gyokumen Koushu. Maybe the third time would be the charm. Maybe this one he could save.
He opened his eyes to see Kyoko looking at him in puzzlement. Crap. He'd cussed in front of her. She'd probably never heard language like that before. "I'm sor-"
"You sound like my friend," she said, cutting him off. "He said that too when he found out Mommy hit me. An' it sounded the same." She carefully shifted in Kougaiji's lap and sniffed Dokugaku, the powerful sense of smell she'd inherited from her forest youkai father telling her things most youkai would have missed. "You smell kinda like him, too. Like rain and things that don't have names in people words. He smells a lot like cigarettes though."
The three adults exchanged glances at that, and Kougaiji sighed. "And who do we all know who looks a little bit like me, would smell somewhat like Dokugaku, and smokes like a chimney? She's been with the Sanzo Party."
Lirin blinked. "Sanzo?" She frowned. "Baldy doesn't look like you at all, except he has purple eyes. And why would he smell like Doku? That doesn't make any sense."
"He means my little brother," Dokugaku explained patiently. Lirin was cute and lively, but thinking wasn't her strong point.
"Oh, yeah!" Lirin laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "Hee, hee, I forgot that he smokes."
Dokugaku ruffled her hair and turned his attention back to Kyoko. The little girl was staring at him wide-eyed. "You're Gojyo's big brother?"
"Yep," he confirmed, smiling as a lot of the tension left her small frame. "If you were with Gojyo and his friends, how did you end up in the river?"
The girl looked down sadly, breaking eye contact. "Mo…. Stepmo-" She bit her lip, wanting to call the only mother she had ever known what she had always called her, but not sure if it was right to do it anymore. She took a deep breath and started over. "Mommy went crazy and tried to hurt me. Gojyo got between us, and she hit him over and over with her spear." She raised and lowered her arm several times in demonstration. "He fell down, and she kept hitting him. I tried to help, but Mommy knocked me into the river."
Dokugaku stood abruptly with a carefully blank expression. "I'm sorry, Kyoko, I have to go for a few minutes."
He strode off into the denser area of woods, ignoring the worried calls. Once he was far enough away not to be heard, he snarled in rage and punched a tree before leaning his forehead against it. He could picture it all too clearly. Gojyo on the ground, years of abuse leaving him helpless to defend himself while a formless youkai woman raised a spear above her head. He shuddered as the mental image changed. His brother was young again, and it was his mother standing over him with that goddamned axe….
Soft footsteps pulled him out of his memories. "Dokugaku?" Yaone lightly touched his shoulder, offering support. "Gojyo is a good fighter. He would have easily taken out a single youkai woman."
"No." Dokugaku turned, looking at her bleakly. "He wouldn't have been able to defend himself against a crazed youkai woman with a half-breed stepchild. If she was enough like Mother, he would have just passively let her kill him."
"Maybe so, but his friends wouldn't have allowed it," Yaone pointed out firmly. "Your brother is fine."
He took a deep, shuddering breath as he thought that over. "Yeah, you're right," he said shakily. "Gojyo's probably fine."
Gojyo, Goku decided as he watched the redhead, was not fine, no matter what he kept saying to the contrary. The kappa hadn't played with him at all that morning, not even fighting with him over breakfast. And now he was just sitting there, watching the scenery go by and smoking while the wind of the jeep's passage made his ponytail sway.
Goku huffed and looked up at the sky. It was going to rain, which meant Hakkai and Sanzo would be moody too. Well, there was nothing he could do about them, but maybe he could cheer Gojyo up a little bit. He rummaged through the sack at his feet, pulling out his last apple. The thought of giving away his precious food hurt, but not as much as seeing his usual playmate so sad.
"You can have this, if you want," he said, holding out the bright red fruit.
Gojyo glanced at him, then looked back out at the landscape. "No thanks, Goku, I'm not hungry," he said absently, taking a puff of his cigarette.
Goku's shoulders slumped in dejection. "Gojyo…."
The older man sighed and reached out to ruffle his hair. "Quit worrying about me, little monkey. I just caught a case of PMS from your owner or something. I'll be fine in a bit."
Sanzo twitched in the front seat, but gave no other indication that he'd heard.
"Oh, I see," Goku murmured. He thought about that for a minute. "What's PMS?"
"It stands for Perverted Mule Syndrome," Sanzo answered before Gojyo could say anything. "And he sure as hell didn't get it from me."
"What the fuck?" Gojyo said indignantly, leaning forward in his seat. "Did you just call me a mule?"
Sanzo glanced back at him and smirked. "You're as stubborn as one, and I have no trouble believing that one of your parents was a horse and the other a donkey. It would certainly explain the way you smell."
"Fuck you, bastard," the redhead growled. "It stands for Pissyass Monk Syndrome, and your unholy ass is definitely suffering from it."
"Leave my ass out of your perverted fantasies," Sanzo sneered.
"Stop the jeep, Hakkai," Gojyo snarled. "I'm gonna murder me a monk!"
The brunet youkai laughed. "Now, now, Gojyo, that wouldn't be a very good idea. Besides, we have more important things to consider. It's going to rain soon, and with all of the excitement of the past few days, I forgot to buy a new rain tarp."
"What's wrong with the one we have now?" Sanzo asked, frowning as he fished his pack of Marlboros from his robe. His lighter refused to catch, and Gojyo automatically lit it for him despite their previous arguing.
"Well, it has a rather large hole," Hakkai explained.
"Fuck," Gojyo cursed, throwing himself back against his seat and sucking harshly at his Hi-Lite. "Is there enough left intact for me to use? You can just drop me off somewhere around the nearest village, then go in and get some inn rooms."
Hakkai and Sanzo exchanged meaningful glances before nearly going off into a ditch forced the brunet to pay attention to his driving again. "I really don't think we should separate," he said.
"Yeah, well, take that up with the villagers," Gojyo said sourly. "They aren't going to like me any more than the people at the last town I went into."
"Don't worry, I have a plan," Hakkai said cheerfully, glancing back and smiling.
"I'm not going to like this plan, am I?" the half-breed asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"Nonsense, it's a wonderful idea!" Hakkai insisted brightly, turning his attention back to his driving.
"Aw, crap," Gojyo muttered. "I'm really not going to like this plan."
"Fuck damn it, I hate this plan!" Gojyo snarled as he stumbled for what seemed like the hundredth time. They were walking along a nearly deserted street in what was apparently the rockiest village in the world, and Goku's constant, muttered litany of "I'm hungry" was starting to drive him crazy.
Maybe he'll shut up if I shove one of these damn rocks in his mouth.
"Are you all right?" Hakkai asked, squeezing his arm reassuringly.
"Am I all right?" Gojyo repeated incredulously. He slowly turned his head toward the other man, his fiery glare of death hidden by the length of brown cloth tied over his eyes. "There's soot in my hair, and my eyes are covered up by my fuckin' headband. Do you think I'm all right?"
"Now, now, Gojyo, calm down. It's only until we get rooms at the inn. You don't really want to be stuck camping in the woods when the rain comes, do you?"
"Unlike you and the moodyass monk, I like rain." He could actually feel the coming storm like a warm, faint tingle in the roots of his hair, especially the thin locks in front that stood out from his head no matter how hard he tried to make them hang down.
He smiled bitterly. As a child, he had always hoped the rain would wash away the red of his hair and eyes, cleansing him of the burden of his father's infidelity and letting him escape from what he was. Now, if he got caught in the rain, it would wash away his disguise, revealing his mixed heritage.
"Shut up and keep walking, useless kappa!" Sanzo snapped from somewhere ahead of them.
"Damn it, I'm sick of you ordering me around, you grumpy man-bitch!"
BANG!
Gojyo grunted and fell against Hakkai as the human-turned-youkai grabbed him around the middle and pulled him out of harm's way.
"Sanzo!" Hakkai's voice was sharp with reproach as he steadied his friend. "It isn't fair to shoot at him when he can't see."
Gojyo smirked and stuck his tongue out in what he was pretty sure was Sanzo's general direction. Then he yipped in pain as strong fingers dug into his arm.
"Stop provoking him, or next time I'll let you get shot," Hakkai said pleasantly. The redhead shuddered, imagining the smile that had to have accompanied those words. Maybe being unable to see wasn't such a bad thing after all.
"Tch. Whatever," Sanzo muttered, and Gojyo immediately took back his earlier thought. The monk sounded almost embarrassed, like he had forgotten Gojyo was blindfolded, and the half-breed would have paid good money to see the expression that went with that tone. "Just find us some rooms, Hakkai. I'm going to feed my monkey before the rain starts."
Goku's annoying background drone abruptly ceased. "Food?"
"Hurry up, Goku, or I'll just make you look without buying anything."
"Uwaa! I'm coming! Food! Food!"
Once their footsteps faded away, Gojyo sagged slightly against Hakkai. "I really fucking hate this," he muttered.
"I know, Gojyo," Hakkai said softly. He knew that the other man had spent most of his life hating what he was, but he hated hiding it even more, feeling like it was a form of defeat if he had to change himself just to be accepted. "You'll have to stay in our room, but once we get to the inn, you can uncover your eyes and wash the soot out of your hair."
"Our room?"
"Of course," Hakkai said as they continued down the street. "It wouldn't look right for a supposedly blind man to be left by himself in a strange village."
Gojyo smirked suggestively at him. "Are you sure it's not because you want me all to yourself for the night?"
"Don't be ridiculous. I like the idea of at least a commitment to marry before anything like that, and you would make a terrible wife."
Gojyo laughed. "Well, I can't argue with that. Though I thought we decided that you'd be the wife."
"No, you decided that I'd be the wife, which is plainly silly. You're much more feminine than I am," Hakkai insisted.
"What?" the redhead squawked in indignation. "Dude, don't even joke about things like that!"
Hakkai chuckled and patted his hand. "Calm down, dear, we'll be at the inn soon, and then you can wash the soot out of all of that lovely long hair."
"Evil bastard," Gojyo muttered. Hakkai just laughed and led the way.
The storm broke a few minutes after Gojyo's shower. The warm, tingling sensation had intensified, spreading down his spine. Despite all of his efforts to suppress his true youkai abilities, he had never been able to keep from feeling the rain like something singing through his veins.
He gazed out the window, absently pulling his wet hair back into a ponytail. His head still ached a little, combining with the rain to remind him of the first time he'd received a truly vicious beating. He'd been six at the time, the same age as Kyoko, and showing off his burgeoning youkai abilities.
He slowly walked toward the window and opened it, the tight leash he'd held on his powers for most of his life gradually relaxing. He shivered as his hair started moving, almost like it was being played with by its own private breeze.
"Look, big brother!" he calls out. He thrusts his arms up into the air, laughing as invisible currents of energy lift and play with his hair.
Gojyo held his arms out toward the window, his attention only barely on the present. Rain came into the room, glowing a soft silver and retaining the shape of individual drops as it flowed horizontally to twine around his arms. It was cold against his skin, but at the same time, it was warm, like the caress of a lover.
"Look what I can do!" Some of the rain shifts and comes under their shared umbrella, twining around his small arms. He cups his hands, and the raindrops rush to fill them, forming the shape of a doe. "See, big brother? It's just like the one we saw in the woods today."
He cupped his hands, and the rain filled them, forming a shape at his mental command. This time, it was a woman. A youkai woman in a dress with long, wavy hair and tiny raindrops for tears. Even after all these years, he still thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Big brother is impressed, maybe even a little envious. "Dad could do things like that," he says. "I mostly take after Mother though. All I can do with rain is sense it."
The little boy grins, pleased there is one thing he can do that his beloved big brother can't.
The little water figurine stopped crying and tilted its head up to look at him. It smiled, and Gojyo felt like his heart would break. He would have given anything for the real one to have looked at him like that at least once.
He hears the door open, but he's too absorbed in playing with the rain doe to give it much thought.
"What are you doing?" a familiar voice shrieks. The rain in his hands falls, his concentration shattered as pain, his only friend other than his brother, explodes through his head. More blows follow the first as Mother continues to scream at him. He doesn't try to stop her because, even though it hurts, he's pathetically grateful that she's touching him. That she's not ignoring his existence. "How dare you have powers like my husband when my Jien doesn't? Bad boy! Bad boy! Naughty, naughty, filthy boy!"
"You never told me you could do anything like that."
The voice was soft and filled with something like awe, but Gojyo wasn't expecting it. The water fell to the floor, and he flinched away from the speaker as if expecting to be hit.
"Gojyo?" Hakkai said in alarm, gently gripping his friend's shoulder.
"Don't touch me!" the half-breed snarled. He violently jerked away from the other man, turning so his back slammed into the wall beside the window.
"I see," Hakkai murmured, slowly lowering his hand to his side. "It's something she punished you for, isn't it?"
"Sorry for yelling at you, man," Gojyo mumbled, staring down at the floor. "You startled me."
"It's quite all ri-" He was cut off by his friend's sudden gasp.
Gojyo shuddered, his released youkai energy once more setting his hair in motion, this time violently enough that it snapped the ponytail holder. After so many years of disuse, it refused to be quietly locked away again. The rain was calling to him with a sweet siren song only he could hear.
"S-sorry, Hakkai," he managed to gasp out as he grabbed the window ledge. "I've gotta go."
"Gojyo!"
He ignored Hakkai's frantic call and forced his six-foot frame out through the window, falling into the mud. He scrambled to his feet and ran, the darkness broken in his immediate vicinity by the eerie silver glow of the rain close enough to be affected by his power.
He slipped and fell in the mud again, but this time he stayed down, only bothering to get onto his knees. The rain in a three foot radius around him stopped falling, hanging for one frozen moment before spiraling around him.