In this chapter I changed Spirit of Fire's pronouns to they/them because I feel like it would fit a nature spirit better.
chapter four : Rise and Shine
Asahana wakes up before dawn. Her skin stings in some place, she feels heavy and her mind is cloudy. This is all very frustrating to her, she thinks of a million insignificant things she wouldn't have considered a few days ago, she worries about how the other shamans will respond to her, she is anxious to be with Hao and fearful he might not want to be with her. She is not thinking as quickly as she was before coming to Tokyo all the while she has parasite thoughts coming to her like arrows to her head. Having to get up requires her to summon her courage. She's in a teenager's body. She moans and stretches. Her husband had warned her of all this before he sent her off on her quest, yet she can't help but feel demons are rising from the floor, running away immediately as a little red salamander watches them.
"You can eat them." the girl whispers to the spirit.
Spirit of Fire smiles with their eyes. Eyes that are fictitious, here because that is how humans like to perceive them, in an anthropomorphic form, they created windows to their inner feelings to better communicate with shamans. Asahana pets the spirit's head, happy to be reunited with her friend.
When she opens the tent, the outside is still dark and quiet. The air is crisp, the river flows gently and some birds start to chirp, announcing the day to come. An idea comes to the time traveling teen. She looks around the camp, listening into the shaman's minds. Most of them are quiet, the last hours of sleep generally are, but a few of them are having unpleasant dreams. Normally she wouldn't even have to think to find him, they just were together instantly as their desire aligned. Normally he wouldn't need to sleep, but that's her old normal. The shaman focuses, she inhales, trying to perceive the auras around her. His presence is way more powerful than the others thankfully, and she can now sense Opacho as well. She goes to the tent they are both sleeping into, it's a tipi made of old thick blankets, and parts the layers to unveil the two mind readers sleeping soundly next to each other.
"He is so.. wow". the last Asakura thinks incoherently, in truth this teen boy form is not as charismatic as the Hao she knows, but she can't help but have her breath taken away by her husband's face. He didn't notice her, even though demons are still rising around her, even though she could pose a threat to him, he sleeps soundly.
"That's a good sign".
Black silky hair is splayed on a nice satin pillow, visage relaxed, his features are even more androgynous in this youthful body, as are hers.
"Hao" the woman in a teen appearance whispers.
He doesn't move. Opacho is sleeping and cannot read his thoughts, however the kid is bothered by the intruder's presence and is slowly rising from her deep slumber.
"Hao" she repeats.
His breathing is more shallow now, his jaw tightens. She inches closer and calls his name again. His face turns into a grumpy one. Hao Asakura does not like to be awakened, but the newly resurrected Asahana could never have known that.
"Hao I want to see something with you"
"No" He grumbles. "I want to sleep"
Opacho yawns and turns around.
"But we are going to miss it if you don't get up" The girl argues. "I want to see it with you"
An image pops in her mind. Opacho sees it and starts to flail under her cover. Hao drifts into a light sleep.
Asahana sighs and then calls. "Sof"
Hao's eyes jolt open. " Oh no you don.."
An oversoul of Spirit of fire materialized under them, like a flying saucer and ray manta mix. They fly up in the sky, the tipi falls apart, the shaman responsible for this catches the stick that was holding it up so it doesn't hurt anyone and sets it down on the surface of the Spirit of fire spaceship.
Hao thinks of casting a furyoku annulment spell but the fall is quite steep for little Opacho, and HIS guardian spirit is being used. He quickly shoves the blankets off of himself and the little one. When he does, the first light of the sun beams in the horizon of Tokyo, they are high enough that they can see Mount Fuji appearing from the drifting clouds. It's a breathtaking view. Opacho exclaims in awe, the girls both inhale a large gulp of the fresh morning air. The warmth of Asahana's presence takes over him again. He sighs . The culprit is staring right at the horizon, not thinking anything of pulling the world's most powerful shaman out of bed forcefully. The sun is incandescent orange at first, and in a few seconds turns into bright pink. The buildings are a mix of mango smoothies shades, and in the Heian tower the semi circle of the sun is reflected. The scene is so bright it hurts his eyes but it would be a waste to look away.
Asahana speaks up: "This is my first sunrise in five hundred years"
Opacho is wide awake now, the air is cold and she would shiver if she wasn't under the heavy tipi, she can't take her eyes away as well and can hear clearly the thoughts of her two fellow mindreaders.
The Last Asakura is in awe, her heart swells with bliss, but another feeling is here too. A painful one. Demons rise as her chest tightens. A winged arm that was hidden under the belly of the ray manta oversoul stretches out and catches a handful of littles onis and shoves it in his mouth.
"I didn't know I missed this," she explains.
Hao tears his gaze away from the wonderful spectacle to look at her, the peach glow on her face makes the aura around her even more desirable, he feels a want to comfort her, he welcomes it, slides closer and pull the blanket around them.
" Earth is beautiful" the future king lets go of his foul mood from the brusque awakening and settles to admire the sunrise. The three of them stay silent, even their minds quiet down , just to feel the wonder.
After a while the woman sets her head on his shoulder, she smells him for the first time and is surprised. Hao's scent has notes of cardamom tea and orchids underneath the human musk, she had never known that smell and now it feels strangely familiar all together. Opacho sniffles to see if she can match the thoughts of her elder to her own physical sense.
The air is warming up gently, and Asahana feels grateful for this perfect moment shared with two of the most precious people she has. She starts humming a melody: "Fu fu fu fu fu…" her voice starts quietly as her vocal cords warm up. Hao enjoys and sways gently in rhythm. The woman's voice gets progressively louder, and she changes to vocalization in A and O sounds. Her voice is wonderful and she displays a true talent for singing as her notes rise up and down. Opacho giggles happily. Hao is stuned. When you are rendered speechless by someone, but all you want is to be with them, what is that ?
He lets himself be engulfed by the beauty of the scene, by her beauty. When Asahana finishes a swarm of birds fly up to feast on the morning bugs. the sounds of the wind melts into the memory of her la la las, echoing them.
After some time the millennial brunette finally decides to ask."So, Husband, uh ?"
the Last Asakura blushes, she does that a lot, and answers :"That's how it is for me, but I don't expect you to jump into a marriage upon my arrival. You don't know me, I understand"
"Is that really what your heart says?"
Asahana glances at Opacho, she is transfixed on the two century old teens. The time traveler gulps.
"I am here to help you, wholeheartedly. You helped me through my rule, even when I pushed you away, even when I was selfish and pig headed. I want to show you the same kindness, return the favor" she says fervently. Hao tries to hide his emotions from the little african mind reader but he is touched, he quickly answers:
"You stole my guardian spirit within hours of being here, isn't that selfish ?"
The girl is taken by surprise and scrambles for an answer but as she turns to him she can see his playful smile. He wants to tease her.
"Sof is their own, they do as they want, I did not steal them" she argues.
Hao smiles at her pouty face, he succeeded in annoying her.
"They do yes, they are rather protective of me so I'm surprised you could pull this little trick. I suppose I'll let it pass this I can't let you use spirit of fire, they are my guardian spirit, I…
"You still have this odd possession feeling over ghosts, I'm not imposing on them, if Sof wants to partner with me it's.."
"You interrupted me, what was that about helping me wholeheartedly ?"
The teen girl felt embarrassed and unsure again. He liked that, she had destabilized him yesterday, now he would rather have the upper hand. Asahana fell silent all the while she thought " I have to get use to this, I'm the one helping him now I can't have it my way"
Pleased, Hao continues: "I can see that you and Spirit of Fire have a special bond, I'm not able to put myself in the way of your relationship. However, for my followers it will be confusing if someone else uses him. I ask you to refrain and seek another guardian spirit for yourself"
"Again with the use and the guardian…" the younger Asakura thought with annoyance, but she agreed all the while.
"Why do you want to help me ? You said yourself I will become shaman king and even that Yoh will be king after me"
The Last Asakura looked into the distance again, the sun was above the horizon now, the sky was a gradient of peach pink to blue.
"Becoming the new God is just the beginning, there are many challenges to come to change the world. I want to help you with that"
Opacho doesn't understand what is in the woman's mind. Images of deserted planes, war, unfamiliar faces, all was a blur. The little African girl was trying hard to focus, she knew it was important to understand; but all was unclear in the mind of the person who came to help.
After a short pause, the future King's words echo:
"There is no need to if I simply kill all humans"
A memory played in his wife's thoughts. He saw himself, in a different form, he looked older but also not old at all, like some buddha statues.
"Did you really believe you would destroy all of humanity, were you that naive ?" it's Asahana that had asked the question, without really talking. The conversation was inside the great spirit.
"I don't really know if I did, what really matters is what happened or what is going to happen if you change the events". That was his voice, both Opacho and him recognized it; it was not his pubescent voice he had right now, it was his mind's voice.
The past-future queen interrupted the memory.
"That's not going to be possible, you know of the flower of Maize don't you ?"
He himself was thinking of a past conversations in thought, one with Luchist and one with another Lasso family member…
"I heard of it, I'm not sure how it matters. I can simply stop humanity before the maize, or after, I will be free to do as I please anyway." Hao answered
"It's not going to be possible at all. You'll understand when you ascend, the previous Gods are not going to let you act anyhow."
The future King becomes angry. One thousand years of struggles, he is the strongest shaman alive, there is no way he is going to stop now.
His wife saw his emotion through little Opacho, and sorrow passed on her husband's face. That was unusual to her, the Hao she had known had made his peace with a lot of past events, she knew him as a calm and always composed god.
"I'm here to help you prepare for the five hundred years of struggle you will face. Your followers are too weak, you will need much more support in the Flower of Maize."
"You don't believe I can make my wish come true ?" it was anger, and mistrust in his tone. Asahana could see in his eyes he was doing everything he could to read her mind.
Opacho got overwhelmed finally.
"Hao-pa!" she cried with her own anger.
"Ah sorry Opacho, we'll stop now. We should get back down anyway, the rest of the camp are going to wake up." Then his tone hardened a little " It will work out, I will make it happen somehow"
"That's your brother's line " Asana said warmly, an image of a badly shaven copy of himself appeared in her mind.
Opacho pouted at her godfather as he was still reading her mind.
"Is it ? I haven't met him yet." he forced the mood to be casual again, for the sake of the little girl he is picking up.
"Really ? He's a chill guy, uncle Yoh.." She smiled. "We'll find a way to make your dreams come true, that's why I'm here after all".
Hao was surprised, his own followers did not fully understood what he wanted, no one ever fully supported his views. Keeping the little african mind reader his priority he said:"Can you take us down now ?"
Spirit of Fire came down gently, when they reached the ground they turned back into their spirit form, but not the salamander, a slightly taller one, slimer, with beady eye: a demon-like shape. The spirit immediately started cleaning the camp from all the onis that had accumulated during the conversation. Their master wondered if this form was because he was eating so many demons, or if it's something they had picked up from the mind of Asahana.
"You're going to to have to control your demons," says the onmyoji.
"Sorry about that, it's going to take a while." The teen girl is worried about it too, she was here early because there were so many demons popping up. The original plan was to lay low and gather her strength before meeting with Hao's team. The previous sleepless night and constant attack of onis had pushed her to seek her husband early.
"In the meantime, Sof can just eat them,"she concluded.
The onmyoji wasn't sure about that. On one hand it would make Spirit of Fire stronger, but he did not like this new shape of theirs.
Opacho, still in the arms of her godfather, pointed at the fire spirit. She tried to say something but the words were not forming properly, it sounded like hashed O. What the mind reader understood clearly : "DEMON OF FIRE". Hao stared at his guardian spirit, they felt the gaze of him and stared back. Slowly their shape morphed back into one that was familiar to the onmyoji, reassuring him.
"So how are you planning to help me exactly, dear ?" Hao said to his would-be wife.
"Well we are going to talk of course, I will advise you" She looks back to the camp, shamans are rising from their bed.
"And I'm going to make God level shamans out of your weakling apostles for a start."
Several of Hao's followers come out of their tents, ready to face the day.