Shades of Time

Rei came to find Goku later that afternoon. Not surprisingly he was with Anya and the two of them had their heads bent over a simple child’s reader. Goku had laughed when Anya had proposed the idea of teaching him how to read a little, saying the only thing he really needed to know how to read was a menu. She had been persistent though; talking him into it in less than an afternoon by saying he’d be less dependent on others if he could read.



Rei smiled a little, recalling a long distant memory. There had been no one to teach her how to read so she had picked up what she could and eventually taught herself. She also figured out she had a good head for numbers and often won betting on herself when she fought. Often times she won enough and could budget it well enough to make sure her little rag tag family of girls were fed and sheltered without anyone needing to sell themselves.



“Anya, I think something’s boiling over in the kitchen,” Rei said, sounding amused.



“My sauce!” Anya bounced up from her seat next Goku and flew by her.



“Goku, can I talk to you for a minute?” Rei said, sitting down next to him in the place Anya had vacated.



Goku shrugged. “Sure.”



“I know you’d like to go with us tomorrow . . .”



Goku pouted and whined a little. “Sanzo said I can’t though. ‘Cause he says it’s stupid to go into caves looking for those thingys.”



“Perhaps it is. But it still needs to be done. I’d like to ask a favor of you, if you don’t mind. It’s actually pretty important.”



“Kay. What?”



“I want you to watch over Anya and Mai. Just in case something . . . unexpected happens and they end up making it here,” Rei said. “Can you do that for me?”



“Yeah. But nothin’s gonna happen to you guys. I saw you fight with Diablo an you were great! Plus, Hakkai and Gojyo are goin’ with an they’re really good. Just . . . don’t tell the pervy water sprite I said that, huh.”



Rei laughed. “Don’t worry, I won’t,” she said, ruffling his hair over his coronet before hugging him. “Thank you.” Goku squirmed a little and Rei pulled back and held him at arm’s length. “I’m sorry. That was presumptuous of me.”



“Huh? Oh, no. It was nice I just . . . I’m not used to it. You can hug me again if you want.”



Rei laughed and hugged him. Goku put his head on her shoulder and enjoyed it. It felt good to be hugged, he thought. Felt like being wrapped in a warm, fuzzy blanket right after a hot meal. Rei hugging him also felt . . . familiar. Something poked at the back of his mind but it was too fast for him to really get a good grasp on it. But somewhere deep inside of him, where the wilder part of him resided, the seiten taisei woke briefly and recognized who was holding him.



Mother.



***



Gojyo flopped backward on the bed with a happy sigh. “Gods, woman, I think you killed me.”



“Well, at least you died happy if you’re dead,” Xan said, propping herself up on an elbow next to him.



“Hell yes,” Gojyo said, rolling and grabbing his smokes and lighter from the nightstand. “Been meaning to ask you about the whole way you tied up Hakkai.”



“What about it?” Xan said with a yawn.



“Just wondering about it.”



Xan shrugged. “The threads are made essentially of air. Weird, I know, but true.”



“How can you do that though?”



“Rumor has it that my mother was a Western witch who came here to escape persecution in her home country. Actually, Rei and I figure that we’re at least really half sisters because the same rumor was said about her as well. I mean, how many Western witches can there be around here?”



“Guess you’re right about that one,” Gojyo said, taking a drag from his smoke. “So, your mom was a witch, huh?”



“Yeah,” Xan said, her eyes defensively shuttering a little.



“Does that make you a witch too?”



“Not necessarily. But I am. Got a problem with that?”



“Not unless you got a problem with me bein’ a halfbreed,” Gojyo said with a shrug.



Xan snorted. “Hell, I thought it was kind of obvious I don’t have a problem with it since I just fucked you brainless.”



Gojyo grinned evilly. “Let me finish this smoke and I’ll see if I can return that favor.”



***



“Anya, would you like some help with that?” Hakkai asked coming into the kitchen and noticing her trying to lug a huge copper pot.



“Please,” she said.



He smiled a little and went to help her lift it up onto the stove.



“Thanks.”



“You’re welcome.”



“Hey, Hakkai?”



“Yes?”



“Thanks again.”



Hakkai looked at her puzzledly. “For what, Anya?”



“Making Rei really smile again. She hasn’t since Ming and Dad died. Not a real smile, anyway,” Anya said, looking out the window to where Rei, Mai and Goku were playing with Hakuryuu in the gathering dark. “Rei would have made a great mom,” Anya said a little sadly.



Hakkai blinked. “Well, she’s still young,” he said somewhat uncomfortably not wanting to think about the possibility of Rei having children for some reason.



Anya shook her head. “No. You don’t understand. Almost all halfbreeds are sterile. Maybe 1% of them can conceive or father children. Even then it’s a 50/50 shot a child would survive after birth. Rei always said that it was just the gods hedging their bets since the vast majority of halfbreeds are quite attractive and most have zero problems with their sexuality.”



“Well, if Gojyo is any example to go by, I believe that’s probably true. So no halfbreed has produced a child that you know of?” Hakkai asked curiously.



“Not in my lifetime. Not that I’m aware of anyway. Not even in Dad’s according to him and he was getting middle aged for a youkai,” Anya said, looking out the window at Rei again. “It isn’t fair. She sacrificed so much for us and asked so little. She wears pants and long sleeved shirts all the time to hide the scars.”



“Scars?” Hakkai questioned, remembering feeling smoothed ridges on the skin of Rei’s back when they were . . .



“Yes. She has to have hundreds of them. She paid for our relative safety in her own blood most of the time. The worst one was from that so called Sanzo priest who took Kenji.”



“What?!”



Anya nodded. “He sent Kenji out of the place we’d been staying because Rei was arguing with him and trying to get Kenji to just stay with us. I guess Ukoku Sanzo didn’t like to be challenged. He shoved her backward but he had to have . . . I don’t know, put some kind of force behind it like chi or something because she couldn’t breathe for a minute and after a day or so there was this mark on her about the size of a man’s hand. He just walked out and took Kenji with him and we never saw him again. Rei says she can’t feel him anymore so she thinks he’s . . . gone.”



Hakkai was uncharacteristically frowning. The boy she was talking about. It had to be Kamisama. There was no other way to put it together. Anya must have seen something in his expression that touched a chord in her.



“He’s dead isn’t he,” Anya said. “I can see it in your face.”



“Anya, I’m truly sorry for the loss of your friend but . . .”



“I have the feeling that he wasn’t he Kenji we all knew anymore.”