A Visitor

I am a mermaid. I am a mage with powers strongly connected to Earth’s elements. I am a freaking demigoddess, for crying out loud! A bolt of lightning isn’t a danger for me at all. In fact, all I had to do was absorb the electrical currents and my body would automatically convert the power into magical energy, filling up my used reserves instantly. The little bit of electricity that I couldn’t absorb remained in my hair, frizzing it with static. The lightning bolt disappeared around me as if it had never been there.

The guys stared at me as if I had sprouted bunny ears and started shouting “I’m late for a very important date.” I smiled at them, hiding my irritation, and said, “Hey, if I have power over water, why wouldn’t I have power over electricity?”

Sanzo was the first one to recover from amazement. “Tch,” he said as he crossed his arms. I reached into my back pocket and produced his gun, the barrel still bent. I moved the pointer finger of my right hand in a circle at the tip of the barrel, returning it to its normal round shape before offering it to the wannabe annoyed monk. He took it without looking me in the eyes.

Figuring I had overstayed my welcome I swept up the picnic with a quick spell and returned it to its place inside my compact mirror. I powered the water banishing spell so that it would hold for another thirty minutes before I headed back toward the door.

All at once Gojyo was behind me, patting my hair down in the back. I turned too suddenly for him to react, so for a couple of seconds he was patting my forehead as if I were a puppy. I glared up at him for a couple of heartbeats, and when he slowed (realizing what he was doing) I snapped, “What the hell are you petting me for?”

He shrugged and leaned in the doorway, his hands on his hips. “I thought you were as cute as a cat,” he said as he lit a cigarette. It bugs me when people talk with smokes between their teeth. The cancer stick bobs annoyingly and they never enunciate anything clearly, making it hard for me to understand them. Being deaf sucks.

That’s why I took the smoke out of his mouth and handed it to him. “Anti-smoking: there are cooler ways to die,” I said. Then I went inside and down the stairs.

Well, this was just brilliant. I wasn’t tired any more, but my tension headache was raging at full force. I still had no idea where I was in the grand scheme of things; I had no money, nowhere to go and nothing to do. Whenever bad things happened I always danced in an attempt to make myself feel better. Having already done that and failed, I figured that I may as well find an overhang and start palm reading for strangers. My food wouldn’t last forever, and eventually sleeping in a bed would be nice. Money is always a good thing to have.

As I turned the door handle a gentle voice called out behind me. “Max, where are you going?” Hakkai asked as if he were simply curious.

I turned and smiled. “I have no clue,” I admitted. “But I need space.”

“Why?” Hakkai asked. Sanzo, Goku, and Gojyo came out of the stairway behind him.

“The Water Dance is a restorative spell,” I said. “It heals the body and balances its chemicals, which leaves the patient feeling better emotionally. One of the side effects is a temporary obsession with the mage who cast the spell. Even if I did know how long I’d be able to hang around I wouldn’t put you through that kind of cruelty.”

Hakkai smiled, and for once it was genuine. “You’re actually quite nice,” he said.

I looked at him, surprised. Then I realized it: in the hour or so that I’d known these people I’d acted like a bitch. Normally I’m better at putting on a friendly face and using my brain to think two or three steps ahead of the people around me in order to get a bed and a free meal or two. Man, I was off my game. “What’s wrong with that?” I asked him.

He smiled wider. “We were thinking that you could come and stay with us in our room tonight.”

“Don’t you have a couple of rooms?” I asked. Hakkai had come out of the room next door to Sanzo’s room earlier. “Although staying in two rooms at once is possible, it isn’t exactly comfortable.”

“I meant you can stay in mine,” Hakkai said. “I won’t do anything to you.”

The others stared at Hakkai as if he’d grown horns. I gathered that normally he didn’t act like this. I patted his shoulder and opened the door. “I’ll come back in three hours. We’ll see if you still feel so charitable.” I glanced at the others as I left, thinking that when the spell wore off Gojyo and Goku probably wouldn’t mind my company. As it was, Sanzo wasn’t going to admit that he liked me, let alone when he was back to normal. What would he think once the effects of the Water Dance wore off? So far, he was the one I liked the most. He was also the one I understood the least. He wasn’t mysterious by any means, but… I don’t know. I always seem to make good friends with the strong silent type with chips on their shoulders. (Let’s just ignore the fact that my three best friends are goofy goobers who never shut up, even when they’re dying.)

I walked around for two and a half hours in the rain. Then I sat on a bench for about twenty minutes. By then the rain had stopped, but the trees were still dripping enough water that it looked as if God was still peeing on the world. A few drops landed on my head and I flicked off the tree. The tree hadn’t done anything to me, but the petty indulgence made me feel better… okay, to be honest it made me feel like a retarded ten-year-old.

By the time I got back to the inn I was soaked to the skin and shivering violently. All mutant powers have a physical downside. Mine had a couple: sometimes I was too strong, and I suffered from extreme hot and cold flashes. That’s what you get for being such a big freak of nature. That’s what you get for having extreme physical strength and the ability to manipulate heat.

I entered the lobby and realized how awful I looked because the woman behind the desk immediately steered me in the direction of the hearth. I didn’t bother fighting her because I was just that damn cold. It reeeeeeally wasn’t turning out to be my day. Nothing was going right at all. These days don’t happen often, but usually their repercussions were incredibly and undeniably negative.

Goku came running into the lounge closely followed by Gojyo, who seemed to have slowed his pace at the doorway in a juvenile attempt to look more dignified than his shorter friend. Apparently the receptionist had told them about my arrival before she went to get me some towels because she followed them into the room after a minute with a stack of the white fluffy cloths. She took the top one off of the stack and started roughly drying my hair.

The whole time Goku had been telling me how worried they all had been about me. It wasn’t particularly shocking news, since all four of them were actually very nice men (beneath the rough and gruff walls they had built around themselves, that is).

But the shock came when Sanzo and Hakkai finally entered the room, and I heard Sanzo say, “Shut it, Hakkai, she’s sleeping in my room tonight and that’s final.”