A Visitor

Goku stared at Gojyo in amazement and confusion. The tall redhead had come into their room, leaned on the door, and then flashed a triumphant grin at Max. It made no sense: hadn’t they just been fighting?

Well, their behavior that whole afternoon had been strange. When they came back from town they had been laughing and talking as if they were best friends. It was as if they were on their own island and everybody around them didn’t exist any more. Max had made sure to talk to Goku, but Gojyo barely even noticed the shorter man standing there. Then Max had pulled a book out of her pocket and had gone upstairs to read it, leaving Goku and Gojyo alone together.

“Geez, man, why are you acting so weird?” Goku had asked Gojyo in confusion.

Gojyo just grinned at him and said, “Shit, man, that babe can cheat the Gods out of their cash if she had the chance to play them in a poker game!”

“A woman after your own heart, huh?” Hakkai had asked from the stairway.

Gojyo had laughed and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “Yeah, I guess so. You should have seen her! She had the whole bar going crazy, and she took the whole pot with an eight high card! She always won the pot, and it didn’t matter what hand she had! It was great!”

“Remind me never to play Mahjong with her,” Hakkai said with a soft chuckle.

“Actually, I don’t think she knows Mahjong,” Gojyo had said. Then he’d spotted a waitress in the dining room and had chased after her as she walked past. Goku had expected him to start sweet-talking her, but instead he asked if he could reserve a private table for two in a separate room. They’d walked off together, talking about flowers and candles and other gooey stuff like that.

A little bit later, after he and Hakkai had done the laundry, Goku went up to Sanzo’s room and found Max lying on the bed, reading her book. Goku had watched her, thinking. The girls that Gojyo usually chased were a lot prettier with skinny waists and big boobs. This girl was pretty normal-looking. Goku thought she was pretty, but then again he thought that all girls were pretty.

“What’s wrong, Goku?” Max asked without looking up from her book.

“Why is Gojyo acting so weird for you?” Goku asked. “You aren’t like the other girls he’s chased, and he never bought them anything more than sake. Why is he getting the waitresses to give him a private table and flowers and candles?”

Max had paled and looked at Goku as if she were scared. Then she’d carefully set her book down with a tissue between the pages where she’d been reading it and raced over to where Gojyo was sitting in the room next door. “What the hell are you doing?!” she’d demanded, shouting louder than anybody Goku had ever heard. “Why are you making special reservations?”

“What? How the hell did you know about that?” Gojyo had asked. Then he looked over at Goku and said, “Why’d you tell her that, you stupid monkey?”

“Goku has nothing to do with this. Why did you make reservations for a date?” Max hissed angrily. She looked over at Hakkai, who was watching her yell at Gojyo with a very worried expression.

“I thought it would be nice to hang out with you without the others,” Gojyo said defensively. “We had fun this afternoon, and I thought that this would just… I guess I was wrong.”

“You guessed right,” Max snapped. Her face had been completely blank – there was absolutely no emotion in it at all. Her eyes had a strange light in them, and it looked to Goku like she had a raging fire on the inside. Apparently Gojyo had thought the same thing because he had shrunk back a little bit and looked away.

“Fine, then. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.” His voice had sounded strange, as if there was something in his throat choking him. “Do whatever you want.”

“Thank you oh-so-much! I will!” she shouted, and then she turned to Goku. “Would you teach me how to play Mahjong?” The way she said it sounded more like an order than a request, which was a lot like when Hakkai asked him to do something.

The look in her eyes had been very scary, though – much scarier than any expression Hakkai ever used. So Goku had said yes. That’s what they’d been doing for maybe a half hour when Gojyo had come into the room and smiled at Max.

“Did you curl up into a ball and weep?” Max asked.

“Yes, I did,” Gojyo said with a grin.

“Did you whimper and use the eye drops like I told you to?” she asked.

“Yes, I did,” Gojyo said again.

“…And what did Hakkai say?”

“He reluctantly said that he would go down. Right now he’s tracking down Sanzo to ask him.” Gojyo’s grin dimmed, but only a little bit. “Did you send Sanzo down to the bar?”

“I did that an hour ago when I was reading. I told him that I couldn’t concentrate on my book with him reading his newspaper like an old geezer, so after me nagging for a while he just got up and left all by himself.”

“Guys… what’s going on?” Goku asked, confused.

Max giggled and ruffled his hair affectionately. “I forgot to ask you earlier, but did you know that Sanzo has a crush on Hakkai?”

“He does?” Goku asked. Then he thought about it for a second. “Yeah, I guess he does.”

“Would you hate it if they became a couple?” she asked. “We just set them up on a date!”

“Oh… you’re not fighting?” Goku asked.

Gojyo went and sat down at the table, grabbing Goku close in the process and choking him in the crook of his arm. “Stupid monkey, did you think that we’d really fight over dinner? Max is so much smarter than you, she’d never fight over something like that!”

“I wouldn’t bet on that,” Max said, looking at the two rows of tiles in front of her. She set them both down and asked, “Do I have anything good in here?”

“Why do you have two hands of Mahjong tiles?” Gojyo asked.

“Don’t you need four to play Mahjong?” Max asked. “Either way, we figured that I’d learn to play twice as fast if I had twice as many hands.”

“I thought you were smarter than that,” Gojyo said. Goku hadn’t believed Max when she’d said that earlier, either. But then again – and this was to never ever to be said to that pervy water sprite – Max really was much smarter than him. She had two really good hands, and she’d just learned the rules.

Just then Gojyo noticed which tiles Max had spread in front of her (note from author: I’m sorry, but I know absolutely nothing about Mahjong, so this part is lacking in details on purpose). There were two damn good hands. He whistled softly and leaned in closer to get a better look, dragging Goku with him.

“I think that you should let Goku go before he dies of asphyxia,” Max teased as she picked up her book. Gojyo let Goku go. After he got his wind back Max said, “Anyway, you don’t have any problems with Sanzo and Hakkai being a couple, do you?”

“No, I think it’s great! Hakkai is like a mom!” Goku said.

Gojyo laughed loudly, “Don’t let him hear you say that, monkey, or he’d kill you! Too bad I kind of agree with you, Monkey. There isn’t a man alive who is as much a homebody as that poor little shit.”

“I don’t think so,” Max said. “I’ll bet that in his past life Hakkai was a strong man who led many, so now he feels comfortable taking care of the people he loves. He’s got an old soul about the same age as yours. I’ll bet you guys all knew each other years and years before you were all born… except Goku. He’s the only original soul in your group.”

“Original soul?” Goku asked.

Max glanced up from her book. “The other three are all reincarnates. You aren’t. You are the original person to have that soul of yours. However, your soul is connected to theirs. I don’t get it, and I really don’t care, but the four of you are linked by a bond that transcends time and body.”

“How can you tell that?” Gojyo asked.

Max shrugged. “It’s all in your aura, there for any idiot who knows how to read it.”