Chapter Text
Hao hears the whispers before they ever reach the town. He hears everything whether he wants to or not. He's four, but he's wiser than any four year old. He's an old soul in a young body.
There's someone with reishi here. Someone younger than him when his first manifested. There's oni's hanging off the town yet it's still just in it's infancy. The oni's still aren't truly physical yet. They aren't harmful yet, but give her a month and she'll be dangerous.
He's not worried about her being dangerous. The humans can die for all Hao cares. Hell, he's going to kill the humans himself when he become Shaman King in this lifetime.
No, what Hao feels is compassion. He knows how terrible reishi is. He knows how heavy a burden and a curse it is. If he can help one person then maybe his mother will come back to him. Maybe Ohachiyo will come back to him.
“Hao-sama,” Blocken speaks next to him, but Hao keeps trudging through the snow.
Aomori is cold, and Kino lives here. Hao can't afford to be found out. He can't let this girl slip through his fingers.
It's easy to find her. It's easy to follow the voices.
Why does she always stare so empty?
Why does she always cry?
Why does she apologize for things we haven't even said?
Why does she talk to the air?
Why is our child so strange and a monster?
Why does she hurt us?
Why did the gods curse us?
Hao's fist tightens as he trudges further, trudges to the house with the broken windows and silent crying of a girl who doesn't understand.
Her hair is blond, like Mothers, and that makes Hao's heart hurt even more. Some other cruel twist of fate. His mother being forced to suffer like him. His mother being forced to pay for his crimes. Mother shouldn't cry. Mother shouldn't hurt. Mother should still be here with him.
“Hao-sama,” Blocken calls again as fire burns around him forming a cocoon.
“I'll kill them and take the girl,” Hao states.
There's a shock wave and Hao's knocked off his feet before he can take a step closer. He lands on his bottom in the snow because despite how wise he is he still has the weak legs of a four year old.
An oni roars to life this one very much fully formed.
Hao hears the first audible words.
“MONSTER!”
“You monster child you should just die!”
“Do you want to kill us? No one's going to love you. No one's going to take care of you.”
The girl's crying and begging for forgiveness.
“Stop this right now, Michiko.”
“I can't!”
The last voice is the girls. It's so raw, filled with hurt and confusion.
Hao allows her the small mercy of defeating her oni himself from the shadows. He won't let her have the blood of her parents on her hands. They don't deserve to be her parents and they deserve to die, but she doesn't deserve to carry that scar of blood on her hands. She also doesn't deserve to see him kill them right in front of her either.
He watches from the shadows as they drag her by her hair through the snow. He follows as they dump her outside Kino's and don't even knock. He watches as they hiss, “A freak for a freak.”
They never make it back home. Hao makes sure of that.
She's curled up in the snow ready to die when Hao approaches.
“Hey,” he calls softly, holding a flame to keep her warm. They didn't even put a coat on her.
She backs away from him.
“Don't hurt me! I'm sorry!”
“I won't,” Hao answers, “and you have nothing to be sorry about.”
She sniffles, and Hao melts the snow and evaporates the water to pass time.
“People fear what they don't understand. They don't understand you have a special talent. They don't understand you're a shaman, but I do.”
“I hear things,” she whispers, “I hear things I'm not supposed to.”
“I know,” Hao answers, “I do too.”
She looks up at him wide eyed.
“Come with me and you'll never be hurt again. You'll never be lonely or sad.”
He holds her hand out to her and she's tentatively reaching out when the door to the inn slides open. Clearly Kino has better perception than Yohmei ever did.
“Hao,” Kino says.
Hao hopes if he ignores her she'll go away. It's not like she can see hi—
Kino's cane lands easily and gently on his head.
“I can't read minds, and I may be blind, but that' doesn't mean I don't know you're here or exactly where you are at.”
“I'm busy,” Hao answers.
“Busy taking over the world, I know, but she's four Hao.”
“I have an adult,” Hao gestures over at Blocken.
Kino follows his hand movements impressively and without missing a beat states, “And that could be another four year old in a lego suit.”
“Let's just fight this out and get this over wi—“
Another whack of the cane. The girl looks close to tears again as she's slowly been backing away trying to make herself as small as possible against the wall.
“I'm not stupid enough to fight you either. Yohmei's an idiot. Why else do you think I live so far away. Let me take care of the girl.”
“So, Yoh can have her? Absolutely not.”
“Not everyone can live like you, Hao.”
“Sure seems better than what she was just living with, besides,” and he says the next part much softer, “she has reishi.”
That seems to change something in Kino, but that doesn't stop her from smacking him one more time for good measure.
“Alright, but you come to me if you need anything you hear.”
Now Hao's suspicious. He's good for nothing family would rather kill him than help him. What's Kino's game?
“What are you and that traitor planning? I know he's been here.”
“Don't you worry about that,” Kino answers, “You worry about taking care of Anna.”
Hao opens his mouth ready to argue. That's not her name but also he sure as hell isn't call her Michiko either, but Kino stops him before any argument can leave his mouth.
“You're not calling her Asanoha. You'll do neither of you any favors doing that.”
Hao shuts his mouth because Kino is right. Anna isn't Mother. He'd be best to remember that.
Kino turns and heads back inside leaving Hao and Anna alone with Blocken always at his respectful distance.
“Don't you want to start over with a new life? You can be Anna now. We'll go where no one can hurt us again.”
She nods, standing up, walking over and taking his hand.
Hao had said he'd never make another friend. Not after Ohachiyo left him cursing him with reishi, and Matamune literally stabbed him in the back. But Anna's like him, and he's so lonely. Blocken's a follower, but Anna's different.
Something else whispers on the breeze, lonely. Something only Hao can hear and feel so many miles away. Izumo. There's someone to save in Izumo too. He may not be feared for his powers, but there's his own heavy burden to bare.