Ghost Monk

          
Mika entered first, her purse hanging from near-dangling fingers as she pushed the door open with a clenched fist, ready to deck someone already. Tohma followed behind her, carrying the bag of party supplies, both his AND Shuichi’s, which he’d grabbed before they’d left. They were a bit late due to stopping by the drug store for an emergency supply of Eiri’s prescriptions. The eldest Uesugi sibling stopped short as she spotted all of them, including the pink-haired bastard, sitting around the central table as if they were one big happy fucking family. Though she’d known he was there, she still growled out, “What the hell are you doing here, Shindou?”

          
Shuichi glared up at Mika as he stood, so at least if she kicked something on his body, it wouldn’t automatically be his face. “Yuki let me in, and Uesugi-san allowed me to stay. So I have every right to be here.” He dared a slight glance over at the two dark-haired Uesugi males, who nodded at him to back him up. Something that wouldn’t have happened, had Shuichi not given the old man a cigarette, that was for sure. Giving them a faint smile, he turned back and got that sparkle in his eyes that the brothers had been talking about earlier. He was ready to give as good as he got.

          
Tohma peered from around his taller wife, ignoring the rage that was becoming palpable from the woman, and gave them all the polite smile that he tended to hide behind as he handed over several bottles from the bags. “Good evening to you all. I trust you’ve all had a nice day?” A slight fading of his smile the only indication that the keyboardist was worried about the stress levels Eiri was, for once, managing to subdue, he touched the younger man’s shoulder, suggesting, “You should take these right now, Eiri-san. You can stop worrying, we’re here now. We’ll take care of you.”

          
Grunting, Eiri popped a few pills, knowing they wouldn’t kick in before the ‘fun’ and he’d probably damage something. Or someone. He glanced over Tohma’s shoulder, where one of his ancestors was making a fuss over his brother-in-law’s comment.

          
“Yeah, I know just how you wanna ‘take care of him’, you lecherous adulterer!” a great-grandfather growled, looking for the world like he wanted to bop Tohma over the head with his cane for daring touch Eiri, especially with Mika right there. “You gotta great gal in my great-granddaughter and you try to take her little brother while she watches. Fucking lovely! If I could, I’d come down there and kick your little feather-fetish freakin’ ass myself! Eiri! You gonna sit there and take this shit!?”

          
Another, what must’ve been the first’s brother, chuckled as he found a way to mimic spectral beer cans. He sipped at it contentedly, before replying, “Now, now. They are all descended from us, and can handle themselves. I’m pretty sure Mika can handle her pansy husband.”

          
“She’s busy at the moment trying to decide how far she can throw Shuichi.” their father, the one who had a thing for the singer, muttered, keeping an eye on his great-great-granddaughter. “Why the hell did she have to show up?! She’s fucking with the fun! If these two weren’t here, they could’ve gone at it again.” He growled and stalked closer to the pair. “I swear, if she touches a single girly-pink strand….”

          
“They would’ve done that faster, had someone not given his two cents on rating their performances…” another replied in a dry sarcastic tone. This one moved Tatsuha’s cigarettes out of Uesugi-san’s reach, since the teenager was fixated on the dinner theatre.

          
“It’s not my fault that I was so overcome with pride that I just HAD to tell him!”
All of the commentary had been said one right after the other, and as such, had gone by quickly enough for Eiri to respond to Tohma without it having come after an odd pause. Unable to help it, Eiri chuckled at his ancestor’s outbursts, though he was sure Tohma wouldn’t appreciate it being repeated. Loathe as he was to admit to anything, the ghosts were the highlight of the entire visit, apart from having sex with Shuichi. At least SOME good had come out of his ‘birthday present’ from the gods who seemed to take perverse pleasure in fucking with his head and life.

          
Uesugi-san, Tatsuha, and even Shuichi to a point, were getting used to Eiri’s random moments of ‘responding to air’, or the ancestral ghosts as he termed it. So they didn’t even bother responding to his seemingly out of place reaction. But Mika and Tohma had just arrived, not having been updated on anything so far, and so the two of them stood there staring at him as if a body snatcher had wandered by under their noses. For all three of them!

          
Mika dropped her hold on Shindou’s shirt and stalked closer to Eiri, frowning dangerously. “You’re not well. What’d Shindou do to you this time!? I swear Eiri, you should’ve gotten rid of him a long time ago!”

          
“Hey!” Shuichi stalked over as well, glaring at his ‘sister-in-law’ and barking, “I didn’t do anything this time. He was raving like a loony even before I stepped foot in the Shrine!”

          
Not such a good thing to repeat. Golden eyes latched onto him akin to a hawk sighting the trembling rabbit down below. “What was that, brat?”

          
Shuichi flinched and smiled lovingly up at his taciturn lover, trying to backpedal, “Uh… eh heh…. Heh…. I mean… I love you, Yuki?”

          
“I’ve had enough for today. As always, Mika and Tohma, pleasure to give you five minutes of time.” Eiri waved, took his beer and immediately shuffled towards his room. “You know the way home.”

          
As Tohma immediately dropped whatever he’d been doing, namely denying another request of Tatsuha’s for groping-distance rights to be at the next concert they had, to trot after Eiri. “I’d like a moment with you!” he called after his little Eiri.

          
“Yeah, I’ll just bet you would.” Eiri muttered, watching half of the ghosts split up, the Tohma’s-ass-kicking ghost following him. “I hope you left the nurses’ outfit at home this time. That shit freaked me out.”



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Everyone watched him leave until they heard his door close, then Mika turned back to Shuichi, furious. “You little shit-faced bastard, what’d you do to Eiri this time?!” she growled, hauling Shuichi up by the front of his shirt, intent on causing him bodily harm.

          
The singer went wide-eyed as he saw the near-maniacal anger in her eyes. “I already told you, I didn’t do anything!”

          
“You liar, every time something bad happens to Eiri, you’re always around when it does!”

          
“I swear I didn’t do it!” Shuichi denied, tears beginning to form in his eyes at the thought that his Yuki was damaged and he couldn’t do anything to help it. “When I got here, he was ye-mpf.”

          
“This time, Shu’s right, Onesan.” Tatsuha had come to Shu’s rescue, covering his mouth so he couldn’t reveal anything of Kitazawa’s presence, pulling the poor singer away from his equally insane sister. “Your precious little brother’s finally gone off the deep end. He’s been ‘talking with the ancestors’ in more than a figurative sense.”

          
Mika’s ire immediately shifted towards Tatsuha, “What the hell are you defending the punk for?! What the fuck are you talking about!?” She turned to their father, who’d managed to snag a cigarette out of Tatsuha’s pack in the confusion. “What’s going on here, Otoosan? Wait, you don’t smoke menthol!”

          
“I’m defending him because you’re acting like some psycho-bitch and he didn’t do anything to earn it this time!” Tatsuha paused then whipped his head around to glare at his father. “Dammit, pops! Keep your fucking hands off my cigarettes!” he shouted, snatching up the offended pack.

          
Uesugi chuckled at his youngest son, then nodded to indicate Eiri’s room, contentedly blowing a ring of smoke towards his children. “Why don’t you go ask Eiri about his disowning the entirety of the Uesugi clan?”

          
“I think I will.” Mika growled, glaring at Shuichi one last time, hissing, “I can’t believe he let you in!” Then she stomped down the hall, chasing after her brother and husband. If Tohma had his hands on him, she’d smack him around too.

          
Shuichi quivered from the aftermath of having stood up to Mika, then looked up the few inches into the face of his lover’s brother, his nose nearly tickling the younger man’s chin. “T-Tatsuha… do you think that maybe ….” He paused, trying to figure out how best to put it delicately.. “..she needs pills too?”

          
“Oh trust me. I’ve thought that for years.” Tatsuha patted Shuichi’s head, then released him, dragging him off to the kitchen. “Beer?”

          
Shuichi would normally have denied it, not liking to drink around the Uesugi family, due to their increased affection for even more Shu-Abuse. However, considering the day he’d just had, he slowly nodded, letting Tatsuha lead him into the kitchen as he put on a genki smile and shouted, “Sure. Lead on to the golden nectar of the drunken gods!”

          
“You are SO weird.” Tatsuha drawled, earning even more chuckles from the spectral Uesugi members. This was the most fun they’ve had in years.



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Shimmering faintly in the glow of the lanterns along the gates of the Shrine, Kitazawa frowned in thought as he mulled over the possibilities that Eiri would tell Tohma and Mika about his existence. It was time to up the stakes again. “Get some ears, he’d told me. Hmm.” Turning, he sighed in exasperation as the sword-wielding psychopath continued to bitch at him in an older dialect of Japanese. “With that thick accent, you think a foreigner like me is going to understand you?”

          
Brandishing is sword, Uesugi-spectre didn’t give two shits whether the man ‘understood him’ or not. He would defend his family and his home from this unwelcome intruder. Eiri had expressed harm at the hands of this man. He would not allow him to pass.

          
Kitazawa’s eyes narrowed, but then he thought better of it and turned to go. He hadn’t told the exact truth when he’d told Eiri he was stuck by his side. It was just more fun there than anywhere else. Get some ears. Well, he would see about that. Nodding to his pupil’s ancestor with something akin to dubious respect, he headed off towards the bright lights of Tokyo to practice ‘getting some ears’. He had a most wicked idea, but he wanted to see if he could accomplish the feat, before he tried attempting it for real.