Title: There's Always Two Sides
Author: Hell's Dark Tenshi
E-mail: hellsdarktenshi@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: ^.^ Now, lets be serious...me? Own X? Or Tokyo Babylon? *dies laughing*
Warning: Angst...what did you expect from me? Probably some shounen-ai
Summary: 5 years after Tokyo Babylon, Subaru is leading a simple life, except all that is thrown out the window when a new danger
poses a threat...
Rating: PG-13 for violence, angst, comprehensibility issues, and some romance. (Haven't decided on pairings yet.)
Notes: Starts 5 years after Tokyo Babylon...that means that the rest of X is thrown out the window... ^.^;; Because everything will
happen my way!!! HAHAHAHAHAH---- Come Back!!! Ihopeididn'tscareyouaway.... Oh yeah.. and a few OCs
Chapter 1 - A Story To Be Told
The shrill ringing of the phone disturbed the silence that had settled in Subaru's apartment. The occupant of the apartment was currently in the bedroom, having just woken up and therefore his brain hadn't registered what was making the noise. Subaru rubbed his eyes a few times and then proceeded to go to the living room where his phone was.
"Hello, Subaru here." He stifled a yawn while still continuing to blink his eyes at the clock, which read 5:00 am. Who would call him at this time?
"Hello Subaru," The familiar voice of his grandmother shook him out of his thoughts. "I'm sorry to call so early, but I am afraid it is rather important."
"There is no problem, obaa-san," Subaru replied, ever polite to his grandmother, "what did you want to talk to me about?"
His grandmother started filling him in on details while he took the phone into the kitchen to start making coffee.
"I'll look into it today. Thank you for calling." Subaru filled his mug and set it on the counter. "Yes, I will visit soon. Goodbye obaa-san."
Subaru clicked the cordless phone off and just stood there drinking his coffee. So, someone or something was causing trouble in the west district. He knew his grandmother wouldn't have called him if it wasn't that important, so he resolved to look into it. From what she told him, a large power source suddenly started gathering there and it was up to him to figure out what was going wrong.
Later that afternoon, Subaru was walking through a business sector. All the resident onmyoujitsu users that he asked said that the power was coming somewhere around here. He could tell that they were disturbed by the sudden surge in power around their area; it wasn't normal. When he reached the end of the street, he saw that there was large park there. It also bordered upon a small forest, and he sensed that the power was coming from there.
As he made his way to the forest, Subaru took in the quiet feel of his surroundings. In fact, it was too quiet. There was a small playground just a bit off from the forest, but the swings swung emptily in the breeze. The seesaw leaned deadly and only a few scattered leaves showed the signs of life that surely must have once graced the place. He involuntarily shuddered a bit; deserted playgrounds always seemed so sad, a place where there should be children, but they were not there for one reason or another.
He walked into the forest and followed a very small, almost non-existent path deeper into the heart of the woods. Without warning, something swooped down at him and he barely ducked in time to avoid it. By the time he raised his head, he had an ofuda in his hand. The thing came back and Subaru quickly threw his ofuda into the center of it's chest. It gave a screech and fell to the ground. Subaru took out a few more of his ofuda and approached the creature warily. Upon closer inspection, he gruesomely discovered that his first impression was correct. It was a thing; there was no other way to describe it. It resembled a bird to the extent of general features such as wings, talons, and beak. But it was black all over, there were no feathers on the body, and it felt all over wrong, like the playground without children.
Bent on examining the creature, he didn't notice that there was a small shadow warily watching him from the trees. The shadow stepped foward suddenly and Subaru only had time to feel a large dark energy source behind him before everything went black.
A small wind blew through a different park. It lifted leaves and petals off the ground and danced them through the air. It rustled the trees' boughs and caused some sakura petals to fall upon a silent standing figure.
Seishirou looked up as he felt the slight wind accompanied by leaves and sakura petals. He turned his gaze back to the people in the park. He would never admit it to anyone else, but maybe he was missing the company of a certain green-eyed onmyoujitsu.
Missing? Ha! More like pining away for him! The Tree's voice said in his head.
*Oh quit it* He sent back silently. Ever since he started to hang around Subaru, the Tree suddenly for some reason or the other decided that it would get a sarcastic and annoying personality. The Tree hadn't let up even when he disappeared from Subaru's life, and seemed to love teasing him. It was a pain and a half, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Suddenly, the breeze blew opposite to the direction it was blowing before. In fact, it wasn't like a breeze, it was like a great gust of wind that signified a large magical backwash.
He wrapped himself in one of his illusions and took to leaping on roofs to reach the other side of the city. To say that he was alarmed would be accurate.
To have felt the backwash this far, it must have been huge! The Tree's voice in his head mirrored his current thoughts. What could have that much energy to cast a spell big enough to cause a backlash felt for miles?
He touched down on the soft field of grass belonging to the park where the source was stronger than ever.
Subaru woke up feeling dizzy and un-orientated. What had hit him? He looked around, there was no one there, in fact, the creature he was examining was missing also. As he sat up, he noticed that his clothes were stained with blood. Was he bleeding? He stood up carefully, trying to figure out where his injury was. He felt a sharp pang in his lower back and tentatively reached a hand back there.
He then fell down to the ground. When he touched the wound, he felt a huge migraine in his head. He then had a weird experience, like as if he was watching everything happen from inside himself, through his own eyes. He saw the trees and knew that he had stood up. But he didn't stand up though, at least he didn't order his body to stand up. He was detached from his body and he didn't like it one bit.
{Of course you don't like it, but there is nothing you can do about it} He looked up, and found himself in a dark place. Everything was black, and there was nothing there.
Who said that? He thought to himself. He saw a light starting to materialize, and he found himself in a richly decorated bedroom. A big canopy bed with silk sheets was in the corner of the room. There was a wood chest of drawers and a big mirror beside the bed. There was a wide assortment of furniture of high quality decorating the room. One of the chairs eerily turned around, and he was face to face with a strange boy.
Indeed, the boy couldn't have been older than 20 at most and he could be around 15 or 16 from his physical appearance. He had pale white skin that went well with his silver hair and light hued eyes. He wore a glittering silvery shirt that matched the colour of his hair, as well as his pants made of the same material. He stood up and headed to where Subaru stood, his bare feet making no sound on the carpet.
"Who are you?" Subaru asked him suspiciously. The boy just stood there for a moment, smiling slightly. He looked a lot like an angel.
"My name is Kiro." And he sounded like one too. His voice was soft and yet Subaru could hear it well. "It is unfortunate that you are here."
"Unfortunate?" Subaru's stomach, if possible, plunged down even lower. "Where am I in the first place?"
"You are in Kugare," the boy answered him, "it is an imagined place that Teiki has control over."
"Who is Teiki?" Subaru decided to ignore the part about imagined place. "And how was this world, Kugare, created?"
"He is twin." At this, Kiro's eyes closed, in sorrow it seemed. "He put me in this place so that I would not disturb him and counter him. Kugare is really as I said, an imagined place. He has something that he cast a spell on. The thing was then used to imprison me, and also you. I don't know what he used, but from what I can gather, it is some sort of amulet, a powerful one to be able to bind me."
A spelled amulet? Subaru thought about this for a while. It was possible to do something like that, but it would take great power to do so. In fact, for most, it would take too much.
As if reading where his thoughts were going, Kiro continued. "Yes, it took him too much power and in the end, it took a part of him to keep me here." Kiro walked back to the chairs and sat down, motioning for Subaru to follow. Subaru sat down and digested the new information. So, Kiro's own twin, Teiki, imprisoned him in an amulet, which took too much of his power. Now Teiki has imprisoned Subaru too...there seemed to be more to the story.
"Mind telling me the whole story? It seems that I will be here for a while" Subaru commented.
"Fine," Kiro agreed, "I'll start from the beginning..."
"Teiki and I were both born within minutes of each other, Teiki being older than me. We look so much alike that we were given necklaces at
our birth to be able to be told apart. Mine has a K engraved on small silver plaque, his has a T. We got along fine when we were children. Often
switching necklaces to confuse our parents. We kept no secrets from each other, we shared the same room by choice and we knew each other
like we knew ourselves.
Our parents taught us from when we were young how to do onmyoujitsu and we both took to it very well. We were expected to use it for
protection and to help others. We knew we were supposed to carry on our parents' good names. We were equally matched in everything we did
and what one wanted to learn, the other would go along. Our childhood was a variety of lessons that we enjoyed greatly. From martial arts to
horseback riding, our parents indulged our whims as long as we learn onmyoujitsu and take it seriously.
Our fun carried all through elementary, having the same friends who all knew that we were each other's best friend. We also discovered that a
special bond between us developed through all the things we did together. We usually knew what the other was thinking, doing, saying or
feeling at any given time if we were ever apart for any reason.
Then when we were 15, we found our parents murdered in their rooms. I would never forget that day. We came home and the house was
silent. We ran upstairs and called our parents' names. They were always home by this hour, doing their jobs in the morning and the evenings, but
leaving this time free so that they would be there when we were home. When we opened the door to our parents' room, they were on the bed
lying side by side, looking as though they were sleeping.
We called to them, they did not answer. There were people hiding in the closet and they ran out and we tried our best to fight them. We
succeeded and when all of them were on the floor, we noticed an envelope with our names on it. It read: 'Greetings Teiki and Kiro, I should
expect that you know by now that your parents are dead. And soon, you shall be too, unless you are interested in working for me. I will come
for your answer soon.'
We cried our hearts out for our parents, but it wasn't going to bring them back. We decided that we had better get out of our house, since
neither of us would ever want to meet the person responsible for killing our parents until we were killing him. We knew that we weren't
powerful enough yet to do so, because our parents were certainly more powerful than us and they were defeated.
We went to the place where my mother's family resided. We told our story and were allowed to stay. The family was in mourning the whole
time we stayed and so were we. We spent most of our time in the library, devoting ourselves to practicing onmyoujitsu and learning about it.
But the killer was true to his word, and he came to us one day, the day when I lost Teiki.
Teiki and I were sitting under one of the many trees in the yard, reading more books, when suddenly we sensed that something was not right.
When we looked up, a huge creature came at us, it was black and bore some small resemblance to a bird. It headed straight for Teiki but I
pushed him out of the way, so I took a blow to the back of my head.
When I got my surroundings back, I saw a man standing beside the creature. He wore a black cloak and I could only see his black hair and
when he turned around, his ice blue eyes. He advanced towards me, but Teiki jumped up and stood in front of me. The man and Teiki spoke,
Teiki begged him not to take me and the man seemed to think about it before he leaned forward and whispered something to Teiki's ear.
Teiki's eyes widened, but he nodded. Teiki sat down beside me and hugged me, and I demanded to know what he agreed to, but he wouldn't
say anything. I watched as Teiki stood up and walk towards the man. When he reached the man, he turned around and said 'Goodbye'. I
suddenly got what was happening and I screamed for him to stop, but he didn't listen. The creature, the man, and Teiki disappeared and my
relatives found me outside screaming for Teiki to come back.
After a while, they got the whole story out of me then I collapsed. After three days, I woke up and I knew right away that something was
missing. It took me a moment to realize that my bond with Teiki had disappeared, as if he wasn't ever there. I tried so hard to get it back,
but to no avail. I locked myself in the library, barely eating or taking care of myself. I spent the time reading and gaining more knowledge.
Once in a while, I would go outside in the night to practice.
It was one week after my sixteenth birthday and I was extremely exhausted but I went outside to practice anyways. I hadn't really gotten
over the fact that it was my first birthday without my parents, and especially, without Teiki. When dawn was only a few hours away, I
sat down to look at the stars and the moon in the sky, thinking about the times I used to do the same thing with Teiki beside me. We'd
always talk during these times. It seemed that everything I did reminded me of him.
I wasn't paying attention and sometime during the time I was thinking, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I felt warm and comfortable, someone
was embracing me and I sat up immediately. I wasn't prepared to see Teiki looking at me. In fact, I couldn't say anything at all. When I did
say something, it was to ask, 'How?'
He still looked exactly like me, like looking into a mirror. He simply smiled and embraced me again. For some reason, I just couldn't keep my
eyes open and I fell asleep yet again.
Teiki was still there when I woke up; but I woke up to an unfamiliar place. Teiki gave me food to eat and while I was eating, he started
talking. He said that the man's name that he went with was Azari. He said that he had been with Azari for the past year or so, and that
now he was allowed to see me.
He said that he went here so that I would not have to. Teiki said that the deal was that he would stay with Azari and I wouldn't be harmed.
I asked him to tell me everything that happened to him, but he countered, asking about me instead. He was concerned over the fact that I
looked thin and less healthy than before.
Sometime during our talk, the door to the room opened and I saw the man, Azari, again. He smiled at me and turned to Teiki. Teiki stood up
and started to leave the room. My heart gave a twist as I realized that he knew this Azari well enough that it was just like the way we used
to be, always understanding what the other wanted.
When he left, Azari sat down across from me and asked me how I was doing. I was on guard, but I decided that it would probably not be
wise to say anything that would anger him. I told him that I was doing fine.
He then told me that Teiki would always stay with him. He said that he allowed me to see Teiki because Teiki wanted to see me. He then
offered that if I wanted to be with Teiki again, then I could always join with them. I truly wanted to be with Teiki again, but I did not want
to join with the man who killed my parents and took Teiki away from me in the first place. He just laughed when I told him that and the all
too familiar darkness surrounded me again.
The next thing I knew, I woke up and I was back outside the house where I fell asleep. I knew for a fact that I didn't dream. I used every
spell I knew to track down where they were, and yet I still couldn't find them.
Another year passed and during that time, I decided that I would move out on my own. I got myself a job, advertising myself as an
onmyouji. Just three months after my seventeenth birthday, I ran into Teiki again.
I was walking around the park at the edge of the city when he appeared. I knew that something was immediately wrong. His eyes for once,
were now darker than mine, and his face was hard instead of gentle. Azari appeared next to him and proceeded to laugh at me.
I tried to talk to Teiki but it was no use, so I had to resort to defending myself against his attacks. His magic was now completely black, it
was corrupted as much as he was. We were still evenly matched as always, but Azari paralyzed me with a spell. As I tried to get out, Teiki
began chanting, I recognized the spell as the one that would imprison something. Before the final step, they talked to me, tried to get me to
join them, but I wouldn't. I watched then, as the final step fell into place and I started to feel an enormous wind pulling me towards them.
Right before I went in though, I cast one last desperate spell and Azari's bindings came undone. Teiki ended up using most of his energy to
trap me and so he was faded when finished. He looked more like a ghost; transparent.
I found out that I could create what I want in here, and so I have. I created this room and the designs and my wardrobe out of boredom. It
has been one year since I've been trapped here, I know that because I can see the outside world through the television. I know what they
have done through all the times that I have managed a glimpse.
Teiki needed more power and also a body so that he could walk around. Of course, you were the best candidate. You are the 13th head of
the Sumeragi Clan and one of the most powerful to have come in generations. Your soul is trapped here, unlike me, because my whole
body and being is trapped here. Teiki now has control over your powers and yourself. He has been researching you for the whole year and
knows a lot about you. Too much, actually."
"That's my story." Kiro drank from a glass that had appeared on the table. He had cried during some parts of the story; the events being relived again through the telling.
Subaru felt sorry for Kiro, but knew that the boy did not want pity from him. Actually, he was not very much of a boy. He was only two years younger than Subaru. Kiro's story also struck a chord in his heart. He painfully remembered Hokuto and along with her, Seishirou. He noticed similarities between Kiro's story and his. Especially the strange bird-like creature. It must have distracted him so that Teiki could knock him unconscious.
"What exactly does Teiki know about me?" Subaru didn't know what Teiki knew about his family or about Seishirou. If he didn't know enough, then his relatives were smart...they would notice. He didn't know why Seishirou kept making his way into his mind, but Subaru hadn't even seen him in 5 years.
"He knows about your family, mostly technical stuff - names, ages, birthdates, deathdates. He knows important events that happened in your life. And he knows especially about your twin, and the Sakurazukamori." Kiro was staring off as if looking at things. "But I wouldn't expect him to know how exactly to interact with everyone, you may hope that he would make a mistake, but he's too clever for that, unless..."
"Yes?" Subaru grabbed onto Kiro trailing off. "What?"
"Well, he hasn't ever seen you with the Sakurazukamori, so he doesn't know exactly how to answer him or interact. But there's a small chance that he would come after 5 years of not seeing you suddenly."
Subaru had to accept that. His heart gave a small jump at the mention of Seishirou even trying to look for him. Would he even realize that I was different? It had been 5 years after all. But then again, Subaru remembered, he was always too smart and he knew too much about Subaru. So, maybe, he would still hold onto that small chance.
A/N: ^.^ New story! As I said before, I don't know the pairings, I would love to see Seishirou with Subaru, but then, I would also like to see Subaru with Kiro... what do you think? As I said...this is angst... I would love to hear your opinions on the subject.
Hope to get the next chapter up soon!
