Two onmyouji stood on the Rainbow Bridge, under a pentagram-shaped kekkai.

"The Kamui of the Dragons of Earth told me," said Seishirou, as he removed his shades, "that your wish is something only I can grant. However…" Seishirou caught the fluttering end of the bandage that was unraveling from Subaru and brought it close to his lips. "…he also said that it's not what I think it is. So… your wish isn't to kill me?"

Subaru gazed steadily back at him, their right eyes identical. "No. It's not."

There was a pause as the bandage fell free and drifted away.

"Then what is it?" Seishirou inquired.

"What do you care?" Subaru demanded.

"I'm just curious."

"You'll grant it soon enough."

"Tell me what it is first."

"Why?"

"Because I want to know."

"Why?"

"Are you five?!" Seishirou snapped.

"No. I want to know why the Sakurazukamori cares about my wishes."

"Like I said, I'm curious."

"And like I said, you'll see what it is when you grant it."

Seishirou frowned. He was getting nowhere… so he tried a different tack. "Is it to kill someone else?"

"Why would I want to kill anyone else?"

"Does it have anything to do with anyone else?"

"Didn't your Kamui say that it's something only you can grant?"

"I don't know if he was telling the truth."

"He was," said Subaru softly.

"So… what is it that you want me to do that isn't dying by your hand?"

Subaru was silent.

"Spill the beans, Subaru-kun. I'm dying over here. Figuratively," Seishirou added.

"Only what you were supposed to do eight years ago," said Subaru at last.

"Hmm?"

"You said you would kill me… at the end of our bet… if you didn't love me." Subaru squeezed his eyes shut, as if in pain. "That kill is long overdue, don't you think?"

"You want me… to kill you?" said Seishirou slowly.

"I want you to finish what you started!" Subaru burst out. "After you revealed your cruel little charade and killed Hokuto-chan… I tried… I tried to kill you in my heart. I tried to erase your existence inside me… but I couldn't… I couldn't do it. Even though you can't love me… you can't feel anything for me… at least… you can kill me. Trample me like dust under your feet. Break me like a twig you stepped on. Put me out of my misery. You know how to do that."

There was a long silence. Subaru let the bitter words hang in the air between them. He hadn't planned on saying it all, except maybe in his final moments… but surely those would come soon enough.

"I should have seen it," Seishirou finally said. "You never had it in you to kill… Your heart is far too kind for that."

"It has nothing to do with kindness! I'm not an innocent child anymore. You took that away, Seishirou-san. Loving you did that to me."

Seishirou's eyes widened. The expression on the Sakurazukamori's face was undoubtedly one of surprise. "You… love me?"

Subaru nodded. Tears—tears he'd been trying to keep down, tears like the ones he'd cried when he'd first realized his feelings just before that fateful step into Seishirou's hospital room eight years ago—flooded his eyes.

"Are you sure that's what you're feeling?" Seishirou sounded supremely skeptical. "Not just clinging to the past, or even… youthful horniness?"

That made Subaru's jaw fall open. Did Seishirou just suggest that Subaru's feelings, the feelings he couldn't deny even after losing Hokuto, didn't rise above lust?

"Subaru-kun…"

"Yes…?"

"Do you find me sexy?"

Subaru snarled in anger. "Is that a joke?!"

"Oh, wow. Ouch. That, indeed, was very unkind."

Subaru sighed. "It doesn't matter if you believe me or not. You don't care anyways. What difference does it make to the Sakurazukamori, whether I love him or not? Just get it over with already."

Seishirou blinked, as if he'd forgotten why they were there. "Get what over with?"

"You owe me a long-awaited death, Seishirou-san. Or are you going to keep me waiting even longer because I'm not worth the effort it takes to kill me?"

Seishirou regarded Subaru for a long moment. Finally, he laughed softly, as if to himself. "Well… it looks like Hokuto-chan was right, after all."

"What did you say?" Subaru started at the mention of Hokuto.

"I really thought your wish was to kill me… but her wish was for both of us to live."

Subaru's eyes widened. "What?!"

"She said that I mean a lot to you. I didn't think that would still be the case after I took her life…" Seishirou chuckled. "She knows you so much better than I do."

Subaru realized that he was referring to Hokuto's last words… which only Seishirou had heard. "What did Hokuto-chan say?!" Subaru demanded. "What did she tell you?"

"That was all the important parts."

"And then you killed her?"

"In my defense, she asked for it. Literally."

Subaru couldn't say that he was surprised. Confronting Seishirou when she'd known that he was the Sakurazukamori had to have been what the other Kamui would've called a death wish. And her death had snapped Subaru out of his catatonia, which he'd assumed was her intention. But still… "Why did she ask you to kill her?"

"She… wanted to cast a spell with her death."

"What spell?"

Seishirou didn't answer. Instead, he seemed to be thinking aloud as he said, "I thought I would be granting your wish as well as my own… but it seems that's not the case… what to do, what to do…"

Subaru stared. "You thought… I wanted to kill you… that was your wish? But… why?"

Seishirou laughed. "Oh, Subaru-kun, think for a moment… why didn't I kill you when our bet ended?"

You almost did, Subaru wanted to say. Seishirou had broken his arm, kicked him across the ground like a pebble, tried to kill him… but his grandmother had intervened. And then… and then Seishirou had let him go. Why? His grandmother couldn't have stopped the Sakurazukamori again. Why had Seishirou held off? Why hadn't he returned to take care of his unfinished business, to dispose of Subaru as quickly and casually as he would've tossed a candy wrapper into the trash? Why wait for Hokuto to approach him… with some sort of spell? And then… why go along with it by killing her? Surely the Sakurazukamori should've been suspicious about her intentions. And what was the spell that Hokuto had cast on her killer? What had she wanted to accomplish with it? Could it have anything to do with…

He said he would kill me if I lost… Seishirou hadn't killed him. He started to… but he didn't finish it… and then he let me go.

Subaru looked up. He couldn't believe it—he didn't dare to believe it—but he couldn't deny what Seishirou seemed to be implying.

"Seishirou-san…" Subaru began, taking a step toward him.

"SAKURAZUKAMORI!" came a yell, and suddenly Kamui was flying down toward them, attack in hand.

"No! Wait!" Subaru ran in front of Seishirou and threw up his arms.

Kamui, shocked, de-powered his attack and twisted in midair to avoid crashing into Subaru. He landed in front of them. Arashi hopped down beside him.

"Subaru, what are you doing?" Kamui cried, alarmed. "Don't turn your back to him!"

"Oh, please turn your back to me," Seishirou leaned forward and cooed into Subaru's ear.

Subaru yelped at the sudden return of Seishirou's perverted older friend persona. Kamui's jaw dropped. Arashi's eyebrows shot up. She also turned a little pink.

"Well then, Subaru-kun," Seishirou went on silkily, slipping an arm around Subaru's waist, "if you are willing, I'm sure you don't want the world to end with your virginity intact…"

Subaru made an incoherent noise of protest.

"We should be leaving now!" said Arashi loudly, grabbing Kamui's arm. "Looks like Subaru-san has everything under control! Let's get out of here!"

"Wait—no—what—the—" Kamui spluttered.

"Hey! What's going on!" came Sorata's voice. Suddenly, he and Yuzuriha landed next to Kamui and Arashi. "Nothing was happening at the shrine, so we came to check on—OH MY GOD! What is going on here!" Sorata yelped when he saw the Sakurazukamori shamelessly groping Subaru from behind. He threw his hands over Yuzuriha's eyes.

"What, what, what! Is something interesting happening? I want to see!" Yuzuriha demanded.

"Seishirou-san! Not now! Please!" Subaru wriggled free of Seishirou's embrace, but he held on to Seishirou's arm, as if to keep him from vanishing in a whirlwind of cherry blossoms. "Excuse me, can you give us a moment?" he said to the younger Seals.

"No problem!" said Sorata and Arashi in unison, and they wasted no time dragging off the indignant Yuzuriha and the furiously protesting Kamui.

"Seishirou-san…"

"Yes?"

Everything whirled in Subaru's head. Why didn't I kill you when our bet ended? That fact was undeniable—it had been eight years, and Subaru was still alive. But what now? Her wish was for both of us to live. But it wasn't that simple. Seishirou was the Sakurazukamori. And he had killed Hokuto. How can I still love my sister's killer? The only way Subaru could accept that fact was by wishing for his own death. He didn't deserve to be alive, much less to be happy. But Hokuto hadn't died to keep them apart… Her wish was for both of us to live. Even if Subaru was angry at her for sacrificing herself—even if he couldn't forgive Seishirou for taking her life—refusing to accept her final wish seemed… spiteful. It was spiteful to her. It was spiteful to himself.

"Come home with me tonight," said Subaru finally.

"Gladly," said Seishirou. He was smiling.

It wasn't a smirk. It wasn't a grin. It was the warm, happy smile of the kindly veterinarian that he had pretended to be during the year of the bet. But then, Subaru remembered that Seishirou had also smiled to see him at Nakano, when they'd met for the first time since the end of the bet, when the pretense was already over. Subaru had attacked him, forced him to defend himself, tried to provoke the Sakurazukamori into going for the kill… and Seishirou had simply fended off his attacks before disappearing, smiling the whole time.

What if it hadn't been fake?

Was he really… happy to see me?