That day… obaa-chan had some business at the municipal office. So I was waiting for her alone. I would usually stay put while I waited for her… but somehow, on that day… I felt as if I was being called… So I left the place I told obaa-chan I would be waiting. –Sumeragi Subaru, volume 7 of Tokyo Babylone.
…. If I hadn't left you so carelessly back then… If I hadn't left you alone on that night… -Lady Sumeragi, volume 4 of Tokyo Babylone
The Butterfly Woman
Tokyo – 1983
There weren't many people left in Ueno Park the night Lady Sumeragi found her grandson under the sakura. She was so happy that he hadn't been harmed, Tokyo was a dangerous place for a nine-year old after all. The inverted pentagrams sketched into the flesh of Subaru's hands told another story, one that the 12th master of the Sumeragi clan had not believed possible; the Sakurazakamori had marked her grandson as prey while she was busy in the municipal building. She had left the master-in-training alone, believing that he would wait for her without wandering off. Sumeragi Subaru was the obedient twin and she quickly became worried when she discovered him missing. If it had been his twin sister, the mischievous Hokuto, Lady Sumeragi would not have searched nearby hiding places for ten minutes before getting worried.
When she tried to ask him what had happened, he merely stared at her blankly, pure green eyes cloudy and enchanted. Knowing that probing would only make the Sakurazakamori's spell leech away more of Subaru's memory, Lady Sumeragi stopped herself from trying to remove the memory spell. As it was, the spell only covered a portion of Subaru's memory; a portion that the boy's mind was already recreating to accommodate the missing pieces.
Deciding she had lingered under the sakura long enough without doing anything, Lady Sumeragi tore the end of the sleeve of her official onmyoji robes and wrapped some of the purified fabric around her grandson's hands. Binding the fabric tightly, she chanted a spell to close the wounds. She then applied another layer of cloth and bound a spell of disinterest to it. When they got back to the house, she would think of a more permanent solution; she simply wanted to get away from the sakura barrow for now. The angry grudges of an untold amount of murdered souls clouded the air and the sweet scent of sakura could not mask the malicious aura. She grabbed Subaru's left hand and started to walk. He stared at the sakura barrow, and followed her haltingly.
Subaru seemed a little more aware of his surrounding as she led him through a sparsely populated shopping district, no longer dragging his feet but still distracted. Whispers followed them, envious of the child's beauty and how he was so well-behaved. Lady Sumeragi's pride was undercut by the thought of how her beautiful, well-behaved grandchild had wandered off and gotten himself marked by their archenemy.
When Subaru started to really pay attention to his surrounding, he immediately sensed that his grandmother wanted to be alone with her thoughts. He was tempted to ask her why she seemed so sad because he had a feeling it was because of him but did not. Instead, he shyly looked around, smelling the instant ramen from a nearby booth as the breeze carried it to him. It was almost suffocated by Tokyo's polluted atmosphere but the sight of the ramen itself helped separate it from all the other smells. He wanted to show Hokuto-chan the pretty shop at the corner of the street, a homey-looking place with a cheerful 'We're Open' sign. Its display case showed a variety of fabrics: smooth to rought, shiny to bland, finely-woven to coarse, solid in colour to thousands of different colours blended together. The wild array of colour reminded Subaru of the hundreds of sample colour bars you get at paint shops, the kinds that labeled many shades of blue so you could match them to a can. Then he remembered that Hokuto-chan was in Kyoto and he wasn't. His eyes went southward as he hung his head sadly.
At first, neither of them noticed the woman waiting under the lamppost. Her long dark hair reached her knees as it swayed gently in the wind, unbound silk that caressed the woman's kimono like a tender lover. The kimono itself was dark with bright red butterflies in mid-flight, a pattern that did not appear to be a pattern but was. Various pairs of colours distinguished each butterfly, some specks of blue and green on the wingtips; smaller specks of orange and pink on another. The obi was a dark green underlaid with other, paler shades of green, giving the impression of many small leaves. Since most of the butterflies were angled towards the obi it seemed like they were about to feed, making the pattern seem more logical than at first glance.
When Subaru finally looked at the woman, he saw that she was as beautiful as her kimono and taller than his grandmother. Lady Sumeragi stopped suddenly as she spotted the butterfly woman, surprise etched unto her face. "Yûko-san?" She drew Subaru a little closer to her body, eyeing the space-time witch warily. "Why are you waiting for us?"
"There is something you wish to know and I can grant your wish." The butterfly woman drawled, crouching until she was eye-level with Subaru. The child stared at the woman as she was suddenly much closer than a second before. She slowly reached out and took his free hand, tracing the inverted pentagram idly.
'I should have known that simple glamour wouldn't fool that one.' Lady Sumeragi thought. It was a testament to the witch's power that she could bypass the 12th master's ward so easily. "And in return?" She was happy to note that her voice remained calm and reserved, as it should. She gave Subaru's left hand a reassuring squeeze, knowing that Yûko unnerved people. The boy tore his eyes away from the witch and beamed at her, smiling with his eyes and his mouth. Lady Sumeragi could not help the small smile that formed in return. As for the fortune telling, the clan head knew that it was improper for her to ask Yûko anything but it felt right at this time.
"A charm to ward off spirits, made by the cutie of course." The butterfly woman smirked at Subaru, as if she was sharing a secret. This confused him because as far as he could tell, she had told no secrets. A little blush rose to his cheeks at her 'cutie' though.
Putting the matter out of his mind, Subaru looked up at his grandmother with an earnest face. "I can do it obaa-chan!" If his grandmother's worry could be soothed by the butterfly woman's words then he would help her pay the price.
Yûko took this as an agreement from Lady Sumeragi. "Their meeting was hitsuzen. He was called to the Sakurazakamori but not by the Sakurazakamori. The meeting with his twin star could not have been prevented because of that calling… As long as you and Hokuto-chan are together, she'll protect your body from harm." She told Subaru softly, looking sad for some reason. The next minute, she was grinning at them both. "I think that's worth a charm!"
'Agreed." Relieved, Lady Sumeragi gave a small smile of thanks to Yûko. She then started to instruct her grandson in crafting a charm into an ofuda. Yûko watched lazily, knowing the procedure but curious about the boy. She could feel the purity of his soul and the power he will have in the future. Witnessing the first successful spell of the 13th master of the Sumeragi clan was more validating than the result, a childish attempt but still powerful.
The child had put a lot of effort into his spell and he didn't have the stamina to remain unaffected. As a result, he was now almost sleeping on his feet. Since she had expected the child's first spell to be so powerful, she added a bit of information. "I think gloves will suit your grandson's hands nicely, Sumeragi-san. They're in fashion and they'll cover the marks. If you go that way for a minute, you'll see a store for accessories. They have really nice gloves there."
"… Thank you." Lady Sumeragi understood what Yûko meant immediately and wondered why she hadn't thought of it before.
"Now… To celebrate this wonderful charm, I think I'll have some champagne." Yûko spoke to herself more than to Lady Sumeragi. "Champagne is the celebrating drink after all…"
Lady Sumeragi carried her grandson home, occasionally playing with his baby-fine hair. She would lay the protection spell into a pair of gloves that evening and feel good about obstructing the Sakurazakamori's path. If she had the gift of foresight, she would have known that Sakuraza Seishirou would see through her spell seven years later and that she was feeling a fool's hope. However, Yûko's words allowed her a few years of self-forgiveness.