Everyone knows there's something going on between Subaru and the Sakurazukamori. There are those who know everything, from the beginning sixteen years ago, to the apocalypse now. There are also those whose knowledge barely scrapes the murky surface. Regardless, Dragons of Heaven and Earth alike watch the Sumeragi and Sakurazuka dance their denial around each other.
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Aoki doesn't really understand what Subaru feels for the Sakurazukamori, and doesn't think he ever will. He has a wife and daughter, his only temptation being Karen, and his only desire is to keep all three of them alive. Anything for them. He doesn't—and hopes he never does—know the experience of having everything you ever loved snatched away by someone you thought loved you.
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Karen understands a little about love-hate relationships. She survived one. Her mother didn't. Even now she wonders whether her mother really loved her, and she feels that she can empathize with Subaru. But only sometimes. Most of the time, she looks at her battered teddy bear, and knows that despite every biting slap and jagged cut inflicted, her mother really loved her.
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Yuzuriha is young, innocent—and absolutely, positively, definitely in love. She has even admitted it, and though she blushes and worries, she knows that Kusanagi will always be there for her. Sometimes, as she chews Pocky and pets Inuki, Yuzuriha looks at Subaru smoking cigarette after cigarette, and wonders who is there for the lonely onmyouji.
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Sorata has a simple view of life. Woo Nee-san, protect Kamui, and destroy the seven Harbingers. Not easy, but simple. He knows that he will die in the end, as everyone eventually will, but he's more than happy to do so. After all, if his death means Arashi lives, he's willing to die ten times over. He doesn't know that Arashi will never forgive him if he does, not unlike Subaru when Hokuto did just that for him.
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Arashi knows what it's like to be abandoned. Life passing you by, dreary seconds as hours, meaningless days as years. Stillness in black and white. Everything reduced to nothing, with nothing left to live for. So when the Ise priestess finds something to eat—to live—for, she feels grateful beneath her armour of ice. She watches each of her companions in turn—Sorata, Yuzuriha, Kamui—and when her inscrutable gaze lands on an onmyouji who eats in a month what others eat in one sitting, she guesses that life is passing in muted grey for Subaru.
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Kamui doesn't realize he is following in Subaru's footsteps of doom. He doesn't realize the futility of his fight with his twin star because deep down, some part of him does realize that he loves Fuuma. As it is, he wages war with fate—his foreordained destiny with two endings—and continues down Subaru's well-trodden path of wrecked ideals and hidden broken hearts of glass.
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Kakyou was there when Hokuto died, and he loved her enough to share some small part of Subaru's grief. Comatose and paralyzed, the yumemi has no one else to love. He wanders around in dreams, biding his time till his Wish is granted— and watches Subaru in his sleep. Despite knowing its impossibility, he wishes him happiness. For Hokuto.
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Nataku has been taught to have no emotions, so he obediently has none. Or so he thinks. As he carries out Daddy's orders, destroying kekkai and wreaking havoc, he finally meets Mummy, who tells him every human has feelings, even clones. If anyone had asked Subaru about this, he would have bleakly disagreed. He knows someone human who really has none.
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Kusanagi feels vaguely guilty every time he goes out with the 'cat girl'. After all, he is supposed to be the enemy. Even if he wasn't, relationships aren't supposed to happen between people of starkly different ages. Yet as he looks at Yuzuriha's wide, innocent eyes and pets her faithful inugami—testimony of her naive faith in humanity—he reluctantly but definitely falls for her. Neither he nor Yuzuriha knows that a warped version of this happened sixteen years ago.
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Yuuto looks and acts like a pimp. Who's to say he isn't one? He tosses and turns in bed with Kanoe, dreams of snatching Satsuki away from Beast's claws, and eyes his enemies. He flirts with Karen, dismisses Yuzuriha, pities Kamui—and feels slightly disappointed that Subaru isn't a woman. He's careful not to let his colleague know, because Seishirou, ever jealous and possessive, obviously has no such inhibitions with gender when it comes to Subaru.
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Satsuki knows everything there is to know about the Seals she has to kill. After all, nothing is impossible with Beast. She knows of Kamui's previous relationship with her Kamui, and of the mother Sorata never knew. She knows who abandoned Arashi and why, as well as the names of every classmate Yuzuriha was bullied by. She skims over Aoki's editing notes in her free time, and delves into Karen's childhood hospital records. But some things are not entirely believable. Satsuki does not doubt Beast's power, yet even so she privately thinks her machine has finally made a mistake. She finds it impossible to even imagine that the pale, quiet Sumeragi had once fallen for one of her colleagues. Subaru and the Sakurazukamori? …Impossible.
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Fuuma thinks Subaru looks a lot like Kamui. Or perhaps it is the other way around, with Kamui looking like Subaru. Either way, he knows that beside the physical similarities, both of them have Wishes that are absolutely unattainable. He once wondered if Seishirou knew that, and has since then come to the conclusion that no, the Sakurazukamori didn't. So he wishes his colleague good luck, as one hunter will to another.
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Subaru doesn't really know what to make of his relationship with Seishirou.
He hates him. He loves him.
He wants to kill him. He doesn't think he can bring himself to do so.
He wants to avenge Hokuto. He wonders what she would say if he did.
It's no longer important in this maelstrom of emotion, but…
Seishirou is a Dragon of Earth—an Angel and Harbinger that must be stopped. Subaru is a Dragon of Heaven—a Seal that lets the enemy wreak his havoc.
The Sakurazukamori doesn't acknowledge the bond between them, yet regardless, Subaru does.
Subaru just knows that theirs is one very twisted relationship.