Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Babylon, X, or Tsubasa Chronicle. CLAMP does. (Which I am sure countless people will be grateful for once they have finished this fic).
Summary: A retelling of Tokyo Babylon in an epic proportion. Epic meaning unbelievable. Subaru and Seishirou in the starring roles as bats. Yes, bats.
The Little Fruit Bat and the Big Bad Vampire Bat
Once upon a time there was a little fruit bat named Subaru who lived with his grandmother in a giant oak tree in the middle of a forest. Now being a fruit bat, Subaru was one of the smallest specimens of his kind, reaching only about 3 inches in length with his body; his wingspan alone measured about a foot in diameter. Subaru possessed shiny, velvety-black skin; large, rounded ears framed with fine tufts of fur; delicate, paper-thin, leathery wings with one pointed claw attached to each; and a short snub of button-nose centered right between his two, wide, emerald green eyes. He was what his older sibling, Hokuto, often described as "very adorable—a meal too cute for predators to eat and destroy; he would break hearts someday with that sweet face of his". Subaru would blush at this proclamation every time, turning his cheeks an ever darker color. However, Hokuto had flown from the roost earlier that year in search of other colonies, eager to be off on her next grand adventure; so now it was just Subaru to look after their grandmother, who, after many seasons, it seemed that age had finally caught up with.
Dear old Obaa-chan was ailing and could no longer fly long distances to forage for the juicy fruits and sweet nectar the fruit bats fed on, so Subaru was the one to bring her back food, crushed and stored in his cheek pouches. Before each of his nightly flights, his grandmother would always warn him.
"You must be careful, Subaru. Beware the owls, the snakes, the large felines, and above all—beware the traitorous, blood-thirsty assassin!"
"The blood-thirsty assassin, what kind of creature is this?" Subaru had asked the first time his grandmother had mentioned it, for although he recognized the other creatures' name, he had never heard of this new one.
"He is just how he is described," Obaa-chan had said, in her weak, raspy voice. "He wanders endlessly through the black skies, a lone, silent sentry, searching for his next victim. He feeds in a manner unnatural of any creature. He does not eat insects, nor grass, nor fruit, nor even the flesh of others. No, instead he does an altogether wretched and evil thing: he drinks their blood! Descending from on high, silent and swift, he strikes with a deadly ease and captures his prey, then he drains every last drop of blood from his victim and carries away the body deep within his cave, entombing the poor soul so it will never be at rest, forsaken to wander the earth for all eternity."
"Obaa-chan!" Subaru had gasped in fright, wishing hopefully that she was simply making up a terrible bone-chilling story like Hokuto used to do to scare him for fun. "That can't be true! No creature only lives on blood! Surely the blood-thirsty assassin is only a legend!"
"Be careful, my grandson," the old bat had repeated, coughing lightly into her wing. "Do not let yourself be taken astray by him. Those that do are all doomed."
Every night his grandmother warned him and every night Subaru tried his best to watch out for all manner of predators, those real and those not, while gathering food. However, one day his grandmother had overslept well into the evening and night had begun to fall. Subaru's heart went out for the old bat that had taken care of him and Hokuto since they were pups, whose parents had been devoured by owls. Obaa-chan was curled up tightly within her wings, hanging by her foot-claws in the hollow of the oak tree, huddled as far back into the darkness as she could get, small shivers racking her tiny frame. Subaru had decided he would go out and gather food for them and be back before she woke up. It would be a nice surprise!
So intense was the thought of pleasing his grandmother, Subaru forgot all her warnings and set out into the night, his mind filled only with the purpose of finding the biggest and best juiciest fruit there was and taking as much back to her as he could.
It was a warm night with a gentle breeze and dozens of fireflies decorating the landscape. Flitting among them, Subaru saw many of his cousins, other species of bats—those that ate insects, happily snapping the fireflies up, giggling in glee as the bugs tickled the inside of their bellies and caused them to glow . Normally, Subaru would have flown over to inquire if any of them had spoken to a fruit bat named Hokuto. It had been awhile since she had sent word of her whereabouts and Subaru was getting worried. However, the sight of the other bats eating the poor defenseless fireflies made Subaru sad, even though he knew insects were what his cousins survived on—still, the fireflies were alive and had a right to life also, didn't they? Subaru flew on, glad he was a fruit bat who didn't have to worry about taking other creatures' lives on a daily basis. He didn't think his conscience would allow him to do it.
The night wore on and Subaru continued his search for the best fruit to bring back to Obaa-chan. He wanted it to be special tonight, something she had not tasted for a long time. There were little patches of wild strawberry and blackberry bushes growing near the tree, but they ate that far too often. A little further into the forest, there were some nice apple trees, and sometimes, if he felt brave enough, Subaru would venture out of the forest into the valley below to sip up the nectar in the field of flowers that lay strewn out across the meadow like a patchwork quilt. Still, Subaru wasn't satisfied. He wanted to see Obaa-chan's eyes light up, for the age to melt away from her face and for her to smile in a way he hadn't seen since he and Hokuto were young.
Then Subaru remembered the plum orchard on the other side of the valley, a place he had never gone, and yet still could recall the sweet perfume of the plums as it wafted on the air downwind to him. But it was so far! Dare he actually fly the distance?
An image of Obaa-chan's snout wrinkled back into a toothy smile, her eyes shining in delight as she feasted on the crushed pulp of the rare fruit…
Subaru spread his wings wide and sailed through the air, his heart pounding excitedly in his chest as he swooped over the top of the forest, the valley-floor, then finally…the plum orchard appeared in his line of vision. The trees were feathered in an abundance of white snowy blossoms and near-drooping with the weight of their fruit: heavy, plump, purple plums, sweating their juices excessively, overripe and ready for picking, and the scent of it was heavenly.
The little fruit bat's mouth watered and he launched his body at the nearest tree and attached himself to the fruit with his fore-claws, eagerly sticking his snout in and lapping at the flow of juice that burst out. He took care of his own appetite first, filling his stomach so much that it bulged into a tight, roly-poly ball, then he stored as much of the fruit as he could into his pouch-cheeks until they resembled a chipmunk's face after stuffing itself with nuts. Then feeling wholly pleased and sated, Subaru threw himself into the air, wanting to get back home as soon as possible. Only he had underestimated just how much weight his fragile wings could carry, and so after a hearty meal, fell earth-bound immediately like a rock, with a startled squeak.
Subaru managed to catch the branch on the lower limbs of the tree with his foot-claws and simply hung there for a few seconds in shock, before pulling himself upright with his wings, where he perched, resting, his mind racing wildly as he realized he had overeaten and would not be able to fly for a while. The night was late now. Obaa-chan would no doubt be awake, wondering where he was. Did she think he had left her too… left her like Hokuto-chan had left them?
Subaru sniffled, feeling very foolish, and thus, began emitting a symphony of tiny hiccups in his distress, the carefully stored juice in his pouch-cheeks slipping out of his mouth in little dribbles.
There came soft laughter in the tree further up. Subaru lifted his head miserably and looked upwards through the branches, wondering if it was an owl and he was going to be eaten. He certainly deserved it, being so greedy. However what he saw was no bird of any kind, rather, it was by far the largest bat he had ever seen.
The bat roosted upside-down in one of the top-most tree-limbs, his long, curved foot-claws digging firmly into the bark. His fur was a rich dark brown and quite short. He had huge, long and pointed ears, and a long and narrow muzzle with an upturned snout like a horn. In the moonlight, there was a gleam of sharp pointy teeth as the bat smiled down at Subaru, watching him with narrowed, golden eyes.
Subaru shivered, not knowing why, but still could not help feeling amazed at the sight. Why even from this distance he could tell that this bat must be about three feet in size!
"You must eat an awful lot to be able to get that big," Subaru said, forgetting his grandmother's rule of never talking to strangers.
The larger bat blinked at this statement then smiled even wider at him, as if he were amused at something.
"You're a funny little one," he said. "Mind if I come down?"
"Oh, yes, I'm sorry. Am I in your tree? Are these your fruits?" Subaru questioned, ashamed.
The larger bat laughed again and let himself fall free from his perch, the wings that had wrapped around him flapping open and expanding outwards like a massive cape, reaching almost the length of one branch to the end of another on the other side of the trunk. The bat glided on the air, circling a few times, no doubt showing off, the moonlight shining off his gigantic wingspan, making him seem almost ethereal-like. At last, he settled down right next to Subaru, his weight causing the slender limb to sway up and down a few times before it found its balance.
Subaru gaped in awe at the creature next to him. The bat was around three feet tall. He felt rather dwarfed. Why, he would bet his whole body was smaller than the other bat's head!
"This is not my tree," the larger bat said, answering Subaru's last question. "I was merely resting when a little fruit bat swooped out of nowhere and dive-bombed face first into a plum."
Subaru blushed in embarrassment as he realized the larger bat must have seen the entire spectacle he had made of himself.
"I'm sorry I ruined your fruit! I didn't know—" he squeaked apologetically.
"Didn't you hear? This is not my tree and these are not my fruit. I don't eat fruit," the larger bat cut him off, smiling in a secretive manner.
"Do you have a name, little fruit bat?" the larger bat asked, before Subaru could think further on the last statement.
"Subaru," the little bat supplied, hoping the other wouldn't think him rude for not introducing himself earlier.
"Subaru," the larger bat said, his golden eyes glinting with intense interest as he spoke the name as if savoring the sound of it on his tongue. "My name is Seishirou."
"Seishirou…san," Subaru said, inclining his head in acknowledgement as Obaa-chan had taught him to do when greeting others.
"So polite!" Seishirou chuckled, a quick flash of his teeth showing. "You are full of surprises, Subaru-kun. Most creatures run away screaming when they see me."
"What? But why?" Subaru asked.
"I suppose it is my great size," Seishirou sighed in a mournful voice. "It tends to frighten others off."
"But that's not fair!" Subaru cried. "You haven't done anything to them! They should give you a chance. It's not right to hurt others' feelings!"
Seishirou looked at him inquisitively and Subaru shuddered under the full gaze of the larger bat, wondering if he had spoken out of place.
"You possess a great sympathy towards all things, don't you Subaru-kun?" Seishirou mused out loud, as if mulling something over. "And yet you are not afraid of me?"
"You are a bat, like myself, only bigger," Subaru stated happily, as if that explained everything.
"You are saying then, that bats need not fear other bats?" Seishirou inquired, smiling amused once again. "Ah, but bats are not the only ones who are afraid of me…but who can blame them when I have a visage as grotesque as this?"
The larger bat pointed at his face with one giant curved fore-claw, which Subaru had to admit did look a sight ghastly upon first glance, however…
"Creatures should not judge others based on appearances," Subaru said firmly.
Seishirou did a double take and looked at the little fruit bat in wonder, his eyes widening a bit before a mask dropped over them coolly.
"If these large, pointed ears are not for frightening, then what are they for?" Seishirou asked, suppressing a smirk.
"Why they let you hear things better!" Subaru exclaimed.
"And these eyes?" Seishirou pressed, locking his huge golden eyes upon the little fruit bat's own emerald ones in a transfixing gaze.
"They let you see things better!"
"This horrid muzzle," Seishirou spoke, bending low so he was snout to snout with Subaru, the larger bat's pointed horn nose, flaring wide his enormous nostrils, contrasting greatly with the smaller bat's round, button one.
"It lets you smell things better!"
"This mouthful of teeth!" Seishirou declared, stretching the skin of lips back sinisterly, exposing his long, razor sharp incisors in a wide, toothy grin.
"They…they let you eat things better," Subaru said in a more subdued voice than before, yet his eyes still retained their trust of the larger bat.
"Indeed," Seishirou whispered into the little fruit bat's fuzzy ear, provoking another shiver out of Subaru, before he pulled back.
"Tell me, Subaru-kun," Seishirou said, changing the subject. "What is such a little bat like yourself doing out here all alone? I thought you tiny ones liked to stay in groups."
"I…I came to get some plum juice for my grandmother, who's ill," Subaru admitted. "It's just Obaa-chan and me that's left of our colony. Hokuto, my sister, she left and our parents are dead."
"Such a sad tale. You must use caution then, Subaru-kun. There are many predators who would be eager to get their jaws around a nice tender morsel such as yourself, and then who would look after your poor obaa-chan?" Seishirou said wickedly.
"Obaa-chan is always warning me like that," Subaru said fondly. "Although…although sometimes I'm not sure if all she says is true. She…she tells me stories…"
There was silence and Subaru looked up at the larger bat to see Seishirou smiling, encouraging him to go on.
"Stories about creatures like the traitorous, blood-thirsty assassin!" Subaru finished breathlessly.
The plum branch bobbed up and down slightly as its larger occupant shifted his weight, edging even closer to the little fruit bat than before.
"And you do not believe your wise, old obaa-chan's tales?" Seishirou inquired in an odd tone of voice.
"No, well, that is…I don't see how any creature can exist like that," Subaru said floundering, trying to explain.
"What? Drinking blood?" Seishirou asked. "Does it disgust you then? This notion?"
"It's not that," Subaru said, struggling for the right words. "Creatures do what they need to survive…"
Seishirou blinked his golden eyes at the statement and tilted his head sideways as he contemplated the little fruit bat thoughtfully.
"It's just the other part of the story…" Subaru went on. "He's always alone…there's no mention of a family or friends, and he's always hunting. Doesn't he get tired? Isn't he lonely?"
There was laughter again from the larger bat and the branch swayed to and fro from the shaking of Seishirou's massive frame until he had regained control and smiled with mirth at his smaller companion.
"You are a strange one, Subaru-kun, to feel sorry for such a damned creature. You're either very kind-hearted or very foolish. Do you know why he is called the 'traitorous, blood-thirsty assassin'?" Seishirou questioned.
"Because he drinks blood and kills without warning, silent and swift," Subaru smoothly recited the lines from Obaa-chan's tale.
"Yes, but do you know why he is called 'traitorous' as well?" Seishirou inquired. "Because he spares not even those of his own kind and eats them as well!"
The little fruit bat's eyes widened with horror and he gasped, "Oh! That's not possible! No creature eats their own kind!"
"What tree have you been sheltered in, Subaru-kun? Do not the owls eat smaller birds? Do not the snakes devour the weaker ones of them? Why should this 'blood-thirsty assassin' be any different?" Seishirou demanded.
"But, but…" Subaru squeaked pitifully, trying to find sense in it all.
"Do you have any idea of what manner of creature this 'blood-thirsty assassin' may be?" Seishirou inquired, eyeing the little bat intently.
Subaru shook his tiny head, although his mind had conjured up images of some great-horned beast with a stinging tail, giant teeth and claws, and glaring red eyes.
Seishirou leaned closer to the smaller bat as he shared the next part in a hushed exuberant tone, "They say he is bat."
Subaru tried to find his voice and protest against such utter atrocity, such blasphemy, but no sounds emitted from his throat, which felt dry, as if an invisible claw had curled around it, had seized it, and held it fast.
"Yes, a bat," Seishirou repeated for emphasis. "That's why they call him 'traitorous.' You see, bats are supposed to be one of the few creatures in this harsh world that do not consume their fellow brethren. There is no need to prey amongst ourselves when we, above all others, have the keenest of senses to find food even where it seems desolate. But the blood-thirsty assassin cares not about these things. He yearns for warm flesh and the blood of bat most of all."
"But why?" Subaru whispered, a cold chill spreading through him. "Why does he have to drink their blood? Why does he have to eat bat?"
"He doesn't have to, little fruit bat. He wants to," Seishirou explained with an ardent furor. "You see, within the blood of all creatures flows their desires, their dreams, their memories past, all the things which make up the very core of their being. And the blood-thirsty assassin laps it all up—every last drop so that he sees who that creature was, how he lived, what he held dear, so he can taste and experience the pleasure of what pure, raw emotions feel like.
"He cannot feel, you see," Seishirou went on as if commenting about the weather. "Perhaps it is a defect from birth. Perhaps he is cursed. Who knows? What is true is that he wishes to discover all emotions in existence and learn how to use and act upon them."
Subaru didn't ask how Seishirou knew so much about the blood-thirsty assassin. Nor did he react when the larger bat reached out with one long, wicked-sharp, curved fore-claw to tilt his tiny chin and examine his glazed eyes and blank expression.
"And he prefers bats most of all, my dear Subaru-kun, because they are his closest of kin, and when he samples their blood, in this way for a short while, he can be complete and know what it is like to truly live."
A gust of wind picked up into a strong gale and rustled the branches of the plum tree, stirring up the snowy-white petals of the blossoms into a swirling waltz, where they scattered upon the ground below in a soft echo of drifting snow. It was all but a faint murmuring in the little fruit bat's ears. Nothing mattered. Nothing mattered except to keep vigil upon Seishirou's two golden eyes of light drawing him deeply within their gaze, burning so bright yet so achingly hollow…
Twin pinpricks of pain.
Slight burst of panic.
Controlled by a familiar presence…soothing relief…
The moon loomed in front of him…and everything shone silver…
There was no up or down…no sense of direction…
He was falling…couldn't fly…
And he was caught and held tight in death's sweet embrace…
It was a rhythmic pounding assailing his ears that swept away the last vestiges of sleep and caused Subaru to wake. The little bat blinked his eyes blearily and shifted his head about to determine where the sound was coming from, his fore-claws scrambling to get a better grasp on the short fur residing beneath him.
Wait…fur?
"Did you dream beautiful dreams, little fruit bat?"
Subaru squeaked in mortification as he found himself completely enveloped and wrapped up quite snugly in Seishirou's giant wings like a cocoon so that he was resting against the broad chest of the larger bat, who hung upside-down from his roost in the tree.
"S-S-Seishirou-san!" Subaru cried, staining the ebony skin of his cheeks a glowing red as he blushed. "W-What…h-how…"
"I do believe you ate too much plum, Subaru-kun," Seishirou said merrily. "You simply toppled over and swooned right into my wings without any warning!"
"Oh, I'm s-sorry!" Subaru exclaimed, wishing he wasn't so clumsy.
"No need to be. I didn't mind at all. It's not everyday I get to play hero for a cute little bat such as yourself," Seishirou stated, squeezing his wings around Subaru in resemblance of a hug.
It was warm within the larger bat's wings and the heat was making Subaru grow drowsy, a strange kind of heat igniting his veins and coiling into a pool in the pit of his stomach.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled, listening to the comforting sound of Seishirou's heartbeat resounding loudly in his ears as he lay nestled against the larger bat's chest. "That was rude of me to fall asleep when you were talking though."
"What do you last remember of our conversation, little fruit bat?" Seishirou asked, bending his head so he could nuzzle his horned snout upon his smaller companion's fuzzy head.
"You were telling me something about the traitorous, blood-thirsty assassin, but I can't seem to recall…" Subaru furrowed his brow, trying hard to see past the hazy mist that obscured his mind, threatening to cast everything into vague oblivion.
And there was an odd sort of throbbing in his neck…
"Daybreak is drawing near," Seishirou said, cutting him off, turning his gaze to the far end of the valley where the land dipped low between two hills and a pale shimmering reddish-orange finger was stretching up to the dark night sky, changing the black to a faded lavender-grey hue. "Here comes the dawn. You'd best get back home before the sun rises, Subaru-kun."
"I don't want to leave," Subaru stated stubbornly, digging his claws into the larger bat's fur in a firm grip, and burrowing himself deeper into the other's winged enfoldment.
"Oh my, but what a selfish little bat we are becoming!" Seishirou proclaimed, throwing his head back and laughing heartily, revealing his long, sharp fangs for an instant.
"I don't want to say goodbye," Subaru admitted, feeling as if he would be losing a friend if they parted ways. "When creatures say goodbye, they never see each other again."
Subaru shut his eyes and tried to ward off thoughts of Hokuto.
"This is not goodbye, Subaru-kun. This is merely 'until we meet again,'" Seishirou explained. "And we will, I promise. Now let go."
Subaru nodded and reluctantly relinquished his grasp on Seishirou's fur as the larger bat uncurled his wings from around him and spread them wide, propelling himself from his roost, air born.
Opening his own minute ones, Subaru hovered nearby in an attempt to delay the inevitable departure as long as possible.
The two bats wheeled circles around each other in a kind of ritual dance, enjoying the other's company in an amiable silence until finally, Subaru broke out of the spiral to give Seishirou one long, last look as if storing him in memory. Then waving his wing in farewell, the little bat turned and soared back towards the forest where he knew Obaa-chan was waiting for him in the hollow of the tall oak tree.
Seishirou watched the little bat until his form had faded from sight and then he smiled, his pointy teeth bared in a cruel grin.
"Blood so sweet as yours, Subaru-kun, should not be drunk all at once," the vampire bat stated, pursing his lips in fond remembrance of the taste. "Your emotions need to evolve further before I drain your life. Go and grow some more, little fruit bat. Experience true sorrow, grieving anguish, utmost despair and pure hatred. I've marked you as mine and I will find you at my leisure. After all, one does not eat the plum until it is ripe for the plucking."
Snowy petals swirled about the blood-thirsty assassin completely enfolding and obscuring him from view, and when they dispersed, he had disappeared; only the last words he had whispered in secret to the wind were left lingering in the air:
"So today…I will let you go."
The End…for now
A/N: This whole fic idea sprung up after my reading Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel for the first time a few months ago. I fell in love with bats and then went bat-crazy. (You know you're bat crazy when you are looking into getting supplies to build a bat –house to put into your backyard and hope nightly visitors call it home).
Right, so originally, I was trying to do a CRACK retelling of Little Red Riding Hood bat-style, however, my muse grabbed the reins from me and wrote its own story, so that I ended up with this semi-fluff, light gothic fic which resembles the story of Tokyo Babylon more.
Regarding the absence of sakura in this fic… I couldn't use sakura, because the sakura tree has no fruit, so I had to make do with a plum tree with white blossoms. Too bad the sakura doesn't spawn cherries-that would have been useful here. Still I felt it almost blasphemous to have Seishirou in any kind of plot with no sakura—ye gasp! O.o I hope the plum blossoms made for a nice substitute!
I based Subaru on fruit bats in general. There a quite a few diverse kinds, however, I could not narrow it down to a specific one. The closest I could get to model Subaru after would be the Greater short-nosed fruit bat in appearance mostly, however most of Subaru's traits can be found in all fruit bats. For Seishirou, I modeled him after the Spectral Bat or False Vampire Bat. Yes, they do, reach up to three feet and eat other mammals, including bats. They do not however merely drink blood; that was for my fic purposes only. More interesting facts about bats: most breeds have up to two pups per year, one at a time though. So the first would be in spring, the second in autumn. So technically, Subaru could have an older sibling here like he did with Hokuto, but they wouldn't be twins. Not all bats live in a big colony. Some live in small groups like Subaru and his grandmother. Also, bats are color-blind, so they wouldn't be able to note things like the other's eye color as they did here. An interesting fact I did not know while researching for this fic: not all bats use echolocation. Bats are categorized in two groups: megabats and microbats. Megabats use their acute sense of hearing, sight, and smell to find food, while microbats' vision are poor and rely on their echolocation to determine their surroundings and hunt prey. Subaru and Seishirou here are both of the megabat variety.
So all that aside, what did you think of the story? I hope it didn't bore you anywhere and I hope I made Sei and Sub believable as bats and still true to their character. Did the conversation flow well? Btw, the whole Subaru and Seishirou 'curling up all cute and fuzzy' and Subaru 'swooning' into Seishirou's wings was totally my beta's idea once she got over the shock of reading the strange twisted fic I sent her! XD At the very least I hope the story was entertaining. If it is received well, I may write the next saga in it when inspiration strikes. Do list your favorite parts if you like and if you think I managed to capture the Tokyo Babylon element without it being too cliché. Thank you!