Disclaimer: looks around dorm room. Oh yeah, right. I own these people...in my dreams maybe. WHEN I TAKE OVER THE WORLD! man, i wish i owned Sei-chan though...we could've saved him from his clamp fate...sniffs
Tsubasa: this may seem a little disjointed; i've been writing it during history class instead of falling asleep (it makes it look like i'm actually taking notes...)
Firefly: oh, so this is the reason you failed that last test
Tsubasa: oh shut up! Anyways, just a plot bunny that attacked me during my history class (which i didn't fail btw!glares at Firefly)
Firefly: grumbles yeah, yeah
Tsubasa: warnings are loads of angst, death, more angst, and Seishirou/Subaru if you squint. enjoy!
Kaeta
"What do you plan to do now that Sakurazuka-san is gone?" Fuuma asked Sumeragi Subaru as they sat on a rooftop, looking out over the destruction that was Tokyo. "By taking the eye, you have inherited the powers and responsibility of the Sakurazukamori."
Subaru nodded "Seishirou-san told me that the ceremony to become Sakurazukamori was to kill their predecessor." Subaru paused, remembering exactly when Seishirou-san had told him that.
The year of the Bet was a memory Subaru felt he needed to forget, but could not bring himself to forget. The impact Seishirou-san had had on who he was now was too great. "The person I am today is because of you," he had told Seishirou-san. He briefly wondered what his life would have been like had Seishirou not come into his life or if they had never met on the train platform.
"Probably a happier life," Subaru thought dryly. Then, he really thought of how his life would have been different. He probably would have been the same naive child he had been at sixteen, making the pain of people he met on his shigotos his own, possibly ending up more broken than he was now. Subaru said goodbye to Fuuma, who jumped away in a blur across rooftop. Subaru was left alone atop the roof. He sighed and jumped down.
"Subaru-kun, I'm hungry." The Sakura Tree made its presence known
"Go away, and I told you not to call me that. Besides, you can't be hungry already, you were fed last night." Subaru closed his eyes and tried to block the tree out.
The Tree laughed in his mind. "You should know by now, Subaru-kun, that you can never be rid of me without killing yourself, which you will never do."
"Fine then. I'll feed you tonight. Now leave me alone." Subaru said the last bit with finality, as well as sending some magic with the thought. The Tree drew back slightly.
"Alright, but I'll make sure you feed me tonight." The presence that was the Tree lessened and Subaru sighed.
Subaru walked down the crowded streets without a real purpose. He looked at the people he passed in the crowd, but instead of faces, all he saw was future victims of the Sakura. He wondered absently if this was all Seishirou-san saw when he had walked through crowds. Seeing a less crowded place, Subaru found a small park and sat down on a bench. He put his head in his hands, sighed deeply, and then looked up. What he saw made him catch his breath.
A butterfly, its wings resplendent with patterns of blues and greens, had gotten itself trapped in a huge spider's web. It fluttered its wings hopelessly. Subaru watched it with pity. He could not help it, for if he were to touch the wings, even by accident, they would be destroyed. Subaru could only watch as the spider began its descent down the web towards the captive butterfly. He watched as droplets of water ran down the strands of the web, making it seemed like the web was crying for the butterfly.
"Something beautiful trapped within something just as beautiful. That makes it almost more beautiful."
Subaru felt the words more than he heard them. Phantom words, ghosting his ear from a voice of one three months dead. Subaru spun around, looking around futilely for someone who no longer existed in this world.
"Seishirou-san," Subaru whispered. He stared back at the web in fascination. The butterfly did not seem to panic as the spider approached. It almost did not seem to sense the spider at all until the spider was just about on top of it. And by then it was too late. Subaru wondered what would be a better death, dying at the hands of the spider and keeping the balance of nature, or dying unable to fly because its wings were damaged.
Subaru knew that if he interfered, he would interrupt a fragile balance between predator and pretty, the balance of nature. All he could do was watch. He could only watch as the spider gave the butterfly its kiss of death, injecting the poison into the butterfly. The poison did not kill the butterfly, or cause it to spasm in panic. Rather, the butterfly seemed to have calmed down even more. The spider had the butterfly completely trapped; no matter what it did, the butterfly's fate was tied to the spider's whim.
Subaru thought about how much the butterfly knew about its situation. Did it know the creature it was letting so close was the creature that held its life? Did it know that the one it thought of as no threat was, in fact, the greatest threat it had ever known?
Subaru watched as the spider approached the butterfly for the second time. The butterfly flapped its wings once in apprehension of what was about to happen. The spider began to bind the butterfly within its silken strands, starting out in areas where, if bound, the butterfly could possibly have made a break for freedom, but the butterfly made no such move. It almost seemed to Subaru that the butterfly trusted the spider, as if trusting it would somehow prevent its inevitable death at the hands of the spider. The spider finished weaving the butterfly into its trap, then left. Subaru watched the butterfly, encased in while silk, as it awaited the spider's return.
The spider came back and approached the butterfly for the third and final time. For the first time since the bite, the butterfly struggled against its fate, but it was far too late. From the first time the spider approached the butterfly, its fate was sealed. The spider came closer, and in one swift movement, killed the butterfly. Subaru turned away, knowing what would happen next and not really caring to watch anymore.
Subaru walked away from the bench, and down the path that wound through the park. How like the butterfly and the spider he and Seishirou-san had been. He, the butterfly, trapped within Seishirou-san's, the spiders, web of fate and words. Their story had played out much like the scene he had just watched, but with one fatal difference. The spider had not killed the butterfly. The butterfly, willing or not, had ended up killing the spider.
Subaru went back to his apartment, where a fax was waiting with the details of his next shigoto. He sighed and collapsed onto his couch. He must have fallen asleep, for the next time he was aware, night had fallen. He sighed, grabbed his black trenchcoat, and left to do the job required of the Sakurazukamori. He met his target on the street and brought him into his mabaroshi to complete the job.
As his hand closed around the other man's heart, the sight of the butterfly, being killed by the spider, flashed before Subaru's eyes. He shook it off and performed the spell to feed the Tree.
Walking back to his apartment, Subaru thought about the butterfly one last time. He was so like a butterfly in that a butterfly metamorphed into something almost indistinguishable from its previous form. He had been changed so much by Seishirou-san. But, he had been changed one last time by Seishirou-san. His mind flashed back to the butterfly's last moments. It could just have been his mind, but he thought it had almost looked like the butterfly was enjoying it. A lone tear, unseen, slipped down his cheek as he disappeared into the shadow of the dark streets.
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kaeta-changed
shigoto-job
mabaroshi-illusion
PLEASE REVIEW! I am a starving artist who lives off reviews and gets heat from flames, so please review!
Tsubasa: told you it was random and rather angsty. gomen! there's a fluff omake chaser...
Firefly: sniffs
Tsubasa: oo Firefly, were you crying?
Firefly: ...no...
Tsubasa: ...anyways...there's an omake chapter after this, it's rather WAFF-ish, because i'm not used to writing this much angst. Firefly and my other muses seem to be demanding angst of me lately though...There will be Sei/Su cuteness, elevators, and a lot of stuff that will make you grin..hopefully