DISCLAIMER: I don't own X or Tokyo Babylon, nor do I hold rights to any of the characters held within those works. They all belong to the four goddesses of Clamp. I'm just borrowing them for my own sick pleasure.
WARNINGS: Alternate timeline, Kamui-chan thrown into Tokyo Babylon. Terrible representation of Japan (well, I've never been there. Excuse the hell out of me) with no proper placement of important areas/buildings/etc. Timeline assumptions, CSD insertion (no, I don't own them either, damn it all) X character cameos and flying urns at Nai-ku.
Read at your own risk.
-BEGIN FIC-
Yet another long day at school had finally met its conclusion.
Shoulders sagging in relief, I finally allowed an exasperated sigh to plummet past my lips as my ears were accosted with more chatter and laughter from the others who rode the bus I was inhabiting at the moment. It had been an astronomically wretched day, and unfortunately it held no promise of improving with its steadfast march towards its inevitable conclusion.
That morning my teachers had lambasted me yet again. My Anatomical Sciences instructor had suggested that I drop his class as lack of attendance was destined to hurt my performance once exams rolled around. My homework was only half done as well, which had only served to fuel the fires of their ire. I hadn't been aware that we had a reading assignment in my Modern Literature class, and thus was understandably utterly lost when the rest of my class began to discuss the material they had studied the night before.
While my professors understood that my work held precedence over my schooling and my family demanded I see to my clan responsibilities before continuing with my educational goals, they were quite disgruntled with me.
I had makeup homework to last me the rest of my week. Bundles of folded papers were carelessly shoved into my already heavy backpack, covering the ceremonial items I continuously carried with me more out of habit than out of necessity.
No boy needed four ceremonial daggers and a box of ofuda in class.
Actually, though, I was beginning to think that they might come in handy after witnessing the anger of my Literature professor as I stared blankly at her when she asked about that reading assignment's validity to me.
I'm still convinced that lady is possessed. Maybe I should try to send whatever malicious spirit chose to inhabit her body to the Spiritual Realms they should rightly inhabit when next we meet.
Driving my thoughts away from their dwelling on my most sinister of teachers, I returned my gaze to the passing streets and cars outside of my bus environment. Yes, those classes were terrible today. Especially as each of my instructors made it a point to call me and my horrid attendance record out in class, in front of my fellow classmates.
Not that my classmates made my life miserable because of it. Indeed, many were sympathetic to my family responsibilities. Some people's sympathy extended into levels that nearly exuded pity over my position as leader of my clan and every duty that was entailed with that enormous station. Others were fascinated by the occult and for some reason found their hearts flooded with envy or intrigue concerning me once it had leaked on campus thanks to my ever-helpful sister that I am an onmyouji.
Bah. If they wished to send spirits, let them. It's far less glamorous work than most people suspect, and not granting of the rewards they think it deigns to give those who perform such tasks. I just find it rewarding as I know that I am helping someone, whether alive or dead, in attaining peace.
No, it wasn't my classmates. It was the attention. I've never liked being the center of it.
I gritted my teeth as a wildly wielded fan smacked my back solidly once again. The boys behind me were certainly misbehaving. However, it wasn't my place to discipline them. Especially not for simply taking joy in this moment in their young lives, for enjoying themselves.
"Nokuro, stop it! That's the third time you've hit that guy!"
"Oops. Sorry, mister!"
Glancing back, I flashed a friendly smile at the blushing blonde boy and his blue-haired disciplinarian. "It's quite alright," I reassured them with a nod.
"If Akira would quit ducking, I wouldn't hit that guy," the blonde's voice hissed as they resumed their conversation.
Turning my attention away from them as the black haired boy who sat nearest to the aisle I was standing in for lack of sitting room giggled nervously, I watched the passing world once more.
Homework, grouchy professors and wild stranger-accosting children on an overly crowded bus making its way to Shinjuku from Clamp Academy.
On top of that horrible set of circumstances, I'd been called to the principal's office. Not for disciplinary action, but rather to retrieve a fax. It was informing me of a job of such high priority that it couldn't wait for my arrival at home. Ise Jingu needed me to respond as quickly as possible to an emergency they were having with the local spirits.
Such is the way of things.
So, stuck without the opportunity to change and caught with the unfortunate fate of being forced to carry my overly heavy backpack all the way to work, I was condemned to the public transportation system for the rest of the night and well into the next morning. Plus with no change of clothing, I'd be forced to adopt whatever robes they might have available at Ise Jingu for a guest while I had my outfit laundered before the overly long trip back. And I'd be missing the next couple of days of school right after a long string of what my professors saw as inexcusable absences had just ended.
And on top of that, I would have to explain at the terminal where I would switch lines why I wasn't going to be accompanying Hokuto-chan to Seishiro-san's clinic this afternoon like I'd promised them both I would, and in fact wouldn't be back in Tokyo much less the Shinjuku district until late Friday at the earliest.
Sometimes I truly do hate my life.
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"SUBARU!"
The voice could never be mistaken. That, combined with the fact that only one person would scream my name across a crowded bus terminal, informed me that my sister was awaiting my arrival.
A quick scan of the area immediately revealed where she was. Indeed, she would be impossible to miss in her loudly colored outfit. A bright aquamarine sleeveless shirt gathered at the base of her sternum with a rhinestone-studded t-shirt tie, garishly neon orange hip-hugging bellbottoms clinging to her body down to her calves like a second skin, a fluorescent green purse and matching gel-banded watch and platform sandals that matched her shirt all topped off with a bright orange beret, made her an impossibly loud clash of colors that nobody with working eyes could possibly miss.
Only Hokuto-chan could combine such articles and make them look good.
Letting a smile light my lips, I made my way to my sister, trying to ignore the looks we always inevitably drew when we were together.
I've never understood why people always have to take a second glance as if to confirm what they'd seen the first time.
Perhaps her habit of choosing loud outfits was what drew that attention. After all, she was a blinding beacon of color in the midst of the dull scene of blacks, browns, grays and blues that was the after-work bus terminal scene. And she'd dressed me in a black sleeveless turtleneck t-shirt with matching skin-tight pants that vanished into the tops of zippered combat boots. The only thing about my outfit that told of my attendance at Clamp Academy was the school uniform jacket that was loosely shrugged over my shoulders, the book bag that heavily dragged down my left side and the tie that was loosely tied into a decorative square knot around my neck. Really, where she drew her fashion ideas from was a realm far beyond my comprehension.
Or perhaps what drew people's attention was the fact that our faces exactly mirrored one another. Perhaps it was the fact that the only reason one could tell the difference in our gender was that she had the beginnings of a woman's curves while I was understandably as washboard flat as anyone could be, though Seishiro-san often teased me by telling me that the concavity of my stomach would give me curves I wasn't supposed to have as a boy. Of course he always told me that when I was rushing off to a job and being forced to sacrifice dinner for work.
I don't suppose I'll ever know. To me, looking at my reflection every time I look at my sister is as natural as breathing.
"Hokuto-chan," I greeted as I approached her.
"Ah, it's about time!" she began, her hand finding her hip and a smile lighting her lips. Bright orange lipstick accentuated the curve of her mouth. How she ever managed to find lipstick to match those pants… or much less that hat…!
"Well, I can't expedite the public transportation system," I automatically responded, my reply drawn from the similar banter we shared every day when she'd greeted my arrival from school while my brain was still pondering where in heaven's name she'd managed to dig up matching make-up and that damned hat.
Grinning, she grabbed my wrist. Ah, so she intended to physically drag me along to Seishiro-san's clinic. Unfortunately that wasn't going to be possible today, or tomorrow, and very possibly the day after depending on how long the job I'd been called for took. Damned work.
She was going to fetch lunch at McDonalds. I'd be missing out on Chicken McNuggets and fries. Regrettable, but not nearly so terrible as missing one of her home-cooked meals which I was certain I was destined to do over the next couple of days. And she was going to spend the afternoon, and perhaps the evening, and probably the afternoons and evenings of those days to follow, with Seishiro-san in the clinic. I'd be missing out on playing with the animals and helping him with the new puppies he had in his kennel. I'd be missing out on spending time with him.
It took every ounce of discipline I had in me to keep from following her, from letting my feet merrily fall into rhythm with her steps and happily trot along to McDonalds to pick up dinner. I wouldn't give in to my longings. I couldn't. Not when the job at Ise was so very urgent that they faxed my school to inform me of their need for my services.
Hokuto-chan nearly fell on her rear when I didn't budge as she'd expected me to. A slightly less-than-graceful stagger back kept her from toppling over in her elevated shoes.
She turned and stared at me, her eyes that were so identical to my own differentiating themselves from mine with glimmers of confusion and the beginning fires of anger. Oh God was I going to be reamed for this. She was set to throw a fit and I hadn't even had the opportunity to explain myself.
"Neh Subaru, what's wrong?" she began, her tone mixing concern with the underlying unvoiced statement of 'you'd better have a damned good reason for nearly making me mess up my new pants.'
"I've got a job," I meekly muttered, unable to put any more strength into that statement. I already knew the explosion was coming. She was going to have to carry their evening meal all by herself. And on top of that she'd have the task of informing Seishiro-san that I wouldn't be by that evening. And she'd be forced to deal with him on her own, or even worse have to spend the next couple of days alone without any company.
Damn it all.
"A job," she stated, her voice dead calm. "When did you hear about this? And why couldn't you tell me before now?"
Uh oh. Rising hysteria was flooding her voice. She was quickly approaching her 'unreasonable' state. Great. Just great. Best to be forward and blunt.
"I just heard about it today while at school," I timidly whimpered, already more than frightened out of my mind. Hokuto-chan would never give me reason to fear her. She wasn't abusive in either the physical or verbal senses, but she was quite intimidating when she was enraged. It's just in my nature to shrink away from frightening situations, objects and people. Call it survival instinct if you will.
"At school," she repeated, her fingernails drumming at her waist.
"Aa," I confirmed queasily before continuing, "Ise Jingu faxed the principal with a request that I come tonight."
A dramatic sigh escaped her lips. Hokuto-chan knew I'd never lie to her over such matters as this. It simply wasn't in my capacity to tell a falsehood; I especially couldn't lie to one I love so much as her. "Well, you'd best be on your way then, I suppose," she huffed with more exasperation than was entirely necessary. A hand fell from her hip and limply dangled from her wrist as she hung her head. "I'll simply have to carry our dinner on my own."
"Hokuto-chan," I huffed, my fear eradicated by her over-acted display, "you know I have to respond. Especially-"
"Especially if it was so important that the Shrine itself felt fit to contact you at school and in the middle of the school week, I know, I know," she cleanly interrupted. "It's not so much the carrying, Subaru. It's just…"
I arched a brow, waiting for her to finish her lamentation.
"It's just that you don't have to see that broken-hearted look in Sei-chan's eyes every time I have to tell him that you aren't going to be there for the evening. It's even worse when I have to tell him that you'll be gone for a couple of days without even saying goodbye," she finished with a puff of breath.
God, she knew right where to hit.
I think, perhaps, she knew that this time it had gone a bit far, that it had struck a bit too deep.
Could she see the discomfort I felt in my being on my face? Were the wrenching pull of my heart withering in upon itself and the sickening tugs of my stomach as it veritably shimmied into my throat that visible? Were the grumbles of indigestion actually audible as they roared through my body, threatening to return my lunch to my mouth for a second evaluation of the extraordinary culinary magic of the ladies that prepared the student lunches daily at Clamp Academy?
All I know is that her face instantly softened, her smile slipping completely from her face as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders in a comforting hug.
Letting my nose press into the crook between shoulder and neck, allowing the sweet scent of her raspberry shampoo flood my nostrils, I let the pensive sigh that'd been trapped in my lungs since I'd read that fax and realized that I would indeed be disappointing Seishiro-san yet again escape me. "I know I'm a displeasure. I'll… I'll try to get there as quickly as I can. Will you please tell him that?"
"Subaru," she whispered into my hair, stirring its black locks with her hot breath, "don't you even think about rushing this so you can get to the clinic before he leaves tomorrow night. Ise's a long ride from here, even by train."
"I know, but if I hurry-"
"Don't, Subaru," she grunted even as she tightened her grip on my frame. "I'll just tell Sei-chan that urgent business came up. You know he'll understand. Take all the time you need."
"But-"
"Don't you DARE rush," she interceded. "I know you, Subaru. You've been the same since you were beginning the practice. When you hurry, you forget steps and wards and just depend on your raw power to pull you through something." Pulling her face back, she glared into my eyes. I wanted to shrivel under her penetrating gaze as she calmly said, "I want my brother back in one piece. It's worth it both to Sei-chan and myself if you take a little extra time and just take care."
"Hokuto-chan…"
I couldn't begin to put my gratefulness into words. She'd take care of everything, as she always did. She'd keep Seishiro-san from being disenchanted with me.
"You'd better go before you miss your bus," she said with a grin.
"Aiya!" I gasped, turning just in time to see that the bus I needed to take to get to the train station was closing its doors. "Arigato, Hokuto-chan!" I managed to shout even as I grabbed my backpack's straps tightly and ran as quickly as I could to that bus.
The driver was kind enough to swing the doors open for me and allow my red-faced personage onboard.
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While on the train, I'd dreamed.
It was something about the train that always eased me to sleep. I could never hope to understand that phenomenal effect the motion of such a large vessel had over my person. All I knew was that I had my most restful snatches of slumber while sitting upright, traveling to one destination or another.
While home in my bed, I always found my sleep disturbed by dreams and memories. Never was it very restful, unless someone in the waking world accompanied me into slumber. When I was young, Hokuto-chan used to fill that very necessary position. Grandmother allowed it, despite the hisses of how improper such behavior was that emanated from the rest of our clan. I think, perhaps, Grandmother knew that my sister's presence was all that promoted peaceful slumber for me and that such was more necessary than the pretense of proper behavior.
Besides, we're twins, damn it all.
And recently, with Hokuto-chan in her own apartment….
Well, if my dear sister knew that on some nights two bodies rather than one warmed my bed….
Or if she knew that on some nights the evening air chilled my bed as it sat empty and abandoned while I rested elsewhere….
I don't believe she would ever let Seishiro-san out of her line of sight again if she had any idea of what heights we'd taken the relationship she was promoting to without her knowledge or approval. If she knew that on occasion (though those occasions were becoming far more frequent these days) Seishiro-san was holding me as we both drifted into exhausted sleep, she'd never let me hear the end of it – and she'd never let him escape from her wrath.
She'd definitely have Grandmother informed of our relationship rather than encouraging secrecy, of that I'm more than certain.
But the necessity to have a partner to rest an entire night without being plagued by nightmares only seemed to apply itself to stationary residencies. Dreams usually didn't visit my sleep on trains or busses.
Thus the fact that I'd dreamed on the train-ride to Ise was remarkable enough that I was prompted to remember that dream well into my waking hours.
Seishiro-san and I had once had a discussion about dreams. I had dreamt of a girl I'd known in my youth, from those bygone days when I'd attended elementary school in my home city of Kyoto. I'd relived the memories of those days, of seeing her with her gaily colored dress and her bright yellow umbrella, her brown eyes sparkling with mad life as she flashed me an inviting smile.
The dream had been so vivid, so real, that I once again felt my heart plummet into the core of my being as her cheerful voice chirped as brightly as any merry bird's song, "I hate Subaru-kun, because he's not normal!"
When I'd recounted that dream to Seishiro-san, he'd poked fun at me about harboring another in my heart and him having a rival for my affections. He'd also told me that the dreams of an onmyouji were more often than not premonitory.
Me harboring affections for others over those I hold for Seishiro-san? False.
Premonitory dreams? Very true, as I'd discovered later that week. I'd indeed been forced to meet the girl from my past, from my dreams. I'd been called upon to draw her out of her soul, out of the bottom of her heart, to assist her back to the harsh reality she'd run from and help her to move beyond the nightmarish assault that had plagued her so terribly as to drive her to run into herself to escape it. We'd both been forced to face our combined past, to face our feelings about one another, to realize what had happened and what had gone so wrong during those far-gone times. And we'd been able to move on; to dedicate ourselves to renewed friendship, to renewed hope and light in the wake of horrid adversity.
Seishiro-san had teased about her being a rival for two weeks after that case had been wrapped up.
Still, his teasing and attention and constant recollections about that girl had kept the thought of premonitory dreaming being part of the life of an onmyouji fresh in my mind. And though that teasing had stopped quite some time ago, that thought in regard to dreaming remained with me.
The dream that had visited my sleep on the train ride to Ise had started in a plain of darkness. There was no discernable difference between ground and sky. I'd called for Seishiro-san in one breath, Hokuto-chan in the next.
When my voice had been absorbed into that oppressing blackness and neither one of them appeared I'd panicked.
Panicking in dreams brings interesting reactions.
I could sense the energy flaring around me, desperately springing into reality to search the lonely dreamscape for another being. The blue glimmer of my own aura lit before my eyes like a burning, insatiable fire that called for anyone, anything to respond to me.
From across the black plain, lost in the distance and the shadows, a roar echoed mournfully.
That energy that had surrounded me exploded without warning or reason, screaming towards what from my perspective would be the sky. My eyes followed it, staring without comprehension yet without fear, as I knew this was but an extension of myself.
My eyes widened as it took form.
Jaws opening and eyes burning brightly, the serpentine form slithered skyward, its blue-flame body writhing as it reached for the heavens. Huge fangs snapped at the darkness that surrounded it as giant claws gripped the fabric of starless night that encased it. Sparkling scales shimmered with every rippling bend of its frame. Waves of thick hair poured down its snaking back. Backward curving antlers sprang from above fan-shaped earflaps.
I was staring at a dragon! A huge, bright blue dragon!
It was staring with its luminescent blue eyes into the distance, its far superior senses detecting the source of that roar that had resounded earlier.
I fell to my knees covering my ears as it opened its huge jaws and responded with a deep roar of its own.
The darkness shivered violently. There's no other way to describe what my dream had done – the darkness quaked and shivered like cloth when suddenly pulled taunt and shaken.
The dream's environment erupted, falling in sharp splinters and fragments much like shards of glimmering black glass over a blindingly white background that sought to replace the absorbing shadows as that roar I'd heard earlier replied to what my own aura had formed.
I'd have to discuss this dream with Seishiro-san later. There was no way I could begin to comprehend it with my limited experiences in life.
I couldn't begin to explain why another dragon, nearly identical to that formed by my aura in my subconscious state, had screamed out of the distance to embrace my own in a serpentine hug that was friendly yet nearly erotic, hovering near sexual violence though it was in of itself ridiculously tender. Nor could I begin to explain why my dream, at the very moment those two dragons touched, was flooded with a storm of snowy feathers and soft pink sakura petals.
And for the life of me, I couldn't begin to imagine why in the distance, at the base of that other energy-crafted blue dragon, I'd seen another boy so very like myself yet obviously not a dream-crafted reflection.
I couldn't explain why I'd seen a boy I'd never met before, yet felt so very familiar with.
As I made my way to a taxicab and calmly told the driver to take me to the Temple of Ise, I let myself ponder about that dream I'd had. About the dragon so identical to my own. About the boy I'd seen.
About those amethyst eyes I couldn't bring myself to easily forget….
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The girl very nearly had me fidgeting nervously as I waited for the priestess I was to speak to concerning the problems the lands were experiencing at the Inner Shrine to draw herself away from her duties and approach me in my waiting place in Ge-ku's vast, spacious lobby. She was staring at me with the most level, critical gaze I've ever seen. Such an odd stare to come from the eyes of a child who seemed to have only seven or eight years of life to her!
Her gaze was one that criticized and questioned, almost intensely enough to cause anyone to squirm in their chair and wonder exactly what it was the child seemed to be blaming you for. At least, that's how it felt to me – incredibly disconcerting, even though I knew I'd done no wrong. At least, I'd committed no wrong in recent times anyway.
Soon another person entered the room I was waiting in, giving me some other focus to my attention, for which I was greatly thankful. Turning my stare away from the petulantly glaring girl to the tall, stately woman with her long straight brown locks, I smiled cheerfully despite the exhaustion that was taking me from the compounded trials of my day. It was early morning, but the day in of itself had been so tiring I couldn't think of anything other than getting this job done, going home and spending a quiet evening with Seishiro-san. And Hokuto-chan too, of course, provided she was still up when the last busses made their rounds in Shinjuku.
Banishing the blush that was threatening to come to my cheeks as a result of my thoughts of what I'd rather be doing at that moment, I kept my attention to the priestess before me.
"Sumeragi-san, thank you for replying so quickly to our request," she said as she offered me far too deep of a bow.
That was yet another thing I despised about my position. People showed me such ridiculous respect. I don't consider myself as anything special; I'm just an ordinary onmyouji doing what I can for those I can help. However my position as head of my family, director of our clan, was a station that drew the reverence of nearly everyone who knew what an onmyouji was in all of Japan. And no one ever took into consideration that the person with the position they were paying respects to didn't want to be singled out or appreciated, but just wanted to be regarded as an ordinary person there to accomplish a task and go home to a warm bed and pleasant company.
Squelching my thoughts, I returned the Ise priestess' bow, deftly catching my backpack by its straps as it slid off my back. "It is no problem. Can you please tell me the nature of your problem?" I cordially began, trying to not include the underlying 'and can we hurry this up so I can go home before midnight tonight?' my mind was trying so desperately to throw to my lips.
"Of course," she said with a polite smile as she laid her hand lightly upon that serious-faced little girl's head. Directing her attention to the child for a moment, she murmured, "Arashi, please stay inside while I take our guest to Nai-ku."
Interesting that the mention of the most sacred of the Ise Shrines should send a flicker of fear through that girl's eyes. Was their problem truly so terrible?
As the girl walked with as stately of pose as her tiny frame could muster into Ge-ku's interior, I turned my attention back to the priestess who had come to address me. "Nai-ku?"
Nodding even as she turned and began to walk away from Ge-ku, her sandals scraping harshly over the gravel path she intended to lead me down, she sighed. "Yes. It's been inhabited as of late by a rather volatile spirit."
As I left the shade provided by the overhanging shrine's roof and the smooth wood flooring to follow the lady into the wooded area that surrounded Ise's outermost structure, I shivered as a chill wind blew past and stirred my clothing and the leaves of the trees. Autumn was swift approaching if the breezes were truthful in what they conveyed. Turning my attention back to my guide, I questioned quietly, "A volatile spirit? As far as I've known, Ise has had no history of spiritual unrest."
"You speak true, Sumeragi-san," she confirmed with a nod, casting me a quizzical glance over her shoulder. "This has us concerned. Our own wards have been able to keep these grounds an area of peace and tranquility since recorded time began here at Ise Jingu, but they've seemed to be insufficient so far as this one particular spirit is concerned."
"It can bypass your wards?"
"With ease," she said with a slight bow of her head, turning her gaze back up the gravel path. "Our wards do nothing to keep that spirit at bay. Such is why it was able to violate our sacred shrine."
"Has any harm come of this?"
"Three worshippers have been injured since it arrived. One was so critically wounded that she died later that evening."
My feet stopped in their trek. A spirit injuring people? Killing people? Certainly they could cause mental unrest and property damage, but actually inflicting harm on a living being?
I knew of spiritual beings that were capable of this. Inugamis, shikigamis, other spiritual servants drawn of a spell's power all had the capacity to affect the physical realm with ease, causing any harm the caster wished to be incurred upon others. I'd seen the strength of shikigamis, and indeed commanded it myself when necessary. I'd witnessed the harm that could be caused by a wild, uncontrolled inugami thirsting for destruction and having its attentions twisted from its target to those who were antagonizing its target.
But a spirit itself was causing harm? I'd yet to find any person capable of inflicting such damage to the residents of the realm of the living. I personally didn't think it possible, unless that person were one who was gifted – an onmyouji, perhaps, or a flame master, wind master or like elemental manipulator.
She wasn't telling me something.
"How exactly were they harmed?" I asked as I hurriedly caught up to the priestess who led my small sojourn to my destination.
Silence was my reply. She simply rounded a corner, nearly vanishing into the thick vegetation to wade into the river that trickled gently past the shrine in question.
Following her, I nearly staggered in the river. She had stepped out of my way after washing her face in the chilled water and taking a sip of its bubbling liquid, taking refuge behind a tree that grew on the nearby bank.
Casting her one final glance, I knew all that I needed to know. I wasn't going to be getting any answers from her concerning how this spirit had managed to do what she claimed it had done. There was only one course of action for me. Remembering the customs for approaching the shrines of Ise, I quickly repeated her actions, bathing my face and sipping the cold, crisp water before approaching the area of consternation.
I stepped into the shrine.
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My eyes were threatening to lose their focus on the outside world as I attempted to stare at the scenery that raced by. The world outside of the taxicab I inhabited was slowly fading towards a dark black shade, deeper than the night that had fallen over the city of Tokyo, becoming more faded and fuzzy than it had been during the entirety of my torturous train trip back to the city I called home. I was nearly tempted to tell the driver of the cab to ignore my request to take me to the Sakurazuka Veterinary Clinic in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo and instead take me to the nearest hospital. However, my longing to get to the clinic before Seishiro-san left for the night kept my longing for that hospital room, powerful medications and some miraculous cure to my fading vision at bay.
Hokuto-chan was going to rip me to pieces for rushing the job.
It had a satisfactory end, I suppose. That's what I would tell my sister – that I had successfully sent the wind master's hatred-stained spirit to rest, granting him the peace of the Spiritual Realm. The poor specter that had come to haunt Ise's inner shrine was nothing less than a prospective protector of that very establishment who had taken his own life when the stresses of duties combined with his family problems became too much for him to bear. I do suppose I can see his view, as he was trying to deal with the fact that his father, his last remaining family, was dying at his home in the country of cancer and his duties with the shrines were keeping him from being able to comfort the man in his last months of life. However, there's always another option; suicide, a dilemma I've encountered far more often than I care to recount, didn't make sense to me. Every life has a purpose that should be played out. Every life has a reason to continue. No life should be brought to its termination until that life's ultimate Wish has been fulfilled.
That's why such spirits remain. Their Wish, unfulfilled and destined to remain so forever, haunts them and binds them to the material world. So unfortunate.
He had Wished to serve Ise, to be one of its prime wind masters in its service, but had crumpled under the weight of his hardships. So vengeful was he against the shrines for keeping him from his father that he chose to haunt what he had wished to protect. And the attempts of those who worshipped at the shrine he was inhabiting to drive him away with their wards and their prayers drove him to such insane rage that he'd retaliated utilizing every bit of his ability that remained after death.
Maybe if I hadn't rushed into the shrine and voiced my lamentation that I wanted to get that job over and done with so I could go home to Seishiro-san, if I'd taken the time to address that tormented soul's troubles first, I wouldn't have faced the battle I'd been forced to wage.
I wouldn't have had an urn thrown at my head, of that I'm certain. Thankfully my reflexes had been enough to get me out of harm's way before my skull was permanently caved in.
However, my dodging wasn't nearly enough to keep me from injury when he'd sent Razor Wind my way.
Talk about a terrible way to discover that the man was a wind master in life.
And to top it off, while I'd been combating the wind and setting up a reflection barrier, he threw another urn at me.
I hadn't seen that one coming.
That had sparked our little scuffle, which ended with him finally calming and realizing that I was there to help him reunite with his now dead father in the Realm of the Dead. He'd been grateful for my assistance and had gone quite willingly.
It took only an hour of throwing ofuda, reflecting and diverting wind attacks and obliterating flying missile weapons to convince him that I was there to help.
I guess I should be thankful that Ise Jingu was willing to overlook the damages to their most sacred shrine and pay for my service of sending their troublesome spiritual resident to his final rest.
I was jostled out of my thoughts as the taxicab came to a stop. "We're here, kid," the driver grunted.
Stepping outside, I fought valiantly to keep my balance and find my wallet in my backpack as my vision decided to abandon me completely, the sudden act of standing up letting all the blood rush out of my head and leaving me dizzy beyond belief. After paying the man, I leaned over at the waist on what I assumed had to be the sidewalk and caught my breath.
I heard Hokuto-chan's bright voice long before my vision came back. It came right after the sound of a door opening flooded my senses.
"So I promise you I'll bring him tomorrow night. He should be done by then, and as you well know Ise's nearly an entire day by train," she was saying right before she gasped and squealed, "SUBARU!"
God, my head hurt. Her screeching from only a few feet away didn't help.
"Subaru-kun!" a softer tone rang, its quiet baritone quickly seeping into my ears. Warm arms surrounded me, pulling me upright and holding me with tenderness. I leaned into that welcoming warmth, finding myself against something tall and solid.
As my vision slowly returned, I found myself staring at a gray suit and a bright yellow tie with smiley-faces decorating it. Lifting my gaze, I managed a sheepish smile at the concerned face that hovered over me, hoping my cheer would be enough to put the concern in those golden-brown eyes behind those wire-rimmed glasses to rest. "Seishiro-san. I'm sorry I didn't arrive earlier."
"Subaru-kun," he said, his lips curling with a warm smile as he tightened his embrace, "you shouldn't have hurried so. Your dear sister told me what was happening."
"AND his dear sister told him not to rush. Shows how much he listens," Hokuto-chan accusingly snorted from beside me.
Turning my gaze, I gulped and grinned at her. "G-gomen, Hokuto-chan," I chirped.
"Mou," she huffed as she reached towards me with her delicate hand. Ruffling my hair, she scowled as her fingertips were stained dark crimson. "How badly did you get yourself hurt, Subaru?"
"Not bad," I attempted to lie.
Her eyebrow ticked.
Seishiro-san interrupted the oncoming volcanic blast that was threatening to burst from her small frame by starting to drag me towards the parking structure where he'd left his van, cheerfully saying, "Why don't we get him home and look him over, Hokuto-chan? Then we can have ice cream, Subaru-kun can do his homework, and we can watch that movie you wanted to catch on television tonight."
She was silent for a few moments before hopping right along side of him and giggling, "I guess you're right. No reason lecturing him about how terrible he is for not listening to his sister until I know how badly he disregarded me, neh?"
"Exactly!" Seishiro-san agreed.
They laughed merrily to one another as I bowed my head with a defeated groan, letting those warm arms around me steer me towards our destination.
---)))000(((---)))000(((---)))000(((---
The room was quite dark, its only illumination coming from the brightly glowing red numbers on my alarm clock and from the street lamps outside of my heavily shaded window.
I had yet to fall asleep, regardless of the comfort of the situation I was in.
The bed was warm and soft as were the sheets and blanket I had drawn over myself. The bandages I'd been wrapped in were comfortably loose despite Hokuto-chan's attempt to punish me by binding me that evening. The warm breath of my bed partner skittered down my back.
Seishiro-san had convinced Hokuto-chan that he was simply going to stay the evening to watch over me and insure that there weren't going to be any complications from my encounter with the wild flying urns of Ise.
He'd been polite enough to take my condition into account and forgo our usual nighttime activities that came about when he managed to sneak into my residence without my sister's knowledge (or when I managed to slip into his without anyone catching me) and simply curl up with me, comforting me with his presence.
Yet even his arms wrapped around me and his breath upon my back wasn't enough to lull me into sleep.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw those brilliant amethyst orbs again. They were haunting my dreams, hovering at the edge of my slumber, trying to convey a message I could not yet understand. And I couldn't bring my thoughts away from two nagging facts.
One – I still had homework left to do, and I was going to school tomorrow despite both Seishiro-san and Hokuto-chan's insistence that I stay home and recover. My stubborn nature was driving me back to my duties and responsibilities.
And two – the dreams of an onmyouji usually held importance. Either memories that would come to hold importance in the near future….
Or premonitions.
to be continued...