Enishi awakens to the Kamiya girl drooling in his hair. She does not open her eyes when he crawls out of bed, although she smacks her lips and mutters something about breakfast.
The night before Enishi dreamt of Tomoe's warm, enveloping love. He had been a young child, and his sister had wiped happy tears from his cheeks. She had promised that she would protect him. It's the same dream he's had each night since Kamiya dragged him, unconscious, from the balcony to protect him from his own subordinates.
As Enishi washes his face in the bathroom sink, a shimmery Tomoe stares at him from the periphery of his vision, and he shivers. Tomoe never smiles, never speaks, but her expression shifts subtly to hint about what she wants. Apparently, she wants Kamiya nearby. Each night Tomoe has appeared before him, agitated and fearful, and she only relaxes when Enishi rests his head on Kamiya's shoulder. The girl's actions have ensured his survival to complete his jinchuu, and Tomoe's beautiful, immortal face reflects a calmness than Enishi hasn't seen since his sister was alive. Enishi dresses quickly and stalks outside to train in a probably futile effort to leave behind thoughts of either woman.
As Enishi passes more days waiting for news of Battousai's agonizing demise, and more nights with Kamiya, his nights snarl into knots of pleasure and pain. The worst comes one night, when his child self basks in Tomoe's affectionate gaze; she folds him into her arms with familial love. Slowly, his sister's face twists away and Kamiya appears beside his own adult form, lying next to him on the island beach. She leans toward him and clasps his hand, his nostrils fill with the scent of her clean skin. But when he leans over to whisper words of gratitude, the dream curdles into a nightmare; Battousai's sword slashes across her torso and red rain splatters Enishi's face and clothes, and Kamiya morphs back into Tomoe and blood from both women streaks across the skies and sand and snowbanks.
Enishi jerks upright, his skin icy and boiling together at once, and when he opens his eyes in his moonlit room on the island, he can still smell the blood. He feels the sticky hot liquid streaming down his face and arms, wetting his shirt. He rips the garment over his head and throws it across the room. Someone is screaming.
Kamiya, sitting up in bed next to him, is grabbing at his shoulders; her lips are moving but Enishi cannot understand her words. She seems unhurt, but Enishi has long since learned not to trust his own eyes, no matter whether he is awake or asleep. He grasps the collar of Kamiya's robe and pulls it down to her shoulders to make sure no slash across her torso remains. The tan skin on her neck and clavicles are smooth and unbroken. He swivels her around to check her back for the mortal wound and yanks the garment down nearly to her waist, but her shoulders and back are untouched.
Enishi exhales in relief and the room is still and quiet again. The screams must have been his own. He had imagined the blood on his face and sheets and clothes, and the girl is alive and uninjured. He gazes down at his hands, turning them over to confirm once more that they are clean and dry.
Tomoe lurks in a dark corner. Her brows are furrowed in pained disappointment; she reminds Enishi that he must have scared Kamiya. Enishi offers a wordless apology to the image of his revered sister and looks back to his captive.
Kamiya glares at him over her shoulder, her eyes wide with shock and fear. She has pulled her robe back over her body. She misunderstands why he tore at her clothes moments earlier.
He nods at the girl in an effort to provide reassurance, exposing a thin crescent of teeth in the moonlight. "You are safe," he says. He pulls the linen sheet off the bed and drapes it over her shoulders. Against the darkness, Tomoe's luminous, worried expression calms and she recedes to the edges of Enishi's mind.
Kamiya, clearly still shaken, clutches at the sheet. But she takes Enishi's hand cautiously and laces her fingers with his.
Enishi feels the warmth of her palm as an echo of the sensation of her hand in his within his dream. His eyes flick up to her parted lips. His face feels hot as he grasps her hand in return.
"You saw Tomoe die in your dream, didn't you?" She breathes fast and her eyes are open wide as she says the words.
Enishi's throat feels dry and hoarse. He has killed men who spoke his sister's name in his presence, but Kamiya's sorrowful tone halts that impulse. He swallows and jerks his head affirmatively.
Kamiya looks at him with an expression that Enishi does not understand, but then he has always had difficulty reading others' faces. Lightly, she places an arm around his bare shoulder and pats his bicep. The hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
"Come lay down again. Let's just sleep," she beckons.
Tomoe agrees with Kamiya. Enishi complies with the suggestion and lays his head on Kamiya's shoulder and drapes his arm across her waist. The girl drapes the sheet over both of their bodies.
Enishi stares at the ceiling for some time, but when he finally falls asleep again, the dreams with Kamiya continue. She limps through the streets of Kyoto wearing a bloody purple kimono, with the scent of plum blossoms trailing her as she arrives at Enishi's childhood home. She slides open a door that opens into his luxurious bedroom in Shanghai. He follows her inside and she pushes him onto his bed, smelling like the ocean and smirking with malice in her eyes. She pins him against the mattress with a strength he knows she cannot possibly possess and holds an ether-soaked handkerchief up to his face. His vision blurs as he chokes on the fumes, and when he can see straight again, she is embracing him; their clothes have been cast away and she breathes his name into his ear -
"Enishi?" Kamiya's voice brings him up from the depths of the dream. Pink rays from the sunrise illuminate the room. Kamiya's face is just inches away from his own. Her eyes are lit with concern. "You were groaning. I thought maybe you were having nightmares again."
"I'm fine," he mutters and sits up with his back to her so that she doesn't see the physical effects of the dream about her. He runs a palm over the top of his head and ruffles his hair. "Go back to sleep. You never get up this early anyway."
She purses her lips as if about to protest, then flops back into the pillows and tosses some of her long hair over her eyes. "Go destroy some trees on the other side of the house today. It is too loud when you do it right under this window."
The corners of Enishi's mouth turn downward, but the annoying comment doesn't stop him from noticing the way Kamiya's bathrobe is parted a little lower than usual. He shakes his head to rid himself once and for all of the images of her, rises from the bed and takes a shirt out of the armoire, then pulls it over his head. He glances at the kimono he gave her a few days earlier, which she has hung up beside his own clothes. He had been saving it to give her when Battousai was dead and he returned her to Tokyo, but Tomoe had persuaded him otherwise.
Enishi looks back to the now softly snoring form of Kamiya. Without thinking about it, he pulls the covers up to her chin. From her place in the corner, Tomoe inclines her head in approval.