VIII. Exodus
Neither Kamui nor Subaru thought that the price of their wishes was incredibly steep. Yuuko had explained, with a lazy wave of her hand, that they were to remain with each other at all times, as they would be unable to travel otherwise. "Like twins!" She had exclaimed, almost too excited at the prospect.
"But of course, there is one other thing." Her smile remained, but her eyes did not belie amusement.
"Your time. The other price is your time."
"What?" Kamui asked a little snobbily. Subaru was a little surprised when Yuuko did not respond to scold him.
"The flow of your time will change. It will nearly freeze."
"What does that mean?" Subaru asked, almost as snobbily as Kamui would have.
"That question will answer itself eventually, Subaru-san, much better than I can. Stop making that face, Kamui-kun. It's unbecoming on a young man such as yourself to look that grumpy all the time."
Kamui shifted uncomfortably, as though he was suddenly reminded of his odd circumstances. Subaru scooted away from him a bit and looked at Yuuko.
"How soon can we leave?"
Yuuko wagged a long finger through the air and sang, "We're a little impatient, aren't we? As soon as we can get that child over there in decent clothing, you two twinny-poos can set off~!"
"What did you call us?" Subaru asked in amazed confusion. Kamui threw his hands up in indignation and exclaimed, "I'm not a child!"
"Oh!" Yuuko set down her pipe and rolled her eyes slowly, "how I wish you could stay here, Kamui-kun! You're even funnier than Watanuki ~."
…
Yuuko had specifically instructed that they make skin contact in order to travel. She had unambiguously outlined that simple parameter as the only necessity for their world-hopping. Subaru felt that, given the circumstances, this request was not an entirely outrageous one. And yet, as she explained it, he heard Kamui hiss in disapproval. He made sure to turn an offended eye to the young vampire, and then to maintain it as they prepared for their departure.
After Watanuki had forced Kamui into some half-decent clothing, the newly christened twins were impetuously pushed into the shop's front yard. Yuuko stood in the doorway, watching to two expectantly. Subaru turned to Kamui and found him staring at the ground with his arms at his sides and his shoulders tensed. Subaru once again found himself questioning whether his wish was worth traveling with the boy.
"Well," he said, though Kamui gave no indication of hearing him, "we should probably go."
"Yeah." Kamui responded quietly, although he continued scrutinizing the grass beneath him.
"Are you ready?" Subaru asked as he started edging closer.
"Yeah." Kamui looked up at him and nodded a little. Subaru set a gentle palm on his shoulder. The boy started a little beneath his hand, but didn't let his eyes stray from Subaru's face. He continued staring, even as tendrils of magic raced around them and swept them into the nether-dimension.
This was precisely the second time that Subaru had traveled across worlds. The first time, he had blindly flung the majority of his magical power in a general direction and luckily had enough sense to land at Yuuko's shop. He supposed he had not been in the best state to assess the actual experience, because he certainly didn't remember it being so violent.
Waves and tides of energy whipped around the twins and tore at their clothing as the two were swept into the currents of the cosmos. Almost immediately after they began, Subaru's grip on Kamui's shoulder became painfully strong. He did not know what would happen if they were separated during travel, but he could not imagine it ending quite well. Kamui seemed about as prepared as Subaru was for the rough flight, and soon found himself clutching at the other boy's shirt in nervousness.
They landed with a distinct and painful thud onto something hard and unforgiving. Moments like these made Subaru fully appreciate his regenerative abilities – before he even opened his eyes to view the new world, he felt his freshly cracked ribs and newly purpling bruises healing themselves to nonexistence.
He opened his eyes to find himself in uncomfortable proximity with Kamui. The boy had landed strait on top of him, and even as Subaru made to mention this, Kamui realized with a start and jumped off and away from him with an undignified yelp. Though he was a little offended with his response, Subaru chose to ignore him and instead examine his surroundings.
It seemed that the two had made a small crater upon impacting the new world's surface. Luckily, both he and Kamui were still nestled in the center, protected from whatever was outside its edges.
The ground was foreign to Subaru; it looked black, uniform and fairly smooth, save the large cracks and dents he and his twin had made. Around him he could hear a loud hum, and the blaring of some sort of instrument, but without better vantage he could not see the origin of the noise. Before advancing to the raised edges of the crater, he glanced over at Kamui and asked, "Do you know where we are?"
Kamui, who had previously been examining the ground with fascination written upon his features, sullenly shook his head. He looked up to Subaru and watched as the older vampire approached to edge.
Subaru immediately retreated from the edge of the crater after catching the briefest glimpse of the outside world.
"Kamui-kun!" He yelled, seeing the other prepare to climb up the edge, "Don't go up there!"
Subaru could see the boy struggle with the logical reasoning to listen to Subaru's advice and the desire to respond like a brat. Luckily, sense won this round and Kamui settle with asking, "What was up there?"
"Hundreds of them…large…well, monsters, I guess, coming straight at me really loudly and really quickly."
Kamui thought for a moment, and then said, "But they haven't come down here."
"…no."
"I'm going to look."
"Kamui-kun, I wouldn't-." Subaru stopped, because Kamui was already scaling the wrinkled edge of the crater.
Kamui rose his head above the ground and –
Hundreds and hundreds of loud, unidentifiable things coming straight at him, roaring loudly and seemingly changing direction away from him last minute. They were huge and brightly colored; they felt warm and smelt like fire.
Subaru felt a smidge of satisfaction when Kamui tumbled back down to his side, his little face white and surprised.
"What are those things?" Kamui asked breathily.
"Our bigger concern is how to get away from here safely."
"And how do you suggest that?" Kamui's voice was beginning to strain with concealed panic.
"We should probably wait. We can recuperate our strength down here and try to figure something out."
Kamui looked at him for a lazy moment, and then rose back to his feet. "I don't like waiting."
The plan was clear enough in his words, Subaru surmised that Kamui intended on attacking the monsters. Part of him – a part so injured it was nearly gone anyway – found that youthful recklessness charming. However centuries of experience made him more keen on smacking that pretty face free of its abrasiveness instead of reveling in it.
Before Subaru could react to Kamui, and thankfully before Kamui could do something idiotic, a voice carried down to them from above the crater wall:
"Hey, you two made it! How's it going?"
Subaru looked up. With dizzying speed, Kamui flashed in front of the stranger, with one long finger held up to his neck.
"Who sent you?" Kamui asked in a tone like ice.
"Hey, hey – slow down buddy!" Subaru noted a mess of dark hair and friendly, heavy eyes. Perhaps, he though, his travelling companion was overacting a bit.
But then the stranger was reaching out and grabbing Kamui's wrist and pushing it away with no apparent effort and Subaru though that perhaps he himself was underacting a bit.
And then Subaru was next to Kamui, staring this dangerous newcomer straight in the face and making clear through his stiff back, squared shoulders and elongated fingernails that he was the more dangerous of the two.
The stranger's unhurried response was to extend a hand and say, through a toothy grin,"Arisugawa Sorata, at your service."
I apologize for my long absence. I am pleased to present you with this lately installment of That Which Cannot Heal. I do hope that you enjoy it, and please let me know what you think in a review.
Love always,
Elegy
