Disclaimer: The characters are not mine, with the exception of the originals.
NOTE: In the manga, Kyou's bracelet is red and white, said to be made from human blood and bones. So, naturally, I'm using that interpretation instead of the black and white in the anime. Just letting you know to avoid confusion.
Chapter Summary: The man stopped laughing. "We were doomed from the beginning. I'm just making the best of a bad situation." He looked down at the figure held in his arms. His voice was a parody of concern. "Miko, don't cry. It won't be long."
Chapter Ten:
Ravenous Amidst
"It's her, isn't it?" Akito murmured. He sat slumped in his chair, his head resting on his folded arms on the top of the desk. His eyes were closed, but he could sense the other presences in the room around him, the one who restlessly moved, and the other who was unnaturally motionless.
"It is her," an authoritative male voice agreed, the body it belonged to moving slightly closer to him. "Do you know what this means?"
"It means we're done," Akito breathed, relief oozing from every corner of his being, filling him with a foreign sensation of hope. The destiny of the world was finally falling into place, everything as he needed it to be.
"Hardly. We're just getting started," the masculine voice scoffed. "It means this is the beginning of the end, that's all."
"And the other?" Akito questioned.
A smile entered the voice. "She's still."
The pacing girl, the Slayer Scarlett, spoke rapidly in fluent Japanese that made the fact she had been born and raised in America seem impossible. "What makes you think that?" she questioned loudly, destroying the mood of calm that permeated the room. "She was out and about a few hours ago. I saw her skulking around the grounds."
"Trust me," the other voice spoke persuasively. "She is witnessing the beginning."
"That wasn't really the beginning," Akito observed.
A shrug accompanied the rolling of eyes. "It's a beginning."
"A 'beginning of the end?'" Scarlett said derisively. "Come on, you're both saying 'beginning' too much. You know, I really have no idea what's going on here. You guys aren't telling me anything! I'm getting fed up with it!"
"You'll get what you want, Scarlett, in time," Akito said, opening an eye to glance at the pouting girl. "Patience. We have to move slowly, or we might--"
"Mess up?" Scarlett supplied snidely, settling back on her heels. "Is that possible? A second ago you were acting like it's set in stone."
The powerful voice interjected. "There's been some outside interference. The other girl, she isn't supposed to be here."
"Who was it that interfered?" Scarlett asked.
A pause. "I don't know."
"She was the start of this opportunity, the trigger," Akito murmured thoughtfully. "She has a part to play in this, but I don't know what it is."
"She's the killer," the voice said certainly. "I know."
Akito lifted his head to watch the speaker. "How do you know?" he asked.
Another smile. It seemed impossible that the god was before him; he looked so unassuming, so normal. But it was him. He knew that.
"She destroyed the world," he said calmly. "You can see the blood on her hands."
Akito grinned. "She is the embodiment of destruction."
"Hey! Are you dissing Slayers? Because I gotta say, I'm not just some gal that goes out destroying things. Hell, I saved the world," Scarlett argued, annoyed despite the fact that they weren't really discussing her at all.
"Buffy Summers is not your average Slayer," Akito said, ignoring the insult on Scarlett's face at being labeled "average". "She is much more than that."
"I agree," said the other voice. "Buffy Summers is an integral part of this."
Scarlett smiled, baring her teeth. "I guess it would be wrong of me to kill her, then," she said brightly, jealousy flashing in the depths of her narrowed eyes.
"I don't think you'll get that chance," the man smirked, his black hair blowing freely around his face as the window at his side flew open suddenly, wild wind picking up inside the room. Everything glowed bright blue for several moments before the ferocious winds calmed to a steady breeze. "She might be important, but I don't care. She's of no use to us. She'll be dead before she even wakes up."
Akito stood and wandered through the thick descending silence to his window, staring up at the starless sky. Slowly, as he watched, dots of light began to appear, twinkling as their light struggled to shine through the cloudy, thick atmosphere. Soon the midnight landscape above was bursting with starlight as the gaseous objects spilled throughout the black.
Akito's smile widened, and he turned back to his companions. Scarlett's mouth was twisted in an impatient grimace, and she rolled her eyes at the look on Akito's face, turning her head away. The other looked back at Akito, expression gone from his youthful face.
Akito turned around to see the stars outside fade slowly and leave the sky an empty black.
"Do it again, Sasuke," Akito whispered, glancing back to see if he had been heard.
Sasuke smirked, an eyebrow raised slightly at the request. "Why not."
Fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine
The sheep that jumped the fence in her mind were not helping.
Buffy lay supine in her bed, sheets wrapped tightly around her body as she fervently tried both to sleep and to not care if she slept. The contradiction was an obvious impediment to her goal, which was, of course, slumber. She'd only managed to get a couple of hours of rest under her belt before waking up from a disturbing dream and getting hit with annoying insomnia.
Eighty-two, eighty-three, eighty-four
Why the hell is it so cold in here? Buffy wondered, trembling slightly underneath the thin sheets that offered little protection from the drafts circulating inside the room. She preferred heat; she was a California girl, after all. She was curious if Japan was always subject to such cold temperatures that it seeped through the walls to freeze everything, or if the climate had just changed after the hellmouth disaster.
Ninety-nine, one hundred. Alright, let's start back at one.
It was ridiculous. She should have been exhausted. Two hours of sleep was never enough to get by on, even for someone super-human like her. Besides, the day had been trying and long, an emotional roller coaster. There was absolutely no reasonable explanation for her crisp alertness.
But there she was, counting goddamn sheep in her head and getting more awake with each passing second.
The darkness in her room was almost absolute. With the thick curtains hanging closed to block out the feeble moonlight, only the slightest of rays made it into the room. When she opened her eyes and allowed them to adjust to the lack of light, she was able to make out the basic shapes of the dresser, the closet, the door.
Then there was someone at the door.
She should have heard him come in.
The figure was at her bedside in an instant, close enough to touch before she could speak or move.
"Come on," a voice whispered urgently, and Buffy knew then who it was.
A hand came towards her, an offering. "Come on."
"What for?" Buffy asked Kyou, trying to pierce the darkness and see his face. Her efforts went unrewarded. Maybe it didn't matter.
"Shh. Let's go," Kyou said, his voice gently commanding. She couldn't detect anything hidden in his intonations, so she relented. Really, it wasn't like she foresaw sleep in her near future. Maybe walking around would help her get tired.
Ignoring his hand, Buffy pushed her sheets back and sat up. She realized that she couldn't exactly go traipsing around in just her over-sized t-shirt, so she said, "I need to put my pants on."
"I'll be outside. Hurry," Kyou replied, exiting the room swiftly.
As Buffy pulled the pants over her slim legs, she stopped to ponder what she was doing. Since when was Kyou "gentle" anything? What could he possibly want with her at-- she checked the clock-- three in the morning?
She guessed she would find out soon enough.
Kyou reached to take her hand again once she was out in the hall. She just stared at him as he tried to clasp her hand in his, giving him an incredulous look. "What the hell are you doing?" she asked, finally getting to see his face in the dimly lit hallway.
That was when she saw what a mess he was.
He noticed her surprise and ducked his head, turning away from her. "Come on," he mumbled. "It's this way."
Kyou was moving in the direction of the stairs. Buffy found her voice. "What happened to your face?" she asked, following him without protest.
"Nothing happened. Nothing," Kyou said quickly. "Hurry up. Come on."
"Those cuts just appeared by themselves? You should work on your lies, you know, try to make them even a little plausible," Buffy said sardonically. "Did you run into one of those famed demons running around?"
"Yeah, that's what it was," Kyou said, his voice empty of emotion, empty of anything. "A demon."
"Did you kill it?" Buffy asked, as it was the next logical question in her head.
Kyou, for whatever reason, hesitated before answering her. "No."
"Well, it didn't kill you, so I guess that's all that matters," Buffy said brightly. She quickened her steps to keep up with him. "Why are you walking so fast?"
"There isn't a lot of time," Kyou replied. "You should take my hand. It'll be easier."
Buffy rolled her eyes. "I can fit the state of Texas through the holes in that 'logic'," she said. "If anything, holding hands would just slow us down. Have you forgotten my penchant for knocking you on your ass?"
Kyou raced down the stairs, two at a time, not looking back to see if she followed. He must have assumed, which was pretty presumptuous of him. "I forget sometimes," he said.
"Alright," Buffy muttered, figuring that conversation wasn't on the menu tonight. Following Kyou like a faithful puppy was the only option she had in regards to the boy.
He stopped at the foot of the stairs, turning his head to watch her descent. "Your hair," he said.
Buffy paused in mid-step, hand moving instinctively to her locks. "What about my hair?" she asked warily, weaving her fingers through the strands, which felt oddly rough instead of their usual silky smooth.
Kyou's eyes were dark. "Nothing. Come on," he said, once again did he never learn? holding out his hand to her.
She made a conscious effort not to take his hand, to walk past him and turn around, glowering impatiently. Yet, the next thing she knew, her hand was in his, and they were outside.
Buffy blinked. "What did you do?" she asked, her voice shaking as she shivered from the bitter cold wind.
"I told you it would be easier," Kyou replied, uncharacteristically solemn. He was still looking at her, eyes shifting continuously from her hair to her face. The scrutiny was not helping her confusion.
"Okay, whatever this is, stop it," Buffy said, trying to steady her voice. She forced herself to be stern, even though the crushing sense of "what the hell?" was toying with her mind and making her feel almost helpless. She tried to pull her hand free, but either Kyou had acquired demon-like strength, or she was trapped in a stupid dream and not realizing it.
Because there was no way Kyou could hold on to her if she didn't want him to.
"Is this a dream?" she asked Kyou, flat out.
He was always watching her. "What do you think?"
"Well, yeah," Buffy replied. "I mean, for one, you, big jerky Souma guy, are holding my hand and looking at me like, like I don't know, you like me or something. And another thing, you've got this wicked grip on my hand so that I can't pull free, which is pretty much a dead giveaway that something weird is going on." She looked up at the boy's bruised face, sudden comprehension lifting the veil. "Oh my God. This isn't a dream. You got vamped."
Kyou's face was dull. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, how else could you have this unbreakable grip on my--" Buffy looked down to see that Kyou was no longer touching her. "--hand," she finished lamely.
"I just needed to get you here, Buffy," Kyou said. "That's all."
Buffy lifted her hand to her forehead and gave him an exaggerated salute. "Whatever you say, dream Kyou."
I should have known before. There's no way Kyou would've been so nice in real life. I must have just passed out after the first few sheep and not realized it.
An odd smile touched Kyou's lips. "You wish it was a dream," he said in a strained voice, laughing shortly. "Don't you? You could wake up and everything would be over?"
Buffy rolled her eyes. "When did you become Mr. Philosophical? Are you the voice of mystical reason in this dream? I gotta say, they could've picked a better guide."
"You know why I'm here," Kyou said seriously.
"You know what you need to know," Buffy said mockingly. "Isn't that just a way of saying you don't know what the hell's going on yourself? No, I don't know why you're in my dream, or why you're acting all freaky. Dreams don't make sense."
Kyou looked almost regretful. "This isn't a dream, Buffy. You know that."
"Of course it is!" Buffy exclaimed. "I mean, what's the alternative? I've slipped into another weird dimension? Everyone's under the influence of some stupid spell? Those are about as probable as your 'nothing happened' explanation for your banged-up face!"
"Buffy," Kyou said, losing his patience. He gestured at the sky. "Just look, for God's sake."
Buffy stopped her bitching and followed the direction of his arm with her eyes, realizing with a start that their empty sky was no longer so void.
Right above their heads were a million twinkling lights.
"The stars," Buffy murmured, awed. She might have fallen to her knees had Kyou not been there, as it was, she just stared, disbelieving. It was so...
"Beautiful," Kyou said, finishing her unspoken thought.
"I wish it'd be like this when I wake up," Buffy said sadly, remembrances of reality tainting her joy at seeing the familiar lights in the night sky. "I'd just stay out here and look at them. I'd stay till the sun came up."
Kyou's voice was also tinted with sorrow. "I remember how you looked in the sun," he said.
Buffy stopped ogling the stars long enough to stare at the boy next to her. "What?"
"The sun was orange. It was sunset," Kyou said, not sounding like himself at all. His voice had a faraway quality to it. "It wasn't supposed to be sunset that early. I remember that. When we had the..." he faltered, eyes gazing off into the distance at things beyond Buffy's sight. "Then everything was bright, like day. But I always remember you in the orange sun."
"Orange like your hair?" Buffy asked, unsure how the question popped out of her mouth. She hadn't thought such a thing.
Kyou smiled, still sad. "I always hated my hair. Everyone made fun of it. It made me hate the color orange." He stared at her then, and his eyes were unreadable. "When the color was everywhere around us, everywhere around you, I... I didn't."
"What are you saying?" Buffy asked, shaking herself out of her slight daze. "Kyou? You're acting really odd. Like, 'Twilight Zone' odd. Did you suffer brain damage from your little demon encounter?" Despite the light tone to her question, she waited for a serious answer.
"Come on. We've wasted too much time." Kyou pointed up again. "Look closer. Those aren't stars."
Buffy tilted her head back and gasped, realizing he was right. "W-what the hell is that?" she asked, seeing dark outlines of tall structures floating high above. "A floating city?"
Kyou grasped her arm and tugged, hard. "You'll see," he muttered, once again using strength that should have been beyond him to drag her forward. She resisted but was unable to break free. She opened her mouth to protest, but shut it when the world dissolved around her.
She was in a brightly lit hall. All around her, robed people were wandering about, drifting across the slick wooden floor like ghosts. Assorted furniture was scattered around the expansive room, mostly couches and empty tables, everything looking sleek and modern.
Kyou was nowhere to be seen.
"Well, that's how dreams go, I guess," Buffy muttered. Disquiet remained with her, however. Such lifelike dreams were not uncommon to her, the Slayer, but those were always prophetic. Somehow, she doubted a dream where she visited a flying city would ever come to pass.
Though, what with the recent dimension hopping, she guessed nothing was out of the realm of possibility.
Buffy approached the first person she saw, a tall blonde woman with regal, pinched features. "Excuse me. Where is this?" she asked.
The woman looked at her as though she were vermin. "I don't talk to people of your status," she said in a cool voice. "Begone now."
"Excuse me," Buffy said sarcastically. "I didn't realize you had a stick up your ass."
The woman's face turned an ugly red. "Well, I never!" she exclaimed.
"Oh! Then congratulations. You're no longer an 'I've been burned!' virgin," Buffy said, smiling rudely. She swiftly moved past the huffing woman and walked up to a blond man. He looked oddly the same as the previous woman, but she tried anyway. "Hi, excuse me. Can you tell me where this is?"
"This is the home of the Juunishi," the man replied, his tone cool but not entirely unfriendly. Buffy was relieved, but her confusion did not lessen.
They're still speaking Japanese, she thought, noticing the man's lips didn't match the words she heard. Also, the word Juunishi had slipped by untranslated.
"Oh, okay," Buffy said. "It's the floating city place, right?"
"This is the home of the Juunishi," the man repeated, every syllable sounding the same as it had before. His expression remained flat. He could have been a robot.
"Yeah, already told me that. I just have a few more questions, if you could answer them," Buffy tried again.
He looked at her blankly for a few seconds. She saw it coming before he spoke. "This is the home of the Juunishi."
Buffy's smile was too wide to be sincere. She doubted Robo-Man would care. "Thanks. Right." She walked further into the room. Curiosity struck her, and she looked back at the wall to see if there was a door where she had originally been standing.
Nope. Nothing.
The mystery deepens Buffy thought, glancing around at all of the sullen faces around her. She was wondering if they were all robots who repeated the same phrases when a familiar sullen face and shock of orange hair captured her attention. "Kyou!" she exclaimed, ignoring the looks of disgust thrown her way and rushing towards the boy across the room.
Kyou spoke quickly to a taller, brown-haired man before walking through a door to his left. He ignored, or perhaps didn't hear, Buffy calling out to him.
Buffy stopped in front of the brown-haired man, who looked down at her with a smile. It put her at ease, being the first friendly face she had seen there. "Hi. Was that Kyou?" she asked.
The man's eyes twinkled, but it was then that Buffy reversed her verdict. He didn't look too much older than herself, maybe in his mid-to-late twenties. His eyes were pretty blue, like a robin's egg. "That was Master Satoshi," he replied.
Buffy recalled the name and face; it was that boy she had seen in her weird vision-like experience earlier. That explained how he could be in her dream. "So, what is this place? I mean, besides the home of the Juunishi," she asked, steeling herself for another robotic, repeated response. She was pleasantly surprised when he let her down.
"But that's all it is," he said. "The Juunishi are the special ones, blessed with the powers of the Earth. This is their home, their sanctuary away from the others. How can you be here if you do not know that?"
Buffy shrugged. "I'd like to know that myself. I'm placing my bets on crazy dream action myself."
The smile widened, not unpleasantly. "Buffy, this isn't a dream."
Buffy's brows furrowed. "How'd you know my-- that my name is Buffy?"
"Because I know you. I know why you're here," he said. "Wouldn't you like to know that?"
"Well, yeah," Buffy admitted. She didn't know why she kept feeling so shocked about the weird things happening. Why did she have to keep reminding herself she was dreaming?
It felt so real.
An arm was offered to her. She took it without hesitation. The knowledge that she couldn't be hurt was guiding most of her actions, enabling her to trust more. "Who are you?" she asked, looking up at the tall man.
"I'm Halcyn," he said, chuckling. "But that doesn't matter."
"You know my name," Buffy argued.
"That's true," Halcyn said, leading Buffy through the same door Satoshi had disappeared through. Buffy looked down and started, seeing that he wore a beaded bracelet almost identical to Kyou's. The beads were red and black instead of Kyou's red and white.
"What's that?" she asked, reaching over to poke at his bracelet.
Halcyn drew his arm away, his face darkening. "The harbringer of destruction," he whispered.
She heard him clearly enough. "What?"
"It's nothing, just some fine beaded jewelry," Halcyn said smoothly. "Come on. Hurry."
Buffy did the opposite of what he asked, stopping in midstep. Kyou had repeated those same words, over and over. Were they supposed to mean something? "Why? Why the rush?" she asked.
"The course of destiny, the course of fate," Halcyn said, his voice taking on an edge that erased his youth, his innocence, and left him sounding old and weary, "is persistent. It does not like to be altered. Time cannot be wasted."
"Hey, this is my dream," Buffy protested. "Don't I get any say in the pacing?"
Halcyn looked at her with great disappointment. "It's a heavy burden you carry," he said sadly. "Perhaps you aren't strong enough."
Buffy placed her hands on her hips, glaring at him. "Some nerve! I'm plenty strong!"
"If you're strong, then go through the door," Halcyn said, gesturing to the open door which lay down the long hallway. The corridor itself was plain and stark white, just like the room outside. "Witness the beginning of everything, and pray that you don't see the end." His expression became blank as everyone else's she had seen. "That's all you can do."
"Okay," Buffy said breezily, making a show of skipping down the hall. She glanced back briefly to see if Halcyn watched her, but he was gone. The door she had entered through was gone as well. No big surprise there.
She was calmly walking when she felt an odd sensation, like one might feel descending in an elevator. It lasted only a few seconds, and the Buffy was facing a large steel door.
It swung open for her, beckoning her to enter.
I've been waiting for you, killer.
Buffy was cautious while entering, looking around to make sure nothing sprung out at her from the dimly lit surroundings. The room was cavernous and expansive, its size hard to take in at once. She couldn't even see the far wall in the pathetic light.
Numerous yards away was the machine.
She thought it was a machine. It was as tall as the ceiling and wide, crafted with shiny material and endowed with sparkling... something. Geez, this is ridiculous Buffy thought, walking forward to get a better look.
She wasn't alone.
"What do you mean, you aren't ready?" a voice boomed. As Buffy approached, she could make out the five figures near the machine, each looking like black blobs to her poor eyes. One figure towered over the rest, and she thought the voice came from it. Him.
His eyes caught her even in the dark. Bright, blood red, no pupils, no whites. The eyes of a demon.
"I don't care if you're ready! We're doing this now!" the man screamed. Another form cowered before him, dwarfed.
"Daddy," came a weak voice.
"Quit being such a bastard!" a voice Buffy recognized to be Satoshi's so much like Kyou's exclaimed angrily. Buffy quickened her steps, not caring if they saw her or not. For their parts, they seemed too wrapped up in other matters to notice her.
"Shut up, you waste! You shouldn't even be here, why are you here?" the demon-man demanded, sounding less human with every breath. Buffy was close enough to see him turn to one of the other figures, one taller than himself. "Halcyn, why is he here?"
Halcyn! Buffy thought, surprised. How did he get here before me?
"I thought you would want your son to be present, my Lord," Halcyn replied calmly. "Was that wrong?"
"I don't give a damn where he is," the man sneered. "Just stay out of my way, boy."
"Daddy," the quiet voice said again, ringing familiar in Buffy's ears. Is that...?
It sounded like Tohru.
"Daddy, the Earth, it's... I can feel it." The kneeling figure reached out to touch the demonic man. "We have to stop."
"The Earth, who cares about the Earth?" he replied, laughing maliciously. The machine, which had thus far emitted a low humming noise, began to whirr loudly, glowing a bright silver color. "It's too late to stop now. He's going to wake up."
"Malice," Halcyn breathed. Buffy thought it was him. She couldn't be sure.
"I won't let you do this, you sick fuck!" Satoshi shouted. He moved suddenly, leaping towards the machine. Yellow sparks began to fly around Satoshi's body. Buffy couldn't be sure, but she thought he had stabbed something into the machine.
"You fool! You think that will do anything? I anticipated your interference, all of you. I'm not an idiot. The Harvester means nothing to me at this point. Malice will awaken, and I will take his power. You will feel my wrath for your betrayal." The man was calm, waiting. "Nice try, though, really. Four stars."
He reached out and seized the trembling figure's arm. "Come, my dear. We have an important job to do."
"You can't take her!" Satoshi yelled. A bright green light seemed to burst from his being, shining like an aura around him and illuminating him in front of Buffy's eyes. His face was a mask of concentration, eyes trained on the demonic man. "You won't."
"Can you feel it yet?" The man replied, chuckling. "You're right there, where he's going to come. You have to feel him."
"I don't feel anything," Satoshi spat bitterly, "except hate. You're dooming all life on this planet."
The man stopped laughing. "We were doomed from the beginning. I'm just making the best of a bad situation." He looked down at the figure held in his arms. His voice was a parody of concern. "Miko, don't cry. It won't be long."
"Daddy," the girl whispered.
Buffy saw her long hair, hanging down.
"Yes, Miko?" the man said.
"I'm sorry..."
Buffy saw her bring her wrist up and press it flush against her father's forehead.
The man screamed in agony. Lights burst from everywhere. An unearthly howl sprang up from the earth as it began to crack underneath the machine, forming a gigantic grave for the destroyed contraption. Satoshi leapt back away from the hole, landing on his rear end next to the figure that had stood silently for the whole exchange. Halcyn moved back also, not in any particular rush to get away from the rapidly expanding pit. Buffy had to shield her eyes from the blinding lights even as the noises escalated into bone-chilling screeches that nothing human, animal, or demon could have made. The ground was trembling violently, and with nothing to lean against for support, Buffy fell to her knees.
It's time to go now, Buffy. There's nothing more to be done here.
Buffy felt herself being yanked upwards, her heart dipping in her chest as terror choked her. She could still sense the blinding lights around her, but they were fading, slowly, leaving her with nothing but darkness to contemplate.
I hope I see you again, someday.
The light receded completely, and the noises stopped.
Remember me.
Buffy opened her eyes.
She was back outside, kneeling on the hard ground. Deja vu struck her; she was in exactly the same position she had been in earlier, after her first vision of Satoshi and Summer. She got to her feet shakily, nausea falling over her in waves. The unearthly screaming plagued her memory.
"Hey," came Kyou's voice from behind her. "Don't I know you?"
Buffy whirled around and gasped. "Kyou! Your face!"
"Huh?" Kyou reached up and ran his hands over his smooth, unblemished cheeks. "What about it?"
"What happened to your bruises, your cuts?" Buffy asked. "You were torn up!"
Kyou's expression was flat. "I don't think so," he said. He peered at her. "How did you know my name?"
Buffy frowned. "That's not funny."
"You're American," Kyou said. He wrinkled his nose. "Are you even speaking Japanese? I mean, I hear you, but your lips don't match your words. What the hell?"
His perceptiveness gave Buffy enough reason to pause. None of the other Soumas had ever picked up on that fact, or at least they hadn't mentioned it to her if they had. Then again, they were so self-involved it wasn't that much of a shock. "I'm speaking English," she said. "But you'll hear me in Japanese. The opposite goes for me hearing you."
Kyou looked puzzled, then rolled his eyes. "Whatever. It's just a dream anyway. Who are you?"
"Buffy. I'm... Buffy. You don't remember?" Buffy asked, wondering at this new turn of events.
"I have no idea who you are. I don't know any Americans, certainly not anyone named Buffy," Kyou said impatiently. "Are you here to help me?"
"Help you?"
"I'm looking for--" Kyou trailed off, looking upset. "Dammit, I forgot again! Why does that keep happening?"
Buffy was still confused by Kyou's amnesia, as well as his magically fixed injuries. Where did her unconscious come up with this stuff? "You don't know who I am?" she pressed.
"I told you, no! Now shut up, I have to think!" Kyou's eyebrows drew down in a frustrated growl. "Shit! What was I here for?"
"I was wondering the same thing," Buffy muttered, looking around in the starless night. The city above her head had vanished, as had the Souma house behind her. She was in the middle of nowhere, again.
"Hey," Kyou said, his voice friendlier than before. "Why are you here?"
Buffy shrugged. "I'm as lost as you are."
"I remember talking to Shigure, and then I went to my room," Kyou murmured, his words barely reaching Buffy's ears. "I lay down and closed my eyes, thinking about..." His face grew alive with emotion. "Tohru."
That caught Buffy's attention. "Tohru?"
"She's gone. She just disappeared," Kyou said, panic twisting his face. "Shit, I have to find her!"
"Tohru's back at the house, sleeping," Buffy said. "I'd know, I tucked her in."
Kyou looked at her like she was a pile of money. "What? You know where she is?"
Buffy nodded slowly. "Yeah. She's back at Shigure's house."
"But where was she?" Kyou asked. "Where did she go?"
Something was troubling Buffy about the conversation. Too many things were out of place. Kyou's face, his forgetfulness, his questions, hell, even his demeanor. None of it matched the Kyou Souma she'd become acquainted with. It was like he had split personalities, and another had come out to play. But that didn't explain the healed cuts.
"Kyou," she started, not sure why she was asking her next question, "How do you know Tohru?"
Kyou's guard went up instantly. "What? That's none of your business."
"I need to know, okay? I'm not asking for your bank code, for God's sake. Just tell me where you know Tohru from."
Kyou took a deep breath, setting his mouth in an unhappy scowl. "Fine. Okay. She lives at the house with me, Yuki, and Shigure. She cooks and cleans. She goes to school with us. She's..." he trailed off uneasily. "Is that enough?"
It was more than enough. Buffy could put two and two together.
"They're not the same as my Soumas, but..."
"You're Tohru's family," Buffy said tonelessly. "You're the Kyou from her world."
"Huh? Whaddya mean, 'her world'?"
Buffy sighed. There was little chance he would believe her, but she'd tell him the truth, anyway. It was all she could do. "Tohru and I both fell into these pools of water. This when when we were in our own dimensions, so that would mean Tohru was with you. When we fell, we blacked out and woke up in a parallel dimension that's different from the original. We're kind of stuck there until I can figure out a spell or something to get us home."
Kyou thought over her words for a few moments before replying, "I get it. You're nuts."
Sighing again, Buffy shrugged at him. "Believe what you want. I'm just telling how Tohru 'disappeared' into 'thin air'. You can try and look for her, but you won't find her. She's with me in the post-apocalyptic wasteland."
Kyou gave her a blank look. "Why? Why would Tohru skip dimensions just because she fell in a pool of water?"
"That's the million dollar question." Buffy glanced at Kyou from behind her eyebrows. "Another such question would be how you got in my dream."
Annoyed, he replied, "I'm the one who's dreaming here."
"Who says we can't both be dreaming?" Buffy asked, losing patience. "All I know is I've seen some crap here that even the National Enquirer wouldn't print! And now I've got some stranger who looks like Kyou telling me I'm insane. You know what? Maybe you're right."
Kyou didn't know what to do with her. "Hey..."
Buffy found herself inexplicably missing the other Kyou, the one who knew her and disliked her. At least with him she didn't feel so completely and utterly alone. "I wish I could wake up," she whispered without thinking, sinking to the ground beneath her, cushioned by the soft, wet grass covering everything.
Grass...
The revelation struck hard. The world was green.
Surprise colored Buffy's features pink. She looked up at the sky expecting to see nothing only to find a billion twinkling stars shining steadily. The world around her had changed, had awakened, and she hadn't even realized it. "The world..." she muttered. "It's alive."
Kyou still looked nervous. "Yeah?"
Buffy smiled at him, standing as swiftly as she'd sat. He smiled back, hesitantly, holding himself at a distance from her. "You don't understand," she said. "The place Tohru and I got sent to, there's no color. There's no grass, no stars. It's a dead world." Her spirits fell. "It's what I have to wake up to."
And just a few seconds ago, I was dying to wake.
"So Tohru's really in this dead place?" Kyou asked.
Buffy nodded. "It sounds crazy, but yeah."
"You're asking me to put a lot of faith in you," Kyou said seriously. "For all I know, this is just some nonsense dream, and everything you're saying is BS."
"She really misses you," Buffy said quietly. "She keeps telling me that you're her family. And she loves you." She met his wide-eyed stare. "And she misses you."
Kyou was clearly at a loss for words. Buffy grinned. "If it's okay with you, I'll just tell her you miss her, too."
Nodding slowly, Kyou agreed. "Are you going to... find a way back?" he asked finally.
"I'm trying," Buffy said. "It's hard. Nobody there is familiar with magic."
Kyou snorted. "I don't know why I'm surprised that magic exists. Hell, who would believe a person could be cursed to change into an animal when hugged? Same nonsense."
"Cursed?"
"Yeah. The Souma family curse. We each change into an animal of the Chinese Zodiac when we're hugged by a member of the opposite sex," Kyou explained. "I figured if you knew some other Kyou, you'd know about the curse."
"I didn't. I didn't know." Buffy was slow to understand. She knew about curses, a curse had given Angel his soul. Curses were bad things. "You change into an animal?"
Kyou scowled, the subject a sore one. "Yeah. A cat. No demonstrations."
"Come on, how else am I supposed to believe you?" Buffy asked.
"Hey, I'm believing you!" Kyou exclaimed, "And that's a lot of stretching."
Buffy found herself smiling at his protests. Despite his initial reservation, Kyou seemed to be warming up to her, having a connection through Tohru, a common ground. This Kyou didn't share the same coldness as his predecessor. Though not friendly by any means, he certainly wasn't as hard to talk with as a block of ice. He made Buffy feel...
What is it?
The nostalgia returned, the same as before.
"Hey, don't I know you?"
"I know you," she whispered.
Kyou blinked. "What? No," he said.
She shook her head at him, and reached over, grabbing his hand. "No," she said firmly, looking up into his startled eyes. "I know you."
Kyou was unmoving. She was surprised he didn't pull away from her and make a smart-ass remark. It seemed to be the trend with Kyous. Then again, dreams were always different. "Buffy," he said, "I would remember you."
"No," she whispered. "No, you don't." Sadness hit her then, coming from nowhere to hammer at her. Her hand was wrapped tightly around his. He was probably starting to feel pain from it... she dropped his hand and backed up. "This isn't right."
Someone was calling her name.
"Buffy," Kyou started, moving towards her as she continued to pull away. "Where do you think you know me from?"
She tried to come out of her daze, but it was useless. Logic had no place in this situation, dream or no dream. "I don't know," she said quietly, mournfully. She didn't. She just got the feeling that he was someone, he had been someone...
dear to me.
"You're serious?" Kyou asked, his loud voice breaking the comforting silence of her numbness. "I mean, really? You and Tohru got sucked into some alternate dimension?"
"Yeah," Buffy said slowly, steeling herself. She nodded. "I already told you."
"I just want to be clear on this," Kyou replied, lifting his shoulders. "So what's the deal with this dream thing, then?"
Buffy shrugged. "I don't know."
"Hey, are you--"
"Wake up, Buffy! Buffy!"
"--alright?"
Buffy straightened, listening to the quiet whispers of the wind around her. "I have to go," she said woodenly. She couldn't bring herself to look at him. It was painful. "I'll tell her."
"What? Hey--"
Buffy!
When she opened her eyes next, she was on her back, in her bed, staring up at a dark ceiling.
Flickering shadows dripped like blood into her vision, almost blinding.
But she was finally awake.
He was there when she opened her eyes.
Haru had been sitting in the room for at least three hours, reading a book and glancing every so often at the sleeping girl on the bed. He had agreed to watch and alert the others if her condition changed, though Hatori had been doubtful it would. It wasn't like the girl had anything physically wrong with her, after all.
She just wouldn't wake up.
Tohru had offered to sit up with Buffy. Begged, even. But the girl had been obviously tired, having watched Buffy the previous few nights, and Shigure sent her to bed. It was presently a quarter past three in the morning, and Haru was wide awake.
Candlelight was hard to read by. It didn't matter. The novel he read was dull. He found it much more interesting to look at Buffy and ruminate over what little Kyou had told him of her.
He hadn't mentioned her beauty, but then, Kyou wasn't one to care about such things.
It was odd. Haru didn't usually find himself attracted to blondes, especially deeply tanned ones like the Slayer. His big fascination was with girls who wore their dark hair long in contrast with pale skin. The black, the white, appealed to him for obvious reasons.
There was something in Buffy's face, even in repose, that caught his attention and held it, forcing his eyes to trace the contours and sloping angles. She looked at once young and hard, an unusual combination.
She was a girl who had crosses to bear.
Yet she wasn't Sleeping Beauty. She wasn't a helpless maiden who waited for Prince Charming's kiss to break the spell. She was an army, not a damsel. Something else was at work, stopping her from returning to the world.
Haru had no idea what that something could be, but he had a feeling Akito was involved.
The creepy man usually was in situations like these.
It surprised him when she awoke, staring blankly up at the ceiling. There was no warning, no safe transition between sleeping and wakefulness. She was just there, turning her head to look at him.
"Who are you?" she asked, voice scratchy with lack of moisture. Haru reached over to a carefully placed nightstand next to him and grasped his half-empty glass of water, holding it out to her.
"Drink some of this," he said, meeting her eyes. He couldn't tell what color they were, not in the shadowy light, but that didn't matter, either.
Buffy was suspicious of the glass, of him. She shook her head, pushing the sheets back and struggling to sit up. She was stiff from her multiple days of non-movement and found the simple task near impossible. "No," she said, clearing her throat painfully. "Tell me who you are, and why you're here."
"I'm Hatsuharu Souma. I'm here to watch over you," he replied.
"So you're not here to lead me to a floating city? That's a relief," Buffy quipped, sighing and flinging herself back down onto the bed. "God, I'm stiff. Hey, let me have some of that water." She turned on her side and took the glass from him, taking a long drink and draining the rest of the contents. She looked at him from over the top of the glass. "Souma?"
Haru nodded. "I'm a member of the family," he said, in case it wasn't clear.
"So you're a jerk?" Buffy asked. Quickly, she clarified, "That would follow the trend."
The urge to smile rose inside him softly but was ignored. "I don't think I'm a jerk," he replied, speaking solely for his White persona. He knew from experience that his Black self was a total bastard.
"Well, that's something," Buffy muttered. "Wait, I don't get this. Why are you here, watching me?"
"Hatori thought it wise in case your condition changed for the worse," Haru replied. "I'm a night person, so it wasn't a bother to me."
Buffy's face showed a range of varying emotions, confusion being the clearest. "But, I was just sleeping, right? I mean, I'm not sick? I didn't come down with some weird disease overnight?"
"No," Haru said, realizing that he would have to tell her the truth of the situation. He almost thought of calling Hatori, to let him break the news to the girl, but the look of panic on her face made some part of him want to erase it and quell her fears. The knowledge would be of some use to her, he knew, because the fear of the unknown was always worse than the alternative. Always.
Sometimes he lied to himself.
He took a deep breath. "Buffy, you've been asleep for four days," he said.
"No," Buffy said quickly, automatically. "No way. You're lying."
"You wouldn't wake up," Haru continued, ignoring her denial. "Hatori said he'd never seen anything like it. There was nothing physically wrong with you, but nothing we did could wake you up."
Buffy rolled her eyes and laughed shortly, disbelieving. "You expect me to buy this crap? Come on. I know I don't belong in this world, but I wasn't born yesterday. Just tell me the truth." She smiled. "You could tell me you came in here to admire my beauty, and I won't even punch you out."
Haru set his mouth in a humorless line. "This is the truth," he said coolly, feeling the beginnings of annoyance. Mild disbelief was one matter, but total denial was frustrating. "Do you need me to get Tohru, Shigure, and Yuki in here to tell you the same?"
Buffy puffed up her chest, sitting up with difficulty. She was pouting, furrowing her eyebrows and looking for the most part like a child about to throw a tantrum. "How can it be like that?" she asked him. "How could I just sleep for four days without waking up?"
Shrugging, Haru replied, "I don't know. None of us could explain it."
Buffy's face settled into fear and bewilderment. "I don't understand," she muttered, leaning back against the wall, looking at him. "What does this mean?"
He couldn't answer her, so he said nothing. A question came to him, one that might be important. He fully planned on telling Hatori that Buffy was awake, but he felt there was unfinished business to tend to first. "Were you dreaming?"
Buffy looked startled. "Y-yeah. Yeah, I was."
Haru settled his steady gaze on her. "What was it?"
"What, my dreams? You want to know?"
"Yes. Do you remember?"
"Well, not really. I--" Buffy's eyes became distant, unfocused. Her hands went up to rest over her shoulders, placing her arms across her chest defensively. "I remember the city, but..." Her face was sheepish. "I don't know if I can tell you this."
Haru nodded. "Fair enough. I'm a stranger to you." He stood.
"No, that's not-- where are you going?" Buffy asked, slight tremors in her voice betraying her anxiety even as she tried to maintain a stable front.
"I need to tell Hatori that you're up. He told me to get him as soon as your condition changed," Haru replied.
"Are you going to come back?" Buffy asked quietly, staring down at the wrinkled sheets around her. "I mean, would you?"
Haru was surprised at her request. He was... they were strangers. All he knew of her came secondhand from Kyou, and knowing the cat's penchant for forming biased opinions, the information he had could very well be laced with inaccuracies. Given that Buffy already thought all Soumas were "jerks" by default, her appeal didn't make much sense.
Of course, looking at Buffy, it was obvious that something other than logic was dictating her actions at that moment.
"I could," he said noncommitally, meeting her eyes for a couple of seconds before shifting his stare towards the door. "Why?"
"I just don't want to... I'd like to talk," Buffy said, switching gears. She sat straighter, stretching her limbs out in front of her. "I'll tell you about my dream."
Haru was curious despite himself. He still felt it was an important issue that might have some bearing on the fact that she had slept for such a long period of time. Also, he had been telling the truth when he told her he needed little rest to function. Rarely did he get more than four hours of sleep at a time. It just wasn't something he needed.
What does Buffy need?
He couldn't find the answer by looking at her or mulling it over. He supposed if he stayed up with her after Hatori examined her and talked, he might find out.
"Okay," he said. "Let me get Hatori, and I'll be back."
He took a moment to ponder her before he left. Buffy didn't notice. She was too busy staring down, mind wandering to places he couldn't yet imagine.
Dark hair, streamers of twilight against a backdrop of gray, billowed in his mind, the image bringing forth a tidal wave of unwelcome memories to the forefront. Pale skin gleamed in the dwindling gold, flawless and smooth. He remembered the feel of it, the taste. She was always hard to forget.
The girl before him looked almost nothing like Rin Souma. She was short where Rin was tall, light where Rin was dark, dark where she was light. But the eyes, those eyes Haru couldn't fathom in the dark, glimmered with familiarity, even though he had never seen such vivid emotions shine in Rin's dark depths.
In some ways, Rin was stronger than Buffy appeared to be. In some ways, she wasn't.
"I can't see you anymore, Haru. I just can't."
"Why not? Why are you doing this? This isn't how you feel."
"No, it isn't. I don't feel anything."
Haru turned and walked out of the room, but in an instant, he had re-entered, taking in the girl's surprise for a slight moment before opening his mouth to speak, "Actually, I have things to do. I can't come back."
Brief disappointment darkened Buffy's face, but she nodded resolutely. "That's okay. Thanks anyway, for everything."
He shrugged and resumed his exit from the room.
He had nothing to feel sorry for.
I won't make anymore mistakes.