Author's Note: Okay so it might be harder to figure out what I actually meant by this one but still. Hope you enjoy it anyway! ^^; ALSO! For fans of Seishirou! I've had an idea floating around for a while for a crossover fic of X and Cardcaptor Sakura that would revolve around Seishirou and Tomoyo. An odd pairing (pairing, not couple)? You bet. But I still have an interesting idea that has been nagging at me to write it for a while, so watch my stories list or the crossovers for that if you're interested! :D
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On the tenth day of Christmas, an assassin wished for beauty.
They were taking a walk in Ueno park when she saw him. Yuzuriha thought that she vaguely recognized the dark man standing under the cherry blossom tree but she wasn't sure. She wandered up beside him, looking back and forth between him and the blossoms at which he was staring. It was strange to see it in bloom right now, with the weather this cold, and even stranger to see that the blossoms were so pale they were nearly white.
"Why are they like that?" she wondered aloud.
"Because I haven't been able to do my job for the past ten days."
"How come?"
He turned to study her from behind dark glasses.
Fuuma walked up beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey there Sakurazuka-san."
It was hard to tell with the lenses obscuring his gaze, but Yuzuriha suspected he was staring at her shoulder. He gave Fuuma an amused smile and Fuuma dropped his hand to his side. Yuzuriha wasn't entirely sure what just happened but Fuuma gave Seishirou a warning glance before leaving to "get some hot chocolates for them".
The man eyed Yuzuriha. "What is a little Dragon of Heaven doing hanging around two Dragons of Earth?"
"How did you know?"
"The dog."
Inuki shrank back against her leg nervously and Yuzuriha reached down to stroke his neck comfortingly. "It's a long story why I am hanging around Fuuma right now."
"Fuuma?" He his head. "Ah you mean Kamui."
"No. I mean Fuuma." Yuzuriha corrected him firmly. "Just because he's important to the whole apocalypse thingy doesn't mean he isn't his own person still too."
The man raised an eyebrow then laughed. "My, it's been a while since I've been told off so sharply. What's your name, if I may ask?"
"I'm Yuzuriha Nekoi and I'm 14!" She announced, refusing to be intimidated.
He laughed again. "I see. Well I'm Seishirou Sakurazuka."
She stirred at the name then looked quickly between him and the tree. "Oh." She noticed a bench a few feet away and wandered over to it, plopping down to study both Seishirou and the sakura tree. "So why are you a Dragon of Earth Sakurazuka-san?"
"Hm?"
"I've met most of the other Dragons of Earth now, I'm just wondering what your story is."
He chuckled and joined her on the bench.
"So why are you on Fuuma-san's side?"
He pulled a cigarette out of his coat pocket and lit it with a small smile. "Well I could not possibly have been on your side."
"Why is that?"
He glanced at her out of the side of his dark shades and she suddenly wondered why he was wearing them even though it was far from sunny out. In fact the clouds had gathered more thickly than she had seen them yet this winter, casting an eerie, gray light across the world, making it impossible to even guess at the time of day. "You should be wary of men like me." Seishirou informed her with amusement.
"How come?"
"Well I'm not a very good person." He laughed.
She stared at him. "I don't believe that that's true."
"Hm?"
"Well what have you done that is so bad?"
He gave her a sadistic smile that sent shiver down her spine but she stood her ground.
"Well let's see, there's all of the people that I've murdered in cold blood, including the twin sister of someone I spent a year claiming to love."
Yuzuriha bit her lip, inwardly acknowledging that those things were all far from kind but something in the way he told the story nagged at her.
"Why… haven't you killed me?"
"Eh?"
"The tree." Yuzuriha nodded at it. "It's The Sakura tree isn't it? And you're the Sakurazukamori?"
Seishirou tilted his head with a sadistic smile, dropping the last shreds of pretense.
"My grandmother taught me all kinds of folklore. I heard a lot of people say that the Sakurazukamori wasn't real, but then people say that inugami aren't really either and yet I have Inuki so I figured those people were wrong about that too." She smiled cheerfully at him. "And here I was right!"
He laughed. "Not quite as fun as meeting the real Santa Claus now is it?"
"Oh I dunno. You're probably more interesting."
He studied her as he took another drag of the cigarette, resting his elbow on the bench back.
She frowned, realizing what it was that had bothered her. "Why did you claim you loved someone? That… is kind of a roundabout way for you to get near them isn't it? Doesn't the Sakurazukamori just do so pretty directly normally?"
"I don't recall saying that I was trying to kill him."
Yuzuriha's curiosity was piqued. "Then what were you trying to do?"
"Break him down."
"Why?"
That wasn't a sadist's smile he gave the tree. She knew that smile well at this point, it was similar to the one she had seen Fuuma wear when he thought she could not see.
"I… still don't believe that you're a bad person." She said slowly.
He laughed as he put out the cigarette. "Is that so?"
She nodded and opened her mouth to justify her claim but was distracted as something cold and wet kissed her cheek. She brushed it away and noticed small white flecks beginning to salt Sakurazuka's hair and coat. She gasped in delight and covered her mouth with mittened hands.
"It's the first snowfall of the year!" She exclaimed. "And isn't it supposed to be lucky if it happens on Christmas Eve or something?"
Seishirou chuckled. "I've never heard that but who knows."
She turned to the Sakura tree, watching it turn paler as the blossoms were coated in a cold winter blanket. "They look prettier that way, I think." She commented. "White like that."
Seishirou smirked. "Do you know why they are normally pink?"
"Because of the blood." She looked him dead in the eye. "From your victims, right?"
He grinned.
"They're lovely that way too though." She turned back to the tree. "But I think… that they're prettiest like this."
Fuuma reappeared with three steaming cups of hot chocolate and again, Yuzuriha had the feeling that some silent conversation passed between he and the Sakurazukamori that she could not decipher. Moments later though, she and Fuuma were headed off again, intent upon getting home before the snow piled too high. Seishirou was left behind, still staring up at the tree as snowflakes quietly fell, coating both the man and the branches.
"What was it that Sakurazuka-san wished for?" Yuzuriha inquired, feeling like they had somehow left him without doing anything.
"Something beautiful."
Yuzuriha's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Is that why it started snowing? Can you even control the weather?"
Fuuma paused in his tracks to give her a look that could only be called amusement, although she could not figure out why, before continuing on their way.