Kurogane leans against a relatively stable part of a tower, moss clinging where it can and mortar crumbling slightly as it takes his weight. He looks out over the inside of the wall he's standing on, at the remains of a castle, mostly lost to time, and a thin stream of smoke coming from the small encampment which Syaoran and he had put together only an hour or so ago, before the sun had set.
The wall is broken in places, not enough that he couldn't leap across if he wanted to but enough that someone can clamber through at the bottom where the walls have split given enough time, rather than use the main gate as they had, rotten wood giving way easily when they'd finally managed to clear enough living plant matter from it.
There's a large clear area around where the castle had been and what might have once been some kind of fruit grove but is now an overgrown mass of fruit trees inside the walls compared to the scattering of fruit trees among their non-fruiting cousins outside the walls and on the other side of a rather deep ditch.
The wall has four strange offshoots, each centred on their section of wall, possibly where bridges used to be between the building and the defensive walls, a far quicker way to deploy guards than requiring them to climb the stairs in the walls themselves.
There isn't much life that Kurogane has seen in this world, human life anyway. He sees the flitting souls of birds and small animals going about their lives as they would in any other world. Kurogane had caught some earlier and cooked them over the fire which Syaoran is looking after now. They'd been food, food which Fai unfortunately hadn't been able to keep down but food all the same. Aside from them, Fai, Syaoran and Mokona, this world is inanimate.
Fai's unwellness, as much as he cares for the other man, isn't much of a concern by this point. At least- it is not a concern for his life.
The mage has been falling ill periodically ever since he regained his magic, body reacting strangely to the mix of vampire blood, magic and part of Syaoran's soul. He is okay every time, weak for a few days, unable to eat and barely able to keep down water, but very much okay if the lack of change to his sense of humour and energy when he isn't physically being sick is anything to go by.
So Kurogane doesn't worry.
Instead he lets his gaze be drawn by the moon, full and luminous in the sky, unfamiliar in the picture on its surface, this one almost seeming like a flower rather than a rabbit. The sky around it is filled with stars and though he's technically taking watch for everyone he lets his guard down, knowing instinctively that they are safe for the moment and that the three on the ground will be able to sleep better with him up here.
He finds himself remembering the night before his princess had sent him away, how angry he'd still been, how much he hungered to see blood, to spill blood, for almost any excuse.
It makes him chuckle a little to himself now, how foolish he'd been to chase after strength for the sake of it.
His mechanical arm whines in the dark as he clenches and unclenches his fist. He grits his teeth against the spikes of pain which go through his shoulder. Hopefully the next world would be advanced enough that they'd be able to get maintenance done on it. Syaoran and Fai had learned a lot about it but they still weren't mechanics by and stretch of imagination.
Still he smiles through the pain, letting the arm drop, heavy as it hangs from his shoulder but the pain easing already as he stops moving it.
The truth is that he's gained so much more than the strength he was looking for when he set out on his quest to get home as soon as possible. And yet, despite all the things about him that have changed, his temper, his scars, his knowledge, his body mass, he thinks that he has only become more of himself, refined the scared and angry child he was into someone who is, mostly, at peace.
So as much as Kurogane wants to see Tomoyo again he can't help but be thankful for the life she's given him, even if it's taken him from serving at her side.
He smiles at the moon and hopes to see her in his dreams again sometime soon.