If you do know what I'm talking about but haven't actually read the relevant scene, go visit Poorly Dubbed (http://www.asphyxia.tv/manga), worship Taryn, and download it. Otherwise this won't make much sense.
Thanks to Meia, Murasaki and Ven for being there to help. More thanks go to Taryn for the X translations - I'd be lost without them.
A Little Bet
A Yume side-story.
Chapter Five.
Seishirou finished walking Faido and dropped her back at the apartment block, where the landlady's daughter (18 years old, currently not studying) had offered to look after the puppy whilst Subaru and Seishirou were "at work". It was a far more preferable option than having the enthusiastic puppy running around the apartment all day, so Subaru had agreed wholeheartedly, and brought her a little gift every evening when he picked the puppy up.
Seishirou found himself drifting towards Ueno Park, where his tree was complaining that he'd been neglecting it these past few days. Shrugging, he made his way there and informed it quite firmly that he would feed it when he got a job, and no sooner.
A sudden feeling that something was Not Right set him running for where he knew Subaru was. Knowing, somehow, that time was of the essence, he sent his shikigami ahead, the eagle winging itself through the air to Sunshine 60.
He used its eyes periodically, so he could know what to expect ahead of time. The eagle reached its location long before he was even near it, and it circled the area patiently, waiting for him to arrive.
Seishirou cast his vision to the bird's eye view again, instructing it to fly lower until the scene below was perfectly in focus.
Subaru. On the ground, with Fuuma leaning over him.
The onmyouji looked bad. He could feel the confusion leaking through their link. Noting that Subaru's defences were almost non-existent, he gently pushed his way into Subaru's mind.
/He looks like Seishirou-san./
What? he thought. No, I don't.
/Why? Why does he look like Seishirou?/
Fuuma said something, his words only seeming to add to Subaru's confusion. "Because... you want me to."
In a single flash, Seishirou saw what was going to happen. Through both his shikigami's eyes and Subaru's mind he saw the fingers descending, just as he was a few moments from making his own appearance on the scene. Seishirou pulled his mind out of Subaru's as if it burned, and ran.
He wasn't in time.
Sensing there was nothing he could do for the onmyouji now, he stopped running and simply watched as someone called the ambulance and the body was taken away.
"What did you do to him?" he demanded of Fuuma, when the 'Kamui' walked up to him.
Fuuma shrugged, and walked away. "It was his Wish," he threw over his shoulder as he left.
"He has nothing to do with us," stated Seishirou, loudly. "Why do that to him?"
"He would have interfered," said Fuuma, delicately, "with Kamui and I. And, as I said, it was what he wanted."
Seishirou fought back the urge to drown the boy in Sakura petals and cast his mind out to Subaru's, wondering if he would even be able to find it.
The onmyouji was still alive.
Thoughtfully, he lit up a cigarette and spent several minutes just watching the smoke twirl up into space. For the first time, he felt what must be 'relief'.
"Subaru..." he said to the light mist of smoke around him. "Why did you let him do that? Do you still feel guilty for that time? That's ridiculous, you know, I never blamed you." He stubbed out his cigarette and made his way back to Subaru's apartment, picking up Faido on the way.
The puppy squirmed in his arms until he set her down in the living room. When he sat down on the couch, she lay down in front of him and whined softly.
"So, you can sense your master is hurt, can you?" he asked, ruffling her ears gently. "He'll be in hospital for a while, I expect. It's just you and me for now, Faido."
The puppy licked his wrist sadly.
~ * ~
Subaru spend about a week in a drugged daze and then another recovering from it before he was allowed to go home. Tsuru and Kamui visited him frequently, but Subaru didn't feel like talking to them about something as personal and painful as this. He'd spent his conscious week dreading the visit he was certain the Sakurazukamori would make. He didn't think he could take it, the false smiles and fake cheerfulness.
When the doctor finally signed the paper allowing him to go, without Seishirou having shown his face even once, Subaru only felt relief.
He usually took the stairs in his apartment building, but one look at them with his unfamiliarly flat eyesight was enough to make him turn to the elevator.
Subaru fumbled for his keys. The landlady's daughter had told him she hadn't been given Faido to look after for over a week, and he worried sick over what might have happened to her in the weeks she had been under Seishirou's care. He was expecting the worst.
He wasn't expecting the door to be opened for him, nor to be greeted by a very enthusiastic, somewhat larger than he remembered, combination of brown fur, big eyes and floppy ears. He knelt in front of the puppy, feeling himself break out into a smile. "Hello to you, too, Faido," he said, petting her gently. "I'm glad to be home."
Subaru was also surprised when Seishirou bent over to give him a hand up. Subaru self-consciously put a hand to his bandage to make sure it was still in its place, and then grudgingly accepted the help up. "I see you've taken good care of her while I was in hospital," he said, softly.
Seishirou shrugged.
"I was worried about her. Thank you for that."
"What did the doctors say?" asked Seishirou, indicating to Subaru's eye.
Subaru took a breath to calm himself. "I won't be able to see out of it again, but he didn't take the whole thing out. It'll just be blind, like..." He fell silent.
"Like mine, Subaru-kun?"
Subaru nodded, looking at the floor.
"You must know that I never blamed you for that, Subaru-kun."
"I know," said Subaru. "You're incapable of such emotions. But I am. And I feel guilt. And Fuuma... The Dark Kamui..." He stopped speaking, unable to continue.
"He has a way of turning your little personal flaws into personal disasters, yes?"
Subaru nodded, slowly. His own greatest flaw had always been his insistence on feeling guilt for things that were none of his concern. "I suppose he does," he said, quietly.
--
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