DAY TWO
By the time Hokuto awoke the next morning and nothing had changed, she was convinced something was Going On.
And when something was weird like this, she knew the perfect person to ask. All she had to do was figure out how to get there, since she obviously didn't have a car.
Seishirou arrived at ten o'clock on the dot to take her home. After several moments deliberation, she decided against asking him to take her where she wanted to go. She still wasn't quite sure she trusted him.
Once back in her apartment, she considered her options. They appeared to be taxi or public transport.
After rummaging through the house for money and realising a taxi would be way too expensive, she decided to take a bus.
An hour and a half later, she stood outside a solid brick house, throwing rocks at a barred window.
"Kakyou-san," she said in a low voice, remembering to be polite at the last minute, "I know you're there. Please talk to me?"
The world in front of her remained frustratingly solid.
"Please? Kakyou-san..."
She threw a rather large stone at the bars, wincing and ducking as it rebounded with a satisfying /thwock/.
At last, she felt the familiar stirring of a dreamscape being pulled around her. "What were you /doing/?" she asked the dreamgazer, pouting. "I thought I was going to get caught out!"
He stared at her. "What are you doing? How do you know about me?"
She blinked. "Don't tell me you don't remember? I'm Sumeragi Hokuto-chan!"
"Sumeragi Hokuto...chan?" He closed his eyes. "I remember that I dreamt of you not long ago." He regarded her seriously. "You are not this world's Hokuto-chan," said Kakyou.
Hokuto's shoulders slumped. "I'd guessed that, although I didn't really want to believe it. Tell me what I'm doing here? And how do I get back to my world?"
"You are dead in your world," he said, simply.
"I know THAT!"
"This world's Hokuto is dead, too."
She blinked. "But nobody's said anything to me... I mean, they've been making comments about how strange I've been acting, I'd expect someone to notice my not being dead."
"She died in a traffic accident. Nobody knows except the person that hit her. It is his fault you are here."
"Why?
"Because he tried to bring you back with a spell."
"But... the spell went wrong and he got me instead of her?"
Kakyou shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know anything about magic."
She frowned. "Do you think it would be safe to talk to my brother about it?"
He shrugged again.
"Kakyou..." she began, hesitantly, thinking he was mad at her. "I know you probably don't have any idea what I'm talking about, since you're from this world and all, but I have to say... I'm sorry."
The dreamgazer gave her a mystified look.
"And I AM going to get you out, I swear. Even if I have to hire an army."
"Hokuto-chan... We've never met before."
She found herself gaping like a fish. "Eh? But... I was walking along the road and you brought me here because you wanted to meet somebody!"
He looked somehow apologetic. "I remember that. But... it wasn't you that I met."
Hokuto deflated miserably. "I guess it really could have been anybody, then?"
"The girl wasn't too pleased about being wrenched out of her own little world - she hit me and screamed that I should return her as soon as possible. So I did. I never tried to talk to anybody again."
Hokuto paused. "I'm sorry," she said, after a moment.
He sighed. "It's okay. I've been alone so long, I'm almost used to it."
"So... will you mind if I come here again?"
Kakyou shook his head.
She found herself smiling brightly. "Thank you!" Feeling more cheerful than she had all day, she danced around him and transformed the dreamscape around them to represent the seaside.
The dreamgazer stared at the blue of the ocean in a kind of wonder.
"The real ocean is much nicer than this," she told him, with a self-satisfied nod. "Once I get you out of here, we'll go. We'll have ice cream and eat it on the sand, okay?"
He nodded, looking somewhat overwhelmed.
"But I should go now, before someone notices I'm gone."
He nodded again. "Um..." he began, hesitantly. "If it means anything to you... I wish it had been you I met that time."
She smiled at him and gave him a quick, shy hug. "I do, too."
-------------------------------------------
When Hokuto finally got off the train, she discovered that the next bus past her apartment block wasn't due for another half hour. Hokuto rummaged around in her bag until she found the mobile phone she was sure she had seen earlier, and raided the address book for Seishirou's number.
He picked up on the third ring. "Hokuto-chan? What's wrong?"
"Um. Are you busy?"
"No, I'm at home. Aren't you?"
"Actually," she said brightly, "I'm not. Can you come pick me up? I'm at the train station."
"Hokuto-chan, WHAT are you doing there?"
"Visiting a friend. I'll explain once you come pick me up, okay?"
With a long-suffering sigh, he told her he'd be there in about ten minutes. She made sure to have a small bundle of flowers ready for him as a thank you.
He graciously accepted the flowers, but still insisted on opening the car door for her.
"So," he said, once they were safely settled in Hokuto's apartment with tea in front of them, "what were you doing at the train station? You do know I'd be perfectly happy to drive you anywhere you need to go, right?"
She gave him a long look. "I wasn't certain if I could trust you."
He looked somewhat affronted. "What have I ever done to hurt you, Hokuto-chan?"
"Nothing. Yet." She glared at him. "Tell me, Seishirou-san, what IS your connection to the Sakurazukamori?"
He laughed, gaily. "You already know my past, Hokuto-chan. Whatever makes you think I'd lie to you?"
She glared at him, wondering what it was she "already knew".
"Really, Hokuto-chan, it's not a funny joke."
She continued to stare flatly at him, with her best "I'm not buying a word of this" look.
"Let me guess... On the couch for a week if I don't tell you what you want to hear?"
Hokuto spluttered incoherently for several moments. "WHAT?!" she managed, eventually. "No, don't tell me, I really don't want to know."
He looked surprised and somewhat hurt at her reaction.
She decided to ignore it for the moment. "Listen. Sakurazukamori. I know there's a connection, so don't lie to me, okay?"
Seishirou remained silent.
Damn you and your stubbornness, Sei-chan! she thought, furiously. "Oh, just get out," she said, exasperated. "I've had enough."
Still looking somewhat bewildered, Seishirou left her apartment.
Tired and suddenly depressed, Hokuto flopped onto her bed and lay there for a few minutes, listening to the sound of her own breathing.
After a few moments, she got up to ring Subaru. Figuring he would probably be working, she hunted around until she found his mobile number, and called that.
"Hokuto-chan?" said her brother, sounding somewhat surprised. "What are you ringing for?"
"I wanted to know if you want to meet for coffee sometime this afternoon. I have something very important to discuss with you..."
-------------------------------------------
Hokuto figured the best way to get the point across to Subaru was to tell him her story from start to finish. Thankfully, he seemed to believe her.
"Seishirou-san did?" he asked, when they reached the end of her tale, and the circumstances of her death.
She nodded.
"That's not like him. Anyone can see he's very fond of you."
Hokuto fought off a choking fit. "I'm sorry," she wheezed when he gave her a worried look, "I just can't think of him that way."
Subaru shrugged. "Well, I think this Seishirou-san is different to the one you knew. Even grandmother said he didn't appear to mean us any harm, despite being from the Sakurazuka clan."
Hokuto remained thoughtfully silent.
"And besides, look at us now. We'll soon be in the new century. 1990 is a long time past, Hokuto-chan, and we've knowsn Seishirou-san a lot longer than a single year."
"The new century?!" exclaimed Hokuto. "But... what about 1999?"
"1999? It's the year 2000, Hokuto-chan. 1999 has been and gone."
"Eh? But... the end of the world... I don't understand."
Subaru's expression grew solemn. "The decision was made, the battle was fought but none of us remember much about what happened, except that we were all alive at the end of it and humanity was allowed to continue." He shrugged. "We try not to think about it too often."
"I see..." said Hokuto.
He gave her a suspicious look. "You weren't supposed to know anything about 1999, you know."
"Eep!" she said, giggling. At his look, she continued hurriedly, "I, er, used to listen in on your conversations with grandmother when you were first Head. I was concerned for you and all that. I remember all she would say on the topic was that it would be the judgement for humanity, and that the future was not yet decided."
Subaru smiled, weakly. "Grandmother never was much into giving details back then."
"Tell me," she said, curiously, "did you have to fight the Sakurazukamori?"
Subaru frowned. "I believe so. I remember Seishirou-san wasn't too pleased when I said I couldn't tell him where the man had gone."
Hokuto blinked. "Why?"
"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know that... His mother was murdered. Because of that, he wants to find the Sakurazukamori and kill him."
Nice half-truth, Sei-chan, she thought admiringly. She had no doubt that Seishirou's mother had been the Sakurazukamori and that the reason Seishirou wanted to kill the new Sakurazukamori was in order to reclaim his ancestral position. "I see," she said again, frowning.
Subaru got up to pay the bill at the counter, and together the two of them walked out on to the street.
"Tell me," said Hokuto curiously, "is there anything else important I should know about the void I'm filling in this universe?"
Subaru's forehead creased in thought. "Well, let's see... Our mother and father died in an accident when we were both very small. Grandmother doesn't like to talk about it, so I've never been sure exactly what happened. We lived in Kyoto with her until the year we were due to turn sixteen, when we moved to Tokyo. That was also the year we first met Seishirou-san. I ran into him at the train station while chasing some shikigami," he said, looking sheepish.
Hokuto giggled. "I'll bet it was also the year you and Mitsuki-san first started dating," she said, teasingly.
Subaru blushed bright red, but he nodded. "We got married in the year we both turned twenty. You were the "best man", at your own insistence. Hikaru was born in 1995 and named after Mitsuki's grandmother. Ryu was born in 1997 and named for the dragon constellation."
Hokuto nodded. "Um... Do you know anything of what went on between Seishirou-san and I?"
Subaru turned faintly pink again. "Um... I don't think you were in love, but... Well, you were definitely more than "just friends"."
Hokuto tried to keep from blushing, but wasn't particularly successful. "That's... really weird." She felt almost guilty about it.
"If you explain the situation to him, I'm sure he'll be accepting," said Subaru, in a comforting tone.
Hokuto shook her head. "Is there any chance that I can get your Hokuto-chan back?"
Her brother looked sorrowful. "Once a soul moves on it can't be brought back, Hokuto-chan. The Hokuto-chan from this world is gone, I'm afraid."
"But... I was dead in my world, too," she protested, quietly.
"But your soul hadn't moved on, had it?"
/Pain. Terrible, relentless pain with no end in sight./
"No..." she said, slowly. "It hadn't.
Subaru squeezed her hand, gently.
"It hurt a lot, Subaru. That's why I don't think I can ever trust him again. But I'm glad it was me he took, and not my brother." She gave the other Subaru a quick hug. "You should probably get back to work, shouldn't you?" she said.
Subaru glanced at his watch and nodded. "I'm glad we had this talk, Hokuto-chan. And don't feel guilty - none of this is your fault." He smiled at her surprised look, and opened the car door. "Do you want a lift back to your place?"
She shook her head. "I have some other things to do."
He waved at her through the window as he pulled out of the parking lot.
"Trust a twin brother to know my feelings better than I know them myself," she muttered, laughing.
And now for the next thing on her agenda: clothes shopping!
--
TO BE CONTINUED...
FOOTNOTE: The dreamgazer of the Dragons of Earth
... was not Kakyou. It was, in fact, Kotori.
Fuuma, upon becoming the dark Kamui, said kidnapped the slightly insane Kotori and locked her up to dream for his side. Unfortunately, even after 1999 was over and done with, her insanity was permanent.
Thus, Kakyou has been locked up in his own little room for an awfully long time.
By the time Hokuto awoke the next morning and nothing had changed, she was convinced something was Going On.
And when something was weird like this, she knew the perfect person to ask. All she had to do was figure out how to get there, since she obviously didn't have a car.
Seishirou arrived at ten o'clock on the dot to take her home. After several moments deliberation, she decided against asking him to take her where she wanted to go. She still wasn't quite sure she trusted him.
Once back in her apartment, she considered her options. They appeared to be taxi or public transport.
After rummaging through the house for money and realising a taxi would be way too expensive, she decided to take a bus.
An hour and a half later, she stood outside a solid brick house, throwing rocks at a barred window.
"Kakyou-san," she said in a low voice, remembering to be polite at the last minute, "I know you're there. Please talk to me?"
The world in front of her remained frustratingly solid.
"Please? Kakyou-san..."
She threw a rather large stone at the bars, wincing and ducking as it rebounded with a satisfying /thwock/.
At last, she felt the familiar stirring of a dreamscape being pulled around her. "What were you /doing/?" she asked the dreamgazer, pouting. "I thought I was going to get caught out!"
He stared at her. "What are you doing? How do you know about me?"
She blinked. "Don't tell me you don't remember? I'm Sumeragi Hokuto-chan!"
"Sumeragi Hokuto...chan?" He closed his eyes. "I remember that I dreamt of you not long ago." He regarded her seriously. "You are not this world's Hokuto-chan," said Kakyou.
Hokuto's shoulders slumped. "I'd guessed that, although I didn't really want to believe it. Tell me what I'm doing here? And how do I get back to my world?"
"You are dead in your world," he said, simply.
"I know THAT!"
"This world's Hokuto is dead, too."
She blinked. "But nobody's said anything to me... I mean, they've been making comments about how strange I've been acting, I'd expect someone to notice my not being dead."
"She died in a traffic accident. Nobody knows except the person that hit her. It is his fault you are here."
"Why?
"Because he tried to bring you back with a spell."
"But... the spell went wrong and he got me instead of her?"
Kakyou shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know anything about magic."
She frowned. "Do you think it would be safe to talk to my brother about it?"
He shrugged again.
"Kakyou..." she began, hesitantly, thinking he was mad at her. "I know you probably don't have any idea what I'm talking about, since you're from this world and all, but I have to say... I'm sorry."
The dreamgazer gave her a mystified look.
"And I AM going to get you out, I swear. Even if I have to hire an army."
"Hokuto-chan... We've never met before."
She found herself gaping like a fish. "Eh? But... I was walking along the road and you brought me here because you wanted to meet somebody!"
He looked somehow apologetic. "I remember that. But... it wasn't you that I met."
Hokuto deflated miserably. "I guess it really could have been anybody, then?"
"The girl wasn't too pleased about being wrenched out of her own little world - she hit me and screamed that I should return her as soon as possible. So I did. I never tried to talk to anybody again."
Hokuto paused. "I'm sorry," she said, after a moment.
He sighed. "It's okay. I've been alone so long, I'm almost used to it."
"So... will you mind if I come here again?"
Kakyou shook his head.
She found herself smiling brightly. "Thank you!" Feeling more cheerful than she had all day, she danced around him and transformed the dreamscape around them to represent the seaside.
The dreamgazer stared at the blue of the ocean in a kind of wonder.
"The real ocean is much nicer than this," she told him, with a self-satisfied nod. "Once I get you out of here, we'll go. We'll have ice cream and eat it on the sand, okay?"
He nodded, looking somewhat overwhelmed.
"But I should go now, before someone notices I'm gone."
He nodded again. "Um..." he began, hesitantly. "If it means anything to you... I wish it had been you I met that time."
She smiled at him and gave him a quick, shy hug. "I do, too."
-------------------------------------------
When Hokuto finally got off the train, she discovered that the next bus past her apartment block wasn't due for another half hour. Hokuto rummaged around in her bag until she found the mobile phone she was sure she had seen earlier, and raided the address book for Seishirou's number.
He picked up on the third ring. "Hokuto-chan? What's wrong?"
"Um. Are you busy?"
"No, I'm at home. Aren't you?"
"Actually," she said brightly, "I'm not. Can you come pick me up? I'm at the train station."
"Hokuto-chan, WHAT are you doing there?"
"Visiting a friend. I'll explain once you come pick me up, okay?"
With a long-suffering sigh, he told her he'd be there in about ten minutes. She made sure to have a small bundle of flowers ready for him as a thank you.
He graciously accepted the flowers, but still insisted on opening the car door for her.
"So," he said, once they were safely settled in Hokuto's apartment with tea in front of them, "what were you doing at the train station? You do know I'd be perfectly happy to drive you anywhere you need to go, right?"
She gave him a long look. "I wasn't certain if I could trust you."
He looked somewhat affronted. "What have I ever done to hurt you, Hokuto-chan?"
"Nothing. Yet." She glared at him. "Tell me, Seishirou-san, what IS your connection to the Sakurazukamori?"
He laughed, gaily. "You already know my past, Hokuto-chan. Whatever makes you think I'd lie to you?"
She glared at him, wondering what it was she "already knew".
"Really, Hokuto-chan, it's not a funny joke."
She continued to stare flatly at him, with her best "I'm not buying a word of this" look.
"Let me guess... On the couch for a week if I don't tell you what you want to hear?"
Hokuto spluttered incoherently for several moments. "WHAT?!" she managed, eventually. "No, don't tell me, I really don't want to know."
He looked surprised and somewhat hurt at her reaction.
She decided to ignore it for the moment. "Listen. Sakurazukamori. I know there's a connection, so don't lie to me, okay?"
Seishirou remained silent.
Damn you and your stubbornness, Sei-chan! she thought, furiously. "Oh, just get out," she said, exasperated. "I've had enough."
Still looking somewhat bewildered, Seishirou left her apartment.
Tired and suddenly depressed, Hokuto flopped onto her bed and lay there for a few minutes, listening to the sound of her own breathing.
After a few moments, she got up to ring Subaru. Figuring he would probably be working, she hunted around until she found his mobile number, and called that.
"Hokuto-chan?" said her brother, sounding somewhat surprised. "What are you ringing for?"
"I wanted to know if you want to meet for coffee sometime this afternoon. I have something very important to discuss with you..."
-------------------------------------------
Hokuto figured the best way to get the point across to Subaru was to tell him her story from start to finish. Thankfully, he seemed to believe her.
"Seishirou-san did?" he asked, when they reached the end of her tale, and the circumstances of her death.
She nodded.
"That's not like him. Anyone can see he's very fond of you."
Hokuto fought off a choking fit. "I'm sorry," she wheezed when he gave her a worried look, "I just can't think of him that way."
Subaru shrugged. "Well, I think this Seishirou-san is different to the one you knew. Even grandmother said he didn't appear to mean us any harm, despite being from the Sakurazuka clan."
Hokuto remained thoughtfully silent.
"And besides, look at us now. We'll soon be in the new century. 1990 is a long time past, Hokuto-chan, and we've knowsn Seishirou-san a lot longer than a single year."
"The new century?!" exclaimed Hokuto. "But... what about 1999?"
"1999? It's the year 2000, Hokuto-chan. 1999 has been and gone."
"Eh? But... the end of the world... I don't understand."
Subaru's expression grew solemn. "The decision was made, the battle was fought but none of us remember much about what happened, except that we were all alive at the end of it and humanity was allowed to continue." He shrugged. "We try not to think about it too often."
"I see..." said Hokuto.
He gave her a suspicious look. "You weren't supposed to know anything about 1999, you know."
"Eep!" she said, giggling. At his look, she continued hurriedly, "I, er, used to listen in on your conversations with grandmother when you were first Head. I was concerned for you and all that. I remember all she would say on the topic was that it would be the judgement for humanity, and that the future was not yet decided."
Subaru smiled, weakly. "Grandmother never was much into giving details back then."
"Tell me," she said, curiously, "did you have to fight the Sakurazukamori?"
Subaru frowned. "I believe so. I remember Seishirou-san wasn't too pleased when I said I couldn't tell him where the man had gone."
Hokuto blinked. "Why?"
"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know that... His mother was murdered. Because of that, he wants to find the Sakurazukamori and kill him."
Nice half-truth, Sei-chan, she thought admiringly. She had no doubt that Seishirou's mother had been the Sakurazukamori and that the reason Seishirou wanted to kill the new Sakurazukamori was in order to reclaim his ancestral position. "I see," she said again, frowning.
Subaru got up to pay the bill at the counter, and together the two of them walked out on to the street.
"Tell me," said Hokuto curiously, "is there anything else important I should know about the void I'm filling in this universe?"
Subaru's forehead creased in thought. "Well, let's see... Our mother and father died in an accident when we were both very small. Grandmother doesn't like to talk about it, so I've never been sure exactly what happened. We lived in Kyoto with her until the year we were due to turn sixteen, when we moved to Tokyo. That was also the year we first met Seishirou-san. I ran into him at the train station while chasing some shikigami," he said, looking sheepish.
Hokuto giggled. "I'll bet it was also the year you and Mitsuki-san first started dating," she said, teasingly.
Subaru blushed bright red, but he nodded. "We got married in the year we both turned twenty. You were the "best man", at your own insistence. Hikaru was born in 1995 and named after Mitsuki's grandmother. Ryu was born in 1997 and named for the dragon constellation."
Hokuto nodded. "Um... Do you know anything of what went on between Seishirou-san and I?"
Subaru turned faintly pink again. "Um... I don't think you were in love, but... Well, you were definitely more than "just friends"."
Hokuto tried to keep from blushing, but wasn't particularly successful. "That's... really weird." She felt almost guilty about it.
"If you explain the situation to him, I'm sure he'll be accepting," said Subaru, in a comforting tone.
Hokuto shook her head. "Is there any chance that I can get your Hokuto-chan back?"
Her brother looked sorrowful. "Once a soul moves on it can't be brought back, Hokuto-chan. The Hokuto-chan from this world is gone, I'm afraid."
"But... I was dead in my world, too," she protested, quietly.
"But your soul hadn't moved on, had it?"
/Pain. Terrible, relentless pain with no end in sight./
"No..." she said, slowly. "It hadn't.
Subaru squeezed her hand, gently.
"It hurt a lot, Subaru. That's why I don't think I can ever trust him again. But I'm glad it was me he took, and not my brother." She gave the other Subaru a quick hug. "You should probably get back to work, shouldn't you?" she said.
Subaru glanced at his watch and nodded. "I'm glad we had this talk, Hokuto-chan. And don't feel guilty - none of this is your fault." He smiled at her surprised look, and opened the car door. "Do you want a lift back to your place?"
She shook her head. "I have some other things to do."
He waved at her through the window as he pulled out of the parking lot.
"Trust a twin brother to know my feelings better than I know them myself," she muttered, laughing.
And now for the next thing on her agenda: clothes shopping!
--
TO BE CONTINUED...
FOOTNOTE: The dreamgazer of the Dragons of Earth
... was not Kakyou. It was, in fact, Kotori.
Fuuma, upon becoming the dark Kamui, said kidnapped the slightly insane Kotori and locked her up to dream for his side. Unfortunately, even after 1999 was over and done with, her insanity was permanent.
Thus, Kakyou has been locked up in his own little room for an awfully long time.