Sorry it took a while, I was kind of swamped with schoolwork. Warnings for this are pretty much the same as for all the other parts.
DAY EIGHT
Memory returned, slowly. She'd spent the rest of Monday locked up in her room, writing. Hokuto wasn't expecting that any of it would be worth publishing, but it had taken her mind off... things.
She pushed that to the back of her mind. He was gone, now. She didn't have to worry any more.
"Good morning!" she said, cheerfully, walking into the kitchen.
Kakyou was sitting on the floor in front of the long coffee table, writing in a notebook. He looked up as she walked in, finished reading his sentence and closed the book.
"I was thinking maybe today we could go to the zoo or something, it's such a lovely day..." She trailed off. The sky outside was showing distinct evidence of grey clouds. "Oh, forget it." She stared down at the kitchen bench top, tracing patterns with her finger.
//I even made friends with the Sumeragi in the hope that he would lead me closer to you.//
Hokuto repeated the line to herself, quietly. "He said that, you know?" she said to Kakyou. "He was using us all along."
"I don't think--" began Kakyou.
She interrupted him quickly. "No, don't say anything. I don't want to talk about it just yet."
He fell silent.
"You know, I've just realised that you know my entire life story but I don't know much at all about yours." She pulled up a seat behind him and started braiding his hair.
"Well," he said slowly, "I can't remember much from before I was seven. I know I was happy enough, but I kept having these deams... My parents were terrified of me, especially once they knew what I was. So they locked me away.
"It wasn't until a couple of years after that that they realised how they could make use of my gift. They assigned servants to record everything I dreamt."
Hokuto blinked. "How?"
"Everytime I woke, they'd ask me what I'd dreamed about and I had to tell them. The servants were scared of me too, especially when they saw the way my dreams came true."
"So that's what you do for your father now, keep a dream diary?"
He nodded. "I can't exactly control my dreamgazing, but if something is on my mind there's a higher chance of me dreaming about it. Mostly what happened was that he'd ask me about some upcoming motion or election and get me to foresee the result so he could make choices accordingly.
"Sometimes I foresee major or unusual events, like with your death or the falling kekkai in 1999." He glanced at her. "I haven't dreamt of you since, you know. Even in the dream about Seishirou, you weren't in it."
"So... You're dreaming it the way it would have gone if I had died?"
He nodded. "I expect it will sort itself out after a week or two. It has before, when the future was altered. The fact that Subaru even got to the girl in the first place is a sign that the future is fixing itself up."
"I see," said Hokuto. She sighed. "I just can't believe he did that, you know? I thought we could be friends... I really did."
Kakyou protested slightly as she pulled harder on his hair, and she took several deep breaths to relax herself.
"And I'm still absolutely furious with him for playing with me like that."
"Being mad doesn't solve anything," ventured Kakyou.
She stood up, abruptly. "Right now, I couldn't care less about 'solving' this."
~ * ~
Later that day, while she was staring blankly at her computer screen trying to take her mind of things by writing, the doorbell rang. Kakyou answered it, so she just let it be and continued pondering her article.
After about half an hour, when she'd heard nothing from Kakyou about their visitor, she wandered out to see what was going on.
"Mitsuki-san!" said Hokuto in surprise.
"Ah, Hokuto-chan! We were just discussing you."
Hokuto stared at her. "Me?"
"I'm a little worried about you," confessed Kakyou, turning pink.
"Subaru is too. He told me everything," said Mitsuki. "I think we need to talk."
Kakyou got up and moved to another room, presumably so as not to intrude.
Hokuto hesitated. "Er... everything everything?"
"Yes, everything! Of course I knew you weren't telling the truth about what happened, but I decided to leave it be. You get used to people having strange secrets when you're married to one of Japan's strongest onmyouji. But then when he came home looking worn out and worried as anything, I decided I had to know. So here I am."
"Um," said Hokuto. "What did you want to talk about?"
Mitsuki looked at her. "You, of course."
"Oh." She paused for a few seconds. "Where?"
"I was thinking we'd go to a cafe."
Hokuto nodded. "Kyou-chan!" she called. "I'm going out for a bit. Take care, okay?"
She waited until she heard an affirmative murmur from the spare room, grabbed her coat and followed Mitsuki out.
"Subaru said you died at 16, but your soul was held in limbo until you ended up here."
"Um... something like that..."
"You must realise you're not 16 anymore and that people are going to treat you differently as an adult."
Hokuto nodded.
"And that's part of why I think you and Seishirou need to talk. He doesn't know how young you are so he has no idea why you've been acting the way you have for the past week."
Hokuto frowned. "I don't want to talk about Seishirou."
Mitsuki looked at her for a moment, then changed the subject. "Well, what would you like to talk about?"
Hokuto thought for a moment. "Subaru said you help out at a women's call in centre. I was wondering what you did there."
The other woman hesitated for a moment. "You know how Subaru and I met, right?"
Hokuto nodded. "At least, I know how it was in my world. You were hiding within because you couldn't deal with the people who belittled the thing that had happened to you, and he helped you out."
Mitsuki nodded. "I decided I wanted to do something for other people, the way he helps other people. I can't make it so that nobody ever goes through that again, but I can make it so they don't have to suffer in silence like I did."
"Men can be such horrible creatures," muttered Hokuto. "You're lucky, you got a good one."
Mitsuki turned faintly pink.
"What you're doing is what all women should be doing!" Hokuto continued, starting to get into the feel of it now. "Standing together, helping each other overcome those who would put us down and finally learning to be ourselves!"
"... Hokuto-chan, sit down. People are staring."
Hokuto sat down. "Do you mind if I come in one day? I'd like to write an article about it."
Mitsuki blinked. "Sure, that should be fine."
"Good," said Hokuto. "It's something I feel rather strongly about," she continued, somewhat sheepishly.
"Kakyou said you were pretty mad about what happened yesterday," said Mitsuki, hesitantly.
"I'll say I'm mad..." Hokuto began.
"It made me worry, far more than what Subaru told me about you."
Hokuto blinked. "Why?"
"It didn't seem like what I knew of the kind of person you are."
"What do you mean?"
"You, my girl, are not giving Seishirou a fair chance."
"What are you talking about? He killed me!"
"No, he didn't."
"Well, fine, but he betrayed me! He said that friends were a liability and then he murdered someone!"
"Look, I'm not trying to say what he did was all right, nor that you should even forgive him - if you really feel that way. I just think you should talk to him, that's all."
Hokuto glowered malevolently at her.
"If nothing else, you have to make sure he's not going to suddenly go psychotic and try to kill your brother. And at that, at least, I think you have more pull than Subaru-san. He loved you."
"Subaru?"
Mitsuki glared at her. "You knew perfectly well who I meant. You just don't want to believe it."
"The Sakurazukamori isn't capable of love," said Hokuto, stubbornly.
"Maybe not. But Seishirou was not the Sakurazukamori."
Hokuto fell silent. She reminded herself that Mitsuki was only trying to help, and in almost exactly the way Hokuto had been preaching about earlier. And Mitsuki was right. It just hurt so much...
She supposed that sometimes it's just easier to feel things than to think about them. "Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?" she asked, flatly, after several minutes of uncomfortable silence.
"Well..." said the other woman, with a slightly wicked grin. "There was one thing..."
Hokuto groaned. "Go ahead, while I'm feeling nice."
"Tell me, Hokuto-chan. About Kakyou-san... do you like him?"
That... was not what she had expected. She looked away. "Well, I... Um. It's hard, you know. I haven't known him very long and of course he's very beautiful and a good person but..." She trailed off uncomfortably. "I just don't know."
"Did you like the other Kakyou?" asked Mitsuki, curiously.
She nodded uncertainly. "I liked him very much... I think. We didn't really know each other for very long... And anyway, this Kakyou isn't quite the same. He's older. More bitter." Hokuto sighed. "I feel so sorry for him, and anyone could tell you that pity is no foundation on which to build a relationship."
The other woman frowned in thought. "He has a crush on you, you know."
Hokuto almost fell out of her chair at the bluntness of it all, and turned bright red. "I thought maybe he did..." she mumbled, in a vain effort to save face. "It worries me. I mean, I'm practically the first person to ever show kindness to him - what if it's only that he's reacting to?"
Mitsuki nodded thoughtfully. "I think... You have a point, but you're worrying about it too much. Why should it matter that the relationship started because you gave him his life?"
"I just... don't want him to start resenting me for it."
Subaru's wife laughed. "I don't think that will happen. You're under-estimating yourself, Hokuto-chan. You're a wonderful person in your own right and is he isn't in love with you because of that... We'll just have to kill him."
"Mitsuki-san!" exclaimed Hokuto, scandalised.
"And, you know what? No relationship is guaranteed to last forever. But you shouldn't let that stop you from trying."
Hokuto nodded. "But... Seishirou-san..."
Mitsuki raised an eyebrow. "You were going to talk to him, remember?"
"Yes. Of course."
--
To be continued...
DAY EIGHT
Memory returned, slowly. She'd spent the rest of Monday locked up in her room, writing. Hokuto wasn't expecting that any of it would be worth publishing, but it had taken her mind off... things.
She pushed that to the back of her mind. He was gone, now. She didn't have to worry any more.
"Good morning!" she said, cheerfully, walking into the kitchen.
Kakyou was sitting on the floor in front of the long coffee table, writing in a notebook. He looked up as she walked in, finished reading his sentence and closed the book.
"I was thinking maybe today we could go to the zoo or something, it's such a lovely day..." She trailed off. The sky outside was showing distinct evidence of grey clouds. "Oh, forget it." She stared down at the kitchen bench top, tracing patterns with her finger.
//I even made friends with the Sumeragi in the hope that he would lead me closer to you.//
Hokuto repeated the line to herself, quietly. "He said that, you know?" she said to Kakyou. "He was using us all along."
"I don't think--" began Kakyou.
She interrupted him quickly. "No, don't say anything. I don't want to talk about it just yet."
He fell silent.
"You know, I've just realised that you know my entire life story but I don't know much at all about yours." She pulled up a seat behind him and started braiding his hair.
"Well," he said slowly, "I can't remember much from before I was seven. I know I was happy enough, but I kept having these deams... My parents were terrified of me, especially once they knew what I was. So they locked me away.
"It wasn't until a couple of years after that that they realised how they could make use of my gift. They assigned servants to record everything I dreamt."
Hokuto blinked. "How?"
"Everytime I woke, they'd ask me what I'd dreamed about and I had to tell them. The servants were scared of me too, especially when they saw the way my dreams came true."
"So that's what you do for your father now, keep a dream diary?"
He nodded. "I can't exactly control my dreamgazing, but if something is on my mind there's a higher chance of me dreaming about it. Mostly what happened was that he'd ask me about some upcoming motion or election and get me to foresee the result so he could make choices accordingly.
"Sometimes I foresee major or unusual events, like with your death or the falling kekkai in 1999." He glanced at her. "I haven't dreamt of you since, you know. Even in the dream about Seishirou, you weren't in it."
"So... You're dreaming it the way it would have gone if I had died?"
He nodded. "I expect it will sort itself out after a week or two. It has before, when the future was altered. The fact that Subaru even got to the girl in the first place is a sign that the future is fixing itself up."
"I see," said Hokuto. She sighed. "I just can't believe he did that, you know? I thought we could be friends... I really did."
Kakyou protested slightly as she pulled harder on his hair, and she took several deep breaths to relax herself.
"And I'm still absolutely furious with him for playing with me like that."
"Being mad doesn't solve anything," ventured Kakyou.
She stood up, abruptly. "Right now, I couldn't care less about 'solving' this."
Later that day, while she was staring blankly at her computer screen trying to take her mind of things by writing, the doorbell rang. Kakyou answered it, so she just let it be and continued pondering her article.
After about half an hour, when she'd heard nothing from Kakyou about their visitor, she wandered out to see what was going on.
"Mitsuki-san!" said Hokuto in surprise.
"Ah, Hokuto-chan! We were just discussing you."
Hokuto stared at her. "Me?"
"I'm a little worried about you," confessed Kakyou, turning pink.
"Subaru is too. He told me everything," said Mitsuki. "I think we need to talk."
Kakyou got up and moved to another room, presumably so as not to intrude.
Hokuto hesitated. "Er... everything everything?"
"Yes, everything! Of course I knew you weren't telling the truth about what happened, but I decided to leave it be. You get used to people having strange secrets when you're married to one of Japan's strongest onmyouji. But then when he came home looking worn out and worried as anything, I decided I had to know. So here I am."
"Um," said Hokuto. "What did you want to talk about?"
Mitsuki looked at her. "You, of course."
"Oh." She paused for a few seconds. "Where?"
"I was thinking we'd go to a cafe."
Hokuto nodded. "Kyou-chan!" she called. "I'm going out for a bit. Take care, okay?"
She waited until she heard an affirmative murmur from the spare room, grabbed her coat and followed Mitsuki out.
"Subaru said you died at 16, but your soul was held in limbo until you ended up here."
"Um... something like that..."
"You must realise you're not 16 anymore and that people are going to treat you differently as an adult."
Hokuto nodded.
"And that's part of why I think you and Seishirou need to talk. He doesn't know how young you are so he has no idea why you've been acting the way you have for the past week."
Hokuto frowned. "I don't want to talk about Seishirou."
Mitsuki looked at her for a moment, then changed the subject. "Well, what would you like to talk about?"
Hokuto thought for a moment. "Subaru said you help out at a women's call in centre. I was wondering what you did there."
The other woman hesitated for a moment. "You know how Subaru and I met, right?"
Hokuto nodded. "At least, I know how it was in my world. You were hiding within because you couldn't deal with the people who belittled the thing that had happened to you, and he helped you out."
Mitsuki nodded. "I decided I wanted to do something for other people, the way he helps other people. I can't make it so that nobody ever goes through that again, but I can make it so they don't have to suffer in silence like I did."
"Men can be such horrible creatures," muttered Hokuto. "You're lucky, you got a good one."
Mitsuki turned faintly pink.
"What you're doing is what all women should be doing!" Hokuto continued, starting to get into the feel of it now. "Standing together, helping each other overcome those who would put us down and finally learning to be ourselves!"
"... Hokuto-chan, sit down. People are staring."
Hokuto sat down. "Do you mind if I come in one day? I'd like to write an article about it."
Mitsuki blinked. "Sure, that should be fine."
"Good," said Hokuto. "It's something I feel rather strongly about," she continued, somewhat sheepishly.
"Kakyou said you were pretty mad about what happened yesterday," said Mitsuki, hesitantly.
"I'll say I'm mad..." Hokuto began.
"It made me worry, far more than what Subaru told me about you."
Hokuto blinked. "Why?"
"It didn't seem like what I knew of the kind of person you are."
"What do you mean?"
"You, my girl, are not giving Seishirou a fair chance."
"What are you talking about? He killed me!"
"No, he didn't."
"Well, fine, but he betrayed me! He said that friends were a liability and then he murdered someone!"
"Look, I'm not trying to say what he did was all right, nor that you should even forgive him - if you really feel that way. I just think you should talk to him, that's all."
Hokuto glowered malevolently at her.
"If nothing else, you have to make sure he's not going to suddenly go psychotic and try to kill your brother. And at that, at least, I think you have more pull than Subaru-san. He loved you."
"Subaru?"
Mitsuki glared at her. "You knew perfectly well who I meant. You just don't want to believe it."
"The Sakurazukamori isn't capable of love," said Hokuto, stubbornly.
"Maybe not. But Seishirou was not the Sakurazukamori."
Hokuto fell silent. She reminded herself that Mitsuki was only trying to help, and in almost exactly the way Hokuto had been preaching about earlier. And Mitsuki was right. It just hurt so much...
She supposed that sometimes it's just easier to feel things than to think about them. "Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?" she asked, flatly, after several minutes of uncomfortable silence.
"Well..." said the other woman, with a slightly wicked grin. "There was one thing..."
Hokuto groaned. "Go ahead, while I'm feeling nice."
"Tell me, Hokuto-chan. About Kakyou-san... do you like him?"
That... was not what she had expected. She looked away. "Well, I... Um. It's hard, you know. I haven't known him very long and of course he's very beautiful and a good person but..." She trailed off uncomfortably. "I just don't know."
"Did you like the other Kakyou?" asked Mitsuki, curiously.
She nodded uncertainly. "I liked him very much... I think. We didn't really know each other for very long... And anyway, this Kakyou isn't quite the same. He's older. More bitter." Hokuto sighed. "I feel so sorry for him, and anyone could tell you that pity is no foundation on which to build a relationship."
The other woman frowned in thought. "He has a crush on you, you know."
Hokuto almost fell out of her chair at the bluntness of it all, and turned bright red. "I thought maybe he did..." she mumbled, in a vain effort to save face. "It worries me. I mean, I'm practically the first person to ever show kindness to him - what if it's only that he's reacting to?"
Mitsuki nodded thoughtfully. "I think... You have a point, but you're worrying about it too much. Why should it matter that the relationship started because you gave him his life?"
"I just... don't want him to start resenting me for it."
Subaru's wife laughed. "I don't think that will happen. You're under-estimating yourself, Hokuto-chan. You're a wonderful person in your own right and is he isn't in love with you because of that... We'll just have to kill him."
"Mitsuki-san!" exclaimed Hokuto, scandalised.
"And, you know what? No relationship is guaranteed to last forever. But you shouldn't let that stop you from trying."
Hokuto nodded. "But... Seishirou-san..."
Mitsuki raised an eyebrow. "You were going to talk to him, remember?"
"Yes. Of course."
--
To be continued...