Disclaimers and summary in chapter 1

Note: I've never met a blind person so I apologise for any

inaccuracies and inconsistencies and so forth

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Chapter 2

Oji-san and I had volunteered at the local animal shelter during the summertime and every time we went over there during the school year, the staff would allow us to take the animals out for a walk.

"Are you sure you don't want to adopt a dog?" Dr. Yuuki asked Oji-san once. "It would be a big help to us if you took one."

"No," Oji-san said, and his voice was strangely clouded. "Hitomi's father doesn't like animals."

"Really? Strange. From her last name, I thought her father might have been Dr. Seishirou Sakurazuka. He was a very good vet and stopped practising about ten years ago. He had an accident with his eye. I often wondered what happened to him."

Just to let you know how dedicated my parents were about keeping me informed with my family history, that was my first time hearing about the accident.

I asked Otou-san about the accident that evening and he told me a crazy woman had slashed his right eye wide open in the hospital. The revelation was something of a surprise for me. I didn't think anything was able to harm the Sakurazukamori, especially not a common person. When I voiced my astonishment, he reminded me that Sakurazukamoris weren't immortal and were very capable of making mistakes and getting distracted.

I never knew - then - what distracted him. He avoided the question and Oji- san, who seemed to believe children were better of not knowing the less pleasant things of life, wasn't the person to ask.

But he did bring me to the animal shelter on Saturday as promised. We took a large retriever out to Ueno Park. It was a well-behaved dog, obviously a very well care for and well-trained pet, despite the fact that it was found with no lease or dog collar near the Diet Building.

We stopped by an ice cream and he bought me a chocolate double dip ice cream cone. We sat down at a bench, with the retriever at my feet, while I licked at the ice cream. The day was hot. I felt the sun on my face and heard the people around me walking and chatting. The retriever felt sturdy and fuzzy against my calf. I patted his head with one of my hands.

Oji-san remained silent, but I knew he was looking at me, and feeling content. He liked the excursions we took together.

"What instrument is that person playing?" I asked, hearing a high pitch chirp like a bird, but it was playing the tune of "Longing" from X Japan so I figured it couldn't possibly be birds.

"It's a boy whistling," Oji-san told me. "It's not an instrument. He uses his mouth to make that noise."

"Really?" I got excited. "How? Show me."

Oji-san was reluctant to show me how poor of a whistler he was in public, but after just a little more prodding, he gave in. I put my hand on his cheek and chin to feel how his jaw open and lock as the wispy noise came out, and later moved it to his mouth, feeling his breath tickle my hand. Of course my hand got in the way of the noise, but I understood how to purse my lips and blow through it. I almost got a chirp out.

"That was better than mine," Oji-san said. "You should ask Seishirou-san to help you. I have a feeling he's better at whistling than I am."

"I will," I said. "If I could whistle well enough, I might try that plant experiment with my whistling." Our teacher had told us to evaluate the effects music had on plants over a period of a week. For that reason, I kept the CD player on all morning.

Dog-chan moved beside me and I patted him on the head. "Would it be all right if I give Dog-chan the rest of my ice cream?" It was a double dipper after all, and contrary to popular belief, I was not a

glutton.

When Otou-san consented, I gave the last bit of the cone to Dog-chan. "You like that, don't you, Dog-chan?" I asked, getting off the bench so I could rub his face with both hands.

"You really love dogs, don't you?" Oji-san questioned from above me. He sounded happy.

"Of course," I responded, patting Dog-chan on the head. "They're better than cats."

"Cats are smarter," he pointed out playfully.

"No. Dogs are way smarter. Ever heard of a cat helping a blind person cross the street?"

I heard a slight, "mnph," which was Oji-san's way of laughing He seldom laughed outright, but I knew when he was smiling at something he thought was funny. I grinned back at him. Oji-san the person I loved the most in the world.

"Let's take Dog-chan around the lake," Oji-san suggested.

"Okay," I said, getting to my feet. I took the leash in one hand and Oji- san's hands in the other and we started off together. I love how Oji-san's hand felt. They were bony, but had enough flesh to keep the grip from being unpleasant. He always held my hand tightly but not enough to squeeze; just enough to let me know how important I was to him. I remember being a very small child and him bending over to take my hand in his and saying, "don't let go. I don't want to lose you."

I wasn't a small child - almost ten, probably too old for hand holding- but I still loved the feeling that someone was holding onto me because they were afraid of losing me.

"Oji-san," I started after a moment of comfortable silence. One very wise person said if you could spend thirty seconds in silence with another person, you were friends for life. Oji-san and I didn't talk that much, not half as much as Otou-san and I, but we were usually happy just walking together.

"What did Otou-san mean when he said Poochie was a good name for a pet?"

Otou-san wasn't the only one who could throw a wet blanket over a pleasant event. I felt Oji-san balk beside me. Our steps seem to slow down or that may have been simply my mind stopping to wait for a response.

"Hitomi."

I waited, still walking, the dog next to my body, but I was waiting and I'm sure from my tight-lipped expression, he knew I was. He started to stammer something.

And then we both heard a sharp, "pi-pi-pi."

One of these days someone was going to take a hammer to that damn proverbial bell.

"That pager of yours!" I snapped.

"Hitomi," he chastised gently. We walked on as he checked the message that was sent him. Immediately, I felt him tense. He stopped abruptly. "It's Obaa-chan. She says it's urgent."

"Isn't it always?" I asked sulkily, upset that he got off the hook that easily. I couldn't very ask demand the answer out of him as we rushed over to Obaa-chan, now could I?

"Come on," he said impatiently. "Let's go to her place now. Makoto or Hisae will take the dog back to the animal shelter with you." My great- grandmother lived in Kyoto but with the recent earthquakes and what she called "mystical presence" in Tokyo, she decided to temporarily move near us.

"All right." Otou-san had "work" and with Oji-san out, so I had to no choice but to stay with her. I resigned myself to the change and, like most people, felt better almost immediately when I did.

We rushed over to Obaa-chan's rented house in Oji-san's car. His anxiety and impatience was obvious. He made quick, jerky turns in attempt to get past the traffic and muttered, "come on" more than once. I noted all this with cool detachment, the realisation already fully known and accepted by the time we got to Obaa-chan's house. She was waiting for us in the front yard.

"Obaa-chan," Oji-san said, bowing quickly to her. Even in his anxiety, he remembered to be polite. "What is it?" He sounded agitated, which didn't surprise me. He often treated his cases like the world was going to end if he didn't succeed.

She spoke quickly, her voice authoritative and firm. "There's the address of a girl who's being possessed by a demon. She doesn't have long so you will have to hurry."

"Of course," Oji-san said breathlessly.

"And Subaru-san," she added. "When you're done, can you stop by this address? It belongs to a very good prophetess. She says she knows something about Kamui."

"Kamui?" Oji-san said. The name obviously had some significance to him and Obaa-chan. "Yes, of course, I will."

He squeezed my hand good-bye and rushed to his car.

With him gone, Obaa-chan shifted her attention to me, moving her wheelchair closer in my direction. I could hear the rustle of the stiff, but soft material of her ceremonial robes as she reached her hand out to touch my head. Her hand was thin and bony. Having never hugged her, I had no idea the dimensions of her body, like I did with Oji-san and Otou-san. I always figured she was as skinny as a skeleton. "How are you, Hitomi-san?"

"I'm fine, Obaa-chan," I said as cheerfully as my father did the few times I heard him speak to her. "Oji-san and I were taking Dog-chan here for a walk in the park. Is it okay if he comes in with us?"

"Of course."

"Obaa-chan, how's your health lately?"

She sighed. "Good. It's fine. Thank-you for asking. And your father?"

She never liked my father. I don't blame her. After all, he was the reason she was in the wheelchair. And yes, that too, I didn't find out until much later.

"He's in good health and high spirits as usual of course," I answered jovially. I bent over to rub Dog-chan's ear.

"That's good," she said absently. She patted my head once more.

While Oji-san's touches were warm and full of love, and Otou-san's were affectionate but cold, hers were hesitant and obligary. I wondered how my mother would have touched me.

"We should go in," she said. She turned her wheelchair and I followed her. None of her disciples were outside, but I didn't need anyone to guide me or help me into the house. I walked through the yard and through the door Hisae had opened for us without stumbling. After handing Hisae my coat and taking off my shoes, Obaa-chan guided Dog-chan and I to the living room.

When I sat down on the couch, with Dog-chan sitting at my feet, the first words out of my mouth was, "Obaa-chan, who's Kamui?"

I knew she flinched. "Kamui?"

"I heard of him in a prophecy. He's suppose to the decide the fate

of the world, isn't it?"

She waited for a minute before saying, "Yes."

The comment I made yesterday about being the Head of the Sumeragi

family was actually a joke. I seriously doubt Obaa-chan would have

allowed me to be Head of the Sumeragi family.

Even though I was the child of her granddaughter, I was still the

child of Obaa-chan's enemy. She never did trust me. The books she

gave him were on smooth paper that I couldn't read. Never once did

she bother translating one of her spell books or prophecy books into

Braille so I could read it. We had the money to do so, but she

always came up with excuses for not doing them. Otou-san and I used

to joke and say she was denying the rights of a handicap person, but

I could understand why she was apprehensive in translating those

book.

"And he is suppose to have six dragons with him?" I prodded.

"Hitomi," she started, her voice firm and final.

"Sorry," I muttered, faking the tone of a child who thought she had gone too far and asked too many questions. "I'll ask Otou-san when I

get home."

I smiled inwardly when I heard her sigh. She knew Otou-san read the books out loud to me. "Yes, there are to be six dragons of heaven on

his side. And six dragons for the Kamui of Earth."

That was news to me. "There's two Kamuis?"

"Yes."

"Is this what is prophetess is going to tell Oji-san?"

"Yes," she said shortly.

No way was Obaa-chan sending Oji-san to see a prophetess just him to find that out. "Is she going to tell him anything else?"

Again her voice was firm and final. "I'll leave that for Subaru-san

to tell you."

"All right." I had gotten more information than I expected to anyway. I stood up and gently coax Dog-chan to his feet as well. "I think Dog-chan's thirsty so I'm going to get him some water, okay? And help Hisae with tea. Do you want tea, Obaa-chan?"

She sounded tired. "Yes, Hitomi-san, thank-you."

I started to walk towards the kitchen when I heard her say, "Hitomi-san."

I turned around. "What is it?"

She was silent for a moment. I waited.

When she spoke, there was none of that firm or authoritative tone I

was used too. She simply sounded... hopeful? "Do you ever think about your mother?"

I kept my face impassive but inside, I was taken back from the question. Her question really touched a nerve.

"Why do you ask?" I was really curious. Anything regarding my mother piqued my interest. Otou-san talked a little about her, and Oji-san, a lot more, so I knew about her cooking skills and crazy fashion sense and how much she wanted to be a housewife with half a dozen children. But truth was, I didn't feel close to her. By sealing her up in the Sakura, Otou-san did a damn good job of making sure I never felt her presence.

Obaa-chan's voice was low, almost a mumble. "You just look so much like her for a moment. It brought back old memories."

I blinked. "Am I a lot like her when she was alive?"

She sounded sad when she spoke. "You look a little like her at your age. Her and Subaru-san. You know they were identical, right? You have Hokuto- san's laugh and her voice. And you're as a playful and cheerful as she was. Sometime you're so much like her and I just wonder..." She sighed. I waited patiently. "I just wonder how much of her is in you."

I shrugged, hiding my curiosity and uneasiness under the neutral expression, and went in into the kitchen to help Hisae with the tea.

Behind me, I heard my great-grandmother roll her wheelchair slowly back and forth, like she always did when she's feeling dejected and downcast.

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End of Chapter 2

More notes: Chapter 1 was a freak accident. I don't normally fic that well, so chapter 2 was originally MUCH worst than this. I really have to thank Shizuka-chan for helping me with this chapter and the rest of the fic. You have great patience girl! ^_^