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Dream Keeper: Okay, you know the drill. *clears throat* I do not own Blue Seed. *sniffs* I wish I did but I don't. The blue seed boys and girls all belong to their respectable owners. I am only borrowing them for this twisted fic and promise to return them, only slightly worse for the wear, when I'm through with them.
Christa: We hope anyway. We never know who she'll kill! Oh, as always, any character that you haven't heard of is ours! With the exception of the name Naya. That belongs to Sandra a.k.a. Wufei lover.
Dream Keeper: Did you enjoy the last chapter? *sly grin* Hope you did. Did anyone figure it out before Sakura said it? *in the background Chibi Usa is heard shouting "Me! Me!"*
Christa: *sweatdrop* That is one of our two editors/ sisters so of course she's gunna figure it out! We have to bounce ideas off of her! *evil grin* *grabs a ball with idea written on it and bounces it off of Dream Keepers head*
Dream Keeper: Ak! You little.. something I won't say! *starts to run after the retreating muse* *stops* Hope you enjoy this chapter of the fic. I'm not QUITE sure but I think it's the last one. *grabs Koume's gun and runs after Christa*
Koume: First you kill me off in this fic, and then you steal my gun? I DON'T THINK SO! *runs after them both*
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"What?!" all three cried in unison at Sakura's accusation.
"Must I really repeat myself? I just told you that the girl sitting right there is your daughter. Naya is really Calida."
"You must be mistaken, ma'am," Naya said shakily. "Murakumo would have killed me the moment he laid his hands on me if I was Kusanagi's daughter. He didn't, so I can't be." Momiji, unable to speak because of the intense emotions she was feeling, nodded in agreement.
Kusanagi sat frozen to his chair. He couldn't move, couldn't think, he actually forgot to breath for one painful moment and had to remind himself that blue wasn't his best color. {By god, that would explain so much. but do I dare believe it? Could it really be true?}
"Obviously you have something you'd like to share with the class," Sakura said when she caught sight of the look on his face. It was a mix of absolute terror, revulsion, and happiness.
"She's right, Momiji. Naya is our daughter."
"What?!" Momiji shouted, finding her voice again. "Did you conspire with them to get rid of her?!" She jumped up from the couch, preparing for a battle but Kusanagi laid a calming hand on her arm and gently, but firmly, pushed her back down onto her seat.
"No, but everything that's happened in the last few days is starting to make sense. I was listening to Murakumo yell at her earlier today, oh did I forget to mention that?" he asked when both Sakura and Momiji's jaws dropped open. "I heard something weird going on in there and when I finally got into the room, he'd put up a ceramic field around her. And the things I heard him say about her. He always called me an imperfect soul. He referred to her like that also, telling her she wasn't good enough. He even admitted that she wasn't his daughter."
"That doesn't prove anything," Naya protested, but she bit off what she was going to say when Kusanagi held up his hand.
"If you need anymore proof, look at her eyes. They're an exact mix between yours and mine," he said, addressing Momiji this time. She looked and this time bent to the inevitably conclusion. Naya's eyes were exactly like theirs and their other children's. The coloring was blue, like hers, but instead of having a black center, they were pierced through by a green slit like a cat's
"And how did you expect to keep this from us if you had succeeded in pulling off the switch?" Momiji demanded angrily. "Her eyes alone would have given it away."
"We were never going to let you see her. She was always going to be somewhere else. Once we were sure that we were wrong, we were going to tell you, but as you can see, we weren't wrong. We took the necessary precautions, it just didn't work the way we'd hoped. We don't know how the Aragami found out, but somehow they knew that she was your daughter, not Ryoko's. After Naya disappeared, we didn't have the heart to tell you."
"Didn't have the heart to tell us?" Kusanagi demanded, jumping up from his chair. "You could have told us then and saved us all a lot of heart ache! Especially Naya! I don't know even a margin of what she's been through and I know that I never could have survived it! We could have looked for her and gotten her back before Murakumo had a chance to warp her perception on the world!"
"Kusanagi, calm down," Sakura said warily.
"Don't tell me to calm down! You barged in here today trying to kill her and then end up telling us she's our long lost daughter?! AND YOU WANT ME TO REMAIN CALM?!" Everyone winced as he screamed VERY loudly at her. He went on to call her every name under the sun but a saint and described quite a few things that she should go do that were anatomically impossible. His language was so colorful that even the battle hardened Naya colored a deep shade of crimson.
When he finally ran out of things to call her Kusanagi flopped back down onto his chair and glared venomously at her. Naya blinked and said, "I never knew you possessed such a colorful array of profanity." Despite the graveness of the situation the three adults started laughing. Naya just sat there looking puzzled. "What did I say?" she asked.
Kusanagi sighed and shook his head. "You really need to learn what a sense of humor is. Oh well, we'll have time to teach you."
"No," she interjected. "We don't have time for anything."
"What do you mean?" Momiji asked carefully.
Naya looked at the clock on the wall and found that it was already past three. "Murakumo will be coming to kill me soon."
"Coming to kill you?" Sakura demanded. "But how can he know where you are?"
Naya shrugged and looked at her hands. "He always seems to know where I am. I don't know how he does it, but he does. The fact stands that he told me to complete my mission by sundown. I refuse to complete it."
"What was your mission?" Momiji asked before Kusanagi could stop her.
"To kill you," Naya answered her. "To kill all of you. But I can't do it. I don't think I ever wanted to. I just can't kill you. Especially not the Kushinada children."
"Your brother and sister," Kusanagi corrected her.
"Yes," Naya agreed hesitantly. Then she looked into Momiji's eyes, hers seeming to beg for understanding. "I have to leave before he comes here. I can't risk them. or you. I don't want any of you to get hurt."
"No!" Kusanagi said sharply. "I won't allow you to leave. You're weak and you wouldn't stand a chance against him."
"I know that I'm weak, but that doesn't matter. If there is anything I can do to atone for all the death I have dealt out then I want to do it, and I think this is my one chance. If I can stop even one of you from getting killed then I will count myself lucky!" she argued with him.
"No!" Momiji said, getting out of her chair to cross the distance between them. "I won't let you go. We just found you. Don't make us loose you again." She threw her arms around her daughter and hugged her tightly.
Naya stood impassive in the woman's embrace before she set her forcefully from her. "I can't, Momiji. He will come to get me, and then he will kill you. I can't take that risk."
"And what if he doesn't come?" Sakura asked suddenly.
"But he will."
"What if he doesn't," she insisted.
Naya shrugged helplessly. "I don't dare let myself hope, but if he didn't kill me, then I'd come back. If you're willing to have me," she amended shyly.
"Of course we will," Kusanagi told her as if she'd lost her mind. "You're our daughter."
"But I also tried to kill you. That alone would make most people hate me."
"But not us," he told her.
"Please, don't leave," Momiji begged, taking the younger woman's hand in hers.
"How can you care for me? You only just met me," Naya asked after a long drawn out moment.
"How do you know how to breath?" her mother countered.
Naya smiled in spite of herself, knowing where she belonged at last. Slowly, hesitantly she embraced her mother and whispered, "Then I'll stay for as long as I can."
~*~
That night they sat down at the dinner table together as a family. Shen and Aiko had taken the news that Naya was their long lost sister very well. They'd been delighted and had argued for some time about whose room she was going to stay in, until Kusanagi settled it by giving her the guestroom.
"Would you like some more soup?" Momiji asked politely.
"No, thank you," Naya told her. "I've eaten enough."
"But you've hardly eaten anything," Kusanagi observed.
"I'm not used to eating much. If I do now, I might get sick."
"Oh," Kusanagi said, realizing that she was right. Rich foods after a long fast did tent to make one sick.
"I want some more soup mommy," Shen said, holding his bowl out to her.
"What do you say?" she asked him.
"Please?" he said, giving her a smile that, Naya thought, was sure to dazzle girls when he was older. Momiji returned his smile and filled his bowl for him a third time.
"Where are you putting all that food, little man?" Naya teased him. "I don't believe you're really eating all that. You're too skinny!" She reached over and tickled him to punctuate her point. He erupted into a fit of giggles and squirmed away from her.
"Now, now, children," Momiji chided gently, smiling herself.
"I love you, Naya," Shen said suddenly. His oldest sister looked at him in shock and tried to think of something to say. She looked to Kusanagi for help, bewilderment showing on her face. He understood what she was going through. He hadn't understood what love was either until he'd started truly dating Momiji.
"Eat your dinner, Shen," he told his son gently as he set his bowl down in front of him.
"Sunset," Naya said wistfully as she looked out the window, watching the glorious sun sink down past the horizon. {I wonder if I'm really free. Will he come for me, or decide that I'm too much of a bother? What's going to happen to them? He'll never let them live, as long as he has life in his own body. Can I really protect them?}
"Isn't it pretty?" Aiko asked, breaking her out of her musings.
"Yes, its lovely-," Naya started to say, but then she started screaming. Murakumo came rushing through the window and a stream of lightning wrapped itself around her (yet again. Ouch!).
"I told you once never to disobey me. Now you will pay the price!" he yelled, his voice holding no sanity. Kusanagi jumped at him, trying to intervene, but Murakumo sent him hurtling backwards with a blast of power. He landed heavily on his back, striking his head against a wall. There he laid stunned. At the same time, Momiji was screaming for Shen and Aiko to run. They didn't listen, but stayed petrified in their seats.
Knowing their lives could depend on it, Momiji grabbed a wickedly sharp, and long, kitchen knife before throwing herself at Naya's attacker. "You bastard! Leave her alone!" she screamed.
"You would interfere with me?!" Murakumo yelled, releasing the younger woman and redirecting his power to her. Momiji screamed and went down immediately. Naya who, once she was released from the blinding pain of the spell, finally came back to herself understood what she had to do. Her muscles screamed as she forced herself to stand and scramble over to her mother.
"Wake up!" she yelled, shaking her. When she didn't respond Naya tried a different tactic. Knowing that her parents would hate her if anything happened to them, she grabbed her younger sister and brother and fled towards the door. Murakumo appeared in front of her just as she reached it and backhanded her across the face.
"You can't escape me! I own you! I made you what you are!" he yelled as Naya fell, rolling so that her siblings weren't harmed, but coming up on top so their attacker couldn't get them. "I should kill you now!"
"Shen, Aiko, I want you to run. You remember where the police station is? There's a hotel next to it. That lady, Sakura, is staying there. Go get her. Stay together and don't stop running, no matter what you hear." Naya commanded to them. "GO NOW!" She stood upright and deployed both blades from both her arms. The double blades glistened silver in the light as the curved back like scythes. One was slightly shorter than the other, but somehow she figured that four were better than one.
"You dare to defy me again?!" He screamed as she launched herself at him.
"NO!" Kusanagi yelled as he watched two of his children run out into the night, and his eldest condemn herself to death. Time seemed to slow down as he watched. Naya seemed to fly through the air, her hair streaming out behind her as she gave a battle cry fit to curdle blood. Murakumo deployed his own blade and used it to block hers. Naya twisted in the air and brought her left arm up, looking to let her blade kiss his throat.
Murakumo's blade sliced into the back of her arm, cutting deep, and she winced in pain, faltering in her beautiful, deadly dance for an instant. An instant was all it took. Murakumo freed his blade from her and brought it up, hitting her in the back with the flat of it. Naya was thrown forward but he reached out and jerked her back towards him, hitting her upside the head with the flat of the blade. Even so, a trickle of blood appeared at the edge of her temple. Murakumo laughed evilly as he held is prey limp within his arms.
Had it been up in an art gallery, Kusanagi would have admired the picture they made. Murakumo floated above the ground, his toes delicately pointed down in his boots, almost as if he was balanced precariously there. His hair flowed out behind him like a cape, whipping in the wind. His bladed arm hung down to is side and he gazed down at Naya with the look of a preternatural vampire. She lay limp in his arm, her head rolled to one side. Blood covered her in places, but it seemed to add to the mystery. The monstrous beauty was only broken when Momiji screamed.
"NAYA!!!" she cried as she dragged herself into a sitting position. Murakumo slowly turned towards her and smiled.
"Now the kushinada is mine again. If you want to save her, come to my domain."
"Where is that?!" Kusanagi demanded. Murakumo's smile just widened. Then he vanished, taking Naya with him.
Sakura arrived not soon after with a screech of wheels as her car shrieked to a stop outside their door. She burst in, expecting to find aragami, but the only thing that met her eyes was all the blood and Kusanagi holding Momiji close to him. He rocked her and stroked her hair, trying to comfort her.
"What went on here?" she asked, afraid for the first time in a long time.
"He took her!" Momiji sobbed. "That bastard took her!"
"Where's Naya?" Shen asked, as he peered fearfully around the house from his place behind Sakura's leg.
"Daddy, why is mommy crying?" Aiko wanted to know.
"The bad man who attacked us, hurt Naya and took her away," Kusanagi explained. "Your mommy's sad because she'd gone."
"Is she going to come back?" Shen asked fearfully.
"Yes. We're going to get her back Shen," Sakura said forcefully. Her eyes locked with Kusanagi's and he nodded his understanding. They knew that she may already be dead, but they were both damned determined that she would come back to them one way or another.
"Do you have any idea where she may be?" Sakura asked after their moment of silent exchange. Kusanagi merely shook his head angrily. He didn't have any idea at all where Murakumo might have gone. If he'd known, he would have confronted and killed him long before this.
"He told us to come to his domain," Momiji said finally, getting a grip on herself. Her younger children ran into her arms and she hugged them close, like they'd disappear if she let go. Looking up at her old rival she wondered aloud, "Do you think he meant-"
"The old lair? He might have. Its worth a try to find out. Come on Kusanagi."
"Wait, shouldn't we find somewhere safe for Shen and Aiko to stay?" Momiji protested.
"They're safe enough with you," Kusanagi told her. "Be careful."
"You're just leaving me?!" she demanded. "She's my daughter too!"
"Momiji, you'll just be in the way," Sakura said harshly, even though all of them knew it was the truth. She was still clumsy and scatterbrained, just like she'd been as a teenager.
Bowing her head in submission, Momiji reluctantly agreed with a nod. "Promise you'll come back to me," she whispered. "And bring out daughter back."
"I will," Kusanagi said as he kissed her on top of her head. Then he bade his family farewell and followed Sakura out into the night. They were both silent as they drove, each lost in their own thoughts. Neither wanted to even think about what might actually be awaiting them.
***
Naya slowly awakened and stifled a cry of pain as all her hurts made themselves known to her. Even opening her eyes was an effort of will and the dim light of the cavern was, for once, a relief. At least she didn't have bright light stabbing down onto her to compact her misery.
She was tied down to a stone slab that, she swore, hadn't been there when she left. Strange gray pillars surrounded her and it seemed that she was somehow weaker. Naya pulled at the ropes to test them, but they held strong, the knots unbearably tight.
"I see you're awake," Murakumo sneered as he sat gazing at her.
"What's your damned point?" she spat, too hurt, and tired to care if she was provoking him or not. Not that it mattered at all. She'd be dead soon enough, if he had anything to say about it.
'You've been asleep for quite some time. Long enough for Kusanagi and that annoying bitch to find us. I'm actually surprised it took them so little time. Humans are usually predictable in their naivete. Most wouldn't even have bothered looking back in my old lair. Most would have been looking in other caverns."
"You underestimate my father," Naya told him fiercely. Surprise and rage flickered across her old masters face for a moment before he smoothed it back into a mask of utter calm.
"So you've learned about your past. Interesting. How does it feel knowing that you killed people that were practically your family? Does it feel good to have their blood staining your hands? Are you looking forward to your trip to hell?"
Naya thought about not dignifying the comment with an answer but then she felt herself slipping back into the oblivion of sleep and decided that talking with him was better than loosing consciousness. "You want to know how it feels, but I doubt you'd ever understand. Even before I killed the TAC I was sickened. Sickened by all the deaths you had me cause, for no reason other than to learn how best to kill someone. The TAC was just the next step.
"I killed them one by one, but I killed them swiftly and caused them the least amount of pain that I could, but I doubt anything could redeem me. It doesn't matter now anyway. Done is done and we can't change it. The only thing I take pride in is the fact that I was crying every time I killed _anyone_, and questioning just why the hell I had to do it. _And_ I was sick every time afterwards. I guess that proves that I could never be a murderer like you. As for hell? What are you speaking of? I'm already in hell."
"I very much doubt that!" Murakumo yelled, seeming to loose all his sanity at once. "Hell I having your plans foiled by an imperfect soul, who can't even beat you without an eighth matama. Hell is having to hide yourself underground for nineteen years before you can exact your revenge. Hell is having to raise an obnoxious soul as imperfect as the Kushinada's." He stopped and drew a deep breath, trying fruitlessly to collect himself.
"Wow, its as easy as all that? Interesting," Naya taunted. She was rewarded with a heavy blow to her ribs. All of her breath was driven from her lungs by the force of the impact and blood flecks sprayed from her mouth and onto her captor. As she struggled for air Murakumo calmly wiped them off his face.
"Don't taunt me you little - Ah, it seems that your rescuers have finally arrived. I think I'll let them say their good-byes before I kill you." With that, he seemed to vanish, but only after duck taping her mouth closed.
"Naya? Naya?! Are you here?" Kusanagi called as he came running into the underground cave. Naya glimpsed him through a gap in the pillars but was helpless to stop him. She tried to cry out, but couldn't.
"There!" Sakura yelled, pointing towards her. They both ran to her side and proceeded to untie her. She thrashed and tried to hit them, drive them away from her, but they didn't seem to understand. "Naya, its okay, its us, not Murakumo," the other woman tried to sooth her. Naya shook her head violently but it was no use. When finally both hands were free she reached up and peeled off her gag.
"You fools! It's a trap! Do you really think he'd let you off this easily?!" Both adults went on guard, not even having thought about it. They'd been too intent on saving their charge to worry about traps.
"Silly, imperfect souls. The girl is right. You're all hopelessly rusty. Not enough trouble in the upper-world? Well, that can be fixed," Murakumo's voice echoed through the cavern. Soon after he appeared off to their left.
"You bastard!" Kusanagi yelled as he launched himself at his opponent.
"No! You idiot! You'll never beat him alone!" Naya screamed. Sakura started to move forward but she stopped her. "No! We need to work together or we don't have a snowball's chance in the desert!"
Sakura gave her a hard, appraising look before nodding curtly and brandishing one of her famous papers (from god knows where!). Then with another nod they both threw themselves into the fray. Murakumo merely laughed and flew up out of their reach. Kusanagi cursed and tried to follow but knew he couldn't.
"Die aragami scum!" Sakura yelled, throwing her paper. Their foe merely batted it away like he would a fly. Sakura stood stunned. It wasn't often something was more powerful than her wards.
"This is a pathetic waste of my time," Murakumo scoffed. "Can't you do any better?"
"Father, take my hand," Naya commanded, holding her hand towards Kusanagi without looking at him. He took it and instantly it felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. His feet left the ground effortlessly and he grinned wickedly. This was even easier with Naya than it had ever been with Momiji. Maybe because she'd had lots of practice?
"Interesting choice," Murakumo said as he watched them raise. As they quickly drew nearer to him he made a show of yawning and then dove past them towards the other woman.
"No, Sakura!" Kusanagi yelled as he quickly turned, hoping to intercept. Fear bubbled up inside him as he realized that it was already too late. Murakumo had already deployed his sword-like blade and a few scant feet from his friend. She screamed and tried to throw herself aside but he was quicker. His sword bit into her body cruelly and her eyes grew wide with pain. She clutched at his arm in vain, trying to deny her fate even as her lifeblood rushed from the sound in her stomach.
"No!" Naya screamed as she watched the older woman be lifted a few feet of the ground before her master lowered his blade contemptuously. The wet sound of her sliding off it made the two in the air sick, but the fallen woman smiled a humorless smile as she hit the ground.
"What's-" Kusanagi started to say when Murakumo suddenly yelled in pain. He slapped at the seal that his victim had laid on him, but in vain. It seemed to fuse with his skin and _grow_.
"How dare you!" he bellowed as he landed next to her.
"Payback's a bitch, asshole, and so am I," Sakura spat before a coughing fit overtook her. Blood dribbled down the side of her chin and she gasped for air. "Finish him now Kusanagi!" she yelled.
"What about you?" Naya demanded, even as her father hastened them to do as she'd bid.
"I'm dying, but I've got no regrets," she told them defiantly. "I got exactly what I deserved." Then her head lolled to the side and she stilled.
"You'll pay!" Kusanagi screamed at Murakumo as they charged him. Both of them deployed their blades, careful not to hurt each other, and gave a battle cry.
"You'll never win!" their opponent yelled as he stood to face them. Already he was weak, but he had one last card to play and he used it, even as their blades cut into his body. "Naya, receive your punishment now," he whispered as he fell.
"What is he doing?" Kusangi wondered aloud as they landed. Naya beside him looked on curiously, wondering what he'd mean. Then all the color drained out of her face and she clutched at her chest in pain.
"No! STOP!!" she screamed as she writhed on the ground. Kusanagi heard a crack and looked over to see Murakumo holding the nearly shattered remains of her third matama. The only thing that had saved it was his death, right before it entirely broke.
"Naya, what's happening?!" he demanded as he tried to hold her still.
"It hurts, it hurts," she whimpered.
"Naya, what did he do?!"
"MY SOUL!" she screamed, her voice echoing off the vastness of the space around them. "He broke my soul. I am aragami."
"But you're human!" Kusanagi yelled, refusing to believe it. He went over to pick up the fragile blue seed and Naya let out another piercing scream as soon as he touched it.
"Finish me! I'm begging you, please! Kill me!"
"There has to be a way," he said desperately, kneeling down beside her.
"Let her go, Kusanagi," Sakura muttered from her spot a few feet away. "She's caught between two worlds and its killing her anyway."
"I thought you were dead," he snapped, ungratefully.
"Not yet. It'll take a little more to kill me, but not much. Besides, I hurt to damned much to be dead. Soon though. Maybe I can redeem myself now."
"Hurry up and tell me!" he said, noticing her voice growing faint.
"Hurts too much to talk. Must heal seed."
"HOW?!" he demanded as Naya convulsed and he was forced to hold her down.
"By killing her."
"NO!"
"YES!!!" Naya screamed simultaneously with him.
"Can be reborn. Must die but. reborn." Sakura went limp again, this time for good. Her breath left her body as peace descended on her.
"What do you mean?!" he yelled, helpless for the first time in a long time.
"KILL ME!" Naya screamed again. "Finish me, PLEASE!!" She made a slow grab for the matama but Kusanagi held it out of her reach.
"I won't kill you! I'm going to save you!"
"You're acting no better than him," she whispered as she convulsed again. It took all of his strength to hold her down. "Kill me, I'm begging you. Be my father and kill me."
Kusanagi felt peace also descend on him. Knowing he had no other choice he set the seed down and raised his blade high. Naya opened her eyes and watched the blades descent. It struck her chest and she gasped, but the pain was no worse than what she was already feeling. Then it sought out and found her heart.
"Thank you," she told him, using the last of her strength to reach up and touch his face. "Thank you daddy. I'll see you when I wake."
She smiled, even as tears ran down his cheeks, and then she died. Blood pooled upon the cavern floor and he knelt in it, weeping for the things that would have been, that could have been. The things that had been heartlessly wrestled from him again. It all flashed through his mind as he realized that he'd lost her twice.
~*~
"Kusanagi?" Momiji exclaimed when she heard the car pull back up. She went sprinting out the door but stopped when he stepped out of the car. She looked into his eyes and he shook his head. Her face went pale and she closed her eyes, but nodded bravely. "And Sakura?" Again her husband shook his head.
"So many lives lost for a hopeless cause," she said, letting her eyes spill over.
"Naya!!" Shen and Aiko yelled as they came rushing down the stairs to see their older sister. Momiji immediately grabbed both of them and knelt down to take them in her arms. They struggled to get away, not understanding their mother's behavior.
"Where's Naya? Didn't daddy bring her back?" Shen demanded.
"Your daddy did bring her back, but." Momiji trailed off, trying to think of an easy way to tell them.
"She's dead, Shen," Kusanagi told them quietly. "And so is Sakura."
"But we already knew that," Aiko told him. "The bad man is dead also."
"What?" Kusanagi demanded, looking into his daughter's catlike eyes. The same eyes that Naya had had. He could have sworn her eyes had been a normal blue the day before, and Shen's a normal green.
"We felt her die. Mommy did too, but she didn't know it," Shen told him, glancing toward his big sister for confirmation. She nodded her answer.
"How?"
"Our souls," both children told him.
"What are you talking about?" Momiji demanded, clutching at her lone matama. Shen just reached up and touched her hand.
"Bring them inside," Aiko told him, acting ten times more mature than she should. "I'll set blankets out for them." Then she hurried to do just that. Kusanagi brought both women inside and laid them out so they could be cleaned up. Shen and Aiko stayed out of the room at their parents bidding.
"Kusanagi, this wound is too big to have come from his blade," Momoji said as she cleaned the wound in Naya's chest, not needing to explain who "his" was.
"No, it came from mine. I killed her, Momiji. She begged me to kill her and I couldn't refuse."
"What happened to her?" Momiji asked calmly. She knew he wouldn't have killed her had something terrible not happened. Kusanagi merely pulled the shattered seed from his pocket and placed it on the table. She looked at him and her eyes showed their understanding. "Tell me how?"
Kusanagi related the tale, leaving out none of the gory details. He even told how their daughter had begged for her life to end, and exactly what Sakura had said. They both puzzled over it until they heard the door open and their children come in. The grisly work was mostly done by then so they did not rebuke them.
"Mom has something to tell you," Shen told him. Momiji's eyes flew to look at him, then back to her husband and back. "How did you--?"
"Naya told us."
"What?" Kusanagi wanted to know.
"I'm going to have a baby," Momiji told him after a moment. "I didn't want to tell you until this was over."
"Momiji," he gasped.
"Its not going to be like us though," Aiko told them. "Naya said that it doesn't have a soul like ours."
"What are you talking about?" Kusanagi finally demanded. Shen and Aiko looked at each other before shrugging. Then Shen pulled up his shirt to reveal a matama sitting on his chest, right over a patch of scar tissue.
"You always wondered what the scars were from," Aiko told them. "Naya said that someone in the hospital cut off our souls before you saw us, and gave them to the bad man. She gave them back to us a little while ago."
"And the baby-"
Kusanagi smiled to himself and shook his head. "She knew. She knew it was going to happen. Who knows how, but she knew."
"Why do you say that?" Momoji asked him.
"She may not have known how she was going to die until it happened, but she was smiling when she died. She told me with her last breath, 'I'll see you when I wake'."
"Oh." his wife gasped, putting a hand over her mouth. "That means."
"Baby's don't have souls until their born," Shen told her.
"And you have Naya's soul right there." Aiko added.
"Well," Kusanagi said, bowing to inevitable fate, "I guess her name is going to be Naya." Momiji smiled sadly and nodded.
On the table, the blue seed winked in the light, but something had changed. No one noticed it but slowly the cracks started to heal themselves and had anyone looked hard enough, they would have seen the reflection of a baby's smile.
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Dream Keeper: Well, that sucked. I don't like the ending, but I swore to myself that I WOULD finish it. So here it is, months (years?) late.
Christa: I QUIT! I'm never touching this one again so don't even ask! *glares at the fans*
Dream Keeper: Anyway, there's food waiting up in the kitchen for us so we'd better go before the 'rents decide to delete this.
Christa: FOOD!!!!!!!!!! FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD!!!!!
Dream Keeper: Okay, calm down and finish!
Christa: *sigh* Okay, hope you liked it. Please R&R which means read AND REVIEW!!!!! Thanx. Now lets go get FOOD!!!!!
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Dream Keeper: Okay, you know the drill. *clears throat* I do not own Blue Seed. *sniffs* I wish I did but I don't. The blue seed boys and girls all belong to their respectable owners. I am only borrowing them for this twisted fic and promise to return them, only slightly worse for the wear, when I'm through with them.
Christa: We hope anyway. We never know who she'll kill! Oh, as always, any character that you haven't heard of is ours! With the exception of the name Naya. That belongs to Sandra a.k.a. Wufei lover.
Dream Keeper: Did you enjoy the last chapter? *sly grin* Hope you did. Did anyone figure it out before Sakura said it? *in the background Chibi Usa is heard shouting "Me! Me!"*
Christa: *sweatdrop* That is one of our two editors/ sisters so of course she's gunna figure it out! We have to bounce ideas off of her! *evil grin* *grabs a ball with idea written on it and bounces it off of Dream Keepers head*
Dream Keeper: Ak! You little.. something I won't say! *starts to run after the retreating muse* *stops* Hope you enjoy this chapter of the fic. I'm not QUITE sure but I think it's the last one. *grabs Koume's gun and runs after Christa*
Koume: First you kill me off in this fic, and then you steal my gun? I DON'T THINK SO! *runs after them both*
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"What?!" all three cried in unison at Sakura's accusation.
"Must I really repeat myself? I just told you that the girl sitting right there is your daughter. Naya is really Calida."
"You must be mistaken, ma'am," Naya said shakily. "Murakumo would have killed me the moment he laid his hands on me if I was Kusanagi's daughter. He didn't, so I can't be." Momiji, unable to speak because of the intense emotions she was feeling, nodded in agreement.
Kusanagi sat frozen to his chair. He couldn't move, couldn't think, he actually forgot to breath for one painful moment and had to remind himself that blue wasn't his best color. {By god, that would explain so much. but do I dare believe it? Could it really be true?}
"Obviously you have something you'd like to share with the class," Sakura said when she caught sight of the look on his face. It was a mix of absolute terror, revulsion, and happiness.
"She's right, Momiji. Naya is our daughter."
"What?!" Momiji shouted, finding her voice again. "Did you conspire with them to get rid of her?!" She jumped up from the couch, preparing for a battle but Kusanagi laid a calming hand on her arm and gently, but firmly, pushed her back down onto her seat.
"No, but everything that's happened in the last few days is starting to make sense. I was listening to Murakumo yell at her earlier today, oh did I forget to mention that?" he asked when both Sakura and Momiji's jaws dropped open. "I heard something weird going on in there and when I finally got into the room, he'd put up a ceramic field around her. And the things I heard him say about her. He always called me an imperfect soul. He referred to her like that also, telling her she wasn't good enough. He even admitted that she wasn't his daughter."
"That doesn't prove anything," Naya protested, but she bit off what she was going to say when Kusanagi held up his hand.
"If you need anymore proof, look at her eyes. They're an exact mix between yours and mine," he said, addressing Momiji this time. She looked and this time bent to the inevitably conclusion. Naya's eyes were exactly like theirs and their other children's. The coloring was blue, like hers, but instead of having a black center, they were pierced through by a green slit like a cat's
"And how did you expect to keep this from us if you had succeeded in pulling off the switch?" Momiji demanded angrily. "Her eyes alone would have given it away."
"We were never going to let you see her. She was always going to be somewhere else. Once we were sure that we were wrong, we were going to tell you, but as you can see, we weren't wrong. We took the necessary precautions, it just didn't work the way we'd hoped. We don't know how the Aragami found out, but somehow they knew that she was your daughter, not Ryoko's. After Naya disappeared, we didn't have the heart to tell you."
"Didn't have the heart to tell us?" Kusanagi demanded, jumping up from his chair. "You could have told us then and saved us all a lot of heart ache! Especially Naya! I don't know even a margin of what she's been through and I know that I never could have survived it! We could have looked for her and gotten her back before Murakumo had a chance to warp her perception on the world!"
"Kusanagi, calm down," Sakura said warily.
"Don't tell me to calm down! You barged in here today trying to kill her and then end up telling us she's our long lost daughter?! AND YOU WANT ME TO REMAIN CALM?!" Everyone winced as he screamed VERY loudly at her. He went on to call her every name under the sun but a saint and described quite a few things that she should go do that were anatomically impossible. His language was so colorful that even the battle hardened Naya colored a deep shade of crimson.
When he finally ran out of things to call her Kusanagi flopped back down onto his chair and glared venomously at her. Naya blinked and said, "I never knew you possessed such a colorful array of profanity." Despite the graveness of the situation the three adults started laughing. Naya just sat there looking puzzled. "What did I say?" she asked.
Kusanagi sighed and shook his head. "You really need to learn what a sense of humor is. Oh well, we'll have time to teach you."
"No," she interjected. "We don't have time for anything."
"What do you mean?" Momiji asked carefully.
Naya looked at the clock on the wall and found that it was already past three. "Murakumo will be coming to kill me soon."
"Coming to kill you?" Sakura demanded. "But how can he know where you are?"
Naya shrugged and looked at her hands. "He always seems to know where I am. I don't know how he does it, but he does. The fact stands that he told me to complete my mission by sundown. I refuse to complete it."
"What was your mission?" Momiji asked before Kusanagi could stop her.
"To kill you," Naya answered her. "To kill all of you. But I can't do it. I don't think I ever wanted to. I just can't kill you. Especially not the Kushinada children."
"Your brother and sister," Kusanagi corrected her.
"Yes," Naya agreed hesitantly. Then she looked into Momiji's eyes, hers seeming to beg for understanding. "I have to leave before he comes here. I can't risk them. or you. I don't want any of you to get hurt."
"No!" Kusanagi said sharply. "I won't allow you to leave. You're weak and you wouldn't stand a chance against him."
"I know that I'm weak, but that doesn't matter. If there is anything I can do to atone for all the death I have dealt out then I want to do it, and I think this is my one chance. If I can stop even one of you from getting killed then I will count myself lucky!" she argued with him.
"No!" Momiji said, getting out of her chair to cross the distance between them. "I won't let you go. We just found you. Don't make us loose you again." She threw her arms around her daughter and hugged her tightly.
Naya stood impassive in the woman's embrace before she set her forcefully from her. "I can't, Momiji. He will come to get me, and then he will kill you. I can't take that risk."
"And what if he doesn't come?" Sakura asked suddenly.
"But he will."
"What if he doesn't," she insisted.
Naya shrugged helplessly. "I don't dare let myself hope, but if he didn't kill me, then I'd come back. If you're willing to have me," she amended shyly.
"Of course we will," Kusanagi told her as if she'd lost her mind. "You're our daughter."
"But I also tried to kill you. That alone would make most people hate me."
"But not us," he told her.
"Please, don't leave," Momiji begged, taking the younger woman's hand in hers.
"How can you care for me? You only just met me," Naya asked after a long drawn out moment.
"How do you know how to breath?" her mother countered.
Naya smiled in spite of herself, knowing where she belonged at last. Slowly, hesitantly she embraced her mother and whispered, "Then I'll stay for as long as I can."
~*~
That night they sat down at the dinner table together as a family. Shen and Aiko had taken the news that Naya was their long lost sister very well. They'd been delighted and had argued for some time about whose room she was going to stay in, until Kusanagi settled it by giving her the guestroom.
"Would you like some more soup?" Momiji asked politely.
"No, thank you," Naya told her. "I've eaten enough."
"But you've hardly eaten anything," Kusanagi observed.
"I'm not used to eating much. If I do now, I might get sick."
"Oh," Kusanagi said, realizing that she was right. Rich foods after a long fast did tent to make one sick.
"I want some more soup mommy," Shen said, holding his bowl out to her.
"What do you say?" she asked him.
"Please?" he said, giving her a smile that, Naya thought, was sure to dazzle girls when he was older. Momiji returned his smile and filled his bowl for him a third time.
"Where are you putting all that food, little man?" Naya teased him. "I don't believe you're really eating all that. You're too skinny!" She reached over and tickled him to punctuate her point. He erupted into a fit of giggles and squirmed away from her.
"Now, now, children," Momiji chided gently, smiling herself.
"I love you, Naya," Shen said suddenly. His oldest sister looked at him in shock and tried to think of something to say. She looked to Kusanagi for help, bewilderment showing on her face. He understood what she was going through. He hadn't understood what love was either until he'd started truly dating Momiji.
"Eat your dinner, Shen," he told his son gently as he set his bowl down in front of him.
"Sunset," Naya said wistfully as she looked out the window, watching the glorious sun sink down past the horizon. {I wonder if I'm really free. Will he come for me, or decide that I'm too much of a bother? What's going to happen to them? He'll never let them live, as long as he has life in his own body. Can I really protect them?}
"Isn't it pretty?" Aiko asked, breaking her out of her musings.
"Yes, its lovely-," Naya started to say, but then she started screaming. Murakumo came rushing through the window and a stream of lightning wrapped itself around her (yet again. Ouch!).
"I told you once never to disobey me. Now you will pay the price!" he yelled, his voice holding no sanity. Kusanagi jumped at him, trying to intervene, but Murakumo sent him hurtling backwards with a blast of power. He landed heavily on his back, striking his head against a wall. There he laid stunned. At the same time, Momiji was screaming for Shen and Aiko to run. They didn't listen, but stayed petrified in their seats.
Knowing their lives could depend on it, Momiji grabbed a wickedly sharp, and long, kitchen knife before throwing herself at Naya's attacker. "You bastard! Leave her alone!" she screamed.
"You would interfere with me?!" Murakumo yelled, releasing the younger woman and redirecting his power to her. Momiji screamed and went down immediately. Naya who, once she was released from the blinding pain of the spell, finally came back to herself understood what she had to do. Her muscles screamed as she forced herself to stand and scramble over to her mother.
"Wake up!" she yelled, shaking her. When she didn't respond Naya tried a different tactic. Knowing that her parents would hate her if anything happened to them, she grabbed her younger sister and brother and fled towards the door. Murakumo appeared in front of her just as she reached it and backhanded her across the face.
"You can't escape me! I own you! I made you what you are!" he yelled as Naya fell, rolling so that her siblings weren't harmed, but coming up on top so their attacker couldn't get them. "I should kill you now!"
"Shen, Aiko, I want you to run. You remember where the police station is? There's a hotel next to it. That lady, Sakura, is staying there. Go get her. Stay together and don't stop running, no matter what you hear." Naya commanded to them. "GO NOW!" She stood upright and deployed both blades from both her arms. The double blades glistened silver in the light as the curved back like scythes. One was slightly shorter than the other, but somehow she figured that four were better than one.
"You dare to defy me again?!" He screamed as she launched herself at him.
"NO!" Kusanagi yelled as he watched two of his children run out into the night, and his eldest condemn herself to death. Time seemed to slow down as he watched. Naya seemed to fly through the air, her hair streaming out behind her as she gave a battle cry fit to curdle blood. Murakumo deployed his own blade and used it to block hers. Naya twisted in the air and brought her left arm up, looking to let her blade kiss his throat.
Murakumo's blade sliced into the back of her arm, cutting deep, and she winced in pain, faltering in her beautiful, deadly dance for an instant. An instant was all it took. Murakumo freed his blade from her and brought it up, hitting her in the back with the flat of it. Naya was thrown forward but he reached out and jerked her back towards him, hitting her upside the head with the flat of the blade. Even so, a trickle of blood appeared at the edge of her temple. Murakumo laughed evilly as he held is prey limp within his arms.
Had it been up in an art gallery, Kusanagi would have admired the picture they made. Murakumo floated above the ground, his toes delicately pointed down in his boots, almost as if he was balanced precariously there. His hair flowed out behind him like a cape, whipping in the wind. His bladed arm hung down to is side and he gazed down at Naya with the look of a preternatural vampire. She lay limp in his arm, her head rolled to one side. Blood covered her in places, but it seemed to add to the mystery. The monstrous beauty was only broken when Momiji screamed.
"NAYA!!!" she cried as she dragged herself into a sitting position. Murakumo slowly turned towards her and smiled.
"Now the kushinada is mine again. If you want to save her, come to my domain."
"Where is that?!" Kusanagi demanded. Murakumo's smile just widened. Then he vanished, taking Naya with him.
Sakura arrived not soon after with a screech of wheels as her car shrieked to a stop outside their door. She burst in, expecting to find aragami, but the only thing that met her eyes was all the blood and Kusanagi holding Momiji close to him. He rocked her and stroked her hair, trying to comfort her.
"What went on here?" she asked, afraid for the first time in a long time.
"He took her!" Momiji sobbed. "That bastard took her!"
"Where's Naya?" Shen asked, as he peered fearfully around the house from his place behind Sakura's leg.
"Daddy, why is mommy crying?" Aiko wanted to know.
"The bad man who attacked us, hurt Naya and took her away," Kusanagi explained. "Your mommy's sad because she'd gone."
"Is she going to come back?" Shen asked fearfully.
"Yes. We're going to get her back Shen," Sakura said forcefully. Her eyes locked with Kusanagi's and he nodded his understanding. They knew that she may already be dead, but they were both damned determined that she would come back to them one way or another.
"Do you have any idea where she may be?" Sakura asked after their moment of silent exchange. Kusanagi merely shook his head angrily. He didn't have any idea at all where Murakumo might have gone. If he'd known, he would have confronted and killed him long before this.
"He told us to come to his domain," Momiji said finally, getting a grip on herself. Her younger children ran into her arms and she hugged them close, like they'd disappear if she let go. Looking up at her old rival she wondered aloud, "Do you think he meant-"
"The old lair? He might have. Its worth a try to find out. Come on Kusanagi."
"Wait, shouldn't we find somewhere safe for Shen and Aiko to stay?" Momiji protested.
"They're safe enough with you," Kusanagi told her. "Be careful."
"You're just leaving me?!" she demanded. "She's my daughter too!"
"Momiji, you'll just be in the way," Sakura said harshly, even though all of them knew it was the truth. She was still clumsy and scatterbrained, just like she'd been as a teenager.
Bowing her head in submission, Momiji reluctantly agreed with a nod. "Promise you'll come back to me," she whispered. "And bring out daughter back."
"I will," Kusanagi said as he kissed her on top of her head. Then he bade his family farewell and followed Sakura out into the night. They were both silent as they drove, each lost in their own thoughts. Neither wanted to even think about what might actually be awaiting them.
***
Naya slowly awakened and stifled a cry of pain as all her hurts made themselves known to her. Even opening her eyes was an effort of will and the dim light of the cavern was, for once, a relief. At least she didn't have bright light stabbing down onto her to compact her misery.
She was tied down to a stone slab that, she swore, hadn't been there when she left. Strange gray pillars surrounded her and it seemed that she was somehow weaker. Naya pulled at the ropes to test them, but they held strong, the knots unbearably tight.
"I see you're awake," Murakumo sneered as he sat gazing at her.
"What's your damned point?" she spat, too hurt, and tired to care if she was provoking him or not. Not that it mattered at all. She'd be dead soon enough, if he had anything to say about it.
'You've been asleep for quite some time. Long enough for Kusanagi and that annoying bitch to find us. I'm actually surprised it took them so little time. Humans are usually predictable in their naivete. Most wouldn't even have bothered looking back in my old lair. Most would have been looking in other caverns."
"You underestimate my father," Naya told him fiercely. Surprise and rage flickered across her old masters face for a moment before he smoothed it back into a mask of utter calm.
"So you've learned about your past. Interesting. How does it feel knowing that you killed people that were practically your family? Does it feel good to have their blood staining your hands? Are you looking forward to your trip to hell?"
Naya thought about not dignifying the comment with an answer but then she felt herself slipping back into the oblivion of sleep and decided that talking with him was better than loosing consciousness. "You want to know how it feels, but I doubt you'd ever understand. Even before I killed the TAC I was sickened. Sickened by all the deaths you had me cause, for no reason other than to learn how best to kill someone. The TAC was just the next step.
"I killed them one by one, but I killed them swiftly and caused them the least amount of pain that I could, but I doubt anything could redeem me. It doesn't matter now anyway. Done is done and we can't change it. The only thing I take pride in is the fact that I was crying every time I killed _anyone_, and questioning just why the hell I had to do it. _And_ I was sick every time afterwards. I guess that proves that I could never be a murderer like you. As for hell? What are you speaking of? I'm already in hell."
"I very much doubt that!" Murakumo yelled, seeming to loose all his sanity at once. "Hell I having your plans foiled by an imperfect soul, who can't even beat you without an eighth matama. Hell is having to hide yourself underground for nineteen years before you can exact your revenge. Hell is having to raise an obnoxious soul as imperfect as the Kushinada's." He stopped and drew a deep breath, trying fruitlessly to collect himself.
"Wow, its as easy as all that? Interesting," Naya taunted. She was rewarded with a heavy blow to her ribs. All of her breath was driven from her lungs by the force of the impact and blood flecks sprayed from her mouth and onto her captor. As she struggled for air Murakumo calmly wiped them off his face.
"Don't taunt me you little - Ah, it seems that your rescuers have finally arrived. I think I'll let them say their good-byes before I kill you." With that, he seemed to vanish, but only after duck taping her mouth closed.
"Naya? Naya?! Are you here?" Kusanagi called as he came running into the underground cave. Naya glimpsed him through a gap in the pillars but was helpless to stop him. She tried to cry out, but couldn't.
"There!" Sakura yelled, pointing towards her. They both ran to her side and proceeded to untie her. She thrashed and tried to hit them, drive them away from her, but they didn't seem to understand. "Naya, its okay, its us, not Murakumo," the other woman tried to sooth her. Naya shook her head violently but it was no use. When finally both hands were free she reached up and peeled off her gag.
"You fools! It's a trap! Do you really think he'd let you off this easily?!" Both adults went on guard, not even having thought about it. They'd been too intent on saving their charge to worry about traps.
"Silly, imperfect souls. The girl is right. You're all hopelessly rusty. Not enough trouble in the upper-world? Well, that can be fixed," Murakumo's voice echoed through the cavern. Soon after he appeared off to their left.
"You bastard!" Kusanagi yelled as he launched himself at his opponent.
"No! You idiot! You'll never beat him alone!" Naya screamed. Sakura started to move forward but she stopped her. "No! We need to work together or we don't have a snowball's chance in the desert!"
Sakura gave her a hard, appraising look before nodding curtly and brandishing one of her famous papers (from god knows where!). Then with another nod they both threw themselves into the fray. Murakumo merely laughed and flew up out of their reach. Kusanagi cursed and tried to follow but knew he couldn't.
"Die aragami scum!" Sakura yelled, throwing her paper. Their foe merely batted it away like he would a fly. Sakura stood stunned. It wasn't often something was more powerful than her wards.
"This is a pathetic waste of my time," Murakumo scoffed. "Can't you do any better?"
"Father, take my hand," Naya commanded, holding her hand towards Kusanagi without looking at him. He took it and instantly it felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. His feet left the ground effortlessly and he grinned wickedly. This was even easier with Naya than it had ever been with Momiji. Maybe because she'd had lots of practice?
"Interesting choice," Murakumo said as he watched them raise. As they quickly drew nearer to him he made a show of yawning and then dove past them towards the other woman.
"No, Sakura!" Kusanagi yelled as he quickly turned, hoping to intercept. Fear bubbled up inside him as he realized that it was already too late. Murakumo had already deployed his sword-like blade and a few scant feet from his friend. She screamed and tried to throw herself aside but he was quicker. His sword bit into her body cruelly and her eyes grew wide with pain. She clutched at his arm in vain, trying to deny her fate even as her lifeblood rushed from the sound in her stomach.
"No!" Naya screamed as she watched the older woman be lifted a few feet of the ground before her master lowered his blade contemptuously. The wet sound of her sliding off it made the two in the air sick, but the fallen woman smiled a humorless smile as she hit the ground.
"What's-" Kusanagi started to say when Murakumo suddenly yelled in pain. He slapped at the seal that his victim had laid on him, but in vain. It seemed to fuse with his skin and _grow_.
"How dare you!" he bellowed as he landed next to her.
"Payback's a bitch, asshole, and so am I," Sakura spat before a coughing fit overtook her. Blood dribbled down the side of her chin and she gasped for air. "Finish him now Kusanagi!" she yelled.
"What about you?" Naya demanded, even as her father hastened them to do as she'd bid.
"I'm dying, but I've got no regrets," she told them defiantly. "I got exactly what I deserved." Then her head lolled to the side and she stilled.
"You'll pay!" Kusanagi screamed at Murakumo as they charged him. Both of them deployed their blades, careful not to hurt each other, and gave a battle cry.
"You'll never win!" their opponent yelled as he stood to face them. Already he was weak, but he had one last card to play and he used it, even as their blades cut into his body. "Naya, receive your punishment now," he whispered as he fell.
"What is he doing?" Kusangi wondered aloud as they landed. Naya beside him looked on curiously, wondering what he'd mean. Then all the color drained out of her face and she clutched at her chest in pain.
"No! STOP!!" she screamed as she writhed on the ground. Kusanagi heard a crack and looked over to see Murakumo holding the nearly shattered remains of her third matama. The only thing that had saved it was his death, right before it entirely broke.
"Naya, what's happening?!" he demanded as he tried to hold her still.
"It hurts, it hurts," she whimpered.
"Naya, what did he do?!"
"MY SOUL!" she screamed, her voice echoing off the vastness of the space around them. "He broke my soul. I am aragami."
"But you're human!" Kusanagi yelled, refusing to believe it. He went over to pick up the fragile blue seed and Naya let out another piercing scream as soon as he touched it.
"Finish me! I'm begging you, please! Kill me!"
"There has to be a way," he said desperately, kneeling down beside her.
"Let her go, Kusanagi," Sakura muttered from her spot a few feet away. "She's caught between two worlds and its killing her anyway."
"I thought you were dead," he snapped, ungratefully.
"Not yet. It'll take a little more to kill me, but not much. Besides, I hurt to damned much to be dead. Soon though. Maybe I can redeem myself now."
"Hurry up and tell me!" he said, noticing her voice growing faint.
"Hurts too much to talk. Must heal seed."
"HOW?!" he demanded as Naya convulsed and he was forced to hold her down.
"By killing her."
"NO!"
"YES!!!" Naya screamed simultaneously with him.
"Can be reborn. Must die but. reborn." Sakura went limp again, this time for good. Her breath left her body as peace descended on her.
"What do you mean?!" he yelled, helpless for the first time in a long time.
"KILL ME!" Naya screamed again. "Finish me, PLEASE!!" She made a slow grab for the matama but Kusanagi held it out of her reach.
"I won't kill you! I'm going to save you!"
"You're acting no better than him," she whispered as she convulsed again. It took all of his strength to hold her down. "Kill me, I'm begging you. Be my father and kill me."
Kusanagi felt peace also descend on him. Knowing he had no other choice he set the seed down and raised his blade high. Naya opened her eyes and watched the blades descent. It struck her chest and she gasped, but the pain was no worse than what she was already feeling. Then it sought out and found her heart.
"Thank you," she told him, using the last of her strength to reach up and touch his face. "Thank you daddy. I'll see you when I wake."
She smiled, even as tears ran down his cheeks, and then she died. Blood pooled upon the cavern floor and he knelt in it, weeping for the things that would have been, that could have been. The things that had been heartlessly wrestled from him again. It all flashed through his mind as he realized that he'd lost her twice.
~*~
"Kusanagi?" Momiji exclaimed when she heard the car pull back up. She went sprinting out the door but stopped when he stepped out of the car. She looked into his eyes and he shook his head. Her face went pale and she closed her eyes, but nodded bravely. "And Sakura?" Again her husband shook his head.
"So many lives lost for a hopeless cause," she said, letting her eyes spill over.
"Naya!!" Shen and Aiko yelled as they came rushing down the stairs to see their older sister. Momiji immediately grabbed both of them and knelt down to take them in her arms. They struggled to get away, not understanding their mother's behavior.
"Where's Naya? Didn't daddy bring her back?" Shen demanded.
"Your daddy did bring her back, but." Momiji trailed off, trying to think of an easy way to tell them.
"She's dead, Shen," Kusanagi told them quietly. "And so is Sakura."
"But we already knew that," Aiko told him. "The bad man is dead also."
"What?" Kusanagi demanded, looking into his daughter's catlike eyes. The same eyes that Naya had had. He could have sworn her eyes had been a normal blue the day before, and Shen's a normal green.
"We felt her die. Mommy did too, but she didn't know it," Shen told him, glancing toward his big sister for confirmation. She nodded her answer.
"How?"
"Our souls," both children told him.
"What are you talking about?" Momiji demanded, clutching at her lone matama. Shen just reached up and touched her hand.
"Bring them inside," Aiko told him, acting ten times more mature than she should. "I'll set blankets out for them." Then she hurried to do just that. Kusanagi brought both women inside and laid them out so they could be cleaned up. Shen and Aiko stayed out of the room at their parents bidding.
"Kusanagi, this wound is too big to have come from his blade," Momoji said as she cleaned the wound in Naya's chest, not needing to explain who "his" was.
"No, it came from mine. I killed her, Momiji. She begged me to kill her and I couldn't refuse."
"What happened to her?" Momiji asked calmly. She knew he wouldn't have killed her had something terrible not happened. Kusanagi merely pulled the shattered seed from his pocket and placed it on the table. She looked at him and her eyes showed their understanding. "Tell me how?"
Kusanagi related the tale, leaving out none of the gory details. He even told how their daughter had begged for her life to end, and exactly what Sakura had said. They both puzzled over it until they heard the door open and their children come in. The grisly work was mostly done by then so they did not rebuke them.
"Mom has something to tell you," Shen told him. Momiji's eyes flew to look at him, then back to her husband and back. "How did you--?"
"Naya told us."
"What?" Kusanagi wanted to know.
"I'm going to have a baby," Momiji told him after a moment. "I didn't want to tell you until this was over."
"Momiji," he gasped.
"Its not going to be like us though," Aiko told them. "Naya said that it doesn't have a soul like ours."
"What are you talking about?" Kusanagi finally demanded. Shen and Aiko looked at each other before shrugging. Then Shen pulled up his shirt to reveal a matama sitting on his chest, right over a patch of scar tissue.
"You always wondered what the scars were from," Aiko told them. "Naya said that someone in the hospital cut off our souls before you saw us, and gave them to the bad man. She gave them back to us a little while ago."
"And the baby-"
Kusanagi smiled to himself and shook his head. "She knew. She knew it was going to happen. Who knows how, but she knew."
"Why do you say that?" Momoji asked him.
"She may not have known how she was going to die until it happened, but she was smiling when she died. She told me with her last breath, 'I'll see you when I wake'."
"Oh." his wife gasped, putting a hand over her mouth. "That means."
"Baby's don't have souls until their born," Shen told her.
"And you have Naya's soul right there." Aiko added.
"Well," Kusanagi said, bowing to inevitable fate, "I guess her name is going to be Naya." Momiji smiled sadly and nodded.
On the table, the blue seed winked in the light, but something had changed. No one noticed it but slowly the cracks started to heal themselves and had anyone looked hard enough, they would have seen the reflection of a baby's smile.
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Dream Keeper: Well, that sucked. I don't like the ending, but I swore to myself that I WOULD finish it. So here it is, months (years?) late.
Christa: I QUIT! I'm never touching this one again so don't even ask! *glares at the fans*
Dream Keeper: Anyway, there's food waiting up in the kitchen for us so we'd better go before the 'rents decide to delete this.
Christa: FOOD!!!!!!!!!! FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD!!!!!
Dream Keeper: Okay, calm down and finish!
Christa: *sigh* Okay, hope you liked it. Please R&R which means read AND REVIEW!!!!! Thanx. Now lets go get FOOD!!!!!
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