Disclaimer: Even if I dress up as Kamui, that still doesn't mean that I hold anything over CLAMP… ^^;;

Twin Star

Part 3

"Ne, Nibai-chan, what're you doing?"

Long dark hair fell over her shoulder as she looked up; her best friend Miki was peering over her windowsill, holding himself there by his elbows.

"Packing, baka," she said, tossing a pillow in his direction. He grinned and swatted it aside, thereby losing his grip on the windowsill and crashing to the ground outside. Nibai laughed to herself, knowing he'd be back in a manner of seconds. She was right; an instant later he had clamored fully into the room and was sitting on her bed beside a pile of manga and schoolbooks. Oddly enough, the manga looked to be in better shape than the texts.

"You going somewhere?" Miki asked, watching over her shoulder as she tossed a few of her school uniforms into the small suitcase. "You never go anywhere - where're you going?"

She turned, grinning like a madwoman, and spread her arms wide. "Tokyo!" She had resolved that if she was going to leave, she was going to leave, and she might as well be excited about it.

Never mind that it meant leaving her best friend behind. Of course, she'd come back on holidays and whatnot, and there was no reason he couldn't visit her.

That was what she told herself, at least.

Miki could only blink for a moment, before falling back onto the bed in a laughing fit.

"You? Tokyo?" he choked out. "Why the hell is she letting you go to Tokyo? What, you get accepted into that prissy CLAMP School or somethin'?" His laughter subsided and he lay on her bed, staring at her ceiling, the rough wooden boards staring right back at him.

Nibai's face appeared, blocking out the slats. "As a matter of fact, I have," she sniffed, but it was only mock hurt, because he could see her smile twitching beneath the mask of offense. And her dark eyes were still as excited as ever.

"You're leaving…"

"Today. At three."

"Three? Hasn't she ever heard of advance notice?"

Nibai laughed a little. "Her? Think again. You'll come visit, right?"

"Hell yes."

"Good."

"Huh," was all he said, after a moment. Nibai continued packing, humming as she went, throwing more things into the suitcase without really bothering to fold them.

"Man, if she's gonna try and marry you off there, good luck to her," Miki commented, watching her out of the corner of his eye.

"Marry?" Nibai snorted, turning to face him. "I pity the poor boy who'd actually want to marry me!" She tossed her unkempt hair and did a small twirl, much to Miki's amusement.

Miki glanced down at his watch as their laughter died down, and suddenly he fell silent.

"Ne, what is it?" Nibai asked, tossing a few more things into the suitcase.

"It's almost three now," Miki said, all notes of amusement gone from his voice. He looked up at her, and his expression was suddenly more pleading than she'd ever seen it before.

"You're really leaving," he said, not so much a question as a statement. "Today, right now."

She nodded, trying not to lose her good mood, because she knew how terrible she would feel if she let it really sink in.

"Hai. But, like I said, you'll come visit."

Miki nodded. "Yeah… but still…"

Silence fell, with the two of them merely looking at one another, wondering what it would be like to lose their respective best friend in the next few minutes.

She and Miki were still both lost in silence when there was a stern knock at the door; silence fell as Yui-san opened the door an instant later, her face set in its usual mask of discipline.

"Sato-san," she said, looking at the boy seated on the bed.

Miki waved weakly.

She paid no more attention to him than that, for she turned to Nibai and said, "It is time to leave. Your things are packed?" She cast a glance at the messily-packed suitcase and heaved a sigh. To her credit, however, she said nothing.

She stepped forward, placing a withered and weather-tanned hand on the side of Nibai's face. "This is more important than you know. You understand, Nibai."

Nibai could do nothing but nod; the look on the old woman's face - that look of foreboding and reluctance - was back. She could practically feel the stars watching her, although it was late afternoon and they still lay far below the horizon, shrouded in summer haze.

"Then go. And I will deal with Sato-san."

Nibai turned and snapped the suitcase shut, casting a long glance at her best friend of more years than she could remember.

"Goodbye, Miki-kun," she said, her voice heavy - nearly as heavy as the old woman's, and somehow sounding distinctly unlike her own.

"Goodbye," Miki replied, his voice barely filling the air between them. There was something more to this - something more than Nibai's acceptance into CLAMP School - if that was even really why she was leaving in the first place. Although she had never once lied to him, Miki somehow couldn't believe that was why she was leaving. Not with the atmosphere here and now, weighing the room down like a thick blanket threatening to smother them all.

No, there was something more.

Nibai turned and left soundlessly, and Miki was left alone in the room with the stargazer.

* * *

Tokyo was huge. It was bigger than even she had expected – then again, never having left her own tiny town of origin, she had nothing with which to compare it. The buildings loomed endlessly above her as she wandered the crowded streets, shaded from the midday sun by the endless stalls lining each side of the street. She glanced at what they had to offer now and again, but seeing as her pocketbook was rather bare after paying for her new school uniforms and books, she preferred to browse rather than buy. She had arrived apparently in the middle of one of CLAMP school's infamous festivals; it even spilled out past the borders of the campus and into the streets of the city around it. Of course, no one seemed to mind, and Nibai had actually managed to wander quite far off campus before the stalls finally began to thin.

She had spent all of yesterday and a good chunk of this morning taking care of everything at CLAMP school – her tuition, living arrangements, school supplies, and the like. She was roomed (somewhat conveniently) by herself in a quiet section of the girls' dormitory; although the room was a bit small it had a lovely view, overlooking the park that composed the exact center of the CLAMP Campus. There was a gorgeous fountain that had put her right to sleep last night, the gentle rushing of water singing her to sleep.

Now she began wandering the streets of the city in earnest, finally finding herself near a beautiful park overrun with large, heavily blooming sakura trees. She was glad that the weather had finally cleared up – much of the morning there had been nothing but heavy, cold drops of rain pouring down from the sky. But now, only a few hours later, the sky was a piercing, clear blue with barely a cloud in sight. The perfect weather for taking a walk through a breathtaking park like this.

There were quaint little paths cut through the trees and brushes and she followed one, letting her mind wander, blinking at the early afternoon sun through the pink petals that seemed to comprise the air around her. The scent was nearly unbearable – she had never been around so many flowering sakura in all her life.

It reminded her of a dream, and she glanced down at her hand. Nothing.

She fell under the shade of another of the trees, clasping her hands behind her head and looking up into its branches as she passed. This one was the biggest yet; she paused to admire its beauty as its fragrant pink petals fluttered down past her nose, coating the path beneath her feet in a blanket of flowers.

It's you, I knew you would come…

Nibai whirled around, sure she had heard a voice, looking around for the person that had just spoken. But there was no one, save the few people strolling about, and not one of them was close enough for her to have heard their voice.

I see what you're here to do, but it's not what you think…

"Hello?" she called into the storm of petals, searching for someone, perhaps hiding –

She swung around the side of the tree and stopped short, face-to-face with a man. He was dressed in all black, despite the warm temperature, and wearing sunglasses that revealed nothing of his expression as he looked calmly down at her. His perfect skin was marred only by a small, pale scar running along his left cheekbone. He was smoking a cigarette, the smoke curling in tendrils and floating placidly upwards in the light breeze that was ruffling his dark hair.

"Oh – I'm sorry," Nibai bowed, her cheeks burning. "I thought I heard someone."

The voice she had heard had been a woman's voice – a young woman, possibly not much older than she. Whoever it had been, it had not been this man.

"Did you?" he asked, removing the cigarette from his mouth and blowing the smoke upward. It mingled with the sakura blossoms before disappearing into the sky.

"I… I must have been hearing things. Sumimasen," she said, bowing again. She turned on her heel and began walking away, suddenly wanting to put as much distance between herself and that man as possible. He gave her the creeps, as though she'd seen him before but she couldn't place where. She shivered, suddenly cold, but tossed her hair over her shoulder and slowed down a bit, heading for the entrance to the park. Once out on the street again, she heaved a small sigh of relief, shaking her head.

"Some people…" she muttered to herself, before setting off through the streets once more, intent on doing some sightseeing to forget the strange feelings still trying to stir in the pit of her stomach.

But three blocks later, she realized that he was following her. Oh, he was being discreet – so discreet that she was amazed that she did notice he was trailing her. But he was. And that bothered her. Immensely.

Of course, letting him know that she was aware of his presence was exactly the wrong thing to do; still, it was very difficult to continue on as if she were oblivious to him, slowly but surely tracing her steps.

She wandered through Tokyo, feeling rather annoyed that she couldn't enjoy the sights because of the dark shadow tailing her. But her gut was leading her somewhere – she could feel her feet taking steps as if of their own volition, and she had learned to trust her gut, because it was most often the stars speaking to her behind the blue haze of the daytime sky. So when she stepped onto the sidewalk across one of countless streets and suddenly realized the man following her had not crossed the street behind her, she silently thanked whatever had led her here.

"Yo."

She looked up; she saw a boy who looked not much older than herself, dressed in a t-shirt and cargo pants, a baseball cap perched precariously on his head among unkempt black hair. He seemed friendly enough, grinning widely as he looked down at her, hands in his pockets. The high school girl she'd seen with him, clothed in a simple red school uniform – all she could tell was that it wasn't CLAMP's – was standing a little behind him, her long black hair blowing in the wind, her face impassive, her dark eyes studying Nibai intently.

"Hi there," she said, returning his smile although she was still a little wary. These people were giving her the same kind of feeling that the man she had just "escaped" had. It wasn't exactly the same kind of feeling, but it was too similar for her own comfort.

"Ne, cutie, what's your name? I'm Sorata - Arisugawa Sorata," he said genially, bowing slightly.

There wasn't much else she could do. "Imagawa Nibai," she replied, returning the bow. She straightened and looked up at him; he wasn't bad-looking himself, she thought with a bit of a wicked smile.

"Nice to meetcha," he said, and stepped back so he was standing even with the girl accompanying him. "This is Kishuu Arashi," he said, placing an arm around her shoulders. Arashi gave him a positively withering look before stepping smoothly to the side. This didn't seem to really bother Sorata, however; he just jammed his hand back into his pocket.

"Do I know you?" Nibai ventured to ask after a moment. "I don't think I've seen you before…"

"Iie, you don't, but I'm sure we feel familiar to you, ne?" Sorata asked, shaking his head slightly with his reply.

Nibai blinked, but since he had said exactly what she felt, she nodded. "Yeah, you got that right. Why?"

"We are Dragons of Heaven," Arashi said evenly, looking straight at Nibai with her piercing gaze. "We are the sworn allies of Kamui, and the protectors of humanity. And you are one of us."

Nibai took a moment to let this sink in. Then she let out a low whistle, crossing her arms before her chest. "Wow. Straight to the point. I dreamed of… dragons. Of a battle. Is that what you mean?"

"That is it exactly," Arashi confirmed.

Nibai shook her head slightly, as if all of this would make more sense if the contents were well-mixed. She somehow doubted that, however. But if this was what the stars had meant…

And she had a feeling it was.

"So… I'm a Dragon of Heaven? Who is this Kamui, that you claim I'm a sworn ally to, then?" she asked, when Arashi nodded at her first question.

"Pissy little kid, but he's got a helluva lotta power, and he's the one who's going to fight to save the world as it is in the end," Sorata put in, still grinning madly.

"Huh." She tapped her foot a moment, trying to let what they were saying sink in. "The end – the battle?"

"Hai – look, there's someone who can explain this much better than we can," Sorata said, rubbing the back of his neck. "We were sent here to take you to her, so you can hear her out."

"Please," Arashi said, "listen to her. She will explain things."

Nibai shrugged. "Sounds fine to me. Besides, I get the feeling I don't have much of a choice. And not with him following me."

She inclined her head ever-so-slightly in the direction of the man; he was standing nearly half a block away, concealed in the shadow of one of the buildings. The only indication that he was there at all was the thin wisp of smoke escaping the cigarette between his lips.

"A Dragon of Earth," Arashi growled. "We saw him following you. We didn't want a confrontation, and he doesn't seem to be in the mood. Still, you are right – this gives you little choice, and all we can do is ask you to trust us."

"You can ask," Nibai replied softly, "but I can't promise much past that."

"Hai, hai, we'll talk about this once we get there. You'll see, Hinoto Hime-sama is much better at this explanation thing," Sorata said, pointing out a direction. "This way, it's a bit of walk so we can catch a taxi if you want."

"Sure!" she said, suddenly brightening at the idea. Taxis were still new and fun, and she had a feeling that "new and fun" was not how she was going to describe her life in a few hours' time.

* * *

"This is great, you're gonna get along just fine with everyone, I'm sure – " Sorata paused as he noticed that she was no longer paying attention to him. They'd just barely walked through the doorway to Hinoto's room; Kamui, Yuzuriha, and Karen were crowded around Hinoto herself; Souhi and Hien stood off to the side, as usual. They glanced up at the trio as they entered, but neither did nor said a thing.

"Who's that?" Nibai's jaw had nearly dropped; Sorata had to fight the urge to laugh as he followed her wide-eyed gaze over to the group of people before the princess.

"Ne? Oh, that's Kamui," he said, a note of amusement in his voice.

She gave no sign of having heard that. Rather, she blinked and swallowed.

"God. I'd die for him," she whispered to herself. Sorata, standing immediately beside her, could barely hear her voice. Arashi didn't appear to have heard.

Hinoto gasped.

Souhi and Hien straightened immediately and approached the princess, but she held up a hand as they came towards her.

"She's here," Hinoto's psychic voice rang softly throughout the room. Nibai blinked, caught off-guard as the words inserted themselves directly into her mind, as opposed to through her ears.

Souhi and Hien glanced up and beckoned the group near the door over. Sorata gave Nibai a small shove and he and Arashi trailed her as she walked towards the platform on which Hinoto sat. Nibai was blinking and visibly making an effort to train her attention on the princess. It was almost funny, in a sad sort of way, Sorata realized. Because –

Nibai didn't even know. She didn't know that she was his twin, that her fate… was the same as his. A feeling of cold dread suddenly settled in his stomach, as he realized that she hadn't even meant what she'd said a moment ago literally.

He shook those thoughts away as they stopped before Hinoto; she looked up at Nibai, almost as if she could actually see her. Blind eyes traveled over the girl as if they could see. Beside them, Kamui, Yuzuriha, and Karen were looking at her as well.

Nibai stood beside him, having torn her eyes away from Kamui. She was now looking at Hinoto; after a moment she bowed, her long black hair falling over her shoulders to hide her face momentarily.

"I'm Imagawa Nibai. They tell me," she jerked a hand over in Sorata and Arashi's direction, "that I'm here to help you."