Author's Note: And once more, we go on another ride-on-the-seat-of-my-pants adventure in the world of not-quite-X. Due to popular demand for a pairing (one person mentioned it, which is really more than I can ask for, since I'm using Original Characters), I've done a little re-writing... you may be able to tell, you may not.
As always, reading and reviewing is much appreciated.

Larania: You'll just have to wait and see, ne? *smiles* Not to worry, #8 isn't far off, now.

Vee-sempai: I'm glad you like my story so much. It warms the cockles of my heart (a word I can't say without giggling ^_^). You see, unlike the CLAMP characters, not everyone involved here has a copy of "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Apocalypse". *grins*

Liviania: Yes, slimy green things. Frogs, turtles, snakes, algae, etc.

Plastraa: It's good to see that my sad attempts to be funny have been appreciated by some. *grins*

Bob the Almighty: I hope you like what I have done with it. Once I redo the chapters in html the formatting will be better.

Bakamegami-sama: Of course you still get a cookie! (grins and hands you a whole batch of chocolate chip cookies) Enjoy! And enjoy the next chapter. Sorry I took forever to update!

Now, on to the story.


Man, Yayoi thought to herself, that was certainly unnecessarily dramatic. Hmm... I've already got my tarot card and I'm still alive... That's a good sign. These were the thoughts going through Yayoi Shirou's head as she watched the scene play out before her. Then another thought struck her.
Tarot cards? What am I talking about? She then banished the thoughts from her head, attempting not to think about why she connected this whole situation with tarot cards.

Kyougo looked up to his daughter and her friend.
"It has started... The first arrow, signaling... the End... Kaoru... You are... Ka...mui's..."

Oh crap, the sophomore thought to herself, meanwhile blatantly breaking the fourth wall, The fic's skipping... Oh, well. Better ride it out. I hope it doesn't do this too much...

Kyougo turned to his daughter, Kaoru's best friend, saying, "...Ka...mu...i You must... take back... the... Holy Mallet... A Kekkai... Before... the... Se...ven Seals... are... destroyed. The Seven Angels..."

Yayoi began to file her nails, waiting for the repeat flashback to end... And then realized it was already over. "Woot!" she cheered to herself.

In another area of the shrine...
"Sayuri, listen to me," said Kaoru, her face still blotchy from crying. "Father died in the shrine. Some crazy bint after the sword came in and shot him, then stole the sword."
Sayuri stared blankly at her and then burst into melodramatic tears. "Oh, father," she wailed, "How I will miss you! And we barely got to know one another! WAAAAAAHHHHH!"
It suddenly struck Kaoru that... "Uh, Sayuri? Of course we knew him. He was our dad. And he wasn't *that* distant from us."
"Oh," said the blonde, "That must have been one of my other death speeches."
Kaoru stared. "You had them prepared??" she said incredulously.
"Well, you know what they say," Sayuri shrugged, "'Be prepared.'"
Kaoru sighed. This was going to be a long night.
Suddenly, Sayuri thought of something, which was a miracle in it's own right. "Hey," she said, startling her already-shocked sister, "Do you think this has anything to do with that woman who wasn't mom but looked a whole lot like her who exploded in our house that one time and left the sword?"
The older girl stared in shock at her sister. "Idiot savant," she muttered to herself in reference to the odd girl that was her younger sister.

Under the Diet Building...
"Oh great," Tenshi the ornery yumemi muttered to herself, "Another one. At least 'Kamui's' not here this time." Figuring it was the best course of action, she stared straight ahead and waited for the visions to come assaulting her brain once more.
Finally, she saw what appeared at first glance to be an egg, but upon closer inspection, turned out to be an egg-shaped mirror. In it was the Shinkakeya.
"I still can't get over the fact that it's a mallet," she said to herself, "Why couldn't it have been something more traditional, like a sword?"
Then she turned around and saw the other mallet.
"Oh, wonderful. Two of them. That's all we need. And I'll betcha there's another Kamui to go with it. God, this job sucks some days..."
Sure enough, two of the girl called Yayoi appeared with the mallets.
"*sigh* Thought so. She looks cool with wings, though, I've gotta admit..."

"Ow! Son of a bitch!" the yumemi yelled out in her head. "Damn dreams..."
She sighed deeply and said, "Hey, Touya? You want to go get Mayuko and Kyou? Tell Mayuko the Mallet's been stolen. I think Kyouichirou already knows, though, so don't bother with him."

Under the Government Building...
Ayase meandered over to the fourteen-year-old Overlord/yumei stand-in. "What's up, Mai? You don't look too healthy, right there," he said off-handedly. Mai-Yu frowned at him and said, "No kidding. The Shinkakeya's been stolen."
"That sucks," said Ayase, "D'you think the kid I met got it?" Naru rolled her eyes as she walked in, flipping her braid over one shoulder. "Of course not," she said haughtily, "the guy you talked to is a visitor from Kouyasan who got in contact with Tenshi."
Mai-Yu looked at Naru and said, "Kouysan, huh? How funny. It's a holy place, you know."
Ayase blinked and said, "You mean they've been hiding a Seal?"
Mai-Yu nodded. "Yup."
Ayase looked mildly interested and said, "Who'd have thought? He's a priest."
The Chinese yumemi stand in looked at Naru and said, "You want to track that mallet for me?"
Naru shrugged. "Sure, why not? I could try."
Mai-Yu shook her head. It was ridiculous. It seemed like all of the Angels were completely lazy and didn't care a whit about it. She was cursed, she just knew it.

In the yard outside the Monou house...
Kyouichirou looked over at Yayoi, who was staring blankly into space, apparently bored out of her mind now that all the excitement for the last couple of days was over.
"Yayoi," he said quietly. When she didn't acknowledge him, he spoke a little louder, "Yayoi!" The young woman continually refused to look up. Kyouichirou suspected that she was thinking about Kyougo and how he had died. His suspicions would be wrong. She had actually fallen asleep with her eyes open. Considering that she hadn't gotten any sleep the other night, it wasn't really that surprising.
"Kamui!" Kyouichirou said sharply.
Yayoi blinked awake and said, "Yayoi. What is it? Sorry, I was asleep."
Kyouichirou sighed. Naturally, he thought to himself. "It has started at last. The final battle with the Earth at stake."
"Well, duh," Yayoi pointed out.
Kyouichirou sighed. She was going to be difficult to deal with. "The Hoshimi of Kouya already knew the mallet was going to be stolen. It's why he sent me here. The priest was killed in order to take the Shinkakeya. The thief was one of the Seven Angels. When you see the sword again, it will have changed its appearance. That's what the Hoshimi said."
Yayoi contemplated this for a moment. Then she said, "An Angel stole the sword, huh? Well, I'll just have to do something about it, won't I?"
Kyouichirou smiled slightly. She was proving much less resistant to this whole thing than he had earlier expected. He was glad. "The fate of the world rests on your slender shoulders, Kamui," Kyouichirou said solemnly.
The young girl rolled her eyes and said, "Look. If you people don't start calling me Yayoi, I won't save the world. I just let the whole thing explode, or whatever it plans to do."
Kyouichirou raised and eyebrow and said, "Uh... huh." Yayoi sighed and said, "Okay, okay... I'm not the type. I am the type to make empty threats, however."
Suddenly, a woman with long, dark hair walked up behind Kyouichirou, startling him when she spoke. "I agree," she said, making the young priest jump slightly and turn around.
"Who- ?" Kyouichirou said.
"How gallant you are, boys," Tokiko Magami smiled.
"Boys?" Yayoi said, confused. Kyouichirou just shrugged at her.
Finally, Yayoi ventured a guess, saying timidly, "You're the school..."
Tokiko nodded. "Yes. I'm the teacher in the Medical Room where you carried Monou-san."
Kyouichirou cocked his head slightly and said, "You carried someone to the medical room?" Yayoi shook her head no.
Suddenly, Tokiko began speaking again, without warning or provocation. "You still don't remember? Can't you recognize my face? Kamui."
Yayoi looked at her blankly, then shook her head. " Yayoi. Sorry," she said, "Doesn't ring a bell."
"At last," Tokiko said, loking relieved and smiling warmly, "You remember."
This caused the high school girl to flat-out stare at the woman. "What's up with this lady?" she said to Kyouichirou. Kyouichirou, who was staring blankly at Tokiko himself, just shrugged.
"If that was true, Kamui would have been born when I was fourteen," Tokiko chuckled, looking at Kyouichirou. This bewildered both of the students. Yayoi remarked, "It's like she's talking to someone else!"
"Your only relative, Kamui," Tokiko said solemnly.
Yayoi, completely lost, just decided to sit back and listen until the woman who was obviously a complete nutter began to talk again.
"You're cold," Tokiko said. What? Yayoi thought. This was about her sum total of thoughts on the subject at this point.
"It seems like there are a great many things you two want to hear. Especially Kamui."
Yayoi, who was just sitting back and watching the show, said, "Trust me, you have no idea."
"My name is Tokiko Magami," the woman said, "I am the public-health doctor at the school you transferred to. However... My older sister's name is Touru. Your mother, Kamui Shirou."
"Oooooohhh..." Yayoi and Kyouichirou said in unison. "You could have just said that," Yayoi added to her newfound aunt who was obviously crazy as a loon.
"Yes. 'His Aunt' you were going to say," said Tokiko.
"This is getting more incomprehensible by the moment," Yayoi remarked.
"'Never told you about it', perhaps?" Tokiko said with an amused gleam in her eye. Yayoi sighed and looked at Kyouichirou. He shook his head and settled himself on the ground, gesturing for her to join him. Yayoi sat down next to him.
"The last time I saw my sister, I was still in middle school. You were not yet born. Right after she graduated from high school, she disappeared from the Magami household. Right. Your mother's maiden name was Magami. "Shin" of "Shinjistsu", "Kami" of "Kamisama"."
Yayoi continued to watch the woman speak nonsense to them, and then turned to her new friend and said, "Have you ever heard of a Magami clan?"
"Oh, yeah," Kyouichirou said thoughtfully, "I'll tell you about them later, if Miss Loony-Bin Japan doesn't first."
"If you know the name Magami, you aren't an amateur, are you? Touru-neesan never spoke of the Magami family, did she? Kamui. Have you ever heard anything concerning you father? It figures. She died without saying anything, even to her own son. Kamui. In the dead of night, the day before she vanished, she said this to me: 'I bear the child of a man. This is a child I bear for the sake of the Earth,' she said."
"You want to get a soda?" Yayoi said to Kyouichirou.

Under the Diet Building...
"Someone stole the damn thing! If I know my luck, it was probably one of the Seven Angels," Tenshi muttered angrily. She sighed, releasing a small fraction of the immense pent-up anger she carried with her wherever she went. Not that she traveled much, as a general rule. "At least Kyouichirou is with Kamui-who-is-called-Yayoi."
Mayuko nodded, "You're right. So, I should probably go make sure the little girl doesn't get herself killed, huh?"
Tenshi grinned and nodded at her. "You got it, babe," she said, "Now get moving."

When Mayuko got near the shrine, she saw...
"That's funny," she said to herself, "You feel odd. You're shiki, huh?" She said this with a rare smile. "Well, I guess I'll have to fight you- in a kekkai, of course. Wouldn't want to hurt any mortals."
She smiled and raised her kekkai, which unfurled in the shape of a rectangular pyramid.
Suddenly she looked over and saw...
"A mortal!" Mayuko said, shocked, "He entered my kekkai and saw the shiki, and he's not even surprised! Who is he?"
A blast of wind dispelled the shiki, and the ice sprite looked at the adult male human with obvious suspicion. The man smiled warmly at her and said, "Of course they were shiki. This is a very nice kekkai, young lady. I don't think mine is quite up this quality."
"You're a Seal," Mayuko pointed out blandly.
"Excellent deduction, young lady," the man with light brown hair and glasses smiled at the ice sprite.

Back at the Togakushi Shrine, Kyouichirou was slumped forward, fast asleep, with Yayoi leaning back against the tree with her mouth open, drooling slightly in her sleep. Suddenly, the "Kamui" woke with a start and muttered, "Hey, Kyouichirou..."
"Huh?" the elder student muttered incoherently, but woke up and glanced at Yayoi. Finally, he said, "What is it?"
Yayoi shook her head and replied, "I'm not quite sure. It's like my ears are ringing, but not." It was then that Kyouichirou looked up to see the top of a kekkai overhead.
"There's your problem. We're in a kekkai. We must have fallen asleep when it was set up."
"Please return. When you return I'll tell you about your mother. About the Magami family," Tokiko was saying.
Yayoi, who was far past realizing the fact that Tokiko was not, in fact, hearing her, said, "Yeah right, you creepy bint. I'll let you babble to yourself on your own time."
"Besides," Pointed out Kyouichirou, "We're not going anywhere."

Elsewhere, near the Togakushi Shrine...
Suddenly, the man looked down at his beeper and said, "Oops! A call. I'm sorry, young lady, but we'll have to talk later. I have to get back to the school."
Mayuko's curiosity was piqued for once, and she said, "School?"
"Oh, yes. I'm a teacher!" the man said in a rather polite manner, "My name is Fujitaka Kinomoto. I'm sure I'll see you later, young lady. Goodbye!" And with that, the man left her standing there thinking, Fujitaka Kinomoto...Like Touya Kinomoto?
Just then, Kyouichirou came up behind Mayuko.
"Hi, Mayuko," he said rather off-handedly.
Mayuko turned slightly, just enough to see him, then said, "Hi, Arisugawa. This Kamui?"
"Yayoi," Yayoi and Kyouichirou said in unison.
"I see," said Mayuko.
"Hey," Yayoi said, "You're that one girl who was with the scary guy, right? I didn't catch your name."
"I'm Mayuko," the ice sprite nodded, "and I'm sure you know Kyouichirou by now. I was coming here to see you."
"Oh," Yayoi said, then something reminded her... "Why was that guy chasing me?"
"Oh, you mean Touya. He was just trying to test you, to see if you were really the 'Kamui'."
"Ah, I see," Yayoi said. Kyouichirou's eyes took on a slightly amused look, and said, "Do you want to go look for that Tokiko woman, Yayoi?"
Yayoi's eyes grew wide in horror, then she sighed and slumped, "I think we have to. I need to find out more."
Kyouichirou, surprised by her assent blinked, and then said, "Well, let's go to her house, then."
With that, they set off toward the insane woman's house. The fact that they didn't know where it was a minor detail. They just knew somehow. Besides, she had, at some point during her one-sided conversation, mentioned the house, we're sure.
When they got there, it was pretty much burned to a cinder.
"Well," Yayoi said mildly, "That sucks. I wonder if she was inside?"

Elsewhere, in Kaoru's head...
The young woman looked around the black landscape, if it could really be called that, at a loss for what to do.
"What a strange dream," she remarked. She looked up, and saw a ball floating in front of her. Inside of was a young Chinese girl in a school uniform.
"Hi," said the girl, "I'm Mai-Yu."
"Uh." Kaoru said, ever so eloquently.
"I know who you are. You're Kaoru, ne? Well, nice to meet you. D'you wanna save the world?"
"Uh." Kaoru repeated.
Mai-Yu proceeded to follow union rules and showed Kaoru similar memories that were so very similar to Yayoi's that they did not bear repeating. Except of course for the bit where Kyougo said, "Kaoru...You are Kamui's..." This caused Kaoru to smack the globe in front of her, thinking that the fic was skipping again.
"This could be the future, you know. All your friends could die. It would suck major portions of ass, let me tell you. But you... You can stop this from happening, Kaoru," Mai-Yu recited her lines wearily.
"How?" Kaoru said.
"Well, you've gotta choose. To save your sister- and the Earth- you've gotta kill Kamui," Mai-Yu said mechanically.
"Yeah, right. Kill Yayoi. You're bug-nuts, you know that?" Kaoru said.
"For taking this job in lieu of being an Evil Overlord? Yes, I am," sighed Mai-Yu.

To be Continued...