A/N: Cliffhanger! Ahhｼ I really love where we left off last time. Hm I got people saying that Subaru's visitor was Seishirou. Unfortunately right now, it's not・. Enough ranting now. You'll see who it isｼ ^-^
Chapter 6 : In Dreams
I found myself sitting on a smooth, slightly jagged rock overlooking a beach. I found myself scratching my head for a moment, trying to remember exactly where I was. Wasn't I just at the hospital? Panicking slightly, I compared the two places: Beach. Hospital. ;White. Blue. ; quiet. Noisy. For a second, I thought I had been kidnapped, and the it dawned on me.
Obviously, I was in a dream of some sort, but the last time I check my little resume, 'Dreamseer' wasn't listed there. I got up from where I was sitting and surveyed my surroundings for a moment. The dream was so realistic, I could almost smell the scent of the ocean side. Whoever the dream belonged to had to be really skilled.
I then got off the rock and started to walking along the beach, enjoying the sand between my bare toes. I didn't know how long it was since I've been to one. I let my mind wander off a little, thinking about what Seishirou would say about me, running off in the middle of our little 'date' and going to help Kamui. I hoped he wouldn't be mad・
Stopping, I saw a figure in the distance standing high on a cliff ahead, facing the ocean side. I couldn't really see him clearly from where I was standing, but it seemed to be a man. He was- he was・
Rather tall and slender and almost feminine. I walked closer and close, and the stranger turned towards me. He seem to know me, and somehow, he seemed to beckon me only with his eyes.
I climbed to where he was and huffing and puffing, I made my way up to where he was, and sat down, panting next to his feet.
He finally turned towards me and spoke. " So, we finally meet Subaru-san. I am Kakyo, dreamseer of the Dragons of Earth."
I almost gasped, up close, he really did look like a woman. With soft golden eyes and long flowing hair, he practically screamed 'woman'.
I got up and bowed, " Pardon me. Do I know you, Kakyo-san? You seem like you know me・"
He gave me a sad smile, and nodded. " I do, but we've never met... Well, at least face to face. Your sister liked to talk about you."
At this point, I jumped up and interrupted him, "Sumimasen! But you knew Hokuto?!?! Where'd you meet her? Why didn't she ever say anything about you?!?" He looked surprised for a moment, but the expression went off him as quickly as it came.
He smiled at me, but his eyes obviously didn't reflect it. " We've met before in dreams that we shared."
My eyes widened for a second ,and I whispered, "You mean, like how we're talking right now?"
" Yes. But I didn't come to talk to you about that." He reached out and touched my hand, I nearly flinched back at how cold it felt. " Dreamseers are fated to forever dream the future and sleep as it passed by, forever unable to change what is to come. There is no hope, no wish for a different future for us, because we know what we dream will come true."
The scene around us slowly changed, into a one I knew all too well. Sakura blossoms floated down past us and we found ourselves standing not too far away from a lone sakura tree. A single figure, clad in omyoji robes and face shadowed walked determinedly towards a figure hidden in the shadows.
I turned away. I didn't want to see this, didn't want to remember it. I wanted it to be over, I wanted it to be pretend, a single tragic point in a play. Kakyo's facial expression never changed. A sad, longing expression, his eyes forever looking at something in the distance, not seeing the images before him. It was worse than how I probably looked.
The figure emerged from the shadows, a tall, neat man in a business suit. A friendly fake expression plastered on his face as always.
Unconsciously, I found myself whispering, " Seishirou-san ……Seishirou …….."
I grabbed the end of Kakyo's coat, and begged him, " Please. I don't want to see・ I want to forget this. I want to leave this." I knew what happened next. I was nothing but a passerby in this memory, and I had it all engraved into my mind, from the beginning to the end.
The scene returned to what it was before, the ocean side. I touched my face and found tears running down my face.
" You love him don't you? Yet you hate him too." It was more of a statement than a fact. " You want him to see you as a living being, as someone worth something to him. But inside you know he never will."
I froze and blushed, not knowing what to say. Part of me wanted to deny what he said, wanted to continue this facade of pretending to hate him, wanting to kill him. When in fact, something inside me said what I truly wanted was something completely different.
" Why do you wish for something that you can never have? Something that won't ever come true."
I turned towards him, and looked up, directly into his eyes. " Because it's simply human nature to continue to wish for something better in their lives. Even if they know it could never come true, they still wish."
I jumped down from the cliff, onto a ledge below. " I can't help but love and hate him. I'm so confused"
I wiped my face. " But you know we're only human, not perfect, even with all these powers being involved with the end of the world. We're only human. We're born, we live and die I still blame myself for some many things. Such as not being able to save all those people from the devastation at Ikebukuro. Not being able to help all the suffering people in the world. Not being able to save them from their misery and pain. I'm so tired and confused"
I jumped onto the ground and looked across the ocean and into the horizon. I tired to smile, I really did, as the tears began to form in my eyes again. " Maybe I'm simply obsessed. Maybe I'm twisted. I don't know."
" I see." His voice echoed in my head as the dream slowly faded away. Dissolving into millions of feathers and floating away.
In the hospital room, I shuffled around in my bed, and fell into a restless sleep.
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In Kakyo's dream, after Subaru has left ・
Kakyo turned around. There was something that didn't belong in the dream he was in. Someone whom he didn't invite.
" I know you're there・Sakuazukamori." He whispered, seemingly able to see through and behind the screen doors. He continued to kneel there for a few seconds, when footsteps were heard and the doors slowly slid open.
Seishirou grinned and stepped into the room. Elegant and suave as always, he removed his dark sunglasses and looked at Kakyo coolly.
" You weren't invited here."
Seishirou chuckled, " Ah ……forgive my intrusion into your personal area. I simply wanted to see how my dear Subaru-kun was doing and I seemed to end up in your dream with him. But now, he's gone of course."
Kakyo continued kneeling there, staring at nothing in particular. " I presume you heard it all then, what we said and saw?"
" I suppose so."
" Then you know then that he is attempting to change what will happen?"
" Yes I do."
" You figured it out then, what he is trying to do?" Kakyo said in the same monotone voice.
He turned, staring out into the darkness beyond the doors." Not exactly. For instance, I, myself don't know what I will do in the future, what he did in that alternate reality to have him change and come to this one." Seishirou said, clearly quite amused with his little predicament.
" Do you wish to know?"
Seishirou walked over to the dreamseer and kneeled to be face-to-face with him. They stared at each other for a bit, then Seishirou broke the silence.
" No." He whispered with that same smile as always. One that never betrayed anything he felt or thought. The one his victims always saw before closing their eyes for the last time. A single cold smile.
"Really?" Kakyo seemed to be slightly surprised, his eyes widening slightly.
" It'll be more interesting that way, to not know how'll this arrangement between be and Subaru-kun will end. Not to know how I won."
" You're heartless, you know. He truly loves you."
Seishirou got up and placed a hand on the door and slid it open. " Emotionless. That's how I was raised・ And that's how I'll live and die." He smiled, put on his glasses and walked out, disappearing into a illusion of Sakura petals, leaving kakyo in the room alone.
Kakyo stared into the darkness again as the scene changed. Hokuto's last moments played out in front of him, again and again like a broken record.
Except this time, he didn't want it to be fixed.
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Subaru, shifted again. His dreams were plagued with endless repeats of his coversation with the dreamseer.
Seishirou quietly opened the door and walked inside the room, treading softly, so he wouldn't wake Subaru. Grabbing the chair Kamui had used earlier, he sat and gazed at Subaru's sleeping face. He smirked and took off his sunglasses. It was too dark to be wearing them inside the dimly lit room anyway.
" Just as cute as always… you never change, Subaru-kun. Always… you put others before yourself…." He paused for a second, then added, " So selfless, naïve, courageous….. Yet a stupid act."
He bent down and took Subaru's hand and caressed it. " In the end, you know you'll be the one who ends up getting hurt. Yet you still do these silly things." Seishiou sighed and let go of Subaru's hand and got up.
He walked to the window and opened it slightly, bringing a small, cool draft of air into the room.
Walking back to Subaru's bed, he glanced briefly at a clock and took Subaru's hand again. He kissed it softly and got up again. This time, he didn't look back as he walked away…. And closed the door behind him.
"Sei….. Seishirou-san" Subaru whispered.
The same Seishirou returned an hour later to the room, sporting dark black gloves and reeking of blood and sakura. Looking up at the ceiling and saying to no one in particular, he murmmerd, " Kakyo…. You ask why I don't want to know what happens in the future. It's because, I want to find out on my own how much I can hurt him…. And if he'll keep running back to me like this."
The wind blew harshly and Seishirou Sakurazuka disappeared into the dark night.
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Subaru shifted again and opened his eyes, He could've sworn someone, somebody was just here in the room. He touched his face, remembering how the stranger had touched him. He had incredibly cold hands. Subaru felt his own. They were cold too. So cold, just like everything around him.
A/N: Okay… that was a really lame ending. So I apologize. Anyway, for people who bother to read this, next week is star testing for me and I really doubt I'll be able to actually even type up another chapter.. I'm really sorry for the long wait, and for postponing everything for extra days. I might go back and edit some old chapters too if I have time… God knows how many errors I have…. -_-;;;;
I want to thank certain people for reviewing and all the other stuff… I really really appreciate every review you leave and thanks so much.
Feye Morgan, tenshimanda, Sumeragi sui, yamato forever, vandy, sasaki chan, panatlatic, Karen McCoy, and Dark Gift….
Ja ne