Title : The Last Babylon (working title) 1/?
Genre : fuzionfic, angsty fantasy
Summary : King Seishirou is the best hunter of the land. He sees a prey that catches his interest.
Disclaimer : Neither Tokyo Babylon, X/1999 nor The Last Unicorn belong to me. However, they looked good on my library so I stole them.
Notes : this is dedicaced to link621 and shineko for insisting for me to write it, as well as tamchronin for providing the unmeaningly the inspiration that made this plot bunny complete. Girls, you rock.
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King Seishirou was the best hunter of the land.
He had hunted fierce dire wolves from midnight forests where the sun never shown, and quick sand snakes in the burning deserts of the south. In the jungles of blue mist where one couldn't see past one's nose, he had preyed on ghost tigers and brought back their shimmering pelt. He had had men as his game, the tougher criminal and the most chivalrous warriors. He had killed fays, mermaids, dragons, gorgons; he had slain children and beasts, monsters and mortals. It was no kind of creature that he had not one day given chase to and laid doom onto. It was not that he liked giving death so very much, but there were very few things that amused Seishirou, and the hunt was one of them.
It was said that one cold winter day his mother, the Witch Queen, had wished for a son with hair as black as raven, a smile as sweet as blood, and a heart as cold as snow. Whether that rumour was true or not, it was evident indeed that nothing ever touched Seishirou's heart, and that his smile, beautiful and composed, never wavered as he extinguished one more life.
Despite this strange hobbit, Seishirou wasn't a bad lord. He was powerful and shrew, smooth enough to stay in good terms with most of his neighbours, unconcerned by corruption, and unlikely to spend the kingdom's money foolishly. He liked the fine art of hunting, but war held no appeal for him; and he had even begotten a heir already to another queen who had been interested in the magical lineage of his family.
Still, at times, he would race the deep forests of the land, searching for a challenging game to shake him out of the boredom of his days. Mounted on one of his finest horse, his familiar hawk on one shoulder and his great bow in the other hand, Seishirou tracked one of the most elusive trail he had ever found. It disappeared at times, but shone with moonlight at others; it leapt, it curved, it sprung, getting deeper and deeper in the thick woods; until at last Seishirou could glimpse the bright hint of a white deer.
At once, the creature was gone, a mere soupcon of quicksilver disappearing under foliage. At once, Seishirou was after it, pressing the sides of his mount while the goshawk was rising in the sky, lending its piercing eyes to its master. The prey was swift and lithe, and knew the forest by heart; it ran unbearably fast, bounding between trees like a trout between waves, and it gave Seishirou the best chase he ever had. However, Seishirou was the best hunter the land had ever seen, and his heart was thrilled with joy from the game, and he was not likely to give up. They ran for hours, and animals of the forest fled from their wild course, and dawn was almost breaking when Seishirou at last backed the against a precipice, and caught his first good sight of it.
Against the grey dim of the sky, it gleamed immaculate white, and the single horn on its head as the animal reared caught the last light of the stars to robe it in flickering aura. It was a most beautiful sight, probably more beautiful that anything in the world. He wanted to kill so very much. Not a deer then, but a rarer creature, one that Seishirou had never killed. He knew already it would be his favourite game.
The hunter drew his bow, the black long bow his mother had gifted him with before she died. She had enchanted it to never miss a target, and what quarry it found was forever branded. Restless, dazed, the unicorn was desperately trying to escape, and when Seishirou unleashed his arrow, it was already leaping in the void.
Jumping down his horse, the King ran to the edge of the gap, but below him stood only darkness and thorny bushes, woven thickly with mysterious magic. Impassive, Seishirou smirked. Already the mystical link between prey and hunter was established, and he knew the creature was alive (It was an immortal after all) and that he could find it whenever he wanted. This chase was promising to be so enjoyable, there was no reason to rush through it. He would find the breath-taking beauty of the unicorn again, and he would kill it. He had no doubt whatsoever about this, therefore, he could be patient.
"Grandma ! Grandma ! Wake up !"
Lady Sumeragi reluctantly opened her eyes. She had learned from experience that it was mostly useless to try to avoid the persistence of her nine-years old energy ball of a grand-daughter.
"What is the problem Hokuto-chan ?" She said sternly, trying to summon enough authority in her voice to hide her worry.
"Grandma, there's something... someone by the well... hurt and you really should see them !" Hokuto said very quickly, urgency clinging her voice. "Please !" She added as an afterthought remembering her grand mother's many remonstrance about appropriate politeness.
There was no need for that, as Lady Sumeragi was already ushering as quickly as her age permitted outside of the small house where the two of them lived.
Against the old stone of the well, as Hokuto had described, laid the broken, bloody, shivering body of the unicorn of the forest. It raised its graceful head as she came near it, bewildered eyes full of miserable panic.
"Honoured immortal of our wood", she said gently, using her honed skill at dealing with spirit and magical creatures to soothe the beast, "do not worry as we mean you no harm."
Reassured, the unicorn let her hands check on the wounds, its unearthly sea-green eyes showing blind trust.
"You have to do something ! You have to !" Hokuto capered nervously around her.
"Do not be so upset Hokuto-chan, most of these wounds are mere bruises. Not pretty to see but nothing deeply unsettling, I'm sure it will be back to shape in no time. Now stop sauntering about and make yourself useful, what did I tell you about proper-"
Lady Sumeragi suddenly stopped herself, her hand immobilized a mere inch from the black shaft protruding from the unicorn's left leg.
"Grandma, what is it ?"
In a dark voice underlain with bleak ice, she answered : "This is a magical talisman worked by the Witch Queen. The wound it caused leaves trail for its familiar spirit to be able to see, to find, even here in this haven we have spent so much time hiding and covering from her eyes."
She felt the unicorn shudder again under her touch, bending its head slightly as if in apology. Mindlessly she stroke its neck.
"But the Witch Queen is dead ! You told me you felt her die three years ago !" Hokuto protested.
"Setsuka had a heir, and I have heard nothing good about the new King, even before his crowning. He will come to us, sooner or later, and he will finish his prey, and his mother's work seven years after she began it." There was only hopeless certainty in her voice.
Clumsily, but with a poignant dignity, the unicorn rose and started stumbling a few paces away from them, and she let it do.
"But Grandma ! You cannot let it go ! You cannot ! You have to do something to save it !" Hokuto, cheerful Hokuto who never lost heart, was crying. "What is it worth our magic, our family's tradition, everything you taught me if we cannot help a unicorn ?"
Lady Sumeragi took a heavy sight. What was it use indeed ? Long she had believed in the role of her family to guardian the use of magic and keep black sorcerers from misusing curses and demons. That's why she had opposed the Witch Queen. That's how most of her family had been wiped away, her children killed and a once powerful house of magicians been reduced to the two of them. Wearied of grief, she had decided to protect her remaining family member and retreat into these deserted woods to raise Hokuto. However, no matter how much you fled your responsibilities, they always came chasing after you, as inexorable as the backlash law of magical forces; and there were things you simply couldn't let happen when you had a shred of power to try to prevent them.
"There is one thing I could do, and I am not sure it would work, and I am not sure it would thank me for it."
"Then do it !" Hokuto fiercely encircled the unicorn's neck, rubbing her cheek against its cheek. "Because if you let it leave, I will leave with it as well !"
Lady Sumeragi nodded, unsurprised by her granddaughter's willpower and pure heart.
"Then I will do it. Stand aside, I need you as a model."
Confused, Hokuto obeyed, the unicorn simply wearily letting itself fall on the ground.
Lady Sumeragi started the incantation.
It had been long, since she had done a spell of this magnitude, and the thick bitter taste of magic filled her mouth like childhood sweets.
Soon the unicorn was surrounded by a tornado of sparkles, and its shape started to blur. Round and round it twirled, until the creature was totally surrounded by a cocoon of magic, and then it disappeared leaving only a little boy in its trail.
Wide-eyed, Hokuto cried out : "What have you done to it ?"
Gathering his small arms around his naked shape, the boy once a unicorn blinked at them, utter confusion overriding his eyes
"The brand he bears cannot be erased, ever." Lady Sumeragi explained. "However if the one who bears it is changed, if its shape doesn't correspond anymore to the one the familiar spirit will seek, it will probably fail to find it and recognize it as its prey. Thus was the only way I knew to save the unicorn."
"I...", whispered the former unicorn, unsettled by its own child's voice.
"Why does he look like me ?"
Hokuto fidgeted unsure whether to cry or to rejoice in her grandmother's magical rescue.
"I needed a model for his human body, I thought yours would do better than mine as this is obviously a very young unicorn."
"My... body... ?" The unicorn was still confused.
"Hokuto-chan, listens to me, this is now your brother and we will care for him together."
Hokuto nodded gravely, getting her jacket off to put it gently around the new human's bare shoulder.
"My brother...", she whispered with wonder, hugging him close.
"As you have a star name, we will name him as well Subaru after the Maiden who changed themselves into stars so as to escape their pursuer."
Between Hokuto's protective arms, Subaru shuddered again.
"I can already feel it die around me...", he murmured.
- TBC -