Summary: Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE. Kurogane's POV; kind of thinking about the curse Tomoyo put on him and how it affects what he thinks in chapitre forty-eight. Which leads straight into:

Warnings: If you don't know about chapitre forty-eight, warning one: there are a couple of kind of big spoilers. Even though Kuro-tan seems to be in the swears-all-the-time light, I don't think his thoughts are all that hostile. So warning two: he swears, but nothing huge. And only one other, warning three: I am a shameless KuroxFai fangirl and have manipulated Kuro-wan to hint at feeling something besides utter loathing toward Fai. But feelings that are not actually expressed in the CLAMP writing can be neither confirmed nor denied. So I think I'm safe in my dreaming.

Disclaimers: TRC is owned and operated by CLAMP. And Shounen Magazine. And soon to be Bee Train! Yay Tsubasa anime! Anyway, no character is mine. The plot is barely mine. The words in quotation marks aren't even mine! I got them from a translation site. (Normally this is where I would give the url so that people can go there to see, but for some reason I can't get it to be displayed. If you'd like to find it, trying looking for hyu dot flaming-wookie dot net. That is my attempt. Hope you can figure it out.) I only extrapolated on what CLAMP (and wonderful translator, Jamie) gave me. ::sigh::

A/N: Silly little ficlet that came to me in a dream. Or while dithering over my yet-to-be-finished term papers. And instead of doing the much-dreaded term papers, I decided to punch this out. Usually I wait and read my work over and over for a few days before putting it up, but I have the feeling that I won't have too much time over the next couple of weeks due to finals and said term papers. So if you find something off, leave a comment for me and I can fix it.

Curse

I have never killed for pleasure. I'm sure that Tomoyo would gladly debate that and we'd end up in another argument. She would most likely win too. But to me, I have only killed out of necessity. If I deemed them a threat to the princess, I would kill them, thus eliminating potential princess perniciousness. Tomoyo always saw that as too extreme.

"They may not all be heartless villains, Kurogane," she would say. "You don't have to judge them."

I would though, slaughtering entire assassin groups at a time. I thought that doing this would help me become the strongest in Japan. If I were the strongest, no would even think about attempting to infiltrate the palace and threatening Tomoyo. That was why I fought; to be the strongest; and never putting it into words, to be the strongest so as to better protect my princess. A life was expensive, I knew. Each one had to be considered worthwhile to destroy before I would take action. It just so happened that anyone threatening my princess was worth destroying.

When she cursed me, I thought it would not actually be difficult to not kill. I hardly took any real pleasure in the act, save for a job well done. But…now in Outo Country, Fai had been killed. I refused to think of him as anything but a traveling companion on this little voyage, but I could not ignore the pain I felt at his loss. As much as I hated to admit it, I did not want him gone; I wanted him to be around me still. His life would be avenged. I would not allow this injustice. As much as Fai pissed me off, he had done nothing to warrant death.

I was angry, to say the least, when the kid said he would go to meet this 'Seishirou-san' of his. I did not want to fool around, letting that guy do anything he wanted. The kid even admitted that he could not feasibly defeat Seishirou. He could at least hold his own for a while though.

"If you're not back by morning, then it's my turn," I growled at him. I was sure he would be fine until then. And at that time, I would have justice.

When this world's Souma and the others came, I handed over the princess and that manjuu, being that it was closing in on dawn. It was now my turn. But as I saw this Seishirou, I noticed that the kid was nowhere around him. Another pain gripped me then. He could not possibly…

"Are you the one who killed the guy from 'Cat's Eye'?" I asked as calmly as I could.

"Yes," he answered serenely.

I forced my voice to remain even. "What happened to the kid?"

"I killed him as well."

They were both dead. For no reason, it seemed, other than to have them dead. He had two lives over his head and I now had two to avenge. Was it worth it to kill this guy? I knew nothing about the curse Tomoyo placed on me, save for that I would diminish in strength. But how much strength? If I got to kill this bastard, would it be worth it? I glared at him. He stood watching me patiently, totally unrepentant.

"Alright," I growled. It would be worth it. Fai and the kid would be avenged. Compared to two lives, what was a little lost strength? That curse be damned, I would not allow their murderer to walk away from me. "Then I'll kill you."