Author's Note: As with most of these, absolutely no proofreading was done. It's more of an S/S introspection than anything else, since it's been a long time since I've done anything with X.

In Sickness & Health
by Kamitra

He didn't care about other people, or to even himself. He had no connection to life whatsoever -- because he had no desire to live or die, he could do his job quite well. And the job needed him, so there was no better reason to die for it. There was no reason why he should live a normal life, and no reason why he shouldn't either. It depended on whatever walked up to him that day.

It was almost the same thing with killing.

"People do bad things because they're lonely."

Emotions were a connection to the soul. They bound the soul, keeping it in check. For a line of murderers, emotions were not the kind of thing that they could afford to have. However, there were several aspects to being the Sakurazukamori that kept one human, and they all be rolled up into the line of successorship.

"The one who you love the most."

For one, how could people who cared little about keeping or giving their job away limit themselves to one and only one Sakurazukamori? Why would they care if they all lived or died?

And so, in the end, the line of successorship was entirely becuase of that little bit of human caring.

"You don't care about me at all, anyway."

It wasn't completely there, but it was a connection. A connection to the mundane world that meant neither black nor white to them. They knew the colors, but that didn't mean that they truly experienced them. It was like learning reflexes, rather than learning how to feel.

However, they were human. They were not constructions or illusions as those they could create... Even if they were just constructs, the human in charge of the construct would take on the blame for everything. So it was easier this way, to throw away the outer casing of their soul...

He didn't care if the world lived or died. He supposed that it was simply better for the world to live without the damage humans were doing to it. The fact that he was a Dragon of Earth showed that he was still human, even if he didn't feel like it. Without the outer casing of emotions, the soul is still the soul.

"Because it'll be lonely by itself!"

Perhaps he was lonely? It was hard to believe, but why else did he feel this connection to another? Why, no matter wherever he went, he could still feel him? It was almost too much to keep that connection... it would get in the way of everything. No wonder his predecessor had avoided him so.

When it came to him, he felt something. It felt like being human again... something he barely remembered.

There was still one thing that he didn't understand. Why was it that he had kept this connection, this eye? This would never leave, even though he cared for almost nothing else. In the end, this would be almost like torture. And because of that, it would be sure that both lines would end with him.

Then there would be no more Sumeragi or Sakurazukamori with his death, and the souls of the tree would be released.

"He's no longer in this world, after all."
"He is."

Perhaps the tree wanted it that way. Perhaps the tree had always wanted it that way. He had the feeling that the tree was born of love twisted... because there was just more than one simple love in this fallen world. And there was more than just love to love as well -- there was jealousy, anger, resentment, fear... the tree might have been the accumulation of such emotions. Strong enough to kill torture and kill everything but the soul itself.

Perhaps, in the end, their souls would be enough to quiet the tree's cries of anguish.
Perhaps even those of the cries of the world.

"You're always so kind, Subaru-kun."

He wasn't kind. He was selfish. In the end, he couldn't let go of his wish. Kamui... would have to.