Chapter seven: Dreaming.

T: Chaos dragon… I think Seishrio is more concerned about healing Subaru's wound and revenge than he is about his pride. True I'm sure it stings him to know that Fuuma also now has a stake in Subaru but still…

I'm adding a warning of Hokuto influence to the rest of this fic (it'll all make sense soon!) but apart from that things as per usual including my non ownership of the series.

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He had been greeted with the Sakurazukamori rather than Subaru as he had entered the apartment and that had put Kamui instantly on guard.

Thus he had reacted less than gallantly when Subaru had eventually shown himself and his new right eye…an eye that Kamui recognised all too well.

Once he'd been calmed down enough to register something other than Fuuma's eye, he'd realised that Subaru was still Subaru.

That no matter the rumours that certain people voiced organs contained no trace elements of an individual's personality within them.

The Sakurazukamori had left to run some 'errands' and once they were alone Subaru had again assured Kamui that this change was insignificant. That Subaru was still there if ever Kamui needed him.

He'd resisted the urge to beg Subaru to come home then, for he understood that no matter how hollow he felt without the other there beside him always, he had no right to be so selfish.

No right to steal Subaru's happiness away for the sake of his loneliness.

Instead he's settled into searching for an answer to their current dilemma.

There were a few promising leads, but each time they tried a spell it either re-bounded or did nothing at all.

Eventually he started sagging over the books and he felt the warmth of Subaru's arms about him before everything fell into the blackness of sleep.

There was one slight difference to his usually barren dreamscape.

Within the endless black was a young girl dressed in something that looked to be a mix of the stylised whites of an angel and the dramatic blacks and purples worn by Goths.

There was something familiar about her and it was only once Kamui trained his eyes away from the outrageous outfit that he realised what it was.

She was Subaru's twin sister.

"Sumeragi-san?"

She smiled then and bouncing over she wrapped him into a tight hug,

"Call me Hokuto, Kamui-kun; I fell like I've known you forever the way my brother and Kakyo talk about you."

"Subaru talks about me?" He enquires as a blush tinges his cheek.

"Oh ho ho ho! So you do harbinger an unrequited love for Subaru! Not that I blame you, my brother being devilishly handsome as he is, but…"

"Hokuto, we came here for a purpose." This comes from the slight man who has simply appeared in the blackness of the dreamscape and though Kamui has never before met him he knows that he perceives Kakyo Kuduki, Dreamseer to the Dragons of Earth.

"Kakyo! You can be such a stick in the mud sometimes!" Hokuto remarked before she leased Kamui at last.

"Unfortunately he is right. I know what you are trying to do for Subaru, Kamui and I thought that I would help you understand the situation a little better."

She took Kamui's hand and the darkness filled with the fall of Sakura blossom.

Two figures stood within this fall, one crouched slightly over the other.

Kamui recognises the Shifku and moves with a closer look…

"Subaru?" He enquires as he stairs at the smaller child.

"Wasn't he such a cute child? This is the reason that you're magic won't work, Kamui. Or rather he is the reason." She gestures to the other figure and instinctively Kamui knows who this is,

"Sakurazukamori."

He watches as the other presses a kiss to the backs of each of Subaru's hands, watches the inverted pentagrams flash once before they fade away,

"Those marks are a signal that Subaru is the prey of the Sakurazukamori and yet they are a little more as well.

"For Seishrio unwittingly wove a warding spell into the marks also.

"A spell that deflects all but the Sakurazukamori's power."

"Then any spell I try to use against Subaru…"

"Will deflect unless Seishrio casts it."

"But if he had strength enough to try this sort of spell then he would have done as such already."

"True enough, which means the two of you are going to have to work together."

"I do not trust him."

"Fair enough, Kamui, considering the circumstances. But there is more to Sei-chan that the Sakurazukamori."

This image fades and Kamui is presented with the image of a teenaged Subaru, clothed in a deep red and black leather outfit spotted here and there with straps and hugging a puppy a tiny puppy to his chest.

'Do not get too attached, Subaru-kun, that puppy is going home today, after all.'

That was the Sakurazukamori and yet…

In that moment he looked like nothing more than a simple vet.

'It's hard to believe that a few days ago he could hardly walk, Seishrio-san.'

'All he needed was a little care and attention. Anyway, I knew how sad my Subaru-kun would be if I let an innocent puppy such as this one die and I have no wish to so upset the love of my life.'

Subaru turns and intriguing shade of crimson and stutters out,

'S…Seishrio-san.'

Before the image fades back into the black of Kamui's dreamscape.

"Sei-chan decided to become a vet in order to divert his magical backlash and yet…

"He truly helped as many animals as he could and it was only really ever the very sick or the very week that he chose for the backlash."

"He betrayed both Subaru's heart and his own also."

"Your mother told you to come back to Tokyo, Kamui, told you that your fate was to be found in that place.

"It was a ridiculous statement, Kamui and yet you never once questioned it because she was your mother, because it was her final request of you.

"Sei-chan's mother told him that the one he fell in love with would also be the one to kill him and Seishrio believed that.

"Yet Subaru was too kind to kill Seishrio even after he betrayed him, even after he lied to him about the truth of his heart.

"A lie that Sei-chan hoped would make Subaru just angry enough to kill him."

Recalling Subaru's wish Kamui smiled before he enquired,

"They really are mirrors of one another, aren't they?"

"It is their fate." This is Kakyo again and looking a moment to the Dreamseer Hokuto sighs before she remarks,

"Ignore the stick, Kamui and tell me why my dear brother keeps dreaming about setting you up with a tall blond haired boy… Keiichi, I think his name was."

Kamui freezes and feeling his cheeks heat up he replies,

"I…that is…" Before he becomes infuriated with his inability to voice what should be a string of entirely rational answers to the question.

He tries again and finds himself again stuttering out a string of incoherent words before Hokuto begins to laugh uncontrollably.

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T: No Kamui's were permanently harmed in the making of this chapter, though he will be a little different once Hokuto finally lets him wake up! And yes this is an elaborate excuse to let Kamui see how cute Subaru was as a child!

The idea that the Sakurazukamori marks are not only a tracking spell but wards also is my own and yes, I am aware of how many loopholes such an idea has but it was the only thing that made the vaguest bit of sense in regards to why Kamui couldn't simply heal Subaru on his own and why he needed to learn to get on with Sei-chan.

Right I shall leave you before I write an essay! Next chapter asap and R+R, thanks.