Chapter ten: Courage and truths.
T: I make no apologies for turning Kamui into a Clamp heroine in this chapter, the whole thing being as it is Hokuto's fault! Ahem…warnings remain the same and yep, it's still Clamp's. Sob!
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Kamui and Seishrio were talking amiably when Subaru at last stepped into the apartment.
It was an odd sight and most likely another thing that he could attribute to his visit with the young Dragon of Heaven.
Despite the slight oddness to the situation it was a good to see Kamui accepting Seishrio, especially after what had just occurred with his Obaachan.
"Sorry I'm late." He remarked as he toed off his shoes, "But Obaachan paged me."
"And?" That was Seishrio, something in his gaze telling that he knew already what had occurred and that he was both sorry and joyful at the development.
Again a contradiction of emotions, a thing that seemed all but the norm as far as the Sakurazukamori was concerned.
"I told her the truth and she told me that I was no longer a member of the Sumeragi clan."
Kamui's eyes widen and gaining his feet he comes to Subaru's side.
"I am sorry, Subaru." He says as he pulls him into a hug.
Subaru allows the boy to give this small comfort before he pulls away and looking first to Kamui and then to Seishrio he says,
"It's okay, Kamui. Obaachan allowed me a chance to go back on my word, to claim that grief had driven me insane. It was a chance that I did not take because in doing so I would have denied myself, denied all that I am."
"It was a brave choice, Subaru." Seishrio remarks before a silence falls onto the room.
It is Kamui who breaks this soundlessness as he pads back over to his seat at the table and calls Subaru over to him.
"I found out why nothing we tried worked." The Boy remarks as he stretches to touch the skin on the backs of Subaru's hands.
"Seishrio's marks…but why would they be to blame?"
"Because when we met for the first time I had not been the Sakurazukamori for very long and in my inexperience I not only marked you but insured that none but myself could harm you." Seishrio replied.
Subaru turned his hands to himself a moment and then smiling a little he raised each one to his lips and kissed the invisible markings.
"So have you found a way to break these wards?" He enquires once this is done.
"Yes and more importantly we have at last found a way to transfer the Sakura's power without also transferring Sakurazuka-san's own gift."
"Truly?" Subaru enquired, barely believing that at last they had changed Seishrio's fate.
"Truly." Seishrio replied as he ceased onto Subaru's hands.
Subaru feels the burn of the marks fading, just slightly, yet as Kamui begins to chant the burn begins a-new.
Not within his hands, this time, but in his very blood.
This sensation he had felt before when the tree had been wrapped about him and Seishrio poised to kill him.
He had resisted the sakura's power, then, but now he allowed it in, allowed that fire to burn through him until he became numb at last to the sensation.
'Sakurazukamori.' This voice comes from the very depths of his soul, its deep resonance fill of an ancient power that is tinged with darkness and regret.
'Are you the sakura?'
'I am.'
'Will you accept me as Sakurazukamori, though I have gained your power without the death of your previous master?'
'Yes.' A beet and then the tree enquires, 'Will you accept the terms that come with my power?'
'Yes…however, I ask that you allow me to remain myself, ask that you not place the binding spell upon my heart, nor force me to be as Seishrio was.'
'I shall grant that request, Sakurazukamori and yet I must place some restraint upon the kindness of your heart, less it become a burden to you in this new profession.'
'Then allow the spell to take affect when I am hunting a victim,'
'And what of afterwards?'
'It would not be right of me to ask you to take my guilt away. For only in that emotion can I prove to myself that I have not changed…that there is a goodness inside of me still.'
'You are of a rare breed, Sakurazukamori and I am not now saddened that you shall be the last to claim that title.'
He comes back to himself at that, comes back to the soft touch of Seishrio's hands upon his own and he finds that that one join is not enough and thus he pulls the other to him,
"How do you feel?"
"Alone." Seishrio replies.
Subaru raises the others hands to his lips and kissing them each once on the backs of the palms he remarks,
"You shall never be alone, Seishrio. For no matter where you go, a part of me shall go with you also."
Seishrio admires the invisible markings that Subaru's kiss had placed upon his skin before he says,
"Am I now your prey, Subaru?"
"No, Seishrio, you are now my equal as it should always have been."
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He comes home to the sad news that Arashi has gone, that Karen is dead and yet he finds he cannot despair.
Not with the memory of Subaru's smile still in his mind.
He'd changed into one of Subaru's old outfits (A blue and pink pinstriped jacket and trousers, a navy t-shirt and a blue hat edged with a pink ribbon) and then he'd gone to talk to Sorata.
The monk had been greatly amused by the change in style and after commenting on how handsome Kamui looked he enquired,
"So what's this in aid of and where did you get such an original design?"
"I decided that I was being too serious, that I was allowing everything that had happened to drag me into a depression. So I decided that a change in clothes would help me feel good about myself and in turn give me a more positive outlook.
"As to where I got them…Subaru's sister used to design all of his outfits and when he said that he'd kept a few I offered to take them off of his hands."
Sorata tipped his head to one side and after a moment he began to laugh uncontrollably.
"Thank you, Kamui-kun. The idea that someone as serious as Sumeragi-san once wore clothes such as that is just what I needed to get me out of my slump!"
"I'm glad, Sorata-san."
"I just wish I knew where Arashi was." The monk mumbled.
Kamui noted that it was 'Arashi' now, rather than the usual 'Miss', which ment that they had at last found one another and that that was most likely the reason the priestess had vanished.
No longer a 'maiden' her powers would have waned and she would find herself with no way to protect Sorata, no way to ensure that his fate did not come to pass.
She would have gone to Hinoto for help and if the Dreamseer was truly their enemy then the priestess could already be dead.
Yet he had chosen to look more positively on situations, chosen to believe in himself as well as he friends and thus he ceased Sorata's hand and said,
"She'll come back when she's ready, Sorata-san and until then we can only believe that she's okay."
"You know I like this new you. Segawa-kun is obviously having a good influence on you."
Kamui felt himself flush and as with when Hokuto had been teasing him he found himself unable to vocalise his words in a coherent manner.
"Why…how did you…?"
Sorata began to laugh again and yet Kamui could not begrudge him this hilarity, not when until this day it had been so rare within this home.
He remains only a little while longer with Sorata and then he decides to go and make his apologies for missing school both yesterday and this morning.
Suoh more than understood his absence and after discussing a little about their strategies and about the state of the Shinken, Kamui went to talk to Kotori.
He talked to her about all the things he could not talk to any of the seals; of Subaru and the Sakurazukamori's curse, of Hokuto and the insinuations she had made about Keiichi, of the pep talk she had given him once he'd given in to her teasing and finally about the Final Day and his fears.
"My wish had been to get him back, Kotori, no matter what I had to tell him to make that wish a reality…no matter what I had to do.
"Yet would it not be better for him to know what he had done, to feel the guilt of his crimes and understand that for that guilt he becomes innocent again? If I had been the one to kill you, if I had chosen Earth instead of Heaven, then I would wish to know the truth.
"Yet then is that really true or is it simply my selfish heart taking control of me? For I have no want for Fuuma to come back to himself only to hate me for a crime I did not commit.
"I want to protect Fuuma, but I also wish to protect Subaru and his happiness…wish to protect the other seals also and I know that I can not do all of these things. That for one of my wishes to be granted I must sacrifice another and yet…"
He beings to cry then, his hands bunching hard into the bark of the tree as his soul purges itself of it's shadow.
"Kamui?"
That is Keiichi, his presence as a white heat at his back, unnoticed until that very moment,
"Keiichi-kun, how did you know I was here?"
"Something inside of me told me where to find you…told me that you needed a friend."
"Keiichi…" Kamui paused and gathering his courage decided to take a chance, "There is something I have to tell you."
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T: Can anyone else picture him saying 'it'll be alright for sure' here? Just me then…yes there is a reason that Seishrio now bears the Sakurazukamori marks, but you'll have to wait and see what it is! Also there is a little hint in Keiichi's words as to what the surprise of the next chapter is, I wonder if anyone will catch what it is!
Next chapter tomorrow, until then R+R
