11. The inevitability of fate.
T: Another cliff hanger warning this one worse than the last so prepare the sharp throwing items! It's not mine and despite my evilness I am not a member of Clamp.
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'How is Sumeragi-san?'
"He has yet to recover his sight."
'Forgive me, Kamui, for I should have seen this occurrence in my dreams.'
"You have been ill; Hinoto-san and Daisuke's death has hit you hard."
'Lord Saki died without necessity,'
"He died for my sake."
'You can not blame yourself for the actions of the other Kamui.'
"Yet I must, he is my Twin Star after all."
Silence for a moment before Hinoto says,
'I have just dreamed of where the next Kekkai shall fall.'
"Where?"
'The Rainbow Bridge.'
"I shall go."
'Be careful, Kamui, for the other seals can not protect you this time.'
"I am more than capable of looking after myself."
She smiles and there is an edge to it that tingles some faint distrust in the back of his mind.
Yet for the moment he cannot think on such things…
For the moment he has a Kekkai to protect…
The air is chilled, enough so that his breath is turning to steam almost the very moment it leaves his mouth.
Another small cloud of breath is visible on the opposite edge of the bridge to him and brushing his hair free of his eyes he acknowledges the other's presence.
"It is good to see you are well, Seishiro-san."
"And you, Kamui-kun. I see you have allowed you hair to grow a little since I saw you last."
"I fancied a change."
Silence and Seishrio takes the opportunity to light a cigarette before he says,
"It seems the other Kamui has no more wish to keep me around. Something I find odd when you consider the lengths he went to procure my services again."
"Perhaps he believes you shall be victorious."
"No. I rather believe that it is rather that he had seen my Wish to stop fighting and has decided that death will be the best way for me to fulfil that wish."
He drops his cigarette then and flings a spell towards his opponent.
Kamui counters the spell with ease and thus the battle begins truly.
Seishiro soon begins to lose, his power little match for that of a Kamui.
"Stop this."
They freeze mid motion and as the dust settles they are met with the figure of Subaru Sumeragi.
His eyes are bound still with medical gauze and it is Seishiro, who voices the obvious question,
"How did you know we were here, Subaru? Indeed how did you find your way to this place?"
"I saw the bridge in my dreams this morning, Seishiro, saw the fight and knew that I had to stop it.
"Thus I hailed a taxi and asked the driver to bring me to this place."
"Subaru…" Seishiro takes a step towards the Onmyouji, his hands opened out before him in a sign of surrender before a hard back of laughter directs both his attention and the attention of the others up to the very top of the bridge.
The Kamui if the Dragons of Earth is stood there, a cold smile clear on his lips even from such a distance.
"How kind you must be to want to save this man even though he is now your enemy. It is almost a shame that that Wish is not as strong as the Sakurazukamori's wish to die…almost a shame that it is his desire that I shall grant this day." He remarks before he sends a wave of energy towards the supporting strut of the bridge.
Kamui lunges for Subaru as the bridge collapses and he manages to grab the older man before his hands connect with the edge of the road.
It takes great strength to pull both his own body weight and Subaru's up and yet with the adrenaline rushing through his veins he manages this feat after but a few seconds.
"We are safe." He says once he has his breath back.
"What about Seishiro, Kamui?"
He glances across the divide of the water to the tarmac of the road at the other side and searches for a silhouette…for anything…that might indicate that Seishiro has also survived.
He finds nothing.
……………………………………………………………………………
"It is odd to be divided within yourself, to have two consciousnesses warring always over the simplest of decisions…
"The other Kamui believes that the sprit inside myself will win out, wishes desperately for that other consciousness to be free so that he might love it…so that it might love him.
"Love is a strong force and perhaps that Kamui's love will free the consciousness known once as Fuuma Monu…shall destroy me. Yet such a contingency is unlikely.
"What is more worrying is that that trap shall be proven to have achieved nothing…that the one who seems to be dead shall prove to be very much alive.
"I shall be very angry if that proves the case, especially when it seems that I am on the verge of granting at last the Wish of this earth." The Dark Kamui smiles and running a hand through his companion's hair he enquires, "What do you think Nataku?"
The bioroid considers the situation and then enquires,
"You grant wishes, do you not, father?"
"Yes?"
"You say that the one known once as Fuuma Monu is separate from you?"
"Yes?"
"Does that consciousness not have a Wish?"
"Of course he has a Wish…all living things have a Wish."
"What is that Wish?"
"To be as he once was…to be free of the guilt of his sister's death and free to love the other Kamui."
"Will you grant him that Wish?"
"Why would I do such a thing, indeed what does the Wish of that consciousness have to do with my dilemma?"
"You talk of being divided, something that would cease if you granted that other's Wish."
"Yet if Fuuma were freed I would exist no longer."
"You are not Fuuma, if that were the case then you would wish as he…you would not Wish to grant the earth's desire…"
"My consciousness is separate from his, this is true, yet we share the same body."
"Create a new form for yourself using your gift and my essence."
"Why would you do such a thing?"
"Because I Wish always to be at your side, father."
The Dark Kamui regards the bioroid quietly for a few moments, assessing the truth and the strength of its Wish and then he says,
"Then I shall grant you that Wish." Before he plunges his hand into the other's heart.
……………………………………………………………………………
Always before Subaru had reacted to the situation in a mature manner, had accepted things as they were and learned to cope.
This time, however…
He was refusing to believe Seishiro was dead despite the overwhelming evidence to back up this conclusion.
Kamui had told him that was being immature and they had gotten into a fight.
It had failed to come to blows only because Subaru had stormed into his room and locked the door behind him.
An hour later and he was still there, despite Kamui's pleas for him to come out again so that they might talk this through rationally.
There was a knock on the door and answering it Kamui was greeted with Hokuto, who was carrying an unconscious Fuuma in her arms.
"Why have you brought him here?"
"Because he is no longer the Dark Kamui."
Recalling Subaru's recount of the battle at the Sunshine 60 aquarium Kamui enquires,
"Are you sure it is not a trick."
"Very sure and I'll explain the second you let me in."
He steps to one side and she crosses to set Fuuma on the couch before she says,
"I am sure because it was the Dark Kamui who gave Fuuma into my care."
"Would you care to explain that?" He enquires as eh comes to sit at her side.
"They have been two separate Consciousnesses for a while now…indeed; perhaps they have always been as such…
"Recently Fuuma's Wish has become very certain and as a 'granter of Wishes' the Dark Kamui had no real choice but to grant this one also.
"Yet how to grant Fuuma's Wish without also killing himself?
"He had power enough to change a body to fit whatever form he desired and yet who would willingly give themselves over for such a cause?
"The answer came in the form of the Bioroid Nataku, who offered himself as sacrifice.
"Thus has the Dark Kamui become his own being and Fuuma had been returned to himself."
He had wished so desperately for this day and now that it was here…now that he was faced with the possibility of complete happiness…
"It is not fair."
He remarks as he stretches a hand to play with Fuuma's hair.
"What isn't?"
"The fact that I can be bestowed such luck and such contentedness just when Subaru's has been stolen away."
Her face has paled and grasping hard to his shoulder she enquires,
"Did you go to the Kekkai on the Rainbow Bridge? What has happened Kamui? Why has Subaru lost his happiness?"
"Do you not know? Can you not see the future?"
"No. It has been closed away from my husbands eyes, has been stolen away along with our one hope of seeing out this war…our one hope of staying useful to the Dark Kamui and thus escaping his wrath.
"Yet I do not care if I die, Kamui, all I care is that my brother and my son stay happy and alive.
"If something has upset Subaru I must know what it is…must know if again the Rainbow Bridge has stolen away his soul."
The way she phrases that statement, as though all this happened before, scares him and yet still he replies,
"The Dark Kamui collapsed the Bridge and I only just managed to save Subaru and myself.
"Seishrio was not so lucky…"
"Where is Subaru?"
"In his room."
"Are you sure?"
He is about to tell her that of course he is sure, that the door to Subaru's room has not opened since he went in there earlier, when he recalls that the window in Subaru's room opens out onto a small balcony.
Between the two of them the door is soon shouldered opened and they are met with an empty room.
There is a note on the bed scrawled enough so that it is almost illegible and yet the words,
'He is alive.'
Are clear still on the page.
"How can he be so stupid?"
"He loves him, Kamui and because of that this is not stupidity to him.
"Because of that he will not stop until he finds Seishrio again or until he can make Seishrio a part of himself."
"How do you know that so certainly, Hokuto-chan? How did you know Subaru would be gone and why did you say that about the Rainbow Bridge?"
She sighed and replied,
"Because my husband can see all the futures of this world and all the pasts.
"Once I asked him if my brother had been right in believing that Obaachan had denied him his fate all those years ago and he told me a tale of a meeting beneath a sakura tree and a bet.
"He told me of the year that this bet was carried out, of the illusionary figure of the man who had instigated the bet and the unconditional love of his innocent victim.
"He told me of the horrific conclusion to the year, told me of my own death and of the man that the innocent victim would become.
"Then he told me of this the Year of Destiny, of the part that that victim…my brother…would play within it.
"He told me of a final clash between the one who had caused him so much pain…the one he loved. Seishrio.
"Upon Rainbow Bridge they fought and eventually Seishrio used my brother to fulfil his Wish…used my brother as his suicide weapon.
"As he died he uttered one last thing…uttered the first and last truth that he had ever told my brother.
"That truth broke Subaru and after that day he changed…became an empty shell.
"Eventually he could take no more and he killed himself beneath the very sakura where the whole thing had began.
"That is how I know all these things, Kamui and I refuse to watch again as my brother destroys himself.
"Refuse to stand motionless as he fades into nothingness."
"Then let us find him, Hokuto-san, before it becomes too late."
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T: Is Sei-chan alive? Nope I'm not going to tell you! And yes Kamui is going to leave Fuuma in a strange apartment on his own…naughty Kamui! R+R as I need my kick!
