12. Memory

T: Comixoriole consider that last chapter as revenge for all the times you've left me hanging with Another Shot! Okay with that out of the way I'm going straight into disclaimer…not mine, warnings the same!

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Fuuma Monou's last true memory had been sitting at his sister's bedside, watching her pale form and hoping against the odds that she would again find her sanity.

After that his memory was filled with the dreams he had had while the Dark Kamui had controlled his body.

Dreams that had not featured Subaru Sumeragi or the war in general and thus when he awakes alone in Subaru's apartment his is set instantly on edge.

He registers a photo of Kamui and Kotori and standing he grasps it into his hands.

Blood…

There is blood everywhere…

Kamui is screaming his name and there is the weight of a sword in his hands.

He drops the frame as though he has been burned.

What are these memories?

Another photo sits on the side and though he recognises Kamui it is just barely.

For the boy is smiling in a way Fuuma can not recall in his memory and yet had Kamui not been happy with him? Had they not been friends?

Even though he had seen Kamui every day since…something…had occurred to his sister, he could not recall the figure stood next to his friend in the picture.

An older man with an enigmatic smile and entrancing green eyes.

Another flash of blood.

Kamui is stood a little from two men crouched on the floor.

One is all but coated in blood while the other…

There is such a cold look in his eyes that it chills him even now.

What are these memories?

Why can he not recall what has happened to his sister or how Kamui knows the other in the picture?

He turns on the television in hopes of distracting himself and is met with a news report.

A reporter is stood at the Rainbow Bridge and yet there is a void where the bridge had once stood.

How had he not known that this was happening?

How had this tragedy not come up in conversation with Kamui?

Something is very wrong…

The door clicks open and turning he is presented with Kamui and yet it is not the Kamui he recalls in his memory.

He has changed so much and yet Fuuma had seen him only yesterday…

"Kamui, what is going on? Why can I not recall where Kotori is, why have I no recollection of the collapse of the Rainbow Bridge and why have you changed so very much since yesterday?

He sighs and comes to sit on the floor across from Fuuma, a weariness in his eyes that only adds to the feeling of wrongness.

"Everything you recall after the hospital did not occur, Fuuma…is but the recollection of dreams…"

"I do not understand, Kamui."

"Another being took control of your body for a while, Fuuma. Pushed you deep inside of yourself."

It sounds ridiculous and yet he knows it is truth, both for the fear in Kamui's eyes and the recollection of blood in the deepest recesses of his mind.

"Where is my sister, Kamui and what has happened since that day in hospital?"

"Kotori is dead." He stares harshly at the ground before continuing, the pause giving Fuuma time to comprehend what he was saying.

He continues quietly

"As to what has occurred since that day…

"War has began between two factions, a divine war that can end with only one outcome , in which either I or my Twin Star dies."

He is no longer holding eye contact and Fuuma makes a rational leap,

"I was your Twin Star, was I not?"

"At the beginning I believe that was the case. Something happened though, and the part of you that was my Twin Star separated away from the rest of you.

"I am sorry that I can no explain any better than that, though I have power I do not have the knowledge to back that power up.

"Usually Subaru helps me in these matters but things being as they are…"

Clearly Kamui sees his confusion for he gains his feet and grasping to the photo containing the unknown man he says,

"This is Subaru Sumeragi, he is my roommate, my friend and my surrogate brother.

"He has stood by me since we met…" He paused and there was a sag to his shoulders that Fuuma recalled from their childhood.

He raises onto his feet and goes to place a hand on Kamui's shoulder before the boy shies away from him.

"I'm sorry." The boy states as he turns to face him again.

"Don't be, Kamui." Without thought he reaches for the others face and this time Kamui does not shy away…

This time he seems to believe that Fuuma is again himself.

…………………………………………………………………………………

They had not even reached the park before Kamui had realised that Fuuma was alone now in the apartment, a place that would be unfamiliar to the boy whether he recalled his actions or no

He'd had no wish for Fuuma to wake alone in that unfamiliar environment and though he wished desperately to find and help Subaru, his love for Fuuma had won over in the end.

Thus she was alone when she came into the shadow of the sakura and she allowed herself a moment of contemplation.

In that other future everything had moved in circles…

Subaru and Seishiro had met beneath the sakura, had made a bet which had ended beneath the very same tree.

Seishiro had destroyed the Hokuto of that world and in turn Subaru had destroyed him.

Love had killed the man known as Seishiro Sakurazuka and it had destroyed also the boy known as Subaru Sumeragi.

In this world everything seemed to have happened by 'coincidence', seemed to be running to no fixed pattern and yet…

Her brother had met Seishiro under the tree and a 'game' had been created and then later tossed to one side.

Seishiro had supposedly died in the same place as before and again Subaru was refusing to accept that death…

Again her brother was walking a clear path to destruction.

Yet in this world she was alive and no matter what she had to do, what she had to give, she would not watch her brother kill himself.

"Sakura-san, might I have a word?" She enquires.

A tingle of an illusionary barrier settles about her and then she is again face to face with the gentleman she had seen the night she had introduced her son to her brother.

'My name is Yuki, Kizuki-san.'

"And mine is Hokuto."

He smiles before he enquires,

'You are here about Seishrio-sama I suppose.'

"I wished to know if he was still alive and I wanted to know if you could find Subaru for me."

'I can not give a hopeful answer to either, I fear. I have not felt my essence transferred to a new master and yet that means only that Seishrio-sama could have died before the transference spell was invoked or he died at the hand of someone other than your brother.

'As to that individual…I can feel the pulse of the marks Seishiro placed upon him and yet I can not say for sure where those marks are located.

'However, I can install a little hope in your heart by saying that something about this is not right.

'If Seishiro-sama were dead…even if he had been killed by a hand other than Subaru's…I would have felt something to tell me that was the case and I would not be able to claim still this physical form.'

"Yet if he were alive would you not be able to find him?"

'If he were deliberately hiding himself, then, no.'

"Is there any way of knowing for sure?" That is the deep vibrancy of her brother's voice, a thing she had fear never to hear again and that on hearing it now dismisses all her fears as little more than paranoia.

For he does not sound lost or depressed…

He sounds confident…

Strong.

"Subaru, where have you been?"

"I went to his apartment, but the door was locked and his next door neighbour said that he had not been home for a few days.

"So I thought that he might be here at the tree so I came looking for him and found you instead."

"How did you get inside the tree's illusionary protection?"

'Seishiro-sama has given Subaru a little of my power, enough so that he can travel through my Maraboshi without problem.'

"Would you answer my question now?" Subaru enquired.

'Of course. Yes, I believe there is a way in which we might learn if Seishiro-sama lives or no.'

"What do we do?"

'We wait. You see when Seishiro-sama stopped feeding me after you left him for the first time I realised that I needed some assurance that I would not again lose my sustenance.

'That not matter Seishrio-sama's mood I would have food enough to keep my alive until such a time that he decided to come to feed me again.

'Thus I bespelled him and if he lives still that spell will still be active.'

"I will be able to trace his location once the spell activates." Subaru states before he settles onto the floor and evens out his breathing until he is clearly meditating.

She watches him a while and then she settles down at his side, her gloved fingers looping into his own bare ones.

'He is alive.' The tree remarks eventually and she feels her brother tense before he says,

"I know where he is."

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T: You see? I would never be as mean as to kill Sei-chan right when everything is on a positive course! Snerk wait until you see what he's been doing with himself while you all believed he was dead!