Disclaimer: I don't own any of Clamp's characters.
A.N: many thanks to Whitesakura, Kakyou-luverx and Master Elora Dannan for advising for this fic!
And many thanks to my beta, Koichi!
This fic starts at chapter 23 of the series.
Chapter 1 – Laying the foundations
Kamui walked into Subaru's little apartment. His back was arched and his head's bow forced him to look upon the floor constantly. Not that he minded; his mood was so down that the floor was just fine for him, never mind how gray and common it appeared before him all the time.
He carried his shinken with him, covered in its dark red cloth. He was about to have the final fight with Fuma, the fight with Fuma, and boy, did he want to do anything but that.
But it was fate; it was destiny for him to fight Fuma and so Kamui went to the battle, unwilling and miserable.
Before he went to his death, or the death of Fuma, Kamui had to go and stop by his old friend's place for a little chat…..
A little chat, yeah right. From what Kamui had seen of the onmyouji after his old loved one's death, and from what he heard from any other Seal who came to check up on him from time to time, Subaru was there, but not really there. Though there were stories of a single cigarette in Subaru's hand from visit to visit, when Subaru was spoken to he made no form of answer. Whenan attempt to get him off of that damned chair was made, he showed no resisting movement nor did he completely cooperate.
Kamui opened the door and saw what he expected; Subaru sat on the chair, legs open, and arms on armrests, back straight, head forward. The light from the window shone on one green eye, hiding with the room's shadow the white marble one.
Kamui often wondered if Subaru knew he was working muscles to keep his body so upright and if that in itself was a form of saying 'there's still something in here, see? See?' but he gave up that thought about three visits ago.
He walked up to the sitting man and knelt at his feet, placing the shinken by him. He laid his head on the thin knee, inhaling the faint scent of cigarettes that soaked into the fabric of Subaru's pants.
For a while he sat there in the wonderful silence, in the wonderful vacancy and realized just what lured Subaru into this state: if he himself stayed here then Fuma wouldn't fight him and the battle would pass them by! Staying here would mean not facing anything out there.
But Kamui's been there before, inside the warmest and most protective place in the world where he was most unlikely to be hurt by anything. And who yanked him out of there? Who made him not able to run away like that again? Who, if not the great and mighty Subaru, who was here right now sitting in his oblivion ignoring and avoiding things?
Some mentor he was, telling him not to run away then running away himself….
Kamui didn't realize it, but all that he thought, he said out loud.
"And Fuma, what am I going to do with him?…. How the hell am I going to bring him back?...oh god…why me!" he began crying, turning to bury his face in the slim leg as much as he could. "Why me of all the children? Why me and my mother? Why Saya and Kyogo, why Kotori? Why Fuma! Aren't there enough other strange half love triangle kind of childhood friendships in Tokyo that I had to be picked for this thing!" Now he was angry. "And why did he have to kill Kotori like that! She was on a life maintenance system; couldn't he just unplug her! Why all the blood? All the horror! And why molest me while he's at it! Oh god!"
Kamui sat there babbling his troubles away talking to thin air, often sinking into crying fits, often dealing little frustrated blows to the floor beneath him. Suddenly something cut his speech. A voice he knew came from above him.
"Abused."
Kamui waited for other voices in his head to join in the chorus since Subaru hadn'tspoken a word since chapter 16 and was highly unlikely to say anything now, so he must be going insane.
With a vain attempt to maybe find that he wasn't insane, Kamui raised his head to see that Subaru was indeed somewhat out of his trance. The onmyouji stared down at him! He looked at him! And earlier, he SPOKE to him!
Kamui jumped to his feet, his shinken forgotten, and noted with joy that the green eye along with the white one followed his face! "What did you say?" he smiled for the first time in what seemed like a millennia. His smiling muscles ached with the sudden exercise.
"I said 'abused' because that's what we are, the both of us. Abused Clamp characters, Kamui, and I've had enough of it!" Subaru not only spoke fluently and clearly now, he got up from his chair and began pacing around the room!
Kamui tried to recall if he ate anything earlier that could induce any sort of hallucination but he found none.
"Su…Subaru, what do you mean 'Clamp' characters? What are you talking about? What abuses us are our destiny and this whole battle of the apocalypse thing!" he tried keeping up with Subaru's fast pacing around the small room.
"Destiny, bah!" the onmyoujimade a dismissive stabbing motion with his hand holding a cigarette about to be lit and smoked "It's all Clamp's fault that's what it is! And you know what?" He walked all the way to Kamui, ignoring the fact that the boy began coughing violently at the close vicinity of the now lit cigarette. "I'm not having any of it anymore!"
Once Kamui cleared his vision of tears from the smoke and his head from the heavy dizziness coughing a lot made him he focused himself finally on what Subaru was saying. "Who is Clamp?"
"Clamp are the four Japanese women who write and draw us. They decide what happens to us, not fate, not destiny, none of that crap! It's their entire fault Kamui. Everything bad that happens to us, every pain and problem, all their fault!"
Kamui blinked a few times before the idea sunk into his mind fully "You….you mean…Kotori and Fuma…?"
"All their plotting" Subaru opened the window once he himself realized that the smoke he was giving off made the room into a foggy mess.
"And….and my wounds…?" Kamui mumbled, looking at his still bandages arms.
"All their devising; they decide where you'll be hurt, they decide how much you'll be hurt. They draw everything!"
Kamui stood in silence, inhaling the fresh air and feeling dizzier even despite that fact.
"I've had enough of that. You know Kamui, seven(7) books, seven books they ran around showing how wonderful my life was and how happy I was with my wonderful sister and my strange yet loving vet friend who ran around me all the time. Then I fellin love with him and just when I realized it he….no THEY madehim be this evil assassin that was about to kill me and guess what? They madehim kill my sister instead of me!" Hewalked over to Kamui, grabbing the boy by his frail shoulders. "And they don't even let me die! They keep me here! Here to suffer more!Why….why….?" He looked around, remembering Kamui's reaction to the smoke. "They even make you extra sensitive to cigarettes so that we'll never be able to live together so that, god forbid, we might find happiness with each other!"
Kamui only appeared to be somewhere in his own atmosphere, but he was actually paying careful attention to everything Subaru said and his own mind began working. "Yeah! You know what? Me too! Finally I get a chance to go back to Tokyo and revive some part of my miserable life after watching my own mother burn to death and what do they do? They kill Kyogo-san off! They kill my only blood relation! They kill off Kotori and they make Fuma into this monster!"
"Yes, Kamui!" Subaru turned to the boy after standing with his back to him. He pointed a finger in his direction, his seeing eye blazing "You, too, are an abused Clamp character!"
Kamui's eyes blazed as well now. He straightened his back, clutched his fists and frowned in deep anger. "Well, I have had enough Subaru! I've had just about enough!" he kicked his shinken away, as away as Subaru's little apartment allowed it. "I'm not having any of it anymore! I'm not going to fight Fuma; I'm not going out there to keep this stupid battle! I'm…I'm…I'm…I'M ON STRIKE!" he called out, climbing on the chair Subaru occupied earlier, finger raised high in the air.
Awe filled, Subaru stared up at him with his own mind in the feverish rebellion "A strike! Yes! A brilliant idea! A strike! And I shall open a strike as well! We'll both have a strike! No more abuse from Clamp!"
Just as they were in the very height of their fighting spirit, a knock was heard on the door. Both angst boys flinched and turned to the door, expecting it to be Clamp, or Fuma, or anyone else that would walk in and spoil their suddenly high spirits.
Instead Aoki Seiichiro walked in, or rolled in, for he was still in his neck brace and wheelchair, yet his smile was as kind as ever. He stared at Subaru in his sudden energetic mood and at Kamui still standing on the chair and the shinken obvious discarded, away from him.
"I couldn't help hearing your conversation and I think I may have some tips for you" he smiled his lovely smile that only happily-married-with-children-oh-i-love-my-family-so-much-oh-my-life-is-so-perfect people can smile.
The two abused characters watched this smile and found themselves disgusted, yet also unable to say anything about it for who are they to question or, god forbid, besmirch one's happiness once one is a Clamp character in X and is truly happy.
"Well, one tip actually, ha ha ha" he beamed, making both Subaru and Kamui nearly fold in half with the sudden nausea that grasped their bodies.
"Tips about what?" Kamui, who finally realized that standing on a chair the way he was must look awfully silly and climbed off of Subaru's seat and walked up to the wind master in his wheelchair.
"Well, you see, in order to actually run a strike you need to be in a union. Currently you're Clamp characters, which is fine, but if you want to be able to have a legitimate strike you need to be a part of a union within the rest of the Clamp characters."
That left Subaru and Kamui somewhat out of words. Here was a chance for them to maybe stop this ongoing torture that was their lives under Clamp and there it went flying away with rules and regulations. Both stared at each other, exchanging anguished looks.
Seiichiro looked at them in their miserable state and his whole and happy heart ached for his tormented comrades "But, umm, say…why don't you form a union?"
Two heads rose from the miserable bow they had sunk into. One pair of violet eyes, one green eye and one marble white eye turned to him with a glitter of hope in each.
"Us? Form a union? Can we do that?" Kamui sat down at the chair. Subaru walked up to the chair, clutching at its back with his excitement.
"Why, yes…well, not just the two of you although I suppose a two men union is also a sort of union…."
"Yes!" Subaru made Kamui and Seiichiro jump in their seats at the uncharacteristic yell from the usual silent and stoic Dragon of Heaven.
Subaru walked dramatically between Kamui and Seiichiro, turning from one to the other as his speech went on
"We shall form a union in which we will gather every Clamp character ever to be abused in those women's history! We will sit together and strike and we will say (he raised his fist dramatically, anime style) 'Clamp, no! I will no longer participate in plots that only bring me pain and anguish! I am having no more of it!' What say you, comrades?" he turned, fire in his eyes….eye, to Kamui and Seiichiro.
"Well," the editor flashed another light filled smile, "besides the fact that I'm currently half beaten to death, I'm perfectly happy! I mean, both my nephew and a good friend of mine were killed brutally by Dragons of Earth, but compared to you guys, it's a scratch! So I can't really call myself an abused character but hey, good luck boys!"
And with that he turned his wheelchair to the door.
"Ummm, Aoki-san?"
"Yes Subaru?"
"The elevator's been stuck on the bottom floor for weeks now and this is the 32d floor, how did you get up here in a wheelchair?"
"Ah! The hole in the plot helped me," Seiichiro beamed.
Seiichiro rolled himself out of Subaru's apartment. A few moments later, the sound of a surprised man falling down was suddenly heard.
"Umm, Subaru, what was that?"
"Sounded like someone falling very fast while not having expected that to happen."
They rushed out of the small room to see what had happened. The elevator door on Subaru's flat was open and wheel marks showed that it was Seiichiro who had accidentally rolled himself into his own sure doom.
"My god! He fell down the elevator shaft!" Kamui tried looking down to see if there was any hope for the wind master. "And after we talked to him about the elevator being broke!" The darkness below made him cringe and look back to Subaru.
The onmyouji stood, suddenly pale and somewhat scared, shaking and staring at something to his left.
"What is it Subaru? What's wrong?"
Subaru didn't answer. Instead he took a note that was stuck to the doorframe and showed it to Kamui.
The note read:
"Dear Sumeragi-san and Shiro-kun,
We made him forget about the elevator.
Clamp.
P.S: good luck with the union"
Suddenly Kamui felt somewhat dizzy.
Despite the earlier semi-threat, the two Dragons of Heaven proceeded to form their union, determined to end their misery once and for all, or at least use the strike as a way to negotiate their conditions with their creators.
They settled in at a nice little cottage in the Tokyo suburbs where no kekkai stood close by (just in case Clamp might try to conveniently point to Fuma that there is a one there that he can destroy, thus demolishing their headquarters).
Above the gate they hung a simple black-on-white sign that read
"The Abused Clamp Characters Union"
Under which stood another sign which's letters were written in a slightly bigger font and in red that read
"No entry for fangirls, otakus and other non-Clamp personnel!" just to keep any nosy passers by from entering.
On a more realistic point of view it was only to keep the fangirls out (which is also why the word describing them was underlined twice with a black marker).
In the cottage, Subaru and Kamui sat to a cup of tea and waited for new members to walk in and join them at their strike.
The first one came about three minutes after they hung the signs up. The new member not so much of knocked on their door as much as he banged on it, sounding a light thud shortly afterwards.
Subaru opened the door and found Kakyou sprawled on the doormat, deep in sleep. From a nearby electric pole, a few cables withdrew and returned to their places; obviously, they were the ones who brought the dreamgazer over under Satsuki's computerized command.
Kamui, who walked to the door as well, crouched by the sleeping man and picked up an envelope that lay in the dreamgazer's palm.
The envelope and the paper had the Four Seasons Hotel logo at their head.
On the envelope, in a delicate somewhat feminine writing the following words were written 'open this in case I'm asleep when you answer the door.'
Kamui complied and opened the envelope, unfolding the crisp sheet of paper and reading its contents out loud so that Subaru would hear it as well.
"Dear Sumeragi-san and Kamui (the nice one),
I think I can call myself an abused Clamp Character therefore I'd like to join your union.
I'll gladly strike with you, though I highly doubt I'll be of any help in case you'd want to go out on a demonstration or something like that.
Kak……"
The last word was somewhat scribbled from the first letter until the end was just a long slightly shaky line downwards to the end of the sheet.
"That must be where he fell asleep," Kamui examined the descending line of ink while Subaru picked the light bodied dreamgazer from the floor. "He must have fallen asleep on the pen as well or he wouldn't have that nasty ink stain on his cheek." He winced at the sight of the circular dark blue stain on the pale skin.
"I'll go inside and clean it off of him" Subaru carried Kakyou inside the house while Kamui followed him.
Now, they sat at the little tea table, waiting for more members to come over. The somewhat annoying yet rhythmical sound of Kakyou's snoring was the background for their silent musing as they sipped their tea, stroke and waited.
The next new member was also the first member who was not an X character. Subaru opened the door to see a young high school girl in her white and blue school uniform, smiling kindly at him.
At first he wondered how anyone with a smile on their face can consider themselves worthy of calling themselves abused Clamp characters, but as he eyed her clothing more carefully, he realized that there might be a good reason for her to be here.
Over her usual sailor-like shirt and modest blue skirt the long haired girl was wearing something that looked like a crossover between a corset and an armored suit.
Before he could say a word, the girl stormed in, examined everyone in the room and, with a deep sigh of relief, began taking her armor off. She stopped dead for a second and whipped her head at Kakyou's direction. She turned a terror-stricken look like only a character heavily abused could have developed.
"Is….is that a woman?" she asked, pointing at Kakyou with a hand that shook, perspiration gathered in a thin film on her forehead.
"No…here," Kamui pulled a chair by his at the table, working on his tone to make it as soft and calm as possible to maybe sooth the young woman's nerves. "Sit down, have some tea."
Subaru went and brought her a mug of tea.
In an instant, the young girl's nerves calmed and her smile returned. "Ah, well, if it's not a woman, then it's okay," she laughed, removing her armor.
"Say, umm, what's your name?" Kamui offered her his hand to shake.
"Miyuki, just Miyuki, they didn't even bother making a family name for me…." She shook his and Subaru's hand, her voice bitter by the end of her sentence.
"What's the armor for?" Subaru had to ask, he winced at the heavy metallic clank the thing made as she shrugged it off.
"Ah, that's so that no one can open my shirt and no one can lift my skirt to peek at my underwear," she said, straightening her skirt as she spoke.
"My god! What have they done to you?" Subaru's usual 'other person in pain' alarm went off in his head.
"This is what they've done to me." She handed them a slim manga with a picture of her surrounded by bunnies in midair. Her face showed absolute horror for most of her skirt was sky high, barely hiding her underwear.
Kamui and Subaru browsed through the book, Kamui developing a slight blush while Subaru scanned it carelessly.
By the end of it they both raised their eyes to her and smiled kindly. "Welcome to the Abused Clamp Characters Union, Miyuki"
And so began the great Clamp characters strike.
(TBC)