7: Revelation.
T: I know it's been a while since I updated this one but apparently Chaos Dragon (My Beta for this fic) has been having a rather nasty time of it, what with hospitals and all…basically this one is going to remain a slow burner I'm afraid… keeps the anticipation! GSYH actually it was that episode of Buffy that inspired this idea so there we are! Warnings the same and nope I'm not a member of Clamp!
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It was well past visiting hours when Subaru phoned, yet his late return must be based in some positive development and thus Hokuto found herself unable to be angry with her son.
"Subaru, what can I do for you?"
"Mother…" His breath hitched after that one syllable and she knew then what the development had been.
"You have told him then."
"Yes."
"And he returns your care?"
"Yes."
The brief instant of silence is enough to inform her that her child is hiding something and she wasted no time in enquiring, "What is on your mind, Subaru?"
"Seishrio has told me all about that world and the part I played there, has told me that it was for love for me that kept him trapped there. He also told me of his belief that he has seen his mothers killer in that world…" Again a hesitation and then Subaru enquired, "Might Murimi have had a son?"
She fights to retain her composure at that and her voice neutral she says, "It is possible, Subaru, but I do not think we need worry ourselves with such thoughts."
A sigh. "Yes, I suppose you are right. Good night, mother."
"Good night."
She sits in silence a moment and then she dials the institute's number. "Hello, Kishu-san, might I speak to my husband please?"
"Of course, Sumeragi-san, if you will wait a moment…"
The silence that followed was all but deafening and again and again she hears in her mind that tentative enquiry, 'Might Murimi have had a son?' She hears layered upon the repetition of that question another that had been made of her so very long ago by Setsuka, 'I have a secret I need to tell you, Hokuto-chan, will you listen?'
She could see the way the older woman had looked as she made that enquiry even now, can see the pallor of her skin and the fear within her eyes. She had listened to the secret and had sworn never to tell anyone, had sworn that this confidence would remain between the two of them.
"Hokuto?" That was Kakyo at last, concern clear in his voice, "What is the matter, love?"
"Did . . . did Seishrio-chan say anything to you of Murimi's son? Did he see that other in his dream world?"
"He saw a boy by the name of Keiichi Segawa."
"Describe him, Kakyo." She could hear him hesitate and for the briefest of moments and she feared he would ask for explanation, ask her to confess at last the one secret that stood between them. Yet after a moment he sighed and described to her the one Seishrio thought of as Keiichi. As he finished, she stated: "That is Murimi…or at least the boy Murimi had been before greed and madness changed him."
"Yet how would Sakurazuka know such a thing? Indeed why were you so concerned as to the appearance of the one named Keiichi?"
"Both are linked to a common thing, Kakyo and yet I can not tell you what that is, not without breaking a confidence."
"That confidence could well be protecting a killer, Hokuto."
"I know and yet…yet I think it might also be protecting Seishrio-chan's sanity." In the silence that followed she found herself creating sense out of the confusion surrounding Seishrio-chan's referral and Kamui's sudden antipathy towards the man. She had asked her son what he had said to Seishrio-chan to push him back into his other world and her son had replied, 'I simply told him the truth.'
A cold sweat broke onto her forehead and she hastily told her husband, "I have to go" before she hung up the phone and gained her feet.
She had to know if her conclusion was right, had to know what 'the truth' that Kamui had imparted to Seishrio-chan had been.
Her son was in a deep sleep and it took a great effort to stir him from that state. Once he was awake he blinked his eyes and enquired, "Why have you woken me when it's so late?"
"Were you there, Kamui, when Setsuka-san died? Did you see he that killed her?"
"Why do you want to know, mother? Why when it is all too late to stop harm coming from the truth?" That was all she needed to hear, all the confirmation she required to inform her that she had indeed been correct in her conclusion.
"You saw Seishrio-chan, didn't you?"
"Yes."
…………………………………………………………………………….
The phone call from his wife had rattled him more than was truly necessary. She had seemed so frightened of what his answer would be to her enquiry of Keiichi's description . . .Yet why? What was the secret that she was keeping from him and how had Sakurazuka-san been able to know what Murimi had been before his madness?
Did Sakurazuka-san also subconsciously know the secret that Hokuto was harboring? There was, of course, a way to find out and yet he hesitated to use it…
Dream analysis was one thing, but to actively pry into the dreams, to use them as a way of achieving answers to things that would otherwise be kept secret…
It was almost like spying and yet it was most likely the only way that he would get the answers he desired.
The only way he could bring back Hokuto's happiness.
Thus he entered Sakurazuka-san's room as quietly as he could and when assured that the other was still asleep he settled in the chair at his side. "Sakurazuka-san, can you hear me?" He enquired after a moment, his voice low pitched and modulated in such a way that it reached into the others subconscious.
"I hear you, Kizuki-san."
"Can I ask you a few questions, Sakurazuka-san?"
"Yes."
"And will you promise to answer me truly?"
"Yes."
"Then tell me who Keiichi Segawa is."
"He is a boy who likes Kamui…an ordinary boy caught into a war made specifically for the extraordinary."
"Who is he in this world, Sakurazuka-san and why have you given him the face of a killer."
"Because he has no face of his own."
"Do you mean that he is scarred enough so that he bears no features?"
"No, I mean simply that his face is not his own." Clearly this line of questioning will get them no-where, so Kakyo returns to the question that Sakurazuka-san had so tactically evaded.
"Who is that boy to you in this world?"
"My reflection."
"Would you explain yourself?"
"I can not recall much of that boy and thus when I think of him I think instantly of how he looks to me."
"As your reflection?"
"Yes, for the face he wears in this world is my own and yet he has twisted it…has made it ugly to behold."
"You are Keiichi Segawa, is that what you are trying to say?"
"No. I am trying to tell you that he bears my face and yet that we are separate, that he is my brother…my twin." Sakurazuka pauses a moment and then continues again by saying,
"That day mother had arranged for us to meet, for she believed that Keiichi had grown beyond the violence that had separated him from us in the first place. The separation had caused me to forget him and mother had to recall him to me before we met and yet I believed that I could have loved him again. Believed that I might have grown to trust him beyond all others as I had long ago. He was happy enough when we first met and then mother said something about father and Keiichi changed…he had a knife and he pressed it to my throat, threatened to end my life.
"Mother begged for him to kill her instead and he granted that wish. He told me that he would kill me also if I moved. His face…no, my face…was coated in her blood and yet he was smiling as though nothing mattered at all. As though she were insignificant." Tears had began to leak free of Sakurazuka-san's eyes and Kakyo knows that now is the time to call a stop to this invasion.
"Sakurazuka-san, I need you to know that Setsuka-chan's death was not your fault, that though he is your twin Keiichi is not you. Lease up your guilt and know that Setsuka-chan died so that you might live, died to give you a chance to love as you now love."
"He shall come for Subaru." He whispered.
"We shall keep Subaru safe, I promise you."
The other man relaxed and, content that things are safe for the moment Kakyo returns to the phone. "Hello?" Hokuto sounded very unlike her usual self and he knew he had done the right thing he told her, "I know that Keiichi Segawa is Seishrio's brother, Hokuto . . .
"And I know that Murimi was his father . . . "
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T: Snigger I can see Murimi saying I am you're father Sei-chan a la darth! R+R just so I know you care!