7. Contact.
T: Nothing much to say today so strait into the disclaimer I go…Warnings remain the same and guess what? That's right I still fail to own anything here other than the plot!
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She feels no guilt for forcing Noruko to choose between herself and his bodyguard, despite the fact that it was coming closer to a point where she would reveal that she did not truly care for him.
Even tough Noruko's smile had lost a little of its brilliance and she felt always now as though she was playing a part, she still felt no guilt.
Only her boy's tears could ever hurt her, after all.
She sits a while with Noruko, laughing falsely at the jokes he seems to be telling simply to maintain the levity that is expected of him and then she makes her excuses and goes to find her boy.
She had thought to see him with the Sumeragi and had thus prepared her heart for the bruising that would occur from witnessing them together.
Thus when she finds him alone she is unable stop, for a moment, the wild beating of her heart, unable to stop the deep overwhelming desire to simply hold him and never let go.
She knows that she must do these things, that there is no cause yet to shatter the illusion that has been placed about her and thus she breaths deep and casually approaches him before enquiring if she might join him at his table.
He regards her with a patient look that recalls to her their very first meeting and the wave of nostalgia that hits her again threatens the tiny amount of control that she has over herself.
After a moment his eyes droop and his hands raise the book he is clutching back into a position where he might read it without having to look again upon her.
"Forgive me if I seem rude, Sakurazuka-san, but I am sure you shall understand if I refuse that request." He informs her after a moment of ignoring her as such.
"I did not ask Noruko-chan to forcibly defend me, Yuko-san, nor did I request that he turn Takumura-san away." She replies, desperate for the displeasure to fade away from his voice and his manner.
"I comprehend well that it is simply Noruko's care for you that has made him act as he has, however, in deference to Suoh-san I can not talk with you as though nothing has occurred."
"Of course." She replies.
His voice is full still of a cold indifference and though it had been such a tone that had first sparked her interest in him she can not now bare it.
Though she knows that she should stick still to her plan, knows that it is foolish to turn away now when she has come so far, she can not help but decide to risk a little.
Shrouding both herself and her boy into an illusion of invisibility she wraps about the child's facade a mimicry of her true form.
It takes him a moment to register the chance and then he is up on his feet, a wild panic clear in his eyes.
"Have you come to kill me at last?"
She smiles and stretching to caress the skin on his forehead where her mark lies, she informs him,
"It is not like that," Before she pulls the darkness of the sakura's world from within her to infuse into the illusion, so that they are stood now beneath the gigantic visage of that she serves.
Oniichan is stood a little before them, his eyes expectant despite the illusion of apathy that he is giving with his smile.
Bowing politely she gestures to her boy and says,
'Niichan, this is my 'One', Seishiro Yuko.'
Oniichan bows and greets her boy politely before enquiring,
'Why is he here, Setsuka, when it is clear through his eyes that he is, as yet, unprepared for this?'
'One of the Sumeragi has been poisoning him against us and I had hoped that we could show him the truth of being Sakurazukamori.'
There is a speculative look hidden still in Oniichan's eyes, yet despite this he moves to stand directly before her boy and waving a hand before him utters a simple incantation.
An odd glazed look comes upon her boys eyes and instantly she is on the attack,
'What have you done, niichan?'
'I have simply assure that he will recall this simply as dream, until such a point where he is forced to realise that it is not as such.'
The knowledge that he shall recall this only as fabrication lends her courage and she stretches to take his hand into hers.
'Seishiro, though it is true that we are killers and that our emotions are hardened by our bond to the tree this is only a portion of the truths of our race.
'As Sakurazukamori there are two hardships you must face, both of which come at the beginning and the ending of your time as that individual.
'As Sakurazukamori you love but once and it is through that love…through the hand of the 'one' you care for…that you shall die.
'The knowledge that this is so is one of the hardships you must bare and it is always the final secret that is passed between the previous and the new Sakurazukamori before the transfer of power is finally completed.
'As to the second hardship…as with the Sakurazukamori's bond with the tree it varies from person to person and yet it is the reason why the Sakurazukamori feels nothing.
'For myself it came in the form of a choice…the choice to did along with my unborn child and be always a good mother or to take Oniichan's power and live at the expense of my baby's life.
'For the Sakurazukamori is barren always, trapped as their tree in the eternal twilight of spring.
'This I knew and yet still I chose to take Oniichan's power…chose to live despite what it would mean for the child.
'Making such a choice placed me perfectly as the next Sakurazukamori, for it hardened my heart to useless emotion.
'Yet the first day that I saw you I felt…hot…felt alive for the first time in years and I knew you would be next.' She smiles and placing her hands to mark on his head informs him, 'You are mine, Seishiro and when the time comes right you shall kill me and face your own hardships.'
'Why?' It is mussy, as though he is heavily sedated and again she can not but take advantage of this weakness.
This time she pulls him tight to her and breaths deep the scent that she will mark in her mind as uniquely his.
Lowering her hand to clench into the material above his heart she smiles and informs him,
'I do not know why you shall kill me, nor why you will carry on this legacy, but I shall tell you my reasoning.
'I killed Oniichan so that I might live and because he had been the one to kill my child.
'I chose to serve the sakura for it offers me peace…offers me a place where I can simply cease to be.
'For in the night time I allow the sakura to swamp me and it takes my anger, hate and lust for vengeance and turns those feelings to its advantage.'
He looks still unsure and yet she knows this is all that she can do, knows that already she has trodden beyond what was normally discussed before the power of the sakura had been passed on.
Thus she uncurls the illusion from about them, until they are stood again within the campus and she wears again the face of the little girl 'sakura.'
Her boy looks ashen and as he sways she moves, so very afraid that he shall harm himself or mayhap even die before she can seal the transference.
She holds him to her a moment, simply so that she might have again the pleasure of his warmth against her own and then she screams, her child's voice adding a discordant high note to the sound that could well be taken for panic.
There are people crowding her almost instantly and then Noruko is at her side, his hands smoothing her hair in a subconscious desire to touch and an outward desire to comfort.
"We were talking, Noruko-chan and then Yuko-san simply collapsed…he was so pail and…and…"
Noruko murmured a few empty nothing to her before he looked to the crowd and enquired,
"Has someone rung for a doctor?"
There was an affirmative from somewhere amid the throng and satisfied Noruko bent so that he could look her in the eyes as he told her,
"Yuko-san is strong, Sakura-chan and I am sure he shall recover.
"For now the best we can do is be strong for him."
She turns the tears off easily and blinking she replies,
"Hai, Noruko-chan."
This earns her a smile and then he is turning again to the crowd, wishing to move them on both so that the doctor can get to her boy with more ease and also, se suspects, so that she might calm down a little more.
Noruko distracted momentarily she bends to whisper two words to her boy before she stands and waits for the doctor, somehow confident now that everything shall turn in her favour.
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T: Ta da! I like the idea that Setsuka can be childish and unsure when in the presence of her 'oniichan' thus the minute changes in her speech pattern. The whole complicated nature of the Sakurazukamori line is a bit of my own reasoning and a slight humanisation of the beasts that Clamp created…more little niggles, such as why Setsuka has changed her attitude towards the tree, shall be answered soon enough. Keep reading and review as well…no I don't have a reason I'm afraid!
