8: Behind the illusion.
T: Weee…I actually have reviewers so joy! Things really are moving very swiftly now and for those of an emotional kind of leaning now is the time to escape…can't be more specific without spoiling things I'm afraid…mwhaha! Oh and I don't own it (more is the pity!)
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Though he has never been within the walls he knows himself in the Imonoyama mansion almost the very moment he wakes.
Where else in Japan could be found the oddly eclectic mix of traditional and fringe design, after all?
"So you are finally awake." That is Noruko and there is something in his voice that brings Seishiro to enquire,
"What happened?"
"You fainted without warning…the doctor said that it was a combination of exhaustion and something else that he could not quite understand.
"I had thought you were taking care of yourself, Yuko-san."
There is a sarcastic remark threatening on Seishiro's tongue and he has to bite it back before he responds,
"I have had others to concern myself over of late, Imonoyama-san."
There is the smallest of traces of guilt in the boy's eyes and then he flicks out his foolish fan and tapping Seishiro once on the arm informs him,
"Sakura-chan was with you when you fainted and it scarred her so."
"And?" He regrets allowing his feelings though this time, for a dangerous anger sparks into Noruko's eyes and the fan vanishes as though it had never been there.
"I am aware that you are angry at me for Takumura-san's sake, but I would ask you not to take that anger out on Sakura-chan." He stands and pacing to the doorway he enquires,
"What if someone else had been with you Yuko-san? What if it had been someone else who you had scared, would you be so casual then, or would you perhaps take my point?"
Someone is there as he opens the door and he talks a little to this other before he steps out of the room and the other, Subaru, steps inside.
The boy is dressed in one of his sisters creations and Seishiro knows well by now that this means he has until recently been engaged with a job.
How bows deeply as he draws level with the bed and his head remaining bowing he remarks,
"I am sorry!"
"What on earth for, Subaru-kun?"
"You have been worrying because of what I told you and because of that worry you have not slept and thus you collapsed."
"Subaru-kun, it was not your fault." He remarks as he grabs for the boy's chin.
There is the threat of tears in those beautiful eyes and suddenly he realises what it was that Noruko had been trying to tell him.
If it had been Subaru at his side when he had collapsed…if he had scared the boy in the fashion Noruko claimed he had scared Sakura…
"I am the one who should apologise. If I had been taking better care of myself…"
The boy smiles at last and enquires,
"How are you feeling now?"
"As I have done countless times before when I have dreamt of her and yet…
"Always before I have recalled my dreams of her in vivid detail, recall everything but her words…
"In this dream I recall nothing except…"
There is the faint ache in his head, an ache he recalls well from his childhood and that had not bothered him since he had crossed onto the Clamp Campus for the first time.
Despite this disassociation he knows still that this pain can mean but one thing.
"There is something…squirreled away in the back of my mind and held by something very, very powerful."
"Might I have a look?" The boy enquires as he raises his hands, palms facing away from him, so that Seishiro might better understand the entirety of what eh was requesting.
"Of course."
The boy settles his hands into Seishiro's hair and after a moment fragments begin appearing within his mind.
'I will see you again.' The words that she had spoken to him just before she had pressed her mark to his forehead.
'Hello, my one.' The first words spoken within that nightmare, 'Did I not tell you that I would see you again' the last thing she had uttered before…before the nightmare had drawn out to its conclusion.
Finally two whispered words,
'Ueno Park.'
He gently removes Subaru's hand from his forehead before he gains his feat, his mind intent on one goal…one purpose.
"Seishiro-san, where are you going?"
"She wishes me to go to Ueno Park and though I know I shall most likely find my death there I can not deny her…" He feels Subaru's hand cease into the back of his shirt and though he stops, he can not bring himself to turn and face whatever emotion waits, as a trap, within the boy's eyes.
"Let me come."
"Why?"
"She is the enemy of my clan, Seishiro. If she has truly exposed herself in order to might kill you, then I can not but take the opportunity."
"Will your powers not be drained?"
"No, for there was nothing for me to truly do at this last job."
"Then it was a prank?"
"Not really…it was, rather, an old woman who was looking for a friend and who was a little afraid of the failings of her once confident body."
"You are too kind…" He mumbles, before he turns at last to look the boy in the eyes.
After a moment he sighs and turning away again remarks,
"If you truly wish to come then I shall not stop you."
"Thank you."
They are all but alone when they cross finally into the park, the press of tourists that had been here but weeks ago all but a passing memory.
"There is something here that is full of a negative energy and the screams of the restless dead." Subaru remarks, a professional distance clear now upon his face.
"Show me."
The boy's normally sedate gait fades as he walks in front of Seishiro, his steps becoming now swift, agile and more suited to one of the Onmyoji profession.
They come eventually into the shade of a tall sakura, the branches of which are laden still with blossoms despite the season.
A sharp pain courses across his mind and suddenly he sees her again within his minds eye…feels her hands, as ice, on his shoulders and watches as her blood red lips move to inform him,
'The Sakurazukamori is barren always, trapped, as their tree, in the eternal twilight of spring.'
"This is her tree, that which feeds upon the souls of the dead."
"Yet the Sakurazukamori deal in illusion and deceit, why would she so willingly expose the very centre of her power and existence?"
"Because you are of no threat to me, Sumeragi and because soon this shall all belong to Seishiro."
It is not the dark shadow of a voice that he has recalled from his dreams, but a softer, sweeter, melody that ceases his heart hard.
"Sakura-chan?"
The girl falls from the branches of the tree, her lips twisted into a bitter mockery of a smile,
"Recall the Sumeragi's words, Seishrio? The one you thought of as Sakura was naught but illusion."
"Why?" He enquires as he moves to stand a little before Subaru, shielding the boy as best he can with his own body.
"Why? For you, Seishiro, all I have done since that first day in the hospital has been for you."
He recalls, as she says this, the other fragments of his 'dream', recalls her terrible story and the blood soaked legacy that she claimed his but for the matter of love.
A random, blood chilling, thought enters his mind and dreading already the answer he enquires,
"What have you done to Imonoyama-san?"
"Noruko, come here pet." She requests, a pull in her voice now that can only be magic.
Noruko leaps free of the tree a moment later, a look of one hypnotised about him.
"As you can see he is well enough for the moment, indeed he believes himself enjoying the greatest time of his life."
"Why, if you wanted me, did he have to be involved? Why did you have to enthral Imonoyama-san into your illusion?"
"I had thought to simply claim you when I found you again after so long without you.
"Yet you came into the thrall of the Sumeragi and I knew that you would not so willingly come to me.
"Thus I had thought to work my way into Noruko's confidence and with his aid bring you to trust the word of Sakura beyond the word of the Sumeragi.
"It was unfortunate that I had not taken into account that Noruko was the One of a Takumura and thus guarded with an overt suspicion.
"I had not planed for the Takumura's challenge, Noruko's reaction nor had I planed for your own response to Sakura once the situation had settled a little.
"To have you ignore me…to have you hate me even though I was showing you an innocent facade…I could not stand it and thus I risked myself a little.
"Once you knew in your heart what I was, I could not see a point in hiding any longer…could not see a point in maintaining the lies of the illusion."
As she spoke a soft light fell about her and slowly the girl he had known as Sakura passed away into the dangerous beauty of the Sakurazukamori.
"The game is over, Seishrio and it is time now for you to take your role."
The branches of the tree move with lightning swiftness to pass behind him and wrap about Subaru…to hang the boy a little from the floor by the fragile skin of his neck.
They twirl also in Noruko's direction, their trajectory high enough that it is clear they are aiming to kill rather than capture.
He hears distantly a cry and the sickening thud as the branches hit skin and yet he can not bring himself to see what has occurred…can not bring his eyes away from Subaru's steadily decreasing struggles.
"Choose." She informs him as she steps close enough that eh can strike for her should he wish.
There is a desire in his heart to slay her, to steal her great power so that he could free Subaru from the grip of the tree and yet…
To claim that power would be to become a murderer…
Would be as risking the chance that the power could corrupt him and bring him to allow Subaru's death just as the Sakurazukamori had allowed the death of her unborn child.
What could he do?
What choice did he have?
Looking to the maddened eyes of the Sakurazukamori he feels a cold comprehension swamp him…
There is no choice.
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T: Only two more chapters to go…will explain thingies in the last chapter! R+R, it gives me joy!
