10. Revelation.
T: This chapter is a little…full on…that is all I am going to say for fear of spoiling things! Warnings the same and it's still not mine…I own most of the merchandise now, does that count?
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"Who is Seishiro-san, Subaru-san?"
"Why?"
"I know that name somehow and I thought that if you told me who he is I might remember."
"No. You will not recall until I take the block from your mind."
"Block?" The child is obviously scared now, this fear hiding well the want for understanding in his eyes.
He had promised himself that should the child get too close he would call a stop to it, thus he steps away from the boy and smiling the smile of the Sakurazukamori he responds,
"I had a want for you to forget your other life until I knew what it was that I would do with you and yet, as always, you have managed to elude me.
"For but a few hours after I had banished your memories you were dreaming again of your past…of the Year of The Bet."
"Bet?"
"'When we meet again you will have a year to make me feel something for you and if you fail, I shall kill you.' I was but seven when you spoke those words to me, when you branded me with your mark and made me as an outcast among my own kin.
"Yet it does not matter now, the pain and the heartbreak of the past are but emotionless memories to me now.
"Something that I have you to thank for…Seishiro-san."
The boy's eyes widen and he feels the barriers on his mind break with a devastating clarity…
Seishiro's memories had been revealed.
"Why? Why have you revealed this thing to me?" The boy enquires after a moment, his hands rising to massage at his temples.
"Because I could no longer lie to you and because you have all but lived out your usefulness."
"Subaru-kun…"
The boy teeters a little on his feet and he takes this opportunity to gain a better distance between them.
Leaping into the sky he lands, faultlessly, onto the outer edge of the bridge and he begins then to prepare the spell that will be as an end to the boy.
"Subaru-kun, I do not understand why I did the things that I did in that previous life, nor do I expect you to forgive me those actions simply because they were not truly my own…
"I want you to know that I am sorry and that if I could do something to take the pain of those years from you I would.
"I may only be Tenshi now rather than Seishiro and yet somehow I still…" The boy pauses and a strong determination entering into his eyes he leaps for the bridge.
He lands poorly and he wobbles a moment on the tiny surface before he finds his balance.
"I still love you, Subaru-kun."
He moves hesitantly towards him, his arms outstretched to better maintain his fragile balance.
"It is too late; I am Sakurazukamori and thus what heart you left me has long since gone."
"If that is true then why am I still alive? Why did you tell me that my smile is the most important thing to you?"
"It was an illusion; something that I believe you should understand well, Seishiro-san."
The boy is but an arms length away and he moves himself so that he might better strike the child's heart.
Once content with his positioning, he leaps and an understanding smile comes to the boy's lips,
"I truly am sorry, Subaru-kun and it if takes my death for you to believe that then I shall gladly die.
"Your forgiveness is all that I ever wished for, after all."
Those words are so very unexpected and they break his concentration long enough that the spell loses its strength and he ends out simply hitting the child, open handed, on his chest.
The child's balance again disturbed he wobbles and unable to counteract the extra weight of the Sakurazukamori they topple together over the edge.
They fall a little before his mind catches up and moving on instinct he pulls the boy to himself and balls up as much as he can to ensure that most of the impact is transferred to his body rather than Tenshi's.
It is thankful, in a way, that they are not over the river, for once impact is made there is not the further danger of drowning.
There is, however, the pavement to consider and as he strikes the hard surface he feels a bone in his spine snap before sensation is cut completely from him and the world fades about him.
…………………………………………………………………………………..
Subaru has not woken since he hit the tarmac and yet the doctors are not concerned, indeed they come only once in a while to check on the older man's status.
He has spent long enough in a sick room that it concerns him and when the next doctor appears he asks after this oddity.
"Sakurazuka-san has an amazing regenerative capability, Onitsuka-kun and most of the doctors in this hospital have seen him recover from all but fatal injuries.
"Thus there is a general feeling among us that this is nothing more than a slight scrape for Sakurazuka-san and so, for the moment, we are treating it as such."
It had made sense in an odd sort of way and assured that Subaru was not being neglected a little of his tension had eased.
He finds the silence in the room unbearable and shuffling a little in his seat he takes Subaru's hand in his own before remarking,
"I want to talk to you more of my other life, Subaru-kun, of the time when I was Seishiro and yet I want to be sure that you are listening to me before we start that conversation.
However, I can not stand this silence and I have also a want for you to hear the story of this life, though it is not as important to me to know that you hear these words…
"My kasan and my tousan led hard childhoods, kasan having contracted cancer and tousan being blighted with leukaemia.
"Somehow they both survived these traumas and because of them they found one another.
"Kasan said that it was the one thing that made her smile about the illness, for if she had never had it then she would never have gone to a survivors meeting and met tousan.
"The illness made it hard for them to conceive their own child, the chemotherapy having made kasan all but barren.
She called me her miracle child, an angel's gift…it was a name that stuck among the nurses and eventually kasan decided to name me Tenshi.
My life was happy enough and I recall those first five years as a long adventure…as a constant amazement.
Though tousan had recovered as well as one can from such a thing as leukaemia his immune system had not and I recall that he would always have a cold during the winter months.
On the year of my fifth birthday he contracted a virulent strain of the flu and his diminished white blood cells could not cope.
I spent my fifth birthday not at the zoo as I had hoped, but at tousan's bedside, waiting, patiently, for his final breath.
I know that I loved tousan, I can recall the memory of that love deep within me and yet…
I felt nothing as he died, not fear, not confusion…not anything at all…
That was something I thought of only later when I had mind enough to consider such reactions as odd or out of the ordinary.
"It was at the time of tousan's death that my dreams changed and when my traitorous fingers began sketching the Sigil of your former clan everywhere than I could.
"I changed, became more curious than ever before…all but drank in the knowledge of new places, new people and new languages.
"Then, all of a sudden, I met Chihiro and there was someone in my life who I believed might teach me more of the things I wished to know.
"I knew that I did not love her as she loved me and yet I believed that I did care, just enough for her that to claim love was not such a terrible lie…" He smiles a little to himself and gripping harder to Subaru's hand he says,
"The evening that we met so suddenly in the street I had been going to Chihiro's home, a vague content in my heart…
"We crashed and as you offered me your hand…
"Looking into your eyes I felt as though I were coming home, as though the answers I craved still were contained together within the shadows of your soul.
"I felt…whole…"
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T: Te he! Yep another cliffy…nope I shall not crack! Three chapters left for those curious…R+R I need the praise!