History

by MeyRevived2

Post X. Subaru's off on a mission to a far off northen village and finds the case has more in store for him then he had imagined.

Disclaimer: I do not own X/1999. Clamp does. Sue me not. Tajira is all mine though everything else is certainly not.

"this is speech in English"

Many, many thanks to my beta Cait. Love yo.

---

History

"Sumeragi-san? It's you, isn't it?"

Subaru turned around and saw a wan bespectacled man in a neat bright brown suit approach him. The man had bright brown wavy hair combed backwards, though it blew forward playfully. The man waved to him with his free hand, the other hand holding a thick worn suitcase.

"A-Aoki-san…?"

"Aha ha! You remember me! Wow, it must have been years since I last saw you."

"Almost five years now, yes. How are you Aoki-san?"

Seiichiro stopped running and walked leanly towards Subaru, eyeing the man with tired eyes. "Oh I'm fine, just fine, how are you?"

"You seem tired."

Seiichiro blinked a little and scanned Subaru again. He was standing a little away from Subaru, as if keeping a distance from the other man. "Oh yes, I've been pulling all-nighters for the past four days, so, I guess I look tired, yes….but how are you?"

"How is your family Aoki-san?"

Seiichiro's face lit up, "Fine, fine, just fine," he looked away pensively, "Yuka-chan is having a little bit of trouble in school though…"

"Oh?"

"Yeah…you see, Imonoyama-sama offered to have her enrolled into kindergarden when everything was over and…we enrolled her but…" Seiichiro scanned the crowds around them.

He took Subaru by the elbow and walked the two of them to a nearby bench. Subaru sat down beside the man and waited for Aoki to continue.

Seiichiro frowned and stared at the train tracks before them. "It's just that, well you know, all the kids in Clamp Campus are very….special. I mean they're enrolled there either because they're in need of free education or because they're very good at something. So Yuka-chan is…well…" Seiichiro glimpsed at Subaru and looked away immediately.

It was the mismatching eyes that unnerved him a little. But the Sumeragi's face, completely concentrated on his words made those thoughts vanish.

"Yuka-chan is a smart girl, she is, but she's not like the rest of the kids in her class. It's just that they're expecting so much of the kids in her class and everyone's so bent on achievements that Yuka-chan….well, she's a bit left behind and discouraged."

Seiichiro stared forward in silence, still frowning.

"Have you thought of changing her school?"

Seiichiro glanced at Subaru again and smiled wanly, "My wife and I have contemplated it. We're afraid this might seem to Yuka-chan as if we're giving up on her, that we don't believe she's up to it in her current school. It's a big dilemma."

"I can imagine it is."

The station's PA switched on. The sweet feminine voice kindly asked the passengers of line 205 to get ready to board their train.

Hurriedly, Subaru pulled a page from a plastic folder he held in his hand and scanned through the list on it. Leafing through the pages was difficult with gloved hands but he had gotten used to it. He shot to his feet, "I'm very sorry Aoki-san, but I'm afraid I have to take this train now."

Seiichiro hung his tired eyes at Subaru with a kind of worried look mixed with sadness, "You have a job to do up north?"

"Yes, I'm very sorry. Please send my regards to your wife and Yuka-san; good luck with her school."

"Thank you Sumeragi-san…and, uh…take care, okay?"

Subaru blinked, taken aback, "Yes…thank you, have a good day." He turned around and hurried to board the train car closest to him.

He found a seat at the back of the car and sat down by the window on the car's left side. He placed his black backpack by his side on the seat and scrutinized the list in the folder again.

Dates, names of places and phone numbers had become a big blur in his consciousness for the past four and a half years. Subaru found that in order to get to a job he needed to constantly have lists of his destinations and ways of transportation to these locations or he'd get lost easily.

Subaru had three more trains to switch to before he arrived at the location of his next job. Luckily the job itself was in the last train station and so busses within the nearby villages were no hindrance to him.

He tried to memorize the name of the village he'll arrive at last when a pink blur caught the corner of his eye. Subaru looked out the window and observed the line of cherry trees in bloom the train drove past.

Springtime was in its peak, a blooming cherry tree was not something so rare. Not since 1999 anyway.

After 1999's great earthquakes, Tokyo's mayor decided to create new parks all around the city, right by the new buildings erected where nature leveled what man erected on its earth.

The new parks were the city's green lungs, changing the city landscape and painting it green, blue, pink, yellow and red. People commented that the air in Tokyo became clearer, that somehow the city changed for good, as if life became easier.

To Subaru the new city parks, many of which populated large groves of cherry trees, were an eyesore.

Last night Subaru walked through Ueno Park, paying a visit to the huge tree. He stood under the broad branches, laden with heavy blooms, and mused for a while.

He placed his left hand on the tree bark, feeling the ancient woody texture. His black gloves kept him from feeling the tree fully, but that's exactly how he liked it.

"I'm going to go away for a few days; I have a job out in the countryside so I won't be here to feed you."

The wind blew gently through the branches, making the leaves rustle gently.

Subaru preferred not to think the tree answered him like that. He preferred to not think about the tree having any sort of consciousness at all. Whatever it was making the tree what it was, Subaru wanted absolutely no connection with it more than he already had.

Dreams about the tree speaking to him would make him wake up in the middle of the night.

In those dreams the tree branches would reach out to him, caressing him softly and soothing him into a warm embrace. The tree had a deep feminine croaked voice which told him he was a good boy, told him to try and rest now.

Subaru would struggle out of those dreams and would sit in his bed smoking, trying to shoo the soothing voice from ringing in his ears.

Nightmares about the tree's pores changing into screaming mouths would wake Subaru with a scream. He wouldn't be able to sleep again after those dreams.

Yesterday he offered his right hand to the tree and watched with disgust as the lower branches slowly wounds themselves to wrap around his bloody palm. He stared at the leaves and flowers closing down on his glove for a while before yanking his hand away with a muffled scream. His glove remained in the tree's embrace.

"I'm going now. Good night." Subaru trotted away quickly, glancing behind his back at the immense tree to make sure it wasn't reaching out after him.

In the train car Subaru shook his head slightly to rid himself of those thoughts and concentrated on the papers in the folder.

Faxes about the job, Subaru tried to read them when he felt his eyelids were too heavy to keep open. Last night's prey was a tricky thing to catch.

Did he just define the prey as a 'thing'! Five years in the new position and he already starts treating people like objects.

Subaru shuddered.

He rose to his feet to look for the train's food cars. His next stop is coming up soon and he needs to not be falling asleep and missing it, a cup of coffee would do him good right now.

Subaru doubted there's a smokers' car in the train so he'd be able to consume his coffee with a cigarette.

The cafeteria was three cars down. His cell phone rang when he was in the middle of the second car.

Subaru never liked cell phones. He always saw them as alienating machines, always ringing when people are in a date, in a meeting, in a lecture, busy. People walking the street and talking into their cellular seem rude to Subaru; they looked like they were in a bubble of their own.

The sight of a man in his car talking to thin air when he was actually talking on the phone using his car's speaker always puzzled Subaru and took some time to sink in fully.

The government insisted he carry a cell phone with him wherever he goes. Subaru tried to ask them to let it go, but they were not the type to argue with.

Sighing, Subaru pulled out the vibrating silver rectangle from his pocket. He flipped the tiny machine open and glanced at the number on the screen.

They were calling him from Kyoto. He checked his watch; he wasn't late to the job, why would they call him?

"Moshi moshi, Sumeragi speaking."

"Subaru-san," it was his second grade cousin Masafumi, "good day."

"I'm sorry Masafumi-san but I'm in a train, the reception is bad."

"Oh I see. I just wanted to inform you of your grandmother's annual memorial service in two days' time."

"….Yes, I remember it, I will do my best to finish this job before the ceremony."

"Alright, good luck with the job."

"Thank you Masafumi-san, have a good day."

"Goodbye."

Subaru slammed the phone shut and shoved it into his pocket. Eyeing the traffic signs outside the car's window he realized he'll need to get off the train soon and buying coffee is out of the question.

He sighed and fondled his cigarette box in his black trench coat's breast pocket longingly.

---

A soft feminine hand landed on his shoulder in the next train station, turning him around. He knew who it was this time.

"Subaru-san!" Karen chirped at him, "Fancy meeting you here!"

"Hello Karen-san, how are you?"

"Oh I'm just fine, how are you?" she eyed him with the same half sad concern as Seiichiro did only she didn't keep a distance from him. She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a warm embrace.

"I'm on my way to a job in…uh…." Subaru began flipping through his paper in search of his list when Karen placed her hands on his to stop him.

"Forget about that, how are you?"

Subaru blinked at her and reached into his coat to pull himself a cigarette.

Karen eyed him and smiled, "I see you're still smoking. That's alright, I won't preach you against it, I'm not like that. I used to smoke too, I quit…well…three years ago."

"It was four and a half years ago."

Karen laughed lightly, "No, I quit four years ago, I know what year it honey." She folded her arms on her chest, took a step back and eyed Subaru again.

"You lost weight Subaru-san, aren't you eating enough?"

"It's the black, it makes me look thin."

Karen looked highly unconvinced. She was about to say something about it when Subaru interrupted her before she'd say anything too meaningful.

"What are you doing here?"

She beamed and reached into her bag. She had a large stylish red bag she carried on her shoulder. It looked like it was going to explode from all the things she jammed into it. Karen dug around in it until she pulled a small pamphlet and handed it to Subaru.

Subaru read out the title on the first page, "Clear Mountain orphanage, in memory of Tojo Kazuki…?" beneath the fancy bright blue headline was a picture of a lush blooming mountainside and a three storied traditional building of white and dark brown. Subaru looked at Karen, then at the pamphlet again.

"I looked into my bank account and decided I have enough money to start doing something good."

"You quit your job at Flower?"

"Oh yes, back in 1999. I moved to a different soap house but then I quit completely and started this orphanage." She tapped the picture with her finger. Her nails weren't as well manicured as they used to be.

Subaru eyed his old friend. She wore a simple white turtleneck that looked a size or two bigger than she needed, a simple khaki skirt down to her knees and simple flat shoes. She changed.

"You must be very busy there."

Karen waved her palm in the air dismissively. She didn't wear as many rings and bracelets as she used to as well, she only wore a simple golden ring and a watch. "It's a lot of work but it's good work, so I'm never tired.

"I'm working on building a nunnery right by the orphanage. We already have a church and a priest but I think a nunnery would also be nice, you know, more hands working and all…"

Subaru blinked at the golden ring on her right hand, "Karen-san, you're married…"

Karen gaped at him, wincing a bit, "Yes Subaru-san, I invited you to my wedding, remember?"

Subaru blinked at her.

"It was in my husband's estate near Kobe, you came to the ceremony….you don't remember?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry…I worked until very late last night."

Karen became very quiet and very grave suddenly. "Yes, I imagine you did." Her voice was very serious and low. She looked him deep in the eyes for the first time.

"Do you need donations…I mean…."

Karen shook her head quickly, "No, my husband's mother helps us whenever we have any financial problems, it's alright." She bit down the "we don't need your money" she wanted to add.

"C-could you remind me what your husband's occupation is? I'm so very sorry it slipped my mind."

Karen already took a step backwards, turning her back to leave a little, "He's a pediatrician in the new Kobe Tojo hospital…look I have to go or I'll miss my train, okay?" with this she turned around and vanished in the crowd.

Subaru eyed the list of incoming trains and noted there's not a train coming into the station for the next half an hour. She lied to him. She knows what he's doing these days.

He eyed the train station nervously in search of the men's room. When he located its sign he hurried towards the lavatories.

Crouching above the toilet seat, wiping his mouth, Subaru choked his sobs. It was a nasty habit of his to do this after each time he'd realize someone he knows learned of his other role.

He tried to think about something else and looked at his watch. He had thirty minutes before his next train. He should get up, wash his mouth and look for something to eat and fill his now empty stomach.

Forgetting when to eat, mixed with his heavy smoking and the amount of coffee he drinks to stimulate himself after sleepless nights was starting to give him heartburn whenever he wouldn't eat. This was the thing which finally managed to force Subaru into some kind of ordered lunching hours.

He bought himself a cup of ramen and walked towards a bench a few feet away from him. He caught his foot in a crack in the platform tiles and crushed to the floor, spilling his ramen forward onto the dark blue floor.

Climbing back to his feet, dusting his clothes and wincing at the sight of his lost lunch, Subaru couldn't repress the need to glance over past the train tracks to the opposite platform. No one was standing there reading a newspaper. He looked up to the sky. His Sumeragi shiki wasn't there.

Karen was on the opposite platform, sitting on a bench with a cup of milkshake and talking on the phone vigorously. She was leafing through some papers in a file she held open in her lap. Subaru could hear her happy tone and frequent laughter from where he stood.

---

Subaru checked his papers one last time; the line he was now on was his last one and the train will move on past the station he needs to depart at; he should keep himself alert or he'll miss it.

He already fell asleep on the train before the one he was on now.

He was exhausted to the level that he didn't fully remember where it was he fell asleep. He remembered blinking at one point and waking up in the train's last station. Luckily the line he took prior to this one ended in the station he needed to depart in and he didn't miss his stop.

He needed to depart to the job's destination at Tajira station. Glancing upwards to the chart of the line's stations plastered on the wall between two windows on the other side of the car, Subaru learnt his stop was the one up next.

He got up, checked around his seat that he didn't place any of his belongings around him, and walked towards the door.

It was in that moment that the train came to a sudden halt. Subaru was almost flung forward by the force of the halt; he managed to avoid that by clinging to a seat nearby. He glanced at the elderly man sitting on the seat by the one he clung to and apologized for startling him.

The old man beamed at him, bowed back and assured Subaru he caused him no trouble at all.

The train did not resume its movement.

Subaru opened a window and peeked outside towards the locomotive.

The driver burst out of his car, slamming the door angrily behind him and walked towards the railway, swearing audibly.

There seemed to be something damaged with the railway which posed a danger to the train; if the driver did not stop the train it could have gone off its track.

The station was a few meters before them.

Subaru saw a woman dash from the platform and leaping, walking quickly downwards towards him.

She was a young woman in her early twenties, dressed in an extremely pink skirt and jacket above a plain white shirt. The designer who came up with her suit was selling his other creations in Ginza for very high prices, this was a rich young woman. Her hair was lightly unkempt by the wind as she tried to walk on the gravel around the railway with her high heeled fancy pink shoes.

She walked up to the window from which Subaru peeked and turned to the onmyouji, "Good day!" she chirped apologetically, "I apologize for the inconvenience."

Subaru shook his head slightly, "Is something wrong with the railway?"

The woman glanced nervously towards the locomotive driver who was kicking the railway, still cursing loudly, and tried to plaster a contrite smile towards him, "Yes, there is a small problem….excuse me sir, but are you by any chance Sumeragi-san?"

"I am, are you…." Subaru glanced at his papers again, "Abe-san?"

The girl burst into shy giggles, hiding her mouth with a nervously shaking hand, "Oh please don't refer to me like that. This is a small town," she said, speaking of the elegant little village spread on the mountain side behind her, "my name is Abe Yukina, call me Yukina-chan or people will look at you funny."

"Very well, but you are the woman I'm suppose to contact, Yukina-san?"

Yukina nodded, gesturing Subaru to get off the car and come with her. He complied, dragging his bag with him with a wince.

She stopped to look into his eyes curiously, "hey! You're a David Bowie!"

"Excuse me?"

Yukina giggeled again, "a David Bowie, your eyes are two different colors."

Subaru blinked at her and remained silent until Yukina got the message and continued leading him towards the platform.

The wind outside was extremely violent, dealing them with erratic blows as they walked near the railway. The wind swirled around the gravel, bringing with it dust and dry leaves from the ground. It knocked the hat off the locomotive driver's head, making him turn away from the damaged railway and off to find his cast off hat.

Subaru eyed the railway; the metal bars were twisted upwards as if an immense force yanked it out of the ground. If the train tried to ride through it a massive accident would have taken place.

He turned to Yukina, pointing at the railway, "This have anything to do with the case, Yukina-san?"

She winced at the railway, "This and another thing, yes. You see that?" she pointed at the railway beyond the station. A group of workers camped out beside the railway, their tools still near the line, "They are fixing what happened last time a train tried to ride this line. It was this morning. Looks like we'll have to ask the workers to stay and fix another problem…"

Subaru stopped walking for a moment as he realized something; if the line was going to be cut short then it would have been announced on the station where he took this line. It must have been…where was his head at the time!

Yukina climbed to the platform and offered her hand for Subaru to take and pull himself onto the platform. By her grip and the pull she gave his it seemed that Yukina was not the frail girl her pink and pampered appearance gave.

Tajira station sat on the end of a dirt road leading from it to the small village of Tajira, population 150 families, some of which were workers of the nearby nature reserve, which included the lofty mountain looming over the village. The rest of the village's population was farmers working in the rice fields spread beyond the other side of the railway.

The station itself was nothing but a short platform with a simple gray concrete floor, one bench, a soda vending machine and a small office building of two floors.

Looking around him, Subaru got the feeling that he was stuck in the middle of nowhere, a countryside almost completely cut off from the rest of Japan.

The air was fresh and sweet with the smell of damp earth, the far off rice fields and freshly cut grass. Subaru inhaled the clear air and relished in the smell of air clean of car exhaust fumes and smoke one only learns to enjoy after leaving Tokyo.

Yukina set them both down on the lonely bench. Subaru offered her a drink from the vending machine.

She waved it off sheepishly, "My grandfather and daddy run this station, I can walk into his office and make us both a cup of coffee if you want to drink something. I just thought you might want to stay here for a moment to maybe see what we called you here for."

Subaru nodded and sat down beside her.

Yukina took a while before she spoke; she was looking at the train Subaru rode had ridden as it slowly began driving backwards.

The driver made a call to his employers to report the problem and was now sitting on the railway by the damaged line, smoking a cigarette.

His deputy was getting the train a little away from its driver to try and see if the train was not damaged by any problems on the line they might have not detected before stopping.

"We should have called you earlier; it's not the first time this has happened." Yukina broke the silence. She was staring forward, towards the rice fields or towards the railway, Subaru didn't know, she was frowning slightly and looking rather exhausted.

The wind didn't blow so strongly here; it seemed to be busy with troubling the driver, who was fighting to light his second cigarette.

"You mean these things happened before you called us? For how long?"

"Oh, it was erratic mostly; we could never predict when one of those things happened."

"The railways were damaged at various different times? Have you checked for analogy with any memorial days, dates of specific deaths of any kind?" which was a stupid question, Subaru rebuked himself, that was his job, not hers.

"The damage to the railway was not something that common, in fact none of the things were very common, and it never connected with anything that ever happened here if that's what you mean.

"This is a small village, I have to admit that people here are quite superstitious, so we checked for every dramatic event ever happening in the history of the village; we had no result.

"Something would happen once every two or three years and would not return again for a long time….these past three weeks these things started happening again and with added violence. My grandfather decided that enough was enough."

"So, besides the damage to the railway and the violent wind, what has happened?"

Yukina turned to Subaru, her face was lit up and curious as a little child's, "You mean the wind has something to do with it as well?"

Subaru nodded gently and waited for her to continue.

Yukina must have been under the impression that he was going to explain what else he knew of unnatural wind currents and eyed him hungrily for more information. She didn't seem to fully comprehend the meaning of her train station haunted by something this angry and violent.

"Please continue, what else has happened here that seemed odd to you."

"Ah! Yes, I'm so sorry." she giggled, still lightheaded, "Sometimes people would appear on the railway, making trains stop because they thought someone was trying to kill themselves."

"What kind of people?"

"Foreigners, dirty and dressed in rags like they were beggars, all thin as skeletons. At first we thought they were tourists who went hiking in the mountain and got lost for a few weeks, to appear back to civilization around the station.

"When we checked with Tajira Inn, that's the hostel we have here for anyone who wants to visit the reserve, they said they never accommodated people like who appeared on the railway.

"No one in the village saw these people walking from the reserve to the station and no one working in the rice fields saw them either. They'd appear, and disappear as soon as the train came to a halt, like they were doing it on purpose to sabotage the train ride."

"These foreigners, how did they look, please be more specific."

Yukina shrugged, glancing at the railway as if trying to summon the ghosts before her, "They were very tanned and very thin. People often said they looked sick, like they had a skin infection or a fever or something. Also, they were dressed in khaki or something so dirty you couldn't tell its original color. Some of them were hardly dressed, like with a loincloth and nothing else. Some of them wore boots and hats; odd hats."

"How do you mean 'odd hats'?"

"Broad rimmed and folded on one side, like this:" Yukina gestured above her head as if she was folding an imaginary hat on her head. She was folding the hat on its left side, "And their pants were short, up to here," she touched her legs a little above the knee, "they all had long beards and very dirty. Also some were blond and none of them was Japanese. Someone once said they heard them speak, he told us they spoke German."

Subaru stared at the railways. He had a vague suspicion of the cause of this, a suspicion brought to an end with Yukina's mentioning of a German foreigner on the railway.

A sudden outburst of cries from the workers on the railway caught their attention. Subaru hurried to the edge of the platform, fearing the spirits in the station might have attacked the working men.

"Stay away from the edge of the platform!" Yukina shouted after him, "It's a little worn out and people sometimes trip and fall on the railway!"

The workers started a bit of shouting as a joke it seemed, they were mock arguing over the amount of tea to put in the kettle they set up for themselves beside the railway.

Subaru approached them, bowing respectfully before speaking to them, "Good day, my name is Sumeragi Subaru and I…"

One of the workers leaped to his feet with glittering eyes, "Sumeragi, you said?"

Subaru nodded, starting to feel the nervous tingle in the back of his head he'd get when people recognized him. The last few years he always feared people might not only recognize him for his Sumeragi status but for other, new, duties he performed around Tokyo.

"Ah ha ha, yes, the apartment building I used to live in as a child was haunted once and you came to help us." The young man turned to his comrades and repeated it, pointing at Subaru happily.

He turned to Subaru again, "You were so young back then, god, I hardly recognized you just now."

Subaru bowed his head a little and hoped his long fringe would hide his face. He waited for the excitement to settle down before he turned to the men again.

"Please tell me of any problems you've encountered during your work here."

The men argued amongst themselves about the issue. Some were already informing Subaru of how whenever they fix one thing, just before they leave, another bit of railway gets pulled out and they have to stay and fix it.

"How bad is it? How frequent does this pulling happen?" Subaru answered them.

The team's manager got up from near the camp stove. He dusted off his pants and shirts trying to look a little more formal before speaking for his men.

"It's been happening for three days now; we came to fix a damaged piece of railway and suddenly another train stops before it hits another part. Three days and they haven't informed the train company not to send trains this way!" he muttered a few unrepeatable statements.

"We checked in at the inn because the work here just keeps piling up. We checked in two nights ago because it was too late to try and get back home and the next morning we got called back to the station because more damage happened."

He gazed towards the village, "I don't get it; I haven't seen a single teenager around here that might have done this or something, what's causing this!"

"What are you talking about, man?" one of the workers (who took over preparing tea for them all) cried out to the team manager, "It'd take a whole bunch of teenagers to do this amount of damage and it'd take them a few hours to do it, there isn't a chance in hell they'd do it and no one would notice. We're here in daytime and we haven't seen anything that might cause this!"

"Yeah, he's right you know," the manager nodded towards Subaru, "these things happen out of nowhere, not a culprit in sight!"

"You better find something quickly Subaru-kun because we ain't staying here for another three days! I have a girlfriend to attend to."

Subaru did not hear anything beyond his name. He stomped over to the young worker and loomed above him, glaring down at him, "How did you address me?"

The worker blinked upwards, wincing, "Uh…'Subaru-kun'…? I was rude, sorry…it's just that I remember you so much younger, I thought it would be nice to…"

"Please refer to me as Sumeragi-san, I am not sixteen anymore." Subaru's voice cracked a little and he kicked himself mentally for being on the edge of tears in front of these men.

The worker frowned, "You weren't sixteen back then, you were younger I think…"

"Masami-kun! Stop hassling the man or he won't have time to fix this damned station!" Masami-kun's manager barked at him.

"I'm very sorry Sumeragi-san. Please help us finish this job as quickly as possible, I have a girlfriend in town and…."

Subaru turned around and walked back to the manager before he could hear the rest of it. He needed a cigarette, badly.

"Are there any other problems you've encountered here?" he asked the manager.

"Uh-uh."

"Tell him about Abe-san!" another worker shouted.

"Are you referring to Yukina-san?"

The manager smiled, "Nah, Yukina-chan is an angel, she brings us coffee and cake at lunch. It's her grandfather that's the problem. He's a slave driver I tell you! An old man, but boy, can he shout and bicker when he wants to.

"My men and I try to work as fast as we can, but it's never fast enough for him. He wants his railway to be fixed as quickly as possible, which is understandable, but he doesn't understand that it's been getting hot lately and work just keeps piling, so to speak."

"He shouts at you?"

"Yeah, like we're his slaves or something. This morning we had a right good argument over our breakfast, he said we're eating for too long and never get any work done!"

The manager spread his arm sideways to indicate to the railway, "if we hadn't worked our hands to the bone on this (a word Subaru preferred to ignore) railway it would have looked like rollercoaster line by now. Thank Kami-sama we don't hear from him now, he'd have a fit if he heard we were having a tea break."

"He keeps saying that if he had our reins he would have driven us to more work, weather we liked it or not. Crazy old man." The insolent worker shouted.

"Do you know how old Abe-san is?" Subaru enquired, still ignoring the insolent worker.

"I think he's around eighty or something, he looks much older, the grumpy old fart."

"Any other troubles while working here?"

"Nope," the manager turned to his men to see if they had anything else to add.

"Can you ask Yukina-chan to bring us some milk for the tea?" the tea preparing worker asked with a dubious smile.

"You already have milk Seguchi-kun!" his manager billowed in half rebuke.

"Oh…yeah, so ask her to bring sugar…ask her to bring coffee again…anything to get those lovely legs over here."

Subaru turned around and left for the platform immediately.

---

Subaru was about to approached Yukina again when his cell phone burst into vibrations and rings.

Sighing, he flipped it open and glanced at the screen, motioning Yukina that he's very sorry but he has to take the call.

It was Arashi's home number.

"Good day Arashi-san."

"Hello Subaru-san, how are you?"

"I'm at a job up north, I'm sorry if I might be a bit cut off, I don't know how the reception is here."

"You sound clear. How are you?"

"How's little Kamui?"

Silence on the other end of the line. Arashi must be turning around to look for her son to answer him, "He just got back from kindergarten. He's playing with the puzzle you sent him for his birthday."

"Ah, I'm so glad to hear he's enjoying it." You couldn't tell Subaru's glad by his low flat tone.

"Yes, it was a good gift. It's the only thing that makes him sit down for more than five minutes, it's a real miracle and a great help to me. Thank you very much, I can finally cook and clean the house without being interrupted halfway through it." Arashi laughed nervously, "Where are you?"

"At Tajira village."

Silence on the other end of the line, Arashi must be racking her mind for the name, trying to locate where he is. "Wow, that's in the middle of no where. I heard there's a nature reserve there, am I right?"

"Yes, yes there is, with a mountain and a small inn. Have you been here before?"

"Oh no no, I don't have the time to go hiking these days," the sound of kitchen utilities in the background, Arashi must be preparing food for her child while talking on the phone, "Yuzuriha-chan dropped by a week ago and told me about a hike she took there with her husband."

"Yuzuriha-san was here? Did she tell you how she got there?"

"Yes, with Kusanagi-san's jeep. They said the inn was very good, are you going to stay there for the night?"

"I hope not, though this case seems like a very complicated one. It's good to hear the inn is good."

"Yes. She said she enjoyed the hike very much though there are a lot of bugs around the mountain. Oh yes, she said the inn has a bug problem too, I'm sorry I didn't tell you that."

"A bug problem, no, that's alright. I have a bug spray I take every time I go out of Tokyo to a case." A spray he hardly used for the last four years because these days he fears leaving Tokyo, even for jobs. The illogical fear of outstretching tree branches grabbing at innocent passers-by to feed their hunger was always at the back of Subaru's head. He tried to keep himself as close to Tokyo as he could.

"I just called because I haven't heard from you in a while, well, since Kamui's memorial service and I was a little worried…"

"Thank you very much Arashi-san…I was flooded with work…"

"I can imagine, I heard there were a lot of murders due to dispute over drug selling in Tokyo lately; that must have stirred up a lot of problems."

"Yes, it's a problem indeed."

"I don't know what's wrong with the youth of today, when I was their age that didn't seem to me like an opportunity for life." Scorn crawled into Arashi's voice.

"You were busy with something completely different at their age Arashi-san…"

"….Yes….but still…"

"I met Aoki-san and Karen-san in two of the train station on my way here."

"Aoki-san! He called me yesterday, invited me to his daughter's birthday party. Yuka-chan gets along so well with little Kamui, she fusses around him like a mother hen. I think she's practicing on him as her child."

Subaru realized she was talking all this while ignoring two things. One was the fact that Aoki-san might have not invited him to Yuka's birthday (which was true) and the second is that Yuka might be missing Saiki and sees little Kamui as his successor.

"How's Karen-san's orphanage going on?"

"Alright I should think….though she might have told me something about it and I forgot it…how irresponsible of me…"

"Subaru-san?"

"Y-yes?"

"Take care of yourself, are you taking care of yourself?"

"I-I…."

"Please don't overwork yourself; you already have a lot on your hands." The sounds of a child's shouts in the background seemed to be taking Arashi's concentration away. "I'm sorry, little Kamui's wrecking something, I have to go check on him….he's so energetic that boy…I don't know how his teachers in school would control him, I hardly can…"

"Just like his father." Subaru's voice remained cool and monotonous despite the warmth he wanted it to contain.

"I-I'm sorry but I have to go or he'll destroy the new DVD…."

"I understand completely, say hello to little Kamui for me."

"I will, goodbye Subaru-san, please take care of yourself. Goodbye….no, Kamui! Put it down, bad boy!"

The call was disconnected.

Subaru sighed and lit a cigarette, inhaling hungrily. He eyed Yukina to see if she was waiting for him. She was very busy flirting with the worker who made a comment about her legs. She didn't seem to be missing him. She did seem to miss the extent of the problem in the station.

Yuzuriha and Kusanagi were here a few weeks ago, Arashi said, he'll call them and ask if they noticed anything while hiking. He knew the people appearing on the railway were ghosts, the question was this; were they really hikers or not. If they were hikers there's a large possibility that they died in the reserve and if so their ghosts might have appeared before his friend. If they're not, then Subaru's at a dead end in theories and will have to just approach the spirits without knowing of their nature.

---

"SU-BA-RU-SAAAAAAN! Good day! how are you?"

"Yuzuriha-san, good day, I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you."

"Drop the formal language Subaru-san, how are you? And don't evade the question, answer me."

"….I'm on a job in Tajira village…."

"I didn't ask you where you are, I asked you how you are."

"I'm alright."

"Good. Tajira you said? Hey Kusanagi, Subaru-san's in Tajira!"

"Tajira, eh? Tell him to buy bug spray if he's going to use the inn." Kusanagi's voice came a little distant.

"Please tell Shiyuu-san that I have bug spray and thank you for telling me."

"He says he has bug spray and thank you very much, tssk, what did I tell you about the polite talk?"

"May I ask you something about Tajira nature reserve Yuzuriha-san?"

"If you'll repeat the question less politely I will…"

"…May I ask something about Tajira nature reserve…Yuzuriha-chan?"

"Good enough, best resort in the whole Ou area. Very well, what do you want to know?"

"I wanted to know if, while you were hiking, you encountered any spirits or unnatural phenomena?"

"You mean like a ghost in the inn or something?"

"Yes, please."

"No, no ghosts in the inn though it was absolutely infested with bugs. There're nets on the windows and a mosquito net on every bed, but somehow the bugs are still there. Oh, and rats too.

"But the people of the inn are very nice and give you incense to burn against the bugs, though somehow it hardly works. They say the bugs only come when there are visitors, that's rude, isn't it?"

"Very rude indeed little missy." Kusanagi answered the question in the background.

"I'll do my best to avoid the bugs then. But I meant in the nature reserve as well, did you see anything strange there like a memorial mound for lost hikers or anything of the sort?"

"Memorial mounds? Nope, none of that. They didn't tell us about anyone getting lost in the woods. They have forest rangers too, so no one can get lost. How many rangers did we meet when we went hiking there?" she was addressing Kusanagi obviously.

"Oh, I'd say about four of them, two each day, and whenever we camped out for the night at least two of them came to ask us how we were doing. They're very cautious that no one might get lost in the woods over there, a very well managed resort." The deep voice answered. He sounded like he was talking with his mouth full.

"Am I interrupting your meal?"

"What! No! Kusanagi's just eating an apple, god you have sharp senses Subaru-san!"

"Ask him if he thinks someone died in the mountain and his ghost got lost in the woods." Kusanagi asked into the apple he was eating.

Yuzuriha repeated the question.

"No, no, actually I'm at the train station. There are ghosts of hikers who got lost appearing here so I wondered if they appeared in the reserve as well."

Yuzuriha repeated the answer to her newly wedded husband.

There came a silence and a slight sound of rattling as Kusanagi took the phone, "Hey, uh, it's Kusanagi speaking here. Hi Sumeragi-san."

"Good day Shiyuu-san."

"Gosh Sumeragi-san, you are formal. Uh, you said you're in the train station?"

"Yes, I am wh…" he didn't get to finish the sentence, Kusanagi burst into chuckles on the other end of the line.

"Idiot's Station at Tajira village" he managed to say between bellows of laughter.

"I-I beg your pardon?"

"Oh, it's a little bit of inside joke in the SDF. We were clearing snow from the railway there, oh, about seven years ago and our men made complete idiots of themselves while we were there."

"How so?"

"You want to know!"

"It might contain a clue to this case, please tell me what you can Shiyuu-san."

"Ha ha, when you ask me so nicely I can't resist it, ha ha ha. Uh, little missy wants me to tell you to stop talking so politely, so stop or she'll start tickling me, she's holding me at ransom!"

"…."

"Oh, right, the stupidity, yeah. We call it Idiot's Station because every time one of us wanted to take the train back home while we were there they'd slip off the platform and land face first on the railway."

Subaru pulled the cell phone away from his ear to avoid the ache in his ear repeating from the first time Kusanagi laughed into the phone. He waited for the noise to die down on the other end of the line.

"Are you sure they slipped on the edge Shiyuu-san?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I mean if they didn't stray from the main platform, stepped on the slippery edge and fell or was it something else?"

"Oh…uh…well….some said they were pushed but I think they were just spouting excuses for being dumb. You know some of us heavy duty workers aren't very smart…I hate to say it, but we've got some thickoes in the brute squad."

"Don't say that! They're very nice, even if they're a little slow." Came Yuzuriha's shrill from the other side.

"Shiyuu-san?"

"Yes Sumeragi-san…arg! Stop tickling me missy!"

"Your men, when they were there, were they dressed in any type of uniforms?"

"Sure, we have to be in uniform while on a mission, though they're B uniforms."

"B uniforms?"

"Yeah, you know…oh you don't….uh….they're uniforms you wear when you do heavy duty work and don't want to wear your usual uniforms because they might get dirty."

"I never saw you in your A uniforms." Yuzuriha's voice came from the background.

Kusanagi laughed again, taking Subaru by surprise. The onmyouji winced. "Yeah, I usually run around in my Bs, they're more comfortable. Thank god we don't have snoopy MPs, eh?"

"….Your men at Tajira, were they wearing the A uniforms at the train station?"

"Ah gees, you're asking me to recall something like that from that long?"

"It's a big clue for this case, so, yes please."

"…..I think….Yeah, I know for sure that at least one of them did it. A tight ass little, sorry missy, a very strict guy."

"Was he the one who said he was pushed?"

"Yeah, the rest kinda clung to his excuse."

"I see. Thank you very much Shiyuu-san, that was very helpful."

"You mean they really got pushed!"

"I'm afraid so."

"Wow! Why?"

Subaru sighed. He looked around him; he was in the middle of the station and if the spirits were still around they might be listening to him. "Please wait for a moment."

The onmyouji closed his eyes and concentrated, blocking out any interference other than the realm he was searching.

He waited, he listened.

No one was around.

"I'm sorry I made you wait, I had to check something."

"So, you think they were pushed!"

"Yes, I have a suspicion about the origins of these ghosts and according to this suspicion they would be angered by the sight of a Japanese man in uniform."

"……Why! Who would they resent a Japanese man in uniform?"

"Someone who suffered from Japanese men in uniform."

"….Oh…." the man on the other end of the line became grave, "You mean someone Chinese or Korean?"

"No, no, they were German."

"Huh! That doesn't make sense at all, it's not like we pulled them to the War or anything."

"You know your history."

"I'm not your average brute squad man."

"I never suggested something like that…"

Kusanagi chuckled, a little lower in volume luckily for Subaru's ear, "Nah, I know that….hey, are you sure they were German and not Dutch?"

"….The fact they were German came from a man who claimed to hear one of the ghosts speak in German, why?"

"That's it! You see, German and Dutch are very alike in sound but the two languages are actually very different. If you know both languages you will be able to tell the difference but to the average guy who knows nothing of the two cultures they will sound the same because German is more…well…heard in general, than Dutch…"

Subaru couldn't help gaping slightly at the sudden flood of knowledge from the obviously-not-a-brute Kusanagi.

"How do you know all that?"

"Oh, in my first year in the SDF there was a Dutch army delegation who came over to learn about our way of handling floods. I was new so they made me arrange their living quarters and see that they got everything right, basically they hassled me around.

"Now listen, they told me something that might help your case so listen up, okay?"

"Please go on."

"A ha ha, next time you see little missy she'll be tickling you for sure.

"Okay, so I was talking to one of their officers and he told me that his grandfather didn't like us and begged him not to come in the delegation.

"This officer told me that his grandfather was in the War and got captured by our forces at the time. He said they made them build an impossible railway through Thailand and Burma. A railway, you get it?"

"Completely, please go on and tell me everything you know."

"Yeah, yeah. So this man's grandfather said they tortured them in the railways and made them overwork and starved them and beat them and other things. He said they worked with Australian soldiers and British soldiers and….gees that's some wind you have there….hello?"

"I'm afraid I have to go now, I'm very sorry and thank you for the information Shiyuu-san, say hello to Yuzu…ooof-"

"Sumeragi-san? Sumeragi-san!"

---

The mobile phone flew from Subaru's hand from which it was slapped away, flip-flopped through the air and crashed on the concrete platform, splitting in half, spitting bits of broken plastic and electronic chips.

Subaru watched it fly as he cradled his beaten hand. He pulled an ofuda with the other.

Wrong ofuda.

His bag was under the bench a few steps away from him. Turning towards the bag to fetch it, Subaru suddenly encountered a body of air much resembling in shape and power the body of an adult man. The man pushed him backwards violently, hissing in his ear.

The air said, "Bloody Nip."

Subaru lost his footing and came crushing on the platform on his back, arms flailing wildly in the air. He landed on his back painfully, slipping on the worn out smooth concrete and slipping from the power of the push until his head stuck out past the platform and above the railway.

How had they managed to sneak back around him while he was on the phone? Were they doing it on purpose to avoid him?

Subaru hardly ever encountered spirits who resisted him to the point of managing to avoid some of the tactics he used to contain and handle them. The reason for such abilities was the level of anger in the spirits. Vengeful spirits had such capabilities but only few of them were strong enough to avoid detection by an onmyouji of Subaru's scale.

These ghosts were not only vengeful, they were furious to the level of gaining serious abilities of their own. This case will be tricky and the more of these ghosts he'll have to handle the harder the work will be.

A fleeting terror shot through Subaru's mind; what if his role as Sakurazukamori brought his Sumeragi abilities down a little?

He had no time to think it over as a sudden pain landed on his neck; one of the phantoms placed his foot on his neck, forcing his neck to bend backwards past the platform.

Subaru was choking, fighting with all his might against the powerful pressure.

"Please…." He managed to hiss through clenched teeth, "Please let me go….I am not here to fight you…."

The foot stopped pressing, though it kept its current position which was choking Subaru.

Reaching into his right breast pocket, Subaru pulled an ofuda and placed it in the air above his neck, hissing and spitting a chant as best he could.

The effect was weak but enough. He saw a grown man, bearded, dirty, thin as a skeleton, dressed in khaki pants torn at the hip, whose heavy army tattered boot was to his throat.

He could see the spiritual energy gush up the man's body from the ofuda and enhanced his chanting.

The spirit screamed and retreated, releasing Subaru. He was trying to remove the ofuda from his leg and discovered it was impossible for him to touch it.

Subaru shot to his feet, massaging his neck while running for his bag. He kept the visible ghost in sight and watched as the hands of other spirits were reaching for the ofuda, their limbs made visible by the spell's radios.

The onmyouji reached his bag and tore the zipper open. His hands were shaking as he looked for his ceremonial dagger. Will he be able to stab it efficiently enough in the concrete? Will he make it in time before the ghosts realize what he is doing?

Eyeing the amount of hands trying to help the visible phantom, Subaru's fears grew worse. It seemed there were a hundred other ghosts in the station, where were they all this time!

With his dagger at hand and the ofuda carefully placed around the visible phantom, Subaru made short preparations to stab the platform when his hands were slapped again. Too late; he was caught.

He managed to place a spell on a few other phantoms around him; one ofuda, two ofuda, four, seven, eleven ghosts around him….how many were there around him! They beat the dagger away from him. It landed far away on the grass on the other side of the railway.

The next blow came to Subaru's face, a powerful left hook. The next was a boot to his abdomen. Another one came minutes afterwards when Subaru was already on the ground, lying on his right side to cover his arm which was beginning to hurt quite badly.

He covered his head instinctively, trying to chant and activate the ofuda he managed to place on some of the spirits. They kicked his mouth; he tasted blood and chose not to think about it. Chanting was denied of him.

They kicked his legs, they aimed for his head and kicked his arms, they kicked his stomach so many times it became numb to the pain.

"Please stop it….please stop….I'm not here to harm you…"

They were speaking to him all this time, sometimes in shouts, sometimes hissing at him right by his ear. They spoke in English and Subaru had such little knowledge of it…if only he'd stuck to his classes in high school, if only he'd watched more television, maybe he'd be able to understand them.

He managed to understand some of what they said though it came in cut off verses, almost meaningless, and made sense only when they embedded words in Japanese into their shouts and curses.

"You (English) understand Nip (English, English, English) see?….(English, English, English) care about you (English Subaru understood and preferred not to have it referring to him) bloody Nip, now (English, English, English) work…(more English, some of which was not so decent and some, probably just as indecent, which Subaru stayed gladly ignorant to it's meaning), speedo, speedo, speedo!"

The men working on the railway spotted Subaru curled into a slowly bleeding ball and heard his pleas. Grabbing their tools, they rushed towards him, shouting question of his well being.

A realization hit Subaru like a blow to the head; these spirits should at least be offered the opportunity to vent their anger, but they should not vent it on anything living other than what's necessary.

"STAY AWAY! I'M ALRIGHT, PLEASE STAY AWAY RIGHT NOW! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER, I BEG OF YOU! Aargh, oof."

The working men needed no such thing as Subaru's warnings; they had their own reasons to stay away from the platform.

They were robbed of their tools and pushed away from the scene. Most of them immediately turned around to flee and those who didn't and went to fetch their tools received a blow from their instruments and were struck down.

Phantoms that had gotten hold of a work tool turned their rage to the railway, ripping it out of the ground or beating on it to twist and deform it.

Yukina ran out to the sound of Subaru's first plea and discovered a scene of chaos:

The onmyouji she ordered to help with the station was on the ground, twitching and moving as if by erratic blows and begging someone to stop.

The men she last saw enjoying a nice afternoon's tea were either on the railway bleeding and unconscious or running away in screams of panic.

She walked slowly towards the edge of the platform, her mind refusing to comprehend what was going on. The wind blew around her violently, tearing away the elegant ribbon in her hair until her hairs fell before her eyes and blew above and around her.

She hugged herself and went on walking as if through a storm; it even felt like she was walking through a violent snow storm or fog, everything as wild and unclear before her eyes.

She looked at the railway and saw tools moving in empty air, ruining the iron line until it was completely out of shape. Empty air was even tearing at the grass on the edge of the gravel and throwing it up in the air.

A cloud moved in the sky and unraveled the sun from its hiding place behind it. The gentle soft sun of spring shone down on them and suddenly everything was filled with calm.

The tools fell on the railway, abandoned. The workers who ran away from the site stopped and turned around to discover that no one was pushing them away anymore. Those who were beaten to the platform slowly gathered their senses and started sitting up and feeling out their beaten bodies.

Subaru stopped feeling blows raining all over him. The beating decreased a little as the working men and the railway were attacked, though it still came and just as violently.

Then it stopped. Subaru saw the ghosts he discovered, walking away from him towards the office building and disappearing into it.

One of them walked right past Yukina and stared down at her. She stared back at him, her head shaking sideways a little as if the wind was still spinning her hair around her. Her eyes were vacant and clouded with shock.

"Yuki…na….-san…." The onmyouji heard himself whisper coarsely before all turned to black around him.

When he opened his eyes again Yukina was right above him, shaking him gently and giving him water to drink from a plastic bottle she pulled out of the vending machine. She was crying and her voice had the thin traces of subdued panic.

"Sumeragi-san, Sumeragi-san, please wake up Sumeragi-san….I'm….I'm afraid, please Sumeragi-san, come through…"

"I'm right here." He assured her calmly and tried to reach out and pat her shoulder. "Yukina-san, I'm afraid my arm is broken…"

She gasped but he did not hear it; he was too enraged to hear her. It was the wrong arm they broke; the arm they were not allowed to touch, the arm they had no right to re-break.

With a shaking swollen hand Subaru reached for the right side of his face, trying to feel through the red burning pain and swelling. He couldn't feel if it was still there, his eyelids were swelling shut and he couldn't even open his eye to see if it was still there. Biting down a scream of torment, he maneuvered his finger through the swelling to touch the eyeball. It was still there, oh gods…

Black void took his mind again, lulling him to sleep and slip away from the pain growing all over his body like exploding bombs.

Yukina's voice became lost in the wind blowing in his ears and the fogginess of fainting, like a billowing piece of bandage in violent evening air.

---

When Subaru came to the next time he was no longer in Tajira, he was in a hospital room.

Trying to move his head hurt, just like trying to move any other part of his body did.

The main damage, said the doctor who dropped in to check on Subaru a few minutes after he woke up, was the broken right arm, a broken left leg and three fractured ribs.

If he hadn't covered his head he would have had a fractured skull or even a broken jaw, the doctor estimated. The rest of the pains were bruises which practically covered his body like leopard spots. His teeth were nearly kicked out on the left side of his mouth, but none were too damaged.

The doctor asked him if he caught a glimpse of the men who attacked him, so he could notify the police.

Subaru's mouth was too swollen to speak. Yukina, who came with him to the hospital and sat by him all this time, assured the doctor she saw everything and the matter was already dealt with. She dismissed the doctor with tears in her eyes.

She turned to Subaru, "I'm so sorry Sumeragi-san….I'm so sorry…the working men are in the rooms down the corridor, one of them has a hemorrhage that might kill him…" she was shaking badly, covering her face with her hands, lapsing into sobs. "I'm so sorry…"

"Yukina…-san…"

She whipped her head up and wiped the tears from her eyes, focusing completely on the injured onmyouji on the bed.

"Let….no one…near…." He took a deep breath and realized the beating and fractured ribs did not do well with his tar-covered lungs. "The station….close it, immediately….no one….must go near it….no one!"

Yukina was nodding so powerfully her hair became undone and spilled on her shoulders again. The ribbon she fished back from the station was stained with blood on one of its ends, probably Subaru's blood as she tended to him back there.

"You're in a hospital in Morioka, that's the closest we could bring you without shaking you around too much through the mountains."

Subaru nodded as best he could. "Yu..ki…nnn.."

"Please don't try to speak, you should rest, you've worked very hard."

Subaru swallowed a mouthful of spit and blood and cleared his aching throat. "What date…is….it?"

She blinked at him, confused. "Sumeragi-san, you've been out for only a few hours…please rest…"

"I…have….my grandmother, her memorial…." The void was reaching out long tempting black fingers into his mind. The pain and exhaustion, mixed with whatever medication he received fogged his vision.

Days from the long gone past oozed into reality and brought ancient bothers back.

"I…can't stay here in the hospital….Kamui was….also hurt…I need….to visit him….my eye will….be okay….it was my wish…."

---

The hospital room in the middle of the night into which Subaru woke between one painkiller fading and the next kicking in was black as the void he sunk into at first. Then his eyes adjusted to the darkness and pale outlines began glowing in the blackness.

The source of light outside the room was a street lamp between the hospital building and the next one in the street. It let out a pale white man-made light which broke into pale lilac rays.

The rays caressed the soft hospital blanket Yukina covered herself with and defined the curve of her back as she curled on the broad sofa the nurses placed for her in his room.

The light caressed the white linen of his blanket and turned the bright green hospital logo printed into the fabric into light brown.

They fell on the rims of his bed, making the chrome shine in thin white lines which reminded Subaru that he was in a hospital and made his stomach churn.

Reaching out a sore left arm, Subaru fumbled for the button by his bed and pressed it a few times.

A sleepy fat nurse waddled into the room, her white uniform glowing in pale purple as she drew into the stripes of light the window shutters let into the room. She loomed over him, resting her plump fingers on his bed frame, and whispered, "How may I help you Sumeragi-san?"

"I apologize for troubling you in the middle of the night like this," how much of it could she make out through his swollen lips and dry tongue? "but I think my painkillers are fading."

The nurse nodded deeply and reached for the clipboard hung on the end of his bed, moving away from the patch of light and thus disappearing from Subaru's eyes.

She fished it and stood up straight, scanning through the paper describing his condition after placing on a pair of reading glasses.

The glasses had a chain to their legs made of small glass beads. Some were black (they were red really but the color transformed in the odd light) and the rest were pale and transparent, all glittered in the light when their various smooth walls met the neon rays.

"Very well, Sumeragi-san, I'll go fetch you some right away." She smiled sweetly at him and turned around to walk out of the room. The light outlined her plump, square behind as she walked out, like two lumps of dough bouncing in and out of the light rhythmically.

The nurse returned a few minutes later with a small silver tray and two pills of a vague color, her other hand held a plastic cup with some water. Subaru eyed the pills impatiently. He needed a cigarette.

"Excuse me…by any chance, are there sleeping pills allowed for me to take?"

The nurse's brow furrowed and she leaned a little towards him. She couldn't understand what he was saying.

"Sleeping pills…"

She jolted backwards, waving her palm weakly, "Yes yes, it's the second pill." She pointed at the left pill in the tray, "Now open your mouth and say 'aaah'"

Awkwardly, Subaru complied. He drank the water and swallowed the pills, bowing his head at the nurse as best he could.

The nurse beamed at him, cocking her head sideways a bit while drawing it inwards, and reached out to caress his arm softly. "Now go to sleep, you'll feel much better tomorrow."

He was asleep by the time she said he'd feel much better.

In his dream he was lying on dark brown earth, damp and aromatic as freshly watered forest ground. His body was cast the way the phantoms in the station left it.

The tree loomed above him, its thin young branches rustling in the wind and moving in short snake-like jolts. Looking up at it Subaru got the feeling the tree looked at him and tried to think of something to do with him.

Fighting against immense pain which seemed to try and pin him to his current position, Subaru struggled to roll off his shoulder onto his back. He managed it and let his legs collapse to the ground, feeling the earth curve under him like only very fine grained soil does. He let out a short raspy sigh and looked up at the slowly descending pink petals as they swirled and flipped in the air.

He was in pain and so weak he had to struggle even to blink. He had so much to do, on this case and in his life, how will he recover from his injuries in time to get everything done in time?

The train station must be purified, the spirits must be put to rest. No soul containing such an amount of anger lingers in the land of the living and enjoys it; they are suffering, all of them, and he must stop it, he must help them.

His grandmother's memorial service is the next day and he must make an appearance or the whole tribe will never have enough of gossiping about him. How many of them know of his new nocturnal habits he dreaded thinking about; the very idea made him want to go and cower above a toilet basin.

But he's so weak, so very weak and painful….

What's that? Branches of the tree are growing towards him, reaching out their tentacles down to him like searching old wrinkled fingers. Not that dream again, it's getting corny and pointless for his current situation.

The limbs did not curl around him in this dream; on the contrary, they reached out and pierced right through his skin.

Subaru fought against contracted muscles and bruises to look down on his chest and saw ten branches stuck into his chest, their tendrils defined by his stretched skin under which they crawled.

What!

Warmth filled his chest, spreading to his broken arm and leg, curving around his fractured ribs. The warmth was like fingers; crawling across his flesh in well defined stripes. Subaru shuddered.

He was beginning to feel better, the pain was starting to disappear wherever the limbs were. He was being healed by the sakura, but why?

It wanted him fit.

It didn't want him fit because it cared about him; it wanted him fit because it was hungry.

Other limbs, younger ones, began growing around him to embrace him and support him to an upright sit. Subaru slapped them away and yanked the plant out of his body.

With a scream of horror, Subaru woke up. He sat up in his bed and blinked for a few minutes while trying to comprehend where he was and what he was doing there.

His limbs gave him no pain as he moved them so suddenly, but then again they were under high chemical restriction.

The air in the clean white room was sterile and cool, mixed with the smell of fresh countryside air and early morning air.

The room was better lit now, the color of the ray a smooth sleek dim blue.

Subaru caught movement in the corner of his eyes while staring out the window at the evolving sunrise. Yukina stirred under her blanked and blinked away her sleep at him.

"I woke you up? I'm so…"

She beamed at him sluggishly, shrugging childishly. What a girlish woman, so immature and pure. She was lost in the middle of yesterday's chaos, she did not belong there.

"Yukina-san…" the question was too early. She just woke up and bringing the subject up so bluntly again might hurt her. "Good morning."

The young woman stretched her arms and legs in a very feline gesture and broadened her smile. "You look much better Sumeragi-san, I'm so relieved."

Subaru tried very hard to smile at her, but not only were those muscles still bruised and slightly swollen; they were numb and heavy from years of never having to work.

"Did you sleep well Sumeragi-san?" she ran her fingers through her hair and shut her eyes tight while stretching her legs again, "I know I did," she giggled, "my sisters always laugh at me that I can sleep like a log anywhere, anytime."

Subaru gazed out the window again and tried to think of a way to get out of here for a cigarette.

"You were troubled a little, in your sleep I mean." Her voice filtered through his thoughts, irritating him a little, "you kept looking for someone, a Seishiro-san or something."

Subaru whipped his eyes to her and frowned, trying to soften the glare a side of him wished to pierce her with.

"I need to leave here; I have an appointment in Kyoto. Make sure no one uses the train stationed and no one goes near it."

He buzzed for the nurse before Yukina could answer him. When she did he brushed it off and hung his eyes on the door impatiently.

---

The air in Kyoto was generally loaded with the smell of sakura. The city council planted many of the trees all around the city and especially around tourist attractions.

Subaru caught a glimpse of a geisha waddling on her traditional platform-like clogs towards the Gion district.

Tourists were everywhere, littering the ancient streets with their foreign clothes, gestures and languages. They traveled in large noisy groups, poking their pointing fingers at everything and posing for pictures saying "chizu, chizu," happily. Other tourists traveled in small, quiet groups, who walked slowly and appreciated the stunning city around them.

The sound of a conversation in English fluttered into Subaru's ears, making him shudder violently.

Masafumi, who sat by him in the back seat of the black long Toyota, asked him if he was alright.

Subaru nodded and glued his face to the window to avoid further conversation. He pressed the button on the door by him and rolled the window shut.

As they drew closer and closer to the Sumeragi estate the cherry trees became less and less frequent until they disappeared completely. There are no cherry trees in the Sumeragi estate, only weeping willows in great numbers. Perhaps it has to do with the city symbol.

A weeping willow, how meaningful, Subaru sighed and leaned his head on the window trying to close his eyes and catch some sleep as much as he could.

When they arrived into the Sumeragi main house's parking lot Masafumi helped Subaru out of the car and wove his arm with Subaru's right arm as gently as he could to help with the head onmyouji's limping.

Subaru's crutch sounded sharp cruel clicks on the ancient stones of the estate's yard and paths. It sounded alien to the silent serene environment, like bringing a defiled object into a shrine.

Subaru's bruised face, his cast arm and leg and the weary half hearted glare made his second hand uncle relieve him of chanting duties during the ceremony. Instead, Subaru was allowed to sit down on a chair they placed by his grandmother's little memorial shrine and watch the ceremony.

His family looked alien to him; a crowd of strangers surrounding the shrine of a woman he never really knew and, though he feared to dared and admit it, never really felt anything warm towards. She was Oba-san and a very respectable, wise woman and he gave her full respect for it and for her former duties as the twelfth Sumeragi head.

The notion of the day she let him roam around Tokyo and fall prey to the sakura, which began rooting deeper and deeper into his feelings for her, turned them sour and hot with anger. It was, in a sense, her fault and he couldn't forget such a thing no matter how hard he tried.

A sudden jot of alarm shook through Subaru like a lightning bolt: someone was at the gate!

A flash of blond hair and khaki outside the old tall wooden gates far from the yard sent Subaru to his feet, limping frantically towards the gate with his right arm fighting to fetch his ofuda.

The wrong ofuda, the wrong place to pull them out.

Masafumi and Subaru's second rate uncle were at his sides immediately, grabbing and stabilizing him as he lost his balance while hiding the black spells.

"What is it? What did you see?"

"They're here." Nausea racked through Subaru. His face was hot and sweating, his hands were shaking. It was not excitement but fear that made him reacted like that, deep rooted terror.

"Whose here? Tell us, we'll drive them away." The uncle shook Subaru by the shoulder gently, scanning his clan leader worriedly. He was a man in his mid forties and well known in the family for his abundant fatherly behavior which he enjoyed showering over anyone younger than him.

It wasn't them at the gate. There were two foreigners at the gate but they were no specters. They were two girls who stopped by the gate when they saw the ceremonial gathering at the ancient building's court. They were just curious.

Subaru eyed them nervously, making sure they were safe. One of the girls had shortly cropped blond hair while the other girl wore a bright khaki vest. They were both female and both very much alive.

Straightening his back and kicking himself into control over his frail nerves, Subaru assured his relatives that he was alright now, it was okay.

They let go of him reluctantly and insisted on escorting him back to his chair safely. There was nothing he could say to send them away; his life had already raised questions of his well being, sanity and sexuality in the family core.

As he limped his way back to the small new stone shrine, Subaru eyed the three onmyoujis of closest power to him. One was the son of the uncle on his right, the other was Masafumi's brother, the third was Masafumi's cousin.

The first was an onmyouji who spoke Chinese fluently and spent most of his time in China dealing with vengeful spirits of the locals there. The second had the same assignment only in Korea. The third was the wife of an American soldier whom she met during her work in the bases stationed in Japan.

No one was there who was capable or trained for Tajira's train station.

---

The Second World War, from an onmyouji's point of view, was a great big blearing headache.

During the War itself onmyoujis of lesser power or lower members of the Sumeragi family were enlisted to the Imperial army and served mostly to bless the various ships, bombers and bases. The rest were assigned to lesser jobs and never abroad in the occupied territories their nation oppressed.

Subaru's grandmother, who was a young girl during the War, remembers hardly a thing of the War itself. She spent her adolescence working to heal the wounds her nation and the U.S left behind.

Her very first cases were in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when the cities were starting to come back to shape. She went from one ruined building to the next helping troubled souls reach to the other side after she'd find them digging for their lost loved ones or straying all around the cities in search of medical help and their relatives.

She never told Subaru, but the wrinkles on her face and her white hairs were all made during those years. Her hair grew white during her stay in the A-bombed cities while the wrinkles slowly but persistently plowed their way on her face with each nerve wrecking day.

She spent many months purifying rows upon rows of hangars filled with aircrafts possessed by spirits of rancorous Japanese pilots who wished to either operate the planes on the American bases or pick the machines apart.

What the newly occupying Americans thought were gremlins or simply nationalist vandals were in fact the fruits of wrath, trapped between their torturous emperor and the men who fought his loyal citizens.

Then there were the spirits of comfort girls, coming in a small flood whenever an ex-girl committed suicide due to the traumas of her life. Subaru's Korean-specializing relative was handling the souls of those who perished of old age while still bearing deep rooted hatred towards Japan.

Spirits of angry Chinese men and women would still appear in the houses of retired Japanese soldiers to this very day. The more combatant bases of the Self Defense Force were haunted in the same manner once every few years, a fact Kusanagi could have informed Subaru of from his own experience.

One of the first rules Subaru's grandmother told him when he was little was, "Never, ever, set foot in Yasukuni Jinja, no matter what they ask of you." She said no more, she was too busy shuddering and frowning.

The reason for three different onmyoujis taking care of the effects of the War was one afternoon in the mid 70s when Lady Sumeragi returned from a three week job in Nagasaki and collapsed at the footstep of her Kyoto residence, convulsing and dribbling with a severe mental breakdown.

Fixing the damage of the War while also handling more modern cases proved to be too much for her.

Having heard the news of Subaru's participation in the events of 1999, Lady Sumeragi ordered that any onmyouji of capable abilities would learn English, Chinese and Korean and help her clear out as many straying and resentful spirits as possible so that her grandchild would not be bothered in his work by these things.

The effects of new Japan's industrial and economical boom along with the frighteningly growing number of urban hauntings in the flourishing Tokyo posed enough of a distraction to the yet unborn Subaru.

---

"Yukina-chan speaking, good morning, how may I help you?"

"Abe-san, good morning."

"Eh? No, this is Yukina-chan's phone number….oh wait a minute, it's Sumeragi-san isn't it?"

Subaru waited for the girl to stop squealing on the other end of the line and brought the phone receiver back to his ear, "Yes, it's me. How are you, how is the station?"

"I'm just fine, the station is deserted and my grandfather is missing….my grandfather is missing Sumeragi-san, no one's seen him since the incident! We've called the police to scan the mountain but we haven't seen him anywhere….daddy is missing as well, but only for a couple of days…"

"Abe-san, what was your grandfather's occupation during the War?"

"….What war?"

"….The Second World War, Abe-san; what was his occupation during the war?"

"He was a railway engineer; he spent his first few years in the War….why?"

"Where was he stationed, Abe-san?"

"Uh….I don't think he was in the army or anything…."

"Please tell me what you know. It will help with solving this whole mess." Subaru was too irritated with the girl to try and hide the sound of impatience and anger from his tone. Somehow he grew to look at the girl and her grandfather in a completely different light this past week.

He sat with his three relatives and took notes on how to address spirits of the kind he encountered in the train station.

No one ever encountered spirits of allied P.O.Ws so this was a brand new field of work for the clan. After resting from the incident for a few days Subaru sat the three down for a bit of brainstorming. They offered their help, but Subaru brushed it away, agreeing only to take a few short English courses from his second rate niece.

"He was a railway engineer and he never told us anything about it besides the fact that he learned a lot about how to plan railways." Yukina was starting to comprehend the blunt accusation in Subaru's words and immediately became defensive.

"Have you researched on what I told you?"

He could practically hear her pout through the phone, "Yeah…but he was not a slave driver or anything; he was just the engineer who did as he was told, he never…."

"Abe-san, the engineers were the ones who took the men to work. They set how much the men should work and how hard. The guards were those who abused the prisoners physically but it was the engineers who really forced the work on the men."

Faint sobs could be heard on the other end of the line, making Subaru consider an apology for his rude words for a few seconds. It only lasted for a few minutes.

"He was only following orders…." She whimpered into the phone.

"That argumentation is not valid. Obviously your grandfather followed his orders with excessive zeal or cruelty to deserve the treatment he is getting at the moment."

"Treatment at the moment! Why? Do you know where he is?"

"Abe-san…"

"What are they doing to him?" She whined at him, panic creeping into her wails.

"Please listen to me Abe-san; what started the sudden increased attacks?"

"I don't knoooow." She sobbed incoherently for nearly fifteen minutes before calming down enough to hear Subaru again.

"Was he given a reward for his work in railways perhaps? Was he awarded somehow?"

Yukina blew her nose loudly and mumbled into the receiver on her end, "He got a lifetime achievement award from the East Japan Railway Company…. he won that award because of what he did for the benefit of railways through our mountain areas, ours you hear!"

"And when was he awarded exactly?"

"Last month?"

"I see. Was he ever approached about his work during the War?"

"A-approached?"

"Yes, was he called to stand to court for his crimes?"

"Criiiimes?" Yukina burst into another fit of whimpers and sobs, forcing Subaru to pull the receiver from his ear with growing anger.

"I-I-I had no idea," she hiccupped once she calmed down, her voice much cleared now, "he never told us anything….though he was a bit of a cold man…"

"You said your grandfather has gone missing since the incident, am I right Abe-san?"

"….Please call me Yukina-san again…" she whimpered like a little girl again.

"I'll try to reach the station again as soon as I can. Goodbye Abe-san."

---

Arriving at Tajira via train was completely impossible, no one fixed the railway at Tajira station and the whole line was cut it half.

Subaru arrived at the remote village via airplane from Narita to Akita airport and from there via bus through porly maintained mountain roads which made Subaru beg for a toilet break for five hours before they arrived at the desolate station at the other side of Tajira.

The small village was in a state of terror, like a city under siege. Mothers screamed at their children to stay indoors, school was canceled, people feared to go out to work in the rice fields, rangers closed the nature reserve and ordered anyone in the inn to evacuate.

The village shuddered at night from sounds of breaking glass and metal screaming as it was twisted. Tajira station was slowly but efficiently torn apart.

Bugs crawled into the homes in the town in long snaking lines, pestering their inhabitants.

People saw skinny gruesome soldiers walk through the dirt roads of the village and spook people away. They'd raid the tiny market, flipping food stands over. They punctured hot water tanks and ripped irrigation hoses out of the ground in home gardens.

Subaru walked all the way from the bus station to the train station through the main road, gathering a trail of spirits after him, waiting for him to get close enough to the station so they could stop him.

A few meters away from the entrance to the station Subaru was pushed back violently by a boot to the chest. He came flying backwards and landed on the ground limply, making no effort to fight away the blows once again raining on him in a raging torrent.

Yukina gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

Subaru walked on the gravel by the railway and observed the unimaginable damage to the metal lines. The workers' manager was right; after twelve days with no one to fix them, the railway resembled a rollercoaster line.

He was caught and beaten by another bunch of phantoms, his head grabbed by the hairs and knocked against the railways powerfully.

Yukina muffled a scream only barely and covered her eyes.

"Please try to stay quiet; it's important they don't expose my deceit." Subaru grabbed her by the hand and pulled her gently towards the stairways to her grandfather's office.

"What are they? The two yous that is?"

"They are shiki, spells, they are incapable of feeling pain."

Yukina blinked at him, panic's tears pouring on her cheeks freely. She guided Subaru down a short narrow corridor to the door of the station manager's office.

The door was locked.

"Are you sure granddad is in there?"

Subaru placed his palm on the wood, testing the lock as quietly as he could, trying to reach out and sense for spirits on the other side of the door. "Your grandfather was not found anywhere else around the village or the nature reserve, right?"

Yukina nodded, eyeing the beaten Subaru on the dirt road to the station through the large window in front of the door. They were tearing him apart down there.

Subaru leaned his left shoulder on the door's edge and drew backwards; hurling himself onto the door with all the strength he could muster a moment later. The lock tore out of the door and let the rest of the entry free from the doorframe.

The door was blocked from something on the other side. The something tried shuffling away but failed. Pushing gently, Subaru managed to tease the door open and slip into the room.

Yukina followed him closely and emitted and sharp scream of terror as she recognized the man who sat slumped against the door on the other side. He was sweating and apparently unconscious though he was shaking violently as if the room was freezing.

"Father!" the young woman collapsed by the man and wrapped her arms around him protectively.

"Please leave the room Abe-san, you might be hurt."

"He's sick Sumeragi-san, what's wrong with him?"

"Heed me girl! Take him and drag him out of the room at once!" Subaru screamed at her across his shoulder.

Yukina complied, picking her father up as best she could by hooking his arm around her neck and struggling to climb to her feet while her legs shook. Her fancy stilettos did not help with the effort. "What's wrong with him Sumeragi-san?" she wailed pathetically as she struggled to drag her father out of the door.

"Malaria" one of the phantoms answered her, a crude looking long bearded man with insect bites spread evenly all over his upper body and a pair of bloodshot light blue eyes. "Now bugger off."

Yukina stared at him with the same glazed wide-eyed look she gave the spirit who walked by her in the incident.

"Leave the room already, Abe-san!"

Sobbing again, she retreated, whimpering pleas for her father to wake up.

Closing the door behind him, Subaru turned around to face the ghosts in the room.

The station manager was seated in his office chair, leaning with his head backwards and mouth open. He was clearly in such a grave state he must have been on the verge of death.

The wide office was decorated by pictures of mountains of the Ou range in various seasons and railway maps along with pictures of manager Abe's son and granddaughter in her earlier days.

Leaning against the walls with spirit work tools in their hands were half a dozen phantoms, all eyeing Subaru with narrow, angry eyes.

Sitting cross-legged on the table was a phantom of obviously higher rank than the rest of the men. His uniform was in better condition, bearing tattered rank marks on his shoulders.

Subaru straightened himself into attention. His right palm shook a little from the effort of saluting to the ghost with a broken arm.

The ghosts looked the onmyouji up and down with an air of dry sarcasm, doubt and scorn fluttering across his face in obvious waves.

"What business have you here?" he asked Subaru in English bearing a clear proper British accent.

"I am Sumeragi Subaru, I am medium in Japan." Cringing, Subaru hoped he pronounced the words properly.

"A medium eh? Bloody hell, hey, weren't the boys giving you a welcome hug down by the railway track?" the insect bitten spirit asked.

Subaru blinked at him puzzled.

"The man can't understand you Dixon, he hardly understands English, do you, little Nippi friend?" another phantom turned to Subaru, this man had his left leg amputated above the knee, the crude stitches of bad medical work were obvious on the ethereal flesh.

"I wish not harm you, I am here to help you move to other side."

The men in the room exploded into laughter, pointing at Subaru and mocking his poor English.

The only one not laughing was the officer on the desk who all through this time kept his soul searching eyes on the onmyouji. Nothing but a trace of a smile at the corner of his lip indicated his thoughts or the impression he received from Subaru.

Subaru reached into his coat and pulled out a flush of white ofuda, "I not wish fight you but I will if have to…"

"Ah ha! Finally we see the Japanese sense of humor in its true face, go on mate, try to fight us." A skeletal man in a simple loincloth and rough makeshift hat from a piece of ragged shirt approached Subaru with long violent steps.

"Otis, please, stay where you are." the officer on the table barked, scanning through the faces of his men to make it clear that no one should try to harm Subaru.

He turned to the onmyouji again, his eyes somewhat softer though never without a tinge of sarcasm. "I am Colonel Banno, my unit does not matter anymore these days, certainly not to you."

Subaru bowed deeply, extracting another spasm of laughter from the men in the room. He ignored them and concentrated his attention on the Colonel.

"Your anger is understandable though I am afraid I may not fully knowing it."

The phantoms sneered at him, folding their arms on their chests and moving giddily around. Banno raised his palm calmly and they stopped.

"So, if you understand our anger, why are you here trying to stop us in our revenge?"

Subaru took some time to try and analyze what he was told, staring at the floor to concentrate and not see the furious pairs of eyes glaring at him. He whipped his head back up, "Because is not good for you staying here, here is not heaven, not rest and relax. You deserve that."

He gestured to the man in the office chair, "You made revenge now, he is dead soon. You scared enough in the…anno….Tajira, these…little children, women, not deserve such behavior. Abe-san does, they not."

Banno slipped off the table and walked up to Subaru, hands elegantly hanging from his pants' trousers. He drew his face close to Subaru's, fixing the mismatched gaze to his sharp brown one.

"They do not deserve such treatment? How so? Their grandfathers were in the war, they had their share of war crimes. Who knows? Maybe one of these villagers drove us into slavery, death and disease on the railway alongside Mr. Abe here."

It was a hot day and the sun beat down on the office building's roof, making the air in the room hot and heavy to inhale. Subaru wiped his sweaty brow with a shaking hand and tried to banish the sigh of Yukina's father sweating in fever.

"Not…..not right….too late, no, not too late but…."

"Let me reveal a few facts to you, Sumergi..."

"Sumeragi."

"Yes, so sorry. The facts are these; during the War Japan committed war crimes against every nation they occupied." Banno began walking in circles around Subaru, his hands folded behind his back as if giving a speech, "The Chinese suffered the most, the Korean they made to work alongside them and then left them to starve and flee as the War started collapsing on their heads. They forced us to build their death railway for them etc. etc. and yet, by some strange coincidence…"

"Sorry, s-strange what?"

"Coincidence boy, coincidence; by chance, somehow unexplained, a fluke of luck. Do you get me boy?"

Subaru nodded, instinctively bowing a little.

"As I was saying, by a fluke, the Japanese people were not only saved from being forced to pay any kind of indemnity to the families of those they slaughtered so brutally in the same fashion in which Germany was forced to pay, but the knowledge of the full extent of their crimes seems to slip the general publics' minds."

He walked over behind Abe's chair, placing his hands on the back of the chair a little from the sick man's head.

"People think of Japan in the War and think 'atom bombs, Pearl Harbor, Kamikaze' from time to time they think about the Chinese's suffering but that's where it ends…"

"Wrong."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Bridge Over River Kwai." Subaru's every muscle tensed as he watched the colonel stare at him, awaiting the man's judgment.

Banno scanned his men again, observing their reaction to the onmyouji.

The success of the job was on the edge of a knife; the conversation Subaru was running with who seems to be the phantoms' leader was dropping the level of anger in them and so lowering their defenses. On the other hand, the subject spoken of was so touchy that any wrong move by Subaru might cause an eruption of anger which's result Subaru dreaded.

These men were not fully aware of the reality in modern days, mentally they were slightly blinded by the anger they felt. A satisfaction to their rage will solve this quickly.

"Yes, there was that, but it was….how to say, not the point. We know the people of our nations know of what we've been through; we want you to admit it as well."

"Too late…some do know and regret it very much. But too late to put to trial, even German criminals no longer trialed, all too old."

Banno smacked the back of the chair violently, sending Abe's chair rocking.

The aging comatose manager collapsed forward onto his table and landed with a fat thud onto the table.

"Too old! Too old for trial! What about us? What about these men?" he shot his arms sideways, gesturing to the men in the room.

Subaru's fears came true as he sensed more spirits were pouring into the room. It was getting crowded in the oblong office.

"What about our anger?" Banno's eyes were ablaze, his gentlemanly behavior cracking due to his uncontrollable emotions.

Subaru had to satiate their rage or their powers would grow, the more they think of their vengeance mission the harder he'll have to fight them.

His thoughts drew to the black set of ofuda in his other breast pocket, tempting him to use their cruder, blunter abilities in spirit controlling.

No! He's on a Sumeragi mission now; he will not dare to defile it by wielding a Sakurazukamori weapon. These men do not deserve treatment from an assassin; they've had their share of murderers.

"You wish revenge on this man?" Subaru pointed at the man on the table with a shaking left hand.

Since he landed on the oak surface Abe began moaning throatily from time to time through the fever and disease raking through his body.

"That do good to you, see this man dead?"

The legless ghost leaned close to Subaru's ear and hissed into it, "We want to kill him ourselves."

Slowly, shakily with worn nerves, Subaru turned to look the ghost in the eye. "You gave to him malaria. You made Tajira station into wreck, scared people away, train not working anymore. People in village saw men in uniform, foreigners, already talking behind Yukina-san's back. People remember Tajira from now on, always think of it. You do not need more."

The spirits withdrew a bit and turned to their leader, awaiting his decision.

Banno swayed back and forth gently on the balls of his feet and folded his arms behind his back again. He pushed his lower jaw forward a bit as he looked out through the large window through which Tajira's local mountain and the small bit of the village built at its side.

"And what do you suggest we do with this…bastard….if not kill him?"

Subaru opened his mouth to make a suggestion but was stopped by the officer before he had the chance to put his idea to words.

"How about this; you'll turn around and leave this office. We'll stay here and wait for the Nip to snuff it, when he finally does we'll leave."

Subaru contemplated the offer, trying to break a few language barriers which kept him from fully understanding the deal.

"Why wait here for him to die? Might take too long, I want that you would go as soon as possible, is better for you."

Banno leaned on the chair back again, looming over the moaning man. His eyes were never so piercing and sharp as before and never quite so possessed by well contained rage.

"We want him to die slowly, in pain, just like our boys did. Also, we want him to look around, just before he curls his Nippi little toes, and see us all standing around him."

Subaru took a hesitative step backwards. "Then you leave, no more anger, no more hurting people?"

Banno nodded slowly, his eyes somewhat softer now. "We'll come to call you when the moment comes."

Subaru bowed deeply, feeling his back muscles scream from the pain of the stress he was in and whatever bruises still unhealed from the spirits' previous attack.

As he turned around and left the office the spirits made way for him, eyeing him curiously.

One of the men mumbled something about a pansy but Subaru failed to fully comprehend the meaning of what he said.

---

As Yuzuriha described it, the Tajira inn was indeed very pleasant, though its staff was a tad hysterical due to the latest events. The inn itself was a few separated rooms submerged in lush gardens, some half wild and some traditional Japanese.

The room Subaru rented for the night was very spacious, its thick walls made of dark, rich scented oak.

His bed was broad and somewhat modernly designed to meet western ideas of a bed on a platform above the floor with a standard futon above it. There was a small television with a sign from the management apologizing for bad reception atop of it. A discreet door led to the toilets, another led to a traditional bath. A long screen door wall led to a private Japanese garden belonging exclusively to Subaru's room.

Subaru dropped his bag on the floor and lit the fifth cigarette since his departure from Tajira station. He walked up to the bed, toeing his slippers off, and crashed down on the bed with a thud.

He closed his eyes and let out all the screams of terror and horror he kept locked up inside since the moment he called the first shiki to the bus station and scurried off to the train station through the village's side alleys. Luckily, his room was well separated from the lobby, the management's little building and the rest of the rooms around him were vacant due to the ghosts' attacks and no one heard him.

Feeling his eyelids shutting on their own, Subaru sucked off the rest of his cigarette and put it out before collapsing into near comatose exhausted slumber.

His last thought before the void was that he aught to call Yukina up and see how her father is doing. Then he figured that he really didn't care about a rich, spoiled, immature daddy's girl who's in denial of the crimes of her grandfather, even at the sight of his rightful punishment.

He slipped happily into sleep. Even dreams of sakura hugs wouldn't wrench him out of this sleep for the next few hours.

He was not bothered by bugs that night; the inn, along with the rest of the village was rid of its unnatural bug problem that very noon.

When Subaru woke up again it was nearly dawn. He was woken to the sounds of men's voices singing out what sounded like some kind of marching song in English.

Subaru shot up in his bed with a scream of panic and fumbled around his breast pockets for ofuda.

His sleep was so deep he was completely disorientated as he tore himself out of it to see what was going on. He pulled his hands out of his coat and scattered a mixture of white and black ofuda in his blanket covered lap.

Fighting back panic, with the sound of the marching men approaching, Subaru quickly separated the white from the black. The spells slipped through his gloved shaky fingers and made the job all the more difficult. Finally, he managed it and buried the black ones deep into their respectful pocket with a somewhat violent shove.

He leaped off the bed and walked out the door to the hotel's yard, overlooking the asphalt road leading into the nature reserve. There were rows of phantom soldiers walking in lines up the road, some with tools leaned on shoulders, some carrying buckets, some small logs and some pieces of metal line.

Leading the ranks was colonel Banno who turned his head towards Subaru and saluted half lazily at the onmyouji, that dry sarcastic smile spread under his elegant thin mustache which, despite his wild beard, managed to appear cultured and gentlemanly on it's own.

Subaru bowed deeply one more time and stayed down, awaiting the sound of the singing to fade as the men finally left for a better world, without railways to build, rocks to carve through, no jungles infested with rats and bugs and not a single Japanese in sight.

(The end)

---

Author's notes: for more information about the Thai-Burma Railway please refer to these following sources:

hxxp/en.