2. Brand.
T: I don't have anything to really say about this chapter so on we go…Warnings remain the same and I still claim no ownership over the characters. This section is set a little BEFORE the last…indeed the rest of this story will be working its way back to Subaru discovering the house and from there the gift of the eye.
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He had gone, without hesitation, to Ueno Park and to the tree…
The moment that he had stepped into its centre of influence he had felt the shear intensity of the things 'emotions'.
Loss seemed the most predominant, mixed in with both curiosity and an odd streak of proprietary.
These 'feelings' so strong that they were almost as images in his head…an odd sort of telepathy that was somehow truer than if the tree had actually chosen to speak to him of its pain.
The tree is less than happy with him…indeed its anger is strong enough that it is hurting his head,
"You are not happy about The Bet, Tree-san, I understand that."
The anger fades, just a little and is replaced with a feeling of curiosity.
"You want to know why I made that Bet.
"That child is oddly intoxicating, tree-san…I do not know how else to put it…"
He feels the tree hesitate and then he feels the sorrow so strongly that tears threaten in his own eyes.
"Seishiro is dead." He remarks as he sets a hand to the tree's trunk.
He feels a powerful wave of despair and then he is swept into an illusion.
A beautiful woman dressed in pail pink stands before him, her sightless eyes focused in his general direction.
She reaches forward to touch his heart and then she shakes her head,
'You are not yet ready to take on this role…your heart is still so pure…'
"I do not care…for the chance to have a little of him again at my side I would gladly suffer the guilt of being a murderer."
'It is not as simple as that, Sumeragi Subaru.' She remarks before she reaches to pull him into a kiss.
The instant that contact is made he feels every emotion of the tree, every final feeling of those who had been given to feed the thing and he can feel not only Seishiro but the Sakurazukamori who had come before him.
His nose is bleeding by the time the spirit of the tree pulls from him and he brushes the blood away subconscious as she informs him,
'You are not yet strong enough to claim all of me, firstly you must learn to let go your other life and the preconceptions that you have of the Sakurazukamori and then, perhaps, you shall be ready.'
"Where should I go to learn what I must?"
'To Seishiro's old apartment and from there you must follow whatever path he has set you.'
The last of his possessions has been placed into the removal van and the apartment looks now oddly forlorn.
A calendar featuring cute kittens is the only sign that he has ever lived her, its presence linked to the part of the game that he shall not witness…that will take place after he is dead.
He kisses the calendar and pins a note to it before he leaves this apartment for the last time.
The landlord for the complex had simply had to hear his name before he was given a front door key and direction to the apartment in question.
There is no furniture in any of the rooms and a thin film of dust coats the floor, both proving what he had already known; Seishiro has not used this apartment in years.
A familiar calendar is the only decoration; a note pinned onto it so as to hide the cartoon kittens that had prompted his sister to purchase the item for Seishrio in the first place.
Flicking on the lights he takes down the note and reads it carefully,
'Subaru-kun,
This is the first step on your path to claiming your place as Sakurazukamori.
Upon this calendar I have written some useful addresses that you should visit and some telephone numbers that you should call.
The tree seems abrupt now, I know, but in time it will come to view you with an objective eye.
Remember to look after yourself.
Seishiro'
The 'family' home is, once he has removed the dust covers, precisely as he recalls it and thus it takes him but an hour to fix in his mind where everything is.
It takes another hour to re-connect his water, electricity and phone lines. Once this is done he places newer, stronger, magical wards about the house and exhausted, spends the evening simply un-packing boxes.
It is near midnight when he feels Hokuto's magical essence approaching the tree and though this is the one thing he has least wish to do…though he is still relatively tired…he dresses and heads for Ueno.
He checks his hastily scribbled directions to be sure that he is, in fact, in the right place and then he steps through the doorway and into a shop full of traditional herbal medicine and incense sticks.
A withered man with a long grey bears stands behind the counter and regards Subaru a moment before he enquires,
"Can I help young man?"
Recalling the conversation that he had had with the man he had come to see Subaru reaches into his coat pocket and pulls free a slip of paper that he presses to the counter,
"I was told someone would be able to help me with this."
The man looks at the paper and the inverse pentagram that he has drawn into it and he smiles,
"Come with me."
He leads him though the back of the shop and down into a rather modern looking apartment complex.
"Take a seat." He remarks as he wonders into one of the bedrooms.
He emerges a moment later, all traces of his beard and of his age vanished as though they had never existed.
"You'll forgive the delay, Sumeragi-can, but the tourists expect a certain clique and it amuses me to give it to them."
"Of course."
The man settles into the chair opposite and takes another, deeper, look at him.
"So you are the one who finally snagged Seishiro…I must say you're younger than I thought you would be."
"A sentiment that many people have shared with you, Minari-san."
"Minoru, please."
"Minoru-san, I wish to learn everything I can from you about the Sakurazukamori."
"To be honest my knowledge is not in the being but in the power behind it.
"I've researched the many spells of the Sakurazukamori and I've learned a great deal about their uses and their faults.
"So I will not be the one to tell you of the legends of the Sakurazukamori, nor the truths of them.
"Instead I am going to tell you about those." He remarks as he touches the back of each of Subaru's hands.
"I know everything I need to of those brands."
"No, you know what Seishiro wanted you to know and what previous Sakurazukamori have caused your predecessors to believe.
"The 'brands' on your skin are not there to mark you as victim, but rather to mark you as his.
"Within the intricacies of their casting is layered a very strong and very unusual protection spell.
"A spell that assured that none but Seishiro could harm you and that none but he was able to get close enough to earn your affection."
"Yet why create such a spell and why lead me to believe it as a marking of my death?"
"The belief that those marks are a warning of death is one built through a technicality.
"The marks are only ever placed on the one who shall become the next Sakurazukamori and only then when they are too young to claim that position.
"Thus they signal an eventual 'death' of the person the barer of the marks used to be and their 'rebirth' as Sakurazukamori.
"As to why Seishrio cast the spell…I believe it was a little for jealousy and a little to protect you while you grew up."
"Protect me how?"
"Are you sure you wish to know?
There is something in Minoru's tone that almost brings him to request that they move from the topic and then he recalls how close Seishiro had felt to him merely from a kiss from the tree…
"Tell me."
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T: As you can tell there is going to be an interesting bit of logic in the next chapter to prepare yourselves for a bit of a head ache! R+R as I need confidence as far as this fic goes!