6. Curiosity.

T: Not too much to say about the chapter up here will highlight flash points at the bottom of the fic! Again italics are the thought process of 1999 Subaru and everything like :this: is spoken by tree-san. I own nothing here apart from the increasingly ropy plot!

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He is surprised by the forward nature of the question and the change in the other that such a question denotes.

It is a change that holds a great deal of potential and, curious as to how far he can push he replies,

"I know a Sakurazuka Seishiro, yes."

He is graced with a flash of the mind of his other self, of the anger and the jealousy within his heart and then, again, he is seeing through his own eyes.

"If that was all…"

"No!" There is desperation in his eye now and Subaru halts, waiting patiently for the question that he knows is coming.

"Has Seishiro talked to you of someone…special…in his life?"

"He told me that he had loved someone long ago, but that that someone had turned away from him."

He is greeted with another flash of his other self's mind, of the painful ache in his heart as he hears those words and then the other enquires,

"Do you love him?"

He knows, instantly, that his answer to this question will effect the course of his destiny…knows that this is a key point in matters and yet he does not know what answer will bring him his desired result.

He decides, after a moment, to play the matter cautiously and to risk a choice only when he was clearer as to what his next step was to be.

Stepping forward he manages to voice the words,

"There is more to this than you know…" Before another pain flashes across his forehead and the world fades away.

…………………………………………………………………………………

As the other steps towards him he is greeted with an odd double image of the man.

The first of a relatively plain gentleman with eyes that, despite their commonness, seem somehow unique. The second is of a pale fade with eyes that are of the greatest of fascination to him.

For the left is as his own eye colour, while the right is the beautiful hazel of Seishiro's remaining eye.

To have such an eye…to look at himself and see always a little of Seishiro…he would give almost anything.

He wishes to know why this other is masking such a gift…wishes to know how the other will reply to this question…

However the other manages only to inform him,

"There is more to this than you know…" Before he collapses.

He presses the call button and an instant later the nurses are flocking about the other, their voices dipped into a murmured concern.

The other is taken, eventually, for testing and once the nurses have again vacated the room Kamui returns.

"Will Kimoru-san be alright?" He enquires, the concern in his voice enough that Subaru counters with an enquiry of,

"How long have you known him, Kamui?"

"We met only a little before I came to see you…"

"But?"

"But I feel as though I have known him for far longer."

He too had felt an instant connection to this stranger…to the power in the words of his novel and the power inherent within him…

Yet what that familiarity might be he could not say…nor could he completely understand what the other had meant by his oblique statement.

After an hour of simple conversation with Kamui there is a knock on the door and then the doctor is crossing over the threshold,

"I have been informed that Kimoru-san was with you when he collapsed, Sumeragi-san."

"That is correct."

"Were you discussing anything stressful or arguing in any manner?"

"No."

"I see."

"He seemed a little ill when I met him in the hallway." Kamui remarked.

The doctor seemed to brighten a little at that and thanking the boy he turned to leave the room,

"Is Kimoru-san going to be alright?" Kamui enquired.

"He is in a very serious condition and the next few hours are going to prove crucial."

"What is wrong with him?"

"He has suffered several small haemorrhages in his brain. Haemorrhages that are getting closer to the more important sections of his brain tissue,

"We have sedated him in order that his mind might be given the chance to heal itself…"

"But you are not hopeful?"

"As I have said the next few hours will be the hardest. After that things will either improve or dissolve even further."

"Might I see him?"

"He will not be able to respond to you."

"Perhaps not, but I shall feel happier for seeing him."

"If you will follow me then."

Kamui gains his feet and catching his hands into his own he informs him,

"I shall not be long, Subaru." Before he follows on the doctors heals.

Now that he is, at last, alone, Subaru can contemplate the oddity of Kamui's attachment to the author and of his final words before he had collapsed.

'There is more to this than meets the eye…'

It was clear to him now that this was indeed the case; that something was occurring in his life that was not connected either to the spiritual realm or to the 'End Of the World' and yet as to what this oddity was…as to who Kimoru Yuji was…he was ignorant still.

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He could hear Kamui's voice as a distant thing in the darkness and though he could register the concern in the boy's voice he could not separate the individual words.

This he comprehends quickly is because he is being drugged and yet why he is under such sedation is a thing that takes a moment more for him to understand.

Clearly his condition had grown serious enough that they felt sedation was the only solution and yet if he remained trapped in this place then the tragedy upon the would still come to pass…indeed due, in part, to his 'interference' it would become all the more painful.

For in this timeline his other self would be even less certain of Seishiro's confession…would hear those final words and believe them as the final part of the terrible game that had been played always between them.

A belief that would drive him first into despair and then, upon receiving the 'gift' of Seishiro's eye, further into madness.

He needed to undo the harm he had caused…need to assure that Seishiro did not perish and yet how?

:Let me aid you: The voice of the tree is stronger than Kamui's voice and yet even it has been faded by the strength of the sedative.

'How?' The enquiry more for a confirmation of his suspicions than for curiosities sake.

:Use my power to rejuvenate the damage to your mind, for once you have recovered there will be no need to keep you sedated.:

'Yet would not such a thing risk exposing me to Seishiro?'

:Perhaps and yet you thought to do such a thing anyway, did you not:

He knows the tree is perfectly correct in that supposition and, aware that he has little other choice, he lets go his hold upon the sakura's power.

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T Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuun! Things get more and more complex don't they?

Only one niggle here as far as I'm concerned and that's the doctors decision to sedate Yuji…I have a feeling this isn't really the procedure for any sort of brain haemorrhaging but it's how my doctors dealing with things…this because he's not really sure why these things are happing to Yuji and because I needed a way to get myself, temporarily, out of the hole I created when I made him sick! Next chapter Sunday at the latest until then R+R!