11. Team.

T: Next chapter is the last and thus this one has a technical cliff-hanger! Warnings back to the way they were at chapter nine and I fear that I still own only the plot!

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The mood is oddly sour and yet, given the situation, this is forgivable.

He had made it to Inogashira park in time to see Soratta collapse without warning…in time to see the blood spreading across his face and the shear panic in Arashi's eyes.

He'd arrived at the Clamp Campus hospital to find not only the remaining seals, but also Noruko and Subaru waiting for him.

Yuzihara had explained that they'd all been worried about Soratta and that they'd come to make sure everything was all right.

This short explanation had been the last that anyone had talked and they had been sat now for a good hour in silence.

Noruko shifts, suddenly, from his place against the wall and, his every step an effort clear on his deathly pail face; he comes to stand directly in the centre of the group.

"I hope that you all see the lesson in this occurrence."

Each of the group looks, for a moment, to the other and eventually Aoki enquires,

"What 'lesson' would this be, Imonoyama-san?"

"I believe that would be 'we are stronger as a team' is that not so, Imonoyama-san?"

"That is correct Kazumi-san."

"Such a thing is a little idealistic, do you not think?"

"Why do you say such a thing Aoki-san?" Noruko enquires.

"We all of us have a separate purpose for joining the war…separate motives that are, occasionally, detrimental to one another."

"Why should that make a difference?" Subaru enquires, his hands stretching to rest upon Kamui's shoulder, "Why should your personal motivations change anything? You all fight this battle with but one goal in my…all fight to keep this world safe."

"Many good people have given their lives for that goal…have sacrificed so much and every time we fight amongst ourselves we undermine that sacrifice…make their deaths empty.

"I have allowed such a thing too long…have stood idle for fear of having another hurt for my sake…

"Yet I have no want for this world to fade away…no want for Kotori's death to be for nothing…and thus it stops now."

The Seals look to one another and then again to Kamui, the surprise in their eyes mixing with an odd pride.

"Let's fight together for the future." He remarks as he stretches his hand, palm down, before him.

Yuzihara's hand is the first to join his and, smiling brightly, she remarks,

"For the future."

Karen joins next, a playful wink accompanying he smile and her words.

Aoki seems hesitant and then, a grim determination on his face, he places his hand onto the pile and remarks,

"For the future that Daisuke believed in."

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Kamui is glad to see, upon being admitted into Soratta's room, that the other is in better health than he had feared.

Indeed there is only the sling about the others right arm and the desperation with which Arashi is clinging to him, which tells of the dramatic conclusion to the mornings events.

"Imonoyama-san came here earlier to tell me of your rousing speech."

"Would that I had said such words earlier and then perhaps…"

"You have done as was right for you, Kamui, none of us can ask for more than that."

There is a moment of silence and then Soratta enquires,

"Would you mind giving us a moment, missy?" There is obviously something hidden within the request for Arashi smiles a little as she replies,

"Of course."

"Would you also be so kind as to ask Subaru to join us?" Kamui enquires.

"Certainly."

Once the Onmyoji crosses into the room Soratta enquires,

"What do you wish to talk to me of, Kamui-kun?"

"Last night I was paid a visit by the Dreamseer of the Dragons of Earth. He told me of what the future was to be and warned me of a danger hidden from us.

"I had no want to believe his words and yet there is something within them that seems right somehow."

"What, then, is this danger?"

"Princess Hinoto…or rather the shadow in her heart."

"I too would dismiss this warning as little more than a trick and yet it is as you have said, Kamui." Soratta reaches into his pocket and pulls free and Ofuda of a sort Kamui had seen only once before this day.

"Where did you get that Ofuda?"

"The Princess informed us that two Kekkai were to fall and the location of these Kekkai was far enough apart that there was little choice but to divide our force.

"I went alone to the Kekkai in Ginza and had been there but two minutes when I felt Arashi raise her barrier.

"I thought to go and help her and then a shikigami appeared before me. With the Princess's voice the thing begged me to stay…begged me to protect the Kekkai and then it faded into this Ofuda.

"Something about the nature of it worried me and so I placed it into my pocket with the intent of showing it to Sumeragi-san."

"When first I came to Tokyo I was set upon by a large group of men…in the wake of their destruction was left an Ofuda identical to this one."

"This Ofuda has little intent but curse an individual…but to bring harm." Subaru remarks as he takes the thing from Soratta's hand. "The aura about it is full of the heat of anger and a bitterness that is all but consuming…yet within that negativity lingers a little of the calm and the ice that I have come to associate with Hinoto."

"Then there is indeed a shadow in her heart?" Kamui enquires.

"Not precisely, no."

"What do you mean?"

"I believe that the shadow is now in control of the Princess and she whom we think of as Hinoto has been pushed deep into her heart."

"What does this mean for us…for the Princess?"

"Go and talk to her, Kamui-kun…see if there might be a way to push the shadow back to where it belongs and if there is not…" Soratta's words falter and, despite the creeping fear spreading in his heart, Kamui responds with a confident,

"I understand."

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There is hostility present in the air of the basement that serves both to unsettle Kamui further and to recall to him the last image within his dream.

Hien and Sohi had not been there to great him, this oddity explained quickly by the two Ofuda that sit now at Hinoto's side.

'You wish to know why she has fallen to my power…wish to know if you have a chance to save her, is that not so?' The words appear direct in his mind just as the Princess's always have and yet the voice is not completely as that he associates with Hinoto.

"Firstly I would know to whom it is that I am talking."

'I am the darkness within her soul.'

"Tell me of how you have come to be as you are and of the two things you mentioned previously."

'For so very long she has born the weight of the future upon her shoulders…has known that he she might have come to love would be destroyed simply for her sake.

'It is a pain she has born for the hope if dying…of being freed, at last, from the endless prison of her dreams.

'That hope was stolen away, however, and thus she allowed me in…thus did I gain at last the freedom that I had long desired.'

"Are you not free still?"

'Not precisely, no, for there is hope again that her wish might be fulfilled and for the sake of that hope she has become strong…has begun to pull me again into her heart.'

"She believes that I shall destroy her?"

'Yes.'

"I can not do such a thing."

'Then you are even more a fool than I had believed.'

Hinoto's body begins to tremble then and, for a brief instant, her eyes clear of shadow and of hate,

'Please, Kamui, let me go. Please, I beg of you.'

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T: You see? It's not quite a proper ending and not quite a cliffy, thus the 'technical cliff-hanger' warning!

The 'event' that causes Arashi to flee in volume 18 of X has not occurred here due to the bad timing of one Imonoyama Noruko! This basically so Arashi can stay on the side of the good rather than cross over (as she seems to be doing in the manga).

Next chapter tomorrow and it shall be the LAST ONE so review while you can people!