Chapter Two: Fate's Decision
It was a few days later that a completely recovered Hokuto watched T.V. while Seishiro prepared lunch. The trauma of the convenience store hold-up seemed a thing of the past, as she went about her daily routine (namely, creating ensembles for herself and Subaru to wear the next day) while Subaru slept on the couch; recovering from a difficult exorcism.
"Hey, Sei-chan, what do you think of this?" Hokuto asked, as she held up what appeared to be a dark blue jacket for the older onmyouji to see. Seishiro glanced up at her, gave the jacket a scrutinizing look, and shook his head.
"I don't think so, Hokuto-chan. It would clash too much with his eyes." Seishiro replied, jokingly, then asked, "Are you sure you're all right, Hokuto-chan?" Hokuto nodded.
"I'm fine, Sei-chan. I guess I never thought that something like that could happen to me. What is even more unbelievable is the fact that a bounty hunter had saved me...even if it was too close for comfort." Hokuto said, glancing at her slumbering brother for added emphasis. Seishiro understood completely. Admittedly, he'd been a little startled by Subaru's protectiveness in the face of what he'd thought to be a threat...possibly even moreso than Hokuto had been.
"And yet, I shouldn't be surprised. I'm all he and Hokuto-chan have left now, since their parents were killed three years ago." Seishiro mused; remembering very clearly the pathetic scene of the two thirteen-year-olds kneeling beside their dead parents (who had been brutally gunned down right in front of them), the full horror of the event showing in their young eyes. He'd been on his way home from work when he'd heard the gunshots and had found the twins huddled together and staring numbly at the grisly scene.
"It had taken them months just to get even one full night's sleep after that...The emotional trauma had been worse than I'd thought." Seishiro thought, remembering the many nights he'd had to sit by the twins' beds and hold their hands to reassure them that he wasn't going anywhere. He was startled from his grim revery by Hokuto's voice.
"Sei-chan! A chemical truck has just exploded in downtown Alba!" Hokuto yelped, with shock in her voice. Almost in slow motion, Seishiro turned his head and looked at the screen, his eyes almost immediately drawn to the guardrail of the bridge the truck had been on before exploding. There, appearing almost to be a specter of death, stood a man. He had long, wavy black hair, and wore dark clothing; a subtle hint of the dark soul that was hidden within him. Then the man, who had been facing towards the city, turned his own head and looked towards the camera.
"Trick or treat, Sakurazuka." a gruff voice growled, in the back of Seishiro's mind, and as his mind almost instantly went blank. As he felt himself begin to fall, Seishiro heard Hokuto scream his name, and then knew nothing else.
Vvvvvvvvvvvvv(divider)
When he returned to awareness, Seishiro found himself lying on the couch Subaru had been sleeping on earlier, and saw the worried twins hovering close by.
"Are you all right, Seishiro-san?" Subaru asked.
"You scared the hell outta me, passing out like that! What happened?.!" Hokuto added, anxiously.
"A sublimal message...I received a sublimal message and passed out...Subaru-kun, Hokuto-chan, pack your bags. We've got to get out of here." Seishiro said, as he slowly sat up, and then got to his feet; standing still for a few moments so he could get his equilibrium back, and then rushing to his own room to grab what he was going to need.
"Sei-chan, what's wrong? This isn't like you!" Hokuto shouted, now extremely worried for their guardian. He actually seemed to be afraid.
"I've no time to explain, Hokuto-chan. The only thing I can tell you is that we'll be in mortal danger if we stay here any longer." Seishiro stated, in a no nonsense tone, trying to remain calm enough to think of what they were going to need while they were on the run.
"He's scared...Really scared. What did he see, just now?" Subaru wondered, as he glanced at the T.V. screen for a moment, before taking Seishiro's example and getting ready to leave.
"It seems my past is about to catch up to me...I just hope I have the strength to protect Hokuto and Subaru from him." Seishiro thought, as he remembered the events of a time just prior to his finding of the orphaned twins.
"Seishiro-san, where are we going? What are we running from?" Subaru asked, again.
"A ghost. We're running from a ghost, Subaru-kun...from my past." Seishiro replied, enigmatically.
"Then why don't we just exorcize it? It's what we're in business to do, after all." Hokuto said, impatiently. Seishiro sighed and shook his head.
"This kind of ghost will not be that easy to exorcize. In fact...he may just kill us before we can even think of a way to get him." Seishiro murmured, with foreboding in his voice.
"Then what should we do?" the twins asked, in unison; fearful now, of what this threat meant to the three of them.
"Run for our lives...and hope we can find a safe haven somewhere in the meantime." Seishiro said, as he closed his suitcase, picked it up, and then grabbed the keys for his zip craft; not even realizing that this move alone was going to put the three of them on the same path again as the bounty hunter they'd met only a few nights before...
Vvvvvvvvvvvvv(divider)
Elsewhere, in a vacant apartment, a lone man sat, gazing out the window. He smiled when he sensed something; a slight change in the air around him, hinting at something only he could know the meaning to.
"Fight all you like, Sakurazuka. Soon there will be no one to shelter you. It'll just be you and me. And the butterflies." the man thought, as his gaze turned to the distant radio tower, with something akin to eagerness in his eyes as he did so.
