2. Escape.
T: Nothing too much to say about this chapter without spoiling things so I'm going to skip to the warnings. Yet another cliff hanger, I apologise for this in advance but it felt like the right place to leave this chapter, apart from that things remain on the steady, so breathe easy people! I still own only the plot (what little there is in this chapter) the rest belongs to Clamp.
Mysty: I'm glad you're enjoying this already and I apologise for the mistake as far as the name goes…one slipped my net! As to your theory about the Sakurazukamori…I can see where you are coming from and it's certainly a way of looking at the matter! Thank you for staying with me on my particular outlook especially when it's a little 'out there'! Keep reading as your support, as well as the support of all my reviewers, keeps me going!
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"By claiming the role of the Sakurazukamori you have claimed also his position among the Dragons of Earth.
"Have unsettled the balance of this war and have become as our enemy." He knows, simply for the tone in the other's voice, that he is being sincere and yet…
"I do not feel any different…do not feel cold or dispassionate as I had believed I might."
: That is because you have not yet sealed our bond and yet, once you have done as such… :
He feels suddenly ill and, wishing to desperately to be anywhere other than where he is at the moment, he informs Subaru, "Yet if I am now as you say then I can not stay here…can not risk the safety of the Shinken," before he makes a break for the doorway.
He is aware of Subaru attempting to call him back, of the apology the other gives him and of his offer to help.
Then, for a short while, the world fades into insignificance.
When he 'comes back' to himself he is laid out in a stranger's living room, his head propped up by his coat and a thin blanket tossed across his legs.
He pushes himself into a sitting position and, but a moment later, a familiar voice is enquiring,
"So you've finally decided to join me, have you?"
"Segawa-kun?" The other is sprawled out on a sofa that sits to his left, his ever present smile a little less than it had been on previous occasions. "Is everything all right?"
"Shouldn't I be asking that question? Running away doesn't seem quite you're thing, especially when it has scared Sumeragi-san so."
"He has told you everything then."
"No, that is not true. He told me that you'd left without saying why and asked me to keep an eye out for you, but that was all.
"I think he had hoped that I might get you to tell me what was wrong; that as one removed from the situation you'd feel more at ease talking to me. Don't worry, I'm not going to push you to talk, not when whatever this thing is has effected you so very deeply."
"Segawa-kun…" The kindness is unexpected, his 'relationship' with Keiichi being, as it was, still in the first, tentative, stages and yet he knows that the other is sincere in his words.
He has a want to respond to this sincerity, to share with Keiichi his burdens and his secrets hopes and yet…
…the war has not been kind to the other and thus he can never be told the whole truth, not without threatening the little comfort that they have with one another.
"It is a complicated situation, Segawa-kun and there is much I wish to keep to myself.
"I can tell you that I was forced to make a choice in order to protect those I love, a choice that has potentially set me against those I had wished to protect."
"Potentially?"
"I do not wish to be set against them…I wish only to continue on the life I had before. However…however, it does not seem as though I can simply ignore this situation."
"Clearly if you have not want to be set against your 'allies', if you wish only to protect their lives, then there is no true issue."
"Thank you, Keiichi."
"Let's get your mind off of it, shall we?" Keiichi enquires before he turns the conversation to simpler things.
Though he is unable to completely let go his worries he finds that, after listening a little while to the other talk of housework and other such idle pursuits, he feels more himself than he has done in weeks.
……………………………………………………………………………….
He dreams of the Tree, of an ancient, irrepressible, hunger and of blood.
He can feel the power that the Tree could give him, can feel the security and the distance that could be his if only he submitted.
He dreams of walking the streets at night, of selecting a target, of learning unrealised secrets and incomprehensible yearnings.
He dreams of seclusion, of being utterly alone without the comprehension of the sadness of such a situation.
He dreams of the warmth of blood about his fingers, of the satisfying sound of tearing flesh and then, suddenly, he is no longer dreaming in the recognised sense of the word.
"Good evening, Kamui." This presence, this sensation of sleeping without actually doing as such is familiar to him, thus he quickly responds with the enquiry of,
"Have you come to show you what my future is to be now, Kakyo?"
"That is a part of the reason for my 'visit', yes."
"Why else are you here?"
"I have a want to talk to you of the past, of the hurt that we share." He gestures to their left and an image blooms amid the darkness.
He knows this image well and he watches, transfixed, as it plays to its terrible conclusion.
"What are you to do with the death of Subaru's sister?"
"Hokuto was the first person to broach the emptiness of my dreamscape…to recognise me for who I was and the only person for whom I have ever tried to break free this prison."
"You loved her?"
"Unconditionally." The other takes a moment to compose himself and then he says, "When she died…when she was stolen from me…I folded in on myself, enclosed myself into the emptiness of my heart, just as you did when Kotori was taken from you.
"Unlike yourself, however, I have not been pulled from that pain…have not found another purpose for my life…instead I remain here in my darkness, weaving dreams as waiting for my wish to be fulfilled." It is clear, simply for the tone in his voice, what his Wish is and, having no want to dwell on such a thing, he enquires,
"Did she talk to you of why she went to the Sakurazukamori that day? Of the wish she gave her life for and the spell tied to it?"
"I believe that she wished for her brother to be happy despite her death, wished, desperately, for he and Seishiro to find one another again.
"As to there being a spell tied to that wish, to the notion that she claimed gift enough to perform such a spell…" Though the other does not complete this sentence, though Kamui does not know him well enough to be a true judge of such things, he knows, without doubt, that the other is lying.
Knows that he holds the final piece of the puzzle and that he is retaining his silence either through fear or a misplaced sense of loyalty.
He wishes to push the other, to have this matter laid, at last, to rest, and is prevented form this course of action by the appearance of a fresh 'dream' in the blackness before them.
"This is the future that could have been, Kamui, the future that was lost simply for the choice you made."
In the image before him he is stood, waist deep, in the Clamp school swimming pool, one arm looped, protectively, about Kotori's middle and the other pressed to Fuuma's cheek.
He can hear the thought process of his 'dream' self and, finally, he recognises this as the moment where he set his fate…
…where he chose to be a Dragon of Heaven and forced Fuuma to become a dragon of Earth.
His thoughts seem to be a little different this time, focusing not on protecting the world that Kotori and Fuuma lived in but changing it in order that the threat to their safety might be removed all together.
He watches, horrified, as his 'dream' self catches Kotori about the neck and, a familiar distance in his eyes, plunges the Shinken into her heart.
Slowly the events of the past few months progress before his eyes, everything slightly altered with Fuuma, rather than himself, as the 'Kamui of the Dragon of Heaven'.
It hurts to see Fuuma acting in the manner he had used to before the darkness had taken him, hurt to know that, if only he had taken the other path, his friend would be free still of the shadow.
"You shoulder the guilt of being the deciding factor in his situation and yet, unwittingly, you have given him 'another chance.'"
"What do you mean?"
"If you take the role you had promised and become Sakurazukamori, become a Dragon of Earth, then, as your balancing force he shall become a Dragon of however…shall be set free the prison of his darkness."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
T: Yep that's it…nothing to add here without spoiling where I'm going with this! I'll try to update Sunday but as I've not yet finished writing chapter 3 I'm not making promises.