Kamui was already disgruntled when he awoke Sunday morning as he found himself in a tangled mess of bedding with the memory of a nightmare about a failed test hanging over him. As if the humiliation of failure wasn't enough, the dream had to add insult to injury by making him spend his precious weekend doing Algebra in his sleep. It didn't help that as he tried to extricate himself from the knotted sheets, he lost balance, falling out of bed with a crash.

To make matters worse, Seishirou then knocked on the door asking if he was okay.

"Fine." He growled back, envisioning the former Sakurazukamori's laughing face on the other side of the door.

As Kamui dressed, he tried to console himself with the thought that he and Subaru could spend the day searching the library together until he remembered that Subaru was at work today, helping prepare a pet adoption fair through the clinic.

He sighed as he walked into the kitchen and was instantly taken aback to find Seishirou whistling as he molded rice balls.

Kamui hated the sound of whistling.

Gritting his teeth, he tried to reach for a glass of water without getting too close to Seishirou, a tricky feat considering that the man was directly in front of the cabinet with the glasses and next to the sink. Seishirou thankfully turned away for a moment just in time and Kamui couldn't help but glance down as he closed the cabinet door. He started when he realized that the rice balls were in different shapes with little faces arranged on them in decoration.

"Aren't they cute?" Seishirou abruptly stopped whistling to address him excitedly.

Kamui imagined him biting the head off the cheerful looking kitten resting closest to him.

"They're kind of juvenile." He grumped.

Seishirou laughed. "You think? I thought it might be nice to have them at the pet fair tomorrow for the volunteers."

Kamui wondered if Subaru had asked him to make these then. Surely Seishirou wouldn't think of that kind of magnanimity on his own. "That would be nice I guess." He reluctantly conceded then frowned as he caught sight of a fox-shaped rice ball.

Without thinking, he picked it up, studying its whiskers and delicately pointed ears, lost in a momentary reverie. Everything had been so hectic lately that he had completely forgotten about the story he had read in Fuu's mysterious book.

"Hm? Oh do you like that one? You can have it if you want!" Seishirou happily volunteered, snapping him out of his thoughts. Kamui looked up and all he could see was a false smile that dissolved into an even more false look of concern as he said nothing in response. "Is something wrong?"

"I heard a story recently." Kamui began, careful to look Seishirou in the eye. "About a fox and a hunter."

Seishirou's face remained a mask of vague interest and confusion as Kamui recounted the tale, watching, waiting for some look of recognition, of understanding but none ever crossed the older man's features.

"I don't know what the story means still though." He turned the rice ball to "face" Seishirou as he finished. "What do you think?" He glanced back up with a pointed look.

"I guess it could be a metaphor for how some people give without remorse and some people take the same way." Seishirou shrugged.

"Don't you feel bad for the fox though?" Kamui pressed. "All that time he thought he was loved and instead the hunter destroyed him." He realized it was anger, not mere annoyance bubbling under the surface as Seishirou continued to not react.

"No." Seishirou gave him what for a fleeting moment, Kamui could have sworn was a sad smile and it rocked him enough for the anger to be momentarily lost. "He wanted to be wanted. And he was, even if it wasn't in the way he expected."

"Which is the hunter's fault." He mentally shook himself, determined not to be manipulated.

"How? The hunter had no idea how the fox felt. How could he? He was the exact opposite all along." Seishirou turned to continue working on his rice balls. "The hunter was the one who never had a choice in the story really. His role was defined for him from the very beginning of the story and he had no other purpose."

Kamui glared, knowing that being just to Seishirou's right, without that eye Seishirou could not see him in the periphery. Of course he couldn't see Seishirou's expression then either. "But now the fox is dead and he gets to go on doing whatever he wants." He protested.

"Does he? The story ends when the fox dies, not when the hunter dies. The hunter may as well not exist anymore, there is no more reason for him to now without the fox."

Kamui faltered slightly then pulled himself together. "But… what you said about people who give and people who take. Which one are you? A fox or a hunter."

Seishirou laughed. "Neither. I don't feel any need to be just one or the other." He shot Kamui a mischievous grin. "What about you? Which one are you?"

Kamui huffed. "Well neither either then. Since people aren't fairytale creatures."

Seishirou gave him a level look. "No, but everyone starts out with an inclination toward one or the other. I would think you were the sort of person who started out as a fox, don't you?"

Kamui gave an uncomfortable shrug. "Maybe."

"Which leaves the question, who is your hunter." Seishirou chuckled. "Is it Kotori?" He gave a suggestive wink, leaving Kamui disgusted before continuing "Of course there's the whole play on your name. "One who hunts the majesty of the Gods. Who knows. Maybe she's your fox and you're the hunter."

Kamui seriously considered throwing the rice ball into his smug face for a second until a nauseating thought hit him.

One who hunts the majesty of the Gods.

Fuuma.

He dropped the rice ball as he ran out the door.

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"No wait, now the left side is higher… how can that be? Okay try raising the right side a little more."

Kakyou patiently obliged and glanced at Hokuto for confirmation.

She tilted her head and squinted. "I think the letters themselves are crooked." She declared. "We're going to have to take this back and have them reprint it." She huffed and pulled out her phone. "As if we didn't have enough to do. I still have to make the arrangements for the jugglers. I guess we can do that on the way there…"

Kakyou quickly tied off his end of the banner announcing the pet adoption faire and hopped down from the ladder to examine the sign for himself.

"It looks fine."

Hokuto paused in jabbing a number into the phone. "Really?"

"Yeah." He lightly tucked a hand under her elbow and pulled her back toward the street. "It's a little bit crooked up close but people will be reading it back here and from the sidewalk you can't tell."

Hokuto frowned. "But I wanted everything to be perfect!"

"You wanted the pets to be adopted. The sign will catch their eye as they're passing and by the time they're close enough to realize that it's crooked, they're going to be busy ooing and ahing over the kittens."

Hokuto hummed thoughtfully and Kakyou decided to press his luck. "And why are we hiring a juggler again?"

"To get people's attention! And create more of a fanfare!" She announced, perking back up.

"But what does juggling have to do with pets? Is he going to juggle the turtles?"

Hokuto gasped. "I originally just thought balls, but that's a much better idea!" She kissed his cheek and dashed off, leaving him dazed on multiple fronts though the glow only lasted a moment before he realized he should probably talk to their attorneys about whether or not juggling turtles could get them sued for animal abuse.

He was distracted however from giving them a call when Kamui ran by, pausing at the entrance to gasp for breath and scan the room. Kakyou curiously followed him in, wondering what could leave the boy so frantic.

They spotted Subaru at the same time. It wasn't hard, he was the one surrounded by a group of people who seemed to all want something from him at once, and this involved much shouting and tugging at sleeves. To his credit, Subaru didn't seem to be panicking. Although he certainly looked a little overwhelmed, he was doing his best to answer everyone's questions and direct the madness into something remotely manageable and productive.

Kamui's shoulders visibly drooped when he saw how busy Subaru was and Kakyou took this as a cue.

"Is something wrong?" He slid up beside Kamui who jumped at having been noticed.

"No, I- well kind of. I just wanted to talk to Subaru."

Kakyou nodded in the frazzled vet's direction. "I think he's going to be occupied for a bit. Is it an emergency?"

"I… guess not." Kamui fiddled with the edge of his shirt, glowering as he noticed a stray grain of rice stuck to the hem which he picked off and flung aside in disgust.

Kakyou was unaware that Kamui had such strong feelings about rice but decided to disregard that odd discovery for the time being. "Do you want to talk to me? There's a little bakery nearby where we can get something cool to drink and get out of this madhouse."

Kamui reluctantly cast another longing look Subaru's way just as another young woman tugged him aside to look at something on an elephant-printed clipboard that left even Subaru's brow furrowed. "Yeah sure."

A few moments later they were seated in a tucked away corner sipping iced coffees, or at least Kakyou was sipping his as Kamui played with his ice, using a straw to push it under the surface and letting it bob back up again. He waited patiently for the boy to speak, suspecting that he would eventually do so of his own accord once he had worked out some thoughts.

At last Kamui raised his head. "You don't really remember what happened before, do you? You said you had only had some dreams…"

Kakyou slowly lowered his cup. "I have had more lately though. Why do you ask?"

"It's just… Fuuma. I still can't find him and I've been looking for months now and I've been wondering the whole time why that is."

"Fuuma?"

Kamui shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "The 'other Kamui'."

"Ah, yes I had forgotten that he went by another name."

Kamui gave him a wounded look, leaving Kakyou with a slightly guilty feeling although he didn't quite understand why his words had hurt the boy.

You said that maybe he didn't want to be found."

Kakyou nodded warily. "I did say that maybe that was the case."

"But… what if it's not that he doesn't want to be found? What if-" Kamui took a shuddering breath. "What if he's not here?"

"Why wouldn't he be when everyone else is?"

"Hinoto told me once that Fuuma was born to be my twin star, that he existed to fill the gap so that whichever side I didn't choose to be on, he would be there to fill in.

Kakyou nodded again even more slowly.

"But here there is no apocalypse happening. I'm not supposed to save the world or destroy it. I don't have any special powers or destiny and I don't have to choose any sides. So there doesn't need to be any 'other Kamui' here does there."

"I suppose not." Kakyou replied softly.

"And if that was the whole reason Fuuma was born, then does mean that there's no reason for him to exist here?"

Kakyou hesitated, considering his words carefully. "I'm not sure that it works like that. No, there is no reason that I can think of for him to be here simply as your antithesis but that doesn't necessarily mean he isn't here at all. 'Fuuma' was a person in his own right wasn't he?"

"I don't know now." Kamui's eyes filled with tears. "When I look back I feel like I don't know anything about Fuuma himself. I just remember him always being there for me and Kotori when we were kids but now I don't even know why. Maybe it was because he was a truly kind person. Maybe all along it was just to keep me safe until the final battle. I just wish that I at least knew. I wish… I wish sometimes that I hadn't made my wish for a new world because at least I would know that Fuuma still existed somewhere. This way I don't even know if I can hope to find my best friend again."

Kakyou stared sadly at his drink. "I wish I had the answers for you."

He sat quietly and let the boy cry silently across from him, secretly thinking that although it broke his heart to see Kamui so hurt, Kakyou would not trade this world for anything.

However a thought occurred to him that chilled his heart in spite of the summer heat. Kigai and Karen's fall into the bonfire had seemed strange, and the loss of Seishirou's eye… those couldn't be coincidental repetitions could they? He had initially taken them to be echoes of a sort. Neither had resulted in the same level of catastrophe as before so he had believed that surely it was simply some sort of quirk that was repeated in every permutation of their lives. But what if it wasn't? What if the incidents hadn't merely been accidents?

Subaru was the intended victim of the attack in the hospital, Karen was the one standing closer to the fire and the first to fall in, Kakyou realized. Seals, both of them. What if the other Kamui really couldn't exist without the purpose of destruction behind him?

What if he had come to finish the job?

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"Higher!" A little girl demanded of an older sibling as she clutched at the chains suspending her swing. The older brother laughingly obliged, giving her a firm push.

Satsuki paused to watch the girl giggle as she swung out, legs dangling merrily in mid-air, her hair flying behind her, gleeful. Liberated.

She turned and continued her route, carefully avoiding becoming entangled in a crowd lining up before a movie theater.

"Come on, you're going to love this one!" A girl insisted, her hands pressed flat against the back of another young man.

"But I never enjoy romantic comedies!" He protested, trying unsuccessfully to dig in his heels.

Satsuki watched the reluctant young man stumble into the theater at his girlfriend's insistence, staring as they became immersed in the throng of people, swallowed whole by the crowd.

She turned away, still lost in thought.

"What's your problem, punk, huh?" A pair of teenagers faced a younger, frightened looking boy. "What are you staring at?"

"N-nothing."

Satsuki slowed to watch as one of the teenagers reached out. The heels of his hands connected with the boy's slender shoulders and the boy lost his balance, falling over backward to land in the gravel.

Pushed.

The word echoed in Satsuki's thoughts for what must have been the thousandth time that day. Yuuto hadn't said it. Karen hadn't said it. No one had brought it up at all.

Satsuki frowned as she thought back to that night and the certainty that the incident had been anything but an accident. She knew she had seen something out of the corner of her eye. Besides, Yuuto was not a clumsy man and Karen Aoki used to be a model for heaven's sake, it wasn't as if either them was liable to just "trip" as they claimed must have happened.

"I don't have any money!" The boy protested before crying out as one of the teenager's foot slammed into his rib cage.

Satsuki hung back, uninterested in getting involved in the fight, still wrapped up in wondering why Yuuto and Karen had lied. They knew, didn't they? They had to have felt something shove them, but why had they both kept their silence about it?

"I don't! Really I didn't me-" The boy's cry was cut short by a punch across the jaw.

When Yuuto was first released, he had insisted upon going out for tea and had blatantly avoided talking about the night on the beach, pointedly changing the subject the two or three times Satsuki had even tried to bring it up. Tonight however, he wasn't wriggling away so easily. She wanted answers, whether he wanted to talk about it or not.

"Hey! Stop right there!"

Satsuki glanced over her shoulder, confused for a moment as to why someone would tell her to stop when she had been standing still. Another teenage boy had appeared behind her, his expression grim beneath his backward baseball cap. She quickly realized that he wasn't looking at her at all, but rather at the boys she had stopped to watch herself.

"Eh? Who the hell are you?" One of the teenagers grumbled, still clutching the boy's shirt collar as blood dripped from his nose onto it.

"I'm the guy telling you to cut it out and leave that kid alone!"

Satsuki evenly studied the scene, stepping out of the way to watch the new arrival, musing that he seemed oddly familiar.

The teenagers laughed and one spat on the ground, leaving a mucusy glob of himself behind as he began to advance toward the newcomer. "Well soon you're going to be the guy wishing he was never born."

Not a very good comeback. Satsuki thought vaguely, though perhaps there was some accuracy to it. The teenagers seemed much larger and better built than the kid with the baseball cap. She was mildly surprised when the first blow didn't land, as the latter dodged and with a quick strike across his attacker's back brought him to his knees.

"Hey!" The other teenager released the beaten boy, who merely whimpered and scrambled to his feet to flee the scene while he had the chance.

Leaving the person who came to his rescue by himself without even a word of thanks. Satsuki noted, though the boy in the backward baseball cap didn't seem bothered by it. Of course that may have been because he was busy fending off the next attack already.

Satsuki was again mildly impressed when the newcomer easily defended himself, displaying an ease with martial arts as well as a grace that one would not have immediately anticipated given that he looked more like he belonged in a skate park. Specifically, he looked as though he should be the one falling off his skateboard as he got distracted trying to impress a pretty girl, Satsuki reflected. There was something still awkward and ungainly about the boy when he stood still which belied the actual control and strength he possessed.

She was intrigued to note too that he did pause after each attack. This was no fight, Satsuki realized. He was only defending himself and pushing back enough to keep the bullies at bay. The otherwise awkward teen was displaying no interest in proving his superiority in combat, although it was evident nonetheless. There was a deliberate non-violence to him and as a result, the two bullies quickly abandoned their cause with threats of vengeance despite not appearing to be particularly injured.

None of this appeared to faze the boy in the slightest however. Instead he turned at last to her, having been the first to even notice that there had been an audience the entire time.

"I'm sorry you had to see that miss. You aren't hurt are you?"

Satsuki raised an eyebrow, wondering how she could have been injured and if she were why she would just stand around in the background watching events unfold.

"I'm fine."

"Thank goodness!" He thrust a hand out with a good natured grin. "I'm Sorata Arisugawa by the way, but you can just call me Sorata."

She reluctantly gave his hand a brief shake and moved to leave then paused thinking again that she had seen him before, though she could not place where.

"Ah, what's your name?"

Oh no, don't let this whole thing give him the idea that we need to be friends now. Satsuki resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Or worse, that now he has an 'in' to hit on me. "Satsuki Yatouji." She intentionally made no mention of informality and was surprised when Sorata appeared to actually take the hint.

"Well Yatouji-san, this is a pretty dangerous neighborhood as you can see. Would you like me to walk you home?"

"I'm not going home." She regretted the words the moment they were out of her mouth.

"Oh! Where are you going?" The absolute openness of his face left her wondering if he had any concept of privacy or if he merely shared his life story with any passing stranger.

"To my boyfriend's." The word felt unfamiliar on her lips. She had never referred to or even thought of Yuuto as a boyfriend. Something about the term just felt so childish and implied far too great a commitment for what she and Yuuto had. Her nose gave an involuntary wrinkle even as she said it.

"Oh I see. I wouldn't want your boyfriend to worry about there being another man." Sorata gave a serious nod.

Satsuki gave him a quick once-over wondering how he qualified quite yet as a man. Certainly he wasn't someone Yuuto would be the least bit threatened by.

Before she could think of a suitable reply, there was a strange crack that echoed through the otherwise empty street. They both looked around for the source of the sound, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"What-" Sorata was cut short by a second cracking and a shadow fell over the both of them. "Look out!" He lunged for her and they both rolled out of the way as the frayed end of a snapped power line hit the ground in a shower of sparks. They landed on a rusted metal grate covering a sewer entrance and even as the pole fell, Satsuki saw what was about to happen as if in slow motion. She scrambled to avoid it, and though they narrowly avoided having the utility pole fall on them directly, they were too late to get off of the grille before the brittle metal gave way under the strain, collapsing into the sewer and taking them with it.

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A/N: Did you miss me? ;)