The others were gone when he walked out the door and Kamui stood on the front lawn, looking up and down the street, wondering which why they might have gone and if he had any hope of finding them at this rate. He chose a direction at random and set out, trying to walk with the purpose he knew he didn't have. The sky rumbled and Kamui somehow felt that it was appropriate for the heavens to open up and dump their contents on him all it once. Shoulders hunched, and head down against the gale, he pressed on anyway, quickening his step and barely noticing where he was going.
His pace was abruptly halted though when he collided with something.
"Oh my goodness! Are you alright?" a friendly voice asked, taking Kamui's shoulders to steady him.
"Uh yeah… I'm fine, Aoki." He looked up and blinked. You shouldn't wear white when it's raining. He thought vaguely, noticing that the entirety of Aoki's outfit was snowy white.
"You shouldn't be out in the rain, here!" He offered Kamui his umbrella, and Kamui blinked again as the shift had revealed Aoki's head and more strangely, the crown perched on it.
"Why…" he began but stopped himself, guessing that the answer would surely only baffle him more.
"Z!" Aoki beamed.
"What?"
"Aren't we doing the alphabet? Y is a strange place to start though, isn't it?"
"No, I…" Kamui shook his head.
"Oh I must have misheard! I'm sorry, J then!" Aoki grinned at him, waiting.
Kamui sighed and decided not to try to explain himself. "Aoki, where are we?"
"I have no idea!" Aoki looked terribly pleased with himself.
Kamui closed his eyes and counted to ten in his head, willing himself not to get angry with the man.
"How did you get here then?" he asked, teeth clenched.
"I dunno!"
"Where is a desk when you need one…" Kamui wondered, his head aching.
"I don't know, but I'm told they're like ravens." Aoki replied, oblivious to the redundancy of Kamui's question. "I met someone in the woods who had a shikigami like a raven. Maybe he has a desk too? We could go look for him…"
Kamui gave an involuntary shudder as an image of the Sakurazukamori's shikigami came to mind. "No, let's not."
"Knot what?"
"Not find him."
Aoki gave him a puzzled look.
"Weren't you already going somewhere?" Kamui asked hopefully, ignoring the puzzled look.
"Oh yes!" Aoki brightened again. "I'm going to Nowhere!"
"What?"
"Yes, you see, I read a poem in a book. And the author said they were going to Nowhere, and since I have read a lot of poems by this author and they are one of my favorites, I decided to go there too and meet them!"
"Oh… I see… who is the author?"
"Anonymous!"
Kamui stared at the man, half-expecting him to grow another head and musing that it really probably would not surprise him that much if he did right now.
"I want to be just like Anonymous someday." Aoki sighed wistfully. (1)
"Riiight. Well good luck finding them…" Kamui handed back the umbrella as the rain was beginning to let up. He didn't want to be alone but somehow he had a feeling that being with Aoki was not going to be particularly helpful either. So they parted ways and Kamui continued down the street.
He walked for what seemed like hours and at last came to a garden and stopped to rest for a bit. Kamui sat down on the edge of a found in the midst of the blooming flowers, his elbows on his knees and chin in his hands. "I'm never going to get anywhere." He muttered to himself.
"Not at this rate you're not."
Kamui jerked and looked up to see Fuuma reclining against a tree, smirking.
"It's because you're too slow." He added. "But then, no matter how fast you go, you will never be able to get there in time." He paused to reflect for a moment as he stood up. "Or out of time for that matter."
"What? Fuuma what are you talking about? How did you even find me?"
"The flowers. They stalk for me."
Since when do you speak in puns? Kamui wondered but before he could say anything, Fuuma was standing in front of him.
"You know, you would look so pretty wet." He leered, his face inches from Kamui's
Before Kamui could push him away Fuuma's hands were on his shoulders, shoving him back into the fountain. Caught off guard, Kamui fell easily in the water, instinctively trying to cry out when his head crashed into the stone bottom of the fountain and choking as he inhaled water. He struggled to fight back but was already at a disadvantage due to his position.
No! he thought, I can't die like this! I can't drown in just a few inches of water! I can't let Fuuma do this… I can't…
The next thing he knew he was coughing and sputtering on the ground beside the fountain.
"Are you alright?"
A gentle hand rested on his cheek and Kamui looked up, grateful to see Karen.
"Is- is he gone?" Kamui choked out.
"He's gone for now." She told him, her voice soothing his worries.
Kamui sighed and rested his head on her shoulder, letting her wrap her arms maternally around him.
"Why do these things keep happening?" he asked, more to himself than to her.
"Sometimes we hurt those we love most because we lose sight of what's really important." Karen said softly. (2)
"What do you mean?" Kamui drew back, confused.
She pulled him to his feet.
"Maybe, you should ask him the next time you see him."
Kamui frowned and looked at the fountain, recent memories replaying in his head. He noticed he could see his reflection in the water, but the image was distorted and he wondered which was the distortion, him or the reflection.
"I don't know where he is." Kamui pointed out.
"Then you should go look for him." Karen replied simply
"Will you come with me?"
"No, I can't."
"Why not?"
"I suppose you could say I'm rooted here…" she trailed off vaguely. "I can only be with those who come to me."
Kamui frowned in puzzlement.
"But I wish you the best of luck, Kamui."
She kissed his cheek and waved goodbye as he walked away from the garden, his heart filled with a strange mixture of hope and despair. He glanced over his shoulder once and saw her sitting in a bed of tiger-lilies and for a moment he thought she was talking to them but quickly shook his head and turned back toward the road.
Kamui soon came to another garden though and for a moment thought maybe he had somehow gone in a circle when he realized that this garden had no tiger-lilies. In the distance he heard singing and wandered toward the sound. He came to a garden of roses and paused when he noticed the chairman of CLAMP school and his two assistants were the ones singing as they tended to the flowers. He thought at first they were pruning the bushes but then saw the flash of a paintbrush as the chairman made a sweeping gesture and loudly announced, "Aha! Finished with this one!"
"Great only about a zillion more to go." His blue-haired companion muttered grumpily. Kamui wondered why their uniforms matched except for the number of hearts on their sleeves.
"Um, excuse me," Kamui said hesitantly, afraid to be rude after the chairman's generous help in the past despite his lack of direct involvement in Kamui's affairs.
"Oho! We have a guest!" The chairman leapt up excitedly.
"Don't think you're getting out of work for this!" The blue-haired man yelled. (3)
"Is there something we can help you with?" the third asked gently.
"Um, I'm not sure… what are you doing anyway?"
"Oh we're painting the roses."
Kamui crept closer and saw that indeed, the roses the men were kneeling before were pure white and they were splashing red paint upon them one by one.
"Why are you painting them?"
"Because it is what her majesty wants, you see."(4) The chairman explained. "And I am not one to let any lady's desire go unanswered!" (5)
"And that is what I like about you! Ohohoho!" Kamui looked up from the rosebushes to see a woman with a short pixie cut and a crown placed jauntily, topping off the strangest outfit Kamui had seen since he woke up.
"Milady!" The three men jumped to their feet and bowed, the chairman grabbing Kamui as he did so, pushing the boy into a bow as well.
Peeking up at her, Kamui found himself wondering why she looked so familiar even though he was almost certain he had never seen this woman in his life. Then Subaru appeared by her side breathlessly and Kamui twitched. The resemblance was striking and he remembered Subaru mentioning his twin sister once. He tensed as he suddenly remembered too that the only thing Subaru had said about her was that she had died when they were sixteen.
"It's about time you showed up!" she reprimanded him.
"I'm sorry..."
He apologized profusely and she ignored it, waving away his words as one might wave away an annoying fly. "Whatever. I'm not going to behead you for that. YOU. On the other hand. I might have beheaded!" she pointed to a spot somewhere behind Kamui and he turned to see the Sakurazukamori grinning madly and smoking again. "You broke your promise!" the queen glared at him over the heart-shaped end of her scepter
"As for you!" She pointed to Arashi who had come up on Kamui's left. Arashi jumped at being addressed. "Pepper isn't what you need to warm you up!"
"And you!" The man with the watery hat and the woman with the mechanical rabbit ears had appeared to Kamui's right. "Stop being such a lazy bum!"
Everyone Kamui had encountered since waking up appeared in the rose garden and received a verbal lashing from the queen. Everyone except one person that is.
Kamui waited for it.
But Fuuma didn't show up.
At last the queen's gaze landed on Kamui himself.
"And YOU. You're the worst of all."
"I- what?" Kamui was taken aback.
"You killed your sister, tortured your best friend, gauged out my brother's eye…"
"WHAT?" Kamui yelled. "I didn't do any of those things! That was all Fuuma!"
"Oh I see. Well then. These are terrible crimes nonetheless. He shall have to be beheaded."
Kamui paled. "No… don't do that."
"Why not? Surely you want revenge?" the queen gave him a thoughtful look.
"No!"
"Well then what do you want?"
"I want Fuuma back!"
"But what do you REALLY want?" She asked, leaning closer to him.
"I… I want Fuuma back..."
"But that's not what you want most."
"Yes it is!"
"No." She shook her head and waved her heart-adorned scepter at him. "I didn't get this just by being clueless you know."
"What?"
"Your heart wants something else more. What is it?"
"I…" Kamui froze, suddenly feeling put on the spot. "I don't know…"
"You have to know. You have to find out… Or someone else will pay." She declared.
"What?"
She waved her hand at the crowd that had gathered. "All of them. They'll suffer if you don't figure it out."
"I…" Kamui suddenly felt dizzy. There were so many colors… such a crowd and it was all blending together… Pale lavender was bleeding into blue and red and white and green…
Why do we lose sight of the most important things? He thought and gasped for air, the world spinning out of control around him.
"Kamui." Nataku breathed.
"Kamui." Yuuto whispered.
"Kamui." Satsuki murmured.
"Kamui." Seishirou spoke.
"Kamui." Kusanagi said.
"Kamui." Karen called.
"Kamui." Aoki exclaimed.
"Kamui." Arashi shouted
"Kamui." Yuzuriha cried.
"Kamui." Sorata yelled.
"Kamui." Subaru screamed.
.
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Characters:
Aoki = The White King (A chess piece. He's on the slow side… In the book, when Alice says she saw nobody on the road I think it was, he thinks that Nobody is a person so I used that idea here, just changing it to a place. :P)
Karen = The Tiger-lily (In the Disney movie, the Red Rose is the one who is nice to Alice and tells the others to leave her alone but in the book, the Tiger-lily does this.)
Fuuma = The Cheshire Cat (Also The Red Rose, as in the book she says that Alice seems kind of stupid and here he too, insults her intelligence. There is also a really vague reference to the Red Queen here as one of my favorite scenes in the book was when the Red Queen grabs Alice and runs with her as quickly as they both can, just running and running and they never move from where they are.)
Nokoru Imonoyama (the chairman) = Seven (One of the three cards. This scene's in the Disney movie but I think they changed their numbers. In the book, it's 2, 5, and 7. These three characters by the way are the main characters of CLAMP School Detectives for anyone who's never read it. It was really weird to see them show up in X as adults after reading CSD as they were just kiddos in there. :P)
Suouh Takamura (the blue-haired man) = Two
Akira Ijyuin = Five
Hokuto = The Queen of Hearts (There's actually a picture of her dressed as the Queen of Hearts somewhere, but I couldn't find it to provide a link here, sorry ^^; Anyway, she's sort of nuts in the way the Queen was, I always felt, though I love Hokuto. I also love the idea of her laying into all the characters in X and telling them off because I can totally see her doing that. Considered going and writing her whole critique of them but decided it would take away from the point if I did.)
Everyone else of course is there too, so as a quick recap if you need it: [Subaru = The White Rabbit] [Hinoto = The Mouse] [Kanoe = The Dodo] [Satsuki = The March Hare] [Yuuto = The Mad Hatter] [Nataku = The Dormouse] [BEAST = the Jabberwock] [Seishirou = The Caterpillar] [Yuzuriha = Tweedledee] [Sorata = Tweedledum] [Kusanagi = The Frog Footman] [Arashi = The Cook] [Saya = The Duchess] [Aoki = The White King] [Karen = The Tiger-lily]
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Notes:
1. I always got the impression that Aoki just wants to live a normal boring life, so I added in this comment about him wanting to be anonymous.
2. This is taken from the series, an almost direct quote. It's what Karen says to Kamui after Nataku dies.
3. In CLAMP School Detectives, Nokoru has a habit of goofing off a lot and Suouh has to keep him on task.
4. I've decided in my head that she's become obsessed with the color red because she has fallen in love the Red King- which will make more sense in the next chapter.
5. Nokoru is obsessed with women. That's what fuels everything he does in CSD and I'm guessing that doesn't exactly go away as he gets older, but rather probably increases.