Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to any of the CLAMP works.
Upon arriving at Tokyo Tower, Kamui pulled to a stop. "I smell blood."
"There's blood everywhere," Fuuma pointed out dryly. "In case you hadn't noticed, we're in the middle of a disaster site."
Kamui shot the hunter a dirty look. "I meant blood of a specific person," he grumbled. He lifted his nose in the air to test the scent one more time. "Someone familiar."
"But there's no one we know in this world," said Fuuma. He paused, then quietly amended, "At least, not yet. The acid rains haven't fallen yet."
"It's... my blood."
Fuuma blinked. "Yours?" he blurted.
"Not quite, but..." Kamui shook his head, "yes?"
Fuuma raised an eyebrow. "Yes or no?"
Kamui's uncertainty was startling, his sharp senses usually weren't to be doubted.
"I don't know." Kamui opened his mouth to taste the wind on his tongue. "It's definitely like mine, but there's a subtle difference to it."
"Maybe it's blood from the Kamui of this world," Fuuma surmised. "If our body is the house of our soul, then it follows that someone sharing our soul should have a similar body type to suit the soul's taste in housing. This world's Kamui shares your soul, so his body should be similar enough that the scent of his blood is like yours. But we should take into account that he's likely not a vampire, because from what I've gathered while traveling around is that vampires are extremely rare occurrences across the worlds. This may explain the difference in scent. I think we should hurry up and get there; he may be wounded."
At that point, Kamui's eyes began to glow. "He may be dead," the vampire growled, as he looked up. "I can taste it in the air: two bodies; can't have been dead for very long, they're not completely cold yet, somewhere on that tower."
"Two bodies?" Fuuma frowned. "Who's the other?"
Kamui wrinkled his nose. "You. I mean... the one who shares your soul in this world. I can smell blood that is exactly like yours, but you aren't wounded."
Fuuma cursed softly. He pulled Kamui along with him as he leaped up, ascending across the many steel bars that make up Tokyo Tower. Near the top, they found the two bodies, laid out neatly opposite each other.
Kamui gasped softly. "S-subaru...?" he whispered.
One of the bodies, whose neck had been turned into a most awkward angle, sported the face of Subaru. The body sported no open wounds. The other was covered in blood, a sword still embedded into his stomach, and looked like Kamui himself. Neither body resembled Fuuma.
"We're too late," Fuuma said.
"Actually, you're just in time," a voice that sounded exactly like his, spoke from above them.
Hunter and vampire looked up as one to find the face of a murderer staring back at them. It was Fuuma; or rather, the one who shared Fuuma's soul in this world. He was covered in blood, most of it from the boy who shared Kamui's soul, but here and there were shallow cuts littered across his arms and body, as if he had just come out of a sword fight. That must have been the reason Kamui had smelled blood that was like Fuuma's.
The murderer sent them a sinister smile, but it was Fuuma's face, Fuuma who was smiling. Then, the doppelganger dropped down from the higher level, to face them on even ground. "Let me introduce myself," he said, and gave them a short bow. "I am... Kamui."
"You're Kamui?" Fuuma said, disbelief and suspicion written clearly across his face.
The doppelganger smirked, but it was a hollow expression. "Two fates. Two destinies. Two meanings of a single name. Kamui: the first explanation is 'the one who represents the authority of God being favored by God his will and power to protect the world'; but the name has also been read as 'the one who hunts the authority of God being favored by God his will and power to destroy the world'." The doppelganger looked at the blood-covered body of the boy who resembled Kamui. "He was my best friend," he said of his victim, "I realized that I loved him, but I was his twin star."
Kamui froze. Twin star... twins. "W-what did you just say?" he stuttered.
The murderer looked him in the eye, and repeated, "I was his twin star." He jumped across the gap that separated them, landing in front of the vampire, and grabbed his chin with thumb and forefinger. "I love you," he said, tilting up Kamui's chin, "but I was destined to kill the one I love."
"Let him go!" Fuuma reached out with his fist, but his attack was dodged as the doppelganger quickly jumped back.
"The Witch sure loves irony," the doppelganger commented, "to send you two to fulfill my wish and retrieve the payment."
Fuuma growled. "You were the one who made a wish?"
"Yes."
"What did you wish?" Kamui asked.
The doppelganger smiled. "To defy destiny," he replied.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean!" Fuuma demanded.
"It means I brought a vampire here to bring back the dead."
Kamui remembered what Yuuko had said. Those who paid your price are closest to you, yet are furthest removed from you. Kamui blinked as realization crashed down on him. This person in front of him, who called himself Kamui, who was the twin star of the person who shared Kamui's soul, was one of the two who had paid the price for Kamui's journey. The realization was unsettling, but Kamui put on his bravest face to confront reality.
"Bringing back the dead is taboo," Kamui said. "But an exchange of wish and payment cannot be ignored. I came because you wished it so. What price will you pay for this service?"
The doppelganger stared him dead in the eyes. "My relationship... with you Kamui."
Suddenly, Fuuma dropped to his knees. "Argh, this is... I can't!" He grabbed his head in his two hands, panting. "It hurts..."
The doppelganger snorted. "You can't remember, fool," he said to Fuuma, "When a relationship is paid as price, it means that memories are being sacrificed.
In that moment, Kamui's head also began to hurt. He squeezed his eyes shut to block out the doppelganger's attacks, but the words kept pouring from those lips.
"The specific memories I will sacrifice in this case are those of your past with Kamui, Fuuma; and Kamui's memories of his past with you - or rather, me. I predict that when our relationship is gone, another relationship will emerge as substitution for it; likely both Kamui and I will be given another to be our friend, brother, or twin; such is how reality tries to fill these unnaturally created voids."
Through the pressure in his own head, Kamui heard Fuuma hissing out soft curses. Then, the pressure was gone, and something that felt like a strange veil was pulled back up in his mind. When Kamui opened his eyes again, Fuuma's curses had stopped.
The hunter was standing back up, glaring at his doppelganger. "What just happened?" he demanded. "What did you just do to us? Why can't I remember what you just said?"
Kamui himself could not remember either.
DUN DUN DUN! Kamui and Fuuma from TRC are revealed to be the same people as those from X/1999; they're talking to their past selves! Please leave a review to let me know whwther you liked this story and the twists so far & TBC... (I feel that we're nearing the end!)