Chapter One-Hundred-Sixteen
"I recall how often you used to ignore what you were told and get yourself restricted in those protective wards," Amaterasu said as the shadowy walls rose up to isolate Seishirou and the kid from the rest of them. Kurogane grit his teeth, but the bulk of his attention remained on the boy. Kurogane had seen a hundred different shades of emotion from him since they'd met in Tokyo, ranging from guilt to desire to fondness, and he recognized the boy's expression even through the murky wards: determination.
All I can do is watch, he thought, crossing his arms. His mechanical limb still felt strange, his sense of touch slightly different from his real arm, but already, he'd become used to moving it around. Piffle's cutesy mascots and frivolous luxuries might have once earned his scorn, but their technology bordered on magical, and the Tomoyo of that world had demonstrated a level of poise and generosity that he could grudgingly admit rivaled the Tomoyo of this world.
It irritated him that he couldn't use his new arm to lop Seishirou's head off, but he'd lost Souhi in Ceres, and though Tomoyo had promised to bring him a new sword, good steel couldn't be rushed. Besides, for all he knew, she'd kept him waiting this long for a reason, and he wasn't about to question her.
Inside the wards, Kurogane saw the boy's sword collide with Seishirou's demon-blade. No sound escaped the barrier, but that didn't stop his body from going rigid when the bastard's sword twisted like a rat's tail to strike the kid's shoulder. Come on, kid. You can beat him.
"Do you intend to do nothing but watch?" Amaterasu asked. Not an accusation, merely a question.
"This is the kid's battle. I'm not such an idiot that I'll get involved in a brawl nobody wants me in." He repressed a wince as the tip of Seishirou's sword sliced into the kid's forearm, then felt a moment of pride when the boy responded in kind.
"It's true," Amaterasu murmured, a hint of a smile finding her lips. "You're much improved." Amusement waning, she turned toward her sister. "For Tomoyo as well. One could say it was all worth it."
Worth giving up her talent as a dreamseer? he wondered. A year ago, he'd never have let go of such a valuable power, not for anything. He'd been too selfish, too focused on physical strength. He'd have held onto what power he had, never thinking about sacrificing it for someone else. Yet that was what Tomoyo had done, paying part of the price to keep them safe; she'd told him as much after he'd first woken after losing his arm.
After everything he'd learned, everything he'd been through, Kurogane thought he would do the same. If he had to choose between having power and keeping the people he cared about safe, he would choose his companions. He glanced at Amaterasu. "Much improved," huh? She has no idea.
A flicker of movement within the wards made him look up. The boy twisted, withdrawing his sword. Kurogane leaned forward, heart pounding. What the hell does he think he's doing? Turning away like that blinds him to that bastard's attacks!
Just as he was about to yell—whatever good that would do—he recognized the familiar pattern of the boy's movement. Syaoran kicked, using the momentum from his spin to power his attack. Seishirou raised his arms to block, but the force of the kick send him flying backward and smashing into a floating piece of stone. Seishirou fell, landing in a crouch on another rock. He didn't rise.
"Is it over?" Mokona asked, standing on Fuuma's shoulders.
"Nah." Fuuma grinned wider, and Kurogane wondered if wry amusement was his default state of emotion. Kurogane's eyes narrowed. Fuuma's grins didn't seem fake like the mage's cheery pre-Tokyo smiles, but Kurogane had trouble believing anyone could be that flippant in this situation, no matter how confident they were in the outcome. "It looks like my brother is starting to take this seriously." Fuuma gestured to the unfolding battle. Kurogane watched Seishirou rise to his feet with a steely smile. The man readjusted his glasses.
"What happens when Seishirou gets serious?" the pork bun asked timidly.
Fuuma chuckled. "That's when things get just a little bit scary."
Kurogane rounded on him, snatching the collar of his shirt. "Is this funny to you?"
The man kept smiling, not even bothering to respond. Irked, Kurogane shoved him backward and turned back to the fight. Seishirou surged forward, his leg swinging. His foot connected with the kid's sternum, throwing him several feet. The boy raised his arms, but his attempt at defense did him little good as Seishirou's demon-sword ripped into his upper arm. Blood splattered across the kid's clothes.
A cold smile crossed Seishirou's face. His demon-blade split into five whip-like tentacles, each of which shot toward the kid. Two of them grazed the kid's legs, leaving shallow gashes across his flesh. Another pierced his arm, driving through the muscle like tissue paper and coming out the other side. Kurogane stepped forward, then grit his teeth when he remembered that he couldn't penetrate Tomoyo's wards. His head whipped around. "You've got to get him out of there," he told her.
"I cannot."
"Why the hell not?"
Souma stepped between him and Tomoyo, her posture guarded, defensive. Hands clenched into fists, Kurogane settled for yelling from a distance. "The kid's going to get killed! You've got to get him out of there."
"I cannot." Tomoyo faced the barrier, her expression grim. "We cannot interfere with this fight."
Seething, he turned back to the battle. Seishirou stood above the boy, his demon-blade pointed downward. Each of the needle-sharp tentacles had buried themselves somewhere in the kid's body—his arm, his shoulder, his legs. One stuck out of his neck like a poison dart.
The kid lay there, unmoving. After a few seconds, the spiny tentacles withdrew, reforming into a single blade. Seishirou stepped back.
The boy still didn't move.
No, Kurogane thought, stricken silent. No. He can't be dead. Not after everything. He ground his teeth, holding tight to the denial, forcing himself to think logically. Tomoyo wouldn't have allowed this fight to begin if she'd foreseen the boy's death, assuming, of course, that she'd seen the outcome of this fight before she'd given up her dreamwalking abilities. Assuming she'd expected the kid to win.
Assuming she could have done anything to change the outcome to begin with.
No. She'd have stepped in. She has enough magic to stop a fight like this. The kid can't be dead. I told him not to get himself killed in a pointless battle! "Come on," he muttered, staring hard at where the kid had fallen. "Get up."
Something the kid had said a while back flitted through his mind: "It's not always about protecting the people you love. Sometimes, the only thing you can do is trust that they can take care of themselves."
Kurogane closed his eyes, waiting, stretching his senses to their highest capabilities. He could sense Tomoyo and Souma behind him, and farther back, the others. Through the wards, he could sense two presences, one familiar, one foreign. As he focused on the familiar aura, he sensed movement. Life.
The kid got to his feet, swaying slightly as he spoke. Kurogane couldn't hear him through the wards, but he could guess from the look in his eyes that he wasn't surrendering. After a moment, he raised his sword. Electricity danced along the edge of the blade, surging around his body like tendrils of lightning. There, Kurogane thought. Now, at least, he's using every resource he has.
The kid yelled something, and a bolt of lightning shot toward Seishirou. A flash of light illuminated everything inside, bright enough that even with the wards dulling the light, Kurogane had to raise his hand to cover his eyes. When he squinted through the wards again, half-blind from afterimages, he saw Seishirou standing in the center of the impact zone, the princess's feather hovering above his hand.
"Oh, you are fucking kidding me," Kurogane growled. Of course. Why wouldn't the sociopath have a way to keep himself from getting burned alive?
The kid froze for a moment, his expression caught between frustration and determination. Then, he darted forward, his eyes focused on the feather. Idiot! He should be focusing on staying alive!
The second the kid grabbed the feather, though, a flood of black liquid shot out from his hand. For a moment, Kurogane thought it was the same liquid that filled the space between dimensions, but it looked darker, more sinister, and when it touched Tomoyo's wards, the barrier melted like plastic thrown into a fire. The substance spread, catching hold of the tree where the princess had been sleeping since they'd arrived in this world. The branches came to life, twisting like gnarled fingers around Syaoran's body, restricting his movements. Kurogane reached for his sword, cursing when he realized he still didn't have a replacement, then ran toward the boy.
"I'll be back," the kid shouted. "I'll be back with Princess Sakura!"
What the hell? Kurogane stopped as a row of pointy branches moved between him and the kid. The black liquid that had given the tree the ability to move doubled back, wrapping around the boy. "Kid! Damn it. You'd better come back in one piece!"
The boy nodded just as the liquid covered his face. The blackness receded into some unseen place, taking the kid with it and leaving the tree frozen, its branches misshapen, but no longer mobile.
"With Princess Sakura?" Fai echoed, walking up to his side. "What did he mean by that?"
Kurogane grimaced. The princess's body had remained in place; the branches that had supported her for the past few weeks hadn't moved even an inch, despite the tree's bizarre movements a moment ago, and she looked as peaceful as she had since they'd found her body in Ceres. Kurogane looked to Tomoyo. "What happened? Where did the kid go?"
"He went into dreams."
Her vague statement only confused him more. Before he could demand clarification, the mage spoke. "That feather turned the virtual world of Outo into reality. One could say this is similar." Fai glanced at Tomoyo. "And that sacred tree became a gateway into dreams, right?"
Tomoyo nodded. "The tree draws magic from its surroundings. Air, ground, sunlight. In this case, I believe the innate magic left in Sakura-chan's body is acting as a bridge to the dream world, where her soul waits."
That must be why her body wasn't disturbed, Kurogane thought. Whatever that thing was that controlled the tree must have needed that link to the dream world. But still . . . "Does the kid think he can lead her soul out of the dream world and get it back here?" Because that's a big leap in logic, even for him.
"Perhaps," Tomoyo said. "All things are possible in the weave of the worlds." Her expression turned grim. "But in this case, we can do nothing but wait and see what happens."
Kurogane looked at the bundle of branches where the kid had disappeared. He saw no trace of the boy, no evidence that he'd be returning soon, or at all. "He'd better come back," he said softly. "Because if he doesn't, I'm going after him."
Author's Notes:
So, we've reached the part of the manga where things stop making sense (to me, at least). That said, I think I understand the ending well enough to write it, but I think we can all agree that there are a whole lot of things that occur after this point that have no explanation whatsoever. So, as I did with the explanation of how the hell the sacred tree became a gateway into dreams in this chapter, I shall be making stuff up to explain things I only halfway understand for the rest of the story. And we're all going to pretend that the manga's ending makes sense, even though it really doesn't (I don't even think Clamp knew what was going on by the end of it, to be honest, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt because they are Clamp, so complex endings are the norm for them).