X/1999 Fan Fiction ❯ Yuuzai ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

Yuuzai

Chapter One

There was a brief click, resulting in the small flame that appeared at the head of the lighter. It flicked silently in the roused winds that washed over them, threatening to disappear as quickly as it had come at any second. The older of the two regarded the flame for another moment before bowing his head forward, lowering the tip of the object between his lips to the fire. A hand came up absently to protect the flame from flickering out due to the harsh winds whipping all around them. The same hand took the cigarette from his lips as soon as the flame had caught and lowered it away from his face, while a thin trail of smoke was deposited from the tip of the cigarette into the atmosphere. A soft smile creased handsome features.

"Thank you very much."

The hand that held the lighter began to draw away from him, closing the lid over the head of the object to kill the flame. It did not continue to make its journey to the younger man's pocket. A hand snapped out and closed around his own, as well as the lighter. Not even the briefest glimmer of surprise passed through the young man's dull green eyes as that larger, stronger hand tightened around his and drew him nearer. Nor was he trying very hard to escape the bonds that held him. He watched without expression as his hand and lighter were pulled closer to the older man's lips. His eyes seemed to be tracing absently over the mark on his hand -- a perfect star. The other seemed to linger over this mark as well, though his eyes showed amusement and something close to being pleased with one's self.

"You've started smoking, haven't you, Subaru-kun?" the older of the pair inquired. The scolding look he had taken on softened into an amused smile. "That's not good for you!" he admonished the young man.

To this the onmyouji did give a reaction. But rather than his expression wavering from that disciplined mask of nothingness, he did nothing more but tear his hand from the grip that held him and moved backward, away from the man in black. He did not seem surprised. He merely lifted the cigarette to his lips and drew in deeply, savoring its taste as it filled his lungs. His expression, also a carefully schooled one, would have been enough to infuriate any other man. It did not change from that simple, passive smile, one that regarded the world around him as no more than a playground, where everything could be broken and nothing would be thought of the destruction. It was also the world which he controlled. Nothing could take that from him.

"I've been looking for you for a long time now."

This comment caused Seishirou Sakurazuka to lift one slender eyebrow for the briefest of moments, before replacing the questioning expression to one of knowing, that allowed the smile to make its presence once again. As the cigarette was drawn from his lips the sides of his mouth quirked upward to show that smile. He knew very well that the onmyouji had been searching for him. But what he expected to find was doubtfully the image of Seishirou Sakurazuka as he had found. Nor had it been any other time before that they had somehow managed to cross paths, on such rare occasions, and only with years in the span of time between meetings. The last had been four years ago. Subaru-kun had been twenty-one.

His eyes wandered over the younger man. He had changed since that meeting four years prior. There was some slight difference in height, but no body mass had been added to his slender form. In fact, it seemed that he was much smaller than that last meeting. The Thirteenth Head of the Sumeragi Clan never did have a concept of what it meant to take care of one's self, it seemed. Or perhaps he simply did not know how to take care of himself. Though he tried to present this calm, collected image, without the faintest glimmer of weakness or even a flicker of nostalgia from their year together in his eyes, he could not hide from his old friend Seishirou. The Sakurazukamori saw. Subaru had fallen apart when his dear twin sister had passed on. Even now, nine years later, he was not able to put himself back together. He could only chase after this blind hope of killing the Sakurazukamori to avenge Hokuto's death. Seishirou did not think he would succeed.

But it would be all the more amusing to watch him try.

"Why?"

There was no response. Subaru clasped his hands before him, index and middle finger on both hands erect as he drew on his inner abilities to create a kekkai. A three-dimensional object began to grow in the pool formed by the palm of his hands, in the perfect shape of the Sumeragi family's five-pointed star. It continued to grow as the onmyouji willed it do so, and it was not but a second later that all of Nakano was blanketed and protected by his kekkai. Thick lashes lifted from having been closed over his dull green eyes, settling immediately upon the man standing across from him, watching him in his usual bland curiosity. A shadow of a smile passed over his delicate features.

"To make my wish reality."

Outside of the kekkai, two of the Seven Seals stood together, watching the two men at a safe distance. As it was no natural talent for anyone other than those associated with the end of the world to be able to erect the kekkai that protected the earth from destruction, both were mildly surprised to see that this young man appeared to be one of them.

"A kekkai?! You mean to tell me this guy's a Dragon of Heaven?" the Kansai monk exclaimed.

The eyes of the priestess from the Ise Shrine had settled on the other man in the pair. "He's the one that attacked us under the Diet Building," she intoned softly.

"Yeah . . . the Sakurazukamori. The other one . . . don't know him. But he seems pretty powerful."

Both eyes turned upward to regard the shield that had settled around them, but only the amber one was able to see. On normal circumstances, Seishirou might have been slightly more irritated to have been caught within a kekkai, but he happened to know something that he doubted Subaru did. Or perhaps the Sumeragi did suspect. Even so, he seemed to be taking the necessary precautions that any one of the Seven Seals might before engaging in battle. Erecting a kekkai was no more than a way to keep this place from destruction during the course of their battle, as well as a way to save the lives of the people living here. A truly admirable feat for the Dragons of Heaven. But Seishirou failed to see that. Were it the destiny of this earth to die, it was hardly necessary to protect the lives of the people living on it. They might all be dead within the next few months.

"A kekkai, right?" He smiled faintly at Subaru before lifting his cigarette to his lips and breathing in deeply. "The Seven Seals . . . or rather, the Dragons of Heaven, as the Sumeragi Clan taught it. 'They who are supposed to save the world from destruction.' You are a Dragon of Heaven, Subaru-kun?"

As he had listened to the Sakurazukamori speak -- though it seemed more for the purpose of hearing his own voice, as Subaru hardly cared what he had to say -- the onmyouji had drawn five items from the inner pocket of his jacket. The hand moved away from the folds of his clothing and into the open, nearer to his own face. Between each finger he held simple papers, all of which had characters written on them in deep black ink. He smiled through his fingers.

"I could careless about the earth."

His hand flung out and released the five ofuda, a movement Seishirou had not anticipated. As soon as he felt the ofuda leave his finger tips, Subaru's hands flung up to form the proper mitsu-in gestures.

"Shukuyoudou! Hikuu!!"

The moment the words left his mouth a change overcame the five ofuda that continued their journey toward the Sakurazukamori. The straight-lined edges faded away and almost seemed to take on a feathery appearance and rather than remaining flat objects, they formed to be three-dimensional. The ofuda burned away to be replaced by five doves, each with the ink that had been lined on the ofuda on their backs, spreading out along their wingspan. Each shikigami shrieked in turn and continued their descent upon Seishirou.

Seishirou smiled faintly, a smile of a man who knew he had all of the time in the world to plan his counter-attack. He lifted his cigarette to his lips, as though he intended to take a drag from the dimly burning object, but rather than doing this, he held the cigarette out before him and traced an object into the air around him. Tendrils of smoke left behind the object he formed, one he continued to draw with the utmost of ease and a no-care attitude. He closed the point of Sakurazukamori pentacle the moment the shikigami were upon him. None reached their destination of launching upon him. Not expecting the barrier to be erected, each crashed in turn into the smoke pentacle. At impact each became no more than a stain of blood on the ground and pentacle. Seishirou smiled through the streaks of blood left on his shield.

Unaffected, Subaru reached into his jacket to draw out another handful of ofuda.

"Onmyoujitsu!" Sorata announced.

By his side, Arashi frowned faintly. "Then he must be . . . the head of the Sumeragi Clan?"

"Shukuyoudou!"

Again, the ofuda were flung out and formed into the shikigami. This time, however, Seishirou was prepared for the onslaught of the shiki upon him. He disregarded Subaru's shikigami in favor of holding out his own arm, only a brief tug at the corner of his lips showing the signs of a smile as he called his own shikigami. A golden-eyed eagle appeared on his wrist and shrieked loudly. Seishirou moved his arm briefly and sent it into flight in direction of the onmyouji. Subaru's eyes widened briefly as he heard the familiar cry and saw the incoming blur of brown feathers. He leaped away with enough momentum to flip himself over backwards and to land again shakily on his feet. Not allowing that to daunt him, he drew out an entire stack of ofuda and lined them in a perfect semi-circle around him.

"Hikuu!"

An entire flock of doves formed from the stack of ofuda. But rather than immediately beginning a descent upon Seishirou, they circled around him and continued flight, toward the building that stood near where they fought. There the doves created a perfect white pentacle against the face of the building, a building that directly faced the ground Seishirou stood upon. By Subaru's bidding a pentacle formed at once around Seishirou's feet, mirroring the one against the face of the building. Subaru waited, allowing Seishirou to realize that he was trapped within the pentacle, and absently listening to the shikigami's irritated shriek as it settled upon its master's shoulder. But before the Sakurazukamori could counter his spell with its equal in dark onmyoujitsu, Subaru completed what he was attempting to do.

"Ha!!"

The asphalt Seishirou stood upon at once came alive, exploding from below to rise up around him and assault him with flying debris and onmyouji magic. Natural instinct had him lifting a hand to protect his face and eyes. As his fingers brushed along his skin, he absently noted that the wound that had been inflicted upon his cheek during the course of his last meeting with the 'kamui' of the Dragons of Heaven had reopened. Blood had only just begun to seep free.

Yet when he was trapped within the barrier Subaru had created, Seishirou continued to smile in the way only he could -- in the only way he always had; the way that infuriated Subaru. Amber eyes lifted to regard the Sumeragi from where he stood above, balanced on a banister surrounding the balcony of one of the crushed buildings around them. Amusement remained in those eyes, but this time when he looked upon Subaru, he held some small amount of admiration for the younger man. He had come far from his childhood days of exorcisms and good deeds. It was rather fascinating to see what he had become in those nine years.

"Is your wish to kill me? Me, who killed your dear sister . . ." His smile became the usual one he had always shown to Subaru in the year they had spent together, a gentle, teasing smile, the one he gave before nonchalantly mentioning the day they would be married. "Really . . . you're too cute, Subaru-kun."

He lifted his hand to his face, where he allowed his own blood to trip onto his fingers. "I'd love to play with you a bit longer . . . but I'm afraid I have some business to attend to."

Subaru's eyes widened, realizing what Seishirou intended to do. He leaped down to the rooftop where he had left the dark onmyouji, though not nearly in enough time. Seishirou had already begun to draw a character on the face of his hand with his own blood. With it written, he held out his hand and began to push against the shield.

"On asan maginiun hatta."

Subaru drew his hands together and tried desperately to enforce the shield. "On bazar aginiha rajih attaya sowaka!!"

Seishirou had already begun to pull away the barrier that trapped him. Each movement he made reflected in a wound inflicted upon the Sumeragi. Therefore, as his hand pressed through the barrier, a stain of red appeared on Subaru's shoulder. He purposefully dragged his hand along the surface of the barrier, equaling another wound inflicted to the young onmyouji, this time directly along his chest. Seishirou stepped outside of the prison Subaru had erected for him and looked down upon the Sumeragi. Subaru returned the gaze, disregarding his own wounds and how quickly his breathing was coming now. The smile was still there. That satisfied smile. It was enough to drive anyone mad. Or perhaps just Subaru. It was why he found himself forcing himself to his feet and at Seishirou, ofuda in hand.

The Sakurazukamori caught him by the wrist before he could do anything.

Ofuda spilled around them. Seishirou tightened his grip on Subaru's wrist, with enough pressure he could have very well snapped the bone if he wanted to. But Subaru only fell to his knees, never failing to look upon the Sakurazukamori with intense hate. Seishirou smiled gently and drew his index finger along the younger man's cheekbone, smearing blood there, a mark that would become a scar identical to Seishirou's own.

"Well," he murmured, fingers still lingering on the onmyouji's skin, "later then . . ."

The fingers that drew away from caressing his skin remained intact for but only a moment. Subaru watched as the flesh tinged lightly pink and began to peel away from Seishirou's hand -- peeling away to become sakura petals. He lifted his hand in a parting gesture, though the effect was lost by the lack of there being anything left for him to wave with. His illusion vanished into a cloud of sakura petals.

Subaru knew he should have expected no less from the Sakurazukamori.

Disregarding the pain in his shoulder that had numbed down enough to become nothing more than a dull ache, Subaru forced himself to his feet, absently noting that he would be in need of a new coat. Seishirou had left this one in little more than shambles. He lifted a hand to brush away the blood that had been smeared along his cheek, but as his finger drew along the skin and wiped the blood onto his fingers, he felt a sharp sting. Frowning slightly, he touched the tip of his finger to his cheek and felt broken flesh. It did not take him but a second to realize that by leaving that trail of blood in the same place his own wound had been inflicted, Seishirou inflicted Subaru with an identical injury. He sighed faintly and ignored the new sting to add to his list of pains.

//You never are able to show yourself to an enemy.//

Subaru held out his hands before him, palms up and fingers pressed together as he lowered the kekkai around Nakano. The transparent shield was condensed until it no larger than a small box seated on Subaru's palms. He closed his hands around it and opened his eyes to glance briefly around Nakano. Everything was as it had been before. Satisfied with that, the Sumeragi began to walk away from where he had only moments ago engaged in battle with his sister's murderer as though it meant nothing to him.

//Cowards always hide behind something.//

He reached into his tattered jacket and drew out a pack of cigarettes. Pausing a moment in his strides, he tapped one out of the package and put it to his lips. The lighter appeared once again after having lit Seishirou's cigarette to light Subaru's. The onmyouji looked at the cigarette for a long moment before taking his first drag.

//You -- you hide behind your tree . . .//

//And I hide behind this.//

A young man and girl appeared before him seemingly out of no where. He regarded them for a brief moment before turning away and walking in another direction.

"Wait! Hey, wait!!"

The young man -- perhaps seventeen or eighteen - hurried around Subaru and stood in his path. The onmyouji bit his tongue to keep from heaving a dramatic sigh to show how highly he thought of this interference. Instead, he fixated cold, dull green eyes on the other man.

"Where do you think you're going just like that?" the boy demanded.

Subaru regarded him for a moment longer before brushing past him. He did not exactly have the time for this. He knew exactly what they wanted. Being one of the Seven Seals, it was far from difficult to be able to sense the presence of another of the Seals. But he did not care. Nothing in his life had anything to do with the end of the world. If it ended, it would end. If he died, he would die. He only wanted to be able to meet Seishirou on that final day. Nothing else mattered to him anymore.

". . . you made the kekkai."

He stopped. His head turned slightly to look over his shoulder. The girl of the pair had spoken. She stood watching him as impassively as he had her companion. Subaru frowned.

"I am Arashi Kishuu."

Arashi Kishuu of the Ise Shrine -- Subaru knew her name. She would be the hidden priestess of the shrine, then, its hidden talisman.

"I'm Sorata Arisugawa, her future sweet lover!" the other announced, peeking up from behind the quiet girl.

"I am one of the Dragons of Heaven summoned by the Dreamgazer, Hinoto. Can you please tell us your name?"

Subaru did not seem to be willing to answer the question. Silently, he drew in deeply from his cigarette and let out a thin trail of smoke into the air around them, eyes still settled on the pair. He wondered if they intended to ask him to meet with their dream-gazing princess. That way she could spin a tale for him and explain how this world had been preordained to die in the year 1999. But anyone who was familiar with Nostradamus knew of that morbid future for the earth. Yet those associated with the Seven Seals or Angels knew that it was possible the world would in fact end. Either way, Subaru did not care. It seemed unlikely that the way Nostradamus taught it would ever be truth. The way the Dreamgazer spoke it, however, and from what he had seen firsthand, it was possible the battle for the end of the world was approaching. And it was nothing Subaru wanted to be concerned with.

"Subaru Sumeragi."

"You're the Thirteenth Head of the Sumeragi, then!" Sorata exclaimed. "And one of the Seven Seals. Sumeragi-san, you see, we . . ."

"I know who you are," Subaru interrupted, "and I don't care."

He dropped his cigarette to the ground and smothered it beneath to toe of his boot. His words startled both into silence. Subaru did not know what they had expected. Perhaps they had been searching for him -- perhaps they had expected to meet the former person he had once been. But they were not going to find whatever it was they wanted from him.

//I'm sorry. I don't know what you're looking for.//

//But I can't help you.//

//I can't help myself.//

Subaru was aware of another presence in his apartment immediately.

Unconcerned with such a presence, he removed his tattered jacket and threw it over the back of a chair in the living room. He dropped his lighter and cigarettes on the counter, and as though thinking twice about it, he picked up the pack and tapped out a cigarette. Having not bothered to turn on any of the lights when he had come in, he fumbled around a moment or two in search of his lighter before sighing and beginning to move over toward the wall to flip the switch. He never moved an inch. Another light appeared before his eyes, offering to lit his cigarette. Subaru almost smiled before leaning forward to light it.

"How did you find me?"

He drew the newly lit cigarette from his lips and let out a thin tendril of smoke, looking into the pair of mismatched eyes that started back at him, illuminated in the dim flicker of the lighter's flame. A vague smile tugged at the other man's lips before he killed the fire and returned the lighter to his pocket. Subaru could barely make out his silhouetted in the scarce amount of light offered through the kitchen window.

"I followed you. You really should lock your front door, Subaru-kun."

"I'll remember that."

Seishirou smiled faintly. While he had met with Subaru once again four years ago, there had been much more dramatic of a change in his demeanor since that time. When he was twenty-one, all Subaru had wanted was to kill him. He could still see that determination lingering in Subaru's eyes, but it was not the same desperate determination. But Seishirou could not honestly say that he was displeased with the change. Subaru had matured greatly since his twin sister's death. Seishirou found the change from that innocent, pure boy he had once been fascinating. But then it was true he had always found Subaru fascinating.

But it seemed that all traces of kindness had left Subaru. Seishirou had watched him when he had spoken to the monk and priestess, watched how he completely disregarded them and their plight. When he was a boy, Subaru would have done anything to help even virtual strangers, simply because he was such a kind person. Yet now it seemed that he was no longer interested in aiding others. It was much more likely his life was now dominated by longing for Seishirou's death, something which Seishirou found somewhat alarming. He had not known what to expect when he killed Hokuto in favor of Subaru, but this was not at all what he might have imagined. Subaru had allowed his sister's death to consume him. He had allowed himself to become nothing more than a shell of what he had once been. And he had let his obsession with killing the Sakurazukamori dominate his life.

Disconcerting as it could be, it was also appealing to know that he had been able to cause this -- to break someone to this degree.

"You realize, Subaru-kun, the other 'kamui' has awoken."

Subaru knew. He had felt it happen.

"And a young girl died," Seishirou murmured, "a girl the 'kamui' of the Dragons of Heaven cared for very much. Kamui has drawn inside of himself." He smiled faintly. "Drawing him back into reality would require an onmyouji, I imagine."

"The end of the world has nothing to do with me."

"Nor does it have anything to do with me, Subaru-kun. That does not change my being one of the Dragons of Earth."

Subaru regarded his cigarette thoughtfully for a moment. How unlike a Sakurazukamori to appear even the slightest concerned about anything at all. Or perhaps he was pretending as he always did. But then, it was more likely that Seishirou was simply alarmed to see that Subaru did not care one way or another about the fate of the world or that of this boy. Perhaps he wanted to see if there were even the slightest traces of the kind, pure Subaru he had known left inside of him. And he would be right. Subaru had not allowed what Seishirou had done to him to completely destroy him. It had simply changed him from the naïve, trusting person he had once been. He would help that boy.

Though, the thought did pass his mind of how inviting it sounded to not help him at all and crush Seishirou's hope that his little Subaru-kun still existed.

"Leave."

It was a single word, spoken softly, but with enough firmness it caught Seishirou off guard. He smiled to conceal that surprise.

"Of course."

He rose from where he had been seated on one of the barstools surrounding the counter and walked slowly toward Subaru. Surprisingly, he barely flinched when Seishirou lowered his lips near to Subaru's ear. He could feel Seishirou's warm breath against his neck, smell the tobacco that accompanied it, and yet still he did not flinch nor move away. Seishirou smiled softly.

"And Subaru-kun . . . . do remember to lock your door."

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