Broken Worlds

Part 2

 

By Kristin Huntsman

 


Too brilliantly, the stars sparkled. Far too brilliantly for the pain and confusion that shredded and swirled in the mind of one below them.

Father.

No.

Subaru buried his head in his hands and refused to think, tried to refuse to think. But his mind kept circling back to that one thought that was the truth. To keep from making a sound, he savagely bit into his trembling lower lip, spilling a thin stream of blood into his mouth, salty and warm.

He could hear the sakura calling to him, calling all around him. Here, in the yard of the last shrine in all of Tokyo, there was a cherry tree, and he could hear voices in its pink and white flowers.

He could hear her voice, and he did not want to hear.

Better to go mad than this....

Better to die than be Sakurazuka, ever.

He forced his thoughts away from that path, onto one more contained, one that he could barely somehow deal with. But he needed to deal with it. He had to hold on to his training, to what he was... what he had been raised to be. It was the only way, the narrowest path, and one from which if he fell there would be nothing to catch him save the darkness of the abyss of eternal insanity below.

He looked at the stars on his hands, faint blue-white glows, and knew they reflected exactly that curious power that had come from somewhere to save him earlier. To save his mind, his tenuous sanity. That blue, with the sparkling flashes of white - where had it originated? Not Seishirou-san, and certainly not himself; his power had never seemed like that. But it had come and pulled him away, back to here, back to the safety of Togakushi Shrine, where darkness had awaited him as he fell--

--and he had awoken inside one of the rooms, laid out on a futon with a damp cloth on his head. He had listened for a few minutes before moving, and had heard the voices of three of the other Seals: Kamui, the priestess from Ise, and the monk from Kouya-san. He wondered if the other three had fallen, or if they had taken their matches into the afterlife with them.

As he had been supposed to do.

Only with movement had come awareness, returning memory, and the brief exit out the window and into the yard of the shrine had been the longest walk in his life.

And he bit his lip even harder and fought for control as his thoughts returned to that same circular path of pain.

 

<"No," he whispered again, fighting what he knew to be true. "No." He would have backed away, save that he was already against a wall.

Trapped.

And something uncoiled within him then, a streak of white lightning amid the wash of blue that was his own powers, reared itself up like a dragon suddenly waking, separate but somehow there within. It regarded Seishirou-san through his eyes for only an instant of a second, then struck, shattering apart to create a blue field spattered with bright white stars that reached up from within Subaru and pulled him AWAY-->

 

Only, that power was not his. And it was not Sakurazukamori's, nor anything that Subaru was familiar with. The only thing he knew that it even remotely resembled was Kamui's power, brilliant lightning of telekinesis, whipcord of pain and fury striking out of a teenager's mind.... Yes, that, if anything, was what it resembled. But it had not come from Kamui's hand.

And the Sakurazukamori was Subaru's father. Seishirou-san was his /father/....

No. Never. It was damnation....

"Subaru?"

... Or was it selfish to want to save, to be saved?

"Subaru?"

He looked up at the speaker who intruded into his pain, and saw the deep blue-violet of another's anguish. Kamui, of course. Who else would have cause to disturb him here, now, like this? Who else would have the right?

One, his mind whispered.

He brushed that aside and managed a whispered reply of "Yes?" His voice almost didn't shake.

The darkened violets regarded him. "You didn't fight." The criticism was direct, for all that it was gentle. And there was hurt there too, agony that Subaru could do nothing to alleviate even had he not been lost, helpless in his own.

He pushed back the insane laughter that threatened to rise up in him. "I didn't," he confirmed, swallowing things that he would not say. He looked away again, studying the ground, the building walls. Anywhere but the eyes of Kamui Shirou, anywhere but the cherry tree. Anywhere that didn't hold pain and truth for him. Which was nowhere.

 

* * * * *

 

"Why?" Kamui looked at the form that curled in on itself as if trying to escape the world by becoming small enough not to be noticed. Seishirou smiled and decided to give an appropriate answer to the boy whose voice had held more of subtle anger than curiosity, more pain than would allow sympathy. Ah, so feeling, just like Subaru....

It had been so very easy to track his offspring here; it would have been even without the binds he had placed on Subaru-kun's hands. Subaru had always had a very unique emotional state, and blood could track by that alone.

"Because patricide is a bit out of Subaru-kun's range of comprehension," he said, stepping out of the shadow of the cherry tree that grew within the walls of the shrine. The blossoms fairly carpeted the ground on which he stood, yet they remained infinite on the tree and in the air. Truly a lovely tree, this one. Beautiful and compliant in its production. He tilted his head a little to one side and regarded the two, studying their reactions. Subaru's was a definite wash of pain and now a curious bit of fear that had never been there before... where had the fear come from? Interesting. Kamui, on the other hand....

Kamui's reactions were startlement, and then a turning of that anger and fury upon Seishirou himself. Hmmm.... Seishirou studied the boy, measuring the potential within him with a more serious eye than ever before. That anger might easily become carelessness at some point; perhaps Subaru-kun was the better choice: he usually had more control over his emotions. But Kamui's sheer power, if properly trained.... Seishirou found himself unable to decide, and counseled himself to patience.

After all, all good things came in time.

Kamui's words lashed out like a whip, an angered cry of "What do you want here?!"

Seishirou smiled and avoided the whip, along with the power sent with it, a telekinetic blast that hit the wall behind him. "I merely wished to check up on my son," he replied, smile unruffled. Really, children these days....

Kamui faltered at that. "'Son'?" he parroted.

"Ask Subaru-kun," Seishirou directed, with a nod at his offspring.

Kamui half-turned at that, to look at the still figure that refused to meet eyes with anyone. Seishirou smiled; the truth was too obvious. Subaru had never been very good at concealing things, which was his weakness. For him to be a true Sakurazukamori, if and when that day came, such weaknesses would have to be trained out of him.

Though....

Seishirou considered.

Might not such a guise as Subaru wore, the heartbroken and helpless soul, be a truly effective Sakurazukamori?

Hmm. It was worth thought.

He smiled as Kamui turned back to face him, seeing the anger /for/ Subaru flash in those expressive violet eyes.

"Seishirou-san." Subaru rose to his feet, startling Kamui, somewhat surprising Seishirou, with the sudden, unexpected movement. The dark emerald eyes met Seishirou's gaze with equal force, no weakness showing in them. Interesting potential there. Where had this sudden flash of strength in Subaru come from?

"Yes?" Seishirou asked politely, noting the graceful movement as Subaru slowly stepped closer to him.

"Why come here? You have no need of physical distance to spy on me. We both know that." The emerald eyes were brushing on the truth now, actually matching Seishirou's motives for once.

Seishirou smiled. "Very true, Subaru-kun. I could have remained in Shinjuku if I wished. But you were not my only concern in coming here, you see."

"Oh?" The soft voice held a gentle, though searching, question.

Seishirou smiled and revealed his other knife. "I thought it was time you and your brother met."

Subaru faltered at that, as he had expected. "Brother...?"

Seishirou smiled. "Oh, did I forget to tell you that you have a younger brother?" he asked. "How careless of me." He held out an open palm: three sakura petals danced above it, two circling in close tandem with one another. "I had, you see, three children. Granted that I did not know about you and Hokuto until I killed her--" One of the two spinning petals vanished in a white flame of power and its twin ceased to dance. Seishirou smiled, feeling definite satisfaction at this particular twisting of the knife. "--But my other son I did know about."

"Who...?" Subaru breathed, his question curiously flat.

Seishirou smiled and closed his fist on the two remaining petals. "Someone you already know, Subaru-kun. Someone as close to you as any these days. The reason I was so generous with you when we first met was that my son had just been born, healthy and powerful, and I knew there would be a Sakurazukamori to succeed me. That's why you didn't die that day. And believe me, it was a very close thing, your life."

He took a few steps closer, until he could reach out and brush Subaru's hair with his hand. "Your little brother is one of your precious Seals," he said, not cruelly, not unkindly. "Can you guess which one, Subaru-kun?"

Now the green eyes revealed that inward collapse of emotions that was uniquely Subaru's pain. There were only two of the Seals who were the right gender and age to be Subaru-kun's brother, and only one of them resembled Seishirou.

Subaru half-turned to look at Kamui, who had been standing still listening to the entire conversation. The hair that was the same texture as Seishirou's waved in the slight sakura breeze. Violet and emerald eyes met, then the violet ones turned to look at Seishirou, confusion and a degree of dawning understanding in them.

How could the truth, when told in blood, not be understood?

"No," Subaru said suddenly, breaking away from Seishirou's touch. "No, I won't let you--"

"Won't let me what?" he broke in, eyes glittering. "Won't let me tell the truth, Subaru-kun? You'd have me lie just to make you happy, to lessen your pain? What kind of person are /you/, Subaru-kun?" He let the challenge lie at his son's feet and continued when it was not picked up. "Your brother, Subaru-kun; let us see if you can deal with /this/ little aspect of life."

He vanished then, let the sakura wind take him elsewhere, though his "sight" remained behind, watching his sons. He would deal with his other son later: right now he was most curious to see how Subaru-kun would deal with this.

 


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