Nukume Dori
by Leareth
Chapter Twelve
Subaru felt cold. Although the scent of sakura was dissipating from the room it was still strong enough to frighten him. He swallowed nervously, trying to ease his dry mouth. “Seishirou-san—”
The name had barely left his lips before it was cut off. Subaru choked as Seishirou suddenly lunged towards him to violently grab his throat, and before Subaru could even think of a defence he was swung around and slammed violently into the door. White noise blurred his vision for a moment as pain from the back of his head throbbed dully through his skull, and then instinct took over. Blindly he wedged his hand under Seishirou's chin to push with all his might, at the same time planting a foot against Seishirou's chest to propel the man away. It worked – suddenly able to breathe again Subaru dropped to the floor as Seishirou staggered back, but landed awkwardly. Looking down, he realised with a sick feeling that he had nearly tripped over Kumiko Nagi's corpse.
There was a jarring sound, like bone striking glass. Seishirou had stumbled into the coffee table. The shocked expression on his face was gone, swapped for an unreadable, unsmiling mask, probably the closest Subaru had ever seen to anger on the Sakurazukamori, but there was no time to wonder at it. Already black cards were appearing between the assassin's fingers, and in a half-crouch Subaru dashed behind the leather chairs pulse pounding in his ears. A dry, detached part of his brain reminded him that if he and Seishirou were going to fight right now they would likely destroy the room, perhaps even the building, and heaven knew how many people were still around. He had to defuse the situation, and fast.
Approaching footsteps scraped the carpet. Praying that Seishirou wouldn't attack until he got a clear shot Subaru continued his crawling retreat around the back of the chairs until he was behind the protection of Kumiko Nagi's desk. Once there Subaru had perhaps a second's respite to draw his own ofuda and flick them, not over the desk, but beneath, in strict formation towards the pair of black shoes coming towards him.
The five ofuda slid across the floor and stopped. Subaru doubted Seishirou saw them until it was too late. As soon as Seishirou stepped into the pentagram formed by the ofuda Subaru activated the kekkai, abruptly bringing Seishirou up short behind walls of light. The small kekkai was useless, of course, the Sakurazukamori could break it like a toothpick, but Subaru hadn't cast it to trap. He scrambled to his feet and held his hands up instead.
"Wait!"
To his amazement Seishirou actually hesitated. The kekkai walls sputtered, obviously under stress, but otherwise held. Subaru stared wide-eyed at the kekkai for a moment as the significance of its continued existence sank in, then did his best to meet Seishirou's face. "We need to talk."
Seishirou's amber-gold eyes – sans the glasses, Subaru noticed – were hard. "How did you wake up?" he demanded.
"Your sleep spell didn't work properly. Please, Seishirou-san, we really need to talk. If I take down the kekkai, can you promise not to fight until you've at least listened?"
Seishirou didn't answer, still staring across the desk at Subaru with that unreadable, unsmiling expression that had more than a little disbelief mixed in. It dawned on Subaru then that this was probably the first time he had managed to knock Seishirou so completely off-balance, a realisation that came with no small measure of satisfaction. Knowing Seishirou as he did, though, it probably wasn't a good idea to look as if he were enjoying the moment. "Please?" he asked again.
There was a long silence. Then, deliberately, without ever taking his eyes from Subaru, Seishirou lowered his hands. With a twist of his wrist the black ofuda between his fingers disappeared back into the sleeve they had been drawn from, all except for one. That one was held aloft for Subaru to watch as like a magician before an audience Seishirou pressed its edge through the wall of the kekkai shining around him. At the same time Subaru felt the spell's echo prick into his chest and hastily he began to unravel the kekkai so that when Seishirou did slice the ofuda downwards, the kekkai winked out of existence like a firefly. Still, however, Subaru could feel a light scratch across his ribs. "So, Subaru-kun," said Seishirou calmly, the usual smile back on his face. "What do we need to talk about?"
A small sigh of relief escaped Subaru; the first danger was cleared. No matter what happened from here on out, at least Seishirou was willing to give him a hearing. He couldn't let himself relax, but. "Just – just wait a second, okay?" he said, trying to gather his thoughts before they scattered completely – and there was their silent companion in the room to consider too. One thing at a time, Subaru told himself, carefully stepping out from behind the protection of the desk. Keeping the leather chairs between them he circled around Seishirou, both warily keeping an eye on the other until Subaru finally broke off to kneel beside the dead woman lying discarded on the floor. The expression on Kumiko Nagi's face was frozen in terror.
Subaru's mouth tightened as he looked down at the body. He hadn't liked the woman, had been revolted by her demure arrogance to Hashimoto's suffering, but never had he wished her dead. Still, what was done was done; Kumiko Nagi was not the first victim of the Sakurazukamori nor would she be the last, and Subaru had seen enough death in his lifetime to accept it. Bowing his head Subaru murmured a soft prayer for Kumiko Nagi's spirit and reached out to draw her eyelids shut giving her some semblance of peace. Then there was no putting it off any longer.
Slowly, Subaru got to his feet. Took a deep breath to steady himself before turning around. "I suppose you want an explanation," he said quietly.
Seishirou was watching his actions with intense interest. "So that afternoon with the cat wasn't just bravado," he said. "Given the chain of events since then an 'explanation' might be too simple a descriptive."
You have no idea, Subaru thought darkly to himself. Now that things had sort of quietened down he could now feel just how tense he was, to the point of almost being sick in his stomach. This situation, this confrontation, he had never seen it coming, never imagined it happening at all except probably as part of the Bet's showdown, result being that he was completely unprepared for whatever was going to take place in this room. His only consolation was that Seishirou obviously hadn't expected any of this either, and was now giving Subaru his full attention.
Seconds were ticking away from them. Taking care not to make any sudden moves Subaru hesitantly made his way towards Seishirou – given the seriousness of the situation it didn't feel right to talk across the room. He sat gingerly down on the three-seat couch, a risky relocation that brought him within arm's length of Seishirou who remained standing, but also one of trust. Subaru had faith that he would be allowed to speak without being attacked, but where did he even start? The Final Day and 1999? Their last fatal confrontation? The bizarre twist of time they were living – heavens, how was he going to explain that without sounding completely irrational? And then of course there was the Bet itself, and their relationship …
Seishirou stared at him with expectant impatience. Best to begin with the obvious first, Subaru told himself, taking a deep breath. He forced himself to meet Seishirou's gaze directly.
"I know who you are. I know you are the Sakurazukamori, the assassin who uses onmyoujitsu to kill, and I know about the Sakura Barrow that holds the souls of all your victims. But more than that, I know about the Bet you made with me nine years ago in your maboroshi when we first met. On that day you marked me as your prey and let me go promising that we would meet again, and that when we did we would spend a year together. If after that year you experienced true feelings for me, you would let me live. If you didn't, I would be killed. We are now in that year, and my fate has yet to be decided. You have yet to decide it."
The silence that followed this was immense. Subaru didn't dare try to guess what the other man could be thinking but he imagined it wasn't pleasant. "And how long, pray tell, have you known this?" asked Seishirou calmly.
Inwardly Subaru could only marvel at the Sakurazukamori's self-control. The Sakurazukamori took great pride in his abilities and the discovery that he had been so completely seen through surely must be galling – and yet there was barely a flicker of reaction on the man's face. "Since early November."
More silence. No surprise, really; given that they were now in the middle of December Seishirou was probably doing some very fast mental reassessments. "And how did you find out?"
"Ah …" Uncomfortably Subaru shifted in his seat – this was the point where he was going to start pushing the limits. "Would you believe me if I said that this isn't the first time we've gone through this?"
"What do you mean."
"I mean exactly that – this isn't the first time we've lived this life. We've already had the Bet once but somehow we've gone back in time and …" He trailed off realising how idiotic he sounded. Worse still Seishirou was already looking unimpressed. Subaru decided to change tactics. "You know about the Final Day, right Seishirou-san?"
The amber-gold eyes narrowed. "What about it?"
"You're a Dragon of Earth, one of seven destined to bring about the destruction of humanity in 1999. I'm your opposite as one of the Dragons of Heaven. You do know all of this, right?"
"Of course I know. What does the Final Day have to do with it?"
"Everything. The Final Day, Kamui, the battles for the end of the world, it's all already happened. 1999 has been and gone, you and I and the Kamui all the rest of the Dragons have already fought. Somehow afterwards we were sent back into the past to relive our lives. I know it sounds crazy and believe me, when I first realised what had happened I thought I was going mad but everything that's happened recently – our trip to the Sunshine Aquarium, those girls on the phone line, the woman whose daughter was murdered, even small things like Hokuto-chan's clothes and conversations we've had, I knew about them, it's all happened once before. We've happened once before."
He spoke so earnestly, trying through verbal force to make Seishirou understand. Given just what he was trying to convince Seishirou of though, he shouldn't have been disappointed when it didn't work. "So you're saying we've gone back in time and we're repeating our lives," said Seishirou. If scepticism had mass there would be enough of it in his voice to sink a battleship.
"Basically. Things aren't exactly the same as last time since this conversation certainly never occurred then. But major events have definitely come around again because as far as the rest of the world is concerned time hasn't done anything and this has always been the present." Still Seishirou looked unimpressed, and Subaru felt a twinge of desperation. "Please, Seishirou-san, you have to believe me."
The man studied at him for a long moment, then gave a non-committal shrug. "If you say so, Subaru-kun. You've obviously managed to discover that I'm the Sakurazukamori and you're not the kind of person to make up stories, let alone one so fantastical, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. But if what you say is true, how come you remember all of this and I don't?"
"I don't know. I don't know how it happened, though I suspect Kamui had something to do with it. I don't even know which side won in the end – we died before the battle finished."
Seishirou raised an eyebrow. "We died," he repeated.
"Yes. We killed each other."
The scepticism in Seishirou's expression was now gathering the mass of a cruise liner, and Subaru quickly moved on. "There's more," he said grimly.
"Oh?"
"The Bet. I know how it ends. At least, I know how you ended it last time." He felt his hands clench in their leather gloves. "You decided I lost."
"That's no surprise." Much to Subaru's irritation the Sakurazukamori's response to this was merely indifferent. "So if you lost, why didn't I kill you?"
"You nearly did!" retorted Subaru, eyes blazing. "You broke my arm and had me on the ground of your maboroshi where you kicked me over and over again like a dog. You, ruthless assassin of the sakura, torturing a child too shocked to even scream. The only reason why you failed to feed me to your damned Tree is because my grandmother intervened, and even then all she managed to save of her grandson was a shattered wreck. But that wasn't enough for you, Sakurazukamori, oh no. Even after all you had done, even though you had essentially destroyed who I was, you had to take one more person from me. You killed Hokuto-chan!"
He was shouting before he realised it, hurling the accusations like knives and willing them to maim. To his disgust the Sakurazukamori simply looked thoughtful. "Hm. That doesn't sound like me. You are the one marked as my prey, which means I own your death not your sister's, so why would I kill Hokuto-chan?"
"She offered herself in my stead, hoping that her blood would be enough to buy the life of her brother."
"It wouldn't have worked – one life is not equal to another, especially if one of those lives is that of the thirteenth Sumeragi clan head."
"Then why did you kill her?" shouted Subaru angrily. "If it was pointless for her to offer her life for mine, why did you take it!"
"How am I supposed to know? According to you we've gone back in time and you're the only one who remembers anything, so you should be telling me why. Besides," added Seishirou. "Last I checked Hokuto-chan is still alive and well. Isn't it rather unfair to accuse me of something I technically haven't done yet?"
"That's beside the point! You killed her and unless I win the Bet this time you'll kill her again!"
Seishirou lifted an eyebrow at him. "Win the Bet? Is that why you've kept my company all this time despite knowing that I'm the Sakurazukamori?"
Subaru stopped short and stared up at Seishirou as his anger abruptly lost momentum. "You could say that," he said shortly.
"That's a rather indirect answer." Suddenly Seishirou stepped closer and stood over him, a dark-winged bird of prey staring down a foolish sparrow, and Subaru instantly tensed, trying not to lean back into the couch. "You've known who I am for the better part of two months," said the Sakurazukamori, voice low and threatening. "Whether or not your claim of time travel is true, the logical implication is that you're willingly participating in the Bet, and you say you want to win in order to prevent me from killing your sister. However, given how much you know already you should also be aware that the Sakurazukamori is incapable of feeling. Trying to save your sister by making me feel anything for you is exceedingly risky. One would think that a more effective way to prevent your sister's death – and yours for that matter – would be to eliminate the threat entirely. I'm curious as to why you haven't done this yet."
It took a few moments for Subaru to work out what he was hearing. "Are you asking why I never tried to kill you?" he demanded.
"Why not?" countered Seishirou. "I'm the Sakurazukamori. You're the thirteenth head of the Sumeragi. Our clans have been at war for centuries; a pre-emptive strike would be a reasonable course of action."
"Reasonable?" Subaru gaped in outrage. "Reasonable for you perhaps, but not for me!"
"So what, you're continuing the Bet because you're too virtuous to get blood on your hands?"
"I'm continuing the Bet because I love you!"
The words exploded between them before Subaru could stop himself. Seishirou blinked, plainly startled, and too late Subaru reached up to cover his mouth. "What did you say?" asked Seishirou, very quietly.
Wild-eyed Subaru could only stare up at the other man, blood draining from his face as the enormity of what he done sank in. Without the filter of glasses Seishirou's gaze was narrowed, intensely focused like a beam of sunset slicing through a dark room, but there was also a touch of incertitude. It reminded Subaru of that moment before the two of them had died on the Final Day and Seishirou had answered his question, only now Seishirou had both his eyes and his hair was neater and his face … it was the same face and yet subtly altered, without the experience of the years Subaru knew lay ahead. It struck Subaru then that right now in this time Seishirou was twenty-five years old, the same age Subaru had been when they died. The same age that in a way, Subaru still was.
Gradually, Subaru felt his throat unclench. Realised that this was the moment whether he liked it or not. He lowered his hand and met Seishirou's eyes. "I said I love you," he repeated as levelly as possible, a difficult task considering how fast his heart was beating. "I'm continuing the Bet because I want you by my side."
The silence that followed this was brief and tense. "But I'm the Sakurazukamori," Seishirou said at last.
"I know," said Subaru wearily. "Heaven help me, but I know."
“You know who I am and you still love me.”
“Yes.”
Seishirou seemed to digest this. He stepped away from Subaru, circling the coffee table to the other side apparently deep in thought. Subaru watched him, gloved hands curled tightly in his lap and apprehension weighing in his gut like rotten fruit. What was Seishirou thinking? Obviously the confession had taking him by surprise, but what else? Did it change things? True, the Sakurazukamori didn't care about other people, but still Subaru hoped that maybe, just maybe, his confession would touch whatever inside the man passed for a heart …
There was a low chuckle from across the room. Seishirou was smiling as he turned to face Subaru. "My, my," he said amusedly. "This is a very unusual development, I must say. Not only am I your enemy, Subaru-kun, both in onmyoujitsu and destiny, but I've lied to you and betrayed your trust. Furthermore, according to you I am also the future murderer of your twin sister. Yet despite all of this, you're in love with me." Seishirou shook his head condescendingly. "You're one very disturbed young man, Subaru-kun."
Subaru felt his cheeks burn. "And whose fault is that? You're the one who started this all those years ago with the Bet!" Still Seishirou smirked, an infuriating curve of lips, and seeing that Subaru furiously got to his feet and strode over to confront him, tearing off the bespelled glove on his left hand along the way. The inverted pentagram glowed silver as he lifted it in front of the Sakurazukamori's startled face. "You marked me, Seishirou-san," hissed Subaru. "These marks signify that I belong to you and I do, more completely than you ever anticipated. Laugh at me if you like but yes, despite everything you are and everything you've done I love you and I've done so even before the Bet finished last time. I was just too blind to realise it until it was too late and we died on the Final Day before I could ever tell you. Now you know. Do what you will with the information, however we are continuing the Bet, only this time I'm not a naïve child. I've changed. You're the one responsible for that."
"Is that so." Unexpectedly Seishirou took a step closer, and Subaru forced himself not to move as he felt the faint caress of breath across the back of his palm. For a moment Seishirou studied the brand he had left on Subaru's hand, face eerily bathed in silver light, then he turned to meet Subaru's gaze once more. "You know the fact that you love me doesn't mean anything," he said at last.
Subaru's bare hand did not tremble. "I know."
"Nor does this revelation between us mean that your time will be extended."
"I know. But I want two promises from you, Seishirou-san." Subaru lowered his hand so that the space between them was completely clear. "The first is that no matter what, you don't involve Hokuto-chan. The Bet is just between you and me. Leave my sister out of it."
"And the second?"
Unconsciously Subaru's hands clenched. "Promise … that you really will do everything possible to love me."
Seishirou raised an eyebrow. "That term was part of the Bet from the beginning; I don't have to promise that."
"But I want you to. Promise it, not just as part of the Bet, but as something to me."
For a long moment there was silence. Then Seishirou smiled. "Very well. I promise that as far as our Bet is concerned Hokuto-chan will not be involved, and I also promise that I will do everything possible to love you before our time is up. Other than that, the Bet continues."
Subaru inwardly sighed with relief. "Then we are agreed?"
The smile on Seishirou's face grew slightly. Then, before Subaru could react, he reached down and took hold of Subaru gloved right hand lifting it up between them. Tension as a low pressure closed around their joined hands, then tiny lightning bolts began to appear making the air crackle angrily as the glove still covering Subaru's right hand and the empty glove he was holding were torn apart. Subaru flinched but allowed it, an acknowledgment of the Sakurazukamori's power as singed fragments of black leather fell away revealing the inverted pentagram burned into his flesh, then wordlessly offered up his left. Seishirou took that as well. For a heartbeat they stood there like that, the two of them together, then Seishirou raised Subaru's hands to his lips. Deliberately he kissed the back of them, first the left, then the right, his eyes never leaving Subaru's as he reaffirmed the marks there. The ritual made Subaru shiver; after being gloved for so long the skin of his hands felt almost hypersensitive, and the kiss was gentle and warm.
When their hands were lowered Seishirou was still smiling. "Agreed," he said.
It took a moment for Subaru to compose himself. "Good." Their hands were still joined; reluctantly Subaru pulled away. Still, however, he felt Seishirou's fingers caress his palm, and a slight blush crept over his face as he shoved his hands behind his back. "What's the time?" he asked, hoping to change the subject.
Seishirou checked his watch. "Twenty past seven." He gave Subaru a querying look. "Would you like to go out for dinner? There's a good Chinese place not far from here, and I believe this conversation of ours could go on for a while yet."
"Um …" Briefly Subaru hesitated – was Hokuto cooking tonight? No, she had mentioned something this morning about catching up with her friend from the cabaret club, which meant he didn't have an excuse … he shook his head with self-annoyance. Seishirou was inviting him out for dinner, there was the Bet to think about, and really, the reason why Subaru was in this situation in the first place was because he wanted Seishirou by his side. There was nothing to think about. "Sure," he replied.
A pleased smile was quickly flashed at him before Seishirou went to get the door. Subaru fetched his bag and made as if to follow – then halted. Glanced at the cold shape that had once been Kumiko Nagi. "What about her?" asked Subaru uneasily.
"Leave it." Without looking down Seishirou stepped over the corpse. "Someone will take care of it in the morning."
He opened the door and stood aside for Subaru to pass. For a moment Subaru simply remained where he was, eyes fixed on the dead woman sprawled on the floor like a broken mannequin, until at last he forced himself to move. There was nothing he could do for her, he told himself; nothing that could change what had happened unfortunate though it may be. All he could do was move on.
Seishirou was waiting in the doorway. Taking a deep breath Subaru crossed the floor towards him, giving the corpse as wide a berth as possible until at last he stood nervously beside the other man, the air cold on his naked hands. A flick of a switch made his shadow disappear, then Seishirou pulled the room's door closed. Together the two of them left, Sumeragi and Sakurazukamori side by side down the darkened corridor, and if it was noticed that Seishirou purposely fell a little behind so that he walked at his prey's back, Subaru did not say a word.
* * *
"Paging Ooyama-sensei, Ooyama-sensei of Internal Medicine, please report immediately to Surgery. Paging Ooyama-sensei …"
Cradling a bouquet of fresh flowers in his arms, Subaru sombrely made his way through the lower floors of the district hospital to the recovery section. At this time of day the hospital was busy, not only with rushing nurses but also visiting friends and family, and almost all the doors Subaru passed were open to facilitate the people traffic. The door he was heading for, though, the one kindly pointed out to him by the nurse at reception, was tightly shut. Subaru gave it a light knock.
"Who is it?"
Subaru winced; although the voice was muffled he could hear how thin it was, like old skin stretched over a broken drum. "It's me," he said, trying to pitch his words through the wood. "Sumeragi Subaru. Your school told me where to find you, Hashimoto-san."
"Don't come in here!"
Startled, Subaru jerked his hand away from the door-handle. Hashimoto had sounded almost frantic, as if terrified of being seen … he bowed his head as he remembered the injuries that had been described to him. "I'll just leave the flowers here, then," he replied, carefully placing the bouquet by the door and turning to leave. "I'm sorry to have bothered—"
"Wait!" Subaru paused and glanced back. The door was still shut but at least now it was speaking. "M-may I ask you a favour?"
She sounded so timid, so hesitant, as if fearing a rejection outright. Subaru gently laid his gloved fingers on the door's surface. "Anything, Hashimoto-san."
"I … I still have your handkerchief. The one you lent me in the park when we first met. Would you … would you mind if I held onto it a little longer?"
If truth needed to be told Subaru had forgotten about his handkerchief and didn't really care either way if he got it back or not. But truth didn't have to be told now, not when there was a door hiding his face from hers and the answer would cost him nothing. "Not at all," he replied.
"I want to become strong, you know." Fragile words, like a collection of tiny glass ornaments. "Not strong in the way Kumiko-sensei talked about, but strong so that I can survive in this world on my own. Before I always wanted someone to come rescue me, which is why I hoped Kumiko-sensei would be my friend … and you too, Sumeragi-kun. I thought that even if Kumiko-sensei didn't help me maybe you were the one I was waiting for, since you said you joined the Institute because of me … but that's all wrong, isn't it."
Subaru closed his eyes. "It is."
He believed he heard the genesis of a smile in her voice. "I thought so. I realised I shouldn't be so passive, allowing people to bully me or sitting around crying waiting for something to happen. I'll remember that every time I look in the mirror now and see these scars—" The sentence was choked off by a sob. "But right now I'm too weak to face you. One day, when I'm stronger, I'll come to you and return your handkerchief, but until that day … will you let me keep it?"
"Of course."
A quiet pause. Subaru imagined Hashimoto smiling then, smiling with tears in her eyes not unlike that evening after their interview with Kumiko Nagi and he had cheered her up. "There's something else," she said.
"Eh?"
"If – if on that day we meet again I told you that I liked you … what would you say?"
Awkwardly Subaru blinked at the door. "I—" He caught himself before he could blurt out something thoughtless and shyly tried again. "On that day … I would say thank you for such an honour, but I already have someone. Someone that I love very much."
"Oh." A small, subdued sound – was it another sob or a soft chuckle? Impossible to tell. "Well, the person you love is very lucky. I hope you will be happy together."
Subaru blushed. "Me too. But I still hope I will meet you again in future, Hashimoto-san."
"… Thank you."
Subaru smiled sadly. Then he pushed himself off the door and walked away, knowing Hashimoto would hear his footsteps disappearing. Whether they would ever meet again Subaru did not know, but in the assumption that he did survive the Bet he would look out for a young woman with a scar on her face who stood up straight and faced the world before her. Until then, he silently wished Hashimoto Kuniko the best for her life.
Outside the hospital, the late morning sunshine was bright and cold. Subaru shielded his eyes for a moment, looking around the car-park. The clinic's van was in the same place it had been when it had dropped him off, and Subaru walked on over to it, his melancholy immediately easing when the side door slid open to welcome him. "Subaru~u!" Hokuto waved at him with a grin, the cheeky devil tail she had added to her black-and-purple outfit dangling from the side of her seat. "How was your visit?"
"It was good." Subaru returned his sister's smile and tucked the tail back beneath her black skirt before opening the front passenger seat door and climbing in. "Hashimoto-san is still recovering, but given time I think she'll be all right. And she promised that she'd visit me someday."
"Uh oh, Subaru made a date!" A dull slam emphasised the last word as Hokuto hauled the side-door closed, and with a mock-scowl she leaned over to the driver's seat. "Sei-chan, you're going to have to watch out!"
Subaru looked to his right. Dressed in a casual blue suit and with his glasses back on, Sakurazuka Seishirou looked completely different to the Sakurazukamori of last night, especially when he lowered the morning paper and pouted overdramatically at them. "I'm absolutely hurt. Here I am, driving my beloved Subaru-kun to the hospital for a visit, and he arranges a date with a girl. I am completely and utterly heartbroken!"
"Okay, Sei-chan, now you're going overboard. But look, Subaru!" Lightning-quick Hokuto snatched the newspaper out of Seishirou's hands and rifled through to the sixth page. "The leader of the MS Institute you were looking into? Apparently she had heart problems and suddenly died! What a waste of your investigation!"
Subaru raised an eyebrow at Seishirou, remembering the previous night—
"Was it really necessary?"
Click of chopsticks on porcelain. "Was what really necessary?"
"Kumiko-sensei. Was it really necessary to kill her?"
Amber eyes smiled coldly across the table. "Let's just say it was expedient. Why, Subaru-kun, having second thoughts about me?"
"No, I'm not." Bare fingers clenched around his teacup. "I just wanted to hear a reason."
—then he turned to stare out the window. "Yeah. A waste."
"Anyway, seems like because of the leader's sudden demise the MS Institute has been immediately shut down." With a sigh Hokuto tossed the paper onto the empty seat beside her. "Guess we'll never know if it really was a cult, then. Though I have to say the timing of this lady dying is really convenient!"
"Why do you say that?" asked Subaru casually. He shot a glance to the man beside him and noted with satisfaction how Seishirou studiously busied himself with the seatbelt.
"What I mean, brother-mine, is that mere days after you've been requested by the government to investigate the MS Institute, the leader carks it and the whole group collapses! The problem that concerned the government so much that they got the Sumeragi in disappears entirely! Not that I liked the MS Institute, but it is a remarkable set of events. Besides, wasn't the teacher only like, thirty or something? Isn't that rather young for a heart attack? What do you think, Sei-chan?"
Carefully Subaru watched for Seishirou's response. "It does look rather convenient, I agree, Hokuto-chan," said the man easily. "On the other hand, it isn't unheard of for people in their thirties or younger to have a cardiac arrest even though they are perfectly healthy. Usually it happens because they have some undiagnosed heart condition, and since a lot of the time there aren't any warning signs the person may pass away while doing something completely normal like taking exercise or sleeping." Deliberately Seishirou glanced down at Subaru's gloved hands. "Or maybe there's another side to the story we're not supposed to know about."
He looked up and caught Subaru's eyes, cool amber to emerald green. As a timid sixteen-year-old Subaru would have immediately blushed and turned away from such a measuring gaze. Even at twenty-five he would have remained on guard. This time however, while Subaru still turned faintly pink, he met it directly, not completely open but not resisting either. It acknowledged the unspoken truth between them: just as Seishirou had lied about his true self so Subaru had lied about his, but now the lies were over. Now neither of them were pretending … and from today the Bet would begin for real.
"Anyway, it's unlikely that we as members of the public will ever know." Without warning Seishirou broke off the gaze and turned the key in the ignition. Subaru felt the van rumble into life beneath them. "Look at the time, no wonder I'm hungry – we should all go out for lunch!"
"That's a rather abrupt change of subject, Sei-chan!" Suspiciously Hokuto stuck her head into the space between the front seats, narrowed emerald eyes flicking from Subaru to Seishirou. "What's going on between you guys? For that matter, Subaru, why are you sitting in the front seat instead of back here with me – wah!"
The van screeched into drive, throwing Hokuto backwards and causing Subaru to scramble for his seatbelt. "Buckle up, you two," said Seishirou with a grin as he changed gears. "What with Tokyo's characteristically terrible traffic we're going to have to be quick if we're to get to Hazuki's before lunch hour rush!"
"The way you drive we'll be lucky to get there at all!" There was a buzz from the backseat as Hokuto pulled out her seatbelt. "Subaru, tell your boyfriend off for bad driving!"
"I, ah, I trust that Seishirou-san will get us there in one piece."
"One piece wrapped around a telephone pole, maybe – hey, wait a sec!" Seatbelt forgotten Hokuto grabbed the back of Subaru's seat and leaned over his shoulder. "You didn't scold me for calling Sei-chan your boyfriend! Does this mean you've told him?"
Subaru twitched and immediately felt his face turn red. "I – I, um—"
"Oh my – you DID! You DID tell Sei-chan you love him!" The delighted shriek was abnormally loud in the van's confines, and in vain Subaru tried to pull his hat down over his burning face only for his sister to start shaking his chair. "When did this happen? Was this last night when I went out? What did you – ack!"
Seishirou pulled them back into a straight. "Sorry, misjudged that corner!" he called out gaily.
"Like hell you misjudged! Now I've lost my hat – aren't you going to say something, Subaru?!"
"Please drive properly, Seishirou-san."
"Yes dear."
"Aw, you guys aren't telling me anything!"
Chapter Eleven Annex V | Chapter Thirteen
NOTES:
- Hokuto's friend from the cabaret club is the girl she meets in the 'Smile' chapter of Tokyo Babylon, the illegal immigrant with the beautiful Japanese.
- The syndrome Seishirou is referring to where young healthy persons suddenly pass away is known as Sudden Death Syndrome, or Sudden Cardiac Death, which is usually defined as a non-traumatic, non-violent and unexpected event resulting from sudden cardiac arrest within six hours of previously witnessed normal health.