Nukume Dori
by Leareth
Annex III: Hunter
The night sky was blank, the stars drowned out by the harsh, multicoloured legions of lights below that made up the Tokyo metropolis. The lights were especially bright in Shinjuku, where illuminated sculptures decorated sidewalks and neon advertisements wrestled for attention in the shadow of the high-rises. Dizzying and delirious, it was a cacophony of illumination that made the black spaces all the darker, and for those who wished to pass unnoticed, perfect.
Seishirou took a drag on the last of his cigarette, eyes half-closed behind his glasses. He stood ten stories above the ground on the roof of a building not far from Shinjuku station, sheltered from the brunt of the wind by the huge Sony projection screen at his back. At this height the street below was a stream of orange and white, broken up at intervals to let shadowy crowds move from one side to the other, but Seishirou's attention was elsewhere. He was watching, silent and patient, through the eyes of his shikigami as it trailed one particular woman walking purposefully through Toyama Park. From his elevated position he followed her, followed her as she went to the swings to speak to a young girl crying there, to the chauffeured car that the woman invited the girl into, all the way into Shinjuku where the woman and girl were driven to an office building several blocks from where Seishirou stood. As the woman and girl passed through the doors Seishirou willed the spirit-bird to shift course, sending it upwards to perch outside the lighted window of a third floor meeting room – this was not the first night he had spent observing the woman, and he knew exactly where she was going. Soon the woman entered the room, still leading the girl, and the two of them approached several people kneeling quietly in the room's centre. The woman acknowledged their respectful greetings with a nod then knelt down with them, smiling and gesturing for the young girl to join them. After a moment's hesitation, the girl did.
There was nothing more to see. Seishirou opened his eyes and at the same time his shikigami took flight. Seishirou let it take its own path, idly dropping the cigarette butt and removing his glasses as he pondered over what he had just seen. Tonight was the third time in as many nights that he had witnessed the woman (her name was Kumiko Nagi, not that it mattered much) actively seek out a person and bring them back to her organisation. Other than that, but, her daily routine was regular enough, hours divided between work and home. The only possible deviation was if the woman went on a business trip to visit one of her organisation's chapters around the country, but she didn't have one scheduled in the immediate future as far as Seishirou knew. Still, it would be prudent to complete this job soon, just in case. The only thing to decide now was whether Seishirou should strike the woman at home or her place of work.
Wings sounding above his head heralded the return of his shikigami. It settled gracefully onto Seishirou's shoulder, talons digging through thick cloth into his skin like the tips of cold knives for a moment before it was dismissed to disappear. The prickling in his skin lingered a little longer – those talons were deadly weapons, though more so in the spiritual world than the material. Rending flesh was one thing; rending a spirit or a soul was another, and usually far more destructive. Admittedly there was that anomalous occasion when Seishirou had unleashed his shikigami to force a dreaming girl to heal, but that was more to ensure that Subaru wasn't damaged than anything else.
Subaru-kun.
Almost imperceptibly Seishirou's fingers tightened on his glasses. One name, one offhand thought, and yet now that he had touched it the thought lingered and expanded, like a spray of evening perfume. It seemed to be something of a common occurrence nowadays, especially given Subaru's behaviour of late which could be best described as … uncharacteristic. Back-chat to his sister, asserting himself when being teased, displaying bouts of moodiness, what had happened to the sweet, naïve boy Seishirou was so familiar with? Seishirou had suggested to Hokuto that maybe it was just because Subaru was growing up (about time, whispered a corner of Seishirou's mind), but surely the angelic Sumeragi clan-head, who would never let an expletive pass his lips, wouldn't be so rebellious as to take up smoking. True, there were some onmyoujitsu spells that required fire which could explain the presence of the lighter Seishirou had found in Subaru's coat pocket, but then why when Seishirou smoked in Subaru's presence the cigarette smell didn't make Subaru cough as it usually did? And then there was Subaru's self-image in that girl's coma dream …
"Thank you."
"What for?"
"You waited for me."
Taller and older. The stark, almost austere clothes. Ebony-black hair cut short. One eye flat white, the other a strangely enigmatic emerald green. Although the glimpse had lasted for the briefest moment it had lodged itself into Seishirou's memory like a bullet. Since then he had turned the picture over and over almost obsessively in his mind – why would Subaru project his consciousness in that form? was that what Subaru would look like when he grew older? – trying to find an explanation without success. So far the only logical reason he had come up with was that Subaru's self-image had been a quirk of the Dreamscape they had been invading, but it felt hollow and weak, especially when Seishirou had the nagging feeling that he had seen that image of Subaru before …
Seishirou half-snarled. It wasn't like him to forget things, especially things pertaining to Subaru, and the fact that he had forgotten in the first place was even more worrying than the missing piece itself. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he had the uneasy feeling that there was more to this than Subaru, that there was something subtly but direly out of place as if he had come home one day and sensed even before seeing the physical evidence of the open window that someone had been inside. The frustration was beginning to affect Seishirou's sleeping patterns; recently he was finding that his slumber was being disturbed by – well, he wouldn't exactly call them dreams, the Sakurazukamori didn't dream, but fragments, yes, fragmented images of fire and cloth and something that made Seishirou think of a wind blowing through an abandoned house. They were never long or numerous enough for him to put together and the more he tried to do so the more fitfully he slept, and the more fitfully he slept the more irritable he was the next day. He had been doing a rather impressive job of keeping it under control, but, although his assistant at the clinic had commented on how the number of animals that died on his operating table had increased in recent weeks. Seishirou wondered what Subaru would say if he knew that the kind veterinarian who so often professed love was deliberately killing his patients.
Subaru … The last time Seishirou had seen Subaru was when, yesterday? It felt like longer, probably because they seemed to be seeing so little of each other lately, to the point that Seishirou had begun to wonder if he had done something wrong that night Subaru had come to him dripping wet and depressed. Obviously he hadn't if Subaru had visited him on his own initiative, and that afternoon in the clinic had been highly interesting. On one hand Subaru could watch Seishirou deliver a fatal injection with near complete detachment; on the other Subaru still shied away from the advances Seishirou made. Those advances had been deliberately calculated, of course, and Subaru probably didn't know how fortunate it was that they had been interrupted as Seishirou had been quite prepared to force the issue if required. Oh, he probably would have stopped if Subaru had resisted, but on the flip-side if Subaru had submitted Seishirou would have had no compunctions in taking things to the obvious conclusion – the boy was very attractive, after all. In any case, whatever the outcome, at least an overt seduction attempt would have forced a response from Subaru that could give Seishirou more information to work with. Right now trying to figure out the Sumeragi was like trying to solve a thousand-piece puzzle with a hundred pieces missing, and with the end of the Bet tumbling ever closer Seishirou was beginning to grow rather impatient with his lack of progress. Even the Sakurazukamori had his limits, and if those limits were ever reached or crossed … well, suffice to say the consequences would not be healthy for anyone, least of all Subaru.
Especially Subaru.
Sirens on the night air. Seishirou glanced up a little; there was an ambulance speeding down the street. Yet another eventful night in Tokyo … he checked his watch as the sirens modulated down, and was rather surprised to find it past eight o'clock. High time to start heading home, and long past his usual hour for dinner. He had some left-over curry in the fridge; perhaps he would heat that up and cook some rice and vegetables. Or perhaps he would just stop somewhere on the way back – yes, that sounded better. After being out the whole day he didn't particularly feel like preparing food, and he was finding it so troublesome to cook just for one person nowadays. He'd eat out, then when he returned home he could indulge in a hot bath, perhaps read a little, and go to bed early where perhaps for once he would have a decent night's rest instead of worrying about—
—a blackened and bleeding sky, a question, a hollowness like hunger or maybe r—
That decided it. Putting shapeless apprehensions out of mind with a determination that was almost vicious, Seishirou stepped off the platform and crossed the roof to climb onto the building's edge, balancing easily despite the buffeting wind. For a moment the Sakurazukamori stood there, watching the figures of people far below pass from light to light too wrapped up in themselves to look above their heads and imagine what lurked in the shadows. Then he leapt determinedly upwards, cloaked himself in illusion, and disappeared into the night.
Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven