The Sumeragi hunt the spirits who unlawfully enter the world of Man.
The Sakurazuka hunt the men who unlawfully enter the world of Spirit.
Both protect the border between the realms of the living and the dead, but they do it from opposite sides — so to speak.
The Sakura extended a mental tendril and touched the sleeping mind — so strong, entirely Sei-chan's match should he ever decide to fight for real; and yet so delicate, almost fragile.
Sei-chan had been right when he prepared the Souchong beforehand. The Tree's blossom-cushioned branches quivered in the breeze of the eternal maboroshi. It had been angry at Sei-chan when he cut the connection prematurely, leaving the Sumeragi's lesson incomplete. But then, it hadn't thought someone that powerful could be so sensitive.
The Tree extended a small twig and brushed lightly over the sleeping man's cheek, then his throat. Amused, it watched the sleeper squirm, wondering if Sei-chan even realized how much in tune the two of them already were.
Ueno-Sakuragi-cho, Tokyo,
April 4, 2000
Subaru woke from cold air touching his skin. Seishiro had put his feet to the floor and sat slumped forward on the edge of the bed with his elbows resting on his thighs. The clear light drew him in harsh, sharp lines until he pushed himself up and threw the cover back onto the bed, leaving the room without looking back.
"Keep in mind that some decisions aren't mine alone."
Subaru shivered, and only partly from the chill in the air. He glanced at the bedside clock. 09:01. Later than usual, but nevertheless he felt tired. It had been barely midnight when he'd woken from the first nightmare about sakura entangling him, hands reaching for him, tearing at him, pulling— He'd screamed and then, sitting in bed, buried his face in his hands and waited for his racing heart to calm down.
"Sleep..." Seishiro had grumbled at the other side of the bed and, turning his back to him, had pulled the cover up over his ears.
It had taken the better part of an hour to follow the curt advice, only to start awake again.
"Let it be, dammit!" Seishiro had muttered, annoyed. Or had that been "Let him be"?
Uneasy, Subaru had curled up under the warm cover that smelled more of detergent and aftershave than sakura...
When he'd startled awake the third time, Seishiro had wordlessly tucked him under his chin, holding him like a small child. The nightmares had stopped.
Angry at himself, Subaru got up and padded into the bath when he realized that he didn't want to go back to sleep now that he'd be alone in the large bed. Splashing a handful of cold water into his face, he threw a tired glance into the bathroom mirror before he pushed his damp hair out of his face and headed towards the kitchen for breakfast.
Seishiro was reading the morning paper; one elbow resting on the table, long legs stretched comfortably sideways into the kitchen. Yoshi had curled around his left foot, a sizable paw playing leisurely with the by now red-tabby-dusted hem of black pants. Seishiro ignored the cat—
"Good morning."
—and him, turning a page as if he hadn't heard anything. Subaru sighed and went to make his tea and toast. He didn't feel like eating, but he didn't feel like arguing over not-eating, either.
A purr arose behind him, followed by the faint rustle of another page being turned. Leave it to Seishiro to be adored by a cat with a foot fetish, Subaru thought, amused, as the fresh, slightly bitter tang of green tea permeated the kitchen. Carrying a plate with two toast slices and his tea, Subaru stepped across Seishiro's legs — plus the attached cat — and sat down at the table.
He buttered his toast and studied the headlines of Seishiro's paper while chewing. The lead story was titled 'Economy shakes off worries' and 'Trust in manufacturing companies rebounds due to dampened yen'. Trust was an issue here, too; the wall of paper Seishiro had erected between them hadn't budged once by the time Subaru finished his toast.
He reached for his tea and looked out the window at plain, seldom cut grass with bald spots around the flag stones, and thought of the fern-covered walls he'd seen yesterday. The garden was really a disgrace.
13:26
Subaru balanced the tray on his left hip and stretched to push open the garden gate. The nine pots of delicate-looking wood ferns had proved surprisingly heavy on the way up from the small garden center down in Ueno.
He used an earth-smeared hand to wipe the sweat off his forehead and made his way around the house to the back yard, where a ginkgo in the far corner shaded the garden. The tree was much older than the house and the graveyard beyond. Its upper trunk was partially burned, likely from the fire bombings of World War II; still countless pale nuts from last year lay on the ground around it. Subaru wondered why Seishiro had kept the tree; the rotten-eggs stench of the falling fruit would fill the whole yard in autumn. On the other hand, few trees had as much protective power as a female ginkgo. Subaru smiled; it would also protect his ferns. An old wooden deck chair stood where the wide branches reached towards the roof. It looked abandoned, with weeds growing through its foot end. He put the tray down on its seat and began loosening and wetting the earth between the gnarled trunk and the wall.
Carefully, he removed the pots from the fern plants and put them into the soil, patting the earth around them for a firm hold. It was dirty work which, in itself, was strangely pure and calming to him as he arranged the various kinds of mosses and ferns to complement the rough grey stones of the high wall separating the Yanaka graveyard from the lawn.
Seishiro had shrugged when Subaru told him he wanted to work on the garden, insisting only that he avoided large, flowering plants and didn't 'make too much of a fuss', which was why Subaru had chosen the ferns as a start. They didn't need much care once their roots took hold. He brushed the delicate fronds of a color fern into order and began digging a hole for the roots of a thick eagle fern.
"Subaru-san?"
He froze. His hands still buried in the wet earth, he glanced warily over his shoulder.
"Good. I finally found you. Please—" His grandmother stopped in mid-sentence, shock and surprise warring on her face. Two ofuda, seemingly forgotten in her hands, glowed in the shadow of the ginkgo; its leaves rustling in the light breeze.
"Grandmother," he acknowledged her quietly. It had been almost a year since they had met face to face. She'd been contacted when he was hospitalized after the Ikebukuro incident last Summer, but travel to Tokyo in the chaos of the Final Year had been deemed too much of a risk for the twelfth head — especially when the life of the thirteenth was already at stake.
Belatedly, his manners kicked in and he stood, wiping his hands on his pants, and bowed. "Be welcome. I apologize for not offering tea, but—" He indicated the spot of watered earth and the partially planted ferns, "—I wasn't expecting guests."
"Naturally, since you were hiding behind a repellant strong enough for you to even leave the gate open." She folded the ofuda back into her deep kimono sleeve and studied him calmly. All of a sudden, Subaru was very aware of his unkempt hair, the rolled-up sleeves of his worn turtleneck and his earth-smeared pants. "You look well, despite your appearance," his grandmother finally admitted, waiting for him to explain himself. When he said nothing, she nodded. "Yes, I admit that the matter at hand requires more private treatment." She swiveled her chair. "We should discuss it inside."
"That's impossible," Subaru hurried to say before she reached the corner. "The— the house isn't at ground-level." He had to keep her outside; she'd certainly notice Seishiro's wards inside. He blushed under her hard stare, adding hastily, "and it's not spacious enough for your chair. I'm sorry."
She shook her head. "Subaru-san, this is not the right environment for somebody of your station. The close proximity to Kaneiji and Jomyoin temple may be somewhat reassuring, but it is unhealthy for you to live next to a cemetery, especially one as large as the Yanaka. You have to think of your spiritual integrity and your reputation. Besides, Sakuragi is hardly a suitable address for you; the lack of access to public transportation is unacceptable."
"I've come to like it," Subaru stated defensively. "It's quiet."
"I know that the last year put extraordinary strain upon you." She sighed. "But you mustn't hide from your clan. We were concerned."
"The Final Battle forced me to act at rather short notice, grandmother. I kept my schedule as best I could, given the circumstances. Please accept my humble apology if I distressed you and the elders while fulfilling my duty as a Seal. It certainly wasn't my intention to hide from you."
"You weren't hiding behind a repellant that even I needed three days to circumvent? Behind a phone number redirected to an anonymous voice box, the calls to which you never answered?" His grandmother looked at him levelly. "Subaru-san, you didn't even mark your name on the door."
"That might be because it isn't his house," a calm voice said behind them. Seishiro, seemingly carefree, put a grocery bag down on the stones. "The Ozu paper was out. I brought some sheets of Uchiyama and Inshu instead."
"Subaru-san!" His grandmother's shields flared up, so very similar to his own; Seishiro's intimately familiar power rose to the challenge. Subaru reeled under the impact, clinging to his shields to protect Seishiro from the sudden white-hot flame that his marks had become. Hearing the song of the dead vibrate with the sound of a thousand swords being drawn from their sheaths, he leaped forward, bringing himself between his grandmother and Seishiro. This was Seishiro's ground, his house, his turf, shielded to withstand a Kamui, shielded to survive the Final Year. Even from as far as Kyoto, his grandmother had been hurt facing the Sakurazukamori in a hospital room, a room of a building meant for healing. Now she was on his ground, with sakura petals glittering in the clear air. Wind sickles howled. Neither of them would back down. He had to stop them. He—
"No!" Dropping his shields completely, Subaru bared himself — body and spirit — to their weapons. He felt his marks on Seishiro's hands burn even hotter, his hold slipping, knew he was hurting Seishiro; his own scars echoed with scorching pain. He reached for Seishiro, stopped—
"No..." He repeated in the sudden silence as he stood between them, looking at Seishiro, willing him with his eyes to understand before he slowly turned to face his grandmother with open, relaxed palms. Turning his unprotected back to the Sakurazukamori was madness, but it was a matter of trust. — I trust you, so you can trust me. — He knew that Seishiro wouldn't see the second part, but his grandmother would, and he could only hope it made a difference. He wouldn't survive this for long; his heart faltered, trying to follow two rhythms.
"Fool," Seishiro said quietly behind him.
"She is my grandmother," Subaru returned without looking at him. The hardened grass blades his grandmother used as weapons still hung in the air, poised to strike.
"And?"
"Subaru-san! Stop protecting our enemy."
"I need him." No, that was wrong. His grandmother's power flared. Subaru's thoughts tumbled. If only the words didn't feel so terribly right. A grass blade shot forward— He moved without thought, caught it with his hand before it came near Seishiro's shields and didn't even wince when his palm was sliced open.
Seishiro's shields closed around him. Familiar. Warm.
Seishiro's voice wasn't. "Let's bring this to an end," he challenged.
"Even you can't keep that up for long!" his grandmother returned.
"We'll see about that." Strong wings suddenly hovered overhead. Storm rose, battered the branches, threatened the fronds of the freshly planted ferns. In return, grass blades joined together to form daggers. The hoarse call of a crane answered the fierce scream of the hawk. Woven blades glittered—
"I need him!" Subaru yelled across the turmoil, forcing his way out of the protective shield extended around him. A blade scraped his cheek; his grandmother had been too surprised to stop it in time. "He's the other source of the Dao!"
The tempest died. Grass, soft and green again, rained to the ground. "Dao?" she inquired. "You called—?"
Seishiro's wind sickles remained as glittering whirlwinds in the air. Subaru intercepted the first one calmly, noting that it dissolved before it actually cut his skin. He drew a deep breath and took a step back from his grandmother, almost sighing in relief when his fingers touched Seishiro's arm, sliding down to his wrist, his hand... skin on skin, mark on mark. He was caught around the waist. Bright red blood was smeared on Seishiro's sleeve. Subaru's knees buckled. When...? "I'm sorry," he whispered, dizzy.
Seishiro trailed a fingertip across his cheek, showed it to him. Also red. "She bloodied you," he said matter-of-factly. He raised Subaru's slit palm to his lips, licking it. "More than once." Subaru drew a deep, strenuous breath. He closed his eyes, fighting against a wave of nauseating bliss...
"Subaru-san." His grandmother's shocked voice penetrated the spell Seishiro was weaving around him. "He's the murderer of your sister!"
"I know. I—" He shook his head, trying to clear it, and couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes. "Please... Grandmother, leave. I— I'll call you soon and explain. Promise." His head fell back against Seishiro's shoulder.
"I can't possibly leave you h—"
"It's all right, grandmother," he said without opening his eyes, working hard for his voice not to slur. "Trust me. I'm all right." He only wished he could trust himself...
Magic rose again, sizzled, danced over his skin. Seishiro's fingers pressed, scalding hot, against his throat. "Leave," Seishiro said deceptively soft next to his ear.
The gate closed with a loud, final clang.
Ueno-Sakuragi-cho, Tokyo,
April 5, 2000
"Call your grandmother," Seishiro said bluntly when Subaru slouched into the kitchen the next morning, "if you don't want her to be fern fodder."
"I already tried to contact her." Subaru yawned, taking a bottle of water out of the fridge. "But the main house said she wasn't available at the moment. I left a message saying I'll try again later." He sat down and pressed the cold glass against his throbbing forehead. His free hand was wrapped in a thick gauze pad, though he didn't remember it being applied. He didn't remember anything after his grandmother had left. The gate had fallen shut and— nothing. He didn't recall getting out of his blood-and-earth-stained clothes and into bed, but he knew that he'd slept with Seishiro literally curled around him; otherwise the marks would be a lot less bearable now.
He had to call his grandmother, and not because Seishiro was running out of patience, but he seriously wondered what to tell her. I'm sorry, we put the Final Battle on hold and I sleep with the Sakurazukamori to dodge the side-effects? He groaned when against all odds his headache managed to increase.
"Keep yourself shielded," Seishiro commented and went to pour himself a fresh coffee. "Simple advice." Seemingly lost in thoughts, he flexed his hand when he returned to the table, blowing at the steaming mug. The frightened cartoon ghost on it was trapped in a red stop sign above the slogan: "I ain't 'fraid of no ghost!".
"Are your hands all right?" Subaru asked quietly.
Seishiro put the mug down. "They're fine." He reached for the sugar bowl.
"Illusion." Subaru caught his wrist. "Don't lie to me. Let me see the scars."
"I carry your marks. You should be able to tell when I'm lying."
"You know as well as I that I can only detect a lie that you consider to be one," Subaru returned wryly, his fingers tracing the outlines of Seishiro's scars. "You're a very gifted liar, splitting truth finer than silk."
That earned him a smile. The pentacle marks under Subaru's fingertips deepened, became thicker, redder. First degree burns, Subaru judged, surprised that the injury wasn't more severe. Or was this another illusion?
"It's real," Seishiro stated bluntly. "It didn't last long enough to do serious damage." He freed his hand and sweetened his coffee. Taking a first sip, he unfolded his newspaper. "But I'd prefer you to keep your relatives from straying onto my property."
The phone rang. Subaru's ring tone. He didn't want to get it. Not until his headache had calmed down. It could be grandmother. Or the elders. Or— After the fourth ring, Seishiro peered over the edge of his paper. "Answer. Or block the line."
Subaru pushed himself up.
"That was Ishido-san. The cabinet resigned yesterday. They want me to perform the exorcism before they elect the new premier this afternoon." Seishiro merely raised his brow. "I couldn't refuse again." Subaru added quietly.
"So you've got to work today?" Seishiro folded the paper and laid it next to his emptied dish. "Do you want me to come along?"
"Yes." He drew a deep breath. "And to stay out of sight."
"Subaru-kun, are you telling me to work illusions on honored members of the Japanese parliament and police force? Do you know what you're asking of me?"
Subaru snorted. "It's not as if you never worked illusions there before. Kamui gave a good description of your maboroshi at Hinoto's."
"Just a social call." Seishiro shrugged. "I don't see why—"
"Look, I just don't know how to explain your presence in the National Diet. I haven't been able to reach grandmother yet — and believe me I tried! – and I don't want to provoke her any more than we already did. She might do something rash!"
"Provoke her? So me taking a tourist stroll through the Diet is more offensive to her than me sleeping with her grandson." Seishiro laughed, getting up. "Peculiar priorities." His shape wavered and disappeared. No cherry blossoms this time, not even a flicker of light. "Sufficient?" his discarnate voice asked.
Subaru nodded, relieved. "Yes, thank y— eep!" A firm hand had patted his bottom.
"Out of sight, not out of touch."
~:~:~:~:~
Nagata-cho, Tokyo
National Diet Building
April 5, 2000 — 09:12
Hidden in illusion, Seishiro waved his ID card over the entrance scanner and wondered if he should tell Subaru that he wasn't actually invisible to the cameras and motion detectors which were a vital part of the Diet Building's security. Probably. In the meantime the illusion certainly spared him a lot of unimportant chatter. He clipped his ID to his lapel as he strolled down the corridor after Subaru and that blustering government gook Ishido.
Ten minutes later he leaned, hands in his suit pockets, against the wood-paneled wall near the side entrance of the Chamber of Representatives and watched Subaru argue with a Shinto priest who had been about to perform a purification ceremony when they arrived. Subaru was not pleased about the priest's presence, though one had to know him well to recognize the additional sharpness in his movements. After a moment, they exchanged repeated bows and the priest stepped back, leaving the hall through the main entrance, its heavy double doors closing behind him with a dull bang.
Seishiro smirked. The Sumeragi did have some clout, he gave them that. He rested his shoulder more comfortably against the wall. The exorcism would take a while.
Down in the hall Subaru was setting up a small altar holding a central mirror which reflected a shallow water bowl in front of it. He placed new fuda around it — the Uchiyama paper had indeed survived the night outside — and laid out two ritual daggers. Seishiro wondered who'd pay for the floor if Subaru was forced to use them and admired deft, slender hands untangling their silk tassels, smoothing the crane feathers.
He imagined those feathers trailing down Subaru's body, while the dagger cut open his shikifuku. A teasing, tantalizing caress following the cold steel of the blade on its trail down the chest and abdomen, then lower, stirring the fire underneath with its combination of promise and threat.
The scent of purified oil reached him. Subaru had lit two reverence lamps left and right of the altar and now began with the first mantra.
In Seishiro's fantasy wanton moans replaced the mantra; in his mind's eye he pulled the band of prayer beads from Subaru's shoulders and moved it tantalizingly slow past Subaru's already erect sex, listening to his gasp when he pushed the first bead, slicked with reverence oil, into him. Subaru would strain against the ties holding him, squirming, maybe pleading while bead after bead entered him, spreading him, filling him until he'd arch and present his weeping sex in offer to the gods, the remaining beads swinging freely between his legs...
The object of Seishiro's daydream was intoning the second mantra, his fuda beginning to glow with the warm red light of his power. Fortunately, the marks didn't enable mind reading of any kind; otherwise his prey would outshine a traffic light by now. With a satisfied grin, Seishiro watched the third mantra direct the summoned power along the imaginary lines of the pentacle, thus closing the banning field before the fourth invoked the restless spirit.
Something shrieked, wavered, took form. Subaru didn't show it, but Seishiro felt his sudden tension through the marks. Inside the banning field was...
"Hinoto-hime."
The blind dreamseer's spirit raised a fragile, translucent hand towards Subaru behind the red veil of the banning field, flickered, screeched...
...and disappeared in a blast of black fire that tumbled the candles, upended the water bowl and threw Subaru back into the first row of floor seats. Seishiro pushed himself off the wall, reached for his lighter. Subaru snatched the left dagger while his right produced a protective fuda. With a fluid move, he nailed it to the floor, driving the slim blade deep into the ancient parquet, while the empty banning field flickered and died. The spell sizzled around the paper. Sparks flew; the paper rustled against the steel, then it calmed and lay still.
Without a second glance at the mess of scattered wax, torn fuda, and spilled water behind him, Subaru headed for the doors, his shikifuku fluttering behind him. "Keep this room sealed off until I say otherwise," he ordered the guards and Ishido waiting outside. Throwing his white coat around his shoulders, he covered the shikifuku.
Deputy minister Ishido wrung his hands. "The representatives are going to meet in four hours—"
"I'll try to be done by then." Subaru walked with brisk strides down the hallway. Still cloaked in illusion, Seishiro hurried to follow. "If not, have them meet elsewhere." Ishido blanched at that. Subaru ignored it. "And I need access to the basement. Now."
National Diet Building
Basement
"Yes, she certainly died here." Seishiro, having forgone the hiding illusion down here, nodded towards the raised dais, where Hinoto had spent most of her adult life — if it could be called a life, that was. An extended brownish stain covered parts of the magical circle on the white tatami mats there. "Dried blood."
"Sohi and Hien obviously tried to defend her." Subaru, pressing a handkerchief over the wound in his palm which had reopened when he'd driven the dagger into the floor, studied the white chalk outlines of two bodies and looked over the damaged furniture. "The police will have collected whatever evidence there was. I'll have to send for their report."
"Useless. They collect only what they perceive." Seishiro scanned the debris that littered the floor everywhere. Remnants of rush curtains and papers were mixed with rubble from wall casings and ceiling. The fight down here certainly had been... lively. Paper scraps in a corner caught his attention. He crouched to examine them closer. Although they were crumpled and torn, the dark aura was unmistakable. The signature was that of Hinoto and yet... not. Not solely. "Have a look at this," he called Subaru.
"That's... one of Hinoto's." Subaru studied the paper carefully. "I don't understand this... I was face to face with her on the morning before... we fought on Rainbow Bridge and I felt none of this darkness." He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back. "I should have—"
"She likely wore her pure self as a cloak." Seishiro shrugged. "That's my field of work, not yours."
Subaru frowned. "There's a second signature imprinted on it. Mikkyo , I think, probably a goho doji; certainly not part of Hinoto or her guardians as far as I can tell, and very weak."
Seishiro nodded. "We ought to follow it."
"It's too weak. It will scatter and disappear in the dark spell if I set my shikigami on it."
Seishiro smiled. "My field of work," he repeated casually.
Subaru studied him with narrowed eyes. "You can track that?"
Seishiro arched a brow at the suspicious question. "Payment?" he asked.
"I don't have time for games." Subaru's eyes glittered coldly, then... "Yes."
"As you wish," Seishiro smirked. It wasn't as if this was particularly difficult, it just needed the right idea and a lot of practice. Subaru hunted spirits; for him the strong signatures were important, but Seishiro's targets, humans abusing spiritual power, usually left far weaker trails. He framed the paper scraps with his hands, enclosing them in a small globular banning field which he carefully attuned to the weak signature, then he surrounded it with a second globe holding the dark magic of the fuda itself. Pulling his hands apart, he separated the fields and dismissed the one holding Hinoto's spell before calling his shikigami.
Roppongi-cho, Tokyo
38 minutes later
With a hoarse cry the hawk circled, returned and settled down on its owner's shoulder. "There." Seishiro nodded towards a dark gap between two buildings. "I suggest you go around the next building and cut the escape route. Chasing through a maze like this is something you don't want to do when you're in a hurry."
As expected, the gap proved to be the opening to a narrow lane that ran past the back entrances of several businesses opening their fronts to the main street. The place itself could have starred in the graphic novel he'd read at hanami. The smell certainly could. Dispassionately, Seishiro watched the target in front of him hurling a bulky bag into a garbage container.
"You strayed into my territory," he said softly, stopping Arisugawa before he reached the backdoor of the bar he'd likely emerged from.
Wariness. Apprehension. "What are you doing here?" Arisugawa inquired. Seishiro shrugged, his shikigami spreading its wings for balance. "Did you think I'd miss a poacher in the Diet?"
"No, I—"
"Arisugawa-kun. " Subaru had finally rounded the building and came from the other side. "I need to talk with you about what happened at the Diet building."
Seishiro put his hands in his coat pockets. "More precisely beneath it."
~:~:~:~:~
The nearby boarding house catered to foreigners as well as the growing number of day laborers who couldn't afford the amount of key money required to rent a flat in Tokyo these days. Subaru studied Sorata as they were led to a small occupants' lounge at street level, noting the loss of weight as well as the lines that had appeared in his fellow Seal's face since he'd last seen him. Arisugawa Sorata wasn't doing too well.
Fortunately, the lounge was deserted at this time of day and with Seishiro leaning in the door frame, legs casually crossed at the ankles, they could talk freely. Nobody would barge in on them. And nobody would escape.
A detail certainly not lost on Sorata, who hunched down at one of the tables; his eyes kept flitting to Seishiro and back to Subaru, occupying the chair opposite his. "You are working... together?"
"Joint venture. Kind of." Seishiro shrugged.
Subaru sighed. "Arisugawa-kun. What happened at the Diet?"
"Arashi." Sorata drew a deep breath. "No, that isn't it. It's... Kamui caught a shiki sent by Hinoto to spy on us at Ginza. I used the ofuda to send a goho doji back to spy on her in return. That way I learned about Hinoto trapping Arashi, and I went to confront her."
"On the day of the Final Battle?"
"I am destined to die for the woman I love," Sorata quoted grimly.
Seishiro in the door snorted audibly. "Why do people always ignore the time frame in prophecies? You can die for her when she's a granny of a hundred and fifteen."
"Save your words," Sorata said flatly. "I'm already dead. I took three lives, two of them blinded but innocent. My way to enlightenment has been cut; my next incarnation will be in Naraka . It doesn't matter that Hinoto had trapped Arashi and manipulated the Final Battle. When she called Sohi and Hien to her help and they didn't believe me that that creature wasn't their princess, I struck them down." He averted his eyes. "I didn't think Arashi had much time to get out of there."
"Where's Kishuu-san now?" Subaru asked softly.
"Upstairs, sleeping. She isn't well, and I don't like leaving her alone all day in a place like this, but I— I can't do any better. I'm already working three jobs and can barely make ends meet. I—"
"Back to the Diet," Seishiro snapped, impatiently. "What exactly did you do to the princess?"
"None of your business!" Sorata retorted.
"Do you want me to make it your business?" Seishiro asked sweetly.
Subaru gave him a warning glance. "Arisugawa-kun, Hinoto's spirit is haunting the Diet Building. She had considerable spiritual power and I need to know as much as possible about the circumstances of her death in order to move her on successfully."
Sorata winced. "I couldn't break her protective shields, so I took down part of the ceiling. I—"
"Death by secondary means." Seishiro nodded. "Not bad. Explains nicely why the Metropolitan police aren't looking for you."
"They aren't?" Sorata, forgetting his disdain for Seishiro, stared at him.
"It's filed as 'accidental death in earthquake'." Seishiro shrugged. "Actually shortened my to-do list in January."
"Hinoto was an official case of yours?" Subaru asked, surprised.
"The blind dreamseer had considerable influence in the politics of Japan. An influence that became oppressive over the course of last year." He casually lit a cigarette. "I got the case in October, but I was kind of busy then. You aren't the only one behind schedule because of the Final Year, Subaru-kun." He slowly exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Too bad your fellow Seal didn't bother to seal the spiritual essence before taking out the body. The file's back on the stack."
"My stack, not yours," Subaru corrected.
"Depends on perspective. I'd like to know what we face at the Diet before declaring my case closed."
"If we had something Hinoto touched right before her death," Subaru thought aloud, "we might be able to read the changed signature and estimate how much of her power her changed self had controlled by the time she died."
"The girl," Seishiro said from the door.
"What!?" Sorata leaped to his feet. "You're not going near—"
"Please calm down, Arisugawa-kun." Subaru laid a hand on his arm and stood as well. "I'll go."
The small room didn't hold much furniture aside from the standard wall closet for the futons and a table with two chairs under the narrow window. It was kept meticulously clean. Subaru closed the door silently behind him. The futon was rolled out in a corner where the direct light from the window wouldn't disturb the sleeper. Kishuu's black hair spilled over the plain, off-white cotton cloth. She was pale, with deep shades under her eyes as if she weren't getting enough sleep. One of her hands was clawed around the edge of the futon, crumpling the cheap cloth.
She blinked when Subaru came closer and looked up at him, not startled, not surprised, as if she'd expected him to be there.
"Sumeragi-san," she said weakly. "Please be seated. I'm sorry I can't fulfill my duties any longer — not as a Seal, not as... Hidden Miko of Ise. I—" She turned her head aside. "The sacred blade is lost. I—" She fell silent and stared at the unwashed wall.
"Kishuu-san, may I read your aura?" Subaru asked quietly.
She nodded without looking at him and he knelt quietly at her side, concentrating. There were indeed injuries in her aura: the outer layer seemed frayed, worn, as if she'd been wrapped in something harmful that had abraded her spiritual shields; but the injuries didn't reach her inner core, which was shining brightly, pulsing with life, with... Subaru shook his head, averting his eyes. He didn't have a right to look there. At any rate, the spiritual injuries were already fading.
By the time he was done, she was asleep again. He bowed his farewell and left quietly, locking the door behind him.
"Hinoto's perverted power had enclosed her completely," he told them when he returned downstairs, "but she didn't suffer spiritual injuries aside from a general abrasion of her aura, which is already recovering." Sorata nearly slumped in relief. Subaru squeezed himself past Seishiro and reclaimed his seat. "The spiritual signature is very different from what Hinoto-hime initially felt like. She was a being of Air and Water — mostly Air, in fact — but what clawed into Kishuu-san was Fire; Fire and Metal, meant to burn and to cut. If Hinoto were still alive I'd test her for possession, but a possession would have ended with her death. But if both parts were originally components of her self and she suppressed one of it, then it's likely that the suppressed one became dominant under the stress during the Final Year."
"Air and Metal. Pure Yin and pure Yang," Seishiro mused. "The two components of her spirit are diametrically opposed to each other; split clearly between Heaven and Earth."
"Yes. And the Yang force alone was strong enough to enclose somebody as spiritually strong as Kishuu-san." Subaru searched Seishiro's silhouette in the door frame. "It won't be enough to trap only one part of her spirit."
"You'll have to enclose both." Seishiro, still blocking the door, dragged at the tiny rest of his cigarette.
"Their motivations are fully antithetic. What compels one to move on, prompts the other to stay. They'll have to be exorcised separately and simultaneously. But the Diet wants to be in session within two hours. That's not enough time to send for a second Sumeragi to—"
"I will help," Sorata offered. "I—"
"No, Arisugawa-kun," Subaru said immediately. "Hinoto-hime is spiritually too strong. I trapped one part of her spirit in a banning field earlier and it nearly blew up in my face."
"But I defeated her even in life—"
A dry, humorless chuckle erupted from Seishiro. "While they have bodies they're pretty harmless. There's a reason why I try to get my prey before it hatches."
Subaru lowered his eyes briefly, then met Seishiro's gaze squarely. "Could you...? I know it's not your business, but—"
"Actually, it is. And if we don't confuse them with facts—"
"— like the Dao, and the Final Battle being kept undecided—"
"—the dark self might just listen to a Dragon of Earth telling her what she wants to hear." Seishiro pushed his glasses higher up his nose. "Since I didn't exactly return my membership card..." He shrugged.
"But Hinoto's a dreamseer—" Sorata warned them. "She'll—"
"Wrong," Seishiro returned. "She's a dead dreamseer."
"Belonging to a different reality," Subaru added. "As long as she died before we raised the Dao..." He looked at Sorata. "Did you kill her before the kekkai flared back to life or afterwards?"
"I'm not sure." Sorata scratched his head. "I was too focused on Arashi and the one down there was never destroyed, so... no idea."
Subaru turned to Seishiro. "If she died afterwards, then she's within this reality and the spirits might regain the ability to dreamsee over time."
"But not clearly. And not yet." Seishiro dropped the cigarette to the floor. "Otherwise, they'd be at each others' throats instead of spooking all over the place." He crunched the butt under his heel. "Just bear in mind that I'm not an exorcist. I can't send a spirit on if it isn't persuaded to go. I can relocate them to Diyu-Yomi and make sure they don't return in their current incarnation, but it's force, not persuasion."
Subaru nodded. "I hope to give Hinoto-hime's spiritual essence a chance to recombine and move on whole, but the integrity of the National Diet building and the safety of the living takes precedence. I will try to persuade them, but if her dark self doesn't comply..." He balled his fist. "Then do what you must." He stood. "And Arisugawa-kun — you might want to have Kishuu-san medically examined."
"I tried to, but she doesn't want to go. She insists it's a spiritual problem and that a physician wouldn't be of help."
"That might be true," Subaru said quietly. "Or not. I'm not sure, but Ise is the main shrine of Amaterasu, who is the spender of life and abhors killing. Yet, the Hidden Miko of Ise carries Amaterasu's sword. I wouldn't be surprised if the goddess recalls that gift when her other function becomes predominant. Which might be the case if you didn't... take precautions."
Sorata stared. "If I...?"
Seishiro chuckled. "Didn't have safe sex."
Sorata paled. "You mean Arashi's—?"
"I'm no physician, Arisugawa-kun. But it might explain why Amaterasu denies her her weapon." Subaru took his apartment key from his pocket and gave it Sorata. "Here, use my apartment for the time being. I haven't been there for a while, so it might be worse for wear, but at least it's a decent place for you and Kishuu-san to stay for the time being."
"Won't your landlord demand an explanation?"
"I own the place." He threw a brief look towards Seishiro waiting impatiently by the door and gave Sorata a weak smile. "And it doesn't look like I'm going to use it again any time soon."
"What makes you think I'll allow you to stay so long that you can give up your apartment?" Seishiro asked casually as they hurried back towards the Diet.
"The amount I still owe you," Subaru returned dryly. "Or are you going to give me a discount?"
Seishiro at his side laughed faintly. "No. You'll have to pay to the full."
They continued in silence.
"I will call Hinoto's Air-self to the circle in the Chamber of Representatives. Hinoto-hime was a government adviser for many years," Subaru said after a while. "That changed only last year."
"Yes," Seishiro confirmed. "I got her file when there were signs of willful manipulation."
"Do you normally get cases of suspected disloyalty?"
"No, but she was a dreamseer of considerable influence. They didn't trust normal detectives not to be caught in her web."
"She was really considered dangerous?"
"By October, yes." They rounded the last corner and came into sight of the National Diet. Seishiro looked up at its tower as they crossed the street. "Considering what we know now, I guess she'd have been a valid target." He slipped his hands in his pockets and retrieved his ID. "I'm taking the service entrance. It's got a direct link to the basement."
Subaru stopped. "How—?"
"The Metal-self was naturally selfish. She should be easiest called into the space where Hinoto spent most of her adult life."
"I meant how do you know the way?"
"Research?" Seishiro gave him a crooked smile. "I paid her a visit once before she snapped, remember? Didn't you wonder how I got there without your Kamui being alerted about the lift?" He chuckled. "Stick with ghosts, Subaru-kun. You aren't brazen enough to deal with the living."
~:~:~:~:~
National Diet Building
Basement
Seishiro unlocked the emergency exit and closed the door silently behind him. In Hinoto's suite, he did a brief sweep of the room to determine the best spot for the banning field. Removing the stained tatami with the magical circle that Hinoto had used to trap the Ise-girl — and probably the other part of herself —, he got to work.
After clearing the dust from the dais, he began marking the banning circle on the stone underneath, using the thick black permanent marker he'd snatched from the janitor's clipboard on his way down here. Usually, this was done with fuda, but he hadn't bothered to prepare new ones this morning. Adding the last spell, he closed the circle and immediately felt the raised power tingling over his skin. Good. He put the cap onto the marker, slipped it into his pocket and queried his marks. The brief flash would tell Subaru up in the Chamber of Representatives that he had completed his preparations.
The answering tingle in his scars came immediately. Time to play.
He triggered the summoning spell, focused on fire and metal, and a veil slowly formed into the expected shape. Before long, Hinoto-hime was levitating in the center of his banning field, a small, malicious smile on her blood-red lips.
:::You are alive, Sakurazukamori? Doesn't the Sumeragi hold your position now?:::
"He did a poor job." Seishiro shrugged dismissively. "My tree lost weight under his care. So they called me back. The Kamui of the Dragons of Earth sends his thanks—"
The apparition in front of him chuckled evilly. :::I didn't intend to help him.:::
"Side-effect. You did a better job than our own dreamseer."
:::Deluded boy.::: More maniacal laughter. :::Always lurking around, chatting with the other me. As if I couldn't hear, couldn't see—::: The apparition stopped, wavered and the banning field shook under a sudden blow. :::If the Dragons of Earth had won, this place would be flooded. You are all dry.:::
The banning field weakened under her assault. Black talons on delicate white hands reached through, clawing for his face. He flicked his lighter—
°°°Nomaku Sanmanda Bazaradan Senda Makaroshada Sowataya Un Tarata Kanman!°°°
—and sent the mantra right through the flame. Fudo Myo-o's wrathful fires enclosed the banning field, burning through it, engulfing the shrieking apparition in its center...
...flaring high up to the ceiling right beneath the—
Seishiro cursed.
~:~:~:~:~
National Diet Building
Chamber of Representatives
:::I dreamed your defeat, Sumeragi-san. I dreamed you joined the Dragons of Earth. If you are here now, you—:::
"Whatever the Final Year forced me to become, I am still Sumeragi. My duty as an onmyoji of my clan wasn't taken from me just because something else became my responsibility, too."
The translucent spirit behind the red veils of his banning field seemed to shrink in on itself. :::So the Dragons of Heaven lost…:::
Subaru bent his head, trying to find a way to tell her what she needed to hear to move on without telling a flat-out lie. "The Dragons of Heaven didn't lose the Final Battle. Kamui-san didn't die, but you did. You are deceased. Please be sensible. You can't lawfully be part of this world any more—"
:::If Kamui lives, then my dream became real and—:::
Subaru started when a second shape took form in his banning field — a dark, twisted mirror of Hinoto's ethereal self. The two forms became unfocussed, wavered...
...and merged. The resulting spirit had a nearly palpable form. Subaru quickly reinforced the field's protections, worrying about Seishiro. If Hinoto's dark self was here, it had to have escaped from him, and—
:::Thank you, Sumeragi-san,::: the recombined spirit said with a mental voice that was atypically firm, firmer than Hinoto's had been when she was still alive. :::It is good to know that all our dreams are now real.::: She smiled, fragile yet energetic and deceptively soft. :::I couldn't imagine the Diet's basement being flooded without Japan being submerged first.:::
Subaru froze, his pulse thumping in his chest, but the marks still pressed solidly against his shields. That would be gone if something happened to Seishiro, wouldn't it? He—
:::I will see what the dreams in the other world are like...:::
"Sayonara, Hinoto-hime." He bowed his farewell to the spirit that had been torn for so long and drew a deep, relieved breath when she was gone. "The Diet's basement... Flooded." He shook his head.
"It is," Seishiro's calm voice said behind him. "Not up to the ceiling; more like ankle-deep, but trust me, it's wet."
Subaru blinked. Something glittered on the parquet at his side. "Seishiro-san, are you dripping on the floor?"
"Calling Fudo Myo-o within a public building has its downsides," Seishiro returned much drier than he obviously was. "It sets off the sprinkler system."
"Yes. I understand and..." Subaru didn't bother to suppress his grin. "Stick with the living, Seishiro-san. You aren't subtle enough to deal with ghosts."
Twenty minutes later, Subaru had sorted his paraphernalia back into his satchel, had folded and carefully wrapped the shikifuku in rice paper, and was now signing the official statements required for government contractors. Seishiro had gone home for dry clothes. Subaru smiled again.
He wondered briefly how Hinoto-hime's spirit was to be classified: 'multiple-component schizoid apparition'? 'Spirit with multiple personalities'? For a moment, he was tempted to write 'nuisance', but settled for 'spiritual manifestation with schizophrenic disorder'. He stamped the document and reached for the next form, titled "Declaration of spiritual safety - (copy 1 of 5)". I should have ignored the ghost and exorcised the paper trail instead! Subaru thought grimly.
"We're relieved that you were able to complete your task in time. To think that the election of our new premier could be delayed — or worse: influenced — is unbearable. We had an incident with the sprinkler system in the basement, but the fire department assured that it wouldn't be a problem." Ishido took the filled-out form from Subaru and gave him a new one. "The director of the LDP as the leading faction in the Diet requests you to stay during the session to make sure nothing influences the election."
Subaru stifled a sigh and nodded. "Is it possible to complete the forms there?" he asked and Ishido beamed at him, indicating the stairway to the visitor gallery above the Chamber of Representatives.
Subaru hoped there wouldn't be any more spiritual disturbances. He doubted that he could take on much more today.
Nagata-cho, Tokyo
Streetlights were coming on by the time Subaru finally left the Diet, and the omnipresent neon advertisements in the business districts already bathed the streets in a multitude of colors. He silently wished for less crowded streets, but the evening rush wouldn't cease for hours yet. It hadn't been a surprise that the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party had become the new Prime minister.
Subaru yawned and wished he could just fall into bed; unfortunately, he had to call his grandmother first and explain to her why said bed stood in Sakuragi now. The successful completion of the Diet job wasn't an excuse to postpone the call further. If only he weren't that tired. He—
Thick cloth came over his face, was pulled tight behind his head. Something pricked his neck. Cold heat shot under his skin. Hands gripped him and he struggled, kicked. One of his feet connected. Someone cursed. He couldn't breathe... breathe... he...
...darkness.
to be continued in
Family Matters - Interregnum 4
Notes:
Japanese Papers: Inshu paper is made from a mixture of mulberry and mitsumata fibers and is widely used for calligraphy and in fusuma and shoji. In earlier times, it was also used to make paper balloon bombs, which is why the 12th head of the Sumeragi would strongly object to using this paper. Ozu paper is made from a mulberry (or other organic fibers) bleached in sun light and is widely used for calligraphy. Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, is the family kami of the Sumeragi. Uchiyama paper is made from mulberry fibers bleached with snow and highly regarded for calligraphy and shoji screens. Snow is associated with Winter and Tsukiyomi, therefore grandmother won't be too thrilled finding Subaru using it, either.
Mikkyo is a system of practical Buddhist "magic" involving mantras and incantations.
Arisugawa-kun and Kishuu-san vs. Sorata and Kishuu. Subaru calls Sorata 'Arisugawa-kun' in the manga. He never addresses Arashi directly. Both address Subaru as 'Subaru-san', though. Since Sorata also introduces himself quite informally as 'Arisugawa Sorata-chan', I decided to have Subaru think of him as Sorata, but given Arashi's earnestness, I don't think he'd do the same for her.
Naraka is the name of one of the worlds of greatest suffering in Buddhist cosmology. A being is born into Naraka as a direct result of his or her previous karma (actions of body, speech and mind), and resides there for a very long time until he or she will be reborn in a higher sphere.
Yomi, the Japanese word for the underworld in which horrible creatures guard the exits; according to Shinto mythology as related in Kojiki, this is where the dead go to dwell and apparently rot indefinitely. Diyu is the realm of the dead or "hell" in Chinese mythology. Incorporating ideas from Taoism and Buddhism as well as traditional Chinese folk religion, it is a kind of purgatory place; on 18 or more levels, spirits aren't only punished but also renewed to ready for them their next incarnation. The concept of Yomi can be sorted into one of the 18 levels.
Fudo Myo-o is one of the "Wrathful Kings of Mystic Knowledge", patron of martial arts, who exudes fire and destroys all karmic hindrances. His mantra means "Homage to the all-pervading Vajras! O Violent One of great wrath! Destroy!"