Aftermath
By Karasu Yurei and Kouri Arashi
Part Six
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Kamui looked up as Subaru walked into his room, closely followed by Seishirou. He couldn’t help but smile at the way Subaru was . . . glowing. There was no better word for it. “So you two must have had fun at dinner,” he remarked.
Subaru glared at him.
“Are you making fun of us, Kamui?” Seishirou asked calmly, taking off his sunglasses and hanging them on his front coat pocket.
“Me? Of course not. I’d never do that.” Kamui looked at Subaru and said pointedly, “That shirt’s kinda big for you, Subaru.”
Subaru managed not to blush, looking down at the shirt he’d borrowed from Seishirou. The sleeves were rolled up and it was bagging everywhere. He hadn’t even bothered tucking it in.
“So you never went home last night?” Kamui assumed, grinning at them.
Subaru wanted to get irritated, but he was too glad to see Kamui’s sense of humor returning. “Extenuating circumstances. Don’t be a twit.”
Kamui merely grinned. “So I guess I was right.”
“I’m going to go check on Kakyou,” Seishirou interrupted smoothly. “See if he’s decided to join the rest of the waking world.” With that, he left the room.
“Welllllll?!” Kamui asked, nearly agonized with curiosity. “What happened?!?!”
Subaru eyed him. “Nothing,” he said, with as much dignity as was possible.
“Oh, I don’t believe you for a second and you should have known that I wouldn’t.”
Subaru sighed.
“Did you - ?”
“No!” Subaru glared at him fiercely. “You should know me better than that, Kamui. Three days ago we were trying to kill each other. I’m certainly not going to . . . to . . .” He began to turn crimson. Kamui was starting to snicker. “Oh, be quiet!”
“So what did happen?” Kamui asked. “I mean, there must have been some reason you stayed at his house last night.”
“Of course there was,” Subaru said. “A certain unnamed tree that was destroyed released hundreds of spirits, who are angry with their state of being in general and Seishirou-san in particular.”
Kamui paled.
“Understandable, but hardly acceptable,” Subaru concluded.
“I-I’m sorry,” Kamui stammered. “I didn’t know this would - ”
“Of course you didn’t.” Subaru put a stop to Kamui’s stumbling apology. He smiled a little. “Trust me, I don’t want you to undo it. We’ll just have to find a way to keep the spirits from killing Seishirou-san and then everything will be fine.”
“Okay,” Kamui said slowly. Then he asked, hesitantly, “So how are things between the two of you? You look . . . better.”
“We’re still sorting things out,” Subaru answered.
“I want more details than that,” Kamui complained.
“I thought only women gossiped like this,” Subaru said with a small smile.
“I saved the world. I can gossip about whatever I want. Now tell me what’s going on. You do realize, don’t you, that the less you tell me, the more I think happened.”
Subaru glared at him. “Oh, fine. We’ve reached a state of . . .” he searched for a description. “Staid affection,” he finally said.
Kamui raised an eyebrow. “Staid affection? You’re wearing his clothes.”
Subaru looked almost guilty. “Mine were dirty.”
“Uh huh. That’s not staid affection.”
“Okay, maybe it’s open affection.”
Kamui did his best to clap. “Told you so.”
Subaru attempted to glare, then gave up, saying with a wondering look, “He brought me breakfast in bed.”
Kamui snickered. “And to think you tried to say nothing happened.”
There was a brief knock, then Seishirou walked back in.
“How’s Kakyou?” Kamui asked.
“Same,” Seishirou answered.
“I don’t think he’s coming back,” Subaru said.
Kamui frowned. “Do you think I could see him? I might be able to get into his Dreamscape and talk to him. I have before.”
Seishirou shrugged. “It’s not up to me.”
Subaru looked at Kamui worriedly. “Are you all right to get out of bed yet?”
“Tomorrow, or so I’ve been told,” Kamui said.
“Well, Kakyou isn’t going anywhere,” Seishirou said.
“Okay,” Kamui said. “That can be my first adventure out of bed.” He paused. “What are you two going to be doing?”
“Seeing if we can get out of the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into,” Subaru answered calmly. “It’s going to be difficult.”
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Kamui had no sooner waved Subaru and Seishirou goodbye when the doctor came in to move him out of the ICU. He got settled in his new room, wondering if anyone would know where he’d gone. Apparently someone did, because there was a knock on the door. “Come in,” he called.
The door opened and Nokoru walked in, closely followed, as always, by Suoh and Akira. “Konnichi wa, Kamui-kun,” Nokoru said with his everpresent smile. “How are you feeling?”
“Not bad as long as I don’t move much,” Kamui said.
Nokoru walked over and sat in the chair next to his bed. Suoh stood next to the door, looking somewhat intimidating. Akira walked over and peered at the half-finished tray of food. “They’re feeding you this?” he asked, wrinkling his nose.
Kamui couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s not that bad.”
Akira just looked at it. “Yes it is. I’ll bring you lunch tomorrow.”
Kamui blinked. “You don’t really need to do that . . .”
“I insist,” Akira declared.
“Well, okay . . .” Kamui replied, somewhat bemused.
“Maybe we should move you back to CLAMP Campus,” Nokoru suggested. “You’d be closer to home there.”
“I guarantee the food’s better,” Akira said.
“What about Fuuma?” Kamui asked.
Nokoru considered. “Well, we have plenty of space if he’d like to join you there . . . I somewhat doubt he’d want to return home.”
“No, I don’t think so,” Kamui agreed. “I’ll still be sharing the apartment with Sorata and Arashi . . . if Yuzuriha . . .” He looked down, trying not to appear too depressed. “There’s an extra space now,” he finished softly. “Fuuma could move in there.”
Nokoru nodded.
“Then there’s Kakyou . . .” Kamui frowned. “I promised I’d go see him, try to talk him into coming out of his coma.”
“Well, he’s welcome to come to CLAMP too,” Nokoru said, despite the fact that he had no idea who Kamui was talking about.
Kamui managed a smile. “Arigatou.”
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“So what should we do?” Subaru asked. Seishirou had insisted on buying him dinner. Subaru had decided, for once, not to argue. “There has to be some way to fight this. You would know if anyone would.”
“I’m not used to fighting it. This was my weapon, not my enemy,” Seishirou said.
“Hm,” Subaru said. “Well, my warding spells can only hold it off; I don’t think they could destroy it.”
“No,” Seishirou said. “We’ll probably have to imprison it again.”
Subaru frowned. “That doesn’t seem . . . right, somehow.”
Seishirou sighed a little. “Subaru-kun, let me explain a little something about the Sakurazuka to you. The souls that were part of the Tree aren’t just going to move on now that they’re free. They’re . . . warped.” He caught Subaru’s uneasy glance. “And don’t look at me like that. We’re going to have to find some . . . creative way of getting rid of them. They’re not who they used to be.”
Subaru sighed. “All right . . . what do you suggest?”
“I said already. Imprison it again. You’ve done it before, haven’t you?”
Subaru glared. “I know how. But I’ve never done it. And besides, that’s designed for one spirit, not several thousand.”
“Several hundred,” Seishirou corrected. “They don’t all remain. Why did you think I needed to keep replenishing its energy?”
Subaru mumbled something indistinct. Then he said, “Well, it’s certainly not as if I’m going to be able to walk up to it and say, ‘hold still while I imprison you again.’ We need more than that. This spell is complicated; it takes time, effort, and concentration. And a container. The spell requires a glass ball, but somehow I don’t think that’s going to be big enough.”
Seishirou shrugged. “We can use another tree.”
Subaru looked skeptical. “I’m sure there are trees all over Ueno Park just begging to have hundreds of angry spirit shoved into them.”
“I’m sure we can find one.”
“And then what?”
Seishirou looked pensive for a minute. “We find a way to distract it.”
“Such as what?”
Seishirou gave him a crooked smile.
“Seishirou-san, you are not going to play the decoy,” Subaru stated firmly. “It’s far too dangerous. I don’t even know if my spell will work.”
“Have you got any better ideas?”
Subaru had to admit that he didn’t.
“Well, then,” Seishirou said. “It’s settled.”
“It is not settled!” Subaru said. “Nothing is settled!”
Seishirou leaned across the table so he was nose-to-nose with Subaru. “Worried, Subaru-kun?”
Subaru held his ground. “Yes. Of course.”
Seishirou sat back. “Don’t worry about me. I can handle this.”
“What if the spell doesn’t work?”
“That’s your part of the job,” Seishirou said.
Subaru gave him an exasperated look. “Seishirou-san, I’ve never done this before; now I’m trying to stretch it far out of proportion!”
“I have faith in you.”
“I’m glad one of us does,” Subaru said, still glaring. “And what are you going to be doing while I attempt this?”
“Pretending that I can fend it off,” Seishirou said.
“Seishirou-san!”
Seishirou smiled at Subaru’s indignantly panicked look. “You really are cute when you’re not being bitter.”
Subaru folded his arms across his chest and glared. “I have reason to be bitter. Don’t make me let the Sakurazuka eat you.”
“You don’t like being called cute, do you,” Seishirou said.
Subaru sighed. “Stop teasing me. You’re being counter-productive. What will you be doing while I attempt to imprison the souls?”
“Holding it one place so it can’t escape.”
“And it won’t kill you for what reason exactly?”
“I’d like to think I still have some defenses,” Seishirou said.
“You’re going to insist on this, aren’t you.”
“Yes.”
Subaru looked at him. “I wouldn’t have thought of you as a martyr-type,” he said.
“Who’s a martyr? Martyrs die. I have no plans on dying. I’m merely relying on you to save me.”
Subaru fought the urge to throttle the older man. “I need some books from my apartment.”
“Then by all means, let’s go.”
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“This is cute,” Seishirou said, picking a small stuffed bunny up off the night table in Subaru’s room. It was smaller than his hand.
“Yuzuriha gave it to me,” Subaru said, looking through piles of books.
“What for?”
“She said I looked lonely.”
“A very astute young woman,” Seishirou concluded gravely.
“Yeah, she was,” Subaru said, putting emphasis on the past tense.
Seishirou decided to let it go, putting the bunny down. Subaru was sitting Indian-style in the middle of the floor, flipping through a book. “Find anything yet?” he asked.
“Some of this looks vaguely useful,” Subaru said. “I’m looking for a spell that’s labeled ‘Miracle Spell. Guaranteed to fix all problems in a blinding flash of light.’ You know the spell I mean?”
“Subaru, are you being sarcastic?”
“No, I’m being appalled. You do realize that I’m going to have to make up a new spell entirely, right?”
“Of course.”
Subaru slammed the book shut. “Then how do you expect this to work?”
“Very well, or so I should hope.”
Subaru made a strangled noise of frustration.
“Subaru-kun, think about it,” Seishirou said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “We both know that you could’ve given me a run for my money if you’d ever really put your mind to it. And then you would’ve been fighting me and the Tree. Now it’s just the Tree. So you should be able to win. Right?”
“But that’s just blowing it up,” Subaru snapped. “Now I have to imprison it. If I hurt it, it’ll just get more angry. What if I miss and end up shoving you in a tree instead?”
“Subaru-kun. Really.”
“Okay, maybe that was a bit much,” Subaru admitted. “More likely it’ll just fail entirely.”
“Always the optimist, aren’t you.”
“I generally get this way when people ask me to do the impossible, with their lives at stake.”
“You really are worried, aren’t you.”
“Haven’t we already been over this?” Subaru half-yelled.
Seishirou got off the bed, walked over, and knelt next to Subaru, pulling the smaller man into his arms. “I’ll be fine,” he said, trying to sound comforting. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll make a run for it and come up with another plan.”
Subaru mumbled something into Seishirou’s shirt.
“Look, I didn’t come this far to get - how did you get put it? Eaten by my own Tree.”
Subaru managed a weak smile at that. “You do realize that when I’m done, it won’t be your Tree anymore. It’ll be my Tree.”
Seishirou blinked. “Well, I didn’t think of it, but I suppose you’re right.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Having the Tree certainly isn’t doing me any good now, is it?”
“No.”
“Then why would I mind?”
“I just thought I’d check.” Subaru stood and began gathering up the books. “Help me with these, will you?”
Seishirou obligingly began to pick up books. “Are you bringing your entire library?”
“No, just most of it. You wouldn’t want me to miss anything, would you?”
“No, not really.” Seishirou piled the books up on the bed. “You should probably get some clothes.”
“Why? I already changed.”
“In case you fall asleep on my couch again,” Seishirou said.
Subaru looked at him. “Oh, so we’re going back to your place?”
“Unless you had another idea.”
“Well, no.”
“Then apparently we are.”
“Seishirou-san?”
“Nani?”
“You can be irritating sometimes.”
“I know.”
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