Chapter Thirty
By dawn, Seishirou was on the verge of a fullscale nervous breakdown. Subaru decided that it was ridiculous, sat him down, and gave him a stiff shot of brandy. Hisoka was eternally grateful; Seishirou’s panic was wearing badly on his shields and he was worried enough without the man’s help.
Seishirou tried to get the bottle, but Senichi wouldn’t let him have it on the grounds that he had arranged the Clan Council meeting for nine o’clock and it wouldn’t do for Seishirou to show up drunk.
“There a million fucking basements in Tokyo!” Seishirou shouted, when Chimori made the mistake of trying to comfort him. “We’re never going to find him this way!”
Subaru poured him another drink, took one for himself, and then put the bottle away. Seishirou gulped it back, and coughed. “I’m sorry,” he said miserably. “I just don’t know what to do.”
“We go to your Clan. You say what you have to say, we get more people, and we keep looking,” Subaru said.
Seishirou rubbed his eyes. ::Is Seimei still all right?::
::Aa,:: the Tree replied. ::He’s asleep now, so I’ve lost touch with him, but he’ll probably be awake in a few hours.::
::Thank you.:: Seishirou rubbed his eyes again.
::The meeting is nine, that’s four hours. Get at least a little sleep, Seishirou. And shave. You look like death warmed over.::
::Rather appropriate, don’t you think?::
::Yes. Get some rest. You aren’t going to find him in the next four hours anyway, and if you did, you’d collapse on Muraki’s doorstep and he’d blow your head off. Just go to sleep.::
Seishirou didn’t dignify that with a reply, but he looked at the others. “The Tree says I need to nap,” he said, looking pathetic.
Subaru nodded. He helped Seishirou up, dragged him to the bedroom, and pushed him on the bed. Seishirou went with little fuss and allowed Subaru to draw the blankets over him. Subaru went out to make everyone else breakfast; he was quite used to all nighters, being a chronic insomniac. Fujihara had long ago fallen asleep and had been left on Seishirou’s sofa. Teiji was nodding off despite his best efforts, leaning against Senichi. Chimori was slumped into a chair and yawning. Atsuko, who occasionally worked night shift at the hospital, was still wide awake. Senichi was doing almost as well as her. He sent Teiji to go have a nap in Seimei’s bed while the rest of them had breakfast.
The Clan was waiting for them when they got there at ten minutes of nine. It was more members than Seishirou had expected; he realized dimly that Senichi must have called every relative in the book.
He explained the situation, feeling like he was a broken record, and asked for everyone’s help.
Meiri rose. “I regret to announce that Seimei is not a member of this family,” she said. “He has done unforgivable things, and I forbid anyone from going to his aid.”
“What the fuck are you talking about, lady?” Hisoka shoved his way to the front. “Seimei is my best friend, don’t you tell me that you’re just going to let him rot in that pervert’s basement. I know what that man does to people. You don’t fucking scare me. I’m a Shinigami. What are you going to do, kill me? I’m already dead. You are going to take back what you just said, and then we’re going to find Seimei. Got that?”
Meiri just raised an eyebrow at him. “You are not a member of this family. I’m being gracious in even letting you be present,” she snapped.
“You want to know what Muraki is like?” Hisoka asked softly. He reached out and put a hand on her arm. “Why don’t you have a little feel?”
There was a brief pause, then Meiri pulled her arm away. Her eyes were wide with horror.
“That,” Hisoka said, his voice very quiet and very dangerous, “is what Muraki did to me. Would you like to happen to your great-grandson? Hm?”
Meiri drew herself up. Her voice was harsh from shock. “You didn’t have any right to -- ”
Her sentence was abruptly cut off when Seishirou grabbed her by the throat and slammed her up against the wall. He did it so quickly that nobody saw, and nobody had a chance to stop him. Silence fell over the room.
“I have had enough,” Seishirou announced clearly. “This is my son, and I will not allow your grudge against me or my mother to result in harm coming to him. I am sick of your bullshit, and it’s going to end right now. You can hate me and Setsuka’s memory all you want. You can even hate Seimei. But -- ” His voice took on a mocking tone, “I regret to announce that you are no longer the head of this family.”
He dropped her. She slumped to the floor in a heap.
Seishirou turned around. “I am the Sakurazukamori,” he said coldly. “I am the Clan Head. And you’ll all fucking do what I tell you. Okay?”
Senichi bowed slightly. “Of course, Clan Head,” he murmured.
Very slowly, other members started to bow. Meiri managed to haul herself to her feet.
Senichi exchanged looks with both of his siblings. Kaiji had made it home in time for the meeting, and now he walked over to Meiri. “C’mon, ‘kaa-chan,” he said with false cheer. “You want to go have some breakfast? It’s too early for all this administrative stuff, anyway.”
“But -- ” Meiri protested. “I’m -- ”
“Starved, I’m sure.” Kaiji took her by the arm and half-led, half-dragged her out of the room.
Seishirou turned to the others again. He was feeling slightly queasy. “All right,” he finally said. “This is what we’re going to do.”
~~~~
Evening fell. They had searched three quarters of the half hour radius that Seishirou had designated, with no result. Seishirou finally gave in to the inevitable and called Seimei’s mother.
After asking him to repeat it, she took it quite badly. She shrieked, wailed, threw things, and basically did everything that Seishirou had wanted to do. After he finally managed to get her to calm down, he assigned her to one of the search teams.
Seishirou was sitting at the kitchen table with Subaru and Chimori, staring blankly at the wall, when the phone rang. He picked it up, half expecting it to be Muraki trying to taunt him. Subaru listened curiously as he said, “Sakurazuka desu . . . oh, right . . . aa . . . aa . . . tomorrow? Okay . . . that’s fine. Thank you,” and hung up.
“Who was that?” Subaru asked.
“The vet,” Seishirou answered absently. “We have to go pick up Jack tomorrow. He was just a little shocked; nothing too serious.”
Subaru nodded. “That’s good. Seimei will be happy that his dog is -- ” He stopped.
Seishirou looked up. “What’s wrong?”
“I wonder if the dog can find him,” Subaru said suddenly.
Chimori blinked. “Seishirou, you did say that the dog was more of his familiar than his pet . . .”
Seishirou frowned. “I think dogs can only follow traces for about a day,” he finally said. “By the time we pick him up, it’ll be too late.”
“They can smell magic,” Subaru said. “That fades a lot slower than normal scent.”
“Sure,” Seishirou said. “It’s worth a try. What the hell.” He buried his face in his arms.
Subaru scooted his chair over to him and gave him a hug.
Hisoka walked in, looking exhausted. “Tsuzuki went to talk to Tatsumi,” he announced. “See if there’s any way the Shinigami can help. Normally it wouldn’t be our business, but Muraki tends to always be our business.”
“Thank you,” Seishirou said into his arms.
“I think it’s time everyone went to bed,” Subaru announced. Everyone was tired and crabby, and except for the people who had just started looking, they all needed a break.
“I can’t sleep,” Seishirou announced. “Chimori-san, you can have my bed.”
“You should at least try,” Subaru said.
Seishirou shook his head and stood. “I have to go see Kakyou.”
Subaru gave him a look. “Er?”
“Kakyou can see the future in his dreams,” Seishirou said. “If he could get a glimpse of us rescuing him, he might see the outside of the building. It could at least narrow down the search for us.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Subaru said.
“You should stay here and sleep,” Seishirou said. “You didn’t last night.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Subaru said. “Get in the car.”
Seishirou sighed and did what he was told. They arrived at Fuuma, Kakyou, and Nataku’s apartment about twenty minutes later. It was night at this point, and getting late, but not so late that they wouldn’t be up. Seishirou knocked on the door and waited.
Nataku opened it and blinked at them. “Hello,” he finally said.
“Hi, Nataku,” Seishirou said wearily. “Is Kakyou here?”
Nataku nodded and stood back to let them in. “They’re in the bedroom,” he said, pointing. “But the TV is still on, so I don’t think they’re doing bedroom things.”
Seishirou coughed. “Thanks.” He knocked on Kakyou and Fuuma’s door, and Fuuma called for him to come in.
“Yo,” he said, sitting up. He and Kakyou had been lying on the bed watching a movie. “What’s up, Seishirou?”
Seishirou’s mouth worked for a minute, and he forced himself to say it. “I need your help.”
“Really?” Fuuma said, and turned the TV off. He pulled himself into a sitting position. “What’s up?”
Seishirou sank into the one chair in the bedroom. “Subaru-kun . . .” was all he managed.
Subaru, this time, was the one who explained. Fuuma and Kakyou listened in silence.
“Well, you have our sympathies and all, but what am I supposed to do about it?” Fuuma asked. “I mean, I gave you permission to kill him.”
Seishirou took a deep breath. “Kakyou . . . I don’t want to ask you this, because you already hate me and I don’t think this will help, but could you . . . could you Dreamgaze for me? If you could see when we rescued him, you might be able to get some specifics on the building . . . at least enough to narrow down the search.”
“I’ll give it a go,” Kakyou said. “But I’m not guaranteeing anything. And you don’t have to be sorry for asking me.”
Seishirou mumbled something incoherent and rested his head against Subaru.
“And I can’t do it instantaneously,” Kakyou said. “I’ll try, and if I See something, I’ll call.”
“Thank you,” Seishirou said.
Subaru gave Kakyou his cell phone number.
“Now take him home and put him to bed,” Fuuma said, waving at Seishirou. “He looks like total crap.”
Subaru just nodded.
~~~~
Despite all of Subaru’s best efforts, he didn’t manage to get Seishirou to sleep that night. Instead, he spent most of the evening pacing around the apartment. Subaru gave up around three in the morning and went to bed, which was fairly reasonable given that he hadn’t slept at all the previous night.
They started the next day with a lot of coffee. The search had been momentarily postponed while Seishirou waited to see if Jack would be able to help. They were on the way to the vet’s office, with Senichi in the back seat, when Subaru’s cell phone rang.
“Sumeragi desu,” he said, picking up.
“I saw all of you rescuing Seimei,” Kakyou told him.
“Hello to you too, Kakyou-san.” Subaru was tired and feeling especially cranky.
“Right,” Kakyou said.
“Did you see where we were?” Subaru asked. “Can you give us a description of the building at all?”
“I didn’t see the outside of it, no.”
“Then what did you see?” Subaru was in no mood to play guessing games.
“Your beloved boyfriend getting shot,” Kakyou said flatly. “You might want to think about getting him to shape up before you get there.”
Subaru pressed the phone against his ear tightly, as if Seishirou could hear Kakyou. “Elaborate,” he said.
“Seimei was tied to a chair; Muraki was behind him with a knife to his throat. He cut Seimei free, and then shot Seishirou. Basically speaking.”
“And Seishirou-san just stood there?” Subaru asked incredulously.
“Yes. Who are you bringing with you?”
“Just the two of us and Seishirou-san’s uncle, Senichi-san.”
“Well, then, bring a couple other people with you,” Kakyou advised. “That could throw the whole thing off.”
“All right,” Subaru said, though he was quite nervous about this. “Thank you.”
“No problem. Glad to help,” Kakyou said, and hung up.
Subaru put his cell phone away. “So who else do you think we should bring with us?” he asked brightly.
Seishirou glanced at him. “You don’t think the three of us is enough?”
“Kakyou-san Saw you getting your head blown off,” Subaru said flatly. “No, I don’t think it’s enough.”
“Oh,” Seishirou said. And that was all.
“But he also said if we brought more people than we were planning to, that would take care of it.” Subaru didn’t mention that Kakyou had not guaranteed this. He wasn’t giving Seishirou any excuses to get himself killed.
“Let’s ask Tsuzuki,” Seishirou finally said. “He’s powerful enough to fight Muraki.”
“How do we get a hold of them?” Subaru asked, frowning.
“I could try to panic really loudly, if you like,” Seishirou said dryly.
“No, no, I’m okay without that. I was thinking maybe a phone number.”
“They could still be back at my apartment,” Seishirou said. “Everyone’s been in and out all day. And if he’s not, I’m sure Sei-kun wrote his phone number down somewhere. Hisoka’s, I mean, but he’s sharing a hotel with Tsuzuki.”
“I’ll call.” Subaru took his phone out again and dialed Seishirou’s apartment. Atsuko was still at Seishirou’s apartment; Subaru had her find the number and then dialed it. Hisoka wasn’t very pleased with the idea of Tsuzuki accompanying him, but he agreed that they would at least meet them at the place where Seimei had been kidnapped to discuss it.
They agreed on midnight. As tempting as it was to do it right then and there, they were fairly sure that Muraki had been in a car. Jack would need to follow the scent down the center of the road; it wouldn’t do if there was traffic.
For the rest of the day, the search continued, but still with no results. Seishirou managed to crash long enough for a brief nap, so when they met at midnight, he was slightly more alert than he would have been otherwise. The Tree assured them that Seimei was still in one piece and uninjured, if at this point extremely hungry, cold, and unhappy. At least, it told Seishirou, Muraki had been giving him water.
“So how are we doing this?” Hisoka asked, watching Jack strain at the leash Seishirou had him on.
“We’ll follow Jack until he gets there,” Seishirou said. “Then we’re going to go in and rescue Seimei.”
Everyone just gave him a look.
“All right, so I don’t know how,” he snapped.
Subaru explained, briefly, what Kakyou had seen and why they had invited the Shinigami along. They took this in stride, and then Tsuzuki asked thoughtfully, “Were you going to try to get through the wards unnoticed, or just tear them down completely?”
“I should think we’d tear them down,” Senichi said, “or we’ll be unable to work any magic inside.”
“The Tree did,” Subaru said.
“The Tree does whatever the fuck it wants,” Seishirou said. “We don’t pretend to understand how it works. Senichi’s right; we’ll need to tear them down.”
“So he’ll know we’re coming,” Tsuzuki said thoughtfully. He drew something out of his pocket and handed it to Seishirou. Seishirou blinked down at it; it was a crumpled ofuda. “Keep that in your pocket,” Tsuzuki instructed him. “It’s a barrier ofuda.”
“I know what it is,” Seishirou said, looking at it. “I can do these too, you know.”
“Not on the amount of sleep you’ve had,” Tsuzuki said, “or Kakyou-san’s vision would have been quite different, now wouldn’t it.”
Seishirou glared at him, then grudgingly said, “Thanks.”
“Besides,” Tsuzuki said cheerfully, “I have way more oomph than you.”
Hisoka rolled his eyes.
“I’ll go in first,” Seishirou said, and then overrode everyone’s protests by saying, “but you can come with me, unseen. I’ll use an illusion to hide you.”
“I’ll use an illusion to hide us,” Senichi said.
“You guys aren’t letting me do anything,” Seishirou complained.
“Nope,” Subaru said.
“Fine,” Seishirou said with a sigh. Then he knelt next to Jack and said, “I’m going to let you go, but you have to go slowly enough for us to keep up,” he said, and then took off the leash.
Seishirou would’ve sworn that the dog was pouting. It took off at a bolt, then began the normal trick that dogs do when their owners don’t walk fast enough of running ahead, circling back, and running ahead again.
Very fortunately, the building that Jack finally stopped at was only about two hours walk away. They were exhausted enough from that walk. Jack stood by one of the doors and looked at it expectantly, whining in the back of his throat.
The Tree appeared next to them. No dramatics, no puff of smoke or walking out of an alley. He was just suddenly there. “Muraki says you’re to come in alone,” it said dryly.
“Muraki can’t see through illusions, now can he,” Seishirou replied, in a sweet tone that sounded a lot like Setsuka always had before she messily murdered people.
The Tree gave Seishirou a look. “You’re not to fight him. You’ll get yourself killed. Rescue only. Got that?”
Seishirou mumbled something, then nodded agreement.
“Okay then,” the Tree said, and disappeared.
Seishirou stretched his hand out, testing the barrier. “These wards are strong,” he said. “He must have hired one hell of an onmyouji to put them up for him.” He glanced over. “Subaru-kun, would you care to do the honors?” It was his subtle way of saying he was far too tired to do it himself.
“Sure,” Subaru said. He took out a handful of five ofuda and tossed them. They arranged themselves into a star, looking as if it was hanging in midair but in reality resting on the barrier. He put his hand in the center of the star, and the ofuda caught fire. The barrier shattered, and the ashes of the ofuda fell to the ground.
“Well, if he didn’t know we were coming before . . .” Seishirou mumbled.
Tsuzuki turned to Hisoka. “You should probably stay outside.”
Hisoka opened his mouth to protest, then recalled what had happened the last time he had come face to face with Muraki, and nodded. “You should too,” he said. “But I suppose you really can’t.”
Tsuzuki shook his head. “Don’t worry. If all goes well, he won’t even know I’m there.”
Hisoka nodded.
“Watch the dog.” Seishirou put the leash back on Jack and gave it to Hisoka. He looked at Jack distrustfully, but nodded.
Senichi wrapped the illusion around himself, Tsuzuki, and Subaru. They disappeared from sight. Seishirou pushed open the door and went inside. He had known better than to trust on his magic, and was carrying a Browning automatic. This time he had made sure it was loaded. The building resembled a normal house. It took five minutes of quiet searching to find the door to the basement. Seishirou descended halfway down the stairs, then stopped. Thus far, he was still out of sight from the rest of the basement, but if he took one more step, Muraki would see him. Seishirou shrugged and jumped the rest of the way, landing in an easy crouch and spinning to face the rest of the room.
At first he saw only Seimei, tied to a chair in one corner of the room, as Kakyou had described. But as he took a step forward, he realized that Muraki was kneeling behind him. Seishirou stopped dead as he saw the knife at Seimei’s throat.
“Konban wa, Seishirou,” Muraki said, sounding quite cheerful. “It took you long enough to get here.”
“You were quite well hidden,” Seishirou said. He could feel his heart thudding in his chest. He knew that if he said one wrong word, Muraki could -- and would -- slit Seimei’s throat. “What do you want?”
“In general, or specifically?” Muraki asked.
“What do you want of me?” Seishirou repeated. “You told me to come in alone. I can only assume that you have some business with me.”
“Not precisely,” Muraki said. “But I think you’re intelligent enough to realize that the only end goal of this was to get revenge for that sizable hole you tore through my chest.”
Seishirou felt an absurd desire to laugh. “That’s it?” he asked. “You did this because I killed you? What the hell for? You didn’t even stay dead!”
“That’s true,” Muraki said evenly, “but that doesn’t make it a pleasant experience, and I wanted to be sure you had no desire to repeat it.” He pressed the knife against Seimei’s throat.
Seishirou swallowed hard. He knew that there was nothing he could do; even the others couldn’t do anything. They could move unseen, but if Muraki felt their presence near him, he would have no qualms about hurting Seimei on a whim. “All right. At the moment, I have no desire to repeat it. Let my son go.”
“Sorry,” Muraki said. “It isn’t that easy. I’m sure your Tree thinks it was quite clever in convincing me to not hurt Seimei, but in all reality I’d been planning on it anyway. I didn’t want to kill him until you got here.”
Seishirou firmly forced down the urge to panic, and could tell from Seimei’s closed eyes that he was doing the same. “If you kill my son,” he said quietly, “I will kill you. I will find a way, if it takes me the rest of my life, and I will leave it to the rest of my Clan to hunt you down if I don’t manage it in my lifetime. You will never escape from us if you do this. I know how phylacteries work. I don’t know how to beat them yet, but I don’t think it’ll be long before I could find out.” He could feel Subaru’s hand on his arm, reassuring, calming.
Muraki smiled. “So perhaps I won’t kill him,” he said, and turned Seimei’s face towards his. “It would be a waste, after all. Such a pretty boy . . .” He pressed his lips against Seimei’s, keeping the knife held tightly to his throat. Seishirou started forward, then stopped helplessly, his fists clenching at his sides. There was nothing he could do but watch.
“Of course, nowhere near as beautiful as some others,” Muraki said, pulling away slightly, but never moving the knife. Seimei had kept his lips closed and his body perfectly still throughout the entirety of the kiss. “But that’s understandable. However . . . here’s an idea for you, Seishirou.” He smiled cheerfully and pulled the knife away from Seimei’s throat, reversing it and holding it poised over Seimei’s eye. “This seems to be popular in your family.”
Seishirou tried to say something and nearly choked, glad that Seimei’s eyes were still closed. “If you dare -- ” he finally managed.
Muraki said nothing. The threat hung in the air, useless.
“What do you want?” Seishirou finally asked.
“Put down your gun,” Muraki said.
“Why?” Seishirou snapped. “I can’t shoot you. You’re hiding behind him like the coward that you are.”
Muraki just smiled. “It doesn’t matter why. You have to do what I want, or your son is going to be the mirror image of you.”
That startled Seimei into opening his eyes. He saw the knife inches away from his eye and said, “Oh shit.”
“If I do put my gun down, will you let him go?” Seishirou asked, praying to God that Tsuzuki’s barrier would stop bullets. That vision Kakyou had Seen made a lot more sense now. He would put down his gun, Muraki would release Seimei, and then shoot him. And then probably shoot Seimei, just for kicks.
“Yes,” Muraki said. “Put your gun down and then hold out your hands, palms up.”
“You expect me to surrender.” Seishirou again fought the urge to laugh. It all seemed so utterly ridiculous. Here he was, the big and bad Sakurazukamori, unable to keep this lunatic from killing him and his son.
“In a word, yes,” Muraki said, smiling.
Seishirou hesitated. “I want your word that Seimei will leave here unharmed.”
Seimei tried to decide whether or not he should speak. He knew that Muraki would only kill Seishirou if he surrendered, but he didn’t see any other options at the moment.
“You have it,” Muraki replied.
“All right,” Seishirou finally said. He lowered the gun carefully to the ground and stood with his hands out, facing upward.
Muraki smirked. He withdrew the knife from Seimei’s face and used it to cut the ropes. “Go on,” he said to Seimei.
Seimei attempted to stand and nearly fall over. He couldn’t even feel his feet, but he managed to stumble his way over to Seishirou and stand behind him.
“Go upstairs and wait for me,” Seishirou said softly.
Seimei shook his head.
Seishirou paused. He was unsure of whether the ofuda Tsuzuki had given him would set up a general barrier, or would only protect him. It was a chance he couldn’t afford to take. “Do as you’re told,” he said sharply.
“No,” Seimei said, just as sharply.
“Such loyalty,” Muraki said. “It’s quite touching, really.” He took a gun out of his pocket, and aimed it at Seishirou. Seishirou just stood there with a small smile on his face, waiting. Seimei was tugging on the back of his shirt, trying to drag him up the stairs, but Seishirou wouldn’t move.
Muraki fired. The bullet ricocheted off the barrier and imbedded itself into the wall.
“Nice trick,” Seimei said, obviously awed.
Muraki half-smiled. “Tsuzuki-san helped you, I see.” He looked around the room, as if expecting Tsuzuki to melt out of the walls. Senichi smiled and obliged him, dropping the illusion. Muraki was visibly startled, but only for a few seconds. “All of you just to rescue him? I think you overplanned.”
“You can never overplan,” Senichi told him, pulling out a gun of his own; a far more impressive one than Seishirou’s.
Muraki just smiled, and disappeared.
“He took my knife,” Seimei said, feeling numb. “That creep.” The words were cut off as Seishirou pulled him into a tight hug. “Oof,” he said weakly, and hugged back.
“I’ll go tell Hisoka that we’re all right,” Tsuzuki said, and tactfully left the room. Senichi smiled and followed. Subaru stood back and let them have their moment, but he didn’t leave. He was slightly surprised but gratified when Seishirou reached out with one arm and pulled him into the hug too. Subaru hugged back, sliding an arm around Seishirou’s waist.
Seishirou finally managed to let go and took hold of Seimei by the shoulders. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m not dead,” Seimei said, after giving it a moment’s thought.
“Good.” Seishirou took off the button-down shirt he was wearing, leaving only his T-shirt, and offered it to Seimei.
“Oh, good, covering clothing,” Seimei said, accepting it and putting it on. He didn’t bother to button it, but pulled it tightly around himself. He looked doubtfully at the stairs, unsure if he would be able to climb up them with such little circulation to his feet. And legs. And everything. He was also slightly dizzy; he chalked that up to so many days of no food and little sleep.
“Come on, let’s go.” Seishirou picked Seimei up without another word and carried him up the stairs. He had half-expected Seimei to be insulted by this, and was rather surprised when Seimei snuggled into the contact.
Hisoka nearly pounced on them when they came outside. “Are you okay?” he demanded, as Seishirou set Seimei on his feet.
“Very, very stiff,” Seimei answered, and was nearly knocked over as Jack tackled him. “I forgot!” he said, hugging the dog tightly. “He hurt you!”
“Jack is fine,” Seishirou said, floofing Seimei’s hair.
“Oh,” Seimei said. He felt vaguely detached, not even running on half cylinder. “Okay.”
“C’mon, let’s get you home,” Seishirou said, putting an arm around his shoulders. They walked to the nearest main street, only about five minutes away, and flagged down a taxi. Hisoka and Tsuzuki got one for themselves and went with them.
Misako grabbed Seimei as soon as he walked in the door and gave him a huge hug. “You’re grounded!” she announced.
“It wasn’t my fault,” Seimei protested.
“I don’t care! If you stay home, you can’t get in trouble, so you’re grounded!”
“I have to agree with her,” Seishirou said. “You’re grounded even after you die.” He nodded seriously. And came close to falling over.
“Dad, I think you should take a nap,” Seimei said.
“Shut up,” Seishirou said, and hugged him again.
Senichi went into the kitchen and came out later with a bowl of rice and a mug of tea. “Here,” he said, handing it to Seimei. “Eat that, then get some sleep, and you can have a real breakfast in the morning.”
Seimei took a minute to recall how chopsticks worked, then began to eat with abandon. In the meantime, Subaru shooed Seishirou off to bed. He was asleep practically before Subaru managed to get the blankets over him.
Seimei finished the rice and tried to insist on washing the bowl, but Senichi took it away from him. “You need to get some sleep,” Misako said sternly, and pushed him in the direction of Seishirou’s bedroom. Seimei toddled off obediently and crawled into bed with Seishirou, curling up next to him. Jack climbed up onto the bed (strictly against all rules) and lay down at Seimei’s feet. Through all this, Seishirou didn’t even twitch except to toss a careless arm around Seimei’s waist.
“That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” Senichi announced in a wondering tone, peeking inside.
“Yeah, I think it’s a Kodak moment,” Subaru said. “Anyone have a camera?”
Fortunately for Seishirou, no one did.
“Well,” Senichi said with a yawn, “I’m going home. Teiji will kill me if I don’t wake him up and tell him that Seimei-kun’s all right.”
“We’re going too,” Hisoka said wearily. “We’ll come by tomorrow morning to check on them.”
They left, leaving Misako and Subaru blinking at each other, wondering who got to share the bed with Seishirou and Seimei.
“Hi,” Subaru said. “I’m Sumeragi Subaru, the other woman.”
Misako laughed. “Nice to meet you. Flip you for it?”
“Sure. I’ll take heads.”
It came up tails. Misako adjourned gratefully to the bedroom and flopped over next to Seimei. Subaru shrugged and fell onto the sofa.
~~~~
No one was really up and around the next day until afternoon. Subaru generally didn’t get up before eleven in any case. Seishirou and Seimei both slept nearly until two. Misako was up the earliest, and after taking Jack for a walk, cooked lunch for everyone. Senichi and Teiji were there by noon; Senichi announced that he had called everyone the night before and told them that Seimei had been found and they could all stop worrying.
There was a Clan meeting that afternoon at four. Seimei was somewhat apprehensive about this, not knowing what had transpired between Seishirou and Meiri. It didn’t help that Senichi wouldn’t tell either of them what it was about.
As it turned out, it was nothing more frightening than the formal acknowledgment of Seishirou as Clan Head. Apparently Senichi had decided to not give Seishirou time to back out of his decision. Seishirou gave him a look that would have wilted flowers, but went through with it anyway. Seimei was confused.
It wasn’t until afterwards, when everyone was standing around talking, that Teiji risked his wrath and told him what had happened.
Seimei was rightfully indignant that Meiri had tried to get him killed, but was also quite glad that Seishirou had kicked her ass.
Senichi offered to take Seishirou around the compound to look at the few unoccupied houses. Seishirou agreed, on the condition that they could wait to get Misako’s opinion before giving a final word. Subaru had come along for the ride, so he was invited to go with them.
They were about to leave when Seishirou felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and looked at Meiri coldly. “Yes?”
“I know how to kill Muraki,” she said flatly.
“And are you going to tell me, or taunt me with it?” Seishirou asked.
Her lips thinned for a minute in a humorless smile. “I was going to tell you, if you’d be willing to listen. I know I can’t make amends for what I did, but I thought perhaps that this would keep you from killing me.”
“I never had any plans to kill you,” Seishirou said, honestly enough.
She just shrugged. “If you kill Muraki, his soul will revert to the phylactery. At all other times, it resides in his body, though his life force resides constantly in the phylactery. What you must do is kill him, with the Sumeragi present. He can track the soul back to the phylactery and locate it. Then, if it isn’t far, you can destroy it. If it is, you can find him again, and the Sumeragi should be able to bind his soul to his body when it tries to escape to the phylactery. You should be able to pull his life force from the phylactery and bind it to the soul. Then, if you kill him, the Sumeragi should be able to keep it in the body while you do so, and force it to move on properly.”
Seishirou considered this all for a long minute. It would involve actually managing to kill Muraki twice, which was no easy feat, but it was possible. “Thank you,” he finally said.
“It was my pleasure,” she said, a bitter smile twisting her lips. “Clan Head.” She turned to walk away.
“All I wanted was your acceptance,” Seishirou said to her back. “I didn’t even want your forgiveness. I just wanted you to let me be a member of the Clan. Of my family. But you couldn’t even let me have that, could you.”
“No,” she agreed. “I couldn’t.”
And she walked away.
Seishirou turned around and saw Seimei looking at him. “You shouldn’t eavesdrop,” he said. “It’s unbecoming.”
“She already thinks I’m some sort of rodent that crawled out from underneath the pantry,” Seimei said. “I don’t think this can hurt my image any.”
“True,” Seishirou said. “Whatever possessed you to come here and tell her off, anyway?”
“Righteous indignation on your behalf?” Seimei guessed.
Seishirou sighed. “Let’s go look at houses.”
~~~~
Fortunately for everyone, the rest of the week passed in peace. Seishirou found out that technically he was supposed to have the best house on the compound, but didn’t feel up to the battle that would be necessary to displace Meiri. So he chose a moderately sized one on the outskirts of the compound, fairly far away from Meiri, with three bedrooms, enough space for both Misako and Subaru to have offices (though Subaru’s was more of a ‘hiding from everyone else’ room), and a big yard. Everyone was pleased. Especially Seimei. All their things were moved by the end of the week, including Subaru’s. He left a fair number of things in his old apartment, stating that he knew there were days when he just wasn’t going to want to deal with Seishirou and therefore was keeping his apartment.
“Nothing personal,” he assured Seishirou, who was giving him puppy dog eyes. “There’s just days I don’t want to deal with anyone.”
“You’re sure?” Seishirou asked.
Subaru just kissed him, and then dragged him off to christen their new room.
Everything seemed to be going very well. Kamui and the other Seals continued to effectively ignore Hinoto’s plans on the reassurance that they could get their information from Seishirou. There were a few minor skirmishes, but nothing big.
On the whole, Hisoka and Tsuzuki were getting bored. Still, it was a refreshing change to have an easy mission, especially given that they were trying to figure out how to date. Neither of them were very good at it, but it consisted of a lot of Tsuzuki dragging Hisoka to restaurants for dessert. Hisoka just smiled and went along with it, because he really didn’t care what they did, as long as they did it together.
It was nearly a week after Seimei’s rescue when there was a knock on their door.
Tsuzuki stood up and went to answer it, leaving Hisoka vegetating in front of the television. He opened it to see a tall man with long black hair, and narrow, dark eyes. He smiled when Tsuzuki opened the door. “Asato,” he said pleasantly.
Tsuzuki’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth and stammered something unintelligible. Finally, he managed one word. “T-Takeshi . . .”
Takeshi reached out a hand to touch Tsuzuki’s face. “I missed you.”
~~~~~
Chapter Thirty-One
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