I did mention that this would be coming out slowly, right? ::coughs::
Chapter One
True to Hokuto’s word, Seishirou didn’t see much of her for the next few years. In fact, it was five years before he saw hide or hair of any Sumeragi, and then it was just a glimpse of Hokuto as she hurried away from him.
It was as he was walking home from Ueno Park nearly two months after that, that he saw a glimpse of her through a crowd. He hurried to catch up, in dire need of amusement. Really, he was beginning to think that he never should have killed Subaru. Life was so damned boring without him. He should have just killed Hokuto; that probably would’ve gotten an amusing reaction.
But when the person he thought was Hokuto turned, Seishirou saw a definite masculine profile. The jaw was a bit too square, the cheekbones more solid. It did look remarkably like her -- but actually, who it really looked like was Subaru. Same aura, too; he practically screamed ‘Sumeragi.’
“Subaru-kun?” Seishirou asked curiously, knowing that it wasn’t possible, but wanting to see what sort of reaction he’d get.
As he had expected, the figure whirled in its tracks and looked at him, puzzled. “Excuse me?” he asked.
Seishirou paused to examine him, now that he had a good look. No, it wasn’t Subaru, but he could easily imagine that Subaru would have grown up to look like this. A shame he’d never grown up, apparently; this young man was quite the looker. “You’re not Subaru-kun?” he surmised.
“No . . . that was my cousin.” The man’s eyes widened slightly. “I’m sorry, where are my manners? My name is Sumeragi Irishido.” He bowed, though not very deeply. That, at least, was a change from his cousin.
“Very nice to meet you,” Seishirou said, then, testing a theory, added, “I’m Sakurazuka Seishirou. Your cousins may have mentioned me.”
The effect was immediate and impressive. Irishido’s large green eyes went wide, then narrowed. “Yes,” he said, and took a deliberate step back. “I believe Hokuto-chan has mentioned you on several occasions.” His voice, which had been friendly and pleasant, was now rimmed with ice.
Seishirou, naturally, found this very amusing. “I see that she must have. You’re new in Tokyo, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Irishido said warily.
“I presume that your . . . duties as Clan Head brought you here?” Seishirou asked with a charming smile. “That’s most fortuitous. May I walk you home?”
“I’m sure I can manage without an escort,” Irishido said coldly. It was a politely veiled way of saying that he was fully capable of taking care of himself.
Seishirou just kept smiling. “And you don’t want me knowing where you live. As much as it may pain you to acknowledge, I could follow you home just as easily without you even knowing I was there.”
“I think you underestimate me,” Irishido said, drawing himself up to his full height, which put him just a few inches shorter than Seishirou.
Seishirou shrugged. “You aren’t as powerful as Subaru-kun, and I was certainly able to . . . have my way with him, so to speak.”
“So to speak?” Irishido snapped.
“Let me walk you home, ‘Shido-kun,” Seishirou said.
Irishido stiffened. “I would prefer, Sakurazuka-san, that you did not address me so informally.”
“We all have our preferences, Irishido-san,” Seishirou said.
Irishido made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat and started in the other direction. Seishirou hastened to fall into step beside him, the two of them looking for all the world like two friends walking down the street. The biggest difference between Irishido and Subaru, Seishirou mused as they walked, was that his fashion sense hadn’t been influenced by Hokuto. The man was dressed in a button-down shirt and jeans, with a dark brown leather jacket on over the shirt. He appeared very normal, but still looked quite good.
“Have your way with him?” Irishido asked, as they walked.
Seishirou gave Irishido a sly grin. “Well, you didn’t think killing him was all I did to your poor cousin, did you?”
Irishido obligingly turned a bright shade of red. “You’re vulgar,” he said, his voice strained with anger. “And I think Hokuto-chan would correct you.”
Seishirou shrugged. “Hokuto-chan wasn’t with us twenty-four hours a day, as much as she may have liked to be. Besides, she was the one egging me on. I hadn’t planned to make him fall in love with me, but the way she presented it just made the idea so . . . intriguing.”
Irishido snarled something unpleasant and biologically impossible.
Seishirou raised an elegant eyebrow. “You, on the other hand . . . you’re fairly intriguing without any help from Hokuto-chan. You’re foul-mouthed, and you have far more of a spine than my Subaru-kun did.” He gave Irishido a long, appraising glance. “I like that in a man.”
Irishido stopped in his tracks and gaped at him. “You’re not seriously suggesting that -- ”
“Do I look like I’m joking?” Seishirou asked, and lit up a cigarette.
“You look like a child-molesting murderer,” Irishido snapped.
“So cruel, to not even give a man a chance,” Seishirou said.
“You killed my cousin,” Irishido said coldly.
Seishirou shrugged. “He lost his bet with me.”
“Oh?” Irishido looked highly skeptical. “And what bet was that exactly?”
“He had a year to make me feel some sort of human emotion,” Seishirou said with a smile. “Or else I would take his life. He failed to do so, so I killed him.”
“It wasn’t exactly fair, giving him an impossible task,” Irishido said bitterly.
“Would you like a chance to try?” Seishirou asked, amused.
“I’ll pass,” Irishido said. “I have no interest in you. I don’t care whether you feel human emotions or not.”
Seishirou stepped forward slightly. “But you also have to consider that I feel no compunction about killing you right now.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Irishido said coolly.
“What makes you say that?” Seishirou asked.
“You don’t want to listen to one of Hokuto-chan’s shrieking fits, do you?” Irishido asked, and was rewarded by a slight wince. “I thought not. In that case, it wouldn’t be wise to go murdering any more of her relatives.”
“I could kill her,” Seishirou pointed out.
Irishido rolled his eyes. “If you were going to do that, you would have done it years ago.”
Seishirou smirked. “You’re smarter than Subaru-kun, too.”
“I’m not smarter,” Irishido says wearily. “I just have two strong advantages. I’m five years older now than he was then, and I know what you really are.”
“Harsh, Irishido-kun. You wound me.”
“If only it was that easy,” Irishido said. He pushed past Seishirou and disappeared down the street without another word.
~~~~
“You’re quiet today, Irishido-chan,” Hokuto mentioned as she set dinner down on the table. Irishido had only arrived in Tokyo a few days earlier, and Hokuto had offered to let him stay with her for an indefinite amount of time, until he found his own apartment. Irishido was hoping it would be soon; he didn’t mind Hokuto’s company, but when she got snuggly with her intended, Kakyou, it was enough to make anyone ill.
“I’m just not used to Tokyo,” Irishido said. He had debated for an hour whether or not to tell Hokuto about his encounter, but in the end had decided not to. She didn’t need that burdening her, and in any case, he didn’t want to hear her shriek. “It’s so damn loud all the time . . .”
“You’ll adapt,” she said fondly, and ruffled his hair. She had grown up quickly after her brother’s death, and taken on Irishido as something of a project. He was only a few months younger than the twins, and they had grown up close, until they had come to Tokyo.
“Yeah, I know,” Irishido said with a sigh.
He had received less formal training than Subaru, so it had taken the full five years before the Lady Sumeragi had decreed he was ready to come to Tokyo. She, of course, thought it would be a grand idea if he hunted down and killed the Sakurazukamori to get revenge for his cousin. Irishido wasn’t so sure.
Since he had met him, he knew how powerful he was. He didn’t think that he would be capable of beating the man in a fight. He wasn’t even sure Subaru would have been.
Hokuto chattered while they ate; her brother’s death had affected her in many ways, but it hadn’t stopped her from her habit of speaking constantly. “I’m going over to Kyou-chan’s tonight,” she said as she gathered up the dishes. “I’ll see you tomorrow if I’m not back before you’re up!”
“All right,” he said, and smiled at her. He was grateful that she had offered to take him in; he knew that every time she looked at him, she had to think of Subaru. “Have a good time.”
She nodded and smiled and bounced out of the apartment.
Irishido sighed and settled down with a book. He had enrolled in college, but didn’t seriously expect to get any serious education. Still, he felt better if he was trying. He wondered idly if turning down the Sakurazukamori’s ‘offer’, if it could be called that, had been a good idea. It wasn’t as if the man couldn’t kill him at any time -- maybe buying a guaranteed year would have been a good idea.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, staring down at the book without seeing the words.
He couldn’t concentrate.
~~~~
If there was one thing that Hokuto actually didn’t like about Kakyou, it was his tendency to be secretive. She couldn’t really blame him; after being locked away for so long and used for his visions, he didn’t like discussing them with anyone.
She was glad to have him, of course. They had started talking seriously in his Dreamscape after Subaru’s death, and had helped her and comforted her during the longest months of her life. He had also kept her from doing any number of stupid things, like hunting down/challenging/kicking Seishirou.
Eventually, she had managed to find out enough about his family to free him from their tyrannical reign over him. He had been devoted to her ever since. This didn’t make him talkative, however.
“What’s bugging you?” she asked that night, sitting on the sofa with her feet on the footstool. “You’ve been even quieter than usual. Did you See something that bothered you?”
“Aa,” he said. He was sitting beside her, leaning on her with his head on her shoulder. That had been her first clue; Kakyou was not an overly physically affectionate person. He liked to maintain his personal bubble. “I had a Dream last night . . . about your brother.”
Hokuto frowned, staring at him. “How could you have had a Dream about Subaru-kun? He’s dead; he can’t exactly affect the future.”
“I know,” Kakyou said. “It was very strange.”
“Well, what happened?” Hokuto demanded. She normally didn’t ask about Kakyou’s Dreams, but if this one was going to be affecting her so closely, she felt she had the right to know.
“It was a very brief glimpse,” Kakyou said. “At first, it was Irishido-san and the Sakurazukamori . . . they were talking. Then Irishido-san changed, became Subaru-san. And the Dream ended.”
“Became him?” Hokuto frowned. “Like . . . like a spirit possession or something like that?”
“I suppose it must have been,” Kakyou said noncommittally.
“Spirits don’t just come back on their own, not even powerful ones like Subaru-chan’s would be,” Hokuto said. “Someone is going to summon him, do you think?”
“I don’t know,” Kakyou said. “I just know that it’s going to happen.”
Hokuto fell silent.
~~~~
Seishirou was chuckling all the way home. Five years, and he had nearly forgotten how much fun it was to play with a Sumeragi. He was certain that Irishido had been sent to Tokyo, at least in part, to keep watch on him. And claim revenge for his cousin? Seishirou wasn’t so sure about that. Certainly, Irishido could try, but he wouldn’t succeed. He wasn’t as powerful as Subaru had been.
Seishirou would admit that Subaru could have, if given the proper motivation, challenged him equally. And perhaps even won. It would’ve been a tossup, that was for sure. That, in fact, was part of the reason he’d wanted to be sure that Subaru would never have the proper motivation.
But no, Irishido wasn’t powerful enough to challenge him seriously. Seishirou knew -- he had tested to make sure. He had slid into Irishido’s mind as the Sumeragi walked away, and it had been pathetically easy. Irishido hadn’t even noticed. It was obvious that he was nowhere near as powerful as Subaru had been.
And if Seishirou had taken advantage of being able to do so, well, no one could really blame him for manipulating Irishido just the tiniest bit. If he had allowed Irishido to walk away unmolested, then there was a chance he would never have seen him again.
That, for the sake of his sanity, which was slowly being killed by boredom, was unacceptable.
He would see Irishido again.
The Sumeragi wouldn’t be able to help it. He would be drawn to Seishirou like a moth to flame. The marks Seishirou had put on him were nowhere near as strong as the ones he’d put on Subaru; without the physical basis to back it up, they couldn’t be. But the fascination, the same that Subaru had unconsciously felt for Seishirou, that would still be there.
Seishirou smiled as he let himself into his apartment. A satisfied, predatory smile.
This promised to be quite amusing.
~~~~
It was late when Irishido finally went to bed. He had been waiting in the hopes that Hokuto might return. He was beginning to think that maybe not telling her about his meeting the Sakurazukamori hadn’t been a good idea. Sure, she was bound to flip out, but really, she knew far more about the situation than he did.
He had spent most of the evening reading. Subaru’s death had been such a major event in the Clan that plenty of people had looked into the underlying causes. Hokuto had finally put a stop to that. The last note in the book he had read was, “Normally, Subaru-san’s death would not have occurred. According to his sister, it was his personal relationship with the Sakurazukamori that interfered.”
Which was about as clear as mud, from Irishido’s point of view.
It wasn’t that he didn’t know about Subaru’s relationship with Seishirou, though no one had ever come out and said it. But he and Subaru had corresponded regularly before his cousin’s death, and in many of his letters, Subaru referred to his friend Seishirou.
Irishido was not stupid; he had put two and two together easily. Seishirou had not simply killed his cousin; he had broken his heart and rendered him incapable of fighting back. This was what Irishido knew Hokuto had refused to forgive him for. What he, too, would refuse to forgive him for.
Normally, he might not have worried about it too much. Seishirou was his enemy, but Irishido was not stupid enough to want to hunt him down or try to kill him. He knew when he was outgunned, and this was one of those times. Tokyo was a large enough city that avoiding him shouldn’t be a problem.
No, he could avoid Seishirou easily enough. The question was, would Seishirou avoid him?
Irishido suspected otherwise.
The Sakurazukamori hadn’t said anything specific about it, but Irishido just knew that he had something planned. This did not please him in the slightest.
He scowled, tossing and turning in bed. It was stupid to lay there and agonize. He needed sleep. He was going to have work to do in the morning. Lots of work. He needed his rest, he needed . . . needed to stop thinking about the damn Sakurazukamori for five consecutive minutes so he could sleep.
He hurled out a very specific and vulgar curse, before climbing out of bed. The most sensible way to deal with this was to just go, to make it very clear to Seishirou that he didn’t appreciate the intrusion into his life.
Deep down, Irishido was aware that this was not a particularly good idea.
But something was pulling on him, like a magnet. An irresistible force, drawing him. And Irishido, like his cousin, would soon get very good at rationalizing what would not seem reasonable to anyone.
He threw on a button-down shirt over the T-shirt he was sleeping in, and pulled on his jeans over his boxers. Shoes and leather jacket were quickly acquired. He took a taxi to Ueno Park, and stalked to the center.
The Tree was bigger than he had thought it would be, big enough that he thought it would take at least three of himself to be able to encircle it with his arms. Irishido looked at it for a long minute. It seemed to emanate its own source of light; although there were no street lamps in this section of the park, he could see easily enough.
The wind blew stronger, and he shivered, wrapping his coat tightly around himself.
“Konban wa,” a deep voice said, coming from behind him.
Irishido spun around in his tracks to face Seishirou. “Why did you make me come here?” he challenged.
Seishirou shrugged. “Boredom?”
Irishido scowled. “I’m not going to be your little playtoy like my cousin was,” he said, his tone of voice a challenge.
“You already are,” Seishirou said, utterly nonchalant. The wind was not ruffling his clothes or hair in the slightest. He looked impeccable, standing half in shadow so only his good eye was visible.
Irishido turned. “I’m going home.”
The glow began to become brighter, hurting his eyes. He stopped at the edge of it, and knew with the utter certainty that came from being an onmyouji, that if he stepped outside of the circle, something bad would happen. Reluctantly, he turned back and gave Seishirou an expectant look.
“You would turn your back on an assassin?” Seishirou asked mildly.
“From what I recall of the wound you punched through Subaru’s chest, you strike from the front,” Irishido hissed.
“Tsk, tsk.” Seishirou shook his head. “So rude, ‘Shido-kun.”
“WHAT DO YOU WANT OF ME?!”
Seishirou crossed the distance to him impossibly fast, grasping his hand firmly. Irishido shook his head, dazed by the multitude of illusions that Seishirou had woven around him. “I’m so bored,” he said with a soft sigh. “You’ll be my entertainment for a little while, I think.”
Irishido glared up at him, trying to yank his hand away.
“Ne, ‘Shido-kun . . . would you like to make a bet with me?”
Irishido tried again to free himself, but Seishirou’s hand tightened, becoming painful in his grip. The Sumeragi bit his lip, holding back a gasp of pain.
“I could give you the same chance your cousin had . . . is that what you want?”
“Leave me alone,” Irishido ground out through clenched teeth.
Seishirou laughed and leaned forward. His lips were pressed firmly against the Sumeragi’s before he could react, and his grip tightened still more, grinding the bones in his hand together. Irishido bit down hard on Seishirou’s lip and finally managed to pull away.
“You’re fun,” Seishirou said with a soft chuckle, wiping a trickle of blood from his lip.
“I will not be a part of this game,” Irishido said, his voice trembling.
“But it’s already begun,” Seishirou said neutrally. “My marks aren’t on your hands. They aren’t visible. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.”
“What have you done to me?” Irishido whispered.
“Just added a little something to keep the game interesting,” Seishirou said. “One year was the agreement, ne? To make me feel something.”
Irishido’s eyes narrowed, and then he laughed, a mocking tone. “You must be downright desperate, ne, Seishirou-san? You must really want to feel something if you’re willing to go to all this trouble.”
Seishirou turned to him, his expression empty. “You’re the one who said it was an impossible task, ‘Shido-kun.”
And with that, he was gone. Irishido was left shaking underneath the Tree, wondering what he had gotten himself into.
~~~~
“Where have you been?” Hokuto shrieked when Irishido walked into the apartment. “I’ve been worried sick, you know! You didn’t leave a note or anything! Did you have a job? Here, I made you some tea.”
Irishido had to laugh as Hokuto shoved the mug of tea into his hands. Even yelling and shrieking, she was still concerned.
He knew he couldn’t tell her what had happened. Not only would she kill him, it might put her in danger.
“Come on, Irishido-chan,” she said, tugging on his sleeve. “Where were you? What happened?”
“I just went out to get a bit of fresh air, that’s all,” he said, batting at her absently. “I didn’t think I’d be too long.”
She stood back and gave him an unhappy look. “You’re lying.”
“It’s nothing.”
“You’re still lying.”
“Hokuto-chan, I . . . I don’t want to talk about it. Okay?”
“Okay, okay.” She pulled him into a tight embrace. But it only lasted a few seconds before she pulled away, and gave him a funny look. “That smell . . . that smell is familiar. Are you using a new cologne?”
“Huh?” He blinked at her.
“Sei-chan . . .” she murmured. “You smell like him.”
“You remember what he smells like?” Irishido asked incredulously.
“You met him.” It was not a question. More of an unhappy statement. “I knew he wouldn’t leave you alone. You should leave Tokyo. Now.”
“Hokuto-chan, I -- ”
“You won’t go.” She deflated, and slumped into a chair. “He’ll do the same thing to you that he did to Subaru-chan, and I won’t be able to stop him.”
“I won’t let him do that to me,” Irishido said comfortingly. “I feel nothing for him. He won’t trap me the way he did your brother. I’ll be safe.”
“I wonder,” she whispered.
“Look . . .” He rubbed both his hands over his face. “I’m tired. I’ve got to go get some sleep, all right? We can talk this over in the morning?” He didn’t wait to see Hokuto’s nod before departing for the bathroom. He stood and leaned over the sink, breathing deeply.
He looked up into the mirror. Every day of his life, he had been told how much he looked like Subaru. Now, when people looked at him, he could tell they were thinking that this was how Subaru would look if he had lived.
Even Seishirou. Irishido could see it in him.
“What have I gotten myself into?” he murmured. “He doesn’t even see me. I’m just another chance for him to play with his favorite toy.”
His reflection moved with him, but no answers came from the mirror.
“Gods . . .” He closed his eyes. “Someone please help me . . . I don’t know what to do, someone please help me . . .”
He did not really realize that, as an onmyouji, he was not simply praying. He was calling. And Subaru heard.
And answered.
~~~~
Chapter Two
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