[marland]
AS PETALS OPEN TO THE SUN
by aloranteriel
I. Tightly Closed Bud
"I am Subaru Sumeragi, head of the Sumeragi clan. You called for an onmyouji about a case of possession?" Subaru asked politely after the couple introduced themselves.
"You look so young. Little older than our Hikaru."
He was glad that Hokuto was in one of her more restrained moods. His outfit was a cardigan sweater and slacks both of dark emerald green and he had left the beret that went with it at home, by accident.
A good thing…they're such normal people…
The house was neat in a worn lived-in way. The living room's furniture had nicks and smudges of wear and a few dog-eared magazines were on a coffee table. The floor was polished but scuffed. The kind of house a normal family would live in.
Hokuto's fashion sense isn't what would inspire confidence…
"I've been trained since I could walk, Ma'am." Subaru left out his age, he knew it was better not to say it out loud and confirm their doubts.
"Hikaru will be here soon."
"So, Shindou-san, can you tell me anything about this case of possession?"
"Mitsuko?" Shindou-san asked his wife.
"It started six months ago when Hikaru fainted at my father's attic. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with him
so he was sent home. After a month, I noticed that Hikaru had changed. He talked to himself often and Akari said that he had lost interest in soccer and was playing Go."
Subaru already knew that Hikaru was the couple's thirteen-year-old son.
"Any objects moving or things mysteriously being destroyed?" Subaru's cases were usually not as tame as this.
Probably a case of simple possession or maybe even Hikaru-san just changing interests…
People changed, though Subaru wasn't quite sure about how that happened. There was no law against that. The Shindous
were paying him regardless but it rubbed him wrong to accept payment when he didn't do anything to merit it.
"No, that's all."
"Mom, I'm home!" A boy banged into the house, he had green eyes and blond bangs, and incidentally, followed by a ghost. He was wearing baggy shorts and a T-shirt like most of the teenagers Subaru had seen outside the school.
That answers the question, it's possession then…
"Who's this?" This boy was pretty rude.
"This is Subaru Sumeragi. He would like to talk to you alone." Shindou-san interpreted Subaru's nod and hand wave correctly.
xxx
"What do you want?" Hikaru asked it wasn't all that rude as Subaru thought it would, coming from the half-blond boy. There was a careless friendliness in the boy that even Subaru could see.
Just very blunt, so maybe I should be as blunt about why I'm here.
"Your friend should be moving on. It's not good for the dead to linger in this world."
"Hey, you can see him?" Hikaru smiled at him brightly.
"I was called in to make him move on. I'm an onmyouji."
xxx
What does he mean by that Sai?
Hikaru was better now at thinking towards Sai instead of mumbling at him and causing people around him to worry or stare at him as if he was crazy.
-He drives evil spirits away from those who've been possessed. Those of Sumeragi clan are the most powerful of them all. In my time, they served the Emperor as His spiritual right hand.-
Sai almost moaned the last few words. It was obvious that he knew what onmyouji were and was afraid of the other boy.
Evil spirits…possessed… Wait, to make him move on?
"Hey, wait a minute. Who says that Sai needs to move on? And he's not evil…"
The other boy didn't acknowledge what Hikaru said, he held out a piece of paper in front of him and started to chant. Hikaru suddenly felt a tingle like he was plugged into an electric socket. Inexplicably, he felt something pull loose in him.
Got to stop him! If he succeeds…if he succeeds then Sai would never reach the Hand of God like he wants to and I…
Sai might have been a pest at first; forever nagging him about Go but he had become a friend to Hikaru. How dear a friend, he didn't know until this moment.
I have to do something!
What, Hikaru didn't know. This beyond anything he'd ever experienced. He could feel the link with Sai slipping away. Instinctively, he tried to grab onto it, holding fast. Everything pulsed with a light that grew brighter and brighter until it dissolved into one white blur. Then with a flash, it was gone and the world returned, clear and sharp-edged.
Whoa!
Hikaru had only time for that thought before he rushed to catch the other boy who was falling backwards in a faint.
xxx
Where am I?
The ceiling that steadied into view was a faded cream color, not the cheerful yellow Hokuto favored. He looked around. The
room was relatively neat except for a mess of disc cases and comic books surrounding a short shelf. Papers were scattered around the desk. A few clothes were haphazardly tossed in a basket, some missing. A few papers were also in the night table beside the bed. Posters of anime characters and soccer players covered the walls.
A case…the ghost…
Subaru tried to rise but the room spun around him.
Backlash. I've got to get to Hikaru-san, who knows what that ghost will do?
"Oi, are you all right?"
Hikaru-san? So I did succeed?
But when Subaru looked up, he could still see it, floating just over Hikaru's shoulder.
What? He didn't try to harm me while I was unconscious?
"I dunno what happened but you hit your head a little when you fainted so I brought you here to my room."
"Why did you…"
"Why did I what? Anyway, I think I should have introduced you to him in the first place. Sumeragi-san this is Fujiwara
no Sai, Sai, Subaru Sumeragi."
Fujiwara no Sai? Fujiwara NO Sai?
Finally, Subaru really looked at the ghost that he had tried to banish and see it for the first time. The ghost wore a childish earnest expression over a robe that could have come from straight from the Heian era. A tall hat capped the ensemble.
"He used to be one of the Emperor's Go teachers but the other Go teacher tricked him into disgrace. Being banned from playing Go ever, he killed himself. He's very friendly." The boy's tone was toned to be soothing.
A very old ghost…at least about a thousand years old, but why is he still sane…
"It is my job to exorcise ghosts. Ghosts slowly deteriorate over time and go insane if they are tied to long to this world."
"But Sai's at least a thousand years old."
"It's really not healthy for ghosts to linger, but he might be a special case. I'll need to research this."
"I still won't let you, Sai's my friend, even so." There was a stubborn set to the other boy's chin.
"Hikaru-san, you don't want him to be destroyed forever, do you?"
"I…"
"That is the fate of ghosts who don't move on."
The ghost seemed to say something to Hikaru. Subaru can see the ghost's lips move but could not hear whatever it was he was saying.
"Sai says I should trust you. You can see him though so you probably know already." Hikaru said grudgingly.
"I can't hear him though."
"You can't?"
"And you can? That might be important. How long has he been with you, Hikaru-san?"
"Since I fainted."
"You must have some onmyoudo in you then for him to bind to you."
"Well, I was the only one to see the bloodstains on the Go board so maybe that's it?"
"Go Board?"
That's how Hikaru ended up explaining the whole thing to Subaru. About finding the bloodstained Shusaku Go Board and fainting in his grandfather's attic after the shock of seeing a ghost and what happened afterwards.
"I'd be interested to look at that board."
"I'll take you to Grandpa's then, this weekend." There was still some lingering doubt in Hikaru's eyes but Subaru knew that he would do as he promised.
Meanwhile, I might as well make my excuses and go to Kyoto and check the clan library…
This was a job after all and it took precedence over school.
I'm never going to get good enough marks to go the vet school at this rate…
But then, that was a distant and impossible dream anyway.
II. The Sun
"So this is the board?"
Sai…
Hikaru nodded, he didn't quite trusting his voice at the moment. Sai had told him to trust Subaru-kun to know what he was doing but still it was hard.
Still, what Sai needs…
Subaru brushed his hand along the wood and murmured and the room felt tingly for a moment.
"Congratulations, Hikaru-san, it is all clear. Sai has a purpose and it hasn't been fulfilled yet." Subaru smiled at Hikaru and his heartbeat slowed down to normal. He didn't even realize how fast it had been going.
"All right!" Hikaru said, punching the air in his enthusiasm.
"I must teach you onmyoujitsu though, you seem to have the talent for it and it doesn't stop someone from taking him from you if they have the power."
"Of course, I'm willing to learn. When do we start?"
xxx
"This is haaaaaaarrrd." Hikaru whined while Sai talked to him soothingly, fluttering about beside him as he lay on the bed with the sample ofuda in front of him.
“Think of it as…kifu, Hikaru-san.” Subaru suggested helpfully from where he sat, quite properly on the only chair in the room.
I never thought anyone our age could be so…stiff…He’s even worse than Touya before…
“There’s no logic to this if it were kifu, and it’s just Hikaru. Not Hikaru-san or Hikaru-kun.” The squiggles and strokes refused to make sense to Hikaru’s untrained eye. This was only his first lesson though and Subaru had reassured him that he would get the hang of it.
“All right, Hikaru.”
“So proper, can’t you say ‘Okay’ or something like that?”
“Sorry.”
And he apologizes for the littlest things. Hmmm, I wonder…
“No need to apologize. Just thought you needed to loosen up some. I know! How about hanging around with me for a few times?” Hikaru knew that he might need to do a bit of fast talking as to how they met if he were to introduce the other boy to his friends but he thought it well worth the effort. Subaru needed to go out some more and meet people that were not his sister.
Or that creepy vet! He reminds me of Ogata, all slick and oozing with danger.
‘Seishirou-san’ drove Subaru to their lesson today and Hikaru’s mind automatically said “Chicken hawk!” at the sight of him.
"All-Okay, when my duties permit.”
“That’s better.”
Subaru’s tentative smile was more than worth the effort.
Now, what was this symbol again?”
III. Slow and Steady Unfurling
“So Hikaru says that you’re an onmyouji, Sumeragi? Is that like voodoo or something?” Waya asked. The redhead wore very casual clothing, jeans, T-shirt and a denim jacket. Subaru was hard put to think he was a Go professional and just out of the Institute after a tournament game. His loud brash voice barely registered over the noise of the after school rush at the McDonald’s they chose to meet in.
“Waya!” Isumi said, horrified. He was the more conventional kind, wearing slacks and a pullover sweater.
Hikaru smiles at Subaru reassuringly as he explains onmyoujitsu to Hikaru’s friends.
“So you already work? Why are you still going to high school then?” Subaru knew that these Go pros have ditched high school in favor of going professional, they were that sure.
Sometimes I wish I knew my own mind just as well, I still want to be a vet so I go to school with hope but I already have work, important work, work that my parents did and my grandparents did before that and before that even…ditched? I think I’ve been hanging around Hikaru too long…
“Some people value their education. You can’t be expected to understand.” It was a shorter and younger boy with a bowl cut and glasses who answered, he had just come from the queue.
“Ochi, I don’t see you in high school!”
“But Touya-san is.”
“Touya…Touya…Touya…don’t you have anything else to say but?”
Subaru felt a lightness he never felt before as he listened to banter and contributed whenever he felt like it. Hikaru had
explained to him that he didn’t need to say anything he didn’t feel like it and it felt very freeing.
Almost like I have my own friends, maybe, just maybe…
If he ‘hung around’ these people, they would become his real friends. It was a novel thought. He never got involved with anyone from his cases before.
And Seishirou-san and oneesan is very different.
They both teased Subaru and treated him with concern you would give someone who could not take care of himself. They were not ‘friends’ in the sense of equals.
“Subaru, do you want some more fries?”
“Sure.” He smiled at Hikaru, though the question still rang in his mind.
Why do I go to high school anyway? When my marks will never be good enough to be a vet because of all the days I had to skip for work?
xxx
“Touya-san, a question, if you please?” Subaru asked quietly as he was lead into the traditional home. The sliding doors of wood reminded him of the Sumeragi House in Kyoto and suddenly he was much more ill at ease with the question he wanted to ask.
“What is it, Sumeragi?” Touya Akira has always been somewhat prim and proper, more so than Hikaru’s other friends. It was obvious that he was surprised to see Subaru but was too polite not to offer tea, though there was an almost belligerent edge to the question.
Hikaru’s influence…
Subaru was almost amused but still felt uncomfortable. He looked down at the tea for one long moment.
“Have you ever doubted that you wanted to play Go all your life? For work I mean?” Subaru asked, quietly, raising his green eyes to meet Touya’s.
When Subaru had asked Hikaru about leaving soccer for Go, Hikaru had answered that Go had been more important. He said “I never questioned about wanting soccer until I played Go with Touya and slowly I found Go better so I went with Go”. But Hikaru didn’t come from a traditional family with a hereditary occupation and Subaru was still at a loss to his question.
Another uneasy silence, this time it was Touya’s turn to stare into his tea.
“Never. I’ve never doubted it.” It was obvious that Touya was a little put off by the personal nature of the question--since they have barely spoken with each other--but decided to answer it anyway.
“Never? So you like Go that much? Pardon me if this is getting too personal.” It was late but Subaru had been unsettled enough by the house.
“I think that even if my father didn’t play Go before me, I would still want to play Go. Sumeragi, do you feel that way about onmyoujitsu?”
“Well…it’s a necessary occupation.” It was Subaru’s turn to go on the defensive.
“I suppose…that you would want to think about it.”
“Thank you for your time, Touya-san.”
“That’s what friends are for, as Shindou would say.” Touya said with only a minimum of stiffness, earning him a genuine smile of gratitude from Subaru.
We are friends now, aren’t we? So…what do I feel that way about onmyoujitsu?
The question echoed through Subaru’s mind as he took the train downtown to his and his sister’s apartment.
Maybe, I will see about taking more effort about making up for my studies, and maybe a correspondence course or a light load in animal medicine when I get to college? And I should allow time for “hanging out” with class=SpellE>Hikaru and his friends…my friends now…
Slowly but surely, a flower opens to the sun.
by aloranteriel
I. Tightly Closed Bud
"I am Subaru Sumeragi, head of the Sumeragi clan. You called for an onmyouji about a case of possession?" Subaru asked politely after the couple introduced themselves.
"You look so young. Little older than our Hikaru."
He was glad that Hokuto was in one of her more restrained moods. His outfit was a cardigan sweater and slacks both of dark emerald green and he had left the beret that went with it at home, by accident.
A good thing…they're such normal people…
The house was neat in a worn lived-in way. The living room's furniture had nicks and smudges of wear and a few dog-eared magazines were on a coffee table. The floor was polished but scuffed. The kind of house a normal family would live in.
Hokuto's fashion sense isn't what would inspire confidence…
"I've been trained since I could walk, Ma'am." Subaru left out his age, he knew it was better not to say it out loud and confirm their doubts.
"Hikaru will be here soon."
"So, Shindou-san, can you tell me anything about this case of possession?"
"Mitsuko?" Shindou-san asked his wife.
"It started six months ago when Hikaru fainted at my father's attic. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with him
so he was sent home. After a month, I noticed that Hikaru had changed. He talked to himself often and Akari said that he had lost interest in soccer and was playing Go."
Subaru already knew that Hikaru was the couple's thirteen-year-old son.
"Any objects moving or things mysteriously being destroyed?" Subaru's cases were usually not as tame as this.
Probably a case of simple possession or maybe even Hikaru-san just changing interests…
People changed, though Subaru wasn't quite sure about how that happened. There was no law against that. The Shindous
were paying him regardless but it rubbed him wrong to accept payment when he didn't do anything to merit it.
"No, that's all."
"Mom, I'm home!" A boy banged into the house, he had green eyes and blond bangs, and incidentally, followed by a ghost. He was wearing baggy shorts and a T-shirt like most of the teenagers Subaru had seen outside the school.
That answers the question, it's possession then…
"Who's this?" This boy was pretty rude.
"This is Subaru Sumeragi. He would like to talk to you alone." Shindou-san interpreted Subaru's nod and hand wave correctly.
xxx
"What do you want?" Hikaru asked it wasn't all that rude as Subaru thought it would, coming from the half-blond boy. There was a careless friendliness in the boy that even Subaru could see.
Just very blunt, so maybe I should be as blunt about why I'm here.
"Your friend should be moving on. It's not good for the dead to linger in this world."
"Hey, you can see him?" Hikaru smiled at him brightly.
"I was called in to make him move on. I'm an onmyouji."
xxx
What does he mean by that Sai?
Hikaru was better now at thinking towards Sai instead of mumbling at him and causing people around him to worry or stare at him as if he was crazy.
-He drives evil spirits away from those who've been possessed. Those of Sumeragi clan are the most powerful of them all. In my time, they served the Emperor as His spiritual right hand.-
Sai almost moaned the last few words. It was obvious that he knew what onmyouji were and was afraid of the other boy.
Evil spirits…possessed… Wait, to make him move on?
"Hey, wait a minute. Who says that Sai needs to move on? And he's not evil…"
The other boy didn't acknowledge what Hikaru said, he held out a piece of paper in front of him and started to chant. Hikaru suddenly felt a tingle like he was plugged into an electric socket. Inexplicably, he felt something pull loose in him.
Got to stop him! If he succeeds…if he succeeds then Sai would never reach the Hand of God like he wants to and I…
Sai might have been a pest at first; forever nagging him about Go but he had become a friend to Hikaru. How dear a friend, he didn't know until this moment.
I have to do something!
What, Hikaru didn't know. This beyond anything he'd ever experienced. He could feel the link with Sai slipping away. Instinctively, he tried to grab onto it, holding fast. Everything pulsed with a light that grew brighter and brighter until it dissolved into one white blur. Then with a flash, it was gone and the world returned, clear and sharp-edged.
Whoa!
Hikaru had only time for that thought before he rushed to catch the other boy who was falling backwards in a faint.
xxx
Where am I?
The ceiling that steadied into view was a faded cream color, not the cheerful yellow Hokuto favored. He looked around. The
room was relatively neat except for a mess of disc cases and comic books surrounding a short shelf. Papers were scattered around the desk. A few clothes were haphazardly tossed in a basket, some missing. A few papers were also in the night table beside the bed. Posters of anime characters and soccer players covered the walls.
A case…the ghost…
Subaru tried to rise but the room spun around him.
Backlash. I've got to get to Hikaru-san, who knows what that ghost will do?
"Oi, are you all right?"
Hikaru-san? So I did succeed?
But when Subaru looked up, he could still see it, floating just over Hikaru's shoulder.
What? He didn't try to harm me while I was unconscious?
"I dunno what happened but you hit your head a little when you fainted so I brought you here to my room."
"Why did you…"
"Why did I what? Anyway, I think I should have introduced you to him in the first place. Sumeragi-san this is Fujiwara
no Sai, Sai, Subaru Sumeragi."
Fujiwara no Sai? Fujiwara NO Sai?
Finally, Subaru really looked at the ghost that he had tried to banish and see it for the first time. The ghost wore a childish earnest expression over a robe that could have come from straight from the Heian era. A tall hat capped the ensemble.
"He used to be one of the Emperor's Go teachers but the other Go teacher tricked him into disgrace. Being banned from playing Go ever, he killed himself. He's very friendly." The boy's tone was toned to be soothing.
A very old ghost…at least about a thousand years old, but why is he still sane…
"It is my job to exorcise ghosts. Ghosts slowly deteriorate over time and go insane if they are tied to long to this world."
"But Sai's at least a thousand years old."
"It's really not healthy for ghosts to linger, but he might be a special case. I'll need to research this."
"I still won't let you, Sai's my friend, even so." There was a stubborn set to the other boy's chin.
"Hikaru-san, you don't want him to be destroyed forever, do you?"
"I…"
"That is the fate of ghosts who don't move on."
The ghost seemed to say something to Hikaru. Subaru can see the ghost's lips move but could not hear whatever it was he was saying.
"Sai says I should trust you. You can see him though so you probably know already." Hikaru said grudgingly.
"I can't hear him though."
"You can't?"
"And you can? That might be important. How long has he been with you, Hikaru-san?"
"Since I fainted."
"You must have some onmyoudo in you then for him to bind to you."
"Well, I was the only one to see the bloodstains on the Go board so maybe that's it?"
"Go Board?"
That's how Hikaru ended up explaining the whole thing to Subaru. About finding the bloodstained Shusaku Go Board and fainting in his grandfather's attic after the shock of seeing a ghost and what happened afterwards.
"I'd be interested to look at that board."
"I'll take you to Grandpa's then, this weekend." There was still some lingering doubt in Hikaru's eyes but Subaru knew that he would do as he promised.
Meanwhile, I might as well make my excuses and go to Kyoto and check the clan library…
This was a job after all and it took precedence over school.
I'm never going to get good enough marks to go the vet school at this rate…
But then, that was a distant and impossible dream anyway.
II. The Sun
"So this is the board?"
Sai…
Hikaru nodded, he didn't quite trusting his voice at the moment. Sai had told him to trust Subaru-kun to know what he was doing but still it was hard.
Still, what Sai needs…
Subaru brushed his hand along the wood and murmured and the room felt tingly for a moment.
"Congratulations, Hikaru-san, it is all clear. Sai has a purpose and it hasn't been fulfilled yet." Subaru smiled at Hikaru and his heartbeat slowed down to normal. He didn't even realize how fast it had been going.
"All right!" Hikaru said, punching the air in his enthusiasm.
"I must teach you onmyoujitsu though, you seem to have the talent for it and it doesn't stop someone from taking him from you if they have the power."
"Of course, I'm willing to learn. When do we start?"
xxx
"This is haaaaaaarrrd." Hikaru whined while Sai talked to him soothingly, fluttering about beside him as he lay on the bed with the sample ofuda in front of him.
“Think of it as…kifu, Hikaru-san.” Subaru suggested helpfully from where he sat, quite properly on the only chair in the room.
I never thought anyone our age could be so…stiff…He’s even worse than Touya before…
“There’s no logic to this if it were kifu, and it’s just Hikaru. Not Hikaru-san or Hikaru-kun.” The squiggles and strokes refused to make sense to Hikaru’s untrained eye. This was only his first lesson though and Subaru had reassured him that he would get the hang of it.
“All right, Hikaru.”
“So proper, can’t you say ‘Okay’ or something like that?”
“Sorry.”
And he apologizes for the littlest things. Hmmm, I wonder…
“No need to apologize. Just thought you needed to loosen up some. I know! How about hanging around with me for a few times?” Hikaru knew that he might need to do a bit of fast talking as to how they met if he were to introduce the other boy to his friends but he thought it well worth the effort. Subaru needed to go out some more and meet people that were not his sister.
Or that creepy vet! He reminds me of Ogata, all slick and oozing with danger.
‘Seishirou-san’ drove Subaru to their lesson today and Hikaru’s mind automatically said “Chicken hawk!” at the sight of him.
"All-Okay, when my duties permit.”
“That’s better.”
Subaru’s tentative smile was more than worth the effort.
Now, what was this symbol again?”
III. Slow and Steady Unfurling
“So Hikaru says that you’re an onmyouji, Sumeragi? Is that like voodoo or something?” Waya asked. The redhead wore very casual clothing, jeans, T-shirt and a denim jacket. Subaru was hard put to think he was a Go professional and just out of the Institute after a tournament game. His loud brash voice barely registered over the noise of the after school rush at the McDonald’s they chose to meet in.
“Waya!” Isumi said, horrified. He was the more conventional kind, wearing slacks and a pullover sweater.
Hikaru smiles at Subaru reassuringly as he explains onmyoujitsu to Hikaru’s friends.
“So you already work? Why are you still going to high school then?” Subaru knew that these Go pros have ditched high school in favor of going professional, they were that sure.
Sometimes I wish I knew my own mind just as well, I still want to be a vet so I go to school with hope but I already have work, important work, work that my parents did and my grandparents did before that and before that even…ditched? I think I’ve been hanging around Hikaru too long…
“Some people value their education. You can’t be expected to understand.” It was a shorter and younger boy with a bowl cut and glasses who answered, he had just come from the queue.
“Ochi, I don’t see you in high school!”
“But Touya-san is.”
“Touya…Touya…Touya…don’t you have anything else to say but?”
Subaru felt a lightness he never felt before as he listened to banter and contributed whenever he felt like it. Hikaru had
explained to him that he didn’t need to say anything he didn’t feel like it and it felt very freeing.
Almost like I have my own friends, maybe, just maybe…
If he ‘hung around’ these people, they would become his real friends. It was a novel thought. He never got involved with anyone from his cases before.
And Seishirou-san and oneesan is very different.
They both teased Subaru and treated him with concern you would give someone who could not take care of himself. They were not ‘friends’ in the sense of equals.
“Subaru, do you want some more fries?”
“Sure.” He smiled at Hikaru, though the question still rang in his mind.
Why do I go to high school anyway? When my marks will never be good enough to be a vet because of all the days I had to skip for work?
xxx
“Touya-san, a question, if you please?” Subaru asked quietly as he was lead into the traditional home. The sliding doors of wood reminded him of the Sumeragi House in Kyoto and suddenly he was much more ill at ease with the question he wanted to ask.
“What is it, Sumeragi?” Touya Akira has always been somewhat prim and proper, more so than Hikaru’s other friends. It was obvious that he was surprised to see Subaru but was too polite not to offer tea, though there was an almost belligerent edge to the question.
Hikaru’s influence…
Subaru was almost amused but still felt uncomfortable. He looked down at the tea for one long moment.
“Have you ever doubted that you wanted to play Go all your life? For work I mean?” Subaru asked, quietly, raising his green eyes to meet Touya’s.
When Subaru had asked Hikaru about leaving soccer for Go, Hikaru had answered that Go had been more important. He said “I never questioned about wanting soccer until I played Go with Touya and slowly I found Go better so I went with Go”. But Hikaru didn’t come from a traditional family with a hereditary occupation and Subaru was still at a loss to his question.
Another uneasy silence, this time it was Touya’s turn to stare into his tea.
“Never. I’ve never doubted it.” It was obvious that Touya was a little put off by the personal nature of the question--since they have barely spoken with each other--but decided to answer it anyway.
“Never? So you like Go that much? Pardon me if this is getting too personal.” It was late but Subaru had been unsettled enough by the house.
“I think that even if my father didn’t play Go before me, I would still want to play Go. Sumeragi, do you feel that way about onmyoujitsu?”
“Well…it’s a necessary occupation.” It was Subaru’s turn to go on the defensive.
“I suppose…that you would want to think about it.”
“Thank you for your time, Touya-san.”
“That’s what friends are for, as Shindou would say.” Touya said with only a minimum of stiffness, earning him a genuine smile of gratitude from Subaru.
We are friends now, aren’t we? So…what do I feel that way about onmyoujitsu?
The question echoed through Subaru’s mind as he took the train downtown to his and his sister’s apartment.
Maybe, I will see about taking more effort about making up for my studies, and maybe a correspondence course or a light load in animal medicine when I get to college? And I should allow time for “hanging out” with class=SpellE>Hikaru and his friends…my friends now…
Slowly but surely, a flower opens to the sun.