The Deaths: Legend chapter 2 part II
Author: MeyRevived
Fandoms: X/1999, Cowboy Bebop, Hellsing, Vampire Chronicles, Doctor Who and many more…
Type: Sci-fi, fantasy, romance, history, crossover
Warnings:
Betas and proofreaders: compli_cait , lumina17 and reitsch.
Synopsis: Cast into an alien world they did not choose to come to, a small human community struggles to survive. With the help of a group of talented brave men and women, they sustain, as struggles from within only add to dangers which seem to add up around them as if for some spectator's pleasure.
Previous chapters:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2 part I
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Months later, Sunshine 60 was slowly being destroyed. A key building in the spiritual Seals at the heart of Tokyo, one of many which keep the energy lines holding the earth together; might the plates shake, every man-made building upon them would turn into rubble.
Seals like it, were now under attack, prone to destruction as Dragons of Earth used their spells and powers to topple them, thus breaking the Seals one by one. So far, the Dragons of Heaven hardly managed to stop any of these attacks, as their role in the battle depicted it.
Sunshine 60 was the home office of Tojo Pharmaceutical, the largest company of its kind in Japan, and the home of its laboratory where a Dragon of Earth was 'born'. In an excuse of finding life supporting information about the bioroid created at the lab, the leader of the Dragons of Earth now used Nataku, the bioroid, to destroy both lab and Seal.
Simply named 'Nataku', after the Chinese doll god made from a piece of flesh with no heart and soul, Dragon of Earth Nataku was an androgynous clone, made by the genetic code of two Tojo family members; the son of the CEO and his daughter, Kazuki Tojo, who died before her time as a small child from an illness beyond Tojo Pharmacies' powers to heal.
As soon as Nataku was created, the dreaming princess under the Japanese parliament building, sent the government's men to notify the CEO that once again he will need to say farewell to his own flesh and blood.
Tojo Pharmaceuticals’ CEO was lying on a bridge at the wreckage of the building, wounded and unconscious, like a forgotten doll.
On one side of the prone man stood the Dragon of Earth’s leader, the man who was once Monou Fuma. On the other stood Kamui, of the Dragons of Heaven, who was once his best friend and neighbor.
“Ah, you came at the right time,” the Dragon of Earth said coldly. “My new toy is here.” He raised his palm and a ball of energy began forming, prepared to launch at the old CEO, setting a trap for Kamui to step into.
As he took his aim and released the ball, Kamui leaped in front of the man on the floor and worked his powers to shield them both from the blow. The trap closed on the youth; now he was at the Dragon’s mercy.
“What do you care about him, silly boy,” came the voice Kamui knew, from the mouth of a man he no longer knew.
Kamui knelt on the floor by the CEO.
The Dragon walked towards him. He bent down to Kamui, cupping the youth’s small chin softly “Or are you…jealous? Is that it? Did you want me to play with you instead?” He drew his face close to Kamui’s. He was looking softly into his eyes as if he was asking the boy something caring and loving instead of those alien, cold words.
Before Kamui could react, the Dragon was working his powers again.
Kamui blocked it. This time he wrapped the CEO’s arm around his shoulder and leaped away from the Dragon and danger. The ball of energy blew up behind them, dealing another shock to the already wrecked building's frame, sending a shower of glass shards to the street below.
Had Kamui been able to cast the spell his comrades of Heaven were capable of - a kekkai, a shield - the citizens trapped in the building and those fleeing out of it, would have been locked away from the damage the battle created. But for some reason, Kamui was never trained to do so; as he bid the CEO's time, he was risking the residents of the city beneath him.
The Dragon worked another energy ball, aiming it directly at the building. Sunshine 60 was starting to topple.
‘At this rate…the building really will collapse…’ Kamui felt the concrete under him shaking ominously. The CEO bled on Kamui's Clamp Campus uniform silently.
“This place falls - unless you create a Kekkai, of course.” The Dragon was creating another ball of energy.
Kamui made a little frustrated sound.
“Or is that…too much to ask of you yet…Kamui.” The Dragon and the boy stood opposite to each other. The heavy CEO still hung unconsciously on the slim body of his savior.
“H…how…” Kamui exhaled.
“How do I know? Is that it?” The Dragon raised his palm. Would he hit or would he touch Kamui this time? He cupped Kamui’s chin again, his eyes so painfully soft. “Because I know everything about you”. His large palm traveled to caress the side of Kamui’s face. The fingers brushed upwards across soft skin to feel up the silky black bangs, calling forth emotions from the youth that were still deeply buried and denied.
Then, without a slight change of expression, the Dragon’s palm traveled down to Kamui’s neck and clammed around it forcefully.
As he raised the boy from the floor, the CEO dropped to the ground making a dim thud as he landed, unnoticed and irrelevant.
“Because I am Kamui. Just as you are Kamui,” the Dragon hissed coldly. He began working his power, sending tiny little flashes of energy to rip at Kamui’s clothes and flesh.
"Is this the boy you're looking for?" a gritted, hissing sound broke the tense moment. The evening's gentle wind spread a stench around them like that of graveyard and wet earth. The horrid smell was not the only thing carried on the air; a feeling of something alien, something out of context, crept like fog and nagged at both Kamui and Dragon's skin like freezing cold.
The firing flashes of energy died down slowly like a calming gust of wind.
They turned their eyes and saw a small ugly creature, squatting a few feet away from them. It had sickly white skin which shone in the moonlight, covered by a thin film of ooze, with frozen blue and black veins running across it like a bog plant's tendrils. It was human, or used to be human once, before it shriveled, paled and became the image of a half rotten body, animated and made aglow, for the skin's white reflected the moonbeams in an odd, unearthly disturbing way. It was wearing the tattered remains of what must have once been a very decent suit, with grains and chunks of earth and roots clinging to its fabric. Its face was demonic, with slightly pointy ears at the side of his smooth, bald egg-shaped head and pointy, yellowing teeth poking through its thin bluish lips with two distinctly longer fangs.
As Kamui and the Dragon blinked in disgust and surprise, they failed to notice how more of these creatures began making their way towards them, climbing on the broken and shredded walls of the building like strange ghastly lizards. Kamui looked beyond Fuma's shoulder and saw glowing eyes coming out of the rubble mist. This was not the bulb-like glow of a cheap B-movie monster, but the reflecting of light in an cat's tapetum lucidum, and an ancient fear of cavemen surrounded by prehistoric beasts, rose in Kamui. The Dragon was counting two pairs, three pairs, five pairs; they were surrounded.
The Dragon sent his senses forward, calculating his next step. The things around them were something the Earth knew of; demonic undead creatures feasting on blood, too busy lurking in the dark and prying on humans to pose a threat to The Battle. Relaxing a bit, The Dragon only wondered for the nature of this surprising visit now of all times.
There was also another warrior in the Battle on his way here, which he sensed earlier, it was the Sumeragi onmyoji and he was already very near. But that one still had some distance to cover before he would appear, as he is no match for the Dragon
One set of eyes neared them, breaking the circle the nightly creatures formed around the confused battling pair. A short man, only a little taller than Kamui, he seemed of no significance at first, especially as his eyes glowed the same as the vampires around them.
He wore a simple black, skintight T-shirt under broad silver breast-armor, leaving two strong muscular arms exposed. The armor had delicate roman style engravings, two tigers snaking down from his sides towards the bottom of the armor. Petals hovered around the two beasts in their glorious little metal world. The breastplate connected with a set of short shoulder armors. These pieces had only the tiger’s faces with petals swiveling around them. A skirt made of linked metallic plates hung down to the middle of his shins, one of which had a thin black garter with a dagger hung on it in a small sheath. His boots were turquoise suede and tattered at the tips and the heels, looking very well traveled.
A sword hung from a belt to his left, kept in a simple black scabbard. A long flowing black cape hung in a Roman style on the broad shoulders, covering more of the left shoulder than the right one.
For a moment, Kamui thought of the dramatic and odd outfit and joked to himself this man might have come from the same place which abducted him and then spat him out; dressed just as ridiculously theatrical as Kamui had when he re-arrived into his world.
But as strange as his clothes and as odd as his and his group's arrival, the man's face struck both young men with surprise; white and sickly and slim-filmed as the faces of the rest of the creatures, his eyes changed from the dead balls of glowing jelly as the rest of the monsters had, to that of a normal living man. They were large, round and green as deep jade, piercing and fierce.
The pale face around the changing eyes, almost perfectly framed by black hair cut down to the man's chin, had a frightening resemblance to Fuma's. Though the cheekbones were slightly higher set and the chin slightly narrower; through the overall affect of faint femininity, the man was like a strange ungodly copy of The Dragon.
Mouthing, Kamui noticed he was staring at the face not in awe of fear, or even in morbid fascination as the closeness to Fuma might have made him feel; he knew this man, and was deeply glad to see him, too.
The man walked forward and reached a small but broad hand to lay on The Dragon's grip around Kamui's neck. The Dragon drew his hand back as if fearing it would be scorched; so freezing cold and slimy was the skin, causing a basic instinct of disgust.
The man took Kamui's small hands in his and turned them palm down, tracing with his thumbs the thin scars Fuma left on the boy's skin when the Dragon Awoke in him, and a soft smile tickled the corners of the man's lips. Then he took Kamui's chin gently in his hand and turned his face, brushing the untamed black bangs gently away from the boy's left cheek. Once again, he traced his thumb on a long line of a burned scar behind the boy's left ear.
Kamui shuddered, maybe this man really is from where he was taken; he never had that scar before, it appeared on him when he came back to his world. Something in Kamui burst with joy at the thought of returning to that place Kamui had no memory of and the youth flinched away from the touch, frightened at the idea someone he never knew and doesn't remember could arouse such happy thoughts in him. Then his eyes fell on the man and his head filled with fear and shock.
The man was smiling brilliantly, his yellow sharp fangs frightening the boy, and a thin film of blood traced the big green eyes, as if the man cried blood.
"It's you…" the man exhaled, a drop of blood rolling down his cheek like an ordinary tear, "it's really you, finally…" his voice choked with emotions, as his palms clamped down on Kamui's again with alarming strength.
Rubbing his cheek clean against his heavier-caped shoulder, the man turned to the crouching creature still at their side and scanned the glowing pairs of eyes around them.
"Yes, it is him; thank you for lending me your eyes and ears to find him."
The squatting fiendish imp bowed his head a little and flashed a sickening smile, "You're welcome, my Lord Death, it is good to see you so happy." The vampire's eyes darted to Kamui's who looked at him with a bottomless dread, and bowed again, "He's a supple little thing, my Lord Death, and he's pretty indeed."
Kamui withdrew his hands away from this 'Lord Death'.
The Dragon focused his eyes on the distant Dragon of Heaven who was a moment ago leaping towards them. In the night and the rubble's mist, the Dragon could see the man standing at the edge of the scene, puzzled. Perhaps the strange gathering confused him as well.
"You may go now, Igor, and thank you again." The Lord Death smiled kindly once more, managing to look motherly, despite everything in his looks and his deep voice so very much like Fuma's.
As their surrounding ring of vampires slithered and limped away, the Dragon could feel the sensation of the Earthly undead creatures oozing off of the man before him, as if their scent masked his and now he stood before the Dragon, exposed for the strange bird that he was.
Indeed, this man sensed of nothing, rather a bright glare like a falling star. Whatever it was, this man was no longer under the cover of the Earth's creature and the Dragon could now look at him and see the man stood too close to Kamui and had interfered his plot with the youth.
Kamui, too, noticed how the leave of the vampires changed the man like an aura revealing. The man's skin was no longer so very deathly white but merely pale and the disgusting slime film dried and was gone, so were the sharp protruding fangs which were now merely small and only slightly sharper than usual and the teeth became white and clean. The Lord Death now merely looked like a stumpish strangely dressed western man with a disturbing resemblance to Fuma. It still bothered Kamui.
"Who are you? You've trespassed into a battle that is none of your business." The Dragon called, keeping his tone formal, for now.
The man turned his head slightly to Fuma, as if listening but not being respectful enough to give him his full eye contact. Dismissively, he returned his attention to the youth before him, "You're mortal again, Kamui." He spoke hushed.
"H-how do you know my name?" Kamui hissed, taking a step backwards.
"And you don't remember me, I see." The man now looked somber.
"I said, who are you?" The Dragon boomed, squaring his shoulders and closing the distance between him and the man so very much shorter than him, that he could look down and see the top of his head.
"Alexander Michael, Death on Earth, as you've noticed I'm sure. I'm sorry about the vampires, if they scared you, but it seems these are the only ones in existence here in your world." He was still talking to Kamui, keeping one ear towards Fuma but his eyes still on Kamui. A sneaky, sharp glitter of mischief now twinkled in the green orbs, excited at the threatening tone in The Dragon's voice.
"Step aside, Michael, this battle is none of your concern." The Dragon was now speaking right above the smaller man.
"Call me Alex." The man flashed one look up to the Dragon, "I'm leaving with Kamui, so you can forget about your battle." He wrapped his strong arm around Kamui's slim waist, bouncing the boy up a bit to take his feet off the ground.
The energy blast from Fuma came so swiftly and so blindly it frightened Kamui, making him yelp and shield his eyes with his arms. Then the wind blew by his ears madly and he felt himself lifted off the ground; Alex was carrying him away. They leaped through the air, to the half-dome ruins of Tojo pharmaceuticals' belated labs.
The man laid Kamui on an office chair he yanked out of the darkness and swept the broken glass and debris off. "Stay here, this'll be over soon enough." He winked at Kamui and turned to go with the cape blowing behind him excitedly. "Oh," he turned with a soft smile, "and don't follow me this time; we've both had quite enough of that." He disappeared behind the wall, leaping again towards Fuma.
It seemed the only thing Kamui could do was open his mouth to say something, find he had nothing to say, then close it, be maddened with confusion and insult and open his mouth to say something, only to shut it again. For a few seconds he sat limply on the chair, shaking his head and mouthing so, but the scorch of the patronizing separation from the heat of battle and the obvious threat this man posed to Fuma filled Kamui's head with the heat of his rearing pride.
He leaped to his feet and hurried to leave the building, just in time as well.
The Dragon stood solemnly facing the half destroyed lab, and Nataku walking up to him. The bioroid stared empty-eyed at his leader, "What was that?"
"An intruder, we will soon be rid of him. Go and mind the Sumeragi Dragon of Heaven behind me, he's getting too close."
Nataku blinked at the empty night around them, the sound of ambulance sirens from down on the streets reaching their ears high up on the building like squalling babies. He could see a slim figure with a billowing long white coat standing on an antenna on a building right behind them.
The bioroid unraveled his long white ribbon, waving it and twisting it to form magical shapes; a shield, a blow of energy, and leaped to attack. On the antenna, the Sumeragi onmyoji crouched in preparation for the battle.
Out of the lab's ruin, the short man stepped out and The Dragon smiled a bit; a weak spot in the stranger is a good thing to see, as the man leaped at him, unsheathing his sword.
Within a fragment of a second, the smaller man was before him, the tip of his sword pointed at The Dragon's jugular vein.
The Dragon looked down along the sword; it was thick and flat, slightly curved like an Arabian sword. There was a strange, somewhat green shine to the sword as the light hit it, indicating something was mixed into its metal. The metal felt icy cold; it left frostbite along the Dragon’s skin. It wasn’t the icy pain that gnawed at the Dragon’s nerves; it was the powerful glare from those fiery green eyes, for a moment fear flared up in the Dragon's heart.
Behind Alex' back, the Dragon formed and threw a giant ball of energy, slamming it close enough to the ruined dome of the laboratory to make it seem a threat to Kamui's hiding place. The smaller man darted his eyes, frightened and possessed, behind his back. "Kamui!!" like a toy bouncing back on its elastic string, Alex was leaping back to where he kept his little Kamui.
"Right where I want you." The Dragon smiled once more, hearing a metallic bang and know that Nataku behind him just cut the antenna underneath the onmyoji's feet.
Concentrating his Earth-given gift of psychokinesis, the Dragon formed a ball of energy so thick and charged, it burned his fingertips, and pounded it at the distant small distant figure.
When Kamui opened his eyes and removed his fingers from his face, he uncurled himself from the defensive crouch behind the huge piece of torn concrete where he took refuge as the giant orb of light neared Alex. Frightened, he peeked beyond his protective slab and saw a scene of carnage; blood splattered rubble and torn grey and black boulders of concrete and granite from the once majestic building, and between the broken pieces a broken doll of a man.
A giant granite slab from what was once atop the dome of the lab pierced right through Alex, from neck to the lows of his back, under the rock was a dead lump of white flesh, twisted metal shield and dusted cape, arms and legs grotesquely poking sideways. With his head lying sideways on the rubble, Alex' eyes were dead and wide, his mouth half open and bleeding, his fingers frozen in mid-clutch on the rubble around him. Blood was everywhere.
Despairing and nauseated, Kamui heard himself whimper miserably. The poor thing, whatever he was, came to rescue him from Fuma and now look what became of him. He limped his way to the side of the horrid sight, his ankle complaining at the blow he received from a dislodged piece of concrete, which caught him at the first blast. He knelt by the outreaching left hand and touched the small strong fingers gently with the tips of his slim frail ones, his eyes glancing over the explosion mark the man's blood left on the concrete around him.
But the blood seemed to be changing, becoming darker and richer, with a strange way of reflecting the moonlight which made Kamui's stomach turn. The blood was moving, too, convulsing back and forth from the body and the half open mouth of the dead man no longer looked like the jaw was dislodged; instead, a fiendish grin stretched on the lips exposing the white sharp teeth, the eyes began glowing red.
Frightened, Kamui flinched away instinctively, just as the sound of flapping wings inches from his ears made him shriek. Bats came down from the midnight sky as if torn from the very blackness of it. They swarmed around the body, streaming into the rock which now seemed to have been lifted by the very force of their wing's blows.
Trying to stifle his miserable whimpers of confusion and fear, Kamui could feel his head swim at the shock and fatigue of the unexpected night's events.
The cloud of bats moved away now, and Kamui could see the turquoise boots walking on the ground as its owner was obviously back on his feet. Some of them, he could see, melted into the broken exposed flesh of the crushed limbs, to build the body back to life.
The Dragon, who monitored the destruction of the intruder with great pleasure at a night's work well done, now blinked angrily. The thick cloud of unexpected nocturnal flying mammals which seemed to have come out of nowhere, uninvited and one of Earth's creatures, thus out of The Dragon's aim, was now disappearing like a column of smoke blown away on the wind. Out of the living cloud came the small man, his eyes glowing and red with anger (and this time it was the B-movie glow), and his lips drawn away with a bloodthirsty snarl. He was reaching for his sword again and the way his body hunched forward told the Dragon the man meant business.
They heard someone land behind them on the wreckage. Suddenly the air filled with white Sumeragi clan shikis like the bats, filling the air with white wisps of paper. Like flying razor blades, those the Dragon could not dodge filled his clothes and his skin with thin bleeding cuts. The Dragon ground his teeth in anger.
Sumeragi Subaru dashed between the two battling men, a full flush of paper spells ready to launch in his palms, eyes glowing in an uncharacteristic turquoise glow unlike the original green shade of his eyes.
There was a moment of tense silence as Subaru and Alex came to stand in one line, and the Dragon hearing Nataku stifle a whimper at the blows the Sumeragi onmyoji dealt him; making Subaru leave that battle behind and come to Alex' aid, as it seemed.
And the onmyoji was, indeed, under some sort of spell by the short man, for the gentle shiver through his limbs became harder and more violent until the man grabbed the sides of his head and shook it like a madman, screaming at the top of his lungs, "Who are you?! What are you doing inside my head?" and his eyes were green again.
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It was a strange night for Subaru, the thirteenth head of the Sumeragi clan, a family of mediums and magicians serving the Japanese nation and government since ancient times. With eyes that can see the spirits of the dead and years of training to battle, defend and influence them with spells, he and his family were key members in Japans' spiritual shield from the world of the dead and damned.
His grandmother used to say there are people stronger than his clan, stronger than the Sakurazukamori - the Cherry Burial Mound clan rivaling theirs - who could rule the two for that very ability to control and speak to the dead, but she said this world has none of this kind. However, when she told this story to Subaru and his twin sister, the one the Cherry Blossom clan head killed nine years ago, she looked at Subaru with vacant worried eyes and said, "But the witch says you might still get to meet him…".
Subaru rushed to Sunshine 60 as he felt the earth shake under his feet, standing outside Ueno Park smoking a solemn cigarette. At first, he felt the sharp pang of pain as his leader, Kamui, was deep in battle. As a Dragon of Heaven, it was his duty to come to the boy's aid when a Dragons of Earth engaged him, or any other of humanity's defenders, in battle.
Subaru's leader had his world come crushing down on him as the Dragon awoke in Fuma and killed Kotori. After the night of that tragedy, real life was too much for Kamui to deal with and the boy denied reality, sinking deep into his soul, to stay there forever. Subaru had wondered on the cruelty of fate then, since Kamui was just a boy, and even younger than he was when the Sakurazukamori clan head murdered his twin sister and tore Subaru's own world into pieces. He thought of his fate as too cruel, yet here is this youth with the fate of humanity on his shoulders! Using his magic, Subaru pulled the boy back to reality and has since then kept a small sweet fondness for the frail, yet strong little character.
However, as he arrived at Sunshine 60, Subaru had to stop and blink in bafflement at the strange ring of unearthly creatures and the man in the center.
As he looked upon Alex he did not see him as Kamui or the Dragon did, a normal man, Subaru saw Alex as the vampires did; as Death on Earth. With a medium's eyes, which can see the spirits of the dead, the man looked mightier than his small form, and glowing with a bright turquoise aura like smoke radiating from a great fire. Only for that did Subaru linger on the outskirts of the battle, unwilling to step inside the scene without knowing exactly what this strange luminescent man meant.
He knew, instantly, that if the man would open his mouth and command him, he must follow and knew just as instinctively, that the man must have the same power over the Sakurazukamori, the cherry blossom assassin, for he too had the power to affect and see the dead. Who exactly was this person, beyond his aura of Death, Subaru was unsure and for now, chose to stay out of his reach. He worried for Kamui, still, now both in the company of the Dragon and the stranger. A voice whispered into his ear softly, "Don't worry; I'm here to protect Kamui." and Subaru knew without thinking that it was Death's voice.
The bioroid leaping at Subaru to fight him, took the onmyoji's mind off Kamui. Before they battled, Subaru brought his palms together and formed the correct arrangement of fingers to cast the spell of a Kekkai, to shield the civilians below them from whatever he and the bioroid tear and throw at each other.
Seconds after the last of the enchanted words escaped Subaru's lips, Nataku's ribbon flew sharply at him, cutting his thin elegant face above his right cheek. Subaru's sharp green eyes focused back on the character before him and he tightened his lips into a thin angry line.
Engaging the bioroid was not an easy task, even for a seasoned fighter like Subaru, as after leaping off the antenna pole cut from under him, the onmyoji found himself with all four limbs tightly wrapped in the seemingly endless ribbon. He pulled a paper slip and chanted into it until the edges became razor sharp, slicing his way out of the vine-like grip.
Free again, Subaru cast before him more paper spells to form the floating shape of a heavenwards pentacle, which he chanted until they filled with energy and gave Nataku a strong blast which sent the side of Sunshine 60 within the shields into a rumbling mass, tearing walls into rubble and glass into tiny fragments.
Shielding himself with the help of his ribbon twisted into a wheel, Nataku defended himself from most of the powerful blow, leaving nothing but the edge of his clothes and the tips of his hairs singed as if burned in an intense heat.
They carried on with their battle, one sending the magical ribbon forward to push and cut and the other flinging spells to make the man-made roof's ground shake under their feet.
Subaru could feel his magic was enhanced somewhat, and the strength of his own blows frightened him as he watched Nataku blown away time and time again, his face twitching with pain and fear. He did not wish to kill the thing which he heard was cloned and grown simply for this Battle, but he was suddenly so much stronger than he remembered himself being, that he ended up hurting the bioroid harder than he had meant. Was it the influence of Death on him, which made his magic so much mightier? Subaru fought to keep his mind clear and focused on the spells, thus sweeping the strange thoughts away.
Then a great explosion shook the air from the top of the Seal's building and Subaru's mind became a blank. It seemed his limbs became lighter than air, his head filled with warmth and silence beyond that of a trance. He felt his spirit leaving his body, his ethereal form drawing out of their fleshy shell like clothes being pulled off of him. Startled, Subaru looked down and saw himself pull out two full flushes of ofuda and shooting them, one by one, mercilessly at the bioroid. So fast and hard was the spell, it reminded Subaru of a bullet shot out of a gun; with a clear and cold intention to disperse of the enemy through his death.
His body was no longer under his control, Subaru knew, for Death reached out and claimed it his puppet, but Subaru would have none of it; he will not kill, in this Battle or ever, save for the one he chose to kill. He reached his mind to his body, imagining himself moving his fingers, turning his eyes, using his flesh to do his spirit's wish and soon he felt he was nearing his body.
It was just in time that he managed to fill his essence into his body again, just as he was about to deal a fatal crush on Nataku. He dispersed the ofuda and leaped away, letting the bioroid rest his grave wounds. Then, what felt like a giant hand, reached down and scooped him up, Subaru was away from his body again, which was now leaping up towards the roof of Sunshine 60 where Kamui still faced off both the Dragon and Death.
He saw himself spray the Dragon with ofudas and wondered how his body could only perform the three spells he used so far, on his own accord, against Nataku; was it possible that Death was only capable of making him do what he's seen him do? Was Death this ignorant of the magical tool he was now using like a doll?
"I've only now come to know you, how would I know what you can and cannot do?" the voice by his ear drew Subaru's attention again, just as the onmyoji managed to gain control over his body once more. Battling the awful command on his own limbs, Subaru sent a soundless plea on the waves of his thoughts, towards Death on Earth, to let him back into himself. His wish was granted quicker than Subaru had expected. In the confusion and the strange strength and tension filling him, Subaru found himself grabbing the sides of his head and shaking madly.
"Please be calm, I didn't mean to scare you…" the voice apologized softly, though the man by his side looked as if he was possessed with the devil's own anger with his eyes fixed on Fuma.
"Who are you?! What are you doing inside my head?"
The desperate scream tore through the tension as if through a veil, making all four men see the situation more clearly now that the fumes, anger and revenge were disrupted by Subaru’s plea for freedom.
Kamui looked upon Subaru, his newest friend and one of the only people he fully trusted and dared to open to amongst the Dragons of Heaven. The older man looked so desperate and angry, despite knowing this Alex person had just saved Kamui's life twice, he was enraged at the man. Somehow, Kamui could read off Subaru's body language that there was a battle for control between the two, which Subaru won by sheer desperation.
Was this Alex who was called Lord Death by the vampires, capable also of controlling Subaru? As he fought to focus on his watering-with-fatigue eyes, Kamui looked at Alex' back and saw him suddenly oozing off a different aura, one very much the same as Subaru's; smooth clean white magic. When the vampires were here, he seemed one of them, was he capable of changing himself as a chameleon to whatever is near him? And how does mind-battling with Subaru contribute to it?
The Dragon stopped to re-calculate. Now they were three against one; Nataku lay nearly beaten to death on a building behind him. Before him stood the onmyoji who was strong enough to beat his Nataku, Kamui who was capable of extreme strength might his rage ever really burst against him, and this man who could take a building crushing his every bone but resuming his life back to his body while calling for elements of the Earth itself.
"It seems you have many friends to come to your defense, Kamui," he boomed, sending a cold smirk at the boy and watching the big purple eyes fill with despair at how unlike Fuma The Battle and Earth made the body now possessed by The Dragon, "for now, we seem to be at a tie."
"Leave this Seal, Dragon of Earth." The onmyoji remarked, deepening his voice to fill it with authority after his undignified entrance to the scene.
"Yes, leave and stay away from Kamui." The small man snarled, pointing his sword at the Dragon who felt the icy burn the metal left on his neck, flare back into pain.
"This battle is not over; this Seal will be broken, like all the Seals in Tokyo, and the Earth will breathe in again when all its humans are dead." He turned and leaped to the other building's roof, grabbing and cradling Nataku's bleeding and broken body to beat a quick retreat. Blowing on the wind, he could head Kamui's desperate, tear soaked, "Fuma…" behind him.
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The night became still and cold as Subaru withdrew the kekkai spell, leaving them back in the exposed world of reality. He turned to demand answers from Death by his side but found the man had gone.
Alex rushed at Kamui. The boy was still leaning weakly against the rock behind which he hid, and stared at the man walking up to him with a happy gait like a rabbit stares at the headlights of an approaching car; desperate and frightened.
Death grabbed Kamui by the shoulders again and gave the boy a slight shake, looking deeply into his mauve orbs with excited jade eyes so focused on Kamui their pupils were huge. Kamui tried leaning away from the touch but the frightening resemblance to Fuma in the man's face drew him to the man like a magnet. "Who are you?"
“I finally found you, Kamui!” Death smiled, his eyes filled with bloody tears again, and grabbed Kamui to a tight embrace, digging his face into Kamui’s neck with such physical familiarity that made Kamui freeze, unknowing how to react.
Kamui could feel the warm tears soaking into his mucky CLAMP Campus shirt. He had his palms against the man’s breast armor and could feel it was but a thin film of metal for show; that the body under it was hard as rock. There was something else that was hard, Kamui could feel it against his lower belly where the man held Kamui tightly to him and though he knew its meaning, he wished to push the man away with a yelp. Yet that deep something in him which was glad to see the man arrive with his vampires, made his heart leap with joy.
Subaru looked at the two and saw someone else coming out of the midnight dark…or was he forming from the very thin air?
A man with his head shaved bald, a very thin, rather sickeningly pale figure appeared a little to the side of the two. He wore a long shabby black coat flapping miserably in the wind. Underneath the coat, the new stranger wore a matching shirt and pants in dark blue and dirty white stripes like the pajamas of old.
It rang a bell in Subaru’s mind, as a prisoner's uniform rather than a mucky nightwear. He knew what this outfit was, but he had absolutely no clue as to what all this had to do with Kamui.
The new man stared at Subaru and smiled wearily. He looked at the two and sighed in relief as if he had just finished a long journey. He wasn’t quite as much of an actual man in Subaru’ eyes, more like some sort of light formed to make something visual: a hologram.
Death cupped Kamui’s chin gently, tipping his head backwards, drawing his face nearer. He came so near that Kamui could feel the warmth beaming from the man. He stopped inches from Kamui's lip, opening the eyes he half closed. Kamui was gripping the wrist of the hand holding his head so hard his nails cut small crescents into the pale hard flesh, and Death smiled, "You don't know me and you can't greet me properly, nor can I greet you as we used to back in our world."
"You mean the place I was sucked into." Kamui hissed, still desperately scratching the wrist in an attempt to remove the disturbing face so closely from his, "I don't remember anything from there and I don't know who you are; this is my world, leave me alone."
Alex frowned kindly and let go of Kamui's chin, loosely wrapping his arms around the lower part of Kamui's back as the boy pushed against his grip, "Ah, yes, we already said you forgot everything about me." He purred, his eyes scanning Kamui's face hungrily, "Maybe when I make you a vampire again you'll reme…"
“Make me a what?!” the boy worked his power to blow the man away, exploding a huge energy ball between them and leaping away from the shock wave to stand behind Subaru.
The man was thrown flat on a pile of rocks, limbs and head thrown backwards. For a moment he lay there with limbs in unhealthy angles of broken bones, but was gaining movement again as the moonlight shone on him and then darkened by a passing cloud of smoke, rising from the fires below them. The huge metropolis's fire trucks fought the rising flames in the damaged shopping street below.
"What is he, Sumeragi-san?"
The onmyoji, who placed himself between the now recovering Death and Kamui, looked at the boy behind him across his shoulder, "I don't know, Kamui, but something tells me he means no harm."
"He made you move around, how do you know he's not lying to you?"
"He won't, Kamui, he won't harm me and so I'll be here, to shield between you and him." This time the older man turned to fix Kamui's frightened gaze with his leveled calm one.
Recovered enough, Alex peeled himself off the pile of stones like a string around his chest pulled him up. Smiling and rubbing at the back of his neck, which was obviously snapped broken by the sheer blow of Kamui's power against the rocks, Alex neared the two again.
"Don’t come any further!" Subaru's calm voice wavered a bit, doubting his own authority against the man who twice now recovered from deadly blows. Somehow, however, he knew the man will do as he says; that he was a protector of men like Subaru, as well as a ruler.
"Why do you hide behind him, Kamui? Don't you know I have power over him?" Alex chuckled darkly, wiping a trickle of drying blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Leave me alone….I don't want to go back there….I don't want you near me….go away!" Kamui fought tears of fear and despair to keep his voice leveled though it was pathetically high pitched.
"Please stay where you are, stand still." Subaru asked, noting how the man was still limping a bit and wavering on his feet as he neared them.
Obeying, Alex leveled a sad gaze at Kamui and suddenly looked old and weary. Though his emotions towards Kamui were obviously drawing him to the boy like moth to a flame, he respected the two's wishes.
The other man, however, in black coat and old uniform now stormed towards the two men, eyes ablaze with anger, "Leave me alone, he says, what an insolent punk. Do you know how far we've traveled to find you, boy?!" he stormed through Subaru, towards Kamui, affirming Subaru's suspicion the man was some sort of hologram, "thousands of dimension we traveled to find you, we traveled for ages, and when we finally find you, you tell us to go away?!"
"Calm down, TARDIS," Alex voice became sharp and cruel, "if anyone's to blame for us tumbling through all those worlds all this time it's you; you're the one who launched him back to his world and then forgot where it was you sent him to."
The light-made man glared at Death across his shoulder.
"You're the one who brought me back?" Kamui mumbled and for a fragment of a minute, he could see memory beaming before his eyes of the event. He remembered bright light and explosions and a woman made of fire snarling at him. Then there was a portal of light he did not want to go through….and a woman in a field of white flowers under a pink sky, smiling at him softly and bidding him farewell.
Then he saw it, before him, this man, in a muddy land in the dark and the ruins of a building. This man, Alex, was screaming his name, and Kamui knew it was because he was being drawn into the world he came from.
Then he could hear himself in the memory, crying to Death and the words he heard himself scream made him gasp and cover his mouth. He called this man here, he told him to come and find him; he told him he loved him….this Fuma-like man.
Hearing the boy gasp, Subaru turned sharply to Kamui, "What is it, Kamui? Do you remember something?"
"I told him to come here." the leader of the Dragons of Heaven whispered through his fingers.
Alex came stomping towards the boy, gently pushing Subaru from his path. Once again, he grabbed Kamui by his shoulders with a slight shake, "Then you remember?" his whole body radiated his desperation after being rejected and blasted away by the boy.
Kamui shook his head violently, "I only remember telling you to come after me…let go of me, don't hold me like that." He shook his shoulder free of the vice-like grip, walking away to Subaru’s side again.
It seemed the man was completely deflated, his arms hanging, back hunched and head drooping. For a moment he stood like that, slowly reaching to run his fingers through his hair, making Subaru and Kamui cling uncomfortably at the lack of manners at a man who after all walked into the scene of Sunshine 60's destruction and prevented both its destruction and Kamui's possible demise.
"You're mortal…" Alex sighed, slowly raising his large green eyes to Kamui filled with misery and despair, "and you hardly remember anything about the Lost Dimension, what we had together inside it…" he cast his eyes bitterly at the hologram man who stood with his arms folded on his chest, tapping the tip of his wooden clog on the ground impatiently, "What should we do now? Where should we go?"
"I'm not going back there; The Lost Dimension would kill a TARDIS like me, just like it ruined me when me and the Doctor came in, no dimension traveling machine can be allowed to a dimension where all the inhabitants' only wish is for a ticket back home." The light man grumbled.
Alex hung another miserable look at Kamui and tears formed in his eyes again. He looked so hurt, as if he was given a deadly blow, and Subaru's heart twitched to echo the man's hurt as his sensitive personality always did. "Well, then launch me back there and then…go wherever you want, you'll be free…"
Kamui thought for a moment, trying to get a hold of the wisp of memory he recalled; a place with ruins of a house and fire everywhere, the demon woman he and Alex were obviously battling….whatever it is this man was about to go back to, it was no pleasant place.
And that deep something buried in Kamui reached for him again, making him take a small step forward and open his mouth to say something.
Then the memory of Alex's strong hands on his shoulders and the slightly possessive air in his eyes, in his words, the kiss he almost gave him….this man, this Fuma-like man….he stopped himself from saying something or coming any further, choosing instead to sulk in defensive silence.
But the movement was not missed by Subaru who could read the boy like an open book. There was a chance here for something to develop; if only Death could get a better shot at impressing Kamui he's not harmful.
"Wait, Death," he called out, seeing the man dragging his feet unwillingly towards the light-made man, "Ah-I've thought of something…" the sad eyes turned to look at him with wonder and hope, "You should stay here for a while, perhaps Kamui will remember more; I've seen amnesia patients remember what they've missed. Please give Kamui another chance, at least to see you're not a…strange thing," he bit through his words trying to sound diplomatic, "as you seemed at first."
Recovering his manners, Subaru brought his palms together on his shins and bowed as he spoke, "You've helped us defend the Seal located here and saved my leader, Kamui, from the Dragons of Earth; I believe we at least owe you a proper welcome." He bowed and rose, "And even if all comes to no end, I hope to at least introduce you to my clan properly…" because they were all bound to him; all Sumeragi members with the ability to deal with the world of the dead' spirits. He bowed once again, awaiting Death's dismissal though he doubted a western man such as he looked would know the proper words to reflect the Sumeragi's manners.
Kamui was shifting his weight from one foot to the other, darting his eyes from Alex to Subaru, unsure of his fellow Dragon of Heaven's words, but it seemed the older man was commanding him to be patient, as well as inviting the intruder to stay a little longer.
The light made man sighed and wringed his hands in exasperation, "Now what…"
"Now you'll get to rest a bit. You can switch yourself off now," Alex snarled at him impatiently, "at least I won't have to stand the sight of you in the corner of my eye all the time. I know you only chose to look like this to annoy me, and I'll be happy to not have you pulling on my sleeve all the time."
With a spiteful mocking courtesy, the light man disappeared like a television switching off, making the two mortals gasp a little. From the man's middle, a small cone-shaped device fell to the earth and was picked up by Alex who pocketed it under his shield. It was a machine, Subaru thought, a machine capable of generating a hologram to talk to like a coworker. What a strange place Death came from.
The three stood atop the building and an awkward shyness spread between them as the ruins of the building finally came to some sort of peace.
"Well," Subaru broke the silence a little too cheerfully, "why won't you come to Kamui's dorms? We'll introduce you to the other young Dragons of Heavens, it's only fair they get to know you as well…it is a small and humble building, but it is very homely, if you find it worthy to stay for a late dinner perhaps." he looked at Kamui for approval and the boy looked back apprehensively, avoiding forming any kind of opinion on the matter, then turned to give Death a short mannered bow of the head.
Looking weary again, Alex smiled and nodded, "I'll be honored to finally meet all those friends Kamui told me so much about." He neared them with cautious steps, carefully making sure he won't frighten the boy too much.
"Come with us, then, I've noticed you can leap over buildings as easy as we can." Subaru turned towards the south of the city, where Clamp Campus lay like a giant green thumb print in the thick concrete maze of Tokyo.
"Ah, I can fly, actually, I think it'll be shorter that way." The man neared them a little too quickly.
Kamui was retreating, frightened again, and Subaru hurried to break the tension, "A-ah, we're much more familiar with this form of movement…" cannot say 'no', cannot say 'no', cannot say 'no'.
"That's alright," the hidden message flew high over Alex' head, missing him completely, "I can hold onto you both and fly; you will be very safe."
Subaru darted his eyes sideways to indicate Death of Kamui agitation and tried a more educating tone, "Let's stick to what we know, shall we?"
Finally, Death realized, and backed off, smiling disarmingly at Kamui. He reminded Subaru of a smitten ogre in legends of old, trying to approach and befriend the beautiful delicate princess, it made the man chuckle softly.
"Then we'll go, and bring you along…" Kamui muttered and turned to leave, then flicked his head backwards noticing how his tone and words offended poor Alex, "W-well, are we going or what?" his temper was starting to flare now as time was being wasted and people he didn't know were clinging to him desperately.
He leaped off to the next building, a small thin figure high amongst two others, above the bustle of the city and the mass gathering of people.
Beneath them where those hurt by Fuma's attack on the building, were slowly being treated and carried off as the city's workers came to clean the glass, rubble and blood off the pavements. Later, deeper into the night, the bravest firefighters searched through the building to see if any survivors were left and would find Nataku's grandfather and father almost on the verge of death and rush him to his company's hospital.
The strange spiritual tension broken, the massive city turned to lick its wounds and rest for the night before another frantically busy day in Japan of the end of the 20th century.
To be continued