The Deaths: Legend chapter 3 - My Prince

[dark_fics]

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
Chapter 2 Part II

Disclaimer: I don’t own X/1999, I didn’t come up with any of their brilliant characters, they’re the geniuses not me. The character of Alex though is definitely mine!

Author's Thanks: To the readers of the more fanfiction-centered early version of this story. For one of this story's biggest fan and proofreader, lumina17, for my long time friend and proofreader, compli_cait, and to the new and lovely beta Nat-Eddie-Baby (^_~), a.k.a reitsch. None of this will be here without you guys.
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Part 3 - My Prince

Clamp Campus at three past ten in the evening was only barely alive by a few romantic couples and lab assistants coming back from a late night's research at the university college; most of the students were too young or too old to be up and about in the western-designed streets and roads. Subaru, Kamui and Alex drew no unneeded attention as they landed from the very sky before the students dorms.

A great tension hung over them like a dark cloud. During their airborne journey many looks of suspicion, anger, or discomfort darted at Alex from Kamui, who was starting to digest the earlier events in an unkindly light.

On their way, Subaru had pulled out his cellular phone and called for the two mature Dragons of Heaven; the newspaper editor Aoki Seiichiro and the soapland hostess Kasumi Karen. The two then agreed to leave everything they were doing and come to Clamp Campus immediately.
When they landed by the younger Dragons' dorms Seiichiro was just nearing the door. He scanned Alex and frowned, making the shorter man change his outfit to a simple black tunic and a pair of dark jeans. The swift change from one set of clothes to the next made his hosts give him a double take and stare, only to tear their eyes off of the man at the impoliteness in their behavior.

Sorata answered the door with a grey face; the earthquake of the early attack on Sunshine 60 had sent him and the two other Dragons living with Kamui, into a frenzy of worry and preparation. They were all still dressed, and the older of the girls was shouldering a backpack filled with first aid equipment the head of the Campus gave them in preparation for such emergencies. Seeing Kamui and Subaru come back home unharmed, along with the fact that they did not sense a Seal broken following the battle that obviously raged over Sunshine 60, their worries were sated and the three teens relaxed. They did, however, ogle at Seiichiro's presence and then at the stranger stepping into the roomy apartment.

Scanning the room quickly, Alex stepped inside smoothly on tip-toe (something Kamui had just taken notice of and mockingly thought must be due to the man trying to appear taller noiselessly while registering instinctively the features of the apartment.

There was a great living room with short and modernly simple square sofas arranged around a television set on a squat coffee table. There was a kitchen with a stove, plus a microwave embedded in the clean white wooden cabinet set above and below the large smooth black marble surface on which a stained rice cooker sat. The sink had a pile of dishes the height of which befitted a house run by teenagers. To the left of the living room was a small space separated by half a wall where a long tall table defined a dining corner, though the smooth oak surface was currently covered by fanned notebooks and tattered study books. To the right of the living room was a short flight of stairs leading to a second floor where four doors could be seen, three closed and one open with a man's white under vest laid where the door would have closed as if trying to escape the obviously messy room.

When the room's physical features were all registered, Death turned to look at the inhabitants. The man who was by the door when they arrived was what he always thought to be a standard issued geek; he wore a dully patterned sweater vest above a white linen shirt and a black pair of pants which looked like they were well ironed at the beginning of the day and well creased during the day's work. His glasses were out of fashion, still large and square with a dull brown dye imitating a wooden look. The man appeared in his early thirties and from judging the black bags under his eyes, either had a newborn baby or a particularly snappy boss. As it so happens, Aoki Seiichiro had both a demanding work place and a young daughter to which he was both very devoted to. Mistakenly deeming the man's mundane appearance for a lack of ability to damage anything important, Alex brushed the man's presence aside and turned to the rest of the new group.

Inside the apartment stood three characters. The first was a slim lithe looking young lady, with large eyes the shade of fog in a very small but well carved face framed by smooth black hairs falling down to her waist. From the sharp look in her eyes and the way they obviously scanned his body with the cool calculation of an animal standing ground on its territory, Alex concluded the young lady who could not be older than seventeen or eighteen was seasoned in combat or at least in martial arts of a very high degree. Though he was new to her and his arrival was unexpected, she regarded him with a cool reception, which Death could detect was a mask to faze him might he look at her for signs of fear.

Though he could not register a source of force, he presumed her skill for the Battle was related to magic of some sort, thus something he was not familiar with. Though she was one of Kamui's warriors, Death decided to keep an eye on the young lady who refused to show him fear or real emotions and was sure enough of her own strength to be calm around him. Kishu Arashi, the young lady, was indeed capable of combining the magical powers of a Priestess of Ise Shrine with her weapon; a sword of great strength she was capable of unsheathing off her very own body into her right hand.

Death moved on from Arashi to another girl, smaller and younger. If it wasn't for Subaru's presence influencing his own abilities, Death would have never been able to see the large wolf like Inugami standing by Nekoi Yuzuriha's side. The Inugami was a spirit in which lay Yuzuriha's strength; it was her shield and sword when she needed it and never left her side. He had been with her since she was but a small child and received him as a puppy in her grandmother's Mitsumine shrine, where many spirits like Inuki roam the mountain forests as a pack of wolves. She was a tiny little thing; shorter even than Kamui and slim like a twig. Her black eyes glittered with such vitality she seemed like an ever-charged battery ready to be plugged into something and send power through it.

She stared back at Alex with curiosity, her eyes widening like a child's and it was anything but a harmful look; she just wanted to know what he was. Seeing him eye Inuki seemed to have encouraged the small girl of fourteen that there can't be anything wrong with the well built western hunky man, who stepped into the apartment out of nowhere.

Last but not least was the young man who opened the door to let them enter; he only stepped aside from the door after Alex had walked in and appreciated everything and everyone. He had a halfhearted crew cut with a tussle of untamed messy hair sticking out above his forehead. He was a head or so taller than Alex with strong wide square shoulders under the basketball jersey he wore. The man stared at him with mixed suspicion and something equivalent of a man examining a strange but harmless beast of great curiosity, while his thick heavy eyebrows furrowed and a hand rubbed at his stubbly square tanned chin.

Death was about to give the young man a danger evaluation when he spoke to Kamui, "Aoki-san is here? And who's this?" the quirky voice triggered recognition in Death; he's heard that voice in Kamui's memories when they shared blood.

"You're Sorata, aren’t you? Sora-chan, as you want to be called, am I right?" Alex flicked his forefinger at Sorata, proud of himself for fishing out that detail.

Sorata's face became a perfect mask of surprise and childish amusement, "Eeeeeh? How did you know?" he bent his back a little to level his face with Alex' and pointed at himself, "Ha ha ha, yes yes, you can call me Sora-chan if you want, but I've never heard of you, so how do you know about me?"

"Kamui, he told me." Alex beamed back happily "These are the…Dragons of Heaven…" he pronounced the bombastic name slowly, feeling the dramatization heavy on his tongue, "correct?"

"How do you know…?" Kamui exhaled, angry, "I've never told you anything like that, I've…I don't know you…" Subaru gave the boy an educating stare.

"Of course you told me about your home world, and the battle you have to do for the planet or for humanity, where you were forced to choose which side you want to fight. You told me about all of them..." he gestured generally at the two girls, "barging into your life when you moved back here to Tokyo, when all you wanted was to get the sword back." The words flowed so naturally from his mouth that for a moment Kamui was transfixed by how much sense it made that someone he ordered to find him between dimensions would also know such things about him.

And why wouldn't he tell everything to a man who reminded him so much of Fuma, when he was so very homesick and longing for Fuma when the floor swallowed him whole…

"You said 'world'," Arashi spoke cool and firm, her stance still rigid, preparing to pounce in her own elegant way, "do you mean the place where Kamui disappeared to and then came back from?"

"You beat the crap out of Kamui the first time you met," Alex turned a pointing finger to her, "your name means 'tempest' but Kamui doesn't remember you very much, he doesn’t like how quiet and stoic you are; thinks you're one of them class queens, being a snob at everyone."

Kamui blinked, jaw dropping, at the man suddenly blurting out his very thoughts which he was certain belonged to him and him alone, "You…." He hissed.

"Wasn't much about you, sorry." Alex winced awkwardly at Seiichiro who seemed to be finding this all very exciting, "and you're Sumeragi Subaru, you helped Kamui awaken when he tried hiding in his soul when his neighbor girl died."

Subaru's eyes darted around feeling how the stranger's flush of words clashed against everyone else's silence and the tension it built up.

"You think the man you love tried dumping you by killing your twin sister…hey, she was a twin sister!"

Ice dripped down Subaru's spine and at the corner of his eyes he could see Sorata mouth the words 'man you love' with surprise; no one knew Subaru had romantic feelings towards another man…

"Ah, you're wrong and I'll tell you why," Death took an excited step towards the onmyouji, "but not now, you want me to shut up…"

Subaru's eyes were a picture of horror.

"I'm sorry, that wasn't something Kamui told me, I just read your thoughts…I'm still talking, aren’t I…"

Sorata edged his way into the kitchen and began to feverishly prepare tea for them all. The air around them was so tense and Sorata, who was very socially sensitive, just couldn’t take it. A good cup of tea would relax them, or at least give them a reason to sit down and talk a little instead of standing there glaring, he thought.

"I'll repeat the question," Arashi's voice sliced through the heavy awkward silence which filled the large room, "are you or are you not from the place Kamui disappeared a month ago?"

Blinking out the disturbance from Subaru, Alex turned to the young lady, "You mean the Lost Dimension; yes I'm from there, not originally, but it's been my home for the past few years before I came looking for Kamui. I have no other home, so I suppose I fall under the definition of something that comes from there."

"The Lost what?" Kamui's face twitched with scornful misunderstanding.

"The Lost dimension, prince. The place which kidnapped you." Death turned to Kamui and his voice suddenly became soft and sweet, his tone patient and thick like a warm embrace. As he spoke, his eyes bounced around Kamui's features in hunger to consume them, "We still don't know how it came to be, but there's a dimension out there that can take in people and creatures from other dimensions, and keep them there. We think it has a brain of its own this dimension, because it often chooses to snatch the right people at the right time. Whatever it's doing, it seems to be doing it for fun as it'll always draw innocent people, then monsters to attack them, then heroes to protect the innocent.

"I know it's a lame, dramatic name 'the Lost Dimension'" he chuckled and rolled his eyes amusedly, "but the Doctor, the man who built the TARDIS which brought you back and got me here, told us there was a hole in his dimensions map where this dimension lay and so it's existence was - lost - throughout the ages for those knowledgeable about dimensions."

All through this, Kamui who picked up a hope in Alex' mentioning of mind reading, tried thinking 'stop it, stop it, stop it, it's too much!' but Alex just spoke on and finally Kamui was shaking his head slightly to try and stop the flood of words.

"And you were taken in there, along with two others, one night when I killed Mouse, and you….well…" Alex's eyes began filling with that great warm love as he smiled sweetly down at the boy, "we, met for the first time…" his eyes dimmed a bit as Kamui made a small gesture to escape backwards, "but you don't remember anything of that…" the boy shook his head gently again.

That moment, Kasumi Karen chose to walk into the dorms with a cheerful chirp and a teasing, "My my my, what are you all still doing up? Isn't it a school night?" she winked at Yuzuriha who backed away behind Arashi, trying to stop herself from leaping at Alex to demand more fascinating details like the ones he so far provided.

"Ah, you're all here," her voice and face dropped a bit as she noted Aoki in the room and Subaru in his pale and shaken state, "What’s wrong, is Kamui alright?"

She scanned the boy, remembering the earthquake earlier that evening, but her leader was alright. He was just busy looking perplexed by a strange man who stood ogling at her and not because of her outrageously revealing tight red dress; he was looking at her face. The impossibly cherry pink hue of her curly hair, her meticulous and sensual heavy makeup.

"You…" Death exhaled as he lay eyes and recognized the woman from his dream, "The one who told me I'll meet Kamui." He charged at her, grabbing her palms and looking into her eyes, with her sharp pumps, she managed to be his height.

"You came to me in a dream and I thought it was a hallucination, but then Kamui was brought into the Dimension," he flashed his eyes at Kamui who was now backed up against the living room table and looking very much in need of some tactical assistance, "and I realized it was true..." He turned to Karen who was busy examining a small tattoo of four handwritten numbers on his right forearm, rather than paying him any attention, "I know it wasn't truly you, but I'd like to thank you anyways." she flashed a polite smile at him and returned his gentle hold on her palm.

"Let's take a short tea break, shall we? Tea will calm our nerves down, huh?" Sorata stepped to block Alex' path back to Kamui's side. With a tray full of tea mugs, the monk sent a polite smile at the short man which meant he better comply and give the poor perplexed youth a break.

********************

Alex didn’t sit down to tea with them; he leaned on a wall a little away from the dinning table and watched them. There was a hidden manner to his position, of someone trying to blend into the wall and not be seen so that he could better view the scene before him. It was not a thing he commanded his body to do, it was an instinct.

He’d stare deeply at Kamui from time to time until Kamui would notice him and their gazes met. Then green eyes would stare longingly and lovingly at confused misty violet eyes which would quickly turn away shyly.

“So, you’ve been traveling dimension over dimension until you found this one,” Yuzuriha asked, finally feeling someone aught to start the questioning again while the grownups pretended that sipping tea in silence was the right thing to do when a stranger from another dimension stood in the same room as them, full of secrets and tales of adventures like a ripe pomegranate.

She wasn’t given full attention yet; Subaru was sulking quietly at his chair. From time to time one of the Dragons of Heavens would sneak a surprised look at him that said “man he loves?” This Death thing said it so casually as if it was something that should be so easily shared with people. He’d have a word or two with this Alex person later. Or should he do it now? Alex did mention he could read people’s minds…

‘How could you just blurt out that Seishiro-san was…well we weren’t even… Do know who Seishiro-san is? Did Kamui tell you?’

Alex turned his eyes to Subaru and smiled kindly. ‘Yes, I know who Seishiro is, Kamui didn’t tell me everything, I picked the rest of it from your mind.’

‘Ah, marvelous; you dug out something private and threw it in everybody’s face.’

Alex moved uncomfortably. ‘I know it sounds like I was digging into your private life, but I wasn’t. I can only read what people… sort of transmit outside; what’s on their mind all the time. If I wanted to dig into your past I could do it, but it’d take more then what I did just then. I need to actually dig into your mind psychically, what I did was merely listen to what you thought of, I can hear it when I tune into people.’

‘Then you did tune into me, you did invade something I might not want you to hear!’ Subaru covered the hint about his constant and endless thought of the Sakurazukamori with anger.

‘No, when I look at someone I tune into their thoughts without controlling it, you have no idea how simply walking on the street can be noisy to me.’ Death's smile broadened and Subaru frowned.

Yuzuriha was repeating the question she asked but was unheard by any of the two thought talkers.

‘You still didn’t have to say it out loudly to everyone!’ Subaru looked away and folded his palms on his lap, the closest gesture of pure anger. He wouldn’t dare do something as rude and fold his arms on his chest; a subtle gesture like that was quite enough.

‘Why? Is it something to be ashamed of?’

‘…’

‘It’s as part of you as your flesh and bones Subaru, there’s nothing to be ashamed of.’

‘You’re referring to the fact that it’s a man I’m thinking about. I’m talking about the fact that you mentioned the death of my sister, an event which hurts me every time I remember it! And you blurted it out like that, said he was trying to dump me, using such language…’ Now Subaru returned his glare to Alex. It would have been a lot angrier if tears did not gather in his eyes. Subaru wiped them away before anyone could notice, angry with himself.

Alex turned his eyes from Subaru’s He made a little bow ‘I'm so very deeply sorry.’

Subaru looked at the table and shut his mind from any further eavesdropping. At least he made it clear to Alex that in a way he had forgiven him.

“Are you listening to me?!” the young girl squealed at Alex. Now everyone was looking at him a bit strangely.

“Whoa! Oh, sorry, I was drifting there for a moment, excuse me…what did you say little girl?”

“I’m not a little girl." She exasperated, "I asked if you really traveled dimensions to look for Kamui!”

Alex noticed Kamui finally raised his eyes to look at him of his own will.

He sighed. “Yes, I did.” he murmured, sounding tired.

“Really? What is it like…dimensions I mean, it could be a great story!” the editor leaned forward, his right hand instinctively reaching for his chest where his notepad would have been if he had one of his work jackets on.

“Well…" Death seemed to shrink a bit, keeping his eyes low and away from them "I was trying to travel to Earth in all the dimensions, but I didn’t always find Earth in a state fit to have you around…”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…some Earths are different; ruined, or over-developed to match what Kamui told me about, so I assumed it’s not the right one. Also I looked for you mentally.”

“You looked for me mentally? How?” It unnerved Kamui that even if a person who wasn’t him asked Alex a question, the answer was directed at him. Although there were six other people in the room, basically, Alex spoke directly to him as if blind to the other’s existence.

Kamui was making Alex’ knees weak when he looked into his eyes and spoke to him like that, when he spoke to him at all…so many years it’s been since he last saw Kamui, all this time he was traveling those thousands of dimensions looking for his prince, his lover…and now Kamui was here, in front of him within reaching distance…but Kamui didn’t remember anything about him and could not be touched, how frustrating…
“I looked in people’s minds if they knew anyone named Kamui. It’s a very rare name that not a lot of people call their children, so I always went to places where I found someone who knows a Kamui.”

“Are there other dimensions where there are other Kamui's?” Everyone's attention was now completely focused on Alex' words; where at first it was wandering around between Alex's strangeness, Kamui's sulkiness and Subaru's revealed sexual preferences.

Alex sighed and explained. “Dimensions are worlds parallel to one another, sometimes the difference between one dimension and the other is simply the way people’s small choices are different then the choices they made in another dimension. Sometimes the difference is something as monumental as a war being won by one side rather then the other…” He stopped for a while and looked down, hiding his face from them.

“And there are dimensions where all this doesn’t happen? Dimensions where there isn’t a battle for the end of the earth?” Kamui’ eyes were lighting up with anger.

“Yes. In my dimension there was no such thing or I would have heard of that. I’m Death, I should hear about something like that with so many people dying…In some dimensions you’re all nothing but a bunch of separated people who never knew each other ever, each developed a completely different personality and life.”

“Really?” Yuzuriha shrilled, making her dog spirit cringe.

“Yes. In one dimension, Arashi was some kendo girl in a girl dorms house in Tokyo, you and other girls were constantly chased about by some useless dork of a ronin, you were studying to get into Tokyo U…”

“Did he really chase me about,” Arashi asked, hinting.

“Oh yes…”

“And I was a kendoka? Did I get to hit this boy who was chasing me about?” She smiled symbolically.

“A lot.” Alex’ smile was a less polite and more honest version of Arashi’s.

Sorata moved in his seat uncomfortably.

“In another you were all together, the Dragons of Heaven and of Earth, but…ah never mind…” Alex looked away; he blushed a little, smiling to himself.

“And what…?” Kamui pressed, with a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Well…it was on Jupiter…it was a planet almost completely without women, it was some sort of hideout colony for criminals...Earth was all devastated because the moon was starting to crumble into the Earth and the pieces wrecked the surface, so I looked for you on other planets…Venus was amusing, it had helium atmosphere and when you first set foot in it your voice goes all squeaky and you sound like…”

“Us, the Dragons of Earth and of Heaven, what about it? Don’t change the subject!” Mauve daggers pierced at Alex.

He blushed a little more “Well…you wouldn’t like it but…on Jupiter…you were all in a brothel…you people were the prostitutes and the Harbingers were the pimps…besides you Sorata, you stole Arashi off and started your own one woman brothel…”

Arashi’s face turned red. Sorata beamed happily.

Kamui sank into his chair a little, blaming eyes blazing bitterly, “I bet you reunited with me gladly there...”

Alex was shocked from the tone of accusation in Kamui’s voice, “I never did! I knew the moment I saw you all that this was definitely not your dimension…besides you were with a client at that moment…”

Kamui’s face went red as well, “You…you did say that there were hardly any women on the planet,” he mumbled

“Oh…it was only the girls in here and of the Dragons of Earth…and some girl named Julia…besides them, they were all men…” Alex looked down at the floor again. He shifted his weight from one leg to the other uncomfortably.

“And you saw I was…with a client…it wasn’t this Julia was it…?”

Death's eyes darted sideways as if looking for a route from the subject, “No…not really…”

Kamui shot to his feet and stormed away from the room. He returned back as quick and as powerful as he went out, fury filling his slim limbs. “You’re lying! Lying! You…" He stopped before Alex, snapping a pointing finger up the man's face, almost poking his nose, "You’re probably one of those dimension monsters, you said yourself that you killed someone…you're not good… You're lying!!”

He pushed against Death, angrily. Alex wasn’t wearing his armor anymore, and still the body Kamui hit was hard as marble and just as cold. Alex grabbed Kamui by his wrist and tried to hold him off.

“DON’T TOUCH ME!” Kamui screamed and sent his power blowing at Alex, his eyes were almost glowing with anger. The psychic waves opened a wound like a giant dog's bite into the taller man's chest.

For a long moment it was like a great door to the sun as pure white emitted from the wound. The next moment, just as everyone recovered from their shock and shielded their eyes, the light was gone and instead the hole in Alex chest appeared as it would have in a living human; a mess of broken bones, torn inner parts and twitching red-pink flesh.

Horrified and taken by a violent nausea, Kamui swooned away clamping his hand on his mouth. Arashi grabbed Yuzuriha and buried the young girl's face in her shoulder.

Yet as they watched, the wound closed like burn mark played on video in reverse. Seconds later it was already gone, leaving behind a feeling in all the room's occupants that Kamui should never pull that trick again, for their own good. Alex did nothing but turn his face sideways and wait stoically until the boy learned his lesson; he will not fight Kamui's tantrum.

Seeing the silent acceptance, Kamui screamed out with frustration and anger. “I know what you want; I know exactly what you want! And you’re not going to get that here! Go to that stupid Jupiter dimension of yours and get it there!” He screamed, tears flowing from his eyes freely.
Oh why does this man have to look so much like his Fuma? Why? And that look of concern, that soft touch, so caring…just like Fuma…why? He knows how to fight, he knows how to bicker, but he doesn’t know what to do with a man who insists on turning the other cheek.

“I said something like that once Kamui…I promise to you Kamui, I promise, I’ll never take anything from you that you don’t want to give, never! Do you hear me?” Alex bent a little to look into Kamui’ face. His voice that spoke so calm and gentle, like he was speaking to a beloved child, tore Kamui from inside. Alex handed him a napkin to wipe his face with.

“You don’t believe me that I traveled to all those dimensions?”

Kamui shook his head, only more enraged at the tears in his eyes.

“Spill some cold water on me then.”

“What?!”

“Do it.” Alex smiled at him softly.

Kamui went to the kitchen and brought back a glass of water, the others eagerly watching him.

“That’s not enough I’m afraid, bring like a pot or bucket full of water.”

Kamui walked back to the kitchen and returned with a big and thin wok Sorata brought with him from Koyasa, full of water. Everyone in the room gathered around Alex as Kamui neared him and splashed all the water at the man.

Six voices gasped as they saw what happened, one voice was silent in confusion.

In front of Kamui now stood a woman dressed, as Alex was, same hair style, similar face. Her hair was red and a faint purple eye shadow decorated her eyes.

Kamui stared amazed at the pair of healthy breasts which bulged under the black tunic where strong chest muscles were a moment ago.

“Don’t you know it’s not polite to stare kid,” the woman said.

Kamui took some steps back “It’s magic…it’s another trick…like reading minds.” he whispered and the Alex-woman became grave again.

“I…saw something like this in a comic book,” Sorata mumbled "cursed lakes in Chine….what was it's name?"

"'Ranma 1/2 and 1/2!'" Yuzuriha chirped, clapping her hands and bouncing on the balls of her feet with excitement, "I never imagined it could actually happen!"

“Oh, so it’s in a comic book here…” The woman didn’t look very happy, she was very bitter. “Well I’m not surprised; in some dimensions your story is in comic books as well…and some of the people in my dimension are nothing but fiction or television characters in other dimensions…” She sighed. "Please fetch some more water, my prince; I don't like these dangly things" she gestured at her breasts distastefully.

Quick to obey, though slightly disturbed at the new nickname Alex had found him, Kamui returned to the woman. Now the wok warmed in his hands until the water in it began bubbling.

Alex took the wok from Kamui’s hands and spilled its content on herself. She was a he again.

“You said it’s a trick…I’m sorry you think so Kamui…I’m so sorry you don’t believe me…" he looked away with weary eyes and shrugged, "there’s no real way I can prove it to you then…I’m sorry…” Tears filled his eyes again and he turned his back to the youth.

Kamui walked back to the dining table and sat in a chair, his back to them all.

The editor was hot on Alex' heels as Death retreated to the living room's sofa with his back to the group, "Were you ever in Japan? You speak our language so fluently. "

Death raised his head and frowned gently, "I'm talking Japanese?" He scanned the faces behind him. They stared back at him, yet again fascinated by the novelty he brought into their lives. "No, I'm talking English…you're all talking English, too….which is kind of weird, now that I think about it…"

Kamui's eyes darted around as the new mystery ignited the curious part of his mind.

Aoki stared at Alex like the man was his genius invention, "W-when we speak, you hear English?" his eyes glittered.

Alex nodded, frowning even more.

Aoki edged a little closer to Alex, fixing him with a strong inquisitive look, "Hajimemashite, Aoki Seiichiro desu, nihongo ga hanasemasu ka?" his eyebrows twitched in question.

Death looked like the poor foreign men and women who are often found running around Tokyo's tourist main sites, shaking phrase books in their hands and jetlagged sleepless faces, trying to make sense of the frantic alien world around them, "Huh?!"

"Kutabare kono hentai." Kamui mumbled, sniggering to himself.

"I was talking English now," the editor explained himself, looking extremely amused and proud of the fact that he had come up with such an elaborate test of the strange language phenomena they experienced, "what did you hear?"

"Something that might have sounded like Japanese?" Death shrugged and edged away from the man on the sofa, uncomfortable at the sudden enthusiasm, "I donno…"

Waving his hands to change the subject, the editor resumed his investigation, “What was the worst dimension you were ever in amongst those you’ve traveled?"

“Aoki-san, stop interviewing him, you can’t get his story into the papers anyway!” Karen settled herself on the sofa across Alex' and investigated the man's appearance better.

“Well…there was once where I appeared in England…there were a lot of vampires there so I just wanted to have a look around…but then some institution…something to do with the Von Hellsing family they had there, put its hands on me." Death dropped his head again and shook it gently, "They had the technology to keep me from working my powers. They wanted me to help them fight vampires, to kill them. I had to make a bet with them: if I fought their strongest soldier and won they’ll let me go, if not then I’ll stay and be enslaved to them. "

He stopped and ran his fingers through his hair. His voice, when he spoke again, was low and faint as if he spoke to himself in memory, "Their strongest soldier was a vampire, ancient and powerful…” Immense pain twitched his face suddenly. It only calmed when he dragged his eyes to Kamui “…But I fought him…I had to kill him…I, Death, had to kill a vampire…all to keep looking for you, Kamui…”

“What’s all this talk of vampires, Alex-san? What do you mean you’re Death?”

“Aoki-san! I told you to stop interviewing him!”

“It’s not as if I’m writing this down, I can’t help it, that’s how I listen to interesting stories these days. We should get to know you anyway, shouldn’t we? You don’t mind do you?” The editor hung hopeful eyes behind glasses at Alex who responded with a faint smile.

Kamui was still with his back to him, and Alex could see that he was crossing his arms on his chest stubbornly. He knew this Kamui; the hardheaded Kamui who insisted on Alex telling him everything about a past Alex wanted to stop him from hearing so that he won’t be hurt. The Kamui who insisted on coming to every battle with him, “We should always be together side by side, even in fighting,” he said back then, the dark blood flowing through his undead veins making him oh so beautiful, until the last battle they won together separated them to different worlds…

Kamui was taken away from him back to his dimension, when they won, where he healed from his undead-ness, where he forgot him. Because in one of those side-by-side battles Kamui saved the TARDIS machine, and in gratitude the machine shot him back to his home…

He snapped back to reality, “I’m Death which means…in my dimension it meant that I was responsible for all dead and undead things; ghosts, zombies, vampires. I was to control them when they rampaged and to guard them when they were in danger. I managed them so they'll never step in each other's turf or venture too far into the mortal world.

"That’s how it was in my dimension. In other dimensions I have the power to help and control these creatures, like the ones who found Kamui, but I have no position or place in the general fabric of the worlds to play my part in. I just have these powers…” he gestured with his hands helplessly.

“And you turned me into a vampire,” Kamui finally spoke, angry, abusive.

Sorata never heard Kamui like that since Fuma became a Dragon of Earth. This was the hard and cruel Kamui who cared for no one but himself, who could snarl and threaten anyone who comes too close to him. The Kamui who could very easily carry out his bloody threats without batting an eye.

Alex ignored the tone and Kamui’s behavior. He was speaking calmly with his voice still charged with emotions, “I didn’t turn you into a vampire. Someone else did it and no, don’t say that I sent a vampire to do it because I didn’t. I almost killed the vampire who changed you for doing it.”

He was degrading himself now, in comparison to the confident and powerful thing that held a sword against the Dragon’s throat, thought Subaru.

“And why didn’t you?”

“Because I don’t kill vampires, I protect them, they’re my children…”

“Ah, but you just said that you killed one in a dimension you traveled to, why did you kill that one but not the other?” Kamui finally turned his face to Alex, the beautiful violet eyes ablaze with hate and malice.

It had a frightening effect on Alex. Perhaps it was Kamui’s insistent disbelief in him or maybe it was that the youth touched a painful subject with so much scorn, whatever it was, it made Alex start crying in silence again.

The sight of his bloody tears took Yuzuriha and Arashi aback and made Karen realize something about the power balance between Death and her leader, ‘Kamui can be so intolerable sometimes. Remember, he’s only a child, forgive him,’ thought Karen, hoping Alex would hear her.

Despite the obvious blow to his dignity, Death sat blot upright and kept his eyes strong on Kamui, the dark red lines down his cheeks contrasting sharply with his emerald green eyes. The stare down between the two stretched an electric tension in the room, making the air stifling and uncomfortable to any but them.

Death had had enough; he shot to his feet, charging at Kamui, grabbing him by his arm, knowing he’d cause the youth pain, and lifted the youth to his feet.

“Listen, you, I traveled for a time that aught to equal four hundred years in total looking for you, I traveled over two thousand three hundred and fifty seven bloody dimensions looking for you and if you don’t believe it, then tough! I was held prisoner more then just the time I told and wasn’t always able to escape. I fell into stupid fucking Chinese lakes that turned me into things and a woman is the last of them! Sometimes I traveled into dimensions where my body waited for me outside while my soul entered another body, sometimes of an animal or a human. When that happened I had to live that body’s life fully to return to my own body. And all this time I waited, waited and waited, until I can get back to searching for you Kamui, do you have any idea what this means!?”

Kamui wasn’t angry anymore…he was frightened. He fell silent and looked away.

Alex let him go. Turning his back to all of them, he stormed out of the room to the backyard.

******************************

Kamui couldn’t sleep. Thoughts ran manically through his mind, stealing his much needed rest. He tossed and turned under his blanket, re-adjusting his pillow over and over again, changing positions, but nothing helped.

He couldn’t remember anything from where he was taken to, other than the moment when he was taken, the way he felt the ground under his feet turn to nothing and sucking him in. He recalled Death's words; he was taken by a dimension that liked to kidnap people, then unleash monsters it creates against them…and the flash of memory from the time he called this person to come and find him; how everything around them was burning ruins…

Alex said he found him, that he had attacked someone there, that he saved people there, that they were together…

Together, as lovers, with this Fuma-like creature. Was it because Alex looked like Fuma that they were together? Did he think he found his lost, kind, and good Fuma after the Dragon of Earth had turned Fuma’s body into a vessel of evil? Could he really be so…so…selfish?

How could he use someone like Alex, who no doubt loves him and wishes to protect him, and be with him simply because he looks like someone else? Could he really stoop that low?

He turned in his bed once more and tried to close his eyes to sleep. He couldn’t. In front of his eyes the happenings of the early evening flashed: Alex saving his life, how powerful and confident he seemed there but when Kamui started speaking to him the tiger became a pussycat, soft and submissive.

He traveled for a time that equals 400 years in two thousand three hundred and fifty seven different dimensions…for him.

But he couldn’t remember any of it, why can’t he? If he remembers, then surely he’ll be happy again because he’d remember all the wonderful things they must have done together…

Oh god, what have they done together? He remembered what he felt when Alex was holding him…surely when they were lovers they must have done lots of that… could he check if that’s true in a way that wouldn’t be going to Alex and asking him? Does it make some sort of a change in your body? Who can he ask, Karen maybe?

What could he do? What did he do? Oh, god, what did you do, Kamui!

He sat up on his bed and looked out of his bedroom window. He saw Alex standing in the distance in the middle of the lawn stretch separating one dorm from the other. The hologram man with the stripy pajama was there again.

He dragged this person through endless dimensions and ages in search of him and now, without even a proper goodbye, he sends him back to the dimension of fires and monsters and ruin…

Kamui shot off his bed and rushed downstairs.

*********************

Alex stood in the midst of the vast lawn stretch between the various apartment buildings of Clamp Campus' dorms. The air was cool and damp, carrying a distinct smell of impending snow on a soft gentle wind. Somewhere in the Dragon of Heaven's apartment building's higher floors someone was having a sleepover party; the faint sound of rhythmic pop music and girlish giggles fell down upon them like snowflakes.

His Kamui, his mental savior, his prince, his love, didn’t remember him and spited him angrily as a fraud and a monster.

Kamui was no longer a Creature of Death that could be with him without fear of his curse. He remembered how beautiful Kamui looked when the dark blood began flowing in his veins, oh so beautiful. On the other hand, now that he saw the human living Kamui again, he began thinking that this one is just as beautiful.

But he doesn’t remember him…nothing, nothing at all.

What stung Death the most was the scorn at his title and powers. Had Kamui remembered the day when he looked at his Death with vampire eyes, he'd know the greatness of Death.

That’s why he’s immortal, because of his great power, that’s why he’ll never die. He will always walk the earth without the ability to stop it all. He has to suffer all destiny throws at him and live on, even the one comfort he found, in Kamui, was now gone...

He remembered the arch vampire he met at the Hellsing institute. Alex asked him how he could be a slave to humans and hunt his own kind. With an old bitter grin, the vampire told him eternal life is a boring thing; you have to do radical things to make it interesting, claiming that Alex never got to live long enough on the same surrounding to be that bored and fed up with immortality.

He remembered a man he met in another dimension, a sun bleached ball of sand covered the planet. The young blond in red was a very silly man, so silly Alex felt uncomfortable around him at times. This man, despite his super-human powers, despite his amazing skills, could get as low as the lowest of humiliated men and cared very little about it. He could be in a headlock by a bunch of little brats, he could be forced to get naked and bark like a dog to make a criminal he easily could wipe out, forgive a girl he protected.

How he did it Alex never understood, this silly lightheaded man who could often seemed to have a death wish…the death wish he could never be granted…just like Alex…

“I know I behave like a complete idiot sometimes,” the blond said one night when they were sitting facing each other across a little bonfire. “But…I know I’m not…I tell people I forgot what I did once but I didn’t…I remember all my life since the beginning,” he said, the fire’s light moving from his face, leaving his sorrow in the cold darkness.

“How could you deal with that,” Alex asked him.

“I tell myself I forgot it and I lighten up. I have things to do on this planet you know.” He looked up to Alex. His pretty face lightened again by the fire, the little black mole near his left eye becoming a decoration “Lots of places to fight for LOVE & PEACE!” The man suddenly leaped to his feet and throwing his right arm forward, two big fingers held up and crossed like some kind of ‘V’ symbol.

Alex remembered how awkward he felt when the man suddenly leaped from serious mode to extreme moron mode. But he was right, absolutely right. Alex had a lot to learn from that moron, a lot indeed.

And a lot to learn from the arch vampire…if only he didn’t have to kill him…the pain in his chest sharpened.

Death's senses alerted him of the Sumeragi nearing him and he smiled wearily, “Hello Subaru”.

“Good evening.”

Silence stretched between them as they stood in the chilling fresh air of the night.

Alex was the first to break the cool silence “Seishiro…he’s a Dragon of Earth, isn’t he?”

Subaru took some time to answer. “You know him?”

“No, I don’t, but it's on your mind.”

"…”

Silence…silence and cold air.

“It’s frustrating.” Alex broke the silence again.

“What is?”

“That you have to fight each other…and Kamui has to fight Fuma… He’ll die you know…you will all die, I saw it in the comic book in one of the dimensions I traveled. What happens in a book in one world really happens in the world where these characters live…you’ll all die and the Earth will be given its wish.”

Subaru was speechless; his mind was numb with the shock. ‘Will it?’ he thought; frightened, never daring to say the words out, save to exhale, "A-ah." Then his mind reached for help, "Perhaps the comic book was about a different world where this happens?"

“Subaru…”

“Yes?”

“Don’t fight each other, you and the Sakurazukamori.”

Death asked the Sumeragi to not fight the man who murdered his twin sister when they were both only sixteen. The man who, for a whole year, pretended to be a kind veterinarian and the best friend of the twins as they adjusted to living in the big city of Tokyo after growing up in the quiet and secluded Sumeragi clan shrine in Kyoto. The man who pretended that his position as the next assassin in line of the Cherry Blossom Burial Mound clan, had nothing to do with him, the humble man that he was, until the truth was revealed and Subaru's sister died.

Subaru mouthed a bit but he knew he must give Death's words a second thought, as if this man must be listened to more than any other. It was the strange and new connection between Subaru, a powerful medium and wizard of the Sumeragi clan and therefore a Man of Death, and Alex.

“Will he kill me? Did you read about it in the comic book?”

“No Subaru, you’ll kill him.”

“What?! But…but…”

For a moment, Alex' head moved to cast a glance at Subaru, "I…can't really read, even though the comic book I saw was clearly in English….all I saw was a battle on a great bridge between the two of you, and then him dying in your arms. You were crying and he was smiling at you kindly and told you something which made you hug him."

Subaru fell silent, his mind frozen with shock.

"And then they showed this young girl and him, under a big tree, and she was saying something to him which made him look kind of startled."

Subaru swooned and covered his mouth with a gasp. He stumbled backwards a little, and then fell to his knees on the ground with his wide white trench coat around him like a lady's gown. "The vengeance curse…." He whispered hoarsely, eyes wide with horror.

Death was at his side, laying an arm across his shoulders, "What is it, Subaru? Have I said something to hurt you?"

The Sumeragi was crying, his hand shaking as he reached to grab Death's arm powerfully, "Hokuto, my sister, when she died was she angry?"

Alex shook his head, "She was smiling sweetly."

"And the fight between me and Seishrio-san, who was attacking who?"

Death shrugged, "It was a blur, first you flung spells at each other, then you leaped at each other and the next thing that happens is your hand went straight through his chest and him dying while you look puzzled and shocked."

"It is the vengeance curse!" the Sumeragi whimpered, now clutching the front of Death's tunic desperately and flinging his head sideways in despair, "Why cast such an outdated spell now that there is only one of them left?!"

Alex cupped Subaru's small chin in his hand and drew the young man's face so they can look clearly at each other, "You're going to have to explain things to me now, kiddo, because I don't have a clue what you're talking about."

Subaru wiped at his eyes with the sleeve of his coat like a child and sat down, leaning into Death's half-embrace, "In the first days of both our clans there were many assassins in the Sakurazukamori clan, before they became a line of one single man or woman working alone. Those days our clans would be at each other's throats all the time over which will serve as the imperial medium.

"The Sumeragi created a spell for our clan to cast on the rivals' in case they were assassinated. In the moment of their deaths, my ancestors would weave a spell and the next time the Sakurazukamori assassin would try to kill another with the same method they used on the Sumeragi, they would die the same way by the person they tried to kill instead. This was mostly used during the dark days when they'd send a single assassin expert into our shrine to kill as many of us as he'd find; they'd find him dead the moment he'd try to take another one of our lives.

"But now the Sakurazukamori are always one man and I wanted Seishiro-san to kill me, not to have him dead in my arms. Why would Hokuto-chan do something like that?" And with that, the tears overcame him and he crumpled into Alex' arms, sobbing.

Death waited for the onmyouji's tears to wan a little before he spoke again, grave and commanding, “Don’t fight each other the next time you meet, and don't let anyone send you to fight one another.

“Take it from me, I know a lot about it; you don’t want someone you love that much to die. Talk; don’t charge at each other, please. Promise me, Subaru. At least think about it…please…?” He drew Subaru's face upwards again.

The desperate look in Death's eyes snapped Subaru out of the mists of his grieving thoughts, "Promise you? Won't you be here to see it through?"

Alex climbed to his feet, holding Subaru's hands in his to gently help him up, "No, Subaru, I have nothing left here anymore; Kamui doesn't remember anything and I'm unwanted in a dimension where Death was not a part of the plan. If I stay too long I might upset the fabric of this world…and Kamui won't come back with me…"

He buried his eyes sadly in the ground and let go of the onmyouji's palms, "So I better leave, go back to my dimension and the Death 'monster' I selfishly left behind me when I went to search for Kamui."

He turned his back to the young man and dug around in his pants' pocket to produce a small golden thing. It looked like a watch only completely round like a ball, filled with lines defining pins and buttons, and slightly glowing white. Death's fingers tightened on the sphere and the light-made man appeared by his side, his arms impatiently crossed on his chest.

Subaru opened his mouth to ask Death to stay, but he heard the door to the backyard slide open behind him and the patter of small feet on the wet grass, and knew Death would not leave so soon.

**********************

Kamui ran madly past Subaru to Alex, screaming, "Wait! Wait, don't go!"

Slowly, Alex turned around to look deeply into Kamui's eyes; the boy didn’t flinch. "Kamui…"

"Don't go back to that place…that Lost….thing, where all the monsters are…you can't go back there after I dragg.. I-I asked you to come here…"

For a moment Alex scanned the youth's desperate expression, trying to understand where this sudden plea came from; could it be that the boy remembered him finally?

Without waiting for an answer, he snatched the slim body into his arms, digging his nose into the silky thick jet locks like he had done a thousand times, inhaling the scent he missed so much he now felt like he was finally inhaling fresh air after years of stifling smoke.

"Y-you should stay a while…m-maybe I'll remember something…maybe if I get to know you more…" the hug was becoming too awkward, never mind how strangely cozy and protected it made him feel, "Then I'll remember…maybe…"

Alex released Kamui from his strong embrace, his green eyes brimming with love and gratitude. In a second, Kamui thought, he’d try to kiss him again. But Alex didn’t try to kiss Kamui; instead he pulled his sword from its sheath. His outfit returned to the armored one and suddenly Kamui had a strange dark knight before him. Stabbing the ground, Death knelt before the short, slim youth and held his hands together on the hilt, keeping his head down.

“Kamui, for now you don't remember me, but you healed me, my illness, my craziness and my scars; it's why I love you and had to find you again no matter what you told me back then. Kamui, I may look like Fuma but…the promise he broke long ago, I will keep a thousand times stronger; I love you, I'll stay here as you asked me and protect you in this battle and beyond.”

His head rose and his strong eyes fixed Kamui with a strong, glowing stare, “I swear, my prince.”

(tbc)