Title: Moonlight | Sunlight
Author:
virdantLength: 530 words; super-short
Rating: PG
Genre: Gen.
Pairing: Vague implications of Seishirou/Subaru and Seishirou/Hokuto, maybe.
Summary: Hokuto comes in her brother’s robes, wearing her brother’s face. Hokuto and Seishirou, that day under the sakura.
Warning/Notes:
Spoilers for all of Tokyo Babylon (seeing as it takes place during the last volume), and a bit for X/1999.
This story originated as my attempt to write Hokuto/Seishirou. It isn't Hokuto/Seishirou, but it isn't quite not-Hokuto/Seishirou either.
Moonlight | Sunlight
He kills her for the sakura.
Hokuto comes in her brother’s robes, wearing her brother’s face. They fit her perfectly-she is his reflection, after all. She finds him under the sakura, and offers her life in her brother’s stead.
Seishirou looks at her. In moonlight, she could pass for Subaru. They have the same eyes, though sorrow tempers her light-like the moon, reflecting a portion of the sun. She looks nothing like Subaru, who would be too kind to hunt him down, who would cover his soul in silent shadow.
She offers her life, brighter than the sun, brighter than Subaru’s, and he takes it. She is half of Subaru-and-Hokuto, and her soul burns bright in the sun. The sakura wants it, and so Seishirou wants it.
Seishirou wonders if Hokuto knows that she looks nothing like Subaru. Subaru, who reflects the brightness of her soul, who draws a veil across his power just as Hokuto bares the brightness of her soul to the world. She blinds where Subaru obscures-and that is only their first difference.
Subaru always wore the clothes Hokuto set out for him, reflections of her own. He followed her direction, just as sailors always followed the north star.
She says: I won’t let you kill Subaru.
The sakura wants her. Wants her light, wants to devour her soul. She offers herself for her brother, and the sakura says: yes.
He kills her for the sakura.
She dies in his arms, like Subaru should have, like Subaru will, a reflection of his sister even in death. She tells him of the spell she has cast on him, that if he tries to kill Subaru it will be reflected onto him.
Subaru who reflects Hokuto. Subaru who reflects Seishirou. Subaru who reflects the sun with shadow.
She says: Sei-chan and she is nothing like Subaru. She says: I want to believe in you, and she is nothing like Subaru.
He holds her the way he holds Subaru. She is wearing her brother’s robes, wearing her brother’s face. They fit her perfectly-he is her reflection, after all. She finds him under the sakura and offers her life, her brightly shining soul, in the stead of her brother’s clouded one.
She says, I will never let you kill Subaru. She says: there are certain spells that only I have the power to cast, and he does not realize it until she is dead in his arms that she is the half of Subaru-and-Hokuto that is the light of the sun, and Subaru is the half that is the shadow and moonlight.
He kills her for the sakura.
Subaru will follow after Hokuto, seven sisters lost and finding their way by the light of the North Star. The sakura has Hokuto’s soul now, bright as the sun, and Subaru will come after the sakura, will come after him. He will wait while Subaru finds his way to Seishirou, and when time comes, he will meet Subaru alone, without the sakura at his back. The sakura is satisfied with Hokuto. Subaru remains for Seishirou.
He kills her for the sakura, for the sakura cannot thrive without light, just as the Sakurazukamori cannot thrive without shadow.
end.
End notes:
Since this piece is so introspective, I went and annotated the whole piece with my thought process and everything I was trying to bring into the story. There are 40 comments to the about 550 words that this piece is. Suffice to say, you can see it at google docs
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