The Bet
By Karasu Yurei
Disclaimer. Well not really. The Characters belong to CLAMP. If you don’t know that by now, man, do you have issues. Now I know that the beginning that I have and the actual dream sequence that happened in both the Tokyo Babylon manga and OVAs don’t correspond very well. Lay off. I hadn’t seen the manga or OVAs then and even after I liked how my version came out so I’m not changing it. The gist is the same. And as to the end well no one knows how it’s going to end do they?
Loom
by Ani DiFranco
You've always got those dark sunglasses
Covering up your face
But if you promise to take them off
I promise I won't squander your gaze
I will be picturesque
I will be nice
I won't do anything you can't tell your wife
I will think before I act
I will think twice
Just let me see your eyes
Each time we spoke you put in a token ridden the tilt-a-whirl
When I was giggling and dizzy
Flirting like a 12 year old girl
The carnival of you and me was coming to town
Watch how we spin and spin and then fall down
Now we just say hello and head for firmer ground
You are the one-way glass
That watches me
Standing in line at the bank
Always looked into your glasses
Like a cat looks into a fish tank
But all I could ever see
Was the specter of me reflected
I'm on a monument of friendship
That we never had erected
I wanted to take up lots of room
I wanted to loom
You always got those dark sunglasses
Between us when we talk
After the party is over
If you wanna take a walk
We could just look around
Not to nothing wrong
Just try to be at least as brave as our songs
I will bring my heart
I will bring my face
You just name the time and place
Seishirou stood and pondered what to do with this boy, who could be no more than nine. His training dictated that the boy should die; after all, that’s what happens to you when you witness the Sakurazukamori make a kill.
Still it would be a shame to waste such an innocent thing. The boy had peaked Seishirou’s interest. That in and of itself was worth attention, as few things did catch his interests. He stood over the boy. What a beautiful little thing you are. It simply didn’t occur to him that the boy was anything other than an object. An interesting object, to be sure, but an object none the less.
Then it occurred to him that, yes, he must kill this boy, but it didn’t need to be now. He had time, and patience. He could wait. It would make the hunt that much more interesting. “Would you like to live to see tomorrow?”
The boy nodded, green eyes nearly glowing in the waning light. His black hair bobbed as he nodded. Yes, you are quite beautiful. A wondrous little plaything. “How about I make a bet with you. The prize, if you win, is your life. You will get to keep it.” Petals fell from the Sakura tree, almost as if it was displeased about the temporary loss of its prey.
“Then here is the bet.” The boy listened to the terms of his continued existence with a serious expression. “When I am ready, you and I will meet again. You will get a year of my time and attention. You have that year to convince me that you are a person, not merely the interesting little toy I see you as now. In short, make me feel something.”
“Is that possible?”
“I suppose. But I have a more important question for you, does it matter? Do you have a choice?” The boy shook his head. The tree settled a little, assured of the fact that its Guardian hadn’t taken total leave of his senses.
Seishirou bent to one knee in front of the boy, so their heads were now on the same level. “Now just to be sure you don’t escape me. . .” He picked up the boy’s right hand and kissed the back, laying his mark into the very soul of the boy. The boy cried out and tried to pull away as the luminescent inverted pentagram rooted itself into his core.
Seishirou only released the hand after he had a firm grip on its brother. The boy’s sudden fear and pain meant nothing to him, just as his feeble attempt of escape meant nothing.
He kissed the second hand as he had the first, but this time he rode the new connection into the boy’s memories where he very carefully hid their meeting and consequent bet. As he let go the boy slumped to the ground, unconscious. The Sakurazukamori stood and left. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. A cold smile, having nothing to do with mirth, since it was something he was incapable of, twisted his lips. The smile having everything to do with the vague interest of a good hunt.
~~~~ Seishirou had become sort of a connoisseur of sunglasses. Interesting little tools they were. They had the double usefulness of both hiding the loss of his right eye rather effectively and keeping everyone else nervous. He watched Subaru below him. He seemed to be moving with purpose. “What are you up to today, Subaru-kun?” He had discovered over the last few years the his fascination with his plaything hadn’t diminished. It meant something important, but the reason mattered little in face of the easy entertainment.
He fingered the fading scar on his cheek. A token of he and his Subaru-kun’s last encounter. He was starting to notice an alarming pattern. The two would meet, get into, what was for Seishirou, a minor tussle, Subaru would lose miserably, and Seishirou would let him leave, merely for the pleasure of seeing him later.
Somehow Subaru had a hold on him, which was odd, since he knew he had the upper hand. He lit a cigarette. “Eh, but why do I still have a hand in it at all. This bet is long since overdue.” He watched his most prized possession leave his line of view; he had to turn his head to compensate for the lost right eye. He owned Subaru, heart and soul, but maybe, he pondered, his Subaru-kun owned him as well.
He snubbed out his cigarette and Subaru paused to light one. He descended from his hiding place, holding out a lighter to the younger man. Subaru accepted, just as he always did. Just as Seishirou did in reverse. Small courtesies, the lighting of cigarettes, the odd trust. “Subaru-kun, you shouldn’t smoke. It could kill you.”
“I know.” His voice was soft, as always. A pleasure to hear. He watched in amusement as Subaru tried to see past the sunglasses. They were falling back into their old pattern of conversation that doubled as warfare. There was a sort of safety in it. None of the recklessness that had been present in the original terms of the bet. But then, Seishirou wondered, when did the terms change?
Seishirou reached out and touched the younger man’s face. “Does it still embarrass you to be seen in public with me?”
“No. I don’t love you anymore.”
“Don’t lie. It’s unbecoming.”
“Why did you ruin something good you could have had?”
“There was nothing I could have had. I feel nothing.”
“Now who’s lying?” Subaru looked deliberately into the reflection of the sunglasses, and then, just as deliberately, turned and walked away.
Who indeed? Seishirou wondered as he stood there a moment more than necessary.
~~~~ Though the world was literally falling in around him his attention remained riveted to the slumping form before him. He heard Subaru gasping for air as he slumped to the ground, dying. Seishirou knelt with him. Watching the younger man slowly slip away from wounds Seishirou had caused. This was the way it had to end. The hunt was over. But instead of simply putting a hand through the man’s heart as was his custom with prey, he knelt and watched, contemplating.
Subaru watched as well, and then, startling him, raised a hand to Seishirou’s face. The sunglasses bothered him, reflecting himself back; he wanted to see his past love’s face. Seishirou flinched as the hand came up on the right side, his blind side. He allowed Subaru to take off the glasses. And then they saw each other. Blind eye to blind eye, mirror to reflection. “You’re right, I was lying.”
“About what, Subaru-kun?”
“About not loving you.” He tried to get to his cigarettes, something to do as he waited to die.
Seishirou pulled one out for him, put it to his lips, and lit it. The old rituals even as it all fell away. The safety of it. “You won, you know?”
“Won what?”
“The Bet. I felt something. Feel something.” He watched as Subaru blinked at him, using the last of his strength to pull the cigarette out from his lips. Both were oblivious to the world around them. Even Kamui’s agonized shriek failed to get to Subaru. “The trouble is,” he put a hand to Subaru’s face, the left so he could see it, “You were the prey and I the hunter. Nothing could change this.”
“Maybe on the other side.”
“Maybe.” And with that Subaru slipped over the edge. Seishirou knelt for another moment. Subaru would go to his sister, not to the Tree that so hungered for him. Seishirou took the half finished cigarette from Subaru’s limp fingers and put it to his own lips. He stood and turned to face the destruction around him, breathing Subaru’s last breath along with the cigarette. He waited as Kamui came at him, made no move to stop or even slow his oncoming death. “Maybe on the other side.”