Part Six
Hayashi found himself accompanying the twins around London, trying to find them occult and magic stores. Hokuto was finding great glee in all the fake Western magic. She randomly debunked things as she walked through the door.
“Hey, listen to this one!” she called to Seimei. He was looking through some stones. She was holding a book of rune magic. “You’re supposed to raise your arms above your head in the shape of a rune. After ten to fifteen minutes you’re supposed to feel the power of the rune when your fingertips start to tingle!”
“That’s because you’re losing circulation,” Seimei called back, gaining several dirty looks. He paused to be grateful that at least Hokuto was speaking Japanese, so no one knew that she was poking fun at all of them.
“They’ve got books on black magic! This place is so cute!” She held up a book with a pentagram on the front. “This is supposed to be evil! Am I evil?”
Seimei looked over at his indignant sister. “No, Hokuto-chan, you’re not evil. People are just dumb. Now will you give me a hand?”
Hokuto began poking around the store. “I wish Omi could have come,” she said. “He’d like this place. He enjoys making fun of stupid people too.”
“He has to rest so he can come tonight,” Seimei reminded her.
“Naa,” Ame said from the front. “Maybe we should buy Omi some new knives. He’s got to be running out by now. It could be consolation that he couldn’t come today.”
“Yeah, and that he got shot, right?” Seimei asked. “Sure. But not here. If I’m going to buy Omi weaponry, it’s going to be high-quality weaponry. Half the stuff in here probably isn’t even fit to cut butter. Let’s go somewhere else.”
“Wait, wait,” Hokuto said. “I think I actually found something useful.” She extended a necklace to Seimei. It was a silver pentacle on a black silk cord. “What do you think? They’re actual silver, too.” She pulled a second one of the shelf for herself. “We could each have one; I can flip mine upside down so it’s the right symbol.”
Seimei took the necklace from her and examined it. The charm was a simple pentacle inside a circle. It was a little over an inch in diameter.
“Is it big enough?” Ame asked, peering over his shoulder.
“It should be. It’s only one demon, after all.” Seimei looked at it for another second. “Yeah, this’ll work. Let’s get them.” He took Hokuto’s from her and went to the front counter.
“Find everything you were looking for?” the hippie-goth chick manning the front desk asked as she took the necklaces.
“Yeah, a week’s worth of entertainment!” Hokuto said with a grin, and put the book on black magic next to the necklaces.
“You’re not buying that, are you?” Seimei asked in Japanese.
She grinned. “Why not?”
“Ugh.” Seimei turned back to the cashier and started digging for his money.
The girl picked up the book. “You know, this might not be a good idea,” she said seriously. “Especially for someone who’s just getting into it.”
Hokuto grinned mischievously. Seimei elbowed her in the side before she could make any more clever comments. “It’s a gift,” he said quickly.
“You shouldn’t give this stuff to someone untrained, you know!” the girl said, sounding alarmed.
Hokuto let out a stream of giggles. “Oh, he’s trained, believe me. I’m gonna give it to Dad and Father and see how hard they laugh. It takes a lot to make Father laugh!”
“He won’t; he’ll just make snide comments about foreigners,” Seimei predicted.
The girl behind the counter was trying to process ‘Dad and Father.’ Eventually, she just mumbled, “Well, if you’re sure . . .” and rang up the book with the rest of the items.
“Hey,” Ame said cheerfully, “do you know where there’s a good knife shop?”
The girl, if possible, paled even more. “Uhm . . . we have knives here . . .”
“No, no, real knives. Like, weapons,” Ame said. “Capable of hurting people.”
“I don’t know,” the girl lied.
“You’re lying,” Hokuto said. She was fiddling with her necklace, flipping the charm upside down.
Seimei looked at her questioningly and asked in Japanese, “How do you know she’s lying?”
“Oh, I don’t,” Hokuto replied cheerfully. “I’m guessing.”
“Well . . .” the girl said. “I guess if you go down this street a few blocks there’s a weaponry store . . . with knives . . . I think . . .”
“Thanks!” Hokuto said cheerfully, and bounced out of the store.
“More gifts,” Seimei said solemnly to the girl, then bowed politely to her look of shocked horror and followed his sister.
Ame grinned and waved, then left.
Hayashi hurried to catch up to them as they walked briskly down the sidewalk. “You three are a menace.”
“I guess it’s a good thing Omi didn’t come,” Seimei snickered.
Hokuto hung on Hayashi’s arm. “C’mon, Hayashi-san . . . this has to be the most fun you’ve had in ages!”
Hayashi gave a long-suffering sigh.
“’Sides,” Hokuto continued, “you hafta buy the knives for us. We’re only fifteen. And you want Omi to be well-armed, right? If we give him more knives, he’ll get much less cranky. That’s a good thing.”
Hayashi sighed and let them drag him to the weapons store, where they picked out a frightening number of rather deadly-looking knives and whined until he bought them. “We’ll pay you back,” Hokuto promised. The man at the desk gave them a strange look, but as they’d been arguing in Japanese, he had no idea who the knives were really for.
It was evening by the time they got back to the hospital, bearing food and knives. Omi brightened to see his weapon store replenished. “Your parents called,” he reported. “They were getting on the plane about an hour ago, so they’ll be here in the morning.”
“Goody.” Hokuto dropped into a chair and attacked the fast food they’d picked up.
Seimei poked at his greasy burger. “Hokuto, you could eat anything, I swear. I don’t know how you stay so thin.”
“I exercise,” Hokuto informed him. “Unlike you, who just sits there like a lump and doesn’t eat.”
Omi looked up from where he was examining his knives. His nose wrinkled at the sight of the food. “I’m inclined to agree with Seimei.”
“Men,” Hokuto said, glaring. “They always stick together. Right, Ame?”
“Sure.” Ame had taken one bite of her burger, but she knew better than to argue. At least the French fries were okay. “Where are we going tonight?”
“To a . . . place,” Hokuto said.
“Where, um . . . stuff will happen,” Seimei chimed in.
“You two are useless,” Omi said. “Hayashi-san, do you have any suggestions?”
“Somewhere private,” Hayashi said. “A room in the Japanese embassy, perhaps.”
“Good idea,” Hokuto said approvingly. “No one’ll bug us there. They all know who we are!” She grinned. “Ne, Sei-chan, are you going to eat that?”
Seimei surrendered his French fries. “You’re far too excited, Hokuto-chan.”
“Hey, we might be able to wrap this up and greet Father and Dad triumphant!” she declared. “That’s much better than having Dad clean up our mess.”
Seimei considered this. “Okay, there you have a point.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“Subaru-kun, would you please stop fidgeting?”
“Huh?” Subaru looked up at Seishirou, then down at the napkin that he was methodically shredding into pieces. “Oh.”
Seishirou reached out and took one of his hands. “They’re going to be fine,” he said firmly.
“But - ”
“And I don’t want to hear another word about it. Now go to sleep.”
“Can you sleep?!” Subaru asked, frustrated.
“No. That’s why you have to. One of us has to be rested for whatever happens tomorrow.”
“You just said they were going to be fine!”
“Well, they will be.” Seishirou paused. “That’s no reason for sleep deprivation.”
“Why aren’t you sleeping if you’re so sure they’ll be all right?”
“Because I want to make sure you get some rest, so I can’t sleep until you do.”
“That’s blackmail.” Subaru pouted. “Your logic is flawed.”
“But I’m more stubborn than you.”
“Not likely.”
“Go to sleep, Subaru-kun.”
“I can’t,” Subaru said flatly. “Now get over it.”
“Subaru-kun?”
“Nani?”
Seishirou paused at the worried look in his husband’s eyes. “Never mind.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“This is booooooring,” Hokuto complained, lying on one of the desks. “What do we do if it doesn’t come?”
“Cheer?” Ame suggested.
“Let Dad and Father take care of it?” Seimei added.
“I think that’s a good plan,” Omi agreed.
“You guys are so useless,” Hokuto moaned. “I thought we agreed we were gonna take care of it ourselves rather than making Dad clean up our mess?”
“We are,” Seimei said. “If we have to.”
“But Sei-chaaaaaan,” Hokuto whined.
“Quiet, will you? I’m studying the spell. God forbid I mess this up.”
“You’ve read it twelve times now,” Hokuto muttered, then subsided.
“It’s going to be thirteen,” Seimei replied, burying his nose in his notes again. He put the pentacle in the center of the floor and arranged his ofada around it. “Now, we get the demon inside the wards -- ”
“How?” Ame interrupted.
“We, uh, well, we . . . uh oh.” Seimei looked at his notes. “Dad kinda didn’t mention that.”
Hokuto chimed in. “C’mon, he tells this story all the time . . . whenever we ask how he and Father got together. He always complains about how Father nearly got eaten by the Tree because he had to stay inside the wards while they closed. So all we have to do is lure it inside the wards, then keep it there by fighting it while someone else closes the wards, then open them again at the very last second and let the person dodge out.”
Omi blinked. “Did anyone catch all that?”
“Not a word, but now that she mentions it, I do remember Dad telling the story,” Seimei said. He paused for thought. “But Hokuto-chan, that means someone has to stay inside the wards and fight it.”
“Oh, yeah.” Hokuto deflated. “I guess it’s gonna have to be me.”
“What?” Omi asked, sounding displeased. “Why can’t I?”
“Because you don’t have any onmyoujitsu,” Seimei said. “You’ll be trying to fight you and it’ll eat your face and that’ll be the end of it.”
Omi glared.
“So Hokuto had better because I have to do the spell,” Seimei said.
“Hm.” Hokuto considered. “How does one fight a demon?”
“I dunno,” Seimei said absently, still studying the spell. “Figure something out.”
“You’re really comforting,” Hokuto grumbled.
“Now who wants Dad to come find us?” Seimei asked.
“Shuddup,” Hokuto muttered. She began running over all the spells she knew and how they might come in useful.
“Do you have a plan?” Ame asked her.
“I think so.”
“Well, you’d better hurry up and think of one, because we’ve got company.” Ame pointed to the corner, where the air was starting to darken and take shape.
“Great,” Hokuto muttered.
“You three stay here,” Seimei said, hastily setting up some wards around Omi, Ame, and Hayashi. “We’ll take care of this.”
Omi looked nervous.
The demon took full shape. It looked around the room, seemingly deciding who to go for.
It would be really handy for Dad to walk in the room, oh, right about now, Hokuto thought. She looked around. No one appeared. Damn it. Why do we have to do everything? She lifted her arm and her Shikigami appeared and went shrieking for the demon.
The demon batted the Shikigami down and headed straight for Hokuto.
Oh good, that went as planned, Hokuto thought as the demon entered the wards. Then her eyes widened. Oh shit, that went as planned. Now I have to fight the damned thing. She pulled out a handful of ofada and cast them out, chanting. The demon went flying backwards, collided with the wall of the wards, and came at her again.
Seimei closed the wards quickly and started pressing them inwards. “Hokuto, how are you doing?” he called.
“Get me the hell out of here!” Hokuto shrieked.
“Working on it,” Seimei answered.
Hokuto threw a few more ofada, then ducked out of the demon’s path when it ricocheted in her direction. “How long do I have to do this?” she yelled.
“Just a few more minutes.”
“Minutes?!”
“I’m going as fast as I can!” Seimei cried. “I don’t have experience with imprisoning demons!!”
“And I don’t have experience fighting them!” Hokuto gasped out, dodging the demon’s next attack. “Do something!”
Seimei looked at the wards and decided they were closed enough, or at least it would have to do. “Hokuto, back yourself up against one of the walls.”
She shot him a look, but did so.
Seimei opened the wards on the wall Hokuto was leaning against. She went stumbling out backwards, and Seimei closed it again behind her. Hokuto backed up so she wouldn’t get her feet caught inside just in time.
“There,” Seimei muttered. He put his hands together and concentrated, closing the wards the rest of the way until only the pentacle was left. Then he walked over and picked it up. “I guess that’s it.”
“It looks singularly unimpressive,” Hokuto said, peering over his shoulder. “I wanna sleep.”
“I’m not surprised. Me too.” Seimei waved a hand and dispelled the wards around the others. Then he turned and bowed to Hayshi. “I believe the problem is taken care of.” Then he fell down. Omi managed to catch him before he wilted.
“Are you all right?”
“Hai, I’m fine,” Seimei muttered irritably. He slid the chain over his neck so he was wearing the pentacle, then passed out.
“Sheesh, you’d think he was the one who’d fought the demon,” Hokuto said, settling herself on the floor before she could fall over and disgrace herself like her brother. “Let’s go back to the hotel and wait for Dad and Father.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Ame helped her up. “Except I think Omi should go back to the hospital.”
Omi glared.
“And you shouldn’t be carrying Seimei, either,” Ame told him. “Hayshi-san, do you think you could get us some help?”
“Hai, of course,” Hayashi said, and backed out of the room.
“There, it’s settled,” Ame said smugly. “Am I the only one who can get things done around here?”
“Yes,” Omi said firmly.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“Well, they’re still alive,” Seishirou said, looking into the hospital room. “That’s a good sign.”
“Why are you standing in the doorway?” Subaru asked irritably, pushing his way past. He studied the situation quickly. Omi was back in his hospital bed, asleep. Seimei was in the other bed, but he looked okay, if out cold. Hokuto was dozing in the chair next to his bed. Ame had fallen asleep over a magazine. “Anyone awake?” he asked hesitantly.
Ame blinked awake. “Oh, ohayo, Subaru-san,” she muttered, pushing her hair out of her face. Then she reached over and poked Hokuto in the ribs. “Oi, Hokuto-chan. Wake up.”
Hokuto looked up sleepily. “Wha . . .?” Then she saw her parents and her eyes widened. She bounced out of her chair, across the room, and into Subaru’s arms. “HI DAD!!”
“Oof,” Subaru said, nearly falling.
Seishirou caught him by the shoulders and set him on his feet again. “Don’t knock him down with your enthusiasm,” he told his daughter.
“HI FATHER!!”
Seishirou caught hold of the doorframe to keep from falling himself. “Hello, Hokuto-chan. How’s your brother?”
“He’s okay. Kinda wiped out. I mean, we got rid of the icky demon and all and the spell wore him out.”
“I remember that,” Subaru muttered.
“So where is it?” Seishirou asked.
“In the necklace.” Hokuto held hers up and dangled it inches away from Seishirou’s nose. He blinked, trying to focus on it.
“I can’t see it when it’s that close to my face,” he told her calmly.
“Maybe you should start wearing your glasses again,” Subaru said, smirking and gaining an amused look.
“Maybe if they’d ever done any good in the first place.”
“Daaad . . . quit distracting him.” Hokuto held up the necklace again.
Seishirou glanced at it. “The demon’s in there?”
“No, Seimei has a matching one.”
Subaru sighed. “Of course. God forbid we be able to tell the two of you apart on occasion.”
“You can on occasion . . . when we’re wearing tight shirts!”
Subaru reached out and hugged her. “I’ve missed you, Hokuto-chan.”
Hokuto grinned and hugged back. “We missed you too. When we weren’t, you know, too busy trying to avoid being killed . . .”
“So we came here for nothing?” Seishirou joked. “You all seem to have it under control . . .”
Subaru glared at him.
“Father, you are absolutely no fun at all. You should be glad to know that we can take care of ourselves, rather than pouting about having to spend thirteen hours on a plane . . . you’re not anxious to leave, right? There’s some great stores here . . .”
“Remember, Hokuto, Japan does depend on us being there,” Seishirou said. “That’s why you got into this mess.”
“You’re no fair. I’m waking Seimei.”
“Good luck,” Ame said.
Subaru looked over at her. “You’ll give your parents the abbreviated version of your educational trip, right? I don’t want to have to explain all this to Sorata and Arashi . . .”
Ame grinned. “You have nothing to fear from me.”
“Oh, good.”
Hokuto shook Seimei. “Seeeeeiiiiimeeeeeiiiii . . . wake up!! Dad’s here!! Um, Father too!”
“I resent that,” Seishirou said mildly.
Seimei mumbled something and rolled over.
“Come onnnnnn . . .” Hokuto said impatiently.
“Whaat?” Seimei moaned, rubbing his eyes. “My head aches . . . shoulder too . . .” He rolled back onto his good side. “Lemme sleeeep . . .”
“But Dad and Father are here!!”
“Really?” Seimei half-sat up and looked around blearily. “Hi Dad . . . hi Father . . .” He slumped backwards again.
“Hokuto, you are overtiring your brother,” Seishirou said firmly. “Let him rest.”
“Mannnn,” Hokuto said. “Nobody ever lets me do anything.”
“There’s a reason for that,” Ame told her.
“Oh, be quiet.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“You said I could have the window seat,” Ame protested as Hokuto attempted to duck into it. “Come on, Hokuto!”
Seishirou grabbed his daughter by the back of the shirt and towed her backwards. “Honor your promises, Hokuto.”
“You’re one to lecture her on virtue,” Subaru remarked, sitting down.
“I’m lecturing her on honor. That’s different.”
“Of course it is.”
Seishirou sat down next to him as the others settled in. Ame sat in the window seat. Omi grabbed the seat next to her so he wouldn’t have to sit between the twins. Seimei and Hokuto sat in the seats in front of Omi and Ame. Seimei slid in first and grabbed the other window seat. “Gotcha,” he said with a grin.
“I hate you.”
“Sure you do.”
Subaru shook his head. “Oh, by the way, you two are never leaving my sight again.”
“Daaaad!” Hokuto protested, thinking he was serious.
“Of course we aren’t, Dad,” Seimei said.
Subaru sighed. “You take after your father too much.”
“Yes, well, Hokuto takes after her namesake too much,” Seimei said. “So it’s even.”
Subaru pouted. “One of you should’ve come out like me.”
“I think Seimei’s more of a combination of the two of us,” Seishirou chipped in.
“You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”
Omi sighed. “Well, they certainly argue as much as you two.”
Seishirou looked at Subaru. “See? Omi agrees with me.”
“Seishirou-san?”
“Nani?”
“Shut up.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Kouri: It’s really weird having a character in this named Omi now that we’ve actually seen Weiss Kreuz….
Karasu: Yes, but he’s totally unlike Omi. For one thing, his hair is black.
Kouri: So you guys liked it, right?
Seishirou: ::glares:: And just what did you think you were doing with our children?
Kouri: Uhhh. . . educating them?
Subaru: You call that an education?
Karasu: Okay, okay, we . . . took them on a wild adventure! It was good for them. Broadened their horizons.
Seishirou: Their horizons don’t need to be any larger than Japan, thank you.
Kouri: ::looks nervously at Seishirou, then Karasu:: Uhh . . . maybe we’d better not do that next one . . .
Karasu: ::looks innocent:: We should’ve thought of that before we started it.
Subaru: What are you doing *now*?
Kouri and Karasu: Nothing!
Seishirou: ::folds arms and glowers:: I think you’d better tell us.
Kouri: Umm . . . think crossover.
Seishirou: I see. And with what exactly are you crossing?
Karasu: Think forty foot robots of destruction.
Subaru: There will be no robots of destruction near *my* children.
Kouri: Hey, look. We gave you the kids; we can do whatever we want with them.
Subaru: That’s not fair.
Karasu: Life isn’t fair.
Seishirou: ::puts a protective arm around Subaru’s shoulders:: Please don’t upset my Subaru-kun.
Kouri: KAWAIII!!!!!
Seishirou: ::glares::
Karasu: That is so sweet, I’m going to be ill.
Kouri: ::coughs:: So, um, we won’t upset Subaru . . . we’ll just . . . uhm . . .
Karasu: We’ll only upset him for a while.
Seishirou: That is unacceptable.
Kouri: Subaru, you owe us . . . look what you’ve got because of us. Right?
Subaru: ::mumbles something::
Karasu: Subaru, you know she’s right.
Subaru: ::grudgingly:: I suppose.
Kouri: Then for our sake’s, call your husband off before he kills us. Everyone will make it out of the story alive and mostly intact, okay? No torture.
Karasu: Well, except for that bit where -
Kouri: Shut up, Karasu-*chan*.
Karasu: Right. ::grins::
Subaru: ::looks worried:: Wait, what’s this about torture?
Kouri: ::brightly:: At least there’s no demons this time!!
Seishirou: Hardly comforting.
Karasu: Do we look like the comforting type to you?
Seishirou: ::raises an eyebrow:: I don’t think people as short as you should be so frightening.
Karasu: ::evil grin::
Kouri: I’m not much taller, you know.
Subaru: Yes, but you’re so . . . genki.
Kouri: Writing fanfiction puts me in a good mood.
Karasu: She’s really not genki most of the time. At all. In any way, shape, or form.
Kouri: Blah on you. Let’s go write the last fanfic.
Subaru: Please don’t . . .
Karasu: We can’t leave them halfway through; then you’d never see them again.
Seishirou: Excuse me?
Kouri: They’re kind of in an alternate dimension . . .well, universe.
Subaru: They’re where? ::looks even more worried::
Karasu: Don’t worry about it.
Kouri: Just let us finish the fanfiction . . .
Karasu: And all will be peachy. Just get bigger living quarters.
Seishirou: What?
Kouri: ::hastily:: Gotta go, bye!
Karasu: Yup! ::disappears with a poof, taking Kouri with her.::
Subaru: ::looks at Seishirou:: Um, Seishirou-san . . .
Seishirou: ::sighs:: This is not good.
The End.
For now.
Brief Author's Note... I didn't want to take out that conversation because it amuses me terribly, but it should probably be noted that the second fic with the kids will probably not be finished in this lifetime. So don't get your hopes up, heh.