Seishirou kept his grin to himself. Only yesterday, was it? Yesterday morning: the shrine's tiny garden quite charming in the low-angled sunlight, the dim shapes of koi swimming serenely in the picturesque little pond... The faint look of surprise on the priest's time-worn face under its shining pate as Seishirou plunged his arm straight through the man's chest -- which expression the priest had brought with him into death, falling to the neatly manicured grass in a cloud of blood and sakura... And the unmistakable jolt, the "give" as the death-energies tainted the heart of the little kekkai, freeing space for Seishirou's power to gain a foothold from which to push the ward into its final downward spiral... The screams from within as the temple collapsed upon itself in an oddly localized earthquake, the very stones shuddering and groaning as the kekkai was sundered completely...

Seishirou wondered how the koi had fared.

The newspaper was describing it as a "freak accident", possibly a gas explosion, the cause being under investigation. The projectile force of some fragment had pierced one man's body completely through, noted the paper with a self-satisfied lugubriousness, rather macabre. If any had noted the blood-soaked remnants of talismans strewn about, it was not commented upon here. Nor was there any mention of a tall, dark man in trenchcoat and sunglasses... not that there would be, not that Seishirou would allow it.

After all, he had a certain standard to live up to. No witnesses. And in nearly 20 years of being Japan's greatest sorcerer-assassin, Seishirou had broken that rule only once.

Once... So long ago. And that one witness, that solitary survivor of the Sakurazukamori, who had been a child of such incredible innocence and pure sweetness that Seishirou himself had been given pause...

Subaru...

...was somewhere close, Seishirou realized, as his sense of that presence suddenly stirred in the back of his mind, as if the thought had conjured the man.

He sensed none of the other Seals, though of course he had much greater range with Subaru. He was intimately familiar with that particular psychic signature, deepest aquamarine melding with a cool moss green, both like and unlike the hues of his eyes, though just as deep, aqueous and still... a quiet pool in some enchanted glade. Silent... save for the streak of twisting scarlet shot through those depths, a wound, a restless viper whose thrashing disrupted the natural quietude of that gentle soul.

His handiwork, of course.

Seishirou refolded his newspaper, downed the remainder of his latte. It seemed his little coffee break was over, regretfully... He rose, smiled at the counter girl, who waved flutteringly, then blushed and hurriedly busied herself with some napkins.

Seishirou strode out onto the street, armored in trenchcoat and sunglasses, para-senses attuned to that one particular frequency. Subaru's presence was getting steadily closer, though not yet close enough for Seishirou to discern whether or not he was accompanied.

Seishirou moved on down the block, his course taking him obliquely closer to his hunter. Better to get a clearer sense of just what he was dealing with, here... he very seriously doubted that the other Seals would permit Subaru to track him down alone.

Seishirou turned down an alley, and a small, startled shape rocketed past -- some starveling cat, spooked by his approach. He was now alone in the crevice between buildings. Selecting a spot, he sprang almost straight up and onto the roof of one building. He managed to land quietly, with only a slight wobble -- his compensation for the weight difference had been a little off. He walked lightly across the mostly level rooftop, not bothering to cloak himself in illusion. For one thing, the focussing of magical energies could conceivably alert Subaru, giving away his location prematurely. For another -- well, the average person spent more time looking at the pavement than at rooftops. After all, who expected to see a man in an Armani suit leaping from building to building?

Seishirou jumped a few more buildings, alighting with a tad more grace each time. He stretched his psychic senses a little more, pushing the limits of his range. Subaru's presence shone like a beacon, now -- and along with it, felt less clearly but very strongly, a burning, quicksilver essence, a fierce platinum fire scarcely contained --

It could be no other.

Kamui.

Seishirou grinned.

Damn all reflections to Hell, anyway -- they were making this harder than it had to be. Every plate-glass window, every passing car, every person's glance, whether curious, speculative, or just plain appreciative -- they all reinforced his feeling of displacement, making him all the more aware of himself, and he was not himself at all.

Subaru supposed it was an odd sight -- Seishirou's powerful figure, lent added mystery by trenchcoat and dark glasses, companioned by the slender, pretty-faced, high school uniform-clad Kamui -- but still, they needn't stare so.

Subaru tried to concentrate instead on his sense of Seishirou, on trying to trace the other. He had his psychic senses at their greatest radius, but they were not what had led them this far. Subaru had instead used his sense of himself, his soul's affinity for its native vessel, in order to gain a starting point. But more than that, there was some additional pull, something else tugging him like a dowsing rod to that which he sought --

The marks. It had to be. Subaru was drawn to his original body by simple fact of ownership, but it seemed that Seishirou was linked to it also, that their separate flesh was in some manner joined.

Subaru was not entirely comfortable with that particular thought.

No matter the implications, it was undeniable -- the twin pulls set up a kind of resonance, combining into one force which must lead him to Seishirou, inexorable.

His prey, for once...

"Subaru?"

Subaru glanced down at Kamui, who seemed to be experiencing a little difficulty keeping up beside him. "Yes?"

"Don't grin like that, you're givin' me the creeps..."

Subaru obediently smoothed the grin (where had that come from, anyway?) and tried to slow his pace some for Kamui's sake.

"Sorry..."

Kamui grimaced.

A flicker of black caught Subaru's eye, movement where there normally should be none -- and the pull in the back of his mind, the tugging that drew him to his target, gave a jerk like a compass needle pulled by a magnet.

Seishirou.

"Subaru?" Attention snapping back to his companion, Subaru found that Kamui was looking rather anxiously at him.

"There." Subaru made a dash to the side, darted into the first alley that presented itself; a startled Kamui quickly followed -- first into the alley's shelter, then up to the roof in a single weightless bound.

Three buildings over, a ripple of black disappeared behind a chimney. Subaru gave chase, leaping fairly easily (if not terribly smoothly) from building to building. The figure he pursued moved with rather more grace, a black cat that vanished and reappeared at intervals, moving steadily westward into the slowly lowering sun.

As he ran and leapt, Subaru sent out a certain mental call, a thought that was a message. He envisioned its recipient -- the small summoned creature he'd sent with his comrades -- winging its way back to him, returning to its creator and master. Subaru received a faint cry in his mind -- like momentary tinnitus, or a tuning fork passed close to the ear -- and knew that it was on its way.

Seishirou was certainly leading them a merry chase, first through the shops and markets, now through the financial district, angling ultimately, it seemed, toward a small park. The black-clad figure hove into view again, some five buildings over, leaped --

And vanished.

Kamui swore, a curse so vile that Subaru's eyes widened. The boy looked suddenly abashed.

"Illusion?" Kamui asked, rather quickly.

"It has to be," Subaru answered. "There's nowhere else he could have gone, unless -- " Subaru's stomach plummeted as the thought struck him.

"Unless it was an illusion to start with," Kamui finished. He, too, wore the expression of one whose stomach has just made the drop to one's knees. "Oh, shit..."

Subaru silenced him with a gesture, narrowing his eyes and concentrating on the attraction, that drawing feeling in his brain. It was quite definitely coming from the direction the apparition had taken. He did not think Seishirou could hide himself from that, or even misdirect it -- after all, one tended to be quite attached to one's own body, it being a person's most intimate possession. And the two onmyouji were linked so closely, in so many ways... He had to trust his instinct, the force pulling him was too strong to be denied.

"It's the real one. He's got to be hiding himself now," Subaru told the other, and set off once more, to follow as best he could his invisible opponent.

"I don't like it," Kamui said as they came to momentary rest on a convenient banking institution. "He's setting us up for something."

Subaru shrugged and sprang through space to alight upon a library, sending a nesting pigeon into startled flight. "Do we have much choice?"

Kamui pulled a face.

They came to the park, largely deserted save for an overly affectionate young couple and the occasional strolling grandmother. The two Seals landed upon the grass, completely unnoticed. Subaru scanned the area -- a few benches, one of which was occupied by the oblivious lovers, a little pond, and a small stand of picturesque trees.

There was something about those trees...

A high-pitched voice rang out, clear and carrying, like a clarion bell:

"Potchi! Wait! Slow down, Potchi!"

A bright bird sailed across the green, small, silvery and not entirely dovelike. It was followed by a spritely figure in schoolgirl uniform, who was followed in turn by a largely transparent, eerily silent doglike shape.

"Subaaaru-saaan!" Yuzuriha waved without slowing her long-legged, surprisingly graceful sprint. Just behind the fluidly loping inugami came Sorata -- running like the adolescent collection of limbs that he was -- and Arashi, who came more slowly but did seem to have the proper number of joints on her person.

The shikigami came to rest upon Subaru's shoulder, where it waited patiently for its next order or for its dispersement, mindless and silent.

"Did you find him? Where is he? Did you fight him? You didn't lose him did you?"

Subaru raised a hand to forestall the barrage of questions from Yuzuriha. He sent a silent command to the waiting shikigami, who took off at once from his shoulder and arrowed toward the stand of trees --

And disappeared.

"Potchi!!" Yuzuriha cried, and started after the vanished shikigami. She was very fast, with all the speed of her youth and diminutive size, but the trained reflexes of the Sakurazukamori's body were faster. She hadn't completed the first step before Subaru's hand shot out and seized her wrist.

"Ow!" She snapped to a halt at the end of her own arm, carried by momentum but caught fast.

"Sorry..." Subaru tried to loosen his grip without releasing her. He had forgotten the power of those hands, a killer's hands -- they had reacted only as they must, with incredible speed and strength, and something of a mind of their own.

Arashi and Sorata had recovered themselves and now stood barring Yuzuriha's path; Subaru let the girl go. He saw the faint red marks his fingers had left on her tiny wrist, and it filled the onmyouji with a keen remorse.

"Truly, I'm sorry... I really don't know my own strength right now..." Subaru knotted his hands behind his back, as if to restrain them, as if they might commit some terrible deed without his knowledge -- traitors, lurking there at the ends of his wrists, living a secret and wicked life of their own.

"No, I'm all right, you didn't hurt me..." Yuzuriha flashed Subaru her sunny smile, though one hand rubbed absently at the marks as her gaze went to the trees into which Potchi the Shikigami had gone.

Inuki was giving the onmyouji a decidedly dirty look.

"Well," said Sorata, somewhat awkwardly, "Guess we'd better get ready, huh?" The monk settled his baseball cap more squarely on his head. He raised a wide-palmed hand, and electrical energy curled about his fingers, crackling faintly.

Kamui glowered darkly at the trees. "Yeah. Gods only know what he's got for us in there," he muttered. He did not move, but the aura of power that surrounded him intensified, his hair and clothing shifting in a way that had nothing to do with the breeze, tugged by a psychic wind.

Arashi said not a word; the God-Blade slid silently forth from her flesh and into her hand. Yuzuriha called the inugami to heel.

Prepared now for battle, the other Seals turned to Subaru, seemingly awaiting his order. Even Kamui, never known for his ability to follow, had apparently placed himself at the Sumeragi's command; he just stood waiting, regarding Subaru intently but without a trace of sullenness.

Looking at each in turn, meeting each distinct gaze, Subaru saw no doubt, no fear at all... only trust and faith, the desire to help. It made his throat tighten, made him ache somewhere deep in his chest. He had met them so recently, his comrades, fellow Dragons of Heaven. He hardly knew these people, but --

They were his friends.

He hadn't truly realized before, hadn't recognized it for what it was; he had never really known such a thing. To think that these people cared what became of him, that they were willing to give of themselves so readily for him...

All his life, Subaru had given of himself to others, lending aid, trying to comfort. It was his nature, his calling -- one who watches over, one who must help where he can. He had never asked for anything in return, never thought of himself or his own needs, the possibility that he could require these same things. He had received gratitude or awe from others, occasionally resentment, but these feelings had not been directed toward him, not to the person he was. All that anyone had ever seen in him were the labels: the Sumeragi, an onmyouji, a Good Samaritan. He had never been appreciated for himself, only for what he did or represented.

Not a person, but an idea; a thing, really.

But this -- only one person had ever given him anything like it, one person who had loved and supported him, who had wanted only for him to be happy and safe --

Hokuto. His sister, his twin, his truest friend and staunchest ally...forever lost to him.

Now... now there were these people, his comrades, who were assembled here not just because he was the Sumeragi, not even because he was a Dragon of Heaven --

But because he was Subaru.

Because they considered him a friend.

Subaru cleared his throat. "Let's go."

Almost as one, they moved toward the trees that had swallowed the shikigami. Subaru led them, spearheding their little formation, Kamui right beside him, the priest and priestesses following.

It was well that there was no-one to see it, for it was an extraordinary sight -- five people prepared for battle, marching resolutely into an empty stand of trees in a public park in the middle of the afternoon.

Unhesitatingly, Subaru stepped within the perimeter --

-- and into maboroshi darkness. Kamui melted into being beside him. Of the others, there was no sign.

A soft tenor chuckle sounded from above. From the sourceless shadows, surfaces formed, as if revealed by light out of darkness, though there was no light in this place. Ledges and monoliths appeared, outcroppings and chasms, all in the stark monotones of Sakurazukamori's illusion.

"So you finally made it." A soft voice, and well-modulated, though edged with an expectant amusement -- terribly familiar in quality, though the sound of it was strange in Subaru's ears.

Above the two Seals, perched upon an illusory ledge, was Seishirou. His legs were crossed casually, his arms folded, his green eyes glittering in the non-light as he grinned down at them. Those eyes -- Subaru had seen his own gaze often enough, looking morosely back at him from his mirror each morning, and he knew it was nothing like this thing that fell upon him now -- this thing that pinned him beneath its weight, numbing him with its chill, piercing him with its icepick brilliance... He repressed the shudder that tried to crawl up his back, as he repressed the outrage he felt on simply seeing Seishirou, seeing the other so familiar with and at ease in Subaru's own body, as if he belonged there or had some right to it.

"Subaru-kun," the Sakurazukamori continued, his voice light and almost playful, "and... 'Kamui'-chan. How charming." Kamui shot the man a look of intense distaste, akin to the way one might regard a spider found in one's plate, or a man who has just said something disgusting. Seishirou lifted an elegant hand in an expansive gesture.

"Shall we begin?"

If you don't know about the "Potchi" thing, how can you call yourself a CLAMPaddict? ^_^ Just kidding, but can someone please tell me why "Potchi" seems to be THE standard silly name in CLAMP works? ^^;; (I'll bet you a dollar they wanted to name something "Potchi" in RGVeda, but couldn't get away with it....)

And now for the special treat. :-P This whole thing started with a doodle I doodled at work one night, bored stiff. It had Subaru done Sakurazukamori-style, dressed in all black, with a decidedly unSubarulike expression on his face... it just went from there, I couldn't stop it, see what happens when you get too bored?!