What did he think he'd accomplish there?

Seishirou shrugged off the farsight vision for a moment, letting his mind return to the low-lit confines of his apartment's living room. Picking up the glass by his side, he took a measured sip of its contents, savoring the sweet, pleasant fire of the alcohol. Then once more he glanced across the distance, amused by the persistence of his enemy.

Not such a little fool, of course. Not anymore. Subaru had grown taller in the intervening years, his face leaner with developing maturity. He dressed casually, now that he wasn't a victim of his sister's fashion whims, and it made him look less like...how had she put it?...a "dress-up doll." And the eyes...those were most different. They had ceased to be such drowning pools of innocence, shimmering with every emotion that touched his heart. Subaru had had eyes like an animal's, Seishirou thought, that understood nothing--perhaps there was a time when Subaru might have been flattered by at least part of that comparison. Those eyes had narrowed though, and they guarded themselves: deep green mirrors no longer full of light. There were things that he had come to understand.

But he was still a fool.

Seishirou looked away from him again, long enough to find the stereo remote. He thumbed it on, and the CD-player whirred softly, shifting through its program. As that ended and the low pulse of music began, Seishirou leaned back against the cushions of his chair. He closed his eyes and smiled at the Sumeragi heir: out haunting Ueno Park this winter's night so very like the ghosts it was that family's work to ease.

.: So restless, and so futile...are you waiting for me to discover you there? Will you challenge me, when I arrive to defend the cherry tree barrow? What nonsense. I have better things to do with my time, I assure you. Especially on a night as cold as this. :.

.: Do you really think that I would come to you? :.

Seishirou's eyes opened slowly, one golden-brown and one a cloudy swirl of white. He gazed at Subaru with mild curiosity, wondering what passed through the other's mind at times like these.

.: What is it you hope for? What do you intend to do? Strike out against the sakura itself? :. Seishirou chuckled softly at that.

.: Well, perhaps you're only there to torment yourself.... :.

.: You've always had a talent for suffering. :.

Subaru stood up and began pacing in front of the bench, something he'd done more than once already. Most likely he was trying to keep warm. Seishirou watched him cough briefly, and flick the end of his cigarette into a snowbank. The sound of the cough was quiet, muted by distance; the music on Seishirou's end nearly drowned it out. After another moment Subaru paused, and made a halfhearted attempt to feel for scrying. Seishirou thinned his farsight out deftly, diffusing the field of vision across the entire end of the park, and Subaru, seeking a direct gaze, didn't notice him at all.

.: Clumsy, Subaru-kun. You're not usually so careless. :.

Subaru searched the area for a little while longer, but his determination seemed to waver, and he soon gave up the effort. Seishirou watched him slump onto the bench again. It was like observing something from the corner of one's eye, discerning what could only half be seen. In the dimness, and from this new, unfocused vantage, the other onmyouji was scarcely visible: a blur of shadow and motion that soon became still....

That waited, as if the gesture itself mattered.

.: I suppose it's not important what your reasons are. There's nothing you can do out there that would affect me. If your presence near the sakura was any sort of danger, I would have already taken care of it. Believe me-- :.

.: I would not have spared you. :.

The music changed, shifting into the beginning of the next song. It happened to be one that Seishirou particularly liked, and he let the sound lure him back to the apartment. He listened through the song with pleasure, singing along softly on a couple of the choruses, but still he left the lightest strand of contact open to the park, and he glanced that way from time to time. Subaru had not quite exhausted his interest for tonight: there was still the possibility that something might happen, and Seishirou continued his idle scrutiny, just in case. It was the hunter in him, that could not take its eye from the prey so long as there was any hint of life; it was also the sorcerer's instinct, to be alert to loose ends and forces not accounted for.

He had let Subaru go for a long time.... Like everything else, though, that respite was a temporary thing.

The song ended. In the silence between tracks Seishirou tapped a fingernail consideringly against his glass, to hear the faint chime of the crystal.

Subaru.

Beautiful and fragile and breakable...and like all such items, of limited duration, even more so than the rest of this impermanent world.

He might so easily have been killed years ago. Indeed, for a while Seishirou had thought there could be no more point to keeping Subaru alive. Then his sister's choice, her dying, had had such dramatic repercussions: Subaru had broken free, in that sudden, tidal surge of loss and pain, and the unexpected intensity, the flash of power, had renewed Seishirou's fading interest in the boy. Without that he might not have thought to wait, to see how the bent twig would grow, to discover what Subaru might yet become.

And then last spring, on that day in Nakano, he had finally found out.

One should be grateful to Hokuto, perhaps. He would consider it.

She had, after all, been his most ardent supporter.

Seishirou looked out musingly at the formless shadow-on-shadow that was Subaru.

He was willing to admit that it was a somewhat extravagant game.... The watchword of the Sakurazukamori was "do not be seen," and being seen, leave no survivor. Any witness at all was a hazard, let alone a practitioner, let alone the thirteenth head of the Sumeragi clan, a person who knew what he faced and held some measure of power. Seishirou's ancestors would not have approved.

Unfortunately for them, Seishirou was entirely indifferent to what they might have thought or done. The opinions of the living never moved him in the slightest, so why should the dead matter either? Besides, no one was ever going to know what happened here. The dead, after all, were dead and truly gone, and there would be no son or daughter to replace him.

Not ever.

After all, the world was just about to end.

At that thought, Seishirou smiled again. He raised his drink in humorous salute to all who had come before him, the murdering and murdered magicians whose blood was in his veins, and on his hands. Only he would not die on the cherry tree mound, would not shed his life to feed another's power.

He would be the last of the Sakurazukamori. That fact gave him a definite satisfaction.

Seishirou drank and then lowered the glass, becoming serious for a moment as he did so. He gazed into the dark, translucent liquid without really seeing it, his vision returning instead to that person by the sakura.

He had not forsaken what he was. Being that--being Sakurazukamori--there were things that were required of him. Any person who saw the "cherry tree barrow guardian" at work had to be killed. No one that the Sakurazukamori singled out for death ever escaped. Such things were not open to dispute: they were an incontrovertible part of himself, as intrinsic to his nature as height, or the darkness of his hair, or the wide, bright spaces of his mind and self. He was Sakurazukamori, and Subaru was going to die...

...but absolutely not before Seishirou was ready to kill him.

Seishirou laughed then, recovering his usual cheerfulness.

.: It really is almost time now. Are you ready for that final day? Or will you truly break as easily as this glass, after all? All this time I've been wondering, I've been waiting patiently to find out, Subaru-kun. :.

.: How much do you hate me?...will you try to "punish" me? :.

.: What are you going to do? :.

Right now, he wasn't doing much of anything. Seishirou brought the blurred image back into full clarity, since the onmyouji was no longer looking for him. He slipped his point of view around the shoulder, to look into the grave, emotionless face. Subaru stared past in the general direction of the sakura; whether he truly saw the tree or was merely lost in thought or memory was debatable. There was no movement at all, though, other than the occasional small shift of position. It seemed Subaru was going to be tedious for a while.

.: Hmm. Well if that's so, then I'll leave you to it. :.

Losing interest for the time being, Seishirou drew his attention all the way back to the apartment, meticulously checking his wards as he passed them. He scanned the surrounding area for farsight spying as well, before unweaving the subtle flows of power that he held. As it turned out he had not been "followed"--he hadn't expected that he would be--but he was always careful of these things nonetheless. It was one reason he felt quite secure, even though he was being "hunted."

.: Even if it's you, Sumeragi Subaru. Because if the diviner under the Diet building can't find me, you certainly won't. :.

.: But I can always find you.... :.

Seishirou blinked away the last shadows of the scrying, and he stretched, languidly.

So now that this diversion was over, what was he going do tonight?

He could go out, but he'd seen enough of this frigid winter night already, and was disinclined to walk around in it. Besides, he was feeling lazy this evening...perhaps he would stay home and read instead. He had picked up a few magazines earlier in the day; some were "work"-related (these millennial "New Age" groups put out the most ridiculous fluff, but they could be amusing, and nothing that might remotely touch on coming events should be ignored) and a couple were simply entertainment. That was surely enough to occupy him. However....

However, it was also nice simply to sit, he reflected, to listen to the music, and think of nothing in particular. He probably should enjoy this quiet moment, if only because there weren't so many left now. It was a rare thing.... Everything became rare in the last days, and it gave one a pleasant nostalgia, a sense of transience, which was in itself a good reason for the end.

The magazines would keep for a little while, Seishirou decided, and he relaxed contentedly into the chair. He noticed that the glass was still in his hand--nearly empty, and he went to finish it.

"Eh?"

A thin snap of energy sparked in his mind, a fierce crackle of alertness. It ran down his spine and out along his nerves, like something alive. Seishirou set the drink down quickly.

Subaru was moving.

He had stood up from the bench, and now walked toward the cherry tree. Snow crunched under his feet. Stopping just beyond the span of leafless branches, he reached into the sleeve of his coat, and drew out a thin sheaf of ofuda.

"On."

With a practiced flick, Subaru cast the paper talismans toward the tree. They caught in the air around the trunk, and began to glow with a soft fire.

So....

Subaru was actually going to attempt the sakura. This could be interesting.

"On...batarei ya sowaka."

Branches began to move slightly, although there was no wind. Small swirls of snow, dislodged, scattered to the ground.

"On...batarei ya sowaka."

Seishirou stood up and paced into the bedroom. He drew up the blind on the large picture window there and stared out through his reflection in the glass--ceased to see anything then on the physical level, his vision wholly occupied with that far away working.

"On...batarei ya sowaka...."

The stirring of the twigs transmitted itself to the air; the air began to shake silently, as if disturbed by a tremendous noise just beyond human hearing. It was power that had begun to wake, and for those with eyes to see the night was utterly transformed. The city sky, never truly black, became so, and the shadows of the park grew thicker, and sharper edged. Near the sakura the shadows took on the dull reddish color of rust, and they moved, gradually seeping outward like the slow ooze of blood from a heart that had nearly ceased to beat.

The tree whispered, .: Enemy :.. Only Seishirou could hear.

.: Subaru-kun. Do you have any idea what you're attempting? :.

Subaru clasped his gloved hands in the mitsu-in, index fingers raised before his face as he continued to chant. In the dimness, the light of his magic was the only bright thing. The movement of the air intensified, its vibration verging on an audible moan as it caught up the streamers of shadow and unfurled them wider--joined with them, so that the shadows and the wind became one swirling, wrathful force that began to whip around the inside of Subaru's working with a growing violence. Still it could not quite approach him, bound in by the radiance of the ofuda.

.: No. I'm sure you don't have the slightest clue. And I know you well enough to know that you won't have slept or eaten properly beforehand--that you're coming into this from a place of weakness, as you always seem to. :.

.: Well, let's see how you do. :.

Raising his voice slightly against the fury of the wind, Subaru began his main invocation, the words a fragile spindle on which to shape the magic.

"On nama samanta vajuranam chanda maharoshana, savata on tiraka hanba sowaka...."

He set his will upon the tree.

Power surged between the onmyouji and the ancient sakura. In four discrete brilliant flares, the ofuda were destroyed. Subaru let them go without flinching, caught the protective energy they had held and sustained it through his own skill instead...impressive, that. The sound of the wind grew to a snarling wail. Subaru lifted his hands above his head, eyes dark and intense as he repeated the words, as he swiftly bound the three threads of his spell together--

To call forth, to contain, and to cleanse.

.: You tried this once before when you were just a child, and you failed, as you will fail now. Innocence protected you then from the full consequences of your actions, but you are no longer innocent, and the sakura will kill you because that is its nature. Subaru-kun-- :.

--magic coursed into the space between Subaru's hands--

.: --you can die here. :.

"On batarei ya sowaka!"

White fire exploded around Subaru and the tree, as he threw his arms wide in the spell's release. The force of his will flamed against the darkness, lit every crevice of the great trunk in a fierce blaze of power. Light dazzled off the fallen snow as he turned night temporarily into day: a spiritual light, as well as a visible one, even as the shadows that he contended with were more than just the darkness one could see.

They were the dead.

That was what the child-Subaru had felt so powerfully that it drew him across Tokyo, from one path of destiny onto another: the suffering and malice of so many victims that they could not be counted. Mindless, speechless, all volition stripped away, their souls were pressed into the barrow and its guardian tree, just as their bodies were buried beneath it. It was their unliving existence that gave the tree its power, their resentment and ravaged humanity that gave it something near sentience: a mind that carried over from tree to seed to sapling, so that it always was renewed. Ally and symbol to the Sakurazukamori, as old as any living thing upon the earth....

.: Subaru-kun. :.

.: Twenty centuries of magic and blood, of hate and death and fear. :.

.: Do you really think you stand a chance against that? :.

Subaru was still sustaining power, focusing light that was more than light onto the sakura, striving to reach its heart. His lips moved silently, and there was a frown of intent concentration on his face. A high degree of skill, yes, but skill alone could take him only so far. At this point it was his personal power against that of the tree, and Seishirou could feel in the magical emanations that he was nearly to his limit.

Despite that, he did not give in. He poured out his power in a constant tide of force, pushing at those boundaries he could not break...calling, but never answered.

The tree keened. There was a terrible snapping sensation suddenly, as of a branch bent too far that slips free and whips back.

And Subaru was fighting for his life.

That quickly the balance shifted, as the tree's full magic came to bear. Fury whirled out at him, a lash of pure savagery that splintered his warding spell with ease. Subaru snatched back the shards of protective power, spinning those remnants into a desperate shield of brilliance around himself. Wind and shadow roared past him to surround the narrow circle his magic made. He struck out from that fragile shelter with what force he could spare, but the storm ate his blow instantly and began to drive inward, pressing inexorably closer to him. Subaru's light intensified somewhat as its radius shrank, but his strength was not going to hold for more than moments. And he knew it.

"On!" Subaru screamed the seed-syllable, his voice almost inaudible over the howling of the wind. His power flared and thinned. Murder raged only an inch of light away from him--

"ON!"

--plunged over him like a wave.

In that instant, Seishirou sent his thought across space from the apartment. His illusion manifested beside the trunk of the cherry tree: the perfect image of himself, with every seeming of substance.

He lifted up his ghost's hand, and his will.

The shadows swirled abruptly away from Subaru. They formed a clear circle around him and from there drew slowly back, wreathing themselves about Seishirou's image with reluctant obedience before fragmenting into the dimness of the Tokyo night. The wind dwindled as well until it vanished entirely, leaving nothing behind but the thin bite of winter cold: a cold Seishirou was aware of through distant senses, though he could not truly feel it. It seemed less chill than before, however. The weather appeared to be changing.

Perhaps there would be more snow.

Seishirou cocked his head, and gazed down at Subaru.

.: Mine :., the tree muttered sullenly.

.: Yes--isn't everyone? :. Seishirou replied. .: Now, please hush. :. In illusion he stepped away from the tree, and walked to within a few feet of the other onmyouji.

Shuddering, trying to catch his breath, Subaru had fallen to his knees, one hand raised wardingly before his face. The rawness of the air got to him, and he started to cough again. Seishirou inspected him minutely, noting the exhaustion, the stark paleness of his skin, the worn sneakers and the coat whose sleeves fell just slightly short, outgrown...missing no detail, because the Sumeragi was an enemy and a practitioner, and while Seishirou had his whims he was also not a fool. It was possible that this could be a trap, that his sending could be traced back to its source, though naturally he had taken precautions against such a thing.... But everything he saw seemed to read the same way. Subaru had nothing left, not the strength nor the magic nor even the will to fight. He had spent it all in the struggle with the sakura.

Some of it, perhaps, even before that.

.: An onmyouji who worked for the government could have afforded a new coat, if he cared. But you've never been concerned for yourself, even in far more important matters. No self-interest, no self-preservation: you spend yourself too easily, and it makes you weaker than you really are. :. Seishirou shook his head in a pretense of sadness, even as he smiled very slightly.

.: That's not the mark of a "pro." :.

Subaru looked up at him suddenly, and Seishirou found himself still smiling as he stared into those green eyes. They were brilliant with an almost uncanny light, like a liquid gold flash of brightness on the sharp edge of broken glass, and behind the brilliance, empty of life. This light was a new thing, Seishirou thought--not that luminosity which had once been there. It was more like a reflection from the dark surface of a jewel: an emerald, if any emerald had that deep richness of color. Such beautiful eyes he had always had--had even now, when they were like windows closed against the world. It was a kind of self-defense that he had learned.

"_Seishirou-san,_" Subaru breathed, his voice hoarse and ragged, torn like the thin non-substance of a spirit.

"Hello, Subaru-kun." Seishirou's own speech was flawlessly normal-sounding, despite the fact that he was not physically present. His "breath" was even frosting in the air. Perfection of illusion was a point of pride.

"That's a nasty cough you have. Are you seeing a doctor?"

"That was you," whispered Subaru tonelessly. "Breaking the spell." The words could be meant as a question, but Subaru showed no real enthusiasm for the answer. Seishirou chose to ignore it for now. He let his smile soften a little instead, as if showing concern.

"It's a cold night to be out playing in the snow," Seishirou remarked. He had "appeared" wearing a coat, and now put illusionary hands in pockets. "You should dress more warmly next time." Subaru was indeed shivering, but his eyes still blankly fixed themselves on Seishirou's, and they gave back nothing.

"If you're going to be outside for long in the wintertime, it's also good not to smoke," Seishirou continued. "Did you know that smoking constricts the blood vessels? You can get frostbite more easily when the circulation is reduced like that."

There was no reply, other than the empty stare. Seishirou contemplated that emptiness for a moment, and then tried a different subject.

"Have you been busy with 'work'?" he asked. He had a pretty good idea of what Subaru had been busy with lately, but Subaru might not know that...the only response was another coughing fit, though: longer this time, and harsh. Seishirou sighed to himself and glanced at the backs of Subaru's hands as he waited for it to pass. They were gloved for warmth, not protection, and Seishirou could sense the presence of his stars quite plainly: signs invisible to ordinary eyes, but not to his. They were like a beacon to him, always, and if he chose he could reach out through the link they made, and feel Subaru's life like a small, warm glow between his own hands. Subaru had never made any effort to mask the signs, though it was conceivable that he could. It was as if he wanted Seishirou to find him, to come to him.... Well, of course, he did.

He meant to track down and kill his sister's murderer, after all.

The coughing ended, but Subaru did not look up again or speak. Silence strung itself out between them, the same strange silence there had been at their last meeting, only perhaps even bleaker on Subaru's part. There was not even movement from him this time, no flicker of involvement in his face, no physical reaction at all to Seishirou's presence--only that slight trembling as he knelt there in the snow. It was as though he had gone away inside, was no longer alive to anything at all.

It was sort of boring. Idly, Seishirou played with his illusion a bit, letting the edges of his coat stir and ripple as if moved by a strong breeze, let the "breeze" catch his own hair and even Subaru's, swirl the loose snow that had fallen from the sakura in sparkling drifts around the two of them--those were effects that took work, moving the real with the insubstantial. Snow pattered gently against Subaru's face, but he did not even flinch.

Hmm.

How best to stir some reaction?

"The sakura broke your spell," Seishirou said at last, allowing a gentle amusement to show in his voice. "It's not without defenses. Don't you remember, Subaru-kun? That day we first met?"

.: You performed your first exorcism on this tree, and it stung you, didn't it? It would have hurt you a lot worse that time, if you hadn't been so little threat. You were so much a child that it could hardly even see you. :.

.: So innocent...but not any more. :.

Subaru said nothing, his eyes fixed on the snowy ground at Seishirou's feet. The ghost would leave shallow footprints when it departed, a detail that pleased Seishirou, even if Subaru seemed oblivious to it.... Could it be that he didn't realize it was an illusion? Did he think Seishirou was actually present, here?

"Perhaps you don't remember. Perhaps you'd prefer to forget. Is that your wish, Subaru-kun?"

Subaru's voice was like a sleepwalker stumbling through a room, awkward and remote and slow.

"I only wish for one thing,"

An answer. It was remarkable.

"To kill me?" Seishirou asked, still smiling, and he swept out one arm in invitation. "Would you like to try it now?"

It would be laughable if Subaru tried to attack his ghost, but it probably wouldn't happen. Even if Subaru mustered the will, he seemed to be too weak. A monosyllable reply, then, or probably just silence...so Seishirou was a little surprised when Subaru looked up at him again, as blank as the surface of a pond, and as transparent. It was as though Seishirou could see right inside him, and nothing was even there.

"If I kill you, I become you," Subaru said, without the slightest inflection: not hatred, or anger, or fear. There was not even a sense of expectation in the words, whether of good or of ill, but only a hollow vacancy.

It was very odd indeed.

To cover his slight perplexity, Seishirou laughed.

"There's more to the rite of succession than that," he responded. He thought back, trying to remember what he could have said all those years ago that might have suggested the idea. "I didn't know you were interested, Subaru-kun."

"I will not," Subaru said dully, fatally. "I will not commit that wrong." His voice was resolved, for all that it was so flat and lifeless, and Seishirou felt a little interest wake in him again. There was something there at last, besides the silence.

"Wrong to kill me?" Seishirou asked then, swift and gentle as the touch of fire. "Or to become me?"

Subaru did not seem to hear. He was still speaking, but the words came more sluggishly now: falling hard, like stones, and requiring a breath of recovery afterward.

"...no matter what happens...," he mumbled, "...no matter...how much...."

"Subaru-kun--"

"No matter...," Subaru was muttering, "...no matter, no...matter," as if he had lost the connection of the words, his mind wandering even with his enemy here before him, and suddenly Seishirou put it all together, the paleness and trembling, the too-bright eyes, the cough--

Fever. Bronchial infection as well, probably.

.: "Working" when you're this sick? Honestly, Subaru-kun.... :.

Perhaps on some level Subaru recognized that he was rambling. He breathed "no" one more time with demented quietness, and then shut up.

There was silence once again.

.: Well, :. Seishirou thought, .: that's that. :.

He looked up at the moonless, starless sky, clouds flushed vaguely pinkish by the city's glare. It was indeed about to snow--no, it was snowing; the first small flakes were already descending, trailing down from above one by one. A couple passed through the body of his ghost as they fell. They marred the effect of the illusion a little, but the flaw was very small and it no longer seemed especially important. He was nearly done here anyway.

Seishirou let his gaze turn back to Subaru.

.: I wonder if you've really decided not to try to kill me, or if you're just delirious. :. He shrugged, not giving the question much thought. .: It doesn't matter anyway. :.

.: You couldn't kill me. :.

.: You couldn't be the "cherry tree barrow guardian," even if it was that simple. :.

.: I used to imagine that you might at least challenge me, someday. Now, I'm not so sure. I thought-- :.

.: Well, never mind. :.

A little wind kicked up, stirring Subaru's hair for real this time, and making the occasional snowflakes swirl sideways. It carried a single star of snow past Seishirou, and he watched that white fleck dance by.

.: Maybe I should just kill you now and get it over with. In the condition you're in, I could do it all the way from here. You would never be able to stop me. :.

.: Maybe I should.... :.

"Shall I?" he murmured to himself. Subaru glanced up at him spiritlessly, then let his eyes drift slowly down again, their gaze leaving Seishirou like light leaving a blown-out candle flame. He bowed his dark head, and was still.

Almost as if he was expecting to die.

As if he were waiting for it.

"No," Seishirou said.

He flared the blackness of the coat his ghost was wearing around "himself." Dim lights flickered in the depths of its shadow like the flashing of falling leaves, muted pale greens and silvery-greys. Their swirling movement transformed itself into a sighing of the air as he evoked the sakura wind, not the red, rage-filled fury of the dead but that other wind which was his own to call, cool and strong and achingly beautiful. With its coming, he briefly brought down the dark of a full maboroshi around Subaru--but Subaru had already fainted, and was falling forward into unconsciousness, letting go the tenuous grip of his will over mind and body. Seishirou watched him as he toppled, observed the green eyes glaze and close, and then, shrugging once more, let the wind take all the magic, ghost and maboroshi both, and unravel it into nothing.

A pair of sakura petals spun out on the last breath of wind, and as it faded they fluttered to the ground. They came to rest gently beside Subaru, two fleeting stains of pale rose against the snow.

Soon after, they too vanished.

Seishirou looked at the dark, reflective surface of his bedroom window. For a moment, he could still see Subaru's senseless form crumpled on the ground before the cherry tree. Then he shut the farsight image from his mind entirely, tied off the ends of power, and released them, terminating the spell.

He let the blind fall closed.

.: Thirteenth head of the Sumeragi clan.... :. he thought.

.: You'll have to do a lot better than that. :.

The other room was silent. The CD must have ended while he was "out." Well, he'd listen to it again some other night. He wandered back out to the living room to turn off the stereo, and as he did so noticed the drink that he hadn't gotten around to finishing. There wasn't very much of it left.

Seishirou picked the glass up and stared at it.

It had been a disappointing encounter.... He was confident, though, that Subaru did have more to offer him. He remembered the easy skill with which Subaru had balanced the disparate forces of his spell, the swift reaction to the breaking of his ward, even sick as he'd been...remembered other nights, other workings, a boy's deep, unfailing dedication to what was required of him, a pure heart that held nothing back, and then a white-hot explosion of suffering and betrayal.... Subaru had resources to drawn on that he might not even be aware of.

Perhaps when his health improved he would recall what had happened tonight, his failure, and fight harder because of it.

One could anticipate such things, Seishirou thought, and smiled.

.: "Fight harder, Subaru!" Isn't that what your sister would say? :.

.: I can almost hear her now. :.

Seishirou turned the glass in his hand, gazing into its circular mouth in a very brief moment of reminiscence. The small amount of purplish wine swirled somewhere indefinite at the bottom of it. After nine years, he had gotten used to the curious flattening of his vision: the loss of depth perception was something he noticed only at certain times, usually when he was thinking about the past.

He had been doing a lot of that this evening, he realized. It was a very bad habit, even when one was incapable, as he was, of feeling regret.

Seishirou knocked back the rest of the drink, and then yawned.

Although it wasn't yet excessively late, he decided to call it a night.