Unto the End
by K.Stonham
released 16th July 2004
It could have happened in any of several ways.
Suoh could have been old, his blue hair faded to a distinguished silver, relaxing at home with a book, and looked up suddenly to see bright golden hair, a mischevious smile, and a familiar face that hadn't changed an iota since their parting over sixty years before.
He could have been been lying in the hospital, an oxygen mask over his face as his body finally fought a battle it could not win, and there would be that same person again, unchanged save for the glowing white wings that stretched to fill the entire room.
But instead Suoh lay on the floor of the basement of a dingy apartment building, bleeding to death. He was surrounded by corpses and the smell of their blood thickened the air, made him want to gag. He ignored that urge, closed his eyes against it, letting the cool concrete behind his head absorb his heat.
Footsteps sounded, moving across the basement. Suoh muzzily opened his eyes, examining the pair of boots that stepped towards him, fastidiously avoiding corpses and blood alike. The person stopped in front of him and knelt down, the long, fawn-colored coat folding on the ground.
"Oh, Suoh," Nokoru said, and he was everything that Suoh remembered.
Suoh woke in a wide room with a high ceiling. It was painted in a soothing shade of pale green that was picked up in the wallpaper. Turning his head, he saw birds fluttering back and forth between the branches of a large tree outside. It reminded him of the Campus.
Finally, he'd come home.
The door at the far end of the room opened and a person carrying a tray slipped inside. "Oh, you're awake," he said.
"Yuudaiji-san?" Suoh hadn't heard anything about Idomu's death. "What are you doing here?"
"This is my home," Nokoru's friend replied. "We found you and brought you back here. Really, Takamura, that's no way to die and certainly no way to honor Nokoru's memory."
Suoh sat up, looked at his hands in his lap. They were bandaged. So was a large portion of the rest of his body.
He wasn't, he realized, dead after all.
Idomu sat on the edge of the bed and set the tray over Suoh's lap. "Eat up, Takamura," he suggested. "I'm friend enough not to sic him on you until you're healed."
"Sic who on me?"
Idomu cocked his head to the side a little, like he was listening to a far-off sound. Suoh didn't hear anything, but Idomu laughed a little. "Not unless you promise to remember he's hurt," the man said. "I think he's a fool too, but he thinks he did it for you."
"Yuudaiji-san," Suoh asked hesitantly, "to whom are you speaking?"
Idomu looked back at him and his eyes shifted color, dark green transforming into sapphire blue.
"Me," Nokoru's voice answered out of Idomu's mouth.
"It's really quite simple," Nokoru explained. "You and Akira weren't listening for me so you couldn't hear me."
"How long have you been haunting Yuudaiji-san, Kaichou?" Suoh asked wearily.
"Not long. A few hours."
"A few hours." Suoh's tone was flat.
"Well, he's been out of the country until recently and then I had a hard time finding him and getting him to stop thinking he was crazy when I was talking with him took forever!"
The uncharitable thought that sanity had never been a forte of either Idomu or Nokoru flashed through Suoh's mind.
"Why now?" he asked instead.
Nokoru glared at him and Suoh felt like those blue eyes were piercing through his chest, taking him apart. "Did it ever occur to you, Suoh," Nokoru hissed, "that I would not be happy with the idea of you killing yourself?"
Suoh glared back. "Takamuras," he rejoined icily, "do not survive their One."
"I would be a good deal more honored by your devotion if you lived for me instead, Suoh." Nokoru's voice was nearly a growl. Suoh had seen him angry before, but never enough to act like this. "I would consider it a privilege, in fact, to know that you lived to a ripe old age and did all the things I never got to."
"Like what?" Suoh argued. "Be happy? I am a Takamura. I can't exist unless I can protect my chosen person. And, may I remind you, I failed drastically at that."
Nokoru looked away. "I know, Suoh. I was there, remember?" His voice was soft and hurt.
Suoh automatically reached out, but his hand stopped short of touching Nokoru's shoulder. Nokoru looked back at him. His lips curved in a sad smile, and he placed his own fingers on top of Suoh's, drawing his hand forward to complete the aborted move. Both of their eyes were on that point of contact, hand on hand on shoulder. "Kaichou...."
"Suoh." Nokoru's voice beguiled, inviting Suoh to meet his gaze. It was warm and caring, and held no hint of humor as Nokoru said quietly, "I forgive you, Suoh. You are human and you have limits. You did all you could, and I made you take the girls out first. They were more important to me. I forgive you, and I want you to forgive yourself--yourself and Akira and Utako-hime and Nagisa-jyou and even Idomu-kun for being alive while I'm not."
Suoh wanted to look away from Nokoru's eyes, but couldn't. "I'll try, Kaichou."
"You'll do better than try, Suoh," Nokoru warned. "You'll succeed. You are a Takamura, after all, and as your One, this is the most important thing I will ever ask of you."
It was the better part of a week before Suoh was up and out of bed. Nokoru and Idomu both kept him company in the big house all that time. It seemed to be empty other than the two--three--of them because Idomu kept apologizing for the quality of the food he brought up on trays for Suoh. It wasn't as good as Akira's cooking, of course, but it was certainly edible.
"I'm not letting Nokoru near the kitchen," Idomu confided to Suoh. "He can't cook and he knows it."
There was a piano in the corner of the room and Idomu spent hours playing it. Suoh enjoyed listening. The Yuudaiji heir's talent easily bordered on genius. He also enjoyed playing the games of strategy that Idomu and Nokoru brought in for him. Nokoru he beat soundly every time, but Idomu matched Suoh game for game. Slowly he began to get past his old grudge against the other man.
"Is he always listening, even when he's not talking?" Suoh asked across a game of Go.
Idomu studied the board. "I don't know," he admitted. He laid his black stone on the intersection of two lines in a move that threatened Suoh's territory in the upper left-hand corner. "I'm not sure if he just exists inside my skull or if he steps out and about or what. Do ghosts sleep?"
"If we asked him, do you think he would tell?" Suoh decided to ignore the threat for one move in favor of cutting off Idomu's line of attack in his lower right-hand corner.
Idomu's eyes met his. "Probably not," they chorused.
Suoh didn't quite understand how it was that he saw Nokoru, not Idomu, when the former was speaking from within the latter. They had similar face shapes, but the underlying bone structure was entirely different, giving Nokoru a much more fey, delicate appearance than his living counterpart. And that wasn't even explaining the blond hair.
By the time Suoh had made it down the stairs and into the parlor, his arms and stomach were aching badly enough to throw black spots into his vision. Idomu sat down on the sofa across from him while Suoh closed his eyes and concentrated on breathing. "How long until you're fit again, Takamura?" he asked.
Suoh calculated from behind his eyelids. "A month to where I'm okay. Another month, maybe two, to get back into top form."
Breath hissed from between the other man's teeth. "We may not have that much time. It'll have to do."
"Time?" Suoh opened his eyes again. Idomu's expression was serious, his eyes calculating.
"There are things coming," Idomu said. "Important things. Nokoru was trained for them--he's needed for them. It's part of why he came back and why he came back now."
Very quietly, Suoh asked, "What things?"
Nokoru took over Idomu, the pianist fading into the background of their appearance. "The end of the world, Suoh. Clamp Campus is needed, and so am I. What happened nine years ago shouldn't have. It sets everything off track. There needs to be a place to harbor a certain sword, a home to shelter stray waifs, and a person with the power to protect them until they can heal. That was supposed to be me."
"I don't understand."
"You don't need to, Suoh. Not yet. But I need to know--do you trust me?" Blue eyes were calm but intense.
"With my life. With Ijyuin's life. With Nagisa-san's life."
Nokoru nodded. A cell phone appeared between his fingers and he tossed it at Suoh, who caught it. "Call Akira," he instructed. "Get him to come here. He won't believe this story over the phone."
Numbly, Suoh obeyed.
It had been six years since Suoh had seen Ijyuin Akira, but he would have known him anywhere. The tousled black hair hadn't changed, the gray eyes were still soft and wondering, hiding the sheer steel will and intellect he knew the younger man possessed, and most of all, Akira grabbed onto him tightly, not saying a word, the moment he first saw Suoh. Suoh stared at the top of Akira's head, then slowly wrapped his arms around his friend, hugging him back. They stayed like that for a long minute, until Suoh looked up, sensing a gaze from across the room. It was Idomu, looking at them with a small smile on his lips and a hint of loneliness in his eyes. He nodded once, then left the room. Slowly, Suoh pushed Akira back, the master thief straightening, brushing the back of his sleeve across his eyes.
"Where have you been, Takamura-sempai?" he asked. "And why are you at Yuudaiji-san's house?"
Suoh sighed. "Sit, Ijyuin," he said, lowering himself onto a chair. Akira's eyes were sharp on him, cataloguing Suoh's injuries from the way he moved.
"Don't ask where I've been," Suoh said first. "There are things I won't tell you." Things he wasn't proud of. Things that might make Akira hate him. Suoh wasn't the same person he'd been when they were children together.
Akira nodded once. "Understood, Sempai."
Suoh studied Akira's face for a moment. The childish roundness was gone. Akira had grown tall, almost as tall as himself. The way he moved still spoke of his training, martial and "other." But at least one of them had gone on with his life. There was experience in that face that Suoh hadn't shared. If it wasn't for the fact of Nokoru binding them both to himself so early with such a strong tie, Suoh wondered, would someone like Akira have even come when Suoh called?
He felt the blood on his hands, dirty blood that bright Akira had never known.
"Yuudaiji-san rescued me a few days ago," he answered the second question. "He's been letting me recuperate in his home."
Ijyuin nodded again. "I'll have to thank him."
Suoh took a deep breath. There was no good way to say this, no way that would make the impossible seem more like the truth it was. "Kaichou is back, Ijyuin."
Akira's reaction was immediate: he reached across the space between them and laid the back of his hand on Suoh's forehead. "No, no fever," he murmured. "A side effect of the pain medication, maybe...?"
"I am not on any pain medication," Suoh said. "I know it seems impossible, Ijyuin, but Kaichou is back."
"Kaichou is dead, Takamura-sempai," Akira bit out with a sharpness Suoh had never thought to hear in his voice. "We buried him nine years ago."
"Do you really think, of all people, that Kaichou would stay dead?" Suoh argued. "Even for Clamp Campus, even for an Imonoyama, he specialized in the impossible."
Akira regarded Suoh with sadness in his eyes. "I can't believe in that, sempai. I can't believe in the impossible."
"I couldn't believe that it was a nine-year-old who stole all the Emperor penguins out of the Campus zoo," a new voice broke in. Suoh looked up to see Nokoru strolling across the room towards them. He stopped, standing amiably by the arm of Akira's chair. "That stunt made me have to reconsider the word 'impossible,' Akira." Nokoru smiled guilelessly.
Akira's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Kai...chou?" His voice broke the word in two.
"Congratulations on medical school," Nokoru said quietly. "And... congratulations on your marriage to Utako-hime." Suoh noticed, for the first time, the plain gold ring that banded the third finger of Akira's left hand.
"You know about that?" Akira choked out.
Nokoru smiled, a little sweet, a little sad. "Did you really think I wouldn't be there?" His hand reached out to touch Akira on the shoulder. Akira stared at that point of contact, then raised his hand to cover Nokoru's much as Suoh had done a few days before.
"Kaichou," he whispered, looking back up.
It was Akira who, a week later, was able to get them into the Chairwoman's presence. By then Suoh was walking steadily, though still with pain. Akira, Nokoru, and Idomu had conspired to take his measurements and buy him clothing. With that and a new haircut Suoh found that he felt almost like he belonged in their company as the three of them--four, he amended, seeing Nokoru glimpsing out of Idomu's eyes, blue-green at the moment--strode across the campus to the chief administrative building.
They were admitted to her presence immediately, into a traditional room where the Chairwoman waited for them behind a half-lowered screen. It hid most of her face, but even from what little he could see, Suoh knew she had aged. She lowered the report she had been reading--he could just see that it was financial in nature, and about the school of engineering at the college--and smiled. "Ijyuin-san," she said, "it's always a pleasure."
Akira bowed. "Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, Rijichou."
She nodded. "And Yuudaiji-san. How go your studies?"
Idomu bowed as well. "Quite well, thank you. It is a pleasure to see you again."
She studied Suoh the longest. "Takamura-san."
He bowed the most deeply and held it as he spoke. "Please forgive me, Rijichou. Nine years ago I was lax in my duty and as a result of my failure Kaichou died."
He could hear her take the fan by her side and raise it, the tassel dragging along the tatami mat as it moved. "You ask for my forgiveness, Takamura-san? I cannot give it to you."
"Really, Rijichou," Nokoru broke in, "I've already forgiven him, and I was the injured party, so to speak. It's not fair to expect Suoh to suffer any more. He does have a horrible guilt complex, after all."
The fan was not quite dropped, but it was certainly set down quickly by an unsteady hand. "Nokoru-san?"
Nokoru stepped forward, past the still-bowing Suoh. "I have returned, Rijichou, to fulfill my duty."
There was the slightest hitch in her breath. "Nokoru-san."
"I am the master of this campus, Rijichou," Nokoru said softly, without arrogance. "It is what you trained me for, what I was born for. I request that I be allowed to fulfill that role."
"With these two at your side?"
"Who better?" Nokoru asked rhetorically. "I trust Suoh and Akira more than anyone on Earth."
"You trusted them with your life, once."
"I trust them with more, now," he replied, serious. "I trust them with the Campus and with the fate of the world."
Suoh had forgotten the speed at which things could happen at Clamp Campus. Within a hour the Chairwoman had tendered her resignation and turned the Campus over to her successor, a distant cousin of the main Imonoyama branch, one who coincidentally shared a name with her late protege.
The story was weak and the four of them, Idomu, Akira, Nokoru, and Suoh, shared a collective wince at how flimsy it seemed. Still, as Akira had thoughtfully pointed out, who would ever believe the truth?
They fell back into paperwork and schedules and reviewing student records and security procedures like the three of them had never left the offices of Clamp Campus.
Well, with one difference, Suoh thought, glancing up from his desk to Nokoru's. The newly named Chairman was no longer trying to dodge the paperwork, not even retreating within to let Idomu deal with it. A thousand times in the past Suoh had wished for that very thing, Nokoru to take his work seriously. Now that his wish was granted, he found himself regretting the lost slacker's work ethic.
As if sensing his thoughts, Nokoru raised his head and met Suoh's gaze. Suoh dropped his gaze back to his schedule for the next day, noting a meeting scheduled at Nokoru's request between Nokoru and the CEO of Higashikunimaru, Inc., and his secretary.
Nokoru stood up and crossed the distance between them, circling around Suoh's desk until he stood by the arm of the gray office chair. "Suoh," he asked softly, "what is it?"
Suoh met Nokoru's eyes and had no words. Mutely, he shook his head.
"Whatever's wrong, you will talk to me about it, won't you?" Nokoru pressed. "Or Idomu-kun or Akira?"
"I'm not your responsibility, Rijichou," Suoh said in a low voice.
Nokoru smiled though his eyes were still concerned. "But you are, Suoh." He returned to his desk.
Before, of the three of them Akira's schedule had always been the busiest. That hadn't changed; Suoh watched Akira bustle about cheerfully, cooking, teaching classes at the university, being a student there himself, going home to spend time with his mothers and wife, doing all the paperwork that running a multi-school campus required, and still somehow he managed to find the time to pull off one or two of Twenty Mensou's spectacular thefts a month. He made Suoh feel old, and tired, in comparison.
They didn't talk to each other. Or, rather, they talked, but never of things of importance. Schedules and budgets and deadlines and "as always, the cake is delicious, Akira," but never of any words of weight or meaning.
Once they wouldn't have needed to speak; such things would simply be known and understood.
Now the years stood between them and Suoh's refusal to speak of the deaths he had dealt as reprisal for Nokoru's murder hampered their efforts even further. Ijyuin, too, seemed to feel the strain, growing quieter, almost pensive at times when faced with talking to Suoh.
"Sempai," he said one day, laying a plate of angel's food cake before Suoh.
"Yes?" Suoh asked.
Akira's gray eyes were troubled, then he continued forward, asking, "Would you like to come visit Nagisa-san?"
Suoh felt very proud that his fork did not clatter to the table. "I don't believe that would be a good idea, Ijyuin." To confront Nagisa, the way he was... no, it wouldn't be for the best.
Akira looked sad. "Are you sure, sempai? I thought that seeing you again might make Nagisa-san happier."
Suoh kept a tight lid on his emotions, asking neutrally, "She's not happy now?"
Akira's lips narrowed. "No, sempai. She isn't."
The shuriken flew from Suoh's fingers and landed within a hair's breadth of where he wanted them to. He frowned and crossed the range, tugging them out of the target. Even if his aim was still off, though, his strength was returning: Suoh had to pull hard to retrieve the weapons.
He whirled, sensing a presence, the throwing blades automatically fanning between his fingers.
Idomu stepped out into the moonlight, softly clapping his hands together. His smile was appreciative. "You really are amazing, Takamura."
Suoh slipped the shuriken back into their forearm sheaths. "Not amazing enough, I'm afraid."
"Still." Idomu sat down on the balustrade, turning his face up to the sky. He was relief-lit in the light, sharp angles of shadow painting him like a chiaroscuro work. Suoh looked at the other man curiously.
"Why are you doing this, Yuudaiji-san?" he asked.
Dark eyes blinked. "Doing what?"
"I know he'd never take you over unless he had your permission. Rijichou... it's not his style to become a vengeful ghost."
"You still can't say his name, can you?" Idomu questioned. "Not even after he's dead. That seems sad, somehow."
"You've lived abroad too long," Suoh replied. "What name or title I call him does not matter so much as what I mean by it when I say it. And you're avoiding the question."
Idomu sighed and looked back toward the sky. "Practically, it makes sense. If what he says about the coming of the end of the world is true--and this is Nokoru; I don't think he's capable of lying to us--then what's six months or so of my life? I can give it to him easily if it means that I'll have a rest of my life afterwards."
The tone was too easy; the words too light. "It's not that I disbelieve you, Yuudaiji-san," Suoh said civilly, "but I can't help thinking that you have another reason to be his host."
Idomu turned shadowed eyes on Suoh. In their depths there appeared to be a reflection of the full moon. "You'd be right, Takamura. Do you think I miss him any less than you do? You're not the only one who defined their life by him." With a sad smile, Idomu turned to go inside the large, Western-style mansion. Suoh watched him go, then turned in a blur, flinging a single shuriken at the target.
This time, his aim was dead on.
"Suoh," Nokoru said the next day, "I need you to run an errand for me, please." He held up a manila envelope. "I need this hand-delivered to Doctor Kojishima at the psychiatric ward of the hospital, please, and I need you to wait for her response."
"But Rijichou--"
"Akira has a class to teach in fifteen minutes," Nokoru overrode him. "I promise I won't leave this room until you return, Suoh. I'm not about to endanger Idomu-kun as well as myself."
Suoh acquiesced, accepting the envelope though not before giving Nokoru a look that said plainly that he was only doing this under duress. Nokoru's bright, innocent smile (a smile that set Suoh's nerves tingling, it was so associated with past "adventures" set up by an enthusiastic twelve-year-old leader) followed him out the door, along with the sound of a pen scratching across paper.
The walk to the hospital took twenty minutes even with Suoh's shortcut across one of the gardens. The scent of white roses clung to him as he walked into the building and then waited for an elevator to arrive to take him to the sixth floor. Bright brasswork gleamed his reflection back at him and he wondered how his outside could look so much like who he should have been--a tall, powerful man in a suit, someone who belonged running Clamp Campus and guarding the man who was responsible for protecting those who would save the Earth--when his inside was so different, a murderer who had betrayed his duty and abandoned his friends and family alike to pursue vengeance.
His reflection remained stoic as he boarded the ornate art deco elevator.
Doctor Kojishima was a bespectacled woman in her mid-forties. She glanced apologetically at Suoh as she opened the envelope. Her eyebrows rose a trifle as she skimmed the note that was its contents. "Hmm." She glanced again at Suoh, her gaze more assessing this time. "If you'll wait here for just a minute, Takamura-san." She left the waiting room. Suoh did not sit, instead contemplating the Monet print on the opposite wall. It was several minutes before the doctor returned, the subtle scent of wisteria preceding her as the door opened again.
Suoh blinked. Wisteria?
Suoh turned to meet a pair of pale gray eyes, a spill of lavendar hair that even tied up into twin ponytails still draped slightly on the ground, and a shocked, pale expression.
"N-Nagisa-san," he stuttered, stunned.
"Ta...kamura...san?" she asked, echoing his tone. She was wearing a summer-weight gray kimono decorated with green reeds and red dragonflies. She seemed unbelievably delicate, this "wisteria fairy," and Suoh knew without a doubt that he had been set up yet again by Nokoru. The knowledge didn't help him at the moment.
He examined the floor. He'd never known quite what to say around Nagisa, it seemed. She was too beautiful to be believed, something that had always had him tongue-tied. He snuck a quick glance and saw that she, too, was looking down.
"Umm." They spoke at the same time, looking up. Suoh blushed and gestured for her to speak first.
"Thank you for saving my life that time," she said in a small voice.
Suoh was confused. "What time?"
"When Nokoru-sama was...." She gestured helplessly.
When Nokoru was killed.
Something tightened in Suoh's chest, making it impossible for him to breathe. Nokoru was dead. No matter that he'd come back for a little while, Nokoru was dead and Suoh was a Takamura and he'd failed in his duty and there was no way he would ever be worthy enough to touch Nagisa's white hand, let alone hold her.
"Excuse me," he said quickly, and bolted out the door.
Suoh couldn't return to the administrative building, not so soon after seeing Nagisa. He went blindly back to the white rose garden instead, sitting on a marble bench and burying his head in his hands.
Nagisa. Beautiful, delicate Nagisa.
And Nokoru--friend, leader, troublemaker and adventurer.
One he didn't dare touch and the other he couldn't. Nokoru was dead. Even if he'd come back for a time, even if he'd shanghaied Suoh and Akira into saving the world like it was another treasure hunt, even if Idomu seemed perfectly willing to share his body and life with the youngest of the Imonoyama... even so, Nokoru was still dead.
Nine years and Suoh apparently still hadn't dealt with that.
His fingers tightened in his hair.
Suoh refused to have a panic attack. He couldn't afford to fall apart, not now. Not when the future of the entire would would soon be at stake.
Unfortunately, as he didn't even believe in his own future, his drive to protect the rest of the world's was shaky.
Suoh's breathing got away from him and he tried to gasp in air that wouldn't come.
"-empai." Someone was shaking his shoulder. "Takamura-sempai."
Suoh opened his eyes, uncurling his arms from around his head, and discovered that he had fallen to lie sideways on his bench. He looked up into Akira's concerned face and slowly sat up.
He'd lost track of time, he realized, looking at the low-slanting angle of the sunlight, its thin golden texture on the white roses. Wordlessly, Akira sat down next to him.
Finally, after several minutes, Akira breathed out half a laugh. "Utako-san yelled at me last night," he offered. "She actually threw a cooking pot at me too."
"Why?" Suoh asked.
"She wasn't too happy that I hadn't told her that Rijichou was back."
Suoh hissed through his teeth in sympathy. He'd been on the wrong end of Utako's temper more than once; she was one of the few people who could cow him.
Thinking of which fact, he winced. "I think she's not going to be too happy with me either at the moment." He considered further and winced again. "Neither is Rijichou."
Akira's eyes widened questioningly.
"I ran away from Nagisa-san," Suoh said.
Akira's cringe at the pair's predicted reactions was acute. "Maybe we could run away to Hokkaidou together?" he suggested.
Suoh sighed. "They'd find us no matter where we ran to, Ijyuin."
Akira nodded, equally serious. "Oh well. It was worth a thought."
They listened to the song of wind in far-off trees for some time before Suoh spoke again. "What's going to happen, Ijyuin?" he asked quietly. "I've never been able to not know that before. I've always had a sense of what the future could, or would, or should contain, but... but not anymore."
"I don't know either," Akira replied. "I'm just trusting that Rijichou will make it all right again. I know he can't stay; he's a ghost and Yuudaiji-san needs to live his own life. But he's always looked out for us before, so... so I just have to trust Rijichou."
"Is it really that simple?"
"Yes." Akira's gray eyes, as they caught Suoh's, were determined. If one needed a rock to cling to, Suoh thought, Akira's unshakeable faith might be it.
Nokoru was still waiting for them when Suoh and Akira returned to the office. He sat in his armchair facing the floor-to-ceiling window opposite the door.
"As you may note, Suoh," his voice, its tone neutral, carried across before either of them spoke, "I've been true to my word and not left this room." The chair swiveled around slowly. "Do I even need to say it, Suoh?" Blue eyes were piercing. Suoh swallowed reflexively.
He always forgot that Imonoyama Nokoru was the other person on Earth who could see through him and cow him with a glance.
"No, Rijichou," he whispered miserably.
"Good." Nokoru's contemplation of him did not let up and in that very intensity Suoh felt the depth of his charge's disappointment. "Don't let it happen again, Suoh."
"How did Rijichou know?" Akira whispered into Suoh's ear as Nokoru stood and gathered a few documents into a briefcase.
Suoh just turned his head and looked at Akira.
Akira sighed. "Rijichou knows everything," he answered his own question.
"Well, shall we go, gentlemen?" Nokoru asked, stepping forward lightly. "Dinner and bed wait for no one."
As they stepped out of the office, Suoh and Akira on either side of the young Chairman, Nokoru's countenance melted smoothly into Idomu's. The three of them, and the ghost of Nokoru with them, went home.
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Author's Notes
This story has been sitting on my computer for a while. Finally it felt finished. It is obviously a sequel to the dark story "Darkness" I wrote a few years ago, and probably has a sequel or two I could write for it, but they may or may not get written. The end of "Darkness" left one inherent problem, which is that of the X timeline. This is my answer to that problem. Because Nokoru, of all Clamp characters, would come back to complete unfinished business. And fix Suoh, who's had a fairly miserable life for the past nine years. And I've always been fond of Idomu... original-to-the-anime character or not, he's always rung true for me as another equal for Nokoru.