Kamui woke out of a sound sleep--probably the best he had had since 
his mother died--and sat up, suddenly not in the least tired.  Something 
had woken him....
        Clad in a borrowed pair of Fuuma's pajamas, several sizes too big 
for him but better than nothing at all, Kamui silently crept down the halls 
of the Togakushi Shrine, trying to find whatever it was that had awoken 
him.  His feet made no noise on the smooth wooden floor as he walked 
through the moonlit passages until he was outside.  Standing in the middle 
of the yard, watching the Shrine proper, was Fuuma.  His back was to Kamui, 
and his fists were tightly clenched, his head bowed.
        Is Fuuma... crying? Kamui wondered to himself.  I don't think I've 
ever seen him really cry before....
        A slight move to his left caught Kamui's eye, and he turned his 
head quickly.  At the corner of the house, one hand lightly touching the 
wall, was someone else watching Fuuma.  The man--or woman, Kamui became 
less sure as he caught sight of earrings--was of average height, with pale 
hair that was white-silver in the moonlight.  His, her, or its eyes were a 
pale gold, almost washed out by the moon's brilliance as well.
        Whoever he is, Kamui thought, deciding on the male pronoun, he 
doesn't want to hurt anyone right now.  He just wants to watch Fuuma.  I 
guess that's okay.
        Kamui took the moment of peaceful, if temporary, acceptance of the 
stranger and used it to examine him.  He was wearing clothing that was of 
Chinese design, with a long, long scarf loosely draped around him.  And on 
his forehead were marks that looked like flower petals.  His lips moved 
softly, and Kamui was just barely able to hear the words "I'm sorry... 
Father...."  Then the man was gone in the blink of an eye, and Kamui was 
left alone watching Fuuma.
        Hesitantly, after a few minutes, Kamui walked into the yard, the 
dewy grass wet on his feet.  He stopped just behind Fuuma and touched him 
on the shoulder.  "Fuuma?" he asked softly.  "Is everything alright?"
        Fuuma turned to face him, and Kamui saw that his face was, indeed, 
wet with tears.  "So much has happened since you came back, Kamui..." he 
said quietly.  "It's all happened so fast, and I don't even know what's 
really going on... but Father is dead, murdered, the Holy Sword is gone, 
and I just wish it would stop!"
        "... Fuuma..." Kamui said hesitantly, unsure of what to say.  
"...I'm sorry," he whispered, bowing his head.  "All this is happening 
because of me, and I never wanted it to...."


                               Crimson Variant
                                  Part Three
                             By Kristin Huntsman


        Subaru closed his eyes for a moment, listening to the sad song on 
the radio.  Oddly enough, it was the sad music that made him feel better.  
He knew that he wasn't the only person in pain when he heard music that 
showed it to him.  Then the radio fuzzed out and back in again to a pop 
song as his sister changed the station.  "I liked that song," Subaru mildly 
complained as he opened his eyes again.
        "You like every song that's about misery," Hokuto-chan retorted.  
"Do you have this pain fetish deliberately, Subaru?"
        Subaru didn't reply, merely looked towards the heavily-curtained 
balcony doors, where hints of sunshine lightened the room.  "If I really 
wanted to die, it would be awfully easy, you know," he said softly, pulling 
off one of his ensorcelled gloves to show the small white scars that laced 
across his fingers.  They looked like he had hit a mirror and broken it, 
but they were actually faded burns he had acquired five years earlier.  He 
had tried to kill himself the morning after Hokuto-chan's death by stepping 
in front of a window, testing the new power of the sunlight over himself 
with his right hand first.  Only his grandmother snatching his hand out of 
the sunshine and forbidding him to injure himself in such a manner had kept 
him from repeating the attempt since.  "I guess the fact that I haven't 
watched a sunrise in five years means I don't want to die quite yet.  Stop 
worrying about me, Hokuto-chan."
        He could see, even without looking, the expression of mixed 
concern, sadness, and resignation that crossed his sister's face.  He knew 
his sister very well, with a certain kind of maturity shading his 
personality and making him objective about the facts.  Knowing her so 
intimately made him also be painfully honest about his own faults to 
himself, but he accepted that he didn't want to change his flaws; they kept 
him human.  Were it not for his weaknesses and caution, he might have 
become careless and crossed over into where he did not want to go.
        "Subaru, you are the most morbid person I have ever known," 
Hokuto-chan finally said with a sigh, sitting down next to him and touching 
his scarred hand.  "I don't understand how we could ever have been 
'identical' twins."
        "Yin and yang," Subaru answered softly.  They both already knew 
this answer.  "Complement and supplement.  Whatever one lacked, the other 
had."
        "Red and blue," Hokuto-chan added.  "I know.  And even if you 
hadn't been my brother, Subaru, you would still have been my best friend."  
The music playing on the radio changed to another pop song, one that had 
always been one of her favorites, and she grabbed Subaru's hands, pulling 
him to his feet.  "Come on, Subaru!" she implored, leading him away from 
the bed and starting to dance.
        After a few seconds Subaru gave in and followed his older sister's 
lead in a semi-improvised, semi-practiced "twin dance."  Before he had come 
to know hell on Earth so intimately, his twin had made him her regular 
dance partner, and it was a miniscule happiness that had remained constant 
since she had reappeared several months after her death with no sense at 
all of the passed time.
        As Subaru let the music take him, the words absorbed into his mind 
and attained their own meaning there: "I should be so lucky in love...."
        He felt like crying from the irony of it all.  Hokuto-chan had only 
found someone to suit her after five years of death.  His own experience 
with loving a third person, aside from his grandmother and sister, had 
gotten Hokuto-chan killed and himself damned into being what he was.  
Luck... as far as Subaru was concerned, there was no luck in love.

        Seiichirou Aoki listened soberly, over lunch, to the reports of his 
nephew and Yuzuriha Nekoi concerning the identity of the last of the Seven 
Seals.  His sister's son was someone he trusted utterly to tell him the 
truth, and he knew that Yuzuriha-chan was nearly incapable of lying.  But 
the report he was hearing was slightly disturbing.  One of the Seven Seals 
of Heaven bound by an infirmity?  And one so rare and inhibiting as to make 
him unable to face the sun?
        It didn't quite fit.  Why would one chosen to battle for the world 
and the fate of the human race be crippled?  There was perhaps more to this 
Subaru Sumeragi than Daisuke and Yuzuriha could yet tell him.  Still....

        Kotori slept, turning over as she mumbled softly to herself, 
dream-words that were heard by no other ears and forgotten by her own.  In 
her dream, a tall, elegant man with blond hair that obscured his eyes 
helped her climb out of an endless ocean onto a sandy beach.  Seabirds 
wheeled silently over his head as she thanked him for the rescue.
        He smiled at her and asked her name.
        "It's Kotori," Kotori replied.
        "That's a pretty name," the man said softly.
        "Could you tell me your name?" Kotori asked, smiling at the 
compliment.
        "... Kakyou," he replied slowly.  "Come, Kotori Dream-Walker, I 
have something to show you."
        "Umm... it's Kotori Monou," Kotori hesitantly corrected him, 
following him as he walked to the top of a small hill of sand.
        "A Dream-Walker is one who can walk across dreams," Kakyou replied, 
pausing and gesturing before him.  "You have walked into my dream, so you 
cannot be anything else."
        Kotori stared in fascination at the object before her.  It was 
floating a few feet off the ground, a map of Tokyo and the rest of Japan 
made out of exquisite green glass.  "What is it?" she asked breathlessly.  
It was so beautiful....
        "The result of a fortune-telling session I was made to do," Kakyou 
answered.  "I was just wrapping up when you appeared.  Here."  Kotori 
looked at where he gestured, and saw to her dismay that a small set of 
cracks had appeared in the glass.  They expanded, and then crumbled.  She 
automatically caught the shards beneath the map, careful not to cut her 
hand.  "That was Nakano-ku," Kakyou explained.  "The entire display becomes 
weaker by its destruction.  This will happen seven minutes hence.  Do not 
go there."
        "To Nakano-ku?" Kotori asked.  "But can't it be stopped?"
        "No," Kakyou replied.  "It is time for you to go, Kotori 
Dream-Walker.  Remember what I have said.  We shall meet again."
        Kotori woke with a gasp.  Her dream had been so real... she was 
almost sure that Kakyou had been a real person....
        Something cold and hard was in her right hand as she brought it to 
her chest, and she opened it, wondering what.
        A cross, beautifully cut from flawless crystal, with smaller 
crystals radiating from the crux, gleamed softly at her, and she knew its 
name as clearly as if Kakyou had told her: "Kamui."  Somehow the shards of 
glass that had been Nakano-ku had fused together to become this crystal.
        Then... that means that the dream was real, Kotori thought.  That I 
did really met Kakyou, and that something will happen in Nakano-ku in seven 
minutes....  Kotori's breathing grew shallower for a second as she absorbed 
the implications of that, then reason returned to her and she scrambled out 
of her bed, running downstairs.  I have to warn Oniichan and Kamui-chan, 
she thought....

        Kamui stared uncomprehendingly at the glowing sword that was 
suspended in the air before him, quietly humming with power as his aunt's 
blood splashed to the ground.  Her head, severed from the other pieces of 
her body, rolled on the ground until it rested by his feet.  He fell to his 
knees and absently grasped it, holding it to his chest.  He flashed to the 
nightmares he'd had.  His mother's death was something he saw every night.  
There hadn't even been any remains for him to bury.  And then there was 
Kotori, who that woman Hinoto had shown to him as being cut to death by 
wires and a cross....
        "...Tokiko...san..." he said roughly.  "...Aunt...."
        Something inside him snapped.  "You promised to tell me more... you 
promised to tell me about my destiny... about my mother..." he whispered.
        "Don't cry, Kamui," someone whispered to him, someone that was not 
Fuuma.  In fact... was it...?  Kamui looked up.
        "Don't cry," Tokiko continued, smiling gently, as if the pieces of 
her body weren't strewn about the room.  "This is my destiny, my chosen 
destiny."
        "Wha--?" Kamui started dumbly, placing her head back on the ground 
and getting to his feet, not quite understanding what his aunt's shade was 
saying.
        "Shh," she hushed him, placing a cool spectral finger on his lips.  
"You have no time to weep or ask questions, Kamui, and I have no time to 
answer them.  You must take this Holy Sword and hide it in a special place."
        "... Hide it?" Kamui wondered.  "Where?"
        "In the center of CLAMP Campus," Tokiko replied.  "Until the Coming 
Day, it must be hidden there."
        "Why?" Kamui asked.
        Tokiko's head snapped up and she looked out the window, seeming to 
sense something.  Then she turned back to Kamui and wound her arms around 
his shoulders.  "Farewell, my cute nephew," she murmured softly.
        "You can't go!" Kamui said.  "There are still things you haven't 
told me!  Why does the sword need to be hidden in the center of CLAMP 
Campus?!  What do you know that you're not telling me?!"
        "Goodbye, my sweet nephew," Tokiko said quietly.  "You may be able 
to change fate... because you are Kamui...."
        "Tokiko-san!" Kamui screamed, tears spilling from his eyes as her 
body faded into a sphere of light, then even that disappeared.  
"Tokiko-san!!"
        The glowing Holy Sword hung still in the middle of the room.  
Through his tears Kamui could feel it.  It was connected to him on some 
level.  It was part of him through the tie of blood, and came to his hand 
with barely a thought.  This, a sword, was all that was left of his blood 
kin.  For this sword, his aunt had died.  Why did everyone around him have 
to die...?
        There was a muffled gasp from the far end of the room, and Kamui 
pivoted instantly, seeing Kotori's large brown eyes staring in horror.
        "Mo...ther..." she whispered.  "Mother...."  Something dropped from 
her hand as she stumbled forward.
        "Kotori, no!" Fuuma said, catching hold of her to stop her from 
going any further.  "Don't look!  That's not Mother!"
        "Mother... crumbled.  She fell to pieces and died..." Kotori 
babbled, still trying to move forward.  "A head.  There was a head...."
        "Mother died of illness!" Fuuma told her.  "That's not Mother, 
Kotori!  Mother died of illness!"
        "There was a head..." Kotori continued, breaking away from her 
brother and running to the center of the room, where Kamui was.  He moved 
to stop her, knowing somehow that it was important that she not be allowed 
to get to Tokiko-san's head.
        "Kotori!  Look at me!" he commanded.  "Look at me!"
        She did, and the vacancy in her eyes frightened Kamui.  "She 
crumbled," Kotori repeated absently.  "Mother fell to pieces and died.  
There was a head...."  She managed to slip out of Kamui's startled grasp 
and made for Tokiko's head.  Kamui moved to stop her, letting the Holy 
Sword fall from his grasp, but was knocked off his feet by a shockwave.  It 
hit just as Kotori grabbed Tokiko's severed head.  She fell to the ground 
clutching it to her chest, giggling.
        In the far distance, a lightning strike arced upwards into the sky, 
then struck back to earth.  It looked exactly like a dragon.  "A dragon?" 
Kamui whispered out loud.

        Subaru entered the hospital room silently, not even the click of 
the door making a sound behind him.  "Ainou-san," he said quietly, moving 
to the bedside and looking down at the young woman who lay in the center of 
the bed.  Her head weakly turned to the side as she looked at him.  "It's 
me, Subaru Sumeragi.  Do you know who I am?"
        "... Yes," Mizuki Ainou answered softly.  "You've come to give me 
it, haven't you?  Release from this?"
        "If you truly want it, Ainou-san," Subaru replied, kneeling down by 
the bed and taking the white hand in his own gloved one.  She was so frail, 
so beautiful... so human.  "If you truly seek release, I will give it to 
you.  But please think of this... this is no temporary end, this is 
permanent.  You will be dead when it is done.  Death is forever, and 
irreversible."
        "I don't care," she replied, her voice struggling to harden.  "My 
body is being eaten from the inside out by this pain.  I would rather die 
than live another moment like this."  Her dark eyes filled with tears, and 
Subaru felt a wrenching in his heart and gut that she would die.  Die by 
his hand....  "Please, Sumeragi-san..." she whispered, "I have been told 
that you end it peacefully, that you end the pain and let the soul depart 
in ease rather than torment.  *Please*...."
        Subaru paused before speaking.  He could feel the pain that was 
riddled through Ainou-san's fragile, failing body.  She had no chance at 
living, but that was not the same as truly asking for dying.  He had to 
make sure she knew everything that she was asking for before he gave her 
her wish.  He had to give her every chance to stop him.  If she said "no," 
he could stop....
        "Ainou-san," he said quietly, "what you have heard is true.  I will 
end the pain for you and make your death easier, but you must know how and 
why I do this first.  Look at me," he commanded.  When her eyes were on his 
face, Subaru closed his own eyes, blocking out the vision of her black hair 
contrasting so beautifully with her pale skin, her slender neck resting on 
a cloud of darkness.  He concentrated, and then opened his mouth slightly, 
letting her see his extended canines, sharp fangs that retracted to normal 
length when he wasn't using them to... feed.  "Do you see what I am?" he 
asked, lisping slightly around the fangs.  He opened his eyes again.  "Do 
you see what I will do to you, why I will do it?"
        She nodded slightly, her eyes wide.  "A gaki," she breathed.
        Subaru nodded.  He had grown all too used to that particular noun 
being applied to him.  A damned spirit, forever condemned to the Circle of 
Eternal Hunger, seemed an appropriate enough term to call him.  "Close 
enough," he answered.  "Do you still want death, Ainou-san?  Do you still 
want me to kill you?"
        With noticible effort, her hand lifted to touch his hair as she 
examined his face.  "Who did this to you?" she asked simply.
        "... An enemy who I believed a friend," Subaru answered quietly, 
refusing to let himself think of Seishirou any further than the sentence.
        The girl slowly nodded, then let her hand fall to the bed again.  
"I believe you," she said quietly.  "You are not malevolent as the gaki of 
legend are.  I... trust you to do this for me."
        "I thank you," he answered, somehow feeling that Ainou-san's trust 
did not negate that which he would give her.  Nothing could negate the 
weight of her death on his soul, no matter how justified it was.  But he 
would fulfill his vow.  He would paint a rainbow of happiness for her, 
sensations and sounds and memories that would make her forget the pain.
        If only he could create the same oblivion for himself....

        The wasted blood splashed across the pavement was crimson red, 
contrasting oddly with the white slips of parchment and the spells drawn on 
them in black script.  A soft litany, a spell of breaking, issued from the 
lips of the tall man who stood over the corpse.  It was easy.  It was all 
too easy.

        Subaru silently closed the eyes of the dead girl who slept on the 
bed.  She was free of her pain now... free because he had taken it into 
himself.  He watched for a second, remembering the happiness he had given 
her, then turned away, touching his fingers to his lips, looking at the 
crimson that stained them as he drew them away.  That red, her blood, 
stained his soul as well.  He had shed innocent blood... and enjoyed it.  
It had felt good, tasted good.
        He hated himself.  He had killed a girl, an innocent girl who would 
otherwise be alive right now.  No matter the circumstances, he had murdered 
her.  He hated what he had become.  He hated himself, he hated, he hated... 
and he wanted to end that.  More than anything else, he wanted to end that 
hate.  He wanted to stay up to see a sunrise, to step into the dawn, into 
the warmth of the sunlight, to feel that warmth finally entering him again 
as he burned up into a pile of ashes in the brightness, in the light....
        Even as his eyes misted with unshed tears, tears he would never be 
brave enough to cry, his head snapped up.  Something was happening.  
Something was coming.  Something magical....

*********
I had originally intended not to post any of this story until quite a bit 
more of it was done, but I've had some really bad news come my way today, 
and am just beginning to break down crying over it.  I may not be saying 
much at all for a while.  Until then, enjoy and speculate.