Tokyo Babylon: Song
Part 2: Heartbreaker


        Sumeragi Subaru refused to stop moving, to stop acting.  If he did, 
the pain would rip through him all over again.  It hadn't stopped doing so for 
the past five years; every time he slept, even if the dream wasn't about her 
death, he could hear his sister talking to him.  And if he didn't, then he 
would dream about Seishirou-san, and their nights together.
        Subaru hated these memories, these dreams.  It hurt him beyond belief 
to know that he had slept with his sister's killer, that he had even thought 
himself in love with Seishirou.  Subaru wanted to die from the shame of it.  
But he couldn't.  Not until he had killed Seishirou-san for what he had done.  
Then, after that, Subaru planned to go find a nice quiet place, write a 
message addressed to his grandmother concerning the next head of the 
Sumeragis, cut his wrists, and bleed to death.
        No one except himself, Seishirou, and Hokuto had ever known about the 
"love" affair.  No one ever would.
        The last syllables of the spell tumbled carelessly from Subaru's lips, 
and he watched as the ghost he had summoned appeared.  As always, he earned 
his money by selling his best talent: exorcising malevolent spirits.
        The ghost was very obviously not human, having a human form but the 
ears and tail of a red fox.  She regarded Subaru curiously, and when she spoke, 
her hollow voice held a curious, impersonal ring.  "Who are you?" she asked in 
dead tones.
        "I am Sumeragi Subaru," Subaru replied quietly.  "Why are you haunting 
this home?"
        The kitsune woman looked up, past Subaru to the doorframe of the room, 
where the husband and wife who lived there stood, watching with wide eyes.  
"My den was destroyed when this building was built," she replied.  "And I with 
it.  I cannot rest easily, having no one to offer sacrifices to sustain my 
spirit.  I would like a small shrine set up to me, please."
        Subaru turned to look at the Yamadas for a second, then turned back.  
"I do not think that that will be too much of a problem," he assured the fox 
spirit.  "Will you stop your terrorizing of this home once that is done?"
        The fox spirit nodded.
        Subaru silently ran through a spell of closure, returning the kitsune 
to the invisible realm of the kami.  After a small blessing of the house, he 
stood and turned to go, accepting only the thanks and payment of the Yamadas 
before leaving.
        As the gate to their home closed behind him, Subaru looked up and down 
the street, wondering momentarily where he should go next.
        "I am officially impressed," someone said from right behind him.  
Subaru turned, and saw a young woman with dark hair and light eyes behind him, 
smiling.  "You really do deserve to be the head of the Sumeragis."
        "Who are you?" he asked warily, waiting to see who had sent her.  Was 
she a Minion?  If so, tough.  He had no interest at all in this end of the 
world thing.  His business was with Sakurazuka Seishirou, and Sakurazuka 
Seishirou alone.
        "Hardly anything that seems to have just run through your mind, 
Sumeragi-san," the girl replied, her invisible-colored eyes looking at him.  
"My name is Toyuuki Midori.  I wanted to know if you wanted to form an 
alliance with me, as we both want the same thing."
        "Which is...?" Subaru asked cautiously.
        "The death of Sakurazukamori."

        "Here."
        Subaru accepted the soda without comment as Toyuuki-san handed one to 
him.  "Why do you want to kill him?" he asked softly.  There was something 
about this girl, beyond her eyes, that made him feel slightly wary of her.  
The ease with which she had identified him, for one thing.  Even those two 
other Seals Subaru had met hadn't known his name until he told them.  And he 
had been fighting Seishirou-san at the time, even.  Most of the higher circles 
of the Japanese occult world knew that the head of the Sumeragi clan had a 
death-hatred towards Sakurazukamori, even if only a few knew the details.  So 
how had this girl known, with nothing to go on?
        "I read minds, you know?" she said, answering his unspoken questions.  
"Only when I turn the power on, but I still know things about people when it's 
off."
        "That would explain how you knew who I was," Subaru mused.  "How did 
you find me?"
        "Luck, mostly," Toyuuki replied.  "Plus the fact that the head of the 
Sumeragi clan NOT being a Seal would be completely illogical.  So all I had to 
do was wait, and you'd show up in Tokyo sooner or later.  If I go into trance, 
I can see people from a long way aways, and find them through their energy 
signatures.  Take a drink.  Get some calories into your body.  You're too 
skinny."
        "What?"  The complete change of subject caught Subaru off-guard.  He 
looked down at the unopened Coke in his hands.  "Oh."
        "As for why I want him dead...."  The girl hesitated, then continued a 
minute later.  "He killed my parents, both of them."
        Subaru took a sip from the can as he considered her offer.  She sat 
one level higher than he on the steps, wistfully watching children as they ran 
around the park, laughing and yelling and playing ball and chasing pigeons.  
"It's such a small world, but how beautiful it is..." she mused with a sigh.  
"If 'Kamui' chooses to destroy it, may his soul be damned for eternity for 
cutting short the lives of innocents such as these."
        "Innocence can end very quickly," Subaru replied softly, half to 
himself.
        Toyuuki looked at him, surprised.  "You would kill children?"
        "The end justifies the means..." Subaru mumured, nearly losing himself 
in his own memories again.
        
        The slap caught Subaru completely off-guard.  The sharp crack of 
Toyuuki's palm against his cheek sounded louder than thunder in Subaru's ears, 
and the pain that followed it was as sharp as lightening.  He was sure that 
the handprint would leave a nice dark bruise that would last for several 
days.
        "You BASTARD!" she yelled.  "How can you SAY that?!  If you think that 
the end justifies the means, then there IS no end!  Your end IS the means!  I 
thought you might be worthwhile to ask help me.  I thought you were BETTER 
than that!  I guess I'm wrong.  I guess the surname of "Sakurazuka" would fit 
you far better than that of "Sumeragi," as that's who you have the morals of!"
        Subaru stared, stunned, as Toyuuki turned and walked off, anger 
evident in every step she took.  No one had EVER talked to him like that!  And 
he hadn't even been voicing his own thoughts!  Did she really think that the 
the head of the Sumeragis would ever believe such a thing?  The means was 
all-important.  To think otherwise would be to go down the path of 
Sakurazukamori....

        Toyuuki Midori was furious for the first time in as long as she could 
remember, furious at herself and her expectations of Sumeragi Subaru.  The 
head of the Sumeragis had turned out to be the most self-serving, self-pitying, 
self-interested man she had ever met!  There was no _way_ she could even 
consider that he might help her.  She wouldn't work with him if the kami 
themselves chose to direct her destiny that way.  She hoped Sumeragi Subaru 
choked on his own self-importance!
        A hand caught her shoulder and forced her to turn around.
        "_What_?!" she demanded of Sumeragi.
        "... I apologize," he said quietly.
        "Don't tell me I've injured your feelings," she mocked.
        "A misunderstanding," he said quietly.  "I was talking to myself, not 
to you.  I did not mean the words I spoke."
        Midori was stopped cold by that statement.
        "... So don't speak them next time," she suggested awkwardly.  "I 
guess I owe you an apology, then...."
        "I've been hunting Seishirou-san for eight years," Sumeragi said 
quietly, dark green eyes starting to look _into_ hers, not _at_ them.
        <Is he looking for my approval?>
        "I'm not used to talking to others anymore," he continued, "and 
certainly not working with them.  I have a lot of past with Sakurazukamori, 
and a lot of what I am today is directly due to him.  I won't let that stop me 
from asking your help.  You have talents I do not, Toyuuki-san.  Perhaps it 
would be the most... effective solution if we worked together to find him."
        "As long as you get to deliver the blow that kills him," Midori 
continued for him out loud.  "Fine," she agreed, "I'm no fighter.  In the 
meantime, we work together.  Deal?"
        "... Agreed."

*********
Kami: spirits.  Kitsune: literally, "fox," one of the few animals of the 
Japanese spirit world that can assume human form.  Midori's family name is 
comprised of three kanji, in this order: "hidden," "spirit," and "energy."  
The last two combine to make "courage."  I know it's a very weird surname, but 
"Sumeragi" isn't that common, either, is it?  Why she has a different family 
name than Sei-chan is something that I'll cover later in the story.  One more 
thing: Midori never lies....