Tokyo Babylon: Song
Part 11: You'll Be Blessed


        Midori stood on the balcony, looking out over Tokyo.  "What do you 
see?" Subaru asked, stepping up behind her.
        "The past.  The future.  A thousand options."  Her lilting voice blew 
with the breeze, making her hard to hear.  "I see everything and do nothing 
about it...."
        "You're a little hard on yourself, aren't you?" Subaru asked, leaning 
against the railing next to her.
        "Not nearly hard enough," she answered.  "You know how it is having to 
live up to the standards of your clan?  I have to live up to my own standards, 
and they're based on being perfect.  I can't afford to make any mistakes, even 
less than you can."
        Subaru looked sideways at her.  "Why?"
        "Because I have three people depending on my actions, and you only have 
yourself," Midori replied.  "I have to consider you, him, _and_ me."
        "Midori...."  Subaru paused and considered.  "Will you tell me 
something?"
        "Depends on if I know the answer or not," she said, turning to look at 
him.  Strands of black hair wisped from her braid and blew around her face.
        "What was last night?  Was it a one-time happening, or was it more 
than that?"
        Midori's pale, pale, eyes looked at him in complete surprise.  "I'm 
not sure myself, Subaru," she answered.
        "And you haven't thought about it?" Subaru asked.
        "If I think about anything too much, it depresses me," Midori said, 
her hand resting on top of his.  "I'll tell you what I have thought about it, 
though."  She paused, then continued "I've known for a long time that I need 
someone to keep me steady.  I didn't know it would be you.  As much as you 
think I'm healing you, I know that being with you is helping me.  I don't know 
what that means as to any relationship between us, but I do know that you're 
what any girl would've wanted for her first lover."
        "I was your first?" Subaru asked, slightly startled.  He hadn't known.  
Had that been why she had cried?
        "You were," she confirmed softly.  Her hand moved to brush his cheek.  
"Subaru, we're the same age.  I absolutely forbid you to feel guilty over 
anything concerning me."  She smiled.  "Funny, you can make me so mad, in a 
way that no one else can, but you can get to me, too.  Is it the same way for 
you with my brother?"
        Subaru felt his mood immediately darken at the mention of Seishirou.  
"He used to make me so utterly happy.  Now I hate him in a way I didn't know 
was possible before."
        "You don't hate him; it's the bitter side of love," Midori said.  "But 
most people confuse them as the same thing."
        "What makes you so expert?" Subaru wondered.
        "The fact of who and what I am," she answered.  Her fingers traced an 
imaginary tear down Subaru's face.  "Don't worry about me being a smartass 
forever; I won't live that long."
        "How long?" Subaru asked, suddenly worried.  _That_ was what had 
sounded so off earlier that day: Midori thought she was going to die!
        "Who knows?" Midori responded casually.  "We all die sooner or later."
        "Midori...."
        She sighed and touched her lips to his briefly.  "Don't worry.  I can 
deal with it."

        Seishirou stood before the door of his sister's room.  He opened it 
and stepped inside.
        The room was exquisitely neat.  Midori had always been that way.  The 
futon was rolled up for the day and hidden away, so the only thing decorating 
the space was a small, though exquisite, shrine.  Seishirou had never seen it 
before, so he knew it had to be hers.
        He walked over to the closet and opened it.
        His sister had been nearly the opposite of Subaru's in her fashion 
sense.  The skirts, blouses, and jackets that hung in the closet (arranged by 
color) were pretty, of good colors for her, but nowhere near as wild as 
anything Hokuto had ever worn.  In fact, they were nearly utterly sensible.
        A pity there was nothing in the room Seishirou could use.  He would 
have expected her to keep some kind of implements to use for sorcery... surely 
nothing could be done without a physical base to channel the energy through?  
However, to find her, he needed merely a scrap of her being.  Seishirou easily 
found her hairbrush, and pulled a single strand of dark hair from it.

        Wincing, Midori pulled a single hair from her head.  She wrapped it in 
a scrap of green silk, to symbolize her name, and began to focus on it.  The 
natural power of the silk, which could be used to either amplify or subdue 
magic, helped her as she imbued the hair with her "self".  It was a decoy
spell.  Anyone trying to find her through magical means would instead track the 
single hair, as it would have the "signature" that made her her.
        Subaru watched from behind her as she murmured the same three syllables 
over and over again.  The actual syllables were not as important in what they 
were as they were to focusing her concentration.  It took only a few minutes 
before she was satisfied with the strength and adhesiveness of the spell.  She 
unwrapped the hair, held it up before her, and with a light breath, blew it 
off of the balcony.  The swirling air currents caught it and carried it away.
        "He can't find me," she said quietly.  "Oniisan can no longer find 
me."
        "It's better this way," Subaru said from softly behind her.  "He'd 
kill you, Midori."
        "I know," she replied.  "That doesn't make me feel any better, 
though."  She turned to look at him.  "Why has it taken you so long to find 
him, if you've wanted to destroy him all along, Subaru?"
        Subaru met her gaze evenly, not looking down or away as she thought he 
might.  "Our year together ended in 1994.  It is now 1999."
        "Five years," Midori agreed.  "Why'd it take you that long?"
        "I needed to train myself to be able to match him," Subaru said, his 
voice soft in recollection.  "I don't know how your magic is, but Onmyoujutsu 
takes time to learn and practice.  And we did meet once, a year ago."
        Midori crossed the space between them and ran her fingers through 
Subaru's hair.  "What happened?" she asked quietly.
        "A bunch of girls were playing with magics they didn't understand.  
They were convinced they were the 'chosen ones,' and that gave them the right 
to be judge, jury, and executioner.  Seishirou-san would have killed them to 
make them stop.  I stopped them in another way.  Meeting him again made me 
realize how skewed I'd become in my view towards life.  I'd been trying to 
center myself again, before I came back to Tokyo.  I don't think I got as far 
in the past several months as you have helped me get in the past two days."
        "'Chosen one,'" Midori mused quietly.  "That fits you very well, 
Subaru, in many ways."
        "It fits all of the Seals," he replied.
        "I wasn't talking about the Seven Seals," Midori corrected.  "Destiny 
chose you, Subaru.  Oniisan chose you.  And... I chose you."
        "Chose me for what?"  Subaru's question was so soft that it barely 
brushed past her ears.
        "To trust.  To care for.  To help, to heal, and to love."  Midori 
traced his jawline with her fingers.  "Subaru, I either love you or am going 
crazy."
        "You weren't so sure a few hours ago," Subaru criticized in a quiet 
voice.
        "I hadn't thought about the odds of getting killed then," she replied.  
"Sakurazukamori will kill either of us, and never look back, Subaru.  If he 
kills you, then I'll have lost your chance to be loved.  If he kills me, I'll 
have died never loving.  I don't want that for either of us."
        Subaru's voice was soft as he told her "I don't love you, Midori.  Not 
in that way."
        Midori smiled softly, sadly, playing with his dark hair.  "I know.  I 
don't expect you to."

*********
"Midori," though her name is made up of different kanji, as a spoken word, 
means "green."