Tokyo Babylon: Song
Ending 1: It Must Have Been Love / Separate Ways


        Subaru peered up at his mother with large, serious eyes.  "Why, 
Mother?" he inquired plaintively.  "Why must I have no father?"
        "Let me tell you a story, Subaru," his mother said softly, pulling him 
next to her.  Subaru looked up at her as she smiled.  She had the most 
beautiful smile he had ever seen.  She smiled with her eyes as well as her 
mouth.  Subaru was sure she was the most beautiful woman in the entire world.
        "Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Subaru," she began.  
Subaru frowned; he didn't want a fairy story right now: he wanted the truth.  
"Shhh," his mother hushed him.  "It's not a fantasy.  This is real."
        "His name was Sumeragi Subaru," she continued.  "He had a twin sister 
named Hokuto, and he was from a large, powerful, clan of sorcerors.  In fact, 
he was heir to it.  He had no parents, but he and his sister were raised by 
their grandmother.  One spring, when he was nine, his grandmother took him to 
Tokyo, as she had to meet with some people of importance.  She told him to 
stay where he was, but Subaru wandered off."
        "What happened?" Subaru asked anxiously, looking up at his mother for 
support.  She never told him scary stories, never, but this was different.  
Her voice was different now than he had ever heard it, like she was telling 
him a story that she considered sacred.  He wondered why she had never told 
him about his father before, then remembered that he had never asked.
        "The Sumeragi clan was a clan devoted very much to tradition, and to 
keeping certain things pure and sacred," his mother intoned softly.  "But 
everything has an opposite, Subaru.  Hiding within the shadows of Japan is the 
clan of Sakurazukamori, who brings both destruction and change.  Subaru met 
the Sakurazukamori that day.  His name was Sakurazuka Seishirou, and he was 
eighteen that spring."
        "Sakurazukamori is not truly a clan; it is one person.  The title is 
obtained by killing the previous holder.  The Sakurazukamori is a 
mage-assassin who kills best with illusions of sakura; hence, the naming.  
Subaru happened upon Sakurazuka Seishirou, and saw him holding the body of a 
young girl in a way that made it obvious he had killed her.  Seishirou was 
bound to kill him by the code of honor that Sakurazukamori must obey.  However, 
Subaru intrigued him, and he made a bet instead.  Sometime later, he would 
come into Subaru's life and live with him for a year.  If Subaru had managed 
to inspire _any_ feeling in Seishirou by the end of that time, he would live.  
If he hadn't, Seishirou would kill him.  He marked Subaru's hands with twin 
stars, and let him go, erasing his memory of the event."
        "He came back, though, didn't he?" Subaru asked fearfully.
        "Yes, he did," his mother replied, hugging him gently.  "When Subaru 
was sixteen, he met Sakurazukamori again, and the terms of the bet were lived 
out.  One year of each of their lives, spent with the other.  Subaru did not 
know this, of course.  He fell in love with Seishirou, and Seishirou took 
advantage of that love.  Seishirou won the bet, you see.  Sakurazukamori are 
trained, since birth, to feel nothing for anything.  To kill, to them, is 
nothing.  It is how you would feel if you broke a piece of chalk.  Life and 
love are nothing, not sacred the way they are to the rest of the world."
        "He couldn't love?" Subaru asked.  When his mother nodded, he said "I 
feel sorry for him, then.  I love you, Mother."
        "I know you do, Subaru," she replied, her silver eyes softening.  "I 
love you, too.  I always will."
        "Did Subaru die?" Subaru asked.
        "No.  His sister exchanged her life for his.  But Subaru was so badly 
hurt by Seishirou's betrayal and his sister's death that it was almost as bad 
for him as if he had died.  He gave up his dreams, and spent a long time 
training himself in magic, preparing to meet Sakurazukamori again.  In 1999, 
they did meet.  In 1999, in Tokyo, a battle over the End of the World was 
fought.  There were two sides, the Minions and the Seals.  Sakurazukamori 
turned out to be a Minion, and Subaru was a Seal.  It was inevitable that they 
fight again, and they did.  You see, Subaru," she said, pausing to look in his 
eyes, "they were lovers before, and nothing can hurt worse than a lover's 
betrayal."
        "But they were both men, weren't they?" Subaru questioned.
        "Yes, they were," his mother answered, nodding slowly.  "Such things 
do not always matter in affairs of the heart.  But what happened caused Subaru 
to have a self-destructive wish so great that he was literally running towards 
his death.  However, an unforseen factor appeared.  Sakurazukamori had a 
younger sister, the same age as Subaru.  She, unknown to either of them, was 
the keeper of the balance between them, a balance that needed to be restored 
from being in Seishirou's favor to being equal."
        "Her name was Toyuuki Midori, and she fell in love with Subaru.  That 
is how you happened, Subaru."
        "Sumeragi Subaru... is my father?" Subaru asked.  "Then... 
Sakurazukamori is my uncle?"
        "Yes," his mother said softly, running her hand over his hair.  "Your 
father is the head of the Sumeragi clan, Subaru, and Sakurazukamori is my 
older brother."
        "... Why don't I know them?"

        Midori answered slowly.  Her son, at age four, was as smart as any 
child twice his age that she had met, and knew instinctively how to ask the 
right questions.  "You and I are the keepers of the Balance, Subaru," she said 
quietly.  "Subaru tried to kill my brother, but I took the blow intended for 
Oniisan.  It put me into a coma, and when I woke out of it, the flow of power 
was balanced.  I couldn't stay after that; Subaru and Seishirou-niisama had 
their destined fight still before them, and I was only in the way.  Subaru did 
not love me, and Sakurazukamori had foresworn me.  So I left, and though I 
know they are both alive and well, I have never returned to Tokyo."
        "Are you ever going to go back?" Subaru asked her, his green eyes 
looking very much like his father's.
        "Perhaps someday," Midori answered very slowly.  "But not just yet.  
You have a lot of growing up to do first, Subaru, and a lot of things to 
learn.  But one day we will go to Tokyo, and you will meet your father... I 
promise."
        "He doesn't even know I exist, does he?" Subaru asked quietly.
        "No, he doesn't," Midori said sadly.
        Subaru watched her for a minute, then asked "You still love him, don't 
you, Mother?"
        Midori thought of Subaru, her Subaru.  She had tried to live in the 
present so hard, but she still saw him and her brother in the back of her 
dreams sometimes.  "Yes, I do," she answered softly.  "That's why it's so 
important to love, Subaru.  If you love someone, then they never truly go 
away."