Tokyo Babylon: Sound part 7: Echoing / Search Midori slammed through the doors of the school, Subaru right behind her, running as though their lives depended on it... or their son's. It was a small blessing that all Japanese schools were built with the same set of blueprints, Midori thought as the two of them skidded to a halt before the medical room. It saved them precious time.... She looked at Subaru as they entered the room. The school nurse glanced at her first, then at Subaru, and wordlessly guided the two of them to a bed by a sunny window--the only occupied bed--where their son lay resting. Midori unconciously took and held her son's hand as she knelt down by him, stroking his fine hair back from his closed eyes. His breathing was weak and his skin cool and damp to the touch. "He's in shock," she murmured. "What from?" the nurse asked, watching the two of them as Subaru knelt down on the other side of the bed. "His records don't indicate any problems...." "His spirit being devoured," Subaru answered, touching his son on the forehead. He looked up, emerald eyes meeting Midori's. "Midori...." She nodded, knowing what he was asking, what he would do. "Do it, Subaru," she told him softly. "I hope it isn't too late...." "W-what are you doing?!" the nurse demanded as Midori took a step back from the bed and Subaru looked down at their child, soft blue-green power swirling around his hand as he gently touched it again to Su-chan's forehead. "Don't interfere," Midori warned, grasping the nurse's hand as the woman tried to step forward, to stop Subaru. "He is the only chance we may have to save my son's life... and soul." "Wha-what is he?" the nurse asked, looking at Midori for reassurance. "An onmyouji," Midori replied, her eyes settling onto Subaru's form, watching as he closed his fathomless eyes and began a soft chant. "And my son's father." * * * "Soubou akyasha..." Subaru murmured, closing his eyes, letting the touch, the physical link he had, to his son guide him closer, let his soul leave his body, trusting it into another's mind. "Kyarabaya on rikya... maribori sowaka...." Inside, he was pleading "Soubou akyasha...." "Kyarabaya on... rikya..." "Maribori...." "Sowaka...." Subaru opened his eyes as he felt himself falling, felt a wind moving past his face. "Please..." he whispered, looking around in the darkness for the slightest spot of light. A total darkness would mean that his son was lost to him forever.... He touched on the first level of Subaru's mind without having encountered any mental defenses. No Kyohihannou could mean either of two things... either his son trusted him utterly to be there... or was too destroyed to protect himself. "It took you long enough to get here." Subaru whirled at the voice and found himself facing someone he hadn't seen in eight years. "... Kakyou," he said hesitantly, in greeting. "I had expected that you would be here sooner," the DreamGazer noted, standing from where he had been perched on an outcropping of the Dreamscape. His long white coat settled calmly around him. "It's fortunate for you, Sumeragi-san, that I keep track of those of us who remain. Otherwise...." "Where is my son?" Subaru asked. "Safe from the predator," Kakyou replied. "A level or two down. He doesn't know I'm here. Odd how things turn out, isn't it?" "Did you have something you wished to tell me, Dragon of Earth?" Subaru asked. He couldn't help but be on the defence around Kakyou. He'd seen the DreamGazer's battle with Aoki-san... seen him kill. "That's in the past," Kakyou noted. "I do have something to tell you, but it is for the child, not for myself. The woman... Toyuuki... knows what must be done to save your child, and is delaying it because of you." "... What do you mean?" Subaru asked. Kakyou turned golden cat eyes up towards the "sky," towards conciousness. "Kanjou-tsukai, your child's safety lies with your enemy." "You can't mean..." Subaru whispered, shocked still by Kakyou's words. "Sakurazukamori," Kakyou confirmed, pale blond hair tumbling into his eyes. "As for why... well, ask the Balancer. She knows it better than I." "Impossible..." Subaru whispered to himself. Then, "How do you know about the Balancers?" he asked. "They're even more secretive a clan than Sakurazukamori." Kakyou smiled slightly. "I watch the dreams of the future," he said quietly. "Don't think that it was just the future of the 'Kamuis' that I saw." Kakyou bowed slightly. "I seem to have fulfilled my fate here, Dragon of Heaven," he noted. "Until we meet again." Kakyou turned into a shower of blue marble-sized spheres that fell to the ground and rolled in all directions until they disappeared from sight. Subaru wondered if he would indeed see the Minion again. For eight years he'd never run into another involved with the End of the Earth... neither those of his own side who had survived, nor those of his opposition. And now it seemed he was fated to run into two in the same day. "Sakurazukamori..." he murmured, brooding on the past as he slowly sank further into Su-chan's consciousness in search of his child, "... Seishirou-san...." * * * Subaru huddled tightly inside of the small sphere of light that surrounded him, keeping him safe. He was *not* going outside of it until someone arrived to make sure he didn't get killed. ... He just hoped that wasn't too long. "Subaru." He looked up and breathed a sigh of relief as a familiar figure stepped into his safety bubble. "I was starting to get scared that you wouldn't find me, Otousan...." His father smiled gently and knelt down by him, softly touching Subaru's hair. "I would've been here sooner, but I was detained by someone who wanted to tell me something. I'm sorry I'm late." Subaru nearly burst into sobs as he felt his father's arms close around him in a gentle hug. He was so scared. He hadn't even know he was this scared. "It almost got me," he whispered. "I almost died." "I know," his father murmured in reply. "Midori and I know. And we're going to go to a place that has someone who might be able to help, Subaru. I promise you... whatever it is, that creature will never get ahold of you again." "I wish I'd been born a normal person," Subaru whispered. "So have I, far too often," his father murmured in reply. "Normal people don't hurt as much." He paused, then added, "It's time to go. Your mother is worried. I can feel her even from here." Subaru nodded, and let his father guide him back up to waking and the daylight. ***** Note: the spell that Subaru uses to enter Su-chan's mind is a spell he has used twice in the manga thus far; once in Tokyo Babylon volume 2 and once in what will be X volume 9.