It keeps going! What the heck- I'm actually writing a series? How shocking...
Anyways... /grin- fake out... That is, I somehow have a block- only wanna
have Subby/Seichan
Couldn't even link him up w/another CLAMP chara (Nokoru, ne?) Only with Subby...
The end... is near? I have absolutely no idea... 
Opinions please? /sweatdrop...

===Chap 6===

        Subaru was in shock at the sensation of Duncan's lips on his. He had
never... the only thought that could even run through his mind was
Seishirou-san. "Duncan-san! I-I am sorry... but I truly meant it before when
I said that I still loved him. I think that I always will..." Subaru looked
down at the pattern in the wood floor, and his voice dropped. 

        "If-if he hadn't... if I had never met him... I think it could have
happened..." Subaru's green eyes looked up at him in a mixure of confusion
and a little longing. "But I did... I want to kill him. You see, that's the
worst part. I hate him, but I love him, and there's nothing I can do about
it. I want to, but..." Subaru smiled up at him, ignoring the tears that
blurred the room around him. 

        "It's made me kind of stupid, all of this... It has been my current
life's work to try to make this happen, you see. I have tried to become the
hunter, to hunt him... but until all of this happened to me, I hadn't
realized how fatalistic I was being- I had no hope at all... until now.
Thank you for that... and for trying to make me live on. I think-" Subaru
stood up and went to look out the window, at the blood-red sun, setting on
the west. "I think that Hokuto-neesan would have liked you, too..."

        Duncan looked at the young man gazing back to the past, and couldn't
say a word. He didn't want to think about what he had just tried to do...
*Emotional blackmail, trying to seduce a student... hell, even trying to
replace Mary with him... dammit, Duncan- what's wrong with you?* Standing
up, he went over to where Subaru was, ready to apologize.

        "Subaru-" Duncan got that far with the apology when Subaru suddenly
turned around and put his arms around Duncan. Looking down at the young man,
he saw the sudden tears that had started to fall. As he held Subaru, Duncan
couldn't help but shake his head at his own stupidity. *I don't want him as
a lover at all...* The need to protect, to save, was all Duncan felt.

        Wiping away the tears, Subaru smiled shakily. "Duncan-san... I'm
sorry. I must be a terrible burden on you like this. I'll try not to... I
can't afford to be like this anyway. The time is too close." Duncan nodded,
knowing that trying to talk him out of this was impossible. After all, he
had also been involved in a few situations that had had no other end besides
the inevitable death...

        "Can you just consider imagining a life after this fight? You're
immortal, and he's not. That usually means that the fight's in your favor.
Just try to not focus so much on that moment in time, because you'll have a
lot of time after it to do whatever you want." Subaru looked at him for a
moment, and nodded. 

        Duncan said, "Good. Now-" He hesitated a moment, and then went on.
"Would it be too hard for you to tell me the whole story? I know that guy
killed your sister, but..." Subaru gave him a hard look, and then dropped
his eyes. "Of course. It started when I was a very small child, and I was
visiting my grandmother in Tokyo..."

---

        Sakurazukamori smiled as he looked at the inconspicuous little
building. He wasn't planning on doing anything until after the sun set, and
the night was fully established- but it was always good to get a close look
at the hunting zone... The tree was an ever-present being in the back of his
mind, and it was steadily applying pressure to go and catch his prey.
Honestly, it was getting a bit annoying...

        He watched a steady stream of people walk around or into the
building, and reached out with his senses to see where the would-be
protector lived. He scanned the building and was about to pinpoint on a
likely source of that unusual aura when another person walked into the building.

        It was a young gaijin with curly red hair, and his aura was as
strange as the protector's. The aura around him was of power, but it was not
his power alone. Other people's signatures were sublimated into his, and all
of it together made up a greater whole than most people could even dream of
reaching. 

        *Most interesting... what have they done to make such interesting
psychic emanations?* Seishirou toyed with the idea of detaining the young
man, but decided against it for now. *Maybe after I get rid of that
Duncan...* Deciding to leave until after the night was old, Seishirou
wondered what he should do for the next few hours. *Perhaps I should go
visit Subaru-kun in his little bare place...*

        As Seishirou walked away, three different people with the same
tattoo made a note that a one-eyed man had been near...

---

        "Hey Mac! Did you find-" Richie came into the sparse apartment to
see Subaru speaking of his life. "I guess you did- let me tell you, I'm
never doing you any more favors ever again! Do you realize what that Tanaka
guy must have thought? I managed to get most of the blood off of me and the
ground, but I had to use my favorite shirt to do it! Then he tells me to
leave 'cause the magician's not there..." 

        Sitting down on the floor next to the two, he asked in a curious
tone, "So, what have you guys been doing?" Subaru looked at the floor and
blushed, while Duncan said in a deadly tone, "We ran into an enemy." Richie
looked up, immediately on edge. "Immortal?" Duncan replied, "No, but he's
not our problem. He's Subaru's." Richie looked at Subaru, who had resumed
staring at the patterns on the floor.

        Putting one hand on his shoulder, Richie said in a congenial tone,
"Don't worry about it, man. Non-mortal enemies aren't so bad- if you have
to, you can always die and go somewhere else for a while... although it's a
real pain in the ass, especially if you had something good going on. Mac can
tell you about my shortened racing career, you know?" 

        Looking at the friendly fellow immortal, Subaru gave him a tentative
smile. Looking at Duncan for a moment, Subaru said in a deliberately light
tone, "I had better start training with a sword. After my fight with
Seishirou-san, there will be other immortals after me, yes? Even if I don't
want to kill them, I do have to defend myself..." 

        Duncan gave Subaru a relieved smile. "If you want, we can start now.
There isn't a lot of things in here to get in our way, so it should be
relatively easy to start you off." Taking Subaru's sword from the ground, he
told Subaru, "Please draw the sword, and hold it in front of you. Get
accustomed to the weight, and try to make it part of your arm." Subaru did
so, drawing the sword and holding it a bit awkwardly.

        Duncan circled him once, and then corrected his stance and his grip.
He motioned Richie to draw his sword as well. "Now, watch Richie. He's going
to be doing the first set of exercises that I'm going to be teaching you-
they'll be good for you because most of them are purely defensive anyway."
Subaru nodded, and watched avidly as Richie went through the moves slowly
and deliberately.

        "Do you think you can do that?" Duncan expected a negative, but was
surprised to find that Subaru thought himself ready. "All right- why don't
you try?" He and Richie moved back a little, waiting for some mistake or
another. Not maliciously, of course, but as a matter-of-course happening.
After all, no one should be able to do those moves as done after one viewing...

        "Mac, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Duncan nodded slowly as they
saw Subaru do the same moves that Richie had done- slower, of course, but
each one as had been done. After Subaru had finished, Richie ran over to
him. "How did you do that?" Subaru gave him a shy smile. "Just because I
hadn't trained in the physical arts does not mean that I cannot do them."

        Going over to Duncan, he continued. "My line of work required more
mental than physical preparation... but that mental preparation also readied
my body and mind to combat anything- that meant perfecting my memory, as
well as being ready for physical efforts in my banishing of spirits. So, my
body is not so unprepared as you had feared?" Then, Subaru gave them both a
teasing smile and started the routine over again.

        "Well... that should teach me to have any preconceived ideas-"
Richie muttered, to which Duncan replied, "Finally starting to learn, little
one?" Richie snorted and faked a punch to Duncan's shoulder. "Little one?
Where'd that come from? If you even think of calling me that, I will have to
call you old, learned master- besides, it's not like you weren't as stunned
as I was-" 

        Duncan gave him an arrogant grin. "But the fact is that I hide it
better." Of course, that arrogant grin was wiped off of Duncan's face as a
sword came from out of no where to stop an inch from his throat. "Perhaps
not such a learned master, if he cannot defend himself from such a beginner
as I..." Richie and Duncan gave each other a nod, and then both turned to
Subaru, who had started to look a bit apprehensive. "Get him!"

---

        /Time?/
        /Yes, my partner. Time.../

        *Time to teach that arrogant non-entity that it does not pay to try
to control something which belongs to another...* Sakurazukamori called his
powers to himself, and then let some of his spirit-birds go to the task...

---

        Subaru's head jerked up as he scrambled out from under the other two
immortals in the wrestling melee that had ensued. "Subaru, what's wrong?"
Subaru's words were terse and cold, as he commanded, "Duncan-san!
Richie-san! Move away from me- now!" Richie and Duncan did as he said, both
wondering at what had made him change so much.

        Subaru put the index and middle fingers of his right hand in front
of his face and flung a few ofuda around him, where they glowed and started
to hum. A kind of mist gathered around him as he started to shout. Then, as
a flock of birds came crashing through the window, the mist gathered into a
wall which raised itself in front of the flock. Most of the birds flew into
the barrier, and disintegrated, but a few survived to fly around the hastily
put up defense.

        Quickly, Subaru threw the papers with the pentagram on it to the
air, transforming them into white birds which grappled with the black ones
sent by the enemy. Both sides lost bird after bird, until neither side had
any left. Finally, there was silence as the glass from the broken window
fell in little shards and shattered into even smaller pieces.

        Finally, Richie managed to stammer out, "What the hell was that?"
Subaru's voice came from the middle of the wreckage, cold and quiet. "That
was the reason why I did not really want either of you involved... I have no
doubt that he will come back later to clean up this mess... I suggest that
both of you should leave."

        Duncan strode out through the papers and glass littered around to
reach Subaru. "What are you talking about? Why would we-" Subaru's bleak
eyes looked at him. "Duncan-san. I tried, and for a while I succeeded in
believing that I could just ignore him, that he would just go away... but he
won't. Even if I am immortal- our fight needs to be fought. It is something
more than vengeance. It is destiny..."

        Subaru sat down onto the floor with his eyes closed, determined to
focus on nothing but the upcoming fight. "I shall wait until he comes, and
then issue my challenge to finally end it all..." Duncan interrupted his
musings with an angry utterance. "That's pathetic!" Subaru did not
acknowledge his presence as he tried to center himself.

        "You told me before that he affected you too much- that if you
rushed out, you knew that you would lose. Do you want to lose that badly? At
least wait and try to think of some way to win!" Subaru hesitated, and then
opened his eyes. "But you two should not be involved..." Richie's angry
words struck both of them. "That's before whoever did this tried to mess
with my place!"

        "Your place?" Duncan's weary tone made Richie smile a little. "Well,
it's kinda mine- more mine than his! Let's go get the bastard that did
whatever the hell that was that he did..." Subaru watched the two verbally
fence, and then nodded. "All right Duncan-san, Richie-san. I think that you
two know how to defend yourself, at the very least. At least come to my
apartment- that's the least I can do." Subaru paused for a moment before
continuing. "And perhaps I can think of a better way to win than dying and
coming back to life..." 

---

        *Maybe I should go to Subaru-kun's little place for a bit and tell
him what just happened to his would-be protector...* It would make for an
interesting little last round before the true end of the game...

===End Chap 6===
-----
Monica/Akira-chan/Heero/Hayama/Naga/Kircheis no Miko- Proud TABBE! Member
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Loves- CLAMP, LoGH, MB, RKen, Z/B, Gundam, EVA, Subaru, Kircheis, Izumi
"Tell Annerose-sama that Sieg kept his promise..." - Kircheis