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A New World	By : Meirav Category: +S to Z > X/1999 Views: 2658 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own X/1999, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 16
- 17
- 18
Disclaimer: I don�t own X/1999, I didn�t come up
with any of their brilliant characters, they�re the geniuses not me!

The character of Alex,
Jacob, Venus, Charlie, David and Dimitri are all mine. The Noters are half
reality. The rest belong to all the book/movie/TV stuff they came from. If you
can spot where they�re from then good for you!

A.N: from
after this chapter it�s going to be chapters you did not read yet due to my
mysterious removal from FF.net so, this is the last of the �oldies�.

****************************************************************************************

Part 17 � Aftermath

It sounded like he was underwater. In a
cave where the sounds he was hearing bounced off the wall to meet his ears over
and over again.

Deep growling or squeaking of some old
wood against old wood met his ears�.perhaps he was under water, in a cave,
under a creaking old ship�.a sunken one�..

Kakyou tried to focus his mist filled
mind. Something in him still clutched to this dream world as if knowing that the
dreams, as weird as they are now, are better then reality.

Despite his sudden will to stay dreaming
he swam up into a bit clearer place in his minds, where he was closer to the
surface.

He was not in water anymore though the
sounds were still slowed down and low in tone. Now it sounded like he was in a
jungle, and the animals� growls and grunts kept swinging back at him from
whatever it was that surrounded him. It was still dark; maybe it was a midnight savanna or a nighttime jungle�..

And the animals, they sounded monstrous. Every
once in a while there was a slow and rapid shrill, a shrill in comparison to
all the rest of the voices. He tracked some voices down and almost thought the heard
words! But then they stopped, and he never heard that particular sound ever
again.

He tried to tap down to another sound and
found that it had a human quality to it! He focused on that quality and found
himself drawn to reality.

Kakyou opened his eyes to the white
painted ceiling of the infirmary. For a blessed second he was in silence as his
mind was too busy working out how he got here.

Then it came crushing down on him like
hailstorm, the sounds he so focused on.

They were human sounds, grunts of
physical agony, screams of pain from treatments
carried under a lack of anesthetic, calling for nurses from visitors, commands
of those who are responsible for this patient or the other.

But the worst were the begging; begging
for water, something to chill the fever-caught body, something to take away
said fever�s nightmares. Begging for mommy, daddy, various names that could
only be guessed as those of siblings or relatives, maybe mates left behind in
their original world�.or lovers�..

Kakyou sat up from his bed and saw the
world was crawling with injured Noters, nurses and doctors fussing all around
them.

The nurses, and Charlie, they were
covered with blood here and there, their apron torn a bit at the edges where a
patient grabbed them in agony and would not let go.

He saw a body on a bed covered silently
by a blanket all the way up to the head.

Kakyou couldn�t think at first, his mind
was blank and empty. He could only look and listen, take in this hell hall he
found himself in.

In an instinct he looked down at his own
body; same old slightly mucky kimono, nothing hurt or damaged�..should he be
damaged? His throat hurt a bit from an old bruise but he couldn�t trace this
bruise to anything that he could remember�..

A nurse passed him by, the purple haired
one that everyone gossiped about as a male nurse rather then the female nurse
she tries to pose herself as. She dragged another man after her, a man that
looked feminine to Kakyou. She was talking to the man who seemed to be in shock
from what he saw here.

She said �Come on Hotohori-heka,
come here, sit and don�t look out of the room, come on. You can use this cloth
and tare bandages from it. You just take it and tare stripes out of the fabric
and we�ll use them as bandages�.yes, you�ll be of use this way. Come on� she
lead the man to another room and gave him said fabric. She walked out of the
room looking bothered and busy.

Kakyou blinked a few times, dazed.

Then she passed him again, she didn�t
even noticed him. Maybe she was so self taught not to notice patients over some
level of health that she simply didn�t see him, focusing on the more injured.

As she walked she spoke to herself,
muttering under her breath. �So many wounded and now seven are dead�..if
only David wouldn�t be taken away we�d have someone to deal with them but
now�..�

David? The undertaker?
Why was he gone? Kakyou was so stunned and tired that he didn�t mind his brain
receding to such childish levels of thought.

Then it hit him. The
war. It broke out�..he tried to tell them but he couldn�t�

No, it wasn�t their fault for not listening;
it was his fault for not telling them in time! He had that dream two weeks before
this whole thing started and yet he didn�t tell!!!! It was his entire fault.

Kakyou got off of his bed and began
walking amongst the rows of beds. From time to time a nurse or a visitor brushed
against him violently but he didn�t care, he didn�t even notice them as his
body realized speaking back to his brain was useless.

He looked at the injured men, he looked at the shapes of the five bodies that lay
there all the while waiting for a proper treatment, and at the one bed that was
now brought over to this row. He looked at the noter with the fancy lion helmet
who stood by those beds shaking but containing his tears.

He followed the man to another room where
he vaguely recognized the Noter who once brought Yuzuriha, Arashi, Sorata and
Kusanagi (another dream he didn�t bother to share with anyone) here in days
long ago. The man had a bandage around his throat and was turning and shaking
quite violently on his sickbed, his face twitched in pain.

Another fully covered body was rolled out
of that room on a bed, he noted that on the white sheet that covered the body
there was a horizontal line of blood where the body�s neck should be.

�Since when do they bleed?!� a nurse whispered,
as if trying not to be heard by the dead body.

�Apparently once they lose their power
they become something of a human�.�

The nurse who started the conversation
raised her eyebrows high in an expression that meant both �really now?� and �well
I�m not that bothered anyway�.

�So how come she�s dead and Ice-hunk(1) is alive?� she finally asked with a little grin at
her pun.

�I think it�s something to do with power
levels or something�.I don�t know, Charlie explained it to me once but it still
couldn�t get into my head�well if you ask me it�s all very confusing and a bit
scary, don�t you think?�

�Mmm� the other
nurse nodded and they carried on with their rolling of the bed towards the six
beds already there.

Kakyou stared at the seven beds and blinked
a few times, his mind was going fuzzy again and thinking was hard.

Seven people dead now because of
him�.seven�..

He heard a familiar deep toned voice and
his world brightened in a second: Dimitri was here, in the entrance hall. He
began walking a bit faster towards that hall.

On the way he heard a familiar name,
carried on the worried tone of a nurse. She said �Is this more comfortable, or
is the band still too tight Fuma?�

Fuma. Kakyou turned his head slowly, feeling like he�s
under water again.

Fuma sat on a sickbed having both his
hands nursed into proper bandaging.

�It doesn�t matter now does it?� Fuma
answered the nurse �Nothing matters now that he�s gone�..and in the hands of
that monster�.� He sat with his back almost creating a circle with the way it
was hunched. His head was also lowered and as he looked towards the nurse with
crazed bloodshot eyes he saw her almost through his eyebrows. His speech was
slow and pain filled yet dark and brooding. He really didn�t care about
anything anymore.

The nurse made a small �tssk� sound at him and folded her arms on her chest, her
sleeve drawn upwards revealed a long tattoo of a green dragon recoiling down
her arm. �Now now, focus on what�s more important at
the moment, ne? Is this band too tight on you compared with the one on your
left shoulder?�

There was a silence and Fuma fought to
clear his head �No, it�s okay�.it�s going to heal even
if the bandage was too tight, ne? Then that�s what�s important��

Kakyou didn�t hear that part of the
conversation at all for he was lost in his world of guilt again.

He heard Dimitri�s
voice again, speaking with another voice he recognized as Anthony, the only man
in this world accept Alex that understood Russian, about something that by the
tone of his voice was very important.

He walked all the way to the entrance
hall itself, making himself visible.

Blue Fairy was there, speaking to a
female noter that was lightly injured but deeply in depression or shock. The
usual office Noters were there, too busy looking at their friends and at the
people in the entrance hall to do what they should be doing.

There were the people who came with him,
Aoki-san and Yutu-san. They were gravely looking at some files and papers. A
nurse came up to them and whispered something to them, it was a nurse Kakyou
recognized as the one that rolled the sixth bed to the silent row.

The two men exchanged a few words with
her and nodded. Aoki-san made a little polite head bow, Yutu-san rubbed her arm
cheeringly before she left, a kind of hug-less hug to give her a bit of
comfort.

Kakyou stood like a leaf on a tree in autumn,
waiting for the next blow of wind to break him off his branch and throw him to
the ground. Long ago, maybe even before he opened his eyes, he stopped thinking
properly.

He was suddenly grabbed by hands of a
familiar size and a familiar strength. The hands which held
him when he first met the man belonging to them. The hands which spoke
to him in the sign language they used to understand each other. The hands which taught him crafts and helped him when he tumbled.
The hands which held him and caressed him in endless nights that seemed to burn
his bad experiences and memories from the past with their passion.

Those hands and the man who now made
those hands shake him a bit to snap him out of his daze. He didn�t deserve those
hands.

He turned to the man and allowed himself
to be snatched into a deep embrace, pressed against a broad muscular chest which
smelt of musk, pines, sweat and sawdust.

He shouldn�t be here, he shouldn�t be
hugged by this good man because this good man who doesn�t know how evil he really
is.

Just like Hinoto, exactly like Hinoto! Her evil side ordering her Seals into hopeless battles and leading
them straight into danger�s pit.

Evil, that�s what he is. Wicked and lazy
and selfish and evil! And he has the nerves to feel shame and guilt about it?!
Kakyou found himself disgusted with himself so much he
felt physically sick.

With that he came to an understanding as
he pushed Dimitri away from him.

The man stared at him puzzled and
confused. He tried to reach out to caress the black and blue marks in the shape
of a palm that spread on Kakyou�s neck but the yumemie
backed off.

Kakyou walked backwards in hesitative
little steps, slowly running away from a man who could heal him. He didn�t look
scared and he didn�t look so dazed as to be considered delusional.

He stumbled into a small table carrying a
few operation tools with a nurse by them who wiped them clean with a cloth that
soaked up so much blood off them it seemed completely red.

Kakyou turned around and stared at what
he stumbled into, his eyes slowly blinking as if in a dream. But his mind was
never clearer, and a realization such as this was never firmer in his mind
since he lost a loved one in another dream coming true without his ability to
stop it.

He took a scalpel from the little desk,
not hearing the nurse�s objecting �Hey!�.

He turned to the rest and Dimitri amongst
them, raised his left hand�s wrist to the level of his head and sliced through skin,
flesh and blood vessels.

Blood gushed out from his body, pain shot
into his head. But he didn�t care, he couldn�t care. Here was his only hope for
bliss, his only hope for total silence and rest from all these dreams, all
these futures set in stone, all his hope for a change impossible.

He collapsed to the floor, feeling
himself drown in water again, into his underwater cave.

********************

Dimitri leaped forwards trying to stop
his lover far too late. He only managed to grab the frail body as it fell
backwards, the wrist gushing with blood.

Anthony leaped forward as well, pulling
something out of his doctor�s bag and realizing it�s not equipment fit for
humans.

Seiichiro raised his head from the folder
containing the information of a now deceased noter as he heard the racket. He
saw what was before him and realized the yumemie is going to die.

Charlie was called at by the cleaning
nurse. He was in the middle of an operation and shouted back that �If the
stupid man wants to die we should let him bloody die! I�m far too busy here
with people who want to live! Let him die for god�s sake and leave me to
my work!�

Blue Fairy looked up from the noter she
spoke to and looked at Kakyou, she looked at Dimitri who tore off a stripe of
fabric from his shirt and began working on some sort of way to stop the blood
from reaching the gush.

He was using a stick to try and spin the
band wrapped around Kakyou�s arm into tightness on
the frail arm when Anthony stopped him speaking something to him that made him
pound a nearby table with his fist and shout out something that was obviously
not very educational (2).

Anthony took another piece of fabric, a
triangle in shape, lying on a table with others like it and started folding it
into the shape of a narrow straight band. Kakyou was bleeding so much by then
that Anthony even wondered if it�s going to work (3).

Watching the desperate, almost crazed
frantic look in Dimitri�s eyes, Blue Fairy turned her
eyes to Yutu, her Love.

At first Yutu thought, like Seiichiro,
that suicide was probably the only thing that can help Kakyou. Further more,
unlike Seiichiro who hardly knew Kakyou, Yutu knew in advance that back in
their dimension it was Kakyou�s wish (as the Dragon
so helpfully commented) to die more then anything else.

But then he saw the look in Blue Fairy�s
eyes and realized something as he looked at Dimitri.

He got up from where he sat and walked to
the two men fussing over Kakyou who by now created such a pool of blood on the
floor Yutu had to step in to get to them.

He placed a calming hand on Dimitri and
turned to Anthony. �Anthony-san, please translate this to Dimitri-san here. Ask
him �do you love this man?��

Anthony, who managed to work the
bandaging enough to make the flood of blood into a little trickle, stared at
Yutu puzzled at first. Then he translated it.

Dimitri turned enraged eyes to Yutu,
almost ready to pounce on the seemingly tactless man before him. A huge
muscular fist clutched harder, awaiting the order to pound the blond before him.

Yutu moved in between Dimitri and Kakyou
and placed one palm on Dimitri�s chest over his heart,
and another on Kakyou�s wound. He asked Anthony to
ask the question again. His eyes were intense as they stared deeply into Dimitri�s soul. He was glowing, his usual lenient and easy
going pose becoming intensely focused.

Dimitri nodded, adding a �Da� choked with unshed tears and frustration

Yutu smiled, power beaming off of him �Then
think about it, and about how you don�t want him hurt�

Anthony translated it.

Dimitri closed his eyes and concentrated.

Yutu began glowing powerfully, his eyes
closed in concentration as well.

Blue Fairy smiled such a beautiful smile
that for a second a nurse that watched her became completely distracted from what
was before her.

Seiichiro dropped the file he was holding
from his hands, his own heart was pounding in his chest at his lover doing such
a miracle.

Charlie, who finally finished whatever he
was doing and walked over to get cleaner tools stopped dead on his track in the
entrance to the hall by the little table where Kakyou got his suicide weapon
from.

The light seized and the magic ended.

Yutu�s palm was removed from a pounding chest. Eyes were
opened to see the cruel gush completely gone, the slight paling of Kakyou�s skin that meant he was losing blood completely
gone as well. The man was healed; even the bruises on his neck were gone.

Dimitri stood frozen in shock, he
couldn�t move with the sheer emotions that swapped him. He wanted to take Yutu
in his arms and squeeze him with the might of his gratitude. He did, and earned
a choked �Don�t hug me silly, hug him!�. Without a
need for a translator Dimitri did just that, taking Kakyou gently to another
sickbed in a side room.

Yutu stood there trying to catch his
breath again mumbling �Damn that man is strong�. He smiled at Blue Fairy who
smiled back at him with glittering eyes.

He smiled at Seiichiro who was walking
towards him. He couldn�t smile anymore as his lips were captured in mid-smile
in the loving kiss pressed on them.

**************************

Ace looked up at the bit of wall where
his map used to be. It was insignificant really, there was nothing special
about the now blank map-less bit that he almost felt nothing as he stared at
it.

Was it because the man who took it
started becoming vaguer and vaguer in his heart?

Spike walked up to him and patted his
back �Oi, Ace man, listen�.because we�re kind of
short on people now I think maybe we�re going to have to cut down on manpower
in our patrols�..�

Ace didn�t seem to listen at first. So
Spike said it again.

�Yes, I heard you the first time�.you are in patrol with Karen today aren�t you?�

Spike nodded.

Ace was silent for a moment �I�ll come
along anyway�.�

Spike walked over to the work chart where
the men in the patrol for the week were written down. Some were marked down and
others replacing them. Tara and Ace sat down for long three hours trying to
re-arrange the chart into enough logic and sense to enable them to continue the
patrols without too much uneasiness.

Usually when they were short on men due
to one of them missing or when something was big enough to need all of them
they�d draw Charlie and David up to the action. Now Charlie was over his head
in the infirmary and David was gone.

�Ace
man, you�re on the patrol after that, you�ll ground yourself like that� Spike
actually had a compassionate look in his slightly mismatched in color eyes as
he looked at Ace.

Ace smiled back a wan little smile �That�s
okay, I�ll have good company�

Spike smiled a little and hung a
cigarette on the very tips of his lips. He lit it and took a deep drag �Alright
then, we�ll join you on your patrol afterwards�

�Don�t be daft, you�ll wear
yourself out� he ignored Spike waving his palm to brush him off �don�t do that,
you�re alive, I�m not� Spike kept waving his palm while looking away back at
the chart �look, I�m a hologram, I can�t feel when my legs are supposed to
cramp up but you�re��

�I said leave it man, I�m sure Karen
wouldn�t mind either� he said and left. He wasn�t quite social and caring
enough yet to return Ace the look of happiness and gratefulness the hologram
hung at his ever hunched-in-carelessness back.

Deep inside him Ace wanted to jump up and
down with joy and roar all the happiness in him. He never had such friends. Never
in his life did people actually want to spend time in his company so
much.

****************************

Karen didn�t mind at all when Spike came
to pick her up for patrol. She beamed a big smile and nabbed a cigarette from
her friend.

Actually she smoked one about half an
hour ago, but she liked the way Spike let her do that.

She woke up that morning feeling like
something was missing. She didn�t really feel it as if it was something big and
serious, like it was so devastating or anything, but she did feel something
missing.

As she walked out of her room she looked
down the hall at the room, belonging to the onmyoujis but a day ago. Now she could
feel what was missing, but it wasn�t so bad. She could miss Subaru in time, she
needed to talk to him back then but�.Seishiro, she could do without him�.or
maybe not, he was something good to this house. Sometimes a bit of a cold
cynical voice is what�s missing to make the balance complete. Now they were a
bit off that balance. Oh well.

She went down to the kitchen for her
little morning routine: She�d make herself coffee if there was any and tried to
eat breakfast.

In her world breakfast would make her
feel heavy and uncomfortable during the rest of the day, but here where dinner the
day before wasn�t always so satisfying and today�s lunch wasn�t always guaranteed
she�d force herself to eat.

After breakfast she�d try to keep herself
in the kitchen while her �After meal, during coffee� need for a cigarette tried
to pull her to the back yard.

Then she�d go to the backyard, without
any real attempt to cut down on the smoking amount, and smoke a cigarette.

This morning she noticed Yuzuriha sitting
on the well in the yard, her inugami by her like a faithful dog, staring off
into the general direction to which Victoria left.

Karen stood there wondering if starting a
conversation would be good emotional support or would it be an intrusion into
the girl�s brooding.

And she did have to talk to someone about
what bugged her. So she walked over to the well.

�Won�t you fall into the well sitting
like that?� she smiled at the young girl who seemed to stare very peacefully
into the mostly blank view.

Yuzuriha turned her head towards Karen
and beamed her usual smile at the woman, was she trying to hide something with that
cheerfulness? �Good morning Karen-san. No I won�t fall, I�m pretty balanced
here and even if I�d fall, Inuki would come to get me� she poked her finger in
the air towards the spirit dog�s nose. It reached its nuzzle
towards her hand and Yuzuriha felt a quick wet touch to the tip of her finger
as their little bond was reassured.

After a few minutes of silence, in which
Karen too turned her head towards that general direction, she tried to talk
again �You miss her, don�t you?�

Yuzuriha smiled to herself, a smile Karen
noted at the corner of her eye �Yes, of course. But I know she�ll come back to
me and then it�ll be alright again. I know she believes in what she�s doing now
so I support her and believe in her, because she�s my friend.� Yuzuriha turned
to look at Karen �Do you think it�s wicked of me? You know, with Kamui on the
other end of it?�

Karen thought for a while �No, if it�s
what you truly feel then there�s nothing wicked in it�

That made Yuzuriha smile again as she
returned to look at the horizon.

Karen was full of thoughts now. What
Yuzuriha said, it was so mature, that any thought of her as nothing but a
little girl were wiped away from her mind. Maybe she could talk to her.

�Ano�.Yuzuriha-san�.there�s
something I wanted to talk to you about�.actually�.I apologize if it might
sound mean to say but�.I wanted to talk to Subaru-san about it but now he�s not
here and to Yutu I definitely can�t speak about it�.I always thought you�re
too young but now I stand corrected�..can I light a cigarette, you wouldn�t
mind?�

Yuzuriha stared at Karen a little, then
shrugged and edged a little away from the fire master.

Karen lit her cigarette, took a few long
drags, frantically playing with the white cylinder before speaking again. �It�s
about Aoki-san�.and Yutu-san�.I mean�.oh good god, I�ll just speak won�t I?�
she looked at Yuzuriha who still looked like she was completely listening to
her.

�Well you see�.ever since I�ve met him,
Aoki-san that is, well, I sort of took a shine for him. But I knew, I knew it
was never meant to be because....because....

�When he came to interview me in my work
place, I tried to hint to him that he might use my services, or the services of
any other girl and�� she laughed a little �at first he didn�t even understand
what I meant� she had to stop and laugh a little more, during which she
wondered if Yuzuriha really ever completely understood what she worked in �then
when he did realize he was so shocked! The very thought of thinking of
betraying his wife, it was so impossible for him, such a good family man� she
calmed her breath a little and took another drag from her cigarette.

�And now it�s been,
what? Maybe half a year into our arriving here, maybe less, and here he is completely
moving on and over it! I think�..I think something of my naivety shattered
then, if I had any at all� she let the silence speak for itself.

Yuzuriha turned her eyes to the horizon
again, thinking.

�But�..� Karen fingered the slightly tattered
edges of her gown scattering little ash bits from her cigarette on the
towel-like fabric �but it�s not only that�..you see�.I liked him�.I
thought�.and this is really wicked of me�.when we arrived here, I
thought �good, now he�s away from his family and maybe�.maybe since I�m his
friend and all�.then�.��

�Then he�ll move on to you� Yuzuriha
completed her sentence, now grooming Inuki, combing his fur with her fingers
looking for knots and dirt.

Karen sighed �Yes� and took another drag
from her cigarette, now squashing its burning head against the well�s stones to
put it off. �I even had a glimpse of an idea of how to do it while I�m
comforting him�.� She looked away; she was genuinely blushing with shame.

�And now he moved on but not onto you�

�And to a man of all
things! To think that he�d choose
another woman, then I�d be able to think �alright, so I�m not his type� but
another man��

Yuzuriha giggled a little.

Karen whipped her head towards the girl
glaring at her, was she mocking her?!

Yuzuriha tried to speak through her
giggles for a while and only contained her short fits enough to say �Maybe it�s
contagious, ha ha ha ha ha!�

�Eh?!�

Yuzuriha almost toppled herself into the
well, managing to grab the arch that held the bucket rope enough to keep herself from falling in her laughter. �Maybe he caught it
off the onmyoujis and Kamui and Fuma� she burst into a bigger fit.

Now the idea sapped enough into Karen and
she began laughing as well.

They laughed for some time, letting
themselves let go of any form of Japanese manners that chained them to cover
their mouths when they smiled and giggle politely instead of roaring as the
laughter took them.

They calmed down and took a deep breath.
Karen wiped the tears that formed in her eyes. Yuzuriha balanced herself delicately
on the well�s edge again.

�But seriously now, do you think I�m
wicked?�

Yuzuriha looked up at her friend and
beamed a big knowing smile �No, if it�s what you�ve felt then there�s nothing
wicked about it. You should be happy that Aoki-san is happy now, and you should
try to move on�

Karen smiled back and wrapped her arms
around her now better friend, reassuring and reinforcing the bond between them.

*************************

The girls� almost mad laughter woke
Arashi and Sorata up. Both �Nngh�ed
and returned to sleep.

They didn�t sleep for very long because
the sun was already high enough in the sky to beat down on them through the
window of their room and make it impossible to sleep in their sun filled bed.

Arashi rose slowly, feeling how her body
was slowly sacrificing more and more of its warrior�s agility and flexibility
for the sake of building the life inside her. Her tummy was not yet starting to
show, for now she only had the symptoms to suffer from. She will grow bigger. She
knew that and winced as she thought of having to wear some dead woman�s bigger
dress to make herself comfortable.

�Comfortable� was already a word she
began to grudgingly forget. She loved sleeping on her stomach, and now she was
too afraid to even sleep in a fatal position.

But sleeping on her back had its pluses.
Now Sorata would make her bosom his pillow and wrap a sleeping hand around her
tummy.

She still had those mind freezing fearful
moment when she thought of the upcoming baby. Moment where her mind stopped
working and such a terror spread through her that she felt like she�s under a
frozen shower.

Sometimes she wanted to run away, take
off this strange edition to her body and run fast as the wind, away from this
life. She wanted to grab her head and scream so badly the world would shake
with her terror.

But she didn�t because of one time when
she and Sorata were on patrol and it was raining.

They walked holding hands when suddenly
it started raining like a window opened in the sky pouring everything it had on
them. They hurried under a tree, Sorata taking off his jacked and covering Arashi�s head with it.

A strange old carriage passed by them slowly.
An old man sat on it with an old fashioned strange looking umbrella, driving a
big black horse that walked like he couldn�t care if it would rain fireballs.
The old man didn�t even look at them, he simply drove forward.

Arashi started crying and she didn�t know
why, she just cried.

Dark brown eyes stared deeply into hers,
digging into her soul where they had a hold on �What is it babe? Why are you
crying? Are you feeling alright?�

She cried on, her sobs becoming more and
more violent as the time passed, as if matching the rain�s furious fall.

Realizing he will get no answer, Sorata
wrapped his arms gently around his loved one and rested her head on his
shoulder murmuring soft words to sooth her.

�I�m scared� she finally managed to squeak.
She pushed him away, walked a few steps backwards and leaned against the tree.
She hung her head down, letting the rain wash her face and the tears flow
freely. �I�m scared� she said again, her eyes were blaming.

For a moment Sorata felt completely empty
and helpless. He felt like a complete klutz, a failure. He wanted to love
Arashi and give her all he could to make her happy. Now he only got her into
more trouble. He felt like crying himself.

The ever bugging feeling of deep rooted
hate in seeing a woman crying bugged him now more then ever.

Then she looked up at him and her eyes
were not hateful or blaming anymore, they were of a lost child looking for
warmth and comfort.

A smile crept onto Sorata�s
face. He walked over to her and wrapped
her in his arms again �I�m scared too babe, I�m terrified just like you. But
it�s going to be alright, I swear it will. If I have anything to do with it,
it�ll be alright, I�ll do all that I can to solve any problem we�ll ever face�.

�We�ll�� she hiccupped
the last of her crying fit �We�ll do it together� it was in a questioning tone.
The arms around her tightened a little

�Yes� she heard the voice above her rich
with emotions.

And the rain stopped.

Thinking about it now, Arashi smiled and
placed a hand on her tummy. She was still a little bit scared, well who
wouldn�t?

*************************

Sorata stayed in bed a little bit longer
after Arashi got up. She turned to him wonderingly �What is it?� she asked,
noting his somewhat brooding mood.

Sorata lay on his stomach in the bed,
leaning his head on his folded arms looking out of the window at the vague direction
into which, he didn�t really realize, the man he once promise to protect with
his life, was taken to.

He didn�t answer Arashi for a while,
letting himself form an answer from the jumble in his mind.

�I knew it when it felt like I had to
pick sides� he finally said �I think I sensed something was up�

Arashi thought about the more up to date
issues at hand and wrapped herself in her nightgown �Yes�.I just never thought
it�d be like this�.so violent�..� she stood there for a while, thinking, then
left to make them breakfast.

�He�s not so bad�..� Sorata mumbled to
himself staring off into the view, lost in thought.

Once he was on a patrol with Alex, a noon patrol, just before the sun began to set enough to
darken the world completely.

They walked by the edge of the city, walking
away from the semi-built streets towards a forest that Sorata remembered as
having an abundance of fireflies and a fence around it.

�Do you know this little bit of woods Sorata?�
Alex turned to him, stopping just before the little forest.

�No�why?�

Alex turned his eyes to him, cocking his
head to the side a little �Who was with you in your first patrol?�

�Ace, why?�

�Figures, he�s kind of shy and a bit
uncomfortable around new people� then a strange shudder went through his body.
Sorata remembered wondering if there was something in this world that could
actually scare something like Alex enough to make him shudder.

Alex looked at the forest again �Once
this dimension brought a tribe of witches into it, green glowing witches that
flew through the air like jets, laughing manically like you see in cheap movies.
At first they attacked anything that was male; human, animal, even some palm
trees we had here that happened to be male got burnt down to ashes by them.
Then we chased them off a bit and everything was calm for a few days.

�Then they returned big time, chanting
spells that made a man hear voices in his head telling him to attack anything around
him. They sat at a cliff top and watched it all like it was a play. They turned
a man against his friend, a husband against his wife, a son against his
parents, it was madness in here.

�This time we killed them and all that
was left were these fairies that looked more like fireflies then anything
humanoid. The fairies ran away to this patch of woods which once was a part of
a big forest. If you come into their patch they�ll chant spells and madden you,
that�s why we�ve put up this fence to keep people out.
They wouldn�t attack unless disturbed.

�The only thing they do now is to sense
goodness in a person coming by them and start glowing. You see, they�re
sadistic by nature, not evil, not corrupted or anything, simply sadistic to the
roots. If they sense you�re good hearted and kind they start getting excited at
the thought of ruining that core of goodness. But all they can do, since they
are contained out of fear of punishment, is glow and wait for someone stupid
enough to be drawn to their light�

They stared at the immense glow before
them. Sorata blinked, his forehead started hurting from his amazed expression.
�Why did you chase away the witches in the first time instead of just killing
them?�

Alex gave out a big sigh �Because it is
our policy: creatures that end up here often attack at first simply because
they�re scared. And for that anyone here gets a second chance to improve their
behavior and maybe turn out good. Most people turn themselves good, but some
don�t� he sighed again, looking a bit nostalgic.

�For instance�.� Sorata liked hearing the
stories of older times in this world. It helped him know his new surroundings
if he knew why one thing was in its current place instead of in another.

�Like�.Jacky, she was Blue Fairy�s
sister. She was as evil as Blue Fairy was good. She�d also manipulate people
and lured them into dreams by pretending she�s good. The problem with Jacky is
that she lurked outside the city and kept changing places of hiding so
we could never get her. She never attacked unless she had it all planned out in advance, she�d take her time in months
until she managed to get the effect she wanted on her victim�

he stared off into the glowing forest �She
lured me in once, working on me that a noter officer we had here held the key
to my happiness if he falls in love with me�.she really drove me mad�..

�She was the one that attacked the time
and dimension traveling machine that took Kamui back to your world. She
attacked it because it was finally fixed and complete and she knew that this
way people would travel back to their dimension and she wouldn�t have her fun
anymore.

After one trick we in the Rescue Team
joined forces to fight her off. We waited for her to turn good but all she did
was do bad and by then she was too elusive to catch
and be rid of.

�Also Gala, if
you know her from the prison house, she was bad once. She was some big shot in
her cult back in her world and here she wanted to take over the city like her
cult often does. She took another man that was with the Rescue Team and
traveled to the North Pole after their first attack got brushed off. But then
she realized her partner was half mad with megalomania by then and when we came
to get them she used it to run away and convert herself�

There was a long silence.

�Anyways� Alex�s tone brightened up a bit,
yet still kept it�s somewhat bitter and weary quality to it �what we do here,
and that�s very important, it�s why we cut our patrol�s trail here, is to make
sure that no one is stupid enough to walk into that forest or they�ll come out
a killing machine and these things happened�

Sorata liked it when Alex explained him
things. He kept his voice calm and pleasant, his tone almost musical in the way
he slowly sang every sentence. It made everything clearer to learn when the
teacher is pleasant.

Sorata liked being around Alex simply
because the man hardly knew him yet trusted him completely and gave him an
important mission back in their world. He liked him because he could see that
he wanted only good for Kamui and was a good person in
general.

It was in the days when the court began
building and thinking about the good Alex could bring Kamui made Sorata shut
his mouth tight to keep himself from blurting out something stupid. He could do
that when he really wanted.

Sorata shrugged, edged this way, edged
that way, and when he saw no one was around he turned his back and began
walking away.

He noted, as he turned around to see why
Alex wasn�t following him, that the man was staring off into the forest. Its
glow subsided into glitters.

�The glow weakened� Death said solemnly,
still staring off musingly at the forest �It�s because you�re such a good man,
and I�.� he stopped his mumbling and sank into deep depressing musing.

At the time Sorata wanted to say �You�re
a good person too�.

�You�re a good person too Alex, you just
act like a monster because you�re hurt whenever people look at you and immediately
judge you as one� he now whispered into his arms on the bed where he lay
looking at the direction where Alex disappeared with Kamui.

***************************

In his dream Subaru sat on a chair
staring off into space with eyes as empty as his soul.

He was an empty shell, so beaten by the
events of his life that he couldn�t think anymore. If he would think it�d stir
up so much hurt and memories that might make him explode with the pain.

And Subaru hurt; he hurt so much that, even
in his dreaming state, Seishiro could feel it like a hole was punched through
his chest.

What hurt him the most was the fact that
his lover didn�t show it, he just sat there bottling everything up until it ate
him from the inside, gnawing into his sanity.

In his dream he wanted to run to Subaru�s
side and wrap his arms around him. Seishiro wanted to kneel at his feet and
rest his head at his lap. He wanted to shake Subaru and snap him out of this
silent horror. He wanted to scream in his ear �Look at me! I�m alive! I�m here!
Please Subaru-kun!!!!� but he couldn�t.

And darkness filled his dream, only to
show him another horrific specter.

The Sakura. Little pink petals slowly falling elegantly around
Subaru standing there with a half smoked cigarette in his hand. His head was
bowed, his body was weak. He wore all black and his right palm was covered in
blood. His body was so weak because his new job was eating at him like his
inner pain was. This wasn�t his Subaru-kun, there was nothing left of him there
but a moving empty shell, a puppet on a string.

Seishiro jerked himself out of that dream
with a stifled �Aa!� fighting to escape his lips. His
body was covered with cold sweat, his breath was rapid; he was in slight panic.

By him on the bed lay Subaru, sleeping
soundly as if nothing ever happened in his head just now. And nothing did happen;
they were together and safe, forever overcoming all obstacles side by side.

Seishiro exhaled the breath hitched in
him and smiled at the sleeping man besides him, brushing a few strands of hair
that clung to Subaru�s forehead with sweat shed earlier that evening, during
activities a little better then this.

He got up from his bed and searched for
his clothes in this new tent room. The walls were long hanging black fabrics
decorated here and there with sewn silver and turquoise patterns of lions and
dragons.

Subaru explained the whole turquoise
meaning in Alex�s outfits, something about crystals of poisonous gas or
something, Seishiro forgot about it five minutes later. Now he remembered it
and a shudder went through his body. How could Alex surround himself with
something that horrifying and painful?

There were so many things he still had to
understand about Death.

He needed a cigarette; it yanked him
comfortably out of his morbid train of thoughts. He made a better attempt at
finding his clothes and walked out of the tent.

Outside it was nighttime and the air blew
coolly through seemingly endless grounds of grass. Seishiro looked at the
spaces around him and the full meaning of his new situation seeped into his
mind. It didn�t really matter did it? As long as he�s with Subaru-kun and
they�re together they could be in hell as much he cared.

He looked at the little campsite. There
were six round tents just like his, one for every person in this group.

Seishiro wondered for a moment if Alex was
thinking straight when he didn�t lock Kamui up or something. The need for a
little revenge of his own was still simmering in him like hot lava.

In a little clearing made in the grass,
David was cooking a deliciously smelling broth over a little fire.

There was something almost careless about
the way he crouched so near to the flame, maybe it was because he wasn�t human,
maybe it was something else.

In a good enough distance from the fire,
Lestate sat and played a small silver harmonica. Seishiro remembered it vaguely
playing at the back of his dream. He ignored it when the dream started showing
him horrors.

The vampire looked at him and smiled a
little �Good morning�. Seishiro didn�t react, how could he react, he didn�t
know the man.

Victoria sat at the very edge of the campsite, the moonlight
painting her blond hair silver where the beams of light touched it. If Seishiro
would care enough about her the thought �she must be missing Yuzuriha� would
have crossed his mind. But he didn�t.

David dug a large round cup into the
broth, after carefully mixing it well, and handed it to Seishiro�s
general direction �Eat up, you guys and Kamui are the only ones who need it�

Seishiro shrugged and took the steaming
bowl. The hot air blowing from the broth made his stomach turn with the joy of
an upcoming meal. He should take this to Subaru.

�Here, have another one for your
boyfriend� and the surprising thing is that David didn�t even bother with looking
at him when he spoke.

So Seishiro didn�t say anything when he
took the second bowl. Don�t want contact, don�t get contact.

�And now to feed the brat� David sighed
and got up to bring the third bowl to what seemed to be Kamui�s
tent. He disappeared into it without a sound. It kind of made Seishiro smile,
�feed the brat�.

�Seishiro� Lestate spoke up, carefully
placing the harmonica in a little velvet covered elegant silver box.

Seishiro tried not to show his complete
surprise.

�I want you to know that we�re supporting
you. I mean that we�re not here just because Alex called us here; we�re here
because we believe it�s true. We�d be here to help you fight for what�s right�
he looked towards Victoria who turned her head to them.

The way her red eyes
glowed in the darkness around her creeped him out a
little.

�I�m sure that David, despite his slightly
aloof ways, agrees with us�.if he cares the slightest��

Spoken David came out of the tent looking
around puzzled a little �What were you saying?� his voice was harsh; he really
seemed to have minus social skills.

Lestate brushed the rough behavior off
and smiled pleasantly at the taller man �I was saying that we�re supporting
Seishiro here with his and his lover�s struggle for real justice�

David stared at Lestate, his forehead
creased as if he�s unable to comprehend what was spoken to him. Then he looked
at Seishiro and shrugged �Yeah, sure� he mumbled and returned to the broth,
adding some small woods to the fire.

Seishiro noted his hands were slightly shaking
as they fed the fire, and that they sank deep into the flames as they fed them,
as if wishing to be burnt. Then they�d jerk back as if in pain or realization
of his actions.

But the broth he was holding was slowly scorching
his own fingers and so Seishiro walked into his tent to feed his lover.

*************************

Kamui was curled into a little ball on
the floor by his new bed when David came to bring him food.

His throat hurt and his head hurt and his
body hurt and his heart hurt.

He cried himself to sleep, cursing and
whimpering at times.

He refused to sleep on the bed, refused
to use any of the small luxuries Alex placed in his tent and so, he curled on
the floor where he could feel like he was as physically miserable as he was
mentally.

Since the entrance to the tent was facing
the bed, when David walked in, the tent seemed to be empty.

David blinked a few times, slowly
wondering where and how the boy managed to escape.

He sent his power to light the tent,
sending little flames into the candle sticks and candle stands scattered around
the tent.

It was a pretty place, this tent that
Alex gave the brat. Decorated with various colorful glass beads on little
chains, the makeshift room had an eastern look to it.

The inner patterns on the fabric of the
tent weren�t the usual black and turquoise, in fact, they had none of that at
all. The fabrics were of various colors of velvet and organza, their seams sewn
in a golden thread. It was a beautiful room. Beautiful enough
to make David uncomfortable.

He walked around the bed to find Kamui
tiredly staring up at him.

Kamui had managed to close his eyes and
sleep just about a few hours ago. Now the fatigue of the events that passed him
made him almost unable to be awake.

�Get up, there�s food for you here� David
held the bowl so that Kamui could see it.

Kamui wanted to grunt and curl more into
himself like a porcupine to show his deep lack of interest but he couldn�t
physically do that.

�Get up, Alex would be upset if you
wouldn�t eat, you know how he is� David was losing his patience faster then he
let it show.

Kamui wanted to grunt a �Screw Alex� but
his voice was still out of any kind of a functioning condition after all the
screaming. When he thought about it his own screaming came echoing in his head
until he winced.

David exhaled impatiently and yanked the
little Kamui ball off the floor with one hand, roughly dropping him on the bed.
It made the boy uncurl enough to plant the bowl in his hands and achieve at
least some of the mission he set himself to.

Kamui glared at him over the brim of the
bowl, the steams clouding his vision. How he wished to give the man an energy
blast like in the good old days.

David glared back. He hated those who
reacted in shock and complete mental blocking. Behaving so hurt and wounded,
aren�t they the sensitive saints, making those who grew into the situation feel
like cold hearted monsters.

It wasn�t quite the situation here but
David still hated any reaction he diagnosed as over emotional.

�Now eat� he turned his back to Kamui and
left, vaguely hearing through the fabrics that his name was uttered by someone
outside.

Kamui remained like that for a while
glaring at the now David-less space.

Then he noted how the broth in the bowl
in his hands smelt good. He blew on it gently and began sipping at the liquid,
chewing on chunks of vegetables and meat he came across.

As he chewed he allowed himself to uncurl
enough to look around his room. It was beautiful, and still he hated it.

He hated it because Alex made him this.

He hated it because Alex placed him here.

He hated it because Fuma wasn�t here with
him.

His broth cooled a little bit as tears
dropped into it from violet eyes prettier then the prettiest glass bead.

**************************

In his dream he was inside a kekkai he
created. A kekkai he spread over Rainbow Bridge. The kekkai was crumbling.

In his dream Seishiro told him something
he couldn�t hear, as he reared his dying body upwards to face him but ended up
falling into death�s eternal grip.

In his dream he was staring forward,
unable to look to his side, where his loved one slowly fell down while
whispering sweet words he still couldn�t hear.

Then as they were finally whispered, as
they were finally heard, as Subaru�s heart finally overflowed with the joy of
their meaning, his loved one jerked as life was taken from his body.

The thud of his body with the clothes
rustling under it meant nothing to Subaru; he was too frozen to note those
things.

In his dream he had a smudge of blood on
his cheek and tears in his one seeing eye. He stared forward, helpless against
another blow dealt to him by fate.

Then he closed his eyes, closed his
slightly open mouth and raised his head a bit, feeling the pain starting to
seep in.

In his initial grief he clutched the dead
body to him, his voice almost in panic �You�never�said any of those words, even
when I expected them from you.� His head was by the dead head, his arms wrapped
around the dead body.

Seishiro was dead, dead.

Subaru jerked to sit up from his bed as
he violently tore himself out of the nightmare. He sat there breathing heavily,
shivering as if he slept in a frozen room. He clutched at his blanket
frantically, his eyes already tearing.

Then Seishiro walked in with two bowls of
steaming wonderfully smelling broth and a smile like only Seishiro could smile.
A smile Subaru knew was no longer fake, no longer a mask because it was made by
a man with no need for a mask anymore, not around him anyway.

Subaru smiled back, feeling the tears in
his eyes changing into those of happiness.

He was so happy.

Seishiro sat down on the bed by his side,
completely oblivious to the storm of wonderful emotions that raged inside his lover.

�Are you hungry? David cooked this up, it
smells pretty good�

It was obvious that Subaru wasn�t
listening, just by the look in his eyes and the creases left from frowning in
his sleep and fresh beads of sweat on his body.

�You had a nightmare, didn�t you?� he
looked away to his own bowl after handing Subaru his.

Subaru nodded, wiping the tears from his
eyes and never stopping to smile �But I woke up and here you are� he laughed a
little, crying again �alive�.

The tears were now wiped by Seishiro�s palm lingering on to caress the side of his
face. Subaru leaned into the touch.

They ate in silence, reassuring their
already tight bond. A bond of bloodshed and love.

�We should thank Alex� Subaru wiped his
mouth clean and placed his bowl at the little wooden nightstand (with a very
comfortably placed ashtray on it) by his side bed and began fishing for his
clothes.

�Thank him?� Seishiro found it slightly
difficult to listen when the body talking to him was walking naked around the
room.

Subaru knew this and pulled on his
boxers, a little reprimanding glint in his eyes �Yes Seishiro-san, thank him. He�s
done so much for us and�.well, no one ever thanked him�

�Hmmm� Seishiro leaned back on the bed,
scratching the back of one foot�s heal with the toes of the other.

Thanking, that�s what he wanted to say to
Lestate back then�.but he couldn�t muster enough�.what is it? Guts? Manners? Care?

�Seishiro-san� now Subaru had both his
pants and his shirt on, and a very serious tone �without him our nightmares would
have come true�

That hit the spot; Seishiro nodded and
got up, placing the white trench coat on Subaru�s shoulders while slipping in a
caress in the meantime. He received a small peck on the lips as a reward.

**********************

Alex sat in his tent, which was really
quit simple and empty, and leaned lazily across a big simple wooden chair. He
was playing with the fuzzy end of a feather pen while staring at the map he
brought over with him.

According to this map they were a few
days� travel from a small Arabian city where they can pick up some stuff if
anyone fancied anything special for dinner or a decoration or something.

He could make this into quite an
adventurous fun trip, maybe they�ll end up enjoying it even.

He will enjoy it, for never mind how much
he began a little grudge for Kamui he still loved the boy. Despite all his
violent actions and words, deep inside, Alex still loved Kamui. If that half of
Justice would simply snap his finger at him he�d crawl back to his embrace,
willing for every term laid on him, as long as Kamui will be there.

His thoughts were cut when he heard a rough
�Knock knock� from Seishiro outside the tent and a
polite �May we come in?� from Subaru. He couldn�t help a smile from spreading
on his face as he told them to come in.

He placed the map on the table and smiled
up at the two men entering.

They walked in sync to both his sides,
crouched by his chair and wrapped their arms around him. Subaru did it first,
followed by a somewhat hesitating Seishiro.

�Eh�.uh�� they were making him blush
�what are you doing?� he wanted to say but couldn�t find the strength to
stop it, nor the want to.

�We wanted to thank you� Subaru whispered
to him, placing his head on his shoulder forwards so that he half leaned on the
muscular chest.

�For all you�ve done for us� Seishiro
leaned his head on the broad shoulder too, only facing backwards. Emotions were
still his weak spot.

�Uh�..ummm�..er�..thanks I�.��.�I don�t deserve
it�.�

A strange feeling of comfort filled him
and his thoughts drifted to a day long ago when Seishiro�s
teasing, testing fingers slide down his chest to his abdomen and the husky
voice whispered something in his ear that he couldn�t quite remember now.

His thoughts drifted to the evening
before this one, before the attempted execution, when Subaru cried himself to
sleep. He finally curled in dreams on his chest like he was now, looking very
comfortable.

When Alex closed his eyes now he felt
that same feeling he felt back then, like this was right.

Alex thought it was because they were Men
of Death and he was rewarded for doing them good. But he started wanting to
believe it otherwise.

****************************************************************************************

(1) Iceman is based, like all noters, on the soldiers in central region military police
bases where I also served in my time. The officer Iceman is based on was a VERY
good looking man.

(2) The method Dimitri uses can only be
used on leg injuries, which is why he can�t use it on Kakyou�s
arm, mostly because it�s very powerful and in an accidental extra turn of the
stick one could break the leg bones of the patient. It�s a Russian method which
is why Dimitri knows it.

(3) This method can only be used for arm
injuries and it�s a Dutch technique. Not that it means Anthony is Dutch, he�s british�he
just happens to know it, don�t ask me how or why ok.

A.N: in the next chapter: Fuma tries to save Kamui. Just to
get you to keep reading this ;P
- 16
- 17
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A New World