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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
- 19
- 20
- 21
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!

This may not be much
liked to Elora but, ah heck, I need to show the past
a bit ne? she is responsible for the lovely little
song bit, she sent me the lyrics. I liked the song anyways�.

And thanks to Haru for telling me about unrequited love.

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

Part 20 �
History

Lying in his
large soft bed, Kamui turned from side to side struggling to fall asleep.

It�s not that
his bed was uncomfortable, on the contrary; it was large enough so that he
could lie diagonally and he still had about a good length stretching out from
his feet and his head. Even if he stretched his arms and legs he couldn�t reach
the bed�s edge no matter what position he took.

The mattress
was thick and soft, comforting and healthy. If Kamui did not wake up into a
tent in a campsite which held him captive and away from Fuma, nothing would
have spoiled every morning as he woke up comfortable and refreshed.

It wasn�t that
he wasn�t tired. His day was eventful and mentally draining. He kept trying not
to think about Alex, of how he hurt him. Of Fuma and how far away he was from
him.

How come he
never really remembered anything from his first arrival at the Lost Dimension?
He lost his memories once, then gained them but not
fully. Was there something in traveling between the two worlds that erased his
memories so powerfully over and over again?

Maybe he
wanted to forget? If so, then why?

To help
himself re-settle with Fuma�.that�s being cruel again�..he must
remember�.

Kamui knew
memories won�t bring back any emotions towards Death. He just wanted to know
what he was back then because something nagged at his mind.

He was
different then, way different, so different that as he looked back at it
something in him told him �Don�t look back, forget it� as if to hide something
from him. What was it?

Kamui closed
his eyes, evened his breathing and fought to remember.

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

He was in the
underground Heart of the Devine Protection at Clamp campus with the rest of the
finally gathered Seals.

He held the shinken in his hands. It was so long and heavy.

He never really noticed it when he was with Fuma and Kotori because he
was with Fuma and Kotori and the way Kotori was back then, his mind
concentrated on the more pressing issues. Now the shinken was too awkward.

His body�s injuries began re-tingling under their bandages.

Kamui felt like dumping everything behind and running away from it all.
He�d dig up his mom�s ashes and join them together just to be in her protective
embrace again.

But he couldn�t be so weak now, not after he promised himself and
others that he will get Fuma back.

Kamui unleashed the shinken from it�s long
wrapping fabric, like the long bandages wrapped around what felt like his whole
body. He left Nokoru and the Seals behind him and
began walking towards the Heart itself.

He remembered thinking that it doesn�t even look like a heart, a silly
thought in itself as he looks back at it now.

Then his senses began noting him about something strange going on: he
seemed to be going downward as well as forward and every step he took seemed to
not only sink him deeper but slowly stop him from getting anywhere else.

He looked down and saw his feet had gone into the floor. Was
this part of the process to seal the shinken?

It couldn�t have been because of the reactions of the people around
him. His name was called by several voices, young and old, all in panic.

Nokoru
was mumbling to himself that this is impossible; the Heart is protected from
every possible power or magic, by every possible power and magic.

To Kamui�s ears it was all a jumble of slowed
down noises behind a strange silence that took over his hearing completely.

He was up to his pelvis when he suddenly turned his head to look at the
ones behind him and saw them running towards him. He wanted to lift his hand to
take the shinken away from whatever it was but the floor that was so liquid on
one side was like concrete on the other end, preventing him from trying to pull
himself away or climbing out of it.

He could feel whatever it was below his feet was no more, not even the liquid-ish feel of a marshland as before. He was dangling above something.

When the floor sucked him up to his chest he threw the hand he sill had
free (the other, which held the shinken was locked into the strange gate)
trying to be held by the Seals who circled him now.

Sorata grabbed his hand and pulled to no use, he pulled and pulled and
pulled until he was red in the face and sweating.

Subaru chanted countering spells, Nokoru rang
up people on his mobile phone, Inuki grabbed his shirt
only to tare at it.

Kamui took a deep breath before his mouth and nose drew into the void
completely, only Sorata�s hand remaining as a link to
the world he knew as home so far.

When he fell to the other side he could still see Sorata�s
palm sticking out of a dark sky, then pulled back quickly as the portal shut
completely.

Kamui was now falling fast into an abyss with the shinken in his hand
and only his thin clothes to protect him from the almost arctic cold wind that
blew at him in this new world he fell to.

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

He was not the only one to land into the Lost Dimension that night.
Before they found him Lestate and Alex, who were on the night patrol, collected
the newcomer Spike Siegel who fell into a base of Noters and clung to the
flagpole in their carriage park.

They found Victoria Seras hiding in a corner,
shaking in her tiny light blue Hellsing uniforms, clinging to her RPG-like
rifle muttering something about her master and calling for him with tears in
her eyes.

It was a troublesome night for newcomers to arrive into: little fire
monsters crawled out of the river by the city looking for their nightly feast.
Usually a pile of meat would be laid by the riverbed to satisfy the little alligator
like things� appetite. But that night meat was scarce and almost the whole pack
crawled towards the city, blowing fire to hunt whatever seemed edible while
burning several other things on the way.

Kamui didn�t know that. He didn�t know that he was the second to land
after Spike. He didn�t know he came along with others. He didn�t know anything
at all.

At first he fell with his back towards the earth, and then he thought
of flipping in the air to at least see where he was heading for.

Below him lights of a small village spread across his view. Small dots
of fire spread and extinguished at it�s edge where he
could notice a river flowing by.

He readied his powers to soften his landing and land on his feet
elegantly instead of crushing to a pulp he was sure he would. Whatever it was,
wherever he may be, he clutched at his shinken as if it was a saving rope that
might pull him back to his world.

He landed on empty ground amidst several buildings charred and ruined. The
ground was dark brown and smelling the way earth after rain when the air is
cold. Kamui shivered as another freezing gust blew around him.

Something crawled on the ground past the corner of a house; it looked
like a small black alligator with bright little orange eyes burning like real
fire.

Kamui stared amazed at the thing. It had large back scales that
reminded him of a dinosaur he saw in a children�s educational book once.

The thing stopped a good distance from him and examined the shaking boy
before him. It cocked its head sideways.

Kamui could have sworn it smiled at him as much as it could with its
reptilian mouth.

Finally it took a few more steps forward, faster then usual, while
starting to emit strange crackling sounds from within him. The thing�s belly
inflated a bit, its eyes widened.

Something very primitive instinct inside Kamui told him the monster was
about to throw something at him.

In the very last minute Kamui hurled himself sideways with all his
might, escaping a huge ball of fire the thing belched at him. He felt the heat
beating at his face and closed his eyes wishing for it all to go away.

He rolled into a shabby little vegetable garden. He looked at the tiny
underdeveloped lettuce and the twisted carrots showing marks of a rodent�s
nibbling in most of the roots, obviously dug out of the ground before their
time.

Kamui curled into a little ball on the soft sweet smelling grass,
peeking at the world through his hands covering his face. He heard the sound of
more crackling and, sure that the thing found him now, curled himself ever
deeper into himself. He was a small human ball with the shinken sticking out of
it.

He waited a few moments and when he felt no heat and heard no more
movements meaning something lizard-like was headed towards him, he uncurled
himself and dared to stand up.

He looked back at the house by the garden and found a darkened house
with windows and doors gaping black holes like moaning mouths. There was a
strange cryptic scent coming out of the rooms and a message ran through Kamui�s mind �something�s dead in there�.

There were noises coming out of the house and Kamui just knew he was
going to see the ghost of the dead person he smelled now.

But he didn�t see a ghost; instead he saw the figure of a man emerging
from the house�s direction, dragging a stretcher with another human figure on
it. The figure that walked, Kamui noted in the light of the gloomy full moon
above him, had black wings like a crow and wore no shirt.

Kamui inhaled sharply, was it the angel of death? Was he in hell?

From the distance Kamui heard more crackling sounds and the sound of
fire blowing fast. Suddenly the so far quiet night filled with the horrified screaming
of a man or woman burning alive.

Kamui heard more screaming and realized it was him making them.

He was taken upon his own feet now, running blindly with tears in his
eyes and full fledged panic in his head.

Where was he?! Why was he here?! How can he get out?! �Oh god� he
screamed to an entity he never believed in �please help me god!�.

He heard voices behind him, a woman and the hustling voices of a few
more men. Behind their noise he heard the mumbling and whimpering of a wounded
person.

�Do you only worry about the dead David� a woman screamed in
frustration �that you couldn�t fight the fire that spread through this still
living man?!� Kamui could see her, in his mind�s eye, begging over the body
of some other burnt victim.

�No I can�t!!!� he suddenly heard a deep voice of a man who
sounded half maddened by something �I can�t put off the fire from them!!!� he
screamed more �I�ll�.I�ll fight the other flames�.but I can�t extinguish
them�.� Now the man was muttering to himself �I couldn�t�..they all burnt down�..�

�Go to the infirmary, take this body and go back to the infirmary
David, we�ll do for now� a voice of a second man was heard, a one that was
soothing and calm unlike the previous two Kamui heard.

From his new hiding place under some half destroyed stone arch, Kamui
could see that black winged man flying away from where the screams came from,
the stretcher with him. Was the figure tied to the stretcher the one from
before or the one the three voices fought over?

Kamui suddenly found himself shivering
uncontrollably, his teeth chattered, his shaking palms made his shinken do a
funny little dance of sheer panic.

He stayed there until he could smell fires extinguished and the air
became cool again.

When it was all quiet Kamui tried to curl himself into a ball again and
maybe get some sleep. His limbs felt like led and his head swam.

But before he could even crouch to sit he heard the thunder-like sound
of horse hoofs coming his way in a frightening pace. Actually he was sitting so
the noise was reflected at him, making him think the horse was riding towards
him when they came from the other direction. As he ran the other way he
suddenly came face to face with two riders on horses; Noters.

But he didn�t know it was Noters coming back from directing and
evacuating citizens from the source of fires, he only saw the sturdy horses and
the rifles on the riders.

Without a thought, having enough of nerve wrecking experiences, Kamui
unleashed a wave of power at the first horse rider, blowing the horse almost
completely apart and sending the Noter on its back flying.

He growled at the other horseman who made an immediate 180o turn and
hurried to pick his wounded mate away.

After that it was mostly silent again, Kamui stood in an abandoned
street with only the horse pieces for company. He had enough of blood and
horror for now and he began feeling sorry for the innocent horse now in torn
bits around him.

He turned his back and began wobbling the other direction.

He was slowly starting to feel weaker and weaker as the huge amounts of
adrenalin flowing in his blood earlier began to backlash. Kamui knew he had to
get something sweet to eat, something sweet and water. Without that he would
faint and god knows what will find him in this hell.

With an iron grip on his body begging for rest, Kamui walked into
another yard belonging to a house that had lights in its windows and clearly
living inhabitants within. It was a struggle for Kamui just to lift his arm
enough to keep the shinken from dragging on the ground and informing the
house�s inhabitants of his sneaking into their garden.

The smell of food leaked into his nose; a dish was placed to cool down on
the edge of a window in the house. By the smell of it, the dish contained
something sweet, and sugar was something Kamui needed.

He snuck up under the window and snatched the hot plate away. By it, he
noticed as he snaked his hand to the dish, was a bottle and this too was soon
snatched by Kamui�s quick palms.

With his new treasure Kamui dashed out of the yard and under another
arch, this one was complete. As he ran he stumbled and let go of the dish in
his hand, it was steaming hot began scorching his palm anyway.

Kamui crashed to the ground with his last powers, staring down at the
smashed thing between the pieces of broken clay. His head spun even worse, his
whole body ached with the fall�s pain�he needed sugar quickly�

And so, swallowing his pride and any hygienic education he ever
received, Kamui reached out and began scooping up whatever was left of the dish
from the ground between the fragments of clay.

Apparently it was a kind of doe cake filled by a sweet gooey filling with
chunks. The doe had nothing sweet to it but the filling was quite delicious.
Kamui sucked the filling from whatever pieces of the doe he found that weren�t
too dirty.

When he found himself with a mouthful of sand he hurried to take a
large swig off the bottle in his hand. The moment the strange liquid hit his throat
Kamui choked and spat it out; it was a sharp tasting alcohol.

For a while Kamui sat with his legs spread under him as if discarded
like a lifeless doll. He stared forward blankly, letting the food he just ate
revive his system and clear his thoughts. His throat burnt from the alcohol he
managed to drink but it was for the best; it snapped him back to reality and
filled him with a false feeling of warmth in the cold breeze around him.

Once he felt better Kamui began walking again. Towards where? He didn�t
know, but he knew it couldn�t be worse then the image of a hell he had the
first taste of.

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

In the infirmary a Noter in a bad condition was rushed over amongst
those who weren�t lucky enough to escape the fire monsters.

Charlie�s calculations were of one dead and half eaten man, two mildly scorched
elderly women and a lightly burned yet not so lightly terrified man (who�s
whimpers Kamui heard) so far.

Now, as he looked up from applying a soothing ointment on the last
man�s burns, he saw the incoming Noter.

She had a wide slash through her chest stretching diagonally down to
her stomach, luckily for her she was quite fully bodied and most of the damaged
tissues were fat layers. It was the horse�s body that blocked most of Kamui�s powers.

All he had to do, Charlie thought with a great deal of relief, was sow
her up and his night seemed to be cooling down. Double meaning, Charlie smiled
a little and immediately stopped as he noted the injured Noter on his operation
table was staring at him funny.

There were newcomers, Charlie remembered, he heard the reports from
Blue Fairy as she swung her little boat by the infirmary to say hi then dash
off to do her work.

He called the other Noter who came with this one over �Did you see who
did it?� he asked the frightened young man.

They were all so young, these Noters, and all in uniforms carrying
deadly weapons�.yet still so young�

The boy blinked a few times, sweating thought it wasn�t hot at all, then shook his head.

Charlie had no medicine to give the wounded Noter against her upcoming
pain�he had to focus her mind on something. �Miss, can you hear me miss? Listen
to me, stay focused�

The Noter blinked at him a few times, she was breathing quickly in her
pain. She nodded frantically.

�Good, what�s your name?�

�R�.rhino�� she mumbled after twitching her face with the pain of the first
few sows �it�s�because I�m�.very�..�

�She�s very hard headed� her comrade completed her, turning his back to
them to give Charlie and her some privacy.

�Thank you young man but I�m trying to run a conversation with her.
What�s your real name Rhino?�

Rhino blinked more, whimpered and grabbed at the side of the table
forcefully as the pain tore through her some more �It�s�.Lior�.�

�Now listen Lior, I need you to keep focusing
on what I�m talking about so that you won�t faint. If you faint you might not
wake up, you�re losing a lot of blood here�

The nurse by Charlie was mostly busy wiping the blood from the wound,
from Lior and the table around them.

�What does it mean, Lior? Your name does mean
something doesn�t it?� Charlie desperately tried to do his job as easily as it
could be to ease the girl�s pain.

�It means �light to me��.� She even managed to smile as she remembered
some sweet secret shared by her and her mother over her name, once in a
childhood that seemed so far away now.

�Ah, that�s a beautiful name� Charlie raised his eyes from the sowing
job to Lior who smile back.

�Tell me Lior� he tugged at her consciousness
again once she became too silent �did you see who it was?�

Lior took
a few more deep breaths then nodded faintly �A boy, a young boy dressed in
light clothes and dirty�� she stifled a scream �..he�s
very young, maybe sixteen, maybe less�he�s very thin�.he has�.oh his sword!�
she suddenly yelled along with a yelp caused by pain.

�His sword?�
Charlie pressed her again.

�Yes�it�s very long and�.it has the star of David at it�s head�.at the
not pointy part�don�t know the word�in English��

�Got it! thank you.� Charlie raised his eyes from the now almost
closed wound to the Noter who stood by all that time �Start riding through the
city, look for Alex and Lestate, tell anyone of your forces or from the rescue
team as well: look for a thin boy, dirty, dressed in bright clothes, long sword,
star of David on the hilt, okay?�

The young man nodded and dashed away.

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

Kamui, feeling a little better now, walked on the edge of a line of
buildings. To his left were the buildings, on the right was a small hill barren
of all plants or buildings.

Suddenly, across a corner, he heard voices of several people walking on
the other side of the buildings at his left. The buildings were small and Kamui
could hear the conversation clearly.

�So, where are you from?� he heard a man say in English tainted a bit
by a soft French accent. The man�s voice was light, soft and musical as it
spoke.

�London�.well�England I mean�.if there�s a country like that here� he heard
the voice of a frightened young woman, her English was strange to Kamui�s ears but he imagined it was because she was British.

�England?!� he heard the man say �eugh�

�Well you�re French so I might as well say �eugh�
myself� she spat back, insulted.

�My god, you�re from totally different worlds and still the French hate
the Britons and visa versa?!� Kamui heard a voice of another man. It rang wild
bells in his head, yet it was slightly deeper then the one he remembered �Some
things never change� the man laughed lightly.

�Where are you from?� the girl asked now, sounding as if she was trying
to ignore the French man on purpose.

�Well I�m�sort of traveling but generally I�m from Mars, that�s where I
was born� Kamui heard the voice of a third man.

�Mars?!
Cool!!� she shrilled suddenly �there are people on Mars in his world!!!!�.

�Mars, eh Spiegel?� he heard the man again, with humor dripping from
his voice and some affection.

�Don�t call me Spiegel, what�s with you anyway? Call me Spike, everyone
does�.why insist on my family name?� Spike, or Spiegel, was slightly irritated.

�No harm in it, no harm in it� the man laughed again.

Kamui heard the French man �tssk�

�Why are your eyes red?� he heard the Spike man say.

�Because I�m a vampire�. I guess�.� He heard the girl say. Vampire?!

�You eyes are red because you�re a vampire?!� he heard the French
man say with a load of scorn in his voice �is it something British?!� he mocked
on.

�No!� he heard the girl scold �my master�s eyes are red too�though I�m
not quite sure if he�s British�my master�.� she mumbled on.

�Well I�m a vampire and my eyes aren�t red� the French man said.
Two vampires?!

�You�re different kinds of vampires Lestate, she�s from a different
world remember?� he heard the familiar man say

�Different worlds?� Kamui�s thoughts raced �and
the other guy said he was from Mars? Am I in another world? Did they come the
way I did?�

He heard horse hoofs again, they were coming
towards the four people on the other side of the buildings. Kamui stopped his
walking and clung to the wall as best he could. The people on the other end of
the buildings did the same as the horse rider stopped his pace as well.

�Koala?� he heard the familiar sounding man say �What are you doing
here? Aren�t you from Turtle�s base? This is Mouse�s territory�

�I know� he heard a forth man, a younger man say, he must be the horse
rider �but I was looking for you guys�.newcomers eh? It looks like there is
another one�

�Another one?� the French man said.

�Was he wearing a long red coat and a wide red hat?� the young woman
called out desperately.

�N�no�.he attacked me and Li�Rhino on meeting, we rode down our patrol
line and suddenly he jumped in front of us and blasted something at us�we
didn�t even see what it was�Rhino�s hurt, whatever it was it blew the horse up
to bits and injured her right open�.well�she�s in the infirmary and Charlie was
just sowing her shut but�..� the young man was starting to huff and puff,
misery seeping into his voice.

Kamui began feeling regret setting into his chest. It was the second of
the horseman he had hurt who talked to them now.

�So? Did you see who it was?� the French man asked.

�No, but Rhino did, she told Charlie and Charlie told me to tell you
and anyone else I see who might help look for him�..� he was huffing and
puffing again , probably with the stress of the whole experience running in his
head again.

�Calm down� he heard the voice of the familiar man say softly �tell us
how the person who hit you looked like�

�That�s what I came to tell you�.its a young man��

Kamui�s
heart began pounding loudly in his head

�Young, younger then us, almost a child�.very thin and wearing bright
but dirty clothing�.he has a sword, a very long sword with the Star of David at
it�s hilt�

Kamui�s
head began spinning, he looked at his shinken, the gilded symbol at it�s hilt. They were talking about him and now they�re going
to come and get him!

�Alright, thank you Koala, we�ll make sure not to end the patrol
without him. You can ride back to your base now, thank you� he heard the
familiar sounding man say, then he heard the horseman ride away.

Kamui couldn�t see Alex motioning Lestate to pay him attention. He
couldn�t hear their silent exchange of thoughts.

�I think he�s right across this corner Lestate, right behind this
building�

�I heard someone walking there; smelt him to be not a local too�

�Okay, let�s go�

Kamui suddenly heard people walking towards him very fast.

He managed to turn to his left and see who was coming his way, holding
firmly to his shinken.

From behind the corner, Kamui saw Fuma�.

his hair was longer, curving around his face, his skin was pale like
white marble and in the light coming from the house and the moon Kamui could
see his eyes were green but�it was definitely, definitely,

�Fuma?� he mumbled to himself in his sudden shock.

This Fuma, who was wearing armor and reaching out/resting his hand on
the hilt of a sword that hung to his left, stared back at him just as dazed and
shocked �That boy� he mumbled to himself.

Behind the corner another man emerged. He was blond,
a mane of light golden curls circled his face down to his shoulder, tied behind
by a ribbon who�s edges Kamui could spot on both sides of his head. He was
dressed fancily yet anciently, like a man from the 17^th, or 18^th
century in the west might have dressed. His eyes were sharp, an instinct told
Kamui there was something not human about this man.

Another blond head popped out from behind the corner and Kamui saw the
girl who spoke, she really had red eyes beaming a little most disturbingly in
the dark. Kamui took a step backwards, hanging hopeful eyes at this strange
Fuma who might be a sanctuary. After all, there was some sort of wondrous,
almost awe filled recognition in the man�s eyes as he looked at him.

�Look, the sword with the star of David, Alex this is our attacker� the
blond man, who was also the French man by his voice, and so a vampire, said and
pointed at Kamui.

Kamui took another step backwards, putting his shinken before him to fend
them off. He kept hanging his eyes at the Fuma (now obviously called Alex) for
help.

It helped, the Fuma/Alex guy took a step forward, sending a harmless
hand forward to Kamui, gesturing him to stop �Hey, can you understand me?�

Kamui nodded, fascinated now by this vision of a non-Fuma Fuma. He
stopped his small hesitative steps backwards.

The man looked reassuring and definitely harmless; in fact, he looked
like he only wanted Kamui�s good. Looking like he
does, Kamui couldn�t help himself from succumbing to the suddenly positive
version of Fuma after in his world�s Fuma became a
monster.

�You just came here? From the sky?� the man pointed his finger
heavenwards.

Kamui nodded, adding an �Emm� that was a
�yes� in his language.

�Alright then, you�re like them, come with us� the French man gestured,
beginning to turn around and lead on.

The Fuma man smiled at Kamui encouragingly. Kamui couldn�t help being
pulled after the only familiar face in this new and frightening place.

They didn�t manage to start walking before they heard more horse hoofs
behind them and a strong commanding voice of a man �Alex, where are you going?�

Kamui turned around and saw a man on horseback, he was dressed a bit
like the two other horsemen Kamui saw and attacked, only he had three short metal
stripes on the right of his shirt�s front. He had a white helmet shaped like
what Kamui could only think of as small mouse ears. He had short bright blond
hair and a shortly cropped beard.

He got off of his horse and walked confidently past Kamui up to the
French man and Alex.

Alex himself suddenly changed in character completely. At first he
seemed happy to see the new man, then there was a sharp alarm on his face and turned
still as if frozen. The man walked almost directly at him, as if he was his
master.

�What are you doing here?� the man asked sharply, almost accusingly.

�We have newcomers here Mouse. We�re taking them to the infirmary,
what�s wrong with that?�

Mouse frowned and folded his arms on his chest �Oh, and have you heard
of Rhino being attacked, have you not thought about searching out her
attacker?�

Alex seemed to be restraining some great anger within him, silencing
himself into submission. It was almost funny; this Alex person was a well muscular
man in armor with a sword ready for pulling while this Mouse guy had nothing on
but a gun tucked into his belt behind his back. Kamui realized Mouse could be
easily beaten by Alex.

But it seemed, that Mouse had some sort of a power over this Alex person
who looked so much like Fuma, something that made him be a threat to the other
man just by being around him.

�Mouse� Alex said after a deep breath, suddenly his eyes filled with
affection as if he was looking at a beloved person �this is the boy that
attacked Rhino..� he gestured towards Kamui and before he even got to finish
his sentence Mouse cut through his speech.

�Well then take him away! Arrest him! She might be dead!� Mouse almost
yelled at Alex, taking an accusing step forward.

�Mouse, listen� Alex reached out for the other man, almost choking on
restrained anger mixed with a warmer emotion.

�No you listen to me!� Mouse slapped the friendly hand away half way
through its course �I know what I�m saying, this boy attacked a Noter and
seriously injured her, he should be locked away in prison!� he was shouting
now.

Kamui�s
mind froze, he just arrived and before he even found himself an anchor or a
home he was already about to leave to a prison!

�Mouse!�
Alex was shouting as well �You have no idea what you�re talking about, he�s only
a boy and he just arrived! He should be in the infirmary to register and accept
him, you can�t��

�I don�t care what you think Alex!� Kamui noted there was an
amount of fatigue in the man�s angry shout, as if they�ve had this argument
over and over again endlessly. �I�ve had enough of you taking charge of everything!!
I�m tired of you completely!�

Suddenly something hit Alex that Kamui couldn�t see. The man grabbed
his head, shutting his eyes tight in a strong painful expression. He gritted
his teeth, in deep suffering from something that was going on in his head. Obviously
it was started by Mouse for the man stood above Alex as a defeater.

�Enough Mouse, you�ll flip him like that!� Lestate hurried to cover
Alex, crouching over him as Alex fell to his knees whimpering painfully.

�As if he�s the only one in pain!� Mouse spat back.

Kamui saw Alex opened his eyes, still clutching at his head painfully. His
eyes began glowing turquoise. All the while Kamui felt like he was watching a
living movie, so unreal was everything that happened around him, and so new.

�Always running around me, always pestering me and chasing me like he
wants�.like he wants�.� Mouse began muttering, suddenly unsure and slightly
frightened.

Kamui noted it must have been because Alex began rising to his feet
with his eyes the way they are now.

�Wanting what Mouse? Wanting you? What�s wrong with that? After all the
shit you give people around you, after all the bitching you pull on your Noters
and on me. After all these thoughts and memories you send me, tormenting me
like I was your beast to kick around, after all that you should be glad someone
still has interest in you� Alex now growled.

Kamui watched as the tables turned on this Mouse person; a strange turquoise
aura began developing around Alex while his eyes glowed like there were two turquoise
fires burning in them.

Lestate stumbled backwards. The manner in which he did it indicated
that he was frightened, but also expecting it. He was watching it, knowing what
might happen and waiting for it to happen.

Mouse took hesitative steps backwards, his horse fled long ago, leaving
him with no way to run. He obviously defended himself with something because
suddenly Alex�s aura disappeared and he resumed his screaming of pain,
clutching at his head miserably.

Mouse took control again, driving Alex higher and higher up the little
hill to their right. Stumbling here and there, screaming in pain, Alex backed
off away Mouse�s strides on all fours like a beast.

Suddenly he snapped and the aura returned. It did not just return; it
was immense now and burning like fire. From Alex�s back Kamui saw two huge bat
like wings emerging, flapping powerfully, sending gushes of air that knocked
Mouse to the ground.

�Oh no, he made him flip again, and his medications ran out�.what will
stop him now?!� Kamui tore his eyes from the sight to look at the French man by
him. He looked terrified and worried.

�What is he doing? Mouse that is?� Kamui dared to ask, hanging his eyes
at Alex, now taking big steps towards Mouse who was squirming in fear on the
ground.

�He�s�.well it�s a long story but he�s sending these painful thoughts
into Alex�s head as a sort of punishment�

�Is he his master?�

�No, he�s his crush�.look!�

Alex drew his sword, holding it way up above his head, about to swing
it down to hit Mouse.

Mouse fought to get to his feet only to stumble and fall again, he was
screaming something but in the noise of whatever the aura was no one can hear
him.

�You don�t want me yet you are the one who�s chasing me!� Alex called out;
he seemed to be completely different from what Kamui saw him as first. No
matter what, Kamui couldn�t find anything like Fuma in him, not even in his
latest monstrous mode.

�You found out your ability to show me horrors and now you use it just for
fun. But you don�t know the damage that you cause me, the pain you inflict upon
me, you just play with it like a toy. You make me so miserable I want to kill
myself and end the pain.

�but you see� he was almost laughing now, an evil malice filled
laughter �when I try to kill myself I only end up killing the one who caused me
pain�

�No�no�noooo� Kamui could hear Mouse scream
through the noise.

�So that�s what I�ll do now!� and with that Alex swung down his sword, dealing
a deadly blow to Mouse.

Silence spread as blood began dripping away from the aura�s radios and
down the hill to the group at its feet.

�Now what?�
Lestate took a step backwards, pulling on Kamui�s
mucky shirt gesturing him to do the same. Alex began walking towards them with
the same malice and aura around him, his bloody sword still in his hand ready for
another attack.

Kamui was frozen on his spot, digesting what he just saw. He looked
deep into this Fuma�s eyes trying to understand what
he saw and succeeding. He faced off Fuma in another monstrous state, he can do
it again.

Alex was on the very edge of the aura and Lestate thought that surely
the boy will end his life now. He cringed backwards, running possibilities and
ways to snap Alex out of his current state.

But something magical happened before his eyes: Alex stopped his
vengeful walk right before the boy. His face cleared of any malice, his aura
subsided and his wings folded back into him, his cape appearing instead.

They simply stood there and stared into each other�s eyes, without
word, without action.

This new boy, brave or simply stupid, somehow calmed Alex down
completely�..could it be?

The air was freezing as a small blizzard rampaged around Alex and Mouse�s
hill during their argument. Now it calmed down though the air remained cold.
Snowflakes slowly landed magically around them though not a single cloud
appeared above.

After a few good moments of silent confusion and awe Lestate snapped
out of his shock ��Alex, we should be heading towards the infirmary now�.�

It snapped both Alex and Kamui out of their shock; they looked confused
from each other to the ones behind them.

�What did you say your name was kid?� Alex looked down at Kamui as if
he just woke up.

�Kamui�and you�re�.Alex-san?�

�Yes�.w-welcome to the Lost Dimension�

�Emm�.�

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

In the infirmary Kamui was examined by Charlie and a purple haired
nurse smiling kindly and motherly at him.

�So, you�re the culprit who slashed one of the Noters� Charlie raised a
mock accusing eyebrow at Kamui.

�A�I�m sorry I didn�t understand all of what you said�.� Kamui was
blushing as he was unbuttoning his shirt at Charlie�s order. Striping in front
of people was never his favorite thing to do and striping before a bunch of
complete strangers from a place like this was even a less appealing idea.

�You�re the one who attacked the girl on the horse?� Charlie asked
again, frowning at the huge amounts of bandages on Kamui�s
arms, neck and right leg.

�Y...yes�I was alarmed by her�I�m very very
sorry� he bowed. He wished to hide his deeply reddening face as well as
apologizing.

�That�s alright, you were frightened and you didn�t harm her that much,
she�ll be better soon� Charlie now ran his fingers along the bandaged thin
arms, he was frowning seriously now.

�What�s wrong Charlie?� Kamui snapped his head up to see Alex in the
doorway leaning against the door�s frame looking worried. It made Kamui blush
even more with this Fuma thing staring at him the way he was now.

�Hey, eh, Kamui right? What are all these?� Charlie pointed at the bandages
around Kamui�s body parts.

�Oh!� he forgot about them completely! Why, they didn�t even hurt now!
Kamui thought he didn�t feel it because he was so busy with the strange things
going on around him but even now they still didn�t hurt or itch as they always
did before. Could it be that he healed so quickly from these wounds?!

�Don�t be alarmed if they�re gone now, once this dimension takes you
into it�s arms it heals you from any sort of injury or illness you had back in
your world. Why,� Charlie crossed his gaze with Alex�s �we had people here who
were taken at their death, as brutal as it was, and suddenly here they were,
mended again and alive. Miraculous thing this dimension�it really
is�.sometimes�� Charlie�s face darkened suddenly.

�D�dimension?� Kamui�s
head began spinning inside again, where was he?!

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

After a long explanation and a short interview all three newcomers were
deemed to be in the Rescue Team.

To make sure they fitted in their powers were tested.

After hearing the jobs offered to him (grave digger, lettuce farmer, shepherd)
Spike decided to suddenly remember what he could do.

Spike excelled in hand to hand combat martial art style or simple
experience he gathered in his years. Plus he had a gun; bullets could be
provided by the Noters who had guns like his, or by Alex�s powers.

Victoria was a bit timid at showing her powers at first; she
didn�t know she had them really. After a long pep talk with Alex she managed to
give a few examples of her vampire powers and a small show of her RPG�s
capabilities.

Kamui gave a few controlled energy blasts after which he spent half an
hour lectured by Charlie about keeping his powers contained and controlled with
consideration to the civilians around them. Trying to form a kekkai was an idea
that would only depress Kamui due to his inability to do it and due to the fact
that it reminded him of his newly lost home world.

It was decided that he could use those powers to protect the city�s
population.

�Protect?� Kamui raised tired eyes to Charlie who took some of his time
to lecture the newcomers; after all he was the very first in the team and the
one to form it. Lestate also added a word here and there, he was the second man
in the little team after it�s beginning.

�Yes Kamui, I know it seems like a big job, protecting
e-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y in this city but�.� Charlie was talking to him like he was a
child, gesturing with his hands for something big, it pissed Kamui off.

�In my world I was to protect Tokyo and the whole world from complete destruction�.�
Kamui folded his arms on his chest, looking sideways annoyed.

�Oh�.really�..� Charlie scratched the back of his neck, awkward �How
old are you?�

�I�m sixteen� Kamui sent a pair of blazing violet eyes at Charlie, daring
him to make any remark about his tender age.

Charlie read the bitterness and anger off the young man and backed off
�Very well then, this should be a piece of cake for you, ha ha
ha�

Kamui�s
head felt like led again; trying to grasp everything that he saw so far and
heard so far was a hard task. Trying to figure out exactly what is going on in his own world is a task so difficult and probably so
painful that Kamui just delayed it for some other day

The current patrol�s men began escorting Victoria, Spike and Kamui to their new home.

�This is good Alex� Lestate chirped on one end of the little group.

�Yes, more manpower and we need that.� Alex returned the chirp from the
other end of the group walking to the main house �Things like tonight with the fire
monsters, it�s just dangerous. Ace and Tara
were already exhausted from their patrols earlier today, I�ve been with them in
their patrols�.now maybe we can have two men per patrol now!�

Alex scanned the newcomers.

They arrived at a two floored house atop a larger hill overlooking most
of the city. By the house stood a well and an area of flat ground where a
strange half pampered half abandoned vegetable garden grew.

A woman in a bright green dress picked something out of the ground in
the garden, shook the earth off of it and walked to the front door when she
noted the group �Oh hello there! Those are the newcomers? All of them?� she
smiled at them all.

�Everybody, this is Tara, Tara, everybody�
Lestate walked forwards, standing besides Tara.

Mumbled �hello� versions were sounded from the three newcomers.

�Tara here is a witch. She too is a part of the team�

�She doesn�t look like a witch� Spike, who lit a cigarette he found in
his front pocket noted cynically.

�Well I don�t know what your image of witches is but it�s definitely
not me� Tara smiled, keep her patience �I deal with Wicca based
magic and we�re quite different from what you might think�

�Hmm� Spike looked away �no broomstick then� he thought to himself.

�This is Spike Spiegel, he�s a�what was it? Bounty
hunter. This is Victoria Seras she�s a
vampire�� Alex introducing them all now.

�Another vampire? That�s four already, can you handle them all?� Tara
suddenly cut into his speech.

There are more like that?! A shudder went through Kamui�.this is indeed
a strange world�he wondered what Alex had to do with it, every time vampires
were mentioned he was somehow linked up to them.

�Yes and don�t worry about it, she won�t nip at you at night. Where was
I? Ah yes, last but not least, this is Kamui Shiro, he�s from Japan if I am not mistaken and he is�.the savior if
humanity, right?�

Kamui nodded surprised to find himself
blushing again, he was never introduced this way.

�How old are you kid?� Tara frowned at him. Again that age thing�Kamui could hang
her from the balcony above them right now.

�Oh Tara mon
cheri!� suddenly Lestate called out �What happened to
your beautiful skirt? It has a nasty black tare in it!� he took the large wavy
bright green skirt Tara was wearing along with a bright amber modest corset and
a matching bright green sleeves and examined it carefully. It was mostly dark
around them with very little light coming from the house�s door yet Lestate
seemed to be able to see the tare to details.

�Ah, the fire, it got me a little. I wasn�t burnt but�could I borrow a
piece of your velvets?� she was examining her damaged velvet skirt too.

�Oh but I don�t have velvet this shade! Such a shame, I do have a large
collection but not this shade�.�

Lestate looked genuinely upset by this.

�Yes you do��

�No my dear, I don�t�

Tara
paused for a moment, staring strangely at Lestate �But�.but I saw the very same
shade pasted on your wall�.it�s exactly the same, I checked once�.�

Lestate raised his eyes to her �But darling, it�s not the same color
it�s�.�

�Lestate� Alex moved a little awkwardly to pat the vampire on his back
�what you can see she can�t, give her mortal eyes a little break�

Tara
sneered angrily �Gees, make me feel a little more inferior why won�t you?�

Lestate looked at Alex and Tara miserably �But�.but it�ll be an
eyesore��

�What would be more of an eyesore to you Lestate� Kamui noted there was
an air of fatherhood and compassion coming off of Alex towards the blond while
the vampire himself leaned into the other man�s touch as if wishing it to be
more romantic then domestic �the slight mismatch in her skirt or that awful big
tare she has now?�

Lestate shrugged and mumbled a small �Take the patch I have Tara�
under his breath.

�You see my friends, Lestate here� Alex gestured at the vampire �is a
bit obsessed about pretty fabrics�

�I am decorating my room you little mongrel and you have
to admit that so far I�m doing a wonderful job at it, obsessed or not!� he spat
back venomously. In the moons light his fangs shone a bit as he snarled.

�You stare at it for hours Lestate!�

�Leave him alone, look, just give me a piece and I�ll weave a spell to
change its color�

�I tell you, he really is obsessed� Alex sniggers,
poking at Lestate�s ribs.

The vampire glared at Alex, making him do a puppy dog face half in
humor.

�Why velvet?� Spike rubbed his arms fighting off the night�s cold.

Kamui drifted away from the conversation, staring at the people rather
then listening to what they said.

�It reflects the light nicely�wait, you said
you can change the color of the fabric?!� the vampire turned to Tara
again.

�Never mind, we�ll talk about it later. Come on in people, it�s
freezing outside� Tara walked into the house, closely accompanied by
Lestate. The rest followed quickly after.

They entered a house looking as if it was about to collapsed. There
were cracks running through the walls, moss gathered here and there around moisture
patches on the ceiling and second hand tattered furniture scattered for normal
furnishing.

The main door opened to a large room with a table (on which stood several
empty bowls and a bottle meaning this was a dining table) near which a doorway
to a kitchen stood.

There was another large room leading from the dinner room. Several old
sofas stood there and a table with scattered cards on it. From the first large
room with the dining table two rooms lead, another two
doors to two other rooms could be seen from the living room.

�Right, now, Victoria you can share a room with Tara if you wouldn�t mind
all the strange herbs and potion bottles, she�s the only female here� Alex gave
a wink to Tara who made a mock smirk at him �but I�d recommend you�d stay with
Lestate, there are shutters on the window that are perfect for a vampire to
sleep in it and not be bothered by the sunlight��

�Umm�.am I going to sleep in a coffin?� Victoria cringed, completely ignoring the offers.

�Yes�.� Alex began speaking to her like to a little child, patiently,
not patronizingly.

�But I don�t like coffins�..they�re creepy�.� Her eyes really began
tearing.

�So it�ll be a bed under which you�ll have a box to sleep in, not necessarily
a coffin alright?� he placed a comforting hand on her arm and she
nodded.

�Can I have a pillow and a blanked inside?� she asked like a little
girl.

�Yes you can� his smile was so soft and kind.

Kamui felt something melt in him. It was like Fuma used to speak to
Kotori once�.oh god, Kotori was also away from him�.her grave and her tree
anyway�.

�Fledglings, tssk� Lestate stormed into the
living room and disappeared into one of the two rooms. Victoria hurried after him, glancing back at Alex from time to
time to assure herself of his promise.

�Settle down and get back here to feed, you�re starved� Alex called
after her.

She appeared again �Feed?�

�Yes�

�You mean�.with blood?� she cringed.

�Yes�

�But I don�t like it�

�Victoria, you�re a vampire and vampires eat blood. Now go
settle down and get back here so I can feed you! There�s no way I�m going to
leave you as starved as you are right now, got it�

She pouted but disappeared into the room.

A man came out of a room into the dining room. He had short unruly
curly dark brown hair and small eyes that were humorous yet sad at the same
time, very sad. He was wearing a shiny green suit in a space-age style. He had
a golden �H� letter on his forehead. He looked at the remaining two newcomers
and smiled a shy hello smirk. His eyes darted at Alex almost automatically and
Kamui noted his face brightened up in happiness.

But Alex didn�t look at him, he noted him at the corner of his sight
and looked away, suddenly uncomfortable and dark. This, Kamui noted, made the
�H� man suddenly grimace a little and sadden from his happiness.

�Ace, this is Spike and Kamui, there�s another newcomer that went with
Lestate, she�s a vampire and her name is Victoria. Why did take off you Ace outfit?� Tara
was brushing something off of Ace�s green suit�s shoulder. She looked pretty
sisterly with him.

�Oh I couldn�t be bothered with the wig and everything, hello everyone�what
did you say the other girl, was she another vampire? My there are four of them
here now, Alex?� Ace hung hopeful eyes at the larger man, begging for attention.

Alex didn�t even look at Ace, instead his dug his eyes at the floor and
grunted some sort of a �hmmm� or a �yes�.

As he stared at them Kamui realized something by the two�s body
language; Ace probably had some strong admiration or affection towards Alex.
Alex was unwilling to return those feelings out of anger or out of discomfort.
Whatever it was that happened sometimes between them, Kamui decided, it was
ugly.

�There aren�t any other rooms?� Spike wondered,
looking this and that way, trying to see maybe another doorway to a fifth room
if there was any.

�No, sorry about that� Ace tried to smile but seemed a bit too timid to
do it at someone he didn�t know. He seemed to be a little intimidated by the
other man�s confidence stance.

�Fine, I�ll share your room, where�s my bed then?� with a shrug and a
pull to Ace�s sleeve Spike disappeared into the room Ace came out of. Ace
himself sent a questioning half frightened and half surprised look at Tara who
smiled back before he was completely dragged into the room.

�Right�that leaves my room for us� Kamui almost jumped out of his skin
when he noticed that A) Alex was talking to him B) it was frightening in the
way his heart jumped a little when he heard him say �for us� C) he was
disappointed when he found that he was not in a dream of some sort, that this
strange ordeal he fell into was real and continued on and on.

�Ah�.emm� Kamui bent his head down and
followed Alex to a room right by Lestate�s (and now
Victoria�s) room. His shinken dragged on the wooden floor, leaving a long
scratch into the warren wood.

He entered a simple room about twice the size of the room freshly given
to him by Clamp campus�.god he didn�t even get to spend the night in that
room�. where he is now?!

There was a simple double bed made of the roughest wood and the
simplest mattress which, Kamui guessed, was Alex�s. Another bed appeared near
the opposite wall, as simple as the double bed.

Kamui blinked at the sight before him; the bed simply appeared before
his eyes!

�H�.how?� he mumbled, terrified of taking a step towards this strange
new furniture.

�Ah, yes, I can do that�not really human and all�� Alex actually looked
awkward, as if it wasn�t obvious to the boy that he wasn�t human after what he
saw with Mouse and all�.as if he�s apologizing.

�Anyways Kamui try to get some sleep because you�ve had a long night
and all and�umm�.well, tomorrow you�ll start your first patrol and all so it�ll
be a long day�.

For the first time they were alone in a room without anyone around
them. Kamui found it a bit unnerving and unreal, the whole situation along with
his new roommate. He raised his eyes to Alex and stared at him for a while.

Something flashed across Alex�s face as he stared down at him, Kamui
simply couldn�t put his finger on it but it was something soft and warm, caring
like. �Is there something you need?� he asked softly, edging a little closer.

Kamui looked away at the floor, suddenly blushing without knowing why.
He was different, this Fuma thing, way different, so why was he acting up like
that?!

�I�m fine�I�ll try to catch some sleep�� he waddled over to the bed,
placing the shinken on the mattress by him before crashing on it completely.

He lay at his side looking at the wall before him, his mind was blank
and his fingers ran idly over the complicated engravings into the gilded hilt
of the sword.

He noted the mattress under him was thicker then the one on Alex�s bed.
He also noted that the fabric of his bed�s sheets was a wonderfully soft and
smooth one in comparison to the crude looking, almost gauze-like simple sheets
Alex�s bed have. This was intentional, Kamui realized, the question is what
Alex�s motive at it was?

Was he trying to spoil him like a big brother? Was he trying to give
him a small comfort for his harsh arrival, something to ease his mind off of
the little cranks of life so that he can clear his mind for the more important
digestion of his new situation? Or maybe�.just maybe�.it was like a suitor
giving a rose to the one he�s courting? Kamui whipped that thought quickly.

After some moments of silence in which Alex stood and stared at him as
if waiting for something he departed with a short �Goodnight�.

Obviously Kamui couldn�t sleep, even when he turned off every candle
that lit the room sat inside a complicated shelf which could reflect and
enhance their light around the room. The candles made Kamui realize this world
has no electricity�.oh my�

There weren�t thoughts that ran through his mind to keep him from sleeping;
his mind was still like a vacuum. Whenever he closed his eyes his eyelids
seemed to bounce right back up to turn the closing into blinking. He tried
thinking but found it way too difficult and painful, little hammers began
pounding softly at his temples. He was in a little bit of a shock forcing his
body to stay awake and alert. All newcomers have that first night, Kamui isn�t
alone, even the seemingly careless and lean back Spike couldn�t sleep that
night.

After what seemed like an hour or so the door to his room was opened
again. Kamui, who sat on his bed now with his hand on his shinken, raised his
eyes to see Alex looking into the room.

�Ah, still can�t get any sleep. Well that�s natural I guess, with
everything that happened tonight and all�.� He walked into the room gently
closing the door behind him. Kamui noted the candles were rekindled as Alex
stepped in. He had something in his hand which he handed to Kamui. It was
clothes, folded and neat, something small lay in a paper bag amongst the folds.

Kamui took the little pack in his hands and examined the fabric. It was
soft and nice to touch, the color of dark green with little bleach stains here
and there; A small shirt and a pair of pants patched here and there by a
mismatching fabric.

The paper bag had three leaves that smelled funny in it.

�What is it?� he asked, guessing vaguely that the used clothes were for
him but intrigued about the leafs.

�A pajama for you, so you won�t have to go to sleep in your dirty
clothes�I mean�� Alex seemed to be suddenly ashamed of the unintentional offense
at Kamui�s current outfit �Well they got dirty, I�m
sure you didn�t come in this state, I mean they�re torn here and there so I
thought�.umm�.� after seeing that Kamui�s expression
didn�t change from just staring at him into some sort of an upset expression,
Alex relaxed a little bit.

It was very, very hard to speak when Kamui�s
beauty kept overwhelming Alex whenever he looked at him �And Charlie gave me
the leafs for you, they�re sleep inducing herbs to help you sleep tonight�

Kamui looked back at the leafs questioningly.

�Oh, I�m so stupid sometimes, sorry about that, umm, Charlie told me to
tell you that you�re supposed to chew them to get their effect, and then spit
them out. They don�t taste bad, so I heard� Alex gave off a short nervous
laughter, looking at Kamui looking back at him.

�Thank you� Kamui looked back at the leafs,
taking one out of the bag and examining it from all directions �how many do I
take?�

�One at first but not one after another or you�ll be all fuzzy
tomorrow�

�Fuzzy?� Kamui pronounced the word in a suddenly Japanese accent after
all the English he spoke was pretty much natural sounding.

�Groggy, sleepy�

�Ah��

�Well then, goodnight Kamui, I have to get back to my patrol. See you
tomorrow morning� he disappeared behind the door leaving Kamui in the room�s
darkness again.

Funny person that Alex guy, Kamui thought, it�s seems as if he�s trying
very hard to be extra nice or something. There are still awkward silences when
two people from different world who have absolutely no idea what the other is
and Alex is obviously trying hard to change that.

Kamui snuggled into the wonderful thick duvet on his bed.

Changing from his old clothes was strange; it was not an unusual thing
for him to take off clothes and wear a pajama for sleep but there was something
else in this.

With his old shirt still on, Kamui reached to touch the tear in his
shirt�s shoulder where Inuki grabbed him to try and save him from the void.

He finished changing, folded his old clothes tidily and placed them
neatly by his pillow, staring at them as if to see any change that might happen
to them. This outfit, like the shinken, like his room in
Clamp campus, like his role as �savoir of humanity�, all new things he
just received before he was snatched off completely to where he can�t and don�t
need to use them

He chewed on one of the leafs,
feeling a strange numbness spreading in his mouth along with a light mint flavor.
Then a soft sleep slowly descended on him, wrapping him gently like fog.

Kamui didn�t dream that night though his sleeping mind wanted to dream;
He wanted to see feathers flying in black void and a glass earth with Hinoto in
it. He wanted to see Tokyo in sandy ruins and dragons emerging from star of David shaped red cracks into Tokyo�s ground.

He wanted to be in his old world and open his eyes to it the next
morning. Yet he knew, as he slowly digested all the information he gathered
that day, that it wasn�t going to happen�.ever.

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

Kamui opened his eyes and saw a moisture patch on the ceiling way above
him. The ceiling was like nowhere he�s ever woken up to and so Kamui began
quickly scanning his mind looking for what might have brought him under this
new roof.

When he remembered everything he cringed and rolled to his side and
resume sleep. The shinken by him was reflecting his body heat and its metallic
feel was making him slightly sick.

He rolled to the other side, facing the rest of the room.

He saw Alex sitting on his bed crouched over his work; he was sunk into
sowing Kamui�s old clothes. They were clean now,
without the grass stains, dirt and soot that clung to it during yesterday�s
adventures.

Kamui took his time at looking at the man in his work. Why was he mending
his clothes? Out of kindness of course, Kamui remembered the pajama he was
wearing now. It was strange to see a heavily
built man like Alex so sunk into a gentle work such as sowing. Still, as Kamui
noticed, Alex didn�t have the rough big hands Kamui expected a man his size
would have. He had relatively small, gentle, almost feminine hands and Kamui
realized that maybe somewhere along this man�s past he was small bodied, maybe
even effeminate, and not so rough looking.

Alex wore a black tunic with complicated red patterns sown into the
light fabric around the V shaped collar and the bottom of the shirt. The long
wide sleeves with red patterns at their edges somewhat dimmed the size of
Alex�s strong arms as Kamui remembered them.

His pants were simple and black as well with no special decoration or
design.

For the first time Kamui noted a small tattoo on Alex�s right arm,
right in the middle. After focusing a bit Kamui made out a five digits number
crudely printed into the white skin in dark blue ink. It made Kamui wonder for
a while, and then Alex noted his awakening.

�Good morning� he beamed at him happily �have you slept well?�

Kamui nodded silently, rubbing his head against his soft pillow.

�Good, are you hungry?� he seemed ready to hop to his feet and fetch
him something to eat.

Kamui didn�t answer. Instead he stared at the sowing hands �Why are you
fixing my clothes?� he asked after some time of staring.

Alex looked back down at his hand as if he just noted what they were
doing �Umm�.I thought you might want to wear them today and since they�re all
torn up and all�.we can get you new, well, other clothes if you like,
later in your patrol, if you want� the green eyes of a Fuma hung at Kamui
hopefully.

Kamui stared back at them. His view was half obscured by the pillow he
dug himself into. He didn�t feel like getting out of bed. �Thank you for fixing
my clothes, you shouldn�t have� he said, looking away.

�Nah, don�t be silly, it�s easy, you know�are you hungry? You didn�t
eat anything last night� Alex put the fully mended shirt aside and got to his
feet.

Kamui thought about it for a while, if he got out of the bed it�ll mean
he�ll have to start a day in this world and that means he�ll have to start
accepting where he is�..he really didn�t want to do that.

Then again he was hungry�.

Most unwillingly, he dragged himself out of the bed and followed Alex
past the living room to the little kitchen.

His pajama was a little bit big around his shirt�s collar which fell
diagonally from his neck to his left shoulder, his sleeves past his fingertips.
He had to tug at his pants from time to time to keep them from falling off.

Somewhere at the back of his mind he noted Alex kept darting his eyes
to these pieces of exposed skin, then dart them back quickly before it�ll be
noticed. A full fledged mature lust flickered in the green deeps as he did it,
making Kamui feel paralyzed as he realized it.

Alex pulled out a bowl from a cupboard fixed into the wall of the
kitchen. He lit a small fire in large blackened pot that looked like a
primitive version of a gas cooker without the gas. He pulled out a pan and
poured a trickle of oil into it. Then he spilt some of a thick bright creamy liquid
from the bowl into the pan after hanging the pan above the fire.

Kamui sat on a chair by the dining table and watched Alex through the
door to the kitchen. Soon the air filled with a sweet smell of Kamui�s breakfast.

Driven by the wonderful smell and his churning stomach, Kamui got up
and walked to Alex�s side looking at what was cooking in the pan. �What are you
making?� he asked, his curiosity overcoming his slight awkwardness.

�Pancakes!
It�s my specialty!� Alex beamed at him proudly. He reached out and pulled a
large jar out of a different cabinet �Here, you can put some honey on them,
this one�s almost ready� he handed Kamui the jar.

Kamui stared from the jar to the pan, now taken from the fire to a
plate nearby on the kitchen table. Alex poured some more of the pancake substance
into the pan and resumed his former position.

Kamui noted that the pan�s handle had no kind of heat resisting
substance covering it while Alex held it above the fire. Was he immune to the
heat? Then Kamui remembered Alex mentioning he wasn�t human�.strange.

�How many do you want Kamui?� his voice cut through Kamui�s
thoughts.

�Uh�I don�t know�in Japan pancakes like these (he sized up the thick large
pancake) are found in restaurants served with ice-cream and some whipped cream
on top�this is really�.�

�Look, I�m making you three, you don�t know how busy we might be in
time for lunch so, dig in while it�s hot� there was something disturbing Alex.

After some frowning and switching his weight from one foot to the other
he shot an apologizing glance at Kamui �I know we don�t have ice cream here or
whipped cream or anything and I know, you think that I can make some like I
made your bed but�.well, it�s just not fair because food isn�t very common here
and it�s not fair for us to have a large breakfast while other people here
might not have a breakfast at all�� Alex hung desperate eyes at Kamui, hoping
the boy won�t scold him. �I�.I�m not trying to keep you from eating or starving
you or anything�� he began mumbling to himself.

Kamui sat at the dinner table, pouring the rich honey on his pancake.
There was something very logical and very honest about Alex�s claim about his
breakfast. Then again he didn�t actually expect him to make whipped cream and a
ball of ice-cream on his plate just like that. �It�s all right�.and I think
three might be too much so�� a second pancake landed on his plate by the first
one, Alex returned to the kitchen as if ignoring his request for no more
pancakes on purpose. At least he managed to stop Alex�s self bashing mumble�

After the third pancake was made and Kamui began eating his second one
Alex sat down on a chair opposite to Kamui�s and
observed the boy�s eating as if making sure he was to consume everything on his
plate.

�It�s delicious!� Kamui managed to say. It was, it was better then any
pancake Kamui ever ate. He made sure to cover his mouth as he spoke with a bite
full of pancake and honey in it, he didn�t want to be impolite with a stranger�.not
this stranger.

Alex beamed at him proudly �Good, then finish everything that�s there.
Say, your English is really good for someone who�s not an original English
speaker�

�Thank you� Kamui swallowed and dealt some more honey to his next bite
�it was the only thing I got the hang of at school before I started skipping it
completely. When I didn�t go to school anymore I�d sit in front of the
television and watch foreign channels, CNN and BBC World sometimes I�d watch
Star World(1), do you know what I�m talking about?� he had the second and third
bites in his mouth by the end of his sentenced.

�Yeah, I know what you�re talking about. though I didn�t watch a lot of
television back in my world, it was a bit too modern for me� Alex finished it
with a nervous little laughter, looking away from the suddenly terribly young
boy that talked about school and television so freely.

�What year was it in your world� he hurried to change the subject.

�1999� Kamui poked at the third pancake, he really began feeling too
full for another one. It saddened him to think of his old world and what he
left behind, so much at stake�.�what year was it in the world you were in?�

Alex leaned back on his chair and looked out the window to his left �In
my original world it was about 2006�

�Wow!� Kamui stopped his unwilling pouring of honey on the third and
last thick pancake. �How was it like? Were you on earth?�

�Yeah, it wasn�t that much different then 1999 in my world, a little
more technology and a little more inter-country conflicts, same old shit�sorry�

Kamui shrugged, mildly amused. �What do you mean your original world?
You weren�t in it when you came here?�

Alex took a deep breath and sighed it out, still
looking out of the window �no, I was in a heaven dimension�.�

�Oh�.did you die?� Kamui hoped he wasn�t digging into a painful past.
In the meantime he was trying to fold the thick flattened pastry to minimize
the bites he took but the pancake was too thick and too rich to fold neatly.
Kamui wondered whether Alex made this extra thick to stuff him as much as
possible, considering his earlier guilty mumble about not trying to starve him.

�Yes and no. I was traveling dimensions at the time and in one of them
I sort of died only to sort of travel to a heaven dimension� Alex�s tone meant
that he was looking at his past bitterly, there was something painful in his
past.

�Oh�okay�� Kamui stabbed his fork into three pieces of pancake stacked
one on the other. �Forks are strange to use� he mentioned.

Alex returned his gaze back to Kamui and the present, they brightened
and a brilliant smile appeared on his face �You�re used to chop sticks?� Kamui
nodded and Alex laughed a little �I�m sure we can find something here but I�m
not sure we can find dishes you can eat with them�

Kamui glanced at him, trying to smile with a mouthful of pancakes. A
little honey dripped from the corner of his mouth and he hurriedly wiped it off
shyly making Alex snigger a bit. �I�m eating like Sorata does� he said once he
swallowed the huge amount.

�Who?�

�Some guy from my world, he eats like a pig and keeps dragging other
people to eat with him. He dragged me and this other girl he keeps chasing
after to a Korean barbeque restaurant!� he began stacking more pieces of pancakes to eat them next.

�What�s wrong with Korean barbeque?�

�Well�.I don�t know but not everything that�s Korean is acceptable in Japan, they�re looked upon as inferior so their food is kind
of awkward too but he doesn�t mind, its food�

Kamui noted that Alex�s face dropped a bit as he stared at him eating,
suddenly disappointed with Kamui.

�Do you think they are inferior?� Alex asked gravely.

Kamui shook his head, shrugging. He swallowed the last pieces of his
pancake and leaned back against the chair pushing his plate away. It was finally
over.

�People see them that way but I don�t know about what I think of them.
My mother never told me anything against them or anything so I never thought
about it�..it�s just something you soak from the people around �.I never met
anyone Korean so I don�t know what to think of them� he looked back at Alex
hoping to have said the right answer.

Alex brightened up a bit, smiling almost tiredly at him �That�s a good
way of thinking� he got up and, looking out the window at the sky above, said
�it�s going to be noon soon so you better hurry and wash your face in the well
and start getting ready to the patrol�.

�How do you know what time it is?� Kamui noted his wrist watch was
showing it was 3:24AM which it
surely wasn�t here.

�according to the sun, you�ll get used to it,
time here is measured by the sun and moon�s position in the sky and, the moon�s
shape tells the months are passing, run along now Kamui�

Kamui nodded, thanked Alex for the breakfast (which Alex brushed off
looking away shyly) and ran back to his room.

With his stomach full he felt a little better, now also knowing he had
some sort of a friendship with this new person looking a lot like Fuma. He
still had a pile of questions and wonderings about his own world without him
but he supposed he could ask Alex about that during their patrol.

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

The patrol started when Kamui and Alex, after standing for about
(according to Kamui�s attempt to evaluate time by his
wristwatch) half an hour at the doorstep of their common house, waiting for the
previews patrol to return.

Ace and Spike finally arrived, lively talking as they walked. Their
patrol passed in silence at first, then as Ace began shyly explaining the
various things to note and incidents that accord in the city and its
surroundings, Spike began opening up as well.

Spike was smoking, the little smoke puffs making the two look like a
train climbing the hill before the two heads and their bodies followed to show
what it really was.

�Now they�re going to tell us what they saw and what happened and we�ll
start our patrol� Alex turned to Kamui with the first explanation of the
patrol.

Alex never did this really; he was a new member once but never a tutor
to one. He tried to remember the explanations Lestate and Charlie gave him at
the time in their different patrols together and mend it with whatever lessons
he ever gave to anyone during his life. He never went to school which was quite
a problem when it came to educational role models and different tutoring
techniques to use. He figured that if he just told Kamui what he knew and tell
the boy to ask questions whenever he didn�t understand anything things will
basically go smoothly.

Kamui nodded and turned to look at the man and the hologram stepping closer
to them. He liked the idea of having to spend the next few hours with Alex and
his curiosity made the upcoming tour of the city an ensured enjoyment.

�Well, nothing happened really.� Ace began his briefing �people are
fixing whatever damage the fire monsters caused last night. There is a heated
debate between the cow farmers and the sheep farmers as to which will put the
next meat sacrifice by river from now on.

�Something happened last night that the sacrifice was not given, hence
the attack so now blames are swapped with several brawls but nothing we should bother
with. We explained the casualties in body and property to them and that seemed
to make some sort of a change of sprits.�

By now Ace began darting his eyes from Alex�s ignoring face to Spike as
if to recall the patrol�s incidents while looking away from what cause him
pain. �Then nothing much happened after that. Mouse�s funeral should be during
your patrol, I saw David preparing for it and the Noters starting to move from
their bases to the graveyard� after that Ace shrugged and walked into the
house, not waiting for questions and brushing against Kamui a little bit. Kamui
wondered about that.

Alex and Kamui officially began their patrol.

Their first stop was the infirmary. They will go past it three times
during their patrol. The infirmary, as Alex explained, was the start point from
which they headed out to three different directions for inspection and presence
around the city.

But the real reason why they walked straight towards the infirmary, and
not through a longer route that was the first line they should cover, was
Mouse�s funeral.

Kamui got his chance to take a good look at these strange people called
Noters, their behavior, their language and their outfits. Not many attended the
funeral, those who did were the commanders of the various bases (as Alex
pointed them out to be), the soldiers Mouse commanded and Lion; the commander
of all Noters.

Not many words were spoken but the short religious burial prayer and a
short speech by Lion who didn�t seem very keen on reading it out.

Kamui and Alex stood away from the funeral within hearing shot. Kamui
scanned over the faces and the different helmet shapes trying to figure out
what they were until he fully understood it.

Then he examined Iceman who was busy trying to listen to Lion and scan
the little crowd in search of anyone chatting or misbehaving. Kamui wondered
what the strangely dressed man was doing with the uniform clad people. He asked
Alex in silence and received a short explanation during which they were
approached by David.

Kamui scanned the bare-chested man with the crow-like wings and
realized it was him he saw last night thinking him to be the angel of death.
Suddenly, with his hands dirtied by the earth he dug and little beads of sweat
covering his forehead and chest David looked pretty normal, besides his wings.

His eyes, though, were something that set him off as abnormal. It�s not
that they were cold, they were stony; hard, lightless,
cold and lifeless. Kamui looked into the small foggy-grey eyes and received a
reprimanding stare back.

The undertaker was introduced to Kamui (who took an unaware step
backwards then shied away a little) then sunk into a fluent conversation with
Alex in a language Kamui couldn�t recognize. From time to time David�s eyes
would glance at Kamui but returned to Alex�s immediately. Kamui noticed that
David too had that number tattoo on his arm only his was longer and with
different digits. Kamui noted himself to ask Alex about that sometime.

Their conversation charged with disagreement for a while and by the
body language and gestures Kamui realized several things about the it�s topic:
A) it was about him B) Alex was in favor of something while David was against
it C) Alex was probably asking David for something because the conversation
didn�t end until David muttered something and looked away in a grudged
agreement.

David looked away at Kamui, with eyes that almost burnt with anger now,
suddenly they filled with emotion! For a moment or two Kamui stared at David
staring at him and probably thinking up things he might do him. Kamui tried to
figure out of David�s expression meant anger or sadness.

Then the eyes moved to Alex and David shrugged, gesturing he was throwing
something behind his back as he walked away from them. Kamui saw David had a
large tattoo of a red cross like the organization�s symbol between his shoulder
blades.

�After the funeral we�ll go get you other clothes if you�d like some,
David agreed� Alex informed him, smiling at him happily.

�Where from?
I don�t see any shops here�� Kamui was quick minded enough to get some vague
idea of where clothes could be got here. If his pajama�s condition was anything
to go by as an example and the undertaker�s connection to it all Kamui really
didn�t want to wear that pajama again tonight.

Lion and Iceman walked towards them and Alex used the opportunity to
avoid answering Kamui�s question.

�What are you doing here Alex?� Iceman grumbled containing his obvious
anger. His whole body language meant that he was ready to attack Alex anytime.
It also meant Iceman considered Alex as something inferior that can be
commanded about.

Alex didn�t budge at the threatening hints; in fact, he raised his chin
up as if to challenge Iceman who was calmed by Lion�s hand on his shoulder.

The slightly stumpy man who was about a head shorter then Iceman stared
at Kamui and smiled at him. Surprisingly he reached out and cupped Kamui�s chin roughly.

Big violet eyes stared at him in surprise and alarm. Kamui never had
any father figure to do that to him. He saw Mr. Monou do that to Kotori once or
twice, Kotori always beamed back at him so it must mean something positive and
parenting.

�My, how young you are� Lion smiled at him, for the first time Kamui heard
it and did not sense any patronizing in the words.

Lion noted his shinken now and frowned a little �and what a unique
sword you have� he was handed it most unwillingly by Kamui who found himself
unable to refuse the man after that first gesture.

Lion scrutinized the shinken, reading the Hebrew engraved into the
gilded stripe along the blade and examining the Star of David at its hilt. �The
phrase here is mixed up� he said finally, running his finger down the engraved
line showing Kamui what he meant.

�It�s cut in the middle so that the end of the phrase is the beginning
and the real beginning is half way through, it doesn�t make sense if it�s read
this way, have you noticed?�

By now both Alex and Iceman looked at the engraving too, reading what
it meant and nodding in agreement.

Kamui found himself suddenly lost and
miserable around these men who could tell him something about a sword born from
his own flesh and blood and brought from his own world. �Um�.I can�t read what
it says� I never noticed it�.I didn�t get the chance to really look at it so
deeply�� he mumbled, a blush creeping up into his cheeks.

He noted, at the corner of his eyes, that Alex examined him this way
and that his eyes lingered on his face meaningfully.

�You�re not Jewish?� Iceman asked him, his voice cold and deep. Kamui
could feel an icy breeze coming from him like an aura.

�No�I�m Shinto I think�I know a Buddhist and a catholic but not anyone Jewish�.I
never knew there was something written in this engraving� Kamui tried thinking
up what religion Aoki and Subaru came from and whether Saiki was the same
religion Aoki was since they were family members.

�So why do you have so many Jewish symbols on your sword?� Iceman�s
voice was applying some kind of a pressure on Kamui, a one that was real or a
one Kamui imagined in his state, but it was not very pleasant.

�Don�t pressure him he just arrived here, give him some slack� Alex
answered for him. It lead to a silent exchange of cold
glares between Alex and Iceman only to be stopped by Lion breaking him off
almost physically. He handed Kamui his
shinken and stepped back beaming an encouraging warm smile at the suddenly
frail looking boy.

�So why are you here Alex? In the funeral of the very man you murdered�
Iceman definitely had a lot of scorn and anger in his voice now; he began a
glare war with the other man again.

�I don�t really blame him to be honest� Lion said suddenly after a long
sigh. Kamui perked up his ears to collect as much information about what he saw
last night as possible.

�What do you mean?!�

�I mean that Mouse was a man of many ideals and many words but frankly
he messed up here and there in base life management, he made his soldiers angry
and bitter against him, let alone Alex. Maybe he had good intentions but he had
bad ideas of how to carry them. As for Death here� he gestured with his head
towards Alex who bowed his head in response and shot a nervous glance at Kamui
�I think they tormented each other to death� and with that he patted Alex and
Kamui simultaneously on their shoulders and departed, Iceman trailing after him
like a puppy, shooting small angry glares at Alex.

�How did he call you?�

�Death, it�s what I am, I�ll explain it to you later Kamui, now we have
to get you some clothes�

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

Kamui stood inside the large cooled shed looking at shelves over
shelves of clothing and fabrics. Everything was so piled up and pressed that
Kamui had no way of finding out what was what in to choose his new clothes. He
had to choose the items by color at first then yank each item out of its pile
to see what it was and if it fits him at all.

All the while Kamui could hear Alex and David chatting in their
language monotonously, standing outside the shed. He wondered where they knew
each other from whether they were related or from the same world. They had that
language they both knew and they had those tattoos and the wings (different in
shape but still wings).

After about an hour and a half of yanking, examining and fitting Kamui
came out of the shed with a pile of clothes he hoped he won�t be scolded about.
He realized David did not like the idea of this shed used and hoped that Alex
didn�t mean only a single shirt instead of his torn one.

He walked up to the two men who were crouching strangely against the
wall of the shed, his head bowed and his hands holding the clothes as if on a
tray.

He looked to Alex who stood up to see what Kamui chose. �Did I choose
too many?�

�Nah, this shed needs emptying from time to time anyway, show me what
you picked. I wondered what a guy your size might find there�

The powerful silence coming from David who still looked away
resentfully meant more then a thousand words.

Kamui spread out one piece after another, shyly turning them from one
side to another, mentioning little tares here and there, damaged which Alex immediately
offered to fix.

Finally he spread out an item he very much craved for but was most
timid about, might it be denied of him as too expensive or too fancy.

It was a theatrical long black cape with the silk on the inside dyed
bright violet. It was almost undamaged but a few strings pulled out here and
there at the bottom and it matched Kamui�s old cape
which he brought with him to Tokyo and lost somewhere along the road to the
Seals.

Alex merely nodded and mentioned Kamui found a really cool cape and
that it would look great on him, he was sure.

Kamui stepped into the shed again to change into his selected items for
today: a black tank top with a black pair of pants and the cape.

He loved wearing black because it made his skin look even paler thus
making him look unique in the beach city Okinawa with it�s mostly suntanned
residents.

Most of all he liked how it gave him a kind of �stay-away-from-me punk�
look and how his mother often frowned at it.

When he looked pale and fragile and the black would narrow his already
slim figure the bullies in Okinawa used to think him to by weak and effeminate, an
impression Kamui enjoyed shattering.

He stole his original cape from his school�s theater club and wore it
on dark nights when he snuck out of his bedroom window to walk the silent city
trying to frighten passers by, feeling like he was a ghost or a vampire.

His mother knocked into him on one of those strolls and gave him a long
lecture about it. On the end of the mostly scolding lecture she hugged him like
he was made of gold and mumbled something about how she should actually be
grateful that she has him. Thinking back at it now, Kamui should have seen the
signs of her future departure.

When Alex saw him fully re-dressed he smiled and told him how great his
cape looked, his eyes meant that he could eat him up when he said he looks
beautiful in it. Kamui blushed and kicked himself mentally for not being able
to stop himself from feeling happy about it.

Alex went in and dug out a black belt to help hold Kamui�s
pants from falling almost down to his mid pelvis. But Kamui politely refused
it, liking the way the low figured pants and the slightly shorter top flashed
out a stripe of his immaculate alabaster skin.

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

The sun was nearing it�s setting stages, the sky above them began to
darken through the thin layer of clouds covering them, now burning with the
leaving sun�s last rays. Kamui had managed to see most of the city and its sights
while maintaining a fluid conversation with Alex who�s
eyes darted almost nervously from what was before them and Kamui�s
various parts.

The part of their conversation which busied Kamui�s
mind the most was about his world.

�What happens to my world when I�m not there anymore?� he asked again
after fully explaining Alex the whole Battle of the Apocalypse, a process that
took out most of the patrol�s time.

Alex mused in silence for a while before answering.

He made Kamui nervous �I mean, I�m afraid that
if I�ll ever return there I might find myself the only human around�.without me
the DoEs will win�

�Why would they win? Because you�re not there?
Wining by default? It sounds unlikely to me. You started it all by your
choice to be a DoE or a DoH
so without you I believe the whole process won�t happen at all�

�Won�t happen at all? You mean time would freeze?� Alex�s words began
making sense.

�No, I mean the whole event would pass without happening because you�re
not there. Look, I don�t know this world you come from or the powers in
question but from what I know of destiny it seems unlikely for something as lowly
as �wining by default� would happen once you�re not there�

Kamui walked to stand in front of Alex, in his path �You mean nothing
will happen without me?� suddenly optimism gushed into his head like warm water,
making him dizzy and lightheaded.

�Yup, according to my theory anyway. The year 1999 will come to pass and life will go on�.�

Kamui�s face
was filling with happiness�s light and a large smile spread on them. The inner
side of his cape was enhancing his violet eyes until Alex found it suddenly
difficult to breath with the sudden vision of beauty standing before him.

He coughed, clearing his head, and looked away smiling shyly back at
Kamui.

They continued their patrol pretty silently as Kamui�s
thoughts ran too fast for him to manage a conversation in the meantime.

He was free! Free here, whatever or wherever he was! Free! No more
duties, no more choices, no more annoying monks and shrine maidens he never met
in his life nagging him to be their friend and saying his name without any
honorifics as if they knew him all their lives. No more dreams, no more
preordained fate, no more 1999!

Too bad he didn�t have Kotori and Fuma with him��Kotori was dead
but�.and this is where he looked up to Alex, he might still have Fuma here.
Kamui smiled to himself and looked away slowly blushing.

�Hand over your sword for a second� Alex cut through his chain of
thoughts. He made Kamui suddenly get a memory flash of Fuma with his shinken at
his hands piercing Kotori�s chest with it.

He shook himself and handed the shinken to Alex�s hands. Alex stopped
his walked and examined the sword again. He tested the blade, ran his hand
through the hilt testing how handy or uncomfortable to hold it was. Then he
weighed it lightly with his palm, checking its point of balance. Kamui had the
somewhat awe filled feeling that his shinken was examined by an expert at these
matters.

Then Alex took a few steps back and began swinging the sword, testing
different maneuvers; long slash, short slash, stab, push, hilt butting. Finally
he raised his eyes to Kamui, half worried and half suspicious �Have you ever
used this sword� he asked doubtfully.

Kamui shook his head in answer. How did Alex know this?

�I could tell by the way you hold it all the time, it looks like you don�t
know what to do with it� Alex resumed his test moves.

�I sort of know how to use a sword � the little kendo, I mean fencing
lessons I had once. I know a little from movies and anime too��

�And what?�

�Anime��

�Anim-ation?�

�Yes, Japanese animation, do you know?�

�Ah, yes, giant robots and stuff?� Alex obviously had no idea what
Kamui was talking about here. He suddenly seemed like an old man trying to
understand the latest youngsters� crazes.

�Sort of� Kamui said after wishing he could sweatdrop
and have his patrol partner understand what it meant �but I never got to use
this shinken�

�Shinken?�

�Holy sword�

�Ah, I see. It�s a very difficult sword to use you know� he kept
swinging it here and there, drawing invisible �8� figures in the air.

�Why?� oh, not more of these talks about things from his god
damn world like they know what they�re talking about�.

�You hear this �whoosh� sound?� Alex was referring to the sound of the
shinken cutting through the air, Kamui nodded. �It means that as the sword
moves through the air it�s collecting a lot of resistance from the air blowing against
it. Its length is the problem, it makes it harder to
move, heavier. When you hold it it�s in one weight but when you swing it it�s
in another. Let alone the fact that this sword is almost your body size and you
have to keep holding it up uncomfortably and impractically. Swords should be
adapted to their user or they�ll end up their user�s bane�

That explanation made sense to Kamui. But what could he do? He could
only wonder why on earth destiny gave him a sword he might have difficulties in
using.

He thought of Fuma�s body size and his
athletic shape; the shinken would be much better in his hands. It seems he was made
to mismatch the shinken against his own good, or the other way around.

Alex handed him his own sword; a medium sized thick yet reasonable
sword that curved a little at its end. The metal had a strange gleam to it
under the light. The hilt was simple besides a small charming ruby fixed into it�s base like a small burning red sun.

A picture was engraved into the blade by the hilt: it was a drawing of
men in various activities. Some seemed to be brawling while others piled human bodies
on a large cart. Those that fought and worked were dressed in things resembling
striped pajamas and matching hats while those they were fighting and those that
commanded the working men wore uniforms with hats that rang a bell somewhere at
the back of Kamui�s mind.

�Try it� Alex cut his train of thoughts once he noted Kamui was staring
at the engraved picture for too long.

Kamui test-swung the sword, noting how light it was in
relations to its length and thickness. He ran his finger along the tip of the blade noting how sharp it was.
The wind blew his cape�s corner and when it connected with the blade the fabric
cut like butter. Kamui stared at it, amazed at the sheer sharpness.

They switches sword taking a few testing moves at each other, checking
each other�s capability with their different swords. Finally Alex shook his head
�Kamui I want you to leave this sword in the house when you�re in patrol. It�s
useless in general and it�ll take time for you to carry it around and try to
respond to any sort of incident with it.

�I know you have other powers, powers that are obviously of better use
to you then this clumsy sword� he saw Kamui frown in disappointment �I�m sure
it means a lot to you but right now it�ll only cause you more trouble to try
and react quickly with it and that�s what we need here, you saw what we have to
deal with here, this sword isn�t build for this place or for you�

He explained Kamui of the other perils coming out of the river. Huge
mud-made monsters often emerge from the river, charging at the town whenever
something went wrong according to their primitive motivations. The monsters
were spirits rather then actual living creatures like the fire breathing
crocodile like creatures Kamui saw, so killing them was the only option.

�Imagine yourself charging with this awkward thing at a mud creature
the size of a three stores building, your blasting powers would be of much more
use. Trust me on this; I have some sort of an experience in what�s going on here�

After a great amount of moping, Kamui finally shrugged and nodded, hanging
his head down. It is better that he�s here instead of facing this DoE, �Kamui� Fuma, one day with a weapon that basically works
against him.

�Tell you what� Alex said after noting how Kamui found this new
information so saddening �we�ll think of a way for you to carry it on your back
like the Noters do with their riffles so that you�ll always have the opportunity
to use it if you wish� with this he began positioning the shinken diagonally
across Kamui�s back while creating a sheath to it
with a wide band Kamui could carry across his shoulder.

When he was satisfied with the result and Kamui was at most comfort
with the band they resumed their patrol.

�You know what else I can do?� Kamui looked up at Alex, then took off in that characteristic high air jump so
typical to his kind in his world. He set himself on the very tip of a tree
nearby. He looked down at Alex, feeling extremely smug and the utter surprise
on the man�s face. Alex beamed a delighted smile and flew up to hover near
Kamui.

�Wow! Can you fly this way?� he asked, spinning around Kamui in the air
saying praises at how elegantly he balanced so effortlessly on the very tip of
the tree and how easily he posed himself there.

It made Kamui fill with warm feeling of pride; no one ever praised him
for his powers like that, they never knew about them, cursed at them or had similar
powers therefore found nothing special in them. �I can sort of hold myself
still in the air but I can�t fly completely�

They began advancing through the air; Alex in complete flight and Kamui
in long bounces keeping himself in the air as long as
he could. Alex flew in circles around him, looking most amused at his
up-and-down movement. Alex�s flight was far more flexible and elegant, a pure
flight, that didn�t seem to depend on the huge bat wings Kamui
saw last night.

As the night rolled closer and closer they were playing in the air.
They started laughing as they chased each other, showed off their different
aerial capabilities and mocking their little slips and mistakes. They played so
much they were late for their patrol exchange and found a slightly amused and
impatient pair of vampires back at the main house, when they finally reached it...

Lestate looked from a most amused and light Alex to an equally cheered
and slightly breathless young man by him. �Did you enjoy playing together?� he
teased, noting gladly that a thought saying �p�plays?� ran through Kamui�s mind making him blush deeply all of a sudden.

�Play� in Japanese also meant �having sex� and that was just a little
too much for Kamui at the moment.

Yet it didn�t spoil Kamui�s suddenly light
mood. He couldn�t remember a time like this, when he played and laughed like a
child, in a very long while. Maybe that was another good thing about coming to
this world; he laughed and smiled and acted silly as if he was a child again in
the back yard of the Tugakushi shrine with the Monou
siblings, and he could do it as much as he wanted, even do his duty while at
it!

Later that evening Kamui crushed on his bed, exhausted and light
headed. He won�t have trouble sleeping tonight.

Alex walked into the room asking Kamui what he wanted for dinner
because Tara�s making some for everybody. Kamui rolled off the bed
to go to the kitchen and do something in benefit of the cooking followed
closely by Alex.

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

And so began a routine, lasting for weeks until Kamui lost count of
time. The more this world unfurled before him the more Kamui found it interesting,
releasing and exciting then the old one he came from.

He connected with others, with Tara whom he
chatted, with Blue Fairy who kept petting him on the head affectionately like
he was a child, and with Lestate who always looked kindly at him and sang
softly into the wind enchanting Kamui with the melody.

But most of all Kamui bonded with Alex. Now they were fixed patrol
partners as well as roommates. They�d take long walks all over around the city
after their patrols, exploring the forest and it�s lake near Dimitri�s house, climbing down to the small canyon before
Dragon Valley or simply sitting under a tree on a lonesome hill with the
glittering blanket of stars above their heads to stare at and muse silently.

They spoke of this world and of their own, Kamui going into small
details over his history while Alex skipped parts in his, giving Kamui small
snippets here and there and bluntly bypassing other subjects.

It annoyed Kamui when Alex chose not to tell him things about himself.
Though he realized these things were probably painful for Alex to remember or
too far away for him to recall, he still insisted on knowing this man to and
through. The sheer length of Alex�s lifetime amazed Kamui.

Once during patrol they passed by the graveyard where David was
preparing some nameless body for burial.

Kamui watched as the undertaker dragged the body by it�s hand as if it
was an object, all the way to the grave�s side while munching on a sandwich he
held in another hand.

Then as the undertaker began stripping the body Kamui turned his gaze
away feeling sick to his stomach.

All that while Alex looked at the sight pretty carelessly, slowly
getting that far off air to him that made him look about as old as his real age
(when Kamui heard that Alex was born in 1839 he almost choked on the tea he was
sipping at that time, Alex seemed to him to be 25 years old, no more no less).

�Why does he have to do that?� Kamui whined silently.

�It�s not like he�s stripping them completely and you knew it when you
chose your clothes from his shed� Alex folded his arms on his armored chest,
feeling an uncomfortable subject coming up.

�Yeah but he�s doing it so�.so�.carelessly, like he�s not dealing with
a human body at all� Kamui snuck a few glances back at the undertaker and the
now half buried body.

Alex was silent for a long while during which the wind blew gently
through his cape and his black hair, giving him a somewhat mysterious aura. �That�s
how he�s used to do it�.�

�Was he always an undertaker?�

Alex looked away, getting more and more uncomfortable by the minute.
Kamui was a smart kid; he knew how to turn the conversation�s subject over and
over again to the very topic he wanted to avoid the most. �No. I think he was a
farmer of some sorts�

�Then why did he become an undertaker?�

Kamui received no answer, instead Alex turned to head towards the rest
of their patrol.

Kamui chased after him, taking fast steps as much as he could to keep
up with Alex�s pace �You knew him didn�t you? You came from the same world
didn�t you?�

�No� is all the answer he got. Alex was getting very upset, yet he couldn�t
bring himself to stop the boy or lie to him.

�You have similar tattoos, the number on the arm, you did come from the
same place� Kamui stated, making his voice as demanding as possible. He was
tired of hidden truths that might hold within them something to tarnish his
feelings towards Alex. He had had enough of friends revealing to be something
much darker and crueler, like the other man who looked like Alex.

�In a way we came from the same place but we were in it each in our own
world� Alex hurried his pace, finding himself mentally pressed against a wall.
Memories began flashing before his eyes and that was never a good thing.

�Do I have that place in my world?�

�Probably, it exists in most worlds. Maybe you read about it in history
classes if you attended any lately� he hoped the hidden insult would shut Kamui
up or switch the subject.

Kamui did indeed fall silent for a while, trying to find a new way to
investigate the subject. The only place where people could be given numbers
like that would be some kind of extremely citizen-controlling country or a
prison�a prison!

�Was it a prison?�

Alex sighed, taking a sharp turn towards the change of route that Kamui,
in his feverish investigations, forgot to notice �Yes Kamui�

�And�.and�.the tattoo you have on your chest, does it has to do with
it?�

Damn it, he was too smart this kid �Yes Kamui�.�

�What does it mean?�

�Kamui�.�

�What does it mean?� he tried to make himself sound like a curios child
rather then an investigator of some kind so that Alex won�t be too angered by
him.

�It means what I was imprisoned for�

�What was it then?�

�Being gay Kamui� he hoped the boy would stop on his stand and react in
a conservative way and turn to cancel and reject that fact like some people he
knew might, maybe that would make him change the subject.

But Kamui didn�t, instead he chased Alex further, completely ignoring
the statement.

Alex kicked himself mentally for forgetting about this Subaru friend
Kamui spoke of who was in love with another man.

�And David, the tattoo on his back is the same thing?�

Why was he so clever, he�ll have to stop this questioning soon �No
Kamui it�s a sign of his work there�

Noting, in the corner of his eye, that Kamui was preparing for another
question Alex sharply stood in Kamui�s path grabbing
his shoulders and looking deeply into his eyes �Look Kamui, to say this is a
painful subject is a major understatement. Also, I don�t want to tell
you everything because�.� He started feeling lost in those beautiful violet
eyes again and hoped his suddenly rising emotions won�t be picked up and cause
alarm in the boy �Because it will hurt you, it�s a very painful story and I
don�t want you hurt as well�

Kamui was suddenly drowning in the depths of Alex�s green eyes as well,
in the words Alex was telling him and in how suddenly strangely good it would
feel to be held by those arms while hearing caring words like that.

That night, near morning, when Alex his memory flashes that controlled
his actions (and had for as long as he can remember himself after his imprisonment), Kamui rose to stop it feeling it somehow connected to what
he discovered today.

When Alex completely awoke from his daze he looked at Kamui still
holding his face gently. He took the delicate hands in his, clasping them
together warmly.

At first he wanted to kiss them but debated whether the boy will recoil
or, by what his mauve gems filled with, lean in for more. Instead he held them
tightly in his then wrapped his arms around Kamui.

�Thank you� he said, digging his nose into silky hair smelling of
intoxicating vanilla, coconut and a spot of cinnamon.

Kamui found himself suddenly drowned in those arms and the heat between
them.

Mostly he drowned within his own emotions. He liked this, wanted more
of it, he liked Alex and maybe�.beyond?

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

When Alex told Kamui he had dreamt about him before Kamui came to the
Lost Dimension he meant it.

Alex often had dreams about his future and of special occasions or
important things about to happen in his life. Of course these things were never
fully understood until reminiscing or until the very event came to be.

When Mouse began thoroughly avoiding Alex and when meeting him would
plague Alex with flashes of images and information, Alex would enter states
where he wouldn�t be able to control his own anger until he needed medical interference.

At the time there were three medics in the infirmary who came from a
planet where herbs and plants from which substances could be extracted to act
as medicines for the creatures of the like of Alex, Iceman, Gala and the rest.

Whenever Alex would flip into his violent moods he would receive an
injection of sedatives that would send him hurling into numb sleep for a few
good hours.

In one of those violent rages one of the medics decided to mix some moderated
LSD into Alex�s sedatives.

When Alex caved into chemistry he opened his eyes and found himself in his
destruction camp, buzzing and active around him like in any other day.

Suddenly the air filled with lovely singing of women and time began rolling
backwards around Alex. As the wonderful
voices sang the camp slowly un-built itself and emptied of all prisoners and wardens.
What was left behind was a vast field of grass loaded with flowerbeds in which
Alex knelt in a stupor.

He looked around dazed at the singing of the women as it swirled around
him like a magical wind.

Then he saw them; the four women who sang the song.

First was a red headed with a tight black dress under which she was
wearing garter belts and other fancy, frilly, sexy outfits.

The second was a Roman times looking woman in a traditional white toga
and a small complex Roman hairstyle.

The third, holding hands with the fourth was a young woman about the
age of sixteen with short cropped black hair and a simple yet elegant somewhat
Chinese pajama who sang out most energetically.

She was holding hands with an older looking woman seemingly made of porcelain.
She had long straight black hair streaming down her body. She was wearing a
white kimono decorated by falling sakura. Her right hand was covered with blood
yet she seemed completely oblivious to it.

That was the first vision. Alex woke from it with the magical singing
still echoing in his ears like powerful bells. He wondered what the dream could
mean. Whatever it was it was optimistic or he wouldn�t see the wonderful sight
of the camp un-building and seizing to be.

Then he discovered the LSD in the tranquilizers and brushed it all off
(not without a great deal of disappointment) as a drug induced hallucination.

The second dream was not inflicted by any foreign chemicals in his
blood so Alex had hoped that it was a true one.

In his dream he was up to his knees in corpses, piled one on the other
in the small room that was told to be a shower yet gave off no water.

He began crying as the bodies disappeared giving off to the remains of
those rooms as they were in modern times.

He collapsed to his knees on the old stones. Weeds began growing in the
cracks of the long concrete floor, showing how old this place is and how old Alex
is.

Suddenly the first woman from his dream came to him; her high heals
making crisp knocks on the old stones. She crouched by him, her garter belts
showing off through the large slit in her dress�s skirt. She had a huge
neckline Alex paid no attention to and a long rosary of small black bead with a
gilded cross on its end.

She raised his chin to meet his gaze with hers, smiling softly at him. Her
bright cherry colored hair framed her face nicely.

�Why are you crying?� she asked him softly.

Alex whimpered back, tears rolling off of his eyes.

�Is it because of where you are now?�

Alex nodded, closing his eyes with the intensity of the pain he was
feeling. He was wearing his old stripy uniforms.

�My leader will heal you� she said, raising to her feet and offering
him her hand to take and follow her.

They walked away from the ruins and into that wonderful flower packed
field from his first dream, then into an endless black void where the woman
left him.

Alex saw a mass of wires forming a sharp metal-made spider web. Within
the wires a boy was trapped, naked and bleeding from numerous cuts inflicted by
the vicious looking strings. He had long thin bat wings which drooped around
him, entangled and wounded by the wires as well.

Alex looked at the boy and his head spun; he was so delicate and so
beautiful even in his miserable state, Alex felt the horrible urge to free this
magical creature from his bindings and protect him forever.

With this thought in mind Alex pulled his sword out and cut the wires
one by one until the boy was released, grabbed and cradled by him.

Then the wires were gone and the boy was dressed again. He was still in
Alex�s arms, now raising his perfect delicate face to him, hanging beautiful
large mauve eyes at him. As they stood in this void looking at each other,
Alex�s outfit changed from the cursed stripes to his usual black.

All Alex could think of was that amazingly
beautiful boy in his arms, looking at him and smiling so wonderfully. His heart
overflowed with emotions.

When he walked past a corner and met that boy in real life he was sure
the dream had promised Kamui to him.

Every move he did around Kamui, every word and every act was thought of
twice in advance to try to appeal to Kamui and become as close to him as
possible.

It was back in that dream that Alex fell in love with Kamui.

Whatever it was, even if Kamui would have never given in to him, Alex
could have lived from now on, happy as ever, having this magical and beautiful
boy by him to watch and admire forever more.

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

Lestate had noted the bond between this strikingly beautiful youth and
his Death long ago.

He also noted that at some point there was always some sort of a wall
between them when it came to taking their friendship further.

Lestate knew why, Alex had told him once of his �curse�. He began
trying to see what he could do for one of his best friends amongst the Rescue
Team.

The boy himself was obviously torn by the situation; at one point Alex
would act around him almost as a suitor, bringing him everything he needed even
if he didn�t ask for it and always being an ear for the boy�s problems. Then
the next, when the boy would try to get closer to Alex or find what was it that
troubled Alex�s sleep at nights, Death would gently push him away closing
himself might he reveal something that will hurt the boy.

The boy understood Alex�s interests at not letting him onto everything
and still a fire burnt in him, it seemed, to know Alex�s ins and outs.

Lestate could tell, by the way the boy looked at Death that Kamui too
had feelings towards his roommate.

Lestate spent several patrols pondering the issue, wondering what he
might be able to do. The answer was very obvious and easy.

He wondered if Alex might find it a bit too extreme.

The boy had some respect towards him, a shy and timid one but definitely
respect. They didn�t get to meet that much since Lestate was on patrol the
times the boy and Alex would be back at home. When they did occasionally meet
the boy would give him a shy smile and cower a little behind Alex.

A few nights after the incident when Kamui woke Alex from his early
morning memories Lestate walked into the boy�s room at early evening time. At
the time Alex was visiting Jacob�s house.

Kamui raised his big pretty eyes (Lestate found them quite entertaining
with the way they could capture the light in small dots on the exquisite violet
irises) in surprise at the unexpected visitor.

He was sitting on his bed trying to copy a simple pattern Alex had sown
into his cape. When the vampire entered the room somewhat powerfully Kamui rose
to his feet sensing that something was afoot.

Without a word in advance Lestate charged at Kamui faster then the boy
could percept it, restricted his arms with one hand and tilted the small head
sideways thus exposing the main artery flowing down Kamui�s
neck.

At first Kamui tried shrugging the grip off of him in panic but he had
found the hands that held him were cold as stone and strong as iron against his
skin. His breath raced as fast as his thoughts, his eyes darted around the room
as if in search of help.

�What are you doing Lestate?� he managed to whimper when he cleared his
mind enough to speak.

�Do you want him?� is all that came back, a hoarse whisper blowing air
at Kamui�s exposed skin. Later on Kamui came to
understand the whirlpool of feelings Lestate felt while being so close to fresh
human blood.

�What?� he whimpered again, tears forming in his eyes as he thought how
pathetic this might seem. He wanted to blast Lestate
off but knew such a thing would upset Alex who�s closest friend was now about
to kill off the other.

�Do you want Death?� Lestate neared his lips to Kamui�s
ear under the unruly black bangs.

The vague intention Lestate was working by slowly became clear to Kamui.
�Y�yes�� he whispered, afraid his own voice might trigger his nerves, ready to
fire, like a spring waiting to be released.

�Then you must become one of his� Lestate released his
grip a little, feeling the body he was holding soften from its earlier resistance.
�Do you agree to that?�

�Will he be mine then?� Kamui�s
head was clear now and his thoughts sharp, looking forward for all the things
to come.

�All yours like he wants you to be his� the vampire was smiling,
flashing his fangs at the corner of Kamui�s eyes.

�Then I agree� Kamui turned his head to look directly (as much as he
could) at Lestate�s bright blue eyes, slightly veiled
by a thin layer of blond hairs disrupted by his capturing.

Lestate�s
smile widened. Clever boy.

He slowly tilted Kamui�s head sideways again,
feeling no objection anymore. He sank his teeth into skin so perfect tha,t for a moment, he wished this
boy was to become his. Then the blood began flowing in.

Through the blood Lestate peered deep into Kamui�s
soul and the things it hid inside.

He saw a woman engulfed in flames, her long hair strands dancing in the
hot air coming from her own funeral pyre. The woman resembled Kamui and Lestate
realized this must be his mother.

He saw a girl hanging down from a small child�s hand and below her a
ground so far away.

He saw that girl again, now grown into a teen, hanging from a pale
bleeding and below her a mist filled void.

He saw six people in various ages and outfits and he saw a kneeling
woman with long white hair and red eyes.

He saw a young man playing basketball in an empty court at evening
time. The young man was terribly similar to Alex and in a sense it sort of
roused Lestate�s suspicions.

Before he had the matter deeply investigated Kamui�s
blood began running out and the heartbeats began slowing down from their
earlier mad pace.

Kamui, held by Lestate so strongly, felt his body slowly draining. A numbing
fog covered his senses. He wondered what will be in store for him next. What
would it be like to be a vampire and why wasn�t it hurting him, not even the
bite which felt like nothing but a mere gentle nip at his skin.

Somewhere in his mind he could vaguely hear the beatings of the undead
heart feeding on his blood. Somewhere, as he too gazed into the soul of his
soon to be brother in Dark Blood, he saw images too.

Two ancient statues sitting on pedestals in a heavily decorated room; A man and a woman sitting next to each other. A beautiful little girl with vicious, cold and mature eyes,
snarling at him.

Then the world began darkening and Kamui�s
mind was a void.

Lestate let go of his grip and cradled the boy in his arms. The thin
body crumbled softly like a rag doll dropped from its owner�s arms.

He climbed out of the large window and walked the walls to the rooftop
where Kamui could start seeing things through eyes in which dark magical blood
flowed and see how glorious it all was.

He stabilized the limp boy on his feet and grabbed the delicate face to
pin its eyes to his own. �Kamui, can you hear me?� he asked, making sure the
boy wasn�t as fragile as he feared he might be. If this boy dies Alex would be
more then upset.

To his relief the boy nodded faintly. Good.

Lestate exposed his wrist under the tight velvet jacket�s sleeve and
the fringe of fancy lace hanging out of the cuffs. Biting two holes into his
own flesh and quickly drawing them to the boy�s mouth he began the
transformation.

Without questions or doubts Kamui took the now heated flesh of the
white wrist in both his palms and let the blood flow into his mouth.

It was strange, feeling the metallic blood in his mouth, but Kamui
guessed that this is how it�s going to be always from now on so he better get
used to it.

It was stranger trying to grasp how mechanically he did this all, how
calculative he was in his acts which might seem terrifying and doubtful to other
people. He didn�t care as his goal was clear before his eyes.

Slowly he became engulfed in a pleasure like he never felt before. He
closed his eyes and saw in his mind�s eye how the heat and of dark blood was
filling his body with light. His head spun and reeled without moving, his body
floated above the ground without his feet actually detaching it. His whole body
became tense then limped, then tensed again with new strength. But the pleasure
was what stunned him the most; somewhere in the back of his head he knew this
was bordering the sexual.

He vaguely heard Lestate�s suddenly harsh and
pain stricken voice somewhere far, far away from him but he couldn�t make out
the words said to him and the wrist with its delicious blood was yanked away
from his mouth. Kamui wiped at his mouth involuntarily though he didn�t spill a
drop.

He saw Lestate back off a few stumbled steps looking at him with pain
in his eyes. But as he looked at his source of strength, Kamui noted the wound in
the vampire�s skin closed and healed before his eyes.

For a moment Kamui had complete silence in his mind as he stood in the
suddenly freezing night air. His mind was blank as if a vacuum sucked out all
thought and ponder out of it.

The moment lasted a fragment of a second as immense pain tore through
Kamui far worse not even when a pole pinned his leg to concrete, the shinken
did the same to his right palm and glass shred tore through his flesh.

Kamui caved under the mind numbing pain not bothering to even attempt
any kind of struggle or relaxation against such a torment wrecking through his
body. He collapsed to his knees on the dirty floor of the rooftop, curling into
a ball around this gape suddenly opened inside him. His mind screamed for help
against this new nemesis not recognizing who exactly he was calling.

He was calling Alex, out of knowledge of his comrades in this new world
or out of his forming vampire�s instincts.

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

Above a field of daisies and under a starry sky in a suddenly arctic
cold, Alex felt a sharp sensation in his mind telling him a creature of his was
in peril. He pinpointed the sensation and recognized it to be the one of a new
vampire in his world.

He rose to his feet and followed the invisible signal; it came from the
Rescue Team�s main house. He apologized to Jacob and Venus for his sudden
departure and shot off to the house noting, as he flew, that the air filled
with snowflakes.

What he saw on the rooftop turned his mind red with anger. Whatever it
was, for whatever reason, Lestate had hurt his Kamui. He changed him into
something that might alter the already perfect boy Alex so adored.

He landed violently by Lestate and grabbed him by his shirt�s collar,
lifting him off of the ground. He made no effort in hiding his anger or
restraining the growing violence in him; the idea of hurting Kamui intolerable
to Alex. �Why did you do this?!� he snarled into Lestate�s
face.

�So that you can have him� Lestate answered calmly, a smile creeping
into the corner of his mouth as he knew his gift is yet truly unwrapped and
discovered.

Kamui couldn�t see this exchange since his head was somewhere near his
belly in his curled-up state. Now the pain subsided and disappeared so Kamui
could think clearly again.

He heard Alex�s landing and his snarling angry voice. Alex whom he
could now have was angry at Lestate for hurting him. It was so clear to Kamui
now that his mind could work twice as fast as it could before.

He raised his head to stand up normally, about to stop Alex from any
further damage to Lestate. But the moment he laid eyes on the view before him
his breath hitched in his throat and his mind stopped racing.

The city spread before him, lit like a Christmas tree in full glory.
What view Kamui once saw as dull and depressing now he saw as brilliant and mesmerizing.

Colors were enhanced for the darkness no longer served as an obstacle
to his eyes. Every candle twinkling in every window danced magically before Kamui�s all perceptive eyesight. Every moving thing, object
or living, was captured completely and brightly like never before.

Kamui felt like a veil was raised from his eyes; that suddenly he could
see the world as it really is.

He could hear everything around him so clearly that at first it was a
horrible cacophony of noises gushing into his head until he pushed his mind to
filter things and rearrange them according to his new enhanced senses.

He could hear the fabric of Alex�s cape behind him moving as one fold�s
fabric rubbed against another�s. He could hear Lestate�s
hair moving on his shirt�s collar, dancing to the icy wind�s whims.

He could hear the gentle scratching of small nails on stone as the
gecko with strange bright green dots and dark red lines who
started inhabiting the corners of his room�s ceiling moved. He could hear
little drops of water dropping from the rope of the house� well as a fresh bucket
was reeled out of it.

He could hear Tara�s heartbeats as she walked from the well into the
house with a bucketful of water. He could hear little waves of water banging
against the wooden walls of the primitive container in her hands, swaying as
she walked.

�Have you even ASKED him before you did it?!� Alex was not convinced;
he was so steaming with rage he began planning out ways to punish Lestate after
deeply apologizing to Kamui and taking the dark blood away from him.

Suddenly a silver bell clear voice he recognized was Kamui�s answered his question instead of Lestate�s voice.

�He did�

The vampire Kamui stood up and walked towards him, his newly enhanced rich
shiny silken hair blowing gently in the freezing air.

Calmly, he walked up to Alex, watching the storm of emotions washing
across Alex�s face as he noted the changed him.

Alex�s face was awe filled and frozen completely in awe. He saw the
eyes blazing up in emotions, many of which Kamui was happy to recognize as warm
and encouraging.

But what Kamui most focused on was the way he suddenly saw Alex. As he
raised his eyes to the two men he saw Alex as Death on Earth in his full glory.
He had an aura of turquoise like thin fog beaming out of him. He had silver
horns curling gently and elegantly out of the side at the top of his head. His
large wings stood curled majestically at his sides. He had a crown around his
head: a simple black stone crown with a point above the middle of Alex�s
forehead and a small turquoise symbol at its center of a dot with a circle
around it.

Kamui felt like a prince walking towards his princess, or was it the
other way around?

Anyway it was he felt honored and excited as if he was chosen especially
for this honor amongst many others.

As he spoke to Alex he laid his hand on Death�s fist clutching the
vampire�s collar.

The fist loosened and Lestate was free. He landed on the floor
elegantly, watching the two stare at each other. He waited until they�ll start
talking then left, giving them their privacy.

�Kamui� Alex�s eyes were wide, taking in as much details of the spectacular
sight before him. If Kamui�s beauty was breathtaking
before, now it was mind numbing and magical.

Kamui smiled up at him �I said yes because this way I can be with
you�.� He lowered his head, trying to hide his deep blushing. He felt Alex
grabbing his shoulder gently with one hand as another gently cupped his chin
and raised his head to look at him better again.

They stared into each other�s eyes for a while.

Snow flakes started hovering around them.

They kissed for the first time.

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

Life, or death, or whatever they call the life time of a vampire, unraveled
into a magnificent chain of brilliant adventures for Kamui since that night.

Their nights would be spent on patrol on days when Lestate and Victoria
would take the night off. Alex would be on patrol on noon alone then with Kamui
at night or just noon alone in days the two other vampires would be on duty.

Their patrols were exciting and adventurous as the sights Kamui saw so
far in day time became enhanced and improved with his vampire senses. They�d do
more now that they were both on a similar level of capabilities, chasing danger
and excitement across the City.

At nights when they didn�t have duty they�d travel around the city�s
area discovering new places mortals couldn�t explore.

When they didn�t feel like an escapade they�d stay in their room,
making love on Alex�s large bed and talking endlessly in the rest breaks
between one thing and another.

Kamui found himself swapped on a new and powerful wave of freedom; the
sensations his senses opened up to him, the delight of drinking blood, the
things he and Alex would come up with.

But most of all he loved how Alex gave him freedom as much as he
wanted, not complaining whenever Kamui would take off into the night to explore
things alone.

He succumbed to Death�s passionate kissing and caresses at times they�d
stay indoors or in times they�d find a place secluded enough to fool around in.
That too swapped Kamui on waves he never felt.

Their most favorite thing was to practice fencing. More like Alex
training Kamui to use his shinken better now that his body was inhumanly
athletic enough to swing it without hassle. Kamui would attempt to attack Alex
and get brushed off by Death�s supreme experience, and then succumb to his
tutor�s �other lessons�. Or Kamui would manage to inflict some small scale
wound to Alex (who would never try to hurt Kamui) and get �punished� for it,
not before he was outdone in training.

There was a clearing in the forest they used for these games, a
clearing Kamui stumbled into months after when he was with Fuma.

At the time Kamui shuddered without knowing why and dragged Fuma away
quickly.

Suddenly Kamui could be as badass as he wanted
to be, as wild and restless as he wished; he could do anything he wanted for he
had nothing to fear of anymore.

He found the very essence of this sensation one night when he stood on
the cliffs before Dragon Valley.

He looked down at the abyss-like drop below. An idea flared in him like
fire and, as he became accustomed to, he followed the idea without hesitation.

He walked a few steps back then raced towards the cliff edge at full
speed. He took off the cliff and allowed himself to fall down, relishing on the
speed of the drop, on how he had no reason to fear the crush below due to his
powers, on the wind blowing wildly at him as he fell and the sense of absolute
freedom in this semi-flight downwards.

He landed elegantly and unharmed on his feet at the bottom, looking
upwards to where he stood at just moments ago. He wanted to do it again, over
and over again, then once more just for laughs.

A dragon crawled out of its cave, sensing there�s something out there.
The huge blue dinosaur like creature sniffed the air and scanned Kamui�s mind. Recognizing the young vampire to be Alex
connected (as Kamui made sure he did by centering his thoughts on that subject)
the monster turned around and left Kamui to be. It made Kamui laugh out loud;
he was fearless and unstoppable. He loved it, everything about it.

That night Alex was helping the Noters and their Dragon Valley base settle yet another dispute between the human
citizens and the lizard ones. The dispute started with an attack of the
dragons. Lion was wounded during the Noter�s comeback
and now the Rescue Team was called in to help. It was Alex and Kamui�s night off but the first was still called for duty
due to his ability to communicate and appease the dragons.

When Kamui walked into the city no one noticed him coming; he had just
mastered the art of walking amongst shadows (taught to him by Lestate) and so
he managed to sneak all the way up to where Alex sat at Lion�s temporary
sickbed.

When Alex sensed him he whipped his head angrily at where his young
lover stood and almost growled �Kamui! Come out of there, what are you doing
here?� he got up and grabbed Kamui by the shoulders once the boy was near
enough �It�s dangerous here, the dragons can breath fire and you know you�re
extra sensitive to it now�.

Kamui looked up at him with glittering wide mauve eyes filled with
innocence and surprise �I wanted to see you. I want to be with you wherever you
are� he knew how to press Alex�s buttons, such a statement would surely slip
him out of this little mischief.

Alex made an unpleased face and looked away, giving Kamui a quick hug
and kiss.

�Lion�s hurt, I was just about to give his burns some treatment. He has
several internal injuries that I�m afraid I don�t know how to deal with�

He walked to Lion�s bedside looking at the comatose man in bandages.

Alex cared for Lion; the man was one of a few who could look into his
soul and see his true self through his appearance and behavior. Kamui knew that
as an orphan in his past, Alex strived to keep every father figure he came
across.

�How will you treat him?� Kamui clung to Alex, his arms circling his waist,
his head leaning against the broad strong chest.

�Blood, vampires� blood� Alex began showering the top of Kamui�s head with short kisses enjoying the smell and
texture of the boy�s hair and the ability to do it.

�Like the one I feed off of?� he raised his head to meet Alex�s lips
with his own.

�No� another short kiss, Alex just couldn�t stop with those once he
started, it was addictive �you drink normal blood, this is vampires� blood with
the ingredient that makes you heal from your wounds quickly� he looked into Kamui�s eyes, his own clouded with love.

�What is that ingredient?� Kamui�s gaze started
crawling towards Alex�s neck where an artery from which many vampires drank
pulsed; he was starting to get hungry.

�I don�t know. Are you hungry?� his mind focused on his usual fussing
around Kamui thus shutting everything else out.

The young vampire prince nodded, now not taking his eyes off of the
dark red line in the pure white skin. He stood on the tips of his toes, letting
go once Alex�s arms circled him holding on to him completely. The gush of blood
into him erased any coherent thought out of Kamui�s
mind.

When he was drinking blood from Alex the sublime sexual elements in it
would often prepare him for other activities. As soon as he realized the
awkward situations that might spring out of such a reaction, Kamui learned to
calm himself and control his body.

Focusing on anything while drinking was still too hard, thoughts were
redundant and often abandoned.

One thought lingered on, he tried passing it onto Alex through the bond
of blood.

�Tell me Alex�

�No�

�Why not?!
I want to know everything about you, I love you�

�I love you too Kamui but�.I don�t want to hurt you, and you will
be hurt once you hear it�

�Then show me�

�No, that�s even worse. Leave it Kamui, please�

That�s when Kamui broke the connection the last time they started this
conversation, nights after that, in their room. He grabbed Alex�s face in his
hands like in that early morning, pinning the green brooding gaze onto his
searching violet one. �When you get sad and depressed, when you suffer from
your memories and need consolation, how will I be able to help you?�

Alex stared at him for a while, creases creeping into his forehead in
worry. He looked away, holding the boy to him. He pressed his head to Kamui�s bare chest, feeling the heat of the blood emitting
from the fragile body and listening to the steady undead heartbeat. When the
boy asked him enough he always gave up.

Eventually Alex told him, it took about a night and a little to finish in
the end of which Kamui had a vacant haunted look in his eyes, which Alex knew
he�d have, and feared most of.

The night after that, the moment he woke from his coma-sleep Kamui
crushed into Alex�s arms crying endlessly for his lover�s pain.

It only served to strengthen the bond of their love. Though Alex knew
it he never forgave himself for telling Kamui something which made him cry,
even if Kamui brought it upon himself.

He spent the day after that trying to make something to cheer Kamui up.
After ditching most ideas due to his lack of imagination he created a pen and a
sheet of paper, preparing to write down a song for his prince.

When that was finished he took his guitar from under his bed and walked
out to practice it, away from the sleeping beauty in his coffin.

That night they were on patrol duty. When they reached a small hill
with a tree Kamui loved sitting under; placed on a hill looking over the
graveyard to one side, the lonesome far off cliffs on another and a third view
to the river and the riverbed, they stopped.

There, under barren branches, Alex set Kamui down and positioned
himself by him with the guitar in hand.

He began strumming a soft beautiful rhythm on the instrument and in a
voice he didn�t use for ages he sang his song for Kamui.

�Like an angel without a sense of mercy

Rise young boy to the heavens as a
legend

�Cold winds, as blue as the sea

Tear open the door to your heart

But unknowing you seem, just staring
at me

Standing there smiling serenely

�Desperate for something to touch

A moment of kindness like that in a
dream

Your innocent eyes as yet have no idea

Of the path your destiny will follow

�But someday you�ll become aware of

Everything that you�ve got behind you

Your wings are for seeking out

A new future that only you can search
for

�The cruel angel�s thesis bleeds

Through a portal like your pulsing
blood

If you should betray the chapel of
your memories

The cruel angel will enter the window
of your soul

�So, boy, stand tall and embrace the
fire of legend

Embrace the Universe like a blazing
star�

Kamui sat listening to the lyrics and
watching Alex�s singing face. He liked Alex�s singing voice, deep yet light as
the wind of sounds. He knew Alex hardly sang at all and that when he did it was
on a special occasion. Even if it was a simple song Kamui would be touched by
the meaningful gesture.

When Alex finished he put the guitar away
and gave Kamui a deep kiss, wrapping his arms and (as Kamui liked it very much)
his large black wings around the slim vampire.

�Did you like it?� he asked, his nose
touching Kamui�s, their lips touching from time to
time as his mouth moved to pronounce his words. Already he found it difficult
to concentrate around a thing like Kamui in this position.

Kamui smiled brightly and nodded. It was
his special song, written especially for him by his special someone.

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

When Kamui asked for something enough times and with enough intensity
he got what he wanted. And so wherever Alex went Kamui went, even if it was into
extremely dangerous situations.

They�d ride a large black horse Alex would revive from the ground, two
on a saddle moving as one body. Kamui loved those rides, the wind blowing at
him and the feel of Alex�s arms around him as they held the reins.

They rode like the wind, shouting and hollering like two wild boys on a
rampage. On rides like that Alex would often spread his wings and took off with
his lover and the horse. Kamui would produce such shrills of joy and excitement
Alex wished those night lasted forever, just to please his lover.

The last time they rode like that was towards the Doctor�s little house.

The Doctor was a professional time and dimensional traveler coming from
a race of humanoids dealing only with that. He brought himself into this
dimension willingly; completely ignorant of its content.

The moment he arrived an incident happened which left him without his
sidekick who was killed almost immediately and a time and dimension traveling
machine that was almost destroyed beyond all hope of repair.

The Doctor worked day and night to fix the malfunctions in the
complicated mechanics and soon he managed to fix the machine completely.

That night he had put the finishing touches into his machine and was
just about to take a night�s rest before the next day when he�ll round up all
the citizens of the dimension to bring them, one by one, back to their original
worlds.

This was to be stopped by Jacky who was tracking his advances for a
long time now.

Jacky was Blue Fairy�s sister and her exact opposite. While Fairy was a
semi-divine magical creature who worked for the happiness of the city�s people,
Jacky was a mind manipulating, fire casting demon who
plotted day and night to abuse the citizens as much as she could for amusement.

Before Kamui came to the Lost Dimension Jacky noted Mouse�s strange
ability to send images and ideas into Alex�s head along with the core of those
images, and plotted a way to drive Alex into miserable insanity.

She lured him over, binding him with her words of magic and
manipulation, so that he listened when she told him that his happiness lies within
Mouse.

Alex began chasing Mouse around thinking himself in love with the man
while Mouse, terrified of a man (and what a man!) as his suitor, ran
away using those images to drive Alex off. This too drove Alex closer to
insanity, just as Jacky plotted it to be.

Now she snuck up to the Doctor�s little cottage where his lab lay, walking
over to the machine sitting, complete, on a desk in the large room where
Doctor�s bed also lay.

She started a rampage of alarming explosions and fires which woke the
Doctor.

At first Doctor managed to fight the demon away while fiercely defending
his machine. But he was facing an enemy he could not defeat.

The fire and the explosions were noted by Alex and Kamui who were on
patrol that night. Immediately they rushed over to help the poor man.

Alex asked Kamui to get off of the horse because Jacky was far too
dangerous and fire breathing for a vampire to tackle. Besides, he had a little
bone to pick with the little bitch anyways.

Kamui refused, arguing that he wanted to be with Alex wherever he went
and that he�s perfectly capable of defending himself.

Finally, after a lot of whining, arguing and several worrying explosions
coming from the Doctor�s house Alex gave up and Kamui went towards the site ahead
of Death.

Without Jacky even noticing it Kamui flew at her, his eyes burning, his
powers charging and focusing on the demon woman.

She only had enough time to look behind her shoulder and see the boy
coming before her body was torn apart by power sharpened with dark blood.

Kamui now stood in a humid mist left behind by steaming water released
from their capturing vessel. He looked around through the tiny drops of water
and saw the Doctor half unconscious on the ground with the machine in his lap,
safe and unharmed.

He watched as the golden box glowed and changed shape before his eyes
into a tall thin woman clad in a figure hugging sparkling red dress. She smiled
at him kindly, her eyes large and thankful under the flashy makeup.

�You saved me� she told him, her voice rich with warmth.

�Yeah, it�s my job you know� Kamui struck a pose, flicking an unruly
bang from his vision. He could hear Alex�s horse coming down the little hill
separating the rest of the city from the cottage. Soon his knight will be here
and see how his prince can take care of himself and other troubles all alone!

�I shall thank you by returning you to your original dimension as the
Doctor programmed me to� the machine woman said, already starting to scan Kamui
for information only she could read.

Kamui was too busy thinking about Alex and being proud of himself to take notice of what was just said to him.

When he did he whipped his head towards the machine glaring at her in
shock �You what?! Oh no, don�t do that! Don�t you dare!!! I�m
perfectly happy here!!� but it was too late; the woman grabbed him by his legs and
started pulling him towards her.

In the middle of her body a line of bright light opened, widening to become
a large portal into another world. Kamui tried to struggle and tare the hands
off of him but to no avail; he was already starting to feel the pull of the
portal at his limbs.

Alex�s horse was abandoned, its master now flying as fast as he could
towards the portal and his quickly kidnapped lover.

Kamui�s
body was engulfed in light; all that remained in this world was his head and
his arm, helplessly reaching out towards his knight in desperate attempt to
save his freedom and new self.

�Alex!� He screamed reaching out desperately, tears forming in
his eyes as his mind began grasping the full meaning of his return to his
world.

He saw his knight�s face desperate and stubborn to get him back and an
idea sprang into his mind. He knew Alex would walk to the edges of the world to
have him; surely nothing would stop him from following him to his own world. �Alex!
Come get me, find me!� he watched as Alex�s face showed that he understood
the message.

�Alex! I love you!� that�s all he managed to say before the
light consumed him and the gate shut down forever.

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

Then next moment he was thrown on grass in daylight, rolling on it with
the force of his entrance into the world. He landed in a patch of sunlight and
received a full mental shock. The reason he feared sunlight was something he
quickly began forgetting.

Kamui lay staring up at the form of the leaves of a tree and the light
shining through them. He felt like he
was trying to desperately hold onto something. It was running away from him
like sand through his fingers. He was losing something and didn�t even know
what it was anymore, only that he missed it.

Soon Kamui found himself with his memories of the last few months
completely erased from his mind.

He lay on the grass trying to understand where he was and how he got
here. The last thing he remembered was getting sucked into the floor at the
Heart of the Divine Protection, now he was under a tree on a patch of grass.

The shinken was making him uncomfortable as he lay on his back and it
under him. He looked down at himself, at the strange black clothes he was
wearing and the strange new band that held his shinken across his back. He lay
there realizing that he had lost all memory of whatever it was that brought him
to this state and wherever he was last time he remembered himself pulled into.

He got to his feet and began walking out of the tamed �forest� in one
of Clamp Campus� little parks.

He was found by the campus� security, who handed him over to the
headmaster of the institution, who handed him finally back to his fellow DoH.

With them he came to completely forget that strange time when he found
himself rolling on the grass and losing a huge chunk of himself. He returned to
his 1999 Battle of the Apocalypse self.

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

In his tent, on his bed, Kamui opened his eyes with his complete memories.
Outside the dawn was rising over the small campsite. He took a deep breath that
filled his head with sleep-less dizziness and his chest with the sour pain of lost
time, wasted chances and bitter mistakes made.

At least he found what he lost back then, what made his guilt hurt even
more whenever he saw Alex�s pained face; it was his complete fearless freedom
lost forever. Even if he succumbed to Alex now, that pure sensation would
always be besmirched by their uglier past.

And Fuma�s love was better then any freedom.
He realized it now, after gathering all the information he could. Kamui felt
warmth spread in him as he rejoiced in his love rediscovered.

Now if only he could keep his guilt from tainting his happiness.

(tbc)

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

(1) A mostly English speaking Asian channel.
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A New World