X:2099
A fanfic by Epeeblade aka C. Pontoriero
Part 7
Kamui flew desperately, leading his other self away from the BEAST complex.
Something drove him forth, told him that this was the right way to go. In the distance he
could see Tokyo Tower, still sparkling silver from BEAST’s wiring, despite the imminent
approach of sunset. Yes, that would do nicely, he half thought, following the instinct to
continue to that place, as if the goal was all the mattered.
He alighted gently upon the topmost platform, then whirled, whipping his sword through
the air as he moved. Kamui grinned, as he stood waiting for the Other to approach.
It wouldn’t be long now.
***
Yuzuriha felt herself floating, she opened her eyes and found herself in the ocean, gentle
waves lapped against her naked body. She rolled over and began to swim for shore. Upon
the sand sat a sad young man. “Kakyou.” She greeted softly, running her hands through
her wet hair, shaking the tendrils out of her eyes.
“Princess,” he answered.
“You have not be truthful with me.” She said angrily.
“I have always told the truth, you merely interpreted it as you liked and I did nothing to
disabuse you of your errors.” He shrugged, pulling up his knees and curling his arms
about them. “Besides, what was the point? There was no changing the future.”
“Stop this!” she growled angrily. “You will tell me /now/ what is going on!”
“It’s the end of our worlds.” He answered, resigned. “I told you truth when I said I
thought you were the /kamui/. The Kamui from this world would fight on behalf of
Mother Nature, of the land that cried out for justice, the earth that was abused and
scorched and devastated by those in the other world. Their Kamui would fight for the
right of humanity to continue to exist.”
“So when you told me to save the earth.” She sighed. “Bastard,” she swore under her
breath. “What now?”
“They still battle. If Fuuma-Kamui wins, he will single handedly destroy every bit of
human life, there will be no escaping the hunter.”
“And if the other Kamui wins?” she asked softly.
“All will continue as it has been.” He told her.
“Not as it’s been.” She snapped. “People are already dead, there is no bringing them
back.”
Kakyou stood and met her eyes. “No, princess, there is no bringing back the dead. I
know this as well as anyone.” He turned away from her, folding his arms about his chest.
In the back of his mind he thought desperately of the child he was, and the little girl he
would meet in dreams…and the day he discovered she would never meet him again.
“Kakyou.” The princess called softly. “What do I do now?”
“Wait.” He shrugged. “If your Kamui wins, then you’re dead anyway.”
“There’s no way to stop him?”
“Princess, you are on the wrong side. There is nothing you can do to stop the being that
was once Fuuma…”
“He no longer exists, does he?” Yuzuriha murmured as she slowly came awake in the
Mission room where she had secreted herself.
“No…” was that Kakyou? Or her own mind? Frustrated, she pushed herself out of bed
and walked downstairs on unsteady steps. “Yuuto.” She called. “Can you get us home?”
He looked up at her, the young child-princess, standing upon the steps, clutching the
railing in fingers that were white at the knuckles. “If I can get back inside BEAST, if she
hasn’t yet changed the codes on me.”
“I can help you with that.” Sorata piped up.
They all turned to look at him. “You would betray her?” Yuzuriha asked softly.
“Hey, all you guys wanna do is get home, right? What’s wrong with that?” he shrugged,
then winced at the pain in his shoulder.
“Has Aoki-san woken up yet?” she asked, almost forgetting the poor man in her haste to
leave this distasteful world. If she was going to die, she would die in her own country, in
her royal armor, with her friends and family at her back.
“Princess,” his voice wavered over the sudden silence in the room. Yuzuriha immediately
skipped down the stairs to sit at his side.
“Aoki,” she murmured. “Do you know about your leg?”
He patted her hand gently. “Yes, but don’t worry about me, my lady, I can fly
remember?” He smiled reassuringly up at her.
That was just like him, even when injured he tried to make things better for her. The tears
welled up and she could not stop them, just cried and let Aoki pull her into his arms,
holding her as she sobbed.
***
Kamui held up his sword, parrying the first blow. /Kamui/ stepped back, calling forth
power to his hands, which manifested in bright red sparking lightening. Then he aimed
the sword, which sent a bolt of energy at the younger boy.
Kamui desperately threw up a shield, which soaked up most of the blast. “He was
supposed to be weakened,” he thought to himself, taking to the air, and letting his
opposite follow him. If he kept moving, he would be harder to hit.
***
“Something isn’t right,” Sorata murmured as he and what was left of Yuzuriha’s guard
made their way through the dark and silent hallways of the BEAST complex. Arashi
followed at his side, Yuzuriha and Inuki behind them, and Yuuto helped Aoki limp along,
since the windmaster was loathe to use his powers once inside. They encountered none of
Satsuki’s employees; in fact, it seemed to Sorata that the entire place seemed to be
slumbering somehow. “Where’s the transporter?”
Yuuto gestured, “In room 42 in the indigo wing. Where /is/ everyone?” He was disturbed
at the lack of security, and the darkness of the complex. At first he thought the power
might have been cut, but the slight hum in the background and the flickering emergency
lights belayed that.
“Fighting /Kamui/?” Sorata suggested. “C’mon, we can take a tube there.”
“Are you sure?” Yuuto demanded, “It’s not safe.”
“What, are we gonna climb through the ventilation shaft up 50 flights? You gotta be
kidding, Yuuts, besides, we’re not safe just standing here.”
Yuuto sighed, Sorata was irrepressible and he was right. However, he could not shake the
sense of foreboding once they all boarded the elevation tube.
Holding his breath, Sorata keyed in the sequence, surprised the lift did not ask for a
verification eye scan before beginning its motion. He tapped his ear piece, but the
connection was dead. “Be ready for anything.” He hissed, clenching his fingers into tight
fists, reading to call upon his lightening if need be. Beside him, Arashi began to
unsheathe her sword.
The lift doors opened.
Sorata gasped. In the transporter room, stood Seishirou, Subaru kneeling at his feet.
However, the long tendrils of wire that marked BEAST’s presence were connected to
Seishirou’s body, along his arms and legs. He looked very much like Satsuki when she
was in communion with BEAST. But this was impossible; Seishirou could not connect
with BEAST in such a manner.
“Ah, Sorata, I see you’ve been busy,” Seishirou chuckled, his voice sounding deeper,
with just a touch of a metallic ring to it.
“What are you doing here? Has Satsuki sent you to stop us?” Yuuto demanded.
“Satsuki?” the Sakurazukamori laughed again. “You mean, the late Satsuki? I assure you,
she no longer dictates /my/ actions.”
“Ding Dong, the witch is DEAD,” Sorata cheered. The others glared at him, “sorry,” he
muttered.
“So what is this?” Yuuto gestured, “You’ve taken her place?”
“Hardly,” Seishirou gestured to the wires around him, once gray, now glowed with a
pulsing pink light. “Eveyone, meet the new world’s super computer. Sakura. She is very
pleased to meet you.”
***
Kamui was tired, and his arms were aching. It wasn’t fair, why did everything depend on
this one fight? On him? If he thought about it too long, the very idea had once caused him
to tremble. Now he was too worried about getting his ass kicked, as he leapt out of the
way of his Opposite’s strikes. They both had long left power blasts behind, being too
weary to summon the energy necessary.
They had stopped flying too, and now stood on the highest platform of the tower, staring
each other down. As if absently, Kamui could hear the crowd counting down to the new
millenium…
10… 9…8…
“There is only one destiny!” Kamui shouted, running across the platform, his sword held
high.
7… 6…5…
/Kamui/ raised his own to parry, anticipating the clang of Kamui’s sword.
4…3…2…
But Kamui feinted, moving to cut sideways, not down…
1…
Fireworks erupted around the tower.
And Fuuma’s head rolled off of the tower and into the crowd below.
***
Yuzuriha suddenly screamed, clutching her head as she fell to her knees.
“Princess, what is it?” Arashi gasped, falling to the girl’s side.
“I…I don’t know.” She gasped, reaching out to clutch Inuki close to her. But the spirit
dog eluded her grasp, padding forward to nudge at Subaru’s still form. Subaru looked up
at the dog, then turned to face Seishirou, who nodded at him.
“He, he says to tell you he’s sorry.” Subaru said softly to Yuzuriha, his eyes on someone
she could not see. The princess suddenly knew he was not talking about Inuki. “And that
he did love you. He promises to wait for you.” After those words, Subaru clutched his
own ears. “W…what happened?”
Seishirou patted the boy’s head much the way Yuzuriha patted Inuki. “You’re other
powers suddenly kicked in. They’ve been dormant for quite a while. I’m surprised.”
“Fuuma.” Yuzuriha murmured, wiping the tears from her eyes. Then she gasped,
realizing something, “If he’s dead that means…”
“Kamui won,” Sorata murmured in answer.
“Now, now, shouldn’t you be going?” Seishirou needled. “I didn’t go to all this trouble to
power up the transporter for nothing.”
“You’d let us leave?” Yuzuriha gasped.
He shrugged, “Why not? You enabled me to kill Satsuki; I should be thanking you.
Anyway, all you have to do is step through the glowing green pillars. Then you’ll be back
in Shikoku.”
Arashi did not trust him, “Yuuto, is he telling the truth?” she asked, knowing he was the
only man who could answer that.
“Yes,” Yuuto left Aoki leaning on the wall, before moving to check the instrument
settings. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Sorata clutched Arashi shoulder, spinning her around and pressing a quick kiss to her
lips. “Stay with me,” he asked softly, reaching to brush her hair out of her eyes.
She looked up at him, puzzled. “Why?”
He frowned, then stepped back, “I’m sorry, I thought since you saved my life, you
cared…”
She sighed, rolling her eyes exasperated before cupping his face between her hands and
showing him what a kiss truly was.
“Wow.”
“Come with us.” She asked, “There is nothing to hold you here, and you’ll see a place
where real magic exists.”
He grinned stupidly at her. “Well, let me think about it… of course I’ll go with you.”
“Then we’d better go,” Yuuto growled, “before big dark and gloomy changes his mind.”
Seishirou only raised his eyebrows in amusement. Once the group had made their way
through the portal, he shut it down with a thought.
“What have you done?” a small voice demanded from behind him.
“Hello Kamui, long night, eh?” he asked, slowly turning to meet the gaze of the small
boy.
“Subaru, are you all right?” Kamui demanded, kneeling by the young man’s side,
caressing his face gently. “I’ll kill you if you’ve hurt him!”
Seishirou laughed softly, scratching the side of his face. As an afterthought he removed
his sunglasses. Kamui gasped at the sight of his eyes, two pink embers glowed inside
empty sockets. “Yes Kamui, I am one with Sakura, and you may thank Subaru for that.
He was the one who engineered the virus that took control of BEAST. The virus that
managed to blend magic and technology for the first time.”
“You’re even more powerful than she was.” Kamui gasped. He suddenly wished he had
the sacred sword back, but it had disintegrated once its purpose had been fulfilled.
“What’s wrong, Kamui? Do you fear me even more? You should you know, but not
today.” He reached down and grasped Kamui’s uniform jacket and held him up by it.
“Why don’t we make an arrangement?”
“An arrangement?” Kamui gasped out.
“More of a bet, if you would prefer…”
*
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