Chapter seven: The choices of destiny.

T: Last chapter…I'm rather sad about that fact, which is surprising considering how much bother this fic has given me! Warnings remain the same with the addition of AU and OC…come back! It's not turning into a Mary Sue I promise!

Clamp owns it and my money, need I say more?

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In the end there had only ever been one choice.

Kamui had considered his options a great while, then he had attempted to distract himself with school work and eventually he had shut himself into the school library.

It was well past the time that the other students have left when he found the spell he had been looking for and thus he was more than a little fatigued when he came again to Subaru's side.

He stayed the night in that room, his hands clenched about the spell book and his mind still on the decision he had to make.

In the end there was only one choice.

At midnight Kamui awoke and stretching for Subaru's hand he said,

"I can not allow Fuuma to kill you Subaru and though I would rather that you could live your life here with me; I know that you shall be happier within your past.

"I know, somehow, that you wish to have the power of the tree again at your disposal and I will grant you that wish, will give you that power.

"Consider it my thank you for all that you have done for me." He leased his companions hand and smiling he said,

"Good bye, Subaru."

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As Subaru awoke he felt tears on his cheek and he wondered at their origin.

The last he recalled of his dreams was the faint feeling of someone holding his hand.

There was a white heat at the back of his mind and he knew instinctively that that meant the power of the tree was his again.

Touching that power he saw the last moments of his future self and smiling he said,

"Good bye, Kamui and thank you." Before he then climbed out of bed.

Hokuto took one look at his outfit and enquired,

"Where are you going?"

"Hokuto can you tell the teacher that I am sorry?"

"Subaru!"

"I have to go and see Seishrio."

"Now?"

"I'll explain later."

Hokuto rolled her eyes and placing a wallet into Subaru's hand said,

"Make sure you eat, Subaru and remember what I said."

"Okay okay!" He remarked as he headed out into the open air.

As there were only two places where he knew he might find Seishrio, he decided to get the closer of the two out of the way first.

Of course Seishrio's Veterinarian practice had been closed down, perhaps because now that Subaru knew the truth there was no need to maintain the charade, or perhaps for another, entirely different reason.

That left Ueno park.

On the way Subaru picked himself up some lunch, purchasing enough so that he could share should Seishrio appear.

Once within the park he wove an illusion about himself and settled down against the tree to eat.

"Subaru."

He started only barely and glancing upwards he was greeted with Seishrio's empty smile.

"Seishrio, would you care to join me for lunch?"

The older man seemed uncertain and Subaru smiled a seductive little smile, "I would be very happy if you stayed, Seishrio. Very happy."

He could almost feel Seishrio's confusion and he knew then that he had been right to desire the return of the tree's power.

For not only was he now facing Seishrio as an equal, he was facing him as a half of his soul.

"What have you done to me?"

"Nothing, Seishrio. I have, instead, done something to myself."

The older man jumped to the floor then and leaning towards Subaru he said,

"You have the power of the tree within you."

"I told you that I became the Sakurazukamori in the future."

"Yet you showed no signs of that power."

Subaru thought of weaving a lie to unnerve Seishrio more, but he did not wish for there to be any more lies between the older man and himself, thus he said,

"I had to call the power to me."

"Why?"

"Because I missed the clarity that it gave me and because I wish to be your equal, Seishrio, rather than your toy."

The older man set a hand against Subaru's face and looked a while at the younger man.

Eventually he leased Subaru's face and sat down at his side,

"Subaru, I can not claim to understand this change in you or in myself. However, I wish to see what we might make of our lives if we try."

"That is all I ask, Seishiro."

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"Sumeragi-Sensei?"

Turning Subaru noted again that Kamui looked well, although today he seemed paler, but considering how things should be…

"How may I help you, Shirou-Kun?"

Kamui seemed nervous, something Subaru understood entirely; for Kamui had always been understandably weary of opening out to strangers and though as his teacher Subaru was not precisely a stranger he was removed enough that Kamui had maintained a distance between them.

Subaru was about to pose the question again when Kamui blushed faintly and enquired,

"Is Sakura-san alright?"

Subaru tensed a little at that, for his daughter had mentioned nothing of knowing Kamui.

But then Sakura was not truly his child and perhaps she had kept the secret for that reason.

He had met her under the tree precisely a year after he had renewed his bet with Seishiro.

It had been a hauntingly familiar situation, indeed it had been almost precisely as his very first meeting with Seishiro, but for one important reason.

Subaru had been drawn to look upwards by the blood seeping down the tree, yet Sakura had had no cause to glace upwards.

No cause to notice him.

No cause but fate, for the child had proven to be the fourteenth head of the Sumeragi clan.

He had come down to her when she asked and enraptured by the purity in her eyes he had responded truthfully when she asked what clan he belonged to.

"I am of no clan now, once though I was of the Sumeragi."

It was a reply that had confused her and yet she had told him that she was Sumeragi and had given him her name.

He had recognised it and had felt a pity for the child before him. As with himself Sakura was an orphan, yet unlike him she had been ten when her parents had lost their lives.

It had been evident by that point that the child would become the next head and Obaachan had taken Sakura in just as she had taken Hokuto and Subaru in all those years ago.

He had talked a great while to Sakura, his illusion assuring that they were not interrupted and that none saw them together.

Eventually he had had to go, but he had made her a promise,

"If we meet again, Sakura-chan, I shall protect you and we can talk more."

He had not believed he would indeed see her again, not with Obaachan watching her always. Yet he had not counted on his sisters tenaciousness and but a week after their first meeting, Sakura and he had come together again.

When Obaachan had died the year afterwards Subaru had been a large enough part of Sakura's life that he had requested that she be his ward. A request that the Sumeragi family had granted despite their reservations and despite what he was.

"Sumeragi-Sensei?"

Subaru snapped back to the present and recalling Kamui's enquiry he thought back to the previous evening.

Sakura had returned pail and visibly shaking, yet when Subaru had asked she had assured him that she was fine.

He had assumed that it was magical backlash and he knew now that he had been correct in that assumption.

Yesterday had been the day of Fuuma's awakening and it had obviously been Sakura who had called Kamui back and yet how?

Now was not the time to ponder such things, however, not with Kamui desperate still for a reply.

"She was asleep still when I left."

Kamui visibly deflated at that and then a hope kindling a-new in his eyes he enquired,

"Might I be able to come and see her?"

"Certainly. If you wait for me after school I shall give you a ride."

"Thank you."

With that the boy was gone, leaving Subaru to his thoughts.

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They road back in silence, Subaru concentrating on the road and Kamui thinking on the previous evening…

He recalled darkness and the image of Kotori's death before a voice had screamed at him to stop.

He had felt so young, so insecure.

He just wanted everything to go away! Most especially the young woman who stood just a little before him.

"My name is Sakura Sumeragi, might I come over there?"

"No, stay away!"

"I am coming over there."

Kamui would have none of it and screaming for her to keep away, to not kill Fuuma and Kotori; he had pushed her from him.

Half conscious on the floor she had shown him an image of three people, two male and one female, staring at one another across a divide.

"Who?"

"My mother, father and older brother."

Kamui watched in horrid fascination as the younger man leapt for his parents.

He saw what was going to happen and he tried to stop it, may well have done as such if it had not been for Sakura's restraining hand.

"This is my memory and you shall not reach them in time."

The boy punched a hole in first his father's heart and then his mother's, before he fled the scene.

"When I learned that my brother had turned to using his magic to kill I shut myself into my heart.

"Thus when he went after my parent I could do nothing. I could only listen as a stranger told me of their death.

"But I found a wish and I came back to myself, grew strong in hopes of achieving that wish.

"This is what you must do, Kamui, or otherwise you shall again be able to do nothing when someone else you care for dies."

She had begun to fade then and Kamui had asked why,

"I used a little too much magic," She replied before her form had gone completely.

He had found his wish, but when had stirred Sakura had been gone.

He'd worried about the girl for the rest of the night and had eventually asked Sorata to make some enquires on his behalf.

Inquires that had led him to Sumeragi-sensei.

It had been odd to learn that his teacher was connected to Sakura and he had wondered idly if the older man was also connected to the end of the world. Yet that was foolish, Sumeragi-sensei was a kind and gentle man who would have no want to kill.

The car came to a halt and Kamui took a moment to admire the almost mansion like building before them.

Following on Subaru's heals he wondered at the lack of flowers within the vast garden, but decided that everyone was entitled to a little eccentricity, even teachers.

"I'm home." Subaru remarked as he kicked his shoes off and Kamui followed suit.

"I'm in the living room."

It was a man's voice and as Kamui came into the living room he was met with its owner; an older man with entrancing golden brown eyes and an oddly blank smile.

He flushed a little as Subaru bent to kiss the other man and turned from the pair, which drew the attention back in his direction.

"Where are my manners?" Subaru enquired as he caught Kamui gently about the shoulder. "Seishrio this is Kamui Shirou. Shirou-kun this is Seishiro Sakurazuka."

"A pleasure." The older man remarked as he offered his hand.

Kamui took it despite an odd reluctance in the depths of his heart and Subaru smiled before he enquired,

"Is Sakura-chan still in her room?"

"Yes. I took her breakfast and she seemed lucid enough considering how pail she looked yesterday."

"That's good." Subaru remarked and then said, "Come with me, Shirou-kun."

Kamui did as requested and was lead back out into the hallway and down to a room set against the far wall.

Subaru knocked and upon receiving permission entered into the tiny bedroom.

Sakura was propped up on the bed, her eyes focused still on her book and her condition fair considering what Kamui had begun to fear.

"Father." She acknowledged after a moment and then seeing the other she smiled,

"Kamui-kun."

"I'll be in the living room if you need me." Subaru said as left the room.

"Thank you, Sakura-san."

"It was nothing, Kamui. After all I am a dragon of heaven and I would do anything to protect you."

"You let me see inside your heart, Sakura-san, that was hardly 'nothing'."

"Someone had to know one day and I thought you, of all people, would understand."

She smiled brightly then and Kamui felt his heart lift.

Perhaps there was hope after all.

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T: Ta da! Again a few little things before I let you be…Sakura was originally going to be a genetic splicing together of Subaru and Seishrio's genes, but I had two distinct problems with that- one: I needed her to be the fourteenth head and I could not see Subaru's grandmother willingly allowing a Sakurazukamori to become head and two: I needed a tragic history for her and if she was Subaru's child that would mean heart ache for our beloved Sumeragi- thus was this idea born…I think it pans out quite well in the end! R+R and who knows I might write the scene on rainbow bridge!