I know I just finished and uploaded the previous chapter only several hours ago, but I was not finished working on this, apparently, and so here we are at the conclusion and the actual scene that first popped into my head when I was writing this.

"But, doesn't that hurt the person underneath the tree?"

"Look, I'll cut a deal with you. If ever we meet again..."

Subaru Sumeragi and Seishirou Sakurazuka - Tokyo Babylon, Volume 1.5 - Destiny

Kakei had been his usual enigmatic self, taking the branch with a catlike smile and shooing Kazahaya off to put away his payment. True to word, he didn't pay Rikuo, but he didn't care about that. He wanted to talk, in the method that more resembled interrogation.

And yet, Kakei seemed to not notice at all, dodging every attempt that he made to talk as they finished out the afternoon at the store. If he didn't know better, he would have said it was so that no one would interrupt them.

But Kakei wasn't usually that caring, was he?

The store had seen a rush of teenage girls scarcely ten minutes before closing time, giggling and chattering to each other in their flocks. It had taken Saiga's bulk and Kakei's devilish smirk before they all were sheparded out. Saiga and Kakei did their odd staring thing, where it was like they had entire conversations without speaking, before Saiga grabbed at Kazahaya playfully, chasing him off god knows where.

"They'll be back later." Kakei said with a satisfied grin. He leaned against the counter as Rikuo began to fix the overrighted display stands that had inevitably gotten so out of order over the course of the day. The blood-sucking vampire branch sat unassumingly in a tray, along with a duo of rocks and two tall reeds. "You wanted to ask why I was willing to send out Kudo-kun alone if he was going to meet the Sakurazukamori, right?"

Rikuo almost dropped the box of lipstick he was putting back in order. "He was actually the Sakurazukamori?" He was aware that Kakei had probalby done that on purpose, but most of him was left to startled gaping silence.

Kakei brushed one of the blossoms, watching it tremble and shiver at the delicate touch. "Of course. I would have assumed you'd learned enough already from hearing about 1999?"

He struggled to compose himself, cursing when he realized he had crushed a tube of "Midnight Raspberry" and that not only was his hand now covered in plastic and lipstick, but that it was probably coming out of his pay. "Heard enough to know that the clan existed without a doubt, yes. Heard enough to know exactly who he was, no."

Kakei had that look that said he knew much more than he was going to speak of. "Sumeragi-san is the balance for all the magic of this world. He is both the light and the dark. And as such, he is a very shattered induvidual."

"That's not an explanation as to why Kazahaya knows him, or is safe around him." He wanted so badly to shout with anger, to break more than the one tube. But he knew that Tsukiko would be sad to know that he had lost that much control of his temper. "Or why you needed the branch."

Kakei raised a hand for his silence. "I will explain the rest of what is mine to explain if you will be quiet." The usual smirk had disappeared, and was replaced by a solemnity. "As the Sakurazukamori, yes he is obligated to kill, both to protect Japan and to feed the tree that hosts the souls of their victims. But, as the leader of the Sumeragi, he is also obligated to protect the people from that of the second world, including , where his predessesors killed without regard, he leaves alive those who have done nothing wrong. It is the last thing he can hold onto."

He brushed the broken plastic into a garbage bag, already waiting to hold the sweepings and other litter of the day. "So Kazahaya is safe because he won't kill without reason? Not killing without reason does not mean he's safe."

Kakei had another one of those enigmatic smiles on his face. "You could say the same thing for you and your gift. Just because you do not use it without reason does not make you safe. You could, perhaps just as easily, kill Kazahaya-kun as Sumeragi-san could do it. And you would have about the same amount of reason behind it."

One of the lightbulbs overhead broke with a snap. Kakei sighed. "I know that the idea is upsetting, but I would appriciate it if you would not break anything else in my store. It does cost money to replace it and I would have to draw it out of your paycheck."

Rikuo forced himself to breathe, to calm down. "There is a difference there, it isn't the same" 'I wouldn't kill Kazahaya, no matter how easy it would be.'

Kakei ran a finger down one of the reeds in the ikebana. "At its deepest form, it is. What is different, is what lines you two would be willing to cross for someone you cared about." He was looking beyond the arrangement, at something far away, perhaps long ago. "For some people, that farthest line is to be willing to die, to give up that most precious gift we are ever given. For others, that farthest line, is to kill. To steal life from others to prolong that of their own or their most precious."

The lines of lipstick looked uneven without the Midnight Raspberry tube he'd broken. He shifted one of the less popular types into the empty hole.

"Sumeragi-san has not had a happy life, but I wish him a better next time around." Kakei said with some finality to the conversation. "Kudo-kun can finish restocking for the morning if you need to go break something else."

Rikuo sighed, putting the lipstick display back where it belonged. "I can handle it."

Kakei chuckled lightly. "Yes, I'm sure that you can. But I think I'll send Kudo-kun back out anyway, since it'll make the tasks go easier."

He had a feeling that Kakei was more than likely trying to do the thing where they yelled at each other till they felt better again. After the interesting turns this afternoon had taken, that would actually be kind of nice.

Kakei was drifting off to the back room when Rikuo remembered what else he wanted to ask him. "What did you want the branch for, anyway?"

And that damn cheshire smirk was back in full force. "Don't you think that it makes a lovely display up at the counter?" And he vanished into the other space.

Rikuo found himself snorting in amusement. 'Never tell the truth when you can dodge it just as well?'

Then Kazahaya was stomping into the room again, holding a box that seemed to have a mishmash of everything that they'd run out of and looking distinctly frustrated. "How did you break a lightbulb? Wait, never mind! Don't answer that, I don't want to know!"

And then he was grinning, and he could put away the ideas that didn't really match up with his concept of the world till another day, and take this time to tease Kazahaya into those brilliant blushes.

But today, I will let you go...

I'm really, really happy with myself right now. Because even if it's short, and even if no one ever reads it, I actually finished something that was multiple chapters, without being ashamed of it.