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J.J. Blue
Author of 26 Stories |
Title: "Raison D'Etre - Epilogue"
Author: J.J.
Warning: It's an AU BASED ON THE MANGA. It contains some Japanese words (the Dictionary is at the bottom), a bit of sappiness...
Notes: Born to... hum... torture Hokuto and Seishiro? Explore the possibilities of Persocom usage in the 'X' series? Well, that too but I was aiming at something else with this... What? You'll discover when it'll be finished...
Warning over notes: This fic has notes. You will find them at the bottom. Each time you see a number between brackets it means there's a note connected to the word/sentence that preceded it. However I suggest you to read the notes AFTER you finished the fic unless the word/sentence connected to the note is really troublesome for you to understand. Anyway the fic should be still understandable without the notes. Notes are merely extra explanations for who wants to know more.
Disclaimer:
"Tokyo Babylon", "X" and "Chobits" belong to Clamp. I'm merely using their characters because I love them... especially Seishiro and Subaru...
Ehy, Do I own something here? Oh yes, I own the plot and a sensible heart which would surely break if you give me harsh reviews... so please be honest but nice ok?
Thanks: To Ruth for betaing this! Thank you a lot!
Summary: Fourteen people are involved in the battle for the end of the world... but if one is dead why not replace him with a Persocom?
That damned place was cold. He was sure Subaru-kun didn't mind it, considering the state he was in, but Seishiro would have liked to have a warmer coat. Why should the Chi no Ryu's Headquarter be even colder than Tokyo's autumn night?(1)
Some more annoying electrical sounds reminded him why.
Beast, Satsuki-chan's lovely pet. Actually her pet wouldn't have minded being her owner instead. Seishiro had always been good at recognizing possessiveness and he wouldn't have liked to be in Kigai's place. The giant computer seemed willing to try and shred him into pieces every time he moved close to Satsuki-chan, even if it never actually tried anything against the man. Not that Seishiro cared about Kigai, Satsuki-chan or her jealous pet. The only thing he cared for was lying perfectly still on the table.
"Aren't you done yet, Satsuki-chan?" he asked, clearly bored, for the nth time.
Satsuki-chan wrinkled her nose and glared at him through her glasses.
"If you're unsatisfied with my speed, Sakurazuka-san, you can go bug some amateur and have a hurried but sloppy job," she stated coldly, apparently not intimidated by him at all.
"Come on, Satsuki-chan," Seishiro said in a conciliatory tone, knowing he would accomplish nothing without her help. "I thought you loved challenges. Don't you want to prove you're better than Mihara-san?" he teased.
Satsuki-chan huffed, then resumed her work, not dignifying him with an answer. Of course she wanted that, but she wasn't the type to admit it. Seishiro grinned and absently stroked Subaru-kun's cold hand with his thumb.
"Satsuki-chan, please, ignore him and hurry up. His Wish to have it back is so intense it's giving me a headache. I could feel it even while I was on the other side of the city," Kamui complained as he entered the room followed by Nataku.
"I'm so sorry to hear that, Kamui," Seishiro replied in an obviously insincere tone, voice dripping with sugar. In fact his mood seemed to improve at the news. "Take it philosophically. Maybe there's a greater lesson in your headache, maybe it's trying to teach you to not touch other people's toys," he added smugly.
"I did only what your Subaru-kun wished me to do and guess who caused him to have such Wish?" Kamui countered in a sarcastic tone. Seishiro glared. Before the two started arguing Yuto hurried to divert their attention by offering them cake, knowing fairly well that none of the two was the type to pass it up.
"Sakurazuka-san, my work would speed up considerably if you weren't constantly standing in my way, hovering over your Persocom like a vulture and clinging to it as if it was your personal Teddy Bear," Satsuki-chan pointed out when she found Seishiro in her way again, since he apparently couldn't let go of the Persocom, not even while he was eating. "And please keep that cake away from it. You don't want crumbs to get in its delicate circuits, do you?"
"Satsuki-chan, you're dealing with a possessed Persocom. We don't want to irritate the spirit of a powerful Onmyouji more than necessary, do we?" Seishiro replied in a patronizing tone, clearly implying he wasn't going to move no matter what.
"Aren't you another powerful Onmyouji? Shouldn't it be your duty to exorcise it?" the girl countered, adjusting the position of her glasses up on her nose again. Seishiro shrugged.
"Exorcisms are menial tasks below my dignity. I don't waste my time with them," he said carelessly, moving his hand so to have a better grip on Subaru-kun's one.
Satsuki gave him the 'I'm so not going to believe you' gaze but said nothing. She wouldn't sink so low as to argue with an adult who acted like a spoiled brat.
"That spirit is too weak right now to give us any trouble," Kamui pointed out, sticking his nose in other people's business as usual, making Seishiro wish he could rip it off. "He depleted almost all his resources on Rainbow Bridge to talk with a certain someone. I don't know if he'll manage to recover enough to do anything," the boy continued when it would have been better if he had kept his mouth shut.
"Maybe," Seishiro conceded graciously. "But the spirit is still here, still here with me and he feels what is going on around him and that is enough," he observed, smiling down at the Persocom in such a gentle way as the others had never seen him doing. "And I will allow no one to dare to harm him," he added in a cheerful, careless manner and yet it was impossible to miss the threat in his voice.
"Yes, the spirit is still there," Kamui agreed. "It was time you finally started feeling it."
"The spirit is mine. This time I won't let anyone take him away from me," Seishiro stated possessively. At that Satsuki-chan muttered some nonsense about men being insanely possessive over the weirdest things, then Kigai began chatting about something meaningless and Kamui went to sit on the throne he had stolen from Kanoe, Nataku in tow, as Seishiro resumed his vigil over his Subaru-kun. For a long while nothing else worth Seishiro's interest happened.
"Stop glaring at me like that. My job is done and you will have your Persocom back. All I have to do is to activate it," the girl informed him.
"So is everything done?" he asked and there was an odd note in his voice as his hand moved to caress Subaru-kun's hair affectionately. Satsuki wasn't quite sure about it but he seemed... happy... as happy as she had never seen him.
"Everything is done. It won't be the same however. Its memory have been completely wiped out and I've been able to recover only the data regarding its personality and I still don't understand why you wanted its pain programs to be reinstalled. Actually I found it was a nice improvement that it wasn't allowed to show pain," Satsuki commented. Pain and sadness had no place in Satsuki's practical mind. They were a waste of time and energy.
"The Persocom can't really feel, its reactions are all program-induced so it doesn't really matter to it. You should know that better than any other," Sakurazuka-san reported, smiling softly at the Persocom and Satsuki was positive Sakurazuka-san had that expression only when he watched it and no one else. She observed the Persocom carefully but saw no in it reason to smile so tenderly. It was, after all, just a Persocom.
"I know. I still don't understand why," she insisted. Of course she knew the Persocom felt nothing. It, like Beast, was nothing else but a machine after all. She favoured computers over humans but this didn't mean she went so far as to say they had feelings. They just... were more amusing then humans.
"The Persocom can't feel sadness but Subaru-kun does," Sakurazuka-san explained. "I think it'll be more fairer if he is allowed to show it. Besides Subaru-kun was always very pretty when he was sad..." he observed looking almost... nostalgic...
Satsuki shrugged. She didn't care much about fairness or beauty but if this helped her to get the Sakurazukamori out of the place she wouldn't complain. Somehow, when he was present, having tea with Yuto-san wasn't the same.
"I'll activate him then," she stated. "You'd better let go of him for a moment if you don't want to experience an electroshock." Sakurazuka-san nodded and let go of the Persocom's hand for the first time from the moment when he had brought it here. His eyes... well, eye, didn't leave it. Satsuki had never seen a more intense gaze in her whole life. It made her feel oddly embarrassed, as if she was watching something intimate and so she was pretty glad when the activation process started and she had to concentrate on it only.
"Hokuto-chan, is this any way to greet your brother-in-law?" Seishiro complained as he rubbed his now stinging cheek. He was sure that the girl had left the print of her five fingers on it. Who knew Hokuto-chan had all that strength in her?
"That was only an appetizer, mister! How dare you leave me without news for two days after our last talk?" she shouted and she almost would have looked as energetic as the old Hokuto-chan, hadn't it been for the marked black rings around her eyes and her distressed look. "Kamui-chan came here to tell me Subaru was on Rainbow Bridge when it crashed down and that YOU were with him. I thought you were dead! And, be sure of this, I'll kill you if you don't tell me that Subaru is fine! And why can't you enter through the door like any ordinary person? My balcony isn't your private entrance!"
"Hokuto-chan!" Seishiro exclaimed in a whining tone. "Give me some time to explain!"
"YOU HAD TWO DAYS TO EXPLAIN! NOW..." she froze in mid sentence as she noticed someone else behind Sei-chan, a small teenage hands clinging to Seishiro-chan's dark coat, green eyes peering up at her with an imploring expression and she felt her heart melt.
"Don't be mad at Seishiro-san, Ojousan, please. It was my fault if he couldn't come to visit you..." the boy said timidly, clinging to Sei-chan protectively as if believing Hokuto might really harm the man.
"Subaru?" she said hesitantly. The boy blinked, his puzzled expression so perfectly like Subaru's, so much more perfectly like Subaru's than the Persocom had ever been able to replicate that it made her heart hurt. She threw herself at him, hugging him, cuddling him, fussing over him and smothering him, crying and repeating his name over and over. Her Subaru, her Subaru...
The boy let her, even if he turned his confused gaze on Seishiro.
"This insane girl, Subaru-kun, is your twin sister, Hokuto-chan," Seishiro explained to him with a hint of amusement and fondness in his voice, his hand still rubbing his sore cheek. He'd need some ice to put on it. Maybe Subaru-kun might hold it in place for him...
Hokuto released Subaru and studied him carefully.
"Subaru... don't you remember me?" she asked. Subaru looked at her hesitantly as if he had no idea what she was talking about.
"According to Satsuki-chan part of his memory has been wiped away," Seishiro-chan informed her as he ruffled Subaru's hair affectionately. Subaru turned to him and smiled, that smile that had been reserved for Sei-chan only and that the Persocom previously hadn't know how to replicate that well, a smile in which love and longing mixed so perfectly...
"You... you did something to him, didn't you? He... he can be sad again now, can't he?" she realized and she wanted to hit Sei-chan again. She couldn't bear the idea Subaru might feel pain again.
"Hokuto-chan... Subaru-kun felt sad before too. He merely didn't show it," Sei-chan informed her. "His constant happiness was fake and therefore not really worth much."
Hokuto gazed straight at Subaru, at those mismatched green eyes that looked at her gently, yet apologetically as well, without really understanding her but sympathizing with her all the same.
"So he is in here then," she stated. "Obaasan... how could you? Subaru..." She didn't manage to end the sentence but she hugged him again as tightly as she could. Subaru let her.
"Sei-chan... you know we should let him go, don't you?" she forced herself to say. It wasn't a particularly appealing idea but she knew it would be better for Subaru... Spirits shouldn't dwell in the living world... Sei-chan however immediately ripped Subaru from her hold and wrapped his arms securely and protectively around him as if he feared Hokuto could steal the boy from him. Subaru leaned comfortably into that tight embrace, looking perfectly fine with the man's actions, even if there was something in his general attitude that seemed to imply a certain embarrassment and, had he been able to, Hokuto was sure he would have blushed.
"Subaru-kun will stay with me. That's what he Wishes, that's what I Wish and deep down that's what you Wish too," Seishiro-chan stated firmly. Subaru smiled up at him from his position in his arms and looked happy. The man turned to look at him and smiled fondly. They were such a nice picture... "He's mine. I won't let anyone else have him, not even Enma DaiOh(2)," Sei-chan added, nuzzling against Subaru.
"It took you all this time to realize it, Sei-chan?" Hokuto asked bitterly and for once she saw the man's eternally cheerful and careless mask drop a bit and she caught a glimpse of regret. It vanished before she could grasp it, leaving her only the fleeting impression of having seen it.
"Sometimes you have to lose something to understand its importance, don't you think so too, Subaru-kun?" Seishiro observed philosophically, snuggling against Subaru and causing him to giggle. Hokuto sighed. Thirty-four years old and he still had the maturity of a spoiled, little kid who was barely beginning to grasp the facts of life but acted as if he knew everything about it.
"I hope you've understood the importance of Subaru all in one go because I really don't want to have to keep you company as you study this lesson all over again," she pointed out in a warning tone. However it was hard to stay angry at Sei-chan when he was busy snuggling up against her brother in such a cute manner...
"I've learned. I've really learned," he assured her. "I studied my lesson in details, carefully and I also underwent a test on it so I think I'm happy with what I know and that I'll do everything to never, never have to study that particular topic again... I don't want to study this topic ever again..."
"Promise me you'll take good care of yourself and Subaru..." she asked in a worried tone and, for once, he thought that maybe Hokuto-chan had cared for him too and not only for Subaru-kun.
"I will," he stated firmly, before bending down to kiss the head of the boy in his arms, causing him to giggle again and cover his face with his hands as if embarrassed.
"That's good," Hokuto agreed. "So what are you two planning to do? Surely you don't plan to involve my brother in this silly battle for the end of the world, do you, Sei-chan?" she asked and there was a hint of threat in her voice.
"I'm not even considering it. You know I don't care about the outcome of this battle, Hokuto-chan. Me and Subaru-kun... we'll merely hang around and enjoy the world for as long as it lasts," he explained.
"Seishiro-san said he wants to sample all the bakeries and restaurants that are still standing before it'll be too late," Subaru supplied helpfully, smiling at her and looking as if he was truly happy.
"Sei-chan! You and your sweet tooth!" Hokuto huffed. Seishiro laughed and she laughed as well as they hadn't been capable to do after the real Subaru's death. Subaru had no idea why they were laughing but they seemed happy and he was sure that was good. Inside him the weak spark of a spirit that should have left the mortal realm long ago and that was still stubbornly clinging to it with all he had, felt it and smiled as well in contentment. His two most special persons were finally happy and he was with them as well. As far as he was involved he had fulfilled his reason for being and saved his world, a world made only by Seishiro-san and Hokuto-chan. As far as he was involved when he was next to them he was exactly in the place where he should be. He was in his Heaven and he would never let it go.
The End
1. Yes, that's a canon info. The room in which Beast is is very, very cold, kind of like a fridge. The other rooms of the Chi no Ryu's Headquarters are, however, warmer.
2. Enma DaiOh is the ruler of hell. Who dies should ends in his realm and be judged by him and by the other 9 King of Hell. Basically Seishiro's saying he won't give Subaru to anyone, not even death itself.
JJ's Extra Notes:
So here's where the story ends. I'm not going to tell who won the battle between Chi no Ryu and Ten no Ryu and not even if Subaru managed to gain enough strength to control the Persocom. He is, however, with Seishiro, and has fulfilled his reason to live. He has protected the person most important to him and made him happy as best as he could and Seishiro has understood how important Subaru is for him. And I think Hokuto now can move on and stop feeling guilty. And maybe end up in Kakyou's dreams... Oh well... I'll leave the future of Subaru, Seishiro and Hokuto up to your imagination.
I think that, after all, this can be an happy ending. It's odd but somehow I consider this story like a fairy tale...
Oh, and yes, the Subaru Persocom now acts in a manner more similar to the original Subaru due to the fact that now he has a pain program. Subaru simply wasn't a person who lived in pure bliss, besides the fact that the Persocom can simulate every emotion allow each of them to look more real...
"Ningyo Hime" is the second ending of 'Chobits'.
Dictionary:
-chan: Name ending used to express affection and familiarity or to talk with a child
-kun: Young
-san: "Mr." or "Mrs."
Chi no Ryu: Dragon of Earth
DaiOh: "Great King". Enma's title
Enma: "Demon of Darkness". Ruler of the Land of Dead
Obaasan: "Grandmother" or "Old Woman"
Ojousan: "Girl"
Onmyoudo: "Way of Yin and Yang". Yin and Yang are the male and female forces underlying the movement and changes of nature. Onmyoudo is based upon the Chinese arts of astrology, divination and Taoist magic and also represents a mystical way of living in harmony with the forces of nature
Onmyouji: "Person who practices Onmyoudo". Basically a magician, sorcerer, diviner and astrologer
Onmyoujutsu: "Art of Yin and Yang". The ability to use Onmyoudo spells
Sakurazukamori: "Guardian of the Cherry Blossom Burial Mound". The assassin who uses Onmyoujutsu to kill who threatens Japan
To Everyone who reviewed: Thank you! You're a great encouragement for me!
To Itsumo Hitori: As you can see in the end the boys didn't die... Seishiro had to choose to live with Subaru for the fic to work. Subaru's reason 'to live' was to protect Seishiro, Seishiro and Hokuto's reason to live is to be with Subaru. Seishiro, in his whole egoistic behaviour, acts very often like a child (incidentally very young kids don't consider others like people either...). His way to deal with Subaru is very childlike. He neglet him, mistreat him, he's possessive of him and wants to play with him. He doesn't seem to have any other toys so it should be terrible for him to definitely lose Subaru. He won't have anything to play with when he wants to play... and, all in all, he should have felt very lonely. Well, this is the end, yes. I let readers free to picture how the future of Subaru, Seishiro and Hokuto will be.
Don't grumble silently, please let me know what you're thinking of this!
Send me your comments!
