http://clampfix.fanworks.net/kenichi/hearts3-.txt </head><body><pre> This is a continuation of Hearts... I'm still kind of slow on "Essence", so I hope this one will tide people over for the meantime... Please reply to me in case there are any errors/mistakes you would wish to point out... Hearts: Jack of Diamonds "One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -Elbert Hubbard The final wisps of my cigarette were barely gone, yet already I yearned another. I reached for my coat pocket. Empty. I stood inside the telephone booth's cubicle like a lover awaiting his beloved. It was so horrendously cliche, I felt like laughing. A young man wearing a trenchcoat, almost like those silly old musicals Americans used to mak, way before I had been born. Silly and cheerful. I felt no humor at all today. Wish this damned rain would stop. No. Actually, it was fair appropriate. Rain, as the heavens themselves cried their agony and sorrow... ...Like the light showering of cherry blossoms in season... A crackle from my fists. Not knuckles, but power. Rage. I smiled to myself in a self-deprecative mirth. Even after Seishirou... Sakurazukamori... Even after he killed Hokuto, I still had my doubts. My fears. Was I really so naive? I looked at my fists. Am I really so afraid? No. Not of Seishirou, anyway... A pattering tone of footsteps in the rain. Behind me. Apprehension as I reached for the Ofuda slips in my pants pocket. Tension... I turned. "Sumeragi-San!!!" I relaxed. She had come, after all. My fists uncurled as I relaxed them. I looked straight at a pretty young lass, in a CLAMP Campus uniform, waiting for me outside the booth. The large umbrella she carried was a somber black; something atypical to the preferences of most young ladies her age. Her shoulder-length brown hair was slightly damp, and I wondered how long she had been out in the rain. As if to calm my nerves, she smiled. Something that did not come often to her pretty face. Pretty... I recalled that was what her first name meant. She reminded me of Oneechan sometimes, though she smiled very little. Somewhere within the small part of my soul that was still free from hate, I managed a smile. One true, gentle smile. "I was afraid you would never come, Miyazaki-San." We walked a distance away. I felt the presence of another following us as our feet gently disturbed the miniature pools that had formed on the sidewalk. A presence familiar and fearful. The presence of a wolf hunting it's prey. No, not hunting. I felt eyes watch me not in malice, but more in suspicion. More like a wolf protecting it's mate. As I had expected. "Your 'mate' comes a-calling, Miyazaki-San." I hadn't realy meant it as an insult. Yet the words came out cold and heartless. Miyazaki Mirei looked at me gently but firmly, as if in answer to my spite. "Shiroi only wants to ensure my safety, Sumeragi-San. He means you no harm." I scoffed lightly. A small part of me wanted to say 'Serves him Right'. Childish. And yet I could not but speak my next thoughts out loud. "It isn't everyday you see an assassin hunted by his own kind. Much less his own teacher." She stopped her pace and breathed deeply. "I know." She turned her head most elegantly to face me. "Seishirou promised us that he would not harm the two of us." I froze in mid-step. There was no hesitation, almost reflexive, as I spoke. "Then he's lying." Mirei looked at her wrist as she softly mumbled on. "I... was never marked by Seishirou... I can't really tell..." Her dark brown eyes looked into mine. "It's Shiroi I'm worried about... He..." "Carries the mark." I finished her sentence coldly. True enough. Was not Shiroi Ogami trained and groomed to be the next Sakurazukamori, once? And the mark... to ensure that if he ever declined that title... He would be the next Sakurazukamori or be the next victim. I could see it in her eyes. A hope, blind asit may be. She wanted to believe this was true. She wanted to believe that the two of them could live in peace. But she knew the truth behind the Sakurazukamori's dealings. "Sakurazukamori will not give up his prey so easily, you know..." I fought back bitter memories as I continued on. "...Just because you are not marked does not mean he will not..." Hokuto-Neechan... Her heart torn out. Seishirou with his bloody right hand... "...will not..." My voice cracked. I felt wont to finish the sentence. I felt a soft hand touch my cheek, just under my right eye. Mirei ran her fingers gently across my face. "It's alright for you to cry, Subaru..." Subaru. My first name. Mirei rarely called me that... She felt it more respectful to refer to my family name. Only when she meant something deep did she refer to me by my first name. Once, when she wanted me to understand, that Shiroi was no longer my enemy. Had it not been for that, I would most certainly have made the mistake of killing the one person she loved in the world... And whenever she called me by my name, I could almost hear my sister's voice... The strength she had that I had not... "Subaru-San, it isn't a crime to feel these things. It wasn't your fault. You should not feel shame." I looked at her, her face looking solemnly outward. "You, I, Shiroi... we are all just pawns or instruments, pitted against or alongside each other. The three of us, we were all used and played with. To further someone else's plans..." True. Truth hurts. I wanted to do as she said, to cry and get it over with. But I knew that it would not, could not ever be that simple. I put my hands on her shoulder firmly. "Mirei... Maybe your'e right. But I can't just forget about everything. Not now, when everything is so close. I have to finish this." Oddly, there was no malice in my voice as I spoke. Mirei nodded reluctantly. "I... I understand, Sumeragi-San... And yet I wish there wasn't a need for all this." She looked at me with her beautiful, pain-filled eyes. "Sumeragi-San... Why did he decide to toy with our lives? Why just us three... why not someone else...?" I let my hands down and stood looking at her, a china doll lost in the rain, sad and lonely. But Mirei did not cry nor wail. She stood strong and firm, in spite of the rain that poured on into the sky. Yet I knew that deep within her heart, she was in agony. Agonizing that she and her loved one, Ogami Shiroi, though together at the moment, may not last forever as she wished. No wonder they spent as much time together as they possibly could. One never knew when the other might suddenly turn up dead. That was indeed something neither wished to contemplate. Indeed, why did Seishirou... Sakurazukamori choose us? Why choose three people whose lives he uses as playthings, like a cat to three mice? Why us and not someone else? Why just us three...? A thought... Three...? No, not just three of us. There is one other. And I know him. Of us all, he has known Seishirou the longest. And probably hates him the most. What other young man would dedicate the last two years searching for a way to destroy the Sakurazukamori... Risking his own sanity in the process? "Miyazaki-San... Don't worry. Whatever happens, I will ensure that Sakurazukamori will not go on..." I swallowed hard. "...There is someone else who knows the pain we share. Someone I know all too well. He...has been through much... Much more than what I have been through..." Mirei's eyes saddened. "I have no envy for what his life must be like now..." I nodded silently. Innocence. Seishirou was the ultimate thief. He stole lives, he stole hopes, he stole dreams... Most of all... He stole our innocence. Mine. Shiroi's. Mirei's. The presence following us grew stronger. Our silent watcher, Mirei's loving guardian. I felt the watcher's presence draw near. The figure walked in the rain with no protection as he came to us. Ogami Shiroi. He was soaking weet, and his School uniform offered little comfort from the driving rainand cold. Yet he shivered not. The cold was as natural to him as life itself. We looked at each other with mutual distrust, he and I. Almost with a kind of mute jealousy had he been watching us. Mirei reached out and drew him under the dry comfort of her umbrella. His eyes attempted to pierce mine as his words flowed. "He never once broke his promises to me..." The young wolf murmured softly as he continued to look at me. "...He will not harm Mirei as long as I do not interfere." I shook my head. "You don't really believe that, do you? No. He may let you go for now, but sooner or later..." My voice grew harsh. "...sooner or later he will want to finish the hunt." Shiroi's face was still a cold mask as he laid his arms around Mirei. She in turn held his arms with her left hand. Like a lover's caress. It was the cold voice of the wolf that replied to my query. "Then let him finish it. I will not run from it anymore." Mirei looked to me as Shiroi held her tightly in his embrace. "Sumeragi-San... I wish you luck... and that you may find peace..." I nodded halfheartedly. The only peace I'll have is when Sakurazukamori is buried under one of his own bloody cherry trees. I turned to go, but a thought lingered on in my mind. Yes... Mirei and Shiroi must be warned about that one. "I was telling you about the other person who wants Seishirou..." I chided myself once again into lapsing. Seishirou no more, he is Sakurazukamori. Inhuman. Never was he a friend of mine... "...He is a very skilled fighter, and he wields powers I myself know nothing about..." Mirei looked at me with her questioning gaze. "Powers of... of what...?" I blurted out the answer. "Of the Earth and it's elements." Shiroi released Mirei from his caress. I had not been prepared for the look of shock on his face. "This... this other person... did he... did he have a..." "You... you met him?" I looked at Shiroi and knew it was clear. The answer was in his face. Just as it was on the faces of all of the opponents my other 'friend' had so easily disposed of. "Yes. In it's own way, that was a mark from Seishirou..." Mirei and Shiroi looked at each other, then to me. It was Mirei who broke the silence, as the rains darkened the sky even further. "He... He's the one...?" I looked at the pair dumbfoundedly. "What did he do...?" Shiroi, his normally cold and calm face gone, balled his hands into fists as he spoke. "He mistook me for Seishirou just two days ago. If it hadn't been for Mirei..." I knew the young would-be assassin well enough to know it would take more than a surprise to scare him so. "Yes, I'm afraid he's incorrigibly hot-headed. He has his own vendetta against Sakurazukamori..." Mirei whispered in fear. "If... If HE were the one to kill Sakurazukamori... then..." I bit my lip. Yes indeed, it would be even more frightening to think what kind of Sakurazukamori he would be. I whispered his name. My friend...? As much as I would like to believe it, I wondered on the truth. An ally, maybe, but that one had very few friends. His name is Kenichi Kaeda. And he, like I... Exist only to destroy the Sakurazukamori forever. I left the couple standing on the sidewalk, feeling the cold rain pelt my trenchcoat as I walked through. So, he's already here, then. I felt the last vestiges of soft emotions crumble as I remembered. One of us has to kill him. Between Ken and I, I would have to claim as the lesser of two evils. Wait... A petal. A lone cherry blossom petal, falling. I looked up to see a figure on the adjoining building. Laughter, in the most cruel way, reached my ears. Anger ripped my face as readily as the driving rain. The hunt began once more. </pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>