Notes: X15 is the first volume of the manga that honestly wouldn't leave me alone, and I read it three days ago, so it's beginning to get a bit ridiculous. ^^;;; It made me wonder how Kakyou could sit there and watch the brother his much vaunted love went on about walk off to what Hinoto at least thinks will be his death without batting an eye... and that got me wondering what he thinks of Subaru in general. Don't kill me for this, I rather like Subaru myself, I just don't think Kakyou does. Epitaph An X/1999 Vignette by Amet Kakyou had always believed, in some naïve and hopeful corner of his mind, that he would feel something when he finally set eyes on Sumeragi Subaru, some sense of fondness or wistfulness or regret that would link them in that indefinable way of two people who had loved the same special person. Then perhaps there would be some spark of camaraderie to hold alongside that treasured image of his dear Hokuto, always smiling as she fluttered about and gestured wildly, telling him of their escapades together and her hopes for her little brother's future, exuberance never wavering when she spoke of her dreams and her love for him. But at his first glance of the man, the sharp featured, ill mannered shadow of all she described, Kakyou felt nothing. Whatever resemblance there might have been between the Sumeragi twins had been erased by time and tragedy, and while Subaru had taken his rightful place by the Kamui's side, he scorned his duty even as he shouldered it. He made a frigid sentinel against the rising threat of Armageddon, whose archly polite manner discouraged any notions of friendship his comrades might have harbored, more obsessed with seeking the attentions of the selfsame monster who had so callously snuffed his sister's life than with attending his Kamui. There was something profane in the way he threw himself into danger, reckless and disdainful of his own existence, so lost in his own suffering that he lost sight of the heavy price his sister paid for it, for his capacity to feel and think and thrive. Not that anyone could call this thriving. Some small spark of loathing grew in Kakyou at that, melting the frigid detachment of despair enough for him to watch the Sumeragi closely, tracking his movements and noting every slight, every glib remark, every omission of his sister's name when there was so much about her that needed to be remembered. So much she had left to give if only someone would tell the world -- the one Kakyou himself had never, could never be a part of -- of everything she was. And despite how certain Kakyou was that Hokuto would never have wanted him to feel this way about her darling sibling he found it was the one wish he could not grant her, watching the living epitaph of such a brilliant life all but forget anything about her but the violence of her passing, the grief and inconvenience that it had caused him by revealing the true face of the monster in his bed. That was the clinch of the situation, that the private war between two preternatural idiots with too much power had cost an innocent young girl her life, had ripped Kakyou's one chance at happiness away and did either of them really notice her passing? Neither of them had the slightest notion of the grief Kakyou himself carried, the extra in their little tragedy left watching the saga replay again and again on the dreamscape -- reliving the horror of that unbearable negligent moment when he'd turned away at the wrong instant and looked back to find her gone forever, lost in a misguided act of selflessness, attempting to talk sense into a madman. So he watched, saw the puppet that was once the seeress Hinoto waylay the Sumeragi towards the Rainbow Bridge, saw her face twist into something wicked and gleeful as he took his leave without attempting to reach his comrades for assistance. The Sakurazukamori was waiting, Kakyou knew, he had seen the coming struggle and he knew that no matter how the twisting tendrils of fate looped back together one of the two would die in that encounter. He might have stopped it, called to the Sumeragi or reached out to his own Kamui, for surely Fuuma would wish to save his favorite minion -- the only one of them truly willing to play with him -- from destruction, at the very least. But he couldn't quite convince himself to rouse the energy, watching impassively as the seeress trilled her victory and turning away once again, this time quite deliberately. Let the two of them destroy each other. It would be as it should have been all those years ago. return to splash page