Aishuu Offers:
Yin Yang
Shitsui@yahoo.com
~ A Tokyo Babylon/X: 1999 Fan Fiction ~
Disclaimers:  Tokyo Babylon/X: 1999 (where both these
characters appear) is property of CLAMP.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

	Subaru shook his pen, trying to get it to work.   It
was one of those days he was actually able to attend
classes, and he was being thwarted, by of all things,
a ballpoint pen.   He briefly considered nudging his
sister for a replacement, since she tended to have an
ungodly amount of school supplies in her bag, but he
could see she was busy scribbling a love letter to her
latest boyfriend.   

	He smiled over at her, then sighed to himself as the
pen spurted a blob of ink.   He could control
shikigami, calm troubled spirits, and cast complex
spells, yet he was defeated by a simple pen.   There
was a message there...

	"Sumeragi-san!" a voice called.

	"Hai!" he and Hokuto said, both bounding to their
feet, he with nervous embarrassment, she with barely
contained energy.

	The sensei sighed.  Usually twins weren't placed in
the same classes, but due to Subaru's unique
circumstances, allowances were made.   It was easier
for him to catch up if he was able to get his
assignments from his sister, but it certainly made
things difficult for everyone else.   The twins, while
amazingly different in temperament, looked almost
exactly alike.    Once Hokuto had dressed in a male
uniform (much to Subaru's embarrassment), and the
students and teachers had spent the entire day feeling
a strange case of double vision.   "Sumeragi
Subaru-san," the sensei corrected.   

	Hokuto stuck her tongue out at her brother before
sinking back into her seat.   He blushed, and focused
his attention on the teacher.  "Hai!" he said, sure
that his face was redder than a tomato.

	The teacher sighed and held out a long piece of
chalk.   "Do the problem, please?" he said.

	Subaru looked at the daunting math problem, and felt
his head begin to spin.   He liked science, had no
problem with history, literature and art were
something the Sumeragi Clan prized and trained into
their offspring, but math was his nightmare.   Sine,
cosine, and tangent, along with the quadratic formula
started to whirl through his head, but he gamely
stepped forward and accepted the chalk.

	CLAMP school accepted only the best and brightest, or
those students who could bring something unique to the
school.   The Sumeragi twins fell into the later
category- no one in their right mind would call either
of them brilliant, but Subaru was an important
personage who would someday be depended upon by the
nation, and Hokuto was allowed to ride on his
coattails.  Hokuto had a flair for fashion, though, so
she was taking a bunch of design courses.  Subaru was
concentrating more on hard science so he could work
with animals, someday.

	If he ever found someone else to take over the
position of Sumeragi Head, which he was beginning to
seriously doubt.

	Frowning slightly, and hoping that the chalk dust
wouldn't get all over his gloves, he gamely attacked
the problem.   He'd forgotten his calculator at his
desk, so was forced to use the sine tables the teacher
had on the desk, further compounding his difficulties.
  After the first minute had gone by, he knew he was
in trouble.   Thirty seconds later, he knew there was
no way he'd ever succeed.  Still, his grandmother
would kill him if he gave up, and Hokuto would never
let him forget it.

	It took three minutes for the teacher to put him out
of his misery.  "Sumeragi-san, that's enough," he
said, and Subaru heaved a relieved sigh before
blushing as he returned the chalk, and scuttling back
to his seat.  

	Hokuto was giggling as he arrived.  "How did you get
imaginary numbers out of that problem?" she asked.

	He wished the floor would open up and swallow him
whole.  It was a familiar feeling, especially when
Hokuto started in on him.

	To his surprise, the sensei came to his rescue. 
"Hokuto-san, since you seem to find your brother's
troubles so amusing, how about doing this yourself?"
he said.  It was not a suggestion.

	"Sure thing!" Hokuto agreed, bouncing to her feet
again and retrieving the chalk.  To add injury to
insult, she solved the problem in less than thirty
seconds, earning admiring gazes from her classmates
and a glare from her brother.  She curtsied to the
class, spreading her modified uniform skirt as if it
was a ball gown.

	"Thank you, Hokuto-san," the sensei said, heaving a
long-suffering sigh.  "May I suggest you give your
brother a little tutoring due to his unavoidable
absences?"

	"I would, but that would require him being home for
more than ten minutes between assignments.  I can
barely coax him to eat, and getting him to sleep is
impossible; do you think I'll have any success getting
him to listen to me lecture him on homework?" she
asked, putting her hands on her hips and tilting her
head charmingly.

	Subaru changed his mind- he wished the floor would
open up and swallow Hokuto whole.  The girls in his
class were looking at him as if he was a puppy who
needed to be taken care of, and the guys were staring
at his sister as though she had walked off a
spaceship.

	"Um..." the sensei said, clearly unable to think of
what to say that wouldn't have one of the Sumeragi
siblings upset with him.  This time, he was the one
who was rescued, by a bell.  "No homework!" he
declared, grabbing his bag and darting for the door.  
The dangerous thing about being a CLAMP teacher was
that most of the students grew up to be the movers and
shakers of Japan, and upsetting them was a bad idea.

	The students laughed as Hokuto headed back for her
brother's desk.   "Sheesh, that was rude!" she
declared, settling herself on top of it.

	He stared at her, wondering why the Sumeragis' had so
many rules about the proper use of magic.  Slapping a
silence curse on his sister became increasingly
tempting as time passed, and it was only those stupid
rules that prevented him from doing so sometimes. 
"Neesan..." he said, knowing that she was about to
launch into another of her lectures.

	Her eyes softened slightly.   "Subaru, you need to
learn to stop spreading yourself so thin," she said,
swinging her legs back and forth idly.   "I'll help
you whenever I can, but..." her eyes were troubled,
"even I can only do so much."

	He was startled by her unusual seriousness. 
"Neesan?"

	She waved a hand across her eyes.  "Sa... I must be
out of it today to be so gloomy.   The best thing, the
only thing, is to smile!" she declared, before turning
slightly, inadvertently exposing her legs up to her
thighs.

	Subaru was used to her displays, but many of the
other males in the class watched her carelessness with
appreciation.  "Um, neesan..." he said, lowering his
eyes to her leg before shifting them over to one of
the class perverts.

	She understood perfectly, in the almost telepathic
understanding twins seemed to carry for each other.  
She shifted again subtly, which rearranged her skirt
to a more modest length.  "Subaru, you're almost too
gentle for this world," she said, her green eyes
resembling soft jade.  Her brother's renewed blush
inspired another one of her rippling laughs.  "Do you
want to eat lunch together?" she asked.

	Subaru looked at her, torn.   Due to his frequent
absences, he had few friends, and his seemingly
incurable shyness compounded the issue.  Hokuto, on
the other hand, was friends with practically everyone,
and everyone loved spending time with her.   She could
eat lunch with practically anyone on campus and be
welcome.  "Don't you have someone else waiting for
you?" he asked softly.

	"Well, Arise and Shingo were going to meet me with a
group of their friends..."

	He cringed at the idea.   Arise and Shingo were the
most popular couple on campus, and were guaranteed to
be surrounded by an amazing amount of hangers-on.   If
he went with Hokuto, he'd be welcome, but not
comfortable.  Still, he rarely spent any time with her
anymore, between his job and Seishirou demanding his
time.  He looked into her soft green eyes and made his
decision.  "I'll go," he agreed.

	She rewarded him with a brilliant smile.  "Good!   I
have our lunch right here!" she said, whipping them
out from seemingly no where.

	He nodded, and rose, following as she led him out the
door.   They had an hour before their next class, so
eating outside was what most students did.

	Hokuto smiled and waved at the people who called
greetings to her, but didn't stop.   Subaru trailed
her like her shadow, unaware that his quiet presence
was drawing admiring stares from the female population
of the school.   Finally they were outside, and
heading for the prime spot underneath the sakura
trees.  "Hey, Hokuto-chan!" one of the popular crowd
said, waving a free hand cheerfully.

	"Hey, Rika-chan!" she exclaimed, grabbing Subaru's
hand so she could drag him along with her.  "What's
the news?" she asked.

	"Not much, not much!   Nokoru-sama will be joining us
later, though!  And... who's this?" the girl said,
turning wide brown eyes onto Subaru.

	"Don't you remember Subaru?" Hokuto asked.

	Rika ran admiring eyes over the onmyouji.  "I
remembered you had a twin, but I didn't realize you
looked so much alike.  Hi, I'm Kawada Rika," she said,
bowing her head graciously.

	"Sumeragi Subaru.   It's a pleasure to meet you,
Kawada-san," Subaru said, bowing to her.

	Rika blinked in surprise.  "You're so polite!   Are
you sure you're related to Hokuto?"

	Subaru turned scarlet.  

	"No teasing my brother!" Hokuto said, intervening.  
"That's my job!"

	By this time, most of the others had noticed the
twins' arrival.   A few of them Subaru recognized, but
since this was the popular clique, membership rotated
so frequently that he didn't know them all.  His
instincts were screaming for him to make an excuse to
leave, but Hokuto was in her element, sparkling and
laughing.   It was a pleasure to watch her.

	"Hello, Sumeragi-san," a voice said, and Subaru paled
slightly as he recognized Toukai Seki.   He fascinated
Toukai, and Subaru always felt like a specimen under a
microscope.

	"Hello, Toukai-san..." Subaru replied, resisted the
urge to grab his lunch from Hokuto and make a getaway.
 His sister would catch him eventually, and give him
hell for it later.

	"I haven't seen you around... have you been working?"

	A few people perked up, the ones who knew what Subaru
did for a living.  By the end of this conversation,
Subaru knew that he'd have everyone staring at him
like he was a circus freak.  "Yes," he said. 
"Hokuto... can I have my lunch?" he asked, hoping that
if his mouth was full, he could avoid questions.

	"Sure, sure," she called, throwing it across to him. 
She was arranging herself next to a cute guy he didn't
recognize, and he knew exactly what she wanted.  This
was her way of encouraging him to socialize.

	With a martyred sigh, he sat down next to Toukai,
preparing himself for the third degree as he started
in on one of the onigiri.  

	Toukai looked like a cat who was about to eat a
canary.  "What was your latest?  Demon banishing? 
Possession?  Laying a ghost to rest?" Toukai asked.

	Subaru wished Hokuto would save him now, rather than
when she felt like it.  Two girls had turned around
and a guy had slid over so he could here, but all
three carefully remained distant from him.  He hated
how people did that, studying him like he was inside a
glass cage.  "Nothing major.   I just helped lay out a
building so it wouldn't attract the dead, when it was
built." He neglected to mention that the property site
was where a serial killer had performer eight
killings, or that he had to lay three of the dead to
rest before he could do anything.

	The nearest girl blinked.  She was one of the ones
Subaru didn't know.  "How do you do that?"

	"Subaru's an onmyouji..." Toukai said with delight. 
"He's the thirteenth heir to the Sumeragi Clan..."

	The other girl looked at Subaru as if he had grown a
second head.  "That's... really nice.  Do you see a
lot of devils?"

	Most of what Subaru did was fascinating to more
normal people.  They tended to plague him with
questions, and he hated it, his inherent shyness and
honesty at war with each other.  Subaru lived in
another plane of existence, in a world ordinary people
didn't understand.  "Not a lot," he said, fibbing a
little.  A lot could be defined a lot of ways,
couldn't it?

	Hokuto was still talking to that boy, and Subaru
tried to catch her eye.  She was busy doing her
impression of a hyena, though, so he was stuck.

	"But you see them?" Toukai asked, cornering Subaru.

	"Well..." Subaru said, again wishing he had a way
out.  He lowered his eyes to his lunch, hoping it
would give Toukai and his followers the hint.

	Then the sun came, in an unlikely form.  "Excuse me,
Sumeragi-san?" a light tenor interrupted.

	Subaru looked up, and his eyes widened in surprise. 
Imonoyama Nokoru stood in front of him, tapping the
familiar fan against his chin, flanked by his faithful
retainers.   The High School Student Council was
studying him, and Subaru tried to keep calm, wondering
what he had done.  They weren't about to expel him for
missing so many classes, were they?

	Takamura Suoh's eyes gave away nothing, but Ijyuin
Akira, who was known on campus for his cheerful smile,
seemed to be worried.  Subaru swallowed, grabbed his
lunch, and murmured insincere apologies to Toukai and
the others.  "It's not a problem at all.  Where would
you like to go, or do you want to speak here?"  

	"Over there would be fine... I know you were looking
forward to speaking to your sister," Nokoru said. 
"Suoh checked it out, and no one is around.  I can
trust you to understand this is a delicate matter, and
it might be wise for you to take... precautions of
your own as well."

	Subaru's eyes narrowed.  This was pure business,
then.  All three student council officers were of good
families, and Subaru had always known they would most
likely seek his services- but never thought it would
be so soon.  "Hai, Imonoyama-san," he agreed.  He lost
his appetite, and looked over at his sister.  "Neesan,
I have something I need to talk to the Student Council
about - I'll be back shortly," he promised, getting
her attention.  

She looked up at him, sensing something was going on,
despite his innocent words.  "Sure thing, Subaru.  Did
you eat?"

"Half of it," he confessed.

She huffed, blowing on her bangs in frustration. 
"Well, that's better than I was expecting.  Give me
the rest so it doesn't get in your way."  She caught
the box he tossed to her with dexterity.  "Have
funnnn... and don't do anything to make Sei-chan
jealous!"
	
"Ho-ku-to-chan!" 
	
The four young men walked away from the group, and
Subaru pulled a few ofuda from his pocket, placing
them in a star pattern before raising a small silence
kekkai.  "No one can hear anything that's said within
here, by magical methods now.  What do you want to
speak to me of?"
	
Nokoru looked at his two aides.  "The End of the
World," he said.
	
Without thinking, Subaru instinctively summoned his
shikigami, three invisible birds that only those with
magical talent could see.  No one nearby, save Hokuto,
had that ability.
	
His twin, though, rose to her feet.  She was about
twenty feet away and probably too far away to help if
Suoh succeeded in his first attack.  The Takamura Clan
was famous ninjas... and one attack was usually all it
took.  Still, Subaru was the Sumeragi...
	
Suoh sensed the threat to his One, and pulled out a
knife, waiting for an attack.
	
Nokoru looked guilty.  "Calm down, Sumeragi-san.  I
think I may have phrased that wrong... I'm one of the
ones destined to help Kamui and the Dragons of
Heaven."
	
Subaru forced himself to relax, casting a small smile
at Hokuto.  She frowned slightly, and he knew he'd
have a lot of explaining to do later.  Still, she sat
down and turned back to her friends, picking up a
conversation.  "What do you know of it?" he asked, not
shy at all on this topic.
	
He had only known of his destiny for the past six
months, and he was still uncomfortable with it.  The
idea that he would be one of the seven people fighting
for the destiny of humanity didn't sit well with him. 
He wasn't a fighter; he was a pacifist.  Some of the
things his job forced him to do made him sick, and the
idea that in nine years, he would be involved in a
series of cataclysmic battles made him want to hide
under his bed and never come out.
	
Nokoru's eyes were shadowed.  "Have you ever looked at
a diagram of CLAMP Campus, Sumeragi-san?"
	
"Yes, I noticed its mystic design... I assumed..."
Subaru's green eyes widened.  "Why?  For what reason?"
he demanded.
	
"It was designed because it will house the Shinken. 
In the heart of the pentagram, it will be safe.  Soon-
that's the secret of CLAMP Campus.  I will be its
guardian, until Kamui comes for the final battle with
the Dragons of Earth."
	
"That's assuming he chooses our side," Subaru said
softly.
	
Akira spoke for the first time.  "Why wouldn't he?" he
asked.
	
"Because not everyone can see the beauty in the
world," Nokoru answered his friend.
	
"And unlike some of us... Kamui has a choice..."
Subaru whispered.  "Why are you telling me this, now?"
	
Nokoru looked over to where Hokuto was sitting. 
"Because... something is coming.  Sooner... before the
final battle, or so Hinoto told me to tell you.  You
have to prepare. Nine years may go by in a blink of an
eye... and you have to work on your kekkai."
	
"Kekkai...." His grandmother had told him he would
have to create one, but he had been afraid.
	
"To protect that which is important to you."  Nokoru
reached out and rested a hand on Subaru's shoulder,
turning him around.  Around them, Subaru's shikigami
vanished, as though they had never existed.  "Fight to
protect that which is precious to you."
	
Hokuto was talking to her friends, enjoying her life.
	
And Subaru knew suddenly knew that his placement as
one of the Dragons of Heaven wasn't a mistake.  "Thank
you, Imonoyama-san," he said, walking back to where
his sister sat without looking back at the Student
Council.  He could think on the odd coincidence of
fate later, the chance that his school was destined to
be involved in the Final Day.
	
Subaru came back from his talk with Nokoru, feeling
grim.  Hokuto was laughing with a different boy, but
he went over to her, not embarrassed and confident. 
The teenagers around them didn't matter; the world
would be fighting for its existence in 1999, and he
was one of the chosen.  Subaru had known that, but it
had never seemed real until now.
	
"Hokuto-chan," Subaru called, pushing through the
crowd that surrounded her.
	
She looked up, surprised that her brother wasn't
daunted.  Something flickered in the emerald green
eyes that were mirrors to his own.  "Subaru?" she
whispered, and she could see that something was up,
just by the look in his face.
	
"It's coming," the boy whispered.  Around him, Subaru
felt the beginning of the magic that was his kekkai
crackling, lighting the air with a feeling similar to
static electricity that even the non-magical could
detect. His emerald eyes lit from within, and a few of
the girls gasped.
	
Around them, Hokuto's friends started to inch away,
scared of the display.  It was one thing to know that
Sumeragi Subaru was an onmyouji; it was another
entirely to see evidence that he was truly powerful in
the spirit world.
	
Hokuto, though, didn't back away, and forgot about
everyone else.  She stood up, meeting her twin's eyes,
yin and yang, as they always were.  "What is coming,
Subaru?" she demanded.
	
"You don't need to know, yet," he said softly, too
softly for anyone to overhear. Subaru met her eyes, on
his territory, and knowing that this was where he
ruled.  The Sumeragi twins balanced each other.
	
She nodded, for once not pushing him.  "When it's
time."

	"When it's time," he agreed.  "I will protect you,"
Subaru vowed.  Around them, the other students melted
away, leaving the siblings beneath the blooming sakura
trees. Hokuto and Subaru stood, alone in the world,
the most important thing to the other.  This was how
it was meant to be; it was what it meant to be a twin.
 Hokuto protected him from the daily trials of life,
and Subaru knew that he could return the favor, on the
day the world ended. 


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Notes:

Blame Leareth for Subaru and Hokuto being CLAMP
students- manga translation for "Save Me." 

Onmyouji is sometimes translated as "Yin Yang"
magician.

There's probably some continuity flaws, but... I'd set
this approximate nine months into Tokyo Babylon, and
three months left of the bet.  Let's just call it
artistic license, shall we?
	




=====
Crazy world - full of crazy contradictions like a child
You're cold and you're cruel
And I, like a fool, try to cope
Try to hang on, to hope
But I've got my pride, I won't give in
Even though I know I'll never win
Oh, how I love this crazy world

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