Millions of Dreams
Chapter Two - The Angsty Onmyouji
By Aikawa Fuuko
Millions of Dreams
Chapter Two - The Angsty Onmyouji
By Aikawa Fuuko
// “Why are you telling me the content of the final spell you’re spending your life to cast?”
“If I don’t tell you…there’s no point to it. In the end…let me believe in you…and that this spell would never come into play.”
“I’m not the kind of man you should put your trust in.”
“…I know. But my brother…thinks you are special. So I want to believe in you…Remember this. It’s true that you’re guilty of sins you can never atone for…but then there’s no such thing as a person who shouldn’t love anybody...”//
Sakurazuka Seishirou put the script down, lost in thoughts. He’d been reading it over and over again. Maybe Yuuto was right. He was beginning to see a similarity between him and that assassin. No, he should put it as: he sympathized with the lonely soul. The ending for all of them was so sad. Whoever had written this script had to be a not-so-happy one about life. But then the tragic was somehow… romantic in some ways. It made him wonder about every kind of tangled loves, wonder if those two friends really loved each other, if the sakura assassin truly cared for his ‘prey’, if the wind master did feel love for the red-haired girl… It had so many questions left unsaid, so many problems left undone. But he liked it that way. Love was always a mystery for everyone, wasn’t it? And a mystery could never be unfolded completely.
He recalled the boy’s sister’s words and sighed. Her wish for them to be happy could never come true. They were the opposites, yet the same side. They could never be together, ever. Would it happen in real life? It seemed so real…
Speaking of love… Yeah, anyone would be surprised, but truthfully, he’d never been in love with anyone before. That caught people off guard most of the time. He – a handsome famous young actor – had never loved anyone. Sure that all of the most beautiful girls surrounded him all the time and willingly gave themselves to him without hesitation, but…he couldn’t. They were nice, but he never felt anything for them. His friends called him weird. He always ignored them. He always believed that someday he’d meet the right one. Or never.
Seishirou reached forwards the table to his cup of coffee. Now was not the time for him to think about those problems of his love life. He certainly had works to do. After reconsidering for the last time, he decided to call Yuuto, declaring that he’d do the movie and also accept the assassin role. The guy was not bad really. He had to admit that assassin guy did love, and loved deeply a person…
“SUBAARUU!!”
It took him a minute to regain his ears back to normal. Sumeragi Subaru winced at his twin sister – Sumeragi Hokuto. She always seemed to be over-cheerful, and it was not always a good thing.
Hokuto was running towards him on the street, in one of her most… ’amusing’ outfit. Pink fluffy skirt, rabbit ears, she really looked like a character from ‘Alice in Wonderland’, not one of the most famous script writers and a very good actress. Anyway, despite being a script writer and an actress, she always had a thing for fashion. No, not fashion! ‘Fashion’ here meant ‘cute outfits’ and ‘ridiculous-looking clothes’, it was the combination of those two things. Though Hokuto always managed to get the ‘cute’ over the ‘ridiculous’. When she was free, she always liked to sit for hours, making all of the most unexpected clothes in the world. And then, yes, there would always be Subaru – her famous live mannequin.
Sumeragi Subaru was a 25-year-old man who happened to be one of the most popular fan-girls’ idols. He was a famous actor, and a really kind gentleman with handsome feature that made all of the girls fall for him (if they hadn’t fallen for Seishirou already!), screaming and swooning whenever they saw him on TV or on the streets.
Even so, when it came to Hokuto – his sister, or any other female member of his family, he could do nothing but be a good kid for them. What do people call his type of personality? Responsible? Obedient? Nice? Loving? Whatever. But he was a really nice person. As said before, Subaru was always a live mannequin for Hokuto to try on whatever clothes she’d invented for him. Some were nice, but some were really… Well, at least he’d managed to convince her to let him wear normal clothes to work, he’d only wear her outfits when they were out for shopping or something like that.
Come back to reality. Hokuto had just screamed his name out for the entire street to hear. And the fact that he was a famous idol. Putting those two pieces of information together, he definitely wouldn’t get a good result. Everyone stopped to have a better look at him. All the girls stared, and then started whispering excitedly.
“Hey, is that really the famous Sumeragi Subaru?”
“Yeah, it’s him! Look, he’s soooo much more handsome in real life!”
“I think I should ask him if I can get his signature!”
“Yes, so do I!!”
Subaru sighed and moaned at once. This was definitely not what he wanted to happen right now. Hokuto had reached him in the mean time, smiling as brightly as the sun, as if she was some kind of innocent angel, which she was absolutely not.
“Where are ya goin’? I’ve been lookin’ for ya!” Deciding that his dear sister didn’t realize what she’d done, Subaru ignored her question, simply dragged her running out of there before any of those crazy fan-girls could get him. Hokuto, oblivious enough to the situation, started to yell at him.
“Hey hey hey! What the heck do you think you’re doing? Stop pulling me!” They stopped at another street after the hide-and-seek run had ended. Subaru released his sister’s arm. Hokuto looked sort of irritated and dusted off her skirt. What kind of brother Subaru was to drag his sister running like mad without any explanation right when he met her? Hokuto was about to give him a long lecture on being a gentleman, but Subaru, being too familiar with the situation, had stopped her.
“Hokuto-chan, first, calling my name that loud on the street is not allowed! Those fan-girls would kill me off, you know that! Hey, why are you giggling? What’s so funny? And second, what are you doing here at this time? Shouldn’t you be preparing for the party tonight?”
Hokuto couldn’t help giggling for a few minutes before bringing herself to answer Subaru’s question.
“Hmm, it seems that you can never get over the whole fan-girls thing… Why don’t you just get yourself a girlfriend already? Or maybe a boyfriend? They’ll stop chasing you around!” Seeing her brother’s face went as red as a tomato and being satisfied herself, Hokuto continued on. “And yes, the preparation for the party has been done. All I have to do now is dragging you back to make sure that you’d be there tonight!”
Subaru sighed inwardly. The party tonight was a big party for people in the movie industry. Most of them would be there to talk and had a good time together. He was never a fan of parties, unlike his sister. And then the certain fact of Hokuto trying to get him into yet another ‘amusing’ outfit of hers made him wince…
“Oh, and you know what, my script for the next year celebration has been finished! They’re starting to invite the director and actors for the movie!” Hokuto said cheerfully. This was the main reason why she’d been more-than-usual cheerful this afternoon. Finally her greatest story would be turned into a big movie. She put a lot effort into it really.
Subaru looked up with interest. Hokuto had been writing some script lately and determinedly wouldn’t show it to him. Hokuto usually showed him her work and asked for his opinion before sending it. But this time she kept the script a secret. That made Subaru feel really curious, wondering why his sister didn’t want him to read it.
“Oh, and Kigai-san called me this morning. Do you know what he said? He’s got the director for it already! They’ll start looking for the actors since tomorrow! Oh, and I heard that the director also has a role in the movie…” With that Hokuto turned and smiled thoughtfully at her brother. Subaru blinked. This look was not a good one. She was up to something…
“And who would that be?”
“You’re asking about the director? It’s Sakurazuka Seishirou! Can you believe that? Sakurazuka-san is going to be the director for this movie!!” Hokuto spat his shoulders.
Subaru widened his eyes. Sakurazuka was a very famous young director. It was really an honor to have him directing a movie. So Hokuto-chan’s script this time had to be a really good one. That made him more and more curious about what she’d written.
Seeing her brother’s frown, Hokuto smiled.
“You’ll have a role in that movie too, I assure you! So you can stop guessing what I wrote now! Hey, I also heard that Sakurazuka-san would be at the party tonight. You can have the chance to talk with him.” Subaru smiled back slightly, but winced inwardly. This was not good! He’d have a role in the movie meant that she’d written a character only for him! And the last time she’d done that… Subaru really didn’t want to think about it!
But anyway, he could have the chance to talk with the famous director tonight. In fact, he’d never had the chance to meet him. The director didn’t seem to be too enthusiastic about parties, Subaru had never seen him there. And although he was also an actor, he only appeared in a few movies. He was more of a director, Subaru assumed. In the movies he’d appeared in, Subaru could say that he was a really handsome man, but Subaru knew nothing about his true personality. Maybe the Sakurazuka was the mysterious type.
But Subaru had met the Sakurazuka’s younger sister. She was an incredibly beautiful girl, very charming and nice. She seemed to always have a crowd of men around her wherever she went. The girl was also surely more enthusiastic about parties than her brother. She was everywhere, which was all Subaru could say.
Hokuto and Subaru continued walking home together, ignoring the curious looks everyone gave them, mainly because of Hokuto’s outfit.
“Ho-Hokuto-chan!!” Subaru exclaimed desperately. Hokuto ignored it, dragging her dear brother into the party. The moment they just stepped in, half of the party turned back to look at them. This time it was because both of them, but still Hokuto’s fault. Just look at the stuff they were wearing and you’d understand.
Hokuto was dressing like a nice little angel with small pink wings and a golden halo over her head. Subaru was stuck in some kind of ceremonial dress, white from head to toes. Not only that, Hokuto had added several shining orange buttons along the outfit, giving everyone an impression that he looked like a combination of a priest and a colorful balloon.
Hokuto went off to meet her friends, leaving her brother to wander around. Subaru sighed. He really didn’t like parties. He continued to walk towards the fountain. Subaru looked around, admiring the beauty of this house. It was gorgeous, with golden lights, many flowers and trees, and fountains made from granite…
“Ouch!”
Subaru stumbled backwards. He’d just bumped into someone. Looking around while walking was definitely not good. A pair of strong hands held his arms to stop him from falling back.
“S-Sorry… I wasn’t looking…” Subaru looked up and trailed off. The owner of those hands was looking straight into his eyes. He gasped. He’d never seen such beautiful eyes like this. Amber eyes, bottomless, drowned him in its mysterious beauty…
“No, I wasn’t looking either. You don’t need to worry.” That person smiled warmly at him. Subaru felt something flipped in his heart. Suddenly he just couldn’t say anything and started to feel his cheeks heated. That person looked at him questioningly and released his arms. Subaru almost cried out when those incredibly warm hands left him. He swallowed hard, wondered what was wrong with him. But when he looked up again at that handsome face, he started to blush one more time.
Hokuto had found her friend Yuuto and was dragging him to go meet her brother. She stopped just a few meters in front of the scene and almost burst out laughing. There her brother stood, blushing furiously and stammering something to a very handsome stranger. She’d never seen him like this before. It seemed that all of his communication skill had gone to dust in front of that handsome guy. So finally…Hokuto smiled evilly, plans were forming quickly in her mind. She continued to walk towards them.
“Subaru!”
Subaru turned to meet his sister’s big cheerful face right in front of him. He wasn’t really sure if he should see her as his savior or a spoil-sport. And the way she was looking at him made him feel really nervous.
Hokuto stifled back her laughter and instead decided to introduce her friend first. But before she could open her mouth, Yuuto had poked out his head from behind her back and asked the handsome guy in surprise.
“Oh, Seishirou! What a nice surprise that you’re here! Where is your sister?”
“Oh, she’s not here today. She has some private work to do.” Seishirou smiled and winked at his friend. That would be really disappointing news for all of the guys tonight. Then he noticed the young girl who was standing next to Yuuto. He looked forth and back between her and the boy in front him.
“Um, are you two…?”
Hokuto understood what he meant immediately. She smiled brightly at him.
“Yes, we are twins. My name is Sumeragi Hokuto, and this is my brother – Sumeragi Subaru.”
Seishirou looked at her with surprise. “Oh, are you the author of X1999?” He was really surprised. He couldn’t believe that the author of all of those tragic love stories was a cheerful young girl in a weird angel-like outfit like this. Hokuto smiled proudly.
“Yes, I am. How do you know? Did Yuuto tell you about my new script?” Yuuto chose this moment to jump in the conversation.
“Hokuto-san, this is Sakurazuka Seishirou, the director of the movie! Seishirou, this is Sumeragi Hokuto, one of my best friends, and no, don’t look at me like that! She is my friend!!”
Hokuto and Subaru widened their eyes. So this was the famous director that was going to bring her script into a successful movie? Both of them stepped back to have a better look of the man. He seemed young, only about 30 years old. He was wearing a dark-colored shirt and blue jeans, along with an expensive brown trench-coat. He looked definitely stylish and cool. Seishirou had a friendly warm smile that could make all the girls’ hearts melt and gorgeous amber eyes that could drown everyone in them. He was surely handsome and attractive.
It was when Seishirou realized who Subaru was. He stared at the shy young man in amazement.
“Wait, so you are the famous Subaru that’s one of the most popular idols here, aren’t you?” It made Seishirou feel strange that a popular idol like Subaru was this shy with people.
Subaru blushed unconsciously, and nodded faintly. Hokuto snickered at her brother’s reaction, feeling amused that he could change from a famous idol to a shy love-sick teenager so quickly. Seishirou looked at him for a while, and then an idea came up.
“Would you two like to have lunch with me tomorrow? We’ll have a few things to discuss about the movie…”
“Oh, of course! Yes, it would be nice, Sei-chan! Subaru and I would certainly come!” Seishirou, Yuuto and Subaru blinked at the name Sei-chan but said nothing. Hokuto smiled brightly, but Subaru had a feeling that she was smiling evilly. Ignoring Subaru’s stammer, Hokuto quickly arranged the plan for lunch tomorrow with Seishirou. Subaru sighed. He looked at his arms where Seishirou had touch him and immediately blushed, looking away. Hokuto noticed and smiled strangely.
Subaru hurriedly ran through the crowd towards the restaurant. He stepped in, eyes searching for a certain handsome dark-haired man and then the boy smiled shyly at him.
“Sakurazuka-san, sorry I’m late…”
“No need to apologize, Subaru-kun. I’ve just arrived too. And don’t call me ‘Sakurazuka-san’, it’s too formal. Just ‘Seishirou’, please.” Seishirou was amused to see Subaru’s face reddened when he called him ‘Subaru-kun’. The boy was really cute.
“Y-yes, Seishirou-san…” Subaru felt rather frustrated when he could do nothing but blushing furiously whenever he talked to the older man.
“So where is your sister?” Seishirou decided to ease the tension.
“Well, she said that… she had some work to do… She told me to come…” Subaru winced when he thought of his sister. Hokuto had spent all last night to tease him and finally came to a decision that she wouldn’t go on the ‘date’ of Seishirou and him tomorrow, saying that she would leave them alone together. Completely ignoring his desperate protests, she’d just gone off and disappeared all the morning.
“I’m sorry…” Subaru was afraid that Seishiru wouldn’t want to talk to him. After all, it was Hokuto-chan he needed to talk with, not him. To his surprise, Seishirou smiled brightly at him.
“Why sorry, Subaru-kun? I think she did it to get us some time together!” Subaru blushed bright red at Seishirou’s teasing. He hadn’t imagined that Seishirou was also the teasing type like Hokuto. Subaru cursed inwardly. Why couldn’t he control himself? Now he was sitting here and making a complete idiot out of him, acting like some love-sick teenager! He was 25, for gods’ sake!
“Okay, anyway, I need to talk to you too, Subaru-kun. I’d like you to take a role in this movie. I think your sister wrote a character solely for you.” Seishirou smiled and handed Subaru the summary of the script Yuuto had given him. Yes, that onmyouji guy had green eyes, Subaru also had beautiful emerald green eyes. That was not simply a coincidence, was it? Hokuto surely took her brother as a model for that character.
Subaru glanced at Seishirou with surprise, and then looked at the papers. He blinked once, then twice, and finally choked on his drink. Seishirou looked at him questioningly.
“What’s wrong?”
“No… that’s nothing… nothing really…” Subaru gulped. He felt the urge to kill off his sister right when he met her this afternoon. This was completely unacceptable! How dared her write about that again?
“Subaru-kun, tell me. People don’t just choke on their drink for no particular reasons.” Seishirou smiled warmly, which only made the situation worse for Subaru. Unable to escape the man’s gaze, Subaru couldn’t help but told him the whole story.
“Ah, it’s just that… Well, nine years ago, when Hokuto-chan was only sixteen, she wrote her first story which had her and me as two main characters. But she said that she didn’t want to turn it into a movie, she kept that story for herself as a remembrance for her first attempt at writing. And this… I think this script is kind of a sequence to that story nine years ago…”
“Oh? I guess that first story of your sister is about the past of the sakura assassin and the onmyouji, right?” Seishirou looked at the green-eyed boy in front of him with interest. He hadn’t known that there was a prequel to this script. It had to be very interesting. He was really curious about what had happened between those two and he really wanted to understand more about his character.
Subaru nodded. As if reading the other’s mind, he added. “I can lend you her manuscript if you want to read.”
“Thanks, Subaru-kun. You’re really a nice person. So you would take this role, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, if you don’t mind. If I refuse, I think my sister will rip my head off.”
“Oh sure. And I’m certain that you’d do that role well. She wrote it for you, didn’t she?” Seishirou laughed merrily.
“But I wonder who would be the sakura assassin…” Subaru looked thoughtful for a moment. His sister would certainly want to know that too. To tease him, of course. But he also wanted to know himself…
Seishirou raised his eyebrow at that. He’d forgotten to tell Subaru that he was the sakura assassin. But maybe he’d let Subaru play guessing game for a while.
“Yes, who that would be, Subaru-kun…he certainly is a lucky guy.”
Subaru blushed at that. Somehow, he hoped that it would be Seishirou…
~*~*~*~*~*~End Chapter 2~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: Argh… My longest chapter ever!! I’m so tired…
Hm, yamatoforever, you guess that Seishirou’s sister is Karen? Hehe, truthfully, when I read again how I described her, I realized that she really sounds like Karen! But no, it’s another one! We’ll see in the next chapters! But you were right about how Subaru became the Sumeragi clan head.
Geez, I’ll try to keep this fic a regular update, since I’m so happy that you guys love this one that much!
The next chapter will be:
Chapter 3: Shirou Kamui – The Psychotic World’s Savior!!
(Finally, the main character of the movie comes up!)