They had all disappeared from the Bastion over time. Hikaru, then Seimei, and then one day Kaoru himself had woken at home - his family's home - in his own bed, without the reassuring bulk of the anklegator at his side.
Hikaru didn't remember - hadn't recalled, and Kaoru had laughed it off like it had been a dream. From then it had been into a dizzying rush of normal. Breakfast and car and school and club and home and he had fallen into bed so quickly once they had got home that Hikaru had felt his forehead and asked if he was ill.
He had lied and said yes. Chivvied Hikaru off to school and taken the Shinkansen to Kyoto by himself - he could explain it all later. If he were to go all that way and find nothing, he would...
Kaoru didn't know what he would. Bury it down and never address it again.
Travelling so far had been so strange, having the earth be solid and stable underfoot had been stranger. Off the train, he had gone underground, alighted the subway at Imadegawa and headed southwest and down the bustling main road. The five-pointed star was everywhere - Seimei's star on signs, flags, even on manhole covers, all telling him he was heading in the right direction.
The shrine entrance was quaint, the little mascots nearby quainter still, though the little charaicatures tugged on his heart a little. Kaoru almost considered going past several times. What realistically would he find there but statues touched by a thousand tourists?
no subject
Hikaru didn't remember - hadn't recalled, and Kaoru had laughed it off like it had been a dream. From then it had been into a dizzying rush of normal. Breakfast and car and school and club and home and he had fallen into bed so quickly once they had got home that Hikaru had felt his forehead and asked if he was ill.
He had lied and said yes. Chivvied Hikaru off to school and taken the Shinkansen to Kyoto by himself - he could explain it all later. If he were to go all that way and find nothing, he would...
Kaoru didn't know what he would. Bury it down and never address it again.
Travelling so far had been so strange, having the earth be solid and stable underfoot had been stranger. Off the train, he had gone underground, alighted the subway at Imadegawa and headed southwest and down the bustling main road. The five-pointed star was everywhere - Seimei's star on signs, flags, even on manhole covers, all telling him he was heading in the right direction.
The shrine entrance was quaint, the little mascots nearby quainter still, though the little charaicatures tugged on his heart a little. Kaoru almost considered going past several times. What realistically would he find there but statues touched by a thousand tourists?