Duncan looked at the young man he was herding away, and couldn't help but wonder how he could not have seen it before. It was the same feeling that she had made him feel... that same need to protect. He must be getting old and the past was catching up to him. Duncan hoped that this time, it wouldn't turn out the way it had, all those years ago...

*This is definitely not the time to think of that -- maybe never...*

Shaking himself out of the brooding that he was prone to falling into, Duncan told the young man at his side, "You're going to be spending tonight at my place, okay? I don't think that you should be alone -- not when there's someone like that out there." Subaru looked up at him for a moment, and then nodded.

"Duncan-san, thank you. If you hadn't been there, there would have been one inevitable ending to that encounter. Even if I am immortal, that is a fact that I would not wish him to know. He would have found out quite easily after he'd killed me, and I came back to life."

Duncan couldn't help shaking his head at the matter-of-fact way Subaru accepted his death. He hadn't heard fatalism like that in a long time...*Damn it- I'm not going to think about that now...* Duncan started to move a little faster, and soon he and Subaru were in front of Duncan's newly-rented apartment. As Duncan unlocked the door, he commented, "Actually, this place is about as furnished as yours -- I just moved in, and didn't have any time to put anything in here."

Subaru looked in and saw that Duncan had been telling the truth. There was nothing in the living room besides a couple of chairs and a telephone on a little table. As Subaru stepped out of his shoes, he murmured, "That's all right. Emptiness... it's not such a bad thing." Subaru's half-introspective voice made Duncan give him a sharp look.

Subaru noticed and raised a hand. "Don't worry- I'm not going to do anything." He sat on one of the chairs with his arms around his knees, his feet resting on the edge of the seat. Seeming oddly strong and vulnerable at the same time, Subaru's green eyes locked with Duncan's. "This is just the way I am, whenever I see him... I can't help it. I know what he is, and yet-"

Sighing, Subaru buried his face into his knees. A moment of quiet while Duncan recalled a heartbreakingly similar position from another, then a continuing whisper. "He would have had me today, if you hadn't been there. I suppose you are my protector in this, ne? Duncan-san... I am truly grateful, but I wish that you had not gotten involved."

Duncan sat down on a chair next to Subaru, and put one hand on his shoulder. The contact made Subaru's head come up to meet Duncan's eyes again. "Subaru, don't worry about me. I've faced his kind and worse -- trust me on that." Subaru, about to protest, looked into those confident eyes and was unable to do so.

"I hope for your sake that you are right, Duncan-san. That is all."

Duncan leaned back in his chair, taking his hand from Subaru's frail frame. Looking up at the ceiling, he said in a curious tone, "What would you have done, if I hadn't been there?" Subaru thought for a moment, and replied, "Died, most likely. I would have been both too angered and saddened -- my combat skills would have been severely impaired."

Subaru smiled a little forlornly. "Not that I would have truly died, but I would have failed at killing him. From what you say, I suppose that I can just wait for him to die..." Shaking his head, Subaru let his feet slide off the seat to the wood floor. "But he was telling the truth. Our reckoning -- it's approaching, and quickly. I should be pleased. After all, this meeting has been the only thing I've been dreaming of -- that, and of our first fight..."

As Subaru started to fall to his brooding again, Duncan interrupted him. "Subaru, don't be so certain that this is what you want. Trust me, everything is different now that you're an immortal -- very different. You don't have to be the person that you were before your first death. There are opportunities open to you -- things that you can't even imagine..."

Subaru smiled, and started to speak. "Duncan-san. Trust me. Nothing changes the fact that this fight has to be fought-"

Duncan's angry glare cut him off. "There is nothing that is destined to be. There is no such thing as fate for any immortal- trust me on that." Duncan's eyes focused inward as he let the memories take him back. "Let me tell you of another student I had...

"Mr. MacLeod! Don't forget your umbrella! The weather's beastly outside!" Duncan looked back and took the umbrella from the young clerk. "Mr. Randall, thank you. I do think that I would forget my own head if it weren't attached..." Duncan sighed and started back to his flat. "It is rather terrible weather, isn't it?"

While contemplating whether or not he should go rouse up one of his drinking buddies, Duncan stopped short as he felt the presence of another immortal. The buzz was strange -- weak and ill-defined, for lack of a better term. Drawing his sword and discarding the umbrella, Duncan headed toward the immortal.

Finally, he came upon what had called him -- the body of a young woman who had just recently died, which was now lying in a ditch. She seemed to have been beaten badly, those wounds having killed her, before being left for dead. Duncan looked at the girl for a moment and put sword away. Squaring his shoulders, he picked up the somewhat dirty corpse and started toward home. *How do I get myself into these things...*

Duncan was glad his flat was so near, as he had no idea what he would have told a Bobbie if one had chanced to bump into him while he had been carrying the corpse. *It's a good profession, that, however new it may be... but it would be annoying if one were to bump into me like this.* He got to his apartment without any mishaps, and gladly let the body down on the floor inside his apartment.

Looking down at the still-dead immortal, Duncan wondered what he was going to do with her. Seeing the way she had died, he guessed that she was newly awakened, as most immortals would have a sword out long before such damage could be done to them... He sat down in the chair, and waited until the girl took a long breath, signifying her return to life.

"Who -- who are you!"

Duncan looked down at the girl, who was clutching at her dirtied clothes and looking at him with wide, frightened eyes. Holding out his empty hands in a conciliatory way, Duncan said in a gentle tone, "Miss, please calm down. There are a few things that you need to know... What's your name?"

The woman looked at the wet and bedraggled gentleman in front of her, and whispered, "Mary. Mary Peele..."

Duncan gave her a gentle smile, and told her, "Miss Peele, why don't you sit here a bit? Would you like something to eat?" Putting her at ease with his charming manner and promise of food, she nodded hesitantly, and watched him stand and go to a small kitchen located at the end of the flat. A moment later, Duncan brought back some bread and cheese, along with a cup of tea. "How do you take your tea, Miss Peele?" Duncan gave her the bread and cheese, and their hands accidentally touched.

She flinched away violently from his touch, and then blushed. "I- I'm sorry, Mister-"

He gave her the cup of tea, and said, "My name is Duncan MacLeod, and I have a feeling that I am about to give you some very strange news. Will you promise that you will not tell me I'm crazy until the end of my story?" Mary gave him a tentative nod, and then let him begin. "My name is Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod, and I am two hundred and fifty years old..."

"Mary! What are you doing?" Duncan came upon the girl as she sat mesmerized by the shine of his sword's exposed blade.

"Duncan! I was -- I was just wondering when I was getting my sword. I can't rely on you forever -- not if what you've told me is true. And if I have a sword, if I have strength, I can-"

Duncan shook his head. Taking the sword from Mary, Duncan said in an exasperated tone, "Mary, you know that your family thinks that you're dead. You can't go back to having a mortal family anymore, no matter how loving they are. You know that." Mary had told him of her family with such longing in her voice that he was half-tempted to let her go back. But he knew from experience the trouble a resurrection from the dead could bring... *Father...*

"Mary -- trust me. As your teacher, as someone who's more experienced in this... you can't go back. Not for anything." Mary bit her lip, and then nodded, before she turned her head. Duncan looked at her with some unease in his heart, but then shrugged. *She's a good kid- won't tell me who killed her, but I don't blame her for not wanting to say... She'll be all right.*

Still, he couldn't help but be bothered by the occasional strange light her eyes seemed to have. It came out the most when she told him about her family. *Maybe she should see her family- they seem almost too good to be true. They sound like people who could accept- What am I thinking?* Duncan shook his head ruefully. *Having a pretty girl like that around must be bad for the brain...*

"Mary? Where are you?" Duncan came back to the flat with the food that Mary had asked for. Ever since they had become lovers as well as teacher and student, she had become much more domestic, even insisting that she cook for him. Duncan did not mind -- having such a lovely, quick young woman around in any fashion was happiness for him.

*Has it only been 3 months?* Duncan couldn't help but feel that it had been longer since she had become such a presence in his life. He just wished that she would stop with the secrets. He didn't mind her going out, but couldn't help worry every time she left on her strange trips... *What could she be looking for, anyway?*

He noticed that her sword was gone as well. It had been a gift for her from him and when she'd gotten it, she had been so happy with it... *Almost too happy? No- she was just glad she could take care of herself now...* As he looked around, Duncan found the note that she had left on the table. *'Twas a good idea, me teaching her how to write...*

:Duncan- I must do this. I am sorry. Mary:

"What the hell does that mean?" Duncan started to pace, until he felt the buzz of another immortal approching him. "Mary? Is that you?" Duncan opened the door, and was shocked at what he saw. It was Mary, but totally different from his cheerful student and lover. She stood at the threshold with a bloody sword in her hand, pale as a ghost.

"Mary! What happened? Did you take a Quickening?" Duncan glanced around and then dragged her through the door. "What do you think you're doing, going around with a sword like that?"

Duncan tried to think of something else to say to fill the silence, until she spoke. "Duncan... did you know that you can make someone scream awfully loud with a sword?"

She turned vacant eyes upon him, and Duncan shuddered at the fully surfaced madness -- the madness that he had tried to ignore. "Mary- what have you done?"

She giggled, and started to twirl the sword around. "My nice family, my sweet family.. they're gone now. They're finally gone -- all of them. Especially my father... I made him scream the most." Still moving the sword so he could not get close, she smiled at him. "He was the one that killed me, of course, he, my mother, and my brother... I wasn't bringing in enough money by selling my body, and they were all drunk anyway. When I awoke from the beating they gave me to this place, I thought that I was in heaven..."

Mary gave Duncan a firm look. "But you tried to tell me that vengeance wasn't mine, that this beautiful gift that God had given me to take my holy revenge wasn't to be used in that way. How could you? You betrayed me-" She thrust suddenly, trying to spear him with her blade. "You tried to help them, and after I'd given you what they had made me sell, after I'd given you what my father had taken from me-"

Duncan gave her a helpless look. "Mary, please. Don't do this. I don't want to have to-" As her blade came too near his neck, he instinctive raised his blade to parry. This made her even more furious, so that she started to attack harder, faster. "Mary -- don't! No-" As she tried one last thrust, her balance gave out, and she tumbled to the ground. Her sword fell to one side of her, it's clang signaling the end of the fight.

Duncan fell to his knees next to her as she started to sob, keening and crying out for her family. "Mary, I-" Her eyes came up suddenly, its mad light freezing him for a moment. Her hand dropped to the sword on the ground and raised it so that it was coming straight for Duncan's neck. Duncan ducked and then raised his sword.

"Mary, I'm sorry." His sword came up and decapitated her cleanly. As he knelt with the sword, her Quickening came to him, weak and quick. She had not lived long enough for there to be any power to her. "Mary... why? Why couldn't you just forget? Why didn't you just tell me..."

"Duncan-san." Duncan opened his eyes and saw his new student in front of him, his green eyes filled with concern. "That was how Mary and her quest for vengeance ended. Don't be stupid. Don't be blind. She had just cause -- none would argue that she did not, but-" Duncan sighed and rubbed his eyes. It had been a long time since he'd thought about her. She may only have been in his life for a few months, but she had left a mark.

Subaru looked at the man who suddenly seemed as if he'd actually lived all of the four hundred years that he claimed to have. Strength and experience -- that was what Duncan had... "Duncan-san. Your Mary, she did not end well. Perhaps I will not, either. But-" He sighed. "It does not matter. It truly does not matter. I have been driven for too long to this end, and I don't think I can stop it."

Duncan gave him a helpless look as he saw another student walk toward self-destruction. "Don't you understand that there is no 'too long' for you? Not anymore! You are immortal! Can't you see that you aren't locked into some fate?" Duncan grabbed Subaru's shoulders, his frustration at the whole mess breaking. "Look at me, and tell me that you're going to at least think about doing something more with your life!" Duncan looked into those wide, green eyes and suddenly, time seemed to stop. "Subaru-"

Subaru smiled gently, and leaned his forehead on Duncan's forehead. "Thank you, Duncan-san. It's been a long time since anyone's cared like you do for me. Not since Hokuto-neesan, and she..." Subaru lifted his head suddenly. Fiercely, he said, "No, Duncan-san. I cannot let the fight go. I am sorry, but my sister -- Seishirou-san... There has to be an end."

Duncan looked down at the eyes, burning with a fanatic's fire. If Subaru would just realize that there was more to life than he could see with his narrow focus on death and love...

A sudden decision, and yet, not so sudden. Duncan knew that it had been floating in his mind since he had noticed the similarities between Mary and Subaru -- not just the imbalance, but that he was attracted to both of them... "Subaru. Decide after you've lived..." and Duncan's lips reached down to touch Subaru's.

/Food?/
/Soon... though it will not be the one you have been asking for.../

Seishirou looked for the aura of Subaru's protector... it had been strangely distinctive and powerful, though he was no magic user. *Perhaps I can take this strange annoyance out on this other... after all, he does know my identity...* Sakurazukamori's smile was dark and satisfied as he started to hunt...

Chapter 6

Subaru stood absolutely still in shock at the sensation of Duncan's lips on his. He had never... the only thought that could even run through his mind was Seishirou-san. "Duncan-san! I-I am sorry. I truly meant it before when I said that I still... that I loved him. I think that I always will." Subaru looked down at the pattern in the wood floor, and his voice dropped.

"If-if he hadn't... if I had never met him... I think it could have happened..." Subaru's green eyes looked up at him in a mixure of confusion and a little longing. "But I did. I want for his evil to die. You see, that's the worst part. I hate him and I love him, and there's nothing I can do about it. I want to, but..." Subaru smiled up at him, ignoring the tears that blurred the room around him.

"It's made me kind of stupid, all of this... It has become my life's work to try to make his death happen, you see. I tried to become the hunter, to hunt him, but until all of this happened to me, I hadn't realized how fatalistic I was being. I had no hope at all, until now. Thank you for that. I think-" Subaru stood up and went to look out the window, at the blood-red sun, setting on the west. "I think that Hokuto-neesan would have liked you, too..."

Duncan looked at the young man gazing back to the past, and couldn't say a word. He didn't want to think about what he had just tried to do. *Emotional blackmail, trying to seduce a student... hell, even trying to replace Mary with him. Dammit, Duncan -- what's wrong with you?* Standing up, he went over to where Subaru was, ready to apologize.

"Subaru-" Duncan got that far with the apology when Subaru suddenly turned around and put his arms around Duncan. Looking down at the young man, he saw the sudden tears that had started to fall. As he held Subaru, Duncan couldn't help but shake his head at his own stupidity. *I don't want him as a lover at all...* The need to protect, to save, was all Duncan felt.

Wiping away the tears, Subaru smiled shakily. "Duncan-san... I'm sorry. I must be a terrible burden on you like this. I'll try not to... I can't afford to be like this anyway. The time is too close." Duncan nodded, knowing that trying to talk the younger man out of this was impossible. After all, he had also been involved in a few situations that had had no other end besides that inevitable death.

"Can you just try imagining a life after this fight? You're immortal, and he's not. That usually means that the fight's in your favor. Just try to not focus so much on that moment in time, because you'll have a lot more of it to fill." Subaru looked at him for a moment, and nodded. Duncan said, "Good. Now-" He hesitated a moment, and then went on. "Would it be too hard for you to tell me the whole story? I know that guy killed your sister, but..."

Subaru gave him a hard look, and then dropped his eyes. "Of course. It started when I was a very small child, and I was visiting my grandmother in Tokyo."

Sakurazukamori smiled as he looked at the inconspicuous little building. He wasn't planning on doing anything until after the sun set and the night was fully established, but it was always good to get a close look at the hunting zone. The tree was an ever-present being in the back of his mind, and it was steadily applying pressure on him to go and catch his prey. Honestly, it was getting a bit annoying...

He watched a steady stream of people walk around or into the building, and reached out with his senses to see where the would-be protector lived. He scanned the building and was about to pinpoint on a likely source of that unusual aura when another person walked into the building.

It was a young gaijin with curly red hair, and his aura was as strange as the protector's. The aura around him was of power, but it was not his power alone. Other people's signatures were sublimated into his, and all of it together made up a greater whole than most people could even dream of reaching.

*Most interesting... what have they done to make such interesting psychic emanations?* Seishirou toyed with the idea of detaining the young man, but decided against it for now. *Maybe after I get rid of that Duncan...* Deciding to leave until after the night was old, Seishirou wondered what he should do for the next few hours. *Perhaps I should go visit Subaru-kun in his little bare place...*

As Seishirou walked away, three different people with the same tattoo made a note that a one-eyed man had been near, looking a little too closely at a certain Mr. Ryan.

"Hey Mac! Did you find-" Richie came into the sparse apartment and saw Subaru there, speaking of his life. "I guess you did. Let me tell you right now how I'm never doing you any more favors ever again! Do you realize what that Tanaka guy must have thought? I managed to get most of the blood off of me and the ground, but I had to use my favorite shirt to do it! Then he tells me to leave 'cause the magician's not there." Richie sat down on the floor next to the two and asked in a curious tone, "So, what have you guys been doing?"

Subaru looked at the floor and blushed, while Duncan said in a deadly tone, "We ran into an enemy."

Richie looked up, immediately on edge. "Immortal?"

Duncan replied, "No, but he's not our problem. He's Subaru's." Richie looked at Subaru, who had resumed staring at the patterns on the floor.

Putting one hand on his shoulder, Richie said in a congenial tone, "Don't worry about it, man. Non-mortal enemies aren't so bad -- if you have to, you can always die and go somewhere else for a while. It's a real pain in the ass, though, especially if you had something good going on. Mac can tell you about my shortened racing career..."

Looking at the friendly fellow immortal, Subaru gave him a tentative smile. Looking at Duncan for a moment, Subaru said in a deliberately light tone, "I had better start training with a sword. After my fight with Seishirou-san, there will be other immortals after me, yes? Even if I don't want to kill them, I do have to defend myself..."

Duncan gave Subaru a relieved smile. "If you want, we can start now. There isn't a lot of things in here to get in our way, so it should be relatively easy to start you off." Taking Subaru's sword from the ground, he told Subaru, "Please draw the sword, and hold it in front of you. Get accustomed to the weight, and try to make it part of your arm." Subaru did so, drawing the sword and holding it a bit awkwardly.

Duncan circled him once, and then corrected his stance and his grip. He motioned Richie to draw his sword as well. "Now, watch Richie. He's going to be doing the first set of exercises that I'm going to be teaching you -- they'll be good for you because most of them are purely defensive anyway." Subaru nodded, and watched avidly as Richie went through the moves slowly and deliberately.

"Do you think you can do that?" Duncan expected a negative, but was surprised to find that Subaru thought himself ready. "All right, Why don't you try?" He and Richie moved back a little, waiting for some mistake or another. Not maliciously, of course, but as a matter-of-course happening. After all, no one should be able to do all those moves after one viewing...

"Mac, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Duncan nodded slowly as they saw Subaru do the same moves that Richie had done -- more slowly, of course, but each one as had been done. After Subaru had finished, Richie ran over to him. "How did you do that?" Subaru gave him a shy smile. "Just because I have nt trained in the physical arts for a while does not mean that I do not remember the discipline."

Going over to Duncan, he continued. "My line of work required more mental than physical preparation, but that mental preparation was also designed to ready my body as well to combat. That meant perfecting my memory, as well as being ready for physical efforts in my banishing of spirits. So, my body is not so unprepared as you had feared?" Then, Subaru gave them both a teasing smile and started the routine over again.

"Well... that should teach me to have any preconceived ideas-" Richie muttered, to which Duncan replied, "Finally starting to learn, little one?" Richie snorted and faked a punch to Duncan's shoulder. "Little one? Where'd that come from? If you even think of calling me that, I will have to call you old, learned teacher -- besides, it's not like you weren't as stunned as I was-"

Duncan gave him an arrogant grin. "But the fact is that I hide it better." Of course, that arrogant grin was wiped off of Duncan's face as a sword came from out of nowhere to stop an inch from his throat.

Richie was the one with the grin as he said nonchalantly, "Perhaps not such a learned master, if he cannot defend himself from such a beginner as I..." Richie and Duncan gave each other a nod, and then both turned to Subaru, who had started to look a bit apprehensive.

"Get him!"

/Time?/
/Yes, my partner. Time.../

*Time to teach that arrogant non-entity that it does not pay to try to control something which belongs to another...* Sakurazukamori called his powers to himself, and then let some of his spirit-birds go to the task...

Subaru's head jerked up as he scrambled out from under the other two immortals in the wrestling melee that had ensued. "Subaru, what's wrong?"

Subaru's words were terse and cold, as he commanded, "Duncan-san! Richie-san! Move away from me -- now!" Richie and Duncan did as he said, both wondering at what had made his mood change so quickly.

Subaru put the index and middle fingers of his right hand in front of his face and flung a few ofuda around him, where they glowed and started to hum. A kind of mist gathered around him as he started to chant. Then, as a flock of birds came crashing through the window, the mist gathered into a wall which raised itself in front of the flock. Most of the birds flew into the barrier, and disintegrated, but a few survived to fly around the hastily put up defense.

Quickly, Subaru threw the papers with the pentagram symbol on it to the air, transforming them into white birds which grappled with the black ones sent by his enemy. Both sides lost bird after bird, until neither side had any left. Finally, there was silence as the glass from the broken window fell in little shards and shattered into even smaller pieces.

Finally, Richie managed to stammer out, "What the hell was that?"

Subaru's voice came from the middle of the wreckage, cold and quiet. "That was the reason why I did not really want either of you involved... I have no doubt that he will come back later to clean up this mess and I suggest that both of you leave."

Duncan strode out through the papers and glass littered around to reach Subaru. "What are you talking about? Why would we-"

Subaru's bleak eyes looked at him. "Duncan-san. I tried, and for a while I succeeded in believing that I could just ignore him, that he would just go away... but he won't. Even if I am immortal -- our fight needs to be fought. It is something more than vengeance. It is destiny." Subaru sat down onto the floor with his eyes closed, determined to focus on nothing but the upcoming fight. "I shall wait until he comes, and then issue my challenge to finally end it all..."

Duncan interrupted his musings with an angry utterance. "That's pathetic!" Subaru did not acknowledge his presence as he tried to center himself. "You told me before that he knew you too well -- that if you rushed out to fight him, you would lose. Do you want to lose that badly? At least wait and try to think of some way to win!"

Subaru hesitated, and then opened his eyes. "But you two should not be involved..."

Richie's angry words struck both of them. "That's before whoever did this tried to mess with my place!"

"Your place?" Duncan's weary tone made Richie smile a little.

"Well, it's kinda mine- more mine than his! Let's go get the bastard that did whatever the hell that was that he did..."

Subaru watched the two verbally fence, and then nodded. "All right Duncan-san, Richie-san. I think that you two know how to defend yourself, at the very least. At least come to my apartment- that's the least I can do." Subaru paused for a moment before continuing. "And perhaps I can think of a better way to win than dying and coming back to life..."

*Maybe I should go to Subaru-kun's little place for a bit and tell him what just happened to his would-be protector...* It would make for an interesting little last round before the true end of the game...

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