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Hunter (n.) 1. One who hunts prey/game; 2. One who searches for or seeks something, often precious.

Subaru’s relationship with Seishirou-san is one built on deceit, obsession but ultimately love.

The two have a history dating back decades, and their families have been sworn enemies possibly for more than a millennia. And as a reflection of their clans, their personalities are diametrically opposed: Subaru is the light, a caring soul that feels emotions too deeply, whereas Seishirou-san is the dark, with little concept of any emotion other than pleasure.

Fateful Day
Subaru’s first encounter with Seishirou-san came when the Onmyoji was barely nine-years-old. After failing to purge a sakura tree in Ueno Park of the dark energy enveloping it, the child notices a teenager wearing a high school uniform within its branches. The young man is holding a little girl; she is impaled upon his arm.

Trying to run, the teenager is quickly able to catch up with him. He casts a spell over him to wipe the memories of what he has just seen and then begins to casually talk to the boy. Before killing him, he desires to scare Subaru; he tells the child of how there are bodies buried underneath the tree and how their blood changes the petals’ colour from white to a light red. Rather than being frightened by the tale, Subaru begins to cry, worriedly asking if the bodies feel any pain.

Intrigued by this unexpected reaction, Seishirou-san decides not to kill the boy just yet, and to instead make a bet with him; if Subaru is able to make the emotionless assassin love him, he will vow to always protect the Onmyoji and to look only at him. However, if after a year he doesn’t see the boy as anything more than a glass cup, the assassin will kill him. As a way to recognise the child in the future, he brands his hands with his symbol, an inverted pentagram.

The Sakurazukamori feels that the bet is only delaying the inevitable as he cannot see how he can lose; it is not within him to care for another soul.

The Year of the Bet
Seishirou-san doesn’t actively search for Subaru, so when their paths do meet once again it is accidental. Subaru happens to be chasing his shikigami while Seishirou-san waits for a train at Ikebukuro Station. Despite the enchanted gloves, the assassin can see his symbol on the back of the teenager’s hands.

Deciding that this is the ideal chance to start the bet they had once ‘agreed’ upon, he comes to Subaru’s aid after he falls on the platform. Along with the fact the man’s cover occupation is something Subaru has always aspired to be, this already places the Sakurazukamori at a great advantage in their contest.

Ingraining himself in the boy’s, and his twin sister’s, life, Seishirou-san plots his winning strategy. He allows Subaru to help out at his veterinary surgery and does all he can to nurture the boy’s interest in him. Before long, he adamantly (though falsely) confesses that he loves Subaru and openly flirts with him. Initially Subaru thinks that Seishirou-san is simply teasing him. After all, the vet is not only much older than him, but they are both men. The Onmyoji also doesn’t understand what Seishirou-san would see in him.

But as the year goes on, Subaru begins to care more and more about the man. Always somewhat uncomfortable with physical affection other than that from his twin sister, Subaru slowly begins to, at first, accept Seishirou-san’s advances before actually becoming comfortable and, on occasion, even responding to them.

In addition, whereas before Subaru would talk to Hokuto-chan about his problems, he starts to rely upon Seishirou-san for advice and solace. This is reflected clearest after Subaru has lied to a mother about what her daughter’s soul wishes for; he goes to pieces in front of the older man, letting his emotions free. Seishirou-san’s affection and gentle persuasion help Subaru to deal with the situation.

Even when Subaru begins to understand that Seishirou-san’s affection for him is not simply a joke, he still holds back, unsure of his own feelings; for someone who has always wished to be normal, to have to confront the fact that he is attracted to another man initially frightens him. However, a tragic event forces him to analyse his feelings deeper.

Realisation
When Seishirou-san stands between Subaru and a distressed mother seemingly intent on killing the boy, her knife penetrates the vet’s eye. Wracked with guilt over the injury and fearful that his friend may never want to see him again, Subaru breaks down. Even when Seishirou-san tries to convince him that it was his decision to protect the Onmyoji and that Subaru bore no fault, he wants to help his friend in anyway possible.

Searching for the reason as to why he was affected so badly by Seishirou-san’s injury, Subaru realises that, for the first time in his life, he was terrified by the thought that someone may hate him, and the only one who could put that fear into him was Seishirou-san.

From this, Subaru finally comprehends the full extent of his feelings for his friend: he’s in love with him.

But just as this realisation dawns upon him, the truth behind the two’s connection is revealed.

As Seishirou-san, now revealed to be the Sakurazukamori, tells Subaru the story of their first meeting, Subaru keeps rejecting the truth; how could someone as gentle and caring as this man do such things. Even when the assassin beats and attempts to kill Subaru, the teenager can do nothing. He doesn’t even fight back, so overwhelmed by shock and an unwillingness to hurt the one he loves.

After Subaru is saved from execution by his grandmother, the boy remains in a catatonic state for several weeks. It seems that he know longer feels that life is worth living after being betrayed so deeply by the only person he has ever fallen in love with and has given up all will to fight. But he’s drastically pulled back into the world of the living by another tragic action of the Sakurazukamori: the murder of his twin sister, Hokuto.

With this new betrayal, Subaru swears that he will kill the Sakurazukamori in vengeance.

The End of the World
After the Sakurazukamori removed his enchanted gloves while he was trapped in the man’s maraboshi, Subaru stops wearing them altogether; they have proved defective in the past, so there is no benefit in them. In addition, Subaru hopes they may attract the assassin in order to make his wish reality.

He is on a constant search for the assassin, and does anything he can to aid him in the pursuit, even taking up smoking. His actions show how deep his obsession with the Sakurazukamori is.

Their encounters in the next few months are brief and don’t advance their standing; Seishirou simply leaves before things become too serious.

More to come...

Read the Seishirou/Subaru Ship Manifesto.

 

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